by Philip Henry
Kaaliz stood up and said, “Good to know.” Sin walked past Kaaliz and stopped halfway down the stairs. She turned to see if he was following. Kaaliz took a step toward the stairs and then turned back. He took the knife that Sin had used to open him and threw it at the ground. The blade stuck in the floor inches from the girl’s face. “When we go you can use that to cut yourself free.” The girl still looked distrusting as Kaaliz turned away. He turned back to her and stepped over her. He pulled the knife from the floor and cut the tape binding her feet and then threw the knife into the floor by her head again. He leaned in close to her and whispered, “Just in case you’ve got any ideas about revenge…” Kaaliz grabbed her left foot, stood on her knee and quickly pulled it forward until her leg bent at 90 degrees the wrong way. The girl was taking deep gasps and choking on her own breath. The incredulity of what he had done took a few seconds to register and then she screamed with agony.
Sin smiled as Kaaliz joined her on the stairs. She would have liked to stay and watch the girl suffer but the night was waiting and they had things to do and places to go.
rek
Rek watched as the firemen dowsed the last smoking embers of the small bungalow. They had been at it most of the night and now as the morning sun cleared the horizon it was finally under control. He knew who lived here. The vampire had come after them. The fire chief had said there were no bodies inside. Had they escaped or had the vampire taken them? There had been a fight, of that he was sure. Rek examined the wall at the back of the property: a section of it had been knocked down, probably by a car, and there were traces of blood on the bricks. Yes, they had fought, but had they prevailed? Rek followed the tyre skids up the driveway and saw the car had turned sharply at the gate and headed towards town. He climbed onto his motorcycle and slowly followed the car’s escape route.
He found skid marks where a car had braked suddenly but there was no other evidence in the area. He rode on and soon came to a patch of blood on the road. He stopped and looked closer. The blood was about six inches in diameter and gave Rek the impression that someone had fallen and hit the ground, hard. He checked the surrounding area and found another, smaller patch of blood with something glistening in its centre. Rek knelt down and lifted the small, blood-covered silver cross. They had fought him and they had hurt him. Rek stood up and surveyed the countryside. There was only one house he could see but it was a new house with two cars in the driveway. He knew the area and his mind brought forth several possibilities: a few derelict houses, a cemetery and the old boathouse. All were dark and deserted. Any one of them could give the vampires shelter from the sunlight. Of course if the vampires had the power of flight they could be anywhere. But maybe they were hurt. It was all he had to go on.
A cemetery and two houses later Rek came to the boathouse. When he was at school this was where the kids used to come to fool around but something had happened in 1990 that had stopped them coming. A lot of his friends had died that year and it was all somehow related to this boathouse. He didn’t know the details – there were a lot of crazy rumours – but his father had warned him against going anywhere near it. Kids would usually do the opposite of what their parents demanded but this was an exception. No one ever went there for a kiss and a grope anymore.
Rek still remembered the loose window at the back and let himself in. The place had a distinctive smell, but not like he remembered. It wasn’t the stench of old fish and damp, there was a sharp, tangy quality to the air. It smelled of the dead. Rek looked around and saw nothing out of place. Then he remembered the little cupboard where he had felt Debbie Wallace’s boobs. The memory made him smile. He walked over and opened the door. He saw something that shouldn’t be there: a laptop computer. He lifted it and opened it. It looked top of the range. He turned it on and it prompted him for a password. He heard on TV that the three most used passwords are Love, Sex and Money. He tried all three and got nowhere. He didn’t like computers much and consequentially knew very little about them. He put the laptop down, looked inside the cupboard and found a sports bag. Inside were women’s clothes and quite a lot of money, maybe ten thousand. This didn’t seem like a vampire’s lair. Maybe the school kids were using this place again. Maybe they came here to look at porn online. Still, ten grand seemed a lot of money to have made off the local teenage libidos. Rek rummaged around in the bag and found one more item. A book. The book that Xavier had co-authored. It made him suspicious but it still wasn’t conclusive. The local kids were buying this book and loving it.
Rek sat back and thought about what he should do next. Was it worth his time waiting here to see who turned up to claim these items? The vampire could be out there killing while he sat here waiting. He decided there wasn’t enough evidence. If this was the vampire’s lair, why wasn’t he here during daylight hours? He put all the stuff back in the cupboard and left through the window.
Rek stared out to sea and considered his next move. It would be dark soon. Damn winter months; the sun was barely up until it was going down again. If this was the vampire’s lair, he hypothesized, why would he not have come back here? Maybe he was really hurt. Maybe he couldn’t make it back before sunrise. If that were the case he would have gone to…the nearest house. Rek cursed his stupidity and ran to his bike. The engine started with a roar and he raced down the beach toward the road.
The sun had gone down. Rek raced up the driveway and noticed all the curtains were drawn and no lights were on. The front door opened and he walked out. Kaaliz. He had a pretty redhead with him. The arrogant confidence of his walk made Rek’s blood boil. Rek twisted the handgrip of his bike and aimed himself at the vampire. Kaaliz noticed him and smiled. Then he and the redhead flew into the air and disappeared into the blackness of the sky. Rek watched them as he hit the brakes. He didn’t have room to stop. The bike was going to slam into the house. Rek dropped the bike and he and it slid to a stop at the front wall of the house. He and the bike were scuffed but not badly damaged. Rek unsteadily got to his feet and looked up to the sky. The vampires were gone.
Rek heard screaming from inside. He ran in and followed the sound up the stairs. His left leg was aching where the bike had fallen on him. He reached the top of the stairs and saw a girl lying on the landing, screaming and crying. Her leg was broken and sitting at an unnatural angle. She was howling in pain. Her eyes had the look of a girl that was experiencing the worst pain imaginable and every second that went by seemed to make it worse. Her hands were bound and Rek took a knife that was sticking in the floor and cut her free. As her body was released she screamed harder as if the new position had brought with it even more hurt.
“I’m going to get you an ambulance,” Rek said loudly enough to be heard over her screams.
A new wave of panic hit the girl. “No! Don’t leave me alone. He’ll come back. He’ll come back!”
“I’ll just be a second,” Rek said and walked into the master bedroom. The girl was yelling for him to come back, but he had to get her help. He called an ambulance and went back to her side.
She calmed a little when he rushed back to her and sat by her side. Her face was so white and she was shaking. She took Rek’s hand and held it close to her chest with both arms. Her words were fast and punctuated with short breaths. “Don’t…don’t…leave me…he’ll…come…back. He k-k-killed my m-mum and…d-d-d-dad. He’ll come back. H-h-he’ll come back for me!” The girl held Rek’s arm tighter and he felt her whole body shake. Rek sat there until the ambulance came. He helped them lift her onto a stretcher and she held onto his hand until the painkillers took hold and her grip loosened.
Rek closed the ambulance doors and walked over to his bike. He lifted it and put out the stand. The tank was scraped and there was some debris lodged around the engine but it was nothing major; it would still run. Rek sat on the front step and watched the ambulance drive off with its sirens screaming. One of the ambulance men had surely called the police and they would probably be here soon with a lot of questions that R
ek didn’t want to answer. He gave his bike a quick clean and got on. The engine came to life easily. It was a longshot but he would try to catch them at the boathouse. He heard the police sirens getting closer and made sure he wasn’t there when they arrived.
Claire sat with her head resting on Tom’s bed in Recovery. He had been in theatre for almost two hours and the surgeon had told her that he was optimistic that Tom’s leg should be as good as new in a few weeks. Claire wasn’t going to believe that until Tom woke up and told her. She watched him closely for any change in his breathing. Xavier was the other extreme; pacing angrily like a caged lion. He wanted to kill Kaaliz for what he had done and he had already devised a plan. A plan that Claire wasn’t going to like. Tom opened his eyes and sat up. Xavier ran over to his side.
“What happened, mummy?”
Tears of relief trickled from Claire’s eyes. “The doctors have fixed up your leg and you’re going to be just fine.”
“How are you feeling, son?” Xavier said, determined not to start crying like Claire.
“I’m OK, daddy. What happened to that bad man that bit me?”
“Listen, Tom, you can’t tell anyone about that man. I’ll tell you all about it someday but for now I’m going to have to ask you to be a grown-up and keep it a secret. If the doctors ask, you have to tell them a big, black dog bit you. OK?”
Tom didn’t argue. “OK, daddy.”
“By the time you’re well enough to come home that bad man will be gone.”
Claire shot him a worried look. “Xavier, can I talk to you?”
“What home, daddy? Our house burned down. Where are we going to live now?”
The nurse came in to check on Tom. “Me and your daddy are just going to be outside while the nurse looks at your leg. We’ll be back in a wee minute.”
“OK, mummy.” Claire took Xavier by the arm and roughly dragged him out of the room. The nurse took the clipboard from the end of the bed and sat down next to Tom.
“Now, Tom, how are you feeling?”
Tom put on his serious face. “I was bitten by a big, black dog.”
In the corridor Claire turned to Xavier. “What was that all about? You’re not thinking of going after him?”
“He’s our responsibility, Claire. If I don’t stop him who else is going to stand a chance?”
Claire thought for a moment. “The Ministry. We could go to the Ministry and tell them about him.”
“Yeah, I’ll just walk into the Ministry and say, ‘Hey, guys, anyone remember me?’ Besides, I don’t think the Portstewart Ministry’s still open. I drove by it a few times and it looks deserted.”
“The police, then. This is not our fight, Xavier. I almost lost Tom last night and I won’t risk losing you. He needs you. We both need you to protect us.”
“The only thing I need to protect you from is Kaaliz and I’d rather go out there and find the fucker than sit here and wait for him to find us.”
“Xavier he’s much stronger than us now. And there’s that redhead, too. You can’t possibly fight them both and hope to win.”
“You tell me what the alternative is, then? Tom’s going to be in here for weeks maybe. Even if we could somehow keep ourselves safe are you prepared to just sit back and let him kill others? We unleashed him on the world, Claire.”
“You mean I unleashed him.”
“No, I don’t. We’re in this together. Death and Beyond, remember?” Xavier moved close to her and took her hands. “I want Tom to grow up feeling safe. Even if Kaaliz gets bored and moves on, there would still be the possibility that one day he would come back for us, for Tom. He’s insane, Claire. Remember how he defiled his first kill? The prison guard he ripped apart? The undertaker’s daughter that he raped and beat half to death? He’s…”
“I know, I know!” Claire interrupted. “He has to be stopped. But why does it have to be you?”
“Because there’s no one else.”
Claire hung her head. “What will you do?”
“I’ll go back to the house and get some weapons from the garage.”
“Is that what you keep in that big trunk? I thought it was porn.” She sniggered briefly but when she raised her head she was crying. “You’re not going to get killed, Xavier. I don’t allow it.”
“Typical nagging wife; never lets me do anything.” Claire smiled and Xavier leaned in and kissed her. He turned from her and walked away.
He walked downstairs and headed for the exit by the Casualty department. He could hear screaming and the emergency doors slid open. Xavier stopped to let them pass. The ambulance men hurried through with a young girl jumping erratically on the gurney.
“It’s dark…he’ll c-come…I’m not safe!” The ambulance men pushed her through the second set of doors and they swung closed behind them. Xavier was about to walk on when he heard her shout, “It was…a…a…a…VAMPIRE!” She screamed hysterically. A chill licked the vertebrae in Xavier’s back. He walked out.
Xavier’s car was conspicuous in the car park. None of the other cars had the front grille smashed in and half the roof torn off. He was thankful it still ran. As he drove back to his home his fear finally took hold of him. He wasn’t scared for all the reasons that Claire was, he was scared of something completely different. Kaaliz had to be stopped, and Xavier planned to stop him…no matter what.
When Xavier pulled into the driveway he wanted to cry. The house they had fixed up until it was just the way they wanted it was in ruins. The outer walls still stood but were burned black. The roof had collapsed and lay in a black and charred mess inside along with all their possessions. Xavier stopped the engine and just sat there staring at it. Everything they had accomplished in the last ten years had been destroyed in a matter of hours. The pity turned to anger. It was just one more thing that Kaaliz was going to pay for. Xavier got out of the car and walked to the garage, which was far enough from the house that the fire hadn’t touched it.
He went inside and it almost felt like normal, like he was looking for a spare fuse or a hammer to fix something. He walked over to the lawnmower and rolled it out of the way. He lifted the tarpaulin and revealed the large wooden chest. He took his bunch of keys from his pocket and found the one that unlocked it. He knelt down and opened the lid. Inside he saw his two samurai swords that he hadn’t sold at auction (though they would have went for a bundle). He had kept them in case this day ever came and now it was here he wondered if they would be enough. He took the two swords out and set them on the ground before his knees. The wooden box was underneath. He lifted it gently and opened the lid. This was the weapon of last resort. This is what Claire would never have agreed to. But to save his wife and his son he might have no choice. Xavier took the bottle of vampire blood from the box and put it in his pocket.
condemned
Kaaliz and Sin sat on a nearby rooftop looking at the building that had been the Portstewart branch of the Ministry of the Shield. Planks were nailed across all the windows and doors, and inside was dark.
Kaaliz was disappointed. “Shit. I was looking forward to killing everyone and burning this place down.”
“Do you think they moved somewhere else or did they shut up shop like the girl said?” Sin asked.
“I think that girl was too scared to lie to me. No, I think they got downsized and put out of business. Shame, really.”
“So what do we do now? Go to the hospital and kill the happy family, or go and see what’s behind door number two?”
“You really think that thing’s going to be in that old Army base? You know it could be a trap. The Ministry could have known that you would have the skills to read all their emails. They could be setting us up.”
“It’s possible, but I think it’s unlikely that whatever’s left of the Ministry’s agents are that organized. They would never have expected us to attack HQ. I’ll bet they’re running around like headless chickens trying to figure out what to do next. I don’t think they could have planted a trap that quickly
.”
A car pulled to a stop outside the Ministry. Kaaliz and Sin looked down and saw a pretty brunette get out of the car and run up the steps. She started tearing off the boards that were nailed across the door and then brought out a key. She looked around before going in.
A smile broke on Sin’s face. “Nicholl. How’s it going, bitch?” she said quietly.
“You know her?”
“The Ministry’s number one agent. Vampire hunter extraordinaire. Let’s go kill her.” Sin leapt from the roof and landed outside the door. Kaaliz dropped silently to the ground beside her. Nicholl had left the door open. Sin stepped forward and hit an invisible wall. She tried again to walk inside but the barrier would not let her pass. “Shit, it’s protected,” she whispered. “Back up to the roof, we’ll wait for her to come out.”
They flew back up and resumed their seating positions. Kaaliz said, “I’ve seen one of those barriers before. How do they work?”
“It’s basic witchcraft. A protection spell on the perimeter of the building.”
“So how were we able to get into Ministry HQ? Why didn’t they have one of these protection spells?”
“Because vampires were incarcerated at HQ. You can’t put a spell on the place to keep vampires out if you’re going to have a vampire prison on the premises. I forgot that the field offices were all protected.”
“Something else that’s been bugging me,” Kaaliz began. “If this poison that they all carry is able to incapacitate vampires…”
“Why don’t they use it all the time?” Sin finished. Kaaliz nodded. “For the oldest reason there is: money. The chemicals needed for the toxin are very rare and takes a lot of time and money to refine. Plus, the theory was that if we – sorry, I mean they – coated arrow tips and sword blades with the stuff, vampires might adapt to it in time and our – sorry, their – advantage would be gone.”
