The Man Behind the Vampire (The Silver Series)

by Samantha Bates

  "I just got some shit from my past to sort out. I may have to go away for a while to sort it out; will you keep an eye on Mary if I do?"

  "No but I will ask Theo to, that way if you need me to come with you I can. It will be like years ago when we travelled together" he and Ben met when Ben spent a year travelling, a bit of an adventure before getting ready for the joys of being pack Alpha.

  It was a good year and probably the first year he had really laughed and relaxed. So when Ben asked him to come and meet the pack he had agreed and well that was 200 years ago and he was still here.

  "Thanks for the offer, but I need to do this alone."

  "I take it this isn’t really an IF you go? Want to tell me when and where?"

  "Where I don’t know yet but when, probably in the next couple of days."

  He watched Ben mull this over "would you consider taking someone else from pack with you?"

  "no."

  Ben was watching the crowd, but Darius wasn’t fooled, Ben was one of the smartest men he knew and the most loyal.

  "Here's how I see it, we have been close for a long time now, I have always known there was something in your past that you were shall we say reluctant to deal with. The whys are none of my business but you are part of this pack and if you need us we will be with you. If however you get hurt, I will come looking, first I will kill whoever did it, and then I will kill you for keeping us out."

  "I know that but thanks for the reminder, this pack is family to me. Before meeting you it had been a long time since I felt that. So regardless of what happens I want you to remember that."

  As they watched Lucky lower the music and the lights were turned up, Ben went to join her. Both congratulated Beth, but when they gave the trip to Europe she was over joyed. Her speech however shocked everyone, once she had thanked everyone; she announced that she had been offered a job as PA to the CEO of Tsychacovski Industries which as Beth explained was an amazing job for a new graduate.

  Darius watched Vlad's face blanch, he covered it quickly smiling as Ben and Lucky congratulated HIM on such a good decision, they were sure Beth was going to be an asset to his business. He waited until Vlad was alone.

  "I take it that was a surprise to you also?" Vlad's face didn’t change; the expression stayed exactly the same.

  "A slight surprise, she asked for a job, I just didn’t realise I had offered her such a prestigious job."

  "I am not sure Ben or Lucky would be happy if they knew."

  Now that got a change, his face gave a sort of worried look, well as worried as someone like Vlad would ever be "then we will just have to keep this to ourselves, if it doesn’t work I will find her some other role, not sure how my current PA will feel about it."

  "Neither am I."

  "Or maybe I will just find her a more prestigious job from the start."

  Laughing Darius handed him a bottle of blood "good luck with that."

  By the time they got back to Darius', Mary was exhausted, she had actually fallen asleep in the cab. Her days were becoming all mixed up with her nights. Tonight they didn’t make love, instead Darius held her all night or morning as they slept.

  Chapter 27

  When she woke she checked the time and was pleased that it was still daylight. Grabbing a drink, she called her parents and the store to make sure everything was going well. Then she got comfortable as she settled down to read her next instalment of Darius' life.

  "Maman, it is too late for Philippe. Father returned he did this to Philippe. Philippe did this to me, and I don’t know what to do" his heart was heavy, his head hurt, he saw the fear in mamans eyes. I have no shame in saying I was crying, maman was crying, Emily was nearly hysterical.

  "Board the windows Charmaine" I hadn’t seen Charmaine stood to one side, she looked so scared, her blonde hair hanging around her, hands shaking as she moved to obey maman.

  "Wait, let me get you some stronger wood" I needed to make sure they were safe.

  I actually helped board the house from the inside. Maman promised that in the morning she would take Emily and Charmaine with her to the town and seek shelter there. At least around larger groups of people they would be less vulnerable.

  As I turned to leave it dawned on me, that from now on I would probably see my wife and child from a distance. I made a decision that I WOULD get control of this beast inflicted on me. I would find a way to be in the same roof as my wife somehow.

  After listening to maman board the door, I turned away. I raced away from my life, it didn’t take me long to find an abandoned barn to sleep in. The thirst was raging through me, but now I had somewhere to sleep I could take care of my thirst so I made my way towards people. I watched and waited, I knew I needed blood but everyone I saw, I either knew or found a reason not to feed from them. Until I saw old man Hadley, he had abused maman in the streets for being a prostitute; the man had a hateful mouth and was ill liked. I fed from him, sating my hunger on his cruel, mean blood.

  I went back to the abandoned house, found myself a corner and lay down. I cried that night, cried so long and hard I felt like I had lost myself. I had. When I woke the next night, I made my way back to the house; I just wanted to make sure they had left. Looking back I still don’t know whether I wish I had never returned. I do know that I still hate myself for not returning sooner.

  The night was dark, no moon, no stars, it was just complete night. It didn’t matter to me I could see and hear everything around me. I was thirsty when I woke and knew I would need to feed again, I intended to go to the house and then to find food.

  On the way to the house I could hear the animals in the forest, it occurred to me that maybe I could sustain myself on animal blood alone. If I could get this under control just maybe I could live with my family again. Making my way across the fields, the sheep moved away from me, in fact all of the animals did. I had always loved the animals and now even that was gone.

  Coming through the yard I saw the barn, the door was ajar but I didn’t care anymore. I had no intention of seeing Philippe and father, I wanted nothing more to do with them and I had no intention of letting them get near the girls. The door to the house was open, I could see candle light from the back of the house in the kitchen. Initially I thought they hadn’t left but then I knew maman wouldn’t have left the door open.

  I stopped and listened, I could hear father laughing and I stood there trying to convince myself that maybe they were just looking for something. As the dread welled up, with my stomach threatening to heave, I went in through the door.

  My ears were ringing, for some reason there was noise in my head. I could see the babies things stacked together in a neat pile; I questioned why Emily had not taken these. Surely she wouldn’t leave them; she was too close to giving birth.

  As I went through the doorway the smell assailed me first, it was so strong my stomach clenched in hunger. I saw maman first, face down on the floor, her neck torn open, there was no blood none at all. Charmaine lay on the floor, a pool of blood seeping from her head, my baby sister, gone, there was no life in her. I could literally feel my heart breaking in two. The noise in my head getting louder, rising to a crescendo as I turned and saw Emily, lying on the floor lifeless, her large round belly protruding, blooding trickling from the gaping wound at her neck.

  "I'm back, listen I don’t know…….." the noise in my head increasing as I heard Philippe, obviously returning from somewhere.

  Then the pounding started in my ears, it was too much, my stomach heaved and I tried desperately to be sick, nothing came. A movement to the side drew my attention, there he was, my father, bloody hands, blood dripping from his mouth, he was smiling. I couldn’t breathe.

  "Well, well you return. You see what your actions have done? I warned you not to cross me" he did this to get revenge; even now I cannot believe he took my whole reason for living away for revenge.

  The noise in my head had started again and this time when it reached the crescendo, I stopped hea
ring what my father said. Pulling my sword I roared and swung. His head was completely taken from his body; I saw the look of shock, just that split second before the sword reached him. I felt a moment of satisfaction before I remembered what he had done.

  Philippe looked at me, fear in his eyes, before he turned and fled.

  How dare he, lifting my sword I moved towards him determined to take his head. I would not let him live for what he had done. As I went to leave, I heard a gasp from below, looking down it was Emily. I dropped the sword and went to my knees, she opened her eyes.

  "I love you."

  "Oh my god, I love you too, don’t go. I need you, please stay, stay for me and the baby. Let me get help" as momentary hope inside of me soared, I watched her smile as she took another gasp and then nothing.

  I knew then that she had gone, along with my baby. I screamed and screamed; finally I looked up and realised Philippe had definitely gone. With a roar I cradled Emily's head in my lap and cried.

  I stayed there through the night and the next day, I didn’t sleep I just sat holding them spending time with each of them. My father I had moved left out in the sun, hopeful that the sun would take care of him.

  Maman so excited for the birth of her first grandchild, she had loved us, cared for us and comforted us throughout our lives, I wanted to comfort her in death. Then there was my Charmaine so young and innocent, with her whole life ahead of her, all gone. No more would I hear that sweet voice, see her hair fall round her face.

  And Emily, I had brought death to her and our child. I should have let her go back to England with her family. No more would I see that smiling face, hold her in my arms, kiss her goodnight, feel our child kicking inside her. I literally felt like I was broken, and I was, inside I was broken.

  That night I dug graves for each of them, using wood from out back I made the coffins. They were nothing special just boxes; I had nothing more I could offer them. I carefully washed each of them, wrapped them in some muslin and gently lowered each one into the box, saying prayers for them. When they were gone the pain inside me increased.

  But the thirst was taking over that. I went into the town, this time I didn’t wait for some nasty, horrid person, I took the first lone person I could find, then another and another. I spent the night in the house again, thinking about how to end this, how to end me. I cleaned the house; Emily wouldn’t have wanted anyone to see the place untidy. I had a plan, come morning I would be waiting for the sun to take me, there was nothing left of fathers body so surely the same applied to me.

  My whole body raged with pain and anger, I had nothing left, everyone I loved was gone, except one person Philippe. Philippe had been there, Philippe was in this with his father and he still had his life. It was then I realised I still had things to tidy up before I could go to my beloved family. I still had Philippe to kill.

  Chapter 28

  Mary put the book down, tears were streaming down her face, and she physically hurt inside for him and for them. To loose everyone close to you in a short space of time, and in such an awful way was a tragedy, how did you move on from that?

  She was so engrossed in her thoughts and her own anguish; she didn’t see or hear Darius come downstairs. It was only when he spoke that she registered his presence,

  "Mary, Mary what is it?" she could hear the panic in his voice.

  She didn’t speak, she didn’t think she could, he was bent down so he was in line with her, looking into those big blue eyes broke her heart a little bit more. She wrapped her arms around him, as the big sobs broke through her body. As he stroked her hair and comforted her, she actually felt grief stricken for him.

  "I am so sorry, oh my god, how have you coped with so much loss? I don’t think I could. I am glad you killed your father he was a bastard."

  "Ah sweet Mary, 800 years is a long time to grieve. I have never regretted killing my father, he wanted to teach me a lesson and he did. But it was the last lesson he ever gave."

  He had gathered her into his lap, her head against her chest, stroking her hair. There they sat clinging to each other, he could smell her hair, and she could feel the weariness in his body.

  "Darius, what's happening, I don’t understand why the other night changed things for you? What has you so worried? Please let me in."

  Resting his head on hers, he let out a weary sigh, "It's hard to explain Mary, I don’t want to put you in harm's way by telling you too much."

  "Darius let me help you" she was pleading and it was breaking him in two.

  "You are helping by just being here, you have only read the first 30 years of my life, I had some really difficult times, some of which I still can't talk about. If you will, I would like you to keep reading. I want no secrets between us, but no matter what happens I need you to always remember something." As she nodded she felt her tears flow again, somewhere deep inside she knew she was going loose him, one way or another.

  "I love you Mary, in a way that I have never felt, not even with Emily. You are so special, everything single inch of you is beautiful, don’t ever let anyone else let you think otherwise. I can't really explain more right now."

  Wiping her eyes, she became determined, if he could be strong, so could she." Then I had better keep on reading, while you go back to finding out whatever you need to know."

  The next 200 years were kind of immaterial to my life story; I wandered a lot, moving from country to country. I kept looking for Philippe, word travelled fast, I just kept following the stories of night creatures. My need for vengeance was burning inside of me; it never left just followed me. On at least two occasions I found him or rather I cut through the people to get to him, only to find I had just missed him again.

  Over the centuries, Philippe became more discreet with his need to quench his thirst, there were fewer stories. For the next couple of centuries I lost track of him, but I found another way to keep the anger and hatred from exploding, I travelled the countries joining in with the wars. I didn’t travel directly with the armies, I followed in the shadows, finding somewhere safe to hide out during the days, and joining the battle at night.

  It didn’t matter what it was about, who was right or wrong, if there was a fight I was there. It was a good place to find food; I would pick at the ruthless bullies and take them in the night, the really nasty ones I killed.

  Every time I took the life of one, I felt a little better about not finding Philippe. If on occasions I found a good soul who had been hurt and had been left dying, I eased their passing. I would drain them, knowing the good feelings this gave them. Afterwards I felt a little closer to easing the guilt I felt at not being there for my unborn child, Emily, maman and Charmaine.

  In the late 1500's I had a brief spell in England; I had heard of these theatre places and wanted to see for myself what they were like and I was surprised to find I loved them, I spent 6 months watching every play that was shown. It was there that I met William. He was quite a likeable man, with a house full of children; he was an outgoing and prominent actor of his time. I was fortunate to spend a few days in his company after seeing him leave the Theatre after a performance. Not only was he great on the stage he was also a writing his own work.

  What I struggled to comprehend was how he could get on that stage day after day. Yes people visited the theatres and they were popular, but there were some people, well a lot of people that looked down their noses at the actors. In fact some people were downright rude to him.

  He wasn’t concerned with people's criticism; he didn’t need to be liked by everyone. He wanted to perform so he did, it was an interesting time and I still love going to theatres. Every time I enter a theatre and the curtain lifts, I picture William as he was then, I hear the crowd clap and I know my friend William Shakespeare would have loved the success of the theatres.

  It was in the early 1600's that I met Fred, a young boy only 14. He was fighting for Poland against Russia. He was assisting in the make shift hospital, for some reason he mistook
me for one of the surgeons.

  "Hey sir come look at this man, can we not give him something for the pain?"

  The man was indeed in pain, he had lost a leg. Although it had been cauterised I could already see the infection setting in.

  "Let me have a look at him, why don’t you go and fetch me some clean water."

  As I watched this small red headed boy run off, I was amazed that one so young could stand to be around the horrors of war. When Fred was out of sight, I bit into the man's wrist and drained him, as he moaned in pleasure he took his last breath.

  Do not however consider me a saviour, some sort of guardian angel; I have killed a lot of people, sometimes wrongly.

  Fred returned with the water to find he was too late, making the sign of the cross, I watched Fred say the Lord's Prayer. His words as he stood were poignant and are still with me today.