Night Realm

by Darren G. Burton

  By the time they arrived at Marks’ Southport precinct, twilight was almost succumbing to full dark. Ryan checked his watch and saw that it was just shy of six thirty. Five and a half hours until Selena’s deadline.

  “Wait here,” Marks said to Ryan. “Don’t go anywhere.”

  “Where am I gonna go?” Ryan was incredulous. “I need your help.”

  Ryan then sat in the car for an excruciating half an hour before Detective Marks finally returned. The expression on the man’s face didn’t fill Ryan with a warm and fuzzy, positive feeling. Marks climbed back in behind the wheel and let out the longest sigh Ryan had ever heard in his life.

  “No go,” the detective said, his eyes looking very tired. “He won’t give us any manpower. Now he just thinks I’ve lost my mind or something, cracked under the pressure of a heavy caseload. But I’m allowed to make as many arrests as I want. Somehow I don’t think that’s going to be an option.”

  He sat there pondering for a bit while Ryan wriggled around in his seat impatiently. Marks eventually pulled his phone from his jacket pocket and dialed a number. Fifteen minutes later they were pulling up outside a house in suburban Arundel. A tall and lanky blond man came scurrying across the lawn and climbed into the back seat.

  “Ryan,” Marks said. “This is Detective Scott Richards. He’s agreed to help us out.” Marks drove off. “You’re not going to believe this, Scott, but I’ll tell you anyway.”

  As the car made its way west of the Gold Coast and out towards Guanaba, Marks and Ryan filled Richards in on everything that had happened and was likely about to happen. As expected Richards didn’t look like he believed the part about vampires, but to his credit he was still enthusiastic about lending a hand.

  They made a pit stop at a local hardware store that was open until late. There they purchased some lengths of wooden doweling, a small saw, some rubber mallets and three very sharp knives. Out in the car park the three set to work cutting the dowel into fifteen inch lengths and whittling the ends into sharp points.

  “That’s how you kill a vampire, isn’t it?” Marks said. “A wooden stake through the heart?”

  “Do they have hearts?” Richards wanted to know.

  “Good question,” Ryan said.

  Marks opened the boot of his car and emptied the contents of a small sports bag. He then filled it with the stakes and mallets. The knives were kept on their persons. Marks then opened another bag that held the two injector guns and seven vials of APHV.

  “Anyone game to inject themselves with this stuff?” he asked the others. Richards immediately shook his head and Ryan was reluctant to say the least. “Yeah, I’m not keen either,” Marks admitted. “For all we know it could be lethal.”

  “So, what else kills vampires?” Richards said.

  Ryan shrugged. “Garlic maybe?”

  “I think that just repels them,” said Marks.

  “Mirrors,” Richards put in.”

  “I don’t think so,” Ryan said. “In movies I think vampires just have no reflection in mirrors.”

  “So how do we know a stake through the heart will kill them?” Richards was curious.

  “I guess we don’t until we try it,” Marks answered honestly.

  Richards said, “We have guns.”

  “I don’t think guns will kill them,” Ryan responded.

  “But they might help slow them down,” Richards insisted. “Do you have a gun, Ryan?”

  “I do, but not on me.”

  “I also heard somewhere that if you rip off a vampire’s head it will die,” Richards went on.

  “Any of us strong enough to do that?” Ryan pointed out.

  Marks said, “They’re supposed to have super human strength or something. Is that right, Ryan?”

  He shrugged. “The hell if I know? I do know that Selena Thorne can read minds. I’d assume they’re capable of all sorts of things that we aren’t.”

  “Fire’s another thing,” Richards piped up after searching his memory. “Intense fire.”

  “For what?” Marks demanded.

  “Killing a vampire.”

  “I’ve heard they can heal themselves really quickly,” Ryan said. “Like if you cut them or something, the wound heals up right before your eyes.”

  Marks sighed. “We don’t know any of this for certain. All of these ideas are based on what we’ve all seen in movies or read in books. Fiction. If these things are real like Ryan and Becker claim, then who knows what can really do them damage and what they’re immune to?”

  “I don’t see why we can’t just inject them all with the vaccine,” said Richards. “Make them all human again.”

  “We don’t know how many there are,” Ryan said. “And I don’t think it’ll be that easy to just walk up to one of them and hit it with the injector gun.”

  “And we only have seven vials,” Marks reminded them. “I’m going back into the shop. We need a bit more gear.”

  The three emerged from the hardware store for the second time twenty minutes later. Now they were armed with drums of methylated spirits, butane lighters with long stems that were used for lighting barbecues and fires, three small, but high-powered LED torches, a can of petrol and a small chainsaw. Once back at the car Marks filled the fuel chamber on the little garden chainsaw with petrol and sealed it off with the cap.

  It was now closing in on eight o’clock and Ryan was keen to make a move. As both Marks and Richards removed the clips from their guns to ascertain they were full of bullets, Ryan urged, “Can we get going now?”

  “Sure thing.” Marks said.

  He slammed his clip home and holstered the pistol. Richards did the same. Ryan wished he had his own gun with him. He took the chainsaw from the boot and nursed it on his lap as he sat back in the car. Marks resumed his position behind the wheel while Richards contorted his tall frame into the back seat.

  The Ford continued west, heading towards Guanaba and the Thorne residence. Once they reached the general vicinity, Ryan guided Marks to the house.

  It was as the car slowly snaked its way up the winding driveway that the attack happened.

  Forty One

  “It was a moment of weakness,” Selena said to her brother while she paced the living room.

  Feeling quite relaxed himself, Michael watched her from his position on the lounge. “But the hunger’s still there for you. You know it is.”

  “I’m not going hunting with you again, Michael. I’ve had my moment of madness and now I’m really regretting it.”

  Michael leaped up from his seat and stood in front of her, staring at her eye to eye. “But you loved it. Admit it. How good do you feel right now because you’ve fed on a human again after all this time?”

  Selena knew her brother was right in that regard. Tonight she felt better than she had done in years; stronger, more alive, more alert, and the deep-seated craving for more human blood was definitely there. She was trying desperately to resist Michael’s temptations to hunt more humans. She really didn’t want to go there again. It was like trying to quit a bad habit. You try so hard, but every now and then you falter. The main problem was, the underlying urge never really went away completely. It just lay dormant.

  “I’m not going with you again, Michael,” she said firmly, staring hard at her brother.

  “Since when did you become so self-righteous, anyway?” he wanted to know. “Last night you threatened to kill Travis’ girlfriend. He told me.”

  Selena shook her head. “I never said that. I just hinted at it. I was never going to kill her. That was just a threat to make sure I got what I wanted. It’s you who is the killer. You and those two stupid English backpacker pets of yours.”

  “At least they’re willing to go hunting with me,” Michael pointed out. “You’ve gotten really boring, Sis.”

  “You just like having control over them,” Selena said. “Something you don’t have over me.”

  Michael didn’t deny this. Instead, he said, “And you like havi
ng control over Travis and his little squeeze, making sure they stay as boring as you are. You’ve always had too much influence over our little brother.”

  “Well, I’m a better role model for him than you are.” Selena raised her chin proudly and defiantly. “Being the eldest I’ve always been in charge since the loss of our parents.”

  “No. You just think you’re the boss. Not anymore, Selena. I’m taking over. From now on Travis and his girlfriend are going to do things my way.”

  “Over my dead body.”

  Michael smiled maliciously. “If you want it that way,” he challenged. He headed towards the stairs.

  “Where are you going?” his sister demanded.

  That wicked smile was still stitched across his face. “To get Travis and Chelsea. They’re coming out with me tonight so I can show them what being a vampire is really all about.”

  * * *

  They came out from behind the trees that lined the driveway and stood in the middle of the road, effectively blocking the Ford’s progress. Marks slammed on the brakes a moment late, taken completely by surprise at the sudden intrusion. The front of the car bumped into the young man and woman as it skidded to a stop. They staggered backwards, but remained on their feet.

  In the illumination of the headlights the pair bared their teeth. All three within the car saw the long and lethal fangs.

  “Let’s play with them for a while,” the man said, speaking in a British accent.

  “What the hell are they?” Richards said from the back seat, his jaw having dropped when he saw the fangs and his eyes bulging from their sockets.

  Marks sat there stunned, his foot remaining planted on the brake pedal while the car idled. “They really are real,” he whispered, more to himself than anyone else.

  “I told you they were real,” Ryan said while fingering the handle of the chainsaw.

  “Back up!” Richards yelled from the rear, his voice filled with fear of the unknown.

  Marks put the automatic into reverse and backed away from the two vampires. He’d traveled perhaps only twenty metres when the male vampire gave chase and leaped over the top of the car. He landed on the other side and let Marks run into him. The collision sent the vampire flying off to the left like a skittled bowling pin while the Ford veered off to the right and crashed into a clump of dense bushes. Marks put the car in drive and the back wheels spun, not getting any purchase.

  “Fuck!” he spat and thumped the steering wheel. He turned to look at Richards. “Get out and push.”

  Richards was extremely reluctant to leave the safety of the vehicle, but in the end he obeyed the command from a superior officer and opened the door.

  Ryan looked all around them, trying to see in the darkness. The girl had vanished from view and so had the guy. The impact would have seriously injured a normal person, but where the male vampire had landed, there was now just bare grass. He was gone. But where did he go?

  By now Richards was behind the car and pushing as hard as he could to free the vehicle from the bushes while Marks gunned the engine. It was all to no avail. The tyres just kept spinning and the Ford went nowhere.

  “I’m gonna help him,” Ryan decided and flung his door open.

  The male vampire came like a gust of wind in the night. He knocked Ryan flat on his face on the damp ground. Dazed, Ryan got to his knees and heard a cry of pain coming from behind the car. Next thing he heard Marks get out of the car and race around to his friend’s aid.

  Ryan got to his feet, still in a daze. He could hear a scuffle taking place at the rear of the Ford. Bushes were being trampled, bodies were slamming against the car. And there was this relentless, God-awful sucking, slurping sound that made Ryan’s blood run cold with fear and dread.

  He reached into the seat and grabbed the handle of the chainsaw. Armed with the lethal garden tool, he went round the back of the car and was stunned to see Detective Richards locked up in the powerful grip of the vampire. The vampire’s head was buried in the detective’s neck and blood was dripping to the ground. Ryan saw Richards’ eyes roll back in his head and he looked like he was dead.

  Marks, meanwhile, was trying with everything he had to wrestle the vampire free from his policeman friend. He gave up on that, picked up a heavy stick from the ground and started beating the creature about the head with it.

  Ryan wrenched the starter cord on the chainsaw and the thing growled to life. He moved in quickly, knocked Marks aside and touched the spinning blade to the back of the vampire’s neck. The vampire stiffened in surprise. The saw severed through sinews and bone with ease and the head fell to the ground. Still standing momentarily, the body twitched and convulsed, then toppled over, taking Richards with it.

  Marks wrenched the vampire’s arms free from Richards and quickly checked for a pulse. Ryan stood there, waiting expectantly, the saw still buzzing at idle speed. Marks looked up and Ryan, his face ashen, and shook his head.

  Detective Scott Richards was dead.

  Marks got to his feet and stood there staring down at his friend. He then aggressively kicked the head of the vampire and it rolled off into the forest like a soccer ball.

  Ryan did a pirouette, wondering where that female vampire had got to. He scanned the trees along the edge of the driveway, then the forest behind the car. It was quite dark out with just a sliver of moon in the sky. He saw nothing, no movement. He trained his ears, but heard no telltale sounds of her presence either.

  “I’m sorry, Detective,” Ryan offered and shook his head.

  Marks waved him away. “No time for morbid sentiments right now. Let’s get up to the house and find your sister.”

  Marks opened the car’s boot and retrieved both the sports bag and the smaller bag containing the vials and injector guns. He slung the bigger, heavier bag over his left shoulder and carried the other in his left hand. As he and Ryan - who was still armed with the chainsaw - made their way up the driveway, Marks slipped his hand beneath his jacket. It emerged holding the gun in a tight grip. The detective flicked off the safety.

  Ryan kept an eye out all around, scanning the darkness for signs of the woman. From behind them, somewhere down near the car, came a scream of what sounded like extreme aguish. It was high-pitched and definitely female.

  Both men turned towards the sound, Ryan brandishing the saw while Marks held the pistol out in front of him. They heard the rustling of bushes and feet thudding over soft earth. There was a blur of movement off to the right. It came at them so fast that Ryan couldn’t even focus his eyes on it. Next thing he knew Marks was flat on his back on the ground with the vampire on top of him. The impact caused him to pull the trigger of his gun and a bullet shot aimlessly into the night sky.

  The vampire savagely ripped into the detective’s neck, slashing it to ribbons with its fangs. Marks was writhing around on the ground, trying to push the thing off him. The creature had claws for fingernails and she dug these into the policeman’s abdomen, ripping the skin open like it was made of tissue paper. Entrails fell out through the gaping wound.

  Meanwhile Ryan was inflicting his own damage on the beast with the chainsaw. He hacked into the woman’s back, sliced off her left arm, then attacked the head at an angle, sawing the skull in half. Blood was everywhere, both from the vampire and from Marks. By the time Ryan had killed the vampire, Detective Marks was already dead.

  Ryan stood there covered in gore, breathing hard, the chainsaw gripped tightly in both hands and throbbing with power. Two of his team down and he hadn’t even reached the house yet.

  He was now all alone in his quest and felt overcome with guilt for getting two police officers killed. He stood there motionless for quite some time before finally getting a grip and taking further action.

  Ryan picked up the bag containing the vaccine. He didn’t bother with the other bag. There was no more effective weapon than the little chainsaw. He also snatched up the detective’s gun and jammed it into his waistband. Slowly and stealthily he continued up t
he drive, keeping to the middle so he would have more time to respond should he be attacked. The house came into view and he could see lights on inside.

  Who would be there? What was waiting for him? Was he about to meet an untimely death like Marks and Richards just had?

  He brushed those thoughts from his mind as he scaled the steps to the verandah. There he paused, not certain what to do next. Should he knock on the door, or find a way to sneak inside? He chose the latter.

  Silently he went back down the stairs, skirted the garage and walked around the side of the house. There he had to dodge several rubbish bins and copped a slap in the face from a tree branch. Behind the house there was dense forest. Anything could be lurking out there in the darkness, watching him and waiting for the right moment to pounce on him. An icy chill crawled down his spine.

  He spied a pathway leading downhill through the forest. Ryan ignored the path and walked up the back steps in darkness to a small landing. He reached out and grabbed the doorknob. Just as he started to turn it, the door suddenly swung inwards and there stood Selena Thorne. Her expression was nondescript and Ryan couldn’t read anything from it.

  “Come in, Ryan,” she invited and stepped aside. “I knew you were here.”

  Feeling like there wasn’t much choice, Ryan stepped into the kitchen, the chainsaw still on idle. He continued on into the lounge room and sat down. Selena joined him and perched herself on the arm of a lounge.

  “You can turn that off,” she said, nodding at the saw. “I’m not going to hurt you. Where are your friends?”

  Ryan briefly summed up what had just taken place down on her driveway.

  “They’re both dead,” he said. “The detectives, I mean.”

  “And Paul and Kelly?”

  “Them too.”

  Selena looked strangely satisfied with that news. “They are no loss to me.”

  “Where’s my sister?” Ryan said, raising his voice a few decibels. “Where’s Chelsea?”

  Selena sighed and looked kind of tired, if that were possible for a vampire. “She’s not here and neither is Travis. Michael took them out hunting. I tried to stop him, but I’m not match for him, unfortunately.”