The Victorian Vampire

by Nick James

  ‘After him, Berty!’ Tracey shouted with a smile on her face as she punched a woman who looked like Queen Elizabeth, and then she shot an older man trying to gut Jasper. ‘Go, baby!’ she still had time to shout before throwing the queen into the roaring fire, sending piercing screams and ash into the air along with Tracey’s cackles of laughter. The woman from Bristol was enjoying herself way too much.

  I nodded and ran out through the open door. Then I saw a glimpse of a leg disappearing through another door further down the hallway, which was instantly slammed shut. The out of place iron ring handle swung. Once I kicked it open, I was thrown back as three holes appeared in the wood sending splinters flying at me, and one of bullets taking me high in the shoulder. Owww!

  ‘Damned bastard!’ I shouted angrily and kicked open the door, firing as I moved in. Sparks appeared as the slugs impacted the stone wall at the bottom of the cellar steps. I heard the sound of screams and the impacts of fist on flesh.

  The demon inside was willing me on and panting for vengeance and blood. The world fell away as I slipped down the last two wooden steps – who polishes cellar steps for Christ’s sake? I quickly got up, then there were the sounds of a fight and another scream and the thump of a body hitting the floor. ‘Rose, Sia, are you here!’ I shouted into the dimly lit place.

  ‘BERTY…HELP!’ screamed Rose, not in panic but frustration.

  She moved forward into view revealing Ray Hughes with his arm wrapped around her neck and a gun in his other hand pressed to her skull. ‘Wow, you look like shit,’ she said.

  ‘Thanks, love,’ I replied before searching over both their shoulders. ‘Where the fuck is Anastasia?’

  The twat gestured to the cell where he had drugged his hostage. ‘She is sleeping. The bitch got a bit gobby.’ He grinned demonically showing off his fangs.

  I gave the ex-copper a sneer, then locked eyes with my Rosie. ‘Did they hurt you at all?’

  ‘Who? The coven of fucking VAMPIRES? What the shit!’ she spat angrily while I saw the dick of an ex-captain laughing at me. ‘All this time you were Twilighting me?’

  ‘No, nothing like that. I really like you and I was trying to tell you the truth, but these pricks got in the bloody way,’ I growled, ‘all because I fell in love with you. And they want me to be cold and miserable like they are.’

  Rose locked eyes with me. ‘Wait, you love me? How? When?’ Tears filled her eyes.

  Oh shit, did I say that out loud? I sighed. ‘Since the first day I saw you. Then I made you laugh, and once I saw that I was hooked,’ I recalled, and then groaned as my bullet wound started to knit together. Luckily, no one saw the crushed bullet pop out and fall down my shirt.

  ‘Enough of this lovey-dovey bullshit. One move, Morris, and she’ll be deader than Elvis!’ Hughes snapped and made Rose squeak in pain as he shoved the gun in harder.

  I shook my head. ‘What is it you want? Money? Gold? I have both?’ I offered, but he shook his head. ‘What then? You want me dead? Then kill me, just let her go first. Don’t hurt her, please.’

  ‘Aww, so noble. Yes, I want you dead, but then I want her to be with me, forever,’ Hughes said and sniffed at her hair.

  Rosie grimaced and her eyes widened; she knew what ‘forever’ meant to the man holding her.

  I pleaded with him, ‘No, please, kill me and let her go. This is no life for anyone. You chose this, but most of us were forced into it. And I can assure you the first thing she would do is kill you, as I did for the bastard who turned me into this monster.’ I stopped talking and then sagged as the battle noise continued upstairs. They were really burning through their rounds. ‘I’ve watched too many loved ones die in my time as this thing, and I swore I would rather die than turn anyone into a monster like us.’

  Tears were now flowing down Rosie’s cheeks.

  ‘Well, tough shit. I LOVE THIS SHIT, THE POWER I FEEL, LIKE I’M A GOD!’ he ranted with spittle flying. He moved his gun over her shoulder and took aim at my head. ‘Say goodbye, dickhead.’

  ‘Rosie, close your eyes, love. Don’t watch this, please,’ I said softly. As her beautiful eyes closed, I heard the click of his trigger, then the hammer hitting the bullet, the powder igniting, and the last sound I heard was the bullet cutting through the air.

  Chapter 20

  I turned my head at the last millisecond, which caused the bullet to leave a bloody gash along the left side of my head, like a demonic farmer ploughing a furrow. The next shot missed as I lunged at the pair, knocking them to the ground. I heard the scream and exhalation of breath from the soft and lovely form of Rose, who was now the filling in between two black-eyed and fang-baring snarling vampires.

  In his panic, Hughes had dropped his gun; but instead of using his teeth or claws, he furiously struggled to reclaim it from where it had landed.

  I pushed Rose from us. Unfortunately, she rebounded off the wall with a grunt. I heard my friends calling out as they stomped down the stairs. I jumped on the back of the scurrying man, digging my claws into his fleshy back and making him scream like the bitch he was.

  ‘JASPER, GET ROSE OUT OF HERE…NOW!’ I shouted and received a backhanded slap from my enemy, which rattled my eyes like I was in a cartoon. I fell off him, but before he could once again try to reclaim his service revolver, I resumed clawing at his back.

  ‘BERTY, GET OFF HIM! LET ME SHOOT HIM!’ Tracey shouted.

  I turned the monster onto his back and started to hail blows into his face, tearing flesh and shattering bone. My knuckles bled and finally broke because of the punishment they had dealt. I realised I was screaming as my attack continued, and then a calm, angelic voice cut through the fog of my rage.

  ‘Berty, get off him, please.’ I turned to see a red-faced Rose standing there with a gun. Tears were still streaming down her face, but her voice and hand were calm. ‘Do it now, Berty!’

  I saw it was Tracey’s gun that Rose was holding. The redhead was standing behind her nervously, probably worried that the brunette would shoot me. I rolled off the now twitching animal who no longer had a face, but I knew he could come back even though it would take some time.

  BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG. The noise was deafening as the ex-policeman, ex-vampire and now ex-alive was turned into ash when the silver-tipped bullets tore his immortality away.

  There was another bang as the gun hit the old wooden floorboards, and that’s when my eyes met Rose’s. I went to talk, but the girl I had fallen for just shook her head.

  ‘Nothing, Albert, please. You can’t say or do anything which will make tonight better for me.’ She sobbed and lowered her head. ‘I just want to go home and try to forget everything about this horrific night, and the people or things that have caused this.’ She turned away as those words dug deep.

  I stood up and went to go after her but felt the strong yet slender fingers of Tracey stopping me.

  ‘Don’t, Albert, now is not the right time,’ the Bristolian said in the softest tones I had ever heard come from her mouth.

  Jasper, who had a bleeding scalp, put his arm around my departing love. The look I received from him was one of sorrow, but he nodded, which just signalled ‘I got this’ as they walked up the stairs.

  ‘Will she be okay?’ I asked my friend.

  Tracey hugged me. ‘Yes, he’s driving a Honda, and frankly it’s a slow piece of shit,’ she said with mirth dripping from her words. Our hearing then caught some grumbles coming from the departing doorman.

  ‘WELL, DON’T WORRY ABOUT ME OR ANTHING!’ boomed a voice with a very strong accent. We turned to see a very angry Russian baroness staring daggers at us.

  I smiled. ‘Oh hey, you missed all the fun.’ I moved a bit too slowly to dodge the incoming fist.

  Once we had managed to calm Sia down, we rejoined the butler and driver who were starting to complain about the damage to the property. Tracey blamed Jasper, who had become a bit of a wild man in typical Marine Corps fashion by using the expenditure of ammunition to get the j
ob done.

  Sia took us down to the vault and reclaimed her wealth while Tracey, two employees of the estate and I took a share of the rest. As we counted, I could hear my red-haired friend chanting, ‘VEGAS! VEGAS! VEGAS!’

  Once we were done we were driven back to my apartment in style, although we received dodgy looks from the doorman as we were still coated in dust, dirt and carrying big bags of loot.

  We stumbled into the apartment and dropped the bags with exhaustion. The girls fell onto the sofas where I left them before heading to my room to think and hopefully sleep the day away.

  I fell asleep alone and woke up with a pair of vampiresses cuddled in next to me. As nice as it felt, there was only one person I wanted warming my cold body.

  I was back to living alone as Tracey did what she always did: get some money, then go and have fun. I woke up to find a dirty pair of knickers on my pillow and a note saying ‘Vegas baby!’ with a lipstick imprint on it. God help Sin City.

  The next day after a very nice night of dinner, dancing, drinking and other adult entertainment, Anastasia headed back to her motherland to look for the graves of her family and give them a long-awaited goodbye. Afterwards, she said there were several places she had visited as a child that she wanted to see again – oh, and some families of those who had betrayed her family. I noticed that some important Russian government officials went missing during her time on holiday.

  I missed them both, Tracey and Anastasia, but I knew they would be back one day.

  It was well over a week before I received a text from Rose asking me to meet her for a drink and chat. There was no banter or kisses on it, which didn’t bode well.

  I finally had a nice chat with Jasper on the way out of the building to see Rose and put some ideas to him about the future. Thankfully he was willing to help, especially as he knew the areas around here. I made it to the bar and there she was sat in our booth; it was a different barman again this time.

  I bought our drinks, sat down and pushed the glass over to her. ‘It’s good to see you again, Rose. How are you?’

  She took a sip of her dirty Martini. ‘Apart from the fucking nightmares, Berty, I’m okay, thanks,’ Rose said curtly, never once locking eyes with me.

  ‘Well, I’m sure—’ I started to respond, but I was stopped dead as she put her perfect hand over my mouth.

  ‘Don’t speak, this is hard enough for me to say as it is. I have never been so scared in all my life, and now I have to live my life knowing there are vampires out there – who, unlike you, will kill me without a thought,’ Rose admitted, and I understood her reasoning. ‘And like your friend Kelly, every time I look at you and into those eyes of yours, I will feel that monster’s fangs against my flesh. He was so close.’ Tears then flowed. ‘You brought these monsters to my door; they threatened my whole family.’ She wiped the tears from her cheeks. ‘I saw you die. I know you didn’t, but at the time it shattered my heart, and I can’t go through that again, Berty.’

  Darkness swirled in my mind and body again, but it wasn’t the beast, this was due to the fact that once again I had lost someone I’d fallen for. I couldn’t form the words I needed to beg her to change her mind.

  ‘Thank you for not making this more difficult than it is,’ Rose said, fighting emotions as she spoke. Then she picked up her glass and downed it. ‘I really hope you find peace, Berty. Goodbye.’ Without another word she stood up, walked past me and out into the night. I could hear her sobs until she got into a taxi; the slamming of the door had a certain finality to it.

  Without a thought in my head, I ghosted through the city. Once again, I was alone and the emotions that ran through my body fed the beast. He was hungry and ready to play. So that’s what we did. The criminal fraternity in New York and its boroughs fled for their lives that night. Thankfully, criminals are rarely reported missing, otherwise they would’ve broken the world record for missing people. That night sated the evil that slept inside me, for now.

  During the next month I didn’t see Rose, not once, and it left me adrift in life. Spring was coming, so the days were getting longer, but the things Rose said about a bar had me thinking about the future.

  I carried out some research on the Internet and with Jasper’s help we drove around the boroughs of New York. As it turned out, an owner of a dive bar had disappeared one night with several of its locals, and his long-abused wife just wanted rid of the place, so I bought it and moved out of my apartment to live in the spacious rooms above the bar.

  Jasper joined me as bouncer and co-manager; I let him choose the chef. It was a themed bar which seemed to be quite popular again, so The Coven was born. It turned out the New York vampire scene was on the up, which made me laugh as all these pretend vamps were rubbing shoulders with the true creatures of the night. We sold good beer and fantastic food. I even kept the old waitress once I put her through rehab and gave her a pay rise.

  It was when I told Anastasia about the bar and where it was that she laughed out loud, as it was the same bar she was attacked in, which I had already gathered. What I didn’t know was that Anastasia had found the drivers’ licences I had taken off the men who attacked us that night, so the girl had a night out to visit our friends for something to eat, and those men ended up as the main course.

  One summer night I was walking through Manhattan when I heard my name called out – and there she was, Rose.

  ‘Berty, how have you been?’ she asked and strode towards me wearing a white cotton dress and sandals.

  ‘Hey, I moved over to the Bronx – you know, a new start. You okay?’ I asked, searching her face. I had missed her so much and was looking for any sign that she felt the same way.

  She nodded. ‘Yes, I’m fine. It took me a while, but I’m okay.’ She looked at her feet. ‘Are Sia and Tracey still with you?’

  ‘Nah, we can’t be around each other long term. Tracey is in Vegas doing quite well I hear, and Anastasia is touring around Russia. Somebody tried to kidnap her, which she enjoyed to a point, then she fought back, but she still writes,’ I said and heard Rose laugh. How I had missed that laugh.

  ‘You do know why I couldn’t stay with you, Berty, don’t you?’ she asked.

  ‘Yes, and I can’t blame you, and I never will,’ I replied with a sad sigh. ‘But I do miss you, and that won’t change.’

  ‘I know. I miss you, too, but…I don’t know, it’s too hard to imagine how it would work between us,’ she said, her eyes watering.

  I gave her a weak smile. ‘I understand, I really do.’ I took out my wallet and found what I was looking for. ‘I’m here for good now. That’s my new address and number. Come for a coffee, or just to say hi, it’s your choice.’ I leaned in and kissed her soft and slightly wet cheek. ‘Bye, Rose,’ I said only just louder than the breath on her lips.

  ‘Bye, Berty, take care.’ We then parted, walking our separate ways. As I crossed the junction, I could hear the slap, slap of someone who either had flipper feet or was wearing sandals.

  ‘Oi, Lord Lucan, what the hell is The Coven?’

  I turned around and saw Rose standing on the other side of the road. ‘It’s my bar. Why?’ I asked.

  ‘You listened to me; you took my advice,’ she said with a happy smile on her fragile face.

  I laughed. ‘Of course I did. I love you. Why wouldn’t I?’ Then I heard the slapping of sandals and the beeping of horns and felt her body wrap around mine as swear words swarmed around us from disgruntled drivers.

  Finally, I allowed a smile to grace my face again, and maybe it will stay this time…for now.

  The End

 

 

 
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