by Stead, Nick
As little interest as I’d had in religion as a human, I couldn’t help but want the vicar’s words to be true. If God did truly exist, he’d never listened or helped me before, but I had a sudden need to believe divine intervention was possible to free me from my curse. I wanted it so badly that I turned to meet the kindly gaze of this so-called man of God and asked him “Can you truly offer me salvation?”
Something in my eyes must have repelled him, for he drew away from me then. The warmth drained from his countenance until he grew as cold as the old stone building he presided over. “I see only darkness.”
“But you said even the worst men can be saved. Isn’t there anything you can do for me?”
“There is nothing to save. You should leave now.”
The storm still carried on its relentless attack outside, the wind driving the rain in a battering assault on the land. I thought about killing the vicar. Gruesome images played in my mind as I imagined saying something like ‘Then if you can’t guide me back to the light, let me drag you into the darkness.’
I could see my claws raking bloody furrows in his throat, blood splattering the wall and dripping down the crucifix. And in my mind, the carving stared accusingly at me through a mask of blood.
Luke reappeared, bearing the same wounds I’d apparently dealt the human whose face this apparition had taken.
“Do it,” he urged me.
There was no supernatural vampiric power to hold me back, nor any of the hallucinations conjured by my newly awoken conscience. No visions of close friends or family appeared with more words of wisdom. It would be so easy to claim this man’s life, to take him as my latest victim. Yet something stayed my hand. Though my inner darkness wanted more bloodshed, my rage remained a dormant volcano and my bloodlust was equally as quiet.
“Maybe it’s what you need to bring them back,” Luke said. “Think how good it felt when we massacred the town and how good it will be to embrace that again.”
I ignored him. Until the two erupted and flooded my consciousness anew, there would be no pleasure in killing. If I indulged in more mindless slaughter, it would only leave me feeling all the emptier for the lack of the savage joy I’d come to crave in such bloody violence. The last thing I wanted was to leave the shelter of the church and venture back into the rain, but I found that preferable to waiting for the storm to pass in my dark pit of emptiness and despair.
I felt the vicar’s eyes on me as I walked back down the aisle, and I wondered if he sensed the wolf threatening his flock. Would he report me to the authorities? It didn’t really matter. I would need to feed again soon but I had the strength to put enough miles between myself and the village before I was forced to rest. Even if the Slayers picked up my trail, I was confident I could lose them again.
It was with great reluctance I stepped back out into the downpour, squinting my eyes to protect them from the icy drops blowing in my direction. It seemed brighter than when I’d first entered the church and I guessed the sun had now risen, but the early morning light was grey and dreary.
Once again I looked on at the rows of tombstones, wondering how many had been sent to early graves by monsters like me. I thought I could hear the anguished screams of the dead as they writhed in torment, their rest disturbed by my very presence. Even though it was no more than my own treacherous imagination, I felt just as unwelcome as I had inside the church. The graveyard no longer felt peaceful. In such dismal light it became the embodiment of my own despair, no rays of hope breaking through from the dark clouds overhead.
Shadows lingered, and between the torrents of rain I caught a glimpse of a dark form with glowing red eyes. The witch’s familiar. Despite letting me leave, she’d still had the creature follow me, and I felt a brief glimmer of anger. She truly believed in this great destiny she’d seen for me, and though I’d told her I’d make my own fate, it felt like I was being steered in the direction others wanted me to go in regardless. Did I not have a say in which path my own life would take? It seemed not, since she’d already interfered by keeping Death at bay long enough for me to heal my mortal wound. But I hadn’t asked her to interfere. As terrible as the loneliness had become over the last couple of months, I wished she would leave me to my lonely existence, her and the vampires. I wanted a friend, but I needed someone I could trust, and I didn’t want anyone meddling with my life.
I snarled at the shadowy canine, expecting it to respond to my challenge. But it simply vanished. One minute it was standing amongst the tombstones and the next its shadowy form collapsed into a kind of black mist, before fading away, seemingly to nothingness. Whatever the thing was, it clearly wasn’t of the mortal realm, and I suspected it had returned to wherever it came from. There it would no doubt wait for its mistress to call it back to our world once again.
I made my way over to the grave it had been standing by, to make sure it had truly gone. There was no sign of the black dog, but there was something lying in the mud where it had been.
Pale flesh rested between the graves, dull and lifeless. Another offering from Selina? I knelt down for a closer look and breathed in the scent of death. It didn’t smell particularly appetising.
The corpse was lying face down. Curiosity drove me to roll it over for a closer look at the dead face, and I was shocked to find a bloody mess of shredded flesh and shattered bones, much like one of my own kills.
My eyes took in the open ribcage, empty of the heart her killer had ripped out, and the four gashes across her face, like claw marks. Those gashes passed right through her lips, revealing a few of her teeth, including one of her upper canines. It was longer and sharper than any human’s. A vampire!
I stood and took a step back. This definitely wasn’t my work this time. There’d been no blackouts, no chunks of time I couldn’t account for. But why had the black dog been standing over the body? Then it hit me. Ulfarr had been right to assume this was the work of a supernatural beast. Selina must be the real killer, and she was using her familiar to frame me. Maybe that was why she’d saved my life, as a convenient way to cover up her own murders. Was she in league with the Slayers after all? It could be another grand scheme they’d cooked up to try and quicken our seemingly inevitable destruction, perhaps because they wanted to avoid another big battle which would cost more lives. Maybe they were hoping we’d turn on each other and make ourselves easier targets.
The why didn’t really matter. I’d been given proof of my innocence. If I could clear my name, maybe there was some hope for me after all. I could try to mend my alliance with the vampires and perhaps forge the new friendship I so badly needed, if not with Lady Sarah then maybe with one of the others. But first I had to find a way to prove my innocence to them. It would be easier said than done.
CHAPTER TWENTY
New Purpose
I spent the day back in the remoteness of the moors. More rabbits took the edge off my hunger and I was able to get some rest in relative safety from all those who wanted me dead. Then the light began to fade, and my heart beat a little faster. Would the vampires be willing to listen to me, or was I about to hand myself over for execution? There was only one way to find out.
I had no way of knowing if Lady Sarah had stayed in the same area we’d been in before I went off on my own, but it was the logical place to start looking, and she felt like my best hope at being heard. If she had moved on I’d have to hope the wolf could track her, and that he would be willing to co-operate with me since it was in the interests of our self-preservation.
Trying to find the exact area we’d been in proved a challenge. I had no idea how far we’d travelled since leaving my hometown, or whereabouts in the country we’d been when I’d gone off on my own, or where that was in relation to my current position. Using nature or the stars as a guide was not a skill I’d been taught. I was lost without the aid of any human signs or landmarks.
The wolf seemed to have an inbuilt sense of direction, but I had no idea how to use it. In the end it was only dow
n to luck that I found her, and it took a few nights of aimless wandering. I was trying to find a familiar looking area that might indicate I was heading in the right direction, when I caught the smell of blood on the air. It led me right to Lady Sarah, crouched over the body of a large stag.
She raised her head, her mouth bloody and her eyes hostile. “You should not have come.”
“You found the latest victim already then.”
“Yes, another body was discovered, mutilated like the others. Your cries of rage and anguish carried across the moors, and now Ulfarr has thrown your sanity into question.”
“Of course he has,” I growled. “I didn’t black out this time though, and I think I know who the killer is. I met a witch with a huge black dog for a familiar, and it was stood over the corpse of this fourth vampire.”
Hostility gave way to sadness, her gaze dropping to the ground. “It matters not.”
“How can you say that? Of course it matters!”
She looked up again. “Do you have any proof?”
My anger stirred. How could she think I was guilty after what I’d seen? Did she think I was making it up?
She ignored the look I was giving her. “Without proof, no one will believe you. If you can find something, I will take it to the other vampires. But until then you should go. Ulfarr will have you stand trial again if he finds you, and I do not believe he will listen to reason this time.”
“Oh come on, don’t you think it’s convenient how, after getting you guys to rally against the Slayers and battle against Aughtie’s forces, suddenly so many of you have turned on me? Don’t you think the Slayers could be behind this? The witch is probably working for them! Sure, some of them might prefer to personally kill me and wipe out werewolves for good. But I bet there’s plenty of them who’d gladly let others do their dirty work, especially if it means a few of us end up killing each other in the process. What if they feel threatened by me after the battle – you said yourself how we need a leader, and it seems I’m the only one who’s managed to get a force onto the battlefield in the last couple of centuries. They’ve hunted us on and off since that night but no matter what they’ve thrown at us, so far we’ve escaped. What if they’re desperate to get rid of me and wipe out werewolves for good?”
“It is plausible, but it is still only a theory. Ulfarr will not be swayed by anything short of undeniable proof.”
“For fuck’s sake, these murders have us divided and fighting among ourselves when we should be united against our common enemy. Can’t you make him see sense?”
“Have you not been paying attention these last few months?” she hissed. “He is an Elder vampire. No one can ‘make’ him do anything.”
“But don’t you think it’s time we prepared for another battle?”
“Again, they will not listen to your theory without proof. You are hardly in a position to unite them when they suspect you of turning on our own.”
“You told me another big battle was coming. Well the battle for my hometown could hardly be called big. If the end truly is inevitable for us, why not make a last stand and take down as many of them with us as we can, instead of allowing them to hunt us like animals? I hate running. We’re wasting time; we should at least be trying to do something with however long we have left! Maybe we could even find a way to win. But if there really is no hope, at least we’ll have died trying.”
The anger drained from her and weariness took its place. “And just what do you propose, Nick? How can you hope to win a war against our enemies when you still fight a war with yourself? Whether you want to hear it or not, we are doomed. You should try to find some purpose out of the time we have left.”
“Like what? I had to leave my human life behind. I’m a killer, and it seems killing is all that’s left. The fight against the Slayers is the only real purpose I can find.”
That wasn’t quite true, since I’d already set my sights on proving my innocence and trying to fix things with the vampires, and as if to drive the point home Lady Sarah said “Focus on clearing your name or it will be more than just the Slayers hunting you. That should be your purpose for the time being.”
“Fine; I should have known this was a waste of time. When you and all the other bloody vampires are ready to listen, I’ll be back.”
She gave me a sad smile but said nothing when I turned to go. I’d expected her to be more willing to aid me, but it seemed she wasn’t even going to help find something concrete to prove my innocence, let alone talk to Ulfarr on my behalf. A mix of anger and disappointment ruled me as I stormed off. Every time I’d thought I’d found an ally, they’d all betrayed me in the end. First Vince, and now Lady Sarah. If I didn’t have her on my side, who else could I turn to?
I glared up at the sky and the stars glinting in the endless blackness, as though they had an answer for me. A face took shape in my mind’s eye. It seemed I had only one option, one last hope. Could I trust him, or would he also turn out to be false? I didn’t know, but he had stood up for me when no other vampires would, and he’d helped cover my tracks when I’d been in no frame of mind to clean up my own mess. He was the only potential ally I had left.
Hours later, I was still trying to find my way back to the old warehouse, without success. If I could just find it and then head north, I should be able to find the mansion I’d been invited to. But I seemed to be lost in the heart of the moorland and I suspected I may well have been going in circles. It seemed I was going to have to rely on my lupine half after all.
“What do you want, human?” he snarled, on the landscapes of our imagination.
“I know you lurk and watch on the edge of my consciousness; you’re well aware of what’s going on. If you still want to live, you need to help me find this mansion.”
“And what makes you so sure this vampire will help us?”
“I’m not,” I sighed. “But if we go to Ulfarr alone, he’s not going to listen. Lady Sarah seemed pretty certain of that. Our only hope is to get another vampire on side and find some proof they can take to him, and it doesn’t look like we can rely on Lady Sarah anymore. What choice do we have?”
“I don’t like this,” he growled. “We know nothing about this new vampire.”
“No, but he stood up for us when Lady Sarah wouldn’t.”
The wolf considered me for a moment. “Very well.”
Reluctance emanated from him as he rose up to take control. I retreated into our subconscious, trusting his survival instinct was still strong enough for him to go along with my plan.
I returned to consciousness and looked around. Trees rose up to my left and right, and they loomed from behind as well. But in front of me were a set of impressive gates, ornate and gothic in design, with a stone lion standing guard atop the pillars on either side.
The wall they were set in must have stretched over a thousand feet across, and I could see more trees growing around it. Were we in a woodland clearing? It seemed like it.
Beyond the gates was a huge, ancient-looking building, dark and foreboding in the moonlight. I looked at it with relief. The wolf had done it. He’d found the mansion. What else could it be?
I padded forward for a closer look. The gates swung open, even though the grounds seemed deserted. That set me on edge. My ears swivelled as I listened for any hint of the vampire, and I raised my nose to the wind. All was quiet. Had he installed a hidden camera round here? It was the only explanation I could think of.
My eyes settled on the lions snarling down at me and I growled back with suspicion. Nothing else happened. Cautiously I crept past them and along the path, feeling the vampire’s eyes on me with every step. He was probably watching my every move as I approached his grand home, but no undead came running to drag me away for another trial, nor did any Slayers appear with more guns. That helped instil me with fresh confidence, and I grew bolder as I made my way to the front door.
Two more stone lions flanked the entrance, life-size and intimidating. Whoever this va
mpire was, I guessed he’d been around for a few hundred years and had therefore acquired vast amounts of wealth over the centuries. Clearly he wasn’t afraid to live with the human luxuries he’d become accustomed to in his mortal life. I had to wonder how he’d lasted so long in this place though. Granted the mansion was hidden by the woodland surrounding it, but it would still be visible from the air. It seemed unlikely the Slayers wouldn’t know of its existence, and the true nature of the man residing within.
I transformed back to human but just as I was about to pound on the door, the vampire opened it and gestured for me to enter. I didn’t waste any time with pleasantries.
“I don’t know if I can trust you, but it sounds like Ulfarr is convinced I’m guilty and I guess that means he’ll be looking to execute me again before long. I know who the real killer is, but I need your help to clear my name.”
He nodded, though his expression remained neutral. “Of course. I will do everything in my power to save you from the others.”
That raised my suspicions again. I’d been expecting to have to convince him to help, but this was beginning to seem all too easy. “Wait, why are you so keen to help me?”
“You are believed to be the last of your kind, and it was you who led a force of undead into battle against the Slayers. You have become the object of much curiosity amongst our kind, despite all the prejudice. I offered you my companionship merely with the intent of satisfying that curiosity. And while there is much hatred for werewolves among my kind, I have only ever had respect for you. It would be a shame to see your race die.”
I frowned. “Come to think of it, how is it you just happened to be in that town to clean up after me?”
“I was out hunting and I sensed you in the area. Again, curiosity led me to you. I realised you were on the verge of a breakdown and I was hoping my help would sway you to accept the hand of friendship I’d offered. And here you are. I simply want to learn more about the werewolf who successfully united our races on the battlefield and led us to victory.”
