Whenever I was forced to go somewhere quiet, or even deserted if I had to, there was little I could do to protect myself from their guns. I’d have slipped into wolf form, making it easier to dodge a bullet, but then I would have had to feed and that would have made me vulnerable too – they could track me down and shoot me while I fed.
They were biding their time, waiting patiently. I knew their patience wouldn’t last forever, and the odds were stacked against me, though I wouldn’t go down without a fight. The only questions were when would they strike and how many would die?
Chapter Twenty-Two
Victim of War
Sweat trickled down my body in the summer heat. I forced one foot to move after another, my legs heavy, my body feeling like one awkward lump of flesh, melting under the blazing sun. I always hated the summer. I hated the heat, the long days and short nights, and all the bugs buzzing around. And judging from what Lady Sarah had said a couple of nights ago, she didn’t think much of it either.
“Bah, the worst time of year for vampires. We have less time to feed and are forced to spend more time in the sleep of the dead. There is little time for anything else. I will welcome winter upon its return.”
Well, people always associated the winter months with death. I wondered if that idea was more to do with the undead, rather than the natural world dying as people in more recent times took it to mean. In times gone by when people knew of our existence, they knew exactly what the longer nights meant; the greater numbers of deaths it brought under the longer hours granted to the undead to roam the earth. The undead ruled the winter months. Death ruled the winter months.
Vince had little to say about it. He’d said “Yeah, it’s a bummer not having as long to do stuff, but it sure beats the hell out of spending eternity truly dead. Immortality comes with a price and I don’t regret it.”
People think of spring and summer as the time for new life. In that heat I wasn’t so sure. How could anything survive the intensity of the sun beating down so hard on the land? Try as I might, I just couldn’t keep cool. It was unbearable.
I reached my destination. It had felt like the longest walk to town I’d ever put myself through but it would be worth it. Mum and Dad were going out that weekend and I was stuck babysitting Amy. I’d complained about that, knowing I might not get any peace if she was feeling that way out. Though after the incident earlier in the year, I hoped she’d give me more space and find something to amuse herself with that didn’t involve me. Mum had given me some money for a DVD as compensation. There were a couple of shops in town that sold nothing but DVDs and video games. My favourite of the two specialised in horror movies.
Fans beat the dead air, trying to breathe some life into it. Compared to outside, it was heavenly. For that reason alone I spent over an hour in there, looking at every movie the shop had to offer, before finally choosing Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. I almost forgot about the Slayers following me.
When I left the shop, a pleasant breeze had picked up. It had grown misty too, which seemed odd after the way the climate had been an hour ago, but I assumed the mist had blown in from the sea or something like that. I wasn’t an expert on the weather so I didn’t dwell on it for long.
The Slayers were quick to find me, even with the mist clinging to everything. It had grown so thick that if I reached out I could see my hand in front of me, but little else. Buildings suddenly loomed up ahead when I was within a few feet of them, only to disappear again moments later, swallowed up by the gloom. It didn’t seem real, more like a dream world than reality. There could be anything hiding in the mist, waiting to jump me. It wasn’t a comforting thought. Not after the bullet wound to my leg on the night of the prom.
A dark shape lurked somewhere up ahead. It came closer and I tensed, ready to fight. Then the mists parted and Lizzy stepped into view.
“Nick, I came to warn you. Do you know you’re being followed? You didn’t tell me you had a stalker.” The last sounded like an accusation. Once again I was sorry I couldn’t share my secrets with her. If only she knew. But she was human and this wasn’t her world. I wouldn’t drag her into my mess.
“No, I guess I forgot. Just some freak who’s obsessed with me, nowt to worry about.”
She shook her head. “I don’t believe you. What’s going on, Nick? You’ve been acting strange all year. I thought it was just Fiona’s death, but it’s more than that. Something’s up.”
I sighed. “Look, this is all I’m saying. I’ve changed more in this year than you can ever imagine. I’m mixed up in something I don’t want you getting into, for your own safety.”
She opened her mouth to argue but I held a hand up to stop her. She closed it again and let me finish. “I know you want to help me, but you can’t so there’s no point endangering you an’ all. I’ve been dragged into a nightmare world of shadows. I know what lurks in the darkness. I’m learning what humans are capable of, what I’m capable of. I’ve seen things kids should never see. Don’t throw away your childhood, your life, for me. Thanks for warning me, but you want to help some more? Then go home, you’ll be safe there.”
“No Nick, I’m not leaving you here,” she said stubbornly. “What kind of trouble have you got yourself into?”
“Go home Lizzy, this is not your fight,” I told her.
“No.”
“Go home, you’ll be safe there.”
The footsteps of my pursuers were drawing closer. Was it meant to be a threat? This was the first time the Slayers had drawn so close. Usually they kept their distance.
She hesitated, uncertain.
“Go!” I roared, afraid for her.
She turned and ran. I nodded to myself, satisfied. I’d lost one friend to the wolf. I wouldn’t lose anymore. I watched her retreating back until it was swallowed by the fog, whispering “And by God if I am destined to die today, I will take them with me.”
With that I walked off, safe in the knowledge that at least if they got me, they wouldn’t get Lizzy.
Screaming in the mist. I came to an abrupt halt, fear pounding my heart against my chest, so hard it hurt. I listened intently for anything else, but there was nothing. The screams came to a sudden stop, almost as if they mirrored my movements.
“Lizzy?” I whispered her name into the mist uncertainly, afraid that they would hear. Fear was taking over, twisting my guts into a painful knot. There was no answer. Only the unnatural fog, and the memory of the screaming long after the sound had died. Was it the last cry she would ever make? With a sudden certainty I knew what it meant.
“She was one of my closest friends,” I said softly, anger clawing its way out again. I fought it back down, feeling it was not the time to give into my rage.
I should have felt sad at least, if not the horror that had been there when Fiona died, because in a way, this death was my fault too. And Lizzy had been even closer to me than Fiona. She truly had been there for me when I really needed her. Of all of those I considered friends she had been the only one to stick by me when death seemed certain at the jaws of the werewolf that fateful night, the only one who’d been more concerned with saving me than saving herself. But there was nothing, except the bitterness in my voice at the unfairness of it all.
“She was one of my closest friends,” I repeated. “She was… She is dead.”
I bowed my head, fighting to control the monster inside. The monster looked out through my eyes for a brief moment and it spoke, pouring all its malice, all its cruelty and all its rage into one sentence.
“Someone will pay for that.”
Then it was gone, locked away again, to be called on when I needed it. It wanted blood. It didn’t care whose. It didn’t care so much about revenge, it was just the need to kill and it had been given the perfect excuse. I would kill again, and it didn’t matter whether they were one of the enemies or an innocent bystander. And I would enjoy it, though revenge would be sweeter than a random death. Whoever had killed her would die by my hand, and I woul
d enjoy that all the more.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Prepare to Battle
“They killed Lizzy,” I said, my voice dead and emotionless.
“Who?” Lady Sarah asked, face blank, impossible to read. We were in the graveyard and it was some time after midnight. No more than twelve hours had passed since Lizzy’s death. Both vampires were sat on coffins in the mausoleum. I remained standing, pacing.
“Lizzy, the girl from your school?” Vince asked. “Your friend?”
I nodded. “It was me they were after. They know who I am. They’ve been following me, but until now they haven’t even attempted to kill me, though there’s been plenty of times when they could have shot me easily and got away with it. Then today, for whatever reason, they decided to do it, but it was misty and I think maybe they mistook her for me. Maybe they saw someone coming towards them and they panicked before they could see who it was. I don’t know the reason, but Lizzy’s dead and it should have been me.”
“That does not make sense,” Lady Sarah said. “I have never heard of them stalking a victim unless they intend to kill them that same night. For that matter, I have never heard of them attacking in a public place in daylight. And they do not allow for mistakes. The only humans I have known them to kill are those connected to the undead, through more than friendship. This does not make sense, why go to the trouble of following you if they do not intend to kill you?”
“Who cares why they did it, they have to pay,” Vince said angrily, and I agreed with him. “I’m sick of running from them. We’ve spent centuries running. It’s time we stood and fought them one final time, because time is all we have left and they’ll even take that from us eventually. They chase us from our territories and we are forced to scavenge on animals, become animals ourselves. I don’t mean changing shape, I mean the way they force us to live. We were not given the gift of eternity to spend it like this. Now they’re coming for us, hunting us down like dogs. We can’t keep running. They’re gonna find us eventually and kill us. Well I ain’t going down without a fight.”
He fell silent and I took up the argument for him. “What does it matter if they kill us today or tomorrow, or in years to come? We’ll be dead all the same. If we want eternity we have to fight for it. You told me once a great battle was fought and we lost. The survivors fled and lived to fight another day, but how many of them have gone down fighting since then? Too many. Those who went into hiding, like yourselves, may have survived longer, but it can’t last. Now the time has come for another great battle in which the undead must either win to carry on the fight, or die and be lost to eternity.”
“I told you, we are too few for another battle. They would slaughter us all,” Lady Sarah argued.
“We have no other choice,” Vince said. “The werewolf is right.”
“And who will lead us?” she asked. “None of us here are powerful enough to lead what others we can gather. We will fight amongst ourselves and do more damage than the Slayers before the battle has even begun. Ever has that been our downfall; it is in our nature.”
“Worry about that later. A natural leader will rise when the time is right,” I said.
“Even so, we will be outnumbered. They will wipe us all out easily. Better to take the time we have left than throw it all away for nothing.”
“We might as well be dead if we have to spend the rest of our time running. Besides, can you not make more vampires? There may be no more werewolves after I’m gone, but there will always be more vampires. Not even the Slayers can stop that, can they? And there must be more kinds of undead than vampires and werewolves. Both you and Vince mentioned zombies before. Are you sure they’re all gone? And what about ghouls, ghosts, wraiths? Are they all myths?”
“They exist,” Vince said quietly, as if he’d rather not talk about it.
“Yes, they exist. But it takes a powerful necromancer to raise the dead, especially as many as we will need for an army. There were free roaming zombies, but the Slayers wiped them out. Ghouls, ghosts and wraiths cannot be controlled so easily. And we could not make enough vampires in time. The Slayers will recognise a corpse destined to become a vampire and stake it long before it ever has chance to rise again. Even if we stole the body, it would raise suspicions.”
“So we’ll find a necromancer. We’ll raise an army so terrible no one will dare to look upon them. The dead will fight for us, and think of the possibilities! The dead will always outnumber the living. Billions have died over the millennia, billions more than there ever will be alive at any one time. And for every Slayer we kill, we will add to our ranks. There must be someone you’ve met somewhere along the line who has the power.”
“There is,” Vince said. “And she’s standing in front of you.”
“What?” I said confused. “You can raise zombies? Why the hell didn’t you tell me before?”
“It is not a power I wish to brag about. Some vampires have the power, as do some humans. Vincent is jealous, because we are descended from the same line, yet I was granted this particular power and he was not. Zombies are bound by the power that raised them. They are forced to obey the one who brought them back. That is, unless the necromancer has not the power to keep them under his control. Some are strong enough to bring back the dead but not to bend them to their will. Sometimes the zombies fall back into their graves, dead once more, but sometimes they have been given enough power to cling to their new life. I could raise the entire graveyard but that does not mean I could control them. They could turn on us. They would overwhelm us through sheer numbers and there would be nothing we could do to stop them from ripping us apart.”
“It’s a risk we have to take,” I argued.
She looked unhappily from me to Vince, then finally bowed her head, admitting defeat. “Very well, I will do what I can.”
Vince stood. “It’s decided then. We’ll call a meeting for other vampires and together we must convince them to fight. I’ll see what I can do about ghouls and wraiths. For ghosts we need a psychic who can speak with the dead. Give us some time, I’ll send word to you when we’re ready to meet again.”
“If we have time. If the Slayers decide to strike sooner we’re screwed,” I said.
“Wait, are you sure you were not followed here?” Lady Sarah asked.
“Nah, we would have heard others coming. They’re only human,” Vince replied.
“You are right, I am growing paranoid. Until the next time we meet,” she said to me.
“Until the next time,” I echoed. Now I knew I could avenge Lizzy’s death, it was time to worry about my next trial: Saturday night.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Heed This Warning
“No arguments while we’re out, I want you both on best behaviour,” Mum told us, the sentence punctuated by a roll of thunder. I could hear rain pounding the ground outside.
“Mum, we’re teenagers now, not kids anymore. We’ll be fine. Just go and enjoy yourselves.”
“Don’t be staying up too late and don’t wait up for us,” Dad ordered. A flash of lightning lit the night sky.
I rolled my eyes. Would they ever leave?
“Okay, well have fun while we’re out,” Mum said. “We’ll be back around midnight.”
And finally they walked out the door with a last goodbye and darted through the torrents of rain lashing down on them, into the car. I locked the door, then Amy and I stood at the window to watch them leave, a flash of lightning illuminating the scene for a brief second as they waved goodbye and drove off around the corner, and then they were gone.
I turned to Amy and said "I'll be down here, go please yourself and go to bed when you're ready."
“I’ll be down here too,” she replied, adding quickly “And I get the big screen!”
“No fair, you always get the big screen. I’m the oldest, that means I’m in charge so I say I get the big screen.”
“Says who?”
“Says Mum and Dad.”
She
turned on the cute act. It really was an Oscar winning performance, but it didn’t work on me. I gave in only because I knew if I didn’t let her have the big screen she’d annoy me all night, and I’d never get through any of the films I planned to watch. Besides, after a month or so, depending how quickly the vampires spread the word and which way the battle went, I might never see her again. And it wasn’t far off nine thirty already; I wouldn’t have time for even just one film if I didn’t start soon.
“Okay, you can have the big screen,” I sighed.
A smug look spread across her face as she strutted into the lounge. I shook my head and went into the dining room.
I sat on the sofa by the patio door and pulled back the curtain to look out for a moment, though even with my superior night vision I couldn’t see much. It was a dark moonless night, the black storm clouds hiding the stars and making the land pitch black. The only light came from the occasional flash of lightning, followed by the rumble of thunder over the ever constant sounds of the rain thundering against the glass and the howling wind, driving the storm onwards.
I let the curtain fall back over the door and turned back to the DVD I’d bought. Amy was scared of the dark and insisted on having the lights on throughout the house, but it just wasn’t the same for watching horror movies. So I’d closed the door separating the dining room from the hall, shutting out the light. Without the lights on, the room was as dark as the black night outside, until the film started, and the light from the screen illuminated the area around the TV.
Amy came in after a while and sat with me, afraid of the storm. I sighed in frustration, wishing she could have slept over at a friend’s house. I didn’t like being disturbed when I was watching my movies, and of course the light had to be on while she was in there. When I realised there was no chance of watching the movie in peace I sought to comfort her, though I’m not sure I did a particularly good job. I had little comfort to give, so dead inside as I was, and I found it hard to act human. It was something of a relief when it reached ten thirty and she was ready for bed. She wouldn’t go up on her own, so I walked her up the stairs to her room and tucked her in bed, wondering if it was the last time I’d ever play the role of the protective big brother. It was a role I was no longer suited for, and perhaps it wasn’t a bad thing that it was one I might not have to play for much longer.
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