The Dark Messenger

by Milo Spires

  Kaine was growing angry. He didn't like the way Raffious was talking about his wife. Okay, she was wrong, but did he have to say it twice in the way that he had? He should have told them both in privacy about this, not in front of Becky and Jenny, whom he had only just met.

  ‘Er, sorry to interrupt, but did you say that our old orphanage was burnt to the ground?’ Jenny asked.

  ‘Yes, it was completely destroyed, and many people died in the inferno.’

  Jenny shook her head in disbelief. So many good people lived in that building, and the matron was always there. I hope she managed to get out in time, she thought.

  Kaine hadn’t told Jenny and Becky everything about his vision, such as how he had known that they would be in the hospital or how he knew their names when he had got there. And strangely enough, they hadn’t even asked him in the time they had been staying with them either. He decided that now was perhaps the right time to let them know, since they had already heard so much from Raffious that is.

  As he told the girls everything, Jenny’s dread grew. When she learned of her role in it, and that the vampires from the future were in fact trying to get her, she couldn’t sit still any longer.

  ‘You say they are looking for me?’ she shouted as she launched herself up from the table. ‘I’m the reason that all this mess started?’

  Regina rushed to reassure her. ‘Darling, yes they are, but you will be completely safe here. Only you and Becky and Raffious know where we live, apart from us. Oh, and I suppose the dogs too.’ She hoped that including Bruce and Solomon in it at the end would have made her smile, but it didn’t.

  Jenny started to leave the room, and even though she had slowed up to listen to her, she didn’t stop. She ran downstairs and then shouted back up at them, ‘I’m going out for a walk!’

  She knew that she was acting quite childish and rude leaving the table like that, and it wasn't like her to be that way at all, but hearing that nasty vampires from the future were chasing after her, did she really care… She thought as the floodgates then opened and she burst into tears.

  Upstairs Becky was still ripping apart raw venison with her brand-new razor-sharp teeth. She loved the taste of the blood as it sprayed into her mouth. She couldn’t resist the flesh it as she simply sliced her way through it.

  Then she paused for a moment as she thought about Kaine’s vision, and the vampires from the future having been sent back to turn her mate Jenny. Then and only then did she realise that she herself must have been turned into a vampire by mistake. They had been after her mate and not her. She grinned at the thought.

  Solomon and Bruce had been lying by Kaine’s side to see if they could get any scraps of meat throughout the dinner, but suddenly they leapt up. Their ears craned forward and their hackles rose up and splayed out down their backs as they started growling.

  ‘That’s strange,’ Regina said, thinking they might be reacting because of Jenny. ‘Go on then, go look after her,’ she said to both of them.

  They didn’t move though, but the tone of their growls deepened substantially. Then their eyes glazed over as their gums rose up and their teeth showed.

  ‘It’s not Jenny. There’s something outside,’ Kaine said, connecting with his boys reaction and realizing what they were so angry about.

  ‘BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP’

  Regina’s IPad started making a loud beeping noise, and the screen suddenly lit up with a message across it saying MULTIPLE INTRUDERS DETECTED.

  Kaine knew exactly what that meant because he had wired up the home security system. ‘Regina, stop Jenny from opening the doors!’ he screamed as he leapt up sending his chair sprawling across the room. Spinning around he grabbed the iPad.

  Regina picking up on his mind waves even before the vocals were heard, flew out of the room with lightning speed. Seconds later she was already two levels below, and just turning in to the garage. Kaine clicked his fingers at the dogs who chased down the stairs after their mum.

  The noise they were making as they flew across the lounge was the kind that sent fear straight through you. They were up for defending their family and whatever was outside that spooked them, by the sounds, they were sure going to fucking kill it, painfully.

  A sudden suspicion made him turn to Raffious. Considering everything that had just been discussed…

  ‘What’s happening, Raffious?’ Kaine shouted. ‘Who's outside?’

  ‘I am sorry,’ Raffious replied calmly, ‘but as I said to you both many years ago, I cannot warn you of the future. You always said you would understand.’ He picked up his napkin and serenely wiped at his beard, where gravy had just spilt down on it.

  ‘This is different! It’s my home! You can happily sit there eating my food and then allow us to be attacked?’ Kaine roared. He mashed his clenched fists down so hard on the solid oak table that he put a huge crack in it.

  He was furious; immense rage flowed through him as his wild fangs forced themselves down guided by his anger and his muscles tensed.

  Shoving his face into Raffious’ he screamed, ‘If any of us die today, I promise you old boy, I will kill you for this but not in a quick way either, do you understand my meaning!’

  Raffious suddenly felt that he was being called. Someone had actioned his archaic spell as they had spoken the words to it. The spell was summoning him.

  He smiled to himself as he realized who it might be.

  ‘I am sorry. I truly am, but I am being called by someone and I must leave,’ he said as he then stood up. Unperturbed, he turned to look across at Becky before saying, ‘It was nice to meet you, Becky.’

  Kaine furrowed his brow as he considered sticking a dinner knife through the old boys head right there and then. ‘Fucking leaving, no you aren’t you slithering little toad.’ he thought as he reached for the knife.

  Becky was far to busy with the raw meat, cramming it down her throat and refused to look up at him for even a second. She did vaguely wonder though, if maybe his blood might taste good as she ripped his throat out.

  As Kaine turned around with the shimmering steel blade, Raffious knew it was his call to leave and suddenly vanished. Leaving Kaine thrusting the thing into thin air.

  ‘Bastard.’ he thought. ‘I nearly had him too.’

  Dropping the knife he spun around and looked at the iPad screen again. There was something like a hundred vampires outside, circling around by their garage entrance and none up by their traps room. Strange, he thought, why just the garage?

  Quickly he messaged Regina to ask if the emergency exit was shut and if she was ok. She said she was fine and that she had luckily just got there in time as Jenny had her hand on the door handle. Then she added, ‘They were both coming back upstairs now.’

  Kaine and Becky both looked at each other with their fangs down, and rage booming through their veins. He told her that Regina wouldn’t want her fighting yet, but that after he had seen what she did to the skinhead in the hospital, that he thought she should go down with him to the garage and he would educate her on just how its done.

  In response a wide smile ripped across her face and then she craned her neck back and roared.

  ‘Good that’s settles it then.’ he said, as they both moments later charged down the stairs.

  Chapter 17 (Surprise Attack)

  Outside Kaine and Regina’s house, Longinus had just returned from meeting with Rex’s Elite Warriors from the future. They had met at the old tree where he had been carving messages for them in their year, 2099, and had followed him to the house. Vius, the leader of the Elite Warriors, had already been told where the entrance was by Longinus, and had ordered his men to go down to the garage door and attack.

  Reaching the door full of bitter rage for their fallen leader Rex, they tore into it with their usual brute force only to find it never succumbed, instead as it was reinforced by Kaine to stop vampires, it stood fast. He had been assiduous to detail when he had constructed it and even laced the outside
with silver spikes, before painting them dark green for camouflage.

  Whilst they were attacking it, Longinus stood back on the grassy Devils Dyke hillside, surrounded by warriors who were waiting their turn to have a go at the door too. Longinus had deep reservations about whether he wanted them to break it in or not, considering since he had met them there was a strange mood in the air. He thought he could feel a kind of tension coming from them, but wondered if maybe he was just on edge and imagining it.

  They are my own coven, he told himself. Don’t be stupid--why would they have bitter harbored feelings towards me?

  He knew the reason though, however much he wanted to pretend it wasn’t there. The reason was because he hadn’t succeeded with the mission and had had to ask for help. When he had chiseled the help message into the tree, he had been fully aware it would come with a high price—his life. He also knew that Rex had clearly told him that if he needed help he should ask for it, which was why he was thinking maybe they wont punish me with death. When he had left the message though he had absolutely no choice, because he couldn’t complete the mission alone. Basically he was buggered either way he had looked at the situation.

  A warrior he knew well then walked over to him and asked if he knew that Rex had been killed.

  Longinus turned to the vampire who had just said it.

  It was Voitek, with his battle-scarred looks, a captain of the Elite Warriors under Vius. His face had been seriously disfigured from many previous battles, where he had proven his loyalty towards their leader. His left ear was badly chewed up, as if he had grappled with an enemy and had had his ear munched upon. His left cheekbone had been dented in too, as if he had looked up at the wrong moment and was then hit in the face with a flat object, maybe a rock or a club possibly.

  ‘What did you just say?’ Longinus asked, pretending that he hadn’t quite heard properly.

  ‘Rex was killed, or at least he vanished, and we haven’t seen him for days since he went to meet the priest,’ Voitek said.

  ‘What? Rex, our master?’ Longinus said, trying to look shocked.

  ‘Yes you fucking idiot, who bloody else? We never saw a priest, and considering the Scots valorousness and temerity to have broken the age-old-rule of recent, we think it was Angus who killed him. We were all watching from the shoreline and Rex fell off the raft he was on into the blessed waters of the reservoir before a moment later, he vanished beneath the surface.’

  ‘You didn’t see him die, though,’ Longinus said, immediately wishing he hadn’t opened his mouth because Voitek was now looking seriously angry with him. So much so, that the dark veins on the side of his head were beginning to pulsate as he spoke.

  ‘What are you saying?’ Voitek growled, his face darkening. He had turned and was beginning to front up to Longinus, and at the same time he was slowing tightening his fingers around his sword.

  ‘Nothing. Honestly. I was just asking. Really. Sorry, I was hoping our master wasn’t dead and might come back, that’s all.’ He said hoping to placate his obvious anger.

  Voitek nodded and then slowly opened his fingers, releasing his grip on his sword.

  ‘What about our master’s plan to infect the world with werewolves though?’ Longinus asked.

  ‘Yes, Mietioc’s warriors are on their way by train up to Scotland with the infected to make the Scottish bastards pay for breaking the rule and killing Rex. They left just before we did. Now shut up asking questions or you may annoy me!’

  Hearing that, Longinus immediately stepped back a few paces, hoping that he was out of sword-swipe distance from him if he took a swing. Turning around, he glanced back down to check on the warriors’ progress breaking through Kaine’s door. Regretfully from where he was standing, it looked like in a few moments they might actually be through. All of the outer casing had now been ripped off and thrown to one side, and they were inside the door, pulling apart the locking mechanism.

  Longinus suddenly found himself worrying again about whether or not they would kill him, only this time the feelings were far worse. He tried desperately to think of something else but couldn’t stop the thoughts. Then because of how nervous he was, he nearly found himself asking another stupid question, but luckily bit back on the words just in time.

  Then a few moments later as the fear begun to spread exponentially throughout him, he realized he was so anxious inside that he couldn’t wait around any longer, he had to leave, he had to escape this place just incase they did kill him.

  ‘I have to do something anyway. I will be back later. Can you tell Vius I left?’

  ‘You are NOT going anywhere, you fool! How dare you say something like that to me--and in battle too,’ Voitek said as he drew out his sword and prepared to strike.

  ‘Kill him! Kill him! Rex said to kill him--those were our orders!’ a warrior shouted to corroborate Longinus’ beliefs entirely that he was on deaths door.

  ‘Go ask Vius first,’ another warrior called out, ‘and if he doesn’t kill you, which would surprise me, then maybe he will just cut your legs off, just for the insolence of saying such a thing.’ He started laughing. ‘Let’s go with you and ask him. Better still, I will message him for you.’

  ‘Voitek, let’s kill him anyway,’ someone else said.

  Voitek turned round to them and said, ‘I am your Captain, and I will have you all very much remember that. I make the orders, so all of you shut the fuck up, will you?’ He glared at all of them, a meaningful vicious expression. ‘No one messages Vius. That’s my job, and if anyone does, I will kill them for it.’

  Longinus suddenly had a plan. Straightaway he dropped to his knees in front of Voitek. ‘There's a way. I'm sure it will work, and I just thought of it--a way to get Rex our leader back. That is, if that is what you want?’ he said.

  Voitek suddenly had a look of extreme confusion pass across his face. ‘You? What…how? If you are lying, I will…’ and he brought the tip of his sword up underneath Longinus’ neck. It sank just millimeters into his flesh as the tip disappeared beneath his skin. The swords perfect shine was tainted suddenly with his blood, as it slowly trickled down the length of the blade.

  Longinus’ normal reaction would have been to grab the blade and push it away from himself as he thrust himself backwards, and then attacked. Only against Voitek however, such an action would have been madness. It would probably have meant his instant death. Then if by some miraculous chance he had managed to stay alive battling the battle-scarred captain, the others would have attacked him from behind. No he was severely outnumbered and had no choice but to resist the temptation as he showed sincerity about what he had just said.

  Voitek had his own suspicions about Longinus though, which were due to the fact that he had left the Scottish coven recently and had joined his. He himself had never wanted to leave Rex’s coven, and had wondered on more than one occasion what the true reasons were behind Longinus wanting to leave the Scots. He remembered asking him directly some time ago, along with Mietioc, and his answer was that Angus was pathetic and weak. That answer was sufficient at the time; he and Mietioc had accepted those reasons after a fashion. Only when Rex had vanished and the blame was undeniably put against the Scot having deep involvement, many of the coven had reminded themselves about Longinus being a Scot too. Immediately negative vibes had spread through the ranks about him. Vampires had even been heard quoting that, if he were ever seen again, his head and one of their blades would make a perfect match.

  With those memories, Voitek suddenly had a massive urge pouring through him to slice Longinus’ head off. Maybe just the very top of it so he suffered in extreme pain before he died, he thought.