by Milo Spires
‘I guess all these years he has never forgotten me. He wants revenge and obviously can’t find the other Romans involved in her killing either. I know where they are, but I won’t ever tell him. I will never say! He has decided to rid the planet of all of us to be sure that he kills every one. Now do you believe me, you fool?’
Longinus had actually believed it before, just he wanted to hear the story in full. Obviously there was a massive underlying reason why Raffious thought vampires were stupid, and now he knew.
Having just registered that Rex had just called him a fool, he reacted violently. ‘I could tell him what you just told me, and you will stay here forever. Dare to call me a fool again and I will!’ he messaged.
‘Then you are a true fool, because if he knows you are aware of his plans, he will kill you for sure after you get the vase. There’s always that possibility that he won’t, but I'm sure he will. Probably outside my coven as you hand it over. Obviously if you ask him, he will say he won't, but you know he will.’
Longinus couldn’t disagree with that either. He knew he had been duped, he knew it very well.
And yes, I am a fool, he thought to himself. He had made so many things far worse in his life since leaving the Scots. Rex would probably be after him if he escaped his prison on the raft, and Raffious might also chase after him for revenge too.
‘Damn!’ he cursed to himself, thinking his life would have been so much better if he had just left the Scots and had never met Raffious at all. If he had it would have meant that he would have had only one coven chasing after him, and he might have been able to escape them. But having two covens after him, as well as Raffious, was insane.
Thinking more into it, he suddenly realized that he had only two choices. One of them was to go with Raffious and then try escaping from him, hoping that he never got found. He unfortunately knew though, that if Rex’s theory about the vase was right, he wouldn’t be chased for long at all. As soon as Raffious leapt back in time 2000 years with the vase, he would pour its water into the first vampires drinking water, and then he himself would cease to exist too.
And the second choice he had was to maybe somehow stop Raffious from getting the last piece of the vase. The only problem being, he thought, is how the hell am I supposed to do that?
There was yet another problem he had forgotten. When he walked back into the London coven, they would probably kill him. They had to, because they would suspect that he had something to do with either Rex vanishing or had run from Vius and his warriors. They saw him jump back in time from the coven to go on the mission, and they all know there’s no way vampires can jump forwards in time. In their eyes they would see him as a traitor for sure.
Then he had another thought that seemed hopeful: maybe Vius, had scratched a message into the tree, telling them that he had killed Rex on the hillsides of Brighton. Only then he remembered that Raffious had bloody reappeared as himself before he had leapt away, so no that wouldn’t happen, either. Vius knew he had been tricked.
Then the most shocking thought passed his brain: if they left a message for Rex on the tree not to go to the reservoir at all, then maybe he never gets caught by Raffious, and then maybe Rex is waiting for him in the coven when he arrives. If he is then Rex wouldn’t know anything about him coming there to save him and would kill him for sure!
Then he realized that he knew that never happened because Rex was still sitting on the raft behind him.
Damn he cursed as he thought about how confusing time travel gets.
Another option could be to help Rex though, and then hope that he didn’t kill him. Longinus wasn’t fond of this idea though; how could he trust him when he even killed his own vampires for being a minute late?
Then he thought about how Vius had one eye and that Rex had cut the other one out in Paris even though he had saved his life. How could he possible be thinking he should trust him, he thought.
Of the two plans though, something was telling him to take his chances with Rex, and he hoped to hell that he wasn’t making another grave mistake in doing so, like all the other decisions he had seemed to fuck up recently. Longinus hated Raffious and knew that it was far too risky to try escaping him. Longinus felt sure that the devious bastard would get the vase eventually, if not with his help then by some other means. To stay with that old bearded fool anymore was clearly signing his own extinction, no he had no choice in the matter, he had to trust Rex.
Suddenly Raffious screamed out at him that they were leaving, and stood there with his hands on his waist. He looked severely pissed off that he was having to wait for him.
‘I’m ill, and unless you wait a few more minutes, I think I will die the next time we jump. Unless you want that to happen, you have to give me a little more time,’ he said as he pretended to hold his stomach.
‘Well hurry up, you pathetic individual. I need that vase!’ he screamed.
Longinus quickly messaged Rex again, ‘Okay, I will help you, but you must tell me how I can approach your guards in the future without them killing me. Something that will make them undoubtedly believe that I was here, otherwise they will kill me on sight. They know I jumped back in time on your mission, and will suspect that there is some skullduggery going on.’
‘I understand. OK tell them, ‘Viatis Onertiunes’. They will understand that I am alive by this. Longinus, I accept that you came on a mission against us, but I promise I will not kill you if you help me escape here. Instead, I will give you riches beyond your beliefs and land far from us. You will be free from covens, and we will not seek revenge. You have my word, I promise. When you arrive there, make sure you get a message back to Vius, though. Tell him to call off the attack in Brighton and NOT to kill anyone there, including the woman. The Church may start a Holy War if she dies.’
Longinus was suddenly seen smiling at the ground by Raffious.
‘Why are you smiling?’ He said as he glanced across at Rex, who was looking through the bars in another direction. ‘Were you communicating with Rex somehow? What did he say? Tell me or I will leave you here forever!’
Rex knew he wanted to intervene here, to try to persuade Raffious that they weren’t messaging each other. But knew that if he did, it would be clearly obvious that they had in fact been communicating. Raffious might then leave Longinus there too, and then both of them would be buggered if that happened. So he said nothing.
Longinus glared at Raffious. ‘First, you fool, I was smiling because I feel better inside. And what do you mean we were communicating with each other? What--do you think we can talk telepathically or something?’ he said in a mocking tone.
‘And if you did leave me here, you don't get the vase. So shut up and let’s jump forwards so I can get the last piece of the vase, before I change my mind and then decide not to get it for you!’ Longinus was trying reverse psychology on him, and he was surprised how easy it worked.
‘Fine then, you little shit, come here and we will jump,’ Raffious said.
Longinus walked over to him and Raffious grabbed him hard by the shoulder.
Rex knew he was about to be alone again in this desolate place, and for exactly how long this time he had absolutely no idea. Quickly he shouted, ‘Longinus, I will kill you one day for this! You are a traitor to me and your own kind!’ He hoped Longinus knew he had only said it to help persuade Raffious that they hadn’t been communicating.
Then Rex with all his years of practice, then sucked up enough phlegm in his throat to drown a rat and launched the whole mouthful at the old boy. It sailed through the air and looked promising it was going to hit him too.
Raffious grinned and then vanished. The phlegm wasn’t fast enough though, and then without the target being there, it sailed through the air and disappeared into the bushes beyond.
Rex screamed and then picked another lump of loose flesh off his face and started chewing it.
Chapter 20 – Trapped
One hundred warriors from the future had arrived back in
2014, to be shown by Longinus where the entrance to Kaine’s secret house was. They had spent a long time pulling apart the garage door, unaware there was another entrance up above them.
Finally the door had crashed inwards and a wave of ten warriors charged in with deeply heinous intentions. They were seeking the priest’s daughter Jenny, and also going to kill everyone else in there.
Inside, Kaine was full of anger, but as they broke through, the realism of their intent to harm his family, metastasized his already bitter nefarious thoughts, into a furious rage. He savagely killed two of them before they could prepare to defend themselves.
The first Kaine killed by ripping his head off, whilst the second, surprised by the shear speed and brutality of the first death, made a stupid error leading to his own throaty demise. Kaine thrust his razor-sharp fingernails straight through the warriors neck. The dying vampires eyes lit up for a moment with terror before he made desperate gurgling sounds, then dead.
Becky in her borrowed red dress leapt up like a monkey onto the chest of another vampire, and from his face, she pulled away half a cheeks worth of flesh.
The vampire threw her off though like she was nothing to him; spinning her through the air, she landed on rusty metal toolboxes. Furious and ignoring the pain, she leapt back up and charged again, but now there were three vampires there, not one.
Kaine joined in and launched his boot up into one of the attackers sternums, thrusting him backwards so hard that he crashed into the other two. Then the three of them tripped over a corpse and slammed into the wall. Scrabbling to rejoin the fight, he dived on top and using a borrowed sword, he killed them all.
Then Becky screamed out for him to duck, and as he turned around a sword missed his face by inches. Diving forwards into the attacker, the two of them grappled and tussled. Through the fight Kaine had hold of the warriors wrist that was holding the sword, but when they tripped over a corpse together, he dropped the sword and the two of them were sent sprawling.
Deciding that now was not the time to practice his jujitsu because a new wave of vampires was coming inside, Kaine leapt back up. Then like a B grade Van Damme movie, he round housed the vampire in the face, that he had been fighting moments before. The force of the impact as his boot hit the vampire’s mouth, sent some of his teeth scattering across the floor.
Then after killing a few more, he glanced around realizing he only had one vampire left.
‘Leave now and I won’t kill you,’ he boomed, but Becky stepped too close, and fearing for her safety, he stabbed the warrior through the head with his sword.
Kaine suddenly decided that he felt it would be saver without Becky in the garage, not for him but for her because she had no combat experience or training. He said it would be safer for him to fight alone without being distracted by having to look out for her.
Becky accepted she hadn’t helped much, hurried across to the stairs. Only as she was about to go up, without warning a new wave of vampires came running in through the garage door.
Their screams mimicked Indians and General Custer at The Battle of the Little Big Horn. The demonic sounds ripped through the garage and escalated up through every floor. Regina was upstairs keeping Jenny calm, but hearing the screams, the priest’s daughter already terrified, succumbed to her fears and collapsed to the floor.
With Kaine finding himself somewhat overwhelmed by their heavy surge, he was unable to stop two warriors slipping past and heading over to Becky.
She saw them coming threw herself into a wild stance. Crouching low with her black nails cupped as she prepared to attack. The two vampires laughed as they drew near, and with salacious thoughts booming for the female of their species in her red dress, they glanced back at Kaine to be sure he was loosing. Then with deep expectations of his demise being imminent, they leered at her with arched eyebrows and a lascivious grin.
Dropping their shields, they holstered their swords, and walked forwards believing her to be no immediate threat, as they prepared to rape her.
Only hearing Solomon’s low and deep guttural growl as he charged down the stairs, their salacious interests disappeared in an instant.
The nearest vampire to the stairs went for his blade, and Becky lunged for the second vampire who bent down for his shield.
Solomon dived through the air and bit the vampire’s arm, making him drop his sword as his fingers fell limp. Then Solomon let go and launched himself up for the throat. His silver-laced teeth tore a massive chunk of flesh out of the vampire’s neck, resulting in death.
Bruce came charging down the stairs moments after Solomon and caused havoc with the other vampire who was slashing his sword for Becky. Even though he was holding his shield up, death still came for him. Bruce distracted the fool whilst Solomon went round the back and took off his head.
Meanwhile over at the entrance, Kaine was in trouble like a cornered animal. He was surrounded by vampires and desperately trying to fight them off but it looked like soon they would kill him. He was swinging his borrowed swords in huge circles as they lunged for him.
The dogs seeing their father in the situation he was in went crazy. Without any regard for their own safety to flew across and even ignored their training, as they dived in the vampires, savagely tearing them limb from limb. Fingers bitten off dropped here and there, swords clanged against the floor, now unable to hold due to having their arms violently ripped apart. The dogs were the force beyond all forces that they had never encountered before.
Kaine leapt forwards and drove his massive blade through the chest of one vampire whilst he was screaming in pain from dog bites. Then he spun around and took just the forehead off another with a vicious whirlwind swipe.
Becky found herself on top of another, slicing his face apart and tearing at his eyes until Kaine brought his sword to bear and gutted the fool where he stood.
Spinning around realizing their should be two more left to kill, he almost wet himself with laughter as he saw them bolt out the entrance dropping their swords with Bruce and Solomon wildly snapping at their heals.
Looking around the garage, Kaine realized that so far they had been incredibly. The floor was literally covered in bodies and there were dismembered body parts everywhere. For the squeamish at heart it was so sick, it actually looked like a macabre scene from a banned horror movie.
Then checking the dead with the tip of his sword, he found that one of them over by the door was still breathing. He was laying face down and almost breathing through his ears due to his wound being so bad.
As Kaine was about to thrust his sword into him, outside the gathering clouds parted and then a streak of moonlight washed across the entrance. A discarded shield laying by the door, acted like a huge torch as it reflected the silver gong in the sky’s eerie luminescent glow across the entire garage.
The warrior with but moments to live was basked in it and something on his arm glimmered in its rays.
Kaine saw it and immediately thought it looked familiar. Furrowing his brow as he stooped over the body for a closer look, he realized he had an identical bracelet too. Then he remembered Raffious had given it to him and his veins were filled with rage.
‘Raffious, I’m gonna fucking kill you!’ He screamed. He hoped somewhere, in the parallel dimension or wherever the old boy was hiding, that he might hear him.
Then he turned the vampire over and after a deep meaningful stare into his eyes, he told him that he could be saved if he drank his blood, but he had to agree to answer questions. The vampire thought about it and as Satan’s tunnel of flames began to appear in his mind, the vampire nodded.
Kaine sensing the urgency slid his arm along the edge of a sword and thrust the gaping wound into the vampire’s mouth.
