Vengeance (Thorn's Needles)

by P. A Ross

  The thoughts I had in the daytime came flooding back, maybe it wasn’t just a fantasy, I could come back. Scarlett still wanted me, and I could forgive her if she could forgive me, and accept what I had become and what I had done. I could have a life with her after all, get a flat, go to University, and do normal things together.

  “I am working on it,” I said smiling, briefly allowed myself to be Day Jonathan, and thought about the plan I was hatching during the day time. My brief moment of my other self was interrupted as I sensed something, a feeling of being watched, and followed by a heavy bang on the stairs making it shake violently. Thorn was here. Thorn had dropped from the rooftop on to the fire exit stairs, and I was back as Night Jonathan again.

  “He is mine,” Thorn shouted eyes glowing red at Scarlett.

  Scarlett backed off from the sudden entrance and threat. Thorn’s red eyes had done the trick and Scarlett’s face pulled back in panic exposing the sobering whites of her eyes. She backed into the barrier on the stair and looked about urgently for an exit. Scarlett was trapped on the stairs and put her hands out in front of her in a feeble attempt to block, as Thorn came closer eye’s still burning red with violent intent.

  “You’re after Barry aren’t you?” Scarlett said offering a way out to Thorn.

  “Yes,” she answered.

  “He is at his cousin’s house, Terry.”

  I nodded, “thank you.”

  “Are you going to kill him?”

  I didn’t hesitate with my answer “Yes.”

  “Good,” Scarlett responded venomously and I was surprised at her strength of feelings. I always thought I would come back to find them as a couple, as if none of it mattered.

  Sounds of sirens began to pierce the night, and Thorn looked around at me and spotted the blood pouring from my leg.

  “Those sirens are for us. I need to get you home,” Thorn said.

  “Before you go I heard some news from friends in Leeds,” Scarlett said.

  “What?”

  “The kidnapping trial of your friend never made it to court. Without you the case wasn’t strong enough, so they decided not to proceed. Instead, they went ahead with the other case, and your friends mum has been found guilty of dangerous driving and received 6 months in prison,” she said.

  “Those bastards,” I swore.

  I was so angry they had gotten away with it, and it was my fault for disappearing. Yet more guilt to add to the guilt I already felt for leaving Giles with them on that day, and ignoring him when back in school that led to his suicide attempt. I had the chance to make it all okay, and I had made a mess of it because of Barry and his gang, and my own selfish desires. Giles’s mum, Linda, had been punished for trying to protect her son. Life wasn’t fair.

  Thorn looked at me puzzled as I hadn’t told her about what had happened in Leeds

  “You can tell me about this later. We have to leave now,” Thorn said, and scooped me onto her shoulders and jumped over the barrier into the car park below. She raced off through the car park easily jumping the gate. Scarlett was leant against the barrier, as two bouncers came bursting through. Her mouth was wide open in at Thorn’s physical abilities, and she waved to me as we disappeared into the night again.

  CHAPTER 14

  I passed out on the way back to Thorn’s house, and a cold shock to my face woke me up. I wiped the cold water off my face and winced from the lights in the room as my eyes adjusted. As I regained focus there was a blurry figure pacing up and down in front of me, the steps were thumping on the floor, and the head and eyes focused on me the whole time. As my eyes focused and adjusted to the light I could see it was Thorn her face in full vampire flow, eyes red and fangs sticking out, she was burning with fury. I leaned back and felt the base of the bed behind me and realised I was back in Thorn’s bedroom in the basement.

  “You idiot,” she shouted out at me jumping inches from my face, fangs cutting the air.

  “Sorry, sorry. I.. I.. I didn’t think I just reacted, I just followed my emotions like you said,” I answered.

  “Don’t you dare try and turn this on to me? You are a werewolf’s hair away from being ripped apart.”

  “I’m sorry, I just got carried away,” I answered.

  The wound in my leg was still untreated, and blood had pooled around it. I was in big trouble. The wound was losing too much blood. I needed help soon, before I bleed out entirely. I could see Thorn glancing down at the pool of blood and knew it was enticing her to feed. The thirst and rage were a lethal combination. I knew from first hand experience from my own time as a vampire in the park. It was like covering yourself in raw meat, jumping into the lion’s den, and shouting to get its attention. I just hoped for mercy, no matter how small in order to survive.

  “I am sorry I have upset you. I just wanted to say hello,” I said, and I needed to distract her from the meal pouring from my leg.

  “Say hello, you nearly got us both killed. Scarlett and your friends betrayed you remember. I have only ever looked after you, and this is how you repay me,” she shouted again still only inches from my face, fangs snapping.

  Her fangs were dripping with saliva, the hunger manifested.

  “I am sorry, you are right we have deal,” I answered.

  “A deal, is that it,” she snapped back.

  She rocked back on to her hunches, as her bottom lip wobbled and her eyes welled up with misty red tears.

  “No.”

  I paused. I realised I was mis-judging this situation completely. She wasn’t just angry. She was jealous and upset. Jealous of my relationship with Scarlett and the fact my feelings for her hadn’t entirely gone. Upset I didn’t think more of our relationship beyond the deal. But at Night, I did think of it more than just a deal, I just never thought she did. I decided to take a gamble. I was getting myself into more and more trouble. She was going to break any second.

  “You are right it was unforgivable. I haven’t learnt to forget my past yet, but I will learn with your help.” I said, and she stared a little more restrained, the misty red tears in her eyes retreated.

  I followed up quickly and pulled my hooded jumper to one side revealing my neck, and turned it towards her.

  “You are hungry, you need to eat, take what ever you want. I belong to you,” I said supplementing the offer of my neck.

  I was bluffing hoping it would show her I was loyal, and if I were wrong it would be just a bit of blood.

  There was only a slight pause before the fangs pierced hard through my skin and the blood began to flow out of my body. I accepted the sacrifice I needed to make in order to keep alive, and wrapped my arms around her and pulled her close. Her body was even warmer than normal, and I took some comfort in the heat as she drank my blood. Her arms wrapped around my body, and she squeezed me tightly pumping hard through her fangs, with her body straddling me as she forced the blood out into her mouth. My ribs were being crushed under the pressure of her arms and chest squeezing the blood out of me. I gasped for breath as my lungs and airways were crushed. My ribs began to crack, sending pulses of excruciating pain through my body. I screamed, a breathless scream, on the each crack of my ribs, and it resonated through my body as it sounded inside my skull. She wrapped her legs around the back of my body and squeezed, crushing my stomach and she pumped through her arms and legs forcing the blood out of me and into her mouth. I had already lost a lot of blood through the gunshot wound, but Thorn sucked hard and deep, filling her body and satisfying herself. I went weak all over, arms and legs barley able to move and felt numb, but she wasn’t going to stop. I was dying. I summoned my remaining strength and tried to push her away, but it was no good she was too strong. I tried one last time fighting as hard as I could, arms and legs thrashing in a final death throw trying to get her to stop, hitting her in the back and across the head. She didn’t register the blows, but instead she just squeezed even harder and harder, sucking deeper and deeper until it all went black, and I couldn’t feel anything.
>
  I drifted off to a strange sleep with images of Thorn and Scarlett flashing before my mind. I flashed back to events over the last couple of years, the car accident, Giles crying, kissing Scarlett and screwing Thorn. A light with a hand was reaching out to me, accompanied by a woman calling out my name, and then a sharp stabbing sensation. Suddenly the hand of light was sucked back into a black hole and it all drained away, circling into darkness.

  It was followed with a feeling of a burning heat spreading out from the stabbing sensation, and my nerve endings twitching in my body as it networked its way across my nervous system. My muscles contorted through the burning heat, and I snapped back wide awake and alive. I was panting heavily like some who had come up for air from being trapped deep underwater. My muscles were burning and the feeling continued spreading through to my extremities. Thorn was crouched down a meter away watching me intently as I came back to life, her face changed from one of worry to a small smile as her face relaxed.

  “You are back,” she said, and breathing out heavily, placing her hands on top of her head.

  An empty needle laid on the floor a couple of meters away, and the puncture mark on my forearm disappeared. The wound on my leg was healing, flesh knitting back together covering up the bare muscles underneath. I roared in agony as my ribs were snapping back into place healing and re-shaping. My stomach followed suit, as the collapsed muscles were healing and pushing back into it their normal shape. As I roared my eyes turned red, fangs broke out, and claws ripped through the ends of my fingers. I touched my neck and the bite marks had gone, and I was coming back from the brink of death. The vampire formula had just saved my life.

  The relief changed to one of anger and I sprung out from the floor, claws released and diving at Thorn’s neck. I caught her by surprise. I crashed into her knocking her off her feet and rolled on top of her. She found her instincts quickly kicking me off and sprung to her feet. I jumped back up and charged again with all my instincts to kill. She was faster, and grabbed my throat and pinned me to the wall in a single move.

  “Cool it,” she growled at me.

  I snarled at her, fangs bared and snapping, and she squeezed tightly around my throat to prove her strength. I stared into her red eyes, and my reflection was bouncing back, my fangs out and eyes blazing the same as hers. I focused, bringing it under control, knowing this wasn’t a fight I could win, Thorn had hundreds of years experience, and I had a brief few hours. My eyes returned to normal, and my fangs retracted, and Thorn lowered me to the floor. Thorn backed off slowly and retreated to the edge of the bed and sat facing me, as I breathed heavily hands on my knees, trying hard to bring my power under control.

  “I am sorry. You are new to all this, maybe I should be more understanding,” she said, relaxing her body and looking down at the floor, her voice higher pitched and apologetic.

  I just looked at her not sure what to say.

  “I accept you were sorry. You are brave offering yourself to me like that in my state. Don’t ever do it again. There maybe no way back next time,” she said.

  I nodded in agreement, it was an easy request to accept.

  She looked up at me again.

  “Most vampires choose a new name after they have turned. It helps to distance themselves from the past and begin their new life. This may help if you choose a new vampire name,” Thorn said, still speaking in an apologetic tone trying to appease me.

  “I will think about it,” I said not seriously taking too much notice of the idea.

  We sat in silence for a moment, and I tried to gather my thoughts and senses under the influence of the vampire formula. I stood upright leaning against the wall, looking straight at Thorn trying to work out my next move. She looked down at the floor, hands in her lap, palms facing up, legs crossed with one of them jigging up and down nervously. I had never seen so submissive, when in the prison cell she was sad, but not upset as she now seemed. I guessed this counted as our first argument, and I hoped they wouldn’t always be this deadly.

  “We should make use of you change, I can teach you how to control your vampire powers, and you can practice,” Thorn said breaking the difficult silence, her voice more in control again regaining her natural authority.

  I nodded in agreement, it seemed like a good way to move on. I wanted her back to her normal self, it scared me to see her so downbeat and feelings of forgiveness for her attack started to emerge. I had an excess of energy that needed burning off before I could think straight again. I went and joined her sitting beside her on the bed. She turned around body posture more positive and legs remained still as she resumed her natural state, as my mentor and lover.

  Thorn showed me how to change my vampire features quickly and how to use the rest of my senses to best effect. We sparred for a bit now we were on equal terms, vampire against vampire. We blazed around the house taking it in turns to attack and defend. We would stop in between attacks and Thorn talked through the moves and praised my decent attacks and improved my weaker moves. She taught me the limit of my powers, how and best to use them in a fight as a vampire. It was a whole new game, vampire against vampire, and I realised how much more I needed to learn. But I was improving, and on one occasion I knocked Thorn to the floor, but not for long as she sprang back up and front kicked my through the door in the up stairs bedroom, and I crashed down the stairs. Thorn was still the better fighter, but was impressed with what I had learnt.

  Thorn explained the truth about vampires, religious weapons worked, but it depended on the power of the vampire. On a strong vampire it would only sting a little. Lesser vampires would be driven back and be forced to run away. They also didn’t need inviting into places first, and they did have reflection, which I had already realised from the amount of time she spent in front of the mirror preparing her outfits for a night out.

  “We are just another species. We evolved differently from the norm and discovered we have the ability to turn other creatures into our image. A crude means of reproduction when necessary,” she explained.

  “However, UV and silver do damage us, and decapitation works as well. I suppose a stake through heart would kill us just like it would to any creature. Fire only works on lesser vampires, some enjoy the flames,” she said.

  She pressed the button under the bed and the weapons rack appeared from behind the wall. She walked over and grabbed a torch and brought over a box with a knife in it.

  “It is important you learn to recognise the pain from UV and silver in order to react correctly,” she said.

  I held out my hand for her to test on, and she flicked the torch on, and the light hit my hand. I braced myself for the searing flesh and smoke, but nothing happened. Thorn’s face was puzzled, and she placed her own hand in front of it to check, and immediately the air was filled with smoke and she flung the torch onto the bed and nursed her hand.

  “Strange. Let us try again,” she grabbed the torch again and shone it over my hand. Still there was no reaction. I rolled up my sleeves, and we tried my arms, but no reaction.

  “Let us try the silver,” I said, grinning at this discovery.

  “Okay. Open the box and try and pick it up.”

  I opened the box and tentatively pressed one finger against it, no reaction again. I picked it up completely in one hand, and there was no reaction. I swung it about in the air, and Thorn backed off to avoid the blade, and stood beside the bed looking puzzled.

  “I am immune,” I said and laughed.

  “Strange, I guess as you are only a temporary vampire you haven’t picked up our weaknesses, but have kept our strengths,” she said.

  “It will make you a formidable weapon,” she added, and I could see she was thinking of the opportunities this could present, as she eyed me with curiosity.

  We still had a few hours of darkness, and Thorn took me out to enjoy the night together briefly before she needed to return to her house and sleep. We drove around in the night together sensing the humans and detecting their heart b
eats glowing in the dark. The car in front, the driver was drunk, he thought randomly and sluggishly. A young man, sticking to the shadows with a rucksack had just burgled some nearby houses. I detected sleeping people mostly, random blurred images from their dreams and thoughts and feelings firing around chaotically in the night. As we drove on we detected a large gathering in an empty warehouse. I focused in my abilities and Thorn slowed down as we passed, and feelings fear and impending violence flashed across our minds. I was intrigued to understand what was happening, and Thorn’s face was equally puzzled.

  “Shall we?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  Thorn hand braked the car in the road, screeching tyres and smoke and I held on tight to the arm rest as the car whipped around in the empty road, and drove back through the smoke to the warehouse. We drove slowly through the industrial estate forcing our senses to home in on the strange set of signals. As we approached the heart beats became stronger, and the emotions of fear and violence could be sensed from two different groups inside. We pulled up and sat outside for a second, and Thorn closed her eyes taking in the emotions.

  “Close you eyes, feel their emotions and listen to their thoughts,” she said.

  I did as I was told and I picked up the emotions easily, and slowly the thoughts came in between the feelings. Firstly, it was the feelings of fear racing through my mind. Followed by images of violent and sexual memories from a group inside. Images of men holding them down, and arms bruised from their grip, and stomachs and ribs hurting from punches used to subdue them. The feelings of their limbs restricted and breathing difficulties through their noses, as mouths dry, with the sensations of a blockage preventing them for screaming for help. I connected into a girls thoughts as she tried to struggle against her bonds, “We are never going to escape.”

  Images of a burly unshaven man approaching and slapping her across the side of the face, and her mind going black, face stinging, brain rattling and head bouncing off the floor. He shouted as she lay crumpled on the floor blood trickling out of her nose. Next, it was the emotions of the violent group inside. I picked up feelings of the man who just hit the girl. He was angry and annoyed, ”why don’t these bloody girls learn to sit still.”