Out for Blood

by J. L. O'Rourke

  I went with Mum to the kitchen but Severn stayed glued to the television screen. Mum whispered to me while she laid the cups on the bench.

  “Will Severn be able to stay now? He won’t have to go, will he?”

  “No point whispering,” I said in a normal voice. “Severn can hear you. Vampires have super-hearing and Severn’s is better than most.”

  “Oh. How far away can he hear us?”

  “If I’m on the sound desk, I can hear you backstage,” Severn answered from the lounge. “So you need to go at least three houses down the road if you want to talk about me.” He joined us in the kitchen with a smile to let Mum know he was teasing her. “I can hear that far but I would have to be specifically listening. Most of the time I let my brain filter it all out, otherwise there would be so much noise in my ears I would go insane. It’s part of my hunting skills. I can turn it off.”

  “You don’t miss anything backstage,” I said.

  “Nope. Because when I’m doing a show I keep my senses alert. I want to be able to pick up any changes in the sound gear and fix them before the audience, or more importantly the stage manager, notices. Riley, turn on your computer – we need to see what social media is making of all this.”

  I think we all held our collective breath while we waited for my slow computer to lumber into wakefulness. When the social media site loaded, we all stared at it exclaiming variations on “wow”, “omg” and a variety of swear words I don’t usually hear my mother use.

  “Which one is which?” was Mum’s first coherent comment. Severn pointed to the screen.

  “That’s Meredith, above the rose window, and that’s Olivia, perched on the peak of the door gable.”

  “That is Aiden up near the steeple, isn’t it?” I asked. “It’s not the Rev?”

  “No, it’s Aiden.”

  “Look, wait, can you make it go back a couple of seconds,” Mum said. Severn complied, clicking the mouse, and as it restarted, Mum pointed to the spectacular silver and blue statue that stood near the cathedral entrance. “There’s David, standing down there behind the Chalice, holding Aiden’s coat.”

  “Well, well,” Severn rubbed his hands together with a satisfying clap. “Gotcha! All the evidence I needed to show that Aiden and the Rev are right in this up to their necks. Brother Martin is going to love this.”

  “The religious factions are having a field day,” Mum said, scrolling through the comments. “Looks like angels are well and truly off the board and drones are out. It’s all demons. Oh, look at this – there’s going to be a rally tonight outside the cathedral – prayers and cleansing, it says.”

  “Crucifixes and pitch forks, more likely,” Severn said, his voice a grim growl. “Medieval Europe all over again. That should make the Reverend feel right at home.”

  I had taken over from Mum scrolling through the comments and stopped to indicate one.

  “Look, here’s one that argues against the demons. This guy reckons they are BASE jumpers in those flying wing suits.”

  “Let’s hope more people agree with him,” Severn said, but he didn’t really sound hopeful.

  “At least you’re not in the picture,” Mum said. “That’s one good thing.”

  “That’s the only good thing,” Severn said. “But, yes, I am so glad I wasn’t with them. Mind you, if I had been, I would have got the hell out of there as soon as those girls got airborne.”

  “Where did you go?” I tried to ask as if it wasn’t an interrogation and I wasn’t suspicious.

  “Edmonds Gardens,” Severn said. “I told you I needed to go somewhere quiet and think, so I did. For several hours. It helped. I thought about a lot of stuff and put a few things into perspective. I’ve got some things to say to the Reverend and some questions for Brother Martin when he arrives, then I have a decision or two to make.”

  “Are you really going to leave the guild?” I asked.

  “I’m not sure. It depends on the answers I get from David and from Brother Martin. I haven’t decided yet.”

  “I just hope this won’t affect tonight’s show,” Mum said. “I hope we still get an audience and people won’t be too scared to come out in the dark. Bugger your Brother Martin, if those stupid girls ruin our show, they’ll have me to deal with.”

  Severn grinned at me. “They should go to the rally tonight then, because if your mother goes after them they are going to need all the prayers they can get. God help them.”

  Chapter 21

  By mutual agreement, we got to Mona Vale early and were surprised to see Aiden and the Rev waiting for us in the carpark. Neither of them looked happy. Severn thanked Grant for driving us then strode across to the other car, dropping any pretence of polite behaviour as he covered the distance and threw open the driver’s door.

  “Congratulations! What’s your next move? You going to fly into the finale of the show?”

  Aiden pushed past him to get out of the car.

  “Shut up! I was trying to stop them.”

  “You failed.”

  “I know I failed. But at least I tried. Where the hell were you?” Aiden shoved Severn hard in the chest, knocking him back against the car door, and stormed off towards the container.

  “Let it go, Severn,” the Reverend said as he climbed out of the passenger seat. “Let it go.”

  I grabbed Severn’s arm and tried to steer him away but, as we walked across the carpark, Mum came rushing back.

  “This is bad,” she said as she ran up to us. “The stage manager is going to have a fit.”

  “What’s happened?” I asked.

  “Come and see. All of you. You too David, Aiden. You need to see this.”

  She rounded us up and herded us down the narrow path towards the flat area that held the stage. We came onto the open grass and stopped in horror. The stage manager was definitely going to have a fit. In the middle of the green where the audience would sit, a group of people stood in a circle, holding hands and singing. But it wasn’t the usual pre-show warm-up for the cast. They were chanting something that involved lots of halleluiahs and praise-the-lords while a grey-suited man in their centre held raised hands skywards and shouted for Jesus to protect the cast.

  “You know,” Severn said, breaking the silence that had descended over us all as we watched the scene, “I have never wanted to be seen flying in public so much. Right now I have this burning urge to take of my t-shirt and fly right into the middle of them.”

  “Shhh,” the Rev grabbed Severn’s arm to quieten him and motioned to Mum.

  “Don’t panic.” Severn shook of his hand. “She knows. She’s known all the time. We just confirmed it yesterday. Her grandmother knew Seth.”

  The expression on the Rev’s face was priceless.

  “Are they cast? Or some kind of weird cult?” I asked.

  “Cast, all of them except the bloke in the middle,” Mum said.

  “What do we do?”

  “We start setting up the damned show,” a voice behind us answered. I turned to see Danny followed by Cameron pulling the trolley full of lighting gear. “If they get in our road, we go straight through them. We haven’t got time for a prayer meeting, we’ve got a show to rig. Move your backsides, you lot.” He paused for a minute then laughed. “Stage manager pulled up a minute ago – she’ll move them soon enough.”

  Which she did. As we stepped aside to let Cameron pull the trolley onto the grass, the stage manager appeared behind us.

  “What is this, a crew meditation circle?”

  “Yep, meditating what to do about them.” Danny pointed to the group in the middle of the lawn.

  “You are kidding me,” the stage manager said as she took in the scene and realised what was happening. “Who is he and what is he doing with my cast?”

  “Praying,” I said. “Calling down the heavenly powers to protect us all from the flying demons.”

  “Well, he can’t protect them from me.” The stage manager sucked in her breath, squared her shoulde
rs and strode across the grass, her voice rising above the chanting and prayers.

  “That’s enough!” The cast went quiet instantly. The man in the middle kept praying. As she approached, the circle of cast split like the Red Sea before Moses to let her through until she stood face to face with the pastor. “I said, that’s enough!” She turned to the cast. “You lot, backstage now! Warm-ups, costumes, make-up – move it!” The cast scattered and she spun back to the pastor. “You are not part of this show, so you have to leave. Now! Until the audience is allowed in, this place is out of bounds to everyone who is not cast or crew and you are neither. Leave now or I will call security.”

  Beside me Severn sniggered. We knew there was no security and the ones she would call to remove the pastor would be the crew - exactly the demons he was praying against.

  “Go on, make my day, do it, call security,” he urged although the stage manager was too far away to hear him. I kind of hoped she would too but in the end the pastor blustered for a few sentences then gave up. To leave he had to pass us – too enticing for the vampires to resist. As he walked through the black-clad guard of honour we formed at the sides of the path, the vampires whispered ominous threats in his ears.

  “Watch your back.”

  “They know where you live.”

  “Fear the darkness.”

  The pastor picked up speed and ran, shouting supplications to heaven as he sped towards his car. The stage manager strode back towards us and clapped Severn and Aiden on the back.

  “That’s it, enough time wasted, pre-show’s over. Do as Danny said and get your gear rigged. You’ve now got forty five minutes and counting.”

  The lack of time had an advantage – we had no time to argue and no option but to work together to get the set-up completed. Aiden worked like the demon he had been labelled, literally running as he ran out the cables, jogging across the wide lawn with the heavy speakers. By the time the stage manager called “ten minutes to beginners”, I was exhausted, even if the vampires still looked fresh as daisies.

  In the dressing rooms, as I had handed out the radio mics, I couldn’t help but notice the atmosphere. Nobody was chatting about their day. Everyone was quietly applying their make-up or struggling into their costumes in silence, even Mum who was standing in a corner watching the rest of the cast. She whispered to me while I clipped her microphone to her hair.

  “Tell the stage manager to come and rev this lot up or the show is going to suck. The energy is all wrong.”

  I nodded agreement and left the tent to relay her message on my way back to my sound desk where I put on my headphones and started piffling the mics to make sure they were all working. I was jumping from channel to channel, so I heard most of the stage manager’s terse telling off followed by her exhortation for the cast to remember the paying audience and raise their game. It was after she left that I heard the conversation that scared me.

  I was checking mic ten, one of the extra mics we used on one or two of the strongest singers in the chorus to boost them in the opening and closing numbers, when I caught the words “catch the demons.” I reached out to tug Severn’s arm then held out my headphones so we could both listen. Severn’s expression hardened as the woman spoke.

  “The rally will be over by the time we finish here but we’re meeting the pastor in the Square,” the voice said. “We’re going to split into groups and take up positions around the Square, around Latimer Square and down Worcester Boulevard. If they come back tonight, the church will be ready for them.”

  “How are you going to catch them?” The second woman was keeping her voice purposely quiet but she was close enough to the first woman for us to catch her words through the mic.

  “We don’t have to catch them,” the voice said. “We just need to lure them close enough. One of our church members is a professional cricketer. He’s got a good bowling arm and he says that if he can get close enough he can hit them with these special balls he’s been making today. Tennis balls wrapped in rags, soaked in petrol. Burning petrol. We’ll send them back to the hell they came from.”

  Severn reached over to push the PFL button, cutting off the feed. He sat back in his chair, wide-eyed with shock.

  “No. No matter what I think of the girls, that is one nasty way to go. “ He raised his voice slightly. “Rev, Aiden, I know we’re almost on standby but we’ve just heard some threats against the girls. Come here as soon as we get past the opening number.”

  Chapter 22

  The Rev demanded to know exactly which cast member it was so he could inflict some damage and Aiden wanted to find the pastor and “clean him up”. We compromised. I pointed out the chorus member wearing microphone number ten and the Rev promised to follow her after the show, without inflicting bodily harm. The Rev said he could easily help us pack the gear while she changed out of her costume and removed her make-up, and we agreed he would leave to follow her when she left. Not that it would matter too much if he lost her, we knew they were heading to the Square so he could still find her – especially as they would be waiting a long time for their demons.

  Aiden made sure he could also identify the singer as his superior sense of smell could help to pinpoint her among the rest of her group. His first priority, though, would be to locate the girls and warn them but we all knew the girls well, so we fully expected their reaction would be to fly into the Square on purpose.

  During interval Aiden and I went to the women’s dressing room. I needed to talk to Mum and Aiden had thought of a way to get close to Mic Ten Wearer so he could identify her individual smell.

  “I need to check your mic pack,” he said to her. “If you can just turn around, I need to check the batteries.”

  “No, absolutely not,” the singer replied, slapping Aiden’s outstretched hand away.

  “Sound desk has reported that it’s cutting out,” Aiden said, keeping his voice calm. “I need to check it.”

  “No. You are not touching me. I am not having a strange man touch my body Go away! Her” She pointed to me. “She can check it. You can stand over there.”

  “I’m busy,” I called back. “You can trust Aiden, he’s a professional, not some pervert creep.” Well, not when he’s working, anyway.

  She started to object again but Mum stepped forwards in her exasperated mother mode and addressed the girl. “Oh, for heaven’s sake! Sorry, dear, but you need to get over yourself. You have a lovely voice but this is musical theatre. You need to be less of a prude if you ever want to move out of the chorus line. I can vouch for Aiden and all the other men on the crew. You need to think of them like you would your doctor. He’s interested in the battery in the microphone pack, not in your tush.”

  With that, she spun the girl around, hoisted up her skirt and fished out the pack from where it was pinned to her underwear. Aiden, keeping his expression serious and his eyes down, made a play of replacing the perfectly fine batteries and handed it back to Mum who replaced it with far less finesse than Aiden would have used, pulled the girl’s skirt back into position and returned to her own end of the dressing room. Mic Ten Wearer looked furious, embarrassed and humiliated all at once. Mum was trying not to laugh.

  Keeping my voice low, I told Mum what I had heard. When she realised that Aiden’s battery change had been for some other purpose, after glaring at Mic Ten Wearer, she pulled me outside the tent to ask what the vampires were going to do. I reminded her about Aiden’s heightened sense of smell and how he had used it to uncover Tommy’s kidnapper and explained their plan to follow her into the Square. Mum decided on a more direct approach, took her phone, found a quiet spot away from the dressing room where she wouldn’t be disturbed, and called the police.

  “They said they were already planning to have a presence watching the rally and weren’t too interested until I mentioned the flaming petrol-soaked balls. That got their attention. Our famous cricketer might find himself in the headlines tomorrow if he tries to bowl any,” Mum reported as we returned to the
dressing room.

  I said goodbye and dashed back to the sound desk to tell Severn and the others what Mum had done. Severn and the Rev agreed she had done the right thing and were grateful but Aiden sulked as if she had spoilt his fun. She probably had.

  The show was the worst one for the season with a meagre audience and a dispirited cast and we all heaved a sigh of relief when it was over. The equipment was packed up in record time; the vampires anxious to find the girls and the lighting guys keen to check out the rally.

  “If we’re lucky, the demons will turn up,” Cameron said. “I want to get a good look. Did you notice they were stark naked?”

  A free peep show – good on ya, Cameron.

  The Rev took off on foot, following a group of actors, including Mic Ten Wearer, who were walking into the city through Hagley Park. Aiden stayed with us so Severn could drive him close to the Cerberus nightclub. Mum wisely decided her best move was to stop Grant going into the Square, no matter how badly he wanted to see the flying demons for himself. She tried to convince him that it was all hype and finally told him about the potential violence of the pastor’s group to get him to see sense and go home. While he was loading their stage bags into their car, Mum came over to where Severn and I were standing with Aiden.

  “Are you two going to be all right? Will you promise me you will stay safe?”

  “I promise,” I said.

  “I’ll keep us both safe,” Severn said. “Riley’s lucky she can’t fly and if I have to go in to help the others, I’ll fly high.”

  “Yes, and keep your face out of camera range. Oh, hang on, I’ve got an idea. Wait a minute.” She ran back to their car and rummaged in the book, returning to us with a balaclava-style beanie which she held out to Aiden. “Here. If you have to fly, pull this over your face. Sorry, Severn, I’ve only got one but if you both need to fly at once, wrap this around your face.” She handed Severn Grant’s red and black rugby scarf.

  “Thanks. With my own beanie pulled down and this, I should be able to stay incognito. Awesome idea.”