by Nick Stead
More gunshot rang through the night as the big Slayer fired off three rounds before Lady Sarah was on him, ripping the gun from his hands and sinking her fangs into his thick neck. She tasted his blood as her canines punctured his jugular but there was no time to feed, so she withdrew from the temptation of that red river pulsing through his soft flesh and left him bleeding out. Meanwhile Varin darted in and savaged his calf, forcing him to his knees as the leg collapsed from under him. The Slayer placed a hand to the twin holes in his neck in a futile attempt to stem the flow of blood as he knelt there, and we left him to die as we resumed our flight, knowing he was no longer a threat.
Salvation was at hand, driving us onwards through that last stretch of woods. The moon reappeared from behind the clouds, its call strengthening my will to survive and keeping me moving through the aches and pains and the blood loss sapping away at my reserves. So it was I forced myself to keep pace with the others with the aid of my lunar master, and we passed out from the trees and onto the roadside.
Chapter Thirty – New Hope
The twisting country road was quiet enough that we were forced to keep moving along it so the Slayers wouldn’t catch us while we stood waiting for a car to appear. Finally my ears picked up the sound of a vehicle in the distance and soon after our eyes could see the approaching headlights. I don’t know what we would have done if it had been a small two seater car but luck was with us that night. I’ve never been that interested in motors so I didn’t recognise the make but it was some kind of family vehicle, big enough for the five of us to squeeze into.
Lady Sarah stepped out and into the oncoming car’s path. The driver slammed on the brakes, the vehicle screeching to a halt just inches from the vampire’s deceptively frail looking body. A door opened and slammed as the man behind the wheel got out, probably to ask her what the hell she was doing or if she was trying to kill herself, or words to that effect. But before he could say anything she had him under her spell, any road rage instantly quelled by that hypnotic power as he listened to her instructions without argument, completely docile.
“We are friends in need of a lift to Doncaster. You will take us there, in silence. Speak only if spoken to and ask no questions, and follow any instructions I give you.”
The man climbed back into the driver’s seat and waited for us to get in. Lady Sarah took the passenger seat beside him so she could use more of her hypnotic power on him if needed and Amy climbed into the middle of the backseat, Selina sitting to the right of her and Zee reluctantly settling on the left. I was loaded into the boot which was at least big enough for me to lie comfortably and nurse my wounds. Varin had since disappeared, though he would no doubt be back as soon as the witch called on him again.
We pulled away just in time, several Slayers both living and dead bursting from the trees in a final attempt to stop us. I watched their forms dwindling as our car raced down that dark stretch of road until they were swallowed up by the night, unable to catch us and out of range of their bullets. But we were lucky. If they’d appeared just a moment sooner they may well have got in enough shots to render the car useless and I would probably have been taken prisoner again or worse, since I was no longer in any shape to fight.
The rest of the drive was uneventful, though I never completely relaxed until we made it to the address my sister gave us. I kept expecting the Slayers to intercept us in their own vehicles or to use their influence with the authorities to set up road blocks to catch us, but we saw no more evidence of them that night. Thinking back over everything that had happened over the last few nights, I wondered if the older man I kept encountering was partly responsible for us getting away so easily and my suspicions around him grew. Was this all just another elaborate plot to try and catch us in greater numbers as they’d attempted in our hometown, so they could all but wipe us out once and for all? Or was there something even more sinister at work? But the man had also aroused my curiosity and I hoped we would cross paths again. I really wanted to know who he was and why he would turn on David, and why he’d been so set on killing me a few months ago but let me escape that night, even helping to a degree. Could it be that our enemies were divided, some of them wanting to try and set another trap for as many of us as possible and others wanting to see me dead at the first opportunity? I could believe that most of them would be against the game David had set up since it served no purpose other than to satisfy his personal need for revenge – it would have been far easier just to kill us while they had us at their mercy instead of take us alive and put us through the various torments he’d devised, even if they had successfully killed us at the end of it. But why capture us at all when they could have put a stop to the game at any moment if they’d been willing to kill its architect all along?
Those questions were soon driven from my mind as we reached the area of Doncaster Amy had indicated and she directed us to the right street. The hardest part of the night was yet to come.
“You can go now,” Lady Sarah instructed the human once we were all out of his car. “Drive away and remember nothing of this journey.”
The man had no option but to do as he was told, powerless to resist the vampire’s spell.
“Come inside with me, Nick,” Amy said. “I know you can’t stay but at least see Mum before you go.”
Once again I had to speak through Lady Sarah, growling in the wolven tongue and letting her translate so my sister could understand.
“I can’t, sis. How do you think Mum’s going to react when she sees me like this? Even if the vampires use their power to keep her calm, she’s still not going to be thrilled to see me in this form after I’ve been missing for so many months.”
“Wait till morning then when you change back. That is what happens, right? When the full moon goes down and the sun comes up you turn back into yourself?”
“It’s not safe. The longer we stay here, the more risk there is of the Slayers finding us and using you again to get to me. You’ve no idea how badly I want to stay, but I can’t. You have to let us go.”
Tears filled her eyes as she asked “Will I ever see you again?”
“I don’t know,” I answered honestly.
She threw her arms around my neck and hugged me, reluctant to let me go. I was glad she couldn’t understand the next thing I said, knowing she would argue against it if I had been speaking English.
“Okay. Make her forget like you did with that man just now.”
“It is for the best,” Lady Sarah replied. She gently led Amy to one side and used her hypnotic spell once more, telling her “You ran away with Hannah but wanted to come back home and the two of you fell out. You don’t know where Hannah is now and don’t remember where you were exactly when you went your separate ways. You remember nothing of the Slayers, the dungeon they put us in or your brother. We are just a group of concerned neighbours who were out walking our dog when we found you and escorted you home.”
“Will that be enough?” I asked when the vampire was done.
“Her imagination will fill in the rest,” Lady Sarah murmured. “She will construct new memories around the story I have just given her.”
Released from the vampire’s spell, Amy gave us a quick thanks and rushed to the door. By the time Mum had opened it and grabbed her daughter in a relieved hug, we were already out of sight. I felt a pang of longing to rush over to them but I knew I needed to keep my distance so I turned away, whining softly.
“Where now?” Zee asked.
I’d been so set on seeing Amy safely back home that I hadn’t thought about what came next. The worrisome thought that she or Mum would never be truly safe crossed my mind, one that would no doubt harry my conscience for years to come. But what more could I do to protect them? I’d already tried leaving home, my Mum had even decided to move away from that area herself, and David had still found Amy and used her to get to me just as I’d feared the Slayers would. And despite spending the nights since then constantly on the move before settling briefl
y in Leon’s mansion which had been supernaturally concealed from the rest of the world by witchcraft, they’d still managed to find me and capture me again. Was anywhere in the country safe?
“We need to keep moving,” Lady Sarah answered the pirate. “The where doesn’t matter at the moment, not when our enemies are probably going to be actively hunting us now they know they have us on the run again.”
“It’s me they seem to be most interested in,” I said. “And they keep on seeming to find me, no matter what part of the country we run to or how remote it seems to be. Maybe the only way to lose them is to leave Britain.”
“You don’t think they’ll still have people on the lookout for you abroad?” Selina replied when Lady Sarah translated.
“Probably. But there must still be some parts of the world beyond their reach, areas of true wilderness large enough for even a werewolf to hide in. Especially if I go somewhere with natural wolves and live with them. How will they recognise me from my mortal kin if I stay in wolf form?”
“What about the war you’ve been so keen to fight against them?” Lady Sarah asked.
“I can’t fight a war on my own and for as long as the rest of you refuse to make a stand, I might as well be hiding out in the wilderness instead of constantly running and risking my life in the odd skirmish. It’s probably safer than carrying on round here. Besides, Ulfarr still believes me responsible for the vampire killings and until we can convince him otherwise I’m as much in danger from the rest of the undead as I am humanity.”
“He has a point,” Zee said. “And I can secure him safe passage overseas, or as safe as it gets for us. I may be biased, but I would argue that’s the best way out of the country, rather than risking smuggling him into one of those flying machines where security is so tight. The Slayers aren’t going to make it easy for us but it can be done. But what about the demon we set loose? It’s still out there, somewhere.”
“There’s nothing else we can do about it at the moment,” I replied. “The Slayers are the immediate threat.”
“If you are sure this is what you want, then we will do what we can to help,” Lady Sarah promised.
“Yes,” Selina agreed. “Maybe we can even stay in the country and visit from time to time, to help remind you of who you are so you don’t completely lose yourself to the wolves.”
“I know if I stay shifted I run that risk but hopefully it won’t be so bad now my inner wolf is truly a part of me and not a separate identity anymore.”
“Hopefully,” the witch replied.
“Come then,” Zee said. “Let us be on our voyage before the Slayers put a stop to it.”
With that, I left my family behind for the second time and we set off for new lands. I had no idea that night where exactly I’d end up or how I’d earn the trust of a wolf pack when natural animals feared the monster they sensed me to be, but in my heart I knew it was the right thing to do and for perhaps the first time since I’d been bitten, I felt optimistic about the future. Living as a wolf might not be any easier than anything else I’d been through since becoming a lycanthrope and of course I had to successfully reach a country where I’d be able to do that first, but at least it might offer me more than anything I’d known over the last year. And so I chose to look to the future with hope, ready to embrace the new life awaiting me and leave my past life behind for good.
Chapter Thirty One – Hell’s Servant
Red slit eyes narrowed in anger as the face of His servant appeared in the flames that served as His window to the mortal realm, His fangs bared in a snarl of displeasure as He surveyed him, still in His beast form after the clash with the reaper. That fight had been costly and one He would have preferred to avoid. No matter how great a power any being amassed, Death still remained one of the most powerful forces in the universe. Tangling with him was never wise, but His hand had been forced when the young werewolf’s life was about to end, giving Him little choice but to step in and save the wolf once more.
Eyes the cold grey of winter skies looked back through the flames, still devoid of the fear younger men might have felt in His presence. In fact, the old warrior met His gaze far too boldly for His liking. Perhaps He would remind this mortal of the sensation of cold terror, when there were less pressing matters to attend to.
“I have done everything you asked,” His servant began.
“Yes. And you want me to free you now, is that it?”
“I had hoped you might release me from our deal, yes.”
He laughed. “Don’t act so naïve. You’re intelligent enough, for a human; I know you understand how this works. You knew what you were getting into when you made that deal. You are bound to Hell now, and you belong to me.”
“I understand my soul is fated to enter Hell when the time comes, but would you not at least consider freeing me in life so I can live out the rest of my days as I see fit?”
“That was not our arrangement. Besides, you almost cost me the wolf’s life after I explicitly told you he must live. The Slayers are just a means to an end. Do not forget who your true master is. I could drag you down here right now as punishment, but you did bring me a new toy.”
He paused to caress the human head impaled on a spike by the fire in His own personal part of Hell, already filled with the tormented souls of countless mortals He’d claimed as His. The beauty of torturing souls over their flesh and blood counterparts was that the immortal pieces of them could never die, their suffering never to end even when they lost the pieces that would have been vital to their endurance in their physical bodies. The wide eyes in David’s severed head were not the dull, empty eyes of a dead man. They held the agony his soul registered through its equivalent of torn nerves, his mouth gaping wide in a scream he couldn’t currently sound because his vocal cords had been cut. But souls could also be pieced together for fresh torment, unlike bodies of living flesh. And the demon would put him back together when He was ready for some new amusement. For the time being He liked the soul as just a head, digging His claws in as He continued to caress it, blood gushing forth as the flesh split like overripe fruit.
“He had the arrogance to think he could become an architect of fate,” the demon continued. “All so he could get his revenge for the girl he thought he loved. How pathetic. I am pleased to be able to teach him the workings of the universe. Destiny is not for mortals to shape, only those of us with true power.”
“I am glad he pleases you, Lord. And I thank you for sparing me the punishment of joining him.”
“Yes, this will be your fate one day so you might be grateful that I still have use for you up on Earth. Now go. I will summon you when I have need of your services again.”
The face faded from the flames to be replaced with images of the young werewolf and his companions. Bat-like wings curled almost protectively around the fire as He reflected on the latest turn of events. Having one of His kindred up on Earth might prove useful, even if it hadn’t been planned, though His fellow demon could also pose a threat to His plans which had to be taken into consideration. He could only rely on mortal servants for so much, given the limitations of humans. Someday He wouldn’t have any need for them at all, but the time had not yet come for Him to return to the mortal realm and so they were necessary, for the time being. Soon though. That time would come soon.
He was careful to keep the fire shielded from the rest of Hell as He had His grisly fun with His new toy, lest any would interfere with His plans. Yet He couldn’t quite keep the images of Earth hidden, a slither of the flames visible through a large cut in His right wing where the reaper’s scythe had struck. At least that injury would heal, unlike the various other gaping wounds He bore, ever present regardless of how much time passed. Until then it was more of an annoyance than anything. Fortunately most of Hell was too content with torturing the souls down there to notice what He was doing, and thus few were likely to take much of an interest in the events of Earth. It paid to be careful though. Events were in motion that
would present the opportunity He had waited so long for, and He was not about to risk anyone sabotaging that. Long He had waited for their chance at bringing Hell on Earth, so that they might enjoy the suffering of mortals in life as well as bringing fresh torment to their souls in death. That chance was close at hand.
“See how much your revenge is worth,” He whispered into David’s ear canal as He cut away the surrounding cartilage, fresh blood trickling down the soul’s jawline. “When there is so much more at stake than your pathetic emotions. There are things much more important than you could ever be. Even the werewolf is so much greater than you could ever be. You are nothing. Your love is nothing. Your pitiful feelings are as insignificant in the vastness of the universe as the lowliest of lifeforms. You will come to understand, over the centuries.”
The soul’s mouth continued to form its silent scream, reduced to nothing but a thing of unending pain. It was all it could do, all it ever would do in the demon’s clutches. For all of eternity.
Epilogue
Once again, as night falls and the hour is no doubt turning late by a human’s concept of time, I must leave off to feed and to rest. I sense you’re as curious about the older Slayer as I was back then and probably impatient to hear the next part of my story, but again I beg your patience while I hunt and get whatever sleep is granted to me. With any luck, my enemies will not find us here for a few nights yet, and I can recount more of my tale to you without being interrupted.
This new patch of woodland I’ve settled in is still and quiet, the natural animals having the sense to hide and the humans sticking to the land they’ve shaped, for now at least. I lurk at the edge of the woods where nature gives way to man’s domain, waiting to ambush the next unfortunate victim to walk past. I daren’t take to the streets after the latest brush with the Slayers last night, so I crouch in the shadows and wait for my prey to come to me. Even with a predator’s patience it soon grows tedious, but at least I have you for company. Can you forgive my sins yet? Or have you become a vengeful spirit, driven by that same darkness that’s ruled me for so long, that’s spawned hatred in all those it’s touched and created the need for revenge. Perhaps it is the darkness that truly binds us.