He lamented how the town used to be. Bustling with people, thriving businesses, until the evil came. Now, any person he could meet on his way to the convent could be one of Them.
Even the sound of a bird flapping its wings in the air above terrified him. One could not tell on a cloudy day, if it was a bird above, or a vampire bat. His laboured steps quickened apace once more.
Even though the convent was just two miles walk away from the church, as the gradient of the road turned uphill, the priest found his pace slowing once again, and his chest tightened a little. Shadows from the tree branches above loomed large over him, the wind whistled through the leaves with accusations.
Accusations that were almost certainly imagined by the priest, but they felt all too real to him.
The convent was on the highest point of a hill overlooking the cities of Birmingham to the south, and Derby to the north. Even though Castle Dreymuir was five miles away from the grounds of the convent, one of the nuns kept a watchful eye in its direction. Indeed, a one of them would take turns to keep watch on the place, not just at night-time, but also in the day.
The road ahead narrowed, the sky began to fall dark, and rain pelted the priest from above. It was fine rain, the kind that would soak you right through to the bone, even though it appeared to be too fine to do so.
The priest could hear his own footsteps. He could discern other sounds, like the rustling of his overcoat. As the fine rain soaked in, his hat would tilt down towards his eyebrows, forcing him to take an ungloved hand out of his pocket to push the brim upwards again. He had not brought an umbrella, as he wished to see at all times what was in front of him, but also what he had left behind. He had remembered to lock the church and even emptied the tabernacle.
Although he had waited on the nuns to visit him to bring the holy bread and wine, they had not done so this week, and it troubled him greatly. His mind started to race ahead of himself. He wondered if the vampires had breached the walls of the convent, and turned those nuns into vampires, or killed them outright.
He had to go to find out. He had to know for sure. There was no two roads about it, as his mother used to say. Staying in the church was no longer an option. They would find a way to get to him. He was finding courage within himself that he did not know existed.
That soon left him as he continued his ascent up the winding and steep hill. There had been much discussion in the old days about whether it actually was a hill or a mountain. Successive tests had revealed it to be two hundred feet short of being a mountain. The priest was thankful for anything that eased the journey to the convent.
Ahead of him, some two hundred yards away, was something that stood between the priest and safe passage to the convent.
It stood motionless, and the priest let out a nervous laugh, called for The Lord a few times, and soon became as still as his quarry.
A goat.
A goat with red eyes, that burned its stare directly at him. The priest half expected the goat to say something. But he knew the creature had links with devil worship. The priest tried in vain not to look scared, and took one pace towards the goat.
For its part, the goat matched the priest’s action, then waited for his next move. The priest found himself unable to walk in a straight line, and veered off at an angle. The goat matched him, move-for-move; the red colour in its eyes appeared to deepen in intensity.
“You demon, Mariana Dreymuir! Is it you? Move, you wicked beast!”
The priest tried to sound commanding, but far from backing off, the goat changed tack, and bounded towards the priest. It changed its form into a hound, and leaped at the priest, its jaw wide open, its teeth laid bare.
He knew he could not outrun the beast. The priest crouched down, and waited for the hellhound to consume him. The scent of the beast was overpowering, and he passed out from the smell of burning flesh, which he believed was his own.
“Dear God, please don’t forsake me,” were the last words uttered from his mouth.
***
“Definitely one of the vampires,” said the nun watching the proceedings from afar. Using a rudimentary telescope to see the events unfold, it was hard to tell if the beast had made a kill. “It would appear to have gone, Sister,” affirmed the young nun. “We should go to him.”
“No, I would not do that,” replied the other nun, who was more senior to the young girl. “Whatever attacked him could still be out there.”
“But if it is the priest-”
“We must leave him there,” she interjected. “It is not safe to venture out. Look how quick the dark has fallen. Evil casts no shadow, especially in the dark.”
“Sister-” she implored, but found herself being dismissed.
“I believe I have made the position clear. You, I, in fact - nobody from here is to go to that man. Priest or not, we must leave him. I am sorry.”
The older nun placed a motherly hand on the girl’s shoulder, but said no more. The young girl sighed and said a prayer for the man.
She waited one more hour, and decided to leave the convent as quietly as she could. Before anyone could suspect anything, she would return. Knowing she would be in trouble with the Sisters was the least of her concerns.
***
She hurried down the road towards the stricken man. She had the good sense to bring an oil lamp with her that lit the way ahead.
Good. He was still there, and had not moved at all; the imprint of his image through the lens had stayed on her since leaving the convent. The other nuns at the convent would not understand why she had to go to him. But they would when she returned.
Whilst she pondered just how she was going to bring him to the convent, it was her good fortune that a car trundled along towards them in the darkness. The lights from the car illuminated the road.
The driver pulled onto the far side of the road and inquired as to what was the problem. When the young nun told him, he suggested going to a doctor, though admitted finding one so late at night might be a problem.
The nun told him not to worry, that she only wished to return to the convent with the priest so that the sisters could attend to him. The man was more than happy to oblige, and soon enough, the nun was able to call for assistance.
The nun who had replaced her on the night watch hurried down the stairs.
“Annabelle! Do you know how much trouble you will be in when Sister catches up with you?”
“She wouldn’t go to him,” replied the young nun. “Sarah, please, just help me to help him. You will, won’t you?”
Sarah did not wish to encounter the wrath of the Sister either. But as it was the priest of the local church, she agreed that Annabelle was right, and these were a special set of circumstances.
The two young nuns brought the man in, and seeing he was unconscious but breathing, were concerned, but also relieved.
“He’s going to be alright,” said Sarah happily. “But we won’t be, not when Sister catches up with us.”
“Oh, you know Sister,” smiled Annabelle. “She always loves the priest to visit. She should be thanking us really.”
“She won’t thank us, Annabelle. I was to keep watch after you, and I was only in the next room when you left – right after Sister gave you a warning.”
“I know Sarah, I know. Thanks for looking out for me. I will attend to Father now. Good night.”
“Good night Annabelle. Remember what I said, will you? If he wakes up, give him the bread and wine we have prepared, and send him on his way. Sister won’t appreciate any shocks or surprises.”
Annabelle nodded gratefully and watched Sarah leave the room.
As she removed the dog collar from the priest, and felt around his neck, two bumps, caused by deep bites into his neck, were probed by her fingers.
“I suppose Sister won’t like this surprise either,” she shuddered.
Innocence Lost
It had been three long days since Nina had tasted Juliana’s blood. Nina had taken to hiding in narrow
passageways and corridors in the castle. Furious with Juliana, she point-blank refused to talk to her.
Nina, for her part, was shaking violently; crying uncontrollably at times. At all other times, she let Juliana know in no uncertain terms what she thought of her.
“Nina! Come on! Come on out! I’m not angry with you. I just want to help. I didn’t know where you were last night. But I wanted to thank you. I slept very well. Just wanted you to know.”
Nina refused to come out of hiding, but Juliana knew where she was at all times. After all, she was well practised in this game. Her brothers Marcus and Rocco knew that Juliana was extremely good at hiding herself.
Until she needed to reveal her hiding place, Nina would no doubt stay hidden. Juliana smiled, because she could see through the walls. Nina would learn this skill in time, but Juliana enjoyed having the upper hand for once. Dealing with her mother always meant that she was always second best. When Nina finally came out of hiding, she reminded Juliana of this fact.
“Nina! Do sit down. I always set a place for you at the table. It hasn’t been the same without you.”
“Don’t make fun of me. I’m still very angry with you.”
“Nina, that meat is bloody as hell. And it was detached from its owner a good while ago. Eat it. I don’t want anything happening to you whilst Mother is away.”
“Hmmph!” exclaimed Nina as she sat down. “I expect she’ll be as angry at you as I am, for what you did to me.”
“What I did to you?”
“You trapped me in this body.”
Juliana put her fork down and glared at Nina.
“Trapped you? What on earth are you going on about?”
“There’s no point telling you. Don’t you know, Juliana, that you’ve got what I would call selective memory? It’s so easy for you to blank out the awful things you have done, and blame it on a lack of rest. You know full well what you did, what you’ve done, what you’re doing. Just like you knew what you were doing when you poured your own blood into me.”
Juliana sat back in her chair as if Nina had said the worst thing in the world.
“Well, there’s just no pleasing some people. You were ill, Nina. You needed blood. Mother did not want anything to happen to you. So I did, what anyone else would do.”
“You didn’t have to make me like you, knowing full well I can never be like you!”
“I still don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Nina stood up and twirled around in her dress. “You see this? You see it, don’t you?”
Juliana observed Nina in the pretty dress, one she had wore herself some ten years before.
“I see it. What’s wrong with it? Knowing you, you would find fault with the Moon itself.”
“Not the dress. Me. Now look at you, you can’t fit into this dress, can you?”
“Get to the point, Nina.”
“You look eighteen years old, if not older, Juliana. But I will never be eighteen. Not truly. I had a life, I had friends, I had my mother, and you stole that from me. You and your bastard brothers!”
“Nina!” Juliana found herself actually suffering from shock at the girl’s harsh words. “Nina, look - you can change your form, you can make your body like mine if you want to. It is a gift we vampires have. You should embrace it.”
“I don’t want to embrace it. Even if I could do that, as you say, it wouldn’t be real. It would be a fantasy. The reality is – I will never see my mother again, and I will never grow up to be a young woman. Or an old woman. You stole that from me. Nothing is real if you don’t believe in who you are. I look at myself, and I see something else, something which is abhorrent to me. Do you have any idea, any understanding, of what you have done to me?”
“I’m not going to apologise, if that’s what you’re after,” remarked Juliana. “What then? Should I have killed you, when I had the chance?”
“No. But you should have killed your mother, and gave us all a chance.”
Juliana launched herself at Nina, grabbed her throat and pinned her against the wall. Nina made no attempt to fight it, such was the fury in Juliana’s eyes. Nina expected it was this kind of expression people saw just before Juliana killed them.
“No wonder you’re haunted at night. You look so innocent when you sleep. Like an angel. But you are anything but an angel, Juliana. You may be able to change form. You may be able to traverse time. But you can’t outrun your fate.”
Juliana’s expression softened, and her grip relaxed.
“I don’t want to kill you, Nina. Our kind do not harm one another. Sit down, and I will tell you something you didn’t know.”
Nina did not trust Juliana, but if there was an opportunity to kill her, Juliana had not taken it. She never showed any sign of remorse over her kills.
“I never knew my real mother,” said Juliana. “My brothers and I lived together for a while. I do recall sharing time with them here in the castle. But I also remember a time when it was just the three of us, and we would play games with each other, and play tricks on each other. You do know by now that Devil’s greatest trick was to convince the world he did not exist? Well, when my brothers and I would play Vampires, my trick was to convince them that they didn’t exist. Unfortunately, sometimes I could not keep to the plan, and the mask would slip. It was my brothers who would often get me out of trouble, and take the hit for me.”
“Why?” scowled Nina. “Because they were scared of you?”
Juliana shook her head. “Because I was their sister. I am their sister. I will always be their sister.”
“The two boys we were chasing, over the hills of the cemetery?” asked Nina. “Just when I had been bitten by you? Those were your brothers, those are the ones you pretend to love?”
“I didn’t say that exactly, did I? I said they would take the hit for me. At least they showed their love. For my part, I showed my merciful side by letting them go. I convinced Mother it was the right thing to do. I wanted to give them the chance that was not afforded to me.”
“You keep calling that person your Mother, and yet you say you didn’t know your real mother. What happened to your real mother?”
“I was too young to recall all the details of that time. But we learned, my brothers and I, that our real mother, the one who had given birth to us, had died whilst giving birth. Giving birth to me, in fact. Apparently it all went rather well for Marcus and Rocco. It turned out that I was the complication.”
“That’s putting it mildly,” snapped Nina crisply.
“Anyway, we were put in a care home. Social care, if you will. Marcus, ever the trickster, would play vampire more often than the other children would like. He’d make it a bit too real, pretending he had slit his throat whilst using tomato juice for blood. He didn’t have to do much to convince others that he had fangs. His teeth always looked like that.
He scared the other children so much, that the three of us were kept separate from the other children. Fifteen in all, I think there were. The care workers still had to deal with us though. They had a name for us. It followed us around too. Murderous Little Darlings, that’s what they used to call us. It was ironic that even up until that point, we hadn’t murdered anyone.”
“So not ironic then, but prophetic, right?” Nina found herself to be genuinely interested in the story, so kept her questions brief.
“You can infer that if you wish. Anyway, one day, we evaded those carers, who kept a not-so-watchful eye on us, and left the house one night. A game of hide and seek, only two of us were caught, and brought back to the house by some interfering do-gooders.”
“Let me guess,” chirped Nina. “You were the one to escape.”
“I escaped going back to the house, but I had not evaded the gaze of someone whose eyes had been on me all the time.”
“Mariana.”
“Correct. She told me she could not resist me, someone as angelic looking as I was. So she decided not to kill me there and then, especially when I
told her I was looking for my mother. Though I was lost, confused and more than a little bit frightened. She told me it would only hurt a little.”
Nina was a keen observer of Juliana. The vampire looked towards the window, and held her head in her hands.
“It hurt a lot, didn’t it?” said Nina, but there was no nastiness in her voice. “Just like it hurt me.”
“Yes. It hurt a lot.” Juliana ran her hand over the side of her neck. “The wounds have healed on the outside.”
“But they never will on the inside,” finished Nina. “Why didn’t she want to kill you?”
“She was alone in the Castle, the last of the old order, so she told me. She said she would return for me in five years time, and she was a good as her word. I had grown a little, but not as much as other eleven-year-olds. I had not seen her until that day in the cemetery. The day I did to you, what was done to me.”
Three Tales of Vampires (The First Three Books in the Tale of Vampires Series) Page 12