The Victorian Vampire

by Nick James

  Tracey smiled. ‘They are just hard to get after some loonies went crazy, but let’s say I run in some less than law-abiding circles.’

  The doorman smiled knowingly. ‘They look good. Any more ammo?’

  ‘Another clip of each, but that’s all of the special ones,’ she explained and pulled out a box. ‘These are normal bullets,’ she said and then pulled out a small make-up bag. ‘I also have two suppressors; it was either a third one or my hairbrush. You know what happened there,’ she added casually before starting to brush her long, fine hair.

  ‘Well, Bert won’t need a suppressor as he will be inside,’ Jasper added.

  I picked up a pistol and mirrored his actions. ‘Yep, plus with our hearing it won’t matter. It’s for the neighbours,’ I explained, and he nodded. ‘What about the guards, they will be human?’

  Tracey smiled. ‘Leave that to me. I have an idea. But do we want them dead or just out?’

  Jasper chewed a nail. ‘We can’t have witnesses, especially with their links to the cops.’

  ‘Okay,’ Tracey told Jasper. ‘Leave that to me. It’ll take some time, though, so you grab their radio and monitor things.’

  Then I explained the layout of the rooms I had seen, which wasn’t much help, and I described the butler, so they knew to leave the man be, unless he showed hostility. ‘There is no mobile signal there, so, Jasper, find the landline and kill it.’

  The plans were outlined as much as possible, although it was risky, and Jasper had a friend’s car which could be declared stolen if it all went bent. I put on my suit and placed the pistol in the small of my back tucked into my trouser waistband, which was uncomfortable as hell. I also placed a spare clip in my jacket inside pocket. It wouldn’t matter if they searched me.

  Tracey walked out in her arse-kicking gear, which made our mouths drop. ‘Deadly and beautiful – what a mixture,’ she purred as she placed her gun in a holster.

  Jasper and I scanned over her tight black clothing like two dirty old men watching a yoga class.

  The phone then buzzed telling me the limo was here.

  ‘Good luck, everyone. If it goes to shit, just go, get out of there and run,’ I instructed. I shook Jasper’s hand, then I hugged Tracey, maybe too much. ‘Good luck, Trace,’ I said and kissed her quickly, but she pulled me in for a longer one.

  ‘You, too, Berty. I’m always here for you. Stay safe,’ she said lovingly. As we parted, I nodded and headed off to my doom.

  The chauffer opened the door and said a generic greeting before whisking me away into the darkness. As the limo drove into the night, I had time to think about how far Tracey had come. At first we were just fleeting acquaintances, then friends, and then lovers for a time. We both knew it would never work full-time; she was too flighty and vamps shouldn’t hang out with others of their ilk. How the coven did it was beyond me.

  I was thankful to Tracey for standing by me through this whole coven business, and I knew she would have my back. But I also knew that when this was over, despite how much her head told her to stay, she would be like the wind, off to new places for fun and excitement.

  The armed guards opened the gates. Again, thanks to my sight, I could see them clearly. They were huge with Kevlar vests and sporting semi-automatic rifles along with a pistol on their belts. I was right: they were humans. Have a nice afterlife, boys, I thought as we continued towards the house. I held no bad feelings towards the men; they had just picked the wrong side. I could see Graves standing at the front of the house.

  He opened the car door. ‘Evening, Mr Morris. I would say good, but that would be a lie,’ the grey-haired butler said dryly. He then showed me into the house. ‘The coven is ready and waiting for you.’

  ‘Anastasia?’ I asked, holding the old man’s arm and pulling him back.

  A brief look of annoyance flashed over his features, which quickly disappeared. He gave a brief shake of his head. ‘You have no friends in that room, sir, and they have a new member too.’ He pulled his arm from my grip.

  The hall was empty as we headed towards the meeting room that I had visited before. We stopped outside the meeting room doors where the members were gathering inside.

  Graves briefly looked at me and mouthed, ‘Good luck,’ before opening the doors. That’s when I saw the new member.

  ‘HUGHES, WHERE IS ROSE?’ I shouted, losing my cool instantly, causing some of the group to sneer, or jump. I heard the click of the door as it was closed behind me.

  The cop smiled at me, showing off his newly lengthened incisors, but it wasn’t him who talked first.

  ‘Calm yourself, Mr Morris, your friend is safe enough,’ Samuel Sebastian, the thin-lipped bastard and coven master said, but I couldn’t fail to notice his look of worry.

  ‘For now,’ the once ex-captain and ex-human being added snidely, making a few of them roll their eyes at the childish man’s behaviour. So, he didn’t have the backing of the whole coven.

  ‘Now, now, Ray, do not exacerbate the situation, please,’ Samuel chided the man, who didn’t seem happy about it.

  We all sat in our respective chairs around the table.

  ‘Albert, after our last meeting we had great hopes that you would change your ways.’ Samuel sighed. ‘But yet again you have seemed to negate our instructions and started to court this Rose girl. Is that true?’

  I looked at him. ‘You should know, you have been following me and sending photos of me to my friend in London,’ I stated with ire.

  ‘Yes, well, that was done without my knowledge,’ the master said, looking at several of his coven members, who didn’t seem to be bothered about the chastising. ‘But talking of London, do you know what happened to them? Communications have gone dark and it seems your friend who has recently entered our country was involved.’

  I shrugged. ‘I wasn’t there. She texted me about the photos and how they were gathering information on my friend and I – at your bidding, no less.’ I shot him a glare.

  ‘Enough of this shit. Give up chasing the human blood sacks, and we’ll let you go, and maybe your friend…after a while,’ Hughes said perversely.

  Samuel slammed his fist onto the table. ‘Know your place, Ray. You are newborn compared to us, so SILENCE!’

  The ex-law enforcement seemed to swell with anger at the man’s words.

  ‘So, Albert, have you seen Miss Andrews at all?’

  I shook my head. ‘No, I’ve been trying to get in touch with her for a couple of weeks,’ I answered, and then looked at the captain. ‘I didn’t want to be part of this bloody thing. The coven wasn’t interested in me for over a century, so I shall continue to do as I want.’ I looked around the table. ‘And you can stay in your rented ivory tower, lording it over nobody.’

  Angry rumblings filtered around the room. ‘Samuel, I think this man is more trouble than he’s worth. Just a commoner. Let him go or kill him,’ said a man I didn’t know.

  ‘Algeron, please, we don’t kill people just for disagreeing with us, despite what some believe,’ Samuel replied, shooting a look at a few of the coven.

  I smiled. ‘Trouble in paradise, Sam. I hear Anastasia wanted to leave, but you locked her up, and also refused to give her back her money?’ I asked, looking around and seeing the occupants shift uncomfortably in the dimly lit room. ‘Or are you using her funds to live here?’ I added, after which they stilled. I seemed to have hit a sore point.

  ‘It’s Samuel, Mr Morris, if you please. Miss Romanov is just smitten with you. Once you are gone, she will see sense and stay where she is cared for. We are her family now,’ the coven master stated, but he only received a few nods.

  ‘Bullshit,’ I said, mocking them and their coven.

  They looked back at me with anger, but then the doors were kicked open, bathing us in bright light.

  ‘TAKE THIS, MOTHERFUCKERS!’

  Tracey and Jasper

  Meanwhile, a little earlier…

  ‘What the hell is this thing, it’s embarrassing
?’ Tracey chided the big man as she picked at the frayed upholstery in the vehicle.

  With a huff, he replied, ‘I wanted to blend in; it’s a Honda Civic.’ He kept his eyes on the red dots in the distance. There were no lights on this road and the trees flashed by illuminated by his substandard headlights.

  ‘They are getting away. This piece of shit can’t even keep up with a fucking limo,’ Tracey shot back using her earthy language, which seemed to embarrass the ex-gang member and ex-marine.

  The steering wheel creaked as he tightened his grip. How could somebody be so hot yet so foul-mouthed? He decided to change the subject. ‘So, what can kill vamps? Stakes through the heart?’

  ‘That kills everyone,’ she scoffed, making him grind his teeth.

  He shot her a look. ‘Fire?’

  ‘Again, if I set you on fire it would fuck you up, right?’ She raised an eyebrow giving him an ‘I’m with stupid’ look, which he read straight away.

  ‘What about crucifixes, can they kill or just hurt you?’ Jasper asked, grasping onto the hope that she would take this seriously.

  She brought her slender fingers up to her chin in a thoughtful pose. ‘Hmmm, that’s a good question. I’ll tell you what, we’ll get two crosses, I thump you with one, then—’ That’s as far as she got before he gave up.

  ‘Fine, I give up, how does Albert put up with you, honestly,’ he grumbled and regained his concentration on the limo’s red lights.

  She smiled like an Academy Award winner. ‘Because I’m a delight to be with, Jasper, and I rock his world in the sack, and he does likewise,’ Tracey said with a faraway look in her eyes. ‘One time I swear I lost a filling when…’

  Jasper turned the radio on loud to drown out her five-minute diatribe of a weekend in Brighton. His eyes nearly bled straining to focus on the limo when Tracey started to use hand gestures while the Eagles sang about ‘Hotel California’.

  After twenty minutes he turned off the radio; thankfully she had stopped and was just gazing into nothingness. There was a slight smile on her face.

  ‘They are slowing down. What should I do?’ he asked.

  ‘Just drive by. Don’t change speed or look over at the gate,’ Tracey answered as they caught up with the black stretch limo. ‘Wish I was in that. I could’ve been his date,’ she said and pouted before looking back at Jasper. ‘You ever shagged in a limo?’

  ‘Jesus, woman, do you hear yourself? If you were with him, he wouldn’t have this problem,’ he borderline shouted. ‘And no I haven’t.’

  Tracey shot him a look. ‘You should,’ she replied, cuddling herself and smiling at the memory. ‘Anyway, pull in here,’ she said quickly, and pointed to a small track into the woods which was rutted but hadn’t seen traffic in a few days. ‘And yes, we would have the same trouble. I killed the UK coven before I came here.’ She smirked seeing Jasper’s face, which looked as though he had just seen his upcoming death. He watched her jump out of the car as they stopped, then she ducked her head back in. ‘Come on, slow poke, did you want to live forever?’ she teased with a wink.

  Jasper turned off the engine which made a tingling noise as it cooled down. The ex-soldier felt the coldness surrounding him like a death shroud. He wished he had phoned Albert instead and just stayed at home and ordered some chicken and gravy.

  ‘You’re a dead man, Jasp,’ he muttered to himself as he felt the car rocking and saw the smiling assassin bouncing the car while laughing. ‘Shit.’

  They walked back to the main road. It took a few minutes until they could see the large guards. ‘Those vests, how much do they cover?’ Tracey whispered.

  ‘Just the important organs,’ he said and showed her by sketching over his body.

  She nodded and pulled her gun and clicked off the safety catch. ‘Follow me. I’ll knock them down and then take the one on the right. You thump the one on the left, then we swap. Okay?’

  Before he could nod, the redhead was up and walking quickly. Then in a burst of speed that he had never witnessed before, the woman ran forwards with gun raised. The men only just heard her boots hitting the tarmac as a bullet shattered the first man’s right shoulder, making him drop his weapon which swung uselessly on its strap. The second small calibre bullet had the same effect on his other shoulder.

  The man on the left gave a shriek in fright as he saw the carnage. He raised his weapon but was stopped with a bullet to the shoulder where the butt of his rifle was heading yet would never reach. Her last shot was to his kneecap, sending him down, and then Jasper’s fist sent him into darkness from which he would never return.

  The vampire leapt and sank her teeth into the neck of the first victim. After a couple of mouthfuls she slit her wrist letting some drops of blood into his mouth, which was opening and closing like a panicking goldfish. Tracey then repeated the act with the other guard.

  ‘Jesus, you don’t mess around, girl,’ he whispered, screwing up his face in horror.

  ‘Can’t – if you move slowly, your mistakes catch up with you. Now get a stake to kill these fuckers with… Or have you got a crucifix?’ she asked with a smirk.

  ‘Bitch,’ was the audible muttered retort.

  Soon Tracey had staked the men, leaving the guns in place. With a gleeful look on his face, Jasper checked the weapons and slung them over his shoulder. He almost skipped like a child at Christmas as he followed the crouching and running redhead. But his eyes kept betraying him. Instead of looking for dangers, he was casting an admiring glance at the pinnacle of womanhood in Lycra. That’s when he noticed her hand behind her back showing off the middle finger.

  She then stopped and raised her hand. ‘Wait here,’ Tracey whispered. Her eyes pierced the night to see two men standing by the large, intimidating all oak and black iron studded front door. One man was old and grey, the other younger by a decade and wearing a driver’s hat. There was no noise apart from the wind in the trees, but she still managed to creep up behind them and press her pistol to the nape of the hat-wearer’s neck. ‘Morning, gents. Nice night isn’t it?’ she said, making both men jump.

  The older man turned slowly. ‘Ah, Miss Andrews, my name is Graves. Myself and Bernard here are not any danger to you,’ he said calmly holding up his hands, which was mirrored by his colleague.

  ‘Yes, Berty did say you were helping him. How’s it going in there?’ she asked, lowering the gun and slipping it back into its holster.

  ‘When I left, Albert was shouting at them, but the stroke of good luck we do have is that they have now turned the police captain, so the police won’t be coming today,’ Graves stated.

  Tracey walked into the open and whistled for Jasper to come up. ‘So, how many are in there? Where is Rose and Lady Muck?’ Tracey asked with mirth.

  ‘We don’t have staff at this time of the night. It’s just me and the driver,’ Graves said and waved at the house. ‘Walk straight ahead and just follow the voices.’ He gave a low chuckle. ‘The cellar is straight ahead, the door with a large ornate ring on it, ugly thing but they seem to like it.’

  Jasper turned up panting. ‘What’s going on, who are these guys?’ he managed to say before bending down to take a deep breath. Maybe he should have more salad on his burgers from now on.

  ‘Too late, One Lung, we gotta move,’ she replied before taking out her gun to replace the magazine. ‘We’re going in. Follow me, and when we enter I’ll head right, you go left, shoot anyone there. Man, woman, doesn’t matter – they are all vamps. Got it?’

  ‘What about the phone line? I haven’t cut it yet,’ the Manhattan doorman admitted.

  Graves smiled. ‘I have unplugged the phones for tonight’s activities. We do not want any other gatecrashers tonight, do we?’ he said dryly with a cold smile.

  Tracey placed a kiss on the older man’s cheek. ‘Thank you. Now let’s go before Berty pisses them off too much.’

  Jasper nodded and readied his own pistol by clicking off the safety.

  ‘Errr, could you try and keep
on target – the furniture and wooden panelling are quite expensive, you know,’ Graves added, making Tracey roll her eyes.

  Tracey walked off and put her hand on the door. ‘We’ll do our best. C’mon, Jasp, let’s get our boy,’ she said whilst opening the door and following the voices as instructed.

  Knowing how dark and dingy the last coven’s meeting room was, she guessed this would be similar, so Tracey and Jasper turned on all the lights as they walked and then stood in front of the meeting room doors. She raised her three fingers and looked at him. ‘Ready, calm and professional,’ Tracey said.

  ‘Oorah!’ he said, quoting the well-known US Marines’ war cry, and then kicked the door in. ‘TAKE THIS, MOTHERFUCKERS!’

  Back to the present…

  Tracey shot Jasper a look and then started to fire, unleashing hell on her fellow soulless creatures to send them back to the underworld.

  As the door was kicked open, I grabbed at the pistol lodged in my waistband against my lower back, it had shifted but I managed to pull it free. Bullets flew past my head. I could hear and feel them pushing their way through the air. I saw Jasper moving to my left with gun in hand and flashes from the barrel illuminating the whole place, and then the flash of ash and red hair as Samuel Sebastian was erased from this astral plain thanks to Tracey’s deadly and well-placed shots. He was right about her after all.

  I knew my target – the fucking captain, but he was bolting for another door. I couldn’t get a bead on him as there were too many things moving. The whole coven was on the move, there was lace and velvet all over the place as they tried to get out of the aim of the angry doorman and crazy redhead. I went to run after Hughes, but one of the coven stood in front of me holding a brass fire poker.

  ‘You’re going to pay for your treachery, Morris,’ Algeron cursed with eyes like coals. So I planted a bullet in his heart, turning him to ash.

  The funny thing was that as the silver-pointed invitation to the netherworld entered his body, both our eyes followed my ejected bullet casing as it spun away into the carnage. He really did look surprised.