Dark Coven

by J. C. Diem

  Bellowing in rage and agony, the master vampire called forth his minions as Harold did his best to hold him down. Twelve men and women burst from their graves, intent on saving their creator. In desperation, Thomas lunged forward to add his weight to the stake. Together, they dug the weapon in deeper and deeper until it exited from the vampire’s back. With a final gurgle, the creature died.

  Not much had been known about the undead back then. Thomas mistakenly believed that taking down the leader would kill his lackeys. Instead, they’d been freed from their bondage. Ironically, setting them free saved the priest and the farmer’s lives.

  With their master dead, the fledglings went crazy. Wailing and shrieking, most fled into the night. Only two remained. They were too caught up in their internal turmoil to struggle as stakes were pounded into their hearts.

  Harold’s horse had broken its tether and had bolted in terror. Thomas’s horse still remained. He stood with his head down, eyes rolling and shaking in reaction. Cowering in the bushes, the bloodhound crept out from hiding when her master called her.

  Sharing the horse, they headed to town. Their eyes scanned the area, expecting an attack at any moment. Dawn was nearing by the time they reached town. Disheveled and pale from their ordeal, they staggered inside the tavern the moment it opened.

  By midday, everyone in town was aware of what had transpired. They agreed that they couldn’t allow the nest to keep picking off farmers. They resolved to band together to eradicate the vampires. In pairs, the townsfolk spent the next few days riding out to isolated farms to warn their neighbors.

  On the fifth day, another attack was discovered. All six family members had been drained of their blood. Hurrying back to town, the two men who’d made the grisly discovery spread the word. Thomas called a meeting and nearly everyone in town attended. In short order, they reached agreement to use the bloodhound to track the creatures to their new lair.

  Thomas and his newly recruited partner agreed to lead the hunt. At dawn, the posse gathered and rode to the decimated farmhouse. The hound had to be persuaded to follow the trail, but she did her duty.

  The nest’s new lair was in an abandoned house. Floorboards had been torn up and fresh graves signified where they’d buried themselves for the day. Shovels were found and the vampires were hauled from their resting places.

  Out of sheer curiosity, Thomas dragged one of the creatures outside. He wanted to see what would happen when they were exposed to the sun. He discovered that it wasn’t a pretty sight.

  As soon as the light touched the creature, he woke. Steam erupted from his clothes and blisters appeared on his skin. Screaming shrilly, he tried to claw his way back to the cover of the house. Silver flames burst from him before he managed to crawl more than a couple of feet. In seconds, the vampire was reduced to ash. Only his clothing remained.

  The rest of the nest was dragged outside as well. It was sickening to witness their demise, but killing them in this method meant there was no mess to clean up afterwards.

  Harold couldn’t return to his life as a farmer now that he knew that monsters were out there. He and his faithful hound had travelled to London with Thomas. The priest had gained a new member of his slowly growing band. He’d also gained a best friend who would stand by him for years to come.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Twelve

  Closing down the file, I shook my head in amazement at how descriptive Thomas’s journal was. He’d been a very brave man. Armed with crude weapons and unflinching faith, he’d taken on monsters of all sizes and descriptions.

  I vividly remembered reading his tale of facing and banishing a demon. It still occasionally gave me nightmares. After reading that account, my most fervent wish was never to have to face a demon. Considered to be the worst of the worst, they couldn’t be killed and could only be banished back to their fiery domain.

  The other files that I’d saved to my laptop seemed almost clinical after reading the priest’s tale. Each PIA agent who’d come up against vampires had all recounted the same thing. The nests were usually fairly small, with anywhere from five up to fifteen minions. The master always had absolute control over the nest. Cruel and quick to punish, they used their servants however they pleased.

  Loyalty was a foreign concept to the undead. Lackeys squabbled constantly and plotted against their masters. Unable to actually lift a finger against their creators, their plotting was usually in vain. The only way they could kill their overlords was to convince a human to do the job for them. They then showed their appreciation by draining the human to death so they couldn’t rise and turn the tables on them.

  It was both fascinating and horrible to read about the creatures that I was so close to becoming. Vampires were made by draining a human’s blood over several days. The final step was to force them to drink the blood of the monster that’d drained them. Once that happened, their bodies expired and they were reborn the next night as the undead.

  Vampires were bound to their master until either they, or their creator, died. They were similar to shifters in that they rarely remained alone for long. I wasn’t sure why, but it bothered me that we had something in common with the undead.

  There was one main difference between us. We were rarely able to control ourselves when we turned. We’d eat anything that moved. Vampires, on the other hand, retained their human intelligence. They didn’t need to kill their victims. They chose to inflict pain and suffering on their meals. In essence, it was their conscious choice to be evil.

  The undead were always hunted down once the PIA became aware of them, but shifters weren’t automatically killed. We usually only became a target if we made the mistake of feeding on a human. Once that happened, we effectively signed our own death warrants. Apparently, humans tasted a little too good to our kind. One small snack was enough to make us want more.

  A knock came at my door, startling me. I’d been so engrossed in the files that I hadn’t been paying attention. I’d dimly been aware of someone climbing the stairs, but didn’t realize they were heading for my room. I quickly closed the laptop when I remembered that I hadn’t locked the door.

  “Yes?” I called. The scent that wafted through the door told me that it was Edward on the other side. I relaxed again. Even if he’d rudely barged inside, he wouldn’t have known what I was researching. To a civilian, it would look like I was reading a fictional story.

  “Dinner will be ready in five minutes,” he replied.

  “I’ll be right down,” I said loudly then bit back a yelp when the boy appeared beside me. As solemn as always, he pointed at my laptop. Staring at him blankly, I shook my head in puzzlement. He pointed from it, to me, then back again. “I don’t get what you want me to do with it,” I said in frustration. I’d been reading for hours. Why did he choose to appear when I’d just closed the device?

  Throwing his hands up, he stuck his tongue out and disappeared. “Little brat,” I muttered as I stood and headed for the door.

  My friends weren’t the only ones in the dining room. Several couples were seated at the other tables. We received curious stares when we sat together since we clearly weren’t related to each other. Edward and Margaret wheeled our meals in on trolleys. Our table was the last to be served. My stomach was rumbling embarrassingly by the time a dish of fish and salad was placed in front of me.

  Nerves began to roil in my stomach shortly after I took my first bite. They grew worse as the meal progressed. I was pretty sure it wasn’t food poisoning. I felt anxious rather than nauseous.

  Reece picked up on my emotions and slid sidelong looks at me. I had the niggling sense that something was about to happen, but I didn’t know what it was. Mark had to say my name twice to drag my attention back to him. “Lexi, are you feeling alright?” he asked.

  “Not really,” I replied and pushed my half eaten meal away. The others had demolished theirs. “Something weird is going to happen soon.” I sounded as nervous as I felt and the others couldn’t hide their
concern.

  “What are you sensing?” Mark asked.

  I was silent for a long moment as I assessed the strangeness that was rapidly growing closer.

  “It’s the dead,” Reece answered for me, reading the thought directly from my brain. “They’re converging on the building.”

  “We should leave,” Flynn said uneasily. “We don’t want to be trapped in here if a bunch of zombies are about to attack.”

  “It’s not the undead that are coming,” I said before everyone at the table could scatter. “They’re the true dead.” I received blank stares. “Ghosts,” I elaborated.

  “We should go somewhere private,” Mark decided.

  The little boy materialized beside me again and pointed upwards. “You want us to go upstairs?” I asked.

  He shook his head and held his hands a foot or so apart, miming carrying something. Feeling dumb, I shook my head. “I don’t know what you mean.” In a very modern gesture, he rolled his eyes and pretended to type. “Oh, you want me to get my laptop.”

  “That’s really creepy,” Kala said when she realized that I was talking to a ghost. Thankfully, none of the other diners were aware of what was going on.

  I lifted my eyebrow in enquiry to Mark and he nodded. “Grab your computer.”

  Reece was reluctant to let me travel to the third floor alone. He was worried that the ghosts might be able to hurt me. They’d shown no signs of aggression towards me so far. I was pretty sure they couldn’t cause me any physical harm.

  Apart from when the ghost had drawn the message on the mirror, none of them had even tried to interact with us on the physical plane. “I’ll be fine,” I said to him before he could volunteer to accompany me. “I’ll meet you all at the SUV.”

  I took the stairs up to my room and snatched the laptop off the bed. I was careful not to move too quickly as I locked the door again and jogged back down the stairs. I trotted past the kitchen where Margaret was washing up. Humming softly, she didn’t even hear me leave through the backdoor. I hurried over to the SUV where everyone was waiting.

  The boy popped into sight on the driveway and beckoned. “I think the kid wants us to follow him,” I said to the others as I reached them.

  Debating the wisdom of travelling to an unknown destination, Mark finally nodded. “You’d better take the front seat.”

  Flynn obligingly slid into the middle seat in the back while I took Mark’s usual seat up front. I didn’t want to analyze why it felt so right to be sitting beside Reece. It probably had something to do with being an alpha.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Go right,” I directed as we reached the road and Reece silently obeyed. Disappearing and reappearing intermittently, the small boy led us towards Bradbury. To our relief, he directed us to take one of the smaller roads when we were about halfway to town. Maybe he knew that crossing the town line would be too dangerous for Mark. He’d already lost too much blood and it wouldn’t be healthy for him to suffer another nosebleed.

  After a few minutes of driving, we turned onto a dirt track. The boy led us through a complicated series of paths through the woods. I wasn’t sure that the residents even knew about some of the overgrown roads that we took. I was impressed with the little boy’s knowledge of the area when we eventually emerged onto a road and saw the lights of Bradbury in the distance.

  The kid pointed away from town and we continued on. A short while later, we turned onto another rutted track. This one led us to the last place I wanted to visit after dark; a cemetery.

  A dilapidated old church crouched beside an untended boneyard. The entire cemetery looked as if it had been abandoned decades ago. The gravestones were mossy and the inscriptions were worn and illegible.

  Other specters began to appear as the child pointed at the small wooden building. Materializing by the dozens, they watched as Reece parked on the overgrown driveway. Flynn shivered as he climbed out and it wasn’t from the cold. I was pretty sure he was sensitive to the phantoms’ presence.

  Mark carried the Ouija board beneath one arm and held a flashlight in his other hand. I carried my laptop cradled in my left arm. My right hand was ready to draw my gun, not that it would prove useful if it came down to battling ghosts.

  “Do we really have to go in there?” Kala asked plaintively when I took a step towards the church.

  “That’s where they want us to go,” I replied. I didn’t want to enter the building any more than she did. It was marginally better than having our séance in the middle of the graveyard.

  Reece took point and tested the first step that led to a tiny porch. Rotten from being out in the weather, it almost buckled beneath his weight. He stepped up onto the porch rather than risking any of the steps. The door opened inwards and it was stuck fast. He put his shoulder to it and it grudgingly gave way with a squeal of protest.

  Mark’s flashlight lit up the empty room. Pews had once graced the church, but they were long gone. The altar was gone as well. Any decorations that had once hung on the walls were missing and all of the windows had been smashed. I wasn’t sure if vandals or the weather were responsible for the destruction.

  The roof sported holes and a few boards were missing from the walls. It was a wonder the structure was still standing at all. Dirt and leaves covered the plain wooden floor. The boards were spongy, but they didn’t give as we crossed to the center of the room.

  Mark knelt and placed the Ouija board on the floor. He grimaced at having to sit in the filth and I shared his distaste. “Form a circle and hold hands,” he instructed us.

  I sat across from him with Reece on my left and Kala on my right. Flynn sat between Kala and Mark.

  “I call on the spirits who wish to communicate with us,” Mark said. As far as ceremonies went, it was pretty lame. I’d expected candles, black robes and chanting. He could have at least used a more dramatic tone.

  Despite his lack of flair, it worked. The church was suddenly crowded with apparitions. All were attractive and were in their early twenties. Their clothing dated from roughly two centuries ago right up to modern day. Some of the older ghosts were far more transparent than the younger ones. Some of the fresher ones looked almost real and were only slightly see-through.

  “Did it work?” Kala asked uneasily. Her shoulders were hunched and I imagined that her hackles were rising. She might not be able to see them, but she could sense their presence now that we were surrounded.

  “Yep,” I croaked. My skin was crawling at having so many spirits gathered in such close proximity. They’d left a small space around us, but the closest ones could have reached out and touched us.

  “How many are there?” Reece asked. His grip was almost tight enough to be painful. My grip was just as tight as his and I could hardly complain.

  “Hundreds,” I replied. “The room is packed and I can sense more of them outside.”

  “Put your fingers on the planchette,” Mark told me.

  Reece released my hand and Mark reached forward at the same time as I did. As soon as our fingers touched the heart shaped pointer, it lurched into motion. The arrow briefly came to a rest on a dizzying number of letters. It moved so rapidly that I couldn’t keep up with it.

  “What did that just spell out?” Kala asked when the arrow went still.

  “I couldn’t quite follow it,” Mark confessed.

  “It said something about the coven, but it moved too fast for me to get it all,” Flynn said.

  Mark sighed wearily. “This is going to take a while.” His plan had been a good one, but it wasn’t working out quite as well as he’d hoped.

  The small boy appeared beside me and I started hard enough to make the planchette skid across the board. He pointed at the laptop then at me and mimed opening it. Finally getting what he wanted me to do, I almost flushed at my thick headedness. “Uh, I think they want to use the laptop,” I said.

  “Ghosts can type?” Kala said incredulously.

  “I guess w
e’re about to find out.” Starting up the computer, I was glad I’d closed the files I’d been reading about vampires. I’d also taken the precaution of hiding them in an innocuous file that didn’t look suspicious at a casual glance.

  Opening a blank document, I waited for something to happen. Nothing did and I glanced at Mark for further orders.

  “Put the computer on the Ouija board and join hands again,” he instructed. I didn’t know how he knew what to do, but it worked. I put the laptop down and as soon as our hands were touching again, words began to appear on the screen.

  I didn’t see anyone typing, but the keys were rapidly depressed. A short message appeared on the page. The heavy weight of dozens of dead eyes was on me as I read their warning out loud. Kala and Reece leaned over to read it silently. “It says, ‘To destroy the coven, you must find the source of their power. They have hidden the talisman well and it will be perilous to search for it. If you come to their notice, you will be doomed to join our ranks.’”

  “Gee, that’s not at all ominous,” Kala muttered with a small shudder.

  With their message imparted, the ghosts faded until only the small boy remained. He put his hand on my shoulder and his expression was sorrowful. A bone cold chill seeped into my flesh from his insubstantial touch. It lingered for a few seconds after he also faded away to nothing. Pulling my hands free from Reece’s and Kala’s with a shudder, I rubbed my upper arms for warmth.

  Flynn leaned forward and spun the laptop around so he and Mark could read the message. “Couldn’t they just tell us where the talisman is instead of being so cryptic?” he complained.

  “I don’t think they know where it is,” Mark said. “If they did, I’m sure they’d have informed us of its whereabouts.”