The Dark Messenger

by Milo Spires

  Instantly she was greeted by Solomon and Bruce. Both flew across the garage floor and surrounded her, wagging their tales frantically, thrashing them into anything that got in their way.

  ‘Calm down! Calm down! Where’s your father?’ she laughed through her crash helmet as she leant down to give them both a hug. In reply they bolted across to the bottom of the stairs and looked up, barking.

  ‘He’s upstairs, is he?’ she said, pausing before messaging her husband:

  ‘Darling, I am in the garage. Are you upstairs?’ she sent. She knew that the dogs were never wrong, but she just wanted to know exactly where he was.

  Probably in the spare bedroom, she guessed.

  ‘I am in the bedroom next to the junk cupboard with our guests,’ came his reply.

  Knew it, Regina smirked.

  ‘Could you get some blood from the fridge, please? Becky is violent and I don't think she has ever had any,’ he messaged.

  Regina quickly closed the heavy emergency exit door to the garage and dried the dogs’ feet. Throwing the dirty towels into the corner of the garage next to the washing machine, she headed up the stairs.

  As she entered the kitchen she reached down to open the fridge door, and suddenly remembered that neither of them had drunk any of the thick red liquid this morning. Strange--normally it was the first thing they did together before even getting dressed. She figured that they had both been so caught up in the vision that they had obviously forgotten. Then she smiled naughtily to herself as she remembered the real reason she hadn’t remembered: she had wanted Kaine to make love to her, and all else had seemed paled in significance.

  After getting the drinks and returning back downstairs, she found the door to the spare room was closed. She put the glasses down on the only available place--the tiled floor beneath her.

  As she reached up for the door handle, it suddenly opened. Kaine was standing there, a huge smile on his face.

  ‘Hi,’ she said as he smiled down at her.

  ‘Hi,’ he replied. He put his hand gently on her shoulder and squeezed it softly.

  ‘Come in. Jenny’s asleep in the chair, but Becky’s awake,’ he said.

  As Regina entered, she noticed the beautiful, exceptionally-slim woman with a bobbed hair cut laying on the bed opposite, her newly-formed fangs exposed in a grimace.

  ‘We just arrived ourselves, and I put Jenny in that chair over there, away from Becky. Just in case,’ he said, pointing to the limp body slumped in a chair.

  ‘Oh my god!’ Regina said as she suddenly saw Jenny’s deeply-bruised neck. She crouched down to take a closer look at it, pushing Jenny’s hair back to examine the wound.

  ‘Bad, isn’t it,’ Kaine said over her shoulder. ‘There were four men in the room, but one was already dead when I got there. Had his throat ripped out. I’d guess Becky did it, by the blood on her hands. One of the three men was holding her around her throat and another was in front punching her. The third one had just taken his gun out, and looked like he was about to shoot her as I made my “quiet” entrance,’ he said with a grin.

  ‘You? A quiet entrance? I find that hard to believe,’ Regina replied with an amused smile. Then she sobered as she let Jenny’s hair fall back.

  ‘Jenny’s neck is really bad, darling. We have to call Raffious, and convince him to come over to see it.’ Regina took one last look, a puzzled look on her face. ‘Looks like they were trying to kill her. I wonder why?’ she mused.

  ‘I don’t know but I had to kill one of them--the guy with the gun. He obviously thought his weapon made him tough or something. After he proved that my battle-gear works, he ran out of bullets, and without his gun he found himself without his manly-hood, I guess. He pissed himself, it was so funny. I had to laugh because he stared at me as if I look scary or something,’ he said, smiling at her.

  Then he said, ‘Anyway, Becky attacked him, and I couldn’t allow her to drink his blood, so I had no choice. Ghurka knife in the head; I’m amazed at how accurate it flew.’ He sighed as he now remembered that he had forgotten to pull it out of the man’s skull.

  ‘Those vamp guys are idiots! Regina said, shaking her head in disbelief.

  She then reluctantly remembered Kaine’s motorbike blowing up as one of the helicopters crashed into it.

  ‘Don't worry darling.’ he said, reading her mind, ‘I will have your bike. I preferred it anyway, as the engine has lower miles on it,’ he messaged as he burst out laughing.

  ‘But…’ she squeaked, her eyes wide.

  ‘Got you!’ he messaged. ‘Only kidding, baby. Doesn’t matter--at least we saved these two ladies. When all of this is over I will get another one.’

  Suddenly Becky sat bolt upright and began hissing at Regina. She lunged off the bed at her, fangs fully extended, with deep rage coursing through her veins. Kaine had gone to get the drinks off the hallway floor, and couldn’t react in time. As he hurried to put them back down, he saw that there was no need to worry about his wife. He watched as she dealt with the attack.

  Regina grabbed Becky by the throat and launched her fully backwards into the air, ramming her hard into the wall behind.

  ‘You have a lot to learn, bitch. Fuck with me and you won’t be living long, I promise,’ she said calmly into Becky’s face. She then let her grip go and slipped her leading elbow forwards into Becky’s face, smashing her head backwards into the wall.

  Becky was furious; the vampire anger was enraged, and she spun round again, intending on replying to the elbow.

  But this time Kaine was on her. Furious, he grabbed her throat in his extremely strong grip and began to squeeze tighter and tighter until he could be certain that Becky would behave. Only as his rage was taking over him did Regina intervene.

  ‘Kaine, don’t hurt her!’ she cried.

  Through the rage building inside he heard her voice and instantly relaxed his grip, just enough to not kill her.

  ‘Sorry, darling. She pissed me off in the hospital too. She just doesn’t listen, the stupid bitch.’

  Regina touched his face. ‘Remember, she is new to our world. Her body is obviously having a bad reaction to the turning process.’

  She reached for one of the glasses on the cabinet behind her. ‘Here let’s give her the blood.’

  Kaine held Becky’s mouth open, her head wedged backwards tightly against the wall, and Regina quickly poured the blood into it. The sustenance had an instant effect; Becky’s rage subsided and her fingers, clutching Kaine’s arm, gradually lost all power. Her arms collapsed to the bed and her eyelids suddenly shut tight as she passed out.

  ‘Finally,’ Kaine breathed in relief. He then noticed his wife looking at his badly chewed-up arm.

  ‘I know, baby. That was Becky’s doing.’ He shook his in disbelief at the memory. ‘She’s a feisty one. Had her teeth locked in the whole journey home,’ he said.

  Neither of them was worried; they knew that by the following morning the lacerations would be completely gone, leaving no scars. Vampire injuries were nearly always fully healed within a day, or two at the most. Only the wounds infected from werewolf claws seemed to take so much longer to heal, due to the infectious slime that covered them.

  ‘I’m going upstairs to call Raffious then,’ Regina said as she trotted up the stairs with her drink in her hand, to make the call.

  Kaine picked Jenny up and carried her out of the room, stopping for a second outside the door to lock it. When he reached the lounge, he carefully laid her down on their big brown suede sofa and then wrapped her in a soft warm blanket.

  ‘Did you get me a drink?’ he called out loud to Regina.

  ‘Yes, baby. It’s on the chest of drawers in Becky’s room,’ she messaged.

  ‘Damn,’ Kaine said to himself. He’d hoped that she had brought his up with her, but then remembered she had left the room first to call Raffious. He had stupidly walked right past his and not even seen it.

  ‘Solomon. Bruce. Come and watch this woman, will you plea
se?’ he asked the dogs as he walked out of the lounge. Both of them flew into the room and immediately sat by the sofa, guarding her as instructed.

  As he was walking back toward the lounge some minutes later with his drink, he heard Jenny scream. Looking across the room, he saw that she was sitting up on the sofa looking quite disorientated, holding her neck in both hands. Regina heard the scream too, and bolted past her husband, a bag of ice in her hand. She had just taken it out of the freezer moments before to place on Jenny’s neck whilst she slept.

  ‘My neck--it hurts so much,’ she said, the intense pain keeping her unaware of the fact she was in a strange place. Regina, smiling, showed her the ice and walked over to her before placing it softly against her neck. Jenny gave her a relieved look as the freezing cold ice made an instant improvement on her terrible condition.

  ‘Where am I, and who are you?’ she muttered in an extremely brittle voice. She could hardly speak through the pain.

  ‘Shhh--don’t speak.’ Regina advised gently. ‘You are in our house. Please there’s no need to worry. My husband saved you from those awful men in the hospital.’

  ‘Hospital, what hospit...?’

  But then terror lit her eyes as she recalled the day’s events, flooding into her mind like a partially-remembered song, that was suddenly brought back in full. She tensed up as she recognized Kaine, the mountain-sized – creature – who was standing in the doorway watching her.

  Regina could hear Jenny’s sharp intake of breath, and knew she was gearing up to scream.

  ‘He’s a…a… Vamp’ she started to say, pointing a shaking finger at him.

  ‘Yes, darling. Don’t speak, just listen and calm down.’ Regina took Jenny’s hands and gazed gently into her eyes. ‘We are both vampires, but we won’t hurt you. We are not like the stories you have heard. Kaine saved your life. He is the kindest vampire you will ever meet, I promise,’ she said, really hoping as she finished her sentence that Jenny would not react further and just accept it.

  ‘We won’t hurt you. We are your friends,’ Kaine said, crouching down so that he was not so huge in size as he spoke to her.

  ‘Oh, and we have your friend Becky downstairs too. She’s asleep in our spare bedroom. She’s okay; I think she needs to sleep now, as we gave her some medicine. She will be fine soon though, and then you can see her,’ he said, smiling at her.

  Jenny then remembered Kaine back in the hospital and how he had been the one who had neutralized the situation. He had stopped the horrible men who were trying to kill her, and he had been extremely gentle with her before she had passed out.

  ‘Sorry.’ She smiled apologetically. ‘I just…haven’t met real vampires before.’

  ‘We aren’t like them, trust me.’ Regina replied. ‘They kill humans and we don’t. We only drink deer’s blood, which you have to agree is hardly anything different to humans eating venison, is it?’ She hoped her explanation would put Jenny’s mind at rest that she was truly safe there.

  ‘I love venison too,’ Jenny said in agreement. She smiled a little, then winced at the extreme pain in her neck that she received for doing so.

  Kaine put a hand on Jenny’s shoulder and said to her, ‘Jenny, I will make you a promise which I will keep. I will protect you and never let any harm come to you. Okay?’

  Regina smiled at her, hoping it was enough to reassure her that he wasn’t lying either.

  Then a tear began to roll down Jenny’s cheek, and soon after more followed, opening the floodgates. She started sobbing. Regina slid onto the edge of the sofa and put her arm around her.

  ‘Go on, let it all out. You will feel so much better afterwards. It always does for me,’ she said in a soft caring voice.

  Solomon and Bruce hadn’t moved an inch when Jenny had woken up, but now both of them knew it was their moment. Together they rushed over to the edge of the sofa and started licking Jenny’s hand, which was just showing from underneath her blanket. Solomon pushed his nose under the blanket and started whining, as his tail thrashed around. Kaine was about to tell them to lay down when he could see that Jenny had stopped crying because of them, and was actually appreciating their affection.

  Jenny slid her hand out from under the blanket and started to stroke them both. Together they took turns knowing she was ill by sliding their heads down underneath her hand so that she could slide her fingers through their fur. As she did, they made the strangest of sounds.

  Regina smiled at her dogs. ‘Looks like they like you a lot too. Don't you worry, Jenny. We will sort all this mess out for you and your friend. You can both stay here with us for as long as you want,’ she said, looking up at her husband and hoping that he didn’t mind, realizing that she hadn’t actually asked him first.

  He didn’t mind though. Far from it, really he thought as he nodded back to her. She was too busy with the dogs to notice.

  Regina then got up and left the room for a second, and when she returned she had in her hands, her ‘just in case’ box from upstairs.

  ‘Here. I hope it helps,’ she said, passing Jenny some aspirin and a glass of water.

  She’d found the box one day, and after looking inside it, realized that she should keep it, ‘just in case’ she ever met another human who needed the medicine that was inside it.

  ‘I hope they help. Pills weren't around when I was a human,’ she said.

  Jenny nodded, trying to understand this new reality she had been brought into. She had so many questions…

  ‘We will leave you now so you can get some sleep, okay?’ Regina touched Kaine’s arm and turned to go. At the door she turned and said, ‘And, oh! We have asked a good friend to come over. His name is Raffious, and he is a holy man. He was very concerned about your neck when I called him earlier. He said that he should be here soon to see you, if you don't mind.’ She smiled reassuringly. ‘He's very nice, so there’s no need to be scared, okay?’

  Jenny nodded. Then she closed her eyes and soon after, fell asleep.

  Chapter 15 - Visiting Old Friends

  One hundred of Rex’s Elite Warriors had been given their orders to accompany ten infected humans up to Scotland to attack Angus and his pathetic coven. His exact words had been, ‘Upon arrival, make those Scottish bastards pay for their crime of killing humans in public. Then return with their priceless artifacts after destroying everything else.’

  The journey was going to be a long one. Soon all of them, vampires and humans alike, were going to be crammed together inside steel cargo containers before being loaded onto a freight train early the next morning. They would be in the freezing cold steel boxes for hours, heading for the highlands. Most of them knew that there was a strong possibility they would die up there, but death to these warriors would be the ultimate proof that they would die for their coven, and none of them particularly feared it. They actually welcomed a battle where their attackers might be similarly matched or even more skilled. To date none of them had ever met beings as evil as themselves.

  After it was confirmed by their leaders that they were going on this trip, they had been so happy, that the noise they had made was unbelievable. They had grabbed each other viciously by the shoulders and snarled in each other’s faces, banging the walls and cheering. They loved battle and they loved going into war against other covens, except the only downside was, that some of them might never see their master again. They also hoped that this time the war was just, and wasn’t so that Rex could steal Angus’ riches, as many of them had been suspicious of before, when they were at war with the Scots a thousand years previously.

  On the train, the infected humans were all held inside the last cargo container where they were chained together by their arms and legs. As an added precaution, they were also laid down flat on the floor and covered in blankets to keep them warm. Then a hardened steel net was laid over the top to ensure that they stayed that way too. The vampires were pure evil and would fight absolutely anything, but being inside cargo containers cornered by werewolves
was not a situation they cared to face. If the train was delayed for some reason or another, they had dangerous cargo on board; and if that happened, they had to make sure their prisoners couldn’t escape, because that night it was going be full moon. Aside from these humans, they took a further ten uninfected female humans, both for their torturing entertainment and to drink their blood once torturing got boring. They had been careful to keep the infected only as males, to ensure that there were no mistakes when they were up there.