by Milo Spires
Another angel then swooped in and came to a halt right in front of him. Kaine found his arms extending without his permission. They were passing Jenny’s lifeless body across to him.
‘Thank you,’ the angel said. Then he then slid back in the air some distance to allow the conversation to continue.
‘More vampires have just arrived back in time now,’ the angel advised. ‘There are over 150 of them down there, and they have found the tunnel your wife is in. They have blocked it from both ends. It may not be possible for you to save them, as in less than a few minutes the tunnel will be set on fire. I can still offer you the position as my Truth Messenger with the same conditions though, but sadly without Jenny, of course.’
‘Regina, can you hear me?’ Kaine messaged frantically, wondering if the situation was really as grave as the angel had just said it was.
If it were, he thought, then why the hell hadn’t she messaged him?
‘Darling, I love you,’ she messaged. ‘Save yourself! They are setting fire to the tunnel from both ends. Don’t come here, they will kill you.’ She closed the connection without waiting for his reply.
Kaine felt cornered into accepting the position now, but in his heart he knew that Regina would rather die than be saved to wake up somewhere else without him. No way did he want that either; they had discussed this and had both refused the offer.
‘I love her, and have to save her. FREE ME!’ He screamed at the angel, and then he was free.
Hurtling back down, a moment passed and then he disappeared into the rain cloud, but as he came out the other side into the hideous weather, his speed had increased so much that even before the other vampires were freed from the spell over them, he was into them. Grabbing two of them as he passed, he started smashing their heads together so much their skulls caved in. Then flinging them aside, he positioned himself into the optimum position for maximum speed and headed for his home.
The anger that was sweeping through was substantial to say the least. Since having his rage wiped clean by the angel as he does, his fury had grown and begun to spread exponentially throughout him. In his mind he didn’t care if there were two hundred of the fools down there, he would kill them all for this.
Jenny was his friend and they had taken her from him, but now they were going to kill his wife and that was their biggest mistake. He would tear them all to pieces before he allowed that to happen. He had assiduous beliefs towards his relationship lasting indefinitely with her and should another being as they obviously were, ever try coming between them, then by bare hand his rage would guide him, as he sought retribution for the heinous act.
Blood would be spilt in rivers today and not gallons. He thought.
Then almost as if a divine entity had placed it there, a thought appeared in his mind and he wondered if the angel himself had not bestowed it upon him.
Who am I kidding, there are over one hundred and fifty of them down there, I am surely not entertaining the idea that I can fight them all and save Regina am I?
Unless I change tactics… I’m sure to loose her.
Then as he saw more vampires coming up towards him, he arched his back, and with extreme G forces surging through him, his body shaking fiercely and with his wings almost snapping, he came to a halt.
Screams filled the air as the vampires approached. Their swords glimmered in the bright sky as they prepared to slice through him.
Kaine remained hovering, waiting the few seconds until they were upon him. As they swarmed up to him, he held his hand up high and said, ‘I know where your master Rex is being kept, and I demand to speak with your leader.’
When they realized what he had just said, not one of them was stupid enough to lunge for him, they knew the punishment if they did.
‘I know where he is,’ Kaine continued as he watched for any sudden movements. ‘He is a prisoner, trapped for an eternity on a raft at a reservoir called Bewl Waters, and he wants you to save him.’
He watched their battle-worn faces and could see two distinct expressions on all of them. One showed a desperate joy they might be reunited with their master again. The other was a face of anger that they couldn’t kill him. They daren’t just in case he was telling the truth. They also knew if they did, and Vius was told he had demanded to speak with him, then as a result he would be utterly furious and the punishment had to be death.
‘Who is your leader?’ Kaine demanded, slightly uneasy they were surrounding him.
‘Our leader is Vius!’ one of them said.
‘Then tell Vius I want to meet him on that beach down there in one hour, and that I will bring Rex back if you keep my wife from being killed in the tunnel below.’ Kaine was feeling desperate and hoping his new plan would work. If it didn’t, then just by the numbers of vampires that were swarming around him, he felt sure that today would be the end. His family and himself would be savagely killed.
‘Don’t move! I will message our leader.’
Kaine added, ‘Tell your leader that the angels warned me, the one who keeps Rex prisoner will soon rid vampires from the face of the earth. We will all cease to exist.’
As he said this, their looks changed to that of utter confusion.
‘You are lying!’ the vampire snarled. ‘How is that possible, you fool? Not even the werewolves managed that. We are too strong a species, too powerful.’
‘You saw me talking with the angels,’ Kaine retorted. ‘Have you ever known a vampire to have friends in Heaven before?’
He noticed with some satisfaction how their faces changed yet again. Now their expressions clearly showed that perhaps he might actually be telling the truth.
After a moment of quiet, the vampire told him, ‘Our leader has agreed to meet you on the beach.’
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Then as soon as the vampires flew away from him, he messaged Regina.
‘Are you safe?’ he messaged. Hoping they hadn’t lied to him and already set fire to the tunnel with her inside it. As the message left his mind, he found himself panicking.
Please answer, he thought, please answer, darling.
In a millisecond, which still felt like hours to him, she answered, ‘I am here, baby.’
As she did, a great sense of relief passed through him. He didn’t even want to think of how he would have felt or reacted if she hadn’t answered. To spend an eternity without her would have been too much loneliness to bear, he felt sure of that. He loved her so very much.
‘Are you okay, darling?’ he messaged.
‘I am now. They were pouring petrol or something into the tunnel from both ends and were just about to set fire to it. How did you stop them? And how is Jenny? Is she with you?’ she asked.
He was caught off-guard by the question. The realization that soon he would have to tell her about Jenny’s death suddenly loomed in his mind and he felt his heart wrench.
‘Can’t talk now. I am meeting their leader in one hour on the beach by the port,’ he messaged.
‘But what will you say to persuade him?’ She replied.
‘Don’t worry I can be persuasive if I need to be. I love you so much, baby. Don't worry, I will save you somehow, I promise.’
Chapter 40 - Mietioc’s Wrath
In the cells, the fight between Mietioc and the goons was fully underway. Swords were crashing, sparks were flying, and apart from brutal strikes only narrowly missing him, Mietioc was completely enjoying himself again.
Since his time in Scotland, and then a brief moment in hell, he hadn’t used his swords, and he had missed the joys of swinging them. Now though as part of a plan, he was backing up along the passageway to give the goons the false impression he was loosing. He wanted to lure them into a situation where they thought they were going to be triumphant. Also in turn he wanted to tire them, and to see what moves they had if any at all. So far it seemed to him they were solely reliant upon their massive frames and nothing else. They obviously thought size mattered, but he knew it didn’t.
&n
bsp; Meanwhile Hoidrious had asked Longinus if he would help his goons in the fight, and if he agreed to, he promised that afterwards he would be allowed to go free.
Longinus considered the idea and although being allowed to go free was tempting, as he was about to laugh and deem it nothing more than a completely farcical idea, suddenly a thought crossed his mind and he accepted.
Hoidrious quickly unlocked the door and before he realized Longinus had lied, he suddenly felt a massive pain in his side. Looking down in horror, he could see that sticking out of his ribs was the cursed arrow that Dracus had shot Raffious with. Longinus had rammed it into him with great vengeance and furious rage. The thing had gone straight in through his flesh and then burrowed itself into his ribs.
A second passed and then Hoidrious felt his whole body beginning to twitch violently, and as his nerves began to freeze, then numbness followed shortly afterwards. His sense of touch vanished and in its place was the sense of nothingness.
Then Longinus tripped him up with extreme force and slammed him down against the floor and started undoing his robes.
Raffious charged out of the cell and fled down the passageway towards Mietioc and the warring goons. Only as he saw he couldn’t pass them, he was forced to stop and wait.
Then as Longinus finally got the robes of Hoidrious, suddenly the amulet dropped out of his pocket and rolled along the floor. Longinus was instantly reminded about the necklace that the gorgeous Raffious was wearing, and with those thoughts he also wondered if the story about the amulet and the necklace was true.
Then with a devious gleam in his eye, he turned around to see where Raffious was standing and grinned as he turned back around to face the other way. Looking down the passageway he could see that it was clear of obstructions and was steeply sloping away from him.
After picking the amulet up, he threw it and watched with a grin as it bounced and spun carefree into the distance.
Raffious dropped to his knees and then grasped at the necklace in a desperate attempt to stop it from killing him, although it was futile because the barbs violently lacerated his fingers as it continued to contract.
Suddenly the same barbs also severed his jugular vein, which within a millisecond turned into a heavy jet of coppery blood. Then as the necklace disappeared into his neck, he startled gurgling. The Dark Messenger was experiencing violent terror as it swept through his brain.
A moment later the necklace completely contracted and his fell off his shoulders and rolled along the floor.
‘Wow what a cool necklace. Now you’re fucking free, you fucker.’ Longinous chortled to himself.
Mietioc who had been playing with his attackers up to this point, suddenly found himself bored of just crashing swords against swords, and decided to end it. He stepped forwards on one foot into the kill zone and taunted them by sticking his face out towards them.
Then as they lunged forwards he pulled himself back out of the way. Now with both of them unprotected, he grinned at their error and threw both of his swords into their chests.
As they hit, and driven by the immense weight, their razor sharp points burst through the goon’s sternums, and continued on their path until they ripped themselves out the other side.
In reaction to the tremendous pain, both of them dropped their swords and still masked, turned to look at one another.
Then within the miniscule of time, two identical tunnels of flames appeared in their minds, and sucked their conscious thoughts inside them.
Mietioc wondered whether Satan would be as forgiving with them, as he had been with himself only a few hours before.
Then grabbing his swords by their handles, and with a powerful jerk, he slid them back out of their chests, and watched as their lifeless frames crashed hard on to the floor beside him.
Wiping the blood of his swords across their bodies, he turned and walked on down the passageway.
When he had reached Raffious’ headless corpse, he kicked the head ahead of him and walked on towards Hoidrious who was laying paralysed on the floor.
Standing over the top of the naked leader, Mietioc grinned down at him and said, ‘What a pathetic way to leave this world, and you had so much beforehand, I can only imagine how being trapped down there for eternity will feel like. Give my regards to Satan though, wont you.’
As he finished his sentence, the memory of his warriors faces flashed before him, and rage overtook his mind.
He brought his swords down and sliced off both of the evil leaders hands off. Then he kicked them away and grinned. ‘Now im going to cut you limb from limb.’
Then he swung his swords around his head and brought them down hard across Hoidrious’ legs.
Then he picked them up off the floor and showed them to him. Then he picked up his swords and debated over whether he should end the fucker now, or leave him like that for eternity and simply walk away.
A moment passed, and his mind spurred by Satan’s request, decided on death. Then to accommodate the old serpents requirements, and with a lightening flick of his swords, cleanly he chopped off the fucker’s head.
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Earlier as Mietioc had kicked Raffious head and then walked on, he had failed to look inside the cells as he was passing them. Had he looked in to the one near Raffious’ headless corpse, he would have seen Longinus under the bench.
It had been his plan of escape without having to cross paths with the battle-hardened nut, that he felt sure would slice him from ear to ear if he challenged him
Moments before and after putting on Hoidrious’ robes, he had dived into the shadows under the forlorn bench. Longinus had thought about maybe using words on Mietioc instead, but had grinned to himself as he had realized how foolish that would have been especially after witnessing Hoidrious’ failed attempt to placate his anger with words, moments before. No he had decided words would see him in hell if he tried to use them, so wiping away a puddle of something vile, he had slipped himself underneath the bench and played dead.
Then as he heard him talking to Hoidrious, he waited a few more seconds before he slid out from under the bench and then disappeared down the passageway towards the stairs.
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As he climbed the seemingly never-ending stairs, Longinus congratulated himself for his cleverness. He mused over the plan once again, reveling in its brilliance.
Whilst Longinus had been a prisoner of the cells, and as the misty swamp had started to consume him, desperate to evade it from sucking him in, he had started to think up an escape plan. As the plan was coming together though, there had been something he knew he had to achieve but couldn’t for the life of him think how to do it.
OK getting out of the cells would be easy. He would say that Raffious had arranged for the Elite warriors to be killed, which he believed would undeniably result in the cell door being thrust open as they came piling in to brutally torture him. Then as they did, he would simply attack them with the cursed arrow and escape.
But getting up the one hundred and fifty three floors undetected, that was the million-dollar question, which for some time he had absolutely no answer for.
He was fully aware if one vampire saw him and then screamed, all the floors above him would undeniably become blocked by hoards of them as they charged down to kill him.
Then one day it had become obvious, and as he felt the saliva was building up in his mouth suggesting the swamp was calling to him, desperate to not forget his thoughts, he had scratched them into the bench. Then when he had come around again, he saw the message to himself and was filled with joy.
It told him the answer to his million-dollar question, that for his escape plan to work, he needed Hoidrious’ robes. Although it sounded ridiculous and completely unreachable, he told himself that should the moment arrive where the old fucker appeared with only two goons, he would have to take that as a sign—a sign meaning the escape plan from that moment on, had a green light for go.