Under a Ghostly Moon (Jerry Moon Supernatural Thrillers Book 1)

by William Moore

  "All ze better for zeeink you, my tasty leettle morsel," replied Uri, producing a very bad Bela Lugosi impersonation from behind his raised arm. The pair leant over the desk and kissed passionately.

  Sonia nudged Roanne between the ribs, eliciting a surprised flash of fangs. "I guess they know each other then?"

  Roanne gave the ticket girl an icy look. "Oh yes, they know each other. Lizzie's one of Uri's 'blood donors'. He's even suggested we invite her into the 'family'. He says he ‘enjoys her vitality’ but she's had a double veto from Charli and me. Both of us find her extremely tiresome, to put it politely. The prospect of spending eternity with all that fucking chirpiness is, quite frankly, our idea of Hell."

  Not for the first time, Moon found himself wondering about the true nature of the relationship between his three vampire friends. "I know what you're thinking, Moon," said Charli, who was suddenly standing very close to him. "Yes, we are lovers, all three of us." She caressed Roanne with a long, sultry glance which could have set the air on fire. "But we aren't selfish, you know, in five hundred years you learn to share. You and Sonia might want to consider that some day."

  Moon cleared his throat, which had suddenly become very dry. "Yes, we'll think about it," he managed squeakily.

  "Not this side of hell we won't!" vibed Sonia emphatically. "They may be the good guys but they're still bloody predators one way or another."

  "I was just being polite," Moon vibed back.

  "Oh yeah? Then why have you gone three shades pinker? I know you men..."

  "Forgive me for butting in on this charming little lovers' téte-â -téte." Charli's voice rang clearly in their heads. "But we vampires also know the language of ghosts, as do many other 'predators' that might not be so friendly. It is not a closed channel, so to speak." Both female vampires were regarding them with arched eyebrows.

  Now was Sonia's turn to blush. "I'm sorry, I didn't know you could hear us."

  "Nonsense," replied Roanne, her hidden laughter tinkling through their spirits like breaking icicles. "It's good that you're

  wary of us. We really are predators, no matter how hard we fight to retain our humanity. That kind of wariness could save your lives. It's a good instinct." Roanne gave Sonia a teasing look. "The offer still stands though."

  Sonia's blush darkened from pink to red. "Erm... We'll let you know."

  "Are you okay, Sonia? You look a bit flushed." Ellie's face was a picture of puzzlement as she looked from her friend to the two female vampires and back again; she must have sensed their unspoken exchange but was uncertain what she had experienced. Moon was surprised that the couple who had just entered behind them couldn't feel the sexual tension being generated by Charli and Roanne. It was almost tangible.

  "Yeah, fine," replied Sonia with a wary glance at Roanne, "it's just a bit warm in here, that's all."

  "Children! Play nicely!" Uri's warning vibe was a thunder of authority. "I apologise, Moon... Sonia, it's the rush after the gig. It makes us a little giddy so our vampire natures are harder to control."

  "I'll make a note of that for the future," Moon replied dryly.

  Ellie, who had missed all this, was still fussing over her friend. "Are you sure you're okay? You weren't too well earlier, were you? We can go home if you want, I don't mind."

  "I'm all right!" said Sonia emphatically. Then she whispered, "It's just the time of the month that's all. I always get a bit flaky around the start, remember?"

  "Oh? Yes, I remember," Ellie nodded. "Well, let me know if it gets too bad and we can go if you want to." Sonia had referred to an old problem that Moon was finding himself having to adjust to. Sonia's anaemic look sometimes wasn't entirely attributable to make-up.

  They entered the main part of the club via a small bar and picked up some drinks on the way. The place was hot, with that moist, human heat that emanates from people crowded in an enclosed space, and it smelt of perspiration, stale alcohol and mildew. It was impossible to have a cellar this close to the river without some damp breaking through. The dance floor was packed with couples, mostly Goths, but quite a few were more conventionally dressed and Moon was surprised to see that one or two others wore fetish gear. "There is a private section for those who want to play adult games," Uri spoke softly in his ear. "You would be surprised to know how popular it is."

  "Really?" replied Moon, jumping at the potential subject for a new article. "Do you know anyone who might agree to an interview?"

  "Oh, I think that might not be hard to arrange," replied Uri with a twinkle in his eyes.

  Roanne gave a snort. "He's pulling your leg, Moon. We own the place."

  "You do?" asked Sonia. The vampires seemed very talkative tonight. Moon thought that this was probably another side effect of their recent overdose of life-force.

  "Oh yes." Roanne shot a surreptitious glance at Avril and Ellie. "It's been in the 'family' for years. It started life as a coffee house in the seventeenth century."

  "So your 'family' has always tiptoed on the edge of propriety then?" observed Moon with a slight smirk.

  "Oh… we've never seen the point of stupid rules," explained Uri. "But we've always tried to stay on the right side of the law."

  Uri bought the first round of drinks and they found a table on a raised wooden dais that was set back from the dance floor. "Do you own any other businesses in the city?" Moon asked Uri confidentially, hoping to gain further insight into his friend's lifestyle while he was in a candid mood.

  Uri lowered his voice. "A few, yes. The girls and I have been living in Bristol for centuries; it's amazing how you collect things if you hang around long enough."

  "Like property?" asked Moon ingenuously.

  Uri laughed. "Yes, like property." Moon privately revised his estimate of the vampires' material wealth. He had assumed they were merely well off but he was beginning to suspect they were multi-millionaires.

  A tall, handsome, dark-haired thirty-something man, wearing a slightly outdated dark blue business suit over an open collared white shirt, walked with self-assurance up to their table. In the part yell, part pantomime language of an experienced night-clubber, he asked Ellie if she wanted to dance. Moon saw the flash of 'chemistry' that passed between them as she nodded her enthusiastic reply. Looks like someone's in for a lucky night, Moon commented to himself, as the tempting stocking gap at the top of those long legs passed within inches of his face.

  Sonia nudged him. "Fancy a dance yourself, you old letch?"

  "Less of the old!" he grumbled as she dragged him out onto the dance floor.

  Uri took their lead, gliding gracefully onto the floor with Roanne and Charli on either side of him. They flowed into a sinuous dance that was, strangely, powerfully erotic, even though it contained nothing which could be identified as overtly sexual. "I'm down here!" yelled Sonia irritably, dragging his attention away from the gyrating vampires.

  "Sorry," replied Moon. "I was just wondering how they do that."

  Sonia glanced over to where a growing space was forming around their friends as other dancers stopped to watch in appreciation. "Oh, just more vampire crap," she commented sarcastically, "if we ignore them they might stop."

  "They don't seem too bothered whether people are watching or not."

  "Don't you believe it! They're as drunk as skunks on all that energy they sucked up earlier and they're going for dessert. Only, I’d hazard a guess that it's sexual energy they're lapping up this time."

  Moon concentrated and found he could just make out pale violet wisps of energy floating towards the vampires. "You're right, I can see it. I wonder if that's one of the reasons they run this place the way they do..."

  "Yes, and just guess what Charli and Roanne would be up to if we took them up on their, oh so tempting, offer of a ‘fivesome’. They don't do anything that's not to their advantage."

  Moon considered this for an instant. Charli and Roanne's earlier antics must have touched a raw nerve for Sonia to be quite so scathing about their frien
ds. "So? That just proves that they're more human than we'd like to think they are." He turned from half watching the vampires to gaze into her dark, cinnamon-brown eyes. "They've done their best to achieve a lifestyle that avoids the destructive drives in their nature. I don't think it's fair to judge them on how they..."

  Moon's voice dwindled as he saw Ellie stepping off the dance floor with her handsome stranger, bag in hand as if she intended to leave. "Looks like Ellie's not coming home tonight," he commented, nodding in their direction.

  As Sonia turned to look, they both caught the crimson flash of twin rubies through the open neck of Ellie's companion's shirt. "Jerry!" cried Sonia in alarm. "He's one of them."

  Sonia's face was a mask of shock as Moon turned to her. "We have to stop them," he shouted against the backbeat of the heavy trance number that the DJ had just chosen. "You go and get the guys and I'll do my best to catch them before they leave."

  Moon rushed through the entrance doors just in time to see a taxi pull away from the kerb with Ellie and her abductor in the back seat. He yelled and ran a short way up the hill after them but there was nothing he could do.

  Sonia, Avril and the vampires appeared at the club entrance. Uri and the girls all had the strange, pumped up, feral look that Moon had learnt meant they were gearing up for a fight. Their long hair whipped around their faces as if they were standing in their own private whirlwind and the psychic energy pouring from them hit him solidly, like a storm-force blast. "They've taken a taxi!" Moon yelled. "But I think I know where they're headed!"

  A brief explanation followed and then they all slipped quickly into the nearest deserted side street. "You don't have to do this." Sonia looked anxiously at Avril. "Jerry and I know what to expect and we've got a few tricks up our sleeves if we're attacked. You don't have any."

  "Sonia, I've been doing kick boxing for ten years and made the regional finals three years running," said Avril sarcastically. "You're going up against humans as well as the ghoulies and ghosties tonight so you might need a bit of extra muscle. Anyway, I wouldn't miss this for the world, so you'd better not try to stop me."

  While this exchange was taking place Moon was using his mobile phone to contact the police. He tried the emergency line first but was told nothing could be done on the vague suspicion that someone of adult age might be in danger from their evening pick-up. In desperation he dialled Whatley's mobile number. The inspector answered groggily just before Moon expected to be diverted to voicemail. "Moon, do you know what time it is? This had better be important!" Moon could hear Mrs Whatley snoring robustly in the background. At least he hoped it was Mrs Whatley, for all he knew the inspector could be having an affair with a sumo wrestler - it would account for the frightening volume of the staccato rumble issuing from the handset.

  "Inspector, one of Sonia's friends has been kidnapped by the cultists and I think I know where they've taken her."

  Whatley woke up very quickly. "You're certain of this?"

  "As certain as we can be. Ellie was picked up by a man wearing one of those cult pendants and they took a taxi towards the Downs, which is where I think Rurik is hiding. There's a blight affecting the grass and foliage on the part of the Downs that lies over the Severn Beach line tunnel. My 'contacts' have told me that Rurik has that effect on the local vegetation if he stays long enough in one place. I think he must have found some kind of hidden installation or cave system under there."

  "I'll check that out," replied Whatley. "I don't suppose there's any chance of me convincing you to wait until my men arrive?"

  Moon shook his head. "Sorry, Art. These guys are killers; we can't afford to leave Ellie with them any longer than we have to. Relax, we're well prepared and probably better equipped than your constables are to face whatever's under there when all's said and done."

  "Okay, Moon, but take care, okay?" Whatley's concern seemed to radiate through the phone.

  "Of course I will, I'm not planning to become ghost fodder any time soon. See you up there." He disconnected after Whatley's goodbye and turned to the others. "Right, we've got police back-up on its way, so let's get going and rescue Ellie."

  Chapter 26

  Trembling in Uri's steely embrace, Moon clenched his eyes tightly shut to block out the cityscape that rushed past beneath them. "Not much further, my friend," Uri shouted consolingly into the wind. "I can see the ventilation shaft now. I will just drop straight into it so don't be surprised if it's dark when we land."

  Moon felt the change in the air as they entered the concrete shaft and heard the snap and scream of tortured metal as Uri brushed through the vent's rusting protective grill as if it were as insubstantial as a spider-web. Then they were, mercifully, back on solid ground. Moon opened his eyes and could just vaguely see the horizontal portion of the shaft running off into the darkness to his right. Dead trailers of bramble and old man's beard tangled down chaotically from the upper shaft and he brushed his hand across his face in disgust, trying to ward off the ghostly caress of cobwebs. "How the hell are we going to see where we're going?" he whispered breathlessly. "We'll break our necks!"

  "The girls and I have excellent night vision," replied Uri. His retinas flashed blue in the dark as they caught the meagre light from the mouth of the vent. "You'll be safe if you let us guide you."

  "I guess that's how it'll have to be..."

  Moon was interrupted by a joyous whoop from above. "Whoo! That was some trip," Avril gasped excitedly as Charli deposited her beside Moon. "We must do that again sometime."

  "Shush!" hissed Sonia, who had landed a second later with Roanne. "We're trying to sneak quietly into a stronghold of evil and you insist on yelling your head off. I knew it was a mistake to let you come along."

  "Don't be such a killjoy, Sonia." Avril was unabashed by her friend's sternness. "They won't hear us from here."

  "I just hope they haven't posted lookouts, that's all," commented Moon. "If they have that's our element of surprise gone straight away."

  "Don't worry, my friend." Uri shook back his white-blond mane and sniffed the air. "If there were other humans within earshot I would smell them. Here, I only smell rats. Shall we be off?"

  The ventilation pipe was about four feet high. Uri lead the way, because he had the most acute night vision and superior strength, as they crouched as low as they could and made their cramped and uncomfortable way towards the enemy. Uri suddenly stopped sharply. "Another set of bars," he whispered. He sniffed the air. "And something else..."

  "What is it?" asked Moon, peering around Uri's broad shoulders to where a dim light shone through the grille.

  "If I didn't know it was impossible I'd swear it was another vampire," hissed Uri. He ripped the grille from its fixtures. "We'll soon find out."

  There was a shuffling noise and an unkempt figure with wild hair and a straggly beard appeared through the opening. Moon thought it might be a tramp who had sought shelter in the tunnel beyond but then it snarled like an angry puma and leapt on Uri, its clawed hands seeking his throat. Without effort, Uri punched straight through its chest with one hand, taking out its heart. The unfamiliar vampire had an instant to gaze stupidly at the gaping hole in his chest before he burst into flames and was quickly reduced to a pile of ash. "Thank the Gods for Buffy and Blade," said Uri. "If their storylines didn't make vampires die so neatly in the modern imagination it would be very hard to explain this to the police."

  "It was a vampire?" asked Moon, trying to cope with the creature’s tidy incineration. Uri’s explanation had reminded him again of the vast implications of the impact that the combined human imagination had upon the supernatural.

  "Yes, it was," Uri replied wearily. "It seems Rurik has regained his power to infect others. This is bad news for us, my friend. We don't know how many more of his people Rurik has turned."

  They slipped one by one past the broken grille into the tunnel beyond. A gas-powered camping lantern hung from one wall, dimly illuminating the track for a few paces on either si
de but no more of Rurik's minions waited for them. It would seem the master vampire and his cult weren't expecting any trouble.

  "Shouldn't we take this with us?" whispered Avril, reaching to take the lamp from its hook.

  "No, leave it." Uri shook his head, his pupils huge and owl- like from their trip through the darkness. "It would only give us away and the three of us can see well enough in the dark to prevent you humans from injuring yourselves. We're also powerful enough to deal with most of the opposition should they attack us in the dark... Moon, what are your small friends doing?"

  Moon jumped a little at Uri's abrupt question and looked around. The little ghost balls, which he had grown to ignore as he had become familiar with their presence, had ceased their constant exploration of their surroundings and were hovering very still around his head, leaving only the front clear to allow him see and speak. "I don't know." He regarded his ghostly halo with puzzlement. "Perhaps they can sense Rurik nearby and they're afraid."

  "They don't look afraid to me," observed Roanne. "They look like they're spoiling for a fight."

  "What're they talking about?" Avril asked Sonia, trying to see what the others were looking at.

  "When we first encountered Rurik his power came from sucking the life out of

  ghosts," Sonia explained. "They leave behind a kind of left over essence, a tiny blue glowing ball of life force. For some reason they latch on to Jerry when they find him and follow him around. Now it seems they're acting strangely."

  "Oh, right..."said Avril with a puzzled look. "This sort of thing happens to him a lot, does it?"

  "From what he's told me this is a bit weirder than usual but not much!"

  "Well, I'm glad you've got him, not me. Give me Roger any time - there's nothing more dependable than a bass player."

  "Oh, being with Jerry has its compensations." Sonia looked at Moon fondly through the gloom.