by Helen Bright
“Tell me how you know my name,” he said angrily.
Now I could tell the truth I thought as I studied his scowling yet interested face. Or I could try and turn it around and try and reason with him, but I wasn’t yet sure how I could do that, or even if I should. I tried my best to access the bond that I held with Alex but he had closed himself off for his meeting. I had welcomed that fact earlier, when I had been planning and buying for my proposal, but now I wished the bond was open and he could sense my fear at this possibly life threatening situation.
“So you are refusing to speak to me,” he stated as he studied me closely. “I have all the time in the world for you to tell me Julia,” he smiled sadistically.
So he knew my name. That should come as no surprise. I mean he had followed me to my parents’ home and in a small village like this everyone knew who you were and who you were seeing.
“Don’t move. I will be back momentarily and I will punish you if I find you have disobeyed me.” He then went back behind the bar and I heard him close the trap door to the cellar and pour himself a drink.
Chapter 40
Josh
I was just getting dressed when I heard my phone ring. I thought it would be Alex letting me know how his meeting with the local vicar had gone. We were on good terms with the last one because Night Movers had contributed enough money to get the roof fixed on the church. But as Alex wanted to get married within a couple of weeks I had a feeling the church would be getting yet another sizable donation so that Alex could get his way.
A quick glance at my phone before I answered told me it was Mel, my bar manager from the Red Lion.
“Hi Mel what can I do for you?” I said whilst putting my trainers on.
“Josh, I need you to come down here quick. There’s a man, who I think is actually a vampire and he has Alex’s girlfriend here in the bar. I tried to stop him but he’s really strong and quick and he knocked me out for a minute or so but I can hear him in the bar now. I’m in the cellar and I’ve left the outside doors open for you. Hurry please Josh. I don’t think I can take him down on my own.”
I felt like my feet were weighted down for a moment and I couldn’t move, but then I quickly grabbed my car keys and a few sharp long knives out of my kitchen while I spoke to try and calm Mel.
“Now listen to me Mel, under no circumstances must you try to go near him again. Just stay where you are and keep your phone on silent but expect my call shortly. I’m just setting off to you now but I won’t park in the car park so you won’t hear me pull up. Ok Mel?”
“Yeah ok.”
“I will be there in ten minutes,” I said hanging up now as I sped away from the compound and speed dialled Alex. The call went straight to his answerphone so I called him again and again until he answered.
“Josh, what’s up? I’m busy with father Stevens at the moment, can I call you back?”
“Vargan has Julia at the Red Lion. I’m on my way now. Mel rang to let me know. Mel is still there but she’s hurt.”
I heard a chair fall over as Alex got up and ran. I heard what must have been the Vicar yelling in the distance, asking if everything was ok, when clearly it wasn’t.
“Is Julia hurt Josh? Did Mel say he hurt her?”
“No Alex, she said she could just hear talking. Listen I am parking my car just across the road and I suggest you do the same. We don’t want to alert him to our presence. I will keep my phone on so you can hear what’s being said. We are getting in through the Drayman’s entrance around the back. I’m just heading to the doors now so I will let you know what I find out ok.”
Just keep her safe for me Josh. Julia and the baby mean everything to me and I can’t live this life if they aren’t in it.”
Alex’s voice broke on those last words. But as much as I wanted to speak kind words to him, now was not the time. The scent of blood hit me as I descended the cellar steps and when Mel came out of the shadows to great me I could see why.
“Thank god you are here Josh,” Mel said as she threw her arms around me and hugged me tightly.
I had never seen Mel as scared and anxious before and she wasn’t normally the touchy feely type at all.
“Let me take a look at that cut Mel,” I tilted her head to see little cuts and grazes to the side of her head.
“Do you trust me Mel? I can give you a little of my blood to help you heal from your injuries, but only if you want it. It won’t do anything other than heal your cuts but I would sooner have you at full strength so you can help if I need you.”
She hesitated for just a few seconds then said, “Ok Josh, I trust you, and I want to see this bastard take a fall.”
She seemed to stand taller in that instant and I knew then that the Mel I knew was coming back to me. I bit into my wrist and offered it to her. She placed her mouth on top of the cut looked directly at me and sucked.
Fuck me. If that wasn’t the single sexiest thing a woman had ever done. I was instantly hard and throbbing but I had to get my mind back on the game and get Julia safe. I pulled my wrist away and wiped some stray blood from Mel’s mouth.
Her cut would heal within minutes so I took off my t-shirt, grabbed a bottle of white wine and told her to clean the blood away from her head.
She did as I asked and as quietly as I could I climbed the steps up to the bar.
The trap door had been closed up but I could hear words being spoken by a deep voiced male.
He had a European accent and he kept on asking Julia how she knew who he was. In between that he was telling her how he thought it was funny that he was able to watch Alex for years without his knowledge due to him having herbs from a witch in the black forest that masked his scent to other vampires.
According to this vampire he had been watching and waiting for the right moment to strike out at Alex, and Julia was going to be his weapon. I didn’t like the sound of that at all. He also said that we only sensed him recently due to his system becoming resistant to the herbs.
He said it was also dulling his other senses but he could still smell the fear in Julia. She laughed loudly at this and said she had no fear of him. Not while Alex and her vampire family were around. But Vargan laughed too and said, “Look around dear Julia. There is no one here except you and me.”
Mel tapped my leg and I looked down to see that she had a fucking huge machete type knife in her hand.
“Mel what the fuck are you doing with a knife like that I whispered,” as I climbed down the steps.
“I thought you may be able to use it to kill the vampire. I’ve got others if you don’t think this is suitable,” she said with a shy grin.
She crooked her finger asking me to follow her. She opened up what used to be a cleaning cupboard and switched on a light.
To say I was shocked was an understatement. Mel had been in the army before she came to be my manager at the Red Lion, but I don’t think the army would have trained her to use weapons like this.
There were knives ranging from about four inches to around two foot long swords. I touched the handle on the largest one and turned to a grinning Mel.
“This is fucking wrong on so many levels Mel. I mean look at them. This one is huge,” I said taking the sword/knife from its shelf.
“If you think that’s big, you want to see the one under my bed,” she whispered with a grin.
A gun cabinet was attached to the wall on the right. Mel produced a key from her jeans pocket and opened the tall cabinet. Inside was a shotgun, two hand guns and what looked like some sort of rifle.
Mel retrieved some ammunition from the bottom of the cabinet and took out a handgun, a shotgun and the rifle. She loaded each one quickly and with great ease, handing them to me as she went. When she was finished she turned to face me and said, “I just need you to tell me how to kill him Josh and we are good to go.”
The weapons were impressive but I wasn’t going to put Mel in harm’s way.
“Mel, a vampire needs some sort of stake through
the heart, then you have to remove the head and burn the body. Just shooting him will not kill him like it would a human.”
“I’m keeping the rifle and hand gun Josh. You can take the machete and whichever sword you want.”
“Mel I can’t risk you getting hurt. The speed a vampire can move is like a bullet being shot from this handgun. Before you know it you a laying on the floor with a broken neck. I can’t let anything happen to you.”
“Not your choice bug guy. I swore that I would never let another man hurt me again and this fucker knocked me out. I will let you do your thing but if I get a chance to kill him I will.”
I just nodded my acceptance and walked back towards the steps. She said she wouldn’t let another man hurt her. I never asked Mel too many questions about her past before but after this was over I think we were due a long conversation.
The vampire kept asking Julia how she knew his name was Brandr.
So Alex was right. This was the guy he thought was his father. This made him a really powerful vampire and I didn’t think he had come by for a nice catch up.
Julia had a steely determination to her voice and I couldn’t help but admire her resolve in the face of what could be her death.
She told him that Alex often spoke of him and thought he had died in battle.
I felt Alex’s presence behind me and felt a little better knowing he was there. I started to whisper what I had heard but he put his fingers to his lips and whispered “Our bond is open. Julia has told me everything he’s said. She says that he is next to the dart board at the moment so that places him around ten feet away from her. I am going to open the trap door and speak to him. You can follow me up but stay behind the bar.”
Alex noticed Mel walk up to the steps with the rifle in her hands and shook his head. He took my phone from my back pocket and gestured to Mel.
“Flick through the contacts and call Nik. Tell him what’s going on.” She nodded and took the phone but didn’t let go of the rifle.
“On the count of three,” Alex whispered.
After counting down silently, Alex opened the trap door into the bar.
The squeaking noise wasn’t that loud but it was noticeable even to human ears, and as soon as he heard it we heard a scuffle as Brandr hurried to Julia.
Alex stood up straight and I quickly rose up the steps behind him.
“Brandr I assume you have come for me and not my woman?” Alex said calmly.
I was anything but calm at that moment. Through a slight gap of the wood in the bar I could see that Brandr was holding Julia, his chest to her back and his hand in her hair pulling her head over to the side. His fangs were bared and it looked like his eyes had turned red.”
I crouched in readiness as I placed the large machete by my knee.
Mel came up the steps behind me as Alex spoke.
“Why did you hide yourself from me all this time? You should have let me know you were alive, that you were now a vampire like me. I mourned you Father and all this time you hid yourself from me.”
“I am not your father Aðalbrandr, you know this. Sebbi fathered you and Freya with my beautiful Brisafreya. He took my woman from me and made me into this.”
“Why did he make you immortal? And when did he do this?”
“It was on the night we were due to sail back to Norway. Our settlement was established and we were leaving good warriors behind to protect it. I took a walk in the woods every night we were there and that particular night I set off later than usual. After I had been walking about five minutes I heard a noise behind me. Sebbi came up to me as I drew my sword. He held me in a tight grip and forced me to drop my weapon. I could not believe his strength. It was far greater than mine and when he wrestled me to the ground and bit into my neck I knew why.”
“I had heard the legend of vampires from the village elders but did not believe them to be true. I thought they were made up stories to frighten little children.
I don’t know how long he drank from me but I could feel myself growing weaker. When I started to see black spots before my eyes he stopped drinking and that was when I saw the monster in him for the first time. His eyes had red rims around his normal colour and he had fangs that were now covered in my blood. I thought he would end my life but instead he decided to tell me a story. He said that he met my wife a week after we were married when Gamall introduced them at a feast we had given, the night before I was due to sail to Bretland for the first time. He said he was able to control my mind and convince me that I didn’t want to sleep with my wife. Instead I took one of the willing wenches that had been flirting with me all night. That was the first night Sebbi took your mother and may have been the night she conceived you.”
I kind of felt sorry for this guy. This Sebbi was real bastard and deserved everything that Freya did to him. Brandr carried on speaking.
“Sebbi told me that when I came back from Bretland he used mind control on me every night thereafter to prevent me from sleeping with my wife, although I was convinced I had lain with her. He was there to see you born but let everyone believe that you were mine. I was proud of my son. You were growing strong and handsome with your mothers grey eyes and blond hair. Then when Freya came along I knew that she wasn’t mine. She had her mother’s hair and eyes and was a really beautiful child but something inside me told me that she came from another mans seed.”
Alex sighed and looked towards Brandr with sympathy. “You really hurt her with your indifference towards her, she tried so hard for you to love her. She was a lovely little girl.”
“But I could not love her Aðalbrandr. I loved you though and that love was misplaced because you did not belong to me either.”
“What else happened that night that Sebbi drank from you?” asked Julia?
.
“He explained what it would take to make me a vampire. He said that he would drink from me once more and then give me his blood. Then he would tie me to the trees and leave me so that when the sun came up I would burn from the inside out.”
That was harsh. Even if this Brandr guy hadn’t been father of the year there was no need to punish him. And especially making him face that kind of death.
Brandr carried on talking but released Julia from his grip and instead he sat her down on his lap. His arm around her waist.
“After Sebbi told me what he was going to do to me, he then said he would bring you and Freya over to Bretland, to the settlement we had made in what is now known as North Yorkshire. He said that because you were from his seed you were known as a born immortal. Sebbi said that when a born immortal drinks human blood, they would get all the strength of a vampire but would be able to walk in the sun. That is how I know you were not my child Aðalbrandr.
When Sebbi finally decided to take my mortal life and give me his blood to make me a vampire. I felt real fear for the first time.
Sebbi laughed when he left me tied up, weak and in the change from human to vampire. And the sound of that laugh has stayed with me for over nine hundred an seventy years. But unbeknown to Sebbi my friend kafe, a warrior who had fought at my side in many battles, had witnessed what Sebbi had done to me. He untied me and carried me to a cave in the far side of the woods. He made a small cut to his wrist and dripped blood into my mouth. Kafe stayed with me until the sun rose high in the sky, then he went back to the village. He came back every day and gave me his blood until I was no longer weak.
Then I left that place and moved around other areas of Bretland at night. Taking human blood and keeping myself strong. I swore I was going to go back and finish Sebbi when he returned with you and your mother from Norway. But I wasn’t as strong as him and couldn’t walk in the sun, so I knew I could not beat him. I returned instead to take your mother from him. But I found out from Kafe that your mother had drowned during the journey over here. I watched you and Freya go about your days, oblivious to the fact that I was watching you.
I came back to find you some twenty years later and discovered
that Sebbi and Gamall had both passed away. I was told that Freya’s family had perished and she was living with that grief. You had not yet taken a wife and was caring for your sister. A great nobleman of your settlement.
It was then that I decided to wait until you took a wife. Then I would take that woman from you and you would know my pain.”
Bastard. Just when I felt sorry for the guy he had to come out with something like that. I couldn’t see Julia’s face from where I was but Alex had started to shake with anger.
“Brandr why would you want to do this? Have you not yet taken a wife yourself?” He said trying but failing to control the anger in his voice.
“I was like you Aðalbrandr, I used women for my pleasure when I felt the need, but did not want one enough to take a wife. I knew I would prefer yours,” he said and I saw Julia try to wriggle away from him.
“I travelled all over Europe, coming back to Yorkshire to find you at different intervals. About twenty four years ago I did take a woman from this village. She too was recently married and I used mind control to make her bond with me. Her husband was working away from the village and I was able to have her every night for weeks. I discovered she was having my child two weeks into our bond. She cried because she knew the child wasn’t from her husband’s seed. I just kept using mind control to make her forget and keep me satisfied in bed. She was a beautiful woman with long blond hair and light blue eyes. She reminded me of your mother in a way, and I thought about taking her back to where I had made my home in France and forgetting all about you.”
“You raped her,” said Julia in disgust. “You used mind control to force her to sleep with you. I had started to feel sorry for you earlier. But you are a true monster who needs to be stopped.”
He just laughed. I saw Mel tense up beside me and lift her rifle. I also felt the presence of two more vampires, so I knew Nik and Sergei had arrived.
“Why did you not stay with her and raise your child? I thought you would have welcomed a son or daughter with this woman.”