Vengeance (Thorn's Needles)

by P. A Ross

  He looked down at her, blonde, ragged hair, her cheeks blowing trying to breath around the dirty rags stuffed and tied around her mouth. Her pale skin covered in dirty patches from the warehouse floor, blue teary eyes and blood running out of her nose. He looked at his watch and thought, “still time to enjoy myself before the others arrive.” His disgusting lust imaging her body and scared face, as he intended to take her, without her consent.

  Thorn quickly got out of the car; jacket flung into the seat and walked up to the side of the warehouse door. She beckoned my over to join her, and I did.

  “Listen,” she said.

  My improved hearing picked up the conversation.

  “How many girls do we have?”

  “10, all ready for shipment.”

  Thorn eyes were already blazing red.

  “Watch how it’s done,” she said, and then stood back and kicked the door flying off its hinges into the warehouse. She stepped through, and I followed behind excited, and wanting to see what Thorn could do in full battle rage.

  The warehouse was disused and dirty, the floor covered in dust and grime. The inside was barley lit by a few working bulbs hanging high in the ceiling. Inside there were the 10 girls all about my age and a mixture of races, clothes dirty and eyes stained with tears, hands bound behind their backs and dirty rags gagging their mouths. They were all sat in a circle in the middle of the dirty floor. I sensed them before seeing any of them. I knew each of their thoughts, and their scents now bombarded me with smells of dirt, sweat and sex. Their fear was intoxicating, and seeing them bound and gagged I felt the urge to feed on them, an easy meal, but I knew it was wrong. One of them with blood running out of her nose was being dragged off to the back of the warehouse by the man I had seen earlier in her mind. They looked at us in the hope for salvation, and it reminded me of the look Giles gave me at the front gates of the school. Eyes stretched wide in fear and looking for salvation, hoping someone would rescue them. They now all looked at us, and I sensed their hope, that we were the ones to offer salvation.

  Around them were four men who had been talking to one another and waiting. When the door fired across the room and skidded to a halt before the group of girls, the men imprisoning them turned to see Thorn stepping inside. Their thoughts were decidedly different and changed as soon as the door flew past them and they saw Thorn. They looked about for more people at the other exits at the opposite ends, left and right of where they now stood. When they saw none and realised we were it, their initial fears altered into feelings of anger at being disturbed by Thorn and I. Intentions of violence towards us now took over their minds, and the adrenaline and testosterone raced quickly through their bodies having been surprised by the flying door. My urge to feed on the girls had been replaced with feelings of anger and aggression towards these men. Having experienced the memories and fears of the girls imprisoned, I felt like it had happened to me. I wanted revenge for having experienced those feelings, as if I were one of the girls. Plus they looked like they would provide a better hunt and a bigger meal.

  “Who the hell are you,” one of the men shouted, dropping the girl with the bloodied nose to the floor. He signalled the others to get Thorn and walked over to joining them as they approached us.

  I stepped to the back and side to allow her to show off her skills. A slight smile appeared, and her thoughts were in my head.

  “They are already dead.”

  “I am Thorn, and I have come to make you bleed,” she responded.

  They flicked out knives and drew out batons ready for a fight, and tried to look menacing swinging them about, as they closed in, and Thorn waited from them to get close enough. I thought it was strange, that it hadn’t occurred to any of them, that she just kicked a door off its hinges? And how she knew they were there? And what could she possibly do to stop them? She waited until they were just a few steps away, showing no emotion and standing still. There were steps away batons coiled back, and their sweaty stink burning my nostrils. Thorn unleashed her vampire features, eyes burning red, fangs cutting through her gums and claws ripping through the ends of her fingers. She roared, arching her back and head up in the air, with her fangs gleaming in the light. It sent a primeval shudder through their bodies as the sound resonated in their stomachs triggering pre-historic response to run, and they did run. She quickly ran after the man who hit the girl, jumping high above his head and then down, leg extended onto his head, smashing his face into the concrete floor. His head exploded like a melon dropped, and she skidded in control on the blood, spinning around to face me at the end. She pointed to the one running for the two main doors at the other end of the warehouse, and darted off to the other two running in the opposite direction.

  I sprinted after him sensing his fear as he tried to escape. I ran past him and stopped a couple of meters in front and faced him. Only seeing a teenager he stopped running. He was a big fat man, but well over 6 foot tall and broad. I relished the idea of taking him down and waited, as Thorn did for him to get close enough first. He began his run again with baton coiled on his shoulder. I let the vampire rage take over and with fangs, claws, and eyes burning bright. I ducked his swipe and slashed my claws across his stomach. He stumbled to one side and dropped the baton and looked back at me, seeing my mutated features he tried to run for the door again, but I quickly grabbed him by his arm and swung him around and around in a circle, firing him like a hammer into the wall of the building. He laid crumpled, blood pouring from his nose and face, spluttering words as I walked over. I put my foot on his head and stamped, and the skull cracked and an eye ball popped out firing across the floor.

  I walked back to Thorn who had already killed the remaining two guards. One was hanging from the light fitting at the end of the warehouse, eyes gorged out and blood dripping to the floor. The other slumped against the blood stained wall, throat ripped out, but no blood on his clothes. Blood was soaking in on Thorn’s chin, and she was smiling as she un-tied the girls. I could sense the girls were just as scared as before, but now of Thorn and I. I walked to the back of the group and untied the girl with the bloodied nose and ragged blonde hair. The images in her mind replayed Thorn jumping high in the air holding the guard and wrapping the electric cord from the light around his neck. I snipped the cloth around her arms with one of my claws and she quickly grabbed the gag from around her mouth and slung it across the floor.

  “Thank you,” she said, looking straight into my eyes.

  I winked and gave a little smile, and a friend grabbed her by the arm dragging her to the exit.

  Just then the main warehouse doors opened at the end where I had killed the guard, and in drove three old and battered white vans. I focused, and in the front seats more men, their emotions and senses altered by the sight of the girls running off and bodies of the four guards. They drove on quickly, with the passengers reaching for weapons and shouting at each other. I pushed my senses past them and into the back of vans and sensed more girls tied and gagged. Their emotions and thoughts replicating what I had sensed earlier in the girls now running through the exit. They were in total darkness being bounced about in the van struggling to breathe and re-living horrible memories from their kidnappings and abuse. The vans slammed their brakes on, and the doors burst open as nine men piled out weapons in hand, baseball bats, knifes and one with a gun. He pulled the gun up and aimed, I dropped to one knee pulling my pistol out of the back of my trouser and fired. My vampire powers allowing me to focus in on my target and I moved quicker than he anticipated. The bullet travelled along its perfect trajectory straight into his eye and bursting out the back of head, smashing the windscreen on the van behind. He flew back onto the floor gun sliding out of his hand under the van. They froze in fear and looked to run.

  “No guns,” Thorn shouted at me.

  I threw it to the side across the warehouse floor but keeping the bullets and placing them into my pocket.

  The rest of men eyed us suspiciously as they looked down a
t their dead comrade. They looked down the warehouse and pointed to the guard swinging from the ceiling. Their surprise quickly turned to anger, and they began to run towards us yelling, weapons at the ready, but not thinking why Thorn had said no guns or how we defeated the other guards. Thorn walked to my side, and we faced the gang together as a team.

  Thorn looked at me and smiled with her eyes burning red.

  “Jackpot,” she said grinning.

  “We’re the good guys?” I asked.

  “Why not!” she answered back.

  We exchanged thoughts for a few seconds and devised a plan. We didn’t wait for them this time, straight into full battle rage and charged at them vampire weapons brandished and full of blood lust.

  We ran at the eight remaining men ran at us and jumped high into air and then piercing down with claws out wide slashing into a few. They scattered quickly as claws ripped through and injured three of their number. The others panicked at the sight of their fallen friends and monstrous features on our faces, and they began to run for the exits, but we quickly covered their escape paths forcing them to fight. I went for the one running back to the door, and grabbed him swinging him about and back into one of the men coming back at me, knocking him over like a skittle. At the far end, a couple the girls had stopped and were watching the battle. It was the ragged blonde haired girl and her friend that helped her up. They weren’t scared anymore but were angry. One of the men jumped back to his feet and ran off to the far end towards the two girls. The other ran towards me brandishing a knife and charged. I slipped inside the stabbing action and grabbed his hand with one hand, twisted it around so the hand faced upwards and elbow joint faced downwards. I smacked my other open hand through the elbow joint breaking his arm. The knife dropped, and he fell to the floor clutching his arm and screaming in agony. I stepped in and broke his neck.

  The two girls at the other end hadn’t run on seeing the man approaching, but had picked up a knife and baton from their previous captures. They blocked the exit and he punched one hard knocking her to the floor, and the ragged blonde stepped in and stabbed into his stomach. He pushed her aside and tried to stagger onwards. I picked up a dropped knife and tunnelled my vision, and threw it, spinning through the air arching down and hitting him in the side of the stomach. He tripped and fell by the door still trying to get up and crawl away. The girl with the baton was back up, face bruised and jumped onto his back hitting him as hard as she could over the head. The ragged blonde came back around the side, and pulled out the knife and stabbed repeated into his stomach, and he stopped moving and slumped, blooding spilling out on to the dirty warehouse floor. I quickly finished off the next one slicing his throat open in a spinning back claw movement. Thorn was just finishing the last but one opponent. I entertained Thorn and I for a bit with the last opponent we had cornered. Thorn enjoyed the spectacle and eventually signalled me to finish.

  The girls waited as we walked back down the warehouse, the blonde girl holding still, while the other held her hand pulling and pleading with her to leave. They both feared us and watched as we approached blood soaking into our skin, fangs retracting, eyes changing back to normal in a blink and claws sliding back into of fingers. The muscles on our faces relaxing losing their contorted aggressive features and flesh resuming its normal colour from its aggressive sick grey. Thorn smiled as we approached, and I sensed her pushing smoothing thoughts into their minds.

  “Calm, relax.”

  The girls followed the instructions without conscious agreement and relaxed. The blonde’s friend stopped talking and pulling on her hand and smiled back at us. They were only about 15 years old, but I already knew from their thoughts they had been through an unimaginable hell. The suffering I felt was nothing compared to what they had been through. We stood in front of them, and both smiled and I copied Thorn pushing relaxing thoughts into their minds.

  “We want to join you. Make us one of you?” the blonde one asked.

  “What are you names?” Thorn asked.

  “Annabel and Lucinda,” she said point to her self first and then to Lucinda.

  “No, Annabel you can’t, but I can help you,” Thorn said.

  “Please, I don’t want to be scared anymore, I want revenge on these people,” she said.

  “I know we understand. There are more important things for you to do in your life,” Thorn said.

  “We have nowhere else to go. We are both homeless. Someone else will get us eventually,” she said.

  “Go and release the other girls from those vans. I will call the police to come and help you,” Thorn said.

  “Then when you are done go to this address,” Thorn said and pulled out a business card from her wallet.

  “Tell them Tracy Horn sent you. The lady there, Miss Jones, will look after you,” she said.

  The girls looked at Thorn, and I sensed they wanted more.

  “That’s the offer. Take it or leave it,” Thorn said and stared at them with the card held out.

  Annabel stared at Thorn for a moment, and Lucinda whispered, “Take it,” into her ear.

  “Thank you,” Annabel finally said and took the card.

  “You will hear from us again one day,” Thorn said.

  We headed out through the doors stepping over the dead body of the guard the girls had killed. I looked around one last time at the bodies of the men scattered around the warehouse floor, and hanging from the ceiling blood still dripping down. Limbs bleeding on the bonnets of the vans and bloodily foot prints across the floor where we had walked back to the door. I couldn’t believe we had done this in such a short space of time.

  We got back in the car, and I turned to talk to Thorn about the girls.

  “I have only room for one apprentice. Besides it is always important to have connections and build favours. Those girls may be of use to us one day,” she said.

  “Tracy Horn?” I asked.

  “Yes, T. Horn, Thorn,” she replied and I finally got the meaning.

  “Miss Jones will find them places to stay, get them educated and integrated back into society. They will be of use to us then. Helping us to hide and move through time un-noticed.”

  “It will be light soon we must get back,” she said, and she fired up the engine and spun the car out of the warehouse parking. I saw the two girls in the rear view mirror staring as we left, still holding the card Thorn given them. I wondered if we would see them again, as we burned back down the road towards home.

  “When you first entered the warehouse, what were your thoughts towards the girls,” Thorn asked as we drove home.

  I didn’t lie, there was no point.

  “I wanted to feed on them, their fear was exciting.”

  “What stopped you?” she asked.

  “The men, their aggression and violent thoughts washed over those feelings and took away my attention,” I answered.

  “Yes, well done. Even I felt the pull of these girls, tie and gagged, an easy meal. Be aware of the power the thirst has over us. If you understand you can use it to good effect,” she said.

  “I re-lived those girls’ memories and wanted revenge, as if it had happened to me,” I said.

  “Well done, using their memories and emotions to fuel you. Put yourself in their shoes instead is a good idea.”

  I was learning more and beginning to understand the life of a vampire was far from simple.

  We returned before light, happy and full. Thorn was keen to get me back before my vampire power wore off, and dragged me hand in hand down the stairs and to her bed. I had caught her watching me fighting the last one of the gang, licking her lips with one hip dropped, and I sensed her passion being triggered. I played with him a bit in front of Thorn to show off my powers and to increase her desire.

  “Finish it,” she had pushed the thought into my mind.

  I had allowed him to charge at me one more time, and stepped in and snapped his neck to finish it quickly before we headed off and talked to Annabel and Lucinda.
I guessed Thorn hadn’t been with another vampire for some time, and she wanted to spend my last vampire moments locked together in the safety of her house.

  After making love, I watched Thorn fall asleep, she was so peaceful and happy, and totally different to the sad and lonely woman I had seen in the prison cell all those weeks ago. Despite her killing me tonight I realised I, Night Jonathan, was in love with her. It wasn’t just her powers tricking me, she had given me a new lease of life. It was the most exciting time of my life. I wished the night could go on forever, and I hated the idea of the coming day time, in the fear of what Day Jonathan would think and the plans he was hatching.

  I decided not to waste any of the formula and took a trip out into the daylight. I ambled happily off to the park and sat on cold park bench as the morning sun lit up the grass, and mist rose up as it began to heat up. The formula started to wear off, and as it did my day time self, Day Jonathan, started to take control.

  “You been lucky to survive tonight, she killed you,” Day Jonathan said.

  “I know, but we made it through stronger than before,” I, Night Jonathan replied.

  “Scarlett still wants us back. There is a way home after all.”

  “So what, she betrayed us remember. We have Thorn now.”

  “Thorn will kill us eventually, we are being used for something,” I, Day Jonathan said.

  “No, we have a deal. I love her,” he exclaimed.

  “Don’t be stupid, it’s her powers. You don’t realise what you are saying,” I said with the formula drifting away, and Night Jonathan with it and my normal human senses returning.

  “I.. I...”, Night Jonathan tried to say, but he disappeared as the formula finally dispersed and my body was back to normal again.