by P. A Ross
Dave looked surprised again at hearing this answer.
“Why would you want to find them for?” Dave asked.
“I have a deal for them.”
“Not going to happen sweet heart, now run along and put some clothes.”
“Come on Dave, why don’t you tell us?” I asked.
“You’ve some guts all of a sudden,” Dave responded.
“Not that long ago you did everything you could to hide from us. Even left your mate to fend for him self. Well I have news for you, the police and schools have better things to do than watch us,” Dave carried on getting more agitated, and began pacing back and forth as he spoke.
“We found those little grasses that came after us. You better leave now, no one has forgotten your part in what happened to Liam. Even though you were too scared to come to the trial.”
I couldn’t be bothered to explain why I wasn’t at the trial.
“Not going to beat me up first?” I asked as I sensed something was missing, they would have usually just hit first.
“I have heard things about you. Police and others have been around here asking questions about you. We thought at first they were blaming us for your disappearance. But no they wanted to catch you for some murders in London.”
“Really,” I stated, happy that I now had a reputation.
“Yeah, so go on leave, I have better things to do,” Dave said and walked backwards keeping his eyes on us.
Even without the remnant vampire power, I could tell he was scared and suspicious of me being back in Leeds.
“I want the O’Keefe’s address, and I want it now,” Thorn shouted and her mood had changed.
She let go of my arm and was stood legs apart, hand on hips and face frowning.
“Tell your whore to shut up,” Dave shouted back.
I placed my hand across Thorns chest to hold her still. I didn’t need to be psychic to know what she wanted to do. I decided to do Dave a favour, he wouldn’t thank me for it, but it would save his life and those of his friends.
I walked over.
“Oh big man are we. Come on then,” Dave called me forward with his hands and then squeezed them into fists.
He swung first, I parried and returned a punch, and he was knocked backwards into his two friends. He swung another fist , and I dived back and followed up with a roundhouse kick across his thigh, dropping him to one knee. The other two advanced forwards and I quickly front kicked the closet in the stomach flinging him backwards and tumbling him on to the pavement. The other one caught me with a blow to the side of the head , and I rocked backwards, but stayed on my feet, instinctively turned back and jumped backwards to gain some space. He came again, and I lunged forwards grabbing him around the neck with both arms, and hands locked behind his head. I sprung a flurry of knees into his stomach and ribs while pulling him down into them each time. Dave was getting back to his feet and the second friend picking himself up as well. The one I was holding tried to drop down out of my grasp, I let him drop his head , and it met a right knee full force into his face. He dropped to the floor , and I jumped one footed on his back and flew forward with another knee and elbow out in front of me straight into Dave’s oncoming charge. The force broke through his feeble block and smashed him to the floor. The third one froze as I piled through Dave and then turned and ran back down the road. I knelt down and grabbed Dave by the head and pulled back my fist ready to continue.
“Where do they live?” I shouted.
I sensed Thorn’s thoughts in my head.
“Good, you are learning.”
I smiled to myself, and I soaked in my feelings of triumph and victory. This was the first time I had ever won a fight, and it was against my old tormentor. I was enjoying my newly found strength in my human form.
It was midnight, and we stood in front of a terraced house with lights flashing in the down stairs window. Accompanying the lights were screams and moaning, it was from the TV. Occasionally above the TV there was laughter and then shouting. The streets were empty, and the lights above us flickered on and off every 10 seconds. I stared at the front door preparing myself. I rehearsed it in my mind, across the path through the assorted junk and rubbish dumped outside, around the weather worn dumped sofa and smashing through the front door, then round and into the TV room.
Thorn looked at me, “You know what to do,” she asked sternly.
“Yes,” I responded.
I was nervous but excited as well. I thought I would have more control this time around, savour their destruction and enjoy sensing their fear. Thorn pulled the needle out of my pocket and prepared by pushing it down slightly and tapping it to force the air out.
“Remember to pass me some meat back once inside,” she said, as I rolled up my sleeve.
She waited until I responded.
“I will remember Thorn,” I acknowledged her question and looked away in preparation for the injection.
“Look at it Jon. You must face you fears,” she said waiting for me to turn back and look at the needle. I did, and she plunged it into my skin and pushed down on it forcing the formula into my blood stream. I waited for the power to come and enjoyed the sense of my body changing this time, knowing it was the precursor to immense power. I shook , and my body burned as it changed, and then I allowed my senses to soak in the new scenery, as can only be seen and sensed by a vampire. Thorn stepped in front of me, wrapped her arms around me and kissed me passionately.
“Go now my darling, relive your anger and fulfil your revenge. Bathe in your anger and rage, and then enjoy their fear and destruction.”
My memory flashed back to those dark days in Leeds, the sickening fear of an unknown attack. The constant feeling of being on edge from looking over your shoulder. The sight of poor Giles in the cloakroom on that final day in school. The hate in his eyes as the tears streamed down his face , and he attacked me, his best friend. Worst of all, the ever present guilt I felt by walking away from those front gates and then allowing my Dad to make me abandon my friendship. I let the guilt and anger for them escaping justice at the trial join in with the other emotions. I let the anger and rage build up, holding it back, and waiting for its strength to break down my barriers of self control. When it reached a climatic point, I released the barriers, and let it flood through my body soaking it in power, triggering the full strength and rage of the vampire within. It was enough and I blazed across the street, jumped the discarded weather torn sofa and smashed straight through the front door into their house.
I burst into the smoke filled room, with the TV the only light as it flashed its images across the walls and onto the four men watching it. The father, Liam in his wheel chair, Patrick, and a friend from the gang were all watching a torture porn film, with a young woman in a ripped night clothes tied to a chair and a smiling man approaching with a spinning drill. The father was a big fat man dressed in a grubby white vest and dirty dark blue jeans and bare feet. Tattoos of barbed wire were down the left shoulder to the forearm. On the other arm the words, ”Fighting Irish,” tattooed in black across his bicep. He was bald on top, with grey strands through his black hair grown from the sides into a ratty pony tail at the back. Patrick and Liam were just as I remembered them. They were dressed in track suit tops and jeans with fancy new trainers on. Patrick had a long rolled up joint in his hand and coughed out smoke on my entrance. The friend wore a large green parker jacket, jeans and heavy duty black boots. They all had a can of drink in their hands, which they were in the midst of putting down having been altered by the noise of the front door. I stood in front of the TV facing them all.
I was more in control of my instincts to kill and drink this time around. So I enjoyed my self first. My face was already contorted; eyes were burning red and fangs showing. I snarled and growled at them, and I sensed their building fear and panic as a trembling through their entire bodies. I felt it paralyse them into their stain ridden paisley chairs. I took it in turns to stare at them all one by one as I
showed them my vampire face and snarled at them from the bottom of my guts. They looked around at each other in a panic, waiting for one of the others to do something, waiting for someone to take the lead. I changed things about and reverted back to my human face. They stopped backing away up their chairs in an attempt to escape, and stepped down and stared at me.
“It’s Jonathan, Giles’s friend. The one who disappeared. The one the police has been asking about,” Patrick stated.
I was surprised he recognised me.
“Yeah, he is,” Liam replied.
Their fear was fading away now as the sight of the kid they used to bully stood in front of them. Their confidence was growing now I had appeared in human form again , and they crept forward. Their fear started too turned to anger, the muscles in their arms tensed and hands turned to fists ready to fight.
“Nice special effects kid,” the father said, “what next a rabbit from a hat.”
They all continued to move forward looking at each other for reassurance.
“No, I am here for vengeance. I have a deal for you, a chance to understand the game of consequences,” I waited for dramatic pause. “You must choose which two of you may live and which two must die.”
They stopped moving and again glanced around at each other.
“Or you all die,” I added.
They looked at each other again. The boys all stared at the father who laughed flicking his ratty pony tail backwards. He still thought this was some kind of act, I thought.
“I see you have made your choice.”
I flew forward like a hammer into the father hitting him so hard he flew through the front window, his body wrapped up in the curtains as it smashed through the window planes. He cleared the assorted debris, left to rot in the garden, skidding to a halt at the feet of Thorn.
She ripped off the curtains.
“Breakfast!”
She grabbed him by the head and stared in to his eyes and said in a pretend sympathetic voice.
”This is going to hurt darling, a lot,” and offered and sad smile to accompany it.
She brandished her fangs and tore into his neck, and he screamed in further pain. I turned back after I hit the father through the windows and kicked through the knee of Patrick breaking his leg. He crashed to the floor, and I added a slash of claws across his stomach to make sure he couldn’t move. The blood rolled out, and Patrick fell to the floor grabbing his leg and stomach trying to stem the flow of blood. The friend ran to the door, and I leapt across and grabbed his arm wrenching it from its socket. Blood spilt out onto the floor and his screams of pain joining in with those from the TV and those from Patrick. I retracted my claws and hammered in a series of punches into the ribs, hearing each rib crack and break as it hit. Each hit accompanied by a shout of agony as the blows landed. He slumped to the floor. Pain shot through my leg, and saw a knife sticking out and Liam in his wheel chair. I flung him across the room into high far corner. The friend rolled in agony on the floor pulling him self along the floor to escape. I crouched over him repeatedly punching him in the head until brains and blood discoloured the already filthy carpet and furniture. Patrick’s screaming in the corner gained my focus, and I walked back over slowly savouring the moment, and taking the revenge for all those years of bullying.
“Time to die Patrick,” I said.
I crouched down in front of him, and he tried to punch me, but the power was feeble and in my vampire form I barely noticed. I laughed, a loud and raucous laugh, at his pathetic attempt to fight back. I flicked open one claw and pushed back his head against the floor exposing his neck.
“Got to hell,” he screamed.
“Been there, it was being at school with you,” I answered, and flicked my claw across his throat slitting it and leaving a line a blood that started to open up his neck.
He tried to speak as the blood poured from his neck, but just spluttered blood out of his mouth instead.
I leant down to his ear.
“Justice at last,” I said.
The lights in the room flashed as the TV was still blaring out with its own screams and unsavoury noise, as the torture porn in the background reached its climax at the same time.
I walked back to Liam, and I knelt down and whispered gently into his ear.
“Consequences. Everything has consequences. I am the physical manifestation of your actions. I am your consequence.”
Suddenly, I realised someone was missing.
“Where is Kieran?” I asked.
“He was arrested last night for beating up Giles’s Dad,” he answered stuttering in fear.
“Tell Kieran, I will get him when he gets out.”
More unfinished business, but he will hear about the murder of his family, and fear and anger can take hold. I latched my fangs around Liam’s ear and ripped it off for good measure, and left the room just as the credits on the TV rolled and the room plunged into darkness once more. There was no movement up stairs. I guessed they were used to the sounds of screams from the TV. I ascended to the women of the house as well, the mum and the two sisters. They were no better having beaten up Giles’s older sister and taken part in some of the other bullying, smashing the house windows and prank calls. “No Jon. We are leaving,” Thorn thoughts entered into my head.
I guessed the loss of their father and son or brother would be enough. I thought I could always come back again, in the mean time, let them live in fear.
CHAPTER 16
We returned to London the night after reeking revenge on the O’Keefes and resumed our normal pattern of training and hunting. The next night back had been another eventful night out with Thorn hunting, as she had read reports of a gang of muggers working in a nearby park. We went to the park that night and pretended to be two young lovers hiding away in the bushes. They had seen us and circled us ready to take our money, and to take Thorn half naked and drag her away for their pleasure. Yet it didn’t go according to plan, as she quickly broke them and fed. After my success in Leeds, I joined in and fought as a human against one of the men, and was able to protect myself and get in a few decent hits. I was pleased. I was growing with confidence and strength every time I fought.
Back at home, after the fight in the park, night was drawing to a close. Thorn was drifting off to sleep down stairs in the basement, and I sat by myself on the sofas sipping a cold drink savouring another night with Thorn. Being away from Thorn, and the light coming through the windows, I could feel myself start to change. As Night Jonathan, I was losing my grip, and the nagging doubts and fears of Day Jonathan were seeping through into my thoughts. He was questioning everything I had done over the last few nights, urging me to give up and let him prepare his escape plan, and dream of being back in Scarlett’s arms once again. His voice started arguing with me, and a war raged in my mind as the daylight came and Thorn slept.
“You were going to kill those O’Keefe girls,” Day Jonathan said.
“They deserved it. They were just as bad as their brothers. Don’t you remember?” I replied.
“Of course, but they were asleep in their beds. They never hurt you, maybe others, but not you.”
“Some others can’t defend themselves. It’s up to me to bring justice.”
“That’s not your job. You should have gone to the trial and not got mixed up with vampires. Justice would have been done.”
“They always get away with it. You wanted the power just as much I did at the beginning. You wanted to be free to walk in the day not afraid anymore. You have that now,” said Night.
“Maybe, but at what cost. People have died. Yes, the gang and the O’Keefes were bullies, but did they deserve that. A beating maybe and prison, but to be ripped apart, it wasn’t right.”
“But the slavers, we saved those girls,” Night argued as his voice began to fade as the daylight was becoming brighter and I could sense Thorn had drifted off to a deep sleep.
“Yes, but the trail has run cold. Think how many more could have been
saved if they had been captured and imprisoned. Those girls saw you two rip those men apart. Those memories will haunt them as much as the abuse they suffered. Annabel and Lucinda are now in Thorn’s pocket as well and could come to worse harm,” I said my voice growing stronger every passing minute as Day pushed Night away.
“But Thorn will protect us,” he said.
“Like she was able to protect herself from being captured by the Hunters. You have been lucky up to now. Eventually your luck will run out, and she will turn on you or fail you,” I, Day Jonathan said.
“No I love her, she won’t fail us.”
“You are a fool. It’s her powers you are in love with, not her. She made you fall in love with her. It’s not real.”
“It.. is,” Night’s voice quietly whispered as he finally disappeared again for another day.
I was in charge now, Day Jonathan and the daily passing and ritual of argument was finished again, until Day receded and Night came back.
I went on the computer to practice the route home once more and noticed I had received an email message from Annabel and Lucinda. The girls had settled in at Miss Jones’s house and were to be enrolled into college at the start of the next academic year. While we were away, Thorn had employed them to keep an eye out for Barry, and try and lure him out of hiding. Thorn had dressed them up to pass as eighteen and employed a driver to take them about pubs and night clubs in order to meet Barry. She was paying them well for the work, and they were happy to see Thorn again and be of use. The message on the email told me that Annabel had attracted his attention on a night out and could arrange a date for us to capture him. They had scouted out the Terry’s house, and the Hunters were gone. Thorn double checked that night and confirmed it was safe. It was arranged for two nights time, giving us time formulate a plan. This was exciting news, and at last we could finish off what I had started, and I could then escape.
I went upstairs and checked all parts of the escape plan were ready. I had found the spare keys to the BMW and had enough experience to be able to drive it. I went into the loft to checking the small ruck sack with everything prepared, and that everything was still inside. In the bag was the money, mobile phone to call ahead, a silver knife I had purchased from a pawn brokers, a UV light I had made myself, and finally the map of the route. I wanted the rest of the needles, but they were locked away in a safe, in the walk in wardrobe. I went and practised the route once more on Street view, and I estimated it would take just over an hour. I knew I couldn’t leave the house until the normal time of the day in the afternoon, as it would be to out of the ordinary. I needed to stick to my normal routine for it to work, which would only give me 3-4 hours to return in the day light. It should be enough, but I was preparing for any eventuality. As Day Jonathan, I looked forward to returning home and seeing Scarlett again, even if it meant betraying Thorn and leading the Hunters back to her.