The Dark Messenger (24 page)

Longinus had agreed and
then said that he wouldn’t forget. Only inside the London coven,
the deeply foreboding feeling that they were giving him, had caused
him to do just that,
forget
.

It was only when Rex had
finished sharpening his nails with that stupid silver dagger of
his, that he had turned to stare down at him and then said,’
you dare to come here without offering me
something.’

At that moment he suddenly remembered about
the priest and Raffious saying that he had to tell him about
it.

‘Well I do know about a story concerning the
church which you can blackmail them with.’ He said, not entirely
sure that it would redeem him from whatever they were planning but
strangely

the palpable mood in the air, vanished
instantly. After telling the whole story, Rex even smiled as he
leapt off his ledge and then ran up to him. Grabbing his hand, he
shook it and welcomed him to the coven. Then he led him through
into his private quarters and wined and dined him, before giving
him a tour of the whole place too. His entourage had looked upon
him with deep shock, clearly suggesting they had expected a far
more sinister ending to the interview.

Raffious had known all along that Rex would
never be so foolish as to trade the story for his piece of the vase
as the Scots had stupidly done. He knew Rex never got rid of his
priceless arte-facts and would be a far tougher nut to crack than
that. This was the only reason why Longinus had to join them,
because after sometime of befriending and then when the moment
arose, he would have to sneak into his private chambers and steal
it from within. Of course he always knew that Longinus might not
make it past the interview stage, and Rex might kill him. He didn’t
care so much because if that happened, Raffious knew he would just
have to find another stupid vampire and try again.

After 10 months in Rex’s coven, he had been
so pleased with him that Longinus was given permanent stay and
promotion. In that time though, not once had he been able to get
close enough to check if the piece of vase was even there. It
wasn’t a problem though because he knew this beforehand, Raffious
had said to him from the beginning that he might have to wait a
couple of years before he was trusted enough to be near the
vase.

To make him feel more comfortable with going
into Rex’s chamber, knowing that the punishment would be death if
he were caught. Raffious gave him a bracelet with his demonic chant
written on it. He told him that if ever he was in deep trouble, all
he had to do was read out the words on the bracelet, and by doing
so he would instantly appear to save him.

The only thing was, he kept a crucial part
back, the part about Satan warning him personally never to use his
magic against his vampire’s covens. This also included jumping
inside Rex’s coven to save someone. The promise of punishment to
hell for eternity had a strong effect on the old boys mind.

Raffious always knew from that point on that
he would never risk experiencing Satan’s wrath for anyone.

So if Longinus was caught inside Rex’s
chambers, the stupid vampire was on his own, as far as he was
concerned.

But of course he never told him that.

Chapter 19 - Visiting Jail

Longinus felt seriously ill as he jumped
forwards in time with Raffious, after narrowly escaping death from
Voitek’s sword, just outside Kaine’s house.

All around him whilst they were jumping were
images of buildings, ghosts of the dead, and souls of the living
flashing past him. His clothes were shaking violently, as if he was
standing on the deck of a boat in a violent storm. He felt very
uneasy, and his mind was in a state of great confusion.

Suddenly the images stopped, and he was
thrust forwards as if seated in a car that had just driven hard
into a brick wall. He collapsed to the floor, spewing his guts up.
His insides were in turmoil. Behind him, he could hear Raffious
laughing, and vaguely wondered if he was still laughing at the
trick on Voitek and Vius, or if the laughter was directed at him.
He wasn’t sure and didn’t really care, because of how ill he felt;
even his supernatural powers of healing were having major troubles
settling his body after that journey.

‘Look!’ Raffious shouted to him. ‘Look where
we are, and look who I have as my prisoner!’

Longinus slowly and reluctantly turned his
head to look at him. Raffious had his arm up, and was pointing
across to his left. Turning his head again extremely slow and
wiping sick from his mouth, his eyes tracked across to where the
old man was pointing.

There, sitting in the center of a small raft,
was Rex! It was floating gently some fifty feet out in what looked
like to be some sort of huge reservoir. The raft was not moving in
any direction, like it was anchored to something below it.

Rex saw him and snarled, ‘What are you
fucking doing here? Are you the traitor who helped get me caught by
this fool?’

Ignoring the old bastard for now, Longinus
gazed around, wondering where he was. Had Raffious brought him to
this place to prove he had caught Rex, and to let him know it was
safe to go into his chamber now? Or was it simply that he has no
friends and wanted to show off, to maybe let someone see just how
clever he was at catching Rex. He really didn’t care though; he
just wanted his time with Raffious to soon be over.

Meeting Rex had definitely not been one of
the high points in his life either. The coven leader was the most
evil being that he had ever laid his eyes on. He could honestly say
without hesitation that he actually hated him. He knew though, that
he himself had done many bad things in the past too, such as
ripping apart those four guys in Brighton who had tried to save his
new slave when he had turned her by mistake. He had only been
defending himself, though. He was not evil like Rex, he told
himself. Inside he knew that all he wanted to do was just leave the
killings behind, to go forwards as a calm relaxed vampire, who
could enjoy the finer things in life. Being evil was starting to
annoy him, and he desperately wanted to change.

As more minutes passed, he finally found his
mind beginning to clear. His energy was starting to come back to
him, and the deep nausea feeling was subsiding. He pushed himself
up with some effort and found he was able to stand.

‘You deserve this!’ Longinus shouted at Rex.
‘You didn’t think that killing almost everyone you met and laughing
at those whom you tortured would one day result in yourself
becoming a prisoner, and preparing for a slow death too?’ Longinus
said before adding, ‘You call me a traitor, but why? There was no
loyalty to be traitorous of. I only joined your coven to steal from
you, you fool!’

Rex stared for a long moment, unable to speak
from disbelief. Then his lips moved slowly mumbling something
before finally words that were legible came out. ‘Did you say
‘steal from me’?’

Longinus glanced at Raffious for a second,
hoping for his approval to tell Rex their plans. Raffious nodded
his head at him so he continued: ‘We are going forwards in time to
your coven. We are going to steal your piece of the Trucale vase
and you cannot do anything about it.’

‘Ha Ha Ha Ha!’ Rex started laughing when he
heard what was going to be stolen from him. The other two exchanged
a look of disbelief—had Rex gone completely mad, or did he know
some crucial bit of info that they didn’t?

‘If you think we can’t, you are far more
stupid, you idiot, than I thought you were!’ Longinus shouted back
at him and he prepared to spin the old crone a lie. ‘Your coven is
in pieces! There’s no order there at all. Did you know that your
vampires are fighting one another? Your rule is over, you
disgusting, dirty evil, nasty old idiot.’ He wondered for a moment
if he could think of any more negative comments to use. He was sure
he could, only couldn’t be bothered wasting his breath on this
fool.

Raffious said to Rex, ‘This plan of mine took
hundreds of years to catch you out, although it was actually rather
quick for me, as I leapt around in time. It was such a brilliant
plan too, and I wish I had come up with it before wasting time
creating the werewolves—only if I hadn’t been involved with them, I
would have never thought about it.

‘First, you killed the vampire who told you
to keep ten werewolves from the war, and I hoped you would. You
said he was a fool, but still you did keep them, and that was just
what I wanted. It was actually the only reason that I sent him to
you for the interview. Remember him saying that you would need them
to use against the overpopulated humans in the future, to save the
planet from dying at the end of Dec 2099?’

Then after a pause to let it sink in to Rex’s
thick skull, he said.

‘Many years later, you also killed the second
vampire that I sent to you for an interview, just as I had also
planned I might add. He told you where the silver sword was, in St.
Paul’s Cathedral. I had buried it there, after the blacksmith who
made it for me died under mysterious circumstances. I was sad about
that too, so strange, he just keeled over without any legs as I was
paying him. I promise I have no idea how his legs fell off either.
Most disturbing that story but anyway.’

Rex now had an expression of shock and horror
passing across his evil face.

‘Yes, it was a fake. Just like the myth I
created too. Anyway, you foolishly fell for that part of my plan
too. I knew you would kill him but I didn’t care because I only
sent him to you, so that he would tell you where it was.’

‘Anyway, the very next day your warriors
arrived and took it, thinking they had actually found the magical
silver sword. You must have seen it and been so happy, thinking it
could kill my beasts. You really are more stupid than I thought you
were. You must have had very stupid parents, is all I can say.’

‘I do admit that I was somewhat worried
though, when I sent the third vampire to you. There was a slight
concern growing within, that you might kill him too. That would
have been unfortunate for me, as he was needed for so much more.’
Raffious then gave a little laugh as he glanced across at Longinus
who was completely unaware that he had been the third vampire.’

Raffious then held up a finger, seeming to
remember something.

‘Oh yes, I almost forgot. I also had to pay a
nun to sleep with a priest so that she would become pregnant with
his child--a story that, when you heard about it, you would then
think that you could blackmail the church over. You thought that,
as the myth suggested, they would then lift the spell over the
silver sword.’ He chuckled in his beard as he shot a glare of
hatred at him.

‘You were so bloody stupid! You really
thought they were the ones who placed a spell over it. There was no
spell! The myth and sword were fake--I made them up!’ he said as he
burst out laughing.

Then after a moment to catch his breath, he
continued, ‘Through your desperation for the spell to be lifted,
you even left your own coven and came to the reservoir hoping to
meet the priest. I knew at some point that you were suspicious of
something being wrong though, because I could feel it. I suspect
that you ignored your gut feelings because of your greed. All you
cared about was that you had to have the spell lifted to release
werewolves across the world, and nothing else in your twisted
fucking mind, mattered. You probably even cancelled some torture
events beforehand too, just so you didn’t miss the boat ride?’

‘How are your feet by the way after the acid
splashed all over them? I do hope they really fucking hurt.’ He
grinned.

Rex was fuming but said nothing for a moment,
so Raffious, still with a mountain of words desperately cueing up
to be said, then rambled on again.

‘It’s absolutely funny that Lucifer created
vampires and never gave any of you a brain. You really are quite
dumb as a species, aren’t you?’

Rex’s fury grew even more as he heard all of
this. Suddenly he ripped back his hood, exposing his hideousness.
Raffious swallowed as he saw his face, and fell silent. Longinus
reacted too; he spun round and started throwing up again.

Rex spat out, ‘I might be ugly, I might be
stupid, and I might have been taken in by your plan, but you will
suffer too. Did you not realize that Lucifer will burn you in his
Hell for eternity because of this? You will suffer the most
terrifying pain for going against him.’

Pausing for a second he then said, ‘Oh and
don’t expect salvation either--that fool God will not come to your
aid. You are on your own, Raffious, or Installis, or whatever your
pathetic name is.’

Then, feeling as if he was
on a roll with the abuse himself, he said, ‘When you kill me, I
will go back to Hell, and then
because I have been evil, Lucifer will
give me life again. I
will
be
allow
ed
to roam the planet
again as a vampire. But will he do the same for you? No! You will
have a boiling hot cell forever after I tell him about
you.’

Rex had a point and Raffious knew it, which
was exactly why he needed that holy vase. Death alone couldn’t stop
Rex or his kind. However, the blessed waters from the Trucal vase
would make vampires cease to exist forever if it were poured into
the first coven’s drinking water. They would all die throughout all
realms of time and then couldn’t be reborn afterwards either.