The Dark Messenger (49 page)

Then as he looked down at the vampires, he
noticed the same fate was upon them too. They were suspended and
screaming up at him.

‘Hello Kaine,’ he heard a familiar voice
say.

Turning his head in the direction of where
the voice came from, he could see the angel Abdiel was hovering a
few meters away.

‘We are here for Jenny and our heavenly
father awaits her arrival. He is very happy she is coming home,’
the angel said.

As Kaine cleared his throat, he then replied,
‘Did you know she would die?’

‘I did say before to both you that soon she
would be reunited with our heavenly father. Her spirit is at peace
now and she thanks you, Kaine. She says you must never blame
yourself for this and to give her love to Becky, for whom she will
be waiting.’

‘You knew she would die…’
Kaine said, as he also thought,
if you
did, then why did you offer me the job as your Truth Messenger,
knowing I wouldn’t accept it and that she would die in the traps
room?

‘Sadly that is true, but in the future
remember this: you will only be fully at peace when you accept
Heaven’s offer, and only then. Now you have much anger inside, and
you must deal with it in your own way.’

Kaine felt confused.
Why did he have to talk in riddles?

Another angel then swooped in and came to a
halt right in front of him. Kaine found his arms extending without
his permission. They were passing Jenny’s lifeless body across to
him.

‘Thank you,’ the angel said. Then he then
slid back in the air some distance to allow the conversation to
continue.

‘More vampires have just arrived back in time
now,’ the angel advised. ‘There are over 150 of them down there,
and they have found the tunnel your wife is in. They have blocked
it from both ends. It may not be possible for you to save them, as
in less than a few minutes the tunnel will be set on fire. I can
still offer you the position as my Truth Messenger with the same
conditions though, but sadly without Jenny, of course.’

‘Regina, can you hear me?’ Kaine messaged
frantically, wondering if the situation was really as grave as the
angel had just said it was.

If it were,
he thought,
then why the
hell hadn’t she messaged him?

‘Darling, I love you,’ she messaged. ‘Save
yourself! They are setting fire to the tunnel from both ends. Don’t
come here, they will kill you.’ She closed the connection without
waiting for his reply.

Kaine felt cornered into accepting the
position now, but in his heart he knew that Regina would rather die
than be saved to wake up somewhere else without him. No way did he
want that either; they had discussed this and had both refused the
offer.

‘I love her, and have to save her. FREE ME!’
He screamed at the angel, and then he was free.

Hurtling back down, a moment passed and then
he disappeared into the rain cloud, but as he came out the other
side into the hideous weather, his speed had increased so much that
even before the other vampires were freed from the spell over them,
he was into them. Grabbing two of them as he passed, he started
smashing their heads together so much their skulls caved in. Then
flinging them aside, he positioned himself into the optimum
position for maximum speed and headed for his home.

The anger that was sweeping through was
substantial to say the least. Since having his rage wiped clean by
the angel as he does, his fury had grown and begun to spread
exponentially throughout him. In his mind he didn’t care if there
were two hundred of the fools down there, he would kill them all
for this.

Jenny was his friend and they had taken her
from him, but now they were going to kill his wife and that was
their biggest mistake. He would tear them all to pieces before he
allowed that to happen. He had assiduous beliefs towards his
relationship lasting indefinitely with her and should another being
as they obviously were, ever try coming between them, then by bare
hand his rage would guide him, as he sought retribution for the
heinous act.

Blood would be spilt in
rivers today and not gallons.
He
thought.

Then almost as if a divine entity had placed
it there, a thought appeared in his mind and he wondered if the
angel himself had not bestowed it upon him.

Who am I kidding, there are over one hundred
and fifty of them down there, I am surely not entertaining the idea
that I can fight them all and save Regina am I?

Unless I change tactics… I’m sure to loose
her.

Then as he saw more vampires coming up
towards him, he arched his back, and with extreme G forces surging
through him, his body shaking fiercely and with his wings almost
snapping, he came to a halt.

Screams filled the air as the vampires
approached. Their swords glimmered in the bright sky as they
prepared to slice through him.

Kaine remained hovering, waiting the few
seconds until they were upon him. As they swarmed up to him, he
held his hand up high and said, ‘I know where your master Rex is
being kept, and I demand to speak with your leader.’

When they realized what he had just said, not
one of them was stupid enough to lunge for him, they knew the
punishment if they did.

‘I know where he is,’ Kaine continued as he
watched for any sudden movements. ‘He is a prisoner, trapped for an
eternity on a raft at a reservoir called Bewl Waters, and he wants
you to save him.’

He watched their battle-worn faces and could
see two distinct expressions on all of them. One showed a desperate
joy they might be reunited with their master again. The other was a
face of anger that they couldn’t kill him. They daren’t just in
case he was telling the truth. They also knew if they did, and Vius
was told he had demanded to speak with him, then as a result he
would be utterly furious and the punishment had to be death.

‘Who is your leader?’ Kaine demanded,
slightly uneasy they were surrounding him.

‘Our leader is Vius!’ one of them said.

‘Then tell Vius I want to meet him on that
beach down there in one hour, and that I will bring Rex back if you
keep my wife from being killed in the tunnel below.’ Kaine was
feeling desperate and hoping his new plan would work. If it didn’t,
then just by the numbers of vampires that were swarming around him,
he felt sure that today would be the end. His family and himself
would be savagely killed.

‘Don’t move! I will message our leader.’

Kaine added, ‘Tell your leader that the
angels warned me, the one who keeps Rex prisoner will soon rid
vampires from the face of the earth. We will all cease to
exist.’

As he said this, their looks changed to that
of utter confusion.

‘You are lying!’ the vampire snarled. ‘How is
that possible, you fool? Not even the werewolves managed that. We
are too strong a species, too powerful.’

‘You saw me talking with the angels,’ Kaine
retorted. ‘Have you ever known a vampire to have friends in Heaven
before?’

He noticed with some satisfaction how their
faces changed yet again. Now their expressions clearly showed that
perhaps he might actually be telling the truth.

After a moment of quiet, the vampire told
him, ‘Our leader has agreed to meet you on the beach.’

----------

Then as soon as the vampires flew away from
him, he messaged Regina.

‘Are you safe?’ he messaged. Hoping they
hadn’t lied to him and already set fire to the tunnel with her
inside it. As the message left his mind, he found himself
panicking.

Please answer,
he thought,
please
answer, darling.

In a millisecond, which still felt like hours
to him, she answered, ‘I am here, baby.’

As she did, a great sense of relief passed
through him. He didn’t even want to think of how he would have felt
or reacted if she hadn’t answered. To spend an eternity without her
would have been too much loneliness to bear, he felt sure of that.
He loved her so very much.

‘Are you okay, darling?’ he messaged.

‘I am now. They were pouring petrol or
something into the tunnel from both ends and were just about to set
fire to it. How did you stop them? And how is Jenny? Is she with
you?’ she asked.

He was caught off-guard by the question. The
realization that soon he would have to tell her about Jenny’s death
suddenly loomed in his mind and he felt his heart wrench.

‘Can’t talk now. I am meeting their leader in
one hour on the beach by the port,’ he messaged.

‘But what will you say to persuade him?’ She
replied.

‘Don’t worry I can be persuasive if I need to
be. I love you so much, baby. Don't worry, I will save you somehow,
I promise.’

In the cells, the fight between Mietioc and
the goons was fully underway. Swords were crashing, sparks were
flying, and apart from brutal strikes only narrowly missing him,
Mietioc was completely enjoying himself again.

Since his time in Scotland, and then a brief
moment in hell, he hadn’t used his swords, and he had missed the
joys of swinging them. Now though as part of a plan, he was backing
up along the passageway to give the goons the false impression he
was loosing. He wanted to lure them into a situation where they
thought they were going to be triumphant. Also in turn he wanted to
tire them, and to see what moves they had if any at all. So far it
seemed to him they were solely reliant upon their massive frames
and nothing else. They obviously thought size mattered, but he knew
it didn’t.

Meanwhile Hoidrious had asked Longinus if he
would help his goons in the fight, and if he agreed to, he promised
that afterwards he would be allowed to go free.

Longinus considered the idea and although
being allowed to go free was tempting, as he was about to laugh and
deem it nothing more than a completely farcical idea, suddenly a
thought crossed his mind and he accepted.

Hoidrious quickly unlocked the door and
before he realized Longinus had lied, he suddenly felt a massive
pain in his side. Looking down in horror, he could see that
sticking out of his ribs was the cursed arrow that Dracus had shot
Raffious with. Longinus had rammed it into him with great vengeance
and furious rage. The thing had gone straight in through his flesh
and then burrowed itself into his ribs.

A second passed and then
Hoidrious felt his whole body beginning to twitch violently, and as
his nerves began to freeze, then numbness followed shortly
afterwards. His sense of touch vanished and in its place was the
sense of nothing
ness.

Then Longinus tripped him up with extreme
force and slammed him down against the floor and started undoing
his robes.

Raffious charged out of the cell and fled
down the passageway towards Mietioc and the warring goons. Only as
he saw he couldn’t pass them, he was forced to stop and wait.

Then as Longinus finally
got the robes of Hoidrious, suddenly the amulet dropped out of his
pocket and rolled along the floor. Longinus was instantly reminded
about the necklace that the
gorgeous
Raffious was wearing, and
with those thoughts he also wondered if the story about the amulet
and the necklace was true.

Then with a devious gleam in his eye, he
turned around to see where Raffious was standing and grinned as he
turned back around to face the other way. Looking down the
passageway he could see that it was clear of obstructions and was
steeply sloping away from him.

After picking the amulet up, he threw it and
watched with a grin as it bounced and spun carefree into the
distance.

Raffious dropped to his knees and then
grasped at the necklace in a desperate attempt to stop it from
killing him, although it was futile because the barbs violently
lacerated his fingers as it continued to contract.

Suddenly the same barbs also severed his
jugular vein, which within a millisecond turned into a heavy jet of
coppery blood. Then as the necklace disappeared into his neck, he
startled gurgling. The Dark Messenger was experiencing violent
terror as it swept through his brain.

A moment later the necklace completely
contracted and his fell off his shoulders and rolled along the
floor.

‘Wow what a cool necklace. Now you’re fucking
free, you fucker.’ Longinous chortled to himself.

Mietioc who had been playing with his
attackers up to this point, suddenly found himself bored of just
crashing swords against swords, and decided to end it. He stepped
forwards on one foot into the kill zone and taunted them by
sticking his face out towards them.

Then as they lunged forwards he pulled
himself back out of the way. Now with both of them unprotected, he
grinned at their error and threw both of his swords into their
chests.