The Dark Messenger (7 page)

When Kaine had first brought it home, his
wife had shook her head, amused. She’d asked him playfully, ‘Do we
really need more cameras for extra security? Do you know something
that I don’t?’

Not long passed, however,
before she began to really love it, since she could fly it around
during the day and see things without worrying about being burnt by
the sun. Together they had seen events in town, watched the finish
line of the London to Brighton bike race, and regularly hovered
over the Amex stadium. They could hardly remember what life had
been like before they had gotten it--their much-loved
‘eyes in the sky’
.

For extra security Kaine had installed shiny
steel tubes, which went through the earth from the outside, opening
out into the traps rooms. In the middle of each tube were mirrors
and magnifying glasses which would increase the sun’s powers,
reflecting its powerful, deadly UV rays into the rooms. Kaine kept
those blocked at all times, because even with two sets of vampire
skin wraps on, the increased power of the UV light would kill them.
If ever they were attacked by their own kind though, they could go
down to the lower rooms and pull a lever, which locked the top exit
automatically. All the light tubes would open, and any vampires
inside would burn.

-------------------------

The local history of the area was rich in
superstition and folklore, some of which suggested that the valley
was in fact created by the devil himself.

It was said that in the past Saint Cuthman of
Steyning, who was an Anglo-Saxon church builder, had tricked the
devil into leaving the local people of the weald, an area of
marshes and forests, alone forever. The story was that the area,
the last place to be converted to Christianity, had been the
devil’s last stronghold. The loss had driven him mad, and he had
decided that if the people would so easily turn their backs on him,
then he would drown them under the waters of the sea forever. One
night was all it would take for him to dig his way through the
hills, letting in the waters and sending them all to a watery
grave. He boasted as much to Saint Cuthman, who had no fear of the
devil because of his strong faith in God.

He immediately started to devise a plan to
save the people of the weald. ‘What will you do,’ he asked the
devil, ‘if you can’t dig your way through in one night?’ The
devil’s reply was that he would leave Cuthman and the people alone
forever.

Through the night, the local people quaked in
their beds, hearing the terrifying noise of the devil digging and
stamping his hooves outside their homes. The earth he flung aside
can still be seen today in the distance, in the forms of Cissbury
Ring, Mount Caburn and Firle Beacon. The devil got tired as he dug,
and seeing light begin to appear on the eastern hills and hearing a
morning cockerel crowing, he foolishly believed that he had failed
his task. The devil thought the night was over, and that he had not
finished digging as he had boasted he would. He then fled out to
sea, shamed with failure, and so caught up in his wretched feelings
that he didn’t realize that the sky all around him was still dark.
Nor that he had just past the laughing figures of Saint Cuthman and
Sister Ursula who was holding a brightly-lit candle and she
smoothing the ruffled feathers of a rooster who had helped to save
the weald. The dyke remained untouched forevermore as a lasting
symbol of good overcoming evil.

-------------------------

‘What’s wrong?’ came a slightly muffled voice
from Regina’s side of the bed. Kaine smiled and returned to her,
lying down with his face close to hers.

‘Can’t you sleep, my darling?’ she asked.
Kaine felt his wife’s hand slide up onto his chest, warm from its
place under the sheets.

He sighed, remembering the dream. ‘I am very
concerned, darling.’ he told her. ‘I have seen much trouble ahead
in a vision that I had last night. In it, I was in a meeting in
Rex’s coven with Hoidrious his second in command. The planet was
dying, and he had an evil plan to save it. This dream was no
dream--I must act upon what I have seen,’ he said with urgency in
his voice.

Kaine loved her emphatically and to him she
gave meaning to life. She was its whole being, its purpose, its
color, and its clarity through vicious heinous times. Her vision
was never clouded and she was always able to see the goodness in
it, like mother Teresa.

To imagine an eternal life without her, one
where he would be trapped alone within the walls of vampirism, he
felt it would be far worse than even an eternity in hell.

He had assiduous beliefs towards his
relationship lasting indefinitely with her and should another being
ever try to come between them, then by bare hand, his rage would
guide him as retribution for the heinous act would be sought. Blood
would be spilt in rivers not gallons, even his best friend Laouse
would succumb to an ignominious death, before he would allow her
life to be taken from him.

Hearing her husband’s worries about his
vision, Regina sat up instantly. She knew him well as they had been
together hundreds of years--way before the werewolf war had even
started. She trusted everything her husband did, his thoughts, his
reactions. She truly loved him and believed in her husband always.
So very much, in fact, that if he was troubled by something, she
immediately wanted to understand what it was. They were a team
‘till death do they part’, a phrase she took very seriously.

‘Tell me,’ she said, ‘was it like the vision
of the war with those beasts?’

‘Yes! Yes, only even more clear than that. I
fought against werewolves. Rex had fifty of them that he was
breeding from, and he's going to release them across the world to
kill millions of humans. In the vision there’s widespread famine,
wars, sickness and huge winds with terrible rain. People are dying
everywhere on the earth, and Rex’s coven and others blame
humanity,’ he said.

‘That’s in the future?’ she asked,
shocked.

‘I know, darling. It sounds bleak doesn't it?
Rex plans to surprise-attack the Scottish coven by sending them ten
humans as a gift who are infected as werewolves. They will turn
into beasts inside their dungeons and kill all of them,’ he said in
a deeply concerned voice.

‘Do you really think it was a vision though,
without any mistake?’ Regina asked him. ‘You are really sure like
before? Because if so, then I agree we must act upon it.’ She was
silent for a moment, and Kaine could almost hear her thinking.

She let out an exasperated breath. ‘What can
we do though? How can we tell the Scots in the future that Rex
plans to attack them? I thought we vampires could only travel back
in time, not forward, unfortunately.’ Gazing into her husband’s
eyes, Regina urged him, ‘Tell me everything you saw. What shall we
do?’ she asked, looking extremely worried.

Kaine leant across and pulled her up to him,
stroking her soft red hair with his right hand before then sliding
his strong muscular leg diagonally over both her legs underneath
the sheets. ‘I love you very much, my darling, but you know that
don’t you,’ he said in a soft, caring and passionate voice as he
smiled down at her beneath him.

Right before their lips met, Kaine pulled
back, startled.

‘What is it?’ Regina asked.

‘Something else I saw. Rex ordered a warrior
to time-travel back into our time. He ordered him to search for a
woman called Jenny and to turn her into a vampire. She is a
priest’s illegitimate daughter and lives in Brighton.’

‘
Why would Rex order a
warrior to travel back in time to turn her, I wonder?’ Regina
replied, wiping away tears that were forming in her eyes. ‘And why
back to 2014 exactly? What’s so special about this
year?’

‘Rex and his cohorts have found the sacred
Silver Sword, and they want to blackmail the Church over her in the
future so that they will lift the spell on it. In the vision, she
didn’t live long past 2014, or so it seemed. So they had to come
back to this year to get her.’ he said.

Regina’s eyes widened. ‘I thought that sword
would never be found! I was starting to think it was just a lie
that someone had created. We were searching for that damn thing for
years!’ she said, looking up at him.

It was plain that he hadn’t heard her though,
because he was clearly in deep thought.

He was remembering back to when he had been
searching for the Silver Sword, which was at the same time as the
war against the werewolves. He’d nearly been killed in that war,
and had a long scar running down the entire length of his back to
prove it. Three male werewolves, enormous in size, had cornered him
in a classroom at a primary school. He was leaping out through a
plate-glass window to get away when he had seen Regina’s father out
of the corner of his eye. He had come bursting in to the room to
help him, armed with a machine gun.

As he hit the ground, he barely had enough
time to think about who he’d seen before he had to fight off one of
the three that had followed him. Once he’d finally managed to kill
it, he’d run back inside to help her dad only he was too late.
Kaine had been horrified to find that her father had been
completely torn to pieces. Inside himself something had then
exploded, a rage that had almost hurt as it swept though his veins.
He remembered the beasts looking warily at him as he had arched his
neck back and felt his face swell. His arms had surged with
unbelievable power. When the first beast had leapt at him, Kaine
had punched his fist straight through its head before ducking and
coming up underneath the second one, which he then devoured limb
from limb.

As he’d looked over at the corpse, he had
been surprised to see that Regina’s father had lost the fight.
After checking his gun, he had found to his sadness that it had
jammed on him.

Regina burst into tears, which brought Kaine
out of his dark thoughts. Instantly he knew what had happened: she
had just telepathically read his mind and, through his memories,
she could now see her fathers face again clearly in her mind. It
was so clear in fact, it was like he was there in the room looking
at her.

All vampires have a certain level of
telepathy, but with Kaine and Regina it was on a far stronger
level. Maybe it was because of the deer blood that they drank, but
they couldn’t be certain. They could happily communicate between
themselves within a fifty mile radius just as if they were standing
right next to each other. Others vampires could communicate
telepathically too, only over considerably lesser distances, which
they thought the reason for the difference must be connected to the
impure human blood most vampires drank.

After Kaine comforted Regina and got her
calmed down, he said, ‘In the vision I learned that thirty three
years ago, in 1981, baby Jenny was left by her priest-father on the
steps of an old orphanage. He never told the church about it, and
neither did he give Jenny’s location to the baby’s mother, a nun
called Sister Ursula.’

‘I can’t believe it!’ Regina’s eyes filled
with tears. ‘Such a poor woman to be born but never to know who her
father was. How could someone do that to their own daughter? That’s
not very Christian, is it?’ Her jaw set in determination, and she
sat up, causing Kaine to fall over to his side of the bed.

‘We must find Jenny before Rex does! We can’t
allow her to be killed. I think we should tell the church so they
can try protecting her, or at least tell the priest.’ She paused
before saying, ‘Oh! But then Rex will be trying to contact the
priest, so we had better hurry. I think we should call Raffious. He
will be able to contact the priest much easier than we can. Anyway,
we must tell them somehow that we will be try to save her too,’ she
finished.

Kaine then leant across and kissed his wife
on the head before laying back to think for a moment. Regina
reached for her phone.

Raffious was their best friend. The three of
them had shared many wonderful times together. His gentleness and
wisdom colored their experiences, and Regina and Kaine felt that
they were better beings for knowing him. Whenever the couple didn’t
have the answer to something that perplexed them, he always seemed
to know the right thing to do. He was a holy man and a time
traveler, who was always dressed in white robes, which matched
perfectly with the long, knee-length white beard on his face.
Unlike vampires, who had restrictions with time travel, he could
appear in any time, forward or back, and whenever he chose to do
so. Kaine and Regina knew very little about him on his religious
side, except that he could speak with the angels. He had told them
that he often goes to see them to discuss different matters. When
he moved around in time he said that he made sure he never
disturbed the time lines by changing things, and he was strongly
against anyone trying to alter the future. The slightest change, he
knew, could have a catastrophic effect on events that would unfold
in the years to come. ‘People must not be saved if we know that
they are going to die,’ he’d told them. ‘Things that happen do so
for a reason, and it’s God’s Will. I only jump to view and never to
change.’

After a few minutes, while Regina listened to
the burr of the phone ringing, Kaine swung his legs across under
the sheets to the edge of the bed and sat up.