Day Four - History Arrives - part 3
He started the engine and drove the short distance to the Old Raddles Mission. There was now a circle of plastic blue and white police tape around the ground warning people ‘Police Incident – Do Not Cross’ – he crossed.
“Bill” he called and stood waiting just by the tape, not wanting to compromise the scene more than he already had.
A middle aged man wearing thin clear gloves and an all in one paper suit complete from hair cover to feet covers came out of the now un-padlocked and open front door.
“Ah, Chris, hello. If you want to come in, I’ll get you some cover-alls.”
“Depends Bill, have you got anything I need to see?” Bentley responded not feeling the need to undergo the gyrations necessary to get into a SOC scene suit unless he really had to.
“No, not really. As you now, we have recovered what appears to be cat fur. There are some very old human bones in the corner, and I mean hundreds of years old, interestingly they are not covered in dust, unlike the rest of the place.”
“That would, I presume,” Bentley sais, “that they haven’t laid in the position that you found them for hundreds of years?”
“Correct. Also, there is a stone crypt that shows signs of tamper, but we don’t have the equipment to move it. Four of us barely managed to move the lid,”
“Yeah,” Bentley interrupted, “don’t tell me, Health and Safety rules blah blah.”
“Well, yes, there is that, but with four of us unable to move it, without probable reason, there seems no point in going to the expense of getting a long reach crane in here to pop the lid and look at some old bones. Can’t see how one man or even a bunch of kids, could actually move the thing when four of us failed.”
“I saw a programme on discovery about the Egyptian Tombs, and they used some specialist clamp thank that slipped between the lid and the base and then popped them apart enough to slide a fibre optic camera in for a looksee.”
“Yes Chris, I saw the same programme, and never ever imagined that I could make use of such a piece of kit here and so did not raise the 50K requisition to order one.”
“Any UK force have one we can borrow?”
“Not that I know of. So, unless you can give me a bloody good reason to open that crypt, and presumably the others too, it stays closed an un-investigated.”
“Could you drill a hole through the side and stick a probe in that way?”
“Give me a reason to do it, and yes.”
“That pile of bones in the corner that you mentioned, they came from somewhere, why not that crypt?”
“Because Chris, nowhere in my experience, apart from fantasy fiction, has a pile of bones lifted a lid on a crypt or even sarcophagus, climbed out, shut the lid after itself and then thought, ‘hang on, I’m dead, and then collapsed in a heap. Anyway, come round here, I thing I have a more likely source for the bones.”
He led the way the to the rear of the Mission, “some big cat prints there” he pointed as they walked, and stopped by a stone slab and some disturbed ground.
“This is a grave, or rather was. I suspect that the bones in the mission may have come from here, perhaps dug up by the cat? I don’t know. I can tell you that this ground has been disturbed recently, and that there are no bones in the grave.”
“Okay Bill, thank you. Anything else?”
“Along with the cat fur, we have sent some skin samples and other viable samples that we found off to the lab for analysis. Be interesting to see what they come back with. Apart from that, this place looks to have been pretty much deserted and unused for a very long time. Thee is no sign of kids using it as a knocking shop, or druggies as a den, nor even a respite from the weather for the occasional homeless person. It just looks utterly abandoned apart from a small amount of recent activity.”
“It’s the recent activity that interests me Bill. Okay, thanks. Oh, what can you tell me about the body of the boy, is that on your patch too?”
“Yes, the actual spot is under a tent in the field the other side of the Mission, you must have passed it. I have had a cursory look, nothing obvious, but, what with cuts and all, I can’t do both at the same time. I will go over there when I have finished here. All I can say is, no sign of blood.”
“Thanks Bill, let me know if you find anything, yeah?” Bentley went back towards his car, dipped under the warning tape, and walked back up the lane. He saw the white police incident tent. It was a good 40 metres into the field from the lane, he wasn’t surprised that he hadn’t seen the tape when he and Christine came down before.
Wendy Nash opened her eyes and looked at her hallway ceiling. At first she couldn’t understand where she was, nothing made sense. She put her hand behind her and felt a bag and her memory told her it was her shopping. She sat up and realised she was naked, her clothes lay in disarray around her. She began to move and felt a sticky wetness beneath her. Putting her hand down she touched herself and bought her fingers to her nose. A tear began to fall from her eyes as she stumbled to her feet and reached for the hall phone, dialling 999.
“Hello,” she said when a voice asked her what service she required. “I don’t know,” she said, “I think I’ve been raped.”
Bentley’s phone rang as he looked back and forth from the tent to the old Mission. “Yes Jackson,” he said as her name came up on the caller display. “Where? Right, get there now.”
He sprinted to his car and pulled the light from the glove box and out the window onto the roof where its magnetic base held it in place. He looked at the text message on his phone and entered the details into his Sat Nav. Flicking the switch that activated the light and his two tone horn he sped down the lane, hoping he was going in roughly the right direction as the route was being calculated.
Eldred looked from afar at the activity around the place he has scouted as home. They had identified it so quickly, he was surprised, they were obviously advanced in this time period. He would not underestimate them again. He made his way quietly along the paths out of site of the mission and headed towards Vanessa’s house, please that he had a backup. As he approached her house he saw the conveyance at the front indicating the authorities and saw the man at her door. Looking up he could see Vanessa signalling, waving at him from an upstairs window. He put a finger to his mouth and then waved both hands in a downward motion. He hoped she understood, ‘be quiet, calm down’.
His first instinct was to feed on the man guarding her house, but he did not yet have the measure of the authorities here, and raising their ire further was probably not wise. He decided to use only the thrall, and approached the man quietly, getting to within touching distance before the police man noticed him.
“Hush” he said staring at the man’s eyes, “All is quiet here, there is nothing, you have seen nothing, you want to sleep, but you will stay standing, but you will have seen nothing, heard nothing, nothing has happened here.” The police officer said nothing, he just stood staring straight ahead. Eldred tapped on Vanessa’s door and it opened slightly.
“We have to go. Bring only what you must.”
“I will get my car keys.”
“No,” he quickly said, “We don’t need that we can go quickly across land, better than these lanes and tracks. We will move on, you must hurry, the authorities are on our trail.”
Vanessa took her keys and locked the door behind her and as they stepped into the lane and headed up the field path a car came past at full speed and then she heard the scream of tyres as brakes bit and the car came to a stop. Eldred took her hand and they ran, faster she thought than she could ever run, faster she thought than she could drive, and they ran off towards the river.
Bentley was driving past the Hilt house when he saw, in the corner of his eye, Vanessa Hilt and a man standing beside her house. The uniform was just standing by. Unable to be sure of what he saw he slammed the brake on and when the car came to a stop he hurriedly slammed it into reverse and foot to the floor he went back to the Hilt house, diving out almost the second the car was stopped.
“Who was that man?” He shouted at the uniform, as he banged on the front door, “who was just at the door?”
“No one sir, no one has been here.” The uniformed PC stood shaking his head. “Sir it has been deathly quiet, no one has been here at all, I am sure.”
“Get that door open now,” he commanded pointing at Vanessa hilt’s front door and then ran back to the radio in his car. He called control requesting immediate air support to his location for one, possibly two suspects on foot. He also requested an ambulance to his location and additional patrols. “I believe the fugitives to be dangerous and a risk to the public” he finished. He did not know if the man were armed with a weapon or not, but his choice of words would flag the situation to the DCI.
He took his phone from his pocket and then dialled Christine Jackson.
“You will have to deal with the new case, I ‘ve just had a sighting at the Hilt house. I fucking knew she was harbouring him, fucking bitch. I have Golf 99 on the way, get to me when you can, he is on foot.”
He killed the call and ran back to the house, the uniform was banging on the house door but to no avail.
“For fucks sake man” Bentley shouted and threw his whole weight behind a kick to the door. There was a splintering noise and the door partially gave way. He kicked again, and the door flew in, the lock breaking away from the surround. He ran through the house, these was of course no sign of Vanessa Hilt.
“Shit, shit, shit!” he shouted. There was no victim in the house requiring the services of the ambulance, but he wanted the uniform taking in a screening, full blood tests.
“I will bet Hart’s pension that the fucking numpty uniform will show signs of being drugged, just like all the fucking others” he said to himself and then started kicking the wall. “Shit, shit, shit”
Eldred and Vanessa ran and found themselves at the rivers edge, Vanessa pulled him back, “No, we cannot cross, it looks shallow but it is all mud and shifting sands.”
“We can, we are quick and don’t stay long enough to sink or stick in the mud, and anyway, don’t forget, I am immortal,” he grabbed her hand and ran on, there was barely a mark on the sands at the river’s edge, and as the sand turned to mud, and the mud to shallow water, nothing impeded their flight. On the other side of the river he ran to an old shed at the rivers edge and only stopped when they were inside, out of view from anyone.
Vanessa pulled away from him, her anger almost overwhelming, fear ofl Eldred long since gone.
“You bastard,” she said through clenched teeth, “you absolute bastard. You may be immortal, but I am not, and even if I were, laying buried in sinking mud till it turns to fucking stone is not my idea of a good fucking party. The fucking river is a mile wide there, how the hell would you know we could cross? Jesus.” She turned away too angry to say more.
“I had no idea. It was worth a try though, I used to think, many years ago, that I perhaps should try, but never had cause. Today, I think I had cause.”
She turned and slapped him, the full force of her body behind the strike, but it did not land, as quick as she had become, he was quicker and caught her a full inch from his face. He pushed her hand away.
“We must rest, and then we both need to feed. When it gets dark, we will hunt, until then we will rest.”
“What of Amanda?”
“The Felcan will be fine, she will not cross the water.”
Bentley sat seething in his car. Golf 99, the police helicopter, armed with infra red and motion detectors had only taken 7 minutes to get to him after he put in the call, and in that time Hilt and the suspect had vanished. The helicopter had spent 20 minutes scouring all the land between the river and the lane, using every tool at its disposal. Nothing. He kept himself in good fitness and knew that at a fast run it would have taken him a good 10 minutes to get to the river, and with the low tide, there was no were to go that way, just mud. So the suspects must have been this side of the river and in perhaps, at worst, a two mile radius. There were road patrols in all the local lanes, and he had two units on scrambling bikes scouring the bridle ways and foot paths that criss crossed the area. They had gone to ground. Perhaps now Hart would authorise a door to door. Someone was harbouring them, he wanted find out who.
Mavis had the answer she needed, the book had divulged an something long known, and almost as long forgotten, but it was not as simple as a spell, a few words to banish a demon, for a Vampyre was no demon, Vampyres predate demons and the concept of hell. The page was open before her and the page read thus:
Vampyre immortal and unkilled this realm is, otherly must succour and take and then his constituents shall freed be, to torment until Vampyre is maddened and all then shall be peaced.
Vampyres were truly immortal on this earth and none of the tales and stories so beloved of Holywood and fictions had an ounce of truth or semblance of reality. This reality leastwise. Mavis knew full well that there were more than one reality to contend with. Any Wytch worth her salt knew that.
“Well” she said to her empty room, empty to human and mortal eyes, but with many an unseen non-human to hear her, there is either an earth full of sleeping Vampyres, or it’s been done before. And if it’s been done before, it can be done again.” Mavis sprinkles some of her herb mixture onto the flames once more. “I can get by with a little help from my friends” she sang as she began to make preparations for the battle that she knew was coming.
The shadows lengthened and twilight came. Vanessa realised that her senses were keener and to her the twilight was almost as bright as day.
“Let’s hunt” Eldred had said, and they crept out of the old boat shed and made their way up to the town straddled upon the bank of that side of the river.
“You must feed and kill tonight, the transformation must be completed. We will take someone, we will both feed and then you will extinguish the fire that burns in his body and it will transfer to you and then you will be truly Vampyre, immortal and my true daughter.”
Vanessa gave no thought to the impact of what he said, the flight over the river estuary had left her almost drained and she needed food, it was almost all she could focus on. A few days ago she would have railed at the thought of harming someone, never mind killing them ,but that Vanessa was gone, subsumed into the ongoing transformation into Vampyre.
They stood together in the pool of dark unreached by town lighting, as perhaps a loving couple would, and watched the human world as it went by.
“That one?” she said, pointing at a young girl.
“No, she is with blood,” he said, “use your sense and detect what I have so that you will no for the next time.”
Vanessa focussed on the girl and felt an edge, a sort of tang, like milk on the turn would have, okay, but not okay, not when there was fresher to be had. She nodded.
A boy walked towards them with a yappy dog on a leash. She didn’t even ask, too noisy, too complicated. The dag yapped furiously at them as it was walked past on it’s lead, the boy apologising to them and telling the dog to hush. She felt like she had passed a test.
A young couple walked arm in arm, Vanessa could almost taste the boy from here, there was love in the air and it danced on her senses as a flavour to be enjoyed. She looked at Eldred and as the couple got level in an instant they were set upon and dragged back into the dark, a bite first from Eldred on the girl, and almost simultaneously from Vanessa on the boy rendered them quiet and subservient.
“Walk with me my sweet,” Vanessa said quietly to the boy, “let us find somewhere to be alone, to talk,” and she took his hand and followed Eldred and the girl as they walked back to the darkness of the river bank, looking for all the world as two courting couples out on an evening stroll.
As they reached the dark of the river, the boy began to stumble as the edge of the river became less kempt and their were river strewn boulders and rocks to negotiate, easy for Vanessa with her keen sight, a struggle for the boy. She bought him to a stop and came close into his face, “Oh my sweet,” she said as she undid his clothes and lay him naked on the ground, “Oh my sweet I have waited long for this moment”. She kissed him softly and gently and raised her dress, mounting him as she bit into his neck.
The rush was unlike anything she had ever encountered, faster, deeper more intense than any that she got from Eldred, unlike any drugs or medicines she had encountered in human form, and as she gasped at the strengths he drank deep and the boy weakened. She savoured every drop, licking and sucking and then she felt it began to slow and at the very moment he was dry there was a flash in her mind, unlike anything she had every experienced, more intense than any orgasm and she sat bolt upright, arms outstretched, the boy dead and drained dry beneath her.
She was exultant, the power within her was something that she knew no human could experience and she knew, without fear or quaver, that the world was hers and that there was nothing any human could do about it. She knew what to do without Eldred’s bidding she picked up the drained meat and ran out to the river, not pausing not caring for the flow or the mud and at the very centre she dropped the carcass and ran back, her senses taking her back to the very spot where Eldred stood, the carcass of the young women at his feet.
“You learn well child,” he said, “tonight you will complete your journey, there may be much you wish to ask.”
She stood and watched as he emulated her actions, dumping the second unfortunate in the central channel of the ebbing river, the join her erstwhile lover on his journey to the sea, to be predated perhaps by the creatures of the sea, to never be found, just another young couple of lovers that ran away together.
When Eldred got back she simply said, “No, nothing to ask actually, pretty much got your memories sorted. Let’s go to ground” and she headed off to the old boat house, a bemused Eldred in her wake.
He started the engine and drove the short distance to the Old Raddles Mission. There was now a circle of plastic blue and white police tape around the ground warning people ‘Police Incident – Do Not Cross’ – he crossed.
“Bill” he called and stood waiting just by the tape, not wanting to compromise the scene more than he already had.
A middle aged man wearing thin clear gloves and an all in one paper suit complete from hair cover to feet covers came out of the now un-padlocked and open front door.
“Ah, Chris, hello. If you want to come in, I’ll get you some cover-alls.”
“Depends Bill, have you got anything I need to see?” Bentley responded not feeling the need to undergo the gyrations necessary to get into a SOC scene suit unless he really had to.
“No, not really. As you now, we have recovered what appears to be cat fur. There are some very old human bones in the corner, and I mean hundreds of years old, interestingly they are not covered in dust, unlike the rest of the place.”
“That would, I presume,” Bentley sais, “that they haven’t laid in the position that you found them for hundreds of years?”
“Correct. Also, there is a stone crypt that shows signs of tamper, but we don’t have the equipment to move it. Four of us barely managed to move the lid,”
“Yeah,” Bentley interrupted, “don’t tell me, Health and Safety rules blah blah.”
“Well, yes, there is that, but with four of us unable to move it, without probable reason, there seems no point in going to the expense of getting a long reach crane in here to pop the lid and look at some old bones. Can’t see how one man or even a bunch of kids, could actually move the thing when four of us failed.”
“I saw a programme on discovery about the Egyptian Tombs, and they used some specialist clamp thank that slipped between the lid and the base and then popped them apart enough to slide a fibre optic camera in for a looksee.”
“Yes Chris, I saw the same programme, and never ever imagined that I could make use of such a piece of kit here and so did not raise the 50K requisition to order one.”
“Any UK force have one we can borrow?”
“Not that I know of. So, unless you can give me a bloody good reason to open that crypt, and presumably the others too, it stays closed an un-investigated.”
“Could you drill a hole through the side and stick a probe in that way?”
“Give me a reason to do it, and yes.”
“That pile of bones in the corner that you mentioned, they came from somewhere, why not that crypt?”
“Because Chris, nowhere in my experience, apart from fantasy fiction, has a pile of bones lifted a lid on a crypt or even sarcophagus, climbed out, shut the lid after itself and then thought, ‘hang on, I’m dead, and then collapsed in a heap. Anyway, come round here, I thing I have a more likely source for the bones.”
He led the way the to the rear of the Mission, “some big cat prints there” he pointed as they walked, and stopped by a stone slab and some disturbed ground.
“This is a grave, or rather was. I suspect that the bones in the mission may have come from here, perhaps dug up by the cat? I don’t know. I can tell you that this ground has been disturbed recently, and that there are no bones in the grave.”
“Okay Bill, thank you. Anything else?”
“Along with the cat fur, we have sent some skin samples and other viable samples that we found off to the lab for analysis. Be interesting to see what they come back with. Apart from that, this place looks to have been pretty much deserted and unused for a very long time. Thee is no sign of kids using it as a knocking shop, or druggies as a den, nor even a respite from the weather for the occasional homeless person. It just looks utterly abandoned apart from a small amount of recent activity.”
“It’s the recent activity that interests me Bill. Okay, thanks. Oh, what can you tell me about the body of the boy, is that on your patch too?”
“Yes, the actual spot is under a tent in the field the other side of the Mission, you must have passed it. I have had a cursory look, nothing obvious, but, what with cuts and all, I can’t do both at the same time. I will go over there when I have finished here. All I can say is, no sign of blood.”
“Thanks Bill, let me know if you find anything, yeah?” Bentley went back towards his car, dipped under the warning tape, and walked back up the lane. He saw the white police incident tent. It was a good 40 metres into the field from the lane, he wasn’t surprised that he hadn’t seen the tape when he and Christine came down before.
Wendy Nash opened her eyes and looked at her hallway ceiling. At first she couldn’t understand where she was, nothing made sense. She put her hand behind her and felt a bag and her memory told her it was her shopping. She sat up and realised she was naked, her clothes lay in disarray around her. She began to move and felt a sticky wetness beneath her. Putting her hand down she touched herself and bought her fingers to her nose. A tear began to fall from her eyes as she stumbled to her feet and reached for the hall phone, dialling 999.
“Hello,” she said when a voice asked her what service she required. “I don’t know,” she said, “I think I’ve been raped.”
Bentley’s phone rang as he looked back and forth from the tent to the old Mission. “Yes Jackson,” he said as her name came up on the caller display. “Where? Right, get there now.”
He sprinted to his car and pulled the light from the glove box and out the window onto the roof where its magnetic base held it in place. He looked at the text message on his phone and entered the details into his Sat Nav. Flicking the switch that activated the light and his two tone horn he sped down the lane, hoping he was going in roughly the right direction as the route was being calculated.
Eldred looked from afar at the activity around the place he has scouted as home. They had identified it so quickly, he was surprised, they were obviously advanced in this time period. He would not underestimate them again. He made his way quietly along the paths out of site of the mission and headed towards Vanessa’s house, please that he had a backup. As he approached her house he saw the conveyance at the front indicating the authorities and saw the man at her door. Looking up he could see Vanessa signalling, waving at him from an upstairs window. He put a finger to his mouth and then waved both hands in a downward motion. He hoped she understood, ‘be quiet, calm down’.
His first instinct was to feed on the man guarding her house, but he did not yet have the measure of the authorities here, and raising their ire further was probably not wise. He decided to use only the thrall, and approached the man quietly, getting to within touching distance before the police man noticed him.
“Hush” he said staring at the man’s eyes, “All is quiet here, there is nothing, you have seen nothing, you want to sleep, but you will stay standing, but you will have seen nothing, heard nothing, nothing has happened here.” The police officer said nothing, he just stood staring straight ahead. Eldred tapped on Vanessa’s door and it opened slightly.
“We have to go. Bring only what you must.”
“I will get my car keys.”
“No,” he quickly said, “We don’t need that we can go quickly across land, better than these lanes and tracks. We will move on, you must hurry, the authorities are on our trail.”
Vanessa took her keys and locked the door behind her and as they stepped into the lane and headed up the field path a car came past at full speed and then she heard the scream of tyres as brakes bit and the car came to a stop. Eldred took her hand and they ran, faster she thought than she could ever run, faster she thought than she could drive, and they ran off towards the river.
Bentley was driving past the Hilt house when he saw, in the corner of his eye, Vanessa Hilt and a man standing beside her house. The uniform was just standing by. Unable to be sure of what he saw he slammed the brake on and when the car came to a stop he hurriedly slammed it into reverse and foot to the floor he went back to the Hilt house, diving out almost the second the car was stopped.
“Who was that man?” He shouted at the uniform, as he banged on the front door, “who was just at the door?”
“No one sir, no one has been here.” The uniformed PC stood shaking his head. “Sir it has been deathly quiet, no one has been here at all, I am sure.”
“Get that door open now,” he commanded pointing at Vanessa hilt’s front door and then ran back to the radio in his car. He called control requesting immediate air support to his location for one, possibly two suspects on foot. He also requested an ambulance to his location and additional patrols. “I believe the fugitives to be dangerous and a risk to the public” he finished. He did not know if the man were armed with a weapon or not, but his choice of words would flag the situation to the DCI.
He took his phone from his pocket and then dialled Christine Jackson.
“You will have to deal with the new case, I ‘ve just had a sighting at the Hilt house. I fucking knew she was harbouring him, fucking bitch. I have Golf 99 on the way, get to me when you can, he is on foot.”
He killed the call and ran back to the house, the uniform was banging on the house door but to no avail.
“For fucks sake man” Bentley shouted and threw his whole weight behind a kick to the door. There was a splintering noise and the door partially gave way. He kicked again, and the door flew in, the lock breaking away from the surround. He ran through the house, these was of course no sign of Vanessa Hilt.
“Shit, shit, shit!” he shouted. There was no victim in the house requiring the services of the ambulance, but he wanted the uniform taking in a screening, full blood tests.
“I will bet Hart’s pension that the fucking numpty uniform will show signs of being drugged, just like all the fucking others” he said to himself and then started kicking the wall. “Shit, shit, shit”
Eldred and Vanessa ran and found themselves at the rivers edge, Vanessa pulled him back, “No, we cannot cross, it looks shallow but it is all mud and shifting sands.”
“We can, we are quick and don’t stay long enough to sink or stick in the mud, and anyway, don’t forget, I am immortal,” he grabbed her hand and ran on, there was barely a mark on the sands at the river’s edge, and as the sand turned to mud, and the mud to shallow water, nothing impeded their flight. On the other side of the river he ran to an old shed at the rivers edge and only stopped when they were inside, out of view from anyone.
Vanessa pulled away from him, her anger almost overwhelming, fear ofl Eldred long since gone.
“You bastard,” she said through clenched teeth, “you absolute bastard. You may be immortal, but I am not, and even if I were, laying buried in sinking mud till it turns to fucking stone is not my idea of a good fucking party. The fucking river is a mile wide there, how the hell would you know we could cross? Jesus.” She turned away too angry to say more.
“I had no idea. It was worth a try though, I used to think, many years ago, that I perhaps should try, but never had cause. Today, I think I had cause.”
She turned and slapped him, the full force of her body behind the strike, but it did not land, as quick as she had become, he was quicker and caught her a full inch from his face. He pushed her hand away.
“We must rest, and then we both need to feed. When it gets dark, we will hunt, until then we will rest.”
“What of Amanda?”
“The Felcan will be fine, she will not cross the water.”
Bentley sat seething in his car. Golf 99, the police helicopter, armed with infra red and motion detectors had only taken 7 minutes to get to him after he put in the call, and in that time Hilt and the suspect had vanished. The helicopter had spent 20 minutes scouring all the land between the river and the lane, using every tool at its disposal. Nothing. He kept himself in good fitness and knew that at a fast run it would have taken him a good 10 minutes to get to the river, and with the low tide, there was no were to go that way, just mud. So the suspects must have been this side of the river and in perhaps, at worst, a two mile radius. There were road patrols in all the local lanes, and he had two units on scrambling bikes scouring the bridle ways and foot paths that criss crossed the area. They had gone to ground. Perhaps now Hart would authorise a door to door. Someone was harbouring them, he wanted find out who.
Mavis had the answer she needed, the book had divulged an something long known, and almost as long forgotten, but it was not as simple as a spell, a few words to banish a demon, for a Vampyre was no demon, Vampyres predate demons and the concept of hell. The page was open before her and the page read thus:
Vampyre immortal and unkilled this realm is, otherly must succour and take and then his constituents shall freed be, to torment until Vampyre is maddened and all then shall be peaced.
Vampyres were truly immortal on this earth and none of the tales and stories so beloved of Holywood and fictions had an ounce of truth or semblance of reality. This reality leastwise. Mavis knew full well that there were more than one reality to contend with. Any Wytch worth her salt knew that.
“Well” she said to her empty room, empty to human and mortal eyes, but with many an unseen non-human to hear her, there is either an earth full of sleeping Vampyres, or it’s been done before. And if it’s been done before, it can be done again.” Mavis sprinkles some of her herb mixture onto the flames once more. “I can get by with a little help from my friends” she sang as she began to make preparations for the battle that she knew was coming.
The shadows lengthened and twilight came. Vanessa realised that her senses were keener and to her the twilight was almost as bright as day.
“Let’s hunt” Eldred had said, and they crept out of the old boat shed and made their way up to the town straddled upon the bank of that side of the river.
“You must feed and kill tonight, the transformation must be completed. We will take someone, we will both feed and then you will extinguish the fire that burns in his body and it will transfer to you and then you will be truly Vampyre, immortal and my true daughter.”
Vanessa gave no thought to the impact of what he said, the flight over the river estuary had left her almost drained and she needed food, it was almost all she could focus on. A few days ago she would have railed at the thought of harming someone, never mind killing them ,but that Vanessa was gone, subsumed into the ongoing transformation into Vampyre.
They stood together in the pool of dark unreached by town lighting, as perhaps a loving couple would, and watched the human world as it went by.
“That one?” she said, pointing at a young girl.
“No, she is with blood,” he said, “use your sense and detect what I have so that you will no for the next time.”
Vanessa focussed on the girl and felt an edge, a sort of tang, like milk on the turn would have, okay, but not okay, not when there was fresher to be had. She nodded.
A boy walked towards them with a yappy dog on a leash. She didn’t even ask, too noisy, too complicated. The dag yapped furiously at them as it was walked past on it’s lead, the boy apologising to them and telling the dog to hush. She felt like she had passed a test.
A young couple walked arm in arm, Vanessa could almost taste the boy from here, there was love in the air and it danced on her senses as a flavour to be enjoyed. She looked at Eldred and as the couple got level in an instant they were set upon and dragged back into the dark, a bite first from Eldred on the girl, and almost simultaneously from Vanessa on the boy rendered them quiet and subservient.
“Walk with me my sweet,” Vanessa said quietly to the boy, “let us find somewhere to be alone, to talk,” and she took his hand and followed Eldred and the girl as they walked back to the darkness of the river bank, looking for all the world as two courting couples out on an evening stroll.
As they reached the dark of the river, the boy began to stumble as the edge of the river became less kempt and their were river strewn boulders and rocks to negotiate, easy for Vanessa with her keen sight, a struggle for the boy. She bought him to a stop and came close into his face, “Oh my sweet,” she said as she undid his clothes and lay him naked on the ground, “Oh my sweet I have waited long for this moment”. She kissed him softly and gently and raised her dress, mounting him as she bit into his neck.
The rush was unlike anything she had ever encountered, faster, deeper more intense than any that she got from Eldred, unlike any drugs or medicines she had encountered in human form, and as she gasped at the strengths he drank deep and the boy weakened. She savoured every drop, licking and sucking and then she felt it began to slow and at the very moment he was dry there was a flash in her mind, unlike anything she had every experienced, more intense than any orgasm and she sat bolt upright, arms outstretched, the boy dead and drained dry beneath her.
She was exultant, the power within her was something that she knew no human could experience and she knew, without fear or quaver, that the world was hers and that there was nothing any human could do about it. She knew what to do without Eldred’s bidding she picked up the drained meat and ran out to the river, not pausing not caring for the flow or the mud and at the very centre she dropped the carcass and ran back, her senses taking her back to the very spot where Eldred stood, the carcass of the young women at his feet.
“You learn well child,” he said, “tonight you will complete your journey, there may be much you wish to ask.”
She stood and watched as he emulated her actions, dumping the second unfortunate in the central channel of the ebbing river, the join her erstwhile lover on his journey to the sea, to be predated perhaps by the creatures of the sea, to never be found, just another young couple of lovers that ran away together.
When Eldred got back she simply said, “No, nothing to ask actually, pretty much got your memories sorted. Let’s go to ground” and she headed off to the old boat house, a bemused Eldred in her wake.