The Dark Messenger (31 page)

As he began to stand and realized that blood
was now dripping from his mouth as well, a thought crossed his
mind.

What good would jumping forwards be if the
world was about to die anyway? Jumping back is the direction I need
to go, NOT forwards.

Thinking this, he highly
doubted that he would want to go forwards ever again, and if he had
done all of this with Raffious just to get a chance to be able to
time travel into the future, then he had made a
grave
mistake.

He felt sure by the way he
was feeling that jumping forwards would kill him if he tried it one
more time. He felt so much worse now than he had before when they
had arrived at Rex’s prison.
No, whatever
happens here, I am not going to do any more time travel for some
time,
he told himself.

Then another thought came into his mind, and
he decided that he needed to air this one with the old fool behind
him.

‘How can you only think of that stupid vase,
when all around everything is either dying or is already dead? Can
you NOT see that the planet is nearly done? Are you that
stupid?’

Raffious grinned and said, ‘I caused all of
this you idiot as part of my plan. For years I have been causing
wars, pollution, and death to the humans, for the bigger picture.
When the world was near the end I knew that Rex would call a
meeting, and then the fake sword would lure him out so I could kill
him. My plans worked, and worked well.’

He then shoved Longinus. “NOW MOVE!’ he
shouted.

Longinus forgot his illness
for a second as he took in what Raffious had just said. He was
completely horrified; this man was by far the sickest person he had
ever met.
Rex is most definitely demoted
to second on my list of assholes now for sure!
he thought.

Walking forwards and
covering his face to ward off the putrid stench, he couldn't help
but wonder what would happen if he just leapt into the air right
now and flew as fast as he could. Would he manage to get away? He
knew he couldn’t try though, for fear of being on the run from two
covens and Raffious. No he had no choice he had to follow this
through. He thought as the words
Viatis
Onertiunes
then suddenly resurfaced in his
brain.

As they reached the end of the road, the dark
grey silhouette of the Tower of London loomed in front of them.
Raffious told Longinus that he would be waiting for him where he
had been when he had come to the interview with Rex all those years
before. Longinus told him, his voice weak, that he knew where he
meant.

But just to be completely annoying, Raffious
reminded him of the place anyway. ‘See where the boats are moored?
I will be waiting by the jetty on the other side.’

Feeling it pointless to hurl abuse at him as
he obviously didn’t listen to a damn thing, Longinus simply sighed
at the old man’s stupidity.

‘Make sure that you get the vase, or I will
be very angry,’ Raffious said as he drifted away towards the boats
that were moored to his left.

Longinus added in thought alone that he
doubted Raffious would get the chance to be angry for soon he felt
sure he would be receiving the white coven’s punishment for
trapping Rex.

Surreptitiously gliding up the pathway and
double-checking that no one was about, he stepped over the
knee-high wire fence and made his way along to where the covens
secret door was located. The castle’s walls were now almost
completely covered with graffiti, so much in fact that it was
almost impossible to see the original stone beneath it.

Checking one more final time that no one was
around, he slid his hand inside the brickwork and felt for the
hidden latch.

Chapter 25 – A Celestial Attendant

After witnessing Arquin’s brutal execution,
Jenny had been so mad with Kaine that she said many rude and
spiteful things to him. Regina brought her into a girlie counseling
session and told her that Arquin had been a traitor. Jenny
realizing the truth, had felt bad about what she had said to Kaine.
However, she had spouted so much vitriol that she found it
difficult to apologise for it.

Kaine however, with his big friendly
personality, let them flow off him like water off a ducks back. He
found some of them so amusing in fact, that he even made notes for
future reference.

In Jenny’s defense, she was still a kind,
loving, gentle human. Her reaction was accepted as fairly normal by
the rest, in light of the fact that her understanding of torture
and death had been given a whole new meaning in the last couple of
weeks. It was not something that she had welcomed. Back in the
hospital, which seemed like a lifetime ago, she had told herself
that when all this was over, she would quit the newspapers and bin
the horror movies, because she didn’t want to see or hear about any
more violence or gore.

It was surprising that she had accepted
Regina’s explanations, because Arquin’s execution had been quite
graphic, to say the least.

Jenny had been cleaning up the dust in the
kitchen and was inside the oven pulling out the shelves when Kaine
had roared. She had been so startled by how evil it had sounded,
that she banged her head as she spun round to see what was
happening. Then, in the millisecond before he had his hand around
Arquin’s throat, she had caught sight of his well-matured fangs,
twice longer than Becky’s, and had almost shit herself in
terror.

Time had frozen as fear raced through her
veins. She had wanted to scream, but it was as if she was
paralysed. She couldn’t move or make any sound at all.

Then when the skin on Arquin’s neck had
stretched and a second later his head had been ripped off, her
stomach acid with other vile slime had, without permission, blasted
through her teeth.

Moments later from her doubled over position
she had wearily raised her head. Then with long lines of slime
drooling down from her lips, she had seen the headless body
spraying precious pints of coppery blood. Only when she had
realized the now, should be dead corpse, was still alive and using
its arms to look for the head, she had given out the most harrowing
of screams.

Now though after Regina had
done her fast clean-up the room looked brand new again and order
was restored. Even the dogs had been given a bath, which had been
more difficult than usual because of the congealed blood in the
plughole. Kaine had said he was pretty sure that if they had been
entered into
The Crufts
dog competition, because of how well they looked,
he thought they would have won first prize too.

He had also explained to Jenny how Arquin was
messaging his warriors so they could triangulate his location, and
pinpoint the right direction to dig in. Also through his messages
they knew the layout inside his home for when they finally did
break through.

He said that it was his foolishness giving
Arquin blood in the garage that had allowed the traitor to be able
to read his telepathic thoughts in the first place. He had also
commented on Longinus following him back to their house, and was
furious at his own stupidity in allowing him to do so. He had said
that both things had serious consequences, and he hoped that as a
result none of them died today because he would never be able to
forgive himself if they did.

As he had finished Jenny had got up and ran
over to give him a big hug, she said he didn’t do it on purpose so
he couldn’t blame himself. He had then wrapped his massive arms
around her tiny frame, and kissed her on the forehead. They were
friends again.

--------

Now though minute’s later, things changed
again in the vampire household and in the most unpredictable way
too.

The room was filled with garish white light,
and everyone had no choice but to close their eyes due to its
intensity.

Then as it began to fade they could see in
the center of the light, there was the silhouette of a man with
pearl-white wings on his back. He was wearing simple robes and his
arms and legs gleamed like burnished bronze. His hair was blonde
and flowed past his shoulders, and his face was full of beauty,
purity, and kindliness, with ocean-blue eyes that gazed out
tenderly on those assembled before him.

No one for obvious reasons needed an
explanation of who he was. It was clear just by how his presence
lit up the entire room that he was a celestial attendant of God. He
was an angel.

‘Fear not. I come down from Heaven to bring
you an offer.’ He said in a voice that sounded so soft and
pure.

No one moved or said anything. They
couldn’t—they were all simply at a loss for words. They didn’t even
turn to look at each other. All they could do was look in awe and
reverence, marveling at his extreme beauty.

Solomon and Bruce raced across to his sides
and sat there like statues. The angel reached down and stroked them
across their heads, and their eyes sparkled with a divine energy.
Craning their heads back, they looked up at him in a way their
parents had never seen before. They looked like perhaps they had
known him from another life. To see them so calm and peaceful by
his side was a profound experience for them all.

The angel stretched out his hand. ‘Kaine,
please kneel before me. I would like to address you directly with
the offer I have for you.’

Kaine tried to get up from the sofa and walk
over to him, but because of the way he was feeling inside, he
wasn’t sure if he had even told his legs to move. No one had ever
made him feel this way before.

Jenny realized that he couldn’t move and
nudged him gently in the side, helping him to partially find his
senses again. He managed to finally stand and put one foot ahead of
the other.

Kaine bowed his head and collapsed to his
knees before the angel, who then laid his hand upon his forehead.
As his fingers touched, Kaine felt relief in a way he had never
felt before. All of his vampire tension and stresses left his body,
and he felt reborn and clean inside, as if he were a human
again.

‘It has been very concerning seeing your
current situation,’ the angel said. ‘You have shown more good in
the past few weeks than I have been able to see in many people in
their whole lives. You are truly the right man for what I am here
to offer you.’

Kaine swallowed and could feel that his
throat was quite dry.

‘Regina, would you please give your husband
some water. His throat is dry,’ the angel said.

Kaine looked in disbelief as he realized the
angel knew his feelings.

Regina quickly offered drinks to everyone and
then raced into the kitchen. Moments later she returned with three
glasses of spring water and placed them down on their coffee
table.

The angel asked Regina to please take a seat.
Obliging him, she quickly sat down on the sofa next to Jenny and
Becky.

‘Firstly, I would like to say that this all
started because of something which happened many thousands of years
ago,’ the angel began. ‘Installis, or Raffious as you know him, is
out of control and must be punished.’

Kaine and Regina looked at each other in
amazement when they heard Raffious’ name mentioned.

‘That man has been spoken about so very much
in such a short time,’ Regina messaged Kaine.

‘Oops—sorry. Force of habit,’ she said aloud
to the angel in apology, for she felt that it had been rude of her
to send a telepathic message in his presence.

‘I thank you for your apology, but you must
speak with words and not your thoughts. This is not for me, but
because of Jenny being human and Becky’s inability to communicate
telepathically at this point. She is relatively new to your species
and has not developed that talent yet.

‘As for me, I hear your thoughts and feel
your emotions before you do. Please do not be scared of this, for
it is who I am,’ he said.

He continued, ‘A long time ago, Raffious was
a kind and gentle man who used to work by my side as my truth
messenger, providing very important information to me. He was
allowed into Heaven, but had never met our heavenly father as I
have.

‘At the time of Christ’s crucifixion,
Installis had fallen in love with a woman with nullifidian beliefs.
Her name was Adina, and she was Christ’s aide.

‘Christ was arrested by a 60-strong legion
under the command of Centurion Flavicus Rexious, and soon after he
was crucified. He died an appalling, humiliating death, reserved by
the Romans for the most contemptible of criminals.

‘Adina was brutally murdered too, and by some
of the same men who had crucified Christ. When the news of her
death reached Installis, his heart was broken into a myriad of
pieces.

‘He begged Heaven to undo her killing, and he
thought his prayers went unheard, which left him feeling betrayed
by the ones who had loved him so very much. His powers of time
travel were then restricted so that he wouldn’t be able to jump
back in time and alter her fate. Installis couldn’t understand why
Heaven had done this, and was furious with both me and with our
heavenly father for thinking that we simply let Christ, and Adina,
die.’