Eldren: The Book of the Dark (28 page)

A bright light appeared above him and a voice, a child’s voice, called down.

“Margaret. Are you all right?”

He could hear the fear in the voice. Slowly he took the crossbow away from its position over his victim’s heart, taking care to point it away into the darkness. He looked up and saw another figure above him.

“She’s all right,” he said. “Probably just winded. Why don’t you bring that light down here?”

“Margaret?” the voice said again, and Jim realized that the boy was close to tears. He hoped the boy didn’t have a weapon...he was likely to use it as not if the tension in his voice was any guide. He stepped backwards, further into the shadows, showing less of a target.

“I’m all right,” a voice said at his feet. “I think we’ve found your vampire killer.”

Jim felt a shock, as if he had actually been hit. Someone knew about him...at least he hoped it was him. He didn’t need any amateur competition.

He helped the woman to her feet and there they waited as the boy climbed down to them. The boy reached the bottom and immediately went to stand beside the woman.

Jim couldn’t really see them...they were just two dim outlines behind the lamp in the boy’s hand, but he knew when he was being scrutinized.

“I saw you,” the boy said. “I saw you kill the old man in the churchyard.”

Jim hadn’t seen anyone else in the graveyard; but then again, he’d been busy at the time. He realized how he must seem to them...a figure in black, complete with long coat and crossbow, unshaven and wide eyed. To them he must look like the perfect facsimile of a psychopath.

“If you were in the graveyard, then you saw the other thing...the bloodsucker,” he said.

The boy didn’t speak, but he thought he saw the small head nod. He would have to be careful here. He didn’t want to be thrown back into prison. Not yet, not until the job was finished.

“The bloodsucker got the old man, and if I hadn’t pinned him, then he would have come back...one of them.”

“The same way you nearly pinned me?” the woman said. “What stopped you?”

“I nearly didn’t stop. You’re just lucky. That’s all. Down here I’m inclined to shoot first and ask questions later.”

“And what makes you the judge, jury and executioner?”

He ignored that. It was a question he had asked himself many times and he’d never got a satisfactory answer.

“Listen. You obviously know what you’re dealing with...you wouldn’t have bothered with the garlic otherwise. So why don’t we stop pissing about and get out of here.”

“We’re not leaving,” the woman said. “We’re here to kill it.”

Jim would have laughed if he hadn’t heard the determination in the voice. Something had happened to these two...something that had given them a bit of what was inside him.

“There’s more than one of them,” he said softly. “I counted at least six in the room through there, and I haven’t found out where the big guy is yet. Besides...it must be close to nightfall. You don’t want to mess with them after dark, not if you’re not ready.”

“We’re ready,” the boy said. “We’re got the hammer and the stakes. And they won’t touch us while we’re wearing the garlic.”

This time Jim did laugh. The boy sounded so confident, so sure of himself. But Jim was on close terms with fear and tension, and he’d heard it in the boy’s voice.

“I’m not going to argue with you,” he said. “I’m leaving, whether you come with me or not.”

“You wouldn’t leave us to face it alone,” the woman said, and there was a pleading in her voice. Both her and the boy were afraid, but they were obviously determined. They were also amateurs, and that meant they stood little chance against the recently changed bloodsuckers. They wouldn’t last ten seconds against the big guy.

“Just watch me,” he replied, but he didn’t make a move for the ladder.

All of his experience was telling him that it was time to leave, and he had a tingling at the nape of his neck, a premonition of trouble ahead.

But he couldn’t leave them here. Not a woman and child.

Especially not a woman and a child.

The woman seemed to sense the hesitation in him.

“You know about these things. You can help us,” she said. “You’ve killed them before...why are you so unwilling to do it now?”

But Jim didn’t have to make a decision...it was made for him.

A loud bang shook the room. The lamp jerked in the boy’s hand, pointing towards the sound. Jim swung round, following the light, just in time to see three figures emerge at a run from the doorway.

~-o0O0o-~

Brian’s eyes opened slowly as if gummed together by sleep. He reached out to his side, half expecting to find a pillow, and his alarm clock beyond that, but met only the old cracked porcelain of the bath.

He tried to sit up but his limbs seemed to have seized up. Seemingly being a vampire didn’t exclude getting a stiff neck. It took a bit of effort to get his arms onto the rim of the bath, and a larger one to push himself upright.

Donald Allan was already awake and was sitting cross-legged on the floor, staring into space, focused on a point above Brian’s head.

“He’s awake already,” the vampire said.

Brian didn’t ask how he knew. He supposed it had something to do with the way he himself knew that it was after sunset, even though he was in a closed room with no windows.

“Does it feel like this all the time?” he asked.

The vampire smiled, and for the first time Brian noticed the fangs which just touched his lower lip.

“Only if you insist on sleeping in the bath.”

The vampire stood in one fluid, cat-like movement. Brian didn’t even notice him bending his legs...it was more like he levitated upwards then let his legs fall beneath him.

“There’s not much time. I’m going back to the house. Are you coming with me?”

“You mean I have a choice?” Brian asked.

“You always have a choice,” the vampire said, and again Brian felt that it was more of a quote than a statement. He felt like curling up in a ball and hiding from the world in the hope that the last twenty-four hours would just go away and be replaced by something normal.

He was being asked to return to the place where the nightmare started. To go back and face the thing that had made him this way. On the other hand, he knew nothing about what he had become, and the vampire in front of him seemed to be the only way to learn. Besides, he felt fit and healthy...ready for action.

“Do I have time to change?” he asked. His clothes had rumpled and creased. The black velvet jacket would never be the same again.

Donald Allan looked him up and down, and gave him the smile again.

“I think you had better,” he said. “I’ve got my reputation to think of. Wear something black...it’s what you might call traditional.”

Brian opened the bathroom door, half expecting his skin to start smoking again. He could see all the bare, worn patches on the carpet in the hall and the nicotine stains on the wallpaper flowed in a dim, sickly green. While he was on the way to his bedroom he realized that he had just gone through the hours of daylight without a cigarette. That hadn’t happened for years...not even when he’d been laid up with flu. Even stranger, he had no desire for nicotine, and his hands were steady.

One hell of a way to kick the habit,
he thought wryly.

He tried not to dress in black, but somehow every other color seemed to jar. He finally stumped for a pair of old black denims, a black T-shirt and black Cuban healed cowboy boots, that he hadn’t worn since he was a student. Their heels were worn down by more than half an inch, but they were comfortable and, absurdly, made him feel nearly ten years younger. He had to put a belt on the trousers...he seemed to have lost more than two inches from his waist, and as he was tightening the belt he noticed that the T-shirt was tight around the chest. Not uncomfortably so, but noticeable considering that he’d purposefully bought it baggy.

When he looked in the mirror he realized that what he needed, what would really set the whole thing off, was a black leather jacket. Luckily he didn’t own one, otherwise the two of them together would more than likely be taken for a pair of gays cruising...not a good idea in this town.

He laughed. He had a feeling that he was more than a match for any number of people in the neighborhood, no matter how violent they became. He felt strong, calm and ready for anything. By rights he should be a gibbering wreck, fit only to be locked in a padded room somewhere quiet.

He turned in a circle in front of the mirror, admiring his new body, and found the vampire staring at him.

“You’ll do,” Donald Allan said. “Time to go.”

He looked straight into Brian’s eyes. “This is your chance to back down,” he said. “Things are going to get a bit strange from now on.”

“You mean even more strange than it has been already?” Brian asked. His smile stopped on its way to his lips when he saw the grave expression on the vampire’s face.

“I’d better come with you. After all, who would I turn to for fashion tips?” Brian asked.

This time he was answered by a laugh.

“I think you’ll be all right,” the vampire said. “You’ve got a sense of humor – which is more or less essential, if you’re to stay sane. The serious ones always give in to despair a lot quicker.”

Brian fell in behind him as they headed out of the house and down to the car.

“What are you going to do?” he asked.

“You mean you weren’t listening?” Donald Allan replied. “We’ve got to put him back to sleep...before he turns the whole town...if he hasn’t managed it already.” He waved his arm at the rows of houses.

“Notice anything strange?” he said.

Brian looked along the street. The trees, shrubs and grass still sang at him, and they still glowed, but he didn’t think that was what the vampire meant. Then he got it.

Although the sun had only been down for half an hour the streets were empty. No one was coming home from work, no one was going out for the evening, in fact, there were no lights in any of the houses.

“You mean they’re all like me?” Brian said.

Donald Allan signed and rolled his eyes theatrically.

“You certainly weren’t listening. You were different. He had you marked down as a disciple. The others are only followers...little intelligence and no control over the hunger. Look.”

He couldn’t see what the vampire was pointing at, but there was a strange tingling just behind his eyes. Then he saw it, at the far end of the street.

It slunk, crouched over, reminding Brian of a hyena stalking a wildebeest. Its head was close to the ground, and even at that distance Brian could hear strange snuffling noises. It looked more like an animal than a man, but he recognized old Mr. Gallacher from number 56.

“He’s on the hunt,” Donald Allan said. “He won’t come near us. He might not be so smart, but he knows instinctively that we are the stronger. But if you see a pack of them, run.”

“Doesn’t your magic work against them?” Brian asked, remembering the fireworks from the night before.

“My ‘magic’, as you call it, works against almost anything. But using it drains you...the power has to come from somewhere you know...and I’m going to have to be at full strength to cope with Shoa. Now are we going to stand here admiring the view all night?”

Brian walked round to the side of the car door, waiting for the vampire to unlock it.

“No. Not that way,” Donald Allan said, and his smile was back full force. “Let me show you the only way to travel.”

~-o0O0o-~

Jim’s crossbow bolt took the leading vampire in the neck and passed straight through...he’d rushed the shot and the light was bad. It didn’t slow it down any, and he didn’t have time to reload. Two of them were on him before he could even reach for the holster.

He dropped the crossbow at his feet to free up his hands and was just in time to catch the first one...a boy in his late teens, by the forearm. In the same movement he turned and twisted, feeling the bloodsucker turn with him, using its weight to push it off balance and into the second that was already reaching for him.

There was a scream behind him, whether from the boy or the woman he wasn’t sure, and the light from the lamp suddenly beamed erratically around the room. He didn’t have time to turn...the second vampire...a heavy set woman in her fifties...all twin set and pearls...moved towards him at a speed more befitting a rugby player.

He turned, side on to his attacker, and shot out his hand, the heel of the palm catching her just on the point of the nose and pushing upwards in one sharp movement. He felt the cartilage snap and saw the bloodsucker’s eyes flare as it fell backwards away from him.

But that only allowed the younger one space to come forward and grab his outstretched hand.

There was a sudden flaring pain at his wrist as the fangs went in. And it wasn’t just the fangs...it felt like his lower arm was being chewed by every one of the vampire’s teeth.

He pulled his hand backwards, almost crying out at the new pain it brought, dragging the vampire’s head forward. He punched at the head with his free hand, putting his weight into it, but the creature kept chewing...and sucking.