The Feeding House (11 page)

“My lord you will be pleased to know that the transformation has
now taken place. He is alive and it would seem kicking. He was observed feeding a little while ago feeding for his first time but he is still trying to resist the call to feed as it was not human, he fed upon the body of a dead pig,” Said the first voice. It was obvious that it was one of those standing next to her, one of the ones who had kidnapped her and brought her here. But the question was, what did they want with her? She struggled to understand what they were talking about. It was obvious that they were talking about Jack but what was the transformation? What was feeding? Missy was confused as to what was going on and who or what had captured her. Something didn’t seem right about these men, they scared the life out of her and the topics of which they spoke were alien to her.

“He will not gain the needed sustenance from the body of a dead pig,” the other was speaking now
, the one that terrified Missy the most, the one that every bone in her body told her to get far away from. He let out a long unholy laugh and then once he had calmed moved on “The transformation has only just taken place but that doesn’t mean he will be able to survive off of pigs blood for long. I am pleased at this news, at least he is feeding. Somehow his conscious mind is beginning to accept what he truly is and soon the urge to feed on a human will become too much. Then let us see him survive on pig, it will turn to ash in his mouth and only make his thirst worsen.”

The other two paid their respects to what seemed to be their leaders
’ words of wisdom. Missy didn’t understand. Why would Jack need to feed upon a human? It would be fair to say that she was even more confused than she had been before but began to get the feeling that Jack had hid far more from her than she had thought. The previous night she had thought that maybe he was some sort of outlaw on the run for a crime that he didn’t commit. She had romantic vision of them riding off into the distance on horseback. She would never have thought that any of this would happen.

Missy felt the one she feared the most approach closer towards her
. She could feel his presence and flinched slightly at his swift movements. He circled Missy for a moment, seeming to judge her down to her very soul. She could feel his eyes burning into her, observing her. It put her on edge so much that she began to hyperventilate, her breathing becoming fast and shallow, although to her it felt as though the people around her, the people that had taken her were taking pleasure in this.

Light flooded into her half closed eyes and she winced as her blind fold was
ripped away and her surroundings finally became clear. She was not in the sort of room that she had expected. There were comfortable chairs and expensive looking wooden desks and tables; a beautiful fire place crackled away in the corner. She looked around even more confused than she had been before. Why was she in a place like this?

Missy could see clearly now that the two men who had taken her stood next to her
, their faces giving her the same uneasy feeling that she had the first time that she had seen them. There was something wrong with these men, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on what it was. It felt as though it had nothing to do with their faces or the way in which they held themselves but it was something deep inside them. There was something very unsettling at the very core of who they were and it surrounded them like a poisonous aura.

The man who had been circling her, the one who had taken her blindfold off now pulled tightly on her hair without remorse, raising her to her feet
. Missy tried to wrap her arms around the entirety of her body, she was fully clothed but felt completely naked. The man now came to stand in front of her and although he looked different he somehow seemed to resemble the other two men he had the same pale skin, the same strange posture and an aura that surrounded him that sent the fear of death running throughout missy’s blood.

The man began to speak to missy like an adult would speak to a mischievous child “And who do we have he
re then?”

Missy could not answer the man
. His voice was harsh and wispy like that of a snake and with every word he sent a great chill into her. One of the two men that had taken her answered for her “This girl works at the saloon, she is your common prostitute High Chancellor, but it seems as though her and Jack have formed quite the bond together. We have been observing their movements for some nights now and we think that she could be used to our advantage.”

Dreno
looked back at Missy, he seemed to be thinking about something. His eyes were distant but his face seemed as though he had just been given some very good news. “I see,” he began “that is a very good idea. Jack is a fool to build bonds with humans and now we have him trapped. The girl shall be used against him. Now he shall truly know the meaning of suffering, just as I promised him.”

Dreno
looked down at Missy and, turning his eyes a solid black, he revealed to her his fangs. A smirk appearing on his face as he did so. Missy was under no illusion now that something very bad was to happen to her and gave out a loud piercing scream as the realisation dawned on her that she was not to escape this place. Whoever these men were they were not natural. She had never had a proper belief in God or religion but at this moment in time she was sure beyond anything else that these men were demons. Missy begged for mercy.

Jack sat in his bedroom
, sipping on a tumbler of whiskey, as he tried to figure out what he was going to do. It was too late for him to run. He had to save Missy, there were no two ways about it he had caused enough damage and death to last him a life time and didn’t want to see another life snuffed out because of his actions. He knew exactly who and where Missy was and that was somewhere that he did not ever want to visit again.

It was obvious that Missy was in
Dreno’s hands within the walls of the feeding house. He would no doubt feed upon her soon and try and blame it on Jack making him suffer further. Jack began to realise that this might have been part of Dreno’s plan all along. However would Dreno expect Jack to go to the feeding house and attempt a rescue? It was such a foolish idea that it might just go un- noticed. It wasn’t long before Jack believed that a one man assault on the feeding house, no matter how much of stupid idea it was, would be a good idea. But not yet, he needed more proof. He needed to make sure that she was there before he went charging in all guns blazing.

Jack needed to find a vampire, one of the ones that had been following him by
Dreno’s order the ones that had no doubt taken Missy. He needed to confront one and beat the information out of them, after all anything could have happened to Missy. She could have been killed by drunks or an angry customer from the saloon, she was in a very dangerous line of work.    

Jack headed down the stairs and outside the eyes of the patrons and bar staff followed him every step of th
e way until he was out of sight. He had to be careful about this, he knew that the vampires were watching him but had to find a way in which he could sneak up on one without alerting the others. It would be hard to outsmart them but he had to do it for Missy. He had to find a way to do it.

Jack began to walk down the centre of a street hoping that he would arouse the susp
icions of those who watched him. He could feel them around him like some sort of in-built sense inside of his brain. He could feel their presence. His plan was working, there was one around him. Jack looked up and down the building tops and darkened alley ways searching for his observer and trying to catch them out as they viewed his movements.

Jack caught a glimpse
, for only a second, of a vampire out of the corner of his eye. He could see him sneaking along the sides of the buildings, hiding in the shadows, trying to make his presence unknown. Jack looked away quickly trying not to make it obvious that he had spotted him. The vampire seemed young and Jack was thankful for this he would be inexperienced compared to some of the others that Dreno could have sent after him. Jack continued to walk, conscious of every move that the unknowing vampire made.

Jack knew that he would have to make his move soon or else the suspicion of even this young vampire would be aroused
. Ahead of him Jack saw a darkened alley way that split the middle of two ominously large buildings and, looking back for a moment to make sure that the vampire was still following him, Jack darted down the alleyway as fast as he could. The vampire ran across the street knowing that something was up, knowing that he had been spotted, but upon reaching the alley way he quickly realised that Jack was no longer there. How could have he escaped? It was a dead end. The walls were sheer and un-climbable. The vampire walked further within the alley way searching for Jack.

Within the darkness the vampire could see nothing that resembled a human figure
, even with the acute vision of his vampiric eyes which could see better in the dark than they could the light he could not make out anything that could be Jack. It was then that he felt a presence behind him a feeling of a figure looming. The vampire turned cautiously to see what or who it was and in doing so received a tremendously strong right hook to the Jaw from Jack that sent him flying across the alley way actually becoming airborne for a second. He lay there groaning and incapable of getting up as Jack approached him.

Jack sat atop the vampire holding his hands and legs down as he did so as to make sure that he was completely incapable
of putting up any sort of fight. Anger coursed through Jacks veins and it was near the point of becoming uncontrollable. It became difficult for him to speak without just spitting the words at the vampire but he knew this may be the one and only chance he had to do anything about the disappearance of Missy and he hoped above anything else that Dreno did not have her.

Jack smacked the vampire across the face once again and the young vampire spat blood onto the floor next to it
. “I know you’ve been following me since I got here and there’s no point hiding the fact that you have been watching my every movement. Now I’m going to give you one chance and one chance only to tell me what you’ve done with Missy, the girl from the saloon, the one that I know you’ve seen me talking to. Now tell me where she is.” Jacks voice was forceful and powerful to an extent that it surprised him that he could sound like this it almost felt as though someone else was speaking through his body.

The vampire laughed as his own blood trickled down the sides of his mouth and onto his neck he let a large smile form on his face and stared at Jack almost fearlessly in the eyes as he did so “I will tell you nothing scum,” said the young vampire and with that he spat at jacks face it landed on his cheek making Jack look less than impressed at him.

Jack wiped the spit from his face slowly a look of pure anger filled his face and with that he began to hit the vampire square in the face over and over again pummelling him and breaking bones in the process. Once Jack had finally regained his composure the vampire’s face was swollen and black, his features contorted into strange and bloody shapes but still the vampire continued to laugh defiantly at Jack even now when he seemed to be beaten beyond the point of return.

Jack picked the vampire up by the collar of his shirt and held his face close to the vampire’s bloody mess of features “Tell me what you have done with her.” Jack was even more forceful this time in his speech yet even now the vampire continued to chuckle.

The vampire looked at Jack for a while and the laughter began to die down until it eventually came to an end. A momentary silence filled the air then he spoke “If only Dreno was here he would be so pleased with you Jack. It seems that by beating me so harshly you are truly embracing your new life as a vampire. You are weak Jack you have given in to everything that you once stood against. Your death shall soon follow mine mark my words but for now I shall give you the answer you seek,” The smile appeared on the vampires face again “She has been feasted upon.”

The vampire began to laugh once again
, a laugh even more manic than before. Jack’s rage was now uncontrollable and he began to punch the vampire over and over again until he could no longer feel the pain of the blows upon his hands. He must have continued for at least ten minutes as his fist repeatedly connected with what by the end of it was a bloodied mess upon the floor. He returned to the saloon that night and wept like he had never done before, finally this was all beginning to feel real to him and he did not like it.

Missy could feel nothing but fear
. All of her other senses had numbed to the point of no return. Her panic had gone beyond the state of tears and pleading and she now sat in the middle of the room in complete silence, her eyes glazed, the vampires surrounding her. Dreno had been pacing around silently for some time now looking down at Missy. Now and then as he began to seem to prepare himself for something. The other two vampires stood still like statues guarding over Missy, making sure that she did not move.

After a while of pacing
Dreno walked over to a table by the side of the fire place and poured a drink from a bottle into a glass. Missy watched him as he did this and drunk it in one and thought it maybe to be some form of red wine but she knew in her hear of hearts that it wasn’t. She could tell that there was something different about this drink, there was something not completely right about it that she just could not put her finger on. It was the same sort of experience that she had had when she first got a proper look at the faces of the men who had captured her.