The Vampire Council: Case File:1 (5 page)

‘I don’t know how.’ Again her voice becomes so low and shaken Leofric could not hear her answer and becomes inpatient. His hand swiftly moved from her cheek to wrapped around her neck as he slowly begins to lift her from the ground. Katie begins to cough and spit as she struggles to breathe against his tight grip. Leofric keeps close watch of her eyes not even blinking will stop him from watching her change so he could feel justified within himself to kill her.
Why isn’t she changing?

             
Just as this thought crosses Leofric’s mind a sudden shot of pain rushes from his arm. As he drops Katie and falls to the floor dropping the gun he had in his other arm. Will bends over and picks it up. Leofric looks up to see his own gun being pointed at him by a vampire. His blood begins to boil. Will’s eyes once again as black as the night sky, seeing Katie in trouble gave him the strength he needed to change back into vampire form.

             
‘Are you ok?’ Will shouts to Katie except keeping his eyes locked on Leofric.

Katie manages herself back to her feet holding her throat and coughing. ‘Yeah just fine.’ Katie looks at Will. Will senses this and looks back at her, the moment he does so he knows he has just made a major error. In the split second it took from him to turn his attention back on Leofric he was already on his feet pointing his other gun at Will.

‘Give it up Leofric.’ Will shouts as he steadies his aim.

‘Look at how badly you’re shaking. Yet look how steady I am.’

              Will notices the red dot on Leofric jerking about all over the place, yet as he looked down at his own body, Leofric’s aim was perfectly still.

‘You’ve never killed anyone, heck I bet tonight is one of the only times you’ve ever been in a fight.
This isn’t a little kid fight in the playground, or a drunken punch up in the street. This is a matter of life and death now son. There’s now a much higher percentage of you being killed. As you probably would’ve guessed I’m not the only vampire hunter there is. There’s thousands of us all over the world. I have killed over fifteen hundred of you disgusting vermin, and looks like I get to add two more to that collection.’

Leofric’s trigger finger starts to pull back just as a shot is fired which sends Leofric flying backwards to the ground. Will drops the gun in confusion as he knows he didn’t pull the trigger. At the same time he turns back to being mortal and again the pain is too intense which he hunches to the ground.

              Katie runs over to Will to try and help him up. ‘Will come on, we’ve got to get out of here before he gets up.’ Katie puts Will’s arm over her shoulder as she gets him to his feet.

‘I wouldn’t worry about that, he’s already gone.’ A man’s voice from the darkness scares Katie as she drops Will. She turns slowly to see that Leofric’s body had vanished. When she turns back to help Will to his feet again the man steps into the light holding a shotgun in one hand. Katie focuses her eyes to the man’s face as she recognises him from earlier. It was Vaelen that had saved them from Leofric.

CHAPTER 7:

FAMILY TIES

J
eff let the hot water spraying from the shower head run down his head then down his body. As the water ran across his stab wound he felt a slight numbing pain. He couldn’t believe that he had just been stabbed yet it was already healing.
Is this a miracle?
No. Jeff knew deep down it was a curse. His hands gripped into fists as he began to punch the wall tiles of the shower. As the anger left him Jeff pointed his face up towards the jets of water. The hard slap of hot water on his face felt mildly therapeutic to him. Like the dirty darkness being washed away. But he knew there was no escape now.

             
Rita allowed him into a spare room in the hotel to take a shower to make himself presentable before he went home to his family. Rita entered the room with spare towels which she laid on the bed which lay to the left of the cloudy stained glass door of the shower. Even Rita often questioned why in over half the rooms of the hotel the shower was its own separate room away from the toilets and basin. More hygienic she thought. Along with the towels Rita brought Jeff and plain white t-shirt and a pair of grey jogging bottoms. It was all she could get hold of at such short notice.

             
Jeff began to plan in his head what he was going to say to his wife, Jade, on the phone. He knew he couldn’t say anything about being a vampire. First of all she wouldn’t believe him, but he couldn’t go home and face her. A part of him urged him to just run home and give Jade and his four year old daughter, Lisa massive hugs. Ecstatic at thought of surviving a blade to the back without any help from doctors. But it was this that scared him, thought of himself as a monster. It was this feeling that stopped Jeff from wanting to go home. He would have to lie to his wife for the first time ever since they had been together, this hurt him inside. Jeff turned the nob of the shower to switch the water off. He rubbed the water from his eyes before opening the shower door.

             
As he stepped out he was startled to see Rita standing there. She quickly averted her eyes as he clambered to pull a towel from the bed to cover himself up. He wrapped the towel around his waist tucking it in so it held.

‘I’m so sorry.’ Rita still not making any eye contact.

‘It’s fine really. I’m covered now you can look.’

Rita slowly peers to double check. She sees his bottom half covered and knows it’s now safe to look so she focuses her eye line back to Jeff.

‘I was just bringing you some spare clothes because your clothes were covered in blood.’

Jeff picks up the jogging bottoms and looks at them with a slight look of disgust.

‘I’m sorry it was all I could find at such short notice.’ Rita looks at the floor in embarrassment.

‘Not really my style but I appreciate the effort you’ve been through for me. Thank you.’ Jeff bends down to stick his feet through the legs of the joggers. Rita looks up and notices the fresh scar on his back that’s slowly healing.

‘Who did that?’ Rita asks.

‘I’ve been a vampire for less than a day and I already got stabbed, is that some sort of record?’ Jeff pulls the joggers all the way up. He pulls off the towel and begins to dry his body. Rita cannot help but stare at his chiselled six pack; the rest of the world is now non-existent to her now.

‘You think? A record?’ Jeff asks again oblivious to the fact Rita is speechless at the sight of his body. He picks up the t-shirt and slips it on. Rita snaps back into reality.

‘Sorry. I was in my own little world.’ Rita’s cheeks begin to blush.

‘Oh it doesn’t matter anyway. Thank you again for the clothes and the room, you’re a star.’ Jeff slips her a smile. Rita’s knees begin to wobble. She’s overwhelmed. No man had treated her like a normal human being in such a long time. She felt warm inside for the first time in years.

‘It’s not a problem at all.’ Rita opens the door to the room. ‘I’ll leave you to yourself now, you can stay here for as long as you need.’ Rita smiles at Jeff before she shuts the door behind herself.

              Jeff pulls his phone from his old trouser pocket which was sprawled across the floor. He paces around the bed as he scrolls through his phone for Jade’s number. As the scroll bar on the phone screen lands on Jade’s name Jeff’s thumb hovers over the call button. He takes a deep breath as his thumb presses into the call button. Hesitation sets in before he raises the phone to his ear. The call tone beeps in his ear as he waits to hear Jade’s sweet voice. He didn’t have to wait long.

‘Hello honey.’ Jade sounded happy to be hearing from Jeff. A huge smile spread across Jeff’s face as Jade’s voice penetrated his ears.

‘Hey babes, I’m so sorry for not phoning you sooner.’ Jeff prepares himself. Builds himself up emotionally enough to lie to his beloved.

‘You should be. Me and Lisa were starting to worry.’ The mention of his beautiful daughter filled his heart with joy.

‘I’m sorry to have worried you and especially Lisa. I’ve just been caught up at work, just this big case I’ve been assigned to.’ It pained him to lie out right like that to the one he loved but he knew it was the right thing to do.

‘You planning on coming home at any point tonight?’ The soft heavy breathed way Jade said that sentence instantly made Jeff want to just rush home and be with his wife. Lay with his wife.

‘I don’t think so darling. I’ve got like a hundred law books to read through and we’ve got a lot to talk about.’ The pain of the lie just grew and grew within Jeff’s heart.

‘Oh, I guess I’ll be pleasing myself tonight then.’ Jade giggled. This wasn’t helping Jeff. He knew what would get his mind out of the gutter, and what would keep him in that hotel room. The thought of his daughter being kept safe.

‘I guess you will be ha. Can I say goodnight to Lisa?’

‘I’ve already put her to bed.’

‘Please. For me. Just for a minute.’ Jeff needed this.

‘Ok. Let me go get her. Hold on.’ The sound of the phone being placed on the table is heard. Jeff stops pacing and stands at the foot of the bed waiting to hear his daughters beautiful voice. Only moments pass but it feels like minutes to Jeff.

‘Daddy?’ Lisa’s childish high pitched voice sends Jeff weak that he has to perch himself on the end of the bed.

‘Hey Lisa, how you doing?’

‘Sleepy daddy.’

‘I’m sorry to wake you, I just wanted to hear your voice and tell you I love you so very much.’

‘I love you too daddy.’

Hearing his daughter say those words to him filled Jeff with instant joy.

‘Ok, you can go back to bed now, put your mummy back on.’

‘Isn’t she sweet?’ Jade was now back on the phone.

‘She’s the best. Equally as beautiful as her mum.’

‘Oh you charmer.’ As Jade giggled, Jeff thanked the lord that he was with the most gorgeous woman he knew and also had a beautiful daughter with that woman.

‘I love you so much.’ Jeff stated with the weight of his heart behind it.

‘I love you so much too honey.’ Jeff knew all of Jade’s heart was behind that too.

Jeff hung up the phone. He could never handle saying goodbye. He wanted every conversation he and Jade had to finish with them saying they loved one another just in case it was the last thing they ever said to one another. Jeff knew it was now a true possibility that it could all end at any time. The phone gets tossed across to the other side of the double bed as Jeff positions himself on the other. As he laid his head on the pillow he began to think about Jade and Lisa. Nothing could wipe the smile from his face.

‘Hope I’m not intruding?’ A female voice from the dark corner of the room is heard.

Jeff quickly sits up and focuses on the corner of the room. As his eyes adjust to the light, Tessa walks into the moonlight shining through the window.

CHAPTER 8:

PREDATORIAL BLOODLUST

V
aelen directs Katie to open a large metal door at the back of the Ruby.

‘This is a rule you’ll need to remember. If ever you’re hurt, covered in blood, or something similar, always use this back entrance. Never use the front entrance as this hotel is still in use by the public. We don’t want them finding out about our little secret. Got it?’ Vaelen stares into Katie’s eyes. She nods and opens the door.

Vaelen carries Will through the door.

‘What’s going to happen to him?’ Katie asks as she closes the door behind her.

‘He needs blood.’ Vaelen explains without turning his head towards Katie.

They proceed down a flight of stairs and then down a long dark corridor lit with torches. They pass a huge number of doors on either side of the corridor. Katie begins to wonder what could possibly be behind each of these doors. As Katie looks around she spots each door has its own sign attached to them. Katie stops at a door on her right and reads.
Cell 12. I wonder if that’s what I think it is.
Katie looks ahead at Vaelen, he’s still walking down the corridor with Will not paying her any attention. Against her better judgement Katie reaches for the shutter on the face of the door. She begins to shake as she unlatches the shutter and lifts it slowly.

‘You smell delicious bitch!’ An arm comes shooting out of the shutter and the hand grasps tightly round Katie’s neck. The smell of rotten flesh and faeces was the first to hit Katie’s senses. Even though the flesh looked weak and falling apart there was enough strength to pull Katie to the door. Her neck now in line with the open shutter. She shudders with fear as the feeling of a dry withering tongue runs up her neck. This was enough to make her scream.

‘Push away from the door.’

Katie opens her eyes and spots Vaelen pointing a gun at her still holding up Will in the other arm.

‘Now!’ Vaelen steadies his aim.

With all her strength Katie throws her hands to the cell door and begins to push herself away.

‘You’re not going to get away from me gorgeous!’ Katie focuses into the shutter and almost throws up instantly at the sight of the man’s rotting flesh practically falling from his face as he wags his tongue in a licking motion whilst he fights to pull her back in. Katie’s arms begin to buckle as the man regains control. Within seconds a deathly loud bang over powers all sound in the corridor as a bullet shoots straight through the man’s arm. A death curdling scream howls from cell as the arm disappears inside. The shutter slams shut. Katie in a panic quickly shuffles with the latch mechanism to lock the shutter. Katie’s sigh of relief echoes through the corridor.