The Vampires of Soldiers Cove (7 page)

“Because the victims were all killed the same way. They were found murdered in their beds, blood completely drained. After that the bodies disappeared. The police think they have a serial killer on the loose, but he is sending a message to Angus. He told him when he left that he would come back to the sanctuary, torture and drain him.”

“But he doesn’t have a vial does he?” I said.
“How can he get in here without it?”

“He can’t, but that is what he’s planning to do.
How, we don’t know. That’s where you come in. Oh and speaking of vials here is yours.” He pulled it from his pocket and gently fastened it around my neck once again. “Of course you know this gives you the ability to leave the sanctuary, but if you leave it without being under my supervision they
will
kill us both. There will be no second chances, do you understand that?”

“I understand.” I had no intention of doing anything that would put either Gavin or
I in danger. I just wanted to get whatever was coming over with.

“Good. We need to get started right away.
Come over here.” He motioned to a large black chaise lounge. I lay down on it and he pulled up a chair sitting directly behind me.  

“You need to learn control.
Up until now everything you’ve been hearing is a mess. Your human mind couldn’t sort it out, but now your vampire mind should be able to exert greater control.”

He ran his fingers through my long black hair and pulled my head back.
“Relax,” he said stroking me. “Clear your mind.” He put his hands on my temples and pressed his head to mine, “Just listen.” I closed my eyes and tried to calm myself. His touch felt so good.  I swallowed hard, trying to steady myself so that he wouldn’t pick up on the tension I was feeling.  “It’s ok,” he whispered softly to me. “Listen with your mind, not your ears.”

Peace came over me
after a few more moments and then I heard what sounded like a faint whisper off in the distance. Like the wind coming through the trees in a lush and vast forest.

Rachel…
it whispered,
Rachel…hear me.

“What do you hear?” he asked.

“I hear someone calling to me. It’s distant but it’s there.”

He pulled his head away from mine and my mind was once again in silence, as if someone had hung up their end of the telephone.
“That was me calling to you,” he said. “You heard my thoughts. And I’m going to teach you to hear them from across the room, and then across the hall, and then from one end of the cove to the other and even further.”   I was doubtful that would ever happen since it ended so suddenly when we stopped touching, but I didn’t want to let him know that.

“Let’s go again,” he said drumming up more enthusiasm than I felt.

“Whatever you say.”

Chapter Ten

Over the next few days we practiced without stopping and after forty eight hours of being confined to the room I was starting to feel burnt out. My skills were improving however and I was beginning to hear people other than Gavin. Soon it was like turning the dial on a radio station. Not only could I hear people’s thoughts but I could flip a sort of switch and hear their verbal communications as well.

Angus came to check on our progress and was impressed with what he found.
He noticed my fatigue nonetheless and insisted we take a break to have some human food with him. The burning in my stomach made me quick to agree. We accompanied him to the dining hall, where after not having eaten in two days, I ate quite a bit. Angus and Gavin seemed to need less and assured me that my need for human food would decrease over time and at some point I might not have to consume it for weeks or months.

The thought of a vampire eating this type of food was still something I was trying to get used to.
In folklore you almost never hear of a vampire sitting down to a chicken dinner. Certainly I did not feel human anymore, but I didn’t feel entirely like a vampire either. I was walking the line between two worlds. One familiar and one, up until about a week ago, I didn’t even know existed. Vampires had proven to be very real and I mused about what else could be out there that I had yet to discover.

Angus and Gavin were in the throes of deep conversation when my curiosity got the better of me.
“Are we the only ones?” I asked. The two men stopped their conversation and exchanged a look. They obviously had information they were considering whether or not to share.

Angus took a deep breath.
“No,” he said finally, “there are others.”

“Where?” I asked.
“What I mean is can we call on others to help us?  You said not just Soldiers Cove but the whole island is in danger. If it is wouldn’t they want to help us?”

“No,” Gavin
said. “Other clans don’t get involved in family business.”

“Family business?” I asked.

“Yes,” Angus said lowering his eyes. “Samuel is my brother.” So that was it. I had been drawn into one big family feud. First Gavin and James, now Angus and Samuel.  “Samuel wanted a different way of life than I was willing to permit here,” he said meeting my gaze once more.

“Different way of life?”

“Yes, Rachel, there are places in the world where vampires hunt openly.  Two hundred years ago Samuel wanted to make this one of those places.  He became obsessed.  We all saw his infatuation with this idea getting out of hand, but he was my brother and…well…by the time I really opened my eyes to what he was becoming it was too late.  I should have staked him when I had the chance.” 

Rubbing his hands together he turned his eyes to a nearby window and peered out as if looking at a scene from the past.  “We may all suffer for my inability to do that now I’m afraid,” he said.

“Do the others know about Samuel?
About how dangerous he is and what he’s planning to do to the island once he gets here?”

“It’s not their concern,” Gavin said.

“Well if he’s going to disrupt their way of life too and possibly kill off their clans shouldn’t they have the right to know? They might be able to help us. Where are the others located?”

“Oh there are small clans in each of the little communities on the island.
They vary in numbers but the biggest one in Cape Breton is actually in St.Peters,” Gavin said.

“St.Peters? Why?”
I was shocked. St.Peters was a small village about fifteen minutes away. It didn’t seem likely that the biggest vampire clan would be there considering we had Sydney just over an hour away. Sydney was a small city but it would seem to make more sense for vampires to blend in amongst a bigger population I thought. Plus most of the people in town were pretty conservative. If I were to look for vampires, St.Peters would be the last place I’d go looking.

“Simple,” Gavin said, “Tourists.”

“Tourists?” I was confused.

“Yes.
It’s off the beaten path enough so that the rest of the world leaves them in relative peace, but just popular enough that there’s always a fresh supply of new blood, especially in summer.”

“But I’ve never heard of any tourists going missing from here as they were passing through.”

“Oh they don’t kill them,” Gavin said, “mostly.” He saw the look of confusion on my face. I couldn’t imagine having that insane blood thirst, getting my teeth into a human and ever letting go until they were drained thoroughly and completely of every last drop. “Most of them are hundreds of years old and they have excellent control. One day you will too. You can feed without killing if you have a few people at your disposal at one time. That’s where the tourists come in.”

“I see,” I said.
I really didn’t. “So you don’t think they’d help us if we told them about Samuel?” I said getting back to the topic at hand.

Gavin leaned toward me
, and placing his hand over mine gave it a gentile but firm squeeze indicating that the subject was not open for debate. 

“It would be wrong to ask,” he said
. 
I could tell they were growing tired of my questions. All of these rules, so ironclad and so well known that you never had to think about them, and then explaining it to the newbie. I ate the rest of my dinner in silence as the men resumed their conversation, but all I could think about were the others. There was strength in numbers and who knows how many Samuel was coming with. Why would they not at least want to talk to the clan in St.Peters? It didn’t make sense to me, but maybe it was the remains of my supposedly imperfect French Acadian human mind talking.

“Well if you’ll excuse us we should resume our work,” Gavin said to Angus.
We stood and Gavin gave Angus a deep and respectful nod. I followed suit.   We made it about halfway back to my room when a jolt of sound hit me.

Fucking piece of garbage!

The words came at me like a freight train. I was hearing the male voice again. I stopped and leaned up against the wall. All the control I had learned over the last two days disappeared in an instant.  I cried out in shock, placing my hands over my ears.

Gavin
spun me to face him. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s the man I always hear,” I said. “I’m hearing him now and I didn’t even try to hear anyone.
God I’m so sick of his voice.”  Panicking I gulped at the air trying hard to shove down the tears that were fighting to make their way to the surface.

“Take a deep breath Rachel.
Really tune in on him instead of trying to tune him out like you normally do. See if you can find out who he is.”  I clenched my fists so hard that my nails soon imbedded themselves into my palms.  Then forcing myself I took long deep breaths and let the voice speak to me. His thoughts were so angry and vile that it felt like I was being screamed at from just a few inches away.

Dumb cunt. I can’t wait to stick you in that hole in the ground in the woods. It’s so deep that nobody will ever fucking find you. I can’t wait to be rid of you. Tomorrow
morning I’ll be a single man. I’m so tired of your shit.

“He wants to kill his wife
tonight,” I said.  “He has a grave dug for her already and tonight he’s going to kill her and burry her in the woods. He’s thinking that nobody will ever find her. He’s going to
kill
her.” I was panicking for this woman who, up until recently, I thought was a figment of my imagination.

“Alright, calm down.
See if you can find out who he is. Listen some more and see if you can hear his thoughts or his words, something to give you a clue as to who he is.”

“Ok.”
  I kept on listening as the man screamed in his mind. Such anger and loathing toward his wife. With the things he was thinking I was beginning to wonder what the hell he thought she had done to deserve such vitriol. Then I heard him speak.

“You’re not going into the hospital tonight are you?” he asked.
Suddenly I knew who he was. It was Carl Macleod. His wife Lydia worked at the hospital about forty five minutes away.

“No, they gave me the night off.”

“Good,” he said.

I didn’t want to hear anymore.
I pushed Gavin away.

“It’s Carl Macleod,” I said.
“He’s going to kill Lydia tonight.” Lydia had been a good friend of my mother and was a sweet lady. My mother could never figure out why she had married Carl when she could have done so much better than a drunk and a known pervert.

Suddenly the daggers hit my stomach again as they had the night I made my first kill. Closing my eyes I slid down the wall and onto the cold stone floor.
I lost all control over hearing Carl’s voice too. I couldn’t shut it off.

“Look at me,” Gavin said.
It was all I could do to open my eyes. Everything was blurry and my entire body was burning now. “You’re blood hungry, that’s why you’re losing control all of a sudden, and it hits you fast when you’re first reborn. Here,” he said growing his fangs.

“What are you doing?”

“You can feed on me to hold you over until we can get you some human blood. It won’t last long though.” He dug his fangs into his wrist and I watched as blood began pouring out. “Keep drinking fast, the blood clots quickly.”

I
sucked as hard as I could. My fangs grew out too and I bit him to reopen the vein when it stopped flowing.  From the corner of my eye I could see Gavin; one palm pressed firmly into the wall, and with fangs bared and eyes closed appeared to be restraining himself somehow.

Feeling
better after a few minutes I let go. He turned his head away from me and shuddered as the opening in his wrist healed. Once we were face to face again he couldn’t meet my eyes right away, like he had done something he was embarrassed about.

“Thank you,” I said. He nodded and helped me up as I regained my strength.   Thinking about poor Lydia Macleod however, living her last day totally unaware of the unspeakable end she was going to meet in just a few hours was at the forefront.