Legacy (19 page)

Zephal’s anger grew and grew until he went past the point of no return. His face contorted with every expression and his blood red eyes became incredibly vacant as Harran watched a pair of fangs appear from his top lip which made him freeze to the spot, both in fear and amazement at what he was witnessing.

That’s how the bodies were drained of their blood – the puncture wounds they received were not from an animal, but a vampire! Harran had laughed at Short for suggesting such a thing earlier, but here he was, standing face to face with a real life one and it wasn’t the nicest experience.

Harran’s heartbeat got faster and faster and at one point he feared it was going to burst through his chest as he stood there helpless against the creature that was unfolding before his very eyes.

As Zephal grew angrier, Harran noticed that his body began to change shape.

The man before him looked incredibly strong when Harran first saw him a few minutes ago, but now it seemed that every muscle on Zephal’s body began to become more and more defined.

It was abundantly clear that one of them would have to make the first move and Harran did contemplate trying to get away as quickly as possible as he now feared what Zephal was capable of, but one glimpse of Short laying on the floor yards away reminded him of what sacrifice the young Detective Sergeant had made in the call of duty.

But running away would just be seen as cowardice and Harran could not live with the feelings of guilt that would come if he fled, leaving a killer back onto the streets again to kill how many more people – even maybe someone close to Harran himself.

Even if it meant sacrificing his own life, Harran had to take that chance and do something that could give them the tiniest of chances of catching their killer.

Harran believed that by standing up to him, he would be saving many more lives, regardless of what the boastful Zephal had said to him about eliminating all the police officers who would try to arrest him. Even after the blunders that were made back at the hospital, Harran still had enough faith in his force to know that they would not stop until they captured their man.

So Harran stood as tall as he could against the enormous frame of Zephal, fully knowing that an attack was imminent.

And Harran’s instincts were correct – without a second’s hesitation, Zephal flew through the air with the greatest of ease and kicked out at Harran.

The force of contact against his chest sent Harran flying back onto the concrete wall which took every ounce of breath from his body.

After the impact, Harran slid down to the ground and struggled to catch his breath and he could do nothing as he watched Zephal approach him to continue his physical onslaught.

Zephal just grabbed Harran by what was left of his hair and dragged him across the ground, coming to a halt by Short.

Without letting his grip on Harran go for a second, Zephal crouched down and grabbed Short by the neck and lifted him up to a standing position.

Both men were completely helpless at the hands of Zephal and the two of them looked like rag dolls as Zephal decided what he was about to do with them.

Harran had seriously thought Short was dead, but he caught a glimpse of his colleague’s eyes opening slowly, which was followed by Short trying to say something.

Zephal had noticed this too and both he and Harran tried to make out what Short was trying to say.

It was clear that Short was using every ounce of energy to get whatever he wanted out and it was difficult to hear him in silence, let alone the sound of sirens as police cars and an ambulance were pulling up at the front of the shops.

But then, Short was heard

              “The roof – she – roof.”

Zephal let go of his grip on Short, sending him crashing to the ground and immediately turned his attention to Harran.

              “The girl was on the roof all this time and you didn’t tell me?” he shouted at Harran.

              “I didn’t know.” Harran replied, still struggling to catch his breath.

              “I knew I could smell them!” Zephal growled, “But you had to get in my way!”

Voices began to fill the alleyway behind the gate and Zephal grabbed Harran by the throat.

              “You are lucky that my interest is in catching Naomi and Lucius right now or I would have continued to kill you. But mark my words, when our paths meet again, I will have the greatest of pleasures in ending your life!”

And as the first policeman made his way over the gate, Zephal launched Harran through the air, sending him into the adjacent back yard.

Zephal didn’t flinch in any way as a handful of police officers entered the back yard and each one watched in awe as they witnessed him jump effortlessly onto the rooftop above them and quickly out of view.

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

I was completely unaware that Zephal had appeared in the alleyway behind the shops as I was still in a state of shock at seeing Detective Sergeant’s crumpled body lying on the ground, but Lucius got us down from the roof pretty sharpish in case we were spotted by our hunter.

We had managed to move along the back streets without anyone spotting us, but Lucius’s fast pace was getting nearly impossible for me to keep up with him.

              “Slow down!” I called to him.

But he just continued, reminding me of how important it was to make as much progress as possible not to be caught by Zephal.

His ignorance pissed me off and like a spoilt child, I came to a halt, refusing to continue on until I had an explanation as to why I had suddenly become of great importance to both he and Zephal.

For the last twenty one years of my life, nothing of great importance had happened to me and suddenly I was the centre of attention to two strangers who had only just come into my life.

One wanted to harm me and the other was guarding me as if his life depended on it.

If that wasn’t enough to confuse me, there were the strange visions that I was experiencing over the last couple of days – especially when I looked into Lucius’s eyes.

Lucius had no option but to stop too and looked at me like a father at his naughty child.

He looked around to check that we were not being followed and grabbed hold of my elbow quite forcefully.

              “Oww, Lucius!” I said sharply, “You’re hurting me!”

Lucius pushed me into a gap between two houses and spoke to me gently after releasing his grip on me.

              “I will explain everything,” he started, “but as soon as I’m finished, do you swear to come with me without any more childish incidents? What I am about to tell you may sound far-fetched, but it is the truth and you must put your trust in me.”

I nodded my head reluctantly and he continued.

              “Zephal and I go way back – you seem to know that already, but I’m confused as to how.”

Seeing as Lucius was about to tell me everything, then I felt that I should tell him everything too.

              “I’ve been having these strange visions and I don’t know why. They started off as nightmares, but now I seem to be getting them more and more since you have come into my life.”

              “What exactly have these visions shown you?” Lucius asked, interested.

              “I saw a premonition of the attack outside my flat in a dream – but since that night after looking into your eyes, I have seen an attack where your parents and a girl called Maria were killed. I have also seen you seriously injured being rescued by a man I finally discovered was Zephal himself! You seemed to be quite amicable back then, but now you are the worst of enemies!”

              “Like I told you earlier, Zephal did something that I could never forgive him for. But you seem to have an incredible gift, Naomi and it may seem like some kind of hindrance right now, but maybe these visions could save your life one day. They’re obviously happening for a reason – maybe even warning you of how evil Zephal really is.”

              “But they seem to be centring around you – and I haven’t seen Zephal do anything bad in any of my visions either.” I added.

              “Then maybe I should fill a few gaps for you – you’ve already said you saw Zephal take me in in when I was seriously injured after the attack on my village and I will admit that if it wasn’t for Zephal, I would not be alive now. I was indeed close to death and I continued to grow weaker every day from the wounds I had sustained in the fight against the soldier who had killed the people I loved. I was scared of dying. But when it seemed like all hope had been lost, Zephal suddenly gave me a lifeline – he promised me so much, but I later learnt that it was for his own selfish reasons. I would have given anything I had just to be able to see my beautiful Maria again, and this weakness was what Zephal pounced upon. You see, he’s a lot different than you and your kind are – this may sound crazy, but he truly is immortal and he told me of all the wonderful things he had done in his never-ending life which completely captured my attention. He told me that if I joined his kind, he could teach me powers that could resurrect the dead so that I could see my Maria once more and share our lives in immortality together. I had nothing to lose and everything to gain, but what I didn’t know was that he gained his immortality by feasting on the blood of others to survive, or as your kind call - a vampire.”

If anyone had suggested to me a few days ago that vampires existed in the world, I would have just laughed at them, but after witnessing what happened around me over the last few days, Lucius may be telling the truth.

I listened attentively as Lucius continued.

              “I took up his offer and very soon after, I was bitten by him and I’m ashamed to say it, joined him in the vampire race. Together we killed and maimed to survive from village to village feasting on the weak and feeble survivors of the same barbarian attacks that wiped out my own family. Little did I know that Zephal was part of them and the losses I suffered were all part of an elaborate plan he was involved in.”

              “What do you mean, plan?” I asked.

              “You have seen the vision where my village was attacked and I lost my parents?”

              “Yes, I did.”

              “Well, Zephal was there when it all happened.”

              “But I was by your side through most of it and I never saw him!”

All the time Lucius had been talking, I could feel genuine emotion in his voice and for once I witnessed a moment of weakness from such a strong man.

I felt genuinely sorry for him and I sensed that reliving such a tragic part of his life was taking a toll on him – I took his hand to comfort him and as I did so, he looked me directly in the eyes and I noticed tears forming within them.

But in doing so, I felt everything around me start to spin violently and I felt my eyelids becoming more and more heavy until they closed, plunging me into darkness.

And once again, as the darkness started to diminish, I found myself in the middle of another vision.

I was now back in Lucius’s village and the fight with the soldier was still continuing as the wounded girl Maria took her last breaths after being fatally wounded.

For a while, probably on pure adrenalin, it looked like Lucius had the upper hand, but slowly I could see his strength begin to falter and the highly skilled soldier soon became the stronger of the two.

As they rolled along the ground still fighting, they hit a stack of firewood in the garden which was ready for use when the cold winter nights rolled in. The sword was still in Maria’s chest and Lucius desperately needed some sort of weapon to stand a chance against his opponent, so he stretched out and grabbed a thick piece of wood from the pile and hit the soldier across the back of the head with incredible force.