The Dark Messenger (10 page)

The Filipino nurse then said, ‘Come yi now,
you stand ere no day all starring, you wiv me go, go av nicey cup
tea, nicey.’

Jenny wanted to refuse though--to say, ‘No!
Go away, leave me alone. That’s my mate in there, and she needs
me,’ but strangely she found her legs had already started walking
off with her, as if they had a mind of their own. The nurse led her
back through the double doors into the waiting room and Jenny sat
down, shaking slightly. This time even though she felt like
grabbing a magazine, she made sure she didn’t pick up the Vogue one
though.

-------------------------

Some hours later, Jenny opened her eyes. She
was startled and disoriented for a moment, surprised that she had
fallen asleep. The last thing she had remembered was that she was
drinking a cup of tea that the Filipino nurse had given her. How
could she have fallen asleep?

How embarrassing,
she thought as she looked around
herself.

She was in the same red leather chair, and
the tea that she had been drinking was now on the small table
beside her. She picked up the brew and tasted it; the tea had gone
cold, and coupled with the taste of the plastic cup, it was now
rank and bitter. She spat it back out.

She then looked down at her watch and
couldn’t believe the time. It was 3.46pm in the afternoon, and she
had been asleep for about six hours.

At that realization, she
leapt up, rubbing her eyes.
How could I
have slept for six bloody hours?
she
thought to herself. Her eyes slid to the tea, and she wondered if
something had been put in it. She recalled now that it had had a
funny taste to it and not the strange plasticky taste either, there
had been something else too.

Turning, she hurried to the double doors
again. She opened them and couldn’t believe her eyes.

The bed that Becky had occupied was now
empty!

She rushed forwards through the doors,
letting them swing wildly behind her, and looked desperately around
for a nurse.

‘Are you okay?’ she heard someone ask. Jenny
recognized the voice as she turned in the direction of where it was
coming from. There standing in front of her was one of the nurses
from earlier.

‘Looking for your friend, are you? Well she’s
upstairs. They moved her to a ward, because at the time we needed
the space.’

‘Which ward, do you know?’ Jenny asked.

‘Yes, she’s in Karnargie
Ward. I am new here, but I believe it’s on the fifth floor. You can
check the map outside; it’s on the wall next to the lifts,’ she
said, pointing back the way Jenny had come in
before
.

‘How is she?’ Jenny asked.

‘She’s fine now. She was very violent
earlier, but then the drugs kicked in. We think she had a fit, but
now she’s sedated and resting quietly.’ The nurse frowned. ‘Or she
was the last time I heard anyway, which was half an hour ago.
Specialists are coming over to see her though, so you might want to
be there when they arrive. They told us that their ETA was about
twenty minutes when we called them from the red phone earlier.’

‘Who is on the other end of that red phone?’
Jenny asked suspiciously.

‘Sorry, but we aren’t really allowed to speak
about that phone.’ The nurse blushed. ‘I shouldn’t have just said
what I just did,’ she said, hoping Jenny would just accept that and
say no more.

But she didn’t.

‘What?’ Jenny nearly howled. ‘This is my
mate, and that red phone business gets me a little paranoid. You
say that she’s fine, so why are specialists coming in then? Who are
these specialists and what do they specialize in?’ She shook her
head and turned away. ‘Actually, forget it!’ she snapped.

Kaine knew that if he was
not ahead of himself today, there could be every chance that his
attempt to save Jenny from the hospital could go horribly
wrong.
Whoever Rex had decided to send
back in time to get her must be one of his best
soldiers
, he thought
, and if we got into a fight it was probably going to be a
huge one.

‘Time to get the guns out, darling.’ he said
to his wife.

‘Er…guns? Have you got a plan then?’ she
asked from inside the bathroom.

‘Yes. I need you to take the CheyTac rifle
and head into Brighton. I’m just going to look for a good place for
you to sniper from--somewhere in range of the hospital car park,
where I will be.’ He picked up their iPad off the bed from where
Regina had left it when she spoke to Christine, and loaded up
Google maps. After a couple of minutes of considering different
options he finally decided on a place.

‘I have found the perfect place for you; at
least I believe so. We will have to wait till you get there to be
sure but there’s an old cemetery nearby where you won’t be seen.
There are other places too, but I think they may be compromised.
The distance from the nearest gravestones to the hospital entrance
is perfect--it looks like a thousand yards. Whoever is there won’t
be able to see you, not even a vampire.’

He then changed screens to check the local
weather. The forecast was good but there was no way to know if it
would stay that way. He noted a steady, seven mph gentle
south-westerly breeze.

‘Nice,’ he said to himself.

The cemetery was located northeast of the
hospital, so he felt sure that if Regina had to shoot at someone,
there wouldn’t be too many obstacles in her way. All she had to do
was sight her shots perfectly, aiming a little higher than the
target to allow for the bullet dropping. She knew that, of course,
but he still worried a bit.

‘What if, when you get there, it all goes
wrong and you come out on the other side of the hospital. What if I
don't get a clear shot?’ she asked in a quite concerned tone.

‘Don’t worry. I have downloaded a map of the
area and the hospital to your IPAD and on my phone. When I get
there, I will make it all happen in your sights. Don't worry about
that,’ he replied.

‘What about the roof, though? Couldn’t I get
a shot from up there with a different gun; might be a lot easier,
don’t you think? Surely that’s the best place, as I could see
someone coming from all angles.’

‘No!’ Kaine barked.

‘Excuse me? There’s no reason to yell,’ she
exclaimed.

Kaine softened his tone. ‘Sorry. This guy is
likely to be up there hiding, waiting and watching for sure,’ he
explained. ‘He will kill you if he sees you. It’s a terrible place,
far too risky. If I had time, I would go up there first and kill
him, but if he isn’t there he might see me. We can’t afford him
knowing that I am around. Honestly, its bad enough that you having
to come. Trust me, he won’t be stupid. He will be watching
everywhere, so darling, please make sure you stay well hidden.’

He walked slowly into the bathroom so as not
to drop the iPad or lose the page that he was on.

‘Can I show you?’ he asked. She stepped over
to look at the screen.

Kaine held the iPad out so that she could see
the place on the map where he wanted her to go, and then dropped a
pin on the screen marking it exactly. He then sent the location
downstairs by wi-fi to her bike’s GPS.

‘I’m going to take my bike too, because
flying would be far too obvious,’ he explained. ‘It’s crucial that
we both blend in. Whoever Rex has sent will be an Elite soldier,
and he will be watching the skies for other vampires, I am sure of
it.’

‘How do you know?’ she replied.

‘Because, darling, that’s exactly what I
would do,’ he laughed. ‘Come on, you know who I am by now--a
well-trained warrior as well as your loving husband. Tactical
planning is my specialty, you know that!’

He reached down and softly
pinched her bum between his thumb and forefinger, which immediately
aroused her. She turned, expecting something more from him; maybe a
long kiss, a cuddle even, or maybe she might be able to persuade
him to get back under the sheets again. But he had already walked
away back into their bedroom with his mind deep into the planning
of the rescue operation. Again her face dropped and she frowned.
She was really feeling quite sexual this
morning--
damn this mission we’re going
on
, she thought.

‘Okay, so the road it is, Mr. Warrior,’ she
said cheekily as she finished brushing her teeth. She knew that he
was right though--riding their bikes with everyone else made
perfect sense, and they would definitely blend in.

Kaine then put down the iPad, saying that he
was going downstairs to sort out the weapons and that he would meet
her in the garage. Grabbing his jacket off the bed where he had
left it earlier, he started walking across to the door which led
through into their kitchen. He had to stop and smile at what he
saw.

Standing there, without daring to step one
foot further into their bedroom, were Bruce and Solomon, their two
German Shepherd dogs.

‘No, you two you can’t come this time,’ he
said, smiling at them.

They were two years old and
had identical colouring at first glance. Both were black and tan,
but Solomon had the edge in size and power over his brother. He was
slightly longer and had a deeper bark. They were matched in one
ability: both were able to kill, and quickly. They were very eager
to go anywhere with their masters, very loyal, and extremely
intelligent,
sometimes too
intelligent,
Kaine thought. Once or twice,
when he was messaging Regina, they both could have sworn that they
felt the dogs had tuned in to their minds--they felt the intrusion,
almost like the dogs had their own telepathic powers
somehow.

He often let them go out at night on their
own, because he believed it strengthened the bond between them.
They were so close to each other anyway that even at bath time they
preferred to jump into the tub together.

Training sessions with these dogs twice a day
for nearly two years had really paid off.

The “hide-and-seek training” was the exercise
that Regina really enjoyed. She would hide inside their house, and
when an alarm clock went off, they would be set to finding her. She
was always so shocked at how quickly they got her though. It
annoyed her sometimes because a few of the hiding places that she
had thought of were really quite good.

They were also trained to find by scent,
using rags with different odours on them, and taught how to react
in different battle situations. Kaine would charge them using a
blunt wooden sword, which at first he would swing gently, giving
the dogs a chance to learn to evade his strikes without being hit.
As their skills had grown though he couldn’t get them, no matter
how fast he had moved. He remembered how he had dropped to the
floor once and lay on his back completely exhausted, laughing and
cuddling them after his first-ever failed attempt at getting them
with the weapon. Now they were impossible to get even with one leg
bound to their body. He wanted his boys to be as good at avoiding
blades on three legs as four, knowing that if ever they suffered a
broken leg or lost a limb in a fight, they still needed to be able
to perform until the battle was over.

Most suggestions he made regarding improving
them Regina had agreed with in principal, but when he had said that
he was thinking of having their two front canine teeth capped with
silver, she had laughed and said NO. He had explained why he felt
it was so important, and after listening to him she had finally
agreed.

Kaine walked down the spiral staircase from
the other side of the kitchen into the garage with both of the dogs
beside him. They had been allowed to accompany him downstairs into
his workshop whilst he got ready, as he felt bad that he was not
going to be able to give them their walk. He felt that he would be
making up for it; in a second or two he was going to surprise them
by letting them go out on their own till he and Regina came back
later from the hospital.

Walking over to a silver cupboard, he opened
the door, reached in, and took out two motorcycle key fobs,
pressing the “un-arm” mode on both of them. He then pressed the
auto-start buttons.

The bikes were beautiful: two white Italian
1200cc Ducati Panegale sports bikes, with V-twin latest technology.
Their headlights turned on a second after the engines had
automatically fired up. The sweet purr sound they made on tick-over
always gave him such the nicest feeling inside.

He then opened the cupboard next to the one
the keys had been in, where all their biking gear was kept--two
black crash helmets, jackets, and gloves. The helmets were brand
new, and inside they had rear view mirrors, automatic blackout
screens, and voice activated displays linked to their GPS
systems--plus full internet connectivity through their phones. The
cameras outside their home were set up in such a way that if there
were any intruders, warning messages would be beamed through to
their bikes if they were out, which would save them being surprised
when they got back--although they knew that the dogs would be
enough protection in most cases. He thoroughly loved technology,
and couldn’t believe how he had managed without it in all the years
he had lived.