The Dark Messenger (21 page)

‘Raffious leaps through time,’ Regina
added.

‘
Now, don't reveal all of
my secrets at once,’ he laughed.

‘Okay, sorry.’

Raffious squeezed Regina’s hand, his eyes
warm.

She turned to the others. ‘Come on, let’s all
sit down and have this dinner that I have slaved over for hours to
prepare. Hope everyone is hungry!’

She walked across to their dining room table
and then pulled out a chair, offering it to him.

Then as everyone else got settled with Kaine
in his usual place at the head of the table, finally he got a
chance to talk to him too.

‘So how are you, Raffious?’

The old man smiled broadly, then his face
abruptly changed. He shook his head.

‘No sense in sugar-coating the thing. I am
deeply troubled, to be truthful. There are dark times coming your
way and you must be very careful.’

Regina looked up from the oven when she heard
this, and Jenny and Becky looked at each other with concern. Jenny
reached across the table and held her friend’s now icy cold hand.
Suffice it to say, they were all shocked to hear the grim news.

Regina shouted out, ‘Hey guys! Please wait
till I am there!’ as she continued getting the food ready.

Quickly she served dinner and deeply
concerned about what the grim news might be, she took her seat.
‘Please help yourselves. There is raw venison, carrots, potatoes,
stuffing, gravy, and also blood or wine with water to sip.’

They all took a serving of each delectable
item.

‘Now, Raffious, what are these dark times
ahead you see?’ Kaine asked.

‘I will tell you, but first I would like to
hear Becky’s story.’ He regarded her warmly. ‘Yes, I think we need
to hear Becky’s story about her being attacked. What happened to
you, my darling?’ he asked.

Everyone looked across at Becky, eager to
hear the story now that she was not so full of rage. They had tried
to find out before, but asking her anything over the past couple of
days had been quite pointless. After she had her first pint of
blood the day she had arrived, she had passed out and was
unconscious but then when she came around, she was like a bear
being rudely awoken from its state of hibernation. Today was her
second day on the blue pills and now two days later, she was much
calmer and an all round different beast.

‘Well, where do I start…’ she said as she
swallowed a mouthful of raw meat down in one go before wiping her
mouth on the back of her hand.

She cast her mind back to the incident. ‘It
was the weekend, and I had just left a wine bar in Brighton with a
good friend, Laura. Then we went to another bar for more drinks.
The ‘Tiger Tiger’, I believe.’

‘OH MY GOD!’ Jenny jumped in. ‘That was last
Saturday night, when we went to town together from my house. I left
you at the train station and then went on that horrible Internet
date. Afterwards I stayed at Sarah’s till she dropped me off on her
way to work Monday morning.’

‘Yep, after I left you,’ Becky said as she
reached out and then grabbed more venison from the center of the
table. The way she was eating in her primitive state, it was like
she was in the wild making sure her days kill was eaten, before the
risk of loosing it to another creature came her way. ‘Anyway, where
was I? Oh yes, the bars.’ She said with blood trickling down her
chin.

‘So we had been to a few bars then finally
ended up in ‘Tiger Tiger’ till it closed. Afterwards I was walking
down Church Street on my way home, and the lights were out; I
thought someone was behind me and as I turned it was like he was
flying, he pushed me hard into a dark doorway and then sank his
teeth into my neck. I had thought at first that he was just someone
pissed on his way home from a fancy dress party, before the teeth
ripped into my neck that is.’

‘Um, I have to ask. Did four men come to your
rescue?’ Regina asked, remembering back to her IPad’s screen, and
the headline. ‘FOUR LOCAL MEN MURDERED BY MYSTERIOUS BEAST’.

‘Yes. How did you know?’ Becky replied.

‘It was in the local news,’ Regina replied.
‘Did you hear what happened to them?’ Becky said between
mouthfuls.

‘They were killed, I am sorry to say,’ Regina
said.

Upon hearing this, Becky was furious and she
slammed her chunk of meat down hard, smashing into her plate, as
her eyes then turned wild and her fangs thrust down.

Jenny shivered at the sight. She knew that
her hosts were vampires, but she didn’t need to keep seeing the
fangs. It scared her, and she doubted that she would ever get used
to it. Raffious saw her discomfort and put his arm around her.

‘Calm down Becky, please! You are scaring
your friend,’ he said in a soft, gentle tone.

The fangs quickly disappeared. Becky looked
over at her friend and apologized. ‘I’m so sorry, Jenny. I can’t
stop the anger. It scares me too--the slightest thing makes the
rage flow.’

‘Don’t worry, it will become far more
controllable with time. I was just the same,’ Regina said as she
glanced across at her husband, hoping he would confirm it.

‘Yes Becky, even though it was a long time
ago, Regina was like that to start with. It does become much easier
to control. I can turn it on or off now whenever I want and it
never controls me anymore,’ he said, hoping she would feel
reassured by his words.

Quickly changing the subject, Regina then
asked the old boy, ‘Raffious, so tell us about the dark times
ahead. How dark are they? Also, I thought you couldn’t tell us of
things that have an effect on the timelines of the future.’

Raffious sat back, and his face grew stern.
‘I am only saying now because it is irreversible anyway. The future
has been changed, there’s a huge war between vampires, and many
humans will die.’ His eyes locked onto Regina’s as he said, ‘And
it’s all your fault, Regina. You sent an email warning them,
precisely what I told you not to do.’ He looked at Regina
crossly.

Kaine and everyone else was shocked at his
outburst.

Raffious softened his gaze as he continued,
‘Regina darling, I warned you not to mess with the future when we
spoke on the phone the other day. You wanted to warn the priest and
the Church, but I strongly advised you against doing it, do you
remember?’ he asked.

She nodded, wondering how
he could have possibly known about the email she had sent. Yes she
sent an email warning the Scottish coven about Rex attacking them,
but she couldn’t remember saying anything about Jenny and the
priest in it.
But maybe I did,
she thought. She couldn’t remember the details,
because she had been in deep panic mode when she had heard about
Kaine’s vision.
It was only a quick email
though,
she thought.

‘I don't understand,’ she said, looking at
Raffious. ‘I did send an email as we were racing around trying to
locate Jenny. I didn’t think anything of it though--I only quickly
looked up their email on Google and sent a short message. I didn’t
even know if it was the right address, and I don’t think I
mentioned anything about Jenny and the priest in it, did I?’

Kaine gazed across at his wife. ‘Why didn’t
you tell me, darling?’ he asked.

‘I didn’t think anything of it, and I suppose
I just forgot, what with everything going on and all. We went
racing out to save Jenny from the hospital, and then have been busy
with errands like getting those blue pills and stuff.’

She suddenly looked very sad. ‘I’m…I am so
sorry.’

Kaine stood up and went over to her. He put
his hands on her shoulders, massaging her neck softly. He fully
understood that it had really been only an email, and yes, she had
been very busy with everything. ‘It’s okay, baby. You couldn’t have
possibly known. I started this mess, not you.’

He tilted her face to look
up at him. ‘I just wish you had asked me first. Not that I would
have told you not to--I am quite sure I probably would have said
yes anyway. You couldn’t have known, so don't be upset. Vampires
are always warring with each other anyway. And Rex—well that old
vile ugly bastard, he starts wars wherever he goes, so I truly
doubt you really caused this war Raffious speaks of,’ he said. He
laughed softly and then bent down to cuddle his wife. As he did, he
looked up briefly to scowl across at Raffious for the way he had
blamed her.
How dare he upset
her
, he thought.

‘That stupid vision of mine has caused all of
this,’ he whispered in her ear. She squeezed his hand in silent
reply.

‘Please go on Raffious, tell us the rest,’
Becky said. She had been ripping apart another chunk of venison
after picking up the vegetables from the floor, that went
everywhere from her last wild outbreak of anger when she had
smashed the plate. Jenny seeing her in the beastly state found
herself turning to look the other way.

‘Raffious sighed and nodded. ‘I'm sorry you
feel that way, Kaine,’ he said, as he turned around to Becky. ‘But
as you have just asked, my dear, I will continue.

‘The email was received, and the Scots
checked its veracity. They sent a vampire called Longinus back in
time to look for the orphanage where Jenny was sent, but discovered
that someone had set fire to it before he got there. It was burnt
to the ground, and nothing remained. The Scots never forgot the
email, and in 2099 were ready should Rex try to attack them. So you
see, the future has been altered by your own doing, and the war is
directly your own fault, Regina,’ he said.

Kaine was growing angry. He
didn't like the way Raffious was talking about his wife.
Okay, she was wrong, but did he have to say it
twice in the way that he had? He should have told them both in
privacy about this, not in front of Becky and Jenny, whom he had
only just met.

‘Er, sorry to interrupt, but did you say that
our old orphanage was burnt to the ground?’ Jenny asked.

‘Yes, it was completely destroyed, and many
people died in the inferno.’

Jenny shook her head in
disbelief. So many good people lived in that building, and the
matron was always there.
I hope she
managed to get out in time,
she
thought.

Kaine hadn’t told Jenny and Becky everything
about his vision, such as how he had known that they would be in
the hospital or how he knew their names when he had got there. And
strangely enough, they hadn’t even asked him in the time they had
been staying with them either. He decided that now was perhaps the
right time to let them know, since they had already heard so much
from Raffious that is.

As he told the girls everything, Jenny’s
dread grew. When she learned of her role in it, and that the
vampires from the future were in fact trying to get her, she
couldn’t sit still any longer.

‘You say they are looking
for me?’ she shouted as she launched herself up from the table.
‘
I’m
the reason
that all this mess started?’

Regina rushed to reassure her. ‘Darling, yes
they are, but you will be completely safe here. Only you and Becky
and Raffious know where we live, apart from us. Oh, and I suppose
the dogs too.’ She hoped that including Bruce and Solomon in it at
the end would have made her smile, but it didn’t.

Jenny started to leave the room, and even
though she had slowed up to listen to her, she didn’t stop. She ran
downstairs and then shouted back up at them, ‘I’m going out for a
walk!’

She knew that she was acting quite childish
and rude leaving the table like that, and it wasn't like her to be
that way at all, but hearing that nasty vampires from the future
were chasing after her, did she really care… She thought as the
floodgates then opened and she burst into tears.

Upstairs Becky was still ripping apart raw
venison with her brand-new razor-sharp teeth. She loved the taste
of the blood as it sprayed into her mouth. She couldn’t resist the
flesh it as she simply sliced her way through it.

Then she paused for a moment as she thought
about Kaine’s vision, and the vampires from the future having been
sent back to turn her mate Jenny. Then and only then did she
realise that she herself must have been turned into a vampire by
mistake. They had been after her mate and not her. She grinned at
the thought.

Solomon and Bruce had been lying by Kaine’s
side to see if they could get any scraps of meat throughout the
dinner, but suddenly they leapt up. Their ears craned forward and
their hackles rose up and splayed out down their backs as they
started growling.

‘That’s strange,’ Regina said, thinking they
might be reacting because of Jenny. ‘Go on then, go look after
her,’ she said to both of them.

They didn’t move though, but the tone of
their growls deepened substantially. Then their eyes glazed over as
their gums rose up and their teeth showed.

‘It’s not Jenny. There’s something outside,’
Kaine said, connecting with his boys reaction and realizing what
they were so angry about.