The Dark Messenger (45 page)

Then moments later,
Rex had cleared his throat by launching a massive
swell of rotten black phlegm across the cavernous room, before
leading on to say that vampires must always stay hiding in the
shadows and that they should never rule the Earth. He explained as
he had held his finger pointing up towards the rock ceiling above
him, that it was for the Humans to be walking around in the
sunshine, and for vampires to stay in the shadows.

He then
explained as he pointed down to the hoards of dead humans
laying in pieces around the room, that when they die, their souls
either go up to those winged fuckers, or if they have been bad,
down to their master in Hell.

The
crowds had nodded, accepting this information as he
continued.

Then he
reasoned that if vampires did rule the Earth, although the thought
sounded somewhat appealing, it would upset the equilibrium balance
of the planet, and ultimately lead to their own species extinction.
Not to mention without the humans breeding freely, there would be
far less souls being sent down, and their master Satan, as a
result, would then be undeniably furious.

Again there was
a wave of nodding, as they all, except one, accepted his words of
reasoning.

He then
led on and told them that the age old rule had been created by
Satan himself and for this rule to be broken without the prince of
darknesses permission, then when he heard about it, it would surely
enrage him to some unbelievable level, leaving the entire species
succumbing to his wrath. He defined his statement as meaning, the
eternity they had all enjoyed for thousands of years, could
potentially come to an untimely, and most abrupt end.

Then he
had paused, feeling he had said enough as he hoped to get back into
killing a few more humans. Only Hoidrious had his own views and
feeling somewhat complacent in his mind with the personal belief
that he was completely untouchable, then found him self not
checking his tongue, whereas he should have.

‘Where is
your proof Satan made this rule?’ he had said, as the crowds
started whispering behind him, with regards to his testing Rex’s
information.

In
response Rex suggested to Hoidrious with an evil scowl across his
face, that he should consider the manner in which he was clearly
questioning him. Then he continued and grinned at the crowds before
informing them all, how he had come about the
information.

He told
them that the dark spirits had not only implied it, but they had
also warned him that by testing Satan, the outcome would mean their
own extinction. Then he reminded them of what he had told them
beforehand about the equilibrium balance, and advised them that
they should never be so brazen as to try upsetting it, because the
results he felt sure, they would not, find pleasurable.

The room
had slightly picked up with the sound of whispers, but then as they
had all considered his words, suddenly it had fallen deathly quiet
again. Then they had nodded amongst themselves, fully believing
that what he had just told them was true. Only Hoidrious who had
emancipated beliefs that physical harm could never find him,
shocked everyone by his reaction.

Rex had
just puckered his rotting, badly flaking lips when Hoidrious who
was standing on the same ledge with him, found he couldn’t hold his
giggles in any longer and gave in to the pressure of restraining
them--he burst out laughing. His bodyguards, who had been standing
below with their deeply expressionless faces, had known this was
bad. They were suddenly thrown into a situation where they knew
they had to resist from defending him too. They had suspected Rex
would be immersed into a furious rage, and if they had tried to
block his wrath, they too would have succumbed to the heinous
punishment, that seemed to be inevitably heading their master’s
way.

Then to make matters far worse, Hoidrious had opened his
mouth, and whether joking or not, he still said the old boy in
general,
didn’t half talk a load of old shit
.

This was
the reason that Hoidrious had come out of his dormant sleeper cell
mood with regards to wanting Rex dead, or at least the punishment
he’d received afterwards was.

Rex had
been taken to a new zone in his brain. Like walking around lost in
a maze for hours, to then suddenly find the middle. Rex had never
been to this part of his mind before, and there were reasons for
it. The evil that surged there was of the most nefarious of kinds.
Utter villainous thoughts stemmed from there. It was the core to
his being and the true depth of his evil.

Rex, to a
startled and surprised crowd, had responded by whipping out his
dagger and bringing the razor sharp blade, diagonally up and across
Hoidrious’ chest. It had cut through his robes and then sliced a
deep gouge in the flesh beneath them. The silver blade as it had
moved through the air, almost looked bronze as it had reflected the
deep yellowy orange light that was coming off a nearby
torch.

Hoidrious
screamed, and as he had moved to avoid another strike, he then lost
his footing and fell off the ledge.

After he had hit the floor upside down on his shoulder and
back, his bodyguards
Loicheonk and Marchilla, had then run over to help
him up from the crumpled mess he was in.

The pain
for the two thousand year old vampire had been substantial, but
thankfully his adrenaline had within moments, risen up enough to
mask it.

Rex who
had been fuming at the number twos’ seditious behaviour, then
screamed for the guards to shackle him to the whipping
posts.

For a
brief moment the guards, whom outnumbered the massive bodyguards
Loicheonk and Marchilla, had then paused to consider the command
they had been given.

Rex who
was almost bent over double, had then screamed out, ‘Did you not
fucking hear me, fucking shackle him to the posts, Now.’

Then in
complete disbelief that he was in that situation, Hoidrious had
pushed his own guards back as he’d turned around to look up at Rex.
Then from behind he had felt his arms snatched up in the grip of
many, as he was spun around and then roughly marched across to the
heavily blood stained, eight foot tall, deeply forlorn, and covered
in human remains, whipping posts.

Hoidrious
was fuming as you can imagine, and being manhandled in such a way
with blood spewing from the huge gash across his chest didn’t help
matters either, but what could he do?

Then he
tried screaming at them to get off him, but it did no good
either, as he found the rusty forlorn shackles, were suddenly
clamped tight around his wrists.

Even
though they were outnumbered, his bodyguards Loicheonk and
Marchilla had surged forwards. Only as ten bowmen had then pointed
their lethal silver arrows in their direction, did the message
finally get through, and with it they had reluctantly backed
away.

The
crowds of vampire onlooker’s had been lost as to what they should
do, and simply stood there motionless with their mouths wide, and
gaping.

Then Rex
had leapt down from his ledge, and after grabbing a curled up whip
from the side, he had walked out into the centre of the room,
deeply prepared to use it.

The whip
was 6 metres long and made from exceptionally hard leather with the
last metre being roughly braided and twisted over on its self. An
archaic design, viciously intended to maximise the pain.

After
Hoidrious had received fifty violent whips across his back, each
one having left an eight inch savage gash, that was six millimetres
deep, finally the number two succumbed to the pain he had been
dealt.

Then
with his arms diagonally pointing outwards above his head,
held there by the rusty blood covered shackles, even though the
crowds believed that he had had enough, and the extremely harsh
punishment was over. Rex had grinned up at them before dealing his
insubordinate second in command, a further ten.

This was the
reason Hoidrious came out from his dormant state of accepting his
role as number two in their coven.

A week
later when his cell door had finally opened, and the number two’s
wounds had finally healed enough for him to be able to walk again,
the only order he gave Loicheonk and Marchilla, was to arrange a
phone call with Angus.

Hoidrious
whilst he’d been laid up in extreme agony on the hard bench in the
back of the cell, had decided the only way to overthrow Rex, was by
breaking the age old rule of vampires not being seen when they
attacked humans. Then in doing so, it would have the obvious effect
of causing a huge war against humanity.

He had
grinned inwardly at his idea and fully welcomed that vampires would
finally be ruling the Earth. He also had absolutely no doubt in his
mind at that point, that Rex was talking a load of old shit, when
he had said that Satan would be furious with anyone who broke the
age old rule.

Kaine had just made it back to the traps room
where Jenny was waiting in the darkness, and before he could close
the door, two vampires had charged straight past him into the
center of the room.

Then with a millisecond before the others
were upon him, he slammed the door shut with a wall-shaking
‘BOOM’.

It didn’t want to stay shut because the rest
of the warriors had by then reached the door and were trying to
bash it in from the other side. He had to thrust his foot against
the bottom and push with all his force whilst he managed to slide
one of the bolts across.

The door rocked against it as he took his
foot away though, and light appeared around it every time they
crashed into it. He knew it wouldn’t hold long either, but had no
time to do up the other locks.

In the minutes that Jenny had been in there
on her own, she had only managed to move a very short distance. She
had crouched down, and with her back firmly pressed against the
wall she was only able to slide herself a few feet along it. She
was in tears and extremely scared. Then when Kaine had ripped the
door open again, for a moment the horribly pitch-black room was
suddenly, and refreshingly bathed in warm light.

But now just as the door was closed and the
room was drenched in darkness again, to her horrified surprise it
was filled with the most intense and horrific screams. She almost
passed out from the fear they instilled within her.

Turning around fast, Kaine saw the vampires
had run blindly straight into two of his Alaskan bear traps and
laughed at them.

The evil traps were chained down, and a huge
bolt fired into the concrete beneath them. He hated these things
but knew they were perfect for vampire catching.

How dare mankind be so evil trapping bears
with such cruel devices and causing them to die such an awful,
agonizingly painful death, he had thought. But once he’d gotten
them home, and then tipped their huge jaws with silver, he was
immensely happy he had bought them.

‘So you try killing me in my own house, you
fools. Now I'm going to kill you,’ he said as they desperately
tried to free their savagely smashed legs from the cast-iron
jaws.

Ignoring the intense pain he was suffering,
one of them looked up at him and then snarled before he screamed
out, ‘You will die, and so will that bitch Jenny, the priest’s
daughter.’

Jenny heard him and screamed a sound so
unearthly that Kaine immediately swung around to look across at
her. He hardly recognized her; she was a hysterical, complete
mess.

‘It’s okay Jenny, I'm here!’ he shouted
across to her. ‘They can’t hurt you, darling. We will be leaving in
a second!’

With extreme fury pouring through him, he
turned back to look at the two vampires.

‘If only you knew how evil you are. Jenny is
God’s child, and my friend,’ he growled.

Unfortunately, time was too short for
re-education. He knew that it was probably pointless sharing
another word with them. Leaping forwards, he grabbed the head of
the one who had just spoken to him and rammed it back so hard that
he snapped its neck. Then with his hands either side of the head he
turned it hard and with one powerful yank, he ripped it clean off.
As he did, he threw the head away from himself and then reached
down for the corpse’s sword. With it now in his hand, he lunged for
the second vampire.

Kaine came at him hard. He twisted his feet
and spun around full circle, ducking slightly in the process for
maximum effect before upper cutting the vampire’s face. The sword
connected perfectly and the head offered little resistance to the
bite of the blade as it split it in two halves. A massive jet of
blood then sprayed everywhere.