Saints Of Satan Chapter Four

My rage wore off as I hurtled through the British countryside, the cold air sapping my strength and eventually forcing me to a halt. Squatting on my haunches, I inhaled deeply, my mind whirring as I tried to run through my head what was happening.
The clan was falling? It seemed impossible. For almost one and a half millennia the vampires of the world had been separated into three clans. They had brought order amongst fighting and different vampires with different views had separated into their favoured clans and mentored those they blooded with their ways. For an entire clan with supposedly the same views to be forced apart by a lone vampire seemed preposterous.
But it was happening. I had no doubt about that.
Maria and I went back decades, and I had always had a soft spot for her. I would trust her with my life. She said it was happening, and I believed her.
A sudden pang of guilt hit me as a thought occurred in my mind. I was leaving Maria to fend for her-self. Their mission must be a tough one for them to have travelled the miles it was just to recruit me. I grimaced, my emotions torn.
After a few moments thought I made a rash decision. Would I regret it? I would have to wait and see. Before I could change my mind, I whirled around, my clothes billowing in a sudden gust of wind, facing the way I had come and a new journey.

♦

My mouth watered. My eyes stung. The gentle breeze carried the fires smoke and enticed within it the tantalising smell of frying bacon. A single beady globule of drool ran from my mouth, and I hurriedly wiped it away on my sleeve, thankful there were none to see.
I tested my weight against the stout tree, a little amused how accustomed I had become to the feel of bark on my skin.
Four silent vampires lay below me, the only movement between them a steady beating of their chests as they breathed.
I stifled a yawn, realising it had been days since I had last rested. The problem was, vampires were unlike humans, they could simply crack open an eyelid and be on their way in under a minute. We could survive without the nourishment of liquid on our lips or food in our stomachs for weeks on end.
As for the third time in a few minutes I forced my eyes open, I realised how weak I had become. Before I could stay awake for almost a fortnight, now I was struggling against three days? I sighed.
When part of the clan, you were trained regularly, usually every few months, to ensure you could withstand problems such as the need to rest, eat and drink. Vampires in the clan have to dedicate hours each week to training to ensure they can pass these tests, for if you fail then you are set one of three punishments laid down by the Lords.
Usually, vampires prefer the training to the punishments.
Maria turned, and she let out a gentle moan, opening an eye and looking about. Almost swallowing my tongue, I slipped around behind the trees large trunk, listening carefully for her movements above the sound of my own beating heart.
“We’re leaving,” she announced, and the three other vampires each opened their eyes and got to their feet without a word. I counted two minutes in my head then spun out from behind the trunk, pouncing from the branch and landing on the damp moss matted ground.
Rubbing my eyes, I gently jogged a few hundred metres behind the group, out of earshot and covered by the dense greenery.

Another day melted away, and by evening I felt about ready to collapse. Again the group set up camp, this time in a small abandoned warehouse, left to rot just outside a rundown village. Luckily, there was only one entrance, so I sought shelter in an empty skip just outside.
Lying on my back, I looked to the clear night sky, the stars shining bright above me. The moon was barely more than a slither in the expanse of darkness, its gentle glow illuminating the factories mouldering walls.
Before I knew it, I had slipped into a deep, dreamless sleep, and the hours slipped by as I rested on the icy metal of the skip.

♦

I was awoken rudely; a sharp boot on my chest and a dagger to my throat.
“Care to join us I see?” came a familiar female voice above me. I blinked, sunlight pouring down on my face.
“Maria,” I grumbled, leaning up onto my haunches and pushing her blade aside. She smiled, then withdrew her boot and hauled me to my feet.
“You’re getting rusty,” she laughed, then gave me one of her famous winks. “We’ve known you were following us for the past three days. The only reason we haven’t confronted you is because Michael and Jeremiah have had a bet going on how long you could last before you let your guard down,”
I groaned, then winced as I heard another familiar voice.
“It seems I won,” growled Jeremiah, and I turned to see the large vampire. His face was a mass of angry bruises, and I couldn’t help but smile.
“Find something funny, do you?” his voice was enticed with venom, and I tensed, preparing to fight.
“I think a nice bloody nose will add to that look you’ve got going,” I spat, and Jeremiah looked about ready to pounce. Maria calmly stood between us, and gave a steady glare into each of our eyes. Reluctantly, we relaxed.
“So what now?” asked Michael, looking at me inquisitively and raising an eyebrow. My eyes met Maria’s, and I gave her a nod.
“I am joining you,” I announced, ignoring the sputter of laughter from Jeremiah, “But know this, I am joining for my own reason, not for the sake of the clan,”
“Fair enough,” Jonathon nodded respectfully, then headed back inside the warehouse to prepare to leave. The words were simple enough, but I knew Jonathon, perhaps even Jeremiah, was glad that I had decided to come.
We had walked ten paces when a thought occurred, and I paused. The others turned to me.
“Perhaps a question I should have asked before,” I licked my lips, “Where are we going?”
Jonathon and Michael glanced knowingly at each other, Maria bowed her head, and Jeremiah kept walking.
“Where?” I asked again, beginning to fear the answer. A long pause followed, and the five of us walked on in silence, and just as I began to get aggravated, Maria, not daring to meet my eyes, spoke the name I wished she hadn’t.
“The forest of damnation,”

“No,” I said simply, levelling my emotions and turning back the way we had come. Maria caught my arm, but I shook her loose.
“No!” I bellowed, my voice rocketing through the air with abnormal power, “You know you ask too much of me! I can barely bring myself to help the clan after they,” I stopped myself, pacing back and forth in anger.
“I know what happened there,” Maria said, and I stopped, glaring into her eyes. She carried on, “But this could be their redemption to you, you can settle this feud and trust one another again,”
“Any place! Any place but there!” I growled, grasping a knobbly branch and shattering it against a nearby tree. The others stepped back warily, except for Mariah, who instead walked straight up to me and grasped my shoulder firm.
“We need all the help we can get. You know that,” She held my gaze, and I suddenly realised just how desperate she was. I had taken a blow for her, in the vampire court of law. Although I was now an outsider to the clan and the lords, she was still part of the clan, and I could imagine what life looked like for her now.
Francis is slowly bringing about the destruction of all order of things throughout the clan and meanwhile the lords are preparing for the fulfilment of the prophecy.
When the gates of hell are torn apart, God will answer. And when the world begins to be torn apart, piece by piece, no living creature will want to be caught in the crossfire. The vampires will choose a side, if we haven’t massacred each other in the meantime.
“I, understand,” I managed, and finally brought myself to look at the bigger picture, “the vampires need to be one when the prophecy is fulfilled, and if those, those-”
I composed myself, “if that means making amends with the rogues at Damnation then so be it,”
Maria smiled, letting go of my shoulder and giving my hand a squeeze. I managed a smile, then began to walk, the five of us careful to keep in the shade of the woods before us and out of direct sunlight. We wouldn’t normally walk in the day, but time was not on our side and a minor burn was the latter of the two outcomes if we didn’t make it to the forest in time.

♦

(Italics) The six of us sat amidst the entwining branches of a thousand bulbous trees. Vines snaked amidst overgrowing shrubbery, dank and moss strewn in the damp of the nearby swamps.
I shivered, a sudden chill enveloping my body as I fingered my blade, unsure of what this evil place beheld. Few vampires had ever ventured inside the forest, and even fewer had escaped with their lives, much less their insanity.
It was a dark and evil place, and I had felt an urge to turn tail and flee its foreboding embrace the moment I had set foot in there.
But no, I had been assigned a task to fulfil, and if it meant entering the forest, then so be it. I signalled to the three vampires to my left, and they tentatively drew their blades, flinching at the screech of the metal as the swords left their sheaths.
The vampires stealthily leapt over a small still pool before them, and landed in the small clearing we had been scouting, the gentle thud of their feet the only sound in the deathly silence of the forest.
They gave us a nod, and I signalled for the other two to stay whilst I joined them in the clearing.
“Make a perimeter, keep vigilant,” I whispered, so quietly that only our heightened senses could pick up on it.
As they moved into position, I stepped up to the only thing in the clearing besides ourselves. A small mouldering podium stood at a crooked angle amidst a small tangle of weeds.
But my attention was focused elsewhere, and I stood staring at what rested in perfect unison with the podiums sides, despite the angle.
A horn.
I cautiously plucked it from its resting place and held it in my hands. Now being a vampire, as you could imagine, not many things frighten me. We have heightened senses, unbelievable power and inhuman speed. But this horn, its cracked edges, faded white exterior and rusted metal rim, terrified me to my very core.
The horn held the power to summon the guardians. Those who ruled amidst the demonic plantation of the forest of damnation. Those who guard the most despicable and malevolent beings on the very earth.
Without a seconds thought I held the horn to my lips and blew. The sound was unlike any other, and rebounded along the crooked branches and swelled trunks of the trees, carrying the sound for thousands of metres throughout the forest.
Harker, my first lieutenant, flinched, his eyes flicking from tree to tree, trying to spot movement between the interwoven branches. An impossible task.
I set the horn down back in its place, my every movement cautious, every muscle in my body tense. We waited three seconds, four. Nothing.
My men daren’t even breathe, the coiling fog surrounding us seemed to grow thicker, the shadows cast in the twilight gloom seemed to become sharper, darker.
It was only so long before my men lost their steady heads and turned tail and fled the cursed place. A full minute had passed. I felt the glare of a thousand eyes boring into the back of my head.
Finally, as I began to feel as though my knuckles would implode from gripping the leather bound hilt of my sword, they were upon us.
A dozen of them surrounded the clearing, flashing into place faster than the blink of an eye. I let out a yelp, drawing my sword with such speed I tore the scabbard in half. The other vampires followed suite, and in a hasty second we were stood back to back in a miniature circle surrounding the podium.
“Who sounded the Calla’k?” I was unsure where the voice came from, but the very sound sent chills coursing down my spine and the blood pumping through my veins. It was like metal scraping on gravel, and I had to grit my teeth just to bear it.
“It was I,” my voice held strong, thank the lords, and I managed to focus on one of them long enough to make out its features.
With all my heart I wish I hadn’t.
The fiends were the most evil beings I had ever laid eyes upon. At first they had just been dark silhouettes, mysterious and imposing, but as I looked closer the guardians began to terrify me more and more.
The creatures more pitch black robes, with hoods covering most of their faces. They were humanoid, but only just. Razor sharp claws were set back within the large sleeves of the robes, numerous tears and gashes were strewn over the ends, were the talons had sliced through the rough fabric. They stood over seven feet tall, and loomed above us, imposing an understatement. But these were minor details. For beneath these beast’s hoods, was set faces so indescribably hideous even the bravest soul would cower from.
I averted my gaze, attempting to hold ground as another guardian began to screech.
“Only the damned enter the forest,”
I began to speak, but was cut short as Harker let loose a loud whimper, his eyes locked with the blazing red infernos of one of the guardians.
“Harker!” I bellowed. He showed no sign of hearing me. “Harker! Avert your eyes!”
He was dead to the world, lost in the pits of hell embedded in the creatures eye sockets.
A tense moment passed, then my first lieutenant, trained to the highest standard, undefeated in battle, let loose a cry of sheer terror and sprinted at full pelt to the edge of the clearing.
The next part happened so quickly a creature without the reactions of a vampire would see it only as a blur of colour.
The guardian Harker was headed for plucked him from the ground by his head and sank his talons deep in his throat, crushing his head and slaying him instantly.
I gasped. My lieutenants mutilated corpse fell to the ground, tossed aside like an unused toy.
My men faltered. I shut my eyes, preparing for what was to come. A cry went up, the three vampires I had fought with countless times, frightened as they were, sought blood for the death of their commander and friend.
As they flashed forth and laid into the guardians, I opened my eyes, staring hard at the beast that had ended my brother’s life. Letting loose an unearthly roar, I charged the beast, sword raised and a fire in my eyes that burned to my soul.
(End Italics)

♦

I awoke with a start, beady droplets of sweat running down my forehead, my heart thundering in my chest. Gulping for air, I shakily sat up on my ragged bedding, leaning back against a tree and flinching at a spot of sunlight that had crept through the canopy of leaves overhead and onto trunk of the tree I now leant against.
Grasping my shirt, I lifted it to my chest and inspected the three scars set across my side. I shivered at the memory, a tear forming in my eye as I recounted the deaths I saw in that forest, the blurred images of blood and bone.
“Hey,” the torrent of gory images were ground to a halt by the soothing voice of Maria. I looked up at her, a single tear running down my cheek. She adorned a motherly look, sliding her hand around my waist and holding me gently.
We sat like that for hours, until we woke up near night fall, in each other’s arms and ripe for mocking by Jeremiah.
“Try and keep your eyes on the prize ladies man,” he growled, and I simply gave him a glare that must’ve brought back memories of his recent beating, as he hurried on ahead, taking the lead and setting a quick pace.
For a bit I dawdled along beside Maria, looking ahead, awaiting my return to the forest of damnation and my retribution.