The Vampire (THE VAMPIRE Book 1) (38 page)

A few stars were visible now. The air was cool and crisp. It was still difficult to see the path under his feet but Jason kept up. His eyes had grown a little more accustomed to the darkness. Jason thought he could make out some faint light off in the distance, at ground level.

Please let it be houses, and people, and taxis…

Jason had been in scary situations before. He had put himself there, during his ghost investigations. He had spent time in places creepy, dark and unfamiliar, and often with a dark history. This was a little like that. One acknowledged one’s fear and dealt with it.

Jason was breathing a little heavier now, from exertion and admittedly from anxiety. He could see his breath in the cool air. They walked on in silence.

Suddenly Augere came to a dead stop and Jason nearly ran into him.

“What…?” Jason started to say but Augere cut him off, very softly saying “shhhhh,” then even more softly, “Stay behind me.”

Jason struggled to see.
What is it…? Oh fuck. Is it muggers? Are we about to be attacked?

Jason fought an almost blind fear that surprised him. Maybe they were both going to die out here. Or maybe it was the police. And they were going to be arrested.
Fuck
.

Suddenly Jason became aware of a very strong smell. A horrible rotting, decaying stench. It seemed to seep right into his pores; it rushed at him on a hot blast of air out of the depths of the darkness and the smell filled his nostrils, rancid and fetid, forcing him to take several steps backward, choking him and making him want to retch. The disgusting smell burned his throat.

Out of the blackness in front of them emerged reddish-orange glowing eyes—huge as an elephant’s and at the same height as one. These eyes were malevolent and terrifying and seemingly fixed on him. In the darkness Jason began to make out the outline of an enormous head; some kind of massive thing was right in front of them. He followed the huge eyes as they lowered to near ground level and then rose again to a height that had to be more than fifteen feet. The beast, what he could make out of it, seemed to be neither human nor animal, but maybe some grotesque pairing of both. It bore darker and lighter patches on its huge frame; impossible to call it fur or skin. It had claw-like appendages. The features of its face were horrifyingly malformed or contorted; Jason could not tell which as he stared at the thing, mesmerized. Not being able to see it as clearly in the darkness made the experience of it all the more terrifying

The thing was not simply menacing; it exuded viciousness and hatred. It appeared to have sharp teeth that glinted in its enormous twisted mouth. Though it seemed too fantastic to be real, it was clearly alive and posing a very real threat.

Jason had never been so scared in his life. He wanted to run. He was not sure his legs could do the job. He quickly envisioned himself turning and running blindly into the darkness, perhaps stumbling and falling, or with his back to the thing and feeling its hot breath—breath he could feel on his face just now—on his neck as it overtook him. He imagined the body, the true size of which he could not clearly ascertain—he just couldn’t see most of it—was probably capable of leaping and overtaking him no matter how fast he ran. He was sure it would be able to pounce on him and tear him to pieces and that it intended to do so.

And then he realized Augere was standing between him and the monstrous thing. Augere, whose slight frame was defenseless next to it, would be taken first. Leaving Jason alone with the thing. What the hell was it and where had it come from? He could make out Augere’s form somewhat. He had widened his stance. The great beast moved closer toward them; it looked like it was glaring ominously at Augere now and continued moving toward both of them.

Suddenly Augere spoke and it startled him. A loud, clear but calm voice that had the same sharp tone he had used with the contrary woman at the entrance to the catacombs.

“If you believe you have the canines to take me, come forward. Bring it now, or be gone. You know what I am capable of.”

Jason almost burst out in nervous laughter at the comical horror of it. Augere must have totally lost it. Gone quite insane. The horrible thing would take Augere down, and then it would come for him.

The great beast snorted and snarled. It let out a horrendously loud bellow, an angry and anguished roar that half of London had to have heard. The sound of it raised the hair on Jason’s body and the force of the sound rumbled and vibrated against his chest. He immediately got behind Augere, an act which in the same instant felt both cowardly and yet exactly the correct thing to do.

Augere stood his ground. Jason thought how terribly he was going to miss him. He couldn’t bear the thought he was going to witness this: Augere being torn apart. And then felt the bile rise in his throat at the thought he would be next. He was going to die, right here and now.

The creature lowered its enormous head, never taking its glowing hate filled eyes off of Augere as it very slowly began to retreat into the darkness. The orange red eyes were fixed there one moment, hovering in the blackness—and then—it was just gone: the smell, the sound, the beast itself—Jason felt its total absence. The glow of the eyes were the last visible trace of it before blackness enveloped them again.

Augere immediately relaxed his pose and looked for some time in the direction the beast seemed to have gone. It was still out there, somewhere; it had to be, yet the immediate danger seemed gone.

Jason stood staring into the darkness, his body nearly in a full tremble. What the hell had he just witnessed?

“We should go now,” Augere stated calmly.

“Yeah, we gotta get out of here.” Jason’s voice was foreign and hoarse to his own ears.

Augere began to walk briskly in the direction it seemed they had been going before. Jason suspected Augere must be in some state of shock, as much as he himself was. His legs felt heavy and unwilling; the adrenaline was still pumping; he could hear his heart beating in his ears and his hands were shaky, his mouth dry. He struggled to keep up with Augere, forcing his legs to cooperate as he kept looking back into the darkness, ever fearfully imagining he heard something creeping up on them, ready to overtake them.

It could have been two minutes or ten; time had little meaning. Suddenly they came to a sidewalk; small houses were in the distance just beyond; and lights, faint, and glowing.

Jason’s breathing began to slow a little. His throat hurt. The rest of his body felt like it belonged to someone else. Everything seemed unreal just now. He was already reliving the past few minutes. His life had been in mortal danger just minutes ago, he was certain, but now he might be okay. He was still trying to process all that had happened.

“You have your cell phone. We have to call the police. I don’t have my phone. Tell them what we saw and get someone out here; they might even need the military! This is really big…imagine a thing like that roaming around a city like London! I would never have believed it…I don’t understand how it could possibly be—”

He stopped then and stared at Augere. Even in the dim light he observed Augere’s impassive expression. Augere made no attempt to use his cell phone.

He guessed Augere was still in some state of shock.

“We need to tell the authorities, Mr. Augere. Right away. Before someone gets killed. We are still in danger ourselves. We’ve got to get away from here and we have to let others know so they can warn people and get this thing—” Augere still made no reply but remained looking steadily at him, as far as Jason could tell, as they were still far from any direct light source.
He must be in even more shock than I am
.

“Look, Mr. Augere. Just give me your phone then. I’ll make the call.” He held out his shaking hand in the dark.

“We can tell no one about this.”

Jason simply stared at him. He could just make out his features in the dim light, only slightly less dark now that they had moved into a clearing somehow closer to a dim light source from nearby civilization. Jason hesitated. He was thinking about what had just happened.

“You…talked to that thing…as if it could understand you…I thought maybe you had flipped out…it didn’t seem like you were really afraid of it either. That was crazy brave of you. But that thing is still out here…” Jason peered into the darkness around them again, nervously expecting to see something emerge, something ready to pounce.

“There was nothing to fear. Not really.”

Okay. Augere is clearly not handling this well
.

“Nothing?” Jason struggled to regain control. “That thing was coming after us! It could have ripped us apart! We’re still in danger right now. We’ve got to get out of here, now, and warn people. They just have to believe us.”

“I thought you investigated things like this. You have seen such before, I assumed from your comments. You were not truly so afraid, were you, ghost hunter?” The tone of voice held a hint of surprise and confusion which Jason only heard and interpreted as sarcasm; as if Augere was mocking him.

“Terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought, Venkman,” Jason replied tersely. He made a lame attempt at humor to express his true state of mind and to avoid blowing up in sudden anger at Augere; it was an attempt to diffuse the mocking tone of the comment as well.
Things like this? There are no THINGS like this! Augere has to have become totally unbalanced to stand here and be calmly mocking me about this…

Augere’s bizarre stance had made Jason look and feel like a coward, not that he cared at that moment. Jason had gotten behind Augere as if he instinctively knew it could not get past Augere to get to him…no wait…was it because Augere had said “get behind me”? It was as if Augere had forced that thing to back off. Then Augere had calmly led them both to safety.
What the hell is going on here?
Jason began to wonder now, his mind strained with confusion.

“You spoke to that thing…how did you know to do that? Why did you think it wouldn’t just kill you? That it could even understand you…?”

“I am quite certain it understood my intentions, if not the words precisely. They are rather brutish things. If nothing else the tone of voice was certainly familiar.” They had neared a streetlight now as they had continued walking and Jason stopped suddenly then and just stared at him for several moments.

Familiar? “
Are you saying you’ve seen things like that before?”

“Perhaps we can discuss this back at the hotel—”

“
Now
. I need to know right now.”

A frown accompanied Augere’s heavy sigh, though Jason still couldn’t make out his features too clearly. He was quiet for several long moments, avoiding Jason’s intense stare.

Then Augere spoke quietly, calmly.

“I have encountered these beings before. Science will tell you there are no such things as ley lines or energy vortexes or portals to other dimensions. There is no proof that portals can open where some of those lines intersect. But you may already know of this.” He was looking into Jason’s eyes now but Jason could hear him more clearly than he could see his expression, a voice coming from the darkness.

“A great many things exist though there may not be scientific proof of them.” He paused for Jason’s response, trying to gauge if Jason fully understood. Jason made no reply.

“There are several energy vortexes around Highgate. The portals can open when…certain circumstances occur.” He paused again. “Usually I can spot these easily enough—there is a blue aura—” He looked at Jason as if for some acknowledgement, but saw only Jason’s confused and frightened expression. He wondered if perhaps Jason did not know of this. “When I see the aura I can avoid them. This one was particularly large and I did not see it all at once…some of the perimeter, of course, but not the entire…” Augere’s voice trailed off. If Jason knew of this, he gave no sign. And he was clearly beyond being able to take in the information Augere was trying to provide just now.

Jason was staring at him and shaking his head. Yes. He had heard of ley lines. He knew in theory they were numerous and that they crisscrossed the earth. And there were energy vortexes. And there were, in theory, portals. Some of these vortexes were thought to attract and hold more energy than other places on earth. The unusual energy levels could cause people to experience unusual physical sensations. Like hallucinations. But this had been no hallucination. If that was where Augere might be going with this. He couldn’t believe they were having this conversation. And right now, of all moments.

“And what does all that have to do with—that thing?” Jason was curious and scared at the same time.

“Whenever I get near one of the vortexes where a portal may occur, that portal may open, and beings from other dimensions try to come through to this dimension.”

Jason continued to stare, uncomprehending.
This cannot be real
. How could it be? Except that he had seen if for himself.

“When I get near one of those portals, beings on the other side can sense me—my energy—and then they use me as a kind of beacon to try to come through. As you have seen this evening, that would not be a good thing to have happen. Nothing has been able to get past me so far.”

“How come no one else knows about this? Why would you not tell anyone? Why on earth would you keep something like this to yourself? We have got to tell the authorities about this—”

“You can never tell anyone.”

“But why? I don’t understand.”

Augere looked into his eyes steadily for several moments.

“I believe you do have that understanding. It is because I am the other half of the equation. And my privacy must be protected at all cost.”

Jason heard a definite coldness in the tone of voice now. He continued to look at him with a confused expression but a sense of what was being said and its implications was gathering shape in his mind.

“This should not have happened.” Augere said quietly then, shaking his head.

They began walking again, side by side in silence, for another mile or so.

As if the evening could not possibly get any stranger, a taxi pulled up to them as they were paused along a path with houses and lights still some ways off in the distance. The driver asked if they needed a lift.