Tales of a Night Walker By Bert McKenzie (c) 2010
Chapter 27
"If you didn't order a car, who was that?" Kelly asked in shock.
"I don't know!" Peter said in surprise. "You don't think Russ Neworth hired someone to do something?"
"I hope so," Kelly replied. "If it was him, Jeff can take care of himself."
"If it wasn't him, who could it be?" Peter asked.
"Maybe we should call the police," she replied.
Back at the apartment, there was nothing out of the ordinary. Kelly looked for Tony but he wasn't home either. Peter excused himself and said he would go to his office and make some calls. He wanted to let Jefferson's own people know what had happened. After a while, fearing the worst and not knowing what to do, Kelly screwed up her courage and stepped across the hall to tap at Mr. Petrov's door. Boris, the old vampire's manservant opened the door. "Miss, the master is not in," he said abruptly. But no sooner were the words from his mouth than Kelly heard the other man in the background.
"Of course I am in to her, Boris. Let the lady enter."
"I'm ... I'm sorry to bother you at this late hour," she began nervously.
The older man, dressed in a dressing gown, came and took her hand, leading her into the room and to sit on the couch beside him. "What is it, my dear? I can see you are upset. Has Jefferson done something to upset you?"
"He's gone," she burst out.
"Oh?" The old vampire didn't seem to register any surprise.
"We were leaving the theatre. He had a rough night what with the fight and all."
"Fight? Tell me about it."
Kelly didn't know how much to say. "Well, he had a disagreement with Russ Neworth, the other actor in the show. I guess he did something to scare him, and Neworth left. They had to get the understudy to go on."
"Marvelous, and did Jefferson 'go on' as well?" he asked.
"Yes, they said he was brilliant. I got a call from my nephew. Apparently he ... he had..."
Her host patted her hand. "There, there, my dear. I know what you are trying to say. I have seen it all before, many times. At least your nephew called you. I feared he and that other human were making an assignation when I saw them at the opening night party."
"Yes, well," Kelly sniffed. "We were leaving the theatre and there was a limo waiting by the door. Jeff and I assumed that Peter, his agent had called for it, but he didn't. When Jeff opened the door, some men grabbed him and pulled him in and it sped off." She caught her breath and paused for a moment. "We don't know where he is or who they were or anything."
The old vampire sat back. "I fear I know. This may be partly my fault. I should have warned the boy."
"I thought maybe Russ..."
The older man shook his head. "No, it is just that your friend became too noticeable. This is why we all live sheltered lives. If any of us grow too noticeable, the Van Helsing Foundation is always waiting in the wings."
"The Van Helsing Foundation? I've never heard of them."
The vampire shook his head. "As I said this is my fault. I knew they were around. I should have warned him not to be so public, so visible. They are a group of fanatics who are sworn to save the human race from vampires. They make no distinction between good or bad. They only live to kill us off."
"Oh my gosh," Kelly said in fear. "And you think these people may be the ones who kidnapped Jeff?"
"I heard only today that they were in town and planning to snatch a prominent vampire. My foolish pride caused me to believe I was the target." Petrov jumped up and began to move so quickly Kelly could only see a bit of a blur. In a moment he was standing beside her, dressed in a black suit and tie. "You will go to your apartment and wait for some word from someone. It may be from your nephew, or from your friend. But do not despair. I shall go do what I can to find out where he is. I will call you if I have any information." With that he disappeared, leaving Kelly sitting alone on the couch. She got up and crossed the hall to her apartment.
A few minutes later there was a gentle tap at her door. She opened it to find the two sisters, Magda and Olga standing there dressed in their matching caftans. "Vladimir asked us to look in on you," one of them began. "We want to make sure you are safe and have company," the other continued. "These are dark and trying times."
Kelly opened the door wider and escorted them into the living room. They made themselves comfortable on the couch and one pulled the coffee table close to them while the other opened a bag to pull out a deck of tarot cards. She immediately began to lay them out on the table in the spread of the Celtic cross. Her sister watched intently, shaking her head and clucking her tongue from time to time as each new card was revealed. Kelly, no stranger to the tarot also looked at the cards, her concern mounting. "My darling, you need to prepare yourself for a difficult time," one sister began. "The Tower of Destruction indicates a period of trial, and the Death card indicates a traumatic change."
"Someone is going to die!" Kelly said nervously.
"Honey, considering the people involved, some of them are already dead," one of the women said with a laugh.
"Or undead," the other twin chimed in.
"What do you want of me?" I asked again as the two men pulled me along. I had struggled, but found myself no match for them. I didn't think they were vampires, but they were extremely strong whatever they were. I was pretty sure they weren't human. At least I didn't think they could possibly be human since I should have been able to overpower any human.
Benjamin Bristol led the way down a corridor in what looked like some old, deserted building. "I want what people have wanted for the last two millennia. I want to make sure the human race is safe. To do that, we are dedicated to eliminating your kind. Our reports say that you have cheated death a number of times already. This time I will make sure it happens correctly."
"But you're wrong," I said as they continued on down the corridor. "I'm no threat to your kind."
"But you are an abomination. God hates abominations and it is our charge to eliminate them," the man continued. "According to our records you have done our work for us by eliminating Jefferson Wesley Smythe the second and Armand DuBois and his sister Felicity DuBois."
"I didn't kill Felicity," I said. "Nor did I kill my father. That was accomplished by a friend of mine."
"No matter, they are gone. That is the end result we wanted, so we no longer need to waste precious resources on them."
They turned a corner leading me through two large double doors and into a room that had no roof. We walked to the center of the floor and looked down into what appeared to be a well. It was a pit with smooth sides and a flat, concrete bottom. Bristol pointed his large flashlight down into the pit, illuminating it and revealing it to be about 30 feet to the bottom. Sitting against the wall at the bottom was Tony. "You will get to join your friend at the bottom. He is a collaborator, so I'm afraid he must die too. When you burst into flames tomorrow at noon, you will incinerate him." I could see that the well wasn't wide enough for us to be far apart. It was maybe four feet in diameter. "Now down you go," the man said. I suddenly felt the intense pain coursing through my body and everything went black.
Sometime later I came to. I was on my back looking up at the stars far above. I groaned and tried to sit up. "Jeff, are you alright," Tony asked nervously.
"Tony, I'm okay. Where are they?" I asked, looking about.
"They're gone. They hit you with a stun gun and knocked you out, then dumped you in here. I thought they would just leave, but one of the big guys was lowered down on a rope, and he chained you to a ring in the floor. Then they pulled him back up and left us in the dark."
I felt around and found thick iron shackles on my legs, attached to a short chain fixed to a ring set in the concrete. This was getting too familiar. This was the third time I had been chained and I was really growing tired of it. I realized why they had done this, because the 30 foot distance was probably short enough for me to jump if I was free. "This won't take but a second," I told Tony and pulled on the chain. I was extremely surprised that it wouldn't give. I tugged harder, braced my feet and pulled with all my strength but I was unable to break it. "I should be able to break this," I said in surprise.
"The obnoxious little man said it was a special alloy and some kind of specially blessed metal that even a strong vampire wouldn't be able to break it," Tony explained.
"Specially blessed? That's bullshit. I should be able to break it." I pulled and tried again, but didn't make any headway. "This doesn't look good," I said nervously. What a trap they had left. When the sun was directly overhead tomorrow, it would shine down in the hole and I would burst into flame, taking care of both me and Tony. These people would be far away. I kept tugging on the chain but it didn't budge. Even with my vampire strength I was immobilized.
The night wore on. Tony apologized over and over for his indiscretion with Russ. I finally told him to shut up as he was getting on my nerves. The thirst was beginning to get to me as well. It had been quite some time since I drank, and Tony was beginning to look more and more like food by the minute. I wondered if I could break the chain if I had ingested human blood. But then that was probably part of the Van Helsing Foundation's plan. They would want me to kill my companion, proving I was a killer before they had their retribution by incinerating me. Finally we could see the sky above change from inky dark blue to a lighter color and finally a brilliant azure. I couldn't look up as the brightness seemed to hurt my eyes. "It's daylight," Tony said in realization. "Jeff, what will happen when the sun shines down into here?"
"Well, when it hits me, I'll burst into flame."
"You mean, you'll die?" he asked in shock.
"No, I mean we'll both die," I told him. "You're just too close and I'm afraid I'll probably incinerate you as well."
"Shit!"
I finally saw the sunlight beginning to hit the edge of the well. I squeezed against the east wall, but I knew that wasn't going to keep me safe for long at all. It would only be a matter of minutes until it would all be over. Ever so rapidly the band of light began to crawl down the wall making it brighter and brighter. As the sun grew closer, I began to see things. The waves of heat from the concrete beside me became almost palpable. I tried to pull further into the shade, but I could only delay the inevitable end by perhaps a minute.
Suddenly it was dark. It was as if a solar eclipse had suddenly hit and the well was again plunged into night. Both Tony and I looked up but could see nothing. And then a voice came out of the darkness. "Just hang on another twenty minutes or so until the sun has passed the zenith and then we can get you out," it said. That was probably the longest twenty minutes of my life. Then it was light again, but not the bright light shining down into our well. The sun had indeed passed us by. "What do you need?" the voice asked
"A rope to get Tony out of here," I shouted back. A rope dropped down and I carefully tied it around my young friend. "Okay, he's ready," I yelled back up. Slowly the rope was pulled up and Tony gradually was lifted higher and higher until he was pulled out over the edge.
"Catch this," the voice shouted back down and a bottle dropped to me. I caught it and looked. It was corked and filled with blood. I quickly pulled the stopper and began to drink. I could feel the life coming back to me. When I had finished the bottle the voice shouted. "Now come on, break the shackles. You can do it. They only trapped you because you hadn't eaten in so long." I pulled at the chain but had the same result. I then pulled on the metal shackles on my ankle. Nothing. "What kind of a wimp are you? You can't even break a little piece of metal like that?" That did it. The taunting made me angry and with a growl, I snapped the metal band around my ankle. I then squatted down and with a burst of energy, managed to leap up, the thirty feet, catching my hands on the edge of the pit and easily pulling myself out.
"I knew you could do it," the man said as he grinned at me. "We just had to get you mad enough." He held out his hand. "Craig Langston. I work for you." The man had incredibly good looks and a winning smile. I had to smile back as I took his hand and shook it.
"You work for me? I'm sorry but I don't..."
"Your office? I work for it, doing odd jobs, kind of like this. Actually I am usually an accountant in your office going over your stocks and bonds, but I really do enjoy the field work now and then." I looked around and saw Tony waiting nervously nearby, and then I spotted the silver tarp. It was erected overhead keeping the sun off of the hole and making a nice shade for us. The light still shined down into the room because of the missing roof. The man, Craig, noticed me examining the makeshift canopy. "I always carry that in my car trunk in case of such emergencies. Here," he said, as he held out what looked kind of like a silver trench coat. "This should keep you nice and safe till we get to the car."
I slipped it on and we made a dash for the doors and the resulting darkness of the building. Tony and I followed the man back down the corridors until we got to the street. Then it was just a short dash to the car with its tinted windows. "How did you know where to find us?" I asked.
"Vlad Petrov provided us with a list of addresses where you might be. I got lucky. This was only the fourth place I looked. This is apparently a location where the Van Helsing nut jobs have taken other vamps." Langston drove us back to the apartment.
Willie met us in the parking garage. "Are you okay, Mr. Smythe?" he asked. He seemed really anxious. "We never had any of those crazy Van Helsing people come around here before."
"I'm fine, thanks," I replied. "And thank you, Mr. Langston," I said to the man who was still beside us.
"Call me Craig. And I'm sticking with you till you're on stage. That's what a body guard does."
"I thought you were an accountant."
"I was also special ops with the military before I ever came to work for you," he replied. "During the show I'll take this young man to the airport so he can catch a plane back to Kansas with his aunt."
"But I want to stay," Tony protested.
"I do think it would be best if you went home. And you probably should take Kelly with you," I said. "It's not safe for either of you here. But I'm not sure I'm going back to the theater."
"You can and you will," Vladimir Petrov said, suddenly appearing at my side. "You have an audience to entertain, and we are not going to run from these crazy people any longer!"
Kelly was sad to be leaving me, but I think she realized she had to take Tony back or he would lose his job in Kansas, and she could also tell by my attitude that his presence here was no longer welcome. Although I would miss the company, Kelly was becoming much too motherly for me. I think she detected a change in my attitude after this recent experience and decided it was time to return home. I promised to come see them when I was finished with the movie that I agreed to do for Peter. I gave Kelly a brief hug, and then Craig and I climbed into a limo and headed for the theater. Mr. Petrov would stay with my human friends until Craig got back to escort them to the airport.
The show went flawlessly thanks in part to the use of the understudy for the role formerly played by Russ. Sure enough Actors Equity had a representative at the theater waiting for me. There was also a lawsuit filed stating that I physically threatened and intimidated Russ Neworth so that he was unable to continue in his job. Pat laughed and said she would testify to all the times he had harassed us as well. She was sure between her testimony and mine, and anyone on the crew, including the stage manager and possibly even Jason the director, Neworth would be in big time trouble. She was sure any lawsuit or Equity charges would be dropped pretty quickly. I thanked her for the offer, but decided it was time to end my contract and let another actor take over the part. I could tell I had worn out my welcome, not to mention being a continuous target for the Van Helsings if I stayed with the show.
At the end of the show, after the final curtain, I returned to my dressing room and found Craig waiting for me. Gods, he was handsome, but I told myself I wasn't going to get involved with any more humans. Still I felt myself drawn to his open and witty personality.
We left the theater and Craig rode with me all the way home, escorting me to my apartment. He followed me in and I must have shown my surprise. "Hey, I'm not leaving my boss alone for those wack jobs to come back. I'm living here until you fly to London. I'll stay in Kelly's room."
"You may be my temporary body guard, but I am still the boss," I told him. "So I'd like to make some decisions about my life. First off, despite what Peter might say, I don't want to be a movie star. I'm only doing this because I would like to visit Europe, and it wouldn't hurt to earn some money. I understand that this movie will seriously impact my bank account." Craig nodded. "After that, I'm not sure where I will go or what I will do, but I think I'm going to take Mr. Petrov's advice and go back underground, so to speak. This job of being an actor is a bit too visible."
"I thoroughly concur," Craig agreed. "Just keep a little better communication with those of us who work for you. I mean what's the point of having an organization that manages your money and is waiting to do what it takes to keep you safe if you just disappear like you tend to do?"
I agreed with him and that seemed to mollify him and alleviate his concerns. I then got a bottle of blood from the fridge, microwaved it a bit and retired to my bedroom. I sat down and turned on the television to provide background noise, then sat and mused over the happenings of the last two days. I felt my interest strongly drawn towards this young accountant-turned-bodyguard. I wondered what it would be like to keep him with me, take him to London and on as I made this movie, then we could find a little place in the country somewhere, maybe in the south of France and retire in peace for a while. Those pleasant thoughts ran through my head until a finally fell asleep.