His Vampyrrhic Bride

  ‘You’re not thinking of doing anything too extreme up there, are you?’

  She gave a grim smile. ‘When I told Helsvir to back off from the door, it obeyed. I’m going to put my powers of command to the ultimate test.’

  ‘Whatever you do, don’t put yourself in danger.’

  She shook her head. ‘That’s why I’m going to do my commanding from the top of the tower.’

  ‘What are you going to do?’

  ‘Tell it to disappear for good.’

  ‘That might not work. When you’ve given it orders before, you’ve always been in a trance.’

  ‘You’ve seen me do that before, Tom?’

  Quickly, he told her about the night he was attacked by Bolter and his pals at Mull-Rigg Hall. He described how Helsvir had rushed out of the wood to protect her. He also told her that he believed the first time he encountered Helsvir was the night he first met Nicola. Helsvir had flung him away into the trees as easily as if he was a child’s doll.

  ‘All of which means,’ he told her, ‘is that you’ve got an extremely loyal bodyguard. Helsvir has been trying his hardest to protect you and your family.’

  ‘You’re not trying to protect him, are you?’

  ‘No. But that ugly ball of hate and dead people genuinely cares for you.’

  He could tell from her expression that she was thinking about what he’d said as she turned away to continue climbing the spiral staircase. He followed, shining the light for her, although neither of them could see for more than five or six feet ahead at any one time. The spiral was incredibly tight. Anyone coming down in the other direction would have a hell of a job passing.

  Just pray we don’t meet Helsvir, was Tom’s ominous thought. Nicola might be safe, but he doesn’t like me one little bit. He? Why am I thinking of that monster as He? I need to focus on the thing being an ‘it’ – an ‘it’ that should be destroyed.

  They climbed past the workings of the church clock. No ‘tick’ or ‘tock’ came from the mechanism. The clock’s motor was dead now the power supply had failed. He could see the silhouette of the hands through the opaque glass. They’d stopped at three thirty. He checked his own watch. The time fast approached midnight. Thoughts of midnight – the witching hour – made him uneasy. Danger floated on the air. He could almost reach out and touch that sense of dread. And DANGER was getting closer by the moment.

  Moments later, they passed the church bells that hung inside the tower. They were ancient pieces of cast bronze as large as a domestic fridge. The bells hung silently in the void. There was something uncanny about them – as if they wanted to shout that evil had been released into the world. For the moment, however, they were stifled. Silent. They weren’t permitted to peal out their warning.

  Tom shook his head. ‘Damn it, this place starts to work on your imagination, doesn’t it?’

  ‘It used to work on mine,’ she said. ‘When I was a girl, I was convinced this church would be the place where I’d die.’ With that, she pushed open the hatchway to the roof.

  Tom moved quickly. He didn’t want her outside by herself. What he saw made him catch his breath. The landscape had been transformed into an extraordinary realm. He stared at his surroundings in wonder.

  Tom and Nicola stood on top of the tower, a full seventy feet above the ground. The lake formed by the flood stretched out for miles along the valley. A layer of thick, white mist floated above the water; the low-lying vapour was decidedly eerie as it gleamed in the moonlight. There was even less of the village to see now that the mist had joined forces with the water to engulf the buildings. Just here and there, chimneys poked up above the phantom blanket of white.

  ‘It’s beautiful,’ she breathed. ‘Beautiful and frightening at the same time.’

  He put his arm around her delicate shoulders as she trembled. ‘Helsvir’s gone,’ he told her.

  ‘You think so?’

  ‘I don’t see him, do you?’

  ‘You’re calling Helsvir “him” again.’

  ‘Force of habit.’

  Her eyes were serious. ‘When we refer to Helsvir by name, or call it “him”, or talk about what he’s done . . . don’t you think that helps it embed itself in our world? I mean, the more we treat the thing as being real, the more real it becomes.’

  ‘Do you think if we ignore him – it – it’ll stop being real?’

  ‘I don’t know, Tom. Maybe I’m just trying to find a way – any kind of way – to make him disappear for good.’ She clicked her tongue. ‘There I go, calling a knotted up bunch of dead people “him”.’

  Embracing her, he kissed her forehead. ‘Despite all this madness, kissing you makes me feel so warm . . . and so great inside. I want to be able to kiss you every day.’

  ‘I want you to kiss me every day.’ She gave a sad, sweet smile. ‘Only, there’s so much out there trying to stop that from happening.’

  ‘We’ll find a way.’

  ‘You really want to?’

  ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ He spoke softly, but her: You really want to? hurt as much as sharp teeth ripping away at some sensitive part of him inside.

  ‘What I mean,’ she whispered, ‘is if you left here, and went to Greece to start your diving school, then everything would be like it was before you came to Mull-Rigg Hall. You’d be safe. I’d go back to living my life with my mother.’

  ‘Is that what you want?’

  She didn’t answer. Tom thought she was going to tell him it was over: that they were finished. No more kisses. No wedding. He could picture her saying: ‘So goodbye and get lost.’

  Then, as he stood there with his arms round her, he felt her head go suddenly heavy. ‘Helsvir . . .’ she breathed. ‘Helsvir. He burnt our house down . . .’

  ‘Nicola?’ Gently, he raised her head. Straight away, he knew she was slipping into that trance again. Her eyes were only part open.

  ‘Helsvir. Come.’

  Tom looked out across the mist-covered waters.

  Oh . . . he’s coming alright. Tom saw a shadowy object moving just beneath the mist. Like a torpedo, it sped along the flooded street. Even from up here he heard the swirl of water.

  Nearer . . . nearer . . .

  Nicola had summoned this supernatural bodyguard of the Bekk family. She’d told it in her own way that Bolter had destroyed her home. There’s unfinished business at the church. A crime that must be avenged . . .

  Tom knew the church door couldn’t take any more punishment. Two or three full-blooded hits from the thing would smash it down. Then that ugly body of dead flesh would squeeze through the doorway in order to rip everyone apart. Chester. The adults. The children.

  Gently, he shook her. ‘Nicola. Wake up.’

  No response. Her eyes possessed a strange dullness.

  ‘Nicola, Helsvir’s on its way!’

  The monster swam closer. Tom caught glimpses of dreadful faces that bulged from its body. The eyes were wide and staring at the church.

  ‘Nicola?’

  The trance gripped her. ‘Helsvir . . . Helsvir . . .’

  ‘Nicola, don’t let it attack the door – it won’t hold out this time!’

  Helsvir continued to speed beneath the white mist. The churchyard wall lay just a few inches below the surface of the water. This forced the creature to haul itself over the stonework into the graveyard. Briefly, he glimpsed the truck-sized body that was studded with dozens of human heads. A moment later, Helsvir flopped down into the deeper water that covered the path.

  A second after that it hammered through the water towards the door.

  ‘Hey! Up here! It’s me you want, you ugly bastard!’ Tom yelled at the creature. He waved his free hand as he supported Nicola with the other. ‘Come and get me. Come on!’

  He gambled on the height of the church tower saving him.

  He gambled wrong.

  The creature plunged towards the base of the tower. Soon it hauled itself from the water. Then it began to climb. Its do
zens of human arms still possessed dexterous fingers – they dug into holes that had been weathered in the stone blocks.

  Smoothly, quickly, and remorselessly, the creature scaled the tower. Tom looked down into the faces. He saw slack mouths tighten into something like grins of malicious pleasure. A myriad of white eyes glared up at him.

  ‘Come on then,’ he yelled. ‘See if you can take me!’ He knew this was wild bravado. He’d got nothing to fight this creature with. Helsvir would break his bones. He would become part of that gross body. Helsvir: the grim recycler. The cadaver weaver.

  ‘What is it? Why are we . . .?’ Nicola emerged from the trance. When she saw Helsvir, she stiffened.

  For the first time, she saw Helsvir in all his morbid glory. The thing comprised of dozens of human bodies that had been fused together. Arms and legs had been woven like the interlocking weave of a wicker basket. Yet more arms and legs served as its limbs. And just as the carvings revealed on the walls of her house, the thing was covered in human heads – almost as scales cover a snake.

  When she recognized the faces of Pug, Grafty and Nix, she screamed.

  Helsvir suddenly stopped its climb. All heads turned to Nicola. The brute had heard its mistress cry out.

  Then something bizarre happened. Tom realized what he witnessed now would be seared into his mind forever. Because, in a shocking moment of revelation, he knew what Helsvir reminded him of. This creature resembled a pack of dogs that looked expectantly at their mistress, waiting for a command.

  If the multitude of heads could have pricked up their ears they would have done so. All faces turned to her. Every eye focused on Nicola’s face. Obediently, Helsvir paused there as it clung to the wall. He’s waiting for orders. Then the killing would start.

  The order it expected didn’t come. Instead, Nicola yelled, ‘Go away! Never come back! Go on, make yourself scarce. Don’t come back here again!’

  The faces were blank – a moment of bafflement. Then all the mouths snarled at once. The body rippled as its muscles tensed.

  Nicola whispered, ‘It doesn’t obey me when I’m awake.’

  She was right. Helsvir clawed its way up the stonework towards them, hissing from its many mouths – snarling, a creature of utter rage. The sheer menace of the thing made them both flinch backwards.

  The weathered stone blocks provided great handholds. Helsvir found the climb easy. Tom knew he was just seconds away from the beast launching itself on him. Nicola should be safe . . . should be . . . but as for him? He knew he couldn’t fight this monster.

  Helsvir’s profusion of hands grabbed the face of the church clock in order to scale the last few feet.

  That was a mistake. Its weight was way too much for the glass dial, which shattered into a thousand fragments.

  Dozens of hands clawed at the tower. They tried to find handholds. However, the creature didn’t move quickly enough. Tom watched as the huge body swung out from the wall. It turned end over end as it fell – then smashed into the flooded graveyard, tombstones exploded under the impact, and a ton or so of water blasted upwards into the night air. Tom didn’t expect the fall to have killed Helsvir, or even to have bruised its pallid flesh. Helsvir will be extremely difficult to kill: maybe impossible to kill.

  ‘Come on!’ Nicola seized him by the hand.

  Together they ran back into the tower. Quickly, he slammed the door shut before driving the bolts across.

  ‘What now?’ he panted.

  ‘We do something that Helsvir and the all the Viking gods don’t expect.’

  ‘And that is?’

  ‘We’re going to get married!’

  He stared. ‘Married?’

  ‘You still want to?’

  ‘Of course. I’ll move heaven and earth to marry you.’

  ‘Then we’ll get married.’

  ‘When?’

  ‘Now.’

  ‘How on earth can we . . .? I mean . . .’ The words died on his lips.

  ‘We’re in a church, aren’t we?’ Her grin was amazing – wild and beautiful and outrageous all at the same time. ‘We have a priest. We even have my mother here. There’s no time like the present. What do you say?’

  He grinned right back. ‘I say: let’s go get married.’

  SIXTY

  The response to the news that there would be a wedding was extreme, to say the least.

  The people huddled in the church were exhausted; they were terrified of being torn apart by Helsvir. This announcement stirred most of them into nothing less than fury. Mrs Bekk, however, stayed perfectly motionless where she sat on a pew. Her eyes, however, were wide with shock. That shock was more than a result of suddenly finding out she was to become a mother-in-law. Tom knew that she feared that the marriage would unleash the vengeful anger of pagan gods. Those ancient beings had protected the Bekk family on the understanding that the Bekks would stick with the old Viking religion, and have nothing to do with what the gods saw as the plague of Christianity that had wickedly destroyed the old pagan way of life.

  Phil stormed up to Tom. ‘Is this a joke? Have the pair of you gone mad?’

  Even Chester looked riled. ‘Can’t you see the danger we’re in? And you’re talking about marriage?’

  Bolter giggled. ‘We have breaking news for you. The wedding of the century has just been announced.’ The drugs made his movements twitchy as he paced the central aisle of the church. ‘We’ll be bringing you all the action as it happens.’

  Joshua’s grave eyes regarded the couple. ‘I take it you’ve discovered that Nicola cannot fully control the beast?’

  ‘Not when she’s awake,’ Tom said, and he told them what had happened on top of the church tower.

  Joshua nodded. ‘So you have both decided you should be married before it’s too late . . . because, Tom, I take it that you don’t believe you will survive the night.’

  Phil’s face turned an even darker red. ‘I’m not going to watch these two play stupid little wedding games. Not while we’re in danger.’

  Chester shook his head. ‘I agree with Phil. Whatever happens here tonight, Tom, you’re not marrying that woman.’

  Mrs Bekk spoke up. ‘And if you do, everyone here will die.’

  ‘None of you can stop us,’ Tom told them. ‘Helsvir can’t stop us. We’re getting married. OK?’

  Phil tried a different approach. ‘There’s almost a dozen able-bodied people here. See all those iron light-fittings and heavy candlesticks? If we arm ourselves with those, we can take the fight to that animal. All of us attacking it together will overwhelm it.’

  ‘You’ll never overwhelm Helsvir.’ Mrs Bekk shook her head. ‘It will consume you all.’

  Phil snarled. ‘Fighting back is a damn sight better than watching these two lunatics parade about, pretending to get married. Look at ’em, they’re just a pair of stupid kids.’

  ‘They’re not.’ Rachel spoke with conviction as she sat with her arms protectively around the two children. They had silently watched the arguments with big frightened eyes. ‘You’ve decided to get married now in order to save us, haven’t you?’

  Nicola nodded. ‘A marriage is the joining of two individuals. In effect, a transformation takes place. Two people become one. They’re bonded. A single unit.’

  ‘How does that help us stay alive?’ Phil’s eyes narrowed with suspicion. He suspected a trick was being played on him. ‘Or is marrying her, Westonby, just a way of you saving your skin?’

  Tom said, ‘If we swear a bond between ourselves, it must change the relationship between Nicola and Helsvir.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘Think about it. Part of Nicola’s mind is linked to Helsvir. When she goes into a trance she can control it. I genuinely love Nicola, and planned to marry her anyway. If I marry her now, then it changes the dynamic between Nicola and the creature.’

  And even if I can’t control it once we’re married, Tom thought, there’s a small chance that by replacing Helsvir as Nicola’s protecto
r, the cursed creature will think itself unnecessary and leave of its own free will . . . However small a chance it was, it was one worth taking.

  Chester frowned. ‘How do you know this’ll work?’

  ‘We don’t. It’s a gamble.’

  Phil snorted. ‘Too much of a gamble, if you ask me.’

  Tom turned on the man. ‘Have you got a better idea to save our lives?’

  Joshua moved into the middle of the group; the man’s presence made everyone turn their attention to him. They were waiting to see what the priest said . . . clearly hoping that he had figured out a way to save their necks.

  Joshua thought for a moment, then spoke in that gentle way of his: ‘It seems to me that we have very few choices. After all, how do we escape from here? Our phones do not work. All the streets are flooded. We would be forced to use the boats. One thing for sure: we can’t outrun the monster in those flimsy, little craft. If the beast attacks the door again, it will quickly break through. We have no weapons other than fists and candlesticks. Ladies and gentlemen, we would not stand a chance.’

  Rachel hugged her children close. ‘So let Tom and Nicola get married, if that’s the only chance we have to make that thing go away.’

  Phil’s expression was sour. ‘What the result will be, is that Mrs Bekk and her daughter will continue to be safe from that animal attacking them. After all, it’s supposed to be their protector, isn’t it? And Tom Westonby will probably be safe as well, because he’ll be part of the stinking Bekk clan.’

  Tom said, ‘There are no guarantees this will work. But there’s just the slimmest of chances that Helsvir will change its mind about attacking the church. Think about it: don’t weddings bring people together who are at the ceremony? We might be creating a good relationship between all of us. If we all become friends here tonight, Helsvir might decide there’s no need to kill anyone. Helsvir only exists to protect Nicola; once it knows she’s protected by us all, it might simply go away.’

  ‘Or you might just make it even angrier.’ Phil’s expression was grim. ‘I’m still against any mock wedding.’