Chapter 44: Crossing the Threshold

April 1999

So, there we were, all one big happy family, inside Tayla’s, uhm ... I mean my newly acquired mansion. I continued to heal over the next few weeks. Rachel stayed by my side, nursing me back to health as no one else could. We heard nothing regarding the activities of the Black Clan, or the Order of the Jackal, as they made no correspondence or physical manifestations of their presence. It was as if we were under siege by an invisible enemy. They were always just beyond our detection, yet I was sure they were there.

While I was on the mend, I continued to study about the Order of the Jackal in the library. I kept my schedule of being awake in the hours of darkness and slept during the day. Rachel slept at night, along with the twins, so she could be with them during the day. She stated she was not ready to meet with Tayla just yet. She did not want to see anyone who I said was a vampire. Neither did she want to meet anyone or anything shocking. This fight was to be mine, and she was here to support me. I could not blame her, and personally, I did not think she had really accepted my story about us being under the protection of Queen Tayla.

Tayla and I continued to converse in the library throughout the night, but not of such duration as before. There was business to attend to at the club and she would stop by after her performances. We talked about her concerts at the club and the reaction of the audiences to her singing and playing. I found it fascinating. Asking her if I might be able to go there and watch I felt I might be overstepping my bounds. However, to my surprise, she was very receptive to the idea. In fact, she said that as soon as I had completely healed, we all would go out for a night out on the town.

My beloved Rachel described these next events, as terrible as they were, to me later. It was April. After a few weeks of being at the mansion, Rachel awoke one night, stating she had heard voices. I was in the library, down the hall, while Tayla was performing at the club.

The voices seemed to be coming from the balcony outside the glass doors. She got out of bed, and headed toward the doors, which had curtains obstructing any view of the outside world. Because it was nighttime, the staff always closed the curtains, windows and doors. I should have warned her not to open any door or window. That mistake almost proved fatal to the one I loved the most. How I wished I had been there! For when she found the curtain’s edge, she naturally started to pull it back to reveal that which was on the other side of the glass-paneled doors. When she did, she saw what she had never expected nor would ever get out of her memory. She froze in fear at the site of two figures, dark and mysterious, floating in a mist just outside the doors. Their eyes glowed red around dark circles on a pale face. They hissed and snarled at her. Showing fear was a major mistake. Rachel was not like me when it came to things like this. However, just as I had come to believe in the existence of these creatures through witnessing firsthand the awesome power of their voraciousness, so Rachel was to come to believe also.

These Black Clan vampires zeroed in on her fear, savoring it until it drove them to frenzy, but they could not get Rachel to open the door. They were knocking on the door, scraping the glass with their clawed fingers. Rules are rules, and fortunately, vampires are obliged to follow the ones that apply to them. They could sense there was a new master of the house, but I had not given the invitation to cross the threshold. Their claws attached to the fingers of bony hands protruded from arms obscured by sleeves of black. Black robes of silken material described to me by Rachel, flowed and billowed like black flames in the pale mist. Their snake-like tongues protruded beyond their fangs in a wagging fashion. The sounds they made were the most frightening of all according to Rachel. Wailing like banshees and howling like ravenous wolves, their ear-splitting noises left Rachel in a state of hysteria. Then the strangest event occurred.

Rachel’s denying them entry into the house frustrated the vampires in black. Since they could not get in, the Jackals were not limited to the restrictions put upon their vampire allies. Two of them fired at my wife, armed with the treacherous weapon I am now convinced is their weapon of choice. Two Jackal soldiers, positioned somewhere outside in the darkness, fired bolts at the glass doors.

Rachel must have angels of her own, because the glass deflected those bolts enough that they missed her. Her negligee and robe were scant protection for Rachel against the shattered glass hitting her body. The impact of the glass evoked a scream for help from her previously paralyzed voice.

With my arm in a sling, I came running from the library as fast as I could. Dread appeared only a half-minute afterwards. Other familiars appeared as well, first from inside the house, and then outside the house, on the lawn. Rachel was standing there, bleeding from her chest and arms from the shattered glass. She was terrified. The vampires were still outside the window beckoning for entry into the house.

It was as if instinct took over, because I positioned myself between them and Rachel, and said aloud, “As the master of this house, I forbid you entry into this dwelling. As a child of the King, and a servant of the Lord God, I rebuke you in the name of Jesus Christ!” I turned around to look at Rachel, who was looking at the blood on her nightclothes. She did not appear to be in shock but was quite upset.

Dread began to call out commands on his radio headset. Spotlights began to burn the nights” darkness, turning the lawns into daylight. Red vampires immediately picked up the two Jackal soldiers, as the two black vampires began to move away in a fast evaporating cloud. Dread instructed the Jackal soldiers brought to him. There was going to be hell to pay.

It seemed that confusion was in control now, but Dread was not the chief of security for no good reason. Within minutes, he had locked down everything so tight the bugs in the house could not get out. Mortis appeared in the doorway with a tea service, and medication.

“I believe Mrs. Harris might want a sedative to calm her down, sir. I took the liberty of bringing one with me.” He placed the tray on the dresser and moved to the doorway. “Will there be anything else sir?”

“No, Mortis. I would like to speak to Dread when he has a moment though. Can you give him the message?” I kept trying to comfort a sobbing Rachel.

“Certainly, sir. I am sure that he will also want to talk to you and your wife regarding the events of the evening.” After that, he turned into the hallway and shut the door behind him.

I went to the dresser, poured Rachel a cup of tea, and offered her the sedative. Rachel is not usually one to rely on medication to cope with a stressful situation, but this time she thought it was a good idea. She took the tablet and sat on the edge of the bed. I pulled up the double-armed chair of which I was so fond. Rachel began to tell me she was ready to go home, but I cautioned her about that.