by Tim O'Rourke
“Are you okay?” I asked him.
“Just give me a minute or two,” he said, lying back on the bed. “Scared of me yet?” he asked once he had made himself comfortable.
“It will take more than a few scars and some straggly looking whiskers to frighten me away,” I said. But deep inside, I did feel scared, but not of Luke, but what I might turn into. Then taking his hand in mine, I added, “How come you didn’t worry about scaring Kayla, but you hid away from me?”
Looking at me, Luke said, “I don’t know what you mean?”
“Well you didn’t mask-up when you went in search of Kayla,” I said. “She told me that you had scars all down the side of your face. How come you -”
Sitting bolt upright on the bed, Luke stared at me and said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve never actually met Kayla and I definitely didn’t go in search of her.”
“You must have gone,” I said feeling confused. “Kayla told me that she met a guy in London who said his name was Luke and she described him as having scars…”
“Kiera, I’m telling you I’ve never met the girl – I’ve been in hiding up here,” he insisted.
“So if it wasn’t you, then…oh my god!” I gasped. Pulling on my shirt I raced from the room.
Chapter Twenty-Five
With my hands stretched out before me, I darted down the dark corridor, my heart racing in my chest and beating in my ears. Luke was behind me, his lantern sending eerie shadows up the walls and across the floor. In the dim yellow light, my shadow appeared stretched and elongated, and out of the comer of my eye, my back look distorted, just like I had a pair of wings growing from it. Shuddering, I looked away and the deformed-looking shadow disappeared.
Reaching the top of the stairs I raced down them two at a time. Bolting across the landing, I headed up the stairs towards the corridor that led to Kayla’s bedroom.
“Kiera!” Luke said from just over my shoulder, “What’s wrong?”
Ignoring him, I pushed open the door and ran into Kayla’s bedroom. Scanning the room, I could see that she wasn’t there. The window leading to her balcony was open and the cold night air billowed the curtains outwards like a sail.
“Kayla?” I yelled, checking her bathroom. Running back into the room, I could see Luke was standing in the doorway and in the light from the many candles, I could see how pale Luke’s face and chest really looked. His skin was almost white and the scars that covered it shone an angry purple and blue. His wings hung from his back, the tips of them nearly brushing the wooded floor and I could see now that the edges of them looked frayed like a piece of lace that had been unpicked.
“What’s going on?” Luke asked, his eyes never leaving me as I darted around Kayla’s room.
“Kayla told me that she met you in London,” I told him, pulling back blankets and kicking aside the clothes that lay strewn all over her bedroom floor. “If it wasn’t you, who was it? And why would they pretend to be you? But more than that, she has been meeting a friend in the woods at the summerhouse…” but then I stopped. Something had grabbed my attention.
Crossing the room to her dressing table, lying on top of a pile of used face wipes, perfumes, and lipsticks, I saw a folded piece of paper. Picking it up, I read what was written on it.
Dear Mother,
I know you believe that you have my best interests at heart – but really you don’t. If you loved me, you would trust me – the two go hand in hand, don’t they?
I know it’s been difficult recently for you with father’s disappearance, but it hasn’t been easy for me, either. We both know that I’m different from other girls my age and the physical changes that I’ve undergone have really screwed me up inside. I don’t know who I am but more importantly, I don’t truly understand what I am.
I know you sent Police Officer Hudson to watch over me and keep me safe, and part of me understood your reasons why and it showed me that you loved me despite the problems I have caused you. But when I discovered tonight you had surrounded me with spies – I knew that you didn’t trust me, either. I can’t even begin to explain how your lack of faith and trust has hurt me.
I know that I am different – different from you – but I am your daughter. I didn’t ask to be made like this – I wish more than anything I could be like other girls my age – but I know that I can’t and this I have to come to understand and accept in my own time. But I will never be able to do this if you don’t trust me, and by surrounding me with your spies to watch over me, I don’t believe that I will ever come to terms with what I am.
Therefore I’m going away – far away from here with my friend Luke Bishop. Yes it has been him that you’ve seen on the other side of the manor walls. But he has become someone that I can trust – he has become a good friend. Before Kiera tells you what has happened (and I suspect she already knows – you were right you can’t get anything past that one) I want to be honest with you. I gave Luke the key to the tunnel that leads beneath the moat, he has been secretly meeting me at the summerhouse in the woods and he has been to my room, he was curious to see where I lived and to see inside the manor.
But mother, you are in great danger from these spies that you have enlisted to watch me. Luke told me that there are two Vampyrus that were behind the disappearance of father – Jim Murphy and Sean Potter, and I’ve discovered tonight that these are the two that have been masquerading as your chauffeur and handyman. But worse still, Kiera is working with them. You are in great danger. When you find this note get as far away from Hallowed Manor as you can – Luke has told me that Murphy and Potter are soon to overrun the manor with vampires.
Please don’t worry about me mother, I’m with Luke and he has promised to protect me.
Forever in my heart
Kayla
Handing the letter to Luke, he scanned his eyes over it, then folding it in half, he looked at me and said, “I don’t understand Kiera, I’ve never met Kayla, so who has she been meeting?”
“I don’t know,” I breathed. “But whoever he is, he’s tricked Kayla into giving him keys to the grounds so that he can come and go, he’s been in her room and the manor and…” but before I’d the chance to finish what I was about to say, snapshots of the nightmares that I’d been suffering from flashed in front of my mind’s eyes. The images were so strong that I wobbled backwards, almost losing my balance.
Gripping my arm to steady me, Luke said, “Kiera, what is it? What can you see?”
Opening my eyes and looking at him, I said, “Kayla’s been meeting Phillips.”
“Phillips?” Luke asked sounding unsure.
“I’ve seen him in my dreams, Luke,” I told him. “He’s scarred down the left side of his face. But not from burns, from where Potter attacked him in the graveyard at St. Mary’s Church.”
“But that means…” Luke started.
“He’s tricked Kayla into believing that he is you – her friend. Without ever meeting you, she wouldn’t have known any different. Kayla is in danger!” I snapped and raced past Luke and out of her room.
“Wait!” Luke hollered after me.
“We don’t have time!” I shouted over my shoulder, charging down the stairs to the great hall. Reaching the foot of the stairs, I could see Murphy and Potter standing by the front door. There was a hazy blue cloud of smoke hovering just above their heads as Murphy puffed on his pipe and Potter sucked on the end of a cigarette which dangled from the corner of his mouth.
Seeing me come running down the stairs, Potter opened his arms and smirking he said, “Come running back to me, have you?”
Ignoring him, I looked at Murphy and said, “Have you seen Kayla?”
“Not since she discovered us in the gatehouse,” he said.
Joining us in the hall, Luke looked at his two friends and said, “Phillips is here.”
“Where?” Potter said, standing away from the wall and blowing smoke out of his nostrils.
“Impossible,” Murphy growled.
“We’ve been watching this place for weeks -”
“It doesn’t surprise me, then, that he’s found a way in,” I snapped more angrily than I intended.
Knocking the smouldering contents from his pipe into a nearby flowerpot, Murphy eyed me and said, “Listen here, Hudson, you don’t know every goddamn thing in the book. We’ve been watching your back here. There’s only been the two of us…”
“Look, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it to sound like that,” I told him. “It’s just that I’m scared for Kayla – she doesn’t know what Phillips is all about. She doesn’t realise the danger that she’s in.”
Then from behind us, somebody said, “What’s going on here?”
Spinning round, I saw Mrs. Payne come from the shadows beneath the wide staircase.
Looking at Luke, Potter, and Murphy, she said, “And who might you three be?” Before anyone had a chance to answer her, she looked at Potter and said, “And put that cigarette out. It’s a disgusting habit.”
Ignoring her, Potter looked at me and said, “Is she related to you by any chance?”
Turning away from his grinning face, I said to Mrs. Payne, “We don’t have time to explain now, but these are my friends.” Then pointing to Murphy, I said, “This is my sergeant, the smoker is called Potter, but you’ll probably know them better as James and Marshal.”
With a look of confusion splashed across her face, she said, “The Chauffeur? Marshal?” Then pointing at Luke, she added, “Where’s he come from.”
Pointing to the ceiling, Luke smiled and said, “From up there!”
“But…but -” Mrs. Payne started.
“Look it’s been a pleasure chatting to you old lady,” Potter said, grinding the cigarette out with his heel on her polished floor, “but I’m guessing that we have a more pressing engagement to attend. Is that not right, Kiera?”
Staring at him, I said, “Yes,” and in that moment I could feel his rough hands on me again and his lips pressed against mine.
“Well?” Potter asked.
“Well what?” I asked, looking into his green eyes.
“Where’s the girl, sweet-cheeks?”
Pushing away those images of me and him together in the gatehouse, I pulled open the front door and said, “Follow me.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
A thick fog covered the grounds outside the manor house. It had a murky-yellow tinge to it and was so thick that I could only see a few feet ahead of me. It almost seemed to climb over the walls of the manor house and through the trees like dry ice at a party. The night was cold and damp and through the fog, I could barely make out the moon, which hung in the sky like a monstrous Halloween pumpkin. It had a sickly orange glow to it and its many craters looked like eyes and an evil grin that had been smudged.
We made our way across the lawns which stretched out before us and through the swirling fog towards the trees. Almost blind, we stumbled through the woods in the direction of the summerhouse. The atmosphere felt oppressive and my stomach tightened at the thought of what Philips might have done with Kayla. She would have told him about discovering Murphy and Potter. I doubted that he knew they had been here all the while but now that he knew of their existence, would it frighten him into doing something rash?
My train of thought was interrupted by Potter who said, “So tell me, tiger, how did Phillips get his claws into Kayla?”
“She believed him to be Luke,” I explained. “She honestly believed him to be a good-guy.”
“So if he wants to harm her, why hasn’t he done it before now?” Murphy asked.
“He used her to get into the grounds of the manor,” I told him. “He wants to get to those children up on the ward…and he wants me, remember?”
“But you’re forgetting,” Luke said, “he’s one of us. Phillips has wings. Why didn’t he just fly over the wall?”
“Perhaps he can’t?” I told them. “Remember he got attacked by Potter. I know from my nightmares that his face is scarred like Luke’s. Maybe his wings are damaged, too?”
“Or maybe there’s another reason altogether,” Murphy said, his voice thoughtful as if he were talking to himself.
“Like what?” Potter asked, lighting another cigarette revealing his eyes in the darkness like a pair of green headlamps.
“We know that Hallowed Manor is one of the Vampyrus’ strongholds above ground. If he could take this place, then that would send a message out to all those other Vampyrus that he is someone to fear – someone not to be reckoned with. The other sacred places above ground would fear his power and some would more than likely cower to him to protect their strongholds.”
“But who is he going to launch his attack with?” Luke asked Murphy. “He hasn’t been able to gather enough Vampyrus to his twisted way of thinking to commit to an all-out attack against Hallowed Manor.”
“Perhaps he’s going to attack with vampires,” I said.
There was silence for a moment. Then Potter said, “Impossible. sweet-cheeks. Remember this place is like a fortress. There could never be a vampire attack against this manor. It’s surrounded by a ring of blessed water that vampires could never cross. The walls of the manor have been permeated with garlic and queets and if Phillips is planning to launch his attack from the summerhouse, then I’m afraid that I personally fitted a crucifix to the wall. Like the rest of the manor, it’s been covered in garlic and queets, and just to make sure, there’s a chamber hidden beneath the floor that I’ve filled to the brim with Bibles, crosses, and more bottles of holy water than you could wish for. There isn’t going to be any vampire attack.”
Turning to face him, I said, “Kayla spoke about giving a key to Phillips that led to a tunnel beneath the moat,” then remembering the padlocked door that I’d discovered, I added, “That tunnel wouldn’t be hidden beneath a door against the far wall on the other side of the grounds, would it?”
“Yeah, so?” Potter said, the end of his cigarette winking on and off in the darkness as he smoked it.
“Well, I found tracks – lots of tracks - leading from that secret doorway to the summerhouse,” I said, the hairs on the nape of my neck starting to prickle. “And the summerhouse isn’t covered in garlic and queets any longer. Someone has been out there and covered all your hard work in paint. The crucifix you put up on the wall, it’s been removed. As for the Bibles, crosses, and holy water you say you’ve hidden, I can’t be sure if they are still there.”
The three of them looked blankly back at me through the fog. Realising that they seemed to be missing the point that I was trying to make, I gasped and said, “You really don’t see it, do you?”
“See what?” Potter said. “Maybe if you stopped talking in riddles and tried good old fashioned English for a change…”
“Phillips has been using the tunnel under the moat to bring vampires onto the grounds of the manor. He repainted the summerhouse to cover up the garlic and queets and removed the crucifix from the wall,” I explained.
“So what you’re saying is,” Potter said flicking his cigarette away, “This place is actually teeming with vampires and has been for weeks while he builds his army?”
Slapping my forehead with the palm of my hand, I said, “At last! I think you’ve got it!”
Then coming towards me through the fog, Potter said, “Well tell me this, sweet-cheeks, where have they all been hiding out all this time? Remember vampires don’t like the sunlight.”
But before I could even think about answering his question, Luke had gripped me by the shoulder. “Shhh,” he said, and pointed ahead of us. We had reached the edge of the circular clearing that the summerhouse sat in. Screwing up my eyes, I peered through the fog and could just make out two figures standing off to one side in the centre of the clearing. Crouching down behind the trunks of some large trees, the four of us stared at the figures. Before he had even spoken, I knew that it was Phillips and Kayla.
“You don’t have to hide,” Phillips said, and his voice sounded smooth and cal
m, and I still had difficulty in believing that he had once been my sergeant at training school. He had been a colleague; but more importantly, a friend.
“There is no point in hiding amongst the trees, my friends. Kayla heard you coming the moment you stepped into the woods.”
Standing, the four us stepped out of the fog and into the clearing. I stood silently between Luke and Potter, and Murphy stood alone to one side.
“Hello again,” Phillips smiled, and his eyes almost appeared to beam through the swirling fog.
Ignoring him, I looked at Kayla, I said, “Whatever he’s told you, Kayla, this guy is not your friend. His name isn’t Luke Bishop – it’s Craig Phillips.”
Smiling, Phillips said, “Will the real Luke Bishop step forward?” and as his words left his lips, both Luke beside me and Phillips in the clearing took a step forward.
“Kiera is right, Kayla,” Luke said, his voice soft. “I’m Luke Bishop. The guy standing next to you only wants to hurt and use you.”
“He told me you would say that,” Kayla said. “He told me that you would try and mess with my mind – play tricks on me.”
“The only person playing tricks here is the man standing next to you,” I told her, inching forward. “He tricked me once, Kayla, and I nearly lost my life because of it.”
“Liar!” Kayla spat. “I trusted you Kiera! I told you stuff and showed you things that I’d never shown anyone else, and all the time, you were spying on me with your friends!”
“That’s not true,” I said. “I didn’t know who James and Marshal really were.”
“Liar!” Kayla said again, but this time her voice wavered as if trying to stop herself from crying. “If you didn’t know who Marshal was, why were you making out with him in the gatehouse? I saw you through the window. You looked pretty friendly to me!”
At once, I could almost sense Luke’s eyes boring into me. Not taking my eyes from Kayla, and too uncomfortable to look at Luke, I said, “It wasn’t what it looked like, Kayla. I thought he was somebody else.”
