by Tim O'Rourke
“Don’t hurt her,” Potter barked again, rushing forward. He caught me watching him, then looked quickly away. I wanted to rush across the room and slap his face. I wanted to scream at him that this was his entire fault. That he shouldn’t have bitten Sophie. But what right did I have to say any of that? I was fast beginning to wonder if any of these people were the friends I had once known.
Together, Potter and the others brought Sophie under some kind of control as they pinned her to the floor. She hissed and spat beneath them, never tiring of trying to bite and claw at them.
“We need to get her to the attic – to the medical wing,” Hunt shouted, sounding out of breath.
“What, so you can poison her properly and finish her off?!” Potter spat at him as he pinned Sophie’s arms to the floor.
“It was you who bit her!” Ravenwood shouted at him, wiping blood from his nose.
“Only because you two said you had a way of stopping this sort of shit from happening!” Potter shouted back.
“Arguing isn’t going to sort this mess out,” Murphy said, turning and limping from the room.
Where was he going? I wondered as he headed out of the room and into the hall. Had Murphy seen enough? Did he not want to take any further part in this nightmare? Could I blame him if he didn’t? I looked back at the others as they were now trying to lift Sophie from off the floor. Kicking off my heels, I crossed the room to them. Taking hold of one of her legs, I helped to lift her. She kicked out at me and at Mrs. Payne, who had hold of the other. Sophie was strong and I had to use all of my strength to keep hold of her. The flesh covering her leg felt ice cold and dry. I looked at it in the wavering candlelight and could see that it was cracked and broken in places, just like her hands, arms, and face.
“Let go of me, you fuckers!” Sophie screeched as she thrashed up and down. “I’ll kill every one of you fucks!”
“Get her up to the hospital wing!” Hunt shouted again as we carried Sophie from the room and out into the hall.
She fought with us like a wild animal. Her strength was like nothing I had known before. The six of us could barely keep a grip on her. I glanced up at the staircase and knew that there was no way we would make it without losing our grip on her and setting her free once more. We passed one of the many doors set into the hall wall. Kicking out with my foot, it flew open.
“In here,” I shouted over Sophie’s constant shrieks and threats.
“But that’s my private study,” Ravenwood cried.
“Too bad,” I told him. “We won’t get her up those stairs without a fight or without killing her.”
Hearing this, Potter said, “Take her into the study. C’mon. Move it” move it!”
“But…” Ravenwood continued to protest.
Ignoring him, we manhandled and fought with Sophie as we dragged her into the study. A candle had already been lit on the table and the flame flickered as we raced past it toward a large couch in the far corner of the room. As a group, we carried Sophie, who continued to hiss and spit, bite and lunge, toward it. We smothered her so she couldn’t move, dropping her down onto the couch.
“Now what?” Phebe gasped, out of breath.
“We can’t just leave her,” Uri insisted.
“Put these on her,” I heard someone say.
I looked over my shoulder to see Murphy, two sets of handcuffs swinging from his fists. “I kept these back after leaving the police force,” he said. “I guessed they might come in handy one day, and I was right.”
While we continued to pin Sophie down, Murphy attached the first set of handcuffs to her left wrist. Then gritting his teeth, he yanked her arm up toward a lead pipe attached to the wall. As if sensing what was about to happen, Sophie made one last attempt at trying to break free from us. Pulling her right hand free, she drove her claw through the air. Her long, brittle nails snagged on the necklace Nev had made for me. The leather twine broke, casting the shells he had attached to it across the room. I heard the soft patter of them as they scattered over Ravenwood’s wooden study floor.
Hunt shot his hand forward, gripping Sophie’s wrist and yanking her free arm upwards. Murphy snapped the cuff about Sophie’s wrist, then secured it to the pipe bolted into the wall. Knowing that she was finally restrained, we all fell away onto the floor. While the others sat and gasped for breath, I crawled across the floor on my hands and knees in search of the shells that had fallen from the necklace Nev had made for me as a birthday present. A large patterned rug covered much of the floor, and on my hands and knees I inspected it. There was a trail of fresh candlewax that led to the table near to the door. It was then that I saw one of the pink shiny shells Nev had found on the beach. I reached for it, but before I’d had a chance to snatch it up, a large boot had stepped down on it, crushing it under foot.
“What did you do that for?” I yelled, springing to my feet and eyeballing Potter.
“Do what?” he scowled over Sophie’s shrieks and threats.
“You just crushed one of the shells that had fallen from my necklace!” I shouted.
“Shell?” Potter snapped. “Don’t you think I have more important stuff to think about than some shitty seashell?”
“Fuck you, Potter!” I said, rolling back my fist and driving it straight into his face.
With a look of shock on his face, he staggered backwards, tripping on the upturned corner of the rug and falling over. Turning, I fled the room, and as I did, I caught Murphy’s eye. He winked at me, then looked away. I stormed into the hall, desperately fighting back the flood of tears that now threatened. I hadn’t gone very far when I felt a hand grip my arm. I was spun around to find myself staring into Potter’s bloodied face.
“What the fuck was that for?” he growled.
“What do you think?” I snapped back, yanking my arm free.
“I don’t know, that’s why I’m asking,” he said.
“Well if you can’t figure it out, what’s the point in…”
“Is this about what happened between us?” he whispered, glancing back at the study door, “You know back at the office. I thought we’d agreed to forget about that.”
“You really don’t get it, do you?” I gasped in disbelief.
“Get what?” he said, wiping blood from beneath his nose.
“Can’t you see what you’ve done to Sophie?” I said. “Did you really have to turn her?”
“Yes,” he said, staring intently back at me. “I had no choice.”
“Bullshit,” I said, turning my back on him. “You did it so you have some bimbo to flatter your ego for the rest of eternity.”
Gripping me by both arms, Potter turned me around to face him again. “I did it to save my baby,” Potter whispered, just inches from my face, his eyes locked with mine.
“Baby?” I muttered, hoping that I’d misheard him.
“Sophie’s pregnant,” Potter said. “She’s carrying my child. A little girl. If I hadn’t have turned her, the baby wouldn’t have survived.”
“It’s not true,” I whispered, pushing him away and faltering backwards. “It wasn’t meant to be. The baby was meant to be ours…”
“What are you talking about?” Potter whispered, looking totally confused.
“Jack said…”
“Who’s Jack?” Potter said, closing the gap further still.
“You really don’t know, do you…?” I mumbled, barely able to make sense of what Potter had just told me.
“All I know is that Sophie is carrying my daughter who we plan to call Abbie…” he started.
“Abbie?” This was all too much. I turned away again, no longer able to fight back the tears. They gushed in hot streaks down the length of my face and dripped from the curve of my jaw.
“Kiera?” I heard Potter whisper over my shoulder. “What’s got into you?”
I had no idea how to answer that. Even if I could, I was crying so hard that I doubted I would have even been able to form the right words. This had meant to have be
en my birthday. My twenty-first birthday. One of the happiest days of my life. It had turned out to be my worst.
“Hey, Potter,” I heard Hunt say from the study doorway.
“What?” I heard Potter snap.
“This was no accident,” I heard Hunt say.
“What are you talking about?” Potter asked.
“Someone switched the bottle,” Hunt said.
Wiping my tears away, I glanced back over my shoulder. Hunt was standing just outside the study with the empty bottle of Lot 12.
“What do you mean switched?” Potter said, heading back across the hall toward him.
Hunt brought the bottle up beneath his nose and sniffed. “This bottle was filled with queets and a garlic mix,” Hunt said. “While not dangerous to Vampyrus, they are lethal to vampires, which Sophie now is because you bit her.”
“Who would have swapped them?” Potter asked, snatching the bottle from Hunt and sniffing the neck where the cork had once been.
“Whoever wanted to murder Sophie,” Hunt said.
“Why would anyone want to do that?” Potter whispered back.
Chapter Sixteen
“I told you this was a dumb fucking idea,” Murphy said, coming from Ravenwood’s study and into the hall. “You could have got us all killed.”
“It would have gone okay if someone…” Potter started.
“I’m sorry, but you must be confusing me with someone who actually gives a fuck in anything you’ve got to say,” Murphy said, limping across the floor toward the staircase.
“You don’t understand,” Potter said, gripping his friend’s arm. “Someone tried to kill Sophie.”
“She will die,” Hunt said. “It’s just a matter of time.”
Hearing this, I stepped out of the shadows and toward the others. I stood to one side of them, but close enough to hear. I knew my eyes were still red-raw from the tears I had spilt at learning that Sophie was carrying Potter’s child.
“Who did this?” Murphy snapped, looking at Hunt then back at Potter.
“If I knew that, the fucker would be dead already,” Potter said.
“Don’t you think there has been enough violence for one night?” Hunt cut in. “This should be reported back to the agency – back to Lois Li.”
“Have you lost you tiny fucking mind?” Potter asked. “Or perhaps you want to go and explain how you’ve screwed up here tonight?”
“I screwed up?” Hunt balked. “The bottles were switched.”
“You should have kept that bottle of black stuff under lock and key,” Potter snapped at him. “You shouldn’t have let it out of your sight.”
“I thought it was quite safe in my laboratory,” Hunt defended himself. “How was I meant to know that someone would want to switch the bottles and kill Sophie?”
“Well, someone wanted to,” Murphy said, taking his pipe from his pocket and thumbing a mound of tobacco into the bowl.
“But who and why?” Hunt asked.
“That’s what we’re gonna find out,” Potter said.
“How?” Hunt asked. “There are no clues.”
Slowly, Potter turned and looked at me. “There’s always clues – isn’t that right, Kiera Hudson?”
“Do you really expect me to help clear up this mess you’ve created?” I asked him, unable to believe his nerve. “I told you it was dangerous.”
Coming back across the hall, Potter took me by the arm again, steering me back into the shadows beneath the broad staircase. “I told you I had no choice,” he said just above a whisper.
I suspected by the level of his voice, and the fact he had moved us away from Murphy and Hunt, they didn’t have any idea that Sophie was pregnant with his child. Why had he told me and not them? As far as I knew, in this world he was my boss and I was just the office eye candy. It was the others who were his friends – not me.
“I can’t help you,” I told him. “We have no suspects or motive, and I wouldn’t even know where to start looking.”
“Bollocks,” Potter whispered. “I saw you at work back at Bastille Hall. You were like a freaking bloodhound once you had picked up the scent.”
“There is no scent here,” I said. “And besides, I’m not a part of this.”
“You’re one of us,” he hissed.
“I’m nothing like you,” I shot back, still feeling angry and hurt.
“What has got into you?” he asked, wide-eyed as if he had no idea.
“You came barging in on me and my date tonight…” I started.
“Date?” Potter suddenly scoffed. “I thought he was some schoolboy and you were helping him to do his homework. He didn’t look any older than ten years…”
“Get out of my way,” I said, trying to push past him.
“Okay, I’m sorry,” he said, placing one hand on my shoulder, keeping me pinned to the shadows. “What else is eating you up?”
“I thought you had invited me here tonight because…” I bit my lower lip to stop it from trembling all over again.
“Because of what?” Potter said. “You’re not making any sense.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I said with a shake of my head. “Did you really just invite me here tonight so I could watch you turn Sophie?”
“Yeah,” he shrugged. “You’re part of the team. I thought it only right that you were here to witness Sophie…” he trailed off.
“What?” I pushed.
“Sophie was right, you are jealous of her, and that’s why you won’t help to find out who tried to kill her tonight,” he said.
“You’re wrong, Potter,” I said, although deep down he was right.
“Prove it,” he taunted me.
“I don’t have to prove anything to you,” I said, glancing up over his shoulder to see Murphy limping toward us. A cloud of blue smoke trailed behind him.
“What’s with you two?” he grunted.
“Nothing,” Potter said, taking a step back from me. I felt like I could suddenly breathe again.
“So what was with all the whispering?” Murphy eyed the both of us.
“Maybe you should go and ask someone who gives a fuck,” Potter huffed, turning and heading back to Hunt, who still stood by the open doorway. From the study, Sophie released another series of agonising screams.
“What’s really going on between you two?” Murphy asked once Potter was out of earshot and we were alone.
“He wants my help, but I said no.”
“Why won’t you help?”
“Because I don’t agree with what happened here tonight,” I explained.
“It’s done now, Kiera. We can’t change that,” Murphy said. “We might not be able to save Sophie, but with your help we might be able to save us.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.
Murphy looked hard at me. “Well there’s a killer amongst us. Who might that person try and kill next? You weren’t even meant to be a part of this tonight. But you are now.” Turning, he slowly limped away.
Before he had gone too far, I said, “Why did Potter come and drag me out of that restaurant if I wasn’t even meant to be part of what happened here tonight?”
Stopping dead in his tracks, Murphy looked back over his shoulder at me. “Potter changed his mind about you being here tonight as soon as I told him that you had a date. You’re the detective, Kiera Hudson – go figure that out.”
Murphy left me standing alone. From the shadows beneath the stairs, I watched him head back toward the open study door. Uri, Phebe, Ravenwood, and Mrs. Payne were gathered outside it. Sophie continued to scream and shriek from inside. I could hear the distant sound of her handcuffs clinking and rattling against the piping as she continued to fight to break free of her restraints.
Taking a deep breath and knowing that I couldn’t stand by and not do anything to help catch the person who had poisoned Sophie, I stepped out from the shadows. I made my toward the others gathered in the open doorway. They eyed each other nervously as Hunt explai
ned what had really happened to Sophie.
“Was the door to your laboratory locked?” I asked Hunt, joining the group.
“No,” Hunt said with a shake of his head.
“Is there a key for the study door?” I asked no one in particular.
“There is only one and I have that,” Ravenwood said.
I held out my hand. “Give it to me.”
Ravenwood glanced at Murphy. “Give it to her,” he ordered.
Taking a brass key from the pocket of his suit jacket, Ravenwood handed it to me. It swung from a gold chain. I stepped forward, closed the door to the study, locked it, then placed the key about my neck.
“You can’t just lock Sophie in there on her own,” Potter said, a cigarette jutting from between his lips.
“She’s quite secure and therefore unable to hurt herself or one of us,” I said, unable to bring myself to even look at him. “And besides, who out of you should I trust to guard her? One of you tried to kill her after all.”
“Who put you in charge? It could have been you as much as any of us,” Mrs. Payne spoke up, her voice frail sounding.
“I was the last to arrive here tonight,” I said. “I came with Potter. He was with me the whole time. He is my alibi and so are all of you. On our arrival, he brought me straight to the dining room where I was in your presence the whole time. I couldn’t have, therefore, switched the bottle of Lot 12 for the bottle of poison. If I had, you would have all seen me. I cannot, therefore, be a suspect, but each and every one of you are.”
“So what now?” Uri asked.
“I think it best if we all head back to the dining room and see what I can see,” I said.
Without further dispute, the group returned to the dining room.
“Thank you for helping Sophie,” Potter said, taking me by the arm again.
“I’m not doing it to help Sophie,” I said, shaking his hand free.
