by Tim O'Rourke
I had seen the others, Potter, Luke, and Murphy flit from one place to another in what looked like a spray of shadows, and I wondered if that’s what I looked like now, fluttering from place to place in a blink of an eye. Now this was one Vampyrus trait that I didn’t mind having, I smiled to myself.
Appearing behind a cluster of jagged rocks, I peered over them. The smoke was coming from the truck, which lay on its side in the snow. From my hiding place I could see the tear in the roof where Hunt had been yanked through. There were two figures by the truck and I peered through the darkness at them. My heart leapt with joy at the sight of Kayla and Isidor. Standing, I left my hiding place and ran towards them. Upon seeing me, Kayla threw open her arms and hugged me.
“We thought they had taken you,” Kayla said.
“No,” I told her, shaking my head. “Elias Munn got away.”
“So he was in the truck then?” Isidor asked, pulling a stake from the dead Vampyrus who had been driving the truck. Seeing me looking at him, he shrugged and said, “I can’t afford to waste any. I haven’t got many stakes left.”
“He wasn’t in the truck,” I told them.
“But you said he got away,” Kayla said, looking confused.
I looked at her, then at Isidor. Should I tell them that their father was in the back of that truck, used as a decoy, only to be murdered by the real Elias Munn? What good would it do? Hadn’t Kayla and Isidor come to believe that their father was already dead? It would do no good to tell them he had been alive after all but only now had he been murdered. Potter had managed to turn them both around. He hadn’t done it in a way I would have chosen, but it had worked. They had both stopped focusing on their grief and were now focused on the journey that lay ahead of us. Perhaps Potter had been right; they could do all their grieving after this was over. If they were to survive what lay ahead, they needed to be strong both physically and mentally. By telling them now that I had just buried their father, a few miles from here beneath a pile of broken branches and leaves, would only set them back. But if I were being truly honest with myself, I just didn’t have the heart to tell Kayla. I just couldn’t do it to her.
So rightly or wrongly, I guessed I might never know, I pulled them both close and said, “It was just a Vampyrus they used as a decoy so the real Elias Munn could escape.”
“Where is this Vampyrus now?” Isidor asked, raising his crossbow.
“He’s dead,” I told them and that wasn’t a lie, but what I said next was. “I killed him.”
“Good,” Kayla said, looking at me. “The more Vampyrus and vampire we kill, the better.
“I don’t know if that’s the answer,” I said. I looked at Kayla and could see the anger and hurt in her eyes and knew then that I had made the right decision in not telling her about her father. So changing the subject, I asked, “What happened to my mum and Phillips? You went after them, right?”
“Just like Munn, they got away,” Isidor explained. Then looking up at the sky with its snow-filled clouds he added, “This storm doesn’t help. I lost Phillips in some low-flying cloud.”
“Your mum had too much of a head start on me,” Kayla said. “I lost sight of her.”
“Maybe it was for the best,” I told them.
“How come?” Kayla asked me.
“What would you have done even if you had caught up with her and Philips?” I asked.
“Ripped her throat out,” Kayla said matter-of-factly.
“That’s my mum you’re talking about,” I half-smiled. I couldn’t be angry with Kayla for what she just said. But somewhere deep inside, I still clung to the hope that I could save my mum.
“She isn’t your mum anymore, Kiera,” Isidor cut in. “She’s like the rest of them now. Lost to the red stuff.”
“But we’ve managed to overcome it,” I said. “Perhaps she could too.”
Kayla looked at me and her eyes seemed full of sorrow as she said, “Kiera, don’t bank on it.”
“Why?” I asked.
Kayla nodded in the direction of the drivers cab.
I turned towards the truck and could see one of the Vampyrus hanging half in and half out of the shattered windscreen. I couldn’t tell what sex or even how old it had been as its face was missing. White lumps of skull and cheekbone glistened wetly through what was left of the flesh.
Turning away, I faced Kayla and asked, “Did you do that?”
Nodding, Kayla said, “It wasn’t intentional at first. Once I’d lost sight of your mum, I raced back after the truck to help you. I smashed through the windscreen and pulled the two Vampyrus out. They fought with me, but I was quickly joined by Isidor. The Vampyrus bit and clawed at me, so I bit back. At first, I just ripped off its nose and ears, but the blood tasted good and I just lost it, you know, went kind of crazy. Before I knew what was happening, Isidor was yanking me off the Vampyrus. It was then that I realised I had eaten his face clean off.”
“Kayla, you can’t carry on like this!” I barked at her, but as soon as the words were out, I regretted the tone I had used.
Kayla flinched backwards and her eyes glowed momentarily. “I’m sorry,” she hissed. “But we can’t all be like you, Kiera and have total control.”
“I didn’t mean to shout at you,” I told her, knocking snow from my hair. “It’s just that you were right about my mum; she is lost to the red stuff and lost to me. I just don’t want that to happen to you, Kayla.”
“Why not?” She snapped, still hurting from how I had spoken to her. I squeezed her shoulder and said, “Because you’re like a sister, Kayla.” Then looking at Isidor I added, “I love both of you as if you were my family. You are my family now.”
Kayla and Isidor looked at me through the falling snow, but before either of them had a chance to say anything, someone from behind us spoke, saying, “What about me? Can you find it in your heart to love me, Kiera Hudson?”
Chapter Four
Together we looked back and saw Jack Seth standing in the shadows. His tall skeletal frame loomed up into the darkness, and if he had been any taller, it seemed like his head would disappear into the clouds. Snow covered the baseball cap he had fixed on his head and his yellow eyes blazed from within his sunken eye sockets. His denim shirt was open at the throat and the red bandana he had tied about his neck fluttered in the wind. One of his hands swung loosely by his sides and the other was hidden behind his back. The hand I could see was covered in what looked like black tar, but when I stared harder, I could see that his fingers were streaked with blood.
The last time I saw him, he had gone bounding away after Sparky as he’d fled the truck in the shape of a wolf.
“Well, Kiera Hudson, can you find it in your heart to love me?” he smiled, and his lips cut a crooked line across his emaciated face.
“Why should I love you?” I asked him, the thought repulsing me.
“How about you?” he asked, looking at Kayla. Then, glancing at Isidor he added, “And what about you?”
“Why should any of us love you?” Kayla snapped, taking a step forward.
“I’ve just caught your mother’s killer,” he smiled at Kayla. Then, yanking on something, Sparky appeared from the shadows. He fell before us, a length of rope tied about his neck, the other fixed in Seth’s bony hand.
Sparky made a whiny noise in the back of his throat. He looked up at us and I could see that his face was flushed red with a spattering of painful-looking boils. His glasses lay crooked across the bridge of his nose, and the right lens looked frosted with ice where it had been cracked. His black hair hung across his forehead, and his clothes were spattered with blood. I could see a huge bite mark down the length of his left thigh and his jeans were torn and coloured black with blood. Then, as if a bright light had been turned on inside my skull, I could see Seth racing after him, his heart thumping with revenge for the death of his son, Nik. When Sparky had been within his reach, Seth had lunged forward. I looked at Sparky’s wounded leg again and could see where Seth h
ad ripped away most of his thigh.
Not taking his eyes off mine, Sparky tried to stand, but he fell again and screamed out in pain. He covered the bite mark with his hands, and I watched as streams of black blood oozed through his fingers. Smiling to himself, Seth pulled on the noose and Sparky rolled over, his screams cutting through the night.
“Enough already!” I hissed at Seth.
“Enough?” Kayla questioned me as if lost and bewildered. “How can that be enough after everything that he’s done? He killed my mum!”
“I know he did,” I said, not able to take my eyes off the pitiful creature that now rolled around in the snow at my feet. “We’ve all got good enough reasons to want him dead, but we’re better than him.”
“Are we?” Isidor asked, raising his bow and aiming at Sparky’s upturned face. “He killed my auntie, the woman I believed was my mother for all those years. She was the woman who loved me and brought me up when my father gave me away.”
“And if it wasn’t for scum like this, my son Nik would still be alive,” Seth said as he ground the heel of his boot into Sparky’s open wound.
Sparky’s cries were ear-shattering as he twisted and contorted on the ground beneath the heel of Seth’s boot. His eyes bulged from his head and his tongue lolled from the corner of his mouth as he screamed over and over again. Racing forward, I shoved Seth in the chest with my hands and sent him flying backwards.
“I said enough!” I shouted over Sparky’s screams.
“Why are you protecting him?” Kayla asked, rushing forward.
“Because we don’t just kill him,” I told her. “We’re not God, none of us are. He should be given the opportunity of a trial.”
“A trial by whom?” Seth sneered as he came back towards me.
“The elders,” I snapped back. “They tried you for the murders of those women.”
“And what a lot of good they were,” Seth barked. “They convicted an innocent man!”
“You wanted them to convict you!” I snapped back. “You wanted to take the blame for your son. If they’d known the true facts of the case, it would have been Nik who had gone to prison – not you!”
“So what you’re saying, Kiera, is that we take him back to The Hollows with us and hand him over to the elders?” Isidor asked, still aiming his crossbow at Sparky.
“Yes,” I replied.
“You’re wrong, Kiera,” Kayla hissed. “He can’t be trusted. He’ll trick us, deceive us, and kill us as we sleep.”
“No…” a feeble voice murmured and we all looked down to see that it was Sparky who had spoken. With one blood-stained hand, he reached up to us, his face a mask of pain and fear. “Please don’t kill me…show me some mercy.”
“Like the mercy you showed my mother!” Kayla roared, and before I had the chance to stop her, she sprung forward and was tightening the rope about Sparky’s throat. His eyes bulged again and he clawed at the noose with his fingers, trying to wedge them between his neck and the rope.
“Kayla!” I shouted. “Stop it!”
“No, Kiera!” she roared back. “He killed my mum, he murdered those half-breed children in their beds back at the Manor, he killed Murphy’s daughters, and was partly responsible for his death. And he killed Isidor’s auntie – he deserves to die!”
Kayla yanked on the rope, and springing forward, I brushed her away, not too hard; just enough for her to lose her balance and release the rope. Seeing the discontentment growing between me and my friends, Seth chuckled.
I looked at him and said for the benefit of everyone, “We’re not cold-bloodied killers, we’re better than that. I understand all of your reasons for wanting Sparky dead, I have enough of my own, but if we kill him, we become him.”
“And how do you figure that?” Isidor said, crossbow still aimed at Sparky.
“Because Sparky kills in cold blood. He shows his victims no mercy. He kills out of hatred and fear,” I told them. “You kill him now and you’ll be doing it for all the same reasons. You’ll be a mindless killer just like him,” then glancing at Seth, I added, “and him.”
Seth smiled at me, his black, broken teeth festering in his shrunken gums. Looking back at Kayla and Isidor, I said, “Do you really want to turn out like Seth and Sparky? Is that what you really want? Because if it is, I won’t stop you,” Then, releasing the rope, I walked away, giving Kayla and Isidor enough time and room to attack Sparky who still lay on the ground whimpering like a baby.
I looked back at them and saw Kayla step towards him, her claws out and raised up before her. Isidor stood as if frozen to the spot, then slowly, he lowered his crossbow and aimed it not at Sparky but at the ground. Sparky looked up and could see Kayla coming towards him, her long, black fingernails and fangs gleaming in the dark.
“Please,” Sparky cried out, lacing his fingers before him as if he were about to say his prayers. “Don’t kill me. I can help you.”
As if deaf to his pleas, Kayla continued forward, and when just inches from him, she dived forward and snatched up the rope.
“No!” Sparky begged.
“Oh quit complaining,” Kayla snapped at him. “I’m not going to kill you – not yet anyhow. But if we’re to take you with us into The Hollows, then you’re staying on the end of this rope where I can see you. But I promise you this, if for just one second I think you are going to harm me or my friends then I will take your head off in a heartbeat. Do you understand?”
Sparky looked at her, nodded and licked his lips.
“I said, do you understand?” she roared into his face, her claws just inches from his throat.
“Yes! Yes!” Sparky screeched and cowered back as far away from her as his leash would allow him.
Yanking on the rope, Kayla pulled him back close to her. “Don’t screw around, Sparky. I promise you, I’m not that scared little girl anymore. I couldn’t give a shit if you died, and in fact I hope and pray that you do break your promise, because that’s all the reason I’ll need to rip your fucking lungs out.”
“I won’t, I promise,” he snivelled. Then looking at me, he added, “Thank you, Kiera.”
Without saying anything, I looked away in disgust. I wasn’t helping him, I was helping Kayla and Isidor to not become like him. Seth then strode forward, and grinding the heel of his boot into Sparky’s open wound again, he shouted over the screams of pain, “The martyr might have saved you for now, but watch your back. You’re a disgrace to the Lycanthrope.”
“We’re no different, Seth,” Sparky wailed. “You’re a killer just like me.”
Ignoring him, Seth said, “You said you could help us. How?”
“I didn’t say that,” Sparky cried out as Seth drove down harder with his foot.
“Yeah, you did,” Kayla cut in.
“What do you know?” Isidor asked.
“Nothing!” Sparky sobbed in pain.
Going to him, I pushed Seth aside, and Sparky cradled his wounded leg. “It hurts doesn’t it?” I said looking down at him. “Remember how you treated me back in the zoo when my leg was wounded?”
“That wasn’t me,” he said, staring up at me. “It was Phillips.”
“You licked my goddamn leg, you animal!” I hissed at him. “You threw me around the room and hosed me down with freezing cold water.”
“It was Phillips,” Sparky groaned.
Hunkering down, I looked in to his bloodshot eyes and whispered, “Sparky, this lot only needs one little excuse to rip you in half. I can only hold them off for so long. So tell me what you know.”
“I don’t know anything!” he cried.
“Liar,” I hissed and punched his wounded leg.
Sparky’s leg jerked and went rigid and I could see the pain in his eyes. They seemed to spin in their sockets. “Tell me, Sparky.”
“I don’t…” he started, but I hit him again, this time harder.
“Okay!” he screeched, phlegm spraying from his lips as he gripped his leg. “I know where you can find this i
nvisible man, Elias Munn!”
“Who is he?” I demanded my heart racing.
“I didn’t say I knew who he was,” Sparky wailed in pain. “I said I know where he is heading – where you can find him.”
“Where?” I breathed, feeling nervous at the thought that I might actually be able to catch this man once and for all.
“The Hollows,” Sparky said, through gritted teeth.
“We already know that,” I told him, hoping for his sake that he wasn’t messing with me.
“But you don’t know where in The Hollows,” Sparky grimaced.
“Where?” I shouted, raising my hand as if to strike his wounded leg again.
“The Dust Palace!” Sparky whispered as if giving away a deadly secret.
“Impossible,” someone said from behind us.
I spun round to see Potter standing beneath the shadows of a solitary tree that stood some feet away. Beside him stood someone else. Peering through the gloom, my heart lept at the sight of Luke. Potter had rescued him.
Standing slowly, I watched as both of them walked out from beneath the low-hanging branches of the tree and came towards me. As usual, a cigarette dangled from the corner of Potter’s mouth, the blue smoke trailing away into the night. He looked at me, but it was more than looking at me; it was like he was searching my eyes, looking into me.
I broke his stare and turned towards Luke. He came towards me. His jet-black hair was longer than I remembered and hung around his shoulders. The lower half of his face was covered in a scruffy-looking beard, but this only accentuated his brilliant green eyes. His rugged good looks were still visible from beneath his beard, and although he looked as if he had lost some weight, the dirty shirt he wore still showed off his muscular chest and arms.
Luke stopped just a few inches away and looked at me. His eyes seemed to glimmer. I glanced over at Potter who had his eyes fixed on me. I quickly looked away and back at Luke. I remembered the last time that I had seen him – being kicked and beaten before me as my mother offered me a fist full of the red stuff. I had eaten it to save his life. There was an uncomfortable silence, not just between Luke and me, but throughout all of us. No one said a word and I knew without even turning to face them, they were all watching me.
