“Why?” I asked.
“I thought Bishop was going to kill you,”
he said, his eyes still fixed on mine. “I had no idea he was going to use you as bait to trap my sister. I might be a sick fuck, but not so sick I’d let my own sister be taken to bed against her will by that freaking bat.”
“She got to you, didn’t she?” I said softly.
“Kiera got under your skin.”
“She taught me I have a choice, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about that since I left her in that room,” he explained. “For once I want to do the right thing – by Kiera, at least.”
“So what now?” I asked, still not entirely sure if I could trust him.
“We go to Kiera and stop her from coming to Wasp Water and entering Bishop’s trap,” Seth said, turning towards the door.
He stopped suddenly.
“What do we have here?” Luke said, standing in the open doorway. “Two traitors! Why, this just keeps getting better and better.”
A sea of Skinwalkers stood behind him.
Our only way out was blocked.
Smiling, Luke stared back at us and said, “Looks like we’re gonna have ourselves two executions today.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Kiera
With smoke and debris pouring up into the air from the downed helicopters, it was only a matter of time before the good townsfolk from Wasp Water came to investigate. It wouldn’t take Einstein to figure out what happened out here. We had to keep moving – get in and out of Wasp Water before we were discovered. But that would be easier said than done. It was a safe bet that if Potter were being held in Wasp Water, it would at the police station, in the cells where I had slept in a world not to dissimilar to this one. In that when, Wasp Water had been overridden by zombie-like vampires – it was now home to the wolves.
Murphy held his side as he staggered across the rugged moorland towards the town. He had one arm thrown around Meren’s shoulder in support. Peter carried his sister, Alice, in his arms.
She was unconscious, the side of her head pressed flat against his chest. This was impossible. Our number had been cut in half. Our chances of beating the wolves had been slim at best, now they were something close to zero. Gayle glanced at me, her eyes haunted by what had just happened.
Her strawberry blond hair flicked about her shoulders in the wind. Had I’d led the half and half’s to their deaths? I feared. Had I filled them with false hope? Had I been wrong to convince them that because we could fly, and wolves couldn’t, that we could easily defeat them? I had underestimated the cunning of this Wolf Man – but then there was nothing so cunning as a wolf.
Stopping dead in my tracks beneath a bruised and battered looking sky, I said, “I will go on alone.”
“Don’t be so stupid,” Murphy snapped. He was paler than ever, and despite the cold wind that gnawed at us, his brow was covered with beads of sweat. “You can’t go on alone.”
“And you can’t go on like that,” I said, pointing at his bleeding wound.
“It will heal itself, you know it will,” he said, doubled over in pain.
“Not for a few hours yet,” I warned him.
“And we don’t have the time.” I remembered the nightmare I’d had about Jack, and something inside told me time was running out for him.
Potter, too.
“I’ll go with you,” Meren suddenly said.
“No one is going anywhere,” Murphy growled. “We stay together.”
I looked at Meren.
“Kiera’s right,” Meren said, pulling her father tight. “We could go ahead, scope the place out. See how well defended the town is. We could then come back and plan our attack.”
It was as if Meren had read my mind – had seen my plan before I’d had the chance to suggest it. Perhaps we just thought alike?
I pointed ahead. “There is an outcrop of rock over there,” I said to Murphy. “You could rest there, unseen by anyone who might come out here to discover what happened to those helicopters. Peter and Gayle could stay with you and keep watch while you and Alice get a chance to heal. Neither of you are any good to us at the moment.”
Murphy raised his head and looked at me.
“You just take a look and come straight back, right?”
“Right,” I said. “Me and Meren check the place out, find the safest way into the town, and then come back here for you guys.”
“You got two hours,” Murphy grumbled.
“If you’re not back by then, gunshot or no gunshot, I’m coming after you.”
“Okay,” I breathed in relief that Murphy had agreed to the plan. I looked at Meren and she smiled back at me. She was pleased, too.
Slowly, we crossed the barren-looking moorlands towards the overhang. The landscape looked ancient, prehistoric perhaps? Large jagged lumps of granite rock pierced the ground like black headstones. The wind blew hard between the mountains and over the rolling hills. Our clothes fluttered about us as we pulled them tight. We stepped beneath the overhanging lip of rock. It was dry underneath and shielded from the howling wind. Working together, Meren and I rested Murphy against the far wall of the overhang. He winced and clutched his side. I could see that his fingers were black and crusted with dried blood.
“Are you okay?” I asked.“Get the hell out of here before I change my mind,” he wheezed. “You’ve got two hours.”
“Okay,” I said.
Looking at Meren then back at me, Murphy added, “And bring my daughter back safe.”
“I can take care of myself,” Meren tried to reassure him.
“You don’t know the wolves like we do,”
he grunted and closed his eyes.
Leaving Murphy to rest, I turned to face the others. Gayle was standing just beneath the lip and looking out across the moors, as if on guard.
Alice was asleep on the ground, her head resting in Peter’s lap. Her wings, which were folded around her, were riddled with gunshot wounds.
“How she doing?” I whispered, not wanting to wake her.
“She doesn’t look too good,” Peter whispered back, his eyes wide and fearful.
“Just let her rest,” I told him. “We half and half’s have a knack for healing.”
“I hope you’re right,” he said, looking down at his sister and brushing a stray strand of hair from her feverish brow.
“We’ll be back soon,” I said.
Meren was standing with Gayle. Both turned to look at me as I approached them.
“Ready?” I asked Meren.
She nodded.
Looking at Gayle, I said, “Keep a look out.
You should be safe here and we won’t be long.”
“What should I do if any wolves come?”
Gayle asked.
“Fight for your lives,” I said, heading out from beneath the overhang.
I didn’t mean to sound flippant or cruel, but I was being honest. I was trying to be real.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Kiera
Using the giant rocks which were scattered across the plain to conceal ourselves, we made our way towards Wasp Water. Meren stayed close to me, crouching when I did, running when I ran, and hiding when I hid. To the east of the town, I remembered the road that I had walked once before with Kayla and Isidor after escaping the zoo. It led into town, but was sheltered on one side by trees. That would be the safest place to head for, in hopes we could get close to the town without being seen.
Cutting across the open plain at speed, I led Meren towards that road. Just like I had remembered it, a wooded area stretched alongside the road, offering us cover. Once amongst the thick trees, I led Meren towards the road. Coming to rest behind a large tree, I peeked around it. I could see the road about ten yards away. The last time I had walked that road, it had been blocked solid with cars. Each one of them had been filled with the dead, those that had been attacked by vampires. I pushed the memory of their bloated and maggot-infested faces from my mind.
Without warning, a police car sped past on the other side of the trees, its emergency lights screaming and flashing. This patrol car was followed by another and then another. They were heading out in the direction of the downed helicopters and to where our friends were hiding.
Meren looked at me. “What now?” she whispered, combing her blue hair behind her ears with her fingers.
“We wait here for those police cars to get well clear. We daren’t risk going out onto that road with so many cops about,” I whispered back.
“The town is about a quarter of mile over there.
The trees start to thin out just before town, but we can get close enough to take a look.”
“Okay,” Meren said, crouching down and resting her back against the tree trunk.
Two more police cars raced past, and I slid back behind the tree and out of sight.
As the sound of their sirens began to fade into the distance, Meren looked at me and said, “Who murdered me?”
“Huh?” I said, surprised by her question.
“Who murdered me back at Hallowed Manor, and why?” she asked again.
Settling back against the tree, I said, “A wolf called Sparky and a Vampyrus called Luke Bishop. Sparky was once a friend of mine, and Luke was a friend of your father’s.”
“So if they were friends, why did they kill me and the others?” she said, her bright eyes fixed on me as if searching for answers.
“Sparky was deceived by Luke,” I started to explain. “Luke deceived all of us. His real name was Elias Munn and he was wicked beyond belief.
He thought you were half-breeds – Vampyrus born from the mixing of humans and Vampyrus.
We all believed that – I thought I was one, too. He wanted to experiment on you, make an army of half-breeds because he thought they had special gifts – powers. He wanted to make an army of half-breeds so he could take over the world.
Slowly he was infecting the human race. He and other Vampyruses were feeding off humans, which turns them into vampires. But these vampires were freakish, frenzied, and untameable – like zombies. He wanted an army he could control, so he started to experiment with the half-breeds. But when he discovered how very weak and sick you were, he knew you would’ve been of no use to him, so he murdered you in your beds.