by Tim O'Rourke
“If that’s what you really want,” he said, loosening his grip on me.
“It is what I want,” I said, stepping away from him. When there was some distance between us, I turned and made my way back through the woods.
I hadn’t gone very far when Calix called out after me. “Hey, Julia.”
Stopping, I looked back. “What do you want now?”
“What you did back there in that tunnel – all that magic-shit and stuff,” he said.
“What about it?” I said, readying myself for some sarcastic comment.
“You were pretty amazing back there, that’s all.”
“Thanks,” I whispered, not knowing what else to say. Turning, I walked away, the faintest of smiles on my lips.
Trent and Rea were still standing where I had left them. As I approached them, I could see that they were having another heated conversation. Rea looked up and saw me. I looked away and headed toward Rush, who was crouched low in the snow and cleaning one of his guns. He heard the sound of my boots crunching through the snow and looked up. Seeing that it was me, he smiled, stood up, and re-holstered his gun.
“What’s happening?” I asked.
“Not much, I guess,” he said, glancing over at Trent and Rea then back at me. “They’re arguing again.”
“Are they always like that?”
Rush shrugged his broad shoulders, scattering away the snow that lay on them. “They’ve always had a fiery relationship.”
Feigning ignorance, I said, “Are they in a relationship?”
“Not anymore,” Rush said. “They used to be.”
“What happened?”
“The war, I guess. Trent came back different.”
“Different how?” I asked him.
“I’m not sure, but doesn’t war change people?” Rush said.
“Has it changed you?”
“Killing people changes you, I guess,” he said, looking right back at me.
“So why don’t you stop?”
“It’s all I know,” he said thoughtfully, before walking slowly away toward Trent and Rea.
As I stood and watched him go, I couldn’t help but wonder again if I would ever be able to help the vampires and werewolves find a truce. And as I slowly made my way after Rush to join the others, I took some comfort knowing that I had already taken this world one step closer to peace. I had saved that boy and girl. I had shown them magic. And only I knew how important both the boy and girl would be in the future.
Chapter Thirteen
“I think we should make for that church,” Trent said pointing to the crooked spire in the distance.
Calix screwed up his eyes and peered through the swirling snow. “Why?”
The five of us stood side by side at the edge of the crop of trees and looked out across the fields.
“Because it will be dawn soon…” Trent started.
“But we’re so close to Maze,” Rea cut in.
Trent looked at me. “What do you think, Julia?”
Why was he asking me? Was Trent deliberately trying to antagonize Rea? Did he want Rea to dislike me more than she already did? Or perhaps his question had nothing to do with Rea whatsoever, and he did trust my opinion like he said he did? Trying to be as diplomatic as I could be in the situation, I said, “I think we should take shelter somewhere before first light. Whether the church is the right place or not, I don’t…”
“That settles it then,” Trent said before I’d had a chance to finish what I’d wanted to say. Stepping out from beneath the trees, he made his way down the hill and toward the church in the distance. He hadn’t gone very far before it seemed that he had disappeared into the snow that swirled all about us in thick, fast moving flurries.
“I hope he knows what he’s doing,” Rea said.
“Why wouldn’t he?” Rush asked. “Trent has never steered us wrong before.”
Rea looked at me, and in answer to Rush’s question, she said, “Perhaps it isn’t our friend Trent who’s still doing all the steering. Perhaps someone else is now at the wheel.” Without saying anything more, she turned and set off down the hill after Trent.
Rush watched her go, a look of bewilderment on his face. “What did she mean by that?”
“Beats the shit out of me,” Calix said, barging between us and heading down the hill. “Who the fuck knows what goes on in these crazy bitches’ heads.”
But as I watched them head away into the snow and toward the church, I knew exactly what Rea had meant. With a deep sigh rattling in the back of my throat, I set off after them. I hung back, my strides through the snow slow but steady. Even though it was still dark, the snow glistened before me like it had been showered with crushed diamonds. The world seemed so quiet – muffled somehow. All I could hear was the crunch, crunch of my companions’ footfalls somewhere ahead. With my hands tucked deep into my coat pockets for warmth, I brushed my fingers over the spell book once more. Again I wondered who had seen fit to send me through the layers with the book, and why? I knew the magic spells written within its yellow and dog-eared pages. Did someone think I might forget them?
“I thought we’d lost you,” I heard someone say.
I looked up. Rush had stopped just ahead. He was barely visible in the snow that was fast becoming something close to a blizzard. Like my own, his hair and clothes were covered white with snow. He waited for me to catch up with him.
“I thought I’d wait for you,” he said, his smile handsome and boyish.
I smiled back my thanks. Of all my travelling companions, Rush seemed the easiest to get along with. He was pretty easy going. He was the complete opposite to his brother, Calix. They didn’t even look alike, but both were handsome in their own way. I had yet to see them in their true form as werewolves, and I couldn’t help but wonder what each of them might look like. In human form, all of them, Trent and Rea included, were all beautiful in their own way. Side by side, we trudged forward through the snow some distance behind the others.
“Why do you carry a gun?” I asked Rush.
“You really don’t like guns, do you?”
“I don’t mean it like that,” I said. “What I mean is, why do you need a gun to kill vampires – you’re a werewolf, right? So why don’t you just wolf-out or whatever it is you do?”
“Oh, I see,” Rush said, chin tucked into his chest and stooped forward against the driving snow and wind. “If we can kill them from a distance, why not? The vampires are greater in number. Not all humans are used for food by them, some are turned.”
“But you can turn humans, too,” I said. “You don’t have to simply kill them.”
“But our bloodline weakens with each human that is bitten,” Rush started to explain. “Say you were human and I bit you but didn’t kill you. Sure, you would turn into a wolf like me. But you would be an inferior species, because you were never a true wolf. You then go on to bite another and that weakens the bloodline further. That human bites another and weakens it further… do you see what I mean?”
“Yes,” I said.
“It’s not the same for vampires – as they are the undead. Once bitten, all life leaves them. And that is why vampires won’t ever destroy all the humans – that’s why they are breeding them – because they need human blood and flesh to survive.”
“And that is the true reason you and the rest of the wolves have been killing the humans – by doing so you’re cutting off the very thing the vampires need to survive. By killing the humans, your hope is that you will eventually cut off their fresh blood supply and starve them to death,” I said.
Rush sighed deeply, plumes of wispy breath escaping his nose and mouth. “You make us sound ruthless – like a pack of wild killers.”
“Aren’t you?” I asked, not wanting to sound mean but just honest.
“We just want to survive, that’s all, Julia,” Rush said.
“Me too.”
“And what about you?” Rush asked, glancing sideways through the snow at me.
“I’m not sure I know what you mean?”
“Well, you just suddenly appear in the mountains – decide to tag along with us claiming that you can bring an end to this war…”
“And I can,” I cut in.
“How do we know that we can trust you?” Rush said. “Maybe if we knew more about you, people would be more willing to trust you.”
“Rea, you mean?”
“Yes, Rea,” he said. “She doesn’t hate you, Julia. She just doesn’t know you.”
“Okay, so what do you want to know?” I shrugged, the rucksack I carried with me beginning to feel heavy.
“So what are you in this other layer that you come from?” Rush asked. “Are you some kind of warrior or something?”
I couldn’t help but chuckle. “I’m no warrior. I’m a teacher.”
Rush’s eyes widened. “A teacher? What do you teach?”
“I teach the children from my layer to read and write, and sometimes I teach them magic,” I explained.
“Could you teach me some?” he half smiled.
“A magic werewolf?” I grinned back at him. “I don’t think so, do you?”
He laughed. “Perhaps not.”
“What’s so funny?” a gruff sounding voice asked.
I didn’t need to look away from Rush to know that Calix had appeared out of the snow and joined us.
“Hey, Calix,” Rush said.
“So?” Calix asked.
Rush looked at his brother through the snow. “So what?”
“What was so amusing?”
“We were just talking about…”
I cut over the both of them and pointed straight ahead. “Look, the church.”
They looked in the direction I was pointing. Looming out of the blizzard before us stood the church. A slate stone wall circled it. On the other side of the wall was a graveyard with headstones that leant one way and another. Trent and Rea were standing before a black iron gate that was set into the graveyard wall. As we approached them, I cupped my hands about my eyes and peered up at the church. Like the wall that surround it, the church was made of grey stone and slate. The spire was thin and so tall that it disappeared high up into the snow-filled sky. Ivy grew over the front of the church, so wild and unkempt that it covered many of the stained-glass windows built into its walls.
“We can shelter here for the night,” Trent said, pushing open the gate and stepping into the graveyard.
“How do we know it’s empty?” I called after him.
“Do you want to search for footprints again?” Rea shot at me.
Ignoring her, I headed through the open gate and into the graveyard. Rush and Calix followed behind. I heard the gate wail on rusty hinges as it swung shut behind us.
Once we were all together again, Trent dropped his voice to a whisper and said, “Let’s take a minute or two to check the place out – just to make sure that we are alone. Calix and Rush, head around the back of the church to see what’s there. I’ll go and see if I can find a way in without having to rip the door from its hinges.” Then looking at me, he added, “You and Rea check the graveyard.”
“Great,” Rea muttered under her breath.
Before I’d had a chance to object, Trent, Rush, and Calix were striding away, leaving me alone with Rea. A deafening and uncomfortable silence fell between us.
When it became too much to bear, I said, “So which way do you want to go?” I looked left and right and at the rows and rows of ancient gravestones.
“I don’t know,” Rea said. “You’re the one with all the good ideas, why don’t you choose?”
Not wanting to be drawn into some catty-fight with her, I looked away. “What about in that direction over there?”
When she made no reply to my suggestion, I looked back over my shoulder to see that she had gone. “Rea?” I called out.
Silence.
I spun around in the swirling snow. How had she vanished so quickly? I looked down and could see her footprints leading away from the church and toward the remotest corner of the graveyard. With a wall of snow shifting all about me, I set off in the direction Rea was heading.
“Rea,” I hushed, fearing that I might wake the dead, even if that were impossible.
She made no reply. I continued to make my way between the cracked and listing gravestones, careful to follow the footprints she had left behind. Was this some kind of game? Was she trying to rattle me?
I heard the sudden sound of movement behind me. I spun around, only to be faced with a wall of snow. The tracks I had left behind were fast being filled with the snow that was now falling so fast and heavy I could barely see more than a few feet ahead of me.
“Rea, is that you?” I whispered.
Silence.
“Rea, are you there?”
Silence. Only the soft cry of the wind that spun the snow all about me.
There was another sudden and fleeting sound of movement from behind me. Spinning around, I thought I saw something dark speed through the snow ahead of me. Taking my hands slowly from my coat pockets, I felt my fingers tingle, but not with cold. They were starting to warm up. Something moved again behind me. With snow flying from the ends of my wet hair, I raised my hands, fingers fully extended, and spun around. Nothing. Just falling snow.
Another sound. But where from this time? I felt the ground shift beneath me so suddenly and violently that I nearly toppled over face first into the snow. I glanced down to see that I had strayed onto a grave. But with so much snow around, it was hard to…
A hand shot out from beneath the snow that covered the grave. Its fingers were unnaturally long and corpse white. The hand snatched hold of my ankle, curling its hooked fingers around my foot like a claw.
I looked up just once, to see Rea standing in the snow just feet from me. Our eyes met before the hand that had taken hold of my ankle dragged me kicking and screaming down into the grave below.
To be continued…
‘Vampires of Maze’
(Part Two)
Coming soon!
More books by Tim O’Rourke
Kiera Hudson Series One
Vampire Shift (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 1
Vampire Wake (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 2
Vampire Hunt (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 3
Vampire Breed (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 4
Wolf House (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 5
Vampire Hollows (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 6
Kiera Hudson Series Two
Dead Flesh (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 1
Dead Night (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 2
Dead Angels (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 3
Dead Statues (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 4
Dead Seth (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 5
Dead Wolf (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 6
Dead Water (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 7
Dead Push (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 8
Dead Lost (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 9
Dead End (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 10
Kiera Hudson Series Three
The Creeping Men (Kiera Hudson Series Three) Book 1
The Lethal Infected (Kiera Hudson Series Three) Book 2
The Adoring Artist (Kiera Hudson Series Three) Book 3
The Secret Identity (Kiera Hudson Series Three) Book 4
The White Wolf (Kiera Hudson Series Three) Book 5
Werewolves of Shade
Werewolves of Shade (Part One)
Werewolves of Shade (Part Two)
Werewolves of Shade (Part Three)
Werewolves of Shade (Part Four)
Werewolves of Shade (Part Five)
Werewolves of Shade (Part Six)
Vampires of Maze
Vampires of Maze (Part One)
Moon Trilogy
Moonlight (Moon Trilogy) Book 1
Moonbeam (Moon Trilogy) Book 2
Moonshine (Moon Trilogy) Book 3
The Jack Seth Novellas
Seeking Cara (Book Two) Coming Soon!
Black Hill Farm (Books 1 & 2)
Black Hill Farm (Book 1)
Black Hill Farm: Andy’s Diary (Book 2)
Sydney Hart Novels
Witch (A Sydney Hart Novel) Book 1
Yellow (A Sydney Hart Novel) Book 2
The Doorways Saga
Doorways (Doorways Saga Book 1)
The League of Doorways (Doorways Saga Book 2)
The Queen of Doorways (Doorways Saga Book 3)
The Tessa Dark Trilogy
Stilts (Book 1)
Zip (Book 2)
The Mechanic
The Mechanic
The Dark Side of Nightfall
The Dark Side of Nightfall (Book One)
The Dark Side of Nightfall (Book Two)
Unscathed
Written by Tim O’Rourke & C.J. Pinard
You can contact Tim O’Rourke at
www.kierahudson.com or by email at [email protected]