by Tim O'Rourke
I glanced at Kayla, her bright red hair looking pink beneath the shower of snow that already covered her head and shoulders.
“Ready?” I whispered, taking my pipe from my mouth and tossing it onto the driver’s seat of the van.
“Oh, I’m so ready,” she smiled back at me, her claws springing from the tips of her fingers like a set of ivory knives.
I turned to Sam to find him already crouched on all fours, his face looking more like a wolf than a boy. Thick, snow-covered dreadlocks swung from his head, the sides of his face, and beneath his chin. A long snout protruded from the front of his face, and his eyes shone a fierce, fiery yellow. A pink, fleshy tongue lolled over a set of vicious-looking teeth.
“Ready?” he barked at me, his hind quarters, which were now covered in thick, brown fur, flexing with muscle as he readied himself to spring over the slate stone wall surrounding the field.
“Ready,” I nodded at him grimly, slashing my police shirt to ribbons with my claws.
“Murphy, you’ve ruined your shirt,” Kayla breathed.
“Fuck my shirt,” I barked, as it fell away in strips.
With my ribcage feeling as if it were breaking apart inside of me, I released my wings from my back and shot into the air. I looked left to see Kayla racing alongside me. Even though her face was a mask of anger and hate, she still looked innocent and beautiful somehow. I looked down to see Sam bounding across the field below.
Great plumes of snow showered up from beneath his mighty paws. I looked ahead, and seeing the police van, I arrowed my wings out behind me and raced towards it. The cold air threw my silver coloured hair back off my brow, and I could feel the skin which covered my face rippling with the pressure at the speed I was now traveling. The world seemed deathly quiet as I focused in on the scene below me. I could see what looked like a heap of rags surrounded by a pack of Skin-walkers. Each of them was dressed in a police uniform, as they kicked, punched, and clawed at the pile of old rags. But I knew it wasn’t a pile of old clothing that they were ripping to pieces; it was my friend, Potter.
I fought the overwhelming urge to scream out in rage, but all good coppers know that you approach silently or the criminals scatter – flee the scene of the crime. That way you only get to fuck with one or two of them – I wanted to fuck with all of them. Arching my back, I spun through the air like a missile. I glanced right to see Kayla shooting through the air, her arms tucked into her sides to give her greater speed and propulsion.
Both of us, as if in some way in tune with each other, dropped silently out of the black night sky, and skimmed just inches over the bed of snow which covered the field. Sam raced alongside me to my left. His dark brown fur was flecked with snow, and his tail stuck out behind him, as stiff as an arrow. Then facing front, I shot my arms out and snatched two of the unsuspecting Skin-walkers up into the air with my claws. Before they’d had the chance to even gasp in shock and surprise, I had smashed my forehead into the face of one of them, spreading his nose across his face like a rotten tomato. I drove the claws of my other hand into the throat of the second Skin-walker, the feeling of his neck breaking in my fist filling me with grim delight. Turning back to the first, I lunged at his face with my fangs. A giant flap of skin came away in my mouth and I spat it out.
Even in the darkness, I could see the Skin-walker’s tongue jerking behind the hole I had created in the side of his face.
“Thought you would fuck with my friend, did ya?” I roared, tearing back his scalp with my fangs before the Skin-walker had a chance to answer. With his body falling limp in my grip, I tossed the corpse away and set about the second Skin-walker. His head lolled to one side like a ragdoll. Its eyes spun in their sockets as the creature made a dying attempt to change into a wolf. Tightening my grip around its throat, I gripped the top of its skull with my free hand and yanked. There was a brief tearing sound, as the Skin-walker’s head separated from the rest of its body, and my chest and face suddenly turned hot as a jet of black blood splashed over it.
Holding the Skin-walker’s head in my fist by its hair, I back flipped through the air and raced down towards the police van and where Potter lay on the ground. It was then, in the distance, that I saw what looked like a row of statues spread out across the field. Each of them was looking up into the sky, their arms raised as if in prayer. I looked away, and using the Skin-walker’s head like a cannon ball, I shot it through the air at one of the Skin-walkers who was still attacking Potter. The decapitated head smacked into the face of the unsuspecting Skin-walker and I heard a sickening thud. He fell backwards onto his arse. I looked at Potter. He lay face down in the snow. It wasn’t white, but red, black, and sticky-looking.
The Skin-walker who was on his arse leapt into the air, and in a flash of fur and razor-sharp teeth, he had changed into a giant wolf. He spun around in the snow, howling up at me, its giant tail swishing angrily to and fro. I circled above it and was just about to drop from the sky, when Sam pounced from the darkness and launched himself at the wolf. Sam almost seemed to straddle it, as they both collapsed in the snow, rolling over and over in a mass of fur and claws.
I needed to get to Potter, who still lay lifeless in the snow as three other wolves continued to attack him. Dropping like a stone through the night, I raced towards him, my wings flapping on either side of me in the screaming wind. Then there were only two wolves, as Kayla appeared like a blaze of red lightning, punching one of her claws through the back of one of the wolves. Her fingers shot out of its chest, black with blood and holding the creature’s heart in her fist. With her free claw, she ran her fingers over the throat of the second wolf. There was a fine spray of blood and it threw up its hands with a look of surprise on its face. Then as if its head was attached to its neck by a hinge, it toppled backwards, coming to rest between its shoulder blades. Kayla kicked out with her foot, knocking the decapitated wolf over. It toppled into the snow where it lay headless, twitching and jerking. At the same time, she withdrew her other claw from the chest of the first wolf. Just like the other, it had this ridiculous look of surprise on its face. Kayla had attacked so quickly, it was like the wolf was trying to understand why this winged girl was hovering all around him, with his still-beating heart in her hand. As if to prove to the wolf that he wasn’t seeing things, Kayla bit into the heart she held as if it were a juicy, red apple. Blood sprayed over the face of the wolf. It made a gargling sound in the back of its throat and fell down onto its knees. As if to help it, Kayla stamped on the wolf’s head, driving its face into the snow.
“That was for my brother, Isidor,” she said around a mouthful of heart.
I looked away and spied the last Skin-walker driving its boot into the back of Potter’s head, and lunged out of the sky. Eating hearts wasn’t my style, but taking heads off was. With my claws sticking out before me, I took the head off the Skin-walker as easily as if slicing through jelly. Its head spun away. Even before I’d heard it thump into the snow, I was crouched down beside Potter and lifting him up.
“Potter!” I barked, and could see that his face was swollen black with bruises and blood. I had never seen anyone take such a beating before. His head lolled to one side in the crook of my elbow. “Potter!”
Nothing.
I glanced up to see Kayla had joined in the fight with Sam and the last Skin-walker, who had changed into a wolf. The creature was howling in pain as Kayla and Sam set about it with their fangs and claws. Kayla looked as if she was enjoying herself. Sensing that they would both be all right, I turned back to Potter.
“Come on, Potter!” I barked. “Look at me.”
Nothing.
I shook him in my arms.
“You’d better open your eyes, or I’m going to rip you a new arsehole myself,” I roared down at him.
“I didn’t know you felt like that for me,”
Potter suddenly croaked just above a whisper, his eyes closed.
To hear him speak, however juvenile his remark was, made me just want
to grip him tight in my arms. Then, looking down at him, I dropped him back into the snow and barked, “Quit laying around in the snow and act your age.”
Potter groaned in pain as he hit the ground. “You took your fucking time.”
“Shut your mouth,” I snapped at him. “If it hadn’t of been for me following your sorry arse, you’d be dead by now.”
“He doesn’t want me dead,” Potter said, coughing up a wad of blood and spitting it into the snow. “He’s trying to frame me for the murder of some wolf kid and teacher.”
“Wolf kid and teacher?” I said, looking down at him as he tried to claw himself to his knees. “I leave you alone for five freaking minutes and you go and kill a school kid and his teacher.”
“They were wolves,” Potter cried out in pain, gripping his ribs with both hands. “Besides, one of them tried to seduce me...”
“Seduce you!” I shouted in disbelief.
“Don’t tell me you...”
“Nearly...” Potter cut in as he took short, shallow breaths.
“What does nearly mean?” I snapped at him. “You were meant to be coming out here to make up with Kiera for getting it on with Susan...”
“Sophie...” Potter wheezed.
“Whatever!” I snapped at him. “I’m glad you can remember all of their freaking names, because I can’t, there has been so many. What is Kiera gonna say?”
“I thought it was Kiera,” Potter breathed, holding out his hand for me to help him stand.
“Help me get up. I’m bleeding.”
“Quit your moaning. You’ve got a few cuts and grazes. You’ll live,” I told him, ignoring the hand which he held out towards me. “Besides, when did Kiera become a school teacher?”
“The wolf-bitch...” Potter started, falling back onto his knees. “She did that fucking wolf mind-trick on me. She made me believe that I was with Kiera.”
“Jesus, Potter! Don’t you ever learn? If one of these fucking wolves tried to sell you magic beans, you’d buy them!” I shouted at him. “In the future, will you do us all a big favour?”
“What’s that,” Potter winced, still holding his sides.
“If one of these wolves ever tries to sell you a talking parrot, check to see that there isn’t a tape recorder stuffed up its freaking arse!” I snapped, walking away, leaving him looking sorry for himself in the snow. It was then I noticed that Kayla and Sam were nowhere to be seen.
“Kayla!” I called out. “Sam!”
No answer, just the sound of the wind blowing across the field.
I crunched through the snow to where I had last seen Kayla and Sam fighting with the wolf. The ground was covered in blood, but whose? I wondered. I spun around, the snow swirling all about me in the air. I looked for tracks, but there were so many leading to and away from where the fight had taken place. I cupped my hands around my eyes and looked in all directions across the field. The snow continued to fall so thick and fast, that visibility was now only just a few feet in all directions.
“Kayla!” I roared at the top of my voice.
“Sam!”
Only the howling wind answered me.
With my eyes almost shut tight against the snow, I peered again into the distance. I couldn’t see them anywhere. Even the statues I thought I had seen earlier had now gone.
Chapter Three
Kiera
With tears rolling silently onto my cheeks, I lay my father gently onto the floor. I slowly closed his eyes with the flat of my hands. In my head, I kept trying to tell myself that the man on the floor wasn’t my father, not the one who had raised me as a child in the other world – the one which hadn’t been pushed. If I kept telling myself that, then the pain I now felt inside wouldn’t feel as sharp and cutting. Maybe I could reduce it to a dull throb. I turned away so I didn’t have to look upon his face. I couldn’t. I didn’t want to. Had my father really been the man who had treated Jack like a son for most of his childhood? Had he been the man who had deceived Jack and left him all alone to fend for himself and his brother, Nik?
More importantly, had my father really been the man who had mixed with a Lycanthrope and was I the result of that mixing? If it were true, then both Jack and I had been deceived by my father. I couldn’t hate him, though, not like Jack hated him.
But didn’t he have reason to? If what Jack had said was true, then my father had murdered Joshua Seth to keep my birth a secret.
Then, still kneeling beside my father’s corpse, I looked up at Jack and said, “Who else knows about me? Who else knows what I am and where I came from?”
“The people who are still living, you mean?” Jack smiled back at me.
“Yes,” I nodded.
“Just me and your friend, Murphy,” Jack said over the sound of the wind blowing hard outside in the dark.
“Do the Elders know?” I asked, wondering if that was the true reason I was being punished. After all, I was the result of a forbidden act, carried out by a Lycanthrope and Vampyrus.
Wouldn’t they hate me – despise me? Didn’t I go against all of their natural laws, just like the half-breeds? But weren’t the relationship between Vampyrus and humans forbidden, too? Hadn’t those relationships been outlawed by the Elders because none of the children lived past the age of sixteen? Didn’t that make Murphy a hypocrite?
He had refused to help and support Father Paul, my father, because of his relationship with Kathy Seth, but he had mixed with a human and had two daughters. They had both been half-breeds, murdered at Hallowed Manor by Sparky and Luke.
Jack sat quietly and watched me from the shadows. “Do the Elders know about me?” I asked again.
“I don’t know,” he said with a casual shrug.
“Did they know that Murphy had mixed with a human and had two half-breed daughters?”
I said, standing up and wiping the tears from my cheeks.
“You catch on fast, sister,” Jack grinned.
“What do you mean?” I asked, moving across the room towards him.
“You already see the double standards set by your friends,” he said. “Murphy wouldn’t help our mother because her relationship was forbidden by the Elders. Or perhaps it was more because he just didn’t approve.”
“What do you mean, Murphy didn’t approve?” I asked, standing before Jack, and looking down at him.
“Maybe if Murphy’s brother, your father, had been mixing it up with a human, then he would have helped,” Jack said, looking up at me. “But our mother wasn’t human, she was a wolf and we all know how much Murphy and your other friends hate the wolves. They treat us like some inferior species to them. It’s like we are not fit to be their equal. It’s only now that I know the true reason why I hated that holding house. We were kept there like animals, waiting for the Vampyrus to find us homes. They weren’t finding us homes; they were spreading our numbers, diluting us. In such small numbers, we were no threat to them.
We were weak. Only together are the Lycanthrope strong. Who put the Vampyrus in charge? Who gave your friend, Murphy the right to police us? What makes the Vampyrus more superior to me or you?”
“But you’re a murderous race,” I said back, wondering if Jack were not speaking some truth or just screwing with my mind again.
“The Vampyrus have done their fair share of bloodletting throughout history,” Jack sneered.
“It wasn’t the Lycanthrope who was running around feeding off humans and turning them into vampires. It wasn’t a Lycanthrope who was trying to kill off all of humankind so he could have the Earth as his own – it was Elias Munn – a Vampyrus. They are in no position to dictate to us how we live our lives.”
“There is no us,” I insisted. “I’m not like you.”
“It makes no difference what you believe,” Jack said with a casual shrug. “I haven’t lied to you, Kiera. There is a part of you that is very much like me. Whether you like it or not, you are half Lycanthrope.”
“Even if what you say is true, I will never be li
ke you,” I hissed. “I refuse to be. You say I have a choice, Jack. Well, I make my choice. I choose the Vampyrus side of me – not the wolf.”
“We’ll see,” Jack smiled straight back at me. “We’ll see.”
“See what?” I snapped at him, fighting the urge to wipe that knowing grin from his face.
“When Potter arrives, which he will,”
Jack said. “We’ll see who you choose.”
Chapter Four
Murphy
“Where have they gone?” Potter groaned in pain, staggering to his feet.
“If I knew that, do you think I would be standing in the middle a fucking snow blizzard calling out their names?” I barked at him. I wasn’t mad at Potter, not really, I was mad at myself.
Although I was pissed at him for going and getting himself in the shit again with the wolves. He attracted the wolves like flies around shit.
I looked at Potter as he lurched through the falling snow towards me. “How did you get here?” he wheezed, his hands pressed against his ribs and blood running from the cuts on his face.
“The police van,” I said, checking the horizon again for any signs of Kayla and Sam.
“Perhaps they’ve gone back to it to take shelter,” he suggested.
“I doubt it,” I said. “They would have stayed here.”
“It’s a shame Kiera isn’t here,” Potter said, looking down at the crisscross pattern of foot and paw prints in the snow.
“How’s that?” I asked him.
“She’d only have to take one look at these tracks and she’d be crawling around on her hands and knees, telling us how many there were, how tall, their weight, what they had for freaking breakfast, and the last time they blew their nose,”
he half-smiled as he thought of her.
“Well you want to thank your lucky stars she ain’t here,” I grumbled.
“Why?” Potter said, looking back at me.
“Because she’d kick your freaking arse, that’s why, numb nuts!” I barked at him. “It’s not like she wasn’t pissed at you already, and now you’ve gone and humped a school teacher. Christ knows what she sees in you.”