by Tim O'Rourke
Realising that I must have tripped an alarm, I sprang from the bed and peered through the window out across the empty car park in front of the factory. There was a police car out there and a cop stood beside it. He looked old with his silver hair glistening beneath the stars and a pipe hanging from the corner of his mouth. All the same, he was a cop and I couldn’t risk getting caught in here. I’d be arrested for burglary, and that would mean being taken into custody and the risk of who and what I really was, was too great.
I raced across the factory floor towards a fire exit set into the far wall. Throwing myself against it, I spilled out into the night, tripping the fire alarm. Running as hard and fast as I could, I made my way around the opposite side of the building where the cop was. With my heart beating in my chest, I pushed on. Then, as if from nowhere, the cop was in front of me. Pulling up sharp, I wondered how such an old guy had managed to get ahead of me so quickly.
Spinning around, I raced back in the direction I had come.
“Stop!” the copper called out.
“No fucking chance!” I yelled over my shoulder, and out of the corner of my eye, I could see that he was gaining on me.
For an old boy, he was fast. I knew if I didn’t do something to get away from him, he would have me and it would be game over. In a desperate bid to be free of him, I released my claws and ripped away my coat. I really didn’t want to do this, but what other choice did I have? I didn’t want him to see my wings or to see me fly away like some giant crow, but who would believe him?
With my wings unfolding from my back, I leapt into the air and within seconds, I was soaring high above the factory. I looked down, expecting him to be staring up at me wide-eyed and mouth open in shock, but I couldn’t see him. Spinning through the air, I back-flipped and then I saw him. Except he wasn’t standing in the car park scratching his silver hair, he was racing through the air towards me.
Just like me, he had jet-black wings that flapped like two giant sails on either side of him. His arms were tucked beside him, his head pointing down. He looked like some freaky missile as he shot towards me. This cop knew how to fly, and I don’t mean he knew how to flap his wings. He had speed and agility far greater than anything I’d seen before. Somersaulting away from him, he banked right, then came swooping towards me again. I shot away, but he was on me, snatching at me with his claws and dragging me out of the sky. For an old guy, he was immensely strong, and he threw his arms so tightly about me that I thought my spine would snap.
I struggled against him. He then fixed me with a pair of icy blue eyes and barked, “Keep still, boy, or you’re going to ruin everything!”
“But -” I started.
“No buts!” he growled over the sound of the wind. “You’re not the only goddamn Vampyrus living in secret above ground, so stop drawing attention to us!”
Then we were falling so fast through the air that I thought we were going to crash straight into the…
14
I woke with a start. I was having one of those dreams where you fall off the edge of a cliff and wake up just before you smash into the razor-sharp rocks below. Except I hadn’t been falling from a cliff in my dream, I’d been falling through the sky with Murphy.
Looking around the filthy room and judging by the light that spilt through the grubby window, I could tell that I must have slept most of the day away, as my room was growing dark again. Annoyed at myself for sleeping so long, I knew I didn’t have time to waste. I’d already been here one whole night and day and had found out nothing about this wolf. Another child had been murdered and Murphy and Luke were still being held hostage by Harker.
I sat up and winced at the pain in my chest. It wasn’t as bad as before, and however much I hated to admit it, Madison had done a good job at cleaning the cuts and bandaging them. My coat was hanging off the wardrobe door, and I put it on. Running my hands through my black hair, I straightened up. I left my room and clambered down the narrow staircase. My stomach grumbled with hunger and I needed some food.
Entering the poky living room, I could see the child’s chair in exactly the same spot it had been the night before. I glanced at the couch, but couldn’t see the body of the boy. Crossing the room towards it, I heard a noise behind me.
“Catch!” someone said, and I turned around to see Drake standing in the doorway of the kitchen as he tossed an apple across the room at me.
Snatching it out of the air, I asked, “Where’s the boy’s body?”
“Buried it,” Drake said, taking a bite from the half-eaten apple he was holding.
“It?” I barked at him. “That was a little boy, not a slab of meat!”
“Whatever,” Drake said, “He’s gone now.”
“And what gave you the right to bury that boy?” I snapped, gripping the apple in my fist. “Don’t his parents have the right to bury him?”
“Harker doesn’t want any more bodies brought back,” Drake said flatly. “He doesn’t want any more attention drawn to this place. He thinks it would be better if the kid’s parents just thought the boy had gone missing – you know, like they never find out what happened to him.”
Taking a step towards him, I hissed, “I couldn’t give a monkey’s fart what Harker thinks. That boy’s parents have a right to know what happened to their son.”
“Perhaps you want to go and dig him up then, and explain to his parents that their son was murdered by a werewolf?” Drake asked, taking another bite from the apple.
“Anything has got to be better than leaving those parents wondering for the rest of their miserable lives what happened to their child!” I spat. Then, grabbing his hand, I shoved the apple into his fist and said, “Keep the apple, I’d rather fucking starve than take anything from you.”
Not giving him the chance to say anything back, I yanked open the front door and stormed out into the front garden. Madison was standing near to the spot where I’d discovered the chair the night before. Hearing the door being yanked open, she turned and watched me cross the front garden and go into the woods.
When I’d gotten far enough away from Drake, I slouched against a tree and pulled a pack of cigarettes from my coat pocket. Lighting one, I inhaled deeply.
“What’s wrong?” I turned around to see Madison standing just a few feet away.
“Nothing’s wrong,” I snapped at her.
“Yeah, there is,” she shot back, moving closer still.
I didn’t want to look at her, I couldn’t look at her. There was something about Madison that made me feel uneasy inside. She reminded me of Sophie. Not in looks, as Sophie had thick, dark brown hair and green eyes; it was the feelings Madison somehow stirred in me that reminded me of Sophie. I hadn’t had such feelings since that night I’d fled her bedroom. Just like I had found it almost impossible to keep my hands off Sophie, I was realising that every time I looked at Madison, she became more and more beautiful and harder to resist. Like on so many occasions I had ripped Sophie’s clothes from her and we had spent hours making love, I was near to the point where I wanted Madison just as much. But somewhere in my heart, I didn’t want her. I wanted to be as far away from her as possible. Her intense stare and the way she made me feel when she was close scared the shit out of me on some deep, hidden level. Was it because she was a Lycanthrope? Was it because I knew her to come from a race of serial killers – was that what was stopping me from having her? The whole hairy tongue thing had faded to the back of my mind and seemed totally insignificant when watching the way she walked on those long legs of hers, the way her hair fell about her shoulders, the way her eyes sparkled, the way her breath had caressed my neck in the bedroom…
“Keep away from me,” I spat, raising the palm of my hand out towards her.
“What?” she asked, sounding confused.
“Just keep away from me,” I told her again, shifting my position against the tree so I didn’t have to look at her.
Then I felt her hand gently squeeze my shoulder, as she turned me ar
ound to face her. She looked into my eyes and said, “What’s wrong?”
“I just want to be left alone,” I told her.
“That’s no fun,” she smiled.
“I haven’t come here to have fun,” I told her. “I’ve come to catch a killer.”
Leaning in close to me, she whispered, “Something is happening here -”
“I know, children are being murdered…” I started.
“No, I didn’t mean that,” she whispered, brushing herself close against me. “Something is happening between you and me – you feel it too, I know you do.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lied as she looked into my eyes, her lips hovering over mine.
“I’ve never met a man like you before, Potter,” she whispered. “a man who has such a dark side. You could take me away from all of this.”
“From all of what?” I said, fighting the desire to kiss her.
“All this death,” she whispered, then pressed her lips against mine.
As if drowning, I felt smothered by a wave of intense feelings and emotions, like nothing I had felt before, and I was kissing her back. Her tongue felt like velvet in my mouth as she hungrily pulled at me. Then I was falling backwards as she pushed me down onto the ground. I fell onto the carpet of leaves and pine needles that covered the floor of the woods. She sprang on top of me, pulling open my coat and nipping the skin of my neck with her teeth. The trees seemed to close in all around us, shielding us from view, like we were in our own world.
Her soft hair fell across my face, and it felt so good. I ran my hands down her back and scratched at her with my claws. Leaning up, she threw aside her shirt, and the chain with the cross shone just inches from my face. She lowered herself onto me and her skin felt warm and soft. As I looked into her eyes, they were no longer that luminous yellow, but green – the colour of emeralds. I entwined my fingers in her hair, but it was no longer white-blond but dark brown, thick and curly. I looked at her face, but Madison had gone, it was Sophie I was making love to. I rolled her over onto the soft cushion of leaves and her breath felt hot against my neck as she said, “I find your dark side irresistible.”
To hear those words made my heart race as it was filled with joy. Sophie had finally accepted me for who I truly was, she had fallen in love with the real me – the monster – the vampire bat – the Vampyrus. I made love to her and it felt like nothing I had experienced with her before. It was as if everyone and everything had disappeared. There was nothing left but only us.
How long we spent together shielded by those trees I do not know. We finally collapsed in each other’s arms lying breathless together. However long it had been, the day had now turned into night and I could see the light of the full moon spinning through the treetops high above us.
The silence was broken by the sound of shouting. I recognised the voice. It belonged to Drake.
“There’s been another one!” he roared. “Oh my god, there’s been another one!”
“Another what?” I whispered against her chest, not wanting those stolen moments with Sophie to end just yet.
“Oh no!” she said, pushing me off her. But it wasn’t Sophie’s voice, it was different. It was Madison who was talking to me. “Potter!” she shouted. “Hurry up and get dressed. I think the wolf has been back!”
“What?” I mumbled, rubbing my eyes as she hurriedly pulled her clothes back on. “What’s going on here? I thought you were…?”
“What?” she said, tucking her shirt into the waistband of her trousers.
I wanted to say, I thought you were someone else – I thought you were Sophie. But I couldn’t. How had this happened? How had I ended up making love to Madison?
“I can’t believe it,” I breathed, looking at her.
“Neither can I,” she smiled down at me. “I guessed you had a dark side, Potter, but you were something else!”
Then she was gone, racing back towards the house.
15
I pulled on my boots and trousers. How had this happened? I wondered. I’d made love to a Lycanthrope! Had I really believed she had been Sophie? Or had the love I still kept hidden for Sophie blinded me? But Madison was beautiful, right? Maybe I had wanted her, and my feelings of guilt for this had tricked my mind into believing that really I had been with Sophie. Whatever the reason – whatever had happened – Drake was yelling from the house that there had been another murder. Now wasn’t the time to analyse my feelings of love, lust, or guilt.
Throwing my coat on, I raced back through the woods towards the house. By the time I got there, Madison was standing by the open front door and talking frantically to Drake who had a flashlight in his hands.
“What’s happened?” She asked him.
“Where have you two been?” he asked her, looking at the both of us.
“Never mind that now,” she said. “What happened here? What have you found?”
Stepping aside in the doorway and handing Madison his flashlight, Drake said, “See for yourselves.”
Brushing past him, Madison stepped into the house and I followed close behind. As if knowing what to expect, she shone the cone of white light directly at the child’s chair which was in the centre of the living room. She gasped and dropped the flashlight. It rolled away from her and I snatched it up. Aiming the light at the chair, I moved forward.
Just like the night before, there was a child sitting slumped in the chair. Clenching my jaw tight, and the sound of my heart racing in my ears, I reached out and lifted the child’s head. The face of a girl looked back at me, her eyes blank but open. In them I could see the fear that had been captured. Red curls of hair spilt across her brow and down onto her shoulder in ringlets. She wore a Bratz nightdress which was covered in little purple stars. I lowered her head and took my hand from the base of her neck. It felt damp and clammy. Using the flashlight, I could see that it was coloured red with blood. Smearing my hand against my trouser leg, I realised that her hair wasn’t red at all; her blond hair was stained with blood. Hunkering down, I could see she had something in her tiny clenched fist. Very gently, I unfolded her fingers and took the item from her hand. Holding it up in the light, I could see that it was a tiny pink shoe, and I guessed it had probably come from one of her Bratz dolls as she had been stolen from her bed by the wolf.
Placing it along with the growing collection of toys by the chair, I stood up and turned on Drake who was standing by the open doorway.
“Where were you when this happened?” I asked him.
“I could ask you the same question,” he shot back, his eyes never leaving mine.
Glancing sideways, I looked at Madison and then back at Drake. “I was with Madison.”
“Oh yeah?” he smirked. “Doing what exactly?”
“We were checking out the woods for any clues that might have been left by the wolf from last night,” Madison lied, and for the first time since meeting her, I saw her pale face flush red. I felt her embarrassment and shame too; not because we didn’t want Drake to know what happened between us in the woods, but that we had been making out while another dead child had been brought to the Wolf House. But it was more than that. Murphy and Luke were depending on me to find this killer – Murphy had put his trust in me and I could hear myself saying to him as he lay bleeding, “I won’t let you down.”
But I had let him down; I let Luke down and the children the wolf had brought here. Perhaps my father was right. Maybe I was useless and would never amount to anything.
“Checking for clues?” Drake asked, and I could hear the disbelief in his voice.
“It’s got fuck-all to do with you what we were doing in that wood,” I scowled at him. “But what is important is that we were both together – we have alibis.”
“What’s that s’posed to mean?” Drake asked, puffing out his chest.
“It means, numb-nuts, that it couldn’t have been either one of us who brought that dead little girl in here,” I snapped, “But you, on the
other hand? We only have your word that you were out searching for us!”
“What are you trying to say?” Drake blustered. “That I killed that little girl and brought her here?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” I spat, moving closer towards him.
Shaking his head, Drake looked at Madison and said, “Are you just gonna stand there and let him say that about me? I’m your friend! I’m a Lycanthrope, just like you.”
Staring back at him, Madison said, “I hate to say this, but Potter’s got a point.”
“Well he can shove his point up his freaking arse!” Drake shouted. “I ain’t a child killer!”
“Sorry but I thought all you Lycanthrope had been child killers at some time or another!” I growled.
“Ancient freaking history!” Drake shouted and spit flew from his lips. “I’m not going to stand here and listen to this shit!”
I saw him turn as if to leave, but before he’d even had the chance to reach for the door handle, I’d flitted across the room in a spray of shadows and barred his exit from the house.
“What were you really doing in the woods yesterday?” I hissed. “You weren’t taking a piss!”
“And you and Madison weren’t looking for clues,” he half-smiled. “Now get out of my way.”
Placing my hand firmly against his chest, I looked in his bright yellow eyes and said, “How come you were in the woods last night when I was chasing down that wolf?”
“I heard the howling and came after you,” he said. “I wish now that I’d left you to die.” Then, shoving me aside, he yanked open the front door and stormed out.
The door slammed shut with such force that the whole house trembled on its ancient foundation. “I’m watching you!” I shouted after him, but he was gone. Turning, I flinched backwards to find Madison standing directly behind me.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” she smiled.