“Run!” I roared at Melody as the Skin-walkers unleashed their berserkers upon us.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Kayla
My eyes gradually grew accustomed to the darkness. It was like I could see shadows at first swooping backwards and forwards before my eyes. But there were sounds, too. Shouting. A light appeared in the darkness. Light at the end of a tunnel. Tunnel? Yes, I was in a tunnel and walking toward the light. I felt someone grip me by the arm and I squealed in surprise. A hand clamped tight over my mouth, my eyes darting left and right in fear.
“Shhh!” someone breathed in my ear. Potter? Yes, it was Potter! I could smell cigarette smoke on his breath. “There is someone ahead.”
“Where are we?” I whispered, slowly easing his hand from over my mouth.
“In a tunnel,” he said, his breath warm against my ear. “A tube train tunnel. Be careful of the tracks. They’re electrified.”
I pressed myself flat against the tunnel wall, so as not to stray too close to the tracks. I might be dead, but I wasn’t planning on being sautéed, too.
The voice echoed back down the tunnel again, bouncing off the walls. The words and voices were undecipherable. One voice was deep and booming – angry. I looked in the opposite direction of the light only to see a wall of utter darkness. It looked thick and impenetrable.
“Which way?” I whispered.
“Toward the light,” Potter said, taking hold of my hand in the darkness. “It’s gotta be that tube station you told me about.”
We inched our way along the edge of the tunnel wall. I felt something scamper over my feet and I gasped out loud. Potter covered my mouth with his hand again.
“Just rats,” he whispered. “Don’t get so excited.”
I pushed his hand away. The light was nearer now and I could see the tracks ahead, shining like two silver strips as they led out of the tunnel. Potter had been right; the light was coming from a station in the distance. As we drew closer to it, the voices became louder and clearer. With the mouth of the tunnel just feet away now, we pressed our backs against the wall and listened.
“I asked for a picture of the girl and the boy, and you bring me back this!?” I heard an angry male voice roar.
“Pathetic!” a female hissed. Was that Sam’s mother? I couldn’t be sure. She had sounded so sweet before. “I told you we couldn’t rely on him.”
“It wasn’t my fault,” I heard another say, and I did recognise that voice. It was Sam who had spoken. He sounded hurt and confused.
There was a sickening cracking sound, like flesh being whacked with something hard. A fist? I heard Sam cry out and I flinched. Potter gripped my hand tighter in his. I glanced at him. His face was just a white mask floating in the sea of darkness that surrounded us. His eyes were as black as the shadows.
“What happened!” the male voice screeched, and whoever the voice belonged to, it sounded as if he bordered on insanity. “Tell me what happened!”
“I went through the crack like I was told to, but it wasn’t Isidor or Melody who I saw…” Sam’s words were cut short as that whacking sound once again echoed down the tunnel.
“Liar!” the female screeched.
Sam cried out in agony. I pulled my hand free from Potter’s grip.
“No!” he hissed over my shoulder as I made my way to the mouth of the tunnel. Crouching down, I peered over the edge of the platform. It was the station I had started my journey from. I could see Sam kneeling before his mother. His hands were fastened behind his back. His head and shoulders were slumped forward. I couldn’t see his face, for his long, dark, curly hair covered much of it. His mother stood behind him. Her long, black hair had been dragged into a ponytail, making her face look pointed and harsh. She wore black combat-style clothing and boots. Sam’s mother no longer looked like the friendly and good-natured woman I had met before. I knew in my heart that Potter’s suspicions had been right, and in my head I could hear him whisper smugly, never trust a freaking wolf!
Standing in front of Sam as he kneeled in a pool of his own blood, was a man. I couldn’t see his face, but his hair was black. He was tall and dressed just like the woman was in dark combat-style clothing. He looked as if he were just about to lead an army into battle. He waved a photograph angrily at Sam.
“This is a picture of Jack Seth and his brother!” the man roared. “Not Isidor Smith and Melody Rose!”
“But it was the tall, thin guy who came through,” Sam mumbled.
“Speak up!” his mother shouted, making a fist in his hair and yanking his head back.
I covered my mouth with my hands to stifle a gasp at the sight of Sam’s face. It was swollen-looking and covered in blood from where he had been beaten.
“It was Jack who came through…” he cried in pain. “It was he who pushed on the lever and came into the waiting room. So I took a picture of him and his brother… why do you keep asking me these questions…?”
“Because you could’ve screwed things up. By Jack going through, cracks have appeared in the sky and that is very, very bad indeed. I needed you to make cracks in the earth. I want to know if you did that deliberately or whether I can trust you?” the man roared. Then making a fist, he struck Sam in the face again. Sam’s head snapped back then forward again. Blood spurted from a cut on the bridge of his nose.
“I got you the picture of Potter with the dead boy, liked you asked for,” Sam wheezed through his pain. “Why do you want to hurt me? I’m your son.”
“Son!” his mother laughed bitterly. “You’re no son of ours.”
“I don’t understand,” Sam mumbled, slumping forward again.
“We stole you as a baby,” she sneered. “Wolves like stealing human babies from their cribs. They’ve been doing it for hundreds of years.”
To hear this reminded me of the tales Murphy had once told us about how the Lycanthrope had once been a murderous race that stole children in the night. That is why they had been cursed.
“So you are wolves then?” Sam winced in pain.
The man gripped Sam’s face and raised his head so he could look into Sam’s eyes. “We’re not filthy wolves like you, we are Vampyrus,” the man breathed into his face. “But the wolves took the blame for your disappearance.”
“And you’re a disgrace to our species, Luke Bishop,” a voice said from over my shoulder.
I spun around to see Potter standing in the mouth of the tunnel. Potter sprang over me and up onto the platform. I followed him. We stood shoulder to shoulder as Sam’s father turned around to face us. My skin flushed cold as I looked into Luke’s Bishop’s eyes. The last time I had done that, we had been deep within The Hollows and he had been kissing me. He had told me he was in love with me. But he had been lying. He tricked me and then murdered me. He ripped out my heart and cut off my ears. I felt a frenzy of different emotions race through me as I stood looking at him again. I felt embarrassed and humiliated as I remembered how stupid and naïve I had once been. I thought that on seeing him again, my first instinct would be to kill him like he had killed me. Take my revenge. But all I wanted to do now was turn away. Run back into that tunnel and hide. I couldn’t look at my abuser. The man who had seduced me, removed my clothes, and then eaten my heart. Even though I had done nothing wrong, I felt ashamed. I didn’t like the way his eyes fell on me. It was like they were looking beneath my clothes. He made me feel naked and vulnerable all over again. I turned away. Potter gripped my arm and stopped me.
As if being able to read my mind, Potter said, “Kayla, you have nothing to be ashamed of. You did nothing wrong. It should be him that hangs his head in shame – not you.”
“But I was fooled by him,” I whispered.
“So were we all,” Potter said gently. Then, taking my chin between his fingers and tilting my head so he could look into my eyes, he added, “You’ve come such a long way since then. You can face this arsehole. We will do it together.” He took his hand from my chin and closed his fingers around
mine. Hand in hand, we both turned to face Luke Bishop.
“How very touching,” Sam’s mother said with a wry smile.
“Jessica Hudson,” Potter said, not sounding surprised at all. “So Luke seduced you again. A hooker in two worlds - now that has got to take some beating.”
Jessica Hudson? I wondered. Kiera’s mother from the world before it had been pushed. She had told me her name was Sue and now I understood why. Both she and Luke had been trying to keep their real identities from me.
“And just like the last world, I will take your heart here, too,” she said, as Sam continued to kneel in a pool of his own blood on the platform before her.
“I thought I’d already taken it – or your head at least,” Luke said, staring at Potter. “I have to admit that your resilience surprises even me.”
“I thought you would’ve known me well enough by now, Bishop, to know that I’m full of surprises,” Potter said back, his fingers still curled around mine.
“So how did you get out of Wasp Water alive?” Luke said, as if it didn’t really bother him at all, but I could tell that it did. He was rattled by the fact Potter was still alive. He was desperately trying not to show it. “I saw your head come off with my own eyes.”
“Are you sure it was mine?” Potter said, conjuring up his most annoying smirk for Luke.
“A wolf’s head then?” Luke asked. “But what wolf would give up their life for you?”
“Like I said, Bishop, I’m just full of surprises,” Potter shrugged.
“And Jack Seth? Is he still alive?” Luke asked, and I could see by the way his eyes darted back and forth between Potter, me, and Sam that he wasn’t sure of anything anymore. He was lost.
“No,” Potter said. “I killed him back in that cell in Wasp Water. Didn’t you find his remains? Or what I left of him.”
I shot a sideways glance. I knew Potter had just lied to Luke. Potter had told me Jack had escaped with him. Why was he covering for Jack Seth?
“That’s why Sam got a picture of Jack and not Isidor,” Potter said, backing up his lie. “I killed Jack Seth. I pushed him.”
“Liar!” Luke suddenly screamed.
I flinched backwards. Potter kept me steady on my feet by tightening his grip on my hand.
“Sam has already told us he shoved Jack down a hole in the world before it got pushed. Jack had been at that grate in the woods looking for that picture of Isidor and Melody Rose,” Jessica Hudson said. “Both you and Jack were saved by someone and that someone must have sent you back through the cracks. But who sent you, and why?”
I glanced at Potter again. He had told me a wolf named Lilly Blu had sent him and Jack back. Would he protect this wolf, too? I wondered.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Potter smiled with a shake of his head. Then, pointing at Sam, he added, “Apart from the wolf-boy you’ve been beating the shit out of, I don’t like any other wolves.”
Did Potter just say he liked Sam? Why was Potter having such a sudden change of heart where the wolves were concerned?
“And I don’t like the wolves either,” Luke said. “So why don’t we just call a truce right now?”
“Never,” Potter said flatly.
“But you are a Vampyrus like us,” Luke said, gesturing at himself then Jessica. He then looked again at both me and Potter. “Both of you are Vampyrus.”
“The four of us might all be Vampyrus, but only two of us are murdering scum,” Potter said. “Kayla and I are better than you.”
“Better than us?” Luke laughed as if unable to believe what he was hearing. “And you have the nerve to say I’m a disgrace to our species. It’s you, Kiera, and the others who are the disgrace. Can’t you see what’s going on here?”
“I can see what’s been going on, alright,” Potter said. “You’ve been getting it on with someone who’s old enough to be your mother.”
I glanced at Jessica, who looked as if she’d just been slapped in the face. It was the first time I felt like smiling since arriving back in the tunnel.
“If you don’t join us, you and your friends will all die,” Jessica said.
“You what?” Potter said, scratching his chin with his free hand, “I keep hearing this, but the funny thing is, I’m still here. And the reason why? Because there are only two of you and more of us.”
“What, you, Kiera, Murphy, Isidor, and Kayla?” Luke said. Now it was his turn to smirk. “I only count five of you.”
“And the statues,” Potter said. “You’ve forgotten to count the statues. The old Dead Waters do wonders for the skin. But the thing is, we could stand here all day trying to figure this out, but we only need one. And that one is Kiera Hudson. Even if Kayla and I were to join you right now and so did Murphy and Isidor, it wouldn’t matter, because Kiera never would. She is the one who will never be turned. You couldn’t do it before and you won’t do it now and you never will. You will never get her to see your twisted view of the world. You will never get her to help you overthrow the wolves. Because this is what this is really all about. You’ve somehow fooled the wolves into believing you are their leader – their saviour. But you are no wolf and Kiera will make sure that they find out.”
“How did you fool them?” I suddenly spoke up. I wanted to know. I wanted to take comfort knowing that it wasn’t just me he had fooled.
Luke looked at me and swept his long, black fringe from out of his eyes. “There were two Luke Bishops in this world, just like there were once two of you, Kayla. We all had a double – a reflection. And just like your reflection was murdered, just how Potter’s, Kiera’s, and Isidor’s reflections were killed, so was mine. I killed him. But as you know there are subtle differences between the reflections, and mine was a wolf. I took his place as leader of the wolves in this world. It didn’t take me long to figure out that if I’d come back, then so would you and your friends, and if I had a double, then so would you. So I set about finding your doubles to see if they were really you. I first found your father, Kayla, Lord Hunt. He wasn’t hard to find. You all still lived in that giant manor house in this world. I soon realised that he had no memories of what the world had once been like. He had forgotten he was a Vampyrus. I engaged him in casual conversation once and he looked at me kind of odd and I feared that perhaps he might remember who I truly was and reveal my identity to the wolves. So I sent him enormous letters telling him that his children were winged demons from the underworld who had been sent to kill him. He did start to remember, and his memories drove him crazy. They drove him crazy enough to kill you and your brother Isidor. I now knew that if I were ever to see either you or your brother again in this world, I would be looking at the real Kayla Hunt and not her reflection. I tracked you all down. But when I saw Kiera again. I couldn’t be sure if it were really her or not. Her life was identical to the one she led in the old world. She was a cop and was even dating Potter. So to test her, I got her to murder the Potter in this world, as I knew the real Kiera would never be able to do such a thing. But she killed him. But I couldn’t kill her. If I was to keep my true identity a secret, I could play no part in the death of a wolf. So I got you to kill her for me,” Luke smiled.
“You bastard,” I seethed, now just wanting to go and rip off his face. “That’s why those Skin-walkers came after me so quickly. You set me up. Potter was right. You had sent me on a one-way mission. You were hoping those Skin-walkers would kill me.”
Potter continued to grip my hand as he stood silently beside me and listened to Luke reveal his treachery. “And that’s why you wanted Sam to take that picture of me with the dead wolf-boy, Dorsey,” Potter said. “So you could use that picture to convince the wolves that I was a wolf killer.”
“Exactly,” Luke said. “And in a way, it doesn’t matter that you’ve survived, or even if you escape me now, because the wolves will always believe you to be a killer of wolves. I will spread that photograph of the dead boy in your arms around the world. You will never find sanctuar
y. And the fact that you survived your beheading will only go to prove what I’ve already told the wolves about you and your friends.”
“And what’s that?” I asked.
“That you are all winged demons – Dead Angels – who have cheated death and come back to destroy the wolves,” Luke said.
“So where did my brother Isidor fit into all of this?” I asked. Why did you really need a photograph of him?”
Luke smiled as if remembering a pleasant dream he had just woken from. “Isidor was such a sweet boy. He confided in me once all about his love for Melody Rose, which made it all the harder for me to kill him as we trekked across The Hollows in search of the Dust Palace. Believe it or not, I found killing him rather upsetting.”
“I’m sure you soon got over it,” Potter cut in.
“Of course,” Luke grinned, and the urge to rid him of it was now almost overwhelming. “I knew that if I could leave him a constant reminder of Melody and what a beautiful woman she grew up to be, then at some point he would go in search of her. Knowing how hard Isidor found it to open up and be honest about his feelings, I suspected that this was a journey he would make on his own. He would leave himself vulnerable in this dangerous new world and he would die. Again, I would not have to reveal myself.”
“But something has gone wrong with your plan,” Potter reminded him. “Because we can see from the picture you hold in your hands that Jack got pushed and not Isidor. The chances are he is still out there.”
Luke glanced thoughtfully down at the picture of Jack and Nik Seth instead of the photograph of Isidor and Melody that he had hoped to be holding. “It doesn’t matter,” he shrugged. “What harm could an idiot like Isidor do to my plans? He’s probably dead already.”
Dead Lost (Kiera Hudson Series Two (Book 8)) Page 12