Dead Push (Kiera Hudson Series Two#7)

by Tim O'Rourke

  Those Vampyrus fuckers heal quickly, I thought, inching my way along the outside of the jail wall. No wonder you have to take their heads off if you want to kill them.

  Potter scowled at me, then followed us along the wall. I could hear the sound of chanting coming from the main town square and I knew the wolves were getting excited for the execution. I had been to many myself and enjoyed each of them. But today it was going to be my brother they were executing. I tried to block out the sounds of the howling and whooping of the excited wolves in the town square.

  Lilly hunkered down as we reached the hole in the fence. She looked back at us and said, “Head for the hill.”

  Pulling back the rusty fence with her slender fingers, Lilly crawled through the hole and raced across the scrubland, disappearing behind some bushes in the distance. I followed, Potter at my heels. Reaching the bushes, I lay flat on the ground in the dust. Potter lay beside me. I didn’t look at him for fear of wanting to smash him in the face again. There was an ear-piercing wail from somewhere in the distance.

  “What was that?” Potter whispered. “Is that an alarm or something?”

  “It’s the DJ switching on his microphone,” I whispered from the corner of my mouth.

  “DJ?” Potter breathed. “I thought they had gathered for an execution – not a freaking party!”

  “The party comes after,” I said, still unable to bring myself to look at him.

  “Fucking wolves,” Potter grunted.

  Before I’d had the chance to point out the many Vampyrus faults, the voice of the DJ, who whipped up the crowd, bellowed out through the speakers erected in the town of Wasp Water.

  “Welcome to today’s executions,” the voice echoed across the town. “Do we have a surprise for you all today!”

  The crowd roared in the distance, their cheers of excitement sounding like an approaching storm. I knew at this point they would be shoving and pushing against each other to get as close to the stage as possible. I had been in there with them so many times before, and I couldn’t deny that it was fucking exciting. It was like the whole town square was charged with electricity. I knew each of the wolves would want the best possible view. To look into the eyes of the accused as the blade came down – there was nothing more exciting than that. To see that realisation in the human’s eyes as they heard the screech and the scrape of the blade racing down towards their necks. The look of fear in their eyes would drive me insane with excitement. But it was more than excitement – that word didn’t do justice to how seeing a human die made me feel. It was a turn on – it was like having an orgasm that lasted all night long.

  “Are you all right?” I heard someone whisper.

  “Huh?” I said, glancing sideways and looking into Potter’s ugly face.

  “You have a crazy kinda look on your face,” he said, staring at me with a frown from beneath the blood smeared over his face. “You look like you’re gonna come in your pants or something. That is your brother they’re gonna kill anytime now…”

  “I don’t need you to remind me my brother is going to die today,” I hissed through gritted teeth at him. “I was just remembering…”

  “Remembering what?” Potter said, still looking confused. “The first time you beat yourself off?”

  “Fuck you, Potter,” I spat, crawling away on my belly. I just wanted to be away from him. I didn’t need him judging me. I knew he enjoyed killing as much as I did. That was the problem with the Vampyrus – they refused to admit that their shit stank just as bad as the wolves’ did.

  “No, fuck you,” Potter said, coming after me on his knees. “You were getting off on the thought of there being an execution, you twisted sonofabitch.”

  When I knew I was out of sight from the jail and hidden behind some trees, I scrambled to my feet and rounded on Potter. Before I’d had a chance to reach for him, he too had sprung to his feet.

  “Okay, so let’s not delay the main event any longer!” the DJ yelled through the speaker. His high-pitched voice echoed back off the surrounding hills. “Please welcome to the stage, our executioner!”

  I could hear the crowd erupt in a chorus of cheers and whistles. I knew the executioner in his black hood would now be stepping out onto the stage.

  “Do you like the sound of that?” Potter barked at me, pointing back towards the town. “Is that how you get your kicks?”

  “Don’t you dare judge me,” I barked, going toe-to-toe with Potter. I towered over him, but he refused to budge.

  “Kill him! Kill him! Kill him!” the wolves chanted in the distance and for a moment I thought they were urging me on to rip Potter’s head off. I clenched my fists, digging my nails into the balls of my hands instead of Potter’s upturned face. The desire to kill him once and for all was overwhelming.

  Then just as I thought I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from killing him, Lilly shoved herself between us.

  “It’s like being with a couple of kids. How are you two ever going to save Kiera Hudson if you can’t even talk to each other without getting into a fight?”

  “He started it,” Potter said. “He punched me in the goddamn face!”

  “You want to be thankful I didn’t…” I started, his whining starting to piss me off again.

  “Please, can you both stop bitching for just one minute?” Lilly sighed with frustration, placing her hands on her hips. She stared at the both of us with her bright eyes. “You two are giving me a freaking headache. Now both apologise to each other and make up or…”

  “Oh this is just fucking great,” Potter laughed, crusty dried blood flaking away from beneath his nose and around the corners of his mouth. “If you honestly believe that I’m gonna say sorry, then you’re crazier than him, sweetheart.”

  Lilly glared at me and said, “Say sorry, Jack.”

  “Yeah, say sorry, Jack,” Potter cut in.

  “No!” I howled. “Never!”

  “See,” Potter said, looking at Lilly. “The guy’s a freaking idiot.”

  “And so are you!” Lilly shouted, prodding Potter in the chest with one bright red fingernail. “Even though you both know that the woman you both claim to love is in mortal danger – you still can’t bury your differences to help her. Well, if you two can’t be bothered, then why should I be? It looks like I’ve wasted my time in coming here. I should have let both of you die.”

  I watched Lilly storm away, her long, white fur coat flapping about her heels as she marched up the side of the hill. I glanced at Potter, then back at Lilly’s retreating figure. Turning my back on Potter, I followed her up the hillside.

  Chapter Five

  Potter

  If Lilly Blu honestly thought Jack Seth would ever get an apology from me, then she better head straight back to the crack den she’d obviously come from. She must be off her freaking head if she thought I’d ever say sorry to that streaky piece of shit. I would never say sorry to any wolf, regardless if they saved my life or not. They were all child-murdering scum as far as I was concerned. I saw the look in that freak’s eyes as he heard the wolves cheering at the thought of an execution. The thought of it was getting him excited. That was his little brother they were gonna kill, for fuck’s sake.

  I watched Jack turn away and head up the hill after Lilly Blu. Apart from her obvious beauty, God only knows what Murphy ever saw in her.

  “And he always accused me of thinking with my dick,” I muttered to myself, heading up the hill after Jack and Lilly. It was almost impossible to breathe as my nose was clogged with dry clots of blood. I pushed my forefinger into my right nostril and hooked out one of the scabs of dry blood. Rolling it into a ball between my thumb and forefinger, I flicked it at Jack’s back.

  “Have some of that, you fucking pervert,” I muttered.

  It stuck to the back of his blue denim shirt.

  “Did you say something?” Jack sneered over his shoulder at me.

  “Nope,” I shrugged. “It must be your delusional other self you can hear.
Maybe it’s your conscience talking.”

  Jack made a huffing noise, and faced front again. I picked a piece of flaky dried blood from my top lip and flicked this at Jack’s back. This time my aim wasn’t so great, and it pinged off the back of his neck. Jack slapped the back of his neck with his hand as if swatting a gnat. Seeing this, I laughed.

  “What the fuck is wrong with you?” Jack glared back again at me. This time he stopped, so he could turn and face me.

  “It’s nothing,” I said, trying to stifle my laughter.

  “So you often burst into uncontrollable fits of laughter for no reason?” Jack spat. “And here I was thinking I was the only one with problems.”

  “There’s no problem,” I glared at him.

  Not liking being laughed at, Jack strode down the hill towards me.

  “Tell me what’s so freaking funny, Potter, or I’ll rip your…” Jack suddenly stopped as if something had caught his attention from over my shoulder.

  I turned around to see what it was that had grabbed his attention. From our position high up on the side of the hill, the town of Wasp Water lay sprawled below us. We had a bird’s eye view of the town square and the wolves pressed into it. I could see the stage that had been erected. The sounds of their cheering and chanting swept towards us on the wind.

  “UNMASK HIM! UNMASK HIM! UNMASK HIM!” The wolves howled below.

  I could see the executioner standing behind a hooded figure. That figure didn’t need to be unmasked for me to know who was beneath it. The guy with the microphone pressed to his lips stepped forward, and yanked off the prisoner’s hood. Again, I had that unnerving feeling of experiencing some kind of out-of-body experience as I watched myself being unmasked in the town square. I had to remind myself that it wasn’t me or a twin – it was Nik who had taken my place so that I could be free to help Kiera and my friends. Then turning cold, I spotted Kiera desperately fighting to reach the stage. Not to get a better view of the impending execution, but to try and save the man she loved – me. My new heart ached as I saw her throw her hands to her face and cry out at the sight of me on the stage. My face – Nik’s face – was swollen and bruised. Those who had come to the cell to collect him had obviously beaten him when discovering the remains of what they believed to be Jack Seth. Nik’s eyes were swollen shut and my already bent out of shape nose was spread across my face like a flattened tomato.

  “KILL HIM!” the crowd cried.

  I watched as Kiera fought her way through the crowd and towards the stage. I took a step forward on the hillside wanting to go to her. To tell her that it wasn’t really me they were going to kill. I was desperate to let her know that Nik had swapped places with me. I took another step forward, then felt a hand fall on my shoulder.

  “No,” Jack whispered, “or my brother’s death would be for nothing.”

  With my heart pounding in my chest, I looked down into the town square again.

  The wolves appeared to be throwing objects at the stage.

  These objects bounced off Nik, staining his naked upper torso red and black.

  “What are they throwing?” I asked, feeling numb at the sight of such brutality.

  “Human remains,” Jack whispered, and I thought that perhaps I detected just the faintest note of shame in his voice.

  I didn’t say anything. What was there to say? Words seemed so inadequate as I stood and watched Nik being forced down over the guillotine. I watched him lower his head as if accepting his fate. That should have been me – not him. That was my fate – right or wrong – that should have been me. I stepped forward again, a sudden urge to take the young wolf’s place.

  Another hand gripped my left forearm.

  “No,” a voice whispered. I glanced left to see Lilly standing beside me. The wind tugged her white hair from around her face, revealing her striking beauty. I looked back down at the town square, and could see Kiera push her way towards the stage. Nik still had his head cast down.

  The wolves continued to roar and howl. I could see the pain on Kiera’s face as she fought desperately to reach me. I just wanted to go to her, to hold her in my arms and tell her that I was safe. Sensing that I might bolt free at any moment, I felt both Lilly and Jack tighten their grips on me.

  “We have to stop this,” I said. “We can’t let Nik die and we can’t let Kiera believe I’m dead. It’s wrong.”

  “Try and stop it now and we’re all dead,” Lilly said, matter-of-factly. “What good would that do?”

  “But that’s your brother down there,” I said, looking at Jack.

  “And so is my sister,” he said back, his face gaunt and taut-looking. There was no fire in his eyes now. “If we can put things right – maybe push back a little – then my brother’s death wouldn’t have been for nothing.”

  I looked back at the town square to see the blade of the guillotine come racing down, the winter sunlight winking back at me from its razor-sharp edge. The crowd roared with excitement. I felt Jack’s hand slide slowly from my shoulder as he turned his narrow back on the scene below. I watched as Kiera reached for me, then buckle to her knees. The crowd of wolves seemed to wash over her like a wave.

  “Kiera!” I cried out.

  “Shhh!” Lilly warned me, pulling at my arm, dragging me back up the hill.

  “Get the fuck off me,” I growled, pushing her hand from me. I peered back down into the square. I desperately scanned the crowds for any sign of Kiera. “I’ve got to help her.”

  “No!” Lilly howled.

  “But…” I started.

  “Potter, c’mon,” Lilly almost seemed to plead, yanking at the sleeve of my coat again.

  Then I saw another face I recognised in the crowd. It was Meren, and Kiera was with her. Meren was leading Kiera back through the crowd, out of town, and away from danger. I lost sight of them behind a row of houses. I ran back up the hill to get a better view. I ran frantically up and down between the trees in search of a glimpse of Kiera and Meren. I had to know that Kiera got away safely.

  “There’s Kiera!” I gasped, pointing down onto the road that led out of town.

  “We should get going,” Lilly said. “It’s not safe here.”

  From high up on the hillside, I looked down at Meren, her arm wrapped around Kiera as she led her out of Wasp Water. It was then I remembered the connection between Meren and Lilly. Meren was Lilly’s daughter.

  “C’mon,” Lilly hissed, yanking at my arm again.

  Glancing back at her, I said, “I can’t leave Kiera as quickly as you were prepared to leave your…” I stopped myself before I said any more.

  “What were you going to say?” Lilly asked, staring at me, the collar of her white fur coat flapping about the sides of her face.

  “Nothing,” I whispered, looking away and back at the road. I couldn’t tell Lilly that the girl helping Kiera out of Wasp Water was her daughter. Was Lilly the same Lilly who Murphy had loved when she had called herself Penelope Flack? That had been in a different when and where. Did she remember that life, or had she forgotten about Murphy and her daughters, just like Sophie Harrison had forgotten all about me? Remembering me had only caused Sophie a world of pain and ultimately her death, so I decided not to say anything to Lilly about Meren.

  I watched as Kiera dropped to her knees on the road just outside of town, and again, I had to fight the overwhelming urge to go to her.

  “Kiera is safely out of town,” Jack said, coming up beside me and looking down at the road.

  “Then we can go to her,” I said. “We can tell her that I’m still alive.”

  “No,” Lilly said. “Kiera has to believe that you’re dead if you and Jack are going to push back!”

  Chapter Six

  Jack

  Lilly led us away from the side of the hill. The cheers and roar of the hungry crowd in the square eventually faded like a dream on waking. Potter dragged behind. I didn’t look back often, but when I did, he too was looking back in the direction we had come. I knew h
e was thinking about Kiera. He had struggled to walk away and leave her out on the road, broken and crying. I had to tell myself that I was doing a good thing by walking away and following Lilly over the hill and down into the valley on the other side. But who was I trying to kid? I’d forgotten how to be good a whole lifetime ago. Being good didn’t come easy to me. I struggled with that. I rubbed my right temple with my fingers, then loosened the bandana about my throat. Sometimes the thoughts of killing gnawed away at me. It was like they hacked away at my brains like an ice-pick. When the urge to kill was bad, it felt like I was being strangled by my desires. It was an addiction that I had struggled with my whole life. I rubbed my temples again as the sun began to set in the west like an eye swollen with blood. Was addiction the right word? An addiction could be beat – it could be broken – so why couldn’t I stop killing? My first kill had been my own mother and that had been the sweetest. To kill the person who had brought so much pain to my life had felt like more than just revenge. It had given me the taste – the hunger to kill again. I had murdered so many women and children now, that I had lost count of the number of my victims – but one thing I had never forgotten was how the first had felt so fucking good. I had never managed to recapture that high again. I had tried, believe me. Yes, sir. I’d tried to spice my killings up a bit by adding some torture into the mix – even some fucking amputations – but nothing had been quite like my first. Had the first kill felt so good because it had been my mother? I didn’t know. But one thing was for sure – I’d searched for that feeling my whole life but had never been able to recapture it. Eloisa had helped me with my cravings. She had taught me the pleasures of new highs of a different kind. We had sex often. Eloisa’s appetite and willingness to please had been unmatchable. She had been a monster in her own way. I hadn’t killed once during my time with Eloisa – I had discovered a different kind of satisfaction. But when she had gone – murdered by Potter – it didn’t take me long to fall back into my old ways. But this time it was worse for me. I had two cravings to satisfy and when they were bought together – the trip I got was truly mind-fucking-blowing. Even that Hen Party of human females I’d worked my way through in that hotel room did little to sedate my murderous desires. Even though I left that hotel room looking something close to a fucking slaughterhouse, I still wanted more. The way in which I had defiled their bodies hadn’t been enough. The cops were still looking for the sonofabitch who raped and slaughtered those seventeen young women, even though it had happened over thirty-five years ago. I doubted they would ever stop looking. I’d killed plenty more since then – but that had been me at my worst – or best – I sometimes thought with a smile. But still it had not given me the rush of my first kill. Nothing had come close to that. Would I ever feel such intensity in my soul again? I doubted it, and there was a part of me that really didn’t give a shit anymore. Something was changing deep within me. It had started in that room with Kiera. I’d ensnared her there to kill her – perhaps killing my sister would’ve given me the orgasmic thrill I’d been searching for. But something happened. I don’t know what – I can’t put my finger on it – but there was something. I started to change in that room. I’d thought about it ever since. I hadn’t been able to sleep. Each long and drawn out night I had spent trying to figure out what it was she had done to me in that room. Had she tricked me in some way? Cast a spell over me perhaps? No, she had done neither of those things. But I had started to feel something I hadn’t since…