by Tim O'Rourke
The wind had picked up and there was a sudden chill in the air. I shivered, pulling the shawl tighter about my shoulders. The rain came down heavier now, driving into the branches of the trees that bent to and fro in the wind. I looked back down at the gatehouse and the drawbridge. It had been pulled up, shutting off the outside world from Hallowed Manor and its secrets. I wondered what secrets were hidden behind its walls in this world. I guessed I was soon to find out as Potter took me by the hand and led me up the drive to the large wooden front door.
“You said there were friends here?” I asked him, feeling little apprehensive now. “Will I know any of them?”
“You might,” Potter said, as if not wanting to give anything away.
I glanced sideways at him, rain dashing the lapels of his suit. He could be an arse at times, I knew, but it appeared he had dressed up for the secret birthday party he had obviously arranged for me. Together we climbed the steps that led to the front door. He pushed it open. I glanced inside. There was only darkness. I lingered on the top step.
“Are you okay?” Potter glanced at me, as if being able to sense my unease.
“Just a little nervous, I guess,” I shrugged.
“You have nothing to be nervous about,” he said, letting go of my hand and stepping inside.
I followed him into the gloom. Potter closed the door behind me, sending what sounded like a rumble of thunder throughout Hallowed Manor. I peered through the darkness and could see that I was standing in the vast hall. I could just make out the wide staircase that disappeared up into a wall of black. At the top, I knew the stairs spit to the left and the right. One had led to the bedrooms, the other to the forbidden wing. Was it still forbidden to go there?
There was a sudden flare of light in the darkness. Potter’s face appeared in the glare of the candle he had just lit.
“Candles?” I asked. “Is there no electricity?”
“Candlelight creates a certain kind of mood, don’t you think?” he said, the candlelight doing nothing to brighten his jet-black eyes. For a place that was meant to be the location of a birthday party, I couldn’t hear a sound. Perhaps everyone was waiting in the darkness, readying themselves to jump out, surprise me and wish me a happy birthday. I peered once again into the darkness. I could see doorways leading off it. I knew the third door to my left led to the huge kitchen.
“This way,” Potter said, heading across the hall and away from the kitchen. The sound of his shoes and my heels echoed off the highly polished floor and around the hall. Reaching a double set of doors, Potter looked at me once more. “Ready?”
“Ready for what?” I whispered.
Without saying another word, Potter pushed open the double doors. The room beyond them wasn’t in darkness like the hall. I was standing looking into the long dining room. There was a table running from one end of it to the other and it was lined with hundreds of candles. All of them were lit and bathed the cavernous room in a deep, fiery glow. Leaving me standing in the open doorway, Potter walked to the opposite end of the room, coming to rest at the end of the long table. There were several people sitting at it. And as each of them turned their faces toward me, it was as if I was bombarded with a hundred different memories of each of them all at once. Sitting opposite each other at the very far end of the table was Lord Hunt and Doctor Ravenwood. Neither of them looked any different from how I remembered them to be. Lord Hunt still looked pale and gaunt, a nest of wrinkles around his dark eyes and flecks of grey in otherwise black hair. Ravenwood still reminded me of a giant owl somehow. Perhaps it was his bushy white hair and the way his glasses always sat perched at the end of his hooked nose that made me think that. Neither of them said anything, they just stared at me as I stood alone in the doorway wearing my new dress. Both of them wore smart, dark coloured suits like Potter. I looked at Hunt and couldn’t help but wonder if he were at Hallowed Manor with his children, Kayla and Isidor. I looked at the other guests along each side of the table, but I couldn’t see them. Apart from one, I’d already met the others in this world. Murphy was seated at the table, and I was glad to see him. Next to him sat Phebe and Uri. I now understood why they had got Jeremy to cover for them at the Crescent Moon Inn. And seeing them both sitting at the table also made me feel a little guilty. Phebe had obviously only been prying into what my plans had been as they had been intending on throwing this surprise birthday party for me. Sitting opposite them on the other side of the table was someone who I knew but thought I would never see again. Mrs. Payne sat and looked at me. Her face was as wizened and hair silver as I remembered it to be. She still wore the same frumpy grey dress that she had when working as a housekeeper at Hallowed Manor. I had once believed her to be a doting housemaid to Kayla, who had been left in her charge. But Mrs. Payne had been a traitor and had helped plan the murders of the sick half-breeds hidden away in the makeshift hospital in the attic. Kayla had ripped Mrs. Payne’s throat out when she had learnt of her treachery. I couldn’t help but stare at the old woman and wonder if she could be trusted now. But what reason did I have to mistrust her in this world? She looked harmless enough as she sat, her liver-spotted hands laced together on the table before her. I looked at the group again and my heart couldn’t help but sink when realising that Kayla and Isidor were not amongst them.
“I’d like to welcome you all to this very special occasion,” Potter spoke up. All heads turned away from me and back at him as he stood at the head of the table.
My heart began to race a little. I felt kind of on the spot knowing why they had been gathered here.
“We have a new addition to our number,” Potter continued, looking down the length of the table at me. “Some of you know her well already and some of you not. So tonight we welcome this very special woman to The Creeping Men. Some friends couldn’t be here tonight to help celebrate but we know they will be thinking of her as she becomes one of us and they send their best wishes.”
Other friends? Who were they and were they really thinking of me? Kayla? Isidor? Melody Rose? Sam? My skin tingled with excitement at the thought that they at least knew of me, had heard my name, even if they didn’t remember that I was their friend.
“So if you would like to stand and raise your glasses,” Potter said as those gathered around the table pushed their chairs back, drinks in hands. They all turned to look in my direction. “Please welcome Sophie Harrison to The Creeping Men.”
I felt someone brush past me and looked around to see Sophie with a beaming smile stretched across her beautiful face.
Chapter Fourteen
“Sophie?” I gasped under my breath. This was all for her? Potter, Murphy, and the others had all gathered here to welcome her into The Creeping Men? I felt as if someone had snuck up on me and punched me hard in the guts. It was like I’d had the wind knocked from me. I felt stupid and embarrassed for even thinking that this party had anything to do with me. Why would any of them want to throw a party for me? I wanted to leave. I wanted to get out. Turn my back on the lot of them. I felt tears burn like fire in the corners of my eyes. I wanted to run and never stop running. My heart felt crushed. I felt like I had been torn apart.
What should I do? Turn and flee? Make my escape? But what would that make me look like? Jealous? Make me look a fool? And if I showed how devastated I felt inside, wouldn’t that show the group that I had secret feelings for Potter when he obviously didn’t have any for me? How was I going to spend the rest of the night watching Potter and Sophie together and pretend that it didn’t bother me? How was I going to hide from the others that my heart was breaking inside? And what were they doing inviting Sophie into the ranks of The Creeping Men? She was human. But what had Potter meant when he had said they were going to make Sophie one of us?
Those gathered along each side of the table began to clap as Sophie walked toward Potter. But she didn’t walk, it was like she glided and shimmered in her long, flowing dress. It sparkled like a thousand stars trapped in the candlelight from the table
. Her thick, blond hair hung in ringlets down her back. Her blue eyes shone and she smiled at Murphy, Uri, Phebe, and the others. Her dress made mine look like something I had dragged from the trash. The diamond necklace that hung about her neck gleamed like cat’s eyes. I put my fingers to the one Nev had made me.
Reaching the end of the table, Sophie folded her slender fingers around Potter’s hand. He looked down into her eyes and pulled her close. My heart felt like it was being strangled in my chest. To watch was unbearable. They kissed each other, and I glanced down at the floor. I couldn’t watch. To do so was breaking my heart. I felt a tear break free and drop onto my cheek. I brushed it away.
“Tonight is a special occasion for two reasons,” Potter said.
And not one of those reasons is because it’s my birthday, I thought.
“Not only does Sophie become one of The Creeping Men, she becomes one of us,” he said.
Hearing this, I jerked my head up. Was he serious? What did he mean one of us? He couldn’t turn her. It was forbidden. It wouldn’t work. She’d become a vampire. She’d become like one of those vampires that had once terrorised the Ragged Cove. I had to stop this madness.
“Won’t that be dangerous?” I spoke up, my voice sounding shaky and breathless.
Everyone in the room turned to look at me.
“Once perhaps,” Potter said, eyes fixed on mine.
“You can only change her if you bite her,” I said, looking straight back at him. “Your bite will poison Sophie.”
“Doctor Ravenwood and Lord Hunt have created an antidote,” Potter said. Then looking at Hunt, he added, “Tell Kiera what it is you have developed here at Hallowed Manor.”
Reaching into his suit jacket pocket, Hunt pulled out a bottle identical to the one that had been left in my room. It had a cork in it, but I could see the contents looked different. It wasn’t thick and red, but watery and black. It sloshed about the inside of the bottle as Lord Hunt held it in his hands. “This is called Lot 12,” Hunt started to explain. “A synthetic blood that will stop any cravings for human blood once Sophie has been turned by Potter.”
“Sophie won’t be a Vampyrus, she will become a vampire. This is madness,” I gasped.
“What is mad about wanting to spend eternity with the man I love?” Sophie spoke up.
“Because you’re human,” I tried to reason with her. “We’ve always been monsters – it’s what we are…”
“And it’s what I want to become,” Sophie insisted, sounding a little like a spoilt child.
“But being immortal comes at a heavy price,” I tried to warn her. Did she really have any idea the life she was preparing to embark on even if Hunt’s Lot 12 – or whatever they called it in this where and when – did take away her cravings for human flesh and blood?
“It’s a price I’m willing to pay to be with Sean,” she said, turning to gaze up into his eyes.
Sean? No one called Potter “Sean.”
“Potter, you can’t do this,” I said, trying to get him to see sense even if Sophie wouldn’t.
“Don’t get out of you pram, Kiera,” Potter smiled.
“This isn’t some kind of game,” I warned him.
What about Murphy? He had warned me not to go mixing it up with Nev because he was human, but he was here now as Sophie became a vampire. Vampires weren’t really like us – they were dangerous. Couldn’t he make Potter come to his senses?
“Murphy, you can’t agree with this?” I pleaded. “What would Lois Li say about this? What’s going on here is forbidden, isn’t it?”
“Lois Li has given her consent,” Murphy grunted, but he wouldn’t meet my stare. He took his pipe from his pocket and propped it in the corner of his mouth. He didn’t light it.
“Consent?” I gasped. “No one in their right mind would give their consent to this. It’s too dangerous.”
“Lot 12 has been rigorously tested,” Ravenwood spoke up, pushing his glasses onto the bridge of his nose, looking down the length of the table at me.
“Yeah? On who?” I shot back.
“Are you sure there’s not another reason you don’t want tonight to go ahead?” Sophie asked me.
“Like what?” I breathed.
“Like you’re just the tiniest bit jealous?” She half-smiled at me.
“Jealous of what, exactly?” I shot back at her.
“That Potter wants to spend the rest of eternity with me,” she said.
“Oh, please, you must be as dumb as Sean if you think that,” I lied. I was as jealous as hell and she could sense it.
“Then it really is none of your business,” she said, turning her stare from me and up at Potter, who still held her in his arms. “I’m ready, my love.” Sophie smiled at him.
Pulling her closer still, Sophie, tilted her head back, offering Potter her neck. From the end of the table I could see her veins running dark blue beneath her soft flesh. Potter lowered his face, stealing one quick glance at me. Our eyes met.
No! Don’t do it! I screamed inside.
Potter looked away, sinking his fangs deep into Sophie’s neck.
I watched in numb horror as his firm jaws moved slowly up and down as he drank from her. Thin rivers of blood ran from the corners of his mouth, over his chin, and down Sophie’s neck. She shuddered in his arms and made a sound like something close to ecstasy in the back of her throat. I couldn’t bear it. It reminded me too much of the times Potter and I had drank each other’s blood while making love. Then, just as I was about to turn away, Potter withdrew his fangs from her throat. She lay draped, dizzy, and weak-looking in his arms.
Hunt shot forward, thrusting the bottle of black stuff into Potter’s hand. “Now get her to drink this. It will neutralise your bite before it has a chance to infect her.”
Pulling the cork from the bottle with his fangs, Potter spat it away. He brought the bottle up to Sophie’s lips. “Drink this,” he whispered.
With trembling fingers, she took the bottle, pouring its contents into her mouth. I watched her throat bob up and down as she drained the black contents from the bottle. When she had guzzled down the last of it, Potter gently took the bottle from her. He eased her up in his arms, propping her against him. The others around the table were unable to take their eyes off her, as was I. It was as if we were all waiting for some kind of reaction. The room was so silent all I could hear was the sound of rain pelting against the long, narrow windows.
“Are you okay?” Potter whispered.
“I feel just a little dizzy, that’s all,” Sophie murmured, opening her eyes. She pressed one hand against her temple as she gazed about the room.
We all remained silent, my heart beating in my ears, part of me still unable to believe what I had just witnessed. I kept my eyes on Sophie. Her skin looked suddenly very pale – worse than pale. It was beginning to turn grey – the colour of stone. I had seen that colour before. It was the colour of paving – the colour of cracked paving stone.
“What’s happening to me?” Sophie suddenly gasped, raising both hands before her face, as if inspecting them.
From the opposite end of the room I could see the faintest of cracks start to appear in her flesh. They slowly began to cover the backs of her hands, arms, and face like an intricate spider’s web.
Chapter Fifteen
Sophie pushed Potter away with such force that he flew backwards, losing his balance and falling to the floor. The others pushed their chairs back as Sophie sprang up onto the table. As if her spine was twisting out of shape beneath her flesh, Sophie lay contorted on her front.
“What the fuck is happening here?” Potter demanded, shooting to his feet.
There was a tearing sound as Sophie’s back opened in a fine spray of blood. A pair of bedraggled and half-formed wings rippled from her back. She wailed in agony. I was surprised to see that vampires had wings in this where and when. Didn’t that make them even more dangerous? Sophie lifted her head, throwing it back as a pair of pointed fangs protrud
ed from her gums. Her cracked-looking hands twisted into claws. She scraped her dagger-like fingernails down the length of the table, forming deep, ragged grooves in the surface.
“What the fuck have you done to her?” Potter roared, springing over the table and grabbing Hunt by the throat. “You said that black shit would work.”
“I don’t understand,” Hunt choked in Potter’s grasp. “Lot 12 does work.”
Sophie screeched again, leaping away from the table at Murphy. He stumbled backwards on his injured leg, then drove his fist forward into Sophie’s face. She shot back through the air, her stubby, half-formed wings fluttering on either side of her.
“You didn’t have to fucking punch her!” Potter shouted at Murphy.
“Look at her!” Murphy bellowed back. “She ain’t Sophie no more. Can’t you see that?”
A giant plume of grey dust shot up into the air as Sophie crashed into the dining room wall under the sheer force of Murphy’s punch. I couldn’t be sure if the dust had come from Sophie’s cracked skin or the wall fragmenting beneath her. Dropping to the floor, she shook all over, then was up again, claws and fangs out as she leapt back across the room. Her shrieks were so deafening that I threw my hands to my ears. Both Uri and Phebe, dived at her – their own claws out now and fangs glistening in the candlelight. They clattered into her, pulling her from out of the air, her claws just inches from Mrs. Payne’s throat. But the old woman didn’t cower backwards; she too raised her gnarled-looking hands as they turned into a set of claws that looked something close to a set of knives.
“Help us restrain her!” Uri roared, as both he and Phebe fought to keep Sophie under control.
She threw her head forward over and over as she snapped at Uri’s and Phebe’s throats with her fangs. Ravenwood came rushing forward, his white mop of hair flopping over his brow like coiled springs. He gripped Sophie by the shoulders. Feeling his touch, Sophie drove her head backwards, slamming the back of her skull into the bridge of his nose. His glasses skittered away and he threw his giant hands to his face. Blood spurted through his fingers, staining the white hair that covered them scarlet.