by Tim O'Rourke
“I don’t know about that,” Sidney said thoughtfully.
“Don’t you want peace?” I asked him. “Wouldn’t you like to see an end to this war – to this pointless bloodshed and killing?”
“Of course I would, but…” he started.
“But what?” I cut in.
“But not all of the vampires see things the way I do… the way me and you do,” he said.
“There are others like you though, aren’t there?” I said. “You’re not the only vampire who wants to see an end to this war. I believe the true reason you’ve come out here today is you’ve come looking for a story to go back to tell your people – to tell them that perhaps we’re not so bad and that perhaps I don’t shoot laser bolts from my arse and laser beams from my eyes. And that the werewolves I travel with are small in number and really mean you no harm. I can see that you’re not some great warrior. You carry a pencil and notebook, not a sword like the others. You don’t believe in fighting any more than I do.”
Sidney looked down at the pen and notebook that he was holding then back at me.” You’re right about me and there are other vampires who would like to see an end to this war…”
“Then isn’t it worth a shot?” I said, taking another step closer to the hole in the wall. “What harm can possibly be caused by going back to Maze and speaking with Veronica Cabal and asking her to meet with me?”
“She wouldn’t come here and you dare not go to Maze,” Sidney said, sliding his notebook and pen into his breast pocket. He scratched his chin as if pondering.
“Then we meet someplace neutral,” I suggested, daring to believe my plan may come to fruition.
For what seemed like forever, Sidney stood on the opposite side of the spell I’d cast and looked at me.
“So what do you say?” I urged him. “Will you go back and speak with your leader? Will you tell her that you’ve spoken with me and I would like to meet on neutral ground to negotiate a peace between us all?”
With his pale blue eyes still on me, Sidney the reporter slowly nodded his head. “Okay, I’ll give it a try. I will speak with Veronica Cabal and ask if she will meet with you. I’m not promising anything, but I will give it my best shot.”
“How will I know if you are successful?” I asked him.
“I will return here in three days’ time – to this exact spot and tell you her answer,” he said, before hurrying away as if he was as eager as I was to set the plan in motion. Then, before he’d gone very far, he stopped and looked back over his broad shoulder at me. “Who should I tell Veronica it is who wants to meet with her? What is your name?”
“Tell her my name is Julia Miller,” I said, before turning away, a smile of hope spreading wide across my face.
Chapter Twelve
I couldn’t recall a time when I’d felt so excited – so hopeful about the future. If the reporter, Sidney Watson, was to go back to Maze, speak with Veronica Cabal and get her to agree to meet with me, then I wouldn’t risk having to go into Maze. It would be safer for me to meet with her on neutral ground and I could indeed go alone. In fact, I could meet with her and have a truce negotiated before Trent and the others returned to Shade with more werewolves. My skin tingled with excitement and my mind buzzed as I made my way back through Shade, past the Weeping Wolf, through the alleyway, back across town, and to my house on the edge of the park.
Feeling elated, I closed the front door behind me and headed upstairs to my room. I fought the urge to go in search of Calix and Morten and tell them about my meeting with Sidney Watson and what we had planned. I didn’t want to tell them anything until the plan had been set in place. I didn’t want to build up their hopes that a truce might be within grasping reach for all of us. But there was something else and I just couldn’t shrug it off. There was a part of me that didn’t want to have my plans scuppered. I wasn’t convinced that either Calix or Morten would deliberately ruin my plans for peace, but I sensed the less people that knew of it the better – for now at least.
But if I was going to meet the vampire leader, Veronica Cabal, in the very near future, I would need to have a plan set out. I would need to know what it was I was going to ask of her, what terms we could negotiate on. It would be no good for me to turn up without any idea of how this peace plan was actually going to work. Would we just simply agree to keep apart – to keep out of each other’s way? That had been tried before when the vampires were placed in encampments at the edge of the human towns and cities and the werewolves banished to the mountains. That had only led to resentment and mistrust between all the species. No, there had to be a better way. But what was it? How would we come up with a truce that would please all sides?
I knew that the first thing I would ask Veronica Cabal to do was to set the humans free. They were no longer to be kept prisoners like cattle for food. For me that was non-negotiable. The human farm and any others like it would have to be destroyed at once and the humans would have to be given back their homes and their freedom. Perhaps we could create some kind of counsel where the vampires, werewolves, and humans and the wicce were all represented fairly and in equal number. The negotiations would have to go slowly and trust would have to be built between myself and Veronica Cabal.
With so many thoughts and ideas scrambling my brain, I knew that I had to form some kind of rational and coherent list of ideas. So, leaving my bedroom, I headed back along the landing and to the study. Here I searched the desk drawers for a notepad and pen. Plucking them up, I went back to my bedroom and sat on the bed, cross-legged, the notepad in my lap and pen in my hand. Before I’d had a chance to write anything, I felt a sudden twist of pain in my stomach. It was agonising and I cried out, dropping the pen and notepad, rolling onto my side and then onto my back. Drawing my knees up to help relieve the pain, I felt my whole stomach move as if being wrenched from side to side. Hot bile rushed up my throat and into my mouth as I fought the urge to vomit again. The inside of my stomach felt as if it had twisted into knots. I cried out in pain once more.
Once on my back, I pulled up my sweatshirt to reveal my stomach. It looked more bloated than it had that morning. And then to my horror, the skin covering my stomach began to ripple and move like there was something living inside of me – like there was something trying to get out. Like I was pregnant.
To be continued in the final episode…
‘Vampires of Maze’ (Part Six)
Publishing August 2016!
More books by Tim O’Rourke
Kiera Hudson Series One
Vampire Shift (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 1
Vampire Wake (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 2
Vampire Hunt (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 3
Vampire Breed (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 4
Wolf House (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 5
Vampire Hollows (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 6
Kiera Hudson Series Two
Dead Flesh (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 1
Dead Night (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 2
Dead Angels (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 3
Dead Statues (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 4
Dead Seth (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 5
Dead Wolf (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 6
Dead Water (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 7
Dead Push (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 8
Dead Lost (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 9
Dead End (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 10
Kiera Hudson Series Three
The Creeping Men (Kiera Hudson Series Three) Book 1
The Lethal Infected (Kiera Hudson Series Three) Book 2
The Adoring Artist (Kiera Hudson Series Three) Book 3
The Secret Identity (Kiera Hudson Series Three) Book 4
The White Wolf (Kiera Hudson Series Three) Book 5
The Origins of Cara (Kiera Hudson Series Three) Book 6
The Kiera Hudson Prequels
The Kiera Hudson Prequels (Book One)
The Kiera Hudson P
requels (Book Two)
Kiera Hudson & Sammy Carter
Vampire Twin (Pushed Trilogy) Book 1
Vampire Chronicle (Pushed Trilogy) Book 2
The Alternate World of Kiera Hudson
Wolf Shift
Werewolves of Shade
Werewolves of Shade (Part One)
Werewolves of Shade (Part Two)
Werewolves of Shade (Part Three)
Werewolves of Shade (Part Four)
Werewolves of Shade (Part Five)
Werewolves of Shade (Part Six)
Vampires of Maze
Vampires of Maze (Part One)
Vampires of Maze (Part Two)
Vampires of Maze (Part Three)
Vampires of Maze (Part Four)
Vampires of Maze (Part Five)
Moon Trilogy
Moonlight (Moon Trilogy) Book 1
Moonbeam (Moon Trilogy) Book 2
Moonshine (Moon Trilogy) Book 3
The Jack Seth Novellas
Hollow Pit (Book One)
Black Hill Farm (Books 1 & 2)
Black Hill Farm (Book 1)
Black Hill Farm: Andy’s Diary (Book 2)
Sydney Hart Novels
Witch (A Sydney Hart Novel) Book 1
Yellow (A Sydney Hart Novel) Book 2
The Doorways Saga
Doorways (Doorways Saga Book 1)
The League of Doorways (Doorways Saga Book 2)
The Queen of Doorways (Doorways Saga Book 3)
The Tessa Dark Trilogy
Stilts (Book 1)
Zip (Book 2)
The Mechanic
The Mechanic
The Dark Side of Nightfall Trilogy
The Dark Side of Nightfall (Book One)
The Dark Side of Nightfall (Book Two)
The Dark Side of Nightfall (Book Three)
Samantha Carter Series
Vampire Seeker (Book One)
Vampire Flappers (Book Two)
Vampire Watchmen (Book Three)
Unscathed
Written by Tim O’Rourke & C.J. Pinard
You can contact Tim O’Rourke at
www.timorourkeauthor.com or by email at [email protected]