Vampire Breed (Kiera Hudson Series Book Four)

by Tim O'Rourke

  “Where is it?” I asked him. “I need to find it.”

  “I don’t know,” Nik said.

  “Did Hunt tell you who he thought this traitor might be?” I asked him. “And why would he trust you?”

  “No he didn’t know who it was,” he said. “And he trusted me because he knew that I was trying to make amends for my previous sins. Doctor Hunt understood how much I wanted to be free of my curse.”

  Staring down at my leg, I said, “So what is it that Phillips has planned for me tomorrow?”

  “They started to breed the half-breeds in some desolate factory farm a few miles from here. But just as Hunt had planned, they didn’t live very long – the infection from the bite I gave you attacks their immune system and they die, so they abandoned the factory,” Nik said. “Although Phillips and his crew don’t know that the infection was deliberately placed there by Hunt, they’re smart enough to know that it’s the infection in your leg that has destroyed the DNA that they had. So now they know your leg is better they plan to start breeding tomorrow.”

  “Breeding?” I said, my heart thumping in time with the jabbing pains in my stomach.

  “Phillips is happy that he has the correct code now, so tomorrow they start the breeding process with you and your friends Kayla and Isidor.”

  “But what if my leg hadn’t healed?” I asked him.

  “They were going to kill you,” he said. “They suspected that once you had died, the infection inside of you would have died too and they would have just taken the sample then.”

  “So why didn’t they just kill me weeks ago and just take what they wanted?” I asked Nik.

  “Whoever this traitor is – this invisible person without a face - wants you alive for some reason,” he said, then looked away.

  “So this invisible man is my protector? My saviour?” I scoffed

  “Let’s just say – whoever it is, doesn’t solely have your best interests at heart – but for the time being, you are safe; for the time being, they need you,” Nik barked over his shoulder.

  “Need me for what?” I pushed.

  Nik slinked back across the cell and stood under the hole. He turned to face me. “I don’t know,” he said, then left my cell.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Should I have told Nik about my planned escape? I wondered. After all, he said that he was trying to redeem himself. But then again, he was a serial killer who wanted to torture and murder me! Could he really be trusted, when at any moment my ally might become my executioner? No. Even through the pain that clouded my mind, I knew that I had made the right decision in not telling him about my escape. He had spoken about trust, how Hunt had suspected that one of my friends was a traitor, and even though I knew that Murphy suspected the same – I couldn’t bring myself to believe that. I mean, who out of them would do such a thing? And why?

  With daybreak not far off, Phillips and Sparky would soon come for me to start their perverse breeding program. Knowing I only had a matter of hours to get free of my cell, find Luke, Kayla and Isidor and then find my way out of the zoo, I lifted the broom above me and forced the head between the gap I’d made between the ceiling and the mesh.

  Placing all of my weight on the handle of the broom, I pulled. The wire gave a little but not enough. With one hand above the other, I pulled my way up the length of the handle, but my hands were clammy with fever and I slipped down the broom and landed in a heap on the floor. It was covered with dirt and dust, so I rubbed the palms of my hands across the ground until they were covered in muck. Taking hold of the broom again, I started to haul myself up towards the hole.

  This time around, my hands gripped the handle firmly and I managed to heave myself up. Once I was level with the hole, I placed the fingers of my right hand through the mesh, and held onto the edge of the hole with my left. I then began to rip and pull on the wire with all my strength. At first, the wire showed no sign of moving, so I continued to pull at it. I yanked so hard that the wire cut into my fingers and they began to bleed. I looked at the blood, then turned away. I couldn’t allow myself to think about that now, no matter how much my body screamed at me to slide back down the broom handle and eat some of the red stuff in the bowl. Bit by bit, tiny pieces of plaster began to fall away from the edge of the hole and the wire mesh began to loosen some more.

  The growling on the other side of the hatch started up again and I knew deep within me that it was responding to the sounds of my breakout. It would only be a matter of minutes before Phillips came bursting through my cell door with Sparky cackling hysterically behind him.

  Then a voice from my nightmares whispered in my ears as I remembered Doctor Hunt sitting beside my bed in the facility.

  “Someone I could trust,” he said. “Someone I knew who would have the sight to find a way to escape these Vampyrus.”

  I closed my eyes and understood the trust and belief that Hunt had placed in me. I couldn’t let him down – I couldn’t let myself down. So in sheer desperation, I began to rip the wire free. Taking hold of it with both hands, I swung from it like a monkey. I pulled at it with all my weight, as my feet swayed above the floor of my cell. My legs swung back and forth in the air, and I kicked out to give myself some momentum. I could feel a warm sensation running down my arms, and in the darkness I could just make out thick streams of blood oozing from between my fingers.

  Then suddenly, just when I was about to give up hope – the wire mesh gave way and I fell to the floor. I landed on my back, squeezing the air from lungs. There was a noise from the corridor outside and the owner of the paw on the other side of the hatch released an agonising howl into the night. I got to my feet, doubled up in pain and fought to suck mouthfuls of air back into my lungs.

  The broom lay on the floor beside me and I snatched it up. I pushed it through the hole and hooked it in one of the corners. Yanking on it to make sure it was secure, I began to hoist my way back up the broom handle. I didn’t get very far before my hands began to slip again, as the blood continued to pour from my torn fingers. Dropping back to the floor, I hastily wiped my hands against my hospital gown.

  Keys jangled in the lock of my cell door. I could hear laughing coming from outside and I could picture Sparky grinning from ear to ear in the dark. Turning my back on the cell door, closing my mind to that insane laughter, I took hold of the broom handle and started to climb. One hand over the other I went, as I shinned my way towards the hole above me with those words of Doctor Hunt whispering in my ears like a weak radio signal.

  “– someone I knew who would have the sight to find a way to escape these Vampyrus!”

  At the top of the broom handle, I reached out with my right hand and took hold of the edge of the hole. I then let go of the broom with my left hand and pulled myself up. My back scraped against what was left of the wire mesh, and I could feel those black finger-like bones recoil. I bit into my lower lip to stop myself from screaming out in pain.

  Sweat ran into my eyes as I forced the upper half of my body through the hole. Immediately I felt my face caressed by a crisp cold breeze. It felt wonderful – like an angel stroking my face. I hoisted my way up onto my elbows and crawled onto the roof. To be out of that cell felt wonderful. At last I felt free and that feeling was incredible.

  I looked back down into the darkness and saw Phillips charge into my cell, followed closely by Sparky. Phillips seemed to be momentarily confused, and then glanced upwards. Seeing me standing looking down at him, he screamed with rage. He brandished his fangs and even in the dark, they glowed yellow in his mouth. I watched as he raced across the cell, clattering into Sparky and sending him flying from my view. Phillips grabbed for the broom handle, but I quickly pulled it up through the hole and out of his reach.

  “You won’t escape me, Kiera!” he roared from below.

  ‘You’ve gotta catch me first!” I spat and turning away from the edge of the hole, I ran across the roof of the cell.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Teete
ring on the edge of the roof like a tightrope walker, I used the broom handle to balance myself. I looked down below, and in the gloom I could see something huge and white pacing back and forth.

  So I was right, that huge white paw did belong to a polar bear! I thought. Just then, the creature looked up at me and howled and I could see that it was actually a wolf that was as big as a polar bear!

  Staring up at me, it made a wailing sound in the back of its throat as if alerting everyone else in the zoo that I was making my escape.

  “Where do you think you are going?” It called angrily up at me. “You can’t escape!”

  Looking all about me, I couldn’t see any way off the roof. I began to panic as I raced along the outer edge of the wall. Running back in the direction I had come from, I saw that there was another building with a flat roof adjacent to the rooftop I was on. I ran towards the edge of the building and estimated the gap between the two to be about ten foot. Taking several paces backwards, I drew in a deep breath and ran as fast as I could towards the gap. A splinter of pain knifed its way up my right leg from the scabby-gash that had now mostly healed. If the pain had been a colour it would have been dark and purple, as it electrified all the nerve endings on its way up to my brain. Then suddenly, my legs seemed to take on a life of their own as they began to quicken. I looked down at them and they seemed almost a blur.

  As I reached the edge of the building at an incredible speed, I threw myself into the air and soared across the gap. Landing with a thud on the other side, I rolled onto my back. The other Lycanthrope and Vampyrus in the zoo must have sensed something was up, as they began to roar, shriek, and howl.

  I raced across the roof I had just landed on and didn’t stop until I reached the other side. Looking down into the darkness, I could see water. It looked black and velvety, and would make a soft landing.

  As I stood on the ledge and prepared to jump, a voice from inside my head screamed, “What’s in the water?”

  Then from behind me, came the deep sound of roaring. I looked over my shoulder to see Phillips scrambling onto the roof. But he no longer looked like my old sergeant who had trained me back at training school; he had taken on his true Vampyrus form again. Turning away from him, I looked down at the black water, closed my eyes and jumped, the broom still firmly gripped in my hand.

  I plunged in with an almighty splash. It was cold and I felt something large brush up against me. Instinctively, I kicked my legs out beneath the water to push whatever it was away. Holding my breath, I swam to the surface, and using my broom as a float, I paddled to the edge of the pool. As I climbed out, I looked back over my shoulder again to see Phillips leaping from the roof, his giant black wings rippling on either side of him.

  “Come back!” he screeched as he swooped towards me.

  From all around the zoo, I could hear the sounds of howling, barking, and gnashing of fangs and it was almost deafening. Then, closer to me, I heard the sound of screeching. It was coming from behind me. I whirled around, brandishing my broom in the air. It was then that I realised what it was that had swam along side me in the pool. A vampire was climbing out of the water and it was racing towards me.

  Sprinting around the edge of the water in a blur of shadows, I headed towards a door that was set amongst the rocks and boulders that had been built to recreate some kind of sea life area in the zoo. The sound of Phillips’ beating wings was right behind me now and I dared not look back to see that mountain of muscle and black hair swooping out of the night at me.

  The door was only feet away as I felt Phillips swipe at me with one of his mighty arms. His fingers ran down the length of my back, as he tried to take hold of my hospital gown. But I was just beyond his reach and I shot through the door and slammed it closed behind me.

  The door rocked in its frame as Phillips crashed into it on the other side. I lent against the door as he tried to force it open. My bare feet began to slide across the tiled floor, as he smashed against the door. I turned slightly and barged the door closed with my shoulder. There was a bolt and I frantically fumbled with it in an attempt to lock the door. But Phillips was too strong and he rammed the door open an inch or two. I peered through the gap as he pressed his giant-sized head against it. I looked straight into one of his black eyes and he glared back at me.

  “You can’t get away,” he growled and his breath was hot and stank of that same meat I’d eaten.

  “I won’t be your prisoner!” I yelled, as I jabbed the end of the broom between the gap in the door and rammed him between the eyes.

  Phillips wailed in pain and fell backwards. Seizing my chance, I forced the door closed and locked it. No sooner had I slid the bolt into its housing then Phillips was crashing and banging on the other side again. The door began to bow and splinter under the weight of his pounding claws.

  Fearing that the door would soon come smashing down, I ran frantically around the area that I now found myself in, desperately looking for another way out.

  I found myself in a large room filled with metal cages. Some of them were stacked neatly on top of each other and some had been thrown across the floor. I raced amongst them and slipped over on several decomposing lumps of flesh that lay stinking on the ground. Ahead of me there was another door. I sprinted towards it and without thinking; I pushed the door open and went tearing out into the grounds of the zoo.

  The night had started to fade and the first rays of daylight could be seen slicing through the clouds above. That was good wasn’t it? I screamed inside my head. At least the vampires wouldn’t be able to track me in daylight.

  I found myself in a wide, open area, which had animal enclosures built all around it. Nervously, I looked around. To the right of me, I could see empty animal cages and to the left some kind of enclosure that was littered with hay and half-eaten pieces of meat. The huge metal bars, which had once kept the animals locked inside, had now been twisted apart or ripped down.

  What had happened to all the animals? I wondered.

  Then the sound of the door finally giving way under Phillips’ weight startled me back into action and I ran down the concrete path that ran between the animal cages. I rounded a bend in the path and froze. Standing before me only feet away was a wolf. Its giant snout was buried in the stomach of a human corpse that lay spread across the path ahead of me. Slowly, very slowly I started to back away, not wanting to disturb it and draw attention to my presence. I’d only gone a few feet, when the wolf raised its huge head and glared at me. Its yellow eyes burnt with anger, and its razor-sharp teeth glinted in the early morning light.

  “Stop right there!” it boomed in a thunderous voice.

  I continued to edge away as the wolf licked the blood from its snout and began to kick at the ground with its front claws.

  He’s gonna charge at me! I screamed inside as I continued to shuffle backwards. Although doubting it would offer me any protection against this beast, I raised my broom into the air.

  Then, as I had suspected, the wolf lowered its head and brandishing its teeth, it came racing towards me. Wheeling round, I ran back in the direction I had come. I raced back past the empty cages, and as I reached the door that I had only moments before burst through, Phillips came bounding out. He immediately swiped at me with his meaty arms and I dropped to the floor and rolled under them. I clambered to my feet and continued to run as fast and as hard as I could. My right leg began to burn as I propelled myself forward – faster and faster and faster!

  There was a fork in the path and I glanced up to see a sign that read, ‘Zoo Exit’. I raced towards it. Souvenir shops, hotdog and ice cream stands looking derelict and unused whooshed past me in a haze.

  I stole a quick glance back over my shoulder and could see both Phillips and the wolf were only feet away. I pressed onwards, my arms pumping up and down like pistons, my legs thrusting me onwards, creating a blaze of dust, which trailed behind me like smoke.

  At last, ahead of me, I could see the turnstiles that the visitors
had once used when visiting the zoo. Beyond these were a huge set of iron gates that towered up into the sky. I could see freedom waiting for me on the other side of those gates – I could smell it and my mouth almost watered at the thought.

  Then there was something on my back, its paws were dragging me down by my shoulders. I frantically tried to look backwards expecting to see Phillips but he had slowed down along with the wolf some way back.

  The sound of hysterical laughter filled my ears and I knew who it was that had pounced on me. I fell to the ground under the weight of Sparky, as he barked and snarled. I rolled onto my back and he lay across my chest, his huge pink tongue dribbling onto my face.

  “Get the fuck off me!” I screamed. “Let me go!”

  Sparky just looked at me wildly with his crazy yellow eyes and cackled with laughter and in them, just like I had with Jack Seth and Nik, I could see into his murderous soul. But unlike the others, when I looked into Sparky’s eyes, I didn’t see images of him torturing and murdering me – it was Mrs. Lovelace that I watched him butcher. My head jerked backwards as my mind splintered with graphic pictures of him leading her into Hallowed Manor, believing he was taking her to safety. I could see Sparky pushing open the giant drawing room doors. Then he was tearing at her throat, dragging his claws down the length of her wrinkled neck, her blood spraying his face.

  Then he was moving away, sniffing the air like an animal - a wolf. I watched him as if I had been there the whole time, as he climbed the stairs that led from the great hall and made his way up towards the forbidden wing. But someone was waiting for him up at top of the stairs, shrouded in darkness. They stood on the landing, their head cast down, long black wings trailing from their back. Darkness cloaked them, and I tried to see through it. But the darkness masking their identity wasn’t cast by the shadows at the top of the stairs, it was as if the blackness radiated from them - a darkness so dark that it blinded me from seeing who they were.