by Tim O'Rourke
The first thing I noticed was that Isidor looked a lot better. His short dark brown hair looked freshly washed, and although his face looked tired, his blue eyes glistened, and his little beard was neatly trimmed beneath his chin. He wore a black jacket and combat trousers to match. I looked at Seth, and he looked older than I remembered him. He wore a baseball cap, which was pulled low across his brow and his eyes glowed yellow from his sunken eye sockets. His face still looked emaciated and his skin was waxy and pale. He stood bent forward, so as not to scrape his head against the ceiling of the cell. Seth wore the black denim jeans and blue denim shirt I‘d seen him wear before. The red bandanna was still knotted about his scrawny neck and his body still looked painfully thin.
“How do you feel, Kiera?” Isidor asked, rubbing his unshaven chin with the back of his hand.
“Better…I think,” I whispered, realising that those pains in my stomach had gone along with that incredible thirst. “How are you feeling?” I asked, realising that the last time I’d seen him, he sat slumped on the seat by the fountain in the town square.
“Not a hundred percent, but a million times better than I did,” Isidor smiled at me from the doorway.
“And Kayla?” I asked, trying to stand up, but my legs still felt as if they were made from jelly.
“She’s still sleeping,” Seth cut in.
“Sleeping where?” I asked, not entirely trusting him.
Sensing my distrust, Isidor came forward and said, “It’s okay, Kiera. Kayla is asleep in the cell next door.”
“How long have I been out of it?” I asked, my mouth feeling dry and my tongue like an old piece of carpet.
“Four days,” Seth said.
“Four days!” I croaked.
“You’ve been going cold-turkey,” Seth almost seemed to grin and his yellow eyes sparkled.
“Kayla and I have been going through the same,” Isidor explained. “I woke up from my nightmare yesterday.”
“Nightmare,” I whispered almost to myself. “I’ve had plenty of them.”
“You were delirious,” Seth said. “You’ve been shaking, convulsing, and God only knows what else as you battled your addiction to human flesh.”
“Is it over then?” I asked.
“There will be a constant battle going on in your body, heart, and soul for the rest of your life,” Seth explained. “You’ll never be free of it, but you’ll learn to control it. Then staring at me from beneath the brim of his baseball cap, his eyes took on a sudden glow and he smiled, “God knows, Kiera, that I have to fight my urges every time I’m near you.” And just for the briefest of moments I knew he wasn’t joking, as I saw those images again in his eyes – the snapshots of him with his hands around my throat, his skeletal frame lowering itself over mine.
Breaking his stare, I looked at Isidor and said, “Where’s Potter?”
“He’s gone to get more supplies, before nightfall,” Isidor said.
“Supplies?” I asked.
“We’re leaving at dawn tomorrow,” Isidor said.
“Leaving for where?” I asked him.
“The Hollows.”
“The Hollows? But what about Luke?”
Grinning, Seth looked at me and said, “When Isidor says we’re leaving for The Hollows, he means, us – Potter isn’t returning to The Hollows, he’s going back to the zoo to rescue Luke.”
Struggling to stand up, I said, “I’m going with him.”
“He’s already got a partner,” Seth grinned.
“Who?”
“Eloisa,” Seth said, still smiling. “Remember her?”
How could I forget that stunningly beautiful woman – Lycanthrope? “Yes,” I told him. “I remember her.”
“She’ll look after your friend, Potter,” Seth said. “And I’ll look after you.”
I straightened up, shoved past Seth, and I left the cell. Over my shoulder I shouted, “Potter must be going out of his tiny mind if he thinks I’m going anywhere with you!”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Isidor came after me down the passageway that led between the cells.
“Does Potter really think I’m going to go anywhere with that freak?” I asked as I eyed Isidor.
Isidor took my arm gently and stopped me from going any further. Looking back at the cell we had come from, as if to make sure that we weren’t being overheard, he said “Kiera, we don’t have time for this. Potter has a plan.”
“A plan?” I grimaced. “Who put him in charge?” I couldn’t hide the anger I felt for Potter for even suggesting that I go anywhere with Seth.
“Potter will be back soon,” Isidor said. “You should talk to him because he won’t tell me anything. It’s as if he doesn’t trust me.”
“I thought after what happened in the caves between you two that you were okay with each other now?” I asked him.
“Obviously not,” Isidor sighed.
“Okay, I’ll talk to him, but I’m not happy,” I said. “Where’s Kayla?”
“This way,” Isidor said and he led me away down the passage.
“Does she know you’re her brother?” I asked him as we walked.
“No, not yet,” Isidor said. “I haven’t had a chance to speak to her about anything. Like me and you, she’s been out of it for the last few days.”
“We’re going to have to tell her that Sparky killed her mum – your mum.” Then realising my mistake, I took Isidor’s arm and looking at him, I said, “I’m sorry Isidor, I know that Lady Hunt was your mother too – but you’ve had a bit longer to understand things, you know, deal with what’s been happening.”
“What about our father?” Isidor asked me. “Do you think he is still alive?”
“This is going to be hard for you, Isidor, but I don’t believe he is,” I said, and gently squeezed his arm. “He told me that he was going to end his life once he had completed the DNA coding that the Vampyrus would use to create the half-breeds. But your father was a good man, Isidor. He helped me escape in his own way. Did you not speak to him about any of this at the facility?”
“I didn’t see my father at the facility – it wasn’t he who treated – operated - on me, if that’s what they were doing. It was another Doctor called Ravenwood. But to be honest I was so drugged up on meds most of the time that I could barely speak. Then this Doctor Ravenwood stopped coming and they moved me to that zoo.” Isidor explained. “Your mate Sparky got me hooked on the red stuff and I went kinda crazy. I knew I had to get off the stuff – so I guess, like you, I stopped eating it, although doing so made me feel as if I was gonna die. But you know what? I would have rather died than spend the rest of my life eating humans.”
“How do you feel now, your cravings, I mean?” I asked him.
“They’re bearable, I guess,” he replied. “A bit like an itch that won’t go away, so I try not to think about it. But it’s still the early days, I guess.”
“And it’s that itch that will keep you alive, kid,” someone said from the other end of the corridor.
We both turned in the direction of the voice to see Potter leaning against the custody block wall. Eloisa towered behind him, her perfectly shaped legs seeming to go on forever in a pair of tight-fitting jeans. Her long, blond hair spilled over her shoulders and down the front of the black jacket she wore. Her skin was pale, but this only highlighted her blood-red lips and golden eyes. Potter took a pack of cigarettes from his shirt pocket and lit one, his right eye closing as the blue smoke trailed up towards the ceiling. He jetted two streams of smoke from his nose and came towards me, Eloisa close behind him. I couldn’t help but notice how close she trailed him, and I didn’t like it.
“Good to see you back in the world of the living, sweet-cheeks,” He said, coming towards me.
When he was close enough, I rolled my arm back, then punched him straight in the face.
His head rocked back on his neck, and the cigarette which had dangled from the corner of his mouth span away. “What was that for!”
he snapped. “I’ve been trying to save you!”
“How hard?” I asked him, then shot a quick glance at Eloisa.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” he said, rubbing his jaw.
“I was stuck in that filthy zoo for God knows how long while you’ve been gallivanting around here!” I snapped.
Then, gently touching Potter on the shoulder, Eloisa said in the sickliest sweet voice that I’d ever heard, “Sean, I’ll go and find Jack, you two look as if you need to talk.” Then she was gone, striding away on those damn legs of hers, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Isidor slope away too.
“Sean!” I hissed. “No one ever calls you Sean!”
“It’s my name,” he snapped back.
“Now I can see why you took so long in coming to find me!” I shouted.
“Now listen here, tiger,” Potter shouted back, “storming that zoo wasn’t my idea of a rescue – it would’ve been more like suicide! That place was like a fortress!”
“Oh, yeah?” I seethed. “We’ll I managed to break out all right!”
“So what are you complaining about?” he said.
“What am I complaining about?” I almost shrieked in disbelief. “I’ve been operated on, bitten by a werewolf, imprisoned, beaten, forced to eat human flesh and to top it all off, I had to use a hole in the floor as a goddamn toilet!”
“I’ve heard that squat toilets are all the rage in places like France…” he started.
“But I wasn’t in France!” I yelled at him. “I was in a freaking zoo being treated like some kind of animal, while you were living it up with her!”
“Her?” Potter said, looking now somewhat bemused. “Eloisa, you mean? She’s not so bad.”
“Well you’ve definitely changed your tune,” I spat. “Only a few weeks ago you were babbling on about how you could barely forgive a girl for having hairy armpits let alone a hairy tongue!”
Then, trying to hide an arrogant smirk that I so much wanted to knock from his face, Potter said, “Okay, I get what’s going on here.”
“Get what?”
“You’re jealous,” he said and his eyes glistened.
“Jealous! Me, jealous of her?” I blustered. Then, pushing him out of the way, I added, “I was right – you are out of your tiny mind!”
Chapter Twenty-Six
I stormed down the corridor set between the two rows of cells, and finding the one Kayla inhabited, I went inside. Kayla was sitting propped up on the bed, and Isidor sat beside her.
“What was all the shouting about?” Kayla asked me, as I slumped down on the end of her bed.
I guessed with her sensitive hearing she knew what Potter and I had been arguing about, but I still replied, “Ah, nothing. Just forget about it – I am. More importantly, how are you doing?”
“Okay, I guess,” she said, untangling her matted hair with her fingers.
Although, she did look better then when I last saw her semiconscious in the town square, her face still looked wan, and her eyes dull.
“Are the nightmares over?” she asked me.
“The nightmares?” I asked. Although in my heart, I knew what she meant.
“The Vampyrus, that zoo, the experiments?” She said, her eyes wide and fearful.
“That part of the nightmare is,” I tried to assure her. I knew I had to tell her about her mum, her dad, and Isidor had his secret, too.
“What about my mum?” she asked. “My dad? Has he been found?”
“You dad was at that facility where they operated on us,” I started gently.
“The facility?” she said, leaning forward to look at me. “What was he doing there?”
“He was captured, just like we were,” I said. “Phillips captured him to finish work on a cure that your father and Doctor Ravenwood were working on.”
“A cure for what?” Kayla asked, looking at me and then Isidor, wanting answers.
“I’m a half–breed just like you, Kayla,” Isidor said. “Not many of us survive past the age of sixteen. As far as we know, there are only the three of us – me, you, and Kiera.”
“So you’re just like me?” Kayla asked, looking at me.
“Yes,” I nodded.
“You have wings then?” She asked.
“Yes,” and the thought of those bony fingers made my flesh crawl.
“You’re scared about that, aren’t you?” Kayla said staring at me.
“How do you know that?” I asked, staring back.
“You heart quickened when you mentioned them. I could hear it.” Then turning to look at Isidor, she added, “But why is your heart racing, Isidor? What are you scared of?”
“Tell her,” a voice said from the open doorway, and I turned to see Potter standing there.
“Tell me what?” Kayla said, swinging her legs over the side of the bed, and placing her feet firmly on the floor.
“Now’s not a good time,” Isidor said, standing up to face Potter.
“Time is one thing we don’t have,” Potter said, fixing him with his cool stare. “Nor sentiment.”
“Potter, please,” I said, now standing myself.
“If you won’t tell her, I will,” Potter insisted.
“Tell me what?” Kayla said, her voice now brimming with confusion.
I looked at Isidor; he was staring at Potter.
“Why do you always have to be such a prick?” Isidor snapped, taking a step towards Potter.
“Listen, kid, we don’t have time to wallow in self-pity here, we’ve all lost people that we’ve cared about -” Potter started.
“Don’t call me kid,” Isidor snapped. “I thought we’d sorted that out!”
“Jesus, you sound like a tune that’s been stuck on repeat,” Potter said back. Then looking down at Kayla, he added, “Look, I hate to be the one to break it to you, sweetheart, but some spotty-faced arsehole called Sparky killed your mum, your father has probably topped himself because he helped Phillips come up with the magic formula that is going to wipe the human race from the face of the planet, and the dude standing over here next to me with the Shaggy-Do beard is your brother.”
Without warning, Isidor darted forward and reached for Potter. But Potter was too quick and slammed Isidor into the wall of the cell. Holding him there with one strong hand, Potter lent in close and said, “Listen to me, Eisenhower, or whatever your name might be, the girl needs to know the truth and she needs to know it quick. We don’t have time to worry about people’s feelings here.”
“Why do you have to be so cruel?” Isidor shouted.
“Cruel?” Potter snapped. “I tell you what’s cruel. Keeping the truth from the girl over there. Yeah the truth ain’t pretty and its gonna hurt her, but with any luck that will make her angry – so fucking angry that she’ll want to rip the head off the first vampire she comes across, because that’s the only way we’re gonna get out of this. This isn’t some sorta game, you know. The Vampyrus and Lycanthrope are getting ready to shit all over this country from a great height, and we ain’t gonna stop them if we’re walking around booing and wooing for the people that we’ve lost. You need to turn those feelings of self-pity into rage – hate – my friend, because those are going to be the only emotions that are of any use to me. You don’t think those Vampyrus and Lycanthrope are going to pity you, do you? They hate you, us, and anyone who stands in their way. So if you ain’t up to it, go now because I’m not taking any flower-picking, peace-loving, tree-hugging, whale-saving, do-gooder with me!”
“I can’t hate like you,” Isidor said.
“Then improvise!” Potter snapped.
“Who put you in charge anyway?” Isidor said back, his eyes glowing.
“Phillips did.”
“Phillips?” I asked, confused.
Then, releasing his grip on Isidor, Potter looked at me and said, “The moment he ripped Murphy’s heart out.”
“Murphy’s dead too?” Kayla began to wail out loud.
“Yeah and so we’ll all be, i
f the lot of you don’t get your act together,” Potter said and left the cell.
I watched as Isidor went to Kayla and slipped his arm round her shoulder, then with my body trembling with anger, I rushed out into the corridor.
“Potter!” I shouted after him.
“What?” Potter yelled back over his shoulder as he continued to walk away from me.
Rushing after him, I said, “I just don’t believe you. How can you be like that to her?”
Potter continued to stride ahead of me, and I had to trot to keep up with him. Leaving the cells behind us, Potter pushed against a door and disappeared into a darkened room. I followed him, the door nearly hitting me in the arse as it swung shut behind me. Even though there were no lights on in the room, I could see through the darkness. We were in a small, deserted cafeteria, where the police officers who were once stationed here took their meal breaks. Chairs lay upturned and on their sides like fallen skittles and tables had been pushed against the walls and windows. Potter stood alone in the middle of the room, a cigarette already burning in the corner of his mouth.
“What’s gotten into you?” I demanded as I marched towards him.
“What’s gotten into me?” he scoffed. “If I remember rightly, you smacked me in the face the moment you laid eyes on me!”
“Where do you get off on making decisions for me without even asking?” I roared.
“What decisions?” he shouted back.
“Deciding that I’m to go off hand in hand into The Hollows with that killer, while you go off to rescue Luke with that walking pair of breasts on legs!” I hissed.
“Breasts on legs?” Potter said, nearly chocking on a throat full of cigarette smoke as he stifled his laughter. “You mean Eloisa?”
“I see that you’re on first-name terms with the werewolf –because that’s what she is, Potter. She’s also a child killer and so is her lover, Jack Seth!”
“You are jealous and that’s what this is all really about,” Potter smiled. “You’re not pissed at me because I made plans without you – you’re pissed because I’ve been spending time with her.”