by Tim O'Rourke
“Because that’s where Isidor will head for!”
“It’s too much of a risk,” I said. “We keep to our plan and head for the Dead Waters, then onto Wasp Water.”
“Our plan?” Kayla scoffed. “Don’t you mean your plan?”
“What’s that s’posed to mean?” I shot back.
“If it was anyone else other than Isidor, say, Murphy, or Kiera, then you’d be off like a shot looking for them,” Kayla shouted. “But it doesn’t matter about Isidor, does it.? You never liked him…”
“Now hang on,” I cut in. “I was just as upset as everyone else when he decided to stay back at that railway station. Just because I don’t throw myself all over the fucking show screaming and crying, it doesn’t mean that I wasn’t cut up inside that Isidor died.”
“You never really cared about him…” Kayla started.
“How would you know how I feel about anything, Kayla?” I barked.
“So why don’t you try telling people how you feel sometimes? We ain’t fucking mind readers!” Kayla screamed, then turned and marched away in the direction we had come.
What was she expecting me to say? What was anyone ever expecting me to say? Tossing my cigarette away, I raced through the trees after her. I grabbed Kayla by the arm and spun her around.
“You just don’t get it, do you?” I said, trying not to raise my voice. I wasn’t mad at her, just frustrated. How much more did I need to do for my friends before they realised how much I cared about every single one of them?
“Get what?” She eyed me with a frown.
I took a deep breath, blowing out my cheeks. “It doesn’t matter.” Then, shaking my wings free of my back, I shot up into the air.
“Where are you going?” She looked at me as I tore through the tree branches.
“Going to save your brother’s dumb arse!” I shouted, and then raced away. Within moments, I heard the soft hum of wings beside me.
Glancing right, I saw Kayla racing through the sky, just feet away. “Thank you,” she said.
“If we don’t get to the Dead Waters soon, you might not be thanking me,” I said, and glided away toward the town of Lake Lure. The cracks from up here looked deep, like giant wounds that opened up to reveal nothing but darkness beneath.
Chapter Four
Kiera
“If you had been gone any longer, I would have come looking for you both,” Murphy growled. He didn’t sound angry, just uncomfortable due to the pain from where he had been shot when fighting the Skin-walkers in the helicopters.
I watched Murphy pull himself up from off the dusty floor of the overhang. He clutched his side and winced. There was a large dark patch of dried black blood on his torn shirt. It was unlike Murphy to look so dishevelled. He usually took such pride when wearing his police uniform. He looked tired. His black hair seemed to be flecked with more grey streaks than ever, and his chin was covered in a spray of dark whiskers. Gayle had been keeping guard at the entrance to the overhang as promised, and she looked tired, just as Murphy did. Gayle stepped aside as Meren and I entered the overhang. It was cold inside and no fire had been made. It was too risky to do so as the flames might have attracted the attention of the Skin-walkers combing the surrounding fields looking for us. Peter sat against the far wall, his sister’s head in his lap. Alice’s eyes flickered open as she heard us arriving. Seeing that it was only Meren and me returning from Wasp Water, she closed her eyes again and continued to rest. Her tattered wings looked as if they had started to heal already. That was good, as we wouldn’t be going far if she was unable to fly.
Murphy limped toward me, hand pressed to his side. He looked at me, then at his daughter, and back at me again. He sensed that something terrible had happened.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
I tried to form the words, but couldn’t. My lower lip trembled and I bit into it, willing myself not to burst into tears again.
“Potter’s dead,” Meren explained to her father on my behalf.
“Dead?” Murphy breathed deeply as if catching his breath. “There must be a mistake. Potter can’t be dead.”
“It’s true,” I said, tears threatening to spill onto my cheeks again.
“How?” Murphy mumbled, sounding confused, as if he couldn’t comprehend what he was being told.
Meren went to speak again, but I cut over her. It was only right that I explained to Murphy how his best friend had died. Unable to meet his piercing stare, I whispered. “The wolves executed him.”
“I don’t believe it,” Murphy said, his voice growing deep.
“I saw it happen with my own eyes,” I said, now unable to stop the silent tears that spilled onto my cheeks again. “They decapitated him.”
“Who did?” he asked, coming closer so we were almost touching.
I tried to form the words, but couldn’t.
“The wolves did,” Meren explained for me.
I looked up and could see that Gayle had stepped away from the entrance to the overhang, and Alice was now sitting up. All of their faces looked pale, as if all the blood had been sucked out of them.
Then, as if what he had been told had finally hit him, Murphy let out a gut-wrenching wail. The sound of his sudden grief was terrifying. Both Meren and I flinched backwards, and Gayle went back to cowering by the entrance to the overhang.
“Tell me it’s not true!” Murphy roared with grief.
His face seemed to contort out of shape and his wings shot from his back, the last remains of his shirt falling away in threadbare strips. He threw his head back and roared like a savage animal, the wound in his side opening again, and blood gushing over his rock-hard stomach and down the front of his trousers.
“I should have gone with you,” he wailed. “I should have been there to save him.”
“There was nothing you could have done,” I cried. That rush of grief I had felt earlier washed over me again, but this time it was worse, because I was now hurting for Murphy. It was horrendous to witness his grief and anguish at the loss of Potter. I knew that however much Murphy had bickered and argued in the past with Potter, I didn’t doubt that Murphy had loved him, but not as a friend, but a son. The last time I had seen such grief was when Potter had witnessed the death of Murphy in the caves beneath the Fountain of Souls. Potter’s grief for his friend had been just as real as Murphy’s now was.
With his wings bristling out behind him, claws out like a set of blades, Murphy pushed me aside, heading out of the overhang.
“Where are you going?” I said, snaking the tears from my face with my arm.
“To slaughter every fucking wolf in Wasp Water,” he roared.
“There are too many of them, Dad,” Meren said, racing toward her father and taking him by the arm. And just like she had tried to drag me off the road, she now tried to drag her father back beneath the overhang. “Please, Dad, they will kill you, too.”
“So what are we to do, sit here and let them come for us, too?” he shouted, thrusting a claw in the direction of the fields where he knew the wolves were searching for us. “I’d rather die avenging Potter’s death than just sit here.”
“Dying won’t bring Potter back,” Meren tried desperately to reason with him.
And however much I wanted to rip the throat out of every wolf in Wasp Water for what they had done to Potter, I knew what Meren said was right. “Meren, is right, Murphy,” I whispered through my tears. “We might kill a few wolves before they kill us. And besides, Alice is still injured and needs to rest. And even if she wasn’t injured, there are not enough of us.”
“I will be okay,” Alice said, pulling herself up with the help of her brother.
“I’m ready to fight alongside you, too,” Gayle said, stepping forward. I could see the desire to fight in her eyes.
“No,” I said with a shake of my head. “I have lost too many friends already, and I’m not prepared to lose anymore.
Murphy glanced at me and I could see that his eyes looked li
ke glass, wet with tears. “And that’s why we should kill some of these fuckers. They have murdered Isidor, Kayla, Sam, and now Potter.”
“We can’t be sure that Sam and Kayla are dead,” I said.
“They went missing, didn’t they?” Murphy barked at me. “What else could have happened to them?”
“When we went back and searched for them, I found their tracks in the snow, remember?” I said. “There was no blood or any sign of a fight. It was like they had just disappeared. Kayla and Sam could be out there somewhere. They might need our help. It might be better if we went in search of them instead of undertaking a suicide mission into Wasp Water.”
“What do you think happened to your friends?” Meren asked
“I think the wolf man led them away, perhaps he will use them as bait. And to act as bait, we need to be alive,” I said.
“So who is this wolf man?” Peter asked, helping his sister forward, arm around her shoulders.
“It’s Jack Seth,” Murphy said. “He’s behind this. He’s wanted both me and Potter dead since we burst in on him and found his snout buried in the guts of some woman he had just butchered. He killed me beneath the Fountain of Souls, before the world got pushed…”
“It wasn’t Jack who killed you,” I reminded him, never believing that I would be defending Jack Seth.
“It might not have been him who ripped my heart out,” Murphy shouted, “but it was him who tricked us. It was Jack who led me to my death and your capture. Or have you forgotten all that, now that you’ve discovered he’s your brother?”
The others all turned to stare at me on discovering this news. Why was Murphy being so cruel to me? Did he blame me for Potter’s death? Did he secretly feel that I didn’t try and save him? Did he believe I was protecting Jack over Potter? I tried to not let his comments hurt me, I was already hurting enough. Swallowing hard, I looked right back at Murphy and said, “I suspect that Luke Bishop is the Wolf Man.”
“Bishop!” Murphy laughed deep in the back of his throat. It was an unkind, mocking laugh and I hated it. “He’s a Vampyrus, not a fucking wolf.”
“This is exactly what Bishop did before in The Hollows,” I said, holding back the urge to walk away. Why did I always have to be the one to figure stuff out. “He picked us off one by one. He broke us down until there were hardly any of us left – until we were all dead. He turned us against each other – made us suspicious of each other. It was Luke who masterminded your death, not Jack. It was Luke who coaxed Kayla away and murdered her. It was Luke who killed Isidor. This is his M.O. It’s what he does – it’s what he is – a killer. Luke Bishop isn’t his real name, and neither is it the Wolf Man. They are just masks. If you look behind them, you’ll find Elias Munn.”
Murphy looked at me, his claws swinging by his sides, and wings flapping behind him. He really did look like a monster, but weren’t all of us monsters, too? “So what if you’re right. What if this wolf man is Elias Munn… what are we going to do about it? What do you suggest, eh? After all, it is you who is meant to see everything. How do you see us getting out of this mess we’re in?”
I looked across the overhang at Murphy. I could see the hurt and the pain in his eyes. I knew that’s why he was angry. If he couldn’t take his anger out on the wolves, then he seemed to have decided to take it out on me. But I didn’t need his pain; I had enough of my own to deal with. So, lowering my head, I stormed across the overhang and toward the entrance. I just wanted to be alone. Before I’d had the chance to leave, I felt Murphy’s claw curl around my wrist.
“So what do you see, Kiera Hudson?”
I yanked my arm free and looked at him. “I see a man grieving for his best friend – for the man he loved like a son. But that doesn’t mean you can dump all the grief over me. I never asked to be able to see things, and right now I wish I was as blind you, Murphy.” Unable to hold back a fresh wave of tears any longer, but refusing to let Murphy see them, I turned and fled the overhang.
Chapter Five
Isidor
Ravenwood placed the camera back onto the wooden table next to the bed where Melody lay. He flipped a switch on the side of it, with one hooked thumb. The odd camera made a purring noise and a bright cone of brilliant white light shone from the lens. It reminded me at once of the camera the Vampyrus named Burton used to show his magical moving pictures against the cave walls. And just like those magical moving pictures, an image now shone against the wall of the cave we stood in. It glowed brightly with an image of Melody’s insides. I could clearly see her skeleton. It was like looking at a photographic negative. As if the picture was somehow blurred or out of focus, Ravenwood stared at it, then scratched his head. He leant forward and adjusted a series of dials on the side of the camera. But it did nothing to make the wings appear that Ravenwood was expecting to see. I could clearly make out her ribcage and the long, sharp claws hidden beneath the flesh of her hands and feet. I could see the protruding stub of bone at the base of her spine where her tail snaked from, but there was no sign of any wings.
Slowly, Ravenwood turned and looked at Melody lying injured on the bed.
“You’re not a Vampyrus, you’re a wolf,” he seethed, lips curling back to show his fangs and disgust at the creature lying before him. He looked suddenly repulsed at the sight of her. But I was sure I also saw a flicker of fear in his eyes. He then looked at me, taking a careful step backwards. “Are you a wolf, too?”
Tearing off my coat and letting it drop to the ground, I opened my arms and revealed the black tattered wings that hung beneath them. My claws sprang from my fingertips. I kept them by my sides, as I wanted to prove to Ravenwood that neither Melody nor I were a threat to him.
“I’m a Vampyrus, just like you, Ravenwood,” I said.
“Then what are you doing with that?” he hissed, pointing one claw at Melody, who still lay on the bed recovering from her injuries.
“That has a name,” I corrected him. “Her name is Melody Rose…”
“What are you doing in the company of a wolf?” Ravenwood asked, still sounding shocked and as if he were trying to get his head around what he had just uncovered. He glanced back at the picture still illuminating the wall, then back at us.
I had moved close to Melody, and standing next to the bed, I took her hand in mine. “We are in love,” I said, proudly.
“In love?” Ravenwood grimaced. “But that is unnatural. For a Vampyrus to love a wolf is forbidden. Is she some kind of spy? Are you both spies?”
“We’re not spies,” I said.
“Then why has a wolf infiltrated The Hollows?” he stared hard at me.
“Infiltrated?” I said. “That’s a bit dramatic, isn’t it? Melody just needs your help.”
“I don’t help wolves,” Ravenwood said, brushing past me toward the door. “I’m going to report this to the guards.”
I gripped his arm, just as he reached the door. I couldn’t let him warn the other Vampyrus. They would kill Melody, and probably me, too. “Please, if you won’t help her, just let her rest for a while. Once my friend is feeling better, we will leave The Hollows.”
He looked into my eyes as if searching them. Was there a flash of recognition? Were the memories of me being held in that zoo before the world got pushed coming back?
Then that flash was gone. “You’re a traitor. You’ve come to find out our plan of attack against the wolves, and now that you know you’ll tell them everything.” He inched closer toward the door.
I curled my claw tighter about his wrist. “You remember me, don’t you?”
“Remember you?” Ravenwood blinked as if pinched.
“My name is Isidor Smith…” I started.
“Isidor…?” he whispered, his eyes never leaving mine. “Isidor Smith, now that name does sound familiar.”
“You knew me once…you knew my father…” I tried to get him to remember me.
He blinked again, and his eyes grew wide behind his glasses. “I remember that name. That i
s the name of a Dead Angel.” He yanked his arm free of my grasp and fell back toward the door. “We were warned that you might come. You’re with her – the Dead Angel named Kiera Hudson.”
In his desperation he clawed for the door handle so he could warn the other Vampyrus. I grabbed him again, pulling him close. “I can’t let you raise the alarm,” I whispered into his face. “Don’t make me hurt you, Ravenwood. It’s the last thing I want to do, but I can’t let my friend Melody be captured down here.”
If only I could get him to listen to me – to remember. Doctor Ravenwood wasn’t my enemy. He had once been my father’s friend. But that had been before the world got pushed. He had once helped Kiera Hudson. He had left the note hidden in the pages of the book The Wind in the Willows, which warned Kiera about Elias Munn. He had wanted to help her back then, but now he feared her. Elias Munn had poisoned his mind in this world.
“Please listen to me…” I tried again. Before I’d the chance to finish, Ravenwood had broken free of my grip and yanked open the door. His mottled-looking wings flapped all around him as he raced into the tunnel outside.
“Guards! Guards!” he roared.
With his back to me Ravenwood was unprotected – defenceless – and I could easily have taken his head off with my claws. But I couldn’t. He feared me because of ignorance, nothing else. That wasn’t reason enough for me to kill him. Even though he couldn’t remember me, I remembered him, and he was a good man.
With the sound of approaching guards thundering down the tunnel, I span around. I picked up my coat, tying the arms about my waist, then threw my rucksack over my back. With crossbow in one claw, I reached down for Melody. Slipping my free arm beneath one of hers, I hoisted Melody to her feet. She stumbled forward. I held her tightly to me.
“I’ll slow you down like this,” she said. “It will be less painful as a wolf.”
Before I could tell her that was like a really bad idea and the Vampyrus would freak if they saw a wolf for real deep within The Hollows, she had pulled away from me. Lurching forward and dropping onto all fours, Melody shook all over like a giant beast shaking water from its coat. With every violent shake, her body took on the form of a giant wolf, sleek-looking, with silky white hair, blazing orange eyes, jagged paws, and ferocious-looking jaws.