by Tim O'Rourke
“They all look the same to me,” Trent said, reaching down and taking hold of the vampire. The creature began to struggle. A low sounding snarl emanated from beneath the creature’s hood.
Calix brushed past me and gripped the vampire’s arm as Trent struggled with it.
“We should kill it, just like we killed the others,” Rea said, sliding her gun from its holster and cocking the hammer. She pressed the end of the barrel against the vampire’s hooded head.
“No,” Trent said. “Put your gun away, Rea.”
It was the first time since arriving in Shade that I’d heard anyone give Rea an order. Without saying anything, she placed the gun back into the holster that was strapped to her thigh. Smoke continued to curl up from the cigar that stuck from the corner of her mouth and she looked through it at Trent.
“This won’t be the last vampire that comes here now that the magic that has protected us for so long in Shade has started to weaken,” Trent said. “We now have a hostage – something to bargain with.”
“And if the vampires don’t feel in the mood to make a deal?” Rea asked Trent.
“Then we find out as much as we can about what the vampires have planned next – where they plan to attack next,” Trent said.
“Could they attack other towns too – like Maze?” I asked, suddenly fearing that my own people might not be safe. Why would the vampires only be interested in attacking Shade? My hometown of Maze had no magic spell protecting it.
“Nowhere is safe from the vampires,” Rush said, stepping up beside me. Calix glanced at us standing side by side and looked at me. I glanced away.
“Then I must return home and warn my people…” I started.
“I thought you didn’t have any people back home, that’s the reason you came to Shade, remember?” Rea said, shooting me a knowing smile.
Calix had already told me that he and the others had already figured out that I had lied to them about where I had really come from, so I didn’t know why Rea was being so smug about it. It’s not like Rea and the others hadn’t kept their own secrets from me. I wanted to shout at her that I’d come to this godforsaken place to find my parents, but what was the point? She probably already knew that too. And what was the point in staying? If I believed Calix, my parents had never even reached the village. The search for the truth about my parents would have to wait. I had to get home and warn Flint and my Uncle Sidney about a possible attack from vampires.
The vampire began to struggle again as it fought to free itself from Trent’s and Calix’s hold. The chains that bound its arms rattled.
“Let’s get this thing secured in the crypt,” Trent said, tightening his grip on the vampire and dragging it away and back in the direction of the church. I stood alone in the wood with Rea and Rush as the vampire’s terrifying screams filled the night.
“Where are the dead?” I heard someone whisper in my ear. Stifling the urge to scream, I spun around. Augustus Morten stood behind me, his painfully thin face glowing yellow in the light from the lantern he held up.
“The graves are freshly dug and waiting for the dead,” he smiled.
Chapter Six
Between us, Rea, Rush, and I dragged the dead vampires from out of the wood and into the graves that Morten had dug. It was impossible for me to tell which one of them it had been who had tied me to that wooden pole in the clearing because each of their faces had been totally blown away with the bullets from our guns. The night was cold and the work back-breaking as we dragged the vampire corpses across the graveyard. There were twelve corpses. I didn’t know for how long we worked, but dawn was still some way off as I stood beside the last open grave and peered down into it. Rea and Rush were some way off shovelling dirt into one of the many graves Morten had dug. The sound of their spades scraping back and forth in the dark made my skin break out with gooseflesh. I looked back over my shoulder to see if Trent and Calix had returned from the crypt where they had imprisoned the vampire they had captured. I couldn’t see either of them. Instead I saw Morten cutting his way toward me as he walked amongst the ancient gravestones. He carried a shovel over his stooped shoulders.
“You look tired, Mila,” he said, coming to stop beside me at the open grave. His milky white eyes glimmered from beneath the rim of the tatty bowler hat he wore. He looked away and down into the open grave. The headless vampire lay on its back, long thin hands at its sides.
“Vile creatures,” Morten whistled through his teeth.
“Then why bury them?” I said, staring down into the hole. I pulled the hood of my hoodie up over my head as the wind started to blow harder and colder.
“What else are we to do with them?” Morten said. “We can’t just leave dead bodies lying all about the place.”
“You could always burn them,” I said, glancing sideways at him.
“I really don’t like the smell of burning flesh,” he said. Then turning to look at me, he added, “Do you like the smell of burning flesh, Mila?”
“Not really,” I whispered, remembering the smell of that thick, black smoke pouring from the chimney of that barn in Maze – remembering the smell of my own burning flesh at the stake.
“I didn’t think so,” Morten muttered, taking the spade from his shoulder and shovelling earth down into the hole.
“Aren’t you going to hammer nails into its hands first?” I dared to ask, remembering how I had unearthed Annabel’s grave to find a wolf with rusty nails protruding from its paws.
“I’m burying the vampire, dear, not crucifying it,” Morten said before shovelling more dirt into the open grave.
“I’ll walk you home,” Rush said, suddenly appearing beside me.
“What, all the way back to Maze? Because that’s where I’m heading,” I said.
“Why leave?” Rush asked.
“I need to warn my people about what happened here tonight,” I said, turning my back on the hole that Morten continued to fill with earth. “If the vampires have attacked Shade, they might attack Maze next.”
“You can’t leave tonight, Mila,” Rush said, his eyes full with concern for me. “If you must leave Shade, then go tomorrow morning, it will be safer in the daylight.”
I glanced back over my shoulder in the direction of the church. Still no sign of Calix. I would like to have seen him once more before I left for home. When first arriving in Shade, Calix was the last person I would’ve ever wanted to have seen again. But I felt differently now. “I’ll leave at first light then,” I said, turning to face Rush once more.
“Before you go anywhere you might want to take some of these with you,” Morten said from over my shoulder.
I looked back to see him with one slender hand open. In his palm lay six of those old bullets – like the ones he had given to me before. Calix had said that the bullets were very old and dangerous.
“Go on, take them” Morten smiled. “I couldn’t help but notice that your belt is empty. You might need the bullets for when you return to Maze.”
Knowing that I would never use them, but not wanting to turn down his generosity, I took the bullets from him and placed them into the pocket of my jeans. “Thank you, Augustus. You are very kind.”
“No bother,” he said, turning back to the grave and starting to shovel again. “You just take good care of yourself, Mila Watson. I enjoyed getting to know you. Perhaps you will return to Shade one day.”
“One day, perhaps,” I whispered, slowly turning away.
Looping his arm through mine, Rush pulled me close to him. “I’ll walk you back to Julia’s house,” he said, leading me across the graveyard.
We hadn’t gone very far, when I suddenly slowed, then stopped.
“What’s wrong?” Rush asked me.
“Show me Julia Miller’s grave,” I said.
“Grave?” Rush frowned, as if my question had taken him off guard somehow. “Julia doesn’t have a grave.”
“But you told me she had died,” I reminded him. “You told me Julia is dead.”
“And she is,” Rush said.
“So where is her grave?” I pushed.
“She doesn’t have a grave.”
“Why not?”
“Because she wasn’t buried,” Rush said. “We scattered her ashes…”
“Ashes?” I gasped. “How exactly did Julia Miller die?”
“She burnt to death,” Rush said.
Chapter Seven
“Burnt to death?” I asked, sliding my arm from Rush’s.
He set off down the path toward the gate that led out of the graveyard.
“Wait for me!” I called after him. At a trot, I caught up with him as he reached the gate. Yanking it open, he stepped out onto the path. “Rush,” I breathed, taking hold of his arm. “How did she die?”
“I’ve already told you,” Rush said, setting off in the direction of the village.
“What I mean is how did Julia burn to death? Was it an accident…?”
“It was no accident,” Rush said, pulling the collar of his coat up against the chill wind that blew in off the surrounding fields. It was still so very dark and much of the moon was now hidden by a thick wall of dark cloud. I could just make out Rush as he walked beside me. It was impossible to see any kind of expression on his face. It had suddenly become so dark along the narrow and twisting lane that I only knew he was walking beside me at all by the sound of his voice and the crunch of his boots over gravel and stone.
“If her death wasn’t an accident – how did it happen?” I asked, fearing I already knew the answer.
“She was tied to a stake in the woods and set fire to,” Rush said, his voice was deep and low and I struggled to hear him over the sound of the rising wind.
“Who tied her to the stake? Who set fire to her?”
“The Beautiful Immortals,” I heard Rush say from the darkness.
“But why? I thought she had come to help them?” I said.
“Not all of them,” Rush said. “Just the wolves…”
“But…” I mumbled, trying to make sense of what he was telling me. I had seen wolves in the woods. They hadn’t helped Julia, they had watched her burn.
“But what?” Rush asked.
What could I say? How could I explain that while I was tied to that pole in the woods I believed I had somehow seen through Julia Miller’s eyes as she had burnt to death? Wouldn’t Rush just accuse me of dreaming again like he had when I’d told him about the werewolf that had climbed through the window and into my bedroom? If he knew that I had been unconscious while tied to that pole he would definitely dismiss what I had seen as nothing more than a dream. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to spend the short space of time that I had with Rush feeling stupid and naïve. I didn’t want him to remember me like that. What did any of what had happened in Shade and to that witch matter to me? I would be leaving in just a few hours’ time and I didn’t plan on ever coming back. So taking a deep breath, I said, “But nothing. It doesn’t matter – none of it does anymore.”
We reached the park and walked across it in silence. The swing gusted back and forth in the wind. There was no sign of Clarabel tonight. Perhaps for once she was tucked up in bed like any normal child of her age should be. And as I passed the swing, Rush at my side, I guessed that I would never now find out what really had happened to Annabel’s body and why the people of Shade had buried a wolf instead. There seemed to be a lot that I would never find answers to. And however much I felt a certain amount of relief in the knowledge that I would soon be leaving this strange place, I also couldn’t help but feel a little sad too. I didn’t know exactly why I felt the way I did – but I sensed some kind of connection between me and Shade. Was it that I had started to make friends – started in some small way to get to know the people I had first thought to be so strange? And they were strange – but was that such a bad thing? Perhaps I seemed strange to them. And although I knew there would be some small part of me that would feel sad at leaving Rush and Calix behind, I was glad that I was leaving before anything became complicated between the three of us as I suspected it would if I stayed. I liked them and they liked me – perhaps more than just friends should. But Calix and Rush were brothers and I didn’t ever want to come between them – have to choose. So it would be better for everyone if I just left – headed back home to Maze – to my Uncle Sidney and Flint. I was looking forward to seeing both of them. But I wasn’t so sure that I could just pick up where I had left off with Flint. I knew that he was in love with me, but I knew that I didn’t feel the same. So therefore would it be fair for me to continue like we had before, however much fun we had together in and out of bed? If I were truly in love with Flint then I wouldn’t have let Rush kiss me, but more than that, I wouldn’t have let Calix kiss me and I wouldn’t have kissed him. I knew in my heart, however much I tried to hide that memory away, that if those words on Calix’s body wouldn’t have suddenly begun to hurt him yesterday, we would have had sex together in the woods. I had wanted to and so had he. So in an off-beat kind of way, I was glad that the spell had started to cause him pain and I was glad that I was leaving Shade and returning home to Maze before something happened and I found myself unable to leave ever again.
Rush pushed open the garden gate and I headed up the path to the front door. I took the key from my pocket. As I reached the lock, I felt Rush’s hand fall over mine. He turned me slowly to face him. In the near dark I could barely see his handsome face that was cast in shadow. He pulled me close to him.
“Do you really have to leave, Mila?” he said. “Can’t you stay in Shade a while longer?”
“I can’t,” I whispered. “I have to head home. I have to warn them about the vampires and the wolves.”
“Wolves?” Rush asked.
“I know you don’t believe me, Rush, but I have seen a werewolf in Shade,” I said. “Maybe that’s why the vampires have come back. Maybe like me, they believe there is a werewolf hiding out in Shade.”
“If that’s true then the vampires won’t head for your home – for Maze. Not unless there is a werewolf there too,” he smiled.
“See, you’re laughing at me again,” I said.
“No, I’m not, honest,” Rush said. Then pulling me closer still, his lips hovering over mine, he added, “How about I stay with you tonight, Mila. So if the werewolf should come back like you say he does, I’ll be here to see it too.”
“No,” I whispered.
“Why not?” I could feel his warm breath against my ear and the flesh tingled there.
“Because if you stay I don’t think we would be doing very much werewolf watching,” I said.
“What would we be doing?” He smiled, lips brushing over mine.
“I can’t do this,” I said, easing myself from his arms.
“You have feelings for him, don’t you?” Rush said.
“Who?” I couldn’t meet his stare. Apart from keeping back some truths from me, Rush had been nothing but kind to me since I had arrived in Shade, and I really didn’t want to hurt him. I really didn’t want him to believe that I had feelings for him when I didn’t truly understand those feelings myself.
“The boyfriend you told me about – Flint,” Rush said. “You still have feelings for him, don’t you?”
“Yes,” I said with a nod of my head. How could I tell Rush that it was the feelings I had for his brother, Calix, that was confusing me so much?
“Perhaps in another time – in another place,” Rush said stepping away from the door.
“Perhaps,” I whispered.
Without warning, Rush suddenly turned and kissed me one last time. I let his lips linger, before gently easing myself away. The temptation to let him kiss me more deeply – to share something more passionate with him was overwhelming, but I just couldn’t. Even if I didn’t feel anything for his brother, I still planned on leaving Shade at first light, and I didn’t want to have one single reason not to go.
From the front door, I watched Rush head back down the garden path to the gate. H
e passed through it then strode out across the park. It wasn’t long before I lost sight of him in the dark. Stepping into the house and closing the front door behind me, I wondered if I would ever see Rush again.
Chapter Eight
Knowing that if I dared climb into bed I would fall into a deep sleep and not wake again for hours, I lit a candle and went to the bathroom. I needed to stay awake, so I could slip out of Shade at dawn. I looked at my reflection in the bathroom mirror. Even in the little light cast by the candle, I could see that my face, hair, and clothes were covered in blood and vampire remains. Stripping naked, I turned on the shower. I shivered with cold as the pipes behind the wall clanked and banged as they slowly filled with water. I hoped that the coals that Calix had lit yesterday in the stove were still hot enough to warm the water at least.
As the water began to dribble from the showerhead, I placed one hand beneath it. The water wasn’t hot, but warm enough. Standing beneath it, I washed away the blood that covered my hands and face. I scrubbed soap beneath my fingernails and washed away the grime that was there. I massaged shampoo into my hair as I slowly started to feel and look human again and not like some bedraggled creature that had crawled out of the dark. Still standing beneath the water, I turned so that I could see my back reflected in the bathroom mirror. I wondered where those scratches I had woken to find down my back had gone. Or had they even been there? But I knew that they had. Just like the scratch on my hand that seemed to have disappeared after picking up the wolf’s bane on Annabel’s grave – just like how a few small drops of my blood had seemingly brought back to life the flower placed in front of those skeletons that I had stumbled across as a child with Flint.
Hearing a sudden noise, I turned around and faced the door. Snatching up a towel to cover myself with, I stepped from the shower. Standing by the open bathroom door, I cocked my head and listened intently. There was no sound. But I was sure I’d heard something. Had the wolf come back? Was it trying to get in at the window? Wrapping the towel tight about me, I reached for my gun that lay entangled amongst my dirty clothes on the floor. I slid the gun from its holster. I looked at it and remembered that I had run out of bullets. So what was the point? I was about to holster the gun again when I remembered the six bullets that Morton had given to me. Calix had said that the bullets were very old and they could be dangerous and might not work. But what choice did I have? What if the noise I believed I’d heard was the werewolf coming back one last time? Reaching into the pocket of my jeans that lay on the bathroom floor, I took the six bullets and placed them into the chamber of the gun. Holding the towel tight with one hand and holding the gun in the other, I crept from the bathroom and onto the landing.