Vampire Wake (Kiera Hudson Series #2) (12 page)

“But I have,” I said. “I don’t know who they are, but I know that they are probably living in the other wing.”

“How can you be so sure?” She asked, sounding breathless.

“Marshal took them breakfast this morning,” I assured her.

“Marshal? How do you know that?”

“The stairs leading up to the ‘forbidden’ wing, as the good housekeeper likes to call it, are covered in dust. Thick dust which I guess has been created by the renovations that have been taking place there. It looks reddish in colour which probably makes it brick dust,” I said.

“So?”

“There aren’t any builders here – not that I’ve seen,” I said.

“No, they stopped work last week,” Kayla said. “They can’t continue until some more supplies have been ordered. Well, that’s what Mrs. Payne told me anyhow. Apparently, they’ll be back next week.”

“Okay, so if there haven’t been any builders in the manor since last week, why are there fresh boot prints in the dust on those stairs? The prints looked to me to be about a size twelve – far too big to be Mrs. Payne’s or yours. The chauffeur can’t walk, so that only leaves one other person…”

“Marshal!” Kayla breathed, her eyes growing wide. “But how do you know that he was taking someone their breakfast?”

“Halfway up the banisters, there is a handprint where someone gripped hold of it. It wasn’t because they slipped or fell, having to suddenly take hold of the banister, the footprints didn’t show any sign of this. The fact that there isn’t a matching handprint on the opposite banister tells me that they were carrying something else in their hand. Something that they were trying to balance and something that they couldn’t drop for fear of bringing unwanted attention to themselves,” I explained. Then holding my arm up with my hand out flat, I pretended that I was holding a tray. “See, a tray would contain plates, cutlery, or a teapot and a cup at the very least. Imagine the noise that would have made if it had gone clattering down the stairs.”

“But what makes you think it was breakfast?” Kayla asked, looking intrigued.

“What else could someone possibly be carrying on a tray at such an early hour in the morning?” I said.

“How do you know it was in the morning?” she asked.

“I passed those stairs at gone midnight last night and even though I only had the aid of a candle to guide me, it was adequate enough for me to have noticed any great big boot marks if they’d been there.”

Looking at me, Kayla blew out her cheeks and said, “That was pretty neat. But how can you definitely be sure it was Marshal? I know what you said about him being the only -”

“When he placed me on the bed after my fall today, I couldn’t help but notice a trail of the same coloured brick dust along the right sleeve of his coat. And as he walked away, I could see it on the soles of his boots,” I explained.

“You really do
see
things, don’t you?” Kayla said. “But if you are right - and I don’t doubt you – who was Marshal taking breakfast to and what are they doing up there?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “But it would be nice to find out.”

“If you go up there, will you take me with you?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” I said shaking my head.

“I used to go up there as a kid,” she told me. “I could show you the way.”

“I’ll think about it,” I said getting up from the bed and heading for the door.

“You know what?” Kayla said, as I reached for the door handle.

“What?”

“My mother was wrong about you.”

“In what way?” I asked, looking back.

“She said you were going to be tough – that you wouldn’t put up with any nonsense and that you would keep me line,” Kayla said.

“But your mother was right about one thing,” I said lingering by the door.

“Oh, what was that?”

“You do have someone watching you,” I said, but I didn’t tell her that I knew she knew who he was. I didn’t tell her that despite the moat, the walls, the drawbridge and gate, he somehow gained access to the grounds. That she sends him messages to let him know the coast is clear. That he waits for her below until it is safe for him to come up to her balcony, but he is not her boyfriend. But nevertheless, he is someone she trusts and feels comfortable with. I didn’t tell Kayla that I had seen all of this since entering her bedroom.

“Do you know who it is?” Kayla said, springing from the edge of her bed and I could detect fear in her voice.

“Not yet,” I told her, closing the bedroom door behind me.

Chapter Thirteen

Instead of going back to my room, I crept down the stairs to the next landing. With the candle flickering in my hand, I looked at the stairs leading up into the
‘forbidden’
wing. Crouching forward, I looked only to see that the stairs and banisters had now been cleaned. Any trace of Marshal’s footsteps had been wiped away.

“Have you lost something?” a voice said from behind me.

With a gasp of fright, I leapt up and spun round. Peering through the flame of the candle that she held in her hand, Mrs. Payne gave me a distrusting look.

“Erm, no…well yes,” I said, sounding flustered.

“Oh, yes?” Mrs. Payne said without taking her beady eyes off me. “What have you lost”’

“My earrings,” I blurted out.

“Really?” Mrs. Payne said. “Well, you couldn’t have lost them here.”

“How come?” I said, looking down, pretending to be searching for them.

“You weren’t wearing any earrings today as Marshal carried you back into the house after your fall,” she smiled through the candlelight at me.

“That would be it then,” I said sounding relieved. “They must have come off when I fell.”

“Perhaps,” the housekeeper said, moving around me so as to block the stairs leading up into the blackness. “I’ll get Marshal to have a look for you tomorrow.”

“No, its okay,” I said. “They weren’t very expensive – just forget about it.”

“Whatever you wish,” Mrs. Payne smiled, but it was false. For a moment we just stood and looked at each other in the gloom.

“Any idea on when the lights are going to come back on?” I asked her.

“Very soon,” she said her fake smile fading.

“When would that be exactly?” I pushed.

“In a day or so – when the builders return. Why? Is there a problem, Kiera?” she asked.

“No, no problem,” I said, turning away and heading back up the stairs to my room.

“Goodnight then,” Mrs. Payne’s voice echoed up from the darkness.

“Goodnight,” I said, and climbed the stairs.

Back in my room, I closed the door and went to the bathroom. The bath looked inviting; so, taking off my jeans and jumper, I put my hair up and ran myself a bath. While the water was tumbling from the taps, I lit a few more candles and went to the windows, opening them just enough to let the cool night air into my room.

Turning, I went back to the bathroom, took off my underwear, and climbed into the bath. I sunk right to the bottom of it and the warm water almost came up to my chin. Leaning my head back I closed my eyes. I wished that I had my iPod with me; to be able to listen to Adele while I relaxed in the bath surrounded by candlelight would have been perfection. But Kayla still had it and I guessed her need was greater than mine. I liked Kayla and she was nothing like her mother had portrayed her. Sure she could be a little cocky, but she had a lot to deal with. Not only had one of her parents recently disappeared (and I knew how that felt), she had been left knowing that she was different from everyone else. Although she knew that her father had been a Vampyrus, had he ever really talked to her about that? Had she ever seen his wings? Surely he would have tried to have comforted her, made her feel as normal as possible. No wonder she was bitter and angry at times. And where was her mother now? Why had she really gone away? Was it in search of her husband?

I could understand Lady Hunt believing I might be able to protect her daughter; after all she told me herself that she knew I’d managed to survive in The Ragged Cove. But who was I protecting Kayla from, and did she really need protecting? I knew that Kayla was in contact with someone on the outside of the manor, I could
see
that when I looked out of her bedroom window onto the balcony. There was a torch hidden in the corner. If she had a torch available to her, why wasn’t she using it to light her way through the house at night instead of a candle? No, she was using the torch to send a signal to someone at night on the moors. She flicked the torch light on and off to send messages to him. A candle would be no good; the wind would blow out the flame. There was also a sprinkling of earth on the stone floor of the balcony and some had dirtied the windows. Directly below her balcony was a flowerbed, and this is where the man stood and threw earth up at her window to get Kayla’s attention. How did he get up onto the balcony? Kayla would unfasten the bell pull. She would tie a knot in one end to secure it between the balcony railings and the male would hoist himself up. He wasn’t a Vampyrus or he would have flown onto her balcony and there would have been no need for the mud-slinging or frayed looking-bell pull.

Whoever it was, he was just a friend to Kayla. There was no romantic interest as she wasn’t trying to impress him. Any young girl wanting to grab the attentions of a young man wouldn’t dare let him into such an untidy room, where used face wipes were discarded on the dresser, and dirty clothes and underwear sprawled across the floor. But this did show that whoever it was, she felt comfortable with him – comfortable enough not to put on a show.

My head spun with so much information. So splashing some water onto my face to waken myself, I climbed out of the bath. Wrapping a towel around me, I peered into the mirror fastened to the wall above the basin. With the forefinger of my right hand, I touched the tear duct of my left eye. I couldn’t see any blood and my eye didn’t even look bloodshot. I still didn’t understand why my eye bled when I had those – visions – when I
saw
things.

What, with me
seeing
things and Kayla
hearing
things, nothing would ever get past us. What a team we would make! Then as if being punched in the face, I staggered backwards – nearly stumbling back into the bath. How had I not
seen
it? Kayla had been going through changes since the age of fourteen. And since that age she had been
hearing
things. I tried to remember at what age I had started to
see
things – probably about the same age I guessed. But just like her hearing, which over the years had started to develop –
change
– so had my sight. No longer was I just able to
see
things that anybody else would if only they looked for them, but now I was
seeing
stuff that either had yet to happen or had happened. But Kayla had gone through other changes too – she had started to grow wings. Although small at the moment, they were sure to develop into full-sized wings as she grew older.

With my heart pounding in my chest, and my mouth turning dry, I lowered the towel that I had wrapped around me. Glancing back over my shoulder, I looked at my back in the mirror.

“What am I doing?” I shouted aloud. “Kiera Hudson, you need to get a grip!”

Then I started to laugh, there was no way I could be some kind of half-breed human-slash-Vampyrus. One of Kayla’s parents had been a Vampyrus; mine had just been plain old –

…then I screamed in horror and pulled the towel tight about me. Reflected in the mirror was my bedroom window, and in its reflection was the bandaged face of Marshal staring back at me.

Chapter Fourteen

Tying the towel around me, I turned around and raced towards the windows on the far side of my room. Throwing them open, I went out onto the balcony.

“What’s the big idea?” I shouted, expecting to see Marshal standing there, but the balcony was empty. There was no one there. Suspecting that he might have seen me coming and climbed off the balcony, I peered over the edge, but couldn’t see him. How had he disappeared so quickly? It only took me moments to get from the bathroom to here. My mind then started to tell me that perhaps he hadn’t been there at all. Maybe I hadn’t seen him spying on me through the windows. But I knew he’d been there watching me. But for how long had he been standing on my balcony, and why?

There was a squeaking noise from below and I wondered if it were Marshal trying to make good his escape. Peering down into the darkness, I could hear the squeaking noise but couldn’t see anything. Running back into my room, I blew out the candles. Returning to my balcony, I crouched down and peered through the concrete railings, hiding myself in the darkness, hoping that whoever was below might reveal themselves if they thought that I had gone back to my room, and gone to bed.

The squeaking came again and I couldn’t work out where it was coming from or what was making the sound. Then, peering to my right, I saw James come from around the side of the manor house in his wheelchair. With every turn of the wheels, they let out a high-pitched squeaking sound. Staying hidden in the darkness, I watched him make his way down the gravel path towards the gatehouse. I sat there until the squeaking faded into the distance and he disappeared from view. I stayed hidden in the darkness and wondered why he would be out at such a late hour and heading for the gate house. Was he going to see Marshal? Deciding that there wasn’t anything that odd about this, and suspecting I was just being jittery because I thought I saw Marshal watching me, I decided to go back inside and lock the windows behind me.

But just as I was about to crawl out from the shadows I saw a light blinking on and off out across the moors. The light flashed once, then again but this time longer. Then again, and again. Staying hidden, I peered along the side of the building and could just make out Kayla’s balcony in the distance. Lying as flat as I could, I watched her balcony windows swing slowly open. Within seconds, I watched as Kayla came crawling out on her hands and knees. Just like I knew she had been, she took the torch that she had been hiding, switched it on then quickly off again. The torchlight on the moors flashed again in recognition of her signal. Kayla switched her torch on and off in rapid succession and whoever she was signalling to on the moors signalled back with a quick flash of torchlight.