Vampire Wake (Kiera Hudson Series #2) (13 page)

Scrambling back into my bedroom, I rummaged around for a pen and a scrap of paper in my bag. Searching in the darkness with the tips of my fingers, I pulled out a pen and an old mini-bank statement. Hurrying back onto the balcony, I waited for the flashes of torchlight to come from the darkness of the moors. At first there was nothing and I hoped that I hadn’t missed the last of it. Then, out of the night came two long flashes followed by two short bursts of light, followed by one long flash, and then a pause which was quickly followed by a further two long flashes and one short burst. I frantically made a note of this on the scrap of paper and waited. Nothing more followed and I looked to my right and watched Kayla disappear back into her room, quietly closing the windows behind her.

Hurrying back into my room, not knowing if I had any time to lose, I struck a match from the box on the dressing table and lit a candle. In the dim light I tried to make sense of what I’d written. This is what I’d scrawled on the back of the bank statement:

-- --/-/-/--

-- --/-

How I wished I’d learnt the Morse code, as I sat looking at the lines and dashes I’d drawn. Trying to work as fast as I could, I knew that the top line made a four letter word and the second line consisted of a two-letter word. But what were they? I tried to think of as many two letter words that I could, but there were too many. Then I remembered reading once that the most commonly used letter in the English alphabet was the letter ‘E’. So I hoped that maybe either word started with the letter ‘E’ or at least had the letter somewhere within them.

Then I noticed that the first word had two short dashes in the middle. So under them I wrote:

-- --/-/-/--

e/e

The two-letter word also had one of these short bursts as its second letter, so I wrote:

-- --/-/-/--

e/e

--/-

/e

I couldn’t think of too many two-letter words that ended with ‘E’ and the first that came to mind was the word ‘ME’. I looked at my scribbles and could see that the first letter of the first word was identical to that of the first word in the second word, so I wrote:

-- --/-/-/--

M/e/e/--

-- --/-

M/e

Looking down at the piece of scrap paper there was only one four letter word that I could think of which started with the letters M.E.E and that was the word
meet
. So placing the letter ‘T’ at the end of the cipher, I read the message that the person on the moors had sent Kayla. It read:

Meet me!

Fearing that Kayla was going to go and meet this stranger, I pulled on my clothes, and blowing out the candle I’d lit, I crept to my bedroom door. Opening it just an inch, I peered out and could just make out Kayla heading away from me down the corridor. Sneaking out, I suddenly stopped. Kayla could hear things? If she could hear my heartbeat just sitting next to her, wouldn’t she be able to hear me following her? Closing the door behind me as quietly as I could, I knew it was a risk I’d have to take if I were to ever find out who it was she had been meeting. After all, that’s what Lady Hunt was supposedly paying me to find out.

I waited until the top of Kayla’s head had disappeared over the brow of the stairs, then as quickly and as quietly as I could, I set off down the passageway after her. At the top of the stairs, I looked around the banister to see her cross the hall beneath the giant chandelier. Hunkering down and peering through the gaps in the banisters, I watched as she reached the front door. Sliding back the bolts, she stole one quick glance back over her shoulder then disappeared out into the night.

Running down the stairs on tiptoe, I raced across the great hall and slowly opened the front door just a fraction. Pressing my eye against the gap that I’d created, I watched Kayla run across the open grassy area in front of the manor, heading towards the shelter and utter darkness beneath the trees. Not wanting to lose sight of her, I pulled the front door closed behind me, and headed across the lawns. Ahead of me, Kayla disappeared into the darkness and I lost her from view. With my heart racing in my chest, I prayed that she couldn’t hear it and I headed towards the tree line.

Shielding myself behind the trunk of an ancient oak tree, I spied into the darkness that filled the gaps between the tree trunks like black ink. Then to my left and a short distance away, I saw a light weaving back and forward across the ground. Believing that she was a safe distance from the manor and hidden by the trees, she must have turned her torch on. Following the torch light, I crept after her. Gradually my eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, and everything around me looked grey and dull as if the colour had been sucked out of it. In the distance I could see the torchlight bobbing up and down. Then I heard a sound in the silence which made me quicken my step and close the gap between Kayla and me. It was the hissing sound of my iPod that I could hear, and if she was listening to that, then maybe she wouldn’t be able to hear me following her.

Weaving between the tree trunks, I continued after her, until someway ahead, the torchlight went out. Stopping where I was, I listened, but there was only silence now, even the hissy sound of my iPod had stopped. Placing one foot carefully in front of the other, I made my way towards the area where I’d seen the torchlight go out. As I drew near, the trees thinned out into an open circular area. In its centre was a small summerhouse. It was white in colour and the roof was pointed, giving it the appearance of a medieval chapel. At the front of it there was a small covered porch and a swinging couch. The porch was raised off the ground, and to get to it there were several wooden steps. Surrounding the summerhouse was a white picket fence. From my hiding place and lit by the light of the moon, the tiny little house looked like something from a fairytale.

Kayla stood to one side of the summerhouse. I watched her wind the earphones around my iPod then place it on the ground next to her jacket which she had taken off. She was dressed in jeans and a black gym top, which was tight-fitting, stopped an inch above her navel, and was low-cut at the back. Arching her shoulders and hanging her arms loosely by her side, Kayla’s small looking wings unfolded from her back. The tips of them peeked just above her shoulders and I could see the three bony fingers at each end of the wing wiggling open and closed in the moonlight.

Then I heard the sweetest sound that I think I’d ever heard. Kayla started giggling to herself and it sounded like the happiest sound in the world. As she giggled, she fluttered her wings and ever so slowly her feet began to lift off the ground. Watching from the darkness beneath the trees, I felt kind of weird as if I were intruding on a very private moment. But, however much I guessed that I should walk way, I couldn’t; I was mesmerised by her beauty. She looked like an angel.

Kayla’s feet rose about a foot off the ground, before she dropped again. Raising herself on the tips of her toes, she held her arms out on either side of her slender frame and with a gentle flap of her wings, she rose off the ground again. At first I wasn’t sure what she was trying to achieve by doing this, but then she hovered a few feet off the ground, twisted her body to the right and fluttered in that direction. Seeing this, I knew that she was getting used to having wings – she was practising flying. I could tell that her wings were too underdeveloped to reach the heights and speeds that I’d seen Luke, Potter, and Murphy achieve, but one day – one day she would and what a sight she would make, soaring, racing, and diving through the sky with her flame-coloured hair billowing out behind her. As I thought of this, there was a very small part of me that was envious of her.

My thoughts were broken by the sound of gentle applause. Looking towards the sound I could see that someone had appeared on the porch of the summerhouse. I’d been so caught-up in the spectacle of Kayla that I hadn’t noticed him arrive and neither had Kayla. Hearing the sound, she fluttered the few feet back to the ground and went racing towards him, her wings glinting in the moonlight behind her. Racing up the steps, she threw her arms around this man and they held each other. Even though it wasn’t a lover’s embrace, I could tell that Kayla felt deeply for him. From my hiding place, I watched the man plant a soft kiss on her forehead and she ran her hand gently down the length of one side of his face. The overhang of the porch cast such deep shadows that it was impossible for me to see the identity of this man. Letting go of each other, the male led Kayla by the hand into the summerhouse and closed the door behind them.

I waited several minutes, and when I was sure that they weren’t coming out again, I tiptoed from beneath the shelter of the trees and made my way across the open area towards the summerhouse. Passing the porch, I crept around the side of the tiny structure. Set in the side of it, there was a window. Drooping low so I was almost crawling, I positioned myself below the window. Holding my breath and trying to calm my racing heart – I didn’t want Kayla to hear it – I slowly pulled myself up and peered through the window.

Chapter Fifteen

The inside of the summerhouse was in semi-darkness. There was an oil lamp on the table and it cast an orange glow. There was a small wooden table in the centre of the room and Kayla and the male sat at it on two white-washed chairs. Kayla was sitting to one side, and I had to strain my neck to see her. That was good though, because if I couldn’t see her without making some effort, then she wouldn’t be able to see me. But the male was who I really wanted to get a good look at, but he had his back to me. What little I could see of him was cast in shadow. I could hear them talking, but their voices were low and muffled as if they were speaking in whisper, not wanting anyone else to hear what it was they were saying to one another.

Lowering my head, I pressed my ear against the thin wooden wall of the summerhouse and listened.

“I think I’m close,” the male said, but that was all I got as his voice faded.

“How long now?” I heard Kayla ask, and from what I could tell, her voice had an urgency to it.

The male replied but the first part of what he said was incomprehensible. All I heard him say was, “…if all goes well.”

“That soon?” Kayla gasped, her voice rising as if excited in some way.

“Shhh,” I heard the male gesture. “You need to be ready, Kayla,” he said, his voice just a little clearer.

“I’m practicing – but it’s difficult now that…” and her voice faded again.

“Do you think she knows?” I heard the male say.

“…don’t know,” was all I got of Kayla’s reply.

“She didn’t miss a trick in The Ragged Cove,” he said, and my stomach somersaulted as I suspected the male was referring to me.

The first part of Kayla’s response was missing but I caught the last few words, “…don’t like Marshal.”

You’re not the only one
, I thought to myself.

“…not long now,” the male said and I sensed he was trying to be reassuring. “Be ready.”

“I’ll try and….” her voice trailed away again.

“…got to be ready for what’s coming,” the male said. “We’ve all got to be ready.”

Then I heard the sound of chairs scrapping against the wooden floor boards of the summerhouse as they stood up from the table, their secret meeting over. With my heart in my mouth, I crawled away, back towards the trees. I didn’t look back until I was hidden once again out of the moonlight, and in the shadows. Tucking myself behind the trunk of a tree, I watched as Kayla and the man left the summerhouse. Leaning over her, he kissed Kayla softly on the cheek and silently walked towards the trees on the opposite side of the open area to where I was hiding. I watched Kayla pick her jacket up off the ground and put it on, concealing her wings beneath it. Unwinding the headphones, she placed them in her ears and switched on the iPod. With the sound of
‘Rocket Man’
by Elton John hissing away in the darkness, I turned and raced back towards the manor house. Several times I stumbled in the darkness, tripping and falling over bracken and broken branches. I came to realise that lending Kayla my iPod was one of my better moves. With the noise I’d been making, I was surprised that I hadn’t woken the whole manor. Reaching the tree line, I raced towards the front door, hoping that I could get inside and out of view before Kayla reached the clearing and saw me. With my feet crunching on the gravel path, I reached the door. Just as I was about to sneak inside someone said from behind me, “Did you enjoy your evening walk?”

Spinning round on my heels, I looked back to see the chauffeur sitting in his wheelchair just feet behind me.

Where in the hell did you spring from?
I wanted to ask him, but I bit my tongue instead. How had I not heard him? I mean his wheelchair wailed like a set of fingernails being dragged across ice.

“I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said, looking at me from beneath the rim of his peaked cap. His unkempt sideburns glistened silver in the darkness and covered both sides of his face like wire wool.

“No worries,” I said, just wanting to be back inside the house. I knew that if Kayla saw James and me she wouldn’t come out from beneath the trees, but I didn’t want her to see me at all. If she asked me tomorrow where I’d been, I really didn’t want to have to lie to her or tell her the truth.

“What did you say?” the chauffeur said, raising a hand to his ear. “I’m a bit deaf.”

“I said it doesn’t matter,” I told him. “You didn’t scare me.”

“What was that?” he asked again.

“It’s ok – you didn’t scare me!” I said, raising my voice but not wanting to shout.

“Where you been?” he asked.

Trying to be as casual as I could, I ignored his question and asked one of my own. “What happened to the squeak?”

“The what?” he asked, holding his hand to his ear again.

“Your wheelchair was making an awful squeaking noise earlier,” I said in a raised voice which sounded more like a stage whisper.

“Oh, that,” he said. “Went down to see Marshal at the gatehouse, I did. He put a bit of oil on it for me. As good as new now!” then he rolled the chair backwards a few inches as if to prove the point. The squeaking had gone.