Vampire Wake (Kiera Hudson Series #2) (22 page)

Before I knew what was happening, Luke pierced the flesh on my neck with his teeth. His body locked as if in some sort of a spasm, and he growled in the back of his throat. Fearing that he was going to bite me, I pushed him off with my knees and he staggered to the other side of the room.

“What’s wrong with you?” I gasped, blindly reaching for the lantern in the darkness. “I’m sorry, Kiera,” he said, and his voice sounded different – deeper somehow. “I don’t want to hurt you.” “Hurt me?” I said confused. Then finding the lantern, I tried to turn it on. “Don’t turn on the light!” he growled.   But it was too late, I’d already found the tiny dial on the side of the lantern that raised the light. Holding the lantern out before me, I swayed it around the room in search of Luke. Then I saw him, huddled in the far corner, his knees drawn up against his chest and his wings folded around him. Getting up from the bed, I started across the room towards him.

“Luke?” I said. “What’s wrong? I thought you were going to bite me.” “I was! So don’t come over here, Kiera,” he warned. “But I’ve already told you, you don’t scare me,” I tried to reassure him. “I don’t want you seeing me like this,” he groaned. “I thought we’d got over all of that?” I said, half-joking.   Standing over him, I hunkered down and pulled back the wing that was pulled around him. Then all at once, those black fingers snatched hold of my wrist and yanked my hand away, but in doing so, his wing opened and I saw the face that stared back at me from behind it. Stumbling backwards in shock, I fell onto my arse and sat staring at him.

“Go away!” he roared so loudly that I flinched backwards and away from him. Not only did Luke have fangs, but his mouth was full of razor sharp teeth. His eyes shone fierce green, and his ears had twisted into points and his nose had turned up into something similar to a snout. Bristly black hair had sprouted from his face, but there was a white-coloured patch of skin shining through where he had been previously burnt.

“What’s happened to you?” I gasped, pushing myself back across the floor and away from him. “I need blood,” he groaned as if in pain. “Human blood - and I can’t go back to The Hollows.” “But I thought you said that Hunt and Ravenwood had come up with a synthetic…” I started.   “Lot 13,” he gasped. “But it just doesn’t quite hit the spot. Being so close to you like that – I could smell the human part of you surging through your veins. It was wonderful – you have no idea how
wonderful
.”

“What can I do to help?” I asked him.

“Just stay over there,” he said gesturing with his hand and I noticed that it was also covered with thick wiry black hair, which glistened in the light from the lantern that now lay on the floor.

“What’s happened to you?” I said, my voice wobbling. “This is what I look like – my true self when living in The Hollows,” he said. “I’m a vampire bat, remember?” “So Murphy, Potter and all of the other Vampyrus look just as you do in The Hollows?” I asked him. “More or less,” Luke said and winced as if in pain.   Then the sudden realisation that I too was half Vampyrus made my head spin and I felt nauseous at the thought that I might too change into something like Luke if I ever went down into The Hollows.

“Do all the female Vampyrus look like that, too?” I dared to ask him.

Guessing what I was driving at, Luke looked at me with his piercing stare and said, “They look beautiful – you don’t have anything to worry about.” Then he moaned aloud again as if he was hurting in some way.

“What’s happening?” I asked him, trying to mask my fear.

“It’s passing,” he said through gritted teeth. Then rolling onto his side like a drunk, I watched as the hair covering his face faded away, his ears stretched back into shape, as did his nose. The green fire in his eyes faded and his fangs withdrew back into his gums like a cats claws disappearing back into its paws.

Crawling across the floor towards him, I helped him up. His skin felt clammy and was covered in a fine sheen of sweat. Brushing his damp hair from his brow, I looked down into his face.

“Are you okay?”

“Never better,” he said. Then pointing to the table beside the bed, he added, “In that drawer there is a bottle of Lot 13.”

I lead Luke back to the bed where he sat down. Pulling open the drawer, I saw several bottles the size of small test tubes rolling about inside. Each of them was filled with a pale pink gloopey liquid. Taking one, I handed it to Luke. With trembling fingers, he unscrewed the top and tilting his head back, Luke gulped down the mixture. I watched it slide out of the bottle and it almost seemed to cling to the glass sides like slime. Taking the empty bottle from him, Luke shook all over as if caught in a draught and said, “That’s better.”

“Are you okay?” I asked him.

“Just give me a minute or two,” he said, lying back on the bed. “Scared of me yet?” he asked once he had made himself comfortable.

“It will take more than a few scars and some straggly looking whiskers to frighten me away,” I said. But deep inside, I did feel scared, but not of Luke, but what I might turn into. Then taking his hand in mine, I added, “How come you didn’t worry about scaring Kayla, but you hid away from me?”

Looking at me, Luke said, “I don’t know what you mean?”

“Well you didn’t mask-up when you went in search of Kayla,” I said. “She told me that you had scars all down the side of your face. How come you -”

Sitting bolt upright on the bed, Luke stared at me and said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve never actually met Kayla and I definitely didn’t go in search of her.”

“You must have gone,” I said feeling confused. “Kayla told me that she met a guy in London who said his name was Luke and she described him as having scars…”

“Kiera, I’m telling you I’ve never met the girl – I’ve been in hiding up here,” he insisted.

“So if it wasn’t you, then…oh my god!” I gasped. Pulling on my shirt I raced from the room.

Chapter Twenty-Five

With my hands stretched out before me, I darted down the dark corridor, my heart racing in my chest and beating in my ears. Luke was behind me, his lantern sending eerie shadows up the walls and across the floor. In the dim yellow light, my shadow appeared stretched and elongated, and out of the comer of my eye, my back look distorted, just like I had a pair of wings growing from it. Shuddering, I looked away and the deformed-looking shadow disappeared.

Reaching the top of the stairs I raced down them two at a time. Bolting across the landing, I headed up the stairs towards the corridor that led to Kayla’s bedroom.

“Kiera!” Luke said from just over my shoulder, “What’s wrong?”

Ignoring him, I pushed open the door and ran into Kayla’s bedroom. Scanning the room, I could see that she wasn’t there. The window leading to her balcony was open and the cold night air billowed the curtains outwards like a sail.

“Kayla?” I yelled, checking her bathroom. Running back into the room, I could see Luke was standing in the doorway and in the light from the many candles, I could see how pale Luke’s face and chest really looked. His skin was almost white and the scars that covered it shone an angry purple and blue. His wings hung from his back, the tips of them nearly brushing the wooded floor and I could see now that the edges of them looked frayed like a piece of lace that had been unpicked.

“What’s going on?” Luke asked, his eyes never leaving me as I darted around Kayla’s room.

“Kayla told me that she met you in London,” I told him, pulling back blankets and kicking aside the clothes that lay strewn all over her bedroom floor. “If it wasn’t you, who was it? And why would they pretend to be you? But more than that, she has been meeting a friend in the woods at the summerhouse…” but then I stopped. Something had grabbed my attention.

Crossing the room to her dressing table, lying on top of a pile of used face wipes, perfumes, and lipsticks, I saw a folded piece of paper. Picking it up, I read what was written on it.

Dear Mother,

I know you believe that you have my best interests at heart – but really you don’t. If you loved me, you would trust me – the two go hand in hand, don’t they?

I know it’s been difficult recently for you with father’s disappearance, but it hasn’t been easy for me, either. We both know that I’m different from other girls my age and the physical changes that I’ve undergone have really screwed me up inside. I don’t know who I am but more importantly, I don’t truly understand
what
I am.

I know you sent Police Officer Hudson to watch over me and keep me safe, and part of me understood your reasons why and it showed me that you loved me despite the problems I have caused you. But when I discovered tonight you had surrounded me with spies – I knew that you didn’t trust me, either. I can’t even begin to explain how your lack of faith and trust has hurt me.

I know that I am different – different from you – but I am your daughter. I didn’t ask to be made like this – I wish more than anything I could be like other girls my age – but I know that I can’t and this I have to come to understand and accept in my own time. But I will never be able to do this if you don’t trust me, and by surrounding me with your spies to watch over me, I don’t believe that I will ever come to terms with what I am.

Therefore I’m going away – far away from here with my friend Luke Bishop. Yes it has been him that you’ve seen on the other side of the manor walls. But he has become someone that I can trust – he has become a good friend. Before Kiera tells you what has happened (and I suspect she already knows – you were right you can’t get anything past that one) I want to be honest with you. I gave Luke the key to the tunnel that leads beneath the moat, he has been secretly meeting me at the summerhouse in the woods and he has been to my room, he was curious to see where I lived and to see inside the manor.

But mother, you are in great danger from these spies that you have enlisted to watch me. Luke told me that there are two Vampyrus that were behind the disappearance of father – Jim Murphy and Sean Potter, and I’ve discovered tonight that these are the two that have been masquerading as your chauffeur and handyman. But worse still, Kiera is working with them. You are in great danger. When you find this note get as far away from Hallowed Manor as you can – Luke has told me that Murphy and Potter are soon to overrun the manor with vampires.

Please don’t worry about me mother, I’m with Luke and he has promised to protect me.

Forever in my heart

Kayla

Handing the letter to Luke, he scanned his eyes over it, then folding it in half, he looked at me and said, “I don’t understand Kiera, I’ve never met Kayla, so who has she been meeting?”

“I don’t know,” I breathed. “But whoever he is, he’s tricked Kayla into giving him keys to the grounds so that he can come and go, he’s been in her room and the manor and…” but before I’d the chance to finish what I was about to say, snapshots of the nightmares that I’d been suffering from flashed in front of my mind’s eyes. The images were so strong that I wobbled backwards, almost losing my balance.

Gripping my arm to steady me, Luke said, “Kiera, what is it? What can you see?”

Opening my eyes and looking at him, I said, “Kayla’s been meeting Phillips.”

“Phillips?” Luke asked sounding unsure.

“I’ve seen him in my dreams, Luke,” I told him. “He’s scarred down the left side of his face. But not from burns, from where Potter attacked him in the graveyard at St. Mary’s Church.”

“But that means…” Luke started.

“He’s tricked Kayla into believing that he is you – her friend. Without ever meeting you, she wouldn’t have known any different. Kayla is in danger!” I snapped and raced past Luke and out of her room.

“Wait!” Luke hollered after me.

“We don’t have time!” I shouted over my shoulder, charging down the stairs to the great hall. Reaching the foot of the stairs, I could see Murphy and Potter standing by the front door. There was a hazy blue cloud of smoke hovering just above their heads as Murphy puffed on his pipe and Potter sucked on the end of a cigarette which dangled from the corner of his mouth.

Seeing me come running down the stairs, Potter opened his arms and smirking he said, “Come running back to me, have you?”

Ignoring him, I looked at Murphy and said, “Have you seen Kayla?”

“Not since she discovered us in the gatehouse,” he said.

Joining us in the hall, Luke looked at his two friends and said, “Phillips is here.”

“Where?” Potter said, standing away from the wall and blowing smoke out of his nostrils.

“Impossible,” Murphy growled. “We’ve been watching this place for weeks -”

“It doesn’t surprise me, then, that he’s found a way in,” I snapped more angrily than I intended.

Knocking the smouldering contents from his pipe into a nearby flowerpot, Murphy eyed me and said, “Listen here, Hudson, you don’t know every goddamn thing in the book. We’ve been watching your back here. There’s only been the two of us…”

“Look, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it to sound like that,” I told him. “It’s just that I’m scared for Kayla – she doesn’t know what Phillips is all about. She doesn’t realise the danger that she’s in.”

Then from behind us, somebody said, “What’s going on here?”

Spinning round, I saw Mrs. Payne come from the shadows beneath the wide staircase.

Looking at Luke, Potter, and Murphy, she said, “And who might you three be?” Before anyone had a chance to answer her, she looked at Potter and said, “And put that cigarette out. It’s a disgusting habit.”

Ignoring her, Potter looked at me and said, “Is she related to you by any chance?”

Turning away from his grinning face, I said to Mrs. Payne, “We don’t have time to explain now, but these are my friends.” Then pointing to Murphy, I said, “This is my sergeant, the smoker is called Potter, but you’ll probably know them better as James and Marshal.”

With a look of confusion splashed across her face, she said, “The Chauffeur? Marshal?” Then pointing at Luke, she added, “Where’s he come from.”

Pointing to the ceiling, Luke smiled and said, “From up there!”