Dead Lost (Kiera Hudson Series Two (Book 8)) (17 page)

Luke smiled as if remembering a pleasant dream he had just woken from. “Isidor was such a sweet boy. He confided in me once all about his love for Melody Rose, which made it all the harder for me to kill him as we trekked across The Hollows in search of the Dust Palace. Believe it or not, I found killing him rather upsetting.”

“I’m sure you soon got over it,” Potter cut in.

“Of course,” Luke grinned, and the urge to rid him of it was now almost overwhelming. “I knew that if I could leave him a constant reminder of Melody and what a beautiful woman she grew up to be, then at some point he would go in search of her. Knowing how hard Isidor found it to open up and be honest about his feelings, I suspected that this was a journey he would make on his own. He would leave himself vulnerable in this dangerous new world and he would die. Again, I would not have to reveal myself.”

“But something has gone wrong with your plan,” Potter reminded him. “Because we can see from the picture you hold in your hands that Jack got
pushed
and not Isidor. The chances are he is still out there.”

Luke glanced thoughtfully down at the picture of Jack and Nik Seth instead of the photograph of Isidor and Melody that he had hoped to be holding. “It doesn’t matter,” he shrugged. “What harm could an idiot like Isidor do to my plans? He’s probably dead already.”      

Chapter Twenty-Six

Isidor

Bullets whizzed and zinged all around us. Large puffs of snow sprang up around our feet as the bullets thudded into the ground. I stole a quick glance back over my shoulder to see the berserkers racing after us down the mountainside. Their handlers fired guns, muzzles flashing bright beneath the darkening sky. I looked front again as Melody ran ahead of me. I caught up with her.

“Faster!” I roared, sensing the berserkers yapping at our heels.

Melody shot me a look and smiled. With a set of claws springing from her fingertips, she tore her clothes free in a shower of shreds. She bounded forward, her rose-covered flesh disappearing beneath a coat of thick, blond fur. She landed in the snow on a set of giant white paws. Melody looked back as I started to slow. To see her as a wolf for the first time filled me with shock and wonder. Half of me thought that she looked fierce and wild, just like every other wolf that I had ever seen, but the other half thought she looked strangely exotic and beautiful. Swishing her long, bushy tail behind her, eyes glowing bright orange, she howled a warning to me. I looked back again to see the berserkers were now just feet away. Slicing my own coat free with my claws, I sprang into the air. I couldn’t help but notice the momentary look of shook and surprise in the
berserkers’ eyes as they saw the tatty black wings hanging beneath my arms. Flipping back in the air, I pulled a bolt from my rucksack and loaded my crossbow. I released the trigger and had fired before the first of the berserkers had reached Melody as she bounded around in the snow below. The bolt sliced into the eye socket of the berserker with such force the creature flew backwards and off the side of the mountain. Melody pounced forward, her claws raised as she sliced and slashed at the berserkers that surrounded her. Swooping out of the sky, I rapidly reloaded and fired my crossbow at the berserkers. I moved with such speed and precision that the berserkers cowered beneath a hail of crossbow bolts. They howled in pain and rage as the bolts thudded into their bodies. I reached back for another bolt, but I was out. Swooping low, I snatched a bolt from the flank of a dying berserker, reloaded my crossbow with it and fired again. The berserker had its giant jaws open as the bolt tore into its throat. The wolf spewed a jet of hot, black blood as it flew backwards, paws thrashing at the air.

Out of bolts and fast running out of time if we were to get off the mountain safely, I dropped out of the sky as Melody sunk her claws into the belly of one of the berserkers, disembowelling it in one quick slice. A coil of steamy, black entrails burst from the berserker’s stomach, melting the snow. Racing just inches over the ground, and with those Skin-walkers’ bullets whistling overhead, I wrapped my arms around Melody and lifted her up into the cracked black sky.

As I held her in my arms, some of the thick blond fur began to fall away, like she was shedding her entire coat somehow. With just a fine silky layer of fur, she twisted back into her human form in my arms. With our faces just inches apart, we spiralled upwards, my wings whispering in the wind.

“I remember now,” she smiled at me. “This is what I saw in my dreams.”

“What?” I asked her.

“We did this once before, before we all got
pushed
,” she said. “You came to my bedroom window at my mother’s house. You said that for just one day we should be us – we should be heroes. Then you swept me up in your arms, Isidor. You made me feel free for the first time.”

“And do you feel free now?” I whispered in her ear.

“In love,” she whispered back, then shuddered violently.

I eased her back in my arms. Blood was running down her front from several black holes. I looked down to see those Skin-walkers firing up at us.

“No!”
I roared, realising Melody had been shot. She slumped forward in my arms.

I dropped out of the sky and raced toward the lake and the shelter of the trees that surrounded it. Cradling Melody in my arms, I blazed through the sky like a black streak of lightning. I shot through the trees, coming to land on the copper coloured leaves that covered the floor of the wood. I could still hear the
Clack! Clack! Clack!
of gunfire from the mountain. Dropping to my knees, I lay Melody on the ground before me. The fur had all gone now, leaving her stripped naked other than the roses that covered her like a second skin.

“Melody,” I whispered, gently shaking her body.
“Melody!”

She laid perfectly still, eyes closed.

“Please, Melody,” I whispered, my tears splashing down onto her face. “I only just found you again. We had so much to do together.”

My chest hitched up and down as I began to sob. “Wake up,” I begged her. But she didn’t. Not even a flicker of her eyelids.

From behind me, I heard the sound of running feet, snarling, and barking. I glanced back to see more of those Skin-walker cops and berserkers racing through the trees toward me. Their police radios squealed with excited messages as they called for reinforcements. With their net tightening around me, I scooped Melody up into my arms. With my head down, and Melody pressed to my chest, I raced amongst the trees, splinters of bark showering all around me as bullets thundered into the tree trunks.

Not knowing in what direction I was heading, but knowing I had to get away, I found myself on the path that led outwards to the main road. I ran along it, my wings flapping beneath my arms as I carried Melody’s lifeless body. In the distance between the trees, I could see those cop cars blocking the path from the woods. Emergency lights flashed around and around. I looked back and could see the outlines of berserkers and Skin-walkers racing toward me in the growing darkness. I looked front
again, only to see more of them racing up the path toward me. I was trapped. I looked left, right, up and down, in search of an escape. It was then I saw it – the large circular area of earth that was cracked, just like the sky. With the Skin-walkers now just yards away, and bullets whizzing all around me, I held Melody tight in my arms and began to stomp on the ground. I drove my boot down over and over again in the centre of the cracks where that grate had once been.

With my hair in my eyes, I looked down at the earth and the cracks. For all my stomping, the cracks hadn’t gotten any bigger. I glanced left and right and could see the red and orange glow of the Skin-walkers’ eyes as they raced toward me. Their lips were snarled back, revealing their razor-sharp teeth. As I closed my eyes and waited for the berserkers to rip me to pieces, I felt a cold and bony set of fingers wrap around my ankle.

Gasping in fright, I snapped open my eyes and I looked down. I could see a corpse-white hand sticking out of the centre of the cracks. It had hold of my leg and was yanking me below ground.  

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Kayla

To see Luke Bishop smiling at the thought of my brother, Isidor, being dead was too much for me to take. The spike of anger I felt was so powerful that it launched me off my feet and sent me screaming through the air at Luke. If I couldn’t find it in my soul to kill him for what he’d done to me, then I would kill him for what he had done to Isidor. With claws out before me like a set of daggers, I lunged at Luke. He was lightning fast, batting me away like a fly. I shot backwards, smashing the back of my head into the stone platform. I hollered at the explosion of pain I felt. I went to get up, but before I’d had the chance, Luke lashed out with his foot, kicking Sam in the ribs. I heard a cracking sound, like glass breaking. Sam howled and coughed up blood. He was slumped forward now, and Jessica Hudson had to loop her arms beneath his to hold him up.

“Stay down or I’ll kill him,” Luke spat at me. He clawed his hair from out of his eyes again. “Both of you stay down.”

I looked across the platform and watched Potter slowly sink to the floor. It seemed that despite what Potter had said about Sam in the past, he wasn’t prepared to watch him die – not today at least.

“Good,” Luke said, drawing breath. “Now I’ve been patient with you long enough. Tell me who helped you and Seth escape, or I kill the boy.”

I looked at Potter and he looked at me. Both of us stayed silent.

Jessica held Sam up as Luke drove the heel of his boot into his face. I heard another sickening crunch as Sam’s nose flattened, blood gushed over his already swollen, misshapen lips. I opened my mouth to speak – I wanted to scream the name, Lilly Blu. She meant nothing to me. But Sam did. Potter had been right about my feelings for Sam. I was in love with him.

“Kayla!” Potter shouted. “Don’t tell him. You won’t be saving Sam. Luke’s going to kill him anyway. He’s going to kill me and you, too. We’re all going to be
pushed
. I’d rather that than tell this scum who helped me.”

“But why protect her…?” I started.

“Enough!” Potter roared at me, his eyes as black and as hard as coals.

“She?”
Luke said, glancing down at me. “So it was a woman?”

I looked away. I heard Luke’s boots snap over the platform as he came toward me. He took hold of my arm, yanking me to my feet. Snaking his arm about my throat, he pulled me close against him.

“What am I going to do with you, Kayla?” he sighed, and his cold breath against my neck made my stomach lurch. “I know what I’d like to do with you.”

I felt one of his hands snake over my hips. My whole body went taut. I felt his fingers brush against the small of my back and I wanted to
puke. Pursing his lips, he blew breath into my ear and toyed with my hair with his free hand. “I told Potter that I had you, and I did, didn’t I? I had you working for me in The Hollows and I’ve had you working for me here too.”

“I didn’t know it was you who had sent me back through the cracks,” I said, feeling repulsed by his touch. I did everything I could to throttle the scream that was threatening to tear free of my throat.

“Search your heart, Kayla,” he teased, pulling me closer still. Leaning behind me, he cupped my face in one of his strong hands. He slowly drew his thumb over my bottom lip. Then whispering in my ear so only I could hear, he said, “You know you want me, you always have. We could be together here. That’s why I sent you back. You’ve been helping me to make cracks in this world. I’ve been taking this world apart, piece by tiny piece. The cracks in the ground will let the Vampyrus rise up again. Together we can kill the wolves and the humans. Together we could rule this world. Why always live in Kiera’s shadow? Why not shine like you’ve always meant to?”

Turning in his arms, I looked up into his face. He looked down into my eyes, one corner of his mouth turned up in a smile.

“If I tell you who the traitor is, if I give her name, will you let my friends go?” I whispered, hoping that this time I could trust him.

“Honestly?” he whispered in my ear.

“Honestly,” I whispered back.

“No, I can’t let them go,” he said. “But if you do give me this traitor’s name, I’ll let you go so you can search for your brother. Isidor might not be dead.”

The thought of going and searching for Isidor and finding him caused tears to flood my eyes. To see my brother again would mean more to me than anything.

“You promise?” I asked, fighting back my tears.

“I promise,” he hushed.

I closed my eyes, knowing in my heart I would one day regret what I was about to do. “I’m sorry, Isidor,” I whispered,
then bit off Luke’s ear.

He staggered back from me, both hands clutched to the side of his face. Blood pumped through his fingers and dripped onto the platform. Luke screamed in pain. I went to him, and opening my mouth, I spat his ear back into his face. It bounced off his forehead and on to the floor. Grinding the boot of my heel into it, I screeched, “And that doesn’t even begin to make us even!”

With his face twisted into a mask of rage and hate, Luke lunged at me. I suddenly felt myself flying backwards, but not because Luke had struck me. I glanced over my shoulder to see that Potter had sprung up from off the platform and was now yanking me out of Luke’s reach.