Dead Push (Kiera Hudson Series Two#7) (25 page)

Her parting words to Isidor rang in my ears as loud
as the thunder and the roaring Berserkers.

I love you
, she had said.

No one had ever said those words to me. Not ever. And I knew no one ever would. I was unlovable and I had chosen to be so. No one else was to blame.

Kiera stood crying on the platform, her arms wrapped around Kayla. Potter strode past me and back into the waiting room. The train was clearly visible now in the distance, as were the Berserkers as they raced towards the station. 

“Why are you doing this?” I heard Potter ask Isidor.

“Because I want to see Melody again,” he answered.

I glanced at Kiera and
Kayla, both had their backs to me, so I snuck out from my hiding place and positioned myself in the shadows by the door of the waiting room. 

“I’m staying, Potter, I know what I’m doing,” Isidor said.

What with the sound of the approaching train, the raging storm, and the howling Berserkers, I struggled to hear whatever it was Potter said to Isidor.

I then saw something I didn’t ever expect to see. Potter walked forward and hugged Isidor tightly in his arms. He then placed a cigarette behind Isidor’s ear. Potter then turned and didn’t look back.

As Potter raced up the platform to his friends, the train pulled into the station. Looking back over my shoulder at the approaching Berserkers, I knew they would be swarming over the station in just a minute or two. I took my chance and snuck into the waiting room.

“Jack Seth?” Isidor breathed, on seeing me.

“Give me the picture,” I barked at him.

“No,” he said. “It’s mine.”

I lunged for it, snatching it from his hand. I tore it into strips and cast them to the floor.

“That was a picture of Mel…” he started.

“I know what it was, numb-nuts,” I snarled. “And it isn’t what you think it is. It’s a trap!”

“What has this got to do with you?” Isidor said, raising his
crossbow. “You’re my enemy.”

Knocking the crossbow from his hand with a swipe of my claws, I dragged one hooked fingernail down his chest. A gash opened up in his flesh and Isidor cried out.

“Don’t be such a fucking cry-baby the whole time,” I warned him, dipping my finger in the blood that now trickled from his chest.

He watched me with a look of disgust as I sucked his blood from my finger. I lurched forward, clutching my guts as I started to change.

“What’s happening?” Isidor gasped as I took on his form before him.

“I’m saving your fucking life, that’s what’s happening,” I said, as his blood mixed with mine and I became him. “Jeezus, Isidor, your head really is full of dumb fucking ideas.”

“Why are you doing this?” he asked, a look of bewilderment on his face.

“Because I want you to go and find your friend, Melody Rose,” I told him, glancing back at the door. “She’ll be w
aiting for you, trust me.” The Berserkers were now climbing up and over the platform. The train was gaining speed as it cleared the station.

Turning to look at Isidor, I said, “Hide! Get under the bench and don’t come out until it’s safe to do so.”

“What are you going to do?” Isidor asked, dropping to the floor.

“I’m going to let them kill me,” I said, crossing the waiting room and closing the door. And just for a moment, I saw a brief reflection of
myself. For once I didn’t look emaciated and haggard; I looked young and full of hope. I looked like Isidor.       

The B
erserkers leapt onto the platform. They sniffed the air and snarled. They saw me looking at them through the glass. I turned around. Isidor was hidden out of sight beneath the bench.

“Why are you doing this for me?” I heard Isidor whisper from beneath the bench.

“Because you will go on to do great things, Isidor,” I whispered back. “Whereas, I will only go on to kill.”

There was a vacant-looking ticket booth. On the counter I saw an old-fashioned radio, just like Melody had bought to the lake.

“Let’s have some music,” I smiled, switching it on. There was the sound of static. I shook the radio and I could hear the distant sound of music. The door to the waiting room opened, and I didn’t need to look back to know that the Berserkers were creeping up behind me, their razor-sharp teeth glistening wetly and their giant claws raised.

The music from the radio grew louder,
drowning out the sound of my approaching executioners. I recognised the song at once. It was
Heroes
by David Bowie – the same song that Melody and Isidor used to listen to together on the shore. The music grew so loud that it was almost deafening. The walls of the waiting room began to vibrate. I noticed some leavers set into the wall. Written above them were the words
PUSH
and
PULL
.

I felt the first of the B
erserkers claws rip at my throat. I gripped one of the levers, and do you know what I did next? I
pushed
harder than I’d ever fucking
pushed
before.

I felt a hand fall over mine and take hold. I staggered forward and someone caught me in their arms. Their embrace felt familiar. I leant back and looked into my brother’s face.

He grinned at me.

“Good to see you, Nik,” I smiled.

“And you, brother,” he said.

I looked over his shoulder and could see that I was in a railway station, similar to the one I’d just left. There were a few tables with people seated at them. Bright sunlight streamed through the windows and I walked towards it. I pushed open the wooden station door. The sun beat down on a flat and arid-looking wasteland. There was a squeaking noise from overhead. I glanced up to a see a sign swinging slowly back and forth in the breeze. It read:

Welcome to the Great Wasteland Railroad

Nik joined me in the bright, hot sun. I took off my bandana and wiped sweat from my brow.

“We’re dead, aren’t we?” I said, looking out across the vast desert.

“We had our heads cut off, didn’t we?” he said, looking at me.

“We sure did,” I said.

Tumbleweed blew along the rickety platform that we stood on.

“What now?” Nik asked me.

“We start again, I guess,” I said. Then turning to face him, I added, “But this time, can we try and be heroes and not monsters?”

“I like the sound of that,” Nik said with a happy smile.

Potter

I heard another blast of gunfire. Pushing Sparky’s corpse off me, I raced to the front of the station. Through the glass doors, I peered out into the night. Kiera screamed again, and I saw her run from the cycle shed. Another spray of gunfire, and bullets whizzed all around Kiera as she desperately tried to make her escape. Taking a step backwards, I then launched myself through the glass front doors of the station. Shards of glass showered up into the night sky and glinted like ice. I landed on the ground, my wings out, claws raised. I brandished my fangs as I scanned the darkness for whoever was trying to shoot Kiera.

Clack! Clack! Clack!

Another scream from Kiera, this time from the rear of the station. With my wings pointed out behind me, I shot into the air and soared over the roof of the station. I could see Kiera running across the fields back towards where we had left the cars. Swooping out of the sky, I took hold of her around the waist.

She screamed again – this time with surprise.

“Hold tight,” I whispered into her ear, launching myself back into the night sky with Kiera in my arms.

Clack! Clack! Clack!

Bullets screamed past us as I corkscrewed through the air. Glancing back at the ground, I tried to get a look at the gunman, but I couldn’t see him. I would get Kiera to safety then come back in search of him. Kiera tightened her arms about me as I raced through the air, my wings rippling on either side of me. She pressed her face against my chest and I glanced down at her to make sure she was okay. She looked up into my eyes, and they were bright. I didn’t know if they shone so brightly with fear or excitement. Her long, black hair billowed out behind her in the wind. Kiera looked beautiful, and in a strange way, it was kinda like falling in love with her all over again.

Soaring over the hills, the cold night air pulling at us, I swooped down and towards the hidden dirt track where Kiera and Sparky had left their cars. I wanted Kiera to get as far away from here as quickly as possible. With my feet touching the ground, I slowly lifted Kiera out of my arms. She stood and held onto me.

Looking up into my face, she whispered, “So it is true, there are winged creatures. You’re one of them.”

So are you
, I desperately wanted to say. I couldn’t – I had done too much – changed too much already. I had stopped Kiera from getting shot and killed tonight. How much that would change, I didn’t know, and at this point in time, I didn’t much care. Kiera was safe, and that’s all that mattered to me.

Still in my arms, she reached out and tentatively touched one of my tatty-looking wings with her fingertips. “They’re beautiful,” she whispered as if waking from a dream.

“Kiera…” I started.

“Shhh,” she said, placing her lips over mine.

Her lips felt warm and soft. She pulled me close, and I felt her against me. Kiera’s kiss became more passionate. I tried to ease myself from her, but she snaked one hand around the nape of my neck and kissed me harder. Her tongue slipped into my mouth, and my heart raced. I closed my eyes, then opened them almost at once. There was something wrong. The underside of Kiera’s tongue was covered in silky fine hair.

I pushed her back from me. I looked into her eyes and they were ablaze with orange light. It looked as if there was a fire raging inside her skull. “Kiera…?” I whispered, looking at her.

“Yes,” she smiled.

Then thinking of how I’d been deceived by female wolves before, I said, “You can’t be Kiera. This is a trick… you’ve got to be…
Lilly
!” I hissed.

“Who’s Lilly?” Kiera said, tilting her head to one side and staring at me with her bright yellow eyes. “Not another woman?”

“What other woman?” I mumbled, trying to play catch-up. If this was another one of Seth’s mind-fucks, he was dead.

“I knew there were others,” Kiera said. “But that’s not why I killed you.”

“Killed me…?” I breathed, looking at her. “Kiera, what are you talking about?”

“I had to prove that I wasn’t the other Kiera,” she smiled, her long, black hair seeming to grow thicker somehow as it blew in the wind.

“Prove what to who?” This had to be a Jack Seth mind-fuck. “Am I being punked here, or what? What are you talking about, Kiera?” Had she lost her fucking mind?

“The Wolf Man told me that if I still wanted to hunt with the wolves – to be one of them – I had to prove I wasn’t the Dead Angel the wolves feared was going to come and destroy them. The Wolf Man said I had the same name as her – that I was identical to her – that he was going to kill me. I begged for my life. But how could I prove that I wasn’t this other Kiera Hudson the Wolf Man spoke of? So he asked me to kill my lover – to kill you, Potter. He said the real Kiera Hudson would give up her own life to save yours.”

“So you killed me – you killed the other Potter,” I said, the pieces of the puzzle clanking together like a boxful of spanners in my mind.

“I ripped his fucking face off and ate his heart while the Wolf Man watched,” Kiera said, a sly smile playing on her red lips. “Only then did he believe that I wasn’t the Kiera Hudson – the
Dead Angel
– he was waiting for.

“But you’re half Vampyrus… you have wings like me, Kiera,” I said, my heart feeling like she had just ripped it from my chest. But in my heart, which now felt so heavy, I knew she was also half wolf. In this
pushed
world, Kiera was more wolf than Vampyrus. Lilly and the little girl had been right – this wasn’t
my
Kiera. She looked like her – sounded like her – but she wasn’t her. I started to walk backwards, putting some distance between us.

  “So those lumps are wings then?” Kiera asked, looking revolted by the idea. “That’s what the Wolf Man thought when he saw them. And even though I
had killed my lover in front of him, the Wolf Man once again started to believe that I was really this Dead Angel, he so feared. And just when I thought he might kill me once and for all, you showed up in my apartment and I realised I had another chance to prove that I was truly a wolf and have no love for you.”

No sooner had the last of her words passed over her lips Kiera had sprung into the air. As she leapt towards me, her body changed into the form of a giant black wolf. Kiera’s body was now long and sleek, her face wolf-like and pointed with a vicious-looking snout. The black fur that now covered her body glistened in the moonlight.

“No, Kiera!” I roared, leaping out of her way.