Dead Water (14 page)

“
I can’t sit back and do nothing either,” Meren said, getting
up and coming to stand shoulder to shoulder with me.

I looked
at the group, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Murphy
watching me.

“
I want to push back, too,” Peter said, standing up.

“
Me too,” Alice said, joining him.

One by
one, the others got to their feet. And it was as I looked at them
all staring back at me, I realised they were looking at me
expectantly, as if waiting for me to say something more.

“
I don’t know about you guys, but I’m starving,” I smiled back
at them.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Potter

I opened
my eyes and went to put a hand to my head, but I couldn’t. My hands
were secured behind me. I twisted my wrists and heard the sound of
metal chains clinking. I was lying down on my side. The ground was
hard, made of stone and covered with straw. It was something you
would find a wild animal caged in. The cell stank of piss and shit.
I tried to lift my head off the ground to get my bearings. The back
of my head throbbed from where I’d been struck. The cell was dimly
lit and something about it seemed familiar, but I just couldn’t be
sure where I’d seen it before. Slowly, gritting my teeth against
the pain, I lifted my head. There was a cell door. The hatch was
open and a stream of white light poured in from whatever lay on the
other side.

I slowly
turned around on the floor. There was a small bed, the type you get
in a police station cell. It was a hard plinth of concrete. Placed
on top was a plastic-looking mattress. It looked more comfortable
than the floor. Despite having my hands cuffed behind my back, I
would have struggled up onto the bed if it hadn’t already been
occupied. I could see the shape of someone lying on it.

“
Hello?” I croaked. My throat felt dry and sore. “Hello?” I
managed again, wondering if I was sharing the filthy cell with
another prisoner.

The
shape rolled over, then swung its feet over the side of the
bed.

“
Hello again,” a voice said. It was soft and female.

Straining, I lifted my head an inch off the ground to try and
see who the voice belonged to. My new heart leapt at the sight of
Kayla looking down at me from the bed.

“
Kayla?” I gasped. “They got you, too?”

“
No, I’m one of them,” she said.

“
Look, this isn’t the time to start throwing one of your
fucking hissy fits,” I groaned. “Just get down here and untie
me.”

“
You don’t understand,” Kayla said, standing up. “I really am
one of
them
.”

“
What the fuck are you talking about?” I muttered, twisting my
wrists in their chains. “Where’s Sam? Maybe I’ll get some sense out
of him? Doubtful – but you never know.”

“
Sam?” Kayla said, screwing up her nose. “Who’s
Sam?”

I looked
at her standing above me, bright flaming red hair and brilliant
yellow eyes. “You really aren’t Kayla, are you?”

“
No,” she smiled. Then, shaking herself free of Kayla’s skin,
she revealed the wolf hiding beneath.

“
A fucking wolf,” I groaned. “I might have guessed. When am I
ever gonna learn my lesson not to trust a bit of skirt?”

“
Potter,” the wolf said, licking its snout with a huge pink
tongue. “Oh, Potter.”

“
Who are you?” I sneered.

The wolf
padded towards me on its giant paws. It was covered in a coat of
gleaming white fur. A bushy tail wagged excitedly out behind it. I
remembered how Murphy had described Pen. Was this her?

“
Pen?” I whispered.

The wolf
cocked its head to one side. “Lola,” the wolf eventually
woofed.

Lola? My
mind scrambled through the pain. Lola? Hadn’t Sam mentioned a wolf
named Lola? Hadn’t this wolf wanted to match with Kayla?

With my
heart starting to race, I stared into the wolf’s piercing yellow
eyes and said, “What have you done with Kayla? Where is
she?”

“
We thought you might be able to tell us that,” the wolf
barked.

“
Who’s
we
?” I
shot back.

Before
Lola had a chance to answer, the cell door was swung slowly open. A
stream of fluorescent light spilled into the cell, momentarily
blinding me. With my eyes screwed half shut, I peered up at the
figure looming in the doorway.

“
Who’s there?” I snapped.

My
question was answered with a soft, wicked chuckle. The figure
stepped out of the blinding light and into the cell.

“
Hello, Potter,” Jack Seth smiled, his bright orange eyes
spinning wildly in his emaciated face. “How is my little sister,
Kiera?”

Chapter Twenty-Three

Kiera

Potter
had been gone some time – too long to search for some food. Leaving
Murphy with the others, I set off up the shore to look for him. I
followed his footprints, until they led away from the sand and into
the forest. With the trees seeming to close in all around me, I
headed into the gloom. With my eyes seeing through the darkness, I
was easily able to follow the marks he had left behind. The broken
twigs and disturbed undergrowth were all obvious pointers to the
direction in which he had travelled. I made my way amongst the
overbearing tree trunks until I came upon an area where the ground
had been almost trodden flat. Hunkering down, I inspected the
ground. The area hadn’t been trodden down, like I had first
thought. Somebody had fallen to the ground here. Potter? I
wondered.

Brushing my fingers delicately over the ground, I came across
two other sets of footprints. One set was definitely that of a
female, and the other, a tall male. Crouching, I edged my way
around the track marks, looking for the direction in which they had
headed. There was no sign of Potter’s footprints, so I could only
assume he had been carried away over the shoulder of the male. The
male’s footprints were deeper on his route away from the scene than
they were on his approach, telling me he had carried something
heavy away with him. Fearing that something terrible had happened
to Potter, I jumped to my feet and started off after the
footprints. They led away from the direction of the lake and out of
the forest. Why would anyone come to take Potter? My mind
scrambled. Had whoever taken him come across him by chance? Had he
been taken by wolves? Skin-walkers? We had been told by Sam that
the wolves no longer lived near the forest, they had all vacated
the caves behind the Fountain of Souls and were now in Wasp Water
with the Wolf Man. Had Sam got it wrong or had he
lied
?

There
was nothing here for the wolves anymore. There was only the
lake...

“
The lake,” I breathed out loud, stopping in my
tracks.

The
wolves might not live here anymore, but what if they knew the power
of the Dead Waters? Hadn’t Sam told Murphy that the wolves wouldn’t
want us coming to the lake because of the waters’ healing
properties? So why then leave them unguarded....?

“
It’s a trap!” I gasped. “We’ve been led into a
trap.”

If they
had taken Potter already, what about Murphy and...

“
...the half and half’s...” I breathed, then suddenly I dropped
to my knees. Blood trickled from my left eye. This was something
which hadn’t happened for a while. Had my body been too much like
stone before – unable to shed any blood, needing every last drop?
Whatever the reason, it now dribbled from my eye and onto my cheek.
Then, just like a flashbulb going off in my head I saw Jack Seth
again. Those flashbulbs had been away for too long. Had bathing in
the Dead Waters restored that inner ability to be able to
see
?

Jack was
standing on that stage again. A sea of body parts whizzed over my
head and clattered into him. The crowd roared and it was deafening.
I clapped my hands to each side of my head and covered my
ears.

Traitor! Traitor! Traitor!
The
Skin-walkers roared at him.

But who
had Jack betrayed? The wolves? But he was one of them.

Who did you betray, Jack?
I screamed
at him over the roar of the crowd. Who did you betray?

You, little sister!
he smiled back at
me.
I betrayed you and your friends. I
betrayed all of you!

“
No!” I cried out, those flashbulbs fading in my mind. Wiping
away the blood from my face with my fingertips, I clambered to my
feet again.

Spinning round, I raced back the way I had come, back towards
the lake and the others. With my hair streaming out behind me, I
clenched my teeth and....
blinked
...as Gayle had called it. The
world became a blur around me as I raced through the trees. Each
trunk passed me like a fleeting shadow. I broke through the
treeline and onto the shore. Snapping my head left, I could see my
friends gathered around the fire someway off along the shore. Then,
snapping my head to the right, I saw a throng of wolves silently
making their way towards them. They approached with their heads
down and bellies almost dragging along in the sand. Their tails
protruded like arrows from behind them. Their bodies looked sleek,
huge, and powerful beneath the dying moon.

Turning
my back on them, I raced along the shore towards Murphy and the
others. Within seconds, I had reached them.

“
We’ve got company,” I said to Murphy, jabbing my finger in the
direction of the approaching wolves.

Jumping
to his slippered feet, Murphy barked, “Where’s Potter?”

“
They’ve taken him already,” I said, eyes wide.

“
Then it’s just me and you,” he said, unbuttoning his
shirt.

“
And the others,” I said, glancing at the group gathered around
the fire.

“
We can’t expect them to fight,” Murphy growled at me. “They’re
not used to dealing with shit like this.”

“
We’ve got to learn to defend ourselves sometime,” Meren said,
springing to her feet.

“
And now looks like a good time to start,” I said, the wolves
now picking up speed and racing along the shore towards
us.

“
Up! On your feet!” Meren shouted at the others still gathered
by the fire.

True to
their earlier promise, all of them sprang to their feet.

Realising he was never going to talk Meren or any of the
others into backing down, Murphy looked at them and barked, “Form a
line!”

Without
question, they stood up along the shore.

“
Wings,” Murphy snapped as the wolves bounded towards us. There
was a thunderous beating sound as we all released our
wings.

“
Hold the line!” Murphy ordered.

The
wolves were so close now, that we could see the drool spraying from
their giant foaming jaws. I glanced to my left at Meren. Her claws
and fangs were already out and gleaming brightly. Her hair shone an
electric blue.

“
Hold,” Murphy whispered. “Just a few more seconds.”

The
wolves were almost on top of us now as they bounded at a terrifying
speed towards us. Sand sprayed up from beneath their
vicious-looking paws, and their eyes shone so bright, the light
which seeped from them was almost blinding.

“
Now!”
Murphy roared, shooting up into
the air.

We
followed his lead and leapt into the night, the wolves missing us
by inches below. Some of them skidded to a halt in the sand. Others
yelped and growled, craning their giant heads up to see where we
had suddenly disappeared to.

“
Now let’s kill the fuckers!” Murphy roared, plummeting out of
the sky and onto his prey.

Within an instant, Murphy had snatched one of the wolves off
the shore and was slicing and dicing it into quarters with his
claws. Entrails and fur-covered lumps of flesh rained out of the
black sky as Murphy shredded the wolf. As if spurred on by this,
the others dropped out of the sky. With their claws and fangs at
the ready, they bit, clawed, and ripped at the wolves below. The
wolves fought back, lunging up at the approaching half and half’s
with their mighty paws and cavernous jaws. But we were faster –
slicker. And just like Gayle had said, we
blinked
at speed around the wolves.
They spun around as if chasing their own long bushy tails as
we
blinked
before
them, above them, behind them, to the side of them, all at once. We
raked at them with our claws, slicing open their thick throats in
violent sprays of black blood. I saw Peter zoom forward, his wings
arched high behind him. With his mouth open, he ripped into the
snout of a wolf. Then, soaring upwards, he took half of the wolf’s
face with him. It dangled wetly from his mouth, then he spat it
out. Peter wiped the blood away, then dropped out of the sky once
again to finish off the wolf, which now lumbered blindly around on
the shoreline.