Dead Water (17 page)

I saw it
coming but was powerless to act, as I was still manacled at the
rear. Lola bounded into the air, colliding with Seth and slamming
him into the wall. Seth looked at her, and not for one moment did
he show any sense of feeling or pain – his face was expressionless.
He then ripped open her throat with his teeth. Lola made a
whimpering noise as she kicked out with her back legs and thrashed
her tail from side to side. Eventually she fell still, dropping to
the floor in a pile of white fur. I looked up at Seth and he looked
back at me.

He
rushed towards me. But instead of killing me, as I believed he
would, Seth reached behind me, and broke my chains free. Jumping to
my feet I looked in his eyes, which were now blazing
again.

“
Why have you saved me?” I asked, rubbing my wrists.

“
I didn’t do it for you, I did it for my sister,” he said, his
face wrinkled and hollow-looking. “I did it for Kiera.”

“
Why?” I asked.

“
I thought Bishop was going to kill you,” he said, his eyes
still fixed on mine. “I had no idea he was going to use you as bait
to trap my sister. I might be a sick fuck, but not so sick I’d let
my own sister be taken to bed against her will by that freaking
bat.”

“
She got to you, didn’t she?” I said softly. “Kiera got under
your skin.”

“
She taught me I have a choice, and I haven’t been able to stop
thinking about that since I left her in that room,” he explained.
“For once I want to do the right thing – by Kiera, at
least.”

“
So what now?” I asked, still not entirely sure if
I
could trust
him.

“
We go to Kiera and stop her from coming to Wasp Water and
entering Bishop’s trap,” Seth said, turning towards the
door.

He
stopped suddenly.

“
What do we have here?” Luke said, standing in the open
doorway. “Two traitors! Why, this just keeps getting better and
better.”

A sea of
Skin-walkers stood behind him. Our only way out was
blocked.

Smiling,
Luke stared back at us and said, “Looks like we’re gonna have
ourselves two executions today.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Kiera

With smoke and debris pouring up into the air from the downed
helicopters, it was only a matter of time before the good townsfolk
from Wasp Water came to investigate. It wouldn’t take Einstein to
figure out what happened out here. We had to keep moving – get in
and out of Wasp Water before we were discovered. But that would be
easier said than done. It was a safe bet that if Potter were being
held in Wasp Water, it would at the police station, in the cells
where I had slept in a world not to dissimilar to this one. In
that
when
, Wasp
Water had been overridden by zombie-like vampires – it was now home
to the wolves.

Murphy
held his side as he staggered across the rugged moorland towards
the town. He had one arm thrown around Meren’s shoulder in support.
Peter carried his sister, Alice, in his arms. She was unconscious,
the side of her head pressed flat against his chest. This was
impossible. Our number had been cut in half. Our chances of beating
the wolves had been slim at best, now they were something close to
zero. Gayle glanced at me, her eyes haunted by what had just
happened. Her strawberry blond hair flicked about her shoulders in
the wind. Had I’d led the half and half’s to their deaths? I
feared. Had I filled them with false hope? Had I been wrong to
convince them that because we could fly, and wolves couldn’t, that
we could easily defeat them? I had underestimated the cunning of
this Wolf Man – but then there was nothing so cunning as a
wolf.

Stopping
dead in my tracks beneath a bruised and battered looking sky, I
said, “I will go on alone.”

“
Don’t be so stupid,” Murphy snapped. He was paler than ever,
and despite the cold wind that gnawed at us, his brow was covered
with beads of sweat. “You can’t go on alone.”

“
And you can’t go on like that,” I said, pointing at his
bleeding wound.

“
It will heal itself, you know it will,” he said, doubled over
in pain.

“
Not for a few hours yet,” I warned him. “And we don’t have the
time.” I remembered the nightmare I’d had about Jack, and something
inside told me time was running out for him. Potter,
too.

“
I’ll go with you,” Meren suddenly said.

“
No one is going anywhere,” Murphy growled. “We stay
together.”

I looked
at Meren.

“
Kiera’s right,” Meren said, pulling her father tight. “We
could go ahead, scope the place out. See how well defended the town
is. We could then come back and plan our attack.”

It was
as if Meren had read my mind – had seen my plan before I’d had the
chance to suggest it. Perhaps we just thought alike?

I
pointed ahead. “There is an outcrop of rock over there,” I said to
Murphy. “You could rest there, unseen by anyone who might come out
here to discover what happened to those helicopters. Peter and
Gayle could stay with you and keep watch while you and Alice get a
chance to heal. Neither of you are any good to us at the
moment.”

Murphy
raised his head and looked at me. “You just take a look and come
straight back, right?”

“
Right,” I said. “Me and Meren check the place out, find the
safest way into the town, and then come back here for you
guys.”

“
You got two hours,” Murphy grumbled. “If you’re not back by
then, gunshot or no gunshot, I’m coming after you.”

“
Okay,” I breathed in relief that Murphy had agreed to the
plan. I looked at Meren and she smiled back at me. She was pleased,
too.

Slowly,
we crossed the barren-looking moorlands towards the overhang. The
landscape looked ancient, prehistoric perhaps? Large jagged lumps
of granite rock pierced the ground like black headstones. The wind
blew hard between the mountains and over the rolling hills. Our
clothes fluttered about us as we pulled them tight. We stepped
beneath the overhanging lip of rock. It was dry underneath and
shielded from the howling wind. Working together, Meren and I
rested Murphy against the far wall of the overhang. He winced and
clutched his side. I could see that his fingers were black and
crusted with dried blood.

“
Are you okay?” I asked.

“
Get the hell out of here before I change my mind,” he wheezed.
“You’ve got two hours.”

“
Okay,” I said.

Looking
at Meren then back at me, Murphy added, “And bring my daughter back
safe.”

“
I can take care of myself,” Meren tried to reassure
him.

“
You don’t know the wolves like we do,” he grunted and closed
his eyes.

Leaving
Murphy to rest, I turned to face the others. Gayle was standing
just beneath the lip and looking out across the moors, as if on
guard. Alice was asleep on the ground, her head resting in Peter’s
lap. Her wings, which were folded around her, were riddled with
gunshot wounds.

“
How she doing?” I whispered, not wanting to wake
her.

“
She doesn’t look too good,” Peter whispered back, his eyes
wide and fearful.

“
Just let her rest,” I told him. “We half and half’s have a
knack for healing.”

“
I hope you’re right,” he said, looking down at his sister and
brushing a stray strand of hair from her feverish brow.

“
We’ll be back soon,” I said.

Meren
was standing with Gayle. Both turned to look at me as I approached
them. “Ready?” I asked Meren.

She
nodded.

Looking
at Gayle, I said, “Keep a look out. You should be safe here and we
won’t be long.”

“
What should I do if any wolves come?” Gayle asked.

“
Fight for your lives,” I said, heading out from beneath the
overhang.

I didn’t
mean to sound flippant or cruel, but I was being honest. I was
trying to be real.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Kiera

Using
the giant rocks which were scattered across the plain to conceal
ourselves, we made our way towards Wasp Water. Meren stayed close
to me, crouching when I did, running when I ran, and hiding when I
hid. To the east of the town, I remembered the road that I had
walked once before with Kayla and Isidor after escaping the zoo. It
led into town, but was sheltered on one side by trees. That would
be the safest place to head for, in hopes we could get close to the
town without being seen.

Cutting
across the open plain at speed, I led Meren towards that road. Just
like I had remembered it, a wooded area stretched alongside the
road, offering us cover. Once amongst the thick trees, I led Meren
towards the road. Coming to rest behind a large tree, I peeked
around it. I could see the road about ten yards away. The last time
I had walked that road, it had been blocked solid with cars. Each
one of them had been filled with the dead, those that had been
attacked by vampires. I pushed the memory of their bloated and
maggot-infested faces from my mind.

Without
warning, a police car sped past on the other side of the trees, its
emergency lights screaming and flashing. This patrol car was
followed by another and then another. They were heading out in the
direction of the downed helicopters and to where our friends were
hiding.

Meren
looked at me. “What now?” she whispered, combing her blue hair
behind her ears with her fingers.

“
We wait here for those police cars to get well clear. We
daren’t risk going out onto that road with so many cops about,” I
whispered back. “The town is about a quarter of mile over there.
The trees start to thin out just before town, but we can get close
enough to take a look.”

“
Okay,” Meren said, crouching down and resting her back against
the tree trunk.

Two more
police cars raced past, and I slid back behind the tree and out of
sight.

As the
sound of their sirens began to fade into the distance, Meren looked
at me and said, “Who murdered me?”

“
Huh?” I said, surprised by her question.

“
Who murdered me back at Hallowed Manor, and why?” she asked
again.

Settling
back against the tree, I said, “A wolf called Sparky and a Vampyrus
called Luke Bishop. Sparky was once a friend of mine, and Luke was
a friend of your father’s.”

“
So if they were friends, why did they kill me and the others?”
she said, her bright eyes fixed on me as if searching for
answers.

“
Sparky was deceived by Luke,” I started to explain. “Luke
deceived all of us. His real name was Elias Munn and he was wicked
beyond belief. He thought you were half-breeds – Vampyrus born from
the mixing of humans and Vampyrus. We all believed that – I thought
I was one, too. He wanted to experiment on you, make an army of
half-breeds because he thought they had special gifts – powers. He
wanted to make an army of half-breeds so he could take over the
world. Slowly he was infecting the human race. He and other
Vampyruses were feeding off humans, which turns them into vampires.
But these vampires were freakish, frenzied, and untameable – like
zombies. He wanted an army he could control, so he started to
experiment with the half-breeds. But when he discovered how very
weak and sick you were, he knew you would’ve been of no use to him,
so he murdered you in your beds. Instead, he kidnapped a healthy
half-breed; he kidnapped my friend, Kayla.”

Meren
sat quietly as if contemplating what I had just told her. After a
few short moments, she turned to face me again and said, “Why were
we brought back then?”

I
thought about this, and shaking my head, I said, “I don’t know. The
only creatures that really know why are the Elders, and they speak
in riddles. But I believe we are getting closer to the answer –
closer to the truth.”

Again,
Meren sat silently as if registering what I had told her. Then,
shooting me a sideways glance she said, “Did you know my
mother?”

I
thought of everything Murphy had told me and how Pen had given her
daughters up as babies. She had left them in a box, sick and weak
in Murphy’s care. He had told Meren her mother had died. He hadn’t
told either of his daughters about their real mother. Not wanting
to lie to Meren, and knowing the truth should come from Murphy, I
looked away and said, “I didn’t know your mother.”

Feeling
a little uncomfortable about keeping the truth from Meren, I got up
and brushed the damp leaves from the seat of my trousers. There was
little snow on the ground beneath the trees, but there was enough
to have made the ground damp.

“
C’mon,” I said, looking down at Meren. “I think the last of
those police cars has gone now. We should get closer to the town.
We haven’t got long before your father comes looking for
us.”

I set
off, keeping back from the road. Meren followed, then caught up
with me.

“
I saw you in the summerhouse,” she suddenly said with a faint
smile. “I saw you and that man, Potter.”