Kiera Hudson & The Lethal Infected (15 page)

Chapter Twenty-Nine

“I can’t believe it!” Hunt said, rushing down the front steps of Hallowed Manor as soon as he saw me step from the treeline.

He ran across the lawn toward me. He looked pale and gaunt. He was visibly upset.

“I can’t believe my best friend tried to poison Sophie,” he said. “I can’t believe he’s dead.”

“I’m sorry about your friend. I’m sorry he’s dead,” I told him, even though I was no longer sure that Ravenwood was.

My intention wasn’t to lie to Hunt and drag out his grief and agony. But I couldn’t be sure of anything. If I told him that Ravenwood wasn’t dead when he was, I was just giving him false hope. For all I knew Ravenwood could still be dead and his body had been recovered – stolen away – for some reason I didn’t yet know. But if he was alive, I didn’t yet want my friends to know. Why? They would just hunt him down – make him pay for what he did to Sophie. But if Ravenwood was still alive then I wanted to find him before my friends did. I wanted the chance to ask him why he had wanted Sophie dead. I couldn’t say that I knew the Ravenwood in this
where
and
when
well – so perhaps he was a cold-hearted killer – but I truly doubted that. If he was anything at all like the man I had once known, he was a good man.

“Where have you buried him?” Hunt asked, his eyes bloodshot as if he had been recently crying.

“Beneath a large willow tree,” I said, thinking of the hole I had dug, then refilled with nothing but earth. I had wanted to give the impression that Ravenwood had been buried. It would give me time to find out what had truly happened to him. “I made a cross with some branches, so you should be able to find it,” I said, taking one of his hands in mine to offer him some kind of comfort. 

“I will go later and pay my respects to my friend,” he said, turning and walking slowly back toward the manor house.

I walked at his side. “Why do you think Ravenwood wanted to kill Sophie?”

“I can’t even begin to imagine why he would do such a thing,” Hunt said, looking and sounding baffled. “He was such a good man.”

“Did he not agree with human and Vampyrus mixing?” I asked. “Did he not like the half-breeds?”

“Not like them?” Hunt gasped, rounding on me. “He loved them. He loved my two children as if they were his own.”

“You have half-breed children?” I asked, pretending I knew nothing of his life.

“Kayla and Isidor,” he said, dropping his voice almost to a whisper, his eyes darting furtively left, right then back at me. “Ravenwood helped save my children.”

“Where are they now?” I asked. “Are Kayla and Isidor here?”

“No,” Hunt said with a shake of his head.

“Where are they?” I asked, fearing that I was going to get the same simple answer that I’d gotten from Potter and Murphy. And I was right.

“They’ve gone away,” he said, heading back toward the house.

“Gone where, exactly? “I called after him.

“I can’t talk now,” he blustered. “I’ve got patients to attend to. Murphy and Sophie have both been moved up into the attic.”

Following Hunt up the front steps, he strode back into Hallowed Manor and up the stairs to the attic. He walked briskly, so fast that I struggled to match his pace. It was like he didn’t want to engage me with any further conversation – as if he didn’t want me to probe deeper about his children, Kayla and Isidor. Why was everyone being so evasive about their whereabouts? 

At the top of the winding staircase, Hunt pushed open the door to the makeshift hospital and I followed him onto the ward. Two small electric lamps burnt at either end of the narrow room. As there were no windows, the light cast long, drawn-out shadows across the walls.

“You got the lights working again?” I said, to Hunt.

“Uri fixed them up before he and Phebe headed back to the inn,” Hunt said, heading to a bed nearest to him.

Murphy lay stretched out on it, a patch of gauze fixed with bandages about his stomach. “Hey, Murphy,” I smiled, pleased to see my friend.

“Hey, Kiera,” he smiled back, although it looked more like a grimace as he was in pain.

“You don’t seem to heal so quickly these days,” I said, sitting on the edge of his bed, remembering how in the past he had shrugged off worse injuries in a matter of moments. 

“
These
days?” he frowned.

Realising the mistake I’d made, I quickly added, “What I meant was you seemed to take a good kicking the other day when we fought the Leshy…”

“The Leshy didn’t give me a good kick-in,” Murphy grunted.

“He’s getting too old for all of this.” I heard Potter’s voice come from the other end of the ward. I looked back to see him standing in the shadows that surrounded the bed where Sophie lay. Getting up from Murphy’s side, I headed down the ward, stopping at the foot of Sophie’s bed. She was asleep.

“How is she?” I whispered.

“She’ll survive, thanks to you,” Hunt said, joining Potter and me at Sophie’s bedside. “What was it you gave her?”

“This,” I said, taking the remainder of the Lot 13 from my coat pocket and handing it to him. “I’m guessing you’ll need to make some more of it. Sophie might need a lot more over the coming weeks and months.”

“What is it?” Hunt asked, holding up the bottle in the dim light from the nearby lamp.

“I’m not sure,” I said, not knowing what to say. “I think it’s another Lot. But you’ll need to run some tests on it. Find out what’s exactly in it and then make some more.” I knew that he could as it had been him who had created it in another
where
and
when
not too dissimilar from this one. 

“I will,” he said, studying the bottle. “I think I’ll call it Lot 13.”

He turned, walking slowly away down the ward. At the door, he stopped and looked back at me. “Kiera, you never said where you got this from?”

“I found it,” I shrugged, turning my back on him.

I heard Hunt leave the ward, the door creaking closed behind him.

“You know more than you’re letting on,” Potter said, eyeing me.

“I’m not the only one who could be accused of that around here,” I said back.

“What’s that meant to mean?” he said.

“Nothing,” I shrugged.

“Let’s get out of here,” he said, gently taking my arm, steering me away from the foot of Sophie’s bed.

“What about Sophie?” I asked him. “Don’t you think you should stay?”

“She’s going to be out of it for a while. Hunt has given her a sedative so she can rest and give her body a chance to deal with the changes it will now be going under,” he said. 

“Where are you two creeping off to?” Murphy asked as we passed the end of his bed.

“To get some air,” Potter said.

“Hang on, I’ll come with you, I could do with a smoke.” He groaned in pain as he tried to shift himself up on his bed.

“You’re not going anywhere,” Mrs. Payne said, pushing open the door and stepping onto the ward. She carried a bowl of steaming hot water and a towel in her hands. “It’s time for your bed bath.”

Looking more scared than I had ever seen him, Murphy pulled the sheets from the bed up under his chin. “Fuck off,” he barked at her.

With a grin spreading across his face, Potter said, “Now don’t be such a big baby, Murphy. Be a brave boy and take your medicine. You look as if you’re gonna be in a safe pair of
hands
.”

“Don’t leave me!” Murphy cried out as Potter led me out of the attic.

“Now where are my rubber gloves?” I heard Mrs. Payne say as the door to the makeshift hospital closed behind us.

In the vast hall, Potter and I found ourselves alone again. We stood facing each other. The silence was unbearable. I didn’t know what to say. I knew what I needed to say. I needed to simply say ‘goodbye’ and walk away. Walk away without looking back. But my feet felt like they had been hammered into the ground. Potter was staring at me again with his near black eyes.

“What?” I eventually asked.     

“I just wanted to thank you for saving Sophie’s life,” he said.

“Is that what you wanted?” I asked back.

“I didn’t want her to die, if that’s what you mean.”

“What is it you
do
want?”

“You,” he whispered.

Then searching inside for all the strength I could muster, I took a deep breath and said, “But I don’t want you…”

“Yes you do,” he said, gripping my hand in his.

“I don’t want to share you,” I said, and even though I loved the touch of his hand against mine, I pulled it free of his grip.

With tears threatening in my eyes, I turned and left Hallowed Manor. And however much I wanted to, I didn’t look back. I couldn’t. To do so would’ve broken my heart. With my wings tearing from my back, I shot up into the sky, leaving what sounded like a thunderclap booming behind me.

Chapter Thirty

From high above, I could see my tatty old Mini parked where I had left it outside the Light House. The car park was empty now, the restaurant closed until later that evening. I thought of Nev and how I had walked out on him. He deserved to be treated better than that. I’d let him down, but more than that I had let myself down for acting so badly. Could I blame him if he never wanted to speak to me again? And would I be bothered if he didn’t want to? Yes. I would be bothered.

Dropping out of the sky, I landed beside my car, my legs bending at the knees and dust spraying up from beneath my boots. With my wings withdrawing into me, I yanked open the door of my car and climbed inside. The car started first time and I lovingly patted the dashboard.

“Good girl,” I whispered, heading out of the car park and leaving what had happened at Hallowed Manor behind me. For now at least.

As I navigated my way back along the coastal roads that snaked their way along the very edge of the cliff tops, I knew that if I stood any chance of finding happiness in this
where
and
when
, I was going to have to find a way of shaking off the feelings I harboured for Potter. I was beginning to realise that those feelings belonged in another place. A place where Potter and I were together – that wasn’t here. But that other place no longer existed. I had
pushed
us out of it.

But Jack had told me there was a
where
and
when
where Potter and I were together. We had a child of our own – a daughter. And that might be true, but none of it wasn’t going to happen in the layer I now found myself in. In this layer, it was Potter and Sophie who were together and who were going to have a daughter named Abbie. I couldn’t come between them. It wouldn’t be fair to anyone. And I’d had my chance to stop any of it from happening. I’d had Sophie’s life in my hands. But I’d chosen not to let her die. I’d chosen to do the right thing. I was sure of that.

If I was going to learn to deal with the feelings I still had for Potter, then what better way than to keep myself busy? Taking one hand from the steering wheel, I reached into my coat pocket and retrieved the key Ravenwood had slipped into my hand. With one eye on the twisting road ahead, I glanced down at the key. It glinted in the sunlight that bounced off the dirty windscreen. What did the key open? I couldn’t help but wonder, my investigative instincts racing to the fore again. And what of Ravenwood? Had his corpse been stolen away? If so, whom by and for what reason? But what if Ravenwood was still alive? Where was he now and would he try and strike out against Sophie again?

There was more than enough for me to investigate – more than enough to take my mind off Potter. But was it enough? I had to work with Potter every day. There would be other investigations – more time spent alone together. Perhaps if I had someone to love – someone to love me? Someone who would help me make that painful transition into this new world.

Slowing my car, I drew to a halt outside the cottage where Nev rented the barn out back. I looked through the windscreen. Why was I here? Had I planned to come? I knew I owed Nev an apology – some kind of explanation at least as to why I’d run out on him the other night.

I climbed from my car and made my way up the path toward the cottage. I followed it around the side of the house to the back. On the other side of a small meadow, I could see a squat-looking barn. It was made entirely of wood. I made my way toward it.

Curling my hand into a fist, I rapped on the door. It swung open. Nev looked surprised to see me at first – a faint smile on his lips. But then as he remembered what had happened between us on my birthday, his smile quickly faded.

“I didn’t think I would ever see you again,” he said, standing in the open doorway, folding his arms across his chest. He was wearing that faded denim shirt again, the one with the flecks of oil paint all over it. His hair looked as unkempt as ever.

“I just wanted to come and explain,” I said.

“There was no need,” he said. “I think I understand.”

“But you don’t – not really,” I said. “Can I come in?”

“It’s a bit inconvenient,” he said, looking back over his shoulder at an easel standing in the room on the other side of the door.

“I understand you’re busy,” I said, turning away from the door. “Perhaps another time…”

“No, wait,” he called out. “Come in – please.”

He stepped away from the door, heading back into the barn and covering the easel with a large sheet. I followed him inside, closing the barn door behind me. The barn was sparsely furnished. Apart from the bed in the far corner, most of the room was cluttered with large canvases. Some of them had been painted on, others were blank.

“Did you paint all these?” I gasped, heading toward the paintings.

“Yes,” he said.

“They are amazing,” I smiled, picking one of them up and holding it at arm’s length before me. The picture was of the sea. It looked black and choppy, and in the distance there were giant black cliffs. They looked like rows of jagged fangs. I could tell it was a picture of the Ragged Cove. But in the picture the cove looked more like how I once remembered it to be.

I put the picture down, turning to face Nev.

“Where’s the necklace?” he asked, sounding a little disappointed. “Didn’t you like it after all?”

“I loved it,” I said. “But someone broke it.”

“Who?”

“It doesn’t matter,” I said, thinking of Sophie. She really didn’t matter, I tried to convince myself. “Could you make me another?”

“I guess,” Nev shrugged. Then staring at me with his bright blue eyes, he added, “So was that guy really your boss?”

“The guy in the restaurant you mean?” I said, although I knew what he meant.

“Yes.”

“He doesn’t matter either,” I said, trying to tell myself that was true. I wanted to change the subject. I didn’t want to talk about Potter or Sophie. For now at least, I just wanted to forget about the both off them.

“What’s under here?” I asked, reaching out and tugging at the sheet Nev had pulled over his easel.

“Don’t touch that…!” he gasped, but it was too late.

The sheet fluttered away from the easel. I stood and stared at the painting.

“Oh, wow,” I gasped, putting my hands to my face as my cheeks flushed red. I looked at the painting of me.

In the picture I was naked. I was standing, my long, black hair draped over my shoulders covering my breasts. My hands were folded in my lap. One knee was bent forward and two giant black wings grew from my back. It was then I realised where I had seen myself looking just like that before. It had been in a dream I’d had before my friends had gone into the town of Snakeweed and battled with Luke and the Lycanthrope. In the dream, there had been a statue of me looking just as I did in the painting that now sat on Nev’s easel.

“Why have you painted me like that?” I asked.

“It’s not a painting of you,” Nev said.

“Who then?” I said, glancing at him.

“It’s a painting of a statue I once saw,” he said, covering the picture with the sheet again.

“Where is this statue?” I asked him.

“Miles from here,” Nev said.

“Where?” I pushed.

“In a town called Snakeweed,” he said. Then looking at me, he added, “Are you okay, Kiera? You look a bit…”

“I’m just a bit embarrassed for thinking such a beautiful woman could be me, my body is nowhere near as beautiful as that…” I started, trying to cover my surprise at what Nev had told me.

“I wouldn’t know,” Nev said.

“Wouldn’t know what?” I asked.

“How beautiful your body is,” he said, eyes fixed on mine.

I matched his stare. “You said you wanted to paint me, well now’s your chance,” I said.

Slowly, Nev came toward me.

“Where do you want me to pose for you?” I whispered.

“On the bed,” he said, taking me in his arms and kissing me.