Vampire Shift (Kiera Hudson Series #1) (12 page)

“Who is this Vampyrus?” I asked him.

“We don’t know,” Luke confessed. “But we have managed to track him down to The Ragged Cove. It is somewhere here that he hides.”

“But he can’t be that hard to find,” I said. “I mean, you must be able to recognise one of your own when you see them.”

“But how?” he asked. “Didn’t you believe me to be human? Could you tell by looking at me that I was not one of you?”

Shaking my head, I said, “Well no, I guess.”

“Then you can see the challenge that faces us,” he said. “But the longer it takes us to find him, the more he will feed and the more vampires will be created – until one day your world will be infested with them.”

“Why doesn’t he just stop?” I asked. “If he can see the damage he is causing, why doesn’t he go back underground until his hunger passes?”

“Once tasted, human blood becomes an unbreakable addiction,” he told me. “And that need –
desire
– never goes away. I’ve heard it described as being like a fire in your soul that can’t be put out.”

“So he can’t be cured of this craving?”

“There have been others throughout history that have come and fed,” he said just above a whisper.

“And they were cured?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“How?”

“Like me, Vampyrus were sent to hunt them down and destroy them,” he told me, his eyes turning dark.

“So you’re not like a regular vampire – what I mean is, you can go out in the light?” I asked him.

“Our natural habitat is darkness, but some of us can tolerate daylight,” he explained. “As for me, I’m not a great lover of the sun. I can put up with it for a few hours before my skin starts to itch and blister. Others last only minutes, before their skin starts to smoke.”

“So are you like those other vampires?” I asked him, remembering how he had reacted to my cut wrist and how I’d seen him sniff the blood stains on the sweatshirt. “What I’m trying to say is – do
you
need blood –
human
blood to survive?”

“It depends,” he said.

“On what?” I asked, letting go of his hand.

Sensing my concern, Luke said. “You don’t need to be scared of me. Very much like the sun, it’s different for each of the Vampyrus. Some of us hunger for human blood as soon as we come above ground, some of us can last hours, days or weeks without feeling the hunger – but when it comes, we have to go back below until the desire for blood fades. Then we can come back again.”

“So what about you?” I asked him. “How long can you last, before your
hunger
becomes too much?”

“About six weeks,” he said.

“So how long before you have to go back?”

“About a week,” he smiled, “so you’re safe for the moment. I felt it the other day when you cut your wrist. The smell of it made me feel crazy for a moment. That’s why I didn’t want to get too close to you.”

“I saw you sniffing the bloodstains that I’d left on your sweatshirt,” I confessed.

Turning away with an embarrassed look upon his face, he said, “I couldn’t help myself. The smell of your blood was beautiful –
intoxicating
.”

Wanting to know more about him and his life below ground, I asked, “So how do you come above ground – how do you get here?”

“We come up via wells that humans have dug, potholes and drains. Luckily for us. you don’t yet have the ability to reach the thousands of miles and network of tunnels and caves beneath your feet. But mostly, we burrow our own way out and protect it with a trap door, which we lock, until we’re ready to go back – then we fill it in again.”

Sitting quietly for a moment, trying to absorb everything he had told me, I looked at him and said, “Who’s
we
?”

“What do you mean?” he asked, looking as if he had slipped up in someway.

“You said, ‘We lock it.’ Who’s
we
?” I asked again.

Looking me straight in the eyes, he smiled, “Murphy, Potter and Rom.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “So you’re telling me that Sergeant Murphy, Chief Inspector Rom, and that dickhead-Potter are all like you –
vampire bats
?”

Laughing, Luke said, “I know it’s hard to believe but they’re not really all that bad.”

“They seemed pretty bad today,” I reminded him.

“Believe it or not, they were just trying to protect you,” he told me.

“Protect me!” I scoffed. “They had a funny way of showing it.”

“We knew that once you’d killed that vampire last night, they might come after you,” he said, and this time he took my hand in his. “We were sending you away from The Ragged Cove for your own safety – we knew that we had to get you away from here.’”

“I don’t need your protection,” I said. “I can look after myself.”

“And what about tonight?” he reminded me. “If I hadn’t shown up, you would be dead by now or one of
them
.”

Sitting silently for a moment, I looked at him and said, “Well, I’m staying. I can’t go back now.”

“That’s your choice, Kiera. But what lies ahead will be dangerous. Not only for you for but my people as well,” he warned me. Then reaching out and brushing a wisp of hair from my face, he said, “You know you don’t have to stay – I could get you out of here if you really wanted me to.”

Cupping my hand around his, I smiled, “You need me.”

“How do you work that out?”

“Like I said, the lot of you couldn’t solve a game of Cluedo,” and I smiled.

Then staring at me as if he was about to say something, he suddenly let go of my hand and stood up.

“What were you going to say?” I asked him, a nervous feeling passing through me.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said, turning his back towards me, his wings making a soft whispering sound.

Standing, I went to him. I wanted to reach out and touch his shoulder, but I didn’t know if I should. To do so, I would’ve had to touch his wings.

“It does matter,” I said.

Turning around, Luke moved closer, his naked chest inches from me. “I was wondering if there was another reason why you might want to stay?”

Knowing exactly what he meant, I lied, “I don’t know what you mean,” and lent in towards him.

“I was hoping…” he said, but didn’t finish.

“Hoping what?” I pushed.

“You’re trembling,” he smiled, bringing his face closer to mine.

“Am I?”

“Are you afraid?” he whispered, his lips hovering over mine.

“No,” I smiled. “But you should be.”

“And why’s that?” he asked.

“Because I’ve got a bottle of holy water and a crucifix in my pocket,” I whispered.

“They only work on vampires, I’m a
bat
,” he smiled, then taking me in his wings, he kissed me.

Chapter Thirteen

Luke left me just before dawn. As I had lain wrapped in his wings, I’d asked him where it was that he lived. He explained that he slept during the day, along with the other Vampyrus – Murphy and Potter – in the cells at the station. He told me that it was close to their hatch – should they need to go back beneath ground in a hurry. When I asked about Chief Inspector Rom, he said that Rom spent most of his time below ground, but didn’t explain why.

I’d asked where this
hatch
to The Hollows was and Luke reminded me of the padlocked grate in the corridor that led to the small cellblock back at the station. I was surprised by this – not about its location – but by its ordinariness. It was nondescript, black metal, with a big rusty-looking padlock. Leaving me feeling sleepy and the most at peace that I’d felt since arriving in The Ragged Cove, Luke told me to meet him at the police station at seven that night.

“But I thought I was banned?” I said, feeling half asleep.

“I’ll speak to the others,” he assured me.

Then taking my face in his hands, he kissed me. His lips were full and soft, and they lingered over mine. Kissing him back, I could feel his fangs, but in a strange way it didn’t seem unnatural. When he kissed me, the feelings I felt were so intense, they almost consumed me. To feel those soft wings around me, I felt protected –
safe
. Enclosed in them, my skin against his, I felt as if everything outside of them didn’t exist. It was that moment that mattered – nothing else.

Not wanting him to leave me, I clung to him. “Stay,” I whispered.

Brushing his lips over mine, he said, “I can’t Kiera, I need to get back.”

Releasing him from my grasp, I watched as he rolled back his shoulders and his wings disappeared back between his shoulder blades. Putting his police shirt back on and buttoning it up the front, it seemed hard to believe what he kept hidden beneath it. Back in his uniform, he looked like any regular cop. Smiling at me, he headed towards the door.

“See you tonight, beautiful girl,” he said, and then he was gone, closing the door behind him.

Rolling onto my back and pulling the covers over me, I drifted into sleep imagining those soft but powerful wings all around me, brushing against my skin and making me feel safe.

I found myself running along the shore of the cove. I was out of breath. The sea crashed against the sand in thick, black, oily waves. Smashing against the rocks, giant sheets of freezing cold water sprayed into the night. Ahead there were two huge cliffs, stretching up into the sky like deformed monsters. Behind me there was a noise and it sounded like a frantic heartbeat. Gasping for breath, I could see a cloud. It was dark and moved across the night sky at a great speed. The sound of the racing heartbeat came from it.

Turning, I ran hard, clambering over the rocks that jutted from the sand like broken gravestones. Seaweed covered them like black veins. I lost my footing and slipped, falling face-first into the sand. Waves rushed at me, soaking my clothes, face and hair. The heartbeat sound grew louder. Looking back over my shoulder, I could see the cloud was getting nearer, as if it were following me.

Dragging myself to my feet, I ran on, a stitch burning in my side like a stab wound. Giant waves rushed me again, as if wanting to drag me under. Reaching a huge slick-looking rock, I climbed on top. Looking into the distance, I could see a cave set between the two cliffs ahead of me.

The sound of the heartbeat was louder, almost deafening now. Glancing back again, I screamed. The cloud was almost above me, and I could see that it wasn’t a cloud at all, but a thousand winged creatures racing towards me. The heartbeat was the sound of their wings beating together as one.

Scrambling down the other side of the rock, I raced as fast and as hard as I could towards the cave. Sand kicked up from beneath my trainers, and my jeans felt heavy and wet against my legs, making any movement sluggish. I pushed on, my lungs burning inside me. Looking back, I could see thousands of vampire bats swooping towards me. But they weren’t normal vampire bats –they were men and women with black wings that looked as if they were made of stretched leather. They were so close that I could see their green eyes, and the saliva dripping from their razor-sharp teeth.

Turning my back on the Vampyrus, I rushed towards the mouth of the cave. My heart felt like it was going to explode, but I pushed myself harder –
faster!
The safety of the cave was within touching distance, but as I reached it, I could see that it had been sealed over with a metal grate. I yanked on it, but it was locked fast and wouldn’t open.

“Please!” I begged. “Please let me in!”

Peering over my shoulder, eyes bulging in fear, I could see the Vampyrus racing towards me, soaring just inches above the sand. Turning to face the grate, I pulled on it with what little strength I had left.

“Please open!” I screamed.

Sand and seawater sprayed up all around me under the force of the beating wings of the vampire bats that were now within touching distance of me. Pulling on the grate one last time, it opened and I stumbled through it and into the waiting arms of my…

“…mum!” I yelled, bolting upright in my bed. My heart was racing in my chest, and I felt breathless. A thin layer of sweat covered my brow and my black hair clung to my face in damp streaks. Throwing back the covers, I swung my legs over the side of the bed and stood up. They felt shaky and unstable. Going to the bathroom, I poured myself a glass of water from the tap and drank it down without stopping until the glass was empty.

The dream about my mother had upset me, and as I looked in the mirror above the bathroom sink, I brushed away the tears that were rolling down my cheeks. I hadn’t dreamt of her for a while now and if at all possible I tried not to think about her. It wasn’t that I hated her – it was the opposite – I loved her deeply. But to be reminded of her was agony.

The last time I’d seen my mother had been as she’d left the house to go and buy me a birthday cake for my seventeenth birthday party, three years ago. Wearing her favourite summer dress, her black hair swishing about her shoulders, she had waved goodbye to me as she passed through the front garden gate.

“See you later, alligator,” she had smiled.

“In a while, crocodile,” I smiled back and then added, “I love you!”

Blowing me a kiss, she said, “I love you more.” Then she was gone, never to be seen again. By ten o’clock that night, after my father had made several frantic phone calls to friends and family, he called the police. At first they treated her sudden disappearance as a missing person’s inquiry, but the longer she stayed away, the more suspicion fell upon my father. She was a cop after all, and they looked after their own. He was taken in for questioning and they kept him there for nearly three days. While he was away, police officers in white suits came to the house and I watched them quietly as they examined every inch of our home. Police officers in black boiler suits turned over the back garden, pulled open the drains, and confiscated our trash. But they found nothing.

Father returned home, looking tired and drawn, white whiskers protruding from his chin. With my arm around him, he sat and sobbed into his hands and I will never forget that. Apart from the disappearance of his wife, he hated being under suspicion of harming her in any way. My father had been devoted to her and as far as I can recall, they had always been close. But more than that, I knew he was hurt by how the police had been so quick to doubt him. For years he had worked along side them, helping to shed light on the murder victims that so often ended up in his lab.