Vampire Hollows (20 page)

“I’m sorry,” Potter said going to Luke, and I could see that he looked concerned by Luke’s obvious hurt.

Luke turned to face Potter and knocked his hand of friendship away. “How could you treat me like this?”

“I didn’t plan this you know – it just kinda happened,” Potter said.

“Exactly how did it happen?” Luke stared at him. “When did it happen?”

“Back at Hallowed Manor,” Potter confessed. “In the Gate House.”

“The Gate House?” Luke gasped. “I see – how very romantic. While I was healing up in the attic, you were making a play for my girl.”

“Your girl?” Potter said, now sounding frustrated. “It wasn’t like you and Kiera were engaged or anything.”

“No, but you knew I liked her, though,” Luke said, moving toe to toe with Potter.

Oh my God, they’re going to start fighting in a moment
, I thought and wedged myself between them.

“Just stop it!” I shouted at the both of them. “I’m not some possession, you know. This macho shit-head stuff isn’t going to solve anything. If you two haven’t noticed, we’re in serious trouble here!”

“Well, just don’t expect me to like it,” Luke barked. “Don’t expect me to like him!”

“The feeling’s mutual,” Potter quipped.

“Look around us – can’t you see what’s happening here?” I yelled. “We’ve lost friends, The Hollows is at war, and the Earth is soon to be invaded. You need to put your differences aside, for now at least, because we either stand and fight as one or we die alone.”

“You need to listen to her,” Coanda said, coming forward. “Take a look around you. My resistance is outnumbered; they will only be able to protect the Light House for so long. We need to get to the Dust Palace and fast. Only there will Kiera be able to tell the Elders her decision and end this.”

Scowling, Luke and Potter stepped back from each other.

“Let’s just get through this if we can,” I said to them. “We can save our differences for another day – another time.”

Potter took a cigarette from his pocket, lit it and drew in a deep lungful of smoke. “Whatever you say, sweet-cheeks.”

Hearing Potter call me “sweet-cheeks”, Luke shot a quick glance at him and snarled.

Potter shrugged back and said, “Well she has got the sweetest…”

“Stop it!” I shouted at him, knowing that he was just trying to bait Luke.

“Okay! Okay!” he half-smiled, holding his hands up as if in surrender. “I won’t say another word.”

“That will be a first,” Luke cut in.

“And that goes for you too!” I yelled at Luke. “God almighty – it’s like I’m hanging out with a couple of kids.”

“He started it…” Potter said blowing smoke from the corner of his mouth.

“You started it back in the Gate House,” Luke snapped back.

“I give-up!” I cried, throwing my hands up into the air. “Coanda, just lead me to this Dust Palace so I can get this over and done with.”

“Follow me,” Coanda said, scrambling down the rocky ledge we had landed on.

I followed after him and looked up to see Potter and Luke climbing down behind me. They didn’t even look at one another.

Once we had reached the cracked and ash-covered ground, we stood and watched the battle rage in the distance. The sky above the Light House was alive with Vampyrus as they fought one another. Even though I was some distance away, I could hear the sound of their giant wings beating and their agonising screams of pain and occasional triumph as they did battle with the Vampyrus.

On the ground, another battle was being raged as the mutant half-breeds ran wild, clawing at and feeding off the fallen Vampyrus. Coanda had been right, the resistance he had put together was outnumbered by the army Munn had grown, either be it artificially or by brainwashing.

I couldn’t bear to watch those freaky imitations of Kayla, Isidor, and me anymore, so turning to face Coanda I said, “Which way is it to the Dust Palace and the Elders?”

“Over there,” Coanda said, pointing in the opposite direction to the battle. “But I think we’ve got a problem.”

“What sort of a problem?” I asked, turning to look in the direction that he was pointing. But I didn’t need any answer from him to tell me of the imminent danger we faced as I looked at the wave of mutant half-breeds that were racing towards us across the wasteland.

Chapter Thirty-Three

They came at us, their eyes burning red on either side of their grotesque faces. They might not have been able to fly, but they had our speed. A wake of red dust and silver ash billowed up behind them as they raced towards us. Their claws gleamed in the orange glow cast by the lava that circled the Light House. The sky had turned a blood red and the stalagmites twinkled overhead like rubies.

We formed a line. There was nowhere else to go. We were surrounded from behind, in front, and above as a flock of Vampyrus swooped towards us. Potter spat away the cigarette that dangled from the corner of his mouth and flexed his claws as he readied himself to fight. Luke’s wings beat behind him and he brandished his fangs.

“Do you have a plan?” I asked Coanda.

“No, but I do,” someone said from above us.

We all looked up to see a tall, lone figure standing on top of the ledge we had just scrambled down from. Even with his baseball cap pulled down so that most of his face was cast in a shadow, it was his wild, yellow, gleaming eyes that gave him away. There Jack Seth stood. His emaciated figure silhouetted against the crimson sky.

“Are you so sure about that?” Seth smiled, nodding in the direction of the approaching half-breeds. “Your situation doesn’t look good.”

Without wasting any further time, Seth stuck two fingers into his mouth and whistled like a man trying to attract the attention of his wayward dog. No sooner had he taken his bony fingers from his mouth, there came a rumbling sound which was so loud and violent, the ground beneath my feet began to shake. I looked up to see Seth tearing the flesh from his body in bloody strips and as he took on his werewolf form, a pack of giant wolves scrambled over the rocks and began to howl into the night. Their jaws were huge, like caves that were filled with razor-sharp teeth and thick, ropey lengths of drool sprayed from them.

Without needing any prompting from Seth, the werewolves leapt from the rocks and bounded towards the approaching half-breeds. The werewolves’ bear-sized bodies shook with muscle and their fur gleamed crimson in the light from the Light House. With their colossal paws, they swiped at the half-breeds sending them flying through the air. Others lunged with their giant jaws, easily fitting the half-breeds’ heads into their mouths. With a quick shake of their powerful necks they had torn the half-breeds’ heads clean off.

Jack Seth leapt from the rocks and landed in front of me, and even though he stood on all fours, he was big enough that he could look squarely into my eyes.

“Thank you for coming to help us,” I said, trying hard not to be caught by his stare.

“Don’t flatter yourself, Kiera Hudson,” he woofed at me, and the hair blew back off my face. “I didn’t come back for you or your friends. I want an audience with the Elders as much as you do. I have my own race to think of and I want the curse that haunts us lifted.” Then he was gone, bounding away, his giant jaws snapping and snarling at the first half-breed he came across.

“Doesn’t that guy ever die?” Potter asked no one in particular as he stood and watched Seth and the other werewolves slice their way through the half-breeds.

“Perhaps he’s hoping you die first,” Coanda replied.

“Not today,” Potter growled, springing into the air.

Without saying a word, Luke took to the air after Potter. Although they now had their differences, when it came to fighting the enemy, they stood shoulder to shoulder, their dislike for each other momentarily put aside. Coanda went after them, and I followed.

We were attacked from all sides, and it felt as if someone or something wanted to rip me apart, to devour me - kill me - from every angle. As a team we flew, ran, bit, and clawed our way through the mutant half-breeds and the Vampyrus that attacked from above. Soon, the hard-panned ground surrounding the Light House had become a bloody wasteland, littered with corpses. We pushed on, following Coanda as he cut through the battle. The air was filled with the deafening sounds of squawking, howling, and screaming. Werewolves leapt and bound, the Vampyrus beat their giant wings and the half-breeds fought with a frenetic energy that was close to madness.

Coanda cut a path through the half-breeds and we followed him into a rugged area of sandy-coloured stone. “We are never going to make it, there are too many,” he roared over the sounds of battle. “Even with the help of the Lycanthrope, we are losing.”

“Any suggestions?” Potter snapped, then he bit off the face of one of those half-breeds that looked like a deformed version of Kayla.

“They are a labyrinth of passageways that stretch beneath The Hollows which are filled with a fog that is near impossible to see through.”

“They don’t sound so bad,” Potter half-smiled.

“They are named the Murka Tunnels because of the murky fog,” Coanda went on, ignoring Potter’s remark. “But one wrong turn and you’ll never find your way out.”

“Sounds better and better,” Potter said, driving his hooked claws into the throat of a passing half-breed. Blood jetted onto his face, and he wiped it away with his muscular forearm.

“But the fog is rumoured to drive you mad if you are in it for too long. Many have gone into the tunnels but never to be seen again, and they are believed to still be wondering around down there, driven to the brink of insanity.”

Before they had the chance to start another argument, I got between them, and staring at Coanda, I shouted, “How do we get into these tunnels?”

“Follow me,” he roared and was racing away across the wasteland as if there wasn’t a moment to lose.

Chapter Thirty-Four

There were iron gates set into a nearby rock face. Over these, slats of wood had been fixed barring the entrance. Looking back over my shoulder, I could see that some of the frenzied half-breeds had broken away from the main battle and were now coming towards us. Seth stood on his back legs, rolled back his mighty head and howled at them. The noise that came from his throat was so deep that the ground shook and my bones seemed to rattle under my skin.

Potter and Luke stood beside him, dwarfed by his giant size. Baring their fangs and claws, their wings taut behind them, they slashed at the approaching half-breeds.

“Give me a hand with this,” Coanda roared from beside me.

I looked and could see that he was trying to rip off the wooden planks that barred our entry to the tunnels. With the wind now blowing hard around us, I hooked my claws around the edges of the planks and pulled. They came away in splinters. Coanda gripped the railings of the iron gate and it shook in its frame.

“Pull!” he barked at me.

I curled my claws round the thick bars and with all my strength I yanked at them. There was some give and I could hear the rock beginning to crumble away around the edges of the gate.

“Hurry!” Luke shouted, his voice almost drowned out by the screaming wind and the cries of the half-breeds.

With my eyes shut tight, I sucked in a mouthful of air and pulled as hard as I could on the gate. Coanda pulled too, and at last I felt the gate come away from the rock face in a shower of red dust.

No sooner had the gate clattered onto the ground, Coanda was shouting at the others, “Into the tunnels! Into the tunnels!”

With more half-breeds coming at us, we dashed into the entrance of the tunnel.

“Bring down the opening!” Coanda ordered. “Seal the entrance!”

As if knowing exactly what he meant, Potter and Luke began to claw frantically at the walls of the tunnel. Then, I remembered how I had watched Potter close the opening to the tunnel that lay beneath the police station in The Ragged Cove. So following their example, I started to claw at the walls surrounding the entrance to the tunnels. Rock began to fall down and cover us in dust as the mouth to the tunnel began to fill. The half-breeds snatched at us with their claws through the hole, which was fast filling up.