Vampire Hollows (22 page)

I looked at the others and said,” The Dust Palace?”

“I guess,” Luke shrugged.

“What are we waiting for?” Seth barked, keen to get going and have his curse lifted, if that was his true reason for wanting to get inside there.

“Watch him,” I said to Luke and Potter, as I set off across the valley.

The others followed at a distance, Seth sandwiched between Luke and Potter. A cool breeze fused with sand meandered about us, and our wings rippled. The sound of the children laughing had faded. It was as if they had led me this far, but had now disappeared, leaving me alone to find my own way into the Dust Palace.

Before the giant door stood several stone steps. Placing my foot on the first, I looked back at the others as they joined me.

“Are you sure about this?” Potter asked, taking me to one side so that we were out of earshot of the others.

“I’m not sure of anything anymore,” I whispered looking up into his dead, black eyes.

“Does that include me?” he asked.

Not knowing what lay ahead on the other side of the door and fearing this could be our last moments together, I said, “I do love you.” Then, I headed up the steps.

As I climbed them, I could see that the building set into the rocks wasn’t made of stone at all, but of smouldering ash. It glimmered red as if on fire, and wispy trails of smoke seeped from the cracks that covered it. I could hear a hissing sound as if the palace was on fire, or at least smouldering. Heat radiated from the building, but oddly I felt cold. I reached the giant door that towered high above me and could see it was coloured brown with scorch marks, as if at some time in the distant past it had been set on fire. The door was open, just enough for me to step through.

The others joined me on the top step and there was an eerie silence between us. Not one of us said anything, and we all shared a nervous glance. Even Potter seemed to have lost that cocky look of his, the arrogance melting away before the Dust Palace. None us had to speak, there were no words that could explain the seriousness of what was about to happen – the gravity of the decision I was going to make on the other side of the door we now stood before.

Every step I had taken since arriving at The Ragged Cove had been leading me here, to the Dust Palace, the home of the Elders, where I would decide the fate of two races. Both good, both bad, both capable of true greatness, if only they had someone to show them the light.

I looked at Luke and his face was ashen, gaunt, and tired. Potter took a cigarette from his pocket, stuck it in the corner of his mouth, then spat it out as if thinking better of it. Seth stared at the crack in the door, his eyes burning bright.

There was only the four of us left; only the four of us had made it this far. Two Vampyrus, a Lycanthrope, and one half-breed. An unlikely quartet, one of which was a traitor. Who was it and how many of us would leave the Dust Palace alive?

Not knowing the answer to my own questions, I slipped between the gap in the door and entered the Dust Palace.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

A long, stone corridor lay before us. The walls were lined with a thousand or more candles. As the last of us stepped into the Palace, the door slammed shut behind us and a thousand flames flickered, casting shadows up the ashen walls. There was only silence and it was louder than any sound I had ever heard. The four of us stood side by side and looked straight ahead. My heart was racing so fast inside my chest that I thought it might just explode at any moment. Without saying a word, I took a deep breath and stepped forward.

The floor was made of burning coals and they hissed and spat with every step I took. But my shoes didn’t smoulder or perish; in fact, like the rest of me, my feet felt cold, as if I had just plunged them into a tub full of icy water.

The four of us moved forward, not one of us daring to say a word. We came to the end of the corridor and found ourselves in a vast chamber that didn’t look to dissimilar to the inside of an ancient cathedral. Ash-covered pillars stretched up into the ceiling which looked as if it had been constructed from hundreds of seething, wooden beams. It was as if the whole palace was slowly smouldering like the embers of a dying campfire. Just like the many cathedrals I had visited, this had an altar that was on a raised platform. It was supported on four raised legs, as if the altar itself was set inside some kind of smaller temple. Before it stood four robed figures and their faces were covered with hoods.

“Welcome to our home at last, Kiera Hudson,” one of them said, and although they were the size of adults, the voice was that of a little girl, no older than six years.

With goose flesh running up my spine at the sound of the Elder’s voice, I knew that it was the same as the voices I‘d heard in the tunnels. I looked at the four of them and because their faces were shrouded, I couldn’t tell which one of them had spoken.

“You have done well to have come so far,” one of them said, but it was a different voice this time, the voice of a small boy. “You have
seen
much, but you have been
blind
too.”

“Blind?” I whispered.

“Oh, Kiera,” another of them said from beneath their hood in a child’s voice. “Can’t you
see
what you have done?”

“I don’t understand,” I said.

“You’ve led our enemy – Elias Munn – into our home,” one of them said.

I glanced along the line at Potter, Luke, and Seth, then, turning to face the Elders I said. “I’ve seen who this Elias Munn is,” I told them. “You are right, he is amongst us and his name is…”

“Shhh,” one of the Elders said, then giggled in a childish way. “Let’s see if you have seen right, Kiera Hudson.”

There was a pause of silence before one of the Elders said in a small voice, “Will Elias Munn please step forward.”

I shot a glance down the line and none of them moved. I looked at all of their faces as they stared straight ahead at the Elders. None of them seemed to show any emotion, their faces passive, lifeless.

With my blood beginning to boil, I stood in front of Seth and hissed, “Go on, reveal yourself. I know it’s you.”

Jack Seth just stared back at me, his eyes gleaming yellow and crazy as ever.

“Tell them that it is you,” I demanded, and tugged at his arm. If he wasn’t going to step forward, then I would drag him before the Elders myself.

Then, from the corner of my eye, I saw someone move. With my heart aching in my chest, I watched Potter take a step forward.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

“No!” I gasped, turning to face Potter. “Tell me it isn’t true.”

Potter just looked at me with his dead, black eyes. His face was devoid of all emotion.

Taking hold of him, I shook him and screamed, “It’s not you Potter! Tell me so! Talk to me!”

Then, without taking his eyes off mine, he opened his mouth as a thin, black line of blood ran over his lips, down his chin, and splattered onto his naked chest.

“What’s going on?” I gasped in confusion. And it was as I looked at the blood running down his body that I saw the fingers sticking out of the hole in the centre of his chest. Clutched between those fingers, was something red and black, and it pulsed in and out.

Not understanding what I was seeing, I watched the hand disappear again.

“Potter?” I groaned as he slumped forward into my arms to reveal my mother standing behind him. She stood clutching Potter’s heart in her fist.

“Oh, my god, what have you done?” I mumbled, still unable to comprehend what was happening.

“He was in the way,” she smiled down at me as I lowered Potter to the ground.

“In the way of what?” I breathed, my mind still trying to make sense of what was happening.

“The person who really loves you,” she said, dropping Potter’s heart to the floor. “A good mother knows who is right for her daughter and it wasn’t Potter. Elias Munn is who you are destined to love.”

“What are you talking about?”
I screamed at her, my mind now realising that she had killed Potter so I would be free to love Elias Munn.

“Elias loves you, Kiera, but you’ve just been too blind to see that,” she said.

I looked down at Potter’s face as he stared blankly back at me from my lap.
“But it’s Potter that I love,”
I screeched. “What have you done? Oh my god, what have you done to him?” Not needing any answer from her, I pulled Potter up and cradled him against my chest. “No! No! No! Wake up, goddamn it!” I cried, tears falling from my eyes onto his upturned face. But Potter just flopped lifelessly back in my arms.
“You can’t die!”
I screamed at him. “We were going on our first date when this was all over. You promised me! You were going to tell me what your favourite food was!” I shook him again, hoping I could make him come alive, but in my heart I knew he was gone. He had left me and I just wanted to curl up and die.

“He could never have made you happy,” my mother said, as she looked down at me, her face pale, older-looking, and the ends of her raven black hair turning grey.

I looked at her and the sight of her disgusted me. With tears rolling down my cheeks, I sobbed, “Potter did make me happy. So happy you could never know.”

“Nonsense,” my mother snapped at me and I just wanted to rip her fucking throat out. “Your destiny lies with Elias.”

“Who is he?”
I roared at her.

“I’m Elias Munn,” a voice said, and I turned to see Luke looking down at me. “I love you, Kiera, I always have.”

I laid Potter’s body on the ground, then springing to my feet, I lunged at Luke.
“You!”
I screamed. “It was you the whole time!”

“I love you, Kiera,” he said again, grabbing hold of me. “We are meant to be together.”

“Get off me!” I screamed at him.
“Get your fucking hands off me!”

“Kiera, I know you love me too,” he smiled. “You were so close to telling me in the underground lake. You know it in your heart to be true.”

“I hate you!”
I screamed into his face, spittle flying from my lips and showering him.
“I hate you! I want to rip your fucking heart out!”

Then, gripping me like a bear, he leant forward and kissed me on the mouth. I tried to resist but my attempts to fight him off were fruitless. It was like he was sucking my strength from me. I kicked wildly against him at first, but my legs grew weaker and weaker until eventually I closed my eyes and just let him kiss me.

Just as if a thousand flash bulbs were popping inside my head, I saw myself in Kristy Hall’s open grave. I called for Luke but he was gone.
Where was he?
I wondered. Shadows flickered above me as I climbed from her grave. Then as if watching from above, I saw myself being chased across St. Mary’s graveyard by Kristy Hall. Then I was in the police car trying to escape as she smashed the windscreen with her face, desperate to get me.

But where was Luke? I wondered again.

Then, I could see him. There he was, watching from the doorway of St. Mary’s church, but he was with someone else – Father Taylor.

“Let’s see if Kiera is as resourceful as we’ve been led to believe,” Taylor said to Luke. But Taylor had been deceived too, he didn’t know who it was that hid in the shadows next to him, for Luke’s face was masked in that shadow I had seen so many times in my nightmares.

Then, Kristy Hall was exploding in a shower of dust, as I watched myself thrust the crucifix into her tongue.

“She’s good,” Taylor smiled at the figure that loomed beside him. Then Luke was fluttering away in a spray of shadows and I could see him running to my rescue. I could see his black police boots in the rear view mirror as he approached the police car.

Another of those flash bulbs popped inside my mind. I could see myself staggering away from my little red Mini that had become stranded on the road that led from The Ragged Cove. I was running away from vampires in the snow as they were chasing me. There was a shadow in the sky and it was moving fast. It was killing the vampires, it was Luke and he was rescuing me. But he wasn’t really rescuing me, he was stopping me from leaving The Ragged Cove; he was taking me back there so he could get me to fall in love with him. He needed me to love him so that the decision I had to make could be his.

The flash bulbs went pop again, and I was being dragged through the sky above St. Mary’s Church by Phillips. We were diving towards the burning steeple and I saw Luke take his chance. He could save me, but that meant sacrificing one of his agents, but what did he really care, he had armies of them. So saving me and scolding himself, he made me think that he was selfless, that he truly loved me. And he sacrificed Rom too as he ripped him to shreds in front of the church – how would I ever expect that he was one of my enemies if he slaughtered one in front of my very eyes?

Then I was in Hallowed Manor, and I could see him through his window as he skulked in the darkness of the attic. He wasn’t hiding because of the burns he had received saving me at St. Mary’s Church, he was sneaking away at night, returning back to The Hollows to organise his agents as he knew the time was close. He had to pretend he was hiding away up there or his friends would have wondered why he kept disappearing. But all the while keeping me close, that’s why I was really brought to the Manor – I could
see
that now.

“We must bring Kiera here,” he had told Potter and Murphy. “She isn’t safe without our protection.”

So Potter and Murphy agreed to his plan and tricked me to going to Hallowed Manor on the pretext of watching over Kayla.

But why hide away at the Manor? Because that’s where Doctor Hunt and Ravenwood were working on the cure for the half-breeds. He had positioned himself close at hand to steal it when their work was complete.

But Doctor Hunt suspected a traitor was close by so he had to be disposed of. Luke had him kidnapped, but left Ravenwood to work on the cure. But Taylor was a wild card and didn’t follow the plans that Luke, as Elias Munn, had ordered. Taylor had started to bring vampires to the Manor and the situation became dangerous. So from his hiding place and unaware of his true identity, Luke manipulated Taylor and Phillips to invade the Manor, this would give Luke a smokescreen to slip away, meet with Sparky, kill the half-breeds and take Ravenwood back to the facility where Hunt was being forced to work on the cure. He gave Phillips instructions to take Kayla, as he needed a healthy half-breed to test on.