Vampire Shift (Kiera Hudson Series #1) (11 page)

Sucking in mouthfuls of freezing cold air to try and calm myself, I turned around to see the three vampires racing towards me, their gleaming white teeth glistening like razors in the night. Standing rooted to the spot, I screamed. Within touching distance of me, one of them darted left and the other right, so as to surround me.

“Stay away from me!” I screamed.

They circled me, zipping back and forth as if examining their prey. The third one raced forward, its eyes burning red and mouth drooling. Shrieking, it grabbed for me, its claws skimming just inches from my face. I ducked, dropping into the snow. Glancing up, I watched as it raced away. My heart almost stopped. The vampire was wearing what appeared to be a ripped and dishevelled looking police uniform. Without having time to comprehend what I’d seen, the vampire lept into the air, corkscrewed around, landed and raced back towards me.

Knowing I had nowhere to run or hide, I covered my face with my hands and prayed that my death would be quick. The sound of its screaming, coming out of the dark at me, I closed my eyes and waited to be taken. Then there was another sound, almost deafening. It was like the loudest thunderclap I’d ever heard.

“What was that?” I shouted in shock, snapping open my eyes. I caught a fleeting glimpse of a winged creature soar across my eye line, snatching away the vampire who was just about to take hold of me.

Pulling myself out of the snow, I looked up to see what it was. But it moved with such speed and agility, it looked like nothing more than a fluttering blur of shadows. The vampire in the police uniform was yanked this way and that in the sky just above my head.

It tried to fight back against whatever it was that had hold of it. Shielding my eyes against the snow, I could see that whatever it was, appeared to be stripped to the waist. The creature’s skin was as pale as the snow that fell all around it. Its hair was black, just like the wings that protruded from its back. But it moved too fast for me to really see it. Not knowing if this creature were my saviour or if it had its own plans for me, I turned and fled.

With my heart racing like a trip hammer, I stumbled, got up, stumbled again, until I was near exhaustion. Looking back over my shoulder, not wanting to lose sight of the other two vampires, I saw the one in the police uniform arch its back and throw its arms wide as it became consumed by the creature in the sky.

Then with an ear-splitting scream, one of the other vampires chased after me.

“Get away from me!”
I screeched, stumbling backwards into the snow, landing on my arse and knocking the wind from me. Covering my ears with my hands, I looked past the approaching vampire and saw the shadowy creature rip out the throat of the vampire in the police uniform. Blood sprayed into the night and spattered the snow around me in crimson streaks. Then my rescuer –
if that’s what it was
– soared away in a fluttering blur and tossed the second vampire, who was almost upon me, through the air like a rag doll. This one was female and from where I lay in the snow, I could see that she was wearing a floral-patterned dress. Her bright auburn hair fanned out in the wind.

Then to the right of me, I heard the gut wrenching sound of screaming as the third and final vampire took their chance and raced towards me. Turning, I tried to run away, but the creature was too quick. And by the time I‘d felt its hot breath against my neck, it had snatched hold of me with its talon-like hands and lept into a nearby tree.

Kicking out frantically, my stomach lurched as I watched the ground disappear beneath my feet at an incredible speed, as the vampire scrambled up the trunk of the tree with me clutched in its arms. Within seconds, I was looking down at the tops of the trees. Looking left and right, I could see that the vampire had its claws hooked into my jacket.

“Get the fuck off me!” I roared. “Put me down!”

Glancing up into its face, it looked white and contorted as if in constant pain. Just like the others, its eyes burned red as if its brain was on fire in its misshapen skull. The vampire’s forehead was pronounced and its brow appeared to almost hang over its eyes like a ledge. Its nose looked more like a snout and its mouth was like an open wound, fleshy lips pulled back, revealing a bloody set of gums that were crammed full of razor-sharp teeth.

Dragging me higher into the tree, I screamed. Ahead I could see the flutter of white and black as the flying creature tore the female vampire in two, casting the remains of her body in opposite directions.

“Let me go!” I screamed, kicking and struggling wildly.

Hearing my screams, the winged creature flew towards us and again, the night was torn open by the sound of that thunderclap. Within an instance, it was upon us, its form shimmering so much as to make it impossible to truly see who or
what
it was.

As the shadowy form attacked the vampire who had hold of me, its claws dug deeper into my jacket and flesh. The pain was excruciating. Reaching into my pocket, my fingers brushed against the small bottle of holy water given to me at breakfast by the old woman. Crying out in pain, I fumbled the cap off the top of the bottle. Reaching round, I poured some of the water onto the vampire’s claws. Almost at once its flesh began to bubble and blister. Tendrils of smoke started to rise from its white flesh.

Shrieking in agony, the vampire let go of me and I tumbled out of the tree and towards the ground. Over the sound of the wind whistling in my ears, I heard the vampire howl one last time as the winged creature tore it apart.

“Help me!”
I cried looking down as the snow-covered fields raced towards me. Closing my eyes, and for the second time that night hoping my death would be quick and painless, I felt myself soaring upwards and away from the ground.

Opening one eye, I peered out and could see I was in the arms of the creature that had saved me from the vampires. My face was pressed against his naked chest, which felt as cold as the night air that rushed passed me. Glancing up so as to get a peek at its face, whatever it was arched its wings, so that it fell into shadow, masking its identity.

“Hold tight,” it whispered. Then that ear-shattering thunderclap came again and everything went black.

Chapter Twelve

Opening my eyes, it took a moment for me to realise that I was lying on the bed back in my room at the Crescent Moon Inn. The lamp on the desk had been switched on and my room was bathed in a warm orange glow. I didn’t know how long I’d been unconscious, and my shoulders felt raw. Touching them, I remembered the vampire digging his claws into me. Then I remembered being rescued by that winged creature and I sat up. It was then that I noticed someone sitting in the shadows in the corner of the room.

“Who’s there?” I asked, and my throat felt sore from all the screaming I’d done earlier that night.

“It’s just me,” the figure said, standing up and moving into the light.

Watching Luke step from the shadows, I groaned, “What do you want?” I still felt angry towards him for what had happened at the police station.

“I just popped by to see that you were okay,” he said, coming closer.

Laying back down and turning away from him, I said, “Well, now that you can see I’m fine, you can go – I have nothing to say to you.”

“I thought you were leaving town?” he said.

“It didn’t quite work out that way,” I said, my back still facing him. “Anyway, how did you know I was here?”

“I drove past and saw the lamp on in your room, so I thought…” he started.

Rolling over to face him, I said, “How did you get in here?”

“Your door was open,” he told me.

“Well if you don’t mind,” I said, “you can go now and close the door behind you.”

“What’s wrong with you?” he asked, looking down at me.

“What’s wrong with
me
?” I hissed and sat up on my bed. “You lied back there at the station. You could’ve got me out of trouble.”

“How?”

“You said that you didn’t see anything,” I started. “You claimed that you only saw me drive away in the police car, then you came running after me once I’d crashed the car.”

“That’s right,” he said, trying to hold my stare.

“You didn’t run anywhere that night,” I told him. “You must have been right on top of me when that car crashed, which means that you must have seen that vampire.”

Luke shook his head in denial.

“It was raining that night Luke,” I reminded him. “There were mud and puddles everywhere. If you’d ran down that road like you claimed to have done, then the bottoms of your trousers would’ve been splashed with mud.” Then looking down at the hems of his trousers, I added, “See, there’s not a fleck of mud on them.”

Looking down, then back at me, he said, “These are a different pair of trousers.”

“Liar,” I snapped. “They’re the trousers you had on last night up at the graveyard.”

“How do you know that?” he asked me.

Pointing to his right thigh, I said, “Egg and ketchup – that’s how I know!”

“What?” he asked, sounding baffled.

“Last night in the police car, I said I knew that you had an egg sandwich for your dinner because you had dripped egg and ketchup down the front of your tie and trousers,” I said. “The stains are still there Luke, but I can’t see any mud.”

Glancing down at the stain, then back at me, he said “You don’t miss a trick, do you Kiera?”

Thinking for a moment, I said, “Perhaps I do.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, if you didn’t run down that lane, how did you get to me and the car so quickly?” I said. “That’s what I can’t figure out.”

Staring at me with his pale green eyes, Luke said, “Kiera, I can’t lie to you anymore.” Then taking off his jacket, he unbuttoned his shirt and let it flutter to the floor.

Holding up my hand, I said, “I’m flattered Luke, but I’m not sure if this is such a good idea.”

Then staring at me with such intensity, it felt as if he were looking into my very soul, he said, “No, Kiera. You don’t understand.”

“Understand what?” I started, unable to take my eyes off his well-defined chest and flat stomach.

“This,” he said turning around.

Shrinking back on my bed, I watched as Luke’s shoulder blades rippled beneath his pale skin. The tissue and muscles on his back shifted and stretched as what looked like a series of black bones grew from his back. Luke rocked forward as if in pain, the black-looking bones reaching up out of his ribcage and shoulders. A thin, silky membrane hung beneath the bones and I could see that he was growing a pair of wings.

They reminded me of the pterodactyl dinosaurs my father had shown me in picture books as a girl. Each wing seemed to have a long bony shoulder and arm that was about six feet in length. Beneath this arm hung the wing, which was a see-through, stretchy-looking membrane. At the end of each arm protruded a wrist and attached to these were three skeletal-looking fingers.

Covering my mouth with my hands, I watched in disbelief and wonder as Luke shook from head to foot, the metamorphoses complete. His huge, black wings stretched out on either side of him. Turning around, his arms by his sides, Luke looked at me.

“Please don’t freak out,” he said.

“Whoa,” I breathed.

“Is that all you have to say?” he asked me, and it was as he spoke that I noticed his two front incisors had grown into two long sharpened points.

“What do you want me to say?” I whispered in awe. Although I should’ve been terrified by the creature that stood before me, I wasn’t. Luke looked like an angel – a
dark
angel. If it were possible, his eyes glowed greener than before, his skin looked as smooth and as white as marble, and his lips were a dark blood-red. His jet-black hair shone like an onyx stone.

“How long have you been able to do that…that
thing
with the wings, exactly?” I said.

“Forever,” he said. There was a moment’s silence, neither us not knowing what to say next.

“How do I look?” he suddenly asked with a nervous smile, still unsure of what my reaction was going to be at seeing him like this.

“You look stunning,” I breathed.

“Stunning?” he smiled. “Shouldn’t that be ‘handsome’?”’

“No, you look more than that,” I told him, a warm sensation flowing over me. “It was you?”

“What was?”

“It was you who saved me from those vampires tonight?” I asked.

“Yes, it was.”

Curious as to what that made him, I said, “So are you like them? A vampire, I mean?”

Coming towards me, Luke sat on the edge of my bed, and I couldn’t help but notice how his wings seemed to tremor as he moved. Looking into my eyes, he said, “Some would call me a vampire, but I’m a Vampyrus.”

“A Vampyrus?” I asked, confused.

“The Vampyrus are what humans would commonly call
Desmodus Rotundas
.”

“The what?”

“Vampire bats,” he said.

Trying to understand what he was telling me, I said, “So where do you live –
hang
out
? Where do you come from?”

“I come from The Hollows,” he said, and his voice sounded distant as if he were picturing it in his mind. “The Hollows are the caves and the caverns beneath us.’’

“So you live underground then?” I said, confused. “So like there’s a whole race of you living down there?”

“There always has been,” he explained. “Even before humans, the Vampyrus have lived in the holes, the tunnels, and the caverns that exist beneath the Earth.”

“So why are you masquerading as a police officer up here?” I asked him, and if it wasn’t for the fact that I had a winged man sitting at the foot of my bed, I wouldn’t have believed a word of what I was being told.

“We’ve come to hunt out one of our own,” he told me, and his eyes had grown dark, their spark faded.

“Why? What has this Vampyrus done?”

“Kiera,” he said, “for hundreds of years our race has been travelling up to the surface. Some of us have managed to secretly work our way into the highest levels and positions in your society. But all of us, up until now, have respected your rules, your laws and your world. But there is one who has broken those rules, and instead of returning to The Hollows to satisfy their hunger, they’ve given into their desires and taken human blood. By doing this, they created a mutant breed – half-human and half-Vampyrus – they are what your race calls vampires. They are the dead – the
undead
.”