How had that gotten there? my confused mind wondered. Had I really thrown that vampire so far down the tunnel? I couldn’t have done, right? Where had that sudden burst of strength come from?

Then from further down the tunnel I heard a voice.

“C’mon Kiera! Run!” Murphy roared at me, the flame from his Zippo bobbing to and fro.

He turned his back and raced away from me. In shock from the realisation that I had somehow launched that vampire down the tunnel with a shove of my hands, I stood rooted to the spot. I was unable to move.

What was happening to me? Was this the start of my changing?

Then I was shoved from behind, and it was Luke as he forced me up the tunnel. I looked at him, and his usual pallor was now crimson, splashed with the remains of the vampires he had just slaughtered.

“Move it!” he hollered at me, snapping me from my trance-like state.

“Potter?” I said, sounding confused and disorientated. “We can’t leave without -”

“Thanks for the concern,” I heard someone say as they rushed past me like a breeze. Spinning round, I saw Potter half-dragging Isidor up the tunnel towards Murphy.

“Run, Kiera! Run!” Luke roared.

Then turning, I clambered down the tunnel with Luke at my heels. We veered to the left and dashed around the bend. I could see Murphy standing at the foot of a wooden ladder that led up out of the tunnel.

“Run! Run!” Murphy ordered as the vampires that chased us were now frantically scurrying all over the tunnel walls and dropping through the air like giant spiders.

“Up the ladder!” Murphy yelled.

Without needing to be told twice, I took hold of the rungs and began to race up the ladder with the others close behind me. As I made my ascent, I could hear Murphy’s fangs snapping and slicing as he fought off the approaching vampires.

I reached the top of the well and clambered out, falling into a muddy, sodden field. Isidor was next to climb out over the edge of the well and clatter to the ground. Then Potter appeared, followed by Luke and Murphy.

The head of one of those vampire-cops loomed over the edge of the well and Murphy took it off with one quick swipe with his claws. In the light of the moon, I could see the creamy-white skin of the vampire’s head, knotted and twisted with blue-green veins, wither and crumble away into a pile of ash.

There was a strong looking bolt attached to a wooden lid that covered the mouth of the well. Swinging it closed, Murphy forced the bolt into place, sealing the well closed.

Without pausing to take a breath, Murphy was charging across the remote field we now found ourselves in. He headed towards a line of trees that stood in the distance. We raced behind him as he shouted over his shoulder, “This way! This way!”

Reaching the knot of trees, we found ourselves in a deeply wooded area. The trees stretched up tall around us, and the moon cast silver streams of light through the branches. Leaning against a tree, Murphy caught his breath.

“Take two minutes,” he said, “but that’s all. It won’t take long for them to smash through that well.”

Dropping to my knees, I sucked in mouthfuls of cold night air. Then I noticed those streaks of black blood on my hand. Almost gagging at the sight of it, I snatched up handfuls of fallen leaves and begin to wipe my hand clean.

Luke crouched beside me and said, “Are you okay?’”

“No, not really,” I told him, wiping the last of the blood from my fingers.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked, gently knocking the fringe from my brow.

Standing, I folded my arms around him. Then kissing him softly on the cheek that still showed the scars from The Ragged Cove, I whispered, “Later.”

As he stood and held me, I noticed Isidor tear a piece of cloth from the inside of his coat and tie it around his hand which was bleeding. He had a large scratch across his forehead, which bled into his eye. Wiping the blood away with his sleeve, he went to Potter who was slouching against a tree and smoking.

Holding out his good hand towards Potter, Isidor said, “I just wanted to say thanks for what you did back there.”

Looking down at the hand of friendship that had been offered to him, Potter said, “What did I do?”

“Saving me like that,” Isidor said, his hand still held out before him. “I was hoping, you know…perhaps we could just get along with each other from now on?”

Drawing deeply on the cigarette that dangled from the corner of his mouth, Potter said, “Don’t go getting any funny ideas, kid.” Then, blowing smoke in Isidor’s face, he added, “I didn’t do it for you, I did it for somebody else.” Then glancing over at me, Potter flicked the cigarette away, barged past Isidor and headed towards Murphy.

Chapter Ten

We ran all night, Murphy our guide in the dark. Occasionally, he would find another path, one which led away from towns and main roads. Most of our escape was spent clawing our way through undergrowth, snaking between trees. At one point, we walked for miles upstream to hide our tracks from any of the vampires that may still be hunting us.

Most of our journey was spent in silence, each of us lost in our own thoughts. My own mind was filled with doubt and feelings of betrayal.

Why had my mum been with Phillips and Sparky on the T.V.? Was she working for this invisible man? She couldn’t be!

But if she were aligned to him, what part did my mum play in all of this? Then I remembered the tiny body of the boy lying in the woods at The Ragged Cove, his tiny hand clutching hairs from my mum’s head. Had she killed that boy? Never! Knowing my mum like I remembered her – she would never get involved in anything that would harm another person. Maybe she was pretending to be a part of it – perhaps to save her own life. That had to be it – or perhaps she didn’t realise the danger she was in.

My head throbbed and I felt sick. I felt as if I no longer knew myself, either. In my mind’s eye, I saw that vampire flying backwards down the tunnel beneath the well. I knew I had done that, but how? Was this the Vampyrus coming out in me? Was I at last changing? But what did that mean? Would I, too, grow fangs like the others? Would those wings with their wriggling black fingers work their way out of my back? I shuddered just thinking about it. And then a thought hit me like a freight train. Would I start thirsting for blood?

I desperately needed to know. So as we waded up stream, the icy cold water numbing my toes through my boots, I caught up with Luke.

“Do you think my mum is a part of all of this?”

“I don’t know, Kiera. I really don’t know what to think,” he said gently.

“But how would that be possible?” I asked him.

“I don’t know,” he said again.

“But you were one of the last people to have seen her the night she disappeared back at the Cove,” I pushed.

“She had gone by the time I got back to her,” he said, and I could see that he was struggling to find the right words to comfort me. “Phillips and Taylor took her. They told you as much themselves.”

We kept moving upstream towards a large hill that loomed against the night sky like some giant ogre. The water sloshed about our shins, and the cold wind snatched at my long hair that bellowed about my shoulders.

Not being able to hold back my fears anymore, I said, “Luke, I think I’m changing.”

Slowing beside me, Luke looked at me and said, “How?”

“Back in the tunnel,” I started, not being able to meet his gaze, “I lashed out at one of those vampires and I threw him nearly a hundred yards or so back down the tunnel. But not only that, I think that I pushed him so hard that my hand actually broke through his skin, because I ended up with his blood all over my hand. I shouldn’t be that strong, right?”

“What else?” Luke asked.

“Well, I can pretty much see in the dark now,” I said. “It’s like I’m kinda seeing in black and white. I can distinguish shapes, faces, stuff like that. I wouldn’t need a torch in the dark to see my way, that’s for sure.”

“What about your eye and the nightmares?” he asked. “The eye doesn’t bleed anymore,” I said, “and the nightmares are less, but when they do come, they are different.” “In what way?” “It’s like I can control them somehow,” I tried to explain to him, not that I really understood it myself. “I still have visions and when I do, it’s like I’m looking through a video camera. I can turn it around, up, and down – get a three hundred and sixty degree view.’

“What did you see in the last vision you had?” Luke asked me, stepping over a series of rocks that jutted-up out of the frothing water.

“I saw Kayla,” I told him. “She was lying in what looked like a hospital bed. She was scared and calling out to me, but…” “But what?” Luke asked, taking my hand and helping me over the rocks so I didn’t slip and fall straight on my arse. “There were these creatures,” I said lowering my voice so none of the others could hear me. “What kind of creatures?” “I’m not sure. They were huge, though, and covered in hair,” I said. Then looking into my eyes, he said, “Just like me when I changed back in that room at the manor?” I remembered how he had looked in the dark of that room, lying on the floor, completely covered in black, bristling hair, his mouth full of jagged fangs. Then looking at him, I said, “I guess.”

“They are probably the Vampyrus that are guarding Kayla,” Luke said, turning and heading after the others.

“I guess,” I said again, but deep inside I wasn’t sure. Sloshing after him, I pulled at his arm and said, “So do you think I’m changing then – you know – the Vampyrus side is starting to come out?”

“Perhaps, perhaps not,” he said, looking at me. “I know that the other half-breeds developed their abilities during adolescence, but it’s hard to know for sure as only three of you ever lived past the age of sixteen.”

“I’m twenty,” I groaned, “Shouldn’t I have noticed something by now?”