Vampire Wake (Kiera Hudson Series One #2)

The inside of the summerhouse was in semi- darkness. There was an oil lamp on the table and it cast an orange glow. There was a smal wooden table in the centre of the room and Kayla and the male sat at it on two white-washed chairs. Kayla was sitting to one side, and I had to strain my neck to see her. That was good though, because if I couldn't see her without making some effort, then she wouldn't be able to see me. But the male was who I realy wanted to get a good look at, but he had his back to me. What little I could see of him was cast in shadow. I could hear them talking, but their voices were low and muffled as if they were speaking in whisper, not wanting anyone else to hear what it was they were saying to one another.

Lowering my head, I pressed my ear against the thin wooden wal of the summerhouse and listened.

"I think I'm close," the male said, but that was al I got as his voice faded.

"How long now?" I heard Kayla ask, and from what I could tel, her voice had an urgency to it.

The male replied but the first part of what he said was incomprehensible. Al I heard him say was, "...if al goes wel."

"That soon?" Kayla gasped, her voice rising as if excited in some way.

"Shhh," I heard the male gesture. "You need to be ready, Kayla," he said, his voice just a little clearer.

"I'm practicing - but it's difficult now that..." and her voice faded again.

"Do you think she knows?" I heard the male say.

"...don't know," was al I got of Kayla's reply.

"She didn't miss a trick in The Ragged Cove," he said, and my stomach somersaulted as I suspected the male was referring to me.

The first part of Kayla's response was missing but I caught the last few words, "...don't like Marshal."

You're not the only one, I thought to myself.

"...not long now," the male said and I sensed he was trying to be reassuring. "Be ready."

"I'l try and...." her voice trailed away again.

"...got to be ready for what's coming," the male said. "We've al got to be ready."

Then I heard the sound of chairs scrapping against the wooden floor boards of the summerhouse as they stood up from the table, their secret meeting over. With my heart in my mouth, I crawled away, back towards the trees. I didn't look back until I was hidden once again out of the moonlight, and in the shadows. Tucking myself behind the trunk of a tree, I watched as Kayla and the man left the summerhouse. Leaning over her, he kissed Kayla softly on the cheek and silently walked towards the trees on the opposite side of the open area to where I was hiding. I watched Kayla pick her jacket up off the ground and put it on, concealing her wings beneath it. Unwinding the headphones, she placed them in her ears and switched on the iPod. With the sound of 'Rocket Man' by Elton John hissing away in the darkness, I turned and raced back towards the manor house. Several times I stumbled in the darkness, tripping and faling over bracken and broken branches.

I came to realise that lending Kayla my iPod was one of my better moves. With the noise I'd been making, I was surprised that I hadn't woken the whole manor.

Reaching the tree line, I raced towards the front door, hoping that I could get inside and out of view before Kayla reached the clearing and saw me. With my feet crunching on the gravel path, I reached the door. Just as I was about to sneak inside someone said from behind me, "Did you enjoy your evening walk?"

Spinning round on my heels, I looked back to see the chauffeur sitting in his wheelchair just feet behind me.

Where in the hell did you spring from? I wanted to ask him, but I bit my tongue instead. How had I not heard him? I mean his wheelchair wailed like a set of fingernails being dragged across ice.

"I didn't mean to scare you," he said, looking at me from beneath the rim of his peaked cap. His unkempt sideburns glistened silver in the darkness and covered both sides of his face like wire wool.

"No worries," I said, just wanting to be back inside the house. I knew that if Kayla saw James and me she wouldn't come out from beneath the trees, but I didn't want her to see me at al. If she asked me tomorrow where I'd been, I realy didn't want to have to lie to her or tel her the truth.

"What did you say?" the chauffeur said, raising a hand to his ear. "I'm a bit deaf."

"I said it doesn't matter," I told him. "You didn't scare me."

"What was that?" he asked again.

"It's ok - you didn't scare me!" I said, raising my voice but not wanting to shout.

"Where you been?" he asked.

Trying to be as casual as I could, I ignored his question and asked one of my own. "What happened to the squeak?"

"The what?" he asked, holding his hand to his ear again.

"Your wheelchair was making an awful squeaking noise earlier," I said in a raised voice which sounded more like a stage whisper.

"Oh, that," he said. "Went down to see Marshal at the gatehouse, I did. He put a bit of oil on it for me. As good as new now!" then he roled the chair backwards a few inches as if to prove the point. The squeaking had gone.

"Oh, wel that's good," I smiled. "If you don't mind, I should realy be getting to bed now."

"What was that you said?" he asked, leaning forward in his chair.

"Goodnight," I said, stepping inside the manor.

"So long," he said, and I looked back to see him trundling away down the gravel path.

Then, just before I closed the door, I said just above a whisper, "vampires." If I'd blinked, I would have missed it, but as that word left my lips, the chauffeur seemed to falter as if suddenly stung. But then he was off again, wheeling himself down the path.

Shutting the door behind me, I wondered if the chauffeur was realy as deaf as he claimed to be. After al, I could see that he didn't need the wheelchair. He could walk.

Taking two of the stairs at a time, I raced up them, wanting to be in my room before Kayla returned. As I passed the landing and the stairs leading to the 'forbidden' wing, I couldn't help but wonder if Marshal was up there in the darkness. Leaping up the next flight of stairs, I ran down the corridor, through that musty- sweet smel and back to my room. Closing my door, and in the darkness, I went to the windows. Peeling back the curtain I peered out to see Kayla suddenly appear from beneath the trees. Jerking her head left and right to make sure the coast was clear, she snuck back across the lawns and to the house.

Closing the curtain, I flopped onto my bed. I didn't even bother to light a candle; al I wanted to do was sleep. And as I closed my eyes, I couldn't help but wonder what was going on at Halowed Manor. Why was Marshal creeping around at night, staring at me through my window? Why was the chauffeur pretending to be deaf and wheelchair bound? Who was the man Kayla was secretly meeting? But what troubled me most of al was what I'd overheard him teling Kayla.

"...got to be ready for what's coming," the male had said. "We've al got to be ready."

Ready for what? I wondered, as I drifted off to sleep.