A thick fog covered the grounds outside the manor house. It had a murky-yelow tinge to it and was so thick that I could only see a few feet ahead of me. It almost seemed to climb over the wals of the manor house and through the trees like dry ice at a party. The night was cold and damp and through the fog, I could barely make out the moon, which hung in the sky like a monstrous Haloween pumpkin. It had a sickly orange glow to it and its many craters looked like eyes and an evil grin that had been smudged.
We made our way across the lawns which stretched out before us and through the swirling fog towards the trees. Almost blind, we stumbled through the woods in the direction of the summerhouse. The atmosphere felt oppressive and my stomach tightened at the thought of what Philips might have done with Kayla.
She would have told him about discovering Murphy and Potter. I doubted that he knew they had been here al the while but now that he knew of their existence, would it frighten him into doing something rash?
My train of thought was interrupted by Potter who said, "So tel me, tiger, how did Philips get his claws into Kayla?"
"She believed him to be Luke," I explained. "She honestly believed him to be a good-guy."
"So if he wants to harm her, why hasn't he done it before now?" Murphy asked.
"He used her to get into the grounds of the manor,"
I told him. "He wants to get to those children up on the ward...and he wants me, remember?"
"But you're forgetting," Luke said, "he's one of us.
Philips has wings. Why didn't he just fly over the wal?"
"Perhaps he can't?" I told them. "Remember he got attacked by Potter. I know from my nightmares that his face is scarred like Luke's. Maybe his wings are damaged, too?"
"Or maybe there's another reason altogether,"
Murphy said, his voice thoughtful as if he were talking to himself.
"Like what?" Potter asked, lighting another cigarette revealing his eyes in the darkness like a pair of green headlamps.
"We know that Halowed Manor is one of the Vampyrus' strongholds above ground. If he could take this place, then that would send a message out to al those other Vampyrus that he is someone to fear - someone not to be reckoned with. The other sacred places above ground would fear his power and some would more than likely cower to him to protect their strongholds."
"But who is he going to launch his attack with?"
Luke asked Murphy. "He hasn't been able to gather enough Vampyrus to his twisted way of thinking to commit to an al-out attack against Halowed Manor."
"Perhaps he's going to attack with vampires," I said.
There was silence for a moment. Then Potter said, "Impossible. sweet-cheeks. Remember this place is like a fortress. There could never be a vampire attack against this manor. It's surrounded by a ring of blessed water that vampires could never cross. The wals of the manor have been permeated with garlic and queets and if Philips is planning to launch his attack from the summerhouse, then I'm afraid that I personaly fitted a crucifix to the wal. Like the rest of the manor, it's been covered in garlic and queets, and just to make sure, there's a chamber hidden beneath the floor that I've filed to the brim with Bibles, crosses, and more bottles of holy water than you could wish for. There isn't going to be any vampire attack."
Turning to face him, I said, "Kayla spoke about giving a key to Philips that led to a tunnel beneath the moat," then remembering the padlocked door that I'd discovered, I added, "That tunnel wouldn't be hidden beneath a door against the far wal on the other side of the grounds, would it?"
"Yeah, so?" Potter said, the end of his cigarette winking on and off in the darkness as he smoked it.
"Wel, I found tracks - lots of tracks - leading from that secret doorway to the summerhouse," I said, the hairs on the nape of my neck starting to prickle. "And the summerhouse isn't covered in garlic and queets any longer. Someone has been out there and covered al your hard work in paint. The crucifix you put up on the wal, it's been removed. As for the Bibles, crosses, and holy water you say you've hidden, I can't be sure if they are stil there."
The three of them looked blankly back at me through the fog. Realising that they seemed to be missing the point that I was trying to make, I gasped and said, "You realy don't see it, do you?"
"See what?" Potter said. "Maybe if you stopped talking in riddles and tried good old fashioned English for a change..."
"Philips has been using the tunnel under the moat to bring vampires onto the grounds of the manor. He repainted the summerhouse to cover up the garlic and queets and removed the crucifix from the wal," I explained.
"So what you're saying is," Potter said flicking his cigarette away, "This place is actualy teeming with vampires and has been for weeks while he builds his army?"
Slapping my forehead with the palm of my hand, I said, "At last! I think you've got it!"
Then coming towards me through the fog, Potter said, "Wel tel me this, sweet-cheeks, where have they al been hiding out al this time? Remember vampires don't like the sunlight."
But before I could even think about answering his question, Luke had gripped me by the shoulder.
"Shhh," he said, and pointed ahead of us. We had reached the edge of the circular clearing that the summerhouse sat in. Screwing up my eyes, I peered through the fog and could just make out two figures standing off to one side in the centre of the clearing.
Crouching down behind the trunks of some large trees, the four of us stared at the figures. Before he had even spoken, I knew that it was Philips and Kayla.
"You don't have to hide," Philips said, and his voice sounded smooth and calm, and I stil had difficulty in believing that he had once been my sergeant at training school. He had been a coleague; but more importantly, a friend.
"There is no point in hiding amongst the trees, my friends. Kayla heard you coming the moment you stepped into the woods."
Standing, the four us stepped out of the fog and into the clearing. I stood silently between Luke and Potter, and Murphy stood alone to one side.
"Helo again," Philips smiled, and his eyes almost appeared to beam through the swirling fog.
Ignoring him, I looked at Kayla, I said, "Whatever he's told you, Kayla, this guy is not your friend. His name isn't Luke Bishop - it's Craig Philips."
Smiling, Philips said, "Wil the real Luke Bishop step forward?" and as his words left his lips, both Luke beside me and Philips in the clearing took a step forward.
"Kiera is right, Kayla," Luke said, his voice soft.
"I'm Luke Bishop. The guy standing next to you only wants to hurt and use you."
"He told me you would say that," Kayla said. "He told me that you would try and mess with my mind - play tricks on me."
"The only person playing tricks here is the man standing next to you," I told her, inching forward. "He tricked me once, Kayla, and I nearly lost my life because of it."
"Liar!" Kayla spat. "I trusted you Kiera! I told you stuff and showed you things that I'd never shown anyone else, and al the time, you were spying on me with your friends!"
"That's not true," I said. "I didn't know who James and Marshal realy were."
"Liar!" Kayla said again, but this time her voice wavered as if trying to stop herself from crying. "If you didn't know who Marshal was, why were you making out with him in the gatehouse? I saw you through the window. You looked pretty friendly to me!"
At once, I could almost sense Luke's eyes boring into me. Not taking my eyes from Kayla, and too uncomfortable to look at Luke, I said, "It wasn't what it looked like, Kayla. I thought he was somebody else."
"Oh yeah?" Luke said, from beside me. "Who?"
"You, of course!" I snapped, turning to him. "You don't realy think I'd make out with that jerk, do you?"
"Now that's not nice," Potter said from behind me.
Spinning round, I turned on Potter and shouted, "Why don't you just try shutting your mouth for once in your life! You know I thought -"
But before I'd a chance to say anything else, Potter had stuck another cigarette between his lips and said, "Easy, tiger. Stop getting so excited."
"You're impossible!" I holered back. "Tel Luke what realy happened!"
Then, from the centre of the clearing, Philips said to Kayla, "See? How can you trust any of these people, Kayla? They don't even trust each other."
Just as the last of his words left his mouth, Potter had shot across the clearing in a blur of shadows and had Philips gripped by the throat. Even by his own Vampyrus speed and agility, Philips looked momentarily stunned at how quickly Potter was upon him. With his fingers digging into the scarred flesh around Philips throat, and without taking his eyes from him, Potter shouted across the clearing at Luke.
"Kiera loves you, Luke. There is no doubting that.
It was an accident. Yes, she did kiss me, but only because she believed me to be you. She saw the bandages and the disguise in the gatehouse and thought you had been hiding yourself from her." Then turning to look at me through the fog, Potter said, "I was to blame for what happened, Luke, not Kiera. I realised her mistake, but instead of pushing her off, I let her kiss me and I kissed her back."
Averting my gaze, I looked down at the ground. I was grateful for Potter's honesty, but it just confused me even more. When I'd thought I'd made up my mind that he was a complete and utter jerk, he then went and did something completely unexpected and nice - like puling my car from the snow and now taking al the blame for what had happened at the gatehouse.
"But I made two big mistakes, Luke," Potter continued. "The first was believing someone like Kiera could ever be interested in someone like me," then turning to look back at Philips, he snarled, "and my second big mistake was not kiling you back in The Ragged Cove." Within an instance, fangs had protruded from his gums and he was lunging at Philips' throat.
Raising a hand to her face, Kayla screamed and leapt backward. Seeing this, Murphy shot forward in a haze of shadows and had taken hold of her, bringing her back to me. Before I'd the chance to say anything to her, a figure stepped from the fog on the other side of the clearing.
"Kil Philips if it wil make you feel better, Potter.
But it wil change nothing. You are al going to be dead before dawn," Taylor said, limping forward. On his head, he wore that wide-brimmed hat, he was naked to the waist and his wings twitched and fluttered around his scrawny frame. Limping towards Potter, who stil had hold of Philips, he chuckled and said, "Go on, I dare you. If it makes you feel any better, rip his throat out, tear the lungs from his body."
Lurching forward, stil believing that Philips was her friend, Kayla shouted, "No! Don't kil him! Please!"
Eyeing Kayla, then Potter again, Taylor said, "Go on, Potter, show the girl what a monster you truly are.
Go on, kil a defenceless Vampyrus in front of her."
"Please!" Kayla whimpered.
Taking her by the shoulders, I shook her gently and said, "Kayla, he is not you're friend. He cares nothing about you...or me."
"Why would he care about you anyway?" Kayla said, her voice angry and confused.
Staring her straight in the eyes, I said, "Kayla, I'm like you. Me and you are the same."
"How?" she sneered.
"I'm half human and half Vampyrus," I tried to convince her. "Philips and that wizened-up guy, Taylor, over there want the both of us."
"I don't believe that you're like me," she said.
"Prove it."
"I can't," I said, shaking my head at her. "But I have wings, just like you."
"Where? Show me!" she spat.
"They haven't come...come through yet," I told her.
"How convenient," Kayla said and almost seemed to sneer at me. "Luke just wants to protect me from people like you."
"He doesn't want to protect you," I insisted. "He wants you - us - because we are unique. You and me have special abilities that they want and there is another like us caled Isidor Smith. That's where your mother has gone - she's looking for him." But I could see by the way that she looked at me that she wasn't convinced. There had to be some way to prove to her that I was teling the truth.
"You heard that phone cal Kayla," I said. "You heard my friend suffering. You saw how much that hurt me. That was another Vampyrus just like Philips and Taylor who hurt him. They were trying to track me down."
"I don't believe you," she said again.
Thinking back to that last conversation I'd shared with Sparky, something suddenly struck me. He had said "texts". I received your texts, he had said. But I'd only sent him the one since arriving at the manor. So who had sent the others? Whoever had found my phone when I'd falen from the wal. Looking at Philips stil being gripped by Potter, I turned back to Kayla and holding out my hand, I said, "Give me your phone."
"Why?" she asked.
"Just give it to me, Kayla, and I'l prove to you that Philips was behind the murder of my friend."
Reluctantly, Kayla puled her mobile phone from her jeans pocket and handed it to me. Taking it, I dialed my own mobile phone. Pressing it to my ear, I turned to face Philips and waited for the sound of my mobile phone to start ringing from his direction. Within seconds the night was broken with the shril tone of my mobile ringing - but it didn't come from the direction of Philips as I'd suspected. The sound of the ring tone came from behind me. As if on cue, al of us turned to face the woods, even Philips glanced in that direction as Potter gripped him.
My mobile phone stil continued to ring from the slices of darkness between the tress and then it stopped as if cut dead. From within the trees and the fog that curled amongst them, I caught sight of a fleeting movement.
"Who's there?" I caled out. Then as if in answer to my question, Mrs. Payne stepped from the tree line, my mobile phone held in her hand.