"This is al my fault!" Kayla shrieked from behind me and before I'd even the chance to turn round, she was soaring over my head. And as she did, I saw her wings tear through her shirt and ripple out on either side of her back. But to my surprise, they were no longer the delicate butterfly-type wings I'd seen before, but they were now strong and powerful, just like a bird of prey.
Before Philips knew what was happening, Kayla was yanking him back through the air and away from Luke who knelt before him. Philips made a grunting sound as he slammed into a nearby tree.
"You lied to me!" Kayla screamed, and I could see that her mouth was ful of razor-sharp teeth. "You said you were my friend but you used me to get at those that realy care about me!" Then she was off again, tearing through the fog towards Philips.
From above, the sky boomed as if being ripped apart. Looking up, I could see Murphy screaming overhead, his shirt faling away in jagged strips. With the force of a rocket, he smashed into Taylor, sending him crashing into the branches of a tree. It wobbled and lurched, its roots ripping from the earth under the ful force of Taylor smashing into it.
There was an ear-splitting scream as Mrs. Payne took off into the air like a firework and raced towards Murphy. Seeing my chance, I raced through the dirty fog to Sparky and Mrs. Lovelace.
"Kiera, what's going on here?" Sparky shouted over the sound of faling branches and the roaring of thunderclaps overhead.
"I don't have time to explain now!" I holered back, unfastening the cable that bound his wrists. "Just get Mrs. Lovelace away from here."
Looking at me while rubbing his wrists, his mouth opened and closed like a fish. Breaking Mrs.
Lovelace's bonds, she peered at me through the fog and said, "Is that realy you, Kiera my dear?"
"Yes," I told her, trying not to show the panic in my voice.
"This is al terribly exciting," she said, gripping my arm with her liver-spotted hands.
Looking over her shoulder, I said to Sparky, "Just get her out of here!"
"Where to?" Sparky asked, his forehead and cheeks glowing red from the acne that stil ravished his face.
"On the other side of the woods," I said pointing into the distance, "you'l find the manor house. Take her there and lock al the doors."
"But what about you?" he asked, his voice as caring as usual.
"Don't worry about me," I said. "I'l meet you back there later - now go! "
"We'l have a nice cup of tea waiting for you,"
Mrs. Lovelace said as Sparky led her away towards the trees. "And that new gardener you got me is marvelous..." But the rest of what she had to say was lost as she disappeared into the fog with Sparky.
Turning around, to my horror, I saw Kayla struggling with Philips. He had her round the waist and they were tumbling out of the sky towards me.
"Help me!" Kayla screamed, as the ground rushed up towards her. Then there was a blaze of shadows as something swooped in and snatched Kayla from Philips' arms. The shadow rocketed towards the ground, then stopped suddenly just inches above the grass and I could see that it was Potter who had saved her. He held her tight in his thick-set arms and his bare chest looked taut and hard.
"Don't just stand there admiring the view," he snapped at me. "Get her out of here."
"I'm not going anywhere!" Kayla said in defiance.
"I caused this!"
Ignoring her, Potter stared at me and said, "Get rid of the kid." Then he was gone, ascending into the sky.
"That guy's such a dick!" Kayla hissed.
"You know it," I said back.
Glancing up into the night, I could just make out a series of shadows racing back and forth through the fog. I couldn't see who was who or what was what.
Then taking Potter's advice, I gripped hold of Kayla's hand and we raced together towards the shelter of the trees. But before reaching them, Taylor swooped out of the sky, landing on the ground before us. With his wings unraveled on either side of him, he raised his arms, tilted his head back and caled out, "Vampires, wake!"
Then, as if it had al been planned, the trees surrounding the clearing began to shake. Branches bowed and snapped, showering the ground with leaves.
Looking up, I screamed as pale-faced vampires leapt from the tree tops and into the clearing. Just like the vampires I'd witnessed in The Ragged Cove and my nightmares, they appeared frenzied and crazed as they sniffed the air and drool ran like goo from their fangs.
The vampires' eyes roled in their sockets like burning coals in black holes. Spinning round, I watched as vampires leapt into the clearing, not only from the treetops, but from the black spaces between them.
They screamed and snapped their jaws at the air like rabid dogs. Puling Kayla close, I heard the sound of groaning behind me.
Spinning round, I watched as the corpses of Doctor Keats, David Evans, and the pawnbroker began to twitch and stir at my feet.
"What's happening to them?" Kayla asked. "I thought they were dead!"
"They were and they are -" I breathed. "They were bitten by the Vampyrus, so now..."
"Now what?" she asked, her voice brimming with fear.
"Now they're vampires," I told her.
Doctor Keats sprang up like a jack-in-the-box, her neck making a clicking noise as she straightened her head on her torn neck. Blood ran in thick streams down the front of her tweed suit and splattered Evans' writhing hand. Smeling the blood, Evans stuck his fingers into his mouth and sucked the blood from them like a child with a soother. The pawnbroker dragged himself to his knees, then, as if receiving some kind of electric shock, he jumped to his feet.
"Hungry," he groaned and came forward.
Whichever way I turned, crazed-looking vampires approached Kayla and me. Their eyes glowed red through the fog, their snapping fangs chattering in the dark. Doctor Keats reached for Kayla and like a wild animal, Kayla lunged at her hand, tearing three of her fingers off with her fangs. Scrunching up her face as if her mouth were ful of acid, Kayla spat the fingers away, her wings humming beside me.
Raising her hand, Doctor Keats looked at the spaces where she had once had fingers and smiled through the gap at Kayla. Then lunging forward at Kayla, Doctor Keats was yanked backwards into the sky. In her place stood Luke. The scars on his chest and face glowing blue and black, his tattered wings arched high above his back. Throwing out his arms on either side of him, Evans' and the pawnbroker's heads flew from their shoulders, disappearing into the fog.
Their bodies stood momentarily as unaware that their heads were now missing. Then they started to spasm and jerk until they colapsed to the ground.
"How we doing?" he asked.
"Not good," I said, scanning the vampires that closed in on us from every direction.
"Nothing's changed there then," he said. Fluttering past me in a spray of shadows, he was tearing to pieces several of the vampires that had drawn near. Blood rained down and spattered the ground.
Through the fog came the sound of thunder. I peered into it and my left eye began to weep red tears.
A flash of blinding white light penetrated my skul then everything went black then grey. Tendrils of fog swirled around me, and as I looked into it, I realised that I could see through it. Ahead of me I could see Potter and Murphy cutting their way through the vampires. But it was more than just seeing through the fog, it was like the whole world had slowed down and I could see everything in minute detail. It was only then as I watched Potter and Murphy tear the vampires to shreds that I realised their true power and ferocity. In what would have taken place in a blink of the eye, I watched played out in slow time. Potter's arms shimmied as his claws sliced through the bodies of the unsuspecting vampires that made their way towards Kayla and me.
Murphy's teeth tore open their faces, ripping their tongues from their throats and spitting them away like bloated worms. Potter punched his fingernails through the chests of vampires, tearing out their hearts. The two of them worked with such speed, that the vampires only realised what had happened to them by the time several others had experienced the same fate. They toppled over like a stack of dominoes in zero gravity.
Then it was gone, as the flash of light popped in front of my eyes again. I toppled backwards as if I'd been punched in the face, and before I knew what was happening, someone had steadied me by taking hold of my arm.
"Easy, tiger," Potter whispered in my ear, then he was gone again, cutting and slicing his way through the never-ending wake of vampires that streamed into the clearing. He was folowed by a trail of shadows and I guessed this was Murphy taking out any of the vampires Potter missed.
I'd been so blinded by these visions that I hadn't noticed Philips and Mrs. Payne swoop down in the clearing and land next to Taylor. The space that Kayla and I occupied became smaler and smaler. We were within touching distance of them.
"Now, let's take what we realy came for," Taylor said, stepping closer to Kayla and me.
Taking Kayla's hand in mine, we both flinched as Mrs. Payne threw herself at us. Her fingernails almost seemed to touch my chest and I could feel her stale breath against my face as a spray of shadows appeared behind her. Before I could truly understand what was happening, Kayla had let go of my hand, sprang into the air, got behind Mrs. Payne, and gnawed through her neck with her fangs. I was only aware of what had happened when Mrs. Payne opened her mouth to scream. She made a belching noise as a rush of air shot through the opening that Kayla had made in her throat.
Realising that something was wrong, Mrs. Payne glanced back and in doing so, her head swiveled on her neck like an owl, then fel off. With her body stil hovering before me and her wings buzzing, Kayla flung it aside.
"Boy did that woman suck," Kayla said, wiping blood from her lips, "but not anymore." She looked at me and winked, and then she was gone, snatched up into the fog by Philips.
"Kayla!" I screamed, watching her disappear above me.
"Where is she?" Luke said, appearing at my side.
"Philips has taken her!" I yeled pointing into the sky.
Luke leapt into the air, but wasn't quick enough.
One of the vampires that circled us sprang into the air.
Sinking its fangs into Luke's leg, it dragged him back to the ground. Within seconds Luke was overpowered by gnashing and shrieking vampires. Helpless to do anything, I watched as he was puled to the ground, where he disappeared from view beneath the mountain of vampires that swarmed over him.
"So that just leaves me and you," a voice said, and I spun around to see Taylor leering at me through the fog. He came forward, a cluster of vampires behind him. I had nowhere to go. Then I was grabbed from behind. I shrieked and looked around to see Murphy looking at me.
"Run, Kiera!" he boomed, just as a set of vampire claws dug into his bare shoulders and dragged him to the ground. Within moments, like Luke before him, he was drowning beneath a wave of starving vampires.
With my knees starting to buckle and the world swimming in and out of focus before me, I turned around to see Taylor reaching for me.
"Come with me, Kiera, my master has been dying to meet you," he smiled. But through the fog in my own mind and the fog that wafted al around us, I saw his smile fade, as a thin stream of blood ran from the corner of his mouth. His eyes roled back in their sockets, then out onto his cheeks popped two claw-like fingers that wiggled from deep in his eye sockets. Covering my mouth with my hands, there was a sickening squelching sound as the fingers disappeared back into his skul and Taylor dropped forward onto his knees revealing Potter behind him. His fingers were covered in blood and something which looked close to grey-coloured jely.
"I'm blind," Taylor groaned at my feet. But before he'd a chance to say anything else, Potter had kicked him over then crushed his skul with the heel of his boot.
Reaching for me, Potter puled me close, out of reach of the vampires that circled us.
"Philips has taken Kayla," I said trying to pul away from him. "And the vampires have...have..." I couldn't bring myself to say anymore, as tears ran down my cheeks, washing away the blood that had come from my eye.
"Let's get to the safety of the summerhouse,"
Potter growled at me, his fangs looking pink where they had been smeared with blood.
"But..." I started.
"We've got to get to the chamber beneath the summerhouse. That's where I buried the crucifixes and holy water!" he reminded me.
"But..." I tried again, looking back over my shoulder at where Luke and Murphy had disappeared beneath a sea of vampires.
"There's too many of them!" he shouted into my face. "We have to get to the summerhouse!"
Then standing in front of me like a shield, he pinwheeled his arms like a set of rotary blades and began to cut a path through the vampires as he led me to safety. The vampires hissed, spat and lunged at us, as Potter carved his way through them. I wondered why he hadn't just picked me up and flown over them, but as I looked at his wings, I could see they had big, gaping holes in them, tears and rips where he had been attacked by the vampires.
Reaching the summerhouse, Potter shoved me forward and up the stairs to the white-painted front door. With his back pressed against mine, Potter lashed and kicked out at the vampires that pursued us up the steps. Grabbing hold of the door handle, I twisted it and the door flew open. Pushing me inside and slamming the door shut behind us, Potter dragged a chair away from the table and wedged it against the door.
"I don't think that's going to hold them for long," I shouted over the shrieks and groans of the vampires that were now circling the summerhouse outside.
"It only has to last long enough for me to get this hatch open!" he yeled back. Throwing the table aside, he puled back the carpet beneath it and revealed the hatch. Looking back at me and smiling, he said, "Now this is what I cal good planning."
Without wasting another moment, Potter yanked back the hatch, looked inside, and immediately closed it again.
"What's wrong?" I shouted, seeing the fear in his face.
"This is not my fault," he said, staring at me, his mouth open in shock.
"What's not your fault?" I screamed at him, the chair holding the door closed now scraping against the floor under the weight of the vampires.
"You know you said that Philips would have to have kept the vampires hidden somewhere out of the light?" he said.
"Yeah?" I said. Then reading the fear in his eyes, I added, "You're kidding me! Please tel me that you're joking!"
Shaking his head and looking back down at the hatch, Potter shouted, "They're hidden beneath us!"
No sooner had the words left his lips, the hatch started to open. White fingers curled up from beneath the hatch and made a grab for Potter's foot. Ramming his boot down hard, the hatch snapped closed again.
"I'm not going to be able to stand on this forever,"
he shouted at me.
Then from behind him, the window broke in a shower of glass, as the vampires reached in at us. The door began to buckle against its frame as the vampires charged at the door from outside. Parts of the door had begun to splinter and the hinges had started to come away from the wal. I looked at Potter as he wobbled to and fro on top of the hatch as the vampires beneath us fought their way out. The sound of scuttling from above was almost deafening as vampires clambered over the roof, desperate to find a way in.
"Come away from the door!" Potter shouted, holding his hand out.
Taking it, he puled me into his arms and wrapped his tattered wings around me. It was as if it was his last attempt at protecting me. As I looked up into his rugged face, I didn't ever think that I would spend my last living moments held in his arms. Pressed against his chest, I could feel his heart racing and mine matched it.
Looking into his blazing eyes, I said, "I want to know one thing before I die."
"Oh yeah?" he said, looking down at me. "What's that?"
"Did you mean what you said out there?" I asked him, as the door started to come away from its frame.
"What did I say?"
"You said that you made a mistake thinking that a girl like me would be interested in a guy like you," I reminded him.
Then smiling down at me, he said, "Don't go getting yourself al excited, sweet-cheeks, I said that for Luke, not for you," and he kissed me.
The sudden sound of screaming came from outside. But it was more than screaming, it was the sound of people crying out in agony. Then the arms that were reaching in through the windows, exploded into chunks of dust and the fingers curled around the edge of the door broke away like ash.
Puling myself free of Potter, I ran to the window and peered out. Like a shadow fleeting past in the fog, I could see someone or something moving at great speed.
"There's someone out there," I whispered, "and they seem to be slaughtering al the vampires."
"That's impossible," Potter said. "There's too many for just one person to -" but before he'd had the chance to finish, the door to the summerhouse flew inwards and off its hinges. A figure stood in the doorway, a black silhouette against the orange moon.
"Where's Kayla Hunt?" the figure asked, the voice male, but stil young.
"Who are you?" I asked, stepping forward in an attempt to get a better look at him.
"Where's Kayla Hunt?" he asked again, his voice flat and even.
"They've taken her," I told him.
"Taken her where?" and now his voice sounded agitated.
"That's the milion dolar question," Potter said.
"Who are you?" I asked him again.
Stepping out of the shadows so I could see his face, he looked at me with eyes that seemed to penetrate my very soul and he said, "My name is Isidor Smith and I've been sent to rescue Kayla"