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Sparky’s leg jerked and went rigid and I could see the pain in his eyes. They seemed to spin in their sockets. “Tell me, Sparky. ”
“I don’t…” he started, but I hit him again, this time harder.
“Okay!” he screeched, phlegm spraying from his lips as he gripped his leg. “I know where you can find this invisible man, Elias Munn!”
“Who is he?” I demanded my heart racing.
“I didn’t say I knew who he was,” Sparky wailed in pain. “I said I know where he is heading – where you can find him. ”
“Where?” I breathed, feeling nervous at the thought that I might actually be able to catch this man once and for all.
“The Hollows,” Sparky said, through gritted teeth.
“We already know that,” I told him, hoping for his sake that he wasn’t messing with me.
“But you don’t know where in The Hollows,” Sparky grimaced.
“Where?” I shouted, raising my hand as if to strike his wounded leg again.
“The Dust Palace!” Sparky whispered as if giving away a deadly secret.
“Impossible,” someone said from behind us.
I spun round to see Potter standing beneath the shadows of a solitary tree that stood some feet away. Beside him stood someone else. Peering through the gloom, my heart lept at the sight of Luke. Potter had rescued him.
Standing slowly, I watched as both of them walked out from beneath the low-hanging branches of the tree and came towards me. As usual, a cigarette dangled from the corner of Potter’s mouth, the blue smoke trailing away into the night. He looked at me, but it was more than looking at me; it was like he was searching my eyes, looking into me.
I broke his stare and turned towards Luke. He came towards me. His jet-black hair was longer than I remembered and hung around his shoulders. The lower half of his face was covered in a scruffy-looking beard, but this only accentuated his brilliant green eyes. His rugged good looks were still visible from beneath his beard, and although he looked as if he had lost some weight, the dirty shirt he wore still showed off his muscular chest and arms.
Luke stopped just a few inches away and looked at me. His eyes seemed to glimmer. I glanced over at Potter who had his eyes fixed on me. I quickly looked away and back at Luke. I remembered the last time that I had seen him – being kicked and beaten before me as my mother offered me a fist full of the red stuff. I had eaten it to save his life. There was an uncomfortable silence, not just between Luke and me, but throughout all of us. No one said a word and I knew without even turning to face them, they were all watching me.
My heart raced in my chest like a trip hammer and those feelings that I had felt so passionately when with Luke came rushing back. But it was more than that. The feelings which were making my heart race were not of lust or desire, but guilt and betrayal. While Luke had been suffering at the hands of Phillips, Sparky, my mother, and God knows who else, I had been making love to his friend – I had fallen in love with his best friend.
Every part of me wanted to look at Potter again, but I just couldn’t. I didn’t want to look into his eyes. What would I see there? So, very slowly, I walked towards Luke and hugged him.
Brushing his bristly cheek against mine, Luke whispered in my ear and said, “I never thought I would see you again, Kiera. ”
“I didn’t think I would ever see you again either,” I told him as he held me tight. I could feel his body against mine, and just as I had remembered it, it felt as hard as stone.
“What did they do to you?” I whispered, still not able to look into his face.
“It wasn’t so bad,” he said. “Potter told me that they hurt you, Kiera. I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you. I’ll never be able to thank Potter enough for taking care of you for me. ”
To hear those words threw images of me and Potter across my mind, our bodies entwined as we had made love. I pushed the pictures away. Opening my eyes, I looked over Luke’s shoulder as I hugged him and could see Potter watching me. His face looked hard and haggard. But it was his eyes, there was a sadness to them – something I had only ever seen once before, the day Murphy had been murdered.
Taking the cigarette from the corner of his mouth, he flicked it away. He looked away from me, crossed to where Sparky lay nursing his leg on the ground, and kicked him in the guts. Sparky howled in agony and screwed himself into a ball.
Pulling away from Luke, I turned to face Potter and said, “What in the hell was that for?”
“He’s a fucking liar!” Potter said, looking at Sparky and not at me.
“What are you talking about?” I said, heading back towards Sparky and the others as Luke followed me.
“He said that you would find this Elias Munn in the Dust Palace,” Potter hissed, still unable to look at me.
“So?” I shrugged.
“That’s impossible,” Potter barked, and this time he did look at me. The sadness had gone from his face and was now replaced with anger.
“Why is it impossible?” Isidor asked, coming forward, his eyebrow piercing twinkling in the moonlight.
Potter looked at him, but said nothing. Instead, he shoved another cigarette into the corner of his mouth and lit it.
“Potter’s right,” Luke cut in. “The Dust Palace is the home of the elders. He couldn’t possibly be there. ”
“Why not?” Kayla asked, as she brushed snow from her red hair.
Blowing smoke from his nostrils in two thin jets, Potter looked at Kayla and said, “Listen, sweetheart, you don’t just stroll into the Dust Palace. It’s the most sacred place in The Hollows. It’s where the Elders, or as some like to call them, the gods live. It’s their home. To me, I think it’s just a bunch of bullshit, but one thing I do know for certain is that place is a fortress and there’s only one way in. ”
“And where’s that?” Seth asked.
“Shit, who invited you along?” Luke suddenly groaned, as if noticing Seth for the first time.
“Good to see you too, Luke Bishop,” Seth snarled. “It was Potter’s idea. ”
“I had no choice,” Potter said, looking at Luke.
“Didn’t you say this scum was responsible for helping to kill Murphy?” Luke asked in disbelief.
“That’s right,” Potter said, flicking ash from the tip of his cigarette. “But I’ve gone some way in getting even,” he added, then glanced at me.
“How could you ever possibly get even over the death of Murphy?” Luke asked, his black beard now turning white with snow.
“Just like Seth helped take Murphy’s heart, I took the heart of his lover,” Potter told him, and again he looked at me, as if trying to gauge my reaction.
Those images of Potter striding across the floor of the facility and ripping Eloisa’s heart out swam in front of my mind again and they sickened me. I broke Potter’s gaze and looked away. I still couldn’t understand why he had done that, he had confused and scared me.
“I think you’ll find that I’ve lost more than Eloisa,” Seth barked at Potter, his eyes blazing like hot coals. “I’ve lost my son, Nik too. ”
“What, you mean he’s dead?” Potter asked, and for a moment I thought I could see the briefest of smirks tugging at the corner of his mouth.
“Yes,” Seth spat. “He was killed in a vampire attack a few miles from here. ”
“Aww,” Potter groaned. “My heart bleeds for you. Don’t tell me any more or I think I might just start crying. ”
Before anyone knew what was happening, Seth launched himself at Potter and had him by the throat. “We have unfinished business, Potter, so I wouldn’t be too cocky if I were you!”
Tearing Seth’s claw from his throat, Potter stared into Seth’s eyes, blowing smoke into his face. “Bring it on anytime, wolf-man, I’ll be ready for you. ”
“Oh, please. ” I groaned. “What is it with you two and all this schoolyard crap? O
kay, so some of us don’t like each other much – and that’s putting it mildly – but we have to find a way of getting along, because if we can’t, then we might as well die, right here, right now, and save Elias Munn the job of killing us. ”
“She’s right you know,” Luke said, stepping between Potter and Seth, pushing them apart.
Potter scowled at Seth and wandered away back towards the tree.
“So what’s the one and only way into this Dust Palace?” I called after Potter.
“You have to be invited in by the gods,” he shouted back over his shoulder at me. “And somehow, I can’t imagine them ever inviting Elias Munn around for tea!”
“It’s true, I tell you,” Sparky snivelled, still clutching his stomach where Potter had kicked him.
Kneeling down beside him, I looked into his wild yellow eyes and said, “You better not be leading us into some trap!”
“I’m not, I promise,” he said.
“Your promise had better be as good as mine,” Kayla told him, yanking on the rope still wrapped about her fist, “or you’ll be dead. ”
“I’m dead anyway,” Sparky yelped as Kayla pulled him to his feet. “When Elias Munn discovers that I’ve betrayed him, he’ll kill me anyway. ”
“Then you better start praying that we kill him first,” Isidor said, placing his crossbow across his back. Then, looking at me he added, “So what’s the plan, Kiera?”
Looking up into the sky, the clouds had started to spread out and the storm started to ease. It was still bitterly cold and we were all covered in a coating of snow. “We head down into The Hollows,” I said, looking at Luke then over my shoulder at Potter, who was leaning against the tree with his arms folded across his chest. “I’ve got to find someone called Felix Coanda. ”
“There’s no entrance to The Hollows for miles,” Potter said. “And we know the whole area has been sealed off. ”