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“Wow, that makes me feel a whole lot better,” I said, my cheeks still burning red. I looked away.

  “Do you love him?” she asked me.

  I looked at Meren and said, “Yes, I love him with all my heart. He can be difficult at times – a real pain in the arse – but I love him all the same. I love Potter more than I’ve ever loved anyone.”

  “Will you get married?” she pushed.

  “He hasn’t asked,” I said.

  “But what if he did?” Meren wouldn’t let up.

  “Then I would say yes,” I said, with a thoughtful smile.

  Meren giggled.

  “Besides, it will never happen,” I said, bending low to avoid a branch.

  “How do you know?” she asked.

  “Men like Potter don’t ask you to marry them,” I sighed. “Men like Potter aren’t the marrying type. They can’t or won’t settle down.”

  “Why?” Meren asked.

  Before I’d the chance to answer, there was a sudden noise in the distance. “Shhh!” I said, pressing my finger to my lips.

  Cocking my head to one side, I heard the sound of cheering, followed by someone speaking through a loudspeaker. At once my mind flashed with images of my nightmare. In them I could see Jack being forced to crouch down by a man in a black hood. I could see the blade of the guillotine come slicing down.

  “Jack?” I breathed aloud.

  “Who’s Jack?” Meren frowned.

  “Jack’s my brother, and he is about to be executed,” I said, turning on my heels and racing towards the town of Wasp Water.

  Chapter Thirty

  Kiera

  “Where are you going?” Meren called after me.

  “I’ve got to save him,” I shouted back over my shoulder, the sound of cheering in the distance growing louder and raucous with every passing moment.

  “I didn’t know you had a brother,” Meren said, catching up with me.

  “Neither did I,” I shot back, breaking free of the trees and darting out onto the road.

  “This isn’t safe,” Meren suddenly said, grabbing hold of my arm.

  “We promised my dad we would only have a scout about – take a look – and then report back.”

  “But they’re gonna execute my brother!” I snapped, yanking my arm free of her grip.

  “That town is full of wolves,” Meren tried to reason with me. “They’ll spot us a mile off, and then it will be us they’re executing.”

  It was hard to argue her point. I had a sudden thought as I remembered my nightmare. “Do we look so different from them? Aren’t we half wolf, too? You can tell human from a wolf because of the colour of their eyes. Our eyes are practically the same as theirs. They won’t be able to tell the difference – not if we’re careful.”

  Meren looked down the road towards the town, then back at me. “How do you know it’s your brother who is going to be executed?”

  “I see things,” I told her. “Meren, you’re gonna have to trust me on this.”

  “But what about my father?” she said. “We made him a promise.”

  “I understand if you don’t want to break that promise, I really do,” I told her. “But I have to go and help Jack.” Turning away from her, I raced up the road towards the town. I looked back only once to see Meren darting back off the road and into the trees for cover.

  Just like I had in my dream, I made my way through the throng of wolves who had crushed themselves in to the town square. I kept my head down, only looking up if I had to. I pulled my coat about my frame, in the hopes that it made me smaller somehow, less visible. The wolves jostled and bustled all around me. They stank of sweat. Straw lined the streets, and the town looked rundown and tired. The Tudor houses looked uncared for and no longer fit for human habitation. Even though these wolves wandered around in human skins, it appeared they were still very much like animals. Dog shit, or was that wolf shit, lay squashed along the cobbled streets. Blood ran along the gutters, where human remains clogged the storm drains.

  Skin-walkers, disguised as humans, crowded into the town square. And unlike in my dream, I knew exactly what they had come to see. I understood why an electric current of excitement buzzed through the crowd.

  They stared expectantly ahead, their bright yellow eyes set in their sunken sockets. I eased my way through the Skin-walkers, desperate to get nearer to the stage I knew was up ahead, the stage where my brother would be executed if I didn’t somehow manage to set him free. But how? There was only me against hundreds and hundreds of wolves. I didn’t have time to go back and get my friends. By the time I would return with them, Jack would be dead. And besides, would Murphy risk everything just to save Jack Seth? I doubted it.

  The only person who was ever going to save Jack, was me. But how?

  I continued to push my way through the crowds, ducking beneath waving arms, and between the bristling bodies of the wolves. Then ahead, I could hear the sound of that man’s voice coming through the loudhailer. It sounded mechanical, like a robot from a science fiction film. The Skin-walkers whooped and cheered, punching the air with their fists. They really were animals.

  “Welcome to today’s executions,” he bellowed through the loudhailer. “Do we have a surprise for you all today!”

  The crowd roared with an insatiable excitement as they jostled closer towards the stage, all of them wanting a better look at the gruesome event about to be played out before them. I forced my way forward for different reasons than those of the wolves surrounding me. Just like I had seen in my nightmare, the fountain had been reduced to rubble, and in its place had been erected the stage and guillotine. It towered above the stage, looking bigger and more intimidating in the real world. The blade gleamed like diamonds in the morning light. It looked razor-sharp. Wolves pressed up against me, and the atmosphere was suffocating, thick with a palatable excitement.

  “Okay, so let’s not delay the main event any longer!” the guy yelled through the speaker. “Please welcome to the stage, our executioner!” The crowd exploded in an uproar of cheers and whistles as the hooded man stepped out on top of the stage. He waved back at the

  crowd like some kind of celebrity.

  “We love you!” a female Skin-walker screamed, waving what looked like an autograph book in the air.

  She’ll be throwing her panties up onto the stage next, I thought feeling sick to my stomach.

  “He loves you, too!” the guy roared through the loudhailer.

  The woman screamed, then fainted, the thought of the executioner loving her back just becoming way too much for her. I saw the female Skin-walker sink beneath the crowd, then heard the sound of her bones crunching as the other wolves trampled over her, desperate to get as close to the stage as possible.

  “So who are you going to be beheading for us today?” the guy asked the executioner.

  “A killer!” the executioner roared at the crowd from beneath his hood. “A killer of wolves!”

  The crowd erupted angrily and pressed themselves against the stage. They punched the air with their fists as they hissed and booed.

  “Kill him! Kill him! Kill him!” the crowd started to chant.

  From the side of the stage another hooded man was shoved forward. I knew who was beneath that hood, and my stomach knotted.

  As I had seen before, he staggered blindly across the stage. His arms were secured behind his back with chains. The executioner grabbed him roughly by the arm.

  “Unmask him!” someone roared from the crowd.

  “Show us the killer’s face!” another yelled.

  “Unmask him! Unmask him! Unmask him!” the crowd wailed as one.

  Just like in my nightmare, the guy with the speaker teased the audience by shouting, “What was that? I can’t hear you!”

  “UNMASK HIM! UNMASK HIM! UNMASK HIM!” They screamed so loud, it was deafening.

  As if sensing that he had brought the crowd close to an orgasmic eruption, the guy with the speaker stepped forward and whipped off the prisoner�
��s hood.

  I threw my hands to my face, as Potter looked bleary-eyed at the crowd. His eyes were swollen almost closed, his nose was bent out of shape across his face, and both lips were bloodied and swollen.

  “No!” I screamed, desperately forcing my way through the crowd, confused and terrified at the sight of Potter standing beaten and broken on the stage.

  “KILL HIM!” the crowd cried.

  “No!” I screamed, my pleas drowned out by the crowd as I pushed and shoved my way forward.

  I felt a heavy hand fall on my shoulder. With my heart racing I looked back.

  “Hey, lady,” a giant-sized Skin-walker said, his eyes spinning brightly. “We don’t get to rip him up until the executioner has cut off his head. You know the rules.”

  I looked away in disgust and back at the stage as the first of the bloody missiles was thrown from the crowd. A lump of red flesh slapped against Potter’s chest, where it slid down his stomach and onto the stage. As it spattered wetly on the stage, the air above my head became full of human body parts and remains. They rained down on Potter in thick wet chunks. Blood and innards covered him bright red. Potter glanced up at the sky, and I knew what he was looking for. He was looking for me and Murphy. He was looking for us to come and save him like we had so many times before.

  As if giving up hope of being rescued this time, he lowered his head.

  I pushed forward, the crowd crushing so tightly about me, I couldn’t even open my wings to get airborne.

  “Potter!” I screamed over the roar of the crowd. “Potter! It’s me, Kiera!”

  He stood with his head cast down, arms tight behind his back, the blobs of flesh and guts continuing to rain down on him.

  “Stop it!” I screamed, tears streaming from my eyes. “Don’t hurt him!”

  Deaf to my cries, the Skin-walkers continued to roar laughter and cheers as they threw the last of the body parts at Potter. He stood on the stage, his entire face and body dripped red with blood, guts, and body tissue. When the Skin-walkers had run out of human remains to hurl at Potter, the executioner shoved him back across the stage towards the guillotine.

  “Off with his head!” a Skin-walker screeched from behind me, enticing the crowd to cheering excitedly again.

  “No!” I screamed, desperately fighting my way forward. There were so many wolves crushed around me, it was almost impossible to move.

  Potter offered no resistance as he was forced by the executioner to kneel down. I inched my way forward, the edge of the stage just feet away now. The executioner forced Potter’s head beneath the guillotine.

  “Please,” I begged, as I continued to push my way forward. “Please don’t hurt him.” I edged myself closer to the stage. I had to save him. But there were just too many people. I pushed harder. My heart raced and I felt sick.

  “Take off his head!” the Skin-walkers whooped and chanted over and over.

  I reached the stage.

  “Potter!” I screamed over the roar of the baying crowd. I reached for him but there was a barrier preventing me getting any closer. I wanted to touch him.

  “Potter!” I screamed, my throat raw, tears raining down my face. Suddenly he looked up. Our eyes met.

  “I love you,” I whispered, reaching desperately for him with my hands.

  “I love you, too,” he said. “See you later, aliga...”

  The last half of his final word was drowned out by the sound of the blade thundering down at speed. Throwing my hands to my face, I watched Potter’s head drop into the bucket before him.

  “No!” I screamed, my knees buckling beneath me. “No!”

  An arm suddenly slipped through mine, catching me before I hit the ground. “Come with me before they realise you are not one of them,” a soft voice whispered in my ear.

  Sobbing uncontrollably, I turned my face to discover Meren holding me in her arms. She had come back for me. “I can’t leave him.”

  “He’s gone now,” Meren whispered against my wet cheeks. “Come, Kiera, it’s not safe for you here now.”

  I could barely stand. My sudden grief was so strong. The pain was unbearable. It felt like my soul had been ripped out. I just wanted to curl up and die.

  “Leave me here,” I said, trying to pull free of Meren. “Leave me here to die next to Potter.”

  “I can’t leave you,” Meren hushed, coaxing me away from the stage and to safety. “There are others who need your help.”

  “And who is going to help me now?” I sobbed uncontrollably. “Who is going to help me now that the person I loved more than anything has gone?”

  I looked back at the stage to see the executioner hand over Potter’s headless body to the howling crowd. I turned away, burying my face against Meren. I didn’t want to see what they were going to do to it. That was Potter’s body. It had been mine to hold and love. Not for them to defile and rip to pieces.

  Feeling as if my whole being had been crushed, and unable to control the gut-wrenching sobs that consumed me, Meren led me silently out of the town of Wasp Water. We hadn’t gotten very far, when I dropped to my knees.

  “Kiera, please, we’ve got to keep moving,” Meren said, tugging at my sleeve.

  “I can’t go on,” I whispered through my tears.

  “We haven’t got far to go,” Meren insisted.

  “I didn’t mean that. I can’t go on losing people I love. I’ve lost Isidor and now Potter - I’ve lost everything. I’m done,” I said, curling up on the road. “Let the wolves come and find me. Let the Wolf Man kill me.”

  I closed my eyes and waited for death to come and take my pain away.

  ‘Dead Lost’

  (Kiera Hudson Series Two)

  Book 6

  Coming Soon!

  Also available by Tim O’Rourke

  ‘Vampire Shift’ (Kiera Hudson Series One Book 1)

  ‘Vampire Wake’ (Kiera Hudson Series One Book 2)

  ‘Vampire Hunt’ (Kiera Hudson Series One Book 3)

  ‘Vampire Breed’ Kiera Hudson Series One Book 4)

  ‘Wolf House’ (Kiera Hudson Series One Book 4.5)

  ‘Vampire Hollows’ (Kiera Hudson Series One Book 5)

  ‘Dead Flesh’ (Kiera Hudson Series Two Book 1)

  ‘Dead Night’ (Kiera Hudson Series Two Book 1.5)

  ‘Dead Angels’ (Kiera Hudson Series Two Book 2)

  ‘Dead Statues’ (Kiera Hudson Series Two Book 3)

  ‘Dead Seth’ (Kiera Hudson Series Two Book 4)

  ‘Dead Wolf’ (Kiera Hudson Series Two Book 5)

  ‘Black Hill Farm’ (Book 1)

  ‘Black Hill Farm: Andy’s Diary’ (Book 1)

  ‘Doorways’ (The Doorways Trilogy Book 1)

  ‘The League of Doorways’ (The Doorways Trilogy Book 2)

  ‘Vampire Seeker’ (Samantha Carter Series Book 1)

  ‘Moonlight’ (The Moon Trilogy Book 1)

  ‘Witch’ (A Sydney Hart novel) Book 1

  ‘Yellow’ (A Sydney Hart Novel) Book 2

  You can contact Tim O’Rourke at

  www.kierahudson.com

  Or by email at [email protected]

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty
-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty