“Potter,” Coanda said, as he hovered beside me.

I turned to where Potter had been floating just seconds before, but Coanda had been right, he had raced forward to save his friend. Again.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Coanda and I raced towards them as Potter carried Luke to a rocky hill away from the battle that was now raging. Some of the resistance had now leapt from the sky and were now battling with the mutant-looking half-breeds that rampaged across the wasteland surrounding the Light House.

As I soared over them, my heart raced like a trip hammer in my chest as I saw all those distorted imitations of my dead friends, Kayla and Isidor. They were hideous, and to look at them made me shudder.

They raced around at incredible speeds, leaping and throwing themselves at the members of the resistance. All of them had fangs in their misshapen mouths. Their eyes swivelled in pockets of blood. Their heads were kind of pointy in shape and some of them had gaping wounds that looked open and raw. I remembered the ‘Isidor’ half-breed I had seen in the facility and how it had something close to an umbilical cord protruding from the crown of its head. To see those mutants below me with those fleshy holes made me wonder if that’s where their ‘umbilical cords’ had been ripped out.

Unlike Kayla, Isidor, and me, these mutant half-breeds didn’t appear to have wings. Instead, their corrupted DNA had produced a cluster of black feathers that protruded from the backs of their heads, arms, and shoulders. They looked like a mass of crows that had been savagely plucked. Some of them obviously sensed that they should be able to fly as they launched themselves into the air at the resistance that rocketed above them. But their tatty-looking feathers were unable to keep them in the air, and they fell back to the ground in frustration. I even saw a few that didn’t have hands at all, but three of those little black, bony fingers. All of them looked gaunt, ashen, and ill – like corpses that had been brought back to life.

Several had clumps of red flame-coloured hair, just like Kayla’s, but it stuck from their heads in dry tufts. There were others that were a shattered reflection of me and they raced across the wasteland with streaky black hair flowing from them, but instead of it growing from the tops of their heads, it grew from their faces, necks and arms. They were all an abomination – creatures that had no place in The Hollows – no place in any world. I swept from the sky with Coanda and we landed next to Potter as he was getting Luke to stand on his feet.

Realising it was Potter who had rescued him, Luke pushed him aside. “Get out of my way, friend!”

“I just saved your bacon,” Potter said.

“I was doing just fine,” Luke snapped, unable to bring himself to look at Potter.

“Didn’t look like that to me,” Potter corrected him.

“Do me a favour, Potter, stop acting as if you are my friend,” Luke snapped. “You’re no friend of mine.”

Potter glanced at me, and I said, “Luke knows about us.”

“Oh,” Potter said and looked at Luke.

“Yeah that’s right, friend!” Luke almost seemed to snarl, showing his fangs. “I know all about you and Kiera.”

“I’m sorry,” Potter said going to Luke, and I could see that he looked concerned by Luke’s obvious hurt.

Luke turned to face Potter and knocked his hand of friendship away. “How could you treat me like this?”

“I didn’t plan this you know – it just kinda happened,” Potter said.

“Exactly how did it happen?” Luke stared at him. “When did it happen?”

“Back at Hallowed Manor,” Potter confessed. “In the Gate House.”

“The Gate House?” Luke gasped. “I see – how very romantic. While I was healing up in the attic, you were making a play for my girl.”

“Your girl?” Potter said, now sounding frustrated. “It wasn’t like you and Kiera were engaged or anything.”

“No, but you knew I liked her, though,” Luke said, moving toe to toe with Potter.

Oh my God, they’re going to start fighting in a moment, I thought and wedged myself between them.

“Just stop it!” I shouted at the both of them. “I’m not some possession, you know. This macho shit-head stuff isn’t going to solve anything. If you two haven’t noticed, we’re in serious trouble here!”

“Well, just don’t expect me to like it,” Luke barked. “Don’t expect me to like him!”

“The feeling’s mutual,” Potter quipped.

“Look around us – can’t you see what’s happening here?” I yelled. “We’ve lost friends, The Hollows is at war, and the Earth is soon to be invaded. You need to put your differences aside, for now at least, because we either stand and fight as one or we die alone.”

“You need to listen to her,” Coanda said, coming forward. “Take a look around you. My resistance is outnumbered; they will only be able to protect the Light House for so long. We need to get to the Dust Palace and fast. Only there will Kiera be able to tell the Elders her decision and end this.”

Scowling, Luke and Potter stepped back from each other.

“Let’s just get through this if we can,” I said to them. “We can save our differences for another day – another time.”

Potter took a cigarette from his pocket, lit it and drew in a deep lungful of smoke. “Whatever you say, sweet-cheeks.”

Hearing Potter call me “sweet-cheeks”, Luke shot a quick glance at him and snarled.

Potter shrugged back and said, “Well she has got the sweetest…”

“Stop it!” I shouted at him, knowing that he was just trying to bait Luke.

“Okay! Okay!” he half-smiled, holding his hands up as if in surrender. “I won’t say another word.”

“That will be a first,” Luke cut in.

“And that goes for you too!” I yelled at Luke. “God almighty – it’s like I’m hanging out with a couple of kids.”

“He started it…” Potter said blowing smoke from the corner of his mouth.

“You started it back in the Gate House,” Luke snapped back.

“I give-up!” I cried, throwing my hands up into the air. “Coanda, just lead me to this Dust Palace so I can get this over and done with.”

“Follow me,” Coanda said, scrambling down the rocky ledge we had landed on.

I followed after him and looked up to see Potter and Luke climbing down behind me. They didn’t even look at one another.

Once we had reached the cracked and ash-covered ground, we stood and watched the battle rage in the distance. The sky above the Light House was alive with Vampyrus as they fought one another. Even though I was some distance away, I could hear the sound of their giant wings beating and their agonising screams of pain and occasional triumph as they did battle with the Vampyrus.

On the ground, another battle was being raged as the mutant half-breeds ran wild, clawing at and feeding off the fallen Vampyrus. Coanda had been right, the resistance he had put together was outnumbered by the army Munn had grown, either be it artificially or by brainwashing.

I couldn’t bear to watch those freaky imitations of Kayla, Isidor, and me anymore, so turning to face Coanda I said, “Which way is it to the Dust Palace and the Elders?”

“Over there,” Coanda said, pointing in the opposite direction to the battle. “But I think we’ve got a problem.”

“What sort of a problem?” I asked, turning to look in the direction that he was pointing. But I didn’t need any answer from him to tell me of the imminent danger we faced as I looked at the wave of mutant half-breeds that were racing towards us across the wasteland.

Chapter Thirty-Three

They came at us, their eyes burning red on either side of their grotesque faces. They might not have been able to fly, but they had our speed. A wake of red dust and silver ash billowed up behind them as they raced towards us. Their claws gleamed in the orange glow cast by the lava that circled the Light House. The sky had turned a blood red and the stalagmites twinkled overhead like rubies.

We formed a line. There was nowhere else to go. We were surrounded from behind, in front, and above as a flock of Vampyrus swooped towards us. Potter spat away the cigarette that dangled from the corner of his mouth and flexed his claws as he readied himself to fight. Luke’s wings beat behind him and he brandished his fangs.

“Do you have a plan?” I asked Coanda.

“No, but I do,” someone said from above us.

We all looked up to see a tall, lone figure standing on top of the ledge we had just scrambled down from. Even with his baseball cap pulled down so that most of his face was cast in a shadow, it was his wild, yellow, gleaming eyes that gave him away. There Jack Seth stood. His emaciated figure silhouetted against the crimson sky.

“I thought you were dead?” Potter growled with annoyance at seeing Seth again.

“And you’ll be glad I’m not,” Seth said back.

“We don’t need your help, Lycanthrope,” Potter hissed.

“Are you so sure about that?” Seth smiled, nodding in the direction of the approaching half-breeds. “Your situation doesn’t look good.”

“I’ve been in worse,” Potter grumbled.

“Time is running out,” Seth reminded us. “Do you want my help or not?”

“Yes,” I yelled, answering for all of us.

“Kiera!” Potter snapped.

“Shhh!” I told him. And however much it pained me to do so, I looked up and said, “Yes, we need your help, Jack Seth.”

“On one condition,” he smiled back, the red bandanna knotted about his scrawny throat flapping in the rising wind.

“Oh great, here come the conditions,” Potter sighed.

“What do you want from us?” I called up to him, knowing the half-breeds were now on our heels.

“I come with you to the Dust Palace,” he yelled back.