Pushing Potter and me aside, Isidor went to the trap door. Looking back at Potter, he said, "Are you ready for this?"
"Bring it," Potter smirked, egging Isidor on.
No sooner had the hatch been yanked open, Isidor and Potter disappeared into the darkness beneath it.
Teetering on the edge of the hatch, I looked down but al I could see was a blur of shadows and hear the ear- splitting sound of vampires dying.
Then silence.
Scrambling from the darkness, Isidor and Potter appeared from beneath the hatch. Both stood and wiped blood from their mouths and I noticed Potter had it smeared across his chest.
Isidor stared at me from beneath a navy-blue basebal cap. His right eyebrow was pierced with a smal silver stud and his otherwise sharp and clean cut look was spoilt by a short, stubby beard that hung from his chin. An intricate pattern of black flames tattooed the left side of his neck and licked just beneath his jaw line. His eyes were such a dark shade of brown that they were almost black. He was tal and his frame was lean.
I remembered Doctor Ravenwood saying that Isidor was eighteen years-old, and despite the tuft of beard, piercing and tattoo, he stil had a boyish quality about him. Turning his back on us, Isidor stepped back onto the porch and out into the night. As he went, I noticed what appeared to be a strangely-fashioned crossbow slung over his back and a rucksack that was ful of wooden stakes. He wore a long dark brown coat that hung just above his knees, blue jeans, and red basebal boots.
As he left the summerhouse, I looked back at Potter who raised an eyebrow at me. Peering out through the splintered doorway, I could see that the clearing was covered in mounds of what looked like snow. But, standing on the porch, I could see that it wasn't snow at al, but a thick blanket of ash that now covered the ground. It was al over the wals and roof of the summerhouse, and some of the chalky remains of the vampires floated in the air like snowflakes.
Realising that the immediate threat of the vampires had gone, I rushed past Isidor and down the porch steps.
"Did you see Luke?" I asked, praying that perhaps he'd managed to escape.
"Be careful," Isidor warned. "There might stil be some of those bloodsuckers out here."
Ignoring him, I said, "Did you see Luke - he was out here, the vampires were -"
"Duck!" Isidor shouted, and in a blink of an eye he took the odd-looking crossbow from his back, loaded and fired it over my head. Crouching, I looked back to see a vampire tearing from the woods at me, its teeth violet with blood, eyes crazed and bulging from their sockets. Within touching distance from me, the stake that Isidor had unleashed ripped through the chest of the approaching creature, tearing it back through the air.
Clutching at its chest, the vampire exploded into a shower of dust which erupted into the air like a flour bomb.
Even before the powdery remains of the vampire had hit the ground, Isidor had thrown the crossbow across his back and said, "So who's this Luke guy you keep yapping on about?"
"He's my friend," I told him, making my way back through the mist and fog to where I'd seen Luke fal.
"More than a friend, I sense," Isidor said, coming down the porch steps towards me. Then sniffing the air like a wolf he smiled and added, "No, he's more than a friend to you."
"How do you figure that?" I asked, kicking over piles of ash with the tip of my boot in a desperate search for Luke. "It's your pheromones!" he said matter-of-factly. "My what?" I asked, not realy paying too much attention as I searched the remains of the vampires that littered the clearing. "They're scents you give off when you're aroused," he explained. "It's a pretty easy concept to grasp. What they do is alow animals to attract each other on a subconscious level.
They activate the more basic instincts in animals -"
"I'm no animal," I said without looking back at him.
"Wel maybe not, but I can sure smel that you've got it bad for this Luke dude," he said.
Then I remembered Ravenwood teling me that Isidor had a heightened sense of smel just like my sight and Kayla's hearing. Looking back at him, I saw Potter step from the now derelict summerhouse and out onto the porch. Isidor looked at him, sniffed the air, then stared at me.
"What you staring at?" I asked him.
"Jeez, and I thought your hormones were raging - that guy reeks," he said. Then smiling he added, "Perhaps it isn't this Luke dude you've got the hots for..."
"Give me a break," I groaned, looking back at Potter who now had a cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth while he inspected his wings.
"Don't just stand there Potter, help me find Luke and Murphy!"
"What about Kayla?" Isidor chipped in.
Then as if my prayers had been answered, a muffled groaning sound came from somewhere nearby within the fog. "Over here!" I shouted at Potter and waved my arm in the air to grab his attention. Looking up at me, he flittered from the porch in a haze of shadows and was next to me. Making our way towards the sound with Isidor at out heels, my heart began to pound in my chest at what I might stumble across.
Ahead, I could just see an outstretched arm sticking up from beneath a mound of silver ash. Running towards it, I shoved the ash away like a broken sandcastle and puled at the arm.
He's alive! I thought to myself with tears standing in my eyes.
Reaching into the ash, Potter grabbed the other arm and puled Murphy from within it. His hair was covered grey as was his face and bare chest. He looked as if he'd just climbed out of a chalk pit.
"Where's Luke?" I asked, taking him by the shoulders.
Rubbing his eyes with the backs of his hands then shaking the vampire remains from his hair, he looked at me and said, "I saw him break free."
Hearing this, my heart leapt into my throat. "Where is he?" I said looking around at the piles of ash.
"Dunno," Murphy croaked and started to cough the dust from his lungs. "He just took off." "Took off where?" I asked, desperate to know what had happened to him. "He went after the girl," Murphy explained, shaking the ash from his wings like a dog shaking sea water from its fur. "Kayla?" Isidor said, stepping forward. "He went after Kayla?" "Who are you?" Murphy asked, eyeing him with some suspicion.
"Which way did they go?" Isidor asked, eager to get after them. "Somewhere up there," Murphy said, pointing into the night sky. "Unless you got yourself a set of wings kid, you won't be catching 'em."
"I've got wings," Isidor said, unfastening his coat.
As he puled it opened, I gasped, but not at the sight of the many sets of rosary beads that hung against his bare chest, nor the many wooden stakes that had been attached to the inside of his coat, but at the sight of his wings. These were nothing like the wings I had seen on any of the other Vampyrus. Unlike their wings, Isidor's wings hung from beneath his arms and were attached to his ribcage. As he stood with both arms extended on either side of him, it looked almost as if he had two large black webs concealed beneath his arms.
Looking at Isidor's wings and the colection of rosary beads that swung from around his neck, Potter said, "Okay, Madonna, I think we get the picture. Now zip your coat up before you catch a cold."
Looking a little hurt, he turned to Potter and said, "I saved your butt, dude, and don't you forget it!"
"I'm sure having you around wil be a constant reminder," Potter said flicking his cigarette away.
"And that's another thing," Isidor growled. "I have a very sensitive sense of smel and if we're gonna be on the same team -" "Team!" Murphy and Potter said together.
"Now don't you go getting any funny ideas, kid,"
Potter started.
"Who you caling 'kid'?" Isidor said, striding towards Potter.
"Enough already!" I shouted. "Kayla's been snatched, if you'd forgotten, and Luke's gone after her and god only knows how badly injured he maybe and al you two can worry about..." I started and my bottom lip started to tremble.
"It's okay, Kiera," Murphy said, placing his hand over mine.
"It's not okay! If you hadn't noticed, we barely got out of this alive tonight!" Then looking at him, I said, "And how did you manage to escape?"
Uncurling the fingers of his other hand, Murphy revealed the smal silver crucifix tiepin that I'd seen him wearing on the very first day that I'd met him in The Ragged Cove. Winking at me he said, "I told you, Kiera Hudson, this little thing wil offer you more protection than any gun, Taser, or baton."
"What about Luke?" I asked. "How did he manage to escape?"
"That, I don't know," he said, shaking his head at me. "But he got away somehow and wasted no time in going after Philips and the girl."
"So are we gonna stand here al night yapping or are we going after them?" Isidor said, almost seeming to hop from foot to foot with energy.
"No," Murphy said, walking away and heading out of the clearing towards the woods. "No?" Isidor said going after him. "You don't seem to understand - I've been sent to rescue her." "Goodbye then," Potter said, folowing his sergeant. But -" Isidor started. "No buts,"
Murphy said, turning to look at him. "We need to get back to the manor house." "Why?" Isidor pushed. "If you hadn't of noticed," Murphy said, "we ain't in too good a shape. My boy Potter here needs to rest those wings, and I feel like I've been kicked and punched to hel and back."
"But what about Luke? "I asked.
"What about Luke?" someone said from over my shoulder.
Turning, I watched Luke step out of the fog that continued to swirl around the trees and clearing.
Running, I threw my arms around him.
"Be gentle," he winced. "I'm hurting."
"Sorry," I whispered, but stil held onto him as I guided him towards the others. I noticed that as he walked, he almost seemed to shuffle and stoop. "I'm so happy to see you!' "I'm sorry," he said, using me as a support.
"For what?" I asked.
"For losing Kayla," he said. "Philips had too much of a head start on me. And what, with my wings in tatters, I just couldn't keep up. I realy did try."
"It's not your fault," I told him. "We'l find her."
"When?" Isidor asked, catching the tail end of our conversation. "Can't you see he needs rest?" Potter cut in, dismissing Isidor and helping support Luke by gripping him under the arm. "But -" Isidor started again. "You don't listen too good, do ya kid?"
Murphy barked. "We ain't gonna be no good to Kayla like this. But if you think you can do better on your own, so long and good luck."
"I'm not afraid of any vampires," Isidor said puffing out his chest. "Can't you see what I did here tonight?"
Stepping so close to Isidor that their noses were almost touching, Murphy said, "What happened here tonight was nothing compared to what's coming. This was a mere sideshow. You think because you harpooned a few vampires you're ready to take on a whole army? Because that's what's coming, kid - an army - and a war like you couldn't imagine in your wildest halucinations. So if you want to be on our team, as you put it, shut your face and fal into line."
Without waiting for a response, Murphy disappeared into the shadows and fog as he headed back towards the manor. Making sure that Potter had hold of Luke, I went over to Isidor who stood looking glumly at the ground.
"He isn't so bad," I said, remembering how Murphy and Potter had first treated me back in The Ragged Cove.
"The guy's a dick," Isidor muttered under his breath.
"I thought that at first - but he kind of grows on you," I half-smiled. "Even Potter has his moments I guess." Tugging at the sleeve of his jacket, I led him through the woods and towards the manor.
"I want to go after Kayla as much as you do," I told him. "But Murphy's right, they won't be any good tracking her in their state."
"I guess," Isidor said.
We walked in silence for a while, always keeping Luke, Potter and Murphy in sight as they staggered and limped between the trees. They looked like the last of the Calvary heading home from the battlefield.
We cleared the woods and headed across the vast lawns to the manor. Turning to look at Isidor, I could see that he looked troubled. I guessed he was worried about what Lady Hunt would say to him when she realised he had failed to save her daughter. Knowing that I had failed her too, I said, "Don't worry about Lady Hunt. I'l tel her what happened."
"Lady Hunt?" Isidor said, raising an eyebrow at me. "She's dead." "Dead?" I asked, not believing what I was hearing. "How?" "The guy who sent me to find Kayla - he murdered her," Isidor explained. "What was his name?" I asked, confused. "He didn't give me his proper name," Isidor said, "He just told me to cal him Sparky."