I had lied to Potter, too. Not because I’d wanted to deceive him in any way, but I knew there was every chance that he might be intercepted by those Skin-walkers. Potter had shown little resistance in the past to their mind trickery. My intention was to go to Kiera’s father’s house and hold back – just in case. Half of me had wanted to go with Potter, for us all to go together, but making peace with Kiera was something I knew Potter had to do alone. That didn’t mean I couldn’t be close by, though, to help save his arrogant butt if he needed me to.

I slowed the police van, changed gear, and guided the van around a tight bend in the road.

With my pipe dangling from the corner of my mouth, I spoke around it and said, “I told Potter that we were heading for the Fountain. There is every chance he might run into some of those wolves.” Then glancing in the rear-view mirror again, I glanced at Sam and said, “No offence, kid, but those wolves are not to be trusted. They’ve pulled that mind-bending shit on Potter before. He falls for it time and time again. He’s either as thick as fuck, or he has a secret hard-on for them. But should Potter come across any of the wolves, and they trick him into telling them where we are heading, then he will tell them the Fountain of Souls.”

“So where are we really heading?” Kayla asked, peering at me via the rear-view mirror.

“Kiera’s father’s house,” I grunted, keeping one eye on the road.

“But I thought Potter wanted some time on his own with her?” she said back.

“What Potter wants and what he gets are often two very different things,” I said, blowing pipe smoke from the corner of my mouth. “We’re just going to hold back, should they be walking into a trap.”

“Do you think they are?” Sam asked.

I didn’t answer him straight away. I thought of Jack Seth, Kiera’s father, Kiera...

“Perhaps?” was all I eventually said in response to Sam’s question. I couldn’t be sure of anything anymore.

Then, in the distance, something blue and white reflected back in the headlights of the van. I switched them off and slowed the vehicle to a crawl. The thick, black tyres crunched over the carpet of snow which covered the road and the rocky stone walls on either side of it.

“What’s up?” Kayla whispered, getting up and leaning over the front seats so she could stare through the windscreen. “What have you seen?”

“Over there,” I said, pointing into the field that stretched away on the right-hand side of the vehicle.

Sam appeared beside Kayla, and both of them screwed up their faces as they tried to see through the wall of falling snow outside. “I see it,”

Sam whispered, his breath hot against the side of my face.

“See what?” Kayla breathed.

“There’s another police van in that field.

There are wolves, too,” Sam explained, sniffing the air, and I couldn’t help but be reminded of Isidor.

“What else can you...” Kayla started.

“Shhh!” Sam silenced her with a wave of his hand. “Open the window.”

I slowly wound down the window, and immediately leaned backwards as a gust of freezing cold wind blew a flurry of snow into my lap. Sam leaned over my shoulder, and thrusting his nose through the opening, he sniffed at the air.

“Potter,” he whispered. “I smell Potter.”

“How can you be so sure?” I asked, not really doubting him, but hoping that perhaps he was wrong. Potter should have reached Kiera’s father’s house by now.

“Nicotine,” Sam whispered, his eyes closed as he twitched his nose left and right.

“That’s just my pipe you can smell,” I said, blowing smoke over him.

“It’s different,” Sam said, his eyes still closed. “The two smells are completely different.”

“But...” I started.

“Wait!” Kayla cut in. “Sam is right. I can hear Potter...he is crying out in pain...he’s hurting...”

I didn’t need to hear any more, and shoving Sam out of the way, I pushed the van door open and sprung out into the cold snow. Within seconds, both Kayla and Sam were beside me.

Then, in the distance, I could hear the faint sound of wolves howling excitedly. Over this, I heard something else – the sound of someone crying out in agony.

Potter!

I glanced at Kayla, her bright red hair looking pink beneath the shower of snow that already covered her head and shoulders.

“Ready?” I whispered, taking my pipe from my mouth and tossing it onto the driver’s seat of the van.

“Oh, I’m so ready,” she smiled back at me, her claws springing from the tips of her fingers like a set of ivory knives.

I turned to Sam to find him already crouched on all fours, his face looking more like a wolf than a boy. Thick, snow-covered dreadlocks swung from his head, the sides of his face, and beneath his chin. A long snout protruded from the front of his face, and his eyes shone a fierce, fiery yellow. A pink, fleshy tongue lolled over a set of vicious-looking teeth.

“Ready?” he barked at me, his hind quarters, which were now covered in thick, brown fur, flexing with muscle as he readied himself to spring over the slate stone wall surrounding the field.

“Ready,” I nodded at him grimly, slashing my police shirt to ribbons with my claws.

“Murphy, you’ve ruined your shirt,” Kayla breathed.

“Fuck my shirt,” I barked, as it fell away in strips.

With my ribcage feeling as if it were breaking apart inside of me, I released my wings from my back and shot into the air. I looked left to see Kayla racing alongside me. Even though her face was a mask of anger and hate, she still looked innocent and beautiful somehow. I looked down to see Sam bounding across the field below.

Great plumes of snow showered up from beneath his mighty paws. I looked ahead, and seeing the police van, I arrowed my wings out behind me and raced towards it. The cold air threw my silver coloured hair back off my brow, and I could feel the skin which covered my face rippling with the pressure at the speed I was now traveling. The world seemed deathly quiet as I focused in on the scene below me. I could see what looked like a heap of rags surrounded by a pack of Skin-walkers. Each of them was dressed in a police uniform, as they kicked, punched, and clawed at the pile of old rags. But I knew it wasn’t a pile of old clothing that they were ripping to pieces; it was my friend, Potter.

I fought the overwhelming urge to scream out in rage, but all good coppers know that you approach silently or the criminals scatter – flee the scene of the crime. That way you only get to fuck with one or two of them – I wanted to fuck with all of them. Arching my back, I spun through the air like a missile. I glanced right to see Kayla shooting through the air, her arms tucked into her sides to give her greater speed and propulsion.

Both of us, as if in some way in tune with each other, dropped silently out of the black night sky, and skimmed just inches over the bed of snow which covered the field. Sam raced alongside me to my left. His dark brown fur was flecked with snow, and his tail stuck out behind him, as stiff as an arrow. Then facing front, I shot my arms out and snatched two of the unsuspecting Skin-walkers up into the air with my claws. Before they’d had the chance to even gasp in shock and surprise, I had smashed my forehead into the face of one of them, spreading his nose across his face like a rotten tomato. I drove the claws of my other hand into the throat of the second Skin-walker, the feeling of his neck breaking in my fist filling me with grim delight. Turning back to the first, I lunged at his face with my fangs. A giant flap of skin came away in my mouth and I spat it out.

Even in the darkness, I could see the Skin-walker’s tongue jerking behind the hole I had created in the side of his face.

“Thought you would fuck with my friend, did ya?” I roared, tearing back his scalp with my fangs before the Skin-walker had a chance to answer. With his body falling limp in my grip, I tossed the corpse away and set about the second Skin-walker. His head lolled to one side like a ragdoll. Its eyes spun in their sockets as the creature made a dying attempt to change into a wolf. Tightening my grip around its throat, I gripped the top of its skull with my free hand and yanked. There was a brief tearing sound, as the Skin-walker’s head separated from the rest of its body, and my chest and face suddenly turned hot as a jet of black blood splashed over it.

Holding the Skin-walker’s head in my fist by its hair, I back flipped through the air and raced down towards the police van and where Potter lay on the ground. It was then, in the distance, that I saw what looked like a row of statues spread out across the field. Each of them was looking up into the sky, their arms raised as if in prayer. I looked away, and using the Skin-walker’s head like a cannon ball, I shot it through the air at one of the Skin-walkers who was still attacking Potter. The decapitated head smacked into the face of the unsuspecting Skin-walker and I heard a sickening thud. He fell backwards onto his arse. I looked at Potter. He lay face down in the snow. It wasn’t white, but red, black, and sticky-looking.

The Skin-walker who was on his arse leapt into the air, and in a flash of fur and razor-sharp teeth, he had changed into a giant wolf. He spun around in the snow, howling up at me, its giant tail swishing angrily to and fro. I circled above it and was just about to drop from the sky, when Sam pounced from the darkness and launched himself at the wolf. Sam almost seemed to straddle it, as they both collapsed in the snow, rolling over and over in a mass of fur and claws.

I needed to get to Potter, who still lay lifeless in the snow as three other wolves continued to attack him. Dropping like a stone through the night, I raced towards him, my wings flapping on either side of me in the screaming wind. Then there were only two wolves, as Kayla appeared like a blaze of red lightning, punching one of her claws through the back of one of the wolves. Her fingers shot out of its chest, black with blood and holding the creature’s heart in her fist. With her free claw, she ran her fingers over the throat of the second wolf. There was a fine spray of blood and it threw up its hands with a look of surprise on its face. Then as if its head was attached to its neck by a hinge, it toppled backwards, coming to rest between its shoulder blades. Kayla kicked out with her foot, knocking the decapitated wolf over. It toppled into the snow where it lay headless, twitching and jerking. At the same time, she withdrew her other claw from the chest of the first wolf. Just like the other, it had this ridiculous look of surprise on its face. Kayla had attacked so quickly, it was like the wolf was trying to understand why this winged girl was hovering all around him, with his still-beating heart in her hand. As if to prove to the wolf that he wasn’t seeing things, Kayla bit into the heart she held as if it were a juicy, red apple. Blood sprayed over the face of the wolf. It made a gargling sound in the back of its throat and fell down onto its knees. As if to help it, Kayla stamped on the wolf’s head, driving its face into the snow.

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