“What the fuck’s wrong with you?” I heard Murphy suddenly bark. “You look suicidal.”

I glanced up to find myself outside and in the cold. Murphy was standing by the police van.

“Nothing’s wrong,” I lied, flicking the cigarette end into the snow.

“Bollocks,” Murphy grunted, brushing the last of the snow from the van’s windscreen. “I heard you and Kiera shouting at each other. It sounded like an episode of the freaking Jeremy Kyle show.”

“Just keep your nose out of it,” I told him.

“It has nothing to do with you.”

“Wrong,” Murphy said, his back to me. “It has everything to do with me, I’m Kiera’s uncle.”

“So you’ll be buying her Christmas presents next and taking her to the park to play on the fucking swings?” I snapped, taking another cigarette from the crumpled packet in my pocket.

“What’s that s’posed to mean?” Murphy shot back, looking over his shoulder at me.

“Well, it’s a bit late in the day for all this overprotective bullshit, don’t you think?” I came back, cigarette dangling from the corner of my mouth. “We’re only in this mess because of you.”

“Are you taking drugs?” Murphy said, coming from around the side of the van in the snow. “You’re in the crapper because you can’t keep your dick in your pants. It’s not me who has been waving it around like it’s going out of fashion! To be honest, I’ve never understood how you’ve ever managed to get so much action.”

“I’m not talking about my sex life,” I growled. Then quickly added, “Besides, why shouldn’t I have had lots of woman action?

What’s wrong with me?”

“What’s wrong with you?” Murphy coughed, lighting his pipe. “Just take a good, hard look at yourself. You’re untidy-looking. Your attitude stinks. You’re violent. Your hatred for wolves borders on the psychotic, you’re foul-mouthed, you chain smoke...”

“I’m not untidy-looking,” I cut in, unable to believe he could think such a thing of me. “You take that back. That’s a freaking lie if I ever heard one.”

“Don’t even get me started on the whole lying thing,” Murphy snapped, taking the pipe from the corner of his mouth and pointing it at me.

“I don’t lie,” I shot at him.

“Yeah, you do,” he grunted.

“When?” I demanded.

“Every time your lips move,” he said.

“Yeah, very funny, you miserable old fart,”

I said. “You lied to Kiera, too. You’ve known for years the truth about her, but...”

“I was trying to protect her,” Murphy interrupted.

“And so was I!” I snapped at him.

“You have a funny way of showing it!”

Murphy barked.

“It wasn’t me who got Kiera involved in this,” I said, blowing smoke from my nostrils. “If you hadn’t had arranged for her to come to the Ragged Cove, then none of this would have ever happened.”

“Do you really believe that?” Murphy said, almost choking on a throat full of pipe smoke.

“Kiera is special. She is unlike my daughters, who withered away, even though they were mixed with me – a Vampyrus – and a wolf. For some reason, Kiera survived – grew strong. Ravenwood, Hunt, and the Elders might not have known the true reason why, but all of them knew that there is something extraordinary about her. I arranged for Kiera to come to the Ragged Cove so I could keep an eye on her...to protect...”

“To protect you,” I said in anger. “Once your brother had died, and with Kiera’s adoptive mother gone missing in the Ragged Cove, you knew she was vulnerable on her own. You feared that the Elders might find out about your lies. You were shit-scared they would discover the truth about you and this wolf, Pen, about your brother and Kathy Seth...”

“And Kiera!” Murphy barked at me. “If they had discovered the truth, Kiera could have been in mortal danger. I needed to keep her close.

That’s the only reason I got into this. Besides, not even in my wildest fantasies did I ever think things would turn out this bad.”

“How else did you think it would turn out, knowing the secrets you were keeping from everyone?” I came back at him.

“What do you mean, everyone? Who’s everyone?” Murphy growled, sounding confused.

”You never told me the truth about what Kiera really is,” I said.

“And why should I have done that?”

Murphy frowned.

“Because you knew I’d fallen in love with her...” I started.

“So, knowing that Kiera was half-wolf would’ve made a difference, would it?” Murphy shouted.

I looked at him silently.

“Well, would it?” A voice said before I’d the chance to answer. I span around to find Kiera standing in the open cottage doorway. “Well?”

“No,” I said. Knowing that one word sounded weak and insignificant, I quickly added, “If I’d known, I would have been able to protect you.”

“I can take care of myself,” she said, looking at both me and Murphy.

We both fell silent.

“Where did you last see Kayla and Sam?”

she asked, diverting the conversation away from her.

“About five miles from here,” Murphy said softly, placing the pipe back into the corner of his mouth.

“Over there,” I added, pointing into the distance, which really wasn’t of great help, but I wanted to say something – anything. Kiera had caught us off guard discussing her, and I wanted to move on from that as quickly as possible. I didn’t want her to dwell on the fact that knowing she was a half-wolf would somehow change my feelings for her.

Looking at us, Kiera said, “If you’ve both quit bitching, I say we go and find our friends, don’t you?”

Without saying another word, and pulling her coat tight, Kiera headed over to the van and climbed into the back. I watched her go, her black hair, which shone almost navy blue in the winter sun, billowing out behind her in the wind. Her face was pale, but way more than just beautiful, and I regretted the situation I now found myself in with her. I silently wished we could at last find some peace between us. I didn’t want to fight anymore with Kiera. I just wanted to be with her. I wanted that day to come where I could take her on the date I’d always promised her. Were we ever going to catch a break? I wondered.

“Now look what you’ve gone and done,”

Murphy hissed under his breath at me.

“What?” I glared at him.

“You’ve gone and upset Kiera again,” he said.

“Piss off, Sarge,” I snapped back.

Scowling at me, Murphy grunted and hoisted himself up into the van. “You heard what Kiera said, numb-nuts, let’s go and find Kayla and Sam.”

I ignored his comment and clambered into the passenger seat. As Murphy started the van, the engine rumbling into life, I peered over my shoulder. Kiera sat alone in the back. She was hidden in shadow. If it hadn’t have been for the glow of her bright hazel eyes, I would’ve never known she was there. I wanted to go and be with her, but I knew now wasn’t the right time. I should give her some space. I faced front again, as Murphy rolled the police van slowly forward in the snow. The giant tyres crunched over the fresh white powder. We headed down the path, away from the cottage, the snow making it look like it had been showered with a million shards of twinkling glass.

“Take me to the exact spot where you last saw Kayla and Sam,” Kiera said from the darkness behind us. “I want to know what I can see.”

Chapter Three

Kiera

I sat in the back of the police van as it made its way through the snow and ice. Murphy struggled at times to keep the vehicle on the road.

It had stopped snowing hours ago, but the twisty tracks and roads which spiralled away from my father’s house where covered in drifts of powdery snow and slush. Not one of us spoke as we made our way across the bleak-looking country towards the place where Murphy and Potter had last seen our friends. What had happened to them? I wondered. Although everything I had learnt in the last twenty-four hours kept fogging my mind, I tried to force it away. What was the point on dwelling on it now? I couldn’t let my own pain and hurt blind me from finding Sam and Kayla. Sam, I didn’t know well, but he had proved himself useful in a fight, and if nothing more, I could tell Kayla was fond of him. She had already lost her brother, Isidor, and I didn’t want her to suffer any more loss if I could help it.

I loved Kayla like a sister and I wasn’t going to give up on her. With what little Murphy and Potter had told me about Kayla and Sam’s disappearance, I suspected something bad had happened to them. Kayla wouldn’t have just gone, leaving her friends behind. As I sat in the back of the van and watched the white-coated world drift slowly past, I knew I could have pressed both Murphy and Potter for more information, but I didn’t want to. Not because I was angry with them; I could push my feelings aside to keep focused on the mission before me. I didn’t ask them for any more information because I didn’t want to be tainted by it. I would go to the scene of Kayla and Sam’s disappearance with an open mind. I didn’t need any preconceived ideas to cloud my judgement. I wanted to visit the scene fresh and see it for the first time.

So closing my eyes, I settled back in my seat. Resting my hands on my knees, I took a deep breath and tried to clear my mind. But however much I tried to focus on nothing, Jack Seth appeared before me. I couldn’t help but see him as a small boy. I couldn’t help but feel his pain. Where was he now? I wondered. He was out there, somewhere in the snow. But doing what, exactly? What did he have planned? Jack always had a plan. Should I have set him free?

Should I have let Potter and Murphy kill him?

They would have done it. No, I couldn’t have done that. Not just because Jack was my half-brother; there was more to it than that. Jack was a bad man – of that, there was no doubt. If I had handed him over to Murphy and Potter to deal with, he wouldn’t have received a fair hearing. Didn’t everyone deserve that at least? To have given him up, I might as well have killed him myself. I didn’t want Jack dead – there was good in him, I was sure of it. I felt it. I saw it in his eyes and heard it in his voice as he had told me his story. That little boy was still inside of him somewhere. And he knew more than any of us did about this world. He said he knew the photographer. Jack had talked about layers – different levels – worlds that had been pushed. He had told me to find the wolf named Lilly Blu – who had once been known by another name. She had been the wolf Murphy had risked so much for. Penelope Flack had been the woman he had loved. She was a part of this. Jack had hinted that she might know how to push this world back. Did Murphy know that she was here in this world? No, I didn’t think so. Should I tell him? Didn’t he have a right to know? If I didn’t tell him, then I was keeping a secret like the secret he had kept from me. I would tell him, but not now. When we were alone next. How would he feel knowing that the woman he loved – the mother of his two daughters, Meren and Nessa, was alive in this world – and that she possibly knew the identity of the photographer, and how we might push the world back?