Free Vampire Hunt (Kiera Hudson Series #3) by Tim O'Rourke

to her, wrap my arms around her, to be close to her. But I couldn’t because the chains held me fast.
    “My poor darling,” she soothed as she came closer. “What have they done to you?”
    “Help me,” I croaked.
    “Why have they done this to you?” she said, her hands continuing to drip blood all over the cave floor.
    “Who’s done this to me?” I asked her, my head beginning to pound and my throat feeling raw.
    “Murphy and the others,” she said. “Look what they’ve done to my precious daughter.”
    “But they’re my friends,” I tried to tell her.
    “Friends wouldn’t chain you down and deny you food and drink,” she told me coming closer still, her brilliant eyes fixed on mine.
    My stomach groaned again and my throat burnt.
    “Are you hungry, Kiera?” she asked me, her voice filled with compassion.
    It hurt too much to speak now, so looking at her with a pair of pleading eyes, I nodded.
    “You don’t have to be hungry anymore, my beautiful Kiera,” she soothed. “I’ve brought you something.” Then shoving her hands in front of my face, I could see that she was holding a bleeding piece of flesh.
    Recoiling away from it, I gasped and the inside of my throat felt as if I’d swallowed a box of hatpins. “I can’t,” I whispered.
    “But you’re hungry,” my mum hushed. “Eat and you will feel better.”
    Looking down at the lump of flesh, I could see streams of blood seeping from it and running between her white fingers. And deep down inside, I wanted to lunge at it, suck the blood from it, to cool my burning throat.
    “Go on, Kiera,” she urged, bringing the flesh closer to my mouth. “Just a little bite and you’ll feel so much better.”
    Although I shook my head in disgust, I couldn’t help but think the smell of the flesh was inviting. I could feel the inside of my mouth start to water and it felt so good. Maybe my mum was right, just one little bite wouldn’t hurt. I mean I’d never have to eat it again, just this once to help these agonising pains of hunger and thirst pass me by.
    But another part of me, the human part was screaming at me. “No! Don’t touch it Kiera, not even one little drop! You won’t ever be able to go back! Your hunger and thirst won’t be sedated – it will grow worse!”
    “Go on Kiera,” my mum coaxed me. “Would I ever give you something that was bad – something that would hurt you?”
    I looked away from the flesh that she held before me, and up into her eyes. She smiled down at me, and I felt warm tears spill onto my cheeks.
    “‘ I love you, Kiera,” she smiled.
    And hearing those words – God, how I’d needed to hear her voice say those words to me during the last few years – I lunged forward and sunk my teeth into the flesh that dripped from between her fingers and it tasted…

Chapter Twelve
    …sitting up, I coughed and spluttered, trying to rid myself of the disgusting taste that was in my mouth. My tongue tasted coppery, as if I’d been sucking on a bunch of old pennies. Rubbing my throat with my hands, I lent over and gagged, but nothing came up. The images of the nightmare still raced around my mind, and I was momentarily convinced that my mum was with me.
    Tucking my iPod back into my coat pocket, I whispered, “Mum?” But of course she wasn’t there and as I glanced around the beaten-up old signal box, I remembered where I was. Luke was still asleep. Potter was curled on his side, with his coat pulled up over his head. I looked at Isidor and he lay on his back, with his book beside him and his crossbow clutched in his hands. He twitched and jerked in his sleep and I wondered if he were sharing the same dream as me – like we had before. He murmured and let out a soft groan, almost as if he were weeping in his sleep. Getting up, I went to him, wanting to wake him and bring him out of that nightmare, but then I realised that Murphy had gone.
    Looking quickly around the signal box, just to make sure that he wasn’t