pain.
Again, I didn’t answer.
I heard them moving around downstairs, and I tracked the sound of their footfalls as they passed from the living room, to the kitchen, and back again. Then, as I expected, I heard the clomping sound of their boots on the stairs, growing louder as they got higher. They stopped on the landing, just outside the door. There was a moment’s silence, then the door came crashing open as Murphy came storming into the room, his long claws brandished before him. Potter stumbled in behind him. He looked stooped somehow, and one arm cradled his ribs. His face was covered in blood and the left side of his face was swollen out, black and purple coloured. His right eye was almost swollen closed, and the other was bloodshot. Murphy glanced around the room to see if there was any hidden danger.
Then, seeing me sitting in the chair with my father stretched out at my feet, he said, “Kiera, are you okay?”
“Where are Kayla and Sam?” I asked, ignoring his question.
His lips opened and closed as he fought to find the right words. “They’re missing.”
“Missing?” I asked.
“The teen-wolf has taken her,” Potter mumbled from the open doorway. “I knew we should never have trusted a wolf. Scum, the lot of them.”
“Scum?” I breathed, cocking my eyebrow at him.
“Yeah, scum,” Potter wheezed. “Look what they did to me...”
“We’d better go and find them,” I said, cutting Potter dead.
“Hang on a minute,” Murphy said, looking down at my father. “What’s gone on here? Who killed your father?”
“Jack Seth,” I said, staring back at Murphy, searching his face for any flicker of emotion.
“See, nothing but murdering scum,” Potter spat, shuffling away from the door towards me.
“Don’t!” I barked, not looking at him, but raising my hand in the air, as if to warn him off.
“Don’t come near me.”
“Why did he kill your father?” Murphy said, peering at me from beneath his bushy white eyebrows.
“Perhaps Jack killed him because my father killed his?” I said, refusing to take my eyes off Murphy.
Murphy glanced down at the body on the floor, and in that moment, I saw a flicker of recognition on his face, and that was all I needed to know Jack had been telling me the truth.
Although I could feel hot tears starting to burn in my eyes, I refused to shed them. I was too angry and hurt to cry.
With my eyes fixed on Murphy, I pointed down at my father’s body and said, “To me he was Frank Hudson – my father. But to you he was known as Paul Murphy. He was your younger brother, wasn’t he, Jim ?”
Murphy raised his head and looked at me, and I could see not fear in his eyes, but sadness.
“Yes, he was my brother,” he whispered, then swallowed hard.
“Can someone tell me what the fuck is going on here?” Potter suddenly wheezed, then coughed, standing halfway between the open doorway and where I sat.
Then, turning to look at him, I whispered, “I’m scum.”
“What that’s s’posed to mean?” Potter said, hacking out a stream of coughs. He covered his mouth with his hand, but I could see the blood he had coughed up running between his fingers.
“All wolves are scum, right?” I glared at him.
“You know it,” Potter said, wiping the blood from his hands onto his trousers.
“Then I must be scum, too,” I said, unable to hold back the tears now. “I’m a wolf – half Lycanthrope.”
“What’s going on?” Potter said, glancing over at Murphy.
Dropping his head, so his chin almost touched his chest, Murphy said, “It’s true.”
“What a load of old bollocks!” Potter barked, his chest rattling. Then looking back at me, he added, “You can’t be a wolf – you don’t have a hairy tongue!”
I jumped up from the chair and said, “I can’t deal with you right now, Potter.”
“What have I done?” Potter groaned, pressing his hands against his ribs.
“ What have you done ?” I roared at him in disbelief. “How