Wolf House (Potter's Story) Read Free Page A

and his face had taken on a grim look as he stared back at Harker, then at me and Murphy.
    “Why?” Murphy asked, taking the pipe from his mouth.
    “To bring you here,” Harker said, the overhead lighting glinting off his bald spot.
    “You know you really didn’t have to go to all the trouble of disembowelling that guy. There are such things as telephones,” I said. “You could have just called.”
    “Be quiet!” Murphy growled. Then tapping the hot ashes from his pipe, he looked at Harker and said, “What’s the meaning of this?”
    “You’re not exactly the easiest people to find,” Harker said, walking past us to go stand near the body. He looked down at it and said thoughtfully, “It’s such a shame that someone had to lose their life to flush you three out from wherever it is you hide, but let’s just put it down to a mere necessity.”
    “A mere necessity?” Luke said in disbelief. “You’ve murdered someone.”
    Glancing around, then to Luke, Harker fixed him with an icy stare and said, “I know, it’s very sad, but his life was not taken in vain, I can assure you of that. Hopefully his death with save many more lives. Let’s just say he was a sacrifice.”
    Taking a step closer to Harker, Murphy said, “Okay, I’ve had enough of your fun and games, how about you tell us what’s really going on here before me and my friends tear you a new arsehole.”
    “Don’t try and threaten me, Murphy,” he hissed. “Yes I know your name, I know all of your names, Vampyrus. You should be nice to me, because it is I who holds the solution to all your problems.”
    “Problems?” Murphy roared. “What problems?”
    “Let’s see,” Harker said, rubbing his hands together. “How about murder?”
    “Murder? What murder?” I snapped, taking a step closer towards him. I glanced at Luke and could see that he had hung back as to keep one eye on Drake and the pretty police officer who stood silently at the foot of the stairs.
    “Why, the murder of this poor man of course,” Harker said, steepling his fingers beneath his chin.
    “Oh this is such a load of old bollocks,” I groaned. “We don’t have to stand here and listen to this crap.”
    Then, raising his hand as if to hush me, Murphy looked at Harker, and frowning, he said, “What are you talking about?”
    “When the official police arrive, because let’s be honest, you’re no more part of the official police force than I or my colleagues over there are,” he said, “But when the genuine boys in blue arrive, they are going to find your bloodied footprints all over the crime scene.” Then bending down, he hooked a finger and ran it down the length of the corpse’s tongue. Standing, he reached out and dragged his finger down the front of my coat. Smiling he said, “And they’ll find the victim’s DNA all over Potter’s coat.”
    “Why you sick son-of-a-bitch -” I started, but was cut short as Drake lunged forward at an incredible speed and pushed Luke hard in the chest. Before he knew what was happening, he was pinwheeling his arms and stumbling backwards, then forward. I watched in slow-motion as Luke fell face-first towards the corpse. As he went down, Luke stuck out his hands to break his fall, and I watched them disappear into the gapping hole in the corpse’s torso. Luke was up in a second, his hands covered in blood. But as he stood, he slipped momentarily and steadied himself by placing one of his hands against the wall of the underpass.
    “Fingerprints in the victim’s blood as well,” Harker said, shaking his head slowly from side to side. “It just gets worse and worse. The evidence just keeps mounting against you guys. Forensics will have such fun!”
    “You don’t really think you’ll get away with this, do you?” Murphy said, his voice low and calm. “We have friends, you know,” and I knew he was referring to Chief Inspector Rom, a Vampyrus who had managed to secretly work his way up the ranks of the