Dead Lost (Kiera Hudson Series Two (Book 8)) by Tim O'Rourke Page B

heart is beating again at least.”
    “How come?” I asked.
    “Me, Kiera, and Murphy took a dive in the Dead Waters,” Potter explained. “It kind of got the old ticker pumping again.”
    “Do you still have the cravings for the red stuff?” I was curious to know.
    “Yeah, but not as bad as before,” he said.
    “I still get them real bad,” I told him, the sound of the station clock ticking away behind me against the wall.
    “I kinda guessed that by the way you sucked that Skin-walker’s face off,” Potter grinned at me.
    “If I hadn’t fed my thirst, my skin would’ve started to crack and go hard again.” I pressed my fingertips to my face. “It’s starting to piss me off.”
    “As soon as we have delivered the letters and we get back to our own where and when , we’ll head for the Dead Waters,” he said. Then, thrusting his hands into his coat pockets, he puffed out his cheeks, and looking in both directions along the track, he groaned, “Where the fuck is this train? It’s freezing.”
    “I don’t think the mail train runs to a timetable like a normal train,” I said.
    Stomping his feet up and down to keep warm, Potter looked at me and said, “So you never told me what happened that night in the field after Sam had seen his mum hanging out beneath the tree? I thought you said he hated the bitch.”
    “She didn’t seem like a bitch to me,” I said.
    “The mother-in-law never does at first,” Potter remarked. “Give it time.”
    “She isn’t my mother-in-law, and never will be,” I said back.
    “Jeez, the way you and Sam have been drooling all over each other, I’m surprised you’re not married, spawned eight pups or more, and got divorced already.”
    “We’re not gonna have any pups,” I snapped.
    “Sam’s a wolf, ain’t he?” Potter grinned at me.
    “Look, do you want to know what happened, or are you just gonna stand there all night being a dick?”
    “I’m sorry,” Potter chuckled, taking a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and lighting one. “I’m just taking the piss.”
    “That’s all you ever do,” I said.
    “I’m sorry, Kayla, honest,” he smiled mischievously. 
    It was so hard to stay mad at Potter for long, and that’s what drove me crazy about him. So, taking a deep breath, I said, “When we reached Sam’s mum, he just kinda stood there open-mouthed and stared at her. It really was like he had seen a ghost. For so long he had believed his parents to have drowned in that boating accident. So when he saw her again, he couldn’t help but gasp, ‘“You’re alive!”
    ‘“I’m so sorry, Sam,” his mother said, and she reached out and took him in her arms. She held his face against her chest and stroked his hair. It really looked as if she genuinely cared for him, despite what Sam had told me about her.
    “After the initial shock of seeing his mother again, and discovering that she wasn’t dead, Sam asked her what had happened that day on the boat. His mother said she didn’t have time to explain.
    ‘“And what about my father? Is he alive, too?’ Sam had asked her, and he looked close to tears.
    She told him that like her, his father was alive, and when Sam eventually introduced me to his mother, she said that she already knew who I was,” I explained to Potter.
    “How come?” Potter asked.
    “She never did say, as our time with her was short,” I said. “But I’m sure she will tell us everything when we all meet up again.”
    “That will be interesting,” Potter mumbled, taking another puff on his cigarette.
    “You can trust her,” I tried to assure him. “She’s a human and so is Sam’s father.”
    “I thought you said you’d never met him?”
    “I haven’t, but Sam told me,” I said.
    “So it must be true then,” Potter said, rolling his eyes.
    I knew Potter disliked Sam because he was half wolf. “Look, Sam wasn’t born a wolf,” I reminded him. “He is only the way he is now because that wolf tried to match