room,
“What does this switch do?”
“No! Don’t touch anything!” Isidor shouted, grabbing for Potter’s wrist in an attempt to yank it away.
But it was too late. Potter had flipped one of the switches on the security panel. Instantly the monastery was filled with the ear-splitting sound of a siren.
“What have you done?” Murphy barked at him. “It’s not my fault!” Potter insisted. “Yeah it is!” Isidor shouted. “You touched that switch!” “I didn’t know that was gonna happen, did I?” Potter yelled at him over the sound of the alarm. “We’ve got to get away from here!” Murphy cried, pulling the hood over his head. “Wait! I want to copy these files,” I shouted, as I rummaged through the desk drawers. Then finding a disc, I shoved it into the side of the laptop and began to upload the files.
“We don’t have time!” Luke shouted above the deafening wail of the sirens. “We’re going to have company any minute!”
“It won’t take but a second!” I insisted as Murphy went to the door, pulled it ajar and peered out.
I watched the screen, my heart slamming up and down like a sledgehammer in my temples as the files fluttered their way across the screen and onto the disc.
“They’re coming!” Murphy warned us, stepping away from the door and back into the room.
“Hurry up, Kiera!” Luke yelled at me.
“Just a couple more seconds!” I pleaded.
“Pull on your hoods!” Murphy ordered us.
“Files downloaded,” I almost screamed, as the door to the room crashed open.
Chapter Sixteen
Two hooded monks came rushing in and stood before us. Even though they were hidden beneath dark brown habits, I could see that whoever – or whatever – was beneath them, were huge. They towered in the open doorway, like two mountains.
“What are you doing in here?” one of them roared from beneath his hood, his face hidden in shadow. “We came to investigate why the alarm had been activated,” Murphy said from under his disguise. “What are your names?” the second monk demanded. We all stood silently for a moment, none of us sure what to say, when Potter suddenly began to twitch, jerk and scream as if in agony. He started to thrash around so violently, that I jumped backwards behind the desk.
“Feed me!” he roared from beneath his hood.
The monks turned to look at him and I seized my chance. Removing the disc from the laptop, I hid it beneath my robes.
“As you can see,” Murphy said, as Luke and Isidor restrained Potter against the wall, “This Vampyrus hasn’t fed today and it’s left him feeling a bit – you know – hungry.”
“I need the red stuff!” Potter screamed again at the top of his voice for good effect. Then, as if to enhance his performance, he began to pinwheel his arms out on either side of him, as Luke and Isidor fought to hold onto him.
The monks glanced at each other again and the tension in the room was unbearable. Slowly, one of the monks turned towards Murphy and said, “Brother, take him to the crypt, there is plenty of human flesh for him there.”
“Delivered fresh just a few hours ago,” the other monk said. “It’s still warm.”
Hearing this made me want to gag, and fighting the urge, I couldn’t help but see my mother offering me a fistful of bloodied flesh. Just wanting to be out of that room in case either of those monks changed their minds, I wasted no time in crossing the room and filing out into the corridor behind the others. We tried to hurry away as fast as possible, without wanting to raise the monk’s suspicions. I knew that as soon as they had investigated the control panel, they would realise that it had been one of us who had messed with it. With my heart banging and my stomach screwing itself into knots, I hoped we were as far away from them as possible before they figured out what Potter had done.
Isidor must have been reading my mind, as we had only gone a few steps when, he whispered, “You know, it
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