Vampire Seeker by Tim O'Rourke Page B

asked, trying to sound as casual as I could.
    “No, we won’t be seeing them until tonight,” she said.
    “How come?” I asked, sensing that I was pushing my luck now, but needing to know.
    “They had a long night and they didn’t arrive back until just before dawn, so they are going to rest today,”
     she smiled, her eyes twinkling. “If I were you, I’d do the same. We have a long journey ahead of us.”
    I didn’t know if I’d get away with asking her any more questions about what the preacher and the others had gotten
     up to overnight, so I tried to change the subject.
    “Are you and the preacher together?” I asked her outright.
    “Together?” she cocked an eyebrow at me.
    Now that I had started down this line of conversation, I knew I couldn’t go in reverse.
    “It’s just…the other night I heard you and the…” I flushed.
    “I’m sorry about that,” and Louise’s cheeks turned as pink as mine. We both laughed and I felt as
     if the last few minutes of mutual distrust had melted away. “It’s just that the preacher can be…how can I put
     it? A bit wild at times. A real animal.”
    Remembering the noises that I’d heard coming from the wagon, I smiled and said, “I didn’t know preachers
     were allowed to…you know…”
    “Fuck?” she cut in, her eyes twinkling.
    “Well, yeah,” I whispered, looking back over my shoulder to see if anyone had overheard her.
    “This one does,” she smiled wistfully.
    “Is he…” I started.
    “He’s the best,” she said, before I’d the chance to finish.
    With my cheeks burning and my breakfast forgotten, I said, “What I was going to ask was, is he like, a real preacher?”
    “He was,” Louise said. “Once – but that was a long time ago.”
    “What happened?” I asked her.
    “He lost his faith,” Louise said, and her voice sounded kind of sad about that.
    “How come?”
    “That’s his story to tell, not mine,” she said, looking at me. And again she looked sad – no, haunted.
    Picking up my mug again, I said, “Do you love him?”
    Then, fixing me with her pretty eyes, she said, “You don’t fall in love with men like the preacher.”
    “Why not?” I asked her.
    “Because they will just introduce you to a world of pain,” she said wistfully.
    “And what about Harry?” I said.
    Then, as if studying me for a moment, she whispered, “Do yourself a favour, Sammy, keep away from Harry Turner.”
    “Why?” I asked, my interest now suddenly alive.
    “Harry is dangerous,” Louise said, pushing her chair back from the table and standing up as if to leave.
    I looked up at her and said, “How dangerous?”
    “There is only one person who could really know how to explain how dangerous Turner is – but Marley Cooper isn’t
     here anymore.” Then she was gone, heading back across the saloon.
    I swivelled around in my seat, and as she reached the bottom of the stairs leading up to the balcony, I called out, “Who
     was Marley Cooper?”
    Ignoring my question, Louise paused, looked back at me and said, “We leave at dusk. Be ready.” Then she was heading
     up the stairs, and I watched her disappear into the preacher’s room and close the door.
    I sat at the table and looked down at the half-eaten eggs and pink mush. Apart from being trapped in 1888, things weren’t
     right. Everything was wrong. But what did I do? Did I go along with Louise and the others on this trip up into the mountains
     where vampires were believed to nest, or did I go…go where? I knew no one in 1888, apart from this ragtag group of misfits
     I had accidently fallen in with. But had it been an accident? There had to be a reason, right? Did the preacher and his gang
     hold the answers to my questions? Did they hold the key that would get me home?

Chapter Seventeen
    I tried to sleep – but I really couldn’t. I lay on the bed in my room and shifted from my side, onto my back,
     front, then onto my side again. It was like one of those nights