Eva stepped forward, her sword still pointing at Aunt Sophie. “Human’s a bit strong, don’t you think, demon? I don’t care who you are; you’re not getting past me.”
Aunt Sophie’s expression hardened and I saw a flash of anger in her eyes that I’d never seen before. “Use your head, monster hunter. If I was a threat, I would have stayed a wolf and I’d be eating both your throats right now.”
“Aunt Sophie!” I said.
“You have to stop thinking of her that way, Jack,” Eva said. “She’s Creach and all the Creach are the same. You can’t trust any of them.”
“I’m so sorry, Jack. I was going to tell you. Tonight. I swear it,” Aunt Sophie said.
I tried to say something but I couldn’t. Aunt Sophie was all I had. She was both my father and my mother. Finding out that she was actually a demon trapped in a werewolf’s body was kind of hard to swallow.
I didn’t know how to react. I was angry, confused, hurt, all of it, all at one time.
Aunt Sophie saw my expression and her face took on that incredible sadness I’d seen in her recently.
“I wouldn’t have hurt you,” she said. “I swear it on my life.”
Eva laughed. “An easy thing to say. We both know full well that you wouldn’t have killed him. Your master wouldn’t have wanted that. He wants Jack alive, doesn’t he?”
“You’re right. My instructions have always been to keep Jack alive so that he could be delivered to my master after Quattuordecim. But if I was going to follow those instructions, then I’d have stayed a wolf, monster hunter, and you’d already be dead,” Aunt Sophie said.
Eva gripped her sword. “You’re always welcome to try your luck, Creach.”
“Enough, both of you!” I shouted. “Sounds like you both know a lot more than you’re telling me. Delivered to your master? What are you talking about?”
A small, quiet voice came from behind us. “If this is a bad time, we can come back later.”
The three of us spun around. T-Rex and Will stood at the patio door. They looked a little shaken up, what with Eva holding her sword, my aunt in her bathrobe and me yelling at both of them. T-Rex raised a hand to his face and planted a finger in his nose.
“What in the crap is going on back here?” Will said.
“You guys look busy. They look busy, Will. We can just go…” T-Rex mumbled.
I looked back at Eva and Aunt Sophie. “I’ll take care of this. You two play nice and meet me inside. No stabbing with your sword and no ripping out anyone’s throat. Got it?”
I didn’t wait for an answer. I walked up to Will and T-Rex, arms open wide and grinning ear-to-ear. I high-fived Will, who looked at me suspiciously.
“T-Rex, my man,” I said, “good to see you.” I put up a hand for a high-five. He pulled his finger out of his nose and slapped it. I wiped my hand on my pants as I herded them back inside.
“You kind of stink, Jack,” T-Rex said.
“You really do,” Will said. “What’s that stuff all over you? It smells terrible.”
I realized that I was pretty much drenched with harpy blood (which I mentioned earlier does really stink). But I wasn’t about to tell them the truth.
“This? Yeah, we’re doing a play,” I said.
“A play? Awesome!” T-Rex said.
“Really,” Will said, unconvinced.
“Uh…yeah. You saw the sword and heard the shouting, right? Just practicing for a play down at the community center. This is fake blood from a fight scene.”
T-Rex bought it. He went from being uncertain to being jealous in a second. He stabbed at his nose with another finger. “Do you think I can be in the play? I’m a really good actor.”
“Sure,” I said. “We’re looking for more people. I’ll get you in, I promise. Just not tonight, OK? I messed up and forgot about rehearsal when I invited you guys over.”
Will stopped and got in my face. “You know what I think? I think you’re full of it.”
I froze, thinking that he had somehow figured it out. Will was sharp. He barely passed his classes but when it came to street smarts, Will had his PhD. Suddenly, he grinned.
“You’re trying to hook up with that hottie, aren’t you?” he said.
I let out a deep breath and tried to look embarrassed, like he’d just busted me.
Will smiled, pleased with himself. “ I knew it. I knew you were full of it. You can’t pull one over on me.” He checked Eva out a little more closely. “I don’t know, man. She might be out of your league. Maybe I should…”
“I’ve got it,” I said. “I’ll call you guys later, OK?”
“Does that mean we’re not having pizza?” T-Rex said.
Will threw his arm over T-Rex’s shoulder. “No, it means we’re not having pizza with Jack. He’s abandoned us, T-Rex. He’s followed the siren’s call and is headed straight to the shores of heartbreak and sadness.”
T-Rex looked at him, confused.
“Come on, I’ll explain it to you later,” Will said. “We’re outta here. Let’s go into town and get our own pizza.”
“Thanks, guys,” I said. “I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”
I heard T-Rex mumble as they left through the front door, “As long as we’re still getting pizza.”
I shut the door on them and turned around.
Eva and Aunt Sophie were standing in the kitchen, one on either side of the breakfast bar. I walked in. “All right, so who’s going to tell me what’s really going on here?”
Eva nodded at Aunt Sophie. “How about you, Creach? You want to tell him?”
Aunt Sophie glared at Eva, but when she turned to me, her expression softened again. “I’m sorry, Jack. I know this is a lot to take in all at once, but it was for your own good.”
“Ha!” Eva laughed.
“Quiet,” I said. “Let her finish.” I looked Aunt Sophie in the eye. “Tell me the truth. All of it.”
Eva stepped back into the corner of the kitchen, brooding.
Aunt Sophie nodded. “I’ll tell you what I can. Some things you know. Your mother died when you were born. Your father, not long after. I never met him, but all the Creach knew who he was. And who you were. When he died, he had you with him. You were just a baby, so the Creach who killed your father couldn’t kill you because of the truce. So they took you to Ren Lucre instead.”
“Who killed my father?” I asked.
Aunt Sophie held up her hand. “Patience, I will tell you everything. The Creach had you in their possession but the law of Quattuordecim forbade any Creach to hold a human child captive simply to kill him when he reached fourteen . A clever solution was discovered. If you chose to live with a monster, then Quattuordecim would not be violated. You were brought into a room with several of us. You had to choose one of us and only then could we stay with you.”
“And I chose you?” I asked.
“You were only a toddler, a little over two. I wanted nothing to do with any of it, but I was forced to comply. I stayed in the corner of the room and remained in my demon form. The others fawned over you, tried to get you to choose them to gain the master’s favor. But you walked right past them and pulled on my hand. I tried to scare you away. I bared my teeth and snarled, but you only laughed. You wouldn’t let go. Then you climbed on my lap and cuddled up to me, falling fast asleep. My master commanded that I raise you among the humans, as a human. And that is what I did.”
“So it’s all been one big lie? All of it?” I asked.
“At first, yes,” Aunt Sophie said. “I changed your name from Templar to Smith, hoping to make it harder for the hunters to find you.”
“So, my name is Templar. Everyone has been calling me that,” I said, wrapping my mind around the idea.
“Changing your name was the easy part. Moving here to Sunnyvale to live among humans was like the worst imaginable torture to me. I hated everything about what I had been asked to do. For hundreds of years, I had hated humans, and suddenly, I was living among them, caring for the child of the most hated human of all.”
“The most hated human of them all? Why would you say that?” I asked.
Aunt Sophie glanced over to Eva, who shook her head slightly.
“Let me finish my story first, then you can ask her why. I’m sure her answer will be different than mine,” Aunt Sophie said. She sat down in a chair, looking drained. “For the first year, I considered leaving, but I knew that my master would find me no matter where I went. So, I stayed. And the strangest thing happened. I fell in love.”
“What?” I said. “I never saw you with anyone.”
Aunt Sophie shook her head. “I mean with you, silly boy. You didn’t treat me like a Creach monster; you treated me like your mother. Every time you hugged me. Every time you kissed me on the cheek. Every time you ran to me when you were scared or hurt. Every time those things happened, I fell in love with you a little more.”
“Oh please,” Eva said.
“But still you watched over me for your master?” I said. “Waiting for the day you could turn me over to him?”
Aunt Sophie looked hurt. “Honey, if that was the case, I would have already killed this little girl you brought home and we’d already be on our way. I told you, I’m not going to hurt you.”
“Then what are you doing here?” I demanded.
“I’m here to save you. I know what he plans to do to you. I won’t let him do it. I just won’t.”
“Who do you keep talking about?” I asked. “Who wants me so bad and why?”
Aunt Sophie looked at Eva. “Do you want to tell him or should I?”
Eva hesitated, then said, “I don’t know what you mean. How should I know who your master is?”
Aunt Sophie smiled. “Oh, you know. I can tell. And you say it is the Creach who cannot be trusted. Watch this one, Jack. She is more clever than she lets on.”
“I’ve had about enough of this, old woman,” Eva exclaimed. “If you want—”
Aunt Sophie stood. “It is Ren Lucre who searched for you, Lord of the Vampires, Protector of the Dark Realms, Eater of Souls, Overlord of all the Creach.” She turned to Eva. “But then, you already knew that, didn’t you? The Black Guard used my child as bait. Was that your idea, monster hunter? Or did your Master Aquinas decide this war was more important than one boy’s life? You ought to be ashamed. All of you.”
I looked at Eva. “Is it true? Is that why you’re here?” Eva looked away from me, trying not to make eye contact. “So, it’s true. I’m just bait to catch this Ren Lucre guy.”
“You pronounce it loo-cray. Ren Lucre. And yeah, I’m here to kill him. The Black Guard has their reasons, but I have my own.”
“And that’s why you came here early, isn’t it? Before the others,” I said.
“That’s right. I’m here to take care of this on my own. That’s how I do things,” Eva said. “He’ll come for you and I’ll have my chance. And nothing will stand in my way. Not you, not some devil-werewolf. Nothing. Got it?”
“You fool,” Aunt Sophie whispered. “Even if you were a match for him, which you’re not, Ren Lucre will not travel here, so far from his stronghold. Jack will be taken to him.”
“Ren Lucre,” I said, pronouncing it properly. The second I did, a memory flashed in front of me. The man this morning with the pale skin, long fingers and black nails, and those pale blue eyes that seemed to look right through me. Suddenly, I knew. “No, you’re wrong. He’s already here. He’s in town.”
“No,” Aunt Sophie said. “I was to bring you to him. The journey takes several days.”
“I saw him this morning,” I whispered, shivering. “I know it was him. I don’t know how, but I know.”
“Then we must get you out of here right away!” Aunt Sophie cried.
“No,” said Eva. “This is what I came for. We have the element of surprise. We need to seek him out.”
Aunt Sophie bored into Eva with her eyes. “You truly are a fool. You don’t know what you’re facing. You don’t stand a chance.”
“I think we should…” I fell silent as Aunt Sophie held up her hand.
Aunt Sophie whispered, “They’re here.”
Eva stood up straighter, her eyes darting to the windows in the front of the house. She clutched her sword and pointed it at Aunt Sophie.
“I told you she couldn’t be trusted,” Eva barked. “You kept us here until they could arrive. Out the back door. Go, go, go.”
We ran toward the back of the house but the yard was filled with rows of halfdecayed bodies gathered in a half-circle around the back of the house. Zombies.
We turned and ran to the front door. It was already open and trolls and goblins streamed into the house, knocking over furniture and smashing holes in the walls for no good reason.
Finally, Mrs. Fitcher, now in her Creach form, walked in with her mottled, black wings trailing behind her. She grinned when she saw me and gave me a wink. My skin crawled at the sight of her.
“Hello, Jack,” Mrs. Fitcher said. “It’s so nice we could all get together a day early. I didn’t have time to get you a birthday present…so I got you two.”
She turned to one side and my heart sank.
Goblins dragged two struggling humans into the house.
Will and T-Rex.
Mrs. Fitcher smiled. “Isn’t that nice? This way, you won’t have to die alone.”
T-Rex had a finger in each nostril and Will stared at me like he was mad at me for holding out on him.
“W
hy is Principal Fitcher talking about killing us?” T-Rex squeaked. “My grandma isn’t going to like this.”
“And why does she have wings, Jack?” Will said, staring me down. “You knew all this was going on and you didn’t tell us. Some pal you are.”
The goblins were about my height but thick with bulging muscle. They sneered, twisting their giant hooked noses as they shoved T-Rex and Will forward.
I caught them so they wouldn’t hit the ground and helped them stand. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I was trying to protect you.”
“Oh yeah?” Will said. “How’s that working so far?”
“Enough!” Mrs. Fitcher shrieked, her wings flapping behind her and knocking picture frames off the walls. She walked up to Will and stuck a long pointy finger in his chest. “I have to bite my tongue all day long as I deal with you little human fleas at school. Here, I get to do anything I want. I could bite off your fingers. Cut off your noses. Do you boys understand?”
T-Rex and Will nodded their heads.
“Good,” Mrs. Fitcher said. She turned her attention to Eva. “I see you’ve met a new friend, Jack. The one-handed monster hunter. I’ve heard of you.”