The Hunt (10 page)

She was not giving up. Eve kept shoving her power out, until her fingertips were able to release only a few brief flickers, so weak they disintegrated before they reached Trench. Her power was gone. She couldn’t fight him any more.

There was only one thing to do. Eve ran. The church was so close. If she could reach it … She pumped her legs harder. Why was she wearing fashion boots and not boot boots? She could hear Trench coming after her, and clearly he had sensible footwear. He crashed into Eve, slamming her up against the big church door. Pain coursed through every bone. She gave a choked cough as the air left her lungs.

Trench raised the sword high over his head. Eve had nothing left. She tried to draw up enough power to strike him, but all she got was a weak prickling sensation in her fingers.

The sword came down. Eve shrieked.

And somehow she was falling, falling before the blade could touch her. When she landed she saw Luke standing over her. He’d opened the church door she’d been leaning against just in time to save her. Eve scrambled deeper into the church on her hands and knees.

‘Get away from her!’ Luke ordered, moving between Eve and Trench.

‘Out of my way, boy!’ Trench shouted. ‘I plan to run this demon through!’

Luke lunged at the man and grabbed one of his arms, then yanked as hard as he could. The guy barely even flinched. He was stronger than he looked. But Luke had to get that sword before he managed to kill Eve.

‘She’s not a demon, you idiot!’ Luke shouted.

‘You’ve let her beautiful exterior fool you!’ the reporter yelled back. ‘She’s evil made flesh.’

His words made no sense – this whole situation made no sense – but Luke tried to follow them. This guy clearly wasn’t a regular reporter, and he seemed to think Eve was a demon. Why would he even believe demons actually existed? Who was he really? It didn’t matter.

‘Consecrated ground!’ Luke burst out. ‘We’re in the church. Look at all these gargoyles! How can she stand to be here if she’s a demon?’

A flicker of doubt crossed Trench’s face, and he hesitated. Luke took advantage of the moment. He released the man’s arm, grabbed Eve, helped her to her feet and pulled her further inside. ‘Look!’ he shouted. ‘
In
the church.
In
.’

Trench lowered his sword, but he didn’t put it away.

‘Powerful. I’ve never seen a demon with this kind of resistance.’ He stared first at Eve, then around the church. ‘But I have powers of my own. I am drawn to demons, pulled towards them whenever they are close to me. I was led to her, and I am going to stop the massacre she has begun.’

Eve let out a gasp. ‘I haven’t killed anyone.’

Luke addressed Trench. ‘You’re wrong! What’s it going to take to convince you?’ he demanded. An answer flashed into his head. He grabbed Eve’s hand and pulled her over to the baptismal font in the antechamber. Then he scooped some holy water up in his hands and turned and dumped it over her head.

‘Hey!’ Eve protested, water running down her face.

‘No burns, see? Holy water, and no burns. How can she be a demon?’

Trench’s brows drew together in confusion. Before he could speak, Jess came running through the door. She stopped short when she saw them at the font.

‘Oh my God, what did you do to Evie’s hair?’ she cried. Luke let out a burst of inappropriate, nearhysterical laughter. Jess glared at him, then looked over at Trench, who still held his sword at his side. ‘What exactly is going on here?’

Only Jess would ask those questions in that order
, Luke thought.

Eve raced to her friend and pulled her away from Trench. ‘That’s what
I
want to know. Who are you and why are you here and – oh, yeah – why did you just try to kill me?’

‘Who walks around with a sword?’ Luke added.

Trench didn’t answer Jess. He didn’t even look at her. His eyes were locked on Eve. ‘Don’t move!’ he commanded. Then he strode to the other side of the church, pulling his cell from his pocket as he went. Luke heard him begin to speak in a low, frantic tone.

Luke sighed. ‘I guess it’s pointless to tell that psycho that he’s not allowed to use his cell in the church.’ He’d hoped to lighten the mood a little, but Eve and Jess didn’t laugh.

Eve’s eyes glinted with fury as she used her fingers to comb her sodden hair away from her face. ‘He tells
me
not to move! As if I’m going to take orders from him. What are we going to do with him? He’s in the
church, so he’s clearly not a demon either. Although he was acting exactly like one.’ She turned to Luke. ‘Thanks for the save, by the way. But did you really have to destroy my hair to do it?’

‘Curly hair is very difficult to manage when wet,’ Jess added.

‘Looks pretty much the same as always to me,’ Luke joked. He tucked one of her curls behind her ear, his knuckles brushing across her cheek. As he touched her, it felt as if an electric current were running from her body into his, speeding up his heartbeat. What was that about? He’d never gotten that kind of sensation from barely touching a girl. Maybe it was her power, jumping into him? Or—

Trench stomped back over to them, yanking Luke away from his thoughts.

‘Mister, you’d better explain yourself. Start with the sword,’ Jess ordered, hands planted on her hips, her blue eyes flashing.

‘The sword, and exactly why you were using it to try to kill Eve,’ Luke added.

‘Kill? You were trying to kill Eve?’ Jess’s voice got higher with every word.

‘I’m OK,’ Eve told her best friend. ‘Really.’

‘That’s not the point,’ Luke told her. ‘I mean, of
course it’s the most important thing, but I want this guy to start giving us some answers.’

‘A lot of answers,’ Eve added, hands on hips.

Trench sighed. ‘I suppose I do owe you an explanation.’

‘Damn right you do,’ Luke muttered.

‘My name is Willem Payne. I belong to an … well, an association of sorts:
Malleus Diabolus
. We call it the Order. We hunt demons – and we kill them. It is the reason the Order exists, and any of our members would lay down their life in the pursuit of these evil creatures.’

‘So you’re in a demon-hunting club?’ Jess asked, sceptical.

‘The Order was formed thousands of years ago. We have kept the darkness at bay for millennia,’ Payne retorted, sounding a little offended. Eve shot Luke a
yeah-right
look. He nodded back. Clearly this Order of Payne’s hadn’t kept all the ‘darkness at bay’. Malphas, Prince of Hell, for example. He’d walked right into Deepdene High.

‘The death of Kyle Rakoff came to our attention,’ Payne continued. ‘The manner of his murder led us to suspect that he was the victim of a demon attack. I was selected to come to Deepdene to investigate and,
if necessary, kill the demon responsible. It wasn’t hard to blend in. Everyone assumed I was one of the reporters.’

‘There’s a whole group somewhere that fights demons?’ Eve asked. She sounded as if she was having a hard time wrapping her head around the concept. Luke was too. But the idea that there were people out there who knew about demons, who knew what they were really up against here – that was a relief. He, Eve and Jess had been practically dealing with the whole demon thing blindfold, with only scraps of information, like the holy-water thing.

‘Fine. Good. I can get behind demon killing. I’m all for it. And you want to help hunt down the demon that killed Kyle – great,’ Luke told him. ‘But why did you go after Eve? What made you think she was a demon?’

Jess gave an outraged yelp. ‘You thought Eve was a demon?’

‘Members of the Order have the ability to sense demons. In fact, this talent is what the Order is based on. Tonight I felt a pull towards the girl. It’s the first time I’ve been close enough,’ Payne answered. ‘I still can hardly believe the girl is human.’

‘The girl is standing right here, you know?’ Eve snapped.

Payne dipped his head towards Eve. ‘I apologize for attacking you. My demon sense has never led me in the wrong direction before. I’m still struggling to understand what happened.’

‘What happened is that you almost turned me into a shish kebab with that sword of yours!’ Eve exclaimed.

‘What’s the deal with the sword anyway?’ Luke asked. Now that he had the chance to really look at it, he saw that the blade was etched with archaic symbols and the handle had protrusions shaped like demon faces.

‘It takes a sacred weapon to kill a demon. This was blessed by one of the holy of holies. It’s one of only thirteen, although three have recently been destroyed. As far as the Order knows, only these swords have the power to destroy a demon.’ He looked at Eve. ‘Although that perhaps is untrue. What I saw you do tonight, the fire from your hands, is that a weapon against the dark ones?’

‘Too right,’ Jess told him. ‘You thought she was a demon, but Eve is a demon killer. She’s a hero!’

Luke smiled. He loved Jess.

‘There are so many things I need to ask you. How your powers work … your experiences with demons …’ Payne told Eve. ‘But first I need to understand why I was led to you. I just reported what happened to the leaders of my group. There’s nothing in our long history to account for why my demon sense would malfunction this way.’

Eve didn’t answer him. Luke got it. He wasn’t sure if they should trust Payne either, although he definitely wanted access to any information Payne had.

Payne looked at Eve. ‘I’ve told you the truth. I’ve apologized, and it was sincere. I’m deeply ashamed that I came so close to murdering a human,’ he said.

‘OK. I guess,’ Eve replied, frowning.

‘I understand your reluctance to confide in me. But there is still a demon to be dealt with in your town, and before I can find and destroy it I need to understand why I was pulled to
you
. It may be that only by following you can I find the true demon.’ Payne finally sheathed his sword, and then he took a step closer to Eve. ‘I need your help, or the demon will take the life of another innocent.’

Eve crossed her arms and kept her eyes on Payne as he read a few of the pages that they had found in the
church. Luke had brought them over from the rectory. She wasn’t sure they should have given Payne anything. Who knew who he really was? Who knew if any ancient order of demon hunters even existed? Still, at least two people were dead, and if there was even a possibility that Payne could help them figure out how to kill the demon responsible, they had to work with him.

Jess sidled up to Eve. ‘You’re wearing your gorgeous new sweater. And those tights that make your legs look like they keep on going for ever,’ she whispered.

‘So?’ Eve whispered back, keeping her gaze on Payne.

‘So I’m just wondering if there was a Luke factor in the decision to look so hot. That’s not what you were wearing at school today,’ Jess said, speaking directly into Eve’s ear.

‘What? No!’ Eve forgot to whisper, and Luke and Payne both stared at her. She waved her hands. ‘Never mind. Nothing.’

Jess reached over and pulled one shoulder of Eve’s sweater down a tiny bit. Then she gave a satisfied smile.

Eve pulled the sweater back up. But she knew Jess had already seen what she wanted to see: the strap
of Eve’s makes-my-on-the-small-side-breasts-looksuperb bra. Which she’d worn because … because it was on the top of the pile in her dresser. Although she supposed she could have worn the same bra she’d worn to school that day.

To be honest, she also supposed Jess could be exactly right about why she’d worn this outfit. It might not have anything to do with what was on top of the pile.

Why am I even thinking about this now?
she asked herself.
A guy who tried to kill me less than an hour ago is sitting right over there!
Eve returned her attention to him. A moment later he looked up.

‘This raises many questions,’ Payne said. The papers they’d let him read talked about the Deepdene Witch and her ability to kill demons with fire from her hands. ‘I need to know more.’

Says the guy who just tried to stab me with a sword
, Eve thought. Should she trust this man? She glanced over at Luke for a second opinion. He gave a slight nod.

‘I’m a descendant of the Deepdene Witch,’ Eve told Payne. ‘I had no idea that was the deal until just a few months ago, when my “powers”, I guess you’d call them, started showing up.’

‘For months Eve was blowing out light bulbs and TVs and computers. Doors would slam without anyone touching them when she was around,’ Jess jumped in. ‘We thought maybe she had a poltergeist.’

‘Really?’ Luke asked, surprised.

‘It fitted,’ Eve replied. ‘Until I started shooting lightning out of my fingers. That felt like me, like something I was doing, not like something some crazy spirit was doing to me.’

‘I experienced the lightning for myself,’ Payne said. ‘Was tonight typical?’

‘I’ve never used my powers to attack a human before. Clearly they don’t work the same way. Which is lucky for you, or you’d be dead,’ Eve admitted. ‘When I shot the bolts at a demon, the demon went up in smoke. With the master demon it took a bunch of blasts, but eventually I got rid of him.’

‘That’s probably why you get the demon vibe from Eve!’ Jess cried. ‘Because she zapped Mal. She probably got Mal-ness all over her.’

‘Nice image. Thanks for that,’ Eve said, a shudder of revulsion rippling through her.

Jess gave Eve’s shoulder a rub. ‘Sorry.’

Payne stood up from his pew and rejoined the group. ‘Who is Mal?’

‘Malphas is a demon who shows up in Deepdene every hundred years,’ Luke told him.

‘He was awful. He kissed people to suck out their souls,’ Jess added. ‘All the people who lost their souls went crazy.’

‘Their souls went back to them when Eve blasted Mal away,’ Luke said. ‘Right before he … we don’t really know if he died or if he’s just gone for another century – anyway, right before Eve turned him to smoke, he vomited up globs of light. It seemed like those were all the souls he’d stolen. They flew off to where they belonged.’

Eve was glad her friends were telling most of the story. It was still hard for her to remember that night, to think about how drawn she had been to Mal, how close she had come to giving in to him, to kissing him and forgetting about everything else, her town, her family, her friends … her soul.