The Hunt (14 page)

‘I’ve never had girl friends – girls who are friends – to tell me this stuff before,’ Luke said.

‘Well, you’re just lucky you met us,’ Eve told him.

‘I am,’ Luke answered, looking directly into her eyes. Jess gave Eve a little kick under the table. If kicks could talk, that one would have said, ‘I told you so.’

‘Jess, how’s Victoria?’ Eve asked.

‘Um, pretty OK. Her mom gave her a sleeping pill. I stayed with her until it kicked in, but she didn’t say much,’ Jess answered.

‘Did she say anything about me? About the lightning bolts?’ Cos if she had, that was something they’d need to deal with.

‘I don’t think she took her eyes off the demon dogs until I grabbed her and pulled her up a tree,’ Jess replied. ‘She definitely didn’t mention it when I was around.’

‘Good,’ Luke said. ‘So after I went home, and once I’d managed to convince my dad that my police cruiser ride wasn’t a reason to hyperventilate, I went online. I did a search on that word Payne said right before he died – “warg”. It was obviously something he believed we had to know.’

‘Is “warg” even a word? I thought I wasn’t understanding him right,’ Eve said.

‘Oh, yeah, it’s a word.’ His backpack rested next to his chair. He opened it and pulled out some pieces of paper that had been stapled together. ‘I printed out some of what I found.’ He slid the papers in front of Eve and Jess.

The top page had a line drawing of a creature that was almost identical to the demon dogs. Ears like a bat’s; thin, wickedly sharp teeth; eyes filled with malevolence. A face that was all the more horrible because it contained some human elements.

‘So I’m thinking that’s a warg.’ Revulsion filled Jess’s voice.

‘This is great. What does it say about them? Anything we can use?’ Eve asked.

‘They’re a kind of hellhound. There have been legends about them since Viking days, according to this.’ Luke tapped the pile of papers. ‘Supposedly, at least based on what I found, there have been a few recent sightings – like in the last hundred years – around cemeteries in Connecticut and Louisiana.’

‘Connecticut’s pretty close,’ Jess said.

‘Why around cemeteries?’ Eve asked. ‘Wait. Back up more. I don’t even know what a hellhound is
supposed to be. Well, I guess I’ve seen them, but do they have powers besides the insane teeth and claws? And the talking?’

‘There was a lot of contradictory information about their powers,’ Luke replied. ‘Some of the myths – I guess we shouldn’t call them that, since we saw the things – say that if anyone looks a hellhound in the eye three times, that person will die.’

‘Oh, great,’ Jess mumbled.

‘Their howl is supposed to put terror into people,’ Luke continued.

‘If those things meowed like little kitty cats, the sound would still put terror into me,’ Eve admitted. She glanced around the nearby tables to see if anyone could overhear them. Nope. Everybody must still be hiding in their houses. ‘What else?’

‘The leader of the hellhound pack has more powers than the other ones. It’s the only one that can speak,’ Luke said. ‘And back to the cemetery thing – hellhounds are supposed to be gatekeepers. They guard boundaries, and a cemetery is a sort of boundary – between the living and the dead. One site said they guard portals.’

‘Fantastic,’ Jess said. ‘Our town has been invaded by the devil’s watchdogs.’

‘Did it say anything else about portals?’ Eve asked.

‘Nope,’ Luke answered. ‘And that’s all I got. I can keep researching them. I checked the library computer. There are a bunch of books on myths and legends, but I didn’t have time to pull any of them out yet.’

Jess took out her cherry-coloured Mac. She’d gotten it after Eve shorted out her old one. Electrical stuff had gone crazy around Eve in the stretch of time when her powers were beginning to come out. ‘How about if I search for dog attacks near cemeteries?’ she asked.

‘Great idea,’ Luke told her.

Jess winked at him. ‘I have many talents.’

‘Yeah, you should see the lanyard she made our first year at camp,’ Eve teased. ‘She won the prize because it was the longest out of everybody’s. And there are many uses for a lanyard twice the length of your body.’

‘What on earth is a lanyard?’ Luke asked.

‘Remember, Luke hasn’t had all the privileges we have,’ Eve teased. ‘He’s probably never been to camp,’ she said to Jess.

‘No camp for me. Except vacation Bible school at Dad’s church,’ Luke told them.

‘A lanyard is just a really long rope-braceletnecklace thingy,’ Eve told him. ‘You’d like it, Puka Shell Necklace Man.’

Luke laughed and shook his head. ‘OK, so Jess is looking for dog attacks. I’ll go grab the books on mythology and demons. Maybe in the demon stuff I’ll find something about the Order.’

‘I think I’ll focus on portals. Those things have to be coming through the one at Mal’s place – I mean, the Medway mansion.’ That arch looked like it had been there for hundreds of years, way before Mal showed up at school. Malphas. The demon Malphas. Eve didn’t like thinking about him as if he were still partly that guy she’d gone so gaga over. She’d even enjoyed just staring at the back of his head when she sat behind him in homeroom. That’s how far gone she’d been. Not that she was the only girl in school who’d liked looking at him.

‘You OK, Eve?’ Jess asked.

‘Fine. I was trying to decide if I’d have better luck with the books or searching websites.’ She stood up. ‘I think I’ll start with books. I can go online tonight. I certainly won’t be going anywhere, if my mom has anything to say about it.’

She walked over to one of the library terminals.
Hmmm. What subject should she even search for? Hell, she decided. Books that talked about hell might have information about a portal between hell and Earth.

Eve typed in the word, then jotted down a bunch of shelf numbers. By the time she returned to the table, she’d gathered an armload of books. Luke was already back in his seat.

‘This library has an amazing amount of material on demons,’ he commented.

‘Tell me about it,’ she agreed as she dumped about a dozen books on the table, then sat down. ‘I guess it makes sense with the history of the place.’

‘Listen to this,’ Luke said. ‘It says that hellhounds are lesser demons.’

‘Lesser?’ Jess repeated. ‘They seem pretty evil to me. How many people do they have to kill to get a promotion?’

‘Lesser is more about what they feed on.’ Luke checked a page of the thick book open in front of him. ‘They all get sustenance from the human life force. But higher demons – like Mal – take human souls, while lesser demons go for blood.’

Jess opened a new document and started taking
notes. ‘I think it would be good to have everything we find out in one place.’

Luke nodded. ‘Go on,’ Eve told him. She could tell from the grim look on his face that there was more.

‘The hellhounds tear open people’s flesh so they can lap up the blood,’ he replied. ‘That’s the part of our life force they live on.’

‘I’m glad they didn’t get Payne’s blood,’ Eve said. ‘He’s been fighting demons all his life. It would be so wrong for them to get life force from him. Not that it isn’t horrible that they get it from anyone.’

‘Remember to look for anything that sounds like Payne’s Order,’ Jess commented. ‘He recognized the wargs. He knew what they were without having to research. I bet his demon-hunting club could give us a lot of information. And help too.’

‘Payne made it sound completely covert, but I’m hoping one of the demonologists who wrote these books will know something about it,’ Luke said.

Eve bit her lip. ‘Do you think the police will be able to at least find his next of kin to tell them?’

Her friends shrugged, helpless.

‘There’s a little more on the hellhounds in here.’ Luke returned his attention to the book. ‘They always hunt in a pack. And they always have one
leader – the alpha. Which is the one that can talk.’

‘So maybe that’s why they all left even though only one of them got hurt,’ Eve suggested. ‘It must have been the alpha we injured. It was the one that spoke.’

‘Makes sense to me,’ Luke agreed. ‘But you know what I don’t get?’

Jess snickered. Eve and Luke looked at her, confused.

‘It’s just … how weird is it that any of us gets any of this?’ Jess said.

‘True,’ Luke said. ‘One of the
many
things I don’t get is why the wargs just went after Victoria, when we were in the clearing too. It’s like they were only hunting her.’

‘Maybe that’s why the warg was at cheerleading practice. Maybe it was looking for Vic there!’ Jess exclaimed.

‘Yeah. They only turned on Payne when he attacked them. Same with us.’ Eve thought for a moment, trying to recall every detail of the night before. ‘They definitely could have come after us.’ The idea made her stomach start twisting itself into a pretzel.

Jess continued entering info into her laptop. ‘I wonder if that means that the demons picked Ms Taylor and Kyle too. Maybe they can tell
whose blood will give them more juice or something.’

‘Maybe.’ Luke stared up at the ceiling for a moment. ‘But why would Kyle, Victoria and Ms Taylor have a stronger life force? Or do you think everyone has the same life force, and the demons were targeting them for a different reason?’ A light breeze came through the door, flipping the pages of his book. ‘I’m going to shut that.’

He stood up, then sat back down.

‘Change your mind?’ Jess asked.

‘Got an idea.’ Luke pulled another bunch of papers out of his backpack. He did a quick glance around the library. Their section was still deserted. ‘I brought everything we found in the church that I’ve been able to translate so far.’ He flipped through the papers and set one in the middle of the table.

A wave of dizziness swept through Eve. It was a sketch of the arch, with those markings only she could read. ‘You guys still can’t …’ Eve let her words trail off.

‘No,’ Luke said.

Jess shook her head. ‘You’re the chosen one, remember?’ she said. ‘We’re your support team. I’m hair, make-up and wardrobe.’

‘And I appreciate it,’ Eve told her.

‘Read what it says on the arch again,’ Luke requested.

Eve leaned closer. ‘On the hundred-year mark, thy hand or thy blood must the portal open.’

‘When I said I was going to shut the door, it started me thinking. On the arch it says the portal must open every hundred years, right?’ Luke didn’t wait for them to answer. ‘And that implies that it’s closed the rest of the time.’

‘Right,’ Eve agreed. ‘Because why would you have to open something that was open all the time?’

‘Exactly.’ Luke slapped the table.

‘The portal hasn’t been closed though. That’s how the hell beasties are coming in,’ Jess realized. ‘Shouldn’t it have been closed after Mal got dusted? He got his chance for this hundred years. He came through. He failed. So why isn’t the door closed?’

‘OK, it said “thy hand or thy blood”. That sounds like only a specific person can open the portal. Probably only the same person can close it,’ Luke offered.

‘Sometimes I can’t believe we talk about all this stuff like it’s real,’ Eve said.

‘It is real,’ Luke reminded her.

‘I know. But it’s also crazy. Isn’t it crazy?’ she asked.

‘Completely crazy,’ Jess agreed. ‘What does that “thy blood” even mean? Does it take some kind of blood sacrifice to open the thing?’

They all sat in silence, thinking. ‘Maybe bloodline?’ Eve suggested. ‘It’s old-fashioned language, like in Shakespeare.’ They’d been reading
Julius Caesar
in English. ‘Blood can mean family. So the door is opened – and closed – by this specific person or by someone related to him or her.’

‘Good call,’ Luke said. ‘So our portal-closer went to sleep on the job. Maybe they don’t know Mal has been dusted. Or maybe something happened to them so they couldn’t shut it.’

‘So who are we looking for then?’ Jess asked. ‘Who is the “thy blood”? We have to find whoever it is and get them to slam the portal closed.’

Eve dropped her head into her hands. ‘It could be anyone,’ she moaned. ‘And people are going to keep getting killed until we figure it out.’ She raised her head. This wasn’t the time to go all dramatic. It was the time to stay calm and think. ‘The first owner of the mansion was a Medway,’ she said. ‘They were a
Mayflower
family. That means they came over from England as pilgrims back in 1620. Maybe a Medway has owned that land for hundreds of years. We know
Deepdene’s been a town – or a village at least – for a long time, way before the US was the US. It used to be called Demondene though. Who would move into a place with a name like that?’

‘I’m on it.’ Jess’s fingers flew across her keyboard.

‘Just because the arch is on Medway land, doesn’t mean a Medway was the original portal-opener,’ Luke said.

‘I know,’ Eve answered. ‘But we have to start someplace, and I don’t think we have anything else to go on.’

‘Gotcha!’ Jess exclaimed. She tilted her laptop towards Eve. A scan of a deed filled the screen.

‘Wilson Medway bought the land in 1621,’ Eve said.

‘Problem,’ Jess informed them. ‘There aren’t any Medways in town any more.’

‘Someone opened the door, so there has to be a Medway somewhere, even if not right in town,’ Luke replied.

‘OK. Then we have a plan,’ Eve said, feeling a burst of love for her support team. ‘Find this Medway descendant before anything else horrible happens in Deepdene.’

Luke rang Eve’s doorbell later that night, feeling like a ten-year-old because his dad had driven him. He glanced over his shoulder. His father was still waiting, parked at the curb. He was in hyper-protective mode, making sure that Luke actually made it across the threshold.

What would he do if he knew what was really going on in Deepdene?
Luke wondered.
Start carrying me around in a Snugli?
He smiled at the picture.

Eve opened the door. She was wearing a floaty pale blue shirt. It looked so soft he was tempted to run his finger down her sleeve.
Admit it, it’s not the shirt you want to touch, it’s her
, Luke told himself.

He didn’t know exactly when it had happened. Maybe only a few days ago, when Eve wrapped herself around him so tightly after they heard about Ms Taylor’s death. Maybe way back on that very first day
he ever teased her – about her vanilla-scented lip gloss, he remembered. He was pretty sure that, at least for a moment that day, standing in front of her locker with her, he’d had this crazy urge to kiss her.