The Hunt (16 page)

She let out a quavery sigh. ‘Neither of us thought I’d really need to do anything. My mom was only thirty-seven. Who thought she’d have a heart attack? She opened it before she died though, so I only had to close it.’

Now Eve felt awkward. She definitely couldn’t be all,
So, Helena, was your dead mother an evil sociopath? Cos I’m having trouble coming up with another reason why she’d open a portal to hell
.

‘Why did she do it?’ She asked. ‘The portal’s a doorway to hell.’

Helena nodded several times. ‘I know. My mom hated opening it. She couldn’t sleep for weeks before she was supposed to do it. But there’s this pact Lord Medway made with a demon. If my mother broke it by not opening the portal, Deepdene would pretty much have had every natural disaster there is coming down on it.’

Helena busied herself piling the chips on a napkin, a lot of the animation draining out of her. ‘We talked about it, and my mom thought letting the demons in for a little while was better. She really hated it though.’ Helena blinked away tears. ‘I wish she’d been happier right before she died.’

Eve blinked. All this information had come spilling out, and Helena hadn’t even bothered asking how Eve and Jess knew about the Medways and the portal to hell.

Jess put her hand over Helena’s. ‘I’m so sorry about your mother. About Kyle too.’ She looked over at Eve, and Eve knew Jess was as confused as she was. How had the hellhounds gotten out? She guessed it was possible that they’d slipped through in the time between Mal – the demon
Malphas – died and when Helena closed the portal.

‘Thanks,’ Helena said. ‘Anyway, I did what she asked. I don’t understand it at all. I don’t even know if the whole thing is even real. Come on – demons?’ She popped a chip in her mouth, the moment of sadness passing.

‘But you shut it?’ Eve said.

‘I guess. I did it exactly the way she told me. Mostly I just had to say this incantation and burn a little of my hair,’ Helena answered. ‘I figured it was some old superstition that her family had, so I would honour it.’

Eve couldn’t believe how casual she was about the whole thing. Maybe because she couldn’t accept that demons were real. Eve probably wouldn’t have been able to either, if she hadn’t gotten her powers, turned multiple demons to smoke and faced off with a talking hellhound.

But Helena needed to know the real deal about demons now, although it would make Kyle’s death even more painful once she knew he’d been killed by something that came through that portal. And Helena had started to feel better. Still, Eve wanted Helena to be safe, and since she was directly connected to the portal, she should know the truth.

‘Helena, I need to tell you – it looks like something came through the portal before you closed it,’ Eve said. ‘You’re sure you closed it, aren’t you?’

‘Yeah. I had to cut my palm as part of the weird ceremony. As soon as I finished, the cut closed right up.’ She held her right palm out for Eve to see. ‘My mom said that’s how I’d know everything was OK.’ Helena frowned. ‘Are you saying some kind of demon thingy came here?’

‘Lesser demons,’ Jess said quickly. ‘They’re hellhounds, basically mutant dogs, big black dogs with demon faces.’

‘Wait,’ Helena said. ‘Vic told me she got attacked by dogs like that, and that you guys saved her. I thought her imagination just got out of control because so many awful things had happened. I figured it was just some regular dogs and that you chased them off for her.’

‘It wasn’t her imagination. And they definitely weren’t regular dogs,’ Jess said.

‘They’re called wargs,’ Eve added, ‘and they’re demons. We think they came through the portal before you closed it.’

Helena pressed her fingers to her lips. ‘Are they …? They’re what killed Kyle, aren’t they? And Ms Taylor
and that reporter. They’re the wild animals that none of the scientists could identify from the bites and claw marks.’

‘Yes,’ Eve answered simply. There was nothing she could say to make it less horrific or tragic.

They all sat silently for a long moment. Nobody touched the food.

‘Be careful, OK, Helena?’ Jess finally said, her eyes solemn. ‘It’s really important to be careful. And don’t mention this to anyone else.’

‘The wargs seem to target specific people,’ Eve explained. ‘We don’t know why. But you have a connection to the portal. That means you might be on their radar.’

‘I’ve been careful so far. I definitely don’t go near the woods or anywhere after dark. My dad’s been having me check in every day until he gets back into town too,’ Helena said.

‘Good. That’s good,’ Eve said. She just hoped that it would be enough.

‘It still feels so weird to be in bio and not have Kyle there,’ Eve told Jess on Monday at school as they headed to the cafeteria.

‘It’s two weeks ago today that he died,’ Jess said.

‘I wish I hadn’t been so harsh when I turned him down for coffee that last day I saw him.’ Eve nibbled on her bottom lip, tasting the vanilla in her lip gloss.

‘You have to stop thinking about that,’ Jess scolded.

‘First, I know you, and I know that you couldn’t possibly have been harsh. Firm, yes. Harsh, no. And second, Kyle shouldn’t have been asking you or any other girl out when he was with Helena. It’s awful that he’s dead, but the rules of dating don’t change because of that.’

‘Eve! Jess! Here I am.’ Eve looked over her shoulder and saw Helena coming down the hall towards them
with Katy Emory and Belinda Delaware. ‘I told you I’d be back today.’

Eve shot a no-more-Kyle-talk look at Jess, and Jess nodded. ‘Hey, Helena. How does it feel – being back?’ she asked as they all began walking together.

‘Good. Really good,’ Helena answered. She threw one arm round Belinda’s shoulders, the other over Katy’s. ‘I needed my girls around me.’

‘We’re sooo glad you’re back,’ Katy told her. ‘And you look fab!’

‘You do,’ Eve agreed. She was relieved. She’d thought maybe Helena would spiral down again after learning that it was demons who killed Kyle, demons that were still out there somewhere.

‘You should be back in cheerleading too,’ Belinda said. ‘It’s so wrong that you’re off the squad. And Vic – at the game against St Anthony’s the other week she was so wobbly on two lifts I was embarrassed to go to this school.’

‘Belinda!’ Jess cried.

‘I’m calling it like I see it,’ Belinda retorted. ‘
You
were great, Jess.’

‘Jess is always awesome,’ Helena put in.

‘Bee, Vic’s been cheerleading since middle school, same as me and Helena. She’s gone to cheer camp
three times. She’s an amazing cheerleader,’ Jess said. ‘I get that you don’t think she deserves to be captain because Helena was the first pick. But don’t take it out on Vic, please.’

‘Jess is right.’ Katy flicked a couple of the locks on the lockers they passed. ‘We’re still just mad because it wasn’t fair for Helena to get kicked out of cheerleading, with, you know, all the stuff that’s been going on.’

‘I suppose,’ Belinda said grudgingly. ‘Hey, was anyone else a hostage this weekend? My parents wouldn’t let me out of their sight. They practically escorted me to the bathroom and waited outside the door.’

‘My dad’s out of town for a few more days,’ Helena replied. ‘I think he’s more worried about my grades than he is about the fact that there’s some wild animal in the woods.’ She gave Eve a pointed look as she said the word ‘animal’.

‘My mother is completely grades obsessed,’ Eve commiserated as they took their places in the cafeteria food line. ‘It’s going to be all-you-have-tothink-about-is-college from now until my applications are in – in three years time.’

‘Oooh, the romance continues,’ Katy whispered.
She jerked her chin towards a table halfway across the room. ‘Supposedly Luke and Briony were all
cosy
yesterday afternoon at Piscatelli’s. Shanna was there with her family – her parents make all of them go everywhere together now – and she said Luke was feeding Briony a piece of pizza.’

Jess shot a concerned glance at Eve. Eve gave her a shrug to show it was nothing. She shot a look over at Luke. He was leaning towards Briony, listening to her as if he’d never heard anything as interesting as whatever she was saying. Then they both laughed. Eve felt a little itch in her heart, and promised herself not to look at the two of them again for the rest of lunch.

‘I’ve never had a guy feed me,’ Belinda complained.

‘It always looks so romantic in movies.’

‘I always think it means the guy is a control freak,’ Eve said. ‘I mean, what if she didn’t even want pizza?’

They all stared at her for a minute. Then Belinda laughed. ‘You’re right. Things always look more exciting in the movies.’

‘I don’t know. I think it’s plenty exciting around here lately,’ Katy put in. ‘Except it’s more like a horror movie.’

Eve paid for her spinach salad and Diet Coke. After Helena paid for her lunch Eve managed to pull her
aside for a moment. ‘Thanks for not talking about the
thing
. If everybody knew, there’d be mass panic.’

‘It’s my secret too,’ Helena answered. ‘I only talked about it with you and Jess because you already knew.’ She smiled. ‘I’m so glad that I have a couple of people I can talk to about everything. It’s all so weird.’

‘Way too weird to deal with alone.’ Eve squeezed Helena’s hand. ‘I know it’s been really hard for you lately,’ she added, ‘but things are going to get better.’

‘They will,’ Helena agreed. ‘They already are, at least a little. Partly thanks to you.’

Eve leaned deeper into the overstuffed couch in Jess’s living room and stretched her arms above her head. She, Jess and Luke had been meeting up every day after school to research and strategize. It was Wednesday, day three, and they still hadn’t come up with much. Luke had actually found a reference to the thirteen swords that could kill demons. They were supposed to have been forged by Lucifer, back when he was still an angel. The article hadn’t mentioned where any of the swords might be now though.

He looked up from the map spread across the coffee table. ‘I’m having no luck figuring out where the wargs are hiding, since we know they
aren’t going back and forth through the portal.’

See, it’s all fine with him
, Eve told herself, as she’d been telling herself every time they were together post-him-going-out-with-Briony.
Me, Jess and Luke working on stopping the badness, same as always. No weirdness between us, because we’re just friends
.

‘Well, I’m having no luck finding out anything more about Payne’s demon-hunting order,’ Jess said, without looking up from her laptop. ‘Not even a mention.’

‘Let’s go back to trying to figure out the connection between Victoria, Ms Taylor and Kyle,’ Eve suggested. She took a sip of her Jones cherry soda. ‘We saw how the hellhounds targeted Vic. They weren’t interested in us or Payne at all until we started fighting them. So Ms Taylor and Kyle probably weren’t random victims either. Why would the demon dogs choose those three people in particular?’

‘The wargs drink blood,’ Luke said. ‘Maybe we should try to check the medical records of the victims. Maybe they are a rare blood type, or all had an elevated level of some kind of hormone. Dogs could probably smell something like that. They have an awesome sense of smell. The demon dogs probably do too.’

‘Look at the brain on Luke,’ Jess joked.

‘He’s a little bit of a star in biology,’ Eve told her. Thinking of biology made her think of Kyle. Why couldn’t she let go of the guilt?
She
wasn’t the one who had been attempting to cheat on Helena. ‘Helena!’ she exclaimed.

‘Helena?’ Jess echoed. ‘What about her?’

‘She was Kyle’s girlfriend. And she was in Ms Taylor’s class,’ Eve started.

Jess jumped in. ‘Oh, and she used to be on the cheerleading squad with Vic.

‘Kind of a random bunch of connections,’ Luke said.

‘But they’re still connections, which is more than we’ve come up with so far,’ Eve replied.

‘I don’t get why hellhounds would care about any of that. Why would hellhounds especially want to kill people Helena knows?’ Jess asked.

‘Because Helena is the person who can open and shut the portal,’ Eve guessed. ‘That can’t be a coincidence.’

‘Good point.’ Luke began folding up the map. ‘We don’t know anything about how the Medways first got into the portal business. But we know they have been dealing with demons in some way for hundreds of years.’

‘Maybe the wargs are attacking people close to Helena, people she cares about, to force her to do something for them,’ Eve suggested, although she couldn’t think of what exactly they might want.

‘Helena didn’t say anything to us about that,’ Jess reminded her.

‘Yeah, but Helena was weird about the whole portal and demon thing,’ Eve said. ‘She was really casual about it. It didn’t seem like she knew much more than how to shut it. Maybe there are other things a Medway can do that her mom didn’t get the chance to tell her about.’

‘Maybe they want the portal opened again,’ Luke suggested. ‘Maybe they want more hellhounds to be able to come through.’

Eve felt as if someone were squeezing her ribcage. ‘Or other kinds of demons. Maybe even the higher kinds, the ones who feed on souls, like Mal.’

‘We’ve got to call Helena right away,’ Luke said. ‘She needs to know that the wargs could be targeting people that mean something to her.’

‘And that they might be targeting her too!’ Eve reached into her bag and pulled out her iPhone. Before she could open her contacts, the phone began to vibrate in her hand. ‘Freaky. It’s Helena,’ Eve said.

She hit ‘answer’. Helena started talking before Eve even had the chance to say hello. ‘Eve, those demons, the hellhounds – they’re here. They’re right outside my house! I don’t know what to do. What am I supposed to do?’ Her voice rose into a scream.

‘I’m coming over. Just stay inside. Go in a room without any windows and don’t move.’ Eve hung up and leaped to her feet. ‘The hellhounds are at Helena’s,’ she cried.

‘Should we call the police?’ Jess asked, jumping up.

‘They can’t kill demons,’ Luke said. Then he stopped and grimaced. ‘Crap. I don’t have the sword. I came straight from school, and I can’t wear it there because of gym.’