Jack Templar Monster Hunter (7 page)

Three others circled the air over her, dive-bombing in coordinated attacks. She favored her shoulder. Even from where I stood, I could see her garments on that side of her body were shredded from the harpies’ talons. Eva held her ground but it was only a matter of time until they wore her down. It only took one mistake and they would have her. I needed my sword. Bad.

The harpy behind me burst through the tree cover and flew right at my head. I jumped to the side and dodged the attack. Even though the light was fading fast and the fog from the river had grown thicker, I spotted my sword lying half-covered with leaves under a bush farther out in the clearing.

I made a run for it. As soon as I broke cover, the harpies attacking Eva left her and flew at me.

“Oh crap,” I said.

I sprinted for my sword. A screech erupted behind me and I dove forward onto the ground. I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder as a harpy’s talons clawed into my skin. But I had dodged the worst of it and the harpy sailed over my head.

“Watch out!” Eva cried. I looked up and saw the three other harpies bearing down on me.

I scrambled on hands and knees and reached the bush where I had seen my sword.

It was gone.

I pushed the leaves around, thinking that I might have covered it up by accident. Nothing.

I looked up and saw a harpy sitting on a fallen tree near-by, looking at me with a cocked head. In its talons, it held my sword.

Up until that point, I’m not ashamed to admit to you that I’d been a little scared. OK, I’d been scared enough that I was just lucky I hadn’t peed my pants.

But seeing that creature sitting there with my sword, mocking me with its little cocky expression, made all the fear go away. Suddenly, I was just plain angry.

The other three harpies reached me. I grabbed two large rocks from the ground and held them in my hands like they were boxing gloves. I smashed the first harpy in the face and the others attacked. I delivered blow after blow with my rocks. Shocked by the fight they were getting, they backed off to regroup. The second they did, I threw down the rocks and sprinted at the harpy with my sword.

I moved faster than I ever had before. I barely felt my feet touch the ground as I bore down on the harpy. It saw me coming and lifted off the ground, awkward from carrying the sword.

I jumped, hit the log with my right foot, pushed off and reached for the low-flying harpy. I grabbed it by the leg, back in the position where I was before. Only this time, I was the attacker.

I grabbed the sword but the harpy had too strong of a grip on it. We wrestled back and forth. The other harpies chased right behind us, pecking at me as we flew. The harpy carrying me bashed into trees and tore through branches, trying to force me off.

But the strategy worked against it when one of the heavy thumps loosened its grip for a second. It was all I needed. I pulled the sword out and slashed at the harpy flying below me. It tumbled out of the sky. I looked up at the harpy carrying me and made short work of the creature.

The dead harpy and I fell from the sky and landed hard on the forest floor. Eva was near-by and ran to me.

“Are you all right?” she asked.

I stood up, covered with harpy blood that stank as bad as anything I’d ever smelled before. I grinned. “Never better. And you?”

Eva shook her head and readied herself as the two remaining harpies formed up for an attack. In the darkening forest, they looked like no more than shadows flying between the trees.

“Stand back and let me do this,” she said.

Ignoring her, I took a position behind her so that we stood back-to-back.

The harpies split up, one at each end of the clearing. On cue, they flew straight at us, one from either direction, talons extended out, screaming.

I tried to stay focused. When it reached me, I dropped to a knee and went for the neckline. It flew past me and I thought I had missed, but it crumpled up in a ball of feathers and hit the ground, skidding to a stop. Dead.

The harpy that had attacked Eva flew past and stood at the end of the clearing.

I turned to Eva. “Uh, I think maybe you missed yours.”

Eva wiped her blade clean and put it back in its sheath.

I looked back at the remaining harpy. Its head rolled to one side and fell to the ground.

The emotion of everything I had just been through bubbled up in me. After feeling like I was going to die several times over in the last fifteen minutes, it finally looked like we were safe. We had won!

“Yeah!” I cried out. “We did it.”

I turned to Eva, half-expecting a high-five, or at least a smile. Nope. She was staring at me like I was a turd that she had just found floating in her Cheerios.

“The Creach takes joy in their killing; we do not. It’s what separates us from them.”

“I’m sorry,” I mumbled. “I thought—”

Eva stepped closer. Even in the dark forest, her eyes caught the little bit of moonlight that filtered down through the leaves. I expected them to be blazing with anger, but instead, I was surprised to find only deep sadness in them. “We kill only because we have to. Because there is no other way. Do you understand?”

I wanted to say something. Anything to make that terrible sadness disappear from her eyes, but no words came. So I just nodded.

She seemed to accept the gesture. “ Good, now we must leave town immediately. Get you to a hunter safe house where we can plan the next move.”

“What?” I said. “I can’t just leave. I’ve got school. My friends.”

“Don’t you understand?” Eva said, all the bitterness back in her voice. “Your life has changed forever. Everything you were before, every dream you thought you had, all of that is gone. And you can never go back. Ever.”

I rocked back, stunned by the outburst.

Eva caught herself and took a deep breath. “ I’m sorry, Jack,” she said softly, “ but that’s the way it is. That’s the way it is for all of us, I’m afraid.”

“OK,” I said, taking a deep breath, “I can do this.”

“Good,” said Eva. “I think it’s best if we stay on side roads until—”

“But I have to go see my Aunt Sophie first. Tell her what’s going on.”

“We don’t...”

“I’m going with or without you,” I said.

Eva weighed the options, then finally nodded. “Quickly, though, five minutes, then we’re out. Agreed?”

“Agreed,” I said.

She turned and walked up the path. I followed close behind.

“What were those things?” I asked.

“Harpies,” Eva said. “You find them in all the old books. Mostly the Greek fables. Brains the size of thimbles, they only get like that if someone trains them.”

“Who would do that?”

“Many of the Creach Lords keep harpies. They are useful for a variety of things.”

We reached the river again. Eva crouched down and we listened to the forest for a full minute. Finally, she seemed satisfied and we stood and continued down the path.

“What do you mean, Creach Lords?” I asked.

“You’re supposed to learn all of this in hunter school,” Eva said.

“Yeah, they didn’t offer that elective at Sunnyvale Middle School.”

Eva smiled. Just a quick one, but it was a smile. “The Creach is the term we use for all monsters. Comes from the word
creature
. The monsters have separated themselves into groups and each group has a leader.”

“So there’s a Lord of the Harpies?”

Eva laughed. “No, the lower monsters like the harpies are under the rule of whatever Lord owns them.”

“You mean like slaves?” I asked.

“It’s more like having dogs. Harpies are like pit bulls that have been trained to kill. No different. That’s why we don’t celebrate killing them. Someone made them that way. Someone drove them mad.”

“I saw the black string sewn through their mouths.”

“Yes,” Eva said. “That’s the sign of their owner.”

“You know who it is, don’t you?” I said.

Eva pointed to the lights twinkling through the trees. “Is that your house?”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“I will later, I promise. Right now, we have to gather your things and leave town.”

Just then, howls erupted in the distance. I had heard the sound in movies and on TV before, but never around here. Probably because this animal didn’t live anywhere near here. At least not for the last hundred years anyway. Still, there was no mistaking the sound. Wolves.

Eva shook her head. “Wouldn’t you know it.”

“What?” I asked, squinting into the dark forest in the direction of the sound.

“Werewolves,” Eva said, spitting the word out. “I can’t stand those guys.”

“Werewolves? Are you kidding me?” I said. The howls came again; this time, it seemed like they were right behind us. “Shouldn’t we get inside?”

“I need to see one first,” Eva whispered. “I want to know what variety we’re dealing with here.”

“There’s more than one variety of werewolf?” I asked. I spun around in a circle. The howls seemed to be coming from the tree line right next to us.

“Sure, there’s your garden-variety werewolf. Comes out on a full moon, only at night.”

“But there’s no full moon tonight,” I said.

“Exactly, so it rules that out,” Eva said quietly, eyes darting back and forth. “Which is a shame, because they’re the easiest to deal with. Then there are the Germanic, Burmese and South American types. Each one harder to kill than the last.”

Movement to my right caught my attention. As I looked into the black forest, two glowing red eyes appeared, seemingly suspended in midair. I stared back at them, mesmerized.

“The worst of the lot is the devil-werewolf,” Eva whispered. “Instead of a human that transforms into a wolf, it’s a demon that takes the wolf form. Almost impossible to kill. But we wouldn’t see one of those out here.”

“Let me guess,” I whispered. “The devil-werewolf is the only kind that has glowing red eyes.”

“Yeah,” she whispered back. “How did you know?”

“The way this day’s been going, I just figured.” I nudged her and pointed to the red eyes hovering in the dark.

The devil-werewolf stepped out from the trees and bared its teeth, snarling.

E
va pulled out her sword and stepped in front of me. Even though I had only met her hours before, I could tell this latest threat scared her. I raised my sword too, ready for anything.

The devil-werewolf stepped out farther from the trees.

It was larger than I could have possibly imagined. I guess there was no reason for me to expect a certain size or shape. I mean, what did I know about werewolves anyway? Still, when the beast came into full view, I could hardly breathe.

Even though it was on all fours, its head as high as my own. Its massive paws were tipped with nasty-looking claws. Black, greasy fur covered its enormous body. It shined in the little moonlight there was, like it was wet. But it was the face that really threw me.

I expected a wolf’s face. Instead, it was grotesque and hairless, like a stone gargoyle on an old church. Small, pointy ears. A long, twisted nose. A mouth filled with jagged teeth stretched open in a silent scream. The whole thing made it seem like the creature was in constant pain.

The glowing red eyes capped the whole thing off. They burned inside the devilwerewolf’s head, pulsing brighter and darker, as if in time to its pulse.

“Run to the house,” Eva hissed under her breath.

The devil-werewolf stopped and stared at both of us. Its breath came out in low grunts.

“I’m staying,” I said.

“I can handle this by myself,” Eva said. “Now go.”

“Make me,” I said.

Eva risked a look in my direction. If looks could kill, I’d be one dead monster hunter.

“Fine,” she said. “Suit yourself.”

We both looked at the devil-werewolf. Its eyes burned even brighter. It pawed the ground with its huge claws as it dragged a blood-red tongue across its teeth. It raised itself up on its back legs, balancing on its hindquarters. The creature was massive.

I shook in place, thinking that I should have taken Eva’s advice and ran while I had a chance.

The devil-werewolf took another step toward us. I took a step back, then noticed that Eva had held her ground. Swallowing my fear, I stepped back into position, shoulder-toshoulder with Eva.

“Any advice?” I whispered to her.

“Yes,” she replied. “Don’t die.”

The devil-werewolf took another step, but this one was different. Its leg seemed to twist and shift shape. Then it was the other leg. The arms. Everything contorted, muscle and skin twisting and churning. Slowly, painfully, the devil-werewolf transformed into its human form right before our eyes. And if that wasn’t crazy enough, it was actually the human it turned into that left my mouth hanging open in shock.

Aunt Sophie.

And even though the woman who had raised me my whole life had just transformed from a werewolf right in front of my eyes, all I felt was embarrassment. Aunt Sophie stood in front of us completely naked. I lowered my sword and turned my back. Eva didn’t budge. “ What are you doing?” she hissed.

“Jack, I am so sorry you have to find out this way,” Aunt Sophie said. “There have been so many times I’ve wanted to tell you.”

Eva looked back and forth between Aunt Sophie and myself. “Wait, you know her?”

“Yeah, she raised me,” I said.

Aunt Sophie spoke quietly. “I felt it when you broke the seal and attacked a Creach. I’ve been searching the forest ever since. Finally, I came back to see if you were already here.”

“Uh…Aunt Sophie,” I said.

“Yes, hon?” she said.

“Can I ask you to do something for me?”

“Anything. You name it.”

“Do you think you could put some clothes on?”

Aunt Sophie laughed, covering herself with her arms. “Sorry, of course. Let’s walk to the house.”

She led the way. Eva never lowered her sword even once while we were standing in my backyard . Aunt Sophie walked over to where a robe hung on a hook against the garden shed and put it on.

“Sorry about that,” she said. “Right after I’ve been a wolf, my human instincts take a while to come back. Modesty about being naked being one of them. ”