The Hunt (13 page)

She reached out a hand and used her palm to slide Payne’s eyes closed. She could have learned so much from him. And she knew that, as a demon fighter himself, he would have understood her in a way that even Jess and Luke didn’t. They could understand a lot. They’d even experienced a lot themselves. But it wasn’t quite the same.

‘We have to figure out a way to contact the Order.
They need to know what happened to Payne,’ Eve said.

‘And what’s still happening here,’ Luke said. ‘It would be great if we could get reinforcements.’

‘The first thing we have to do is call an ambulance,’ Jess said.

‘He doesn’t need one, not any more,’ Luke answered.

‘And what would we say?’ Eve asked. ‘We can’t exactly tell people that he was killed by a pack of demons. They’d send us straight to Ridgewood. I know it’s the poshest mental hospital in the state, but still.’

‘We can figure out something to tell them. We can’t leave his body out here. What if those things come back and tear him up?’ Jess hugged herself. ‘We can’t just leave him.’

Eve reached out and squeezed her best friend’s hand. Jess looked wiped, and she knew she probably looked even worse. They were all in shock.

‘I better go help Vic down,’ Jess said. She turned and headed back towards the trees.

‘I guess we just say we found a body that looks like it’s been mauled by wild animals.’ Luke pulled his jacket on, hiding Payne’s sword on his back. Then he
took his cell out of his jacket pocket. ‘We don’t have to tell them we saw it happen.’

Eve nodded. ‘Do you think Victoria got a good look at the demons though? What do you think she’ll say to the paramedics?’

‘Doesn’t matter what she says,’ Luke answered. ‘If she starts talking about how the dogs had hideous half-human faces, they’ll just think she’s losing it because she’s scared. Which she probably is.’

‘Yeah, you’re right. Luke …?’ Eve hesitated.

‘What?’

‘Did you hear the first demon dog say something?’

‘Yeah. It said, “I don’t forget.” But you know what? We don’t either. That puppy is—’

‘I just wasn’t sure,’ Eve interrupted him. ‘I thought it might be like the markings on the arch, something only I could understand. I’m glad you heard it too.’

‘I definitely did,’ he said. ‘Ambulance?’

‘Yeah. Call,’ Eve said. She gazed across the clearing, checking on Jess and Vic. Vic was almost out of the tree. As Eve watched, she jumped from a low branch to the ground and Jess wrapped her in a hug.

Eve pushed herself to her feet and turned away from Payne’s body. From this angle the clearing was beautiful, the ground crunching with newly fallen
leaves, surrounded by trees, with a half-moon high in the sky. Eve loved half-moons. The shape seemed happy somehow, a sideways smile. On a different night, in a Deepdene without demons, she could imagine herself sitting there staring up at the moon for dreamy hours. Maybe even with a late-night picnic. Would Luke think that was silly?

‘They’re on their way,’ Luke said, pulling Eve away from her thoughts. Her silly thoughts. Before anyone could picnic in the woods there were demons to kill. She was the Deepdene Witch. She was responsible for the safety of her town and everyone who lived there.

‘Do you think it’s OK if I take Vic home?’ Jess asked as she and Victoria joined them. ‘She’s wrecked. She doesn’t need to be questioned about every detail. She needs to get herself into a tub of vanilla-cupcake bubble bath, put on a cooling eye mask and listen to “Soul Meets Body” a whole bunch of times.’

‘Eve and I can handle things,’ Luke replied. ‘We’re going to say we stumbled on the body. It’s dark. We’ll say we didn’t see anything. There’s no reason all four of us have to be here.’

‘I was just going to visit Helena,’ Victoria said, her voice sounding somehow mechanical. ‘My mom said
I could.’ She stared out into the clearing, but Eve got the feeling she wasn’t really seeing anything. She was lost in the darkness in her head.

‘That’s all she’s said since I got her out of the tree,’ Jess murmured.

‘Just trying to visit Helena,’ Vic repeated.

‘I know, sweetie. It’s OK,’ Jess said. She patted Vic’s shoulder.

‘I wanted to be there for her. She’s still so upset about Kyle.’ Vic was starting to sound a little more like her regular self. She turned to Jess. ‘I was trying to do something good.’ Tears sprang into her eyes. ‘Bad things shouldn’t happen when you’re trying to do something good.’

‘I know, I know,’ Jess crooned. ‘Come on. Let’s get you home now.’ She looped an arm around Vic’s shoulders and led her away. It looked like Victoria had just learned to walk. She kept tottering, and only Jess’s arm held her upright.

Eve felt like she could use some holding up too, and, as if he’d read her thoughts, Luke put an arm around her shoulders. ‘Another wild Friday night in Deepdene, huh?’

‘Yeah, we know how to party around here.’ Eve let her head rest against Luke’s shoulder. What would she
do without him? Every time things got bad, there he was, ready to help.

‘You’re not alone in all this,’ Luke said. ‘Yes, you’re the big cheese and all, the Deepdene Witch. You have the powers, and you can read markings no one else can, but that doesn’t mean you have to deal with this whole situation by yourself. Until the demon creatures are gone, you’re not going to be able to get rid of me.’

Relief and comfort flooded her. ‘I don’t want to,’ Eve admitted. ‘Without you – you and Jess – I think I truly would end up in Ridgewood. Or I’d just be dead. My power was almost gone when I zapped that demon tonight. If you hadn’t thrown the holy water, who knows what would have happened?’

‘We don’t need to know, because I did,’ Luke answered. ‘I hear the paramedics.’

A few seconds later, a man and a woman in uniform burst into the dark clearing, each holding one end of a stretcher. They went directly to Payne, and the man crouched down to check for a pulse. It took a couple of tries. His fingers kept sliding in the blood on Payne’s throat.

‘He’s gone,’ he finally pronounced. ‘His jugular’s slashed. At least he didn’t suffer as much as …’ He
broke off, seeming to remember Eve and Luke’s presence. ‘The police are going to want to talk to you two. They’re on the way. We’ll meet them at the ambulance.’

In a few well-practised moves the paramedics loaded Payne’s body onto the stretcher. They carried it across the clearing, then through the woods, zigzagging around the trees. Eve and Luke followed behind them, holding hands, their feet crunching in the fallen leaves. It felt for a minute like they were Hansel and Gretel, wandering through a dangerous and terrifying forest.

When they broke back onto the sidewalk, they saw a police cruiser parked next to the ambulance. Two cops climbed out. One of them gestured Eve and Luke over, while the other strode to the paramedics.

They dropped hands as they walked to him, and Eve’s hand felt much colder than it should have without Luke’s warmth. ‘What the hell were you kids thinking, being in the woods? At night. After two people were killed there in the last couple of weeks,’ the cop demanded.

Eve recognized him. She recognized most people in Deepdene. She’d lived there her whole life. The cop was Officer Huft, Darby Huft’s dad. He’d come to the
middle school once to give a talk on Halloween safety. He’d seemed a lot more friendly then.

She swallowed hard and tried to explain. ‘We just …’ Just what? Why would they have been in the woods?

‘We just wanted to be alone for a while,’ Luke said, moving a little closer to Eve.

Mr Huft shook his head, disgusted. ‘You can’t go around thinking with your …’ He stopped. ‘You’re both old enough to realize the danger here. I wish I had photos of the other bodies to show you. They were covered in bites and claw marks, and there was no blood left in them. Do you get that? This isn’t a TV show. It isn’t some damn video game. It’s real. And it’s only blind luck that we aren’t putting two more bodies in there.’ He pointed to the ambulance.

‘Yes, sir,’ Eve said.

Luke nodded.

‘All right. Tell me what happened. You went into the woods looking for some alone time.’ Mr Huft snorted. ‘And—’

‘We weren’t planning to go very far in. I knew there was a clearing. I thought it would be a good place to hang out,’ Luke said. Mr Huft gave another snort. Eve couldn’t help thinking about how Luke’s explanation
was sort of like her daydream of them on a picnic.

‘As soon as we got to the clearing, we knew something was wrong,’ she jumped in. ‘In the moonlight we saw someone lying in the grass, lying really still.’

‘We ran over. But when we got closer, it was clear he was dead. There was so much blood around the wound on his throat,’ Luke said.

‘Did either of you touch him?’ Mr Huft asked.

‘I closed his eyes,’ Eve volunteered.

‘I think I put my head on his chest,’ Luke said. ‘Like I said, as soon as I got a good look at him, I knew he was dead. But I guess I panicked. I got down next to him and kind of shook him a little. Then I listened to his chest to see if I could hear a heartbeat.’

Good. Luke had explained away the evidence the police might find around Payne’s body. At least the signs that she and Luke were there. They’d see evidence of the demon dogs too, but they’d think the animals had left before she and Luke arrived.

‘Have you ever seen the man before?’ Mr Huft asked.

‘Around school and outside the church at Kyle Rakoff ‘s funeral,’ Eve replied.

‘We actually saw him in Java Nation once too,’ Luke added. ‘We figured he was one of the reporters
covering the killings. Reporters were all over the place.’

Mr Huft wrote briefly in a small spiral notebook. ‘Did you see anything else out there? Animal, human, anything.’

‘Maybe a squirrel or something,’ Eve answered. ‘I wasn’t really paying attention when we were walking in, and then …’

She leaned against the hood of the cruiser, the events of the past hour flooding back through her. She could feel again the horrified shock as the demon creature
spoke
to her, the grief over Payne’s death, even the pride she felt helping Luke strap on the sheath for the sword. Her body felt boneless, her muscles watery. It was as if all her strength had surged out of her along with her power.

‘It’s all hitting you now,’ Mr Huft said. ‘You have to learn to think about things before they happen, not after.’ He opened the back door of the cruiser. ‘Get in. I’ll need to take you to the station to get your statements, then I’ll run you both home. Going to take their statements,’ he called to his partner as Eve and Luke slid into the back seat.

The time it took for Mr Huft to take their statements and drive to Eve’s house was much too short. It
was definitely not going to go unnoticed that she was being returned home in a police cruiser, and she hadn’t managed to come up with any explanation that wouldn’t give her parents heart failure.

‘OK if I walk her to the door?’ Luke asked.

‘Yeah. And while you’re up there, tell her parents that you two wanted to be alone in the woods with a wild animal,’ Mr Huft said.

Luke climbed out of the car and held out his hand to help Eve out. He really could be such a sweetie sometimes. Actually, lately it was most of the time.

‘You want me to help you talk to your parents?’ he asked when they reached the porch.

‘Better if I do it alone, I think,’ Eve said.

The front door swung open. ‘Eve! What’s going on?’ her mother exclaimed.

‘I’ll explain everything, but Mr Huft is waiting to drive Luke home,’ Eve said. She turned to Luke. ‘Let’s meet up at the library tomorrow to do research for that paper we have due.’

‘On ancient architecture,’ Luke replied, referencing the arch to show he knew what she meant.

‘First thing when it opens,’ Eve said.

He turned and started down the steps. Eve felt a pang, as if something inside her had snapped. Luke
turned back. ‘Bye, Mrs Evergold. Bye, Eve.’ He waved and gave her one of his classic Luke smiles. And somehow, miraculously, it made her feel a little better.

‘Call me when you want to come home,’ Eve’s mother instructed as she pulled into the library parking lot the next morning. ‘And don’t take a step outside that building until I get here.’

‘Mom, it’ll be the middle of the day. I can—’

‘No,’ her mother interrupted. ‘It’s bad enough that you almost got yourself killed last night—’

‘I did not,’ Eve protested, although it wasn’t entirely true. ‘I just found that guy.’

‘Because you were walking around town,’ her mother said. ‘Which you will not do again until the police catch these vicious animals.’

Eve sighed. ‘OK.’ She grabbed her bag and got out of the car.

Her mother rolled down the window. ‘You call me, Eve!’

‘I will! I promise!’ It was October, but it was warm enough that the library had the door leading to the parking lot propped open to let in some of the lovely fresh air.

Eve walked inside and instantly spotted Jess and
Luke. They’d taken the table closest to the door. ‘It’s almost like being outside,’ Jess said, gesturing to the sun coming in. ‘Well, sort of. By which I mean, not at all.’

‘I don’t know if I’ll ever be allowed outside again,’ Eve groaned. ‘My mom insisted on driving me.’

Jess pointed to herself and nodded.

‘My dad dropped me off too,’ Luke added.

‘Our Luke has been busy,’ Jess told Eve. ‘He found some stuff online last night, but he wouldn’t tell me anything until you got here.’ She gave an exaggerated pout that quickly slid into a smile.

‘Only because I didn’t want to have to repeat everything,’ Luke said.

‘Also, I waited until now to ask him if he is wearing a puka shell necklace without a trace of irony,’ Jess said. ‘I didn’t want him to have to repeat his answer either. So?’

‘People wear them in Santa Cruz – what can I say?’ Luke fingered the tiny round shells strung on a rawhide cord. ‘Am I a candidate for
What Not to Wear
again?’

Eve and Jess exchanged a look and smiled. Luke was such a tease that sometimes it took both of them to tease him back properly.

‘No, you’re good,’ Eve told him. ‘If someone like Dave Perry tried to pull it off – forget it. But you make it work somehow. Maybe it’s your California cool.’