The Hunt (19 page)

Luke reached Eve’s side seconds after Helena issued the command. He had his sword at the ready, but the hellhounds didn’t move towards Eve. A few sniffed at the fallen alpha. The others wandered aimlessly, moaning and howling.

‘Kill her!’ Helena shrieked. ‘Now!’

The demon dogs turned, but not towards Eve, towards Helena. Many of them were salivating.
They’re hungry
, Eve realized with horror.

Helena advanced on the pack, her body tense with anger. ‘You heard me. Kill her. Now!’

The wargs began to get twitchy, as if they were agitated by her shrill voice. ‘Helena, don’t. You’re upsetting them,’ Eve warned. She kept her own voice calm, although adrenalin was pumping through her.

‘Her. Kill
her
. Now, now, now!’ With each ‘now’ Helena jabbed her finger in Eve’s direction. ‘Now!’ she cried again. When she started to make another jab, one of the demons leaped up and caught her arm in its jaws.

That was all it took, one warg moving.

Instantly a feeding frenzy started, with hellhounds biting and clawing at any part of Helena’s body they could reach. ‘Stop! I’m your master!’ Helena wailed.

Helena screamed again. The sound turned Eve’s whole body to gooseflesh. She threw out her hands, aiming at the closest hellhound. She wasn’t surprised when only a pale fizzing flicker of lightning left her fingers. That last blast had taken everything out of her.

Jess tugged at Eve’s sleeve. ‘There’s nothing you can do, Evie. We have to go.’

Eve hadn’t realized Jess had come down from the tree. Her attention had been riveted by the pack. It was like looking into a pot of boiling black water. The demons were climbing over each other in their fever to get to Helena.

‘We can’t leave her to be ripped apart by wargs,’ Eve protested. ‘No matter how evil she is.’

‘Jess is right,’ Luke said. ‘We can’t save her. There are too many of them.’ He began to back slowly away
from the demon dogs, gesturing Eve and Jess to come with him. ‘They aren’t going to be satisfied with Helena. When they’re done, they might turn on us if we’re still here. Without their alpha, the pack is unpredictable.’

Eve knew he was right, and she began backing away too, although leaving Helena there felt so wrong. When they were a few paces away from the hellhounds Luke said, ‘I think we’re good to run. They aren’t going to notice anything until all her blood is gone.’

‘Yeah, let’s go.’ Eve took one last look at the dogs. She couldn’t see Helena. The pack was crowded too tightly around her.

Eve turned and ran, Luke and Jess beside her.

Luke kept glancing from Eve to Jess as they ran. He couldn’t quite believe they’d all actually escaped from the pack alive. Wild exhilaration filled him, but underneath it he felt a grim, cold sense of doom. When they started to pass Helena’s house, he stopped.

‘Out of breath already?’ Jess teased, panting.

‘We have to figure out how to close the portal. And the best chance we have is to search in there.’ He jerked his chin at the house.

‘You’re right. Something new could be coming through right now,’ Eve said. ‘We need to find out what we can.’ Luke had thought she might be freaked out after what they’d just gone through, but she was rock strong. So was Jess.

‘Let’s do this,’ Jess said. ‘Then the hair masque. I’ll give you one too,’ she told Luke. ‘Although your hair is already so pretty.’ She ruffled his long bangs, and Luke grinned.

‘I’d think I’d rather face another demon than whatever a hair masque is,’ he told her as he led the way to the house. The collapsed section of roof blocked part of the front door, but it still opened and they managed to squeeze inside.

‘Helena’s bedroom’s down the hall to the left,’ Jess announced. ‘She had everybody in the squad over for lunch when she made head cheerleader.’

Luke snorted. ‘Head cheerleader! People died over who got to be head cheerleader.’

‘Head cheerleader is a position of honour, leadership and responsibility,’ Jess said. It sounded as if she were quoting something. ‘A real head cheerleader would never make a deal with a bunch of disgusting demons.’

‘I’m thinking she must have made the deal with the
alpha warg only,’ Luke answered. ‘The others can’t speak, and they aren’t as intelligent.’

‘That’s why it didn’t work when she ordered the rest of the hellhounds to kill me,’ Eve said. ‘They didn’t have a bargain with her.’

‘Maybe they didn’t even understand what she said.’ Jess led the way into Helena’s room.

‘Not what I was expecting,’ Eve said. ‘It’s so … normal. I was expecting the Lair of the Warg Queen.’

‘That would be in here,’ Jess said. She had opened the door of the walk-in closet.

Luke moved closer to look inside. He immediately saw what Jess meant. The free walls and even part of the ceiling were covered with pictures of demons. Fluorescent Post-it notes dotted the images. He stepped into the closet, flicked on the light and read one aloud: ‘ “Lix Tetrax. Controls the four winds! Cool!” ’ The exclamation points were big and puffy – so girly. ‘How could a normal girl do something like what she did?’

Luke pulled the Lix Tetrax picture off the wall. ‘I’m taking these. I’m going to start a database with everything we find out about demons. Just in case.’

Eve leaned into the closet. ‘I wonder if one of these is what Mal really looked like.’

‘Don’t think about it. Help me search the room while Luke handles the closet,’ Jess said ‘I want to find out how to close the portal and get out of here.’

‘I’ll look on the computer,’ Eve answered.

Luke began reading the other Post-its and looking at the pictures to see if one showed something like the arch, taking down the pictures as he went. He needed a chair to get the stuff on the ceiling. ‘Any luck?’ he asked Eve as he walked out of the closet to fetch one.

She shook her head. She looked exhausted, with dark smudges under her eyes, her shoulders drooping as she sat in front of the computer. Luke moved up behind her and began to massage them. Probably not a good idea. He’d promised himself to stop thinking about Eve
that way
. There was no point, since she only thought of him as a gal pal.

That’s why he’d asked out Briony. He’d thought going out with her would make him forget how much he was starting to really like Eve. Instead, whenever he was with her, he kept mentally comparing her to Eve, and Eve always came out ahead, even though Briony was great.

‘Thanks,’ Eve said. She let her head drop forward, so he had more access to her shoulders and back. Luke
continued his massage, imagining her silky skin beneath his fingers.

‘Found it!’ Jess cried.

‘How to close the portal?’ Eve spun round in her chair, Luke’s hands falling free.

‘Well, not exactly. But hopefully,’ Jess said. ‘I found Helena’s diary. A whole bunch of them actually.’ She held out a stack of brightly coloured journals of different sizes. ‘I flipped through a few pages. There’s definitely stuff about demons.’

‘Let’s take them with us,’ Luke suggested. ‘I’m going to get the rest of the stuff from the closet. You two make sure there’s nothing else important around.’

‘Story time.’ Jess passed the diaries out when they were back at her house with everything they’d collected from Helena’s.

Luke dropped down on the sofa and opened one with smiling butterflies on the front. The pages inside were filled with large, careful printing and a lot of crayon drawings. Helena had started keeping a diary young. He quickly flipped through the pages. One sentence caught his attention, sending a spike of horror through him: ‘Mommy says I’m special.’

It was a normal thing for a little girl to write. But
did her mother mean that Helena was special the way most parents thought their kids were special? Or did Helena’s mom mean that Helena was special because she’d have the power to open the portal one day?

He set the diary aside and opened a larger one, covered in slick neon green leather. ‘You have to hear this,’ Jess said, before he could start reading. She held up a diary with a googly-eyed kitten on the front. ‘I think Helena wrote it in about the fifth grade. Listen. “I feel like a princess in a fairy tale. I can open a door to a hidden world. I wish there were fairies or pixies there instead of ugly demons. Mom says the demons won’t ever hurt me or anybody in my family though.” ’ Jess shook her head. ‘Can you believe that, Eve?’

Her friend didn’t answer. ‘Eve?’ Jess asked.

She slowly looked up from the journal she’d been reading. ‘Sorry. I hardly heard you. This is the most recent diary. Helena got obsessed with demons. Obviously, right? Anyway, apparently the portal had to be opened on midsummer’s eve. Helena wanted to do it herself, so she could be the one to let Malphas through. Let me read this part.’

She took a breath, and began. ‘ “My mother refuses to turn over the responsibility to me, even though I
know more about demons than she ever will. I told her I’d begun studying the dark arts on my own. I was trying to prove that I was the one who should honour the pact between Lord Medway and Malphas. I’ve even managed to raise a few minor demons. Only for a few minutes, but still. But Mom just freaked and had a fit, going on and on and on about how dangerous that was, and how it completely proved her point that I wasn’t ready to go anywhere near the portal. She also said that even if she did think I was mature enough, it wouldn’t matter. The power is only given to the oldest Medway descendant, and that was her, not me.” ’

‘I wonder what Lord Medway got out of that pact she was talking about,’ Luke said. ‘Did he use demons to kill people who pissed him off too? Or did he get some other kind of pay-off?’

‘Well, he was pretty rich,’ Jess offered. ‘You’ve seen the mansion. Imagine it back in the day.’

‘What else is in there, Eve?’ Luke asked. ‘The most recent diary seems the most likely place to find what we need. She wrote it during the time the portal was opened.’

‘And should have been closed,’ Jess added.

Eve quickly scanned the pages. ‘Oh, lovely. Here’s a
rant about me and how I keep wearing slutty clothes to get Kyle to notice me.’ She flipped a page and the diary began to tremble in her shaking fingers.

‘What?’ Luke asked, alarmed.

‘I think … oh my God.’

‘Eve?’ Jess rushed over to the armchair where Eve sat. ‘What is it?’

‘I think Helena might have … might have killed her mother,’ Eve choked out.

Jess gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. Luke felt a cold numbness seep through his body. Killed her own mother? Could she have been
that
evil?

‘This part was written after the portal was opened,’ Eve whispered. ‘Helena’s mother refused to let her even watch. Helena was furious.’

‘Read it,’ Jess urged.

‘ “I’ve been thinking about how only the oldest Medway descendant can control the portal and something yummy occurred to me,” ’ Eve read aloud. ‘ “All it would take to become the oldest descendant is for Mommy to die. Why didn’t I think of this before? I could have opened the portal!” ’

Eve turned the page and continued. ‘ “But no worries. Lord Medway made a pact with Malphas. Two of them, actually. That first one where he sold his
soul for tons of money. And then the deal to get his soul back, the one about getting his descendants to open the portal every hundred years to allow Malphas and his demon minions to feed. Why couldn’t I make my own pact? I’m sure Malphas would like more access to this world. And for more access he’ll have to agree to do more than leave the family alone and return great-great-great-etc.’s soul. Much more. All I have to do is make sure my mother is no longer with us when it’s time for the portal to close.” ’

Eve stopped reading and looked up. ‘She talks about killing her mother like it’s nothing. Like it’s a little chore to be crossed off her to-do list before the date when the portal had to be closed. Listen to this part.’ Eve took a breath and began to read again. ‘ “I’ll just make Mommy a nice chopped salad. The roots of water hemlock will blend right in. HECATE11 said on her blog that it takes effect really fast and is native to North America.” ’

‘She poisoned her own mother.’ Jess covered her mouth with her palm.

‘I don’t want to say Helena got what she deserved,’ Luke said, ‘because nobody deserves what happened tonight.’ He thought about the demons fighting for a taste of her blood. ‘Nobody. But if you’re willing to
commit murder to have the chance to negotiate with a demon …’ He shrugged.

‘Every choice she made brought her closer to what happened tonight,’ Jess commented.

‘Was it even choice, really?’ Eve asked. ‘From what Helena wrote, Lord Medway made a pact that involved his family for ever. If I was the descendent of Lord Medway instead of the Deepdene Witch, would I—’

Luke refused to let her finish. ‘No,’ he told her. ‘No way. Look at Helena’s mom. She didn’t use the power she had over demons to bring more evil into our world.’

‘She didn’t stop it either,’ Jess said.

‘Maybe she didn’t know how. Why would she?’ Eve asked. ‘She was planning to close the portal. Maybe that’s all she could do.’

‘Helena must have instructions somewhere for how to shut it again.’ Luke returned to his journal, skimming, ignoring everything that didn’t have to do with the portal. It needed to be closed now. Before the hellhounds came back to this side and killed more people. Before some new demon came through.

‘Nothing useful in mine,’ he said about an hour later.

‘Mine either.’ Jess set down the journal she held.

‘I only have a couple of pages to go in this, the most recent one.’ Eve read in silence for a few minutes, then shook her head.

‘Maybe it’s something the Medways never wrote down,’ Jess suggested. ‘Maybe the information about the portal and the pact is passed down orally.’

‘Makes sense,’ Luke answered. ‘It would be extremely dangerous to have the details written down. Anyone could find them.’

‘But only a Medway could use the information,’ Eve reminded him. She dropped the journal she held. ‘Only a Medway. And Helena was the oldest descendant. We don’t know if there even is another Medway. Maybe she was the last of them.’ She raised her hand to her mouth, as if she didn’t want to say the words that came next. ‘Even if we do find out exactly how to close the portal, we won’t be able to do it ourselves. We’re not Medways. This is hopeless!’