The Hunt (6 page)

‘Until Evie got Mal to vomit the souls back up. Don’t forget that part,’ Luke said. ‘We won last time. If we have to fight a demon again, we’ll win again.’

‘But even if we do, I won’t be able to save Kyle. He’s being buried right now.’ Eve could see Kyle’s family gathering graveside in the small cemetery next to the church. They’d asked that the burial be private. Eve gripped her coffee so tightly that the cardboard cup buckled, sloshing the hot liquid onto her new coat with the asymmetrical flounced hem.

‘Get that directly to the dry-cleaners,’ Jess said, eyeing the spot.

‘Yeah,’ Eve agreed, her eyes still on the cemetery, her thoughts still on Kyle. The man in the trench coat was looking over there too, watching as Kyle’s mother sobbed. Eve felt a stab of anger. ‘That reporter is a ghoul,’ she muttered. ‘How can he stand having a job where all he does is skulk around grieving people, trying to sniff out some news? Go home, Trench!’

Jess nodded. ‘Yeah! And take your ugly boots with you.’

The guy in the trench coat was too far away to hear them. He didn’t glance away from the graveyard.

‘OK, let’s think it through, and somebody warn me if Trench comes this way,’ Luke said, half joking, half
serious. ‘We have the wood-smoke smell, a death that doesn’t match any known animals, even though it looks like an animal attack … anything else?’

Eve considered the question for a moment, then shook her head.

‘So first up we need to figure out what we’re dealing with. That means research,’ Luke said. ‘I still haven’t finished translating all the papers we found in the church. I should have kept working on it, but once Mal was dealt with I let it slide.’

Reverend Simon, who’d been Deepdene Church’s minister before Luke’s dad, had given clues in his journal about where the papers with information vital to destroying Malphas could be found.

‘Do you think those papers would even have anything about other demons?’ Jess asked. ‘Reverend Simon only wrote about a master demon that would return every hundred years – and that was Malphas.’

‘The papers were from all over, some of them written centuries ago,’ Luke replied. ‘I didn’t find anything in the parts I read that seemed to be about a different kind of demon, but who knows what other information could be in them? If the men who wrote
about Malphas knew about other demons, it makes sense they’d include the info.’

‘There’s also the Internet,’ Eve said. She shifted her body towards Luke so that she couldn’t see the graveyard. ‘That’s where you found out about the first Deepdene Witch, Luke.’ Eve’s brow furrowed. ‘Sometimes I still can’t believe I’m her descendant.’ She shook her head. ‘So, research this weekend?’

‘Dyeah,’ Jess said. It was one of the first words they’d come up with together, a combo of ‘duh’ and ‘yeah’.

‘Dyeah,’ Luke agreed.

‘You don’t even know what you’re saying,’ Jess accused him. ‘Dyeah’ was part of Eve and Jess’s bestfriend vocab, and outsiders didn’t speak that language.

‘Duh, yeah, I do,’ Luke answered. ‘It doesn’t exactly require a code breaker to understand you two.’

Eve knew that was true. The words weren’t even supposed to be code. They were just shorthand, or words for things that should already have words but didn’t. Luke was the first person to ever jump in and start using the words too, like they belonged to him as well.
I guess demon hunting together creates a bond that’s almost like the one between BFFs
, she decided.

‘When we meet up, you should get in some more practice time on your powers,’ Luke told Eve. ‘You were awesome that night against Mal, but—’

‘But I’m not exactly in control.’

‘Yeah. Ask my jacket,’ Luke joked.

‘That night I was so scared and angry.’ She didn’t mention the strange attraction to Mal that had almost overcome her, even after she’d realized he was a demon. That wasn’t something she wanted to share with anyone. It was too strange, too unsettling. ‘And the power just came out. Whoosh.’

‘I know you can learn to pull the trigger whenever you need to, no matter how you’re feeling. You just need to practise,’ Luke said.

‘Until then, I always know how to make you mad,’ Jess added. ‘I can help you practise by borrowing your lip gloss.’ She looked over at Luke. ‘FYI, that always makes her go mental, in case you need her powers fast.’

‘Good to know, even though I only wear lip gloss on special occasions,’ Luke said.

‘Until we deal with this new demon – if it even is a demon – I’m going to need you to stay close,’ Eve told Luke. ‘No one makes me as mad as fast as you do, lipstick or not.’

‘Not a problem. Whenever you need me to enrage you, I’ll be there,’ Luke promised. His tone was light, but his green eyes were serious. She really could count on him. She knew that in her gut.

‘Me too,’ Jess said.

‘You two are the best,’ Eve told them. ‘The absolute best.’

‘True,’ Luke answered. ‘Also, I figure that the safest place to be with a demon around is with the Deepdene Witch.’

Before Eve could reply, her mom called to her from the church steps. ‘Eve, we need to get going.’

‘OK,’ Eve called back. She turned to her friends. ‘I’ll text you about getting together.’

‘Demon, prepare to have your ass kicked,’ Jess said. ‘Or do you think there might be more than one?’

‘Maybe there’s not one at all,’ Luke replied. ‘But it doesn’t matter. Road-tripping mountain lion, mutant dog, demon – we can handle the kicking of any of those asses.’

‘Eve,’ her mother called again. Patience wasn’t high on her list of virtues.

‘Gotta go,’ Eve told Jess and Luke. ‘Bye.’ She hurried across the courtyard towards her parents, but something made her pause. She wanted to see Luke’s face
one more time before she left. Somehow, when the madness got going, he made her feel strong. She glanced over her shoulder – and found him already looking at her.

His expression was gripping, sending a quiver through her body from head to toe. Eve found it hard to turn away from his intense gaze. She tore her eyes away from him, but her mind was whirling.

What on earth was that?
she wondered.

‘Substitute in math. Ms T is out,’ Ben told Luke as they passed each other in the hall before last period on Thursday, almost a week after Kyle’s funeral.

Cool
, Luke thought. Ms Taylor could be kind of a hardass. It would be a nice break to have a sub. Often, a sub meant a chance to get some homework done in class. That would free up time after school to keep working on translating the papers that had been hidden in the church. It had been more than a week since Kyle was killed, and Luke still hadn’t found anything useful on the new demon, if a demon was what they were dealing with.

There hadn’t been any more attacks, so he was starting to hope it had been some kind of strange animal, maybe one that was lost and hurt and scared and so it attacked Kyle before it crawled off onto the beach and got washed away.

It didn’t seem likely.

There were still a lot of Latin pages to get through. Somewhere in them could be some vital info. Even though Luke’s dad had insisted that Luke start studying Latin in elementary school – he claimed it was the basis of pretty much everything – it was still taking for ever to work his way through the material.

Eve was already in her seat when he walked into the room for math. He flopped down at the desk across the aisle from her. Ms Taylor wasn’t a hardass about stuff like who sat where, just about turning in homework on time and actually learning the material. You got behind in Ms T’s class and you started getting private tutoring from her, whether you wanted it or not.

‘Hey,’ Luke said to Eve, glancing at the sub, who was standing awkwardly at the front of the room, waiting for the bell to ring. She didn’t seem to know what to do with her hands, putting them in her pockets, then clasping them behind her, then almost immediately pressing them against her sides. Most subs were a little nervous, but this one seemed like she was ready to bolt from the room.

‘Do we look that scary?’ Eve whispered.

‘You do,’ Luke answered.

Eve automatically reached up to smooth her hair. Luke smiled, until he noticed the scorch mark on the side of her hand. ‘How did you do that?’ he asked. The bell hadn’t rung yet to start class, but this wasn’t a conversation anyone else should be hearing. ‘Was it …?’ He wiggled his fingers, pantomiming power shooting out.

‘Kind of,’ Eve admitted. ‘I was
practising
, and I accidentally set my bed frame on fire. Just a little section. I got this’ – she flexed her hand – ‘putting it out. I think I’m going to move all future sessions to the bathtub.’

‘At least you’re getting a little control. Were you …
emotional
when you lit up the bed frame?’ Luke had the urge to reach over and try to smooth away the burn mark with his fingers. Or maybe it was just the urge to touch her.

‘No. I’m getting a handle on doing it cold. But it still takes way too long,’ Eve replied. ‘How’s it going on your side? Find out anything?’

‘No. Some old parish papers are mixed in with the other stuff. I spent last night translating what ended up being a sermon about sloth,’ Luke answered.

James Frankel dropped into the seat in front of
Luke. They would have to continue this particular conversation later.

‘I can’t believe Ms Taylor’s out,’ James commented. ‘She seems like the type who would just refuse to get sick.’

‘Yeah, hard to imagine her bowing down to some random bacteria,’ Luke agreed. Eve frowned. ‘What?’ he asked.

‘Ms Taylor’s car was in the parking lot before school. At least, I’m pretty sure it was.’ Her cheeks turned a little pink. ‘Jess and I say good morning to it sometimes, because it’s so cute. I want a Mini Cooper.’

‘You don’t have a licence,’ James reminded her.

‘I want one just to sit in,’ Eve explained. ‘I do think I saw her car today. I guess it could have been yesterday, but I can really picture it this morning.’

‘When you stopped to talk to it,’ Luke teased.

‘Hey, Ms McHugh,’ James called out, reading her name off the board. The sub started. ‘What’s up with Ms Taylor?’

‘I … I don’t know the details,’ Ms McHugh answered.

Luke thought she was lying. Being a minister’s son had given him a fairly accurate lie detector; people always lied to his dad, trying to pretend they were
better behaved than they actually were. Ms McHugh was probably lying because there was a rule about subs giving out personal teacher info, even just something like, ‘She has the flu.’

‘Ms Taylor’s car is outside,’ Eve said.

‘I don’t know anything about that,’ Ms McHugh said. ‘All I know is she didn’t call the office to let them know she wouldn’t be here, and she didn’t leave any lesson plans.’ She bit her lip as if she hadn’t planned to tell them that.

There was a rush of people through the door, just beating the bell. Ms McHugh scurried behind the desk and pulled out the clipboard Ms Taylor used for the attendance sheets. As she started calling names, Eve leaned across the aisle. ‘I don’t like this,’ she said.

‘Maybe she got here, wasn’t feeling well and one of the other teachers drove her home,’ Luke suggested. ‘Except then the office would have known.’

‘Do you think …?’

Eve didn’t finish the sentence, but Luke knew what she was asking. ‘I think we’d better pick up the pace on the research.’

When Ms McHugh finished calling roll, Luke tapped Eve lightly on the arm. ‘Follow my lead,’ he
said under his breath. He raised his hand. The sub pointed at him. ‘Yes?’

‘My study partner, Eve, and I are working on a special project.’ He could practically feel his brain clicking as he tried to come up with a project involving math that would require the library. ‘We’re writing a report on the origins of algebra in Babylonia.’ Jess wasn’t the only one who watched the Discovery Channel. ‘Could we get a library pass to work on it?’

‘It’s for extra credit,’ Eve added smoothly. ‘Ms Taylor lets us go to the library every Thursday.’

No one in the class laughed or called them on the lie. Luke was sure they were all wishing they’d come up with as brilliant a story.

Ms McHugh hesitated. ‘Fine,’ she decided. ‘We’re just going to have a study period in here anyway.’

‘We need a pass. Ms Taylor keeps them in the top drawer,’ Eve said. Ms McHugh quickly signed two passes and handed them over. Luke and Eve rushed out of the room before she could ask any more questions.

‘Babylonia. Nice,’ Eve said when he had shut the classroom door behind them.

‘I don’t have any of the demon papers with me, but
we can go online and keep looking for a demon whose attack style matches whatever killed Kyle,’ Luke told her.

‘There was an article in the
National Enquirer
yesterday that said it was chimps that had human DNA mixed with their own. Supposedly they escaped a lab and have now been sighted in Central Park.’

‘Chimps do have sharp teeth,’ Luke said as they started for the library, ‘but the
Enquirer
isn’t exactly a reliable source. It’s up there with …’

Eve put a hand on his arm. ‘Shhh. Is that someone crying?’

Luke listened. ‘I think so.’

‘It’s coming from down there.’ Eve jerked her chin towards the corridor leading down to the art rooms and the main office. She and Luke looked at each other for a moment, then changed course, following the sound of the soft sobs.

‘She stayed late a lot,’ someone said. ‘What if someone grabbed her on her way to her car last night? It’s too dark out there. I should have waited to go until she was ready to leave.’ Luke recognized the voice. Mrs Ollestad, the school secretary. He’d spent some time with her when he’d registered as the new kid at the beginning of the semester.

He slowed his pace. Eve did too. They stopped a few feet before they reached the open door to the reception area.

‘It’s not your fault, Amanda. Don’t even think that. I want you to go home and relax. I just need you to look up her emergency contact first. Can you do that? The police need to speak to her next of kin.’ Another familiar voice – Principal Allison.

‘Yes,’ Mrs Ollestad answered. There was a quaver in her voice, but she’d stopped crying.