“Before the council came to Hunter’s Grove, a friend of mine was kidnapped. We’re going to try and find him. This isn’t something anyone else can know, by the way.”
“Understood.”
“Priest thinks that I can help track him. As a faoladh, I mean.”
“Then magic is involved?”
The door opened, and Aisling emerged, nearly running into Liev.
“Oh,” she said, smiling. “Hi.”
Liev smiled back, shoving his hands in his pockets, thumbs out. “Hi there. Thanks for saving my butt. I think Naifeh would have made a hood ornament of my head right then and there if it weren’t for you.”
“Well I didn’t help drag you out of that wolf’s den back home just for you to die on me now. I’m, uh ... I’m headed to the Library to do some reading before the next meeting. Would you care to join me?”
“Yes!” he blurted, then immediately remembered Chen. “But ... I forgot, I’m actually ... I have something I need to do.”
“Oh. That’s okay.”
“Next time? Before you leave Hunter’s Grove.”
She smiled. “Next time.”
“Go on ahead with her,” Quinn told Connor. “I’ll be right there.”
As Aisling and Connor rounded the corner, Quinn continued, “As you were saying?”
Liev turned back to the older wolf, remembering why he had come up here. “Right, Chen. We’re going to find Chen, and Priest thinks that I’ll be able to help. How do I do that?”
“If he’s thinking that you are going to be able to sniff your friend out, then it’s probably got something to do with a monster who uses a great deal of magic.”
“A demon. Or so we think.”
Quinn’s face grew serious. “I suspected as much. I can smell it. It’s here!”
“The beast has been a problem.”
“The hardest thing is to control your emotions. We are not vile, man-eating animals like other werewolf species, but we can still become a danger to human allies. If you can let the wolf out while keeping it reigned in, then your instincts will guide you the rest of the way.”
Liev nodded, not fully sure he knew what Quinn meant, but hoping it would all make sense when they got to the saw mill. “Thanks.”
“Anytime, Liev,” Quinn said with a small bow. “I would go with you, help find your friend, but I am concerned about Aisling. Whatever attacked her the day after she was summoned to come here, I believe, is here. The trace of scent I recovered following her attack, I can smell here too.”
“Do you have any idea where, or who, it’s coming from?”
“I’m not entirely sure, but it’s similar to what the necromancer uses.”
“The necromancer?”
“Emmanuel Bartholome.”
Liev felt his stomach drop. Hadn’t Bartholome supported them in the council meeting? “Can’t we trust even one of them?”
“Not until this is all over, it seems.”
Chapter 13
After a brief stopover at the Witherington house—they needed two vehicles, as Darcy refused to ride all the way to the old mill in the back of Fish’s beat-up truck—they followed Fish in Darcy’s sporty new car. The others felt it was more of an excuse for her to get to drive her new ride, which she only got to do when an adult was with her.
As the mandatory adult presence, Priest scrunched himself into the passenger seat, fingers gripping the dashboard in terror.
“Must you take the curves so fast?” he asked with a strained voice. “I believe this is what they call reckless driving, isn’t it?”
“You want to drive?” Darcy quipped. “Why don’t you get a driver’s license, Priest? You’re two hundred years old, for goodness sakes! You should have a license.”
“STOP LOOKING AT ME AND WATCH THE ROAD! Whatever happened to horses? That was a reliable form of travel. I’d rather be fighting a whole coven of witches right now—SLOW DOWN! You’re going to kill us all before that demon ever has a chance to!”
In the cramped backseat, Charlie’s phone buzzed with a text message. It was his dad. You coming home for dinner?
Hope so. Trying to get some work done.
Be careful.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever been to this part of Hunter’s Grove,” Charlie said, looking up from the small screen. They whipped through shadowy back roads that had dropped off somewhere behind Hunter’s Point, lost in a bevy of hills and trees. The drive had become bumpy and gradually got worse.
“I know I haven’t,” said Liev. “We wanted to investigate the area when people were going missing, but never got a chance.”
Nash chuckled. “You guys need to get out more often. There’s a whole ’nother part of town here.”
“Nobody’s actually supposed to be out here,” Darcy said. “I mean, it’s not illegal or anything. Just dangerous.”
“Dangerous how?” asked Charlie.
“Well, it’s a ghost town.”
Nash waggled his fingers in the air, whistling eerie windy noises in jest.
Darcy shot him a dull glare through the rearview mirror. “The buildings are old and unstable. Wild animals hide out here as well.”
“And then there’s the Smokeshop Strangler!”
She rolled her eyes. “I think we have a little more to worry about than that.”
A few minutes later, they rounded a bend on a pockmarked street that was more dirt than anything. There was an old-fashioned gas station, a general store, and a smoke shop with a wood-carved Native American statue on one side of the door, a wood bear on the other. A few other decrepit structures littered the area, but it was the old saw mill that captivated the group. With its base on the flat foot of the mountain, the mill crawled up a good portion of the slope like a giant spider, log flumes arching up and down like spindly legs, their chutes rusted and dry as a bone. Smokestacks rose and fell in different states of abandonment, and piles of lumber collected decades ago sat in empty patches all over the mountainside.
“Homey,” said Liev.
Darcy leaned forward over her steering wheel, looking up at the large compound through the windshield. “More like creeptastic. I wonder how long the demon was keeping Chen up here.”
They were quiet the rest of the way, preparing for whatever they might find.
After parking a little ways from the saw mill, Fish, Dink, and Priest grabbed their weapons out of the truck bed, while the others retrieved theirs from Darcy’s vehicle. They came prepared with all manner of custom, rune-inscribed, odd-lot weaponry, and, of course, Dink’s famous fishing rod.
“Just like old times, heh?” Dink called to them with a toothy grin.
While at the Key, Nash had been happy enough with the two smaller versions of S.M.U.G.G.–the same ones he carried with him into Drakauragh—at his side. Darcy and Lisa slung their crossbows over their shoulders, already having sheathed their daggers and rapiers, while Charlie unwrapped his spear. Looking at the spear took his thoughts toward Loch for a moment, and his heart became heavy.
Liev grabbed a dagger, but would otherwise rely on his bare hands, and wolf prowess.
Priest looked at Charlie and Liev. “You two ready?”
Charlie’s eyes blazed red. Everyone turned to Liev, waiting.
“What, is my fly down?”
“Aren’t you going to shapeshift or something?” asked Nash.
“Hadn’t planned on it. Can you all not watch me? I feel like you’re waiting for me to pee in a cup or something.”
They turned away, with Darcy and Lisa rolling their eyes.
“We’ll retrace the same steps,” said Priest. “Follow me, and if any of you see something that you think is important, speak up. Be mindful. It isn’t friendly in here, and I want to be out before sundown.”
A collective chill ran through the air. It reminded them of the fateful night Fish and Dink had led them into the woods around Hunter’s Key, only this time the air hung with a disturbed evil, sinister and foreboding.
The first structure was a multi-level warehouse. Dust motes floated through the many holes in the metal roof, filtering beams of pale sunlight highlighting the rotting wood floors. It seemed normal enough for an abandoned old mill.
Charlie scanned the building with his Sight. There were traces of violent magic in here, but nothing to be overly concerned about, yet. “Anything?” he whispered to Liev.
The white twin shook his head. “Nothing but a whole bunch of strays’ marked territory. No wonder they get all crazy about marking stuff. There are so many and it smells to high heaven! I think I’m getting sick. Also I’m feeling an overwhelming urge to go mark that board over there.”
“Come on,” said Charlie on edge, “give it up already! Would you get serious?”
“How about you two cut it out!” Lisa said in a loud whisper.
Liev threw an arm around each of them, bringing Charlie and Lisa uncomfortably close. “Settle down and let’s all get along, little doggies. I’m sniffing with about two hundred and fifty-thousand more sniffer receptors than you two are right now, and your bickering ain’t helping. There’s a whole lotta Fidos hanging out ’round these parts.” He dropped the cowboy accent and let them both go, his playfulness fading. “It’s taking me a little bit to adjust here, so give me some space and let me do this in my own way.
Charlie nodded and walked ahead, Lisa not far behind. Liev let the rest of the group pass him. He struggled with the idea of letting the “wolf” inside free. It wasn’t something he was wholly comfortable with, and as such he had not exercised the ability to bring it out at will. The only times he could think of starting to change were times that he had physically or emotionally exerted himself. He tried pushing himself in different ways mentally as they walked through the warehouse, ducking under loose beams and stepping over toppled machinery.
A large door on a sliding track was open, and stained into the wood of the door was a reddish-brown circle. Inside the circle, a dancing creature was crudely drawn tearing muscle from a severed arm it held. An awful smell was becoming apparent the closer they came to the door.
“Steel yourself for what comes next,” warned Priest. He slid the door open the rest of the way so they could cross through together. After walking through, they wished he hadn’t.
Chapter 14
It was a workshop, filled with tools of all sorts and sizes, and two large twin saws. Animal carcasses hung from the walls and ceiling with various knives, picks, steel rods, or lengths of rope, and creatures such as small squirrels and birds hung, displayed as if in mid-flight. Wolves and deer were ripped, twisted and splayed across the room, and a large brown bear hung upside down, missing the skin from its neck to its feet.
“This is horrible,” said Lisa, covering her mouth and nose. Darcy started to tear up.
“Aye, lass. This is what the trail of a demon looks like.”
“How much farther until we reach where Chen was being held?” asked Charlie. He sensed a maddened, burning power from the image on the doorway, and could see other symbols, infused with a depth of powerful magic he hadn’t experienced before, hidden all over the workshop. Charlie wasn’t sure what they all meant, but he didn’t like them in the least.
“Far enough,” answered Fish. “We can get there if we keep moving quickly, though. You okay, Charlie?”
Charlie gave him a weak thumbs-up and wiped his arm across his eyes. “Let’s keep going. It will be dark soon.”
The splashes of dark magic strained his Sight, pulling at his sanity and pulsating with a malice he had not yet encountered, not even at the hands of Hecate. He whispered to himself, “This is enough to drive people off.” A voice growled back in his head, clouding his Sight, You, boy, are surely out of your league now. Go home before you get someone else killed up here.
Lisa heard her brother’s breathing become deeper, faster, more ragged. Without looking at him, she whispered, “You okay?”
“Yeah, but not really. Just ... keep going.”
She nodded, afraid to look. Liev was glad she didn’t. He wasn’t sure how much he would change physically. He could see the bones in his fingers become thicker, his fingernails lengthening, and his jaw pulled tight. The room had made him angry—the senseless violence and dark magic were much more effective at causing him emotional stress than the mental exercises he had been trying—as he picked up the scent, the blood, and the fear of each animal individually. Concentrating, he could even smell the magic; a new sensation, but one that was also familiar. His vision had become more vibrant, and he could see loose strands of fur on the ground, random debris in the moldy corners of the room, blood spatter in the dark— things he was sure the others could not see. Except Charlie, of course. Liev was also noticing other symbols carved, burnt, and stained into different parts of the room.
“You see those, Charlie?”
“Which things?”
“Carvings. Weird symbols.”
“I do.” Charlie called Priest over, pointing out a couple of icons to the elder hunter.
Priest flipped over a small mirror with the tip of his sword. A circular sign had been scribbled in blood on its front. “He’s trying to bring others here.”
“Other what?” Charlie asked, fearing he already knew the answer.
“Demons. We may be dealing with a ranking general. This goes beyond simple hunting. Let us finish here quickly.”
He led them further in, through a hellish maze of machinery from which furs and limbs and heads of various species of animals were hung like trophies. They came to a door leading outside and quickly piled out, gasping for breath in the sunlight.
They were in a drying yard now. It was chilling to see lengths of chain, now empty, between two large piles of lumber. Blood had been drained there, drawn into a circle around the place where the captive had been chained.
The hunters fanned out instinctively.
“And he was gone when you got here?” asked Charlie.
“He was here,” said Dink, “but so was the demon.”
“So was Donnie,” Fish pointed out.
“They beat us pretty bad.”
“And left in a quick hurry.”
“I could be wrong,” said Priest, “but if I had to guess, Chen is still in the vicinity.”
Liev crouched down, sniffing the chains and the blood. The others didn’t comment on how he looked thicker, leaner, and more rugged than his usual clean appearance. He lifted an arm, with black markings spreading slowly from his neck and shoulder, and pointed up the slope. “They took him that way.”
A long path of tree stumps, thick, overgrown brush, and small shacks lay between them and the next major structure, a big stilted monstrosity from which one of the logging flumes originated. Their search became an uncomfortable hike with Liev at the helm. He and Charlie took note of each of the smaller buildings along the way, briefly walking inside or around them for any clues. In one oversized ruin, they found a pile of blankets and empty bottles of water. A dead bird hung from the ceiling, its wings painted black.
“Is that where he slept?” asked Darcy.
“No. It’s too hospitable,” said Liev.
Charlie thought he understood. “Donnie. This explains where he’s been all week.”
“Question is,” asked Nash, “where is he now?”
“Let’s keep moving. The sun’s getting lower. We’ll deal with the little fool if he shows up,” Priest said from the doorway.
The next building was a jaunt away. This time, the place was clear of any disturbing décor except for one frayed length
of rope next to a giant log-cutting saw.
“Did you come this far last time?” asked Charlie.
The three men shook their head. “We were attacked down below,” said Fish. “Didn’t have much of a choice but to retreat.”
“He wasn’t here for very long,” said Liev, sniffing around the room like a police dog. He was beginning to understand what Connor meant. His senses and instinct were taking over. It was a primal sort of logic.
“Liev!” Lisa called for the third time.
Liev blinked. He was on all fours, the rope clutched in his hand. He stood up and brushed himself off, embarrassed. “I need to follow this.” He walked out, leaving her to gawk at the open doorway.
“See anything, lad?” Priest asked Charlie.
Charlie shook his head. It was Liev’s gig now.
They followed the white twin back down the hill in what seemed like a helter-skelter path around and through the flumes and lumber piles, workshops and dead stumps of wood. The demon had played with Chen on the way down, dragged the poor man across stumps and sharp debris. Nothing that would kill him, but enough to cause the Asian hunter a great deal of agony. Heat flared through Liev’s back, coursing through his extremities, and all the way down to his fingers and toes. He had to stop for a moment, think about Lisa, his parents, Charlie and the others in order to keep the wolf from raging.
Eventually, the trail led back down to the foot of the mountain, continuing past their parked vehicles.
“He’s gotta be in one of those buildings,” Nash said.
Lisa shook her head. “Not necessarily.”
“We don’t have time to search them all,” said Priest. “The sun is nearly gone. Can you sniff out which one he’s in?”
Liev didn’t answer, head to the ground. He ran off on all fours, much faster than should have been possible. Lisa started forward, but Charlie eased up next to her, gently wrapping his hand around her forearm. “He’s in control,” he quietly assured her.
They waited, watching as the small dot that had become Liev ran around in circles, sniffing the ground in front of the smoke shop, the gas station, and a few of the other buildings. After some time, he limped back to them, looking normal again, if a little rough.
Charlie Sullivan and the Monster Hunters: Council of the Hunters Page 12
