by Juliet Boyd
Her obsession with obeying the list was beyond what Flynn could comprehend. Yes, she’d been the one who freed the creatures, technically. Although, a lot of others had a hand. Yes, they were bound to doing it, by some universal law thingy. But they didn’t have to spend every waking hour thinking about it. That wasn’t a life.
But … a tingle ran over the surface of her skin, raising hairs, setting her teeth on edge, and kicking her fangs into action.
Her mind sparked into awareness. She sucked in a silent breath.
Something flickered in the corner of her eye. A misty shape.
No. Not now.
Yes, now.
“Demon,” she screamed, and sped toward it. She could sense the hesitation in the others before they took up the chase. It wasn’t what they’d been expecting.
It was as if the wraith demon was taunting her.
How did you capture something that could turn into mist? Stop it turning, before it realised what was happening? Freeze it in time? She’d been thinking about that a lot since it had escaped her. She regretted not having been able to save that man. Both men. She’d watched as the police officer dissolved before her, a smirk of evil on his puffy lips. She had to keep following it until it became a solid creature again. It couldn’t float forever. That had been documented. It couldn’t eat in its wraith-like form. Follow it until it became so hungry that it had to transform?
They reached the outskirts of town before she even realised it. Lampposts began to light their way. Not good. Too much chance for evidence.
“Slow down,” Ellie shouted, but she ignored the call. If they lost it now ….
After less than ten seconds, she did stop. The light was distorting her vision. The creature was no longer white against black. It had become a slight flicker on the surface of a building. A whisper of air through the trees. Almost imperceptible. Invisible.
But no.
There was a man way up ahead, walking.
It was worth a punt.
She hadn’t tried transportation in months, but she could see where she wanted to be. It wasn’t as if she had to imagine it. As long as it was only herself she was risking.
She cast the spell and appeared, a little punch drunk, before the man. He grinned, rather than screamed. There was no doubt it was the creature. She tried to conjure up the spell she needed to capture it, but her mind was fuzzy and uncooperative. She blinked. A single blink. And he … it was gone.
Three different figures appeared before her. She turned away. She had no desire to verbalise her failure.
###
They didn’t hurry back to the barn. Bones put his arm around Flynn’s shoulders and she didn’t object. She didn’t say anything. It was as if she were blaming herself for not capturing the creature.
“It’s okay,” he said. “You can’t cast two heavy spells like that one after the other. No one could do that.”
“I used to be able to.”
“But your body’s been through a lot. You can’t expect everything to work like it used to. You gain some things, you lose others. I know it’s difficult to accept, but that’s the way it is.”
She stopped. “This isn’t helping.” She shrugged his arm off and quickened her pace.
“Flynn, please.”
She ignored him completely.
She wasn’t the only one having difficulty getting used to transformations. So many years living a life on all fours and suddenly being back to human form was not easy. Even though he’d wished for it so hard, for so long, watching the love of his life get older without him, he sometimes longed not to have to voice his opinions, or to take the tough decisions.
He moved closer to Ellie. The warmth of her presence calmed him. “What do you think we should do when we get back?”
“It’ll be light soon. We can’t be out walking the fields in daylight, that would be suspicious. The farmer might come by. No, I think we just hole up for the day, do a bit more research if we can. There has to be something written about this creature somewhere.”
She clearly wasn’t talking about the wraith demon. They had some info on that.
“Even if the Overlord didn’t know?”
“No one said they were all seeing and all knowing.”
“No, but—”
“The Overlord stays underground practically all the time. There’s a difference between monitoring and experiencing. Someone must have experienced these creatures before. Maybe someone who’s scared to talk out in case they’re called crazy. The Internet is a safe place for those people. They can find others with the same experience. They can go under false names and identities when they discuss such things. We just need to go deeper.”
“You mean that dark web that everyone talks about? I’m not sure I even understand what that is.”
“You don’t have to understand. That’s my domain.”
“Is it safe?”
“Seriously? Did you just say that? Nothing in our lives is safe, or certain.”
“No, but I—”
“Don’t worry. I’ll be fine. We’ll be fine. We need this information. We need to catch this creature. We need to finish that damned list so we can get on with our lives.”
“Yes.”
He didn’t argue anymore, but he was pretty sure that finishing the list would not be this imagined bliss of freedom that Ellie hoped. It might be years of searching, hunting, not being allowed to do what they wanted, but what was going to come after that? He was pretty certain they weren’t going to be allowed to go free, however dutiful they’d been. They were dangerous creatures, too. They would have to be incarcerated. That was not something he wanted to happen. He would rather die.
When they got back, he went straight to the fridge and pulled out blood bags for each of them. They all needed a boost, even if they technically didn’t need to feed. “Hey, Flynn, you know we’re running low on this?”
“Yes, don’t pressure me.”
“I—”
“All you people ever talk about is Flynn this, Flynn that, as if I’m the only source of anything. Maybe you should go out and get some naturally. That’d be good. Keep you off my back all the time.”
He exchanged a glance with Ellie. She nodded. The two of them stepped outside again.
“She’s not okay, is she?” he said when they were far enough away that hearing them could only be achieved by extreme focus in their direction.
“She’s not coping with the change very well. Much like when it happened to me. We all experience it differently.”
“Perhaps, vampire and witch are a bad combination.”
“And what would be a good combination, do tell? Vampire and dog?”
“That’s not funny.”
“Well, it’s not funny for her. Rag and I, we have it relatively easy. Vampire researcher has no more drawbacks than pure vampire.”
“What about vampire grouch?”
She sputtered a laugh. “Well, I suppose we can’t all be naturally charming.”
He really hoped Rag wasn’t listening in. “No. But what can we do to help Flynn?”
“Not put pressure on her. She knows what needs to be done and she’ll do it in her own time. If that’s not soon enough for us, we’ll have to find other ways. I think we should conserve the tablets and, if necessary, get blood by normal methods. We don’t really need to go out in the daylight. If a situation occurs, we can always pop one and go.”
“The kind of situation where a demon appears and you just say, ‘Hold on a minute, I need to take my tablet?’”
“Don’t. You know that’s not going to happen.”
“But what if it does and we forget we haven’t taken one? We’ve been so used to being able to go out in the daylight.”
“Then, we bolt the doors and put a big sign on them to say don’t go out. It can’t be that difficult.”
He wasn’t so sure. If the wraith demon came back, they might be popping those pills sooner than any of them imagined.
&nbs
p; Chapter 6
Hour after hour they spent walking the fields again the following night. If the metal-eating creature had any sense, it would’ve been long gone. If they’d had any sense, they would’ve let it and not put themselves through mind-numbing drudge. To Rag’s dismay, they did eventually find the trail. It wasn’t through sound, there were way too many tiny creatures beneath the ground to be sure of anything at all. It was the faint metallic scent, where it had secreted who-knew-what along the way. Once they’d found that, it wasn’t difficult to follow. It took them all around in weaves and circles, as if it were trying to put them off. It nearly did. They had to split up and mark where track-backs had been performed so they didn’t get confused, but the route did straighten out again, with a definite path, in a definite direction. All the way back to the barn.
“You have to be kidding me,” he said. “All that and it was right under our noses the whole time?” He wasn’t going for a pun.
“It’s persistent, I’ll give it that,” Ellie said.
“Probably the only easy form of food nearby,” Bones added.
Rag stamped his foot. “I knew it was in that tractor.”
Flynn jostled past. “We should just incinerate the thing. That’ll get rid of it.”
Ellie grabbed Flynn’s shoulder. “You’ll do no such thing.”
For once, Rag agreed. “If we do that, we won’t have any evidence for the Overlord. We can’t incinerate it. Kill it, yes, but not that.”
“We are not killing it, either,” Ellie said.
It was worth a try.
Before they were even inside, Flynn had reactivated the bubbles around the equipment. He reckoned she must have some kind of spell memory, a bit like muscle memory. She didn’t speak, just went and sat down like she had before, her hands clamped around her head.
“We need a bottom to the barriers,” he said, “We don’t want it playing that same trick again.”
“I know,” she replied through gritted teeth.
That was that sorted, then.
“Now what?” he asked.
No one replied. That was useful. Wait until it ran out of food, he supposed. It could be a long wait. Long everything, these days.
###
Ellie pointed. “There.”
She wasn’t sure what it was she’d seen, but something had moved, and if it had moved, it had to be alive. There was no breeze inside the bubbles. Not even a stalk of hay would have reason to move if not propelled by something.
The three of them stared at the spot, waiting for the next indication of life.
“I don’t suppose there could be more than one,” Rag said, seemingly absently.
She ignored him. She didn’t even want to think about that possibility.
“They’re probably breeding like rabbits,” Flynn mumbled from where she sat. “That’d be just our luck. Millions of tiny little metal-eating monsters.”
The thought made Ellie shudder. It was a possibility. The Internet had not borne the fruit of copious information that she’d hoped for.
“Maybe they’ll start eating themselves,” Bones said, a grin across his face. None of them were in the mood for jokes. His expression soured again immediately.
Ellie went into practical mode. “We have to assume there’s just one. We have no reason to think otherwise. Not all animals travel in packs.”
“When does a demon become an animal?” Bones mused.
“If you’re going to start being pedantic, I’m out of here,” Rag said. She wasn’t sure if that was joke or truth, but she was with him on the pedantic. It didn’t matter what they called the creature, they just had to find it.
Rag stepped away. She heard him scrabbling and clanking around. He came back with a spanner. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before.” He muttered something else, but it was lost as he proceeded to slam the spanner against the metal surface. The noise was excruciating to sensitive ears.
“I can’t concentrate,” Flynn shouted.
“You might not have to for much longer,” he replied.
Ellie wasn’t sure why they hadn’t thought of it, either. It was a good idea. She could deal with the pain.
She mentally crossed her fingers that the creature had sensitive ears. And that the result was quick. She was finding it hard to concentrate on the visual.
“There,” Bones said, and dived head first at the space beneath the tractor. It was soon clear that he had caught something from the grunts. His, not the other creature’s. “Can someone pull me out?”
Both she and Rag came to his rescue, each taking a leg. She could sense the effort he was putting into holding the creature still from the tension in his limbs.
It was much bigger than she’d imagined, which tallied with the detail about it increasing in size the more food it ate. Its skin was brownish in colour, it had spindly limbs with long pointy fingers. An ugly expression settled upon its face. Long, serrated teeth that must have been able to bite through the metal like butter — without a sound, were bared.
The creature bent in towards the hand that held it.
“Don’t look at it, Bones, it’s trying to distract you.”
He didn’t look away in time. The jaws clamped down on skin. Bones winced, but didn’t let go. And no blood was drawn. No mark made. Bones looked confused.
She smiled. “I don’t think it likes tasting flesh. Maybe blood doesn’t go well with pure minerals.” The creature raised its top lip at her.
Flynn screamed.
Chapter 7
The mist was suffocating Flynn, as if it were solid matter and there was no way for air to pass through. She tried to remind herself she didn’t really need to breathe and fighting it would only expend energy. Energy she could be using to concoct a spell, now that she didn’t have to maintain the bubbles. She let the other spells go completely, and her friends to their own devices, and concentrated her energy on the wraith demon. Clearly, it wanted her gone. That wasn’t a scenario that pleased her. The misty form moved, became slightly more solid, and began to coil around her neck.
At first, that didn’t worry her, but then she thought about the ultimate result of pressure, extreme pressure, to her neck, and her attention became more focussed. Decapitation — not a pleasant way to go. She needed to get the creature off her before she could do anything. She needed it to return to a human form before she could trap it. If she could trap it.
If only the others weren’t concentrating so hard on that metal-eating menace that they didn’t even notice her. So much for acute senses.
She needed to transport.
She needed to get the demon away from the barn.
No. That wouldn’t work. She could see light beginning to peek through the gaps in the planks that made up the wooden walls. They hadn’t taken any pills. Change of plan.
She transported to the door, immediately turned, and threw a blast of energy at the creature, which scattered it to all four corners of the building.
She heard screams. Sensed motion.
“What can I do to help?” Ellie asked.
“Stay out of the way. I’m the one it has a problem with.”
“But if—”
“Stay away. I need to concentrate.”
But if I get into real trouble, do jump in.
It was true she needed to concentrate, but she had no idea what to concentrate on first. It could move faster than her in its current form. It could disperse and reassemble, as it was in the process of doing. It was no good. Outside was the only option. She transported a tablet to her mouth and almost choked as it hit the back of her throat with force. She waited a few seconds for the effect to infuse through her body and ran at the door, slamming it back with her fist as she bowled through into the light of a fast approaching day. She still had time if the tablet hadn’t worked. The sun wasn’t yet in sight. But it wouldn’t be long.
She headed for the cover of the trees that were about half a mile away across the fields. A small wood th
at would be devoid of people. The barn they were staying in was remote, as remote as anything got in the south-west of England.
The wood wasn’t devoid. There was a man striding out with his chocolate Lab, which was off the lead.
Bad.
As soon as the dog saw her, it ran toward her in I-want-to-play mode, and bounced about at her feet. She was forced to stop, or she’d seem odd. Even claiming she was out for a morning run would appear strange. She was hardly dressed for it. Hardly human-style dressed for it.
She needed to move on. She was putting the man, and his dog, in danger. The dog began to snarl. The friendly, smiley face was gone. All dogs had scary expressions when they decided to use them.
“Bertie, that’s enough. The lady isn’t hurting you.”
And it wasn’t the lady the dog was growling at. She could feel with wraith demon’s presence. Oppressive. Cloying.
“Don’t worry. It’s not a problem.” She tried to sidestep the dog, but it followed her movements.
“Bertie!”
The demon whooshed down over them and wrapped itself around the dog’s body, lifted it, and flung it away. It landed with a thud. Its owner screamed, but the dog got up and immediately dashed over to the demon again, snapping at it with its jaws.
“What the hell is that?” The man pointed to the strand of white mist that swirled around and around and around between them, getting faster and faster in an almost hypnotic manner.
“Run,” Flynn said. “Get as far away from here as you can.”
“What about you?”
“I’m all right.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. You have to come with us.”
There was nothing else for it. She flashed her vampiric eyes and bared her fangs for the briefest of seconds. “Now, go.”
The man didn’t argue. He snapped on the dog’s lead, tugging hard to make it move, and was out of there quicker than she thought possible, given his age and size.
She straightened up and stared straight at the wraith demon. One on one. It wasn’t shying away. It was ready for the battle. The finality of it hit her in the gut and brought forth a spew of magic so powerful that she’d almost forgotten what it felt like.
