Desolation

  Ronnie pocketed the phone, and turned to Amber and Milo. “Looks like Hell Night can begin.”

  “Yes, it does,” Amber said quietly.

  “I’m not hugging him,” said Milo.

  “So that’s it?” Jesper asked. “One phone call and now you can bring me to Naberius? That’s the signal? You’re killing me! Don’t you understand? You’re killing me!”

  “I said the same thing to you when we first met,” said Amber.

  “Is that what this is?” Jesper asked, eyes narrowed. “Payback for how I treated you? Is this some kind of petty revenge? Then maybe you’d want to beat me, before you hand me over? Well? Want to beat the old man, to make him regret ever messing with you? Hmm? Maybe crack some ribs, break my nose, blacken my eyes. Eh? Would that make you feel better? Would that make you feel like heroes?”

  “Why does everyone keep calling us heroes?” Milo muttered.

  “Then beat me!” Jesper roared. “Cripple me! Kick my head in! Kill me! If I’m going to die, then at least have the fortitude to do it yourselves!”

  “Like you were going to?” Austin asked quietly.

  Amber enjoyed seeing the look on Jesper’s face, caught between anger and guilt and shame. It was a beautiful sight.

  “We don’t know how long the Hounds’ radar will take to right itself,” said Milo, eyes on the sky as the sun dipped to the horizon, “so we better do this now. Amber, you should probably get the key.”

  Amber nodded. It was her idea, after all. Her plan. It had sounded so easy when she’d first uttered the words. So simple. Kill Jesper. He deserved it. He more than deserved it. And yet here they were, about to deliver an evil old man to his death, and she couldn’t even look him in the eye. She took a breath, a deep one, and Kelly squeezed her hand before letting go. Amber slipped into the Charger, opened the glove box, and reached in for the key.

  A cold feeling blossomed in her chest and spread quickly outwards. It drained the blood from her face.

  She hunched down, dug both hands in, pulling out maps and booklets and spare ammunition for Milo’s gun.

  “The key’s gone,” she said. No one heard. She got out of the car. “The key’s gone,” she said again.

  They looked at her. Milo frowned. “What?”

  She stepped away while he searched. No one spoke.

  Milo stood. His hands were empty. “That kid,” he said. “The kid with the birthmark who stole the gun.”

  “He took the key,” Amber said.

  Jesper barked a laugh. “Mice and men!” he said. “Mice and men and murderous demons!”

  “Shut the hell up,” said Ronnie.

  Jesper ignored him. He was practically dancing. “What are you going to do now? Eh? You’ve let the Hounds in, but without Hell Night there’s no one to take them on. They’re going to find you. They’re going to kill you!”

  “Astaroth probably instructed them to kill you, too, dumbass,” said Linda.

  “You were going to hand me over to be killed, anyway,” Jesper shot back. “Killing me to save yourselves, and now there’s no point in even doing that. What’s the plan now? Are you going to start running again? You’d better. The Hounds are coming for you.”

  The van came up the hill. Two demonstrated his happiness by running in small circles excitedly.

  “The Narrow Man’s key,” said Amber. “We’ll use that.”

  Jesper sneered. “You’ll never get it.”

  “He can be hurt,” said Amber. “Did you know that? I bet you didn’t even know that. When he’s Oscar Moreno, he can be hurt. I hurt him. I did it once and I can do it again.”

  “Then you’d better do it fast,” said Jesper.

  The van parked behind her, and the door opened and she knew something was wrong when Two started barking. Then there were was an arm around her throat and she was yanked backwards as Grant jammed a gun into her jaw.

  AMBER SHIFTED, BUT GRANT just increased his hold on her. Kirsty shoved Linda, who went flying into Milo, and yanked Kelly towards her. Her parents were there, too, leaping from the van. Ronnie lunged at Betty, but she hit him, a strike that sent him spinning, and pounced on Austin as he tried to run. Two came hurtling at Bill, but he kicked him away, and the dog yelped and rolled in the dirt.

  Milo had his gun out now, and held it in a two-handed grip, but he was outnumbered. Four guns against one.

  “I’ll rip your head off if you try anything,” Grant said in Amber’s ear.

  “Drop it, Mr Sebastian,” said Bill. “You shoot any one of us, and the other three will kill your friends. And my daughter, of course.”

  “Let them go,” Milo said, not lowering the weapon.

  “We plan to,” said Bill. “As soon as we get what we came for.”

  “Hey, man,” Warrick said, coming round from the driver’s side with his hands open, “what the hell is going on? What the hell, man? I gave you a lift. What the hell are you doing?”

  “They’re Amber’s parents,” Ronnie said, teeth gritted.

  Kirsty sneered at Warrick, revealing her fangs. “You are some kind of stupid, you know that?”

  Warrick stared at her, then at the others, trying to comprehend the damage he’d done. “Shit,” he said.

  “Don’t blame the idiot,” said Bill. “We can be very convincing when we want to. He just gave a ride to some folk from out of town who’ve been caught up in all this madness … He was rescuing us, weren’t you, Warrick?”

  “You don’t talk to me,” Warrick said, hunkering down and wrapping his arms around Two protectively.

  Bill laughed, then looked back at Milo and the others. “Give us the key. That’s all we want. We don’t even want Amber anymore. You’re nothing to us now, sweetheart. Just hand over the key and we’ll let you get back to whatever it is you’re doing.”

  “We don’t have it anymore,” Amber said.

  “I feel I have to warn you,” said Kirsty, twisting Kelly’s arm so much that Kelly cried out, “our patience is not to be tested here.”

  Betty smiled. “Things are, as you can probably tell, somewhat fraught between us right now. And the Hounds have breached that handy invisible wall that had been keeping them out, did you know that? You did? Oh, that’s interesting. Have we … have we stumbled into the middle of some kind of plan? Bill, darling, I fear we may have inadvertently become a monkey wrench in the works.”

  “That is regrettable,” said Bill.

  “Very,” said Betty. “But taking all that into account, I’m sure you can understand when we ask if we could just skip the part where you deny you have the key, and get right to where you give it to us. If we could do that, that would be peachy. Otherwise, we’re going to start killing your friends. You seem to have a lot of them, for once.”

  “If you hurt anyone, you get nothing.”

  “We’ll start with the ones you’d hardly miss,” said Bill. “This old-timer only has a few years left in him, anyway.”

  “I’m not with them,” Jesper said quickly. “I can help you, I can—”

  Bill shot Jesper between the eyes.

  Linda cried out and Ronnie cursed and Jesper’s corpse toppled over backwards and hit the ground.

  And Amber, staring at the body as the blood leaked out on to the dirt, felt a curious sense of regret, that she hadn’t been the one to kill him.

  Bill pointed the gun into Ronnie’s face. “This one now? You don’t seem too upset about that guy. Would I get more of a reaction if I were to shoot this one?”

  “Or maybe we’re taking the wrong approach,” Betty said. “Maybe we should start with the youngest.” She pressed her gun against Austin’s head. “Now,” she said happily, “will you please give us the key?”

  “We don’t have it,” said Ronnie. “It was stolen.”

  Amber nodded. “Stolen from the car, Betty, I swear to Christ.”

  “We’re not lying to you,” Linda said.

  “So who has it now?” asked Kirsty.

  “We don’t k
now,” Amber said. “Just some kid. He didn’t know what he was stealing, he just stole it.”

  Betty shook her head. “That’s unfortunate. It really is.” She held Austin at arm’s length and her finger started to tighten on the trigger.

  “I know!” Austin said. “I know who it is!”

  Betty raised an eyebrow. “You do?”

  “Yes! The kid with the birthmark! I know his name! I know where he lives!”

  Betty lowered the gun, and hunkered down, smiling at him. “And can you take us there, young man?”

  Austin nodded.

  “What’s your name?”

  “Austin.”

  “Hello, Austin. I’m Betty. That’s my husband Bill, and these are our friends. Would you like to help us get this key? If you do, I promise I won’t kill you. Cross my heart.”

  Austin nodded again.

  “How about that?” said Bill. “We have a peaceful resolution for once, if you discount the dead old man. We’re going to take Austin here, and we’re going to take the van, and we’re going to retrieve this wonderful key we’ve been hearing so much about. And none of you are going to follow us, because if we’ve timed it correctly and the police in this town are even half as efficient as we’ve heard …”

  The sound of cars, approaching fast. Headlights.

  “Someone must have tipped them off,” said Betty, smiling. “We’ll take our leave of you now.”

  They all started moving backwards towards the van. Grant adjusted his hold on Amber, using her as a shield in case Milo started shooting, but there was space between them now, space to move. His overconfidence had left him open. Vulnerable. If Amber didn’t make a move now, all would be lost, so she turned her fingers to claws and she swiped.

  He didn’t see her arm move, his black scales had no time to form, and she ripped his throat out as easily as slapping him.

  He let go of her and let go of his gun and stumbled, hands at his throat, his eyes wide and his blood pumping. Kirsty screamed and Amber threw Grant’s gun to Milo, who caught it in his left hand as he fired his own gun with his right.

  Betty pulled Austin into the van and Bill jumped in behind the wheel and suddenly there were cruisers speeding towards them and the air was filled with screaming and gunshots and sirens, and the cruisers skidded and the van lurched, wheels spinning, and Austin was crying for help, but the world was a jumble and Amber tripped over Grant’s leg, almost fell.

  She caught glimpses. Saw Milo exchange fire with Novak and his officers. Saw Betty, leaning out of the van, firing at the cops as the van fishtailed. Saw Kelly leap into the Charger. Warrick scooped up Two and ran for the trees. Officer Ortmann dived at Ronnie and Ronnie hit him and Ortmann went down, got back up again as a grinning demon. She saw Linda grab Ronnie’s arm and they ran for the trees as well. Saw Milo dive into the dirt behind the Charger. Saw Kirsty coming straight for her.

  Amber jerked back. Kirsty’s claws missed, but she kept coming. She took Amber off her feet, screaming into her face the whole time. Amber twisted, threw her off, scrambled up as Novak started firing at her. She ran. Warrick and the others had gone into the trees heading down, towards town. She ran into the trees headed up, into the hills. Bullets struck branches close to her ear. She glanced back, saw Milo behind the wheel of the Charger as it sped away, saw the cops jump in their cruisers to give chase.

  And she saw Kirsty, coming up the hill after her.

  Amber ran on, reaching out for trees to grab on to, to pull herself up. She was almost at the top of the hill when Kirsty’s claws swiped at the back of her right leg, slicing into the unprotected meat, and she cried out, fell, turned over as Kirsty descended on her. She managed to bring her good leg in between them, managed to settle her foot right between Kirsty’s breasts while she grabbed Kirsty’s wrists.

  Kirsty’s face was a mask of hatred. “I’ll kill you, you bitch, I’ll rip your—”

  Amber straightened her leg with a snap, and she had time to register Kirsty’s shocked expression before she was launched backwards. Kirsty fell for what seemed an eternity, the hillside dipping beneath her, refusing to halt her plummet. Finally, it was a tree that put an end to her free fall. She struck it and flipped round it, hit the ground and went tumbling down out of sight.

  Amber tore her jacket off, twisted it, and tied it tight around her leg. She got up, grabbed a tree, and kept climbing.

  She reached a road, a familiar road, and now she could move faster. She ran as fast as her injured leg would allow her, reached the bend, and then plunged into the trees once more, started climbing again.

  “You bitch!”

  Amber spun round, ducked low, hid behind a tree. She could see Kirsty on the road where Amber herself had emerged.

  “I’ll find you!” Kirsty screeched. “I’ll find you and I’ll kill you, you bitch! I’ll rip your throat out! I’ll destroy you!”

  Kirsty screamed, then, a howl of pure anguish, and she dropped to her knees, holding her head and wailing. If Amber reverted right at that moment, she knew she’d actually feel sorry for her. Her childhood memories of the woman were good, for the most part. She had always seemed so glamorous, so happy. And Grant, the man whose blood was still on Amber’s right hand, had almost been an uncle to her when she was growing up. He had been the only one, out of all of them, with whom she could share a joke. And she’d killed him, she’d torn out his throat the moment he’d given her an opening.

  If Amber reverted, all of this would stab at her heart.

  Amber didn’t revert.

  Kirsty got to her feet. She was unsteady, and wiping madly at the tears in her eyes. She turned then, walked back the way she’d come, and disappeared into the trees.

  Amber searched her pockets for her phone, but couldn’t find it. It was down there somewhere, lost in the trees and the darkness. Typical. She started climbing again. She took it slow. The pain in her leg was lessening. By the time she reached the top of the incline, she wasn’t even limping anymore. She untied her jacket, wiped some of the blood off, and put it on. It was cold up here. She remembered the heat of Florida, the ever-present closeness of it, and she smiled. She liked the cold.

  She reached the edge of Benjamin’s property and paused a moment to gather herself. She gritted her teeth and waited for the pain to come, and then she reverted.

  Sure enough, a truckload of pain slammed into her and Amber moaned. It wasn’t just the fresh wound on her leg, either. It was her shoulder, too, and her ribs, and a dozen other bumps and bruises her demon-self had failed to register. She was limping again, too, as she walked up to Benjamin’s door.

  KELLY LEANED OUT OF the window, Grant’s gun held in a two-handed grip. She didn’t bother trying to shoot out the tyres of the cruisers giving chase down this narrow, winding road. Smaller targets were harder to hit – and she knew all too well the possibility of bullets just bouncing off that spinning rubber. Instead, she waited for her moment.

  Novak was at the wheel of the car behind, of course he was, the demonic Chief of Police leading the pursuit, but his car was just a car, whereas the Charger was something else. It took the bends tighter, hugged the road closer, and when the cruiser veered a little too wide behind them Kelly pulled the trigger. She saw Novak’s demonically grinning face contort as he twisted, and the cruiser hit the shoulder and left the road.

  The next cruiser came up fast to their left. It slammed into them, nearly sent them into a tree, but Milo got the Charger back under control and returned the favour. Officer Ortmann juddered in his seat, but kept his nerve. Behind him, the third cruiser was giving them space. Kelly buckled her seat belt.

  The road narrowed and the Charger surged ahead and they were driving single file again. Kelly didn’t know where the hell they were headed and she doubted Milo did, either. The cops were firing, though, and their aim was improving.

  They took the next bend and a barn loomed in front of them, dark against the twilit sky, and the back window exploded and Kelly cursed, du
cked her head, felt the Charger hit something or get hit by something and she opened her eyes only for a moment in time to see the barn hurtling towards them.

  They hit it and Kelly jerked hard into the seat belt and rammed her knee and hit her head and lost her gun and sank back into her seat when all the movement had stopped. Dazed, she blinked her vision clear, looked round as a cruiser screeched to a halt behind them.

  “Aw man,” she muttered.

  Ortmann leaped out of the cruiser, ran at them from the driver’s side, firing all the while, grinning that hideous demon grin. Kelly ducked, as low as she could get with Milo on top of her, shielding her from the glass. She reached for her gun, her fingertips brushing against it as Ortmann appeared at Milo’s ruined window, sliding a fresh magazine into his automatic. In the stark silence that followed the gunfire, Kelly could hear only her breathing, the slide being pulled back on Ortmann’s gun, and the Charger’s door popping open. Milo kicked out and the door slammed into Ortmann and he staggered sideways.

  Kelly reached under the seat, grabbed the gun, looked up in time to see Milo outside the car, catching Ortmann with a right hook that spun him on the spot. Milo’s skin was black. Not just dark, but black, like shadow. His eyes glowed red.

  Then it was all gone, and he was Milo again, and he reached in and she grabbed his arm and he pulled her out as the other cruiser came to a skidding, sliding stop.

  Milo dragged her into the barn as the cops opened fire, their bullets splintering the wood. Once they were inside, Milo let go, ducked to the left while Kelly dived to the right. She kept her head down, started crawling. The barn was full of stacks of old machinery and piles of pallets. She got behind a tractor engine, stayed low.

  She heard gunshots from inside the barn now – Milo was exchanging fire. She rose up, just in time to see Woodbury coming through the door after them, a shotgun raised to his shoulder. He was a big, ugly demon and Kelly charged him without thinking. Before he could swing the gun her way, she pressed it against his chest and jumped. He watched her come, his eyes widening almost in slow motion, too slow to do anything but accept the inevitable. Her headbutt shattered his nose and turned his body to putty that collapsed beneath her even as she landed. She swayed slightly, seeing stars. Woodbury wasn’t unconscious, not fully, but he wasn’t getting up on his own any time soon.