The Lost Girl

  Tonight was the perfect opportunity; I couldn’t waste it.

  I stood up slowly from the couch and walked to the middle of the room. “You know, you can stop it now,” I called out, crossing my arms over my chest. “I’m not scared and this is getting really old, really fast.”

  I waited as the noises continued for a while, but I kept my face blank and stood my ground. After a few seconds the noise subdued and there was nothing but dead silence in the room. If it wasn’t for my body telling me I was still in danger, I would have thought the thing had left. But I knew I still needed to be alert. Danger was still afoot.

  “Good. Now, how about you show yourself? Obviously you want something from me. I can’t help you if you keep your little spooky show going on. You need to talk to me,” I explained slowly.

  There was a soft thump right in front of me and a low, terrifying hiss. I flinched a little, and then cursed myself for reacting. My eyes squinted, trying to focus on the patch on the floor where the thing seemed to be, right in front of me. But I couldn’t see anything.

  What if this thing was big? What if it was huge and could eat me in just one bite? What if it had six arms, or claws, or talons? Vigil hadn’t told me anything about its appearance. Focus on the noise; don’t trust your eyes: I remembered his warning.

  The hiss in front of me intensified, diverting my thoughts away from Vigil.

  “Okay, so, hmm … Can you talk? English, preferably. I don’t understand hissing, sorry.” Yeah, way to go, smart ass Joey.

  “Yesss, I talks,” it hissed menacingly.

  I was really impressed with myself for not flinching again at that scary voice. The growl that followed was hoarse and guttural, a threatening warning.

  “W-what can I do for y-you?” I asked. I was trying desperately to sound brave, but my stammering betrayed me.

  “You helpss him.” It hissed out every word like a nervous rattlesnake. “The Grayss. He huntss me, for ever and ever. Never givesss up, never stopss. But he comess for you alwaysss. Whyss?” it asked again, moving closer.

  I took a step back. I didn’t want that thing too close. Vigil had said it was only dangerous if cornered, but I wasn’t taking any chances.

  “Ah. You mean Vigil. He is only … a friend,” I replied.

  “Hmm. You liess … you knowss when I’m near … alwaysss. No one elsess doess that. You iss a ssorceress, you hass powerss!”

  “I am a type of sorcerer, yes. You could say that.” I took another cautious step back, walking casually to the glass door that led to the garden outside. I needed to get him in the backyard somehow. That was a very important part of my plan.

  “You liess, witch! You helps him; you’re powerful. Liesss and liess, iss all you sssays!” it hissed, following my steps.

  Good. Follow me, wicked little thing.

  I opened the glass door, pulling the keychain out with me. I’d had this planned for a couple of days. The small control for the sprinklers was tied to the keychain and was now safely tucked in my hand.

  “Youss can help me! Essscape him for good! I can givess you anythingss! Anythingss you wantss! I hasss many thingsss!” it proposed, following me.

  For the first time since the creature had started talking to me, I could discern his shimmering form on the grass. It appeared that its cloaking mechanism failed when it came into contact with water, the raindrops apparently short-circuiting his camouflage, making me able to see it.

  The thing wasn’t big at all. In fact, it was quite small. I sighed in relief. At least I knew it couldn’t eat me in one quick bite. I tilted my head to get a better look at it. It looked sort of like a cat … a distorted, alien-like cat. It was also the size of a big cat, with a long tail which flipped sideways. The light flickered and I could make out some type of fur. I couldn’t see its face clearly but it had two feral-looking, bright-yellow eyes which stared straight at me. Its black pupils were thin horizontal slits, freakishly scary. I could read its eyes: they were filled with malice, cunning, dishonesty and evil.

  The rest of its face blended into the darkness, but I could discern a faint glint of sharp teeth. Scary teeth. A whole lot of them. I shivered just looking at them. Those could bite your hands off for sure.

  It noticed I was staring and grinned wickedly. “Sssee this?” it asked, holding up a small leather pouch. “I has many treasuress, sspecial thingss. Magic thingss. I givess you one, you helpss me?” it offered, and then hissed in surprise as a few drops of rain fell on him. Just like a cat, it wasn’t very pleased at getting wet.

  “Listen, huh … what’s your name?” I asked.

  It was glaring menacingly at the sky, but at my question it glanced back at me, frowning. “Namess? You cannot ssay it. Not in your language.” I could tell it was reluctant to tell me.

  “Oh, come on. How hard can it be?” I scoffed.

  “Wells, it’ss something like thiss …” and then it gave a sort of screech so horrible and loud that I had to put my hands over my ears to muffle it.

  I gasped. It was like hearing nails over a chalkboard, razors cutting glass … a cat dying a horrible death.

  “Erm, I guess you were right about that. Please, don’t ever say your name again,” I moaned, feeling as if my skin wanted to crawl away in fear. “I’m calling you Nick from now on.” Sneaky Nick. Sounded just like him. “Listen, Nick, I can’t help you escape from Vigil, sorry.”

  The rain started to gain force, falling heavily on us. I needed to act fast. Sneaky Nick wasn’t going to stay out here in the rain much longer. I walked to the middle of the lawn, the remote control still safe in my hand.

  “Whysss not?” Nick growled, following me close behind. His fur was trying hard to cope with all the water, and sometimes he would blend with the grass so perfectly that if it hadn’t been for his bright-yellow eyes, I would have missed him completely, lost in the rain and the dark.

  “If you won’t help me, maybe I should get rid of yous then. Yous can’t help the Grayss if you are no more!” he threatened. “I can eatss you up, quickss, easy! No one will ever know …” Nick growled, showing me all of his teeth and taking one more step in my direction. The one last step I needed.

  I smirked and raised my sprinkler control, pressing one button, hard. This remote wasn’t used just to control the sprinklers on our lawn; it also controlled the garden lights, and that was what I’d come out here for – the bright spotlights tucked neatly in the lawn.

  A circle of spotlights flashed on, blasting all of their bright, white lights to the center of the circle where Sneaky Nick was standing now.

  According to my calculations, when all the lights were up, they would form a trap surrounding my furry, sneaky little friend. Light was his weakness, wasn’t it? That’s what Vigil had said.

  Nick recoiled in the grass, fear crossing his sickly yellow eyes, and then he started writhing and thrashing about in pain. He folded himself into a tiny ball, hissing, crying and cursing, but unable to move away. I stepped behind the spotlights and watched him. His little leather pouch had been thrown down at his side and its contents were spreading out all over the grass. A glass ball the size of a baseball rolled out of the bag, glinting oddly sharp for a second.

  Nick’s camouflage fur stopped working entirely because of the overload of light and rain, and then I could see him fully. I didn’t know what the hell he was, but he sure was no cat.

  Well, maybe a cat that had been munched up, swallowed and spat out again. Not a pretty sight, I tell you. The fact that the rain was completely drenching him wasn’t helping his look, either. Have you ever seen a cat soaking wet? That was what Nick vaguely resembled. Pissed, scared and quite hideous.

  “Pleass, pleass, make itssstop! Make itsstop,” he cried out, little paws covering his eyes protectively. The rain was pouring on our heads and we were both totally soaked.

  I beamed proudly at a job well done. The trap was working fine. Sneaky Nick was completely in my hold. Time to call Vigil.

  Nick
yelled and cried but did not move, frozen by all the lights surrounding him. I glanced at the little trembling ball of wet fur and felt a pang of guilt.

  Focusing my mind on the tattoo on my wrist, I called for Vigil. A few minutes passed with only the sound of the rain pouring on us and the whimpering sobs of the poor creature shaking in the light. I was feeling really sorry for him now. I hoped Vigil would come quickly. I closed my hand over my wrist and concentrated harder, calling out his name in my head, over and over again.

  “Havess mercy, haves mercy, witch!” Nick’s loud wails were disconcerting and distracted me from my concentration. “It hurtsss, sso much!”

  I bit my lip. Nick sounded in so much pain. His moans were just … awful.

  “Vigil will be here any minute now. Then I’ll turn off the lights, okay? It won’t be long, just … hang in there just a little bit more,” I said, trying to comfort him.

  A sharp stabbing pain shot through my arm, making me drop the remote control on the grass. “Oh, thank God, Vigil,” I mumbled, holding my throbbing wrist.

  Vigil was standing on the other side of the circle of spotlights, watching the scene curiously. His eyes searched for me and when he found me he smiled softly. Then Nick’s loud wailing caught his attention and he shifted his gaze to him.

  “Joey, what did I tell you?” He frowned, upset. “You should not have done that by yourself …”

  I was about to reply when one of the spotlights in front of me blinked and buzzed, then went out. The rain had short-circuited the lamp. Both mine and Vigil’s eyes snapped urgently to the broken spotlight. A dark line of shadow now broke the circle.

  “Oh, no,” I whispered. Then everything went downhill, fast as lightning.

  Vigil’s hand shot upwards, trying to summon something to enclose sneaky Nick, but it was already too late. The small patch of darkness in the circle was more than enough for Nick to dart forward and escape his luminous trap.

  He now stood in front of me; murder flared in his yellow, glowing eyes.

  I dry-gulped and stepped back, and Nick let out the most scary sound I had ever heard in my life. He wasn’t crying or begging any more. He was mighty angry and wanted revenge.

  His body was now visible, and for the first time I wished it wasn’t. I wished I could not see the evil in his stare, the wicked grin of his mouth as he licked his pointy sharp teeth and prepared to pounce, his eyes glued to my neck.

  I knew I had to act fast to avoid having my throat ripped apart. I bolted towards Vigil, trying to cut through the center of the spotlights. I wasn’t fast enough. A tearing sound and a pressure on my legs made me stumble and fall, face down on the grass. I heard Vigil shouting my name.

  I flipped myself over and saw Nick bite ferociously on the end of my jeans leg, by my ankle. He had me and I couldn’t get away. I wriggled and kicked him in the face with my other leg, then scrambled in the wet grass to try to crawl away from him, but Nick wouldn’t let me go, gnawing and biting viciously.

  Now I knew what Vigil meant by that thing being dangerous if cornered. It was frigging ragging on me!

  A sharp pain shot up my leg and I yelled, watching blood drench the fabric of my jeans, but I continued trying to kick him the hell away from me. He was wickedly fast and so strong for such a small thing.

  Then Vigil’s hand broke into my line of vision and grabbed the little devil by its furry neck. Nick yelped in surprise and let go of me.

  I grabbed my leg, trying not to cry, but the pain in my ankle was too intense.

  The danger was far from over.

  Nick twisted around Vigil’s hand and bit down on it, hard, succeeding in his bid to escape.

  Vigil grimaced, cradling his hand. Rain washed over the spluttering blood that gushed from his open wound. I stared, astonished, as the wound healed itself in a matter of seconds.

  Nick landed on the grass with a soft thump, making me snap my eyes back to him. I watched, almost hypnotized, as he licked a set of glistening, bloody teeth and focused his full attention on me.

  “Crap, crap, crap,” I muttered, dragging myself over the grass in sheer panic.

  Nick prepared to jump, eyes on my throat, and pounced fast. Vigil appeared right in front of me, tackling Nick at the last second. He lost his balance because of the impact and tumbled down, falling on top of me.

  We landed in a tangled heap and for a fraction of a second both of our hands lay on top of the glass ball – the one that had rolled out of Nick’s leather pouch when I first trapped him.

  A beam of piercing light exploded from the ball, engulfing everything around us and blinding me completely. The light was so fierce that it burned through my eyelids.

  Hell, it felt like it was scorching inside my skull. It was like a small sun was being born right in the middle of my back garden!

  I tried to cover my eyes with one hand – the other was still glued to the glass ball – but the light kept bursting, implacable and searing. Excruciating pain shot through me, bombarding every cell, every nerve, flesh, blood and bone. Everything hurt, like I was being incinerated. It was just too much for me to handle, so my brain took over and did what was best for me. It shut down and I blacked out completely.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Mismatch

  “Joe! Joey!”

  I thought I was sleeping. It felt so good; everything was so dark, and hazy. Someone was shaking me, calling my name over and over again in a worried tone. It sounded familiar … yet so far away … As the shaking grew stronger, the voice got louder.

  “Joey! Joey! Wake up!”

  I grunted and risked opening my eyes, slightly afraid of what I would see. I was lying in Tristan’s arms as he stroked my cheek, sweeping the wet hair out of my face, his own face a mask of concern. I blinked again, trying to understand what was happening, my blurry vision slowly adjusting to the night sky.

  “Hey. Thank God, she’s waking up,” Tristan said, relief pouring out of him. “What happened here, Joey? Are you all right?”

  I sat on the grass and looked around, feeling completely bewildered. It wasn’t raining any more. Flashes of what had happened drifted back into my head in a jumbled mess as I surveyed the garden.

  “When we got back from the club you weren’t anywhere in the house; then Harry noticed the back door was open: the floor was all wet from the rain. We found you and Vigil lying on the grass, unconscious and completely drenched. What the hell happened here? Are you sure you’re all right?” he asked in a strained voice.

  “I feel okay.” As I said it, I realized it was true. In fact, I felt better than fine. I felt like I could run a marathon right now. Which was very odd.

  Sam and Harry were looking at me all worried, while Seth and Josh were kneeling close to a body lying on the grass a few feet away from me.

  “Vigil!” I gasped, remembering our last seconds together in that blinding explosion of light. “Oh, God! Is he all right?” I scrambled to my feet and ran to him.

  “It looks like he’s unconscious, but not harmed,” Seth answered, checking Vigil’s pulse and airway.

  I remembered sneaky, evil Nick and looked around, alarmed. “Did you guys see anything else when you arrived?”

  “No. There was nothing here, just you and Vigil. Why?” Tristan asked. “Joey, what happened?” His tone was urgent now, demanding.

  “Uh, I’ll explain everything in a minute,” I said, looking suspiciously at all the shadows around us. “Let’s get Vigil inside first, where there’s lots of light.”

  I wasn’t sure myself what had really happened. I mean, it was all a mess in my head. One thing I knew for sure, though: Tristan was going to be pissed when he heard what I had tried to do tonight.

  Josh and Sam carried Vigil, still unconscious, inside and laid him carefully on the living-room couch. Seth handed me a towel and Tristan went to get me a cup of tea. I knelt by Vigil’s side and laid the back of my hand on his forehead. He didn’t have a fever, his breathing had leveled and his pulse seeme
d steady. He was fine – unconscious, but physically fine.

  When I took my hand away from him I realized for the first time that despite being close to Vigil, my wrist didn’t hurt. Even when I wasn’t touching him. That was … extremely odd.

  Tristan returned with a hot cup of tea for me. I wasn’t feeling cold but I took the tea anyway.

  We all sat on the couch, Tristan next to me and the boys perching on the back and arms to give Vigil some space, and I explained what had happened, with everyone listening intently. Tristan’s lips were pursed the whole time, his eyes fixed on me, his brow furrowed in a deep frown. He was getting angrier by the minute.

  When I got to the part where Nick was biting my leg off, all of them glanced quickly at the hem of my jeans. So did I. I had forgotten about being hurt. Why was I not in pain? I lifted the ragged, blood-stained leg of my jeans to see my injury.

  There was nothing. I mean, of course there was my leg, and some dried blood, but my skin was smooth and unscathed, not a single scratch or cut on it.

  Okay. Definitely one more odd thing to add to the list. I swore Nick had bitten into my leg; I remembered the pain, the blood, the sound of his teeth ripping through my skin. How could there be nothing wrong with my leg now?

  They all looked up at me with baffled faces. I shrugged and continued my story to the point where the light had burst out of that freaking glass ball and I had blacked out.

  Seth went outside to retrieve Nick’s objects that were still scattered over the grass – including the glass ball. Apparently Sneaky Nick was in such a hurry he had left all his precious magical artifacts behind. Or maybe the light had killed him? Obliterated him completely from the face of the Earth? That was a cheering thought.

  Seth placed the small weird things and the leather pouch on the coffee table. There were a few battered wooden boxes, some misshapen metal objects, and the glass ball. They looked nothing like anything I’d ever seen before; the whole collection looked like useless, worthless bits of junk.