by Simone Sinna
Kate murmured to herself, shaking her head. “Wrong question, I’ve been asking the wrong question.”
She placed the glowing stone back in with the others and, this time, made an incantation.
The were-devil curse had been the result of evil in the Northern world and in the heart of one ghost. After two generations it was said that the curse would turn. Kate now asked the stones for an answer to the rebound ghost curse that was surely already descending upon those in Queensland. What is the answer to the ghosts’ curse?
She dipped her hand in each time she was pulled to do so and again came up with seven stones. But this time it was three black and yellow stones and four ghost stones. One of the ghost stones was the same one that had burnt her hands on previous occasions. Lena.
“Lincoln and Lane,” Kate said to the were-devil stones and two amber flashes replied. She sighed and put them with Lena’s which still glowed, uncertain and unclear.
She touched the remaining stones gingerly, hoping for guidance. But the remaining were-devil stone and two of the ghost stones remained cool and closed. Only the final ghost stone spoke, and Kate knew instantly that this was the one of fire and decay, and it was coming closer. She needed to warn those it was coming to destroy.
* * * *
“We’ve done it.” Lincoln burst into the bedroom where Kael and Lena had been sleeping. Kael sat up instantly. “Can you give it to her now?”
Lena, slower to sit, stared at him wide-eyed.
“It’ll take time. Torq was right. It was brilliant. Is brilliant. Deserves a Nobel Prize. There’s an amazing juxtaposition of the viruses and our blood and we think ghost blood.” Linc grabbed Lena and hugged her. “It’s going to work. I know it is. You just have to hold on while we extract the virus from your system and alter the trigger.”
“How long?”
“A few days,” said Linc.
“That might be too long.”
The voice came from behind them, and they swung around. To their amazement, it was Auntie Kate, hair wrapped in a purple turban and ears and arms tinkling with jewelry.
“Auntie Kate,” said Linc. “How…what…? Oh, um, this is Lena.”
“I know,” said Kate, eyeing Lena from the doorway. She produced a white stone that seemed alive, pulsating with an ominous glow. “She is the bridge stone.”
Linc looked at Kael who was as mystified as him.
“The bridge between curses,” Kate explained. “With her mixed blood you can stop the ghosts from being destroyed.”
“Then we will do it,” said Linc confidently.
“But only,” said Kate, still staring at Lena, “if they don’t destroy you first.”
Chapter Ten
Adam’s plan for revenge was simple. The devils lived in Tarrabah, and Tarrabah was where they should die. It was a forest thick with undergrowth and fallen timber decaying, the habitat of the Tasmanian devil. With the help of fuel it would burn well. All they had to do was make sure they were all there and then circle the township and cut them off. They had pored over maps, and with the hundred who had volunteered to go, it would be easy to ensure no one slipped through the line.
The main challenge to this plan was rescuing Lena and Gabriella while ensuring they didn’t warn anyone. Zac had to establish first where they were, and he figured they’d be with Tilman rather than at Tarrabah. The simplest option was to divide in two. Zac, his brothers and one of Wilson’s, Rose, and Randall would find the girls. The bigger, second team already in place would wait for the word and proceed with the final plan when given the signal. Zac and his brothers would join them after Lena and Gabriella were safe with Lena’s parents.
Finding the girls had been easier than expected. After landing in Hobart the teams had separated and Zac had headed to Kate’s curiosity shop where he had originally picked up Tilman’s sons’ scent and later the Mortimers’. The shop was closed up, but the vibes were still strong and easy to follow. They were all staying together in the same house, and Kate was with them. In the park opposite they considered their options.
“I want to get my daughter,” said Rose. “I don’t care about anything else.”
“She may not come willingly,” Zac warned. “And at the moment they’ve got four were-devils protecting them.”
“I know,” said Rose. “I can hear them.”
Zac stared at her.
Rose didn’t have to say it. Her were-devil blood. She closed her eyes. “The seer is warning them. She knows we are here but not the specifics.”
Zac and his brothers tensed. “There is no time to be lost then.”
“No, wait,” said Rose. “They’re separating. Gabriella is going to Tarrabah with her devils.”
“And Lena?”
Rose gripped her husband’s hand. “She’s sick. They have to go see the Tremain scientist. We can’t harm him if he can help her.”
Zac frowned. “Okay, we’ll stay here then,” he said to Lena’s parents. “Zoltan, Maximus, too. Parker, go to Tarrabah and warn Wilson he needs to get Gabriella before they arrive.”
Wilson’s brother, Parker, nodded. In the shadow of the trees he transformed and rose high above them, flying north. The remainder, grim faced, watched and prepared to wait for the right moment.
* * * *
“My brother found a variant of what I called SMB,” Tilman told Lena when Lincoln took her to the university. “Unlike me he wasn’t trying to find the cure for the were-devils’ curse. He wanted to find something to infect the ghosts and then an antidote or vaccine for our kind. He started with the virus your great-uncle brought to the north. The one that got rid of the vampires but to which the ghosts were immune and which is still carried, I imagine, by fruit bats. He called it VK—I presume vampire killer. We will never know, but he almost certainly got it from the fruit bats that are carrying the Hendra and probably, likewise, carried its predecessor.”
So far Lena, who winced at the idea of the VK, was following him. What Lincoln had explained was that the code they had broken had helped only so much. There had also been a lot of shorthand. Tilman’s knowledge of his brother had been invaluable, though much was still indecipherable. She was trying to keep her men between her and Tilman. They were both feeling uncomfortable about their previous encounter, though Tilman’s absorption in the science was helping.
“This,” said Tilman pointing to a page in the notebook, “is immune response to what Torq called VK1, VK2, and VK3. My best guess is that they are the original and two mutations he tried. All are very similar to each other as well as to the were-devils’ curse virus, and the markers that trigger the immune response he then traces are similar to the SMB that I isolated.”
“But not similar enough to help?” asked Lena.
“Correct,” said Tilman. “VK1 and VK2 didn’t seem to do anything. Torq hit it big with VK3. Hendra.”
“But bats carry it,” said Lena.
“Yes, but that’s where Torq made use of the fact that ghost—and for that matter were-devil—blood differs from bats. Unfortunately his mutation was not just lethal to ghosts, albeit slower because of some cross immunity from VK1, but also to humans.”
“Did he let it loose knowing that?” Lincoln murmured to himself.
“I should think not,” said Tilman. “My brother was obsessed, but he wouldn’t have wanted to knock off the whole human race and would have to have been sure he had protection for his own family. Essentially though their chances of catching it are low, so he may have taken the risk. Hendra became an issue in 1994. It may have gotten out because Torq wasn’t using a proper lab. I suspect he spent the subsequent years with the antidote and vaccine and testing it.”
“And my great-aunt and uncle?” asked Lena.
“Adam would have been who he would have wanted most to target,” said Tilman. “Perhaps women are more susceptible. Once it was out he must have found a way to infect them specifically.”
“And Lena next,” said Lincoln, the pain evident in
his voice.
“So I have followed the formula,” Tilman said. “And I’ve come up with what I will give you now.”
“But Lincoln said it would take days,” said Lena faintly.
“Ideally yes,” said Tilman. “I have used Kael’s and Becc’s SMB as a base and the initial response in the test tube to the virus in your blood. But you’re three-quarter ghost and one-quarter were-devil. We don’t know how to trigger the ghost response on this particular virus and, worse, how the blood works together. I don’t have time to do the assays. I suspect that Torq mentioning siblings meant not just our were-devil ones but a relationship between the species. Given your bloodlines, ideally I would have blood with fifty percent ghost and were-devil so I could start with the right proportions to ensure your immune response would be balanced and stronger.”
“Like,” said a cool voice from behind them, “mine.”
Lena turned around in disbelief. She recognized the voice immediately, but it was so out of context it disorientated her. “Mum,” she whispered.
* * * *
Auntie Kate wasn’t feeling any more positive about the day than when she’d woken up with darkened mist smoking through her thoughts and the smell of burning embers pervading her nasal passages.
She was sitting in the back of Mac and Mitch’s car, along with Gabriella and Kael, deciding cars made her feel claustrophobic. As they drove closer to Tarrabah the forest seemed to close around her and the dim light filtering through the trees had an ominous hue she couldn’t put her finger on. Everyone in the car was tense. Kate knew Kael’s mind and heart were back in Hobart. Linc had insisted he go to Tarrabah to protect their parents and sister. Linc planned to follow with Lena as soon as they’d seen Tilman. If Kael’s assessment was that it wasn’t safe he would let them know and they’d all evacuate south.
Safe it was not. But just what form any ghost attack would take, Kate had no idea. She remembered her mother mourning the fact that Mac and Mitch’s grandfather had chosen wrongly and the devastation the curse brought. Was she about to witness the ghosts get it wrong this time and allow their blood lust and need for revenge to curse them? So much had fallen into place as it should, but until the last stones were accounted for Kate knew there was no place for complacency.
“What’s that?” Kael was looking upward, squinting at the gap between the tall trees in front.
Mac and Mitch were unable to see anything, and though Kate sensed something, she wasn’t clear what. It was Gabriella that knew. “Wilson is here,” she said. “He’s blocking his thoughts, but I feel his anger.”
* * * *
Linc had a really bad feeling about this. Judging from Tilman’s expression he felt much the same. But Lena fell into her mother’s arms crying, and it was hard to escape that this woman was Lena’s mother and had the ideal pedigree to help. She was beautiful, too, much younger than her years. She was slim and tall like her daughter, with short, blonde hair that was lighter than her eyebrows. But she never looked Linc directly in the eye, and though he was unsure if she was deliberately blocking her thoughts or that her ghost blood meant they were inaccessible, he sensed she was hiding something.
Rose gave up a blood sample willingly enough, but then she clearly wanted to get Lena away from the Tremains. “Your father is here, too,” said Rose. “We’ve been worried about you. If we’re done here perhaps you and I…?”
Lena glanced quickly at Linc. “Ah well, I guess I could maybe for a coffee. We have plans.”
“I’m sure—Lincoln is it?—won’t miss you for an hour or so. Your father and I have a car, so we can drive you to wherever you need to be.”
“That won’t be necessary,” said Linc. “I’ll pick Lena up.”
“Of course,” said Rose. Though she was smiling there was no warmth, and Linc felt something else he couldn’t quite put a finger on. “We’re at the Hilton. Perhaps Lena can ring you?”
* * * *
The ghosts had barricaded the road, and there would be no passing without getting out of the car and physically removing the rocks. They had more than enough muscle between them to do so, but while there was no ghost in sight, all in the car knew they were not far away.
“They’re after you, Gabbie,” said Mitch.
“Well, they can want me all they like,” said Gabriella. “But I’m staying with you.”
“You need to tell them that,” said Auntie Kate.
“She isn’t getting out of the car.” Mitch was firm.
“They have to hear it from me,” said Gabriella. “Wilson knows it already anyway.”
Before Mitch could stop her, Gabriella had jumped out of the car.
“Wilson Magnussen,” she shouted into the air. “I know you’re there.”
Her words split the unnatural silence. Mac, Mitch, and Kael, now by her side, looked around uneasily. There was the smallest of movements in the treetops, a soft twittering in the distance.
“I am not part of this,” Gabriella continued. “And nor are you. This feud started more than seventy years ago, and it needs to end, here and now.”
From above they watched a large, almost translucent bat glide silently down over them, disappearing into the trees from which Wilson emerged, standing on the rocks.
“It will end here all right,” he said. His green eyes blazed. “This is your last chance or else you die with them.”
“This is not your fight, Wilson,” said Gabriella, voice trembling.
“Adam is dying, poisoned by his”—Wilson nodded to Kael—“father. I will finish what he started, and if you get in the way I won’t protect you.”
“She doesn’t need your protection,” Mitch growled.
“Then let her blood be on your hands.” Wilson transformed, and as he soared above them, joined by other ghosts, the were-devils threw aside the rocks so they could get to Tarrabah and their people.
* * * *
When Lena felt the pull it was so deep-seated and overwhelming that she nearly passed out. It was unlike anything else that she’d ever felt. In her weakened state, with both parents looking on, alarmed, it took her several minutes to make sense of it. There were two components that had come simultaneously. One was familiar from her childhood, a call that had been usually playful and at most mischievous, her and Gabriella perfecting a way of talking to each other that could not be understood by the other ghosts. This time it was neither playful nor mischievous. It was an SOS.
The second component was just as compelling, and though it asked for nothing it was even more terrifying. It was from Kael, and it was saying he loved her, but implicit in it was good-bye. Lena felt like she’d been winded and struggled to breathe.
“What is it?” her father asked, arm around her holding her up.
“I have to go,” Lena replied with a gasp.
“You’re too sick to go anywhere,” said Rose gently.
With what strength she had Lena struggled out of her father’s arms. “No, I have to. Now. Gabriella and Kael need me.”
“Gabriella is fine.”
Lena was already at the door before her mother’s words penetrated. Turning, she said, “How do you know?”
“Because she is one of us. No harm will come to her.”
Lena felt all the life drain from her. “You set this up,” she whispered.
Her father was by her side, trying to hold her, but Lena was shrinking away. “Wilson thinks Gabriella is a traitor,” she said. “He won’t save her.”
She started to leave, but her mother barred the way.
“I’m not letting you leave, Lena. You’re my only daughter, and I won’t have you sacrificing your life on them. I made sure you had better blood than me. You’re—we’re both ghost.”
“Your mother speaks to me,” said Lena softly. “She was full-blood ghost and chose a were-devil and has forgiven him. I have the chance to stop this vendetta, and I would rather die doing that than live a life pretending I am something I’m not.”
Rose stared
at her daughter. “I won’t let you!”
“It’s not your choice.”
Lena thought for a moment her mother would physically restrain her, and she doubted she would have had the physical strength to resist them had her mother and father both joined forces. But Lincoln was there, waiting outside the door, and in the end her parents knew, Lena was sure, that they wouldn’t win.
Chapter Eleven
While Lincoln had not felt anything from Gabriella, the call from his family was strong and clear. Tarrabah was under attack.
Lena had sobbed quietly as the car flew up the freeway and then along the dirt roads that wound through the mountains. Long before they reached Tarrabah they could smell smoke and see ahead a ring of fire.
“They’ve been ambushed,” said Lincoln grimly. “They’re all caught in the center.”
Though Tasmania was greener than most of Australia the spring had been dry, particularly in the north. The undergrowth was dry and the gum trees as good as gasoline once a blaze got hold.
They weren’t able to get closer than, at best, Linc estimated, three or four miles. The emergency services had the roads blocked, and no amount of pleading was going to make any difference. He turned the car around.
“Where are we going?”
Lincoln looked grim. “I grew up here, remember. I know the back roads. But I’m dropping you off at the last town first.”
He saw Lena bite her lip. She was as a white as a sheet, and though he expected her to protest she did not. She must have been sicker than she was letting up.
* * * *
Kael cursed silently for allowing himself to walk right into a trap. The ghosts would be delighted. Almost the entire population in one hit. Just Linc, Tilman and his sons, and one of Mac and Mitch’s sisters, Misty, missing. At least Lena would have Lincoln to love her and Tilman to save her. There seemed some justice in this. The ghosts wouldn’t win completely.