by Nina Smith
He gave her an odd look while strapping a double-headed axe to one shoulder. “Well enough to know he’d always do the right thing.”
Hippy sighed and looked down. Under her fingers, leaning against the wall, was a black gun half as tall as she was and a belt bristling with ammunition underneath it. She slung the bandolier across her torso and then hoisted the gun over one shoulder by a rather handy strap.
Clockwork went to her and raised a hand gently to her cheek. “It’s going to be okay,” he said. “Don’t worry.”
“No,” Hippy said. It was very difficult to keep her promise to Mr Silver and not tell when Clockwork was this close, and her breath was mingling with his, and he looked so very concerned. “It’s not going to be okay, Clockwork. My family are dying. My tribe are being decimated. I can’t sit here in this house and keep the Apple from Pierus if it means they become vamp food. I have to do what I can to save them. Do you understand that?”
Clockwork’s lower lip trembled. Then he leaned forward and very, very gently kissed her lips.
Hippy’s eyes widened. This wasn’t like kissing Pierus at all. She didn’t feel the least bit out of her depth. She did have a fleeting urge to pin Clockwork to the nearest wall and kiss him until she forgot her own name.
He took his mouth off hers and whispered into her ear. “I don’t care where you have to go or what you have to do. I’ll find you.”
The door opened and they sprang apart.
Poppy strode in, closely followed by Ana, who looked the fairies over with deep suspicion. “What are you two doing?”
“Arming ourselves.” Clockwork gave her an insolent look and stuck a flat disc with jagged edges in his shirt pocket.
Poppy gave them a huge grin. She nudged Hippy on her way to the row of guns. “Much more like it,” she whispered. “Good girl.”
Hippy scowled. She didn’t want to be reminded this wouldn’t last much longer. She lifted the gun with one hand. “How does this thing work?”
“Oh! Easy. Nice choice.” Poppy showed her how to open the chamber and load it with bullets. “You’re going to have to do this a lot, so I’d practise if I were you. You’ll also find you can’t kill the bastards with one of these, but you sure can slow them down.” She put an arm around Hippy’s shoulders and guided her hands to hold the instrument properly. “There, now you’ve got it. Look down the length, that’s it, and aim at something. Aim at the middle of the door there.”
Hippy closed one eye and squinted down the barrel. She thought she could probably be good at this.
“Right,” Poppy said. “To shoot it, squeeze the trigger. Don’t pull it, just put your finger around it like that and squeeze. No don’t actually squeeze now-”
The door opened mid-squeeze. The gun fired. Hippy jumped back a step with the kickback, just as Pierus threw himself to the ground and Fitz leaped out of the way. A tiny little hole appeared in the wall right behind where Pierus had been standing.
There was absolute silence.
“Good shot,” Poppy said, sounding impressed.
Clockwork snorted. Then he chuckled. Then he started laughing so hard he had to sit down and clutch his stomach.
Behind them, Hippy could have sworn she heard Ana giggle. Fitz scowled at them all and helped Pierus to his feet. “Hippy, try not to shoot unless you see a vampire,” he said. “Please.”
Hippy pressed her fingers to her mouth. She stared at Pierus with wide eyes. “I didn’t know you were there,” she said. “Honest.” She tried to swallow a giggle, but it came out as a snort.
“Fairies, out,” Ana snapped. “Now!”
Clockwork and Hippy edged around Pierus and fled down the hall, still laughing.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
From the roof of Mr Silver’s house Hippy watched the streets wind away, languid orange, into the gathering evening. Every leaf and fence post shone and every shadow blurred just so into the light. It was perhaps the most beautiful sunset she’d seen in Dream yet.
Behind her Clockwork paced the perimeter of the roof, impatient for battle. He hadn’t stood still for an hour.
She tried to focus on vamps and vamps alone. It was just too hard to think about what would come after that, if they all survived. There was no kind of choice. Mr Silver was right about that.
Beside her, Poppy had an inscrutable expression and a semi-automatic hitched on one shoulder. Her glasses were askew and a few hairs escaped from her hastily pinned bun.
Hippy felt another ache in her ribs. She was going to miss Poppy. She blinked rapidly, glad Ishtar wasn’t around to see her get all emotional about a human.
Poppy glanced at her. “I was going to ask if you were nervous,” she said. “But I guess this is your thing.”
Hippy shrugged. “Usually the odds are more in our favour. At least, they were before the whole vamp army turned up.”
“You ever think about staying?”
She smiled. “All the time. I like it here. But you know I can’t.”
“I know.” Poppy hesitated. “But if you ever wanted to come back, or if things go really badly with Pierus-”
Hippy flinched.
“-Then look me up,” Poppy said. “Seriously. You and me could have some fun together. There are lots more shiny things to be found out there, you know.”
“I like shiny things.” Hippy watched a shape move in the streets, too far away to be distinct. The sunset deepened to red. “Are you going to keep looking for Pandora’s Box?”
“Of course.”
“I wouldn’t. Mr Silver covered it in fairy dust. If you touch it now you’ll lose your hands.”
Poppy stared. “He what? It’s here? Son of a bitch!”
Hippy shrugged. “I’m just saying.”
Poppy sighed. “There goes that wild goose chase. Never mind. Maybe I’ll just write a novel about this whole thing and make myself rich that way.”
“I hope Pierus isn’t your muse then.”
They both giggled.
“How do you know Mr Silver?” Hippy said.
Poppy winked. “Let’s just say like you, he likes shiny things and I’m good at obtaining them.” She grabbed Hippy’s hand and pressed it hard. “Listen, this might be the last time I see you for a while. Hippy, promise me you’ll be careful of Pierus. He’s dangerous.”
“Do you think?” She gave Poppy a toothy grin. “Ever tangled with a Bloody Fairy?”
A bell clanged far below. Clockwork was by their side in a heartbeat, straining to see in the fading light. “They’re here.”
The streetlights flickered on up and down the street. Pale faces loomed out of the dark. The gates shook once before tall, lean shapes swarmed over them and into the garden.
Hippy tried to count them. She gave up quickly. Numbers had never been her strong point.
Clockwork kissed her on the cheek. “Bet you I get more vamps than you do.”
“Oh yeah?” Hippy launched herself off the roof and dropped silently through the air, her gun clamped under her arm and her spear brandished and ready. The first of the vamps to reach the house broke her fall. She jumped up and down a couple of times, impaled him on her spear and dodged out of the way of the jet of blood that spurted from the wound.
Clockwork landed beside her, grinning. “Show off.”
There was no more time for banter after that, because they were surrounded.
A vamp started toward her, lips drawn back over barely human teeth in a low snarl. His eyes had the pale pink tinge of a new vamp. Hippy drove her spear into his gut and didn’t even care about all the blood this time. She took her gun in her hands and squeezed the trigger, just like Poppy had shown her. Another vamp staggered backward, blood spurting from a hole in his neck. She squeezed again and again until a path cleared through the crush.
“Gee Clockwork I’m so scared of these guys!” she yelled at the top of her voice.
Clockwork put a hand on his face and gave an exaggerated pout. “Me too. Let’s run into the gar
den and hide.”
The vamps pressed in, fangs bared. The path out narrowed. Hippy bolted through grasping white fingers, Clockwork following at her ankles. They barged into the garden, leaped hedges, dodged flowers and made as much noise as possible. The vamps rushed in on their trail.
Hippy crouched, tripped three vamps, slipped the shiny thing over her fingers and punched the next one in the face. “Suckers,” she hissed.
Clockwork pulled the sword from the scabbard strapped to his back and slashed at anything that moved. Hippy skewered several more vamps with the throwing daggers, but they just kept coming.
There was a low, feral snort just above her head. A glob of saliva hit a wounded vamp in the face.
“Crunchy!” Hippy dived to the side.
Crunchy pawed the ground, snarled at the oncoming attackers and charged, flinging vamps in every direction.
Hippy and Clockwork fled further down the path, this time with only half as many vamps in pursuit. Clockwork skidded to a halt under a tree. In the lowest branch slept Ralph, his tail sweeping down to the ground. “Hey! Hey Ralph!” he shook the branch.
Ralph raised his head from under his wing and uttered a warning snarl.
The vamps burst into the glade, skidded to a halt and surrounded them. Hippy’s eyes widened. “Tony! I thought Fluffy Ducky ate you!” She gave him a cheery wave.
Tony was terribly pale and his eyes had a reddish tinge. He pointed at her. “That’s the one,” he said. “Take her alive to the boss. Kill the other kid.”
The vamps closed in.
Ralph stood up on his branch, stretched and gave a deafening screech. Then he launched himself, claws first, into Tony’s face.
Tony screamed. Hippy and Clockwork ploughed into the group around them with drawn daggers.
“They don’t put up much of a fight you know,” Clockwork said when they met in the middle.
“New vamps.” Hippy shrugged. “Hey, is that all there was?”
They looked around. Apart from Tony pinned to the ground by a peacock, there were no living vamps in sight. From across the garden drifted the dulcet sounds of somebody being kicked in the head.
Hippy and Clockwork set off through the bushes, Ralph at their heels. The garden swallowed everything. The paths wound and twisted. Trees cast shadows so deep they could have led into caves. Not another soul appeared.
Then they burst into a big clearing where a six foot high marble fountain rose like a dancer from a mob of angry vamps. On the fountain stood Mr Silver, with Doris wound around his shoulders and torso. Loops of her body coiled into the water. She slid like a lover across Mr Silver’s shoulders, raised her head and hissed.
The vamps closest to the fountain quailed, but only for a second. They surged forward. Whenever one climbed the fountain, Doris reared her head back and struck faster than the eye could see.
“That looks like the fun place up there,” Clockwork said.
Hippy still had her new favourite shiny thing over her knuckles. She stalked up to the back of the circle and punched a vamp in the kidneys. When he whirled around to face the attack, she punched him in the face.
Clockwork set to with his sword. They ploughed straight into the thick of the vamps. Hippy took the dagger from her belt, since she’d lost her spear and gun, and cut anything that came within reach. This happened to mostly be hands reaching out for her, so she left a trail of fingers in her wake, along with a few fangs that got too close to her shiny, shiny fist. Clockwork swarmed up the fountain and she would have followed, except for the crowd of angry vamps that dragged her back to the ground.
Hippy shrieked and struck out with renewed fury. Fangs crunched. Fingers yanked at her hair, bringing tears to her eyes. She snapped her head back and hoped the unmistakable sound of a skull cracking wasn’t her own. She snap-kicked a vamp in the knees and smacked another one in the nose, but there were so many now she could barely breathe for the stink of metallic vamp-breath and the fingers crushing her face, digging into her arms, her back, forcing her head inexorably aside while those pale, predatorial faces descended like knives.
She found a throwing dagger on her wrist. Loosened it. Fangs scraped her neck and without a second thought she buried the blade in flesh all the way up to her hand. Warm, wet liquid oozed through her fingers. The vamp went blue and fell, only to be replaced by another and another. There were too many. She was going to die, which meant she’d never have to worry about Pierus again, and Ishtar would never know she’d been right.
“Hang on Hippy!”
The voice came from very far above. Something shiny and jagged and circular fell from the sky and buried itself in the forehead of a vamp who was inches off biting her. Then another and another.
Hippy balled a shiny, deadly fist and struck at everything that moved until two pairs of warm fairy hands grabbed her by the shoulders and the hair and hauled her onto the fountain.
She scowled, brushed her torn dress down and pushed her tangled hair out of her face. “Stupid vamps!”
“Are you okay? Did you get bit?” Clockwork grabbed her in a fierce hug. “I’m sorry, we couldn’t find you for a minute there.”
Hippy allowed herself exactly three seconds to bury her face in his shoulder, shudder and wish they could go off somewhere and kiss some more instead of all this fighting. She looked at Mr Silver over Clockwork’s shoulder and thought she saw a peculiar look of regret in his face when he met her eyes. She raised her head. “What’s the score?”
Mr Silver glanced over the garden, where the vamps had regrouped and once again clawed at the fountain. “The score is we’re all still alive and this is the stupidest pack of vamps I ever met,” he said. “Badora’s either losing his touch or humans don’t make very intelligent bloodsuckers.”
Fluffy Ducky scuttled onto Hippy’s arm. She gave him a stern look. “Where were you two minutes ago? You be sure to come right back to me, okay?”
Fluffy Ducky leaped, sailed over Doris’s head and clamped onto a vamp’s eyes. The vamp screamed, broke from the pack and ran into the bushes, clawing at his face.
Mr Silver’s grin turned positively evil. “I like that spider a lot. What do you say we cull these vamps a bit faster, kids?”
Clockwork gave a little excited jump. “Have you brought what I think you’ve brought?”
Mr Silver crouched, since he couldn’t bend with a twenty foot long snake on his shoulders, and picked up a bag. From it he took two grey items that were egg-shaped but as big as two fists, and handed one to each of them.
“What’s this?” Hippy pulled a pin-shaped item from one end. “Oops. I think I broke it.”
Clockwork’s grin stretched from ear to ear. “Uh-”
Mr Silver’s voice was dry. “It’s a grenade. Throw it, Hippy. Into the vamps.”
Hippy shrugged and ditched it into the thick of the vamps. The air split. A deafening blast almost threw her backwards into the welling fountain. Flames billowed and a cloud of black smoke engulfed the crowd. Vamp ash rose into the night air like leaves where the grenade had hit. Those nearby who’d caught fire screeched in terror and redoubled their efforts to climb the fountain.
Hippy kicked one off the marble rim, then jumped up and down and clapped her hands. “Yay! It went bang! You do it Clockwork!”
Clockwork whooped and ditched his grenade into a group that had escaped the first attack and were fleeing. The second explosion, every bit as loud as the first, set a tree on fire.
Hippy put out her hand. “Fluffy Ducky!” she yelled.
Fluffy Ducky swung out of the darkness, landed on her hand and scrambled onto her shoulder.
“Well-trained spider, that.” Mr Silver scanned the damage. “I’d say that’s a severely dented vamp army. Clockwork, get the hose and put that fire out. You can meet us at the house. Hippy, with me.” He strode away.
Hippy trotted after him. The snake followed. She glanced over her shoulder once and saw Clockwork hosing down the burning tree. She wished she cou
ld go back to him instead. The flush and excitement of battle hammered through her blood and made her want things she’d never even thought about until that one little kiss with a Freakin Fairy. She could just imagine Ishtar’s face if she knew.
They broke free of the garden and stopped. Doris kept going. Her sinuous coils slid over the path and the road and straight into the thick of a battle far fiercer than the one they’d just left.
Fitz and Ana fought for their lives on the marble steps. A circle of seven vamps surrounded them, all armed with steel poles. Other vamps lay dead and scattered around the road. From inside the house came the sound of smashing glass, a woman’s yell, gunfire. A vampiric roar sent shudders down Hippy’s spine. She knew that war cry. The Bloody Fairies had heard Rustam Badora’s call to arms every night since the vamps first attacked.
Mr Silver laid a hand on her shoulder. “I cannot in good conscience keep you from the Apple of Chaos if it means the death of your tribe.” His voice was thick, each reluctant word dragged from someplace he didn’t like to go. “It’s your choice, Hippy, if he takes it or not. Just remember, what happens after that depends on you. Go and find the muse king. I can help Fitz and Ana.”
Hippy looked up at him and swallowed, hard. Her stomach coiled. There were a lot of things she wanted to say to Mr Silver right now, and some of those involved some very bad words.
She raised her shiny fist. “Can I keep this punching thing?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Hippy scaled the walls of the house with her eyes closed. It wasn’t something she would normally do, but she could hear both Poppy and Pierus underneath Badora’s periodic bellows and she needed to locate them both.
The wall vibrated beneath her fingers. Gunfire. That would be Poppy. Hippy clambered sideways to reach the nearest window and peer through.
Poppy was on her own in a huge kitchen fighting three vamps. She used her gun to fend off a blow and then ducked and dived instead of just killing them. Her hair had all fallen out of its bun and her nice suit was torn down the back. Her glasses barely clung to her grimy face.