The Haunted High Series Boxed Set

by Cheree Alsop

  We ran to catch up to her just before she reached a set of stairs. The pace she set showed her familiarity with the layout of the underground labs. I lost track of how many twists and turns we took. Each hallway looked the same. I began to fear that if we got separated, we wouldn’t be able to find our way back out. Only the reminder that I could follow our scent calmed my nerves.

  Ren finally held up a hand and we slowed.

  “We’ve made it to the inner hallways,” she announced.

  I looked around. The hall we stood in looked the same as those we had already traveled.

  “Are you sure about that?” Vicken asked.

  Ren jerked her head toward me. “Of course I’m sure. You can smell it, right, Finn?”

  The expectancy of her gaze made my heart give a strange double beat. I took a deep breath through my nose. The slight sulfurous, cloying scent that clung to my nostrils made me want to bare my teeth.

  “Demons,” I said.

  She nodded. “Luckily, the demons don’t care about people going into the Labs; it’s keeping them inside that’s their job. We won’t have problems until we try to get back out.”

  Alden gave me a worried look. “And how do we do that?”

  I kept my expression calm when I turned back to Ren. “You have a way to get us back out, right?”

  Her eyebrows rose and she shook her head, sending her unevenly cut auburn ponytail swishing back and forth. “You said to get you in. You didn’t say anything about getting out. Getting out is a death sentence.”

  “I thought going in was a death sentence,” I said.

  “It is,” Vicken replied. Anger showed in his voice. “I told you she’s leading us into a trap.”

  “I’m taking you where you asked to go,” Ren said as if her actions made perfect sense. “You wanted to find Briggsy. I’m taking you to him. That’s what you asked for.”

  Vicken glared at her. “It was implied that we’d need a way out.”

  Ren shook her head with a nonchalant expression. “Nothing was implied. Again with the assumptions.” She sighed. “Silly vampire. You think I can read your mind? I wouldn’t want to. Who knows what scary things dwell in there?”

  Vicken reached for her as if he wanted to throttle her. I knocked his hands down.

  “We don’t have time for this,” I told him. I turned my gaze on Ren. “Render, we need a way in and a way out that won’t put anyone in harm’s way. Can you help us with that?”

  Ren was silent for several moments. Her mouth moved as if she was talking to herself, but no sound came out. She made a few gestures with her hands, her eyebrows furrowed, and I hoped she was working it out, but she finally shook her head.

  “Nope. I can’t. What you ask is impossible.”

  She turned on her heels and continued down the hall.

  “Wait!” I called. “Where are you going?”

  “To find Briggsy,” she said over her shoulder.

  “But won’t they hurt you?” I asked.

  She paused and half-turned. As we watched, a strange expression came over her face. Her muscles tightened, her shoulders hunched, her fingers curled into fists, her knees bent, and her head lowered. She turned around to face us completely. The light in her hazel eyes had changed from casual to guarded. A snarl twisted her lips and the teeth she bared became the pointed fangs of a vampire. I heard a small gasp escape Alden.

  “You can’t make me go back there.” I wouldn’t have recognized the voice as Ren’s if I hadn’t seen her lips move when she spoke. “You can’t force me to go back on that table, to let them cut me open. To let them render me limb from limb so they can study how I heal.”

  “What just happened?” Vicken asked softly beside me.

  “I have no idea,” I whispered. I lifted my hands. “We aren’t trying to make you go back.”

  “You can’t make me,” Ren growled. “I won’t let you.” Her arms shook with how hard she clenched her fists. “I’d rather die before I go back there.”

  I had the distinct impression she was about to phase and attack us.

  “We won’t make you,” I said quickly. “You don’t have to go.”

  Ren watched me carefully as if sure I was playing a trick on her. “I don’t have to go?” she repeated.

  I shook my head. “You don’t have to go. You can stay here and we’ll meet up with you when we return. And you won’t have to wait alone.” I met Vicken’s eyes. The look of frustration on his face told me that would be a horrible idea to leave him alone with her. I glanced at Alden and was relieved when the Grim nodded. “Alden will stay with you.”

  His sigh of relief at not having to go further into the Mythic Labs was audible.

  “You’ll stay and I don’t have to go?” Ren asked.

  “What is wrong with her?” Vicken hissed in a whisper.

  “I have a feeling we’re about to find out,” I whispered back. I forced a smile at Ren. “You can stay with Alden and we’ll find you when we get back. Is that okay?”

  Ren nodded. “Fine.” She backed up to the wall so we could pass without touching her. “Watch out for the Spikeys. They hurt. And take all the south doors you can. Taking north doors on the way back out is much easier.”

  Vicken and I continued down the hall. I glanced back once to see Alden take a seat on the floor. Ren joined him and began to whistle. When we rounded the next corner, Vicken let out the breath I hadn’t realized he had been holding.

  “She’s certifiably insane. You know that, right?”

  I nodded. “There’s definitely something wrong with her, but you saw what they did.”

  “So why trust her?” the vampire pressed. “She might not be leading us to Professor Briggs and instead we could be walking into a trap by the people who took him!”

  “You could be right,” I admitted. “This place is huge. I don’t think we’re going to make it in and back out with Briggs right now. We need to see what we’re dealing with and how to get out without getting everyone captured.”

  The realization that we wouldn’t be returning with the professor right away was hard to swallow, but the further in we walked, the thicker the scent of demons became. With it drifted the sour, thick smell of fear and an underlying one that made my tongue taste like the flavor left when you put a battery to it to see if the battery is strong. It took me a few seconds to realize I was smelling pain. The thought made my stomach turn over.

  “Vicken, I have a bad feeling about this,” I said quietly.

  Vicken nodded. “Me, too. The whole place smells like old blood. It gives me the creeps.”

  We took the next door heading south and stopped.

  At the end of the hallway, demon shadows took over. There were so many of them that we couldn’t see through the dark mass.

  I glanced back the way we had come. All of the hallways funneled into this point.

  “This is the way into the Labs,” I said, my voice just above a whisper. “It looks like the only way.”

  Vicken’s jaw was tight when he said, “Ren said the demons would let us in. It’s getting out that’s hard.”

  “I don’t see any demon fire,” I pointed out with hope in my voice.

  “We can still be bitten,” Vicken said. “I’ve heard their bites are deadly.”

  I let out a frustrated breath. I didn’t want to believe we had come so far just to reach an impasse. But going through the demons was a death sentence. I’d had my fair share of encounters with them and the thought of doing so again made my palm throb. By the smell of things, there were far more demons guarding the Mythic Labs than we had seen at the Academy.

  “We’ve got to make them leave,” I mused aloud.

  “What was that?” Vicken asked.

  A plan formed in my mind as I thought it through. “The only way to make it to the Labs safely is to get the demons to leave. But to do that, we have to have a place for them to go.”

  Vicken’s tone was skeptical when he said, “Like a prison?”


  “Yeah, exactly,” I replied. I motioned for him to follow me and hurried back up the hallway. “But it needs to be a prison that can hold them safely. We don’t want to send them out into the city where citizens will be at their mercy.”

  “You want to catch the demons,” Vicken guessed. The look in his eyes said he didn’t like where my thoughts were going.

  “It’s the only way,” I pressed. “If we can make a place that will hold them, we’ll be able to get Briggs out of the Labs. And I don’t plan to just get out Briggs.”

  Vicken put a hand on my shoulder. The vampire’s strength stopped me dead in my tracks. “What are you talking about?”

  I didn’t look away from the vampire’s searching gaze. “You saw what they did to Ren. I’m not going to leave anyone down there to be tortured by scientists, torn to pieces and studied. You heard what she said back there. Rendered from limb to limb so they could study how she healed. She gave us what they did to her as her name. Render.” I shook my head. “It makes me sick to think of other mythics going through that right now. Even if Professor Briggs wasn’t there, it needs to be stopped.”

  “And what makes you think we can do that?” Vicken demanded. “We’re just students, remember?”

  It was the first time I had ever heard him refer to us as just students. The look in the vampire’s eyes was no longer confident and haughty. He was scared, and rightly so. I could smell the scent of fear wafting from him.

  I grasped at the only straw I had. “What if your mom’s there?”

  I heard Vicken’s heartbeat slow. “Why are you bringing my mom into this?”

  “She was kidnapped by the Maes, right? I’m sure the Monster Abolition and Eradication Society works with the Labs. They’re probably in league with the scientists so they can figure out the best way to kill monsters. It makes sense.”

  Vicken held perfectly motionless for a moment. I had never seen anyone stop all signs of being alive. His eyes didn’t blink, his yellow gaze was distant and glazed. His chest didn’t rise and fall. Even his fingers that still rested on my shoulder felt stiff and wooden. If it wasn’t for the nearly inaudible beating of his heart, I would have thought my words stole the life from him.

  “Vicken?” I said quietly.

  The vampire finally exhaled a breath. “If she’s down there, I’ll destroy every demon that ever lived to break her free.”

  I nodded, stifling a sigh of relief. “I know. But killing demons isn’t going to be necessary.”

  His gaze focused on mine. “Why’s that?”

  “Because I figured out how we’re going to lure them out. We’re going to make the world’s largest demon trap.”

  Chapter Five

  Alden stared at me as if I was insane. “Your plan is to lure the demons into a trap?”

  I glanced around to see if anyone else on the bus had heard the Grim’s incredulous words. Fortunately, nobody appeared to care about four teenagers huddled together on the back seats.

  I nodded. “Yes, but keep it down. You can’t say demons out here like it’s a common thing.”

  “It shouldn’t be a common thing to us, either,” Vicken pointed out.

  I had to admit that he was right. Before attending the Academy, demons had been creatures in scary movies or stories my dad liked to tell to scare us. Even at the Academy, the mention of demons was spoken in a whisper by teachers who didn’t want to acknowledge the presence of the darker side of mythic life. But demons had made their presence impossible to ignore. From the first demon that burned my hand before Vicken and the team killed it to the Otherworld that hung upside down beneath the Academy cemetery, demons had become a force that threatened our entire existence. If we didn’t stop the demons and Chutka the Shambler was allowed to enter our world, the fear I saw in the professors’ eyes would become a reality.

  I kept my voice quiet when I said, “The more demons we can catch, the safer the city will be, right?”

  Vicken and Alden gave grudging nods. Ren, on the other hand, didn’t appear to listen to what we were discussing. She sat next to the window with her gaze on the buildings, traffic, and pedestrians that blurred past. In her hazel eyes I saw reflected the wonder of the world from which she had been locked away. My heart went out to this girl who appeared so damaged, yet so innocent. Even though Vicken and Alden had argued against bringing her with us, I couldn’t let her stay in the basement of the dilapidated building. She deserved better. I just hoped I had made the right choice.

  Vicken sat back in his seat and folded his arms. “Alright, fearless leader, how do you propose to get the demons to go to this trap?”

  “By smell,” I replied.

  Alden’s mouth fell open. “Smell?”

  I nodded. “That place was so sour with fear and pain it’s no wonder the demons protect it. What we need to do is give them the promise of even greater fear and pain.”

  “You’re going to torture people?” Alden guessed with a horrified expression.

  “Torture?” Ren turned her gaze on me with interest. “I didn’t think you had it in you, Finn.”

  I shook my head quickly. “No! Not torture. What are you guys thinking?” I gave an exasperated sigh. “We don’t have to give them pain and fear. We only have to give them the smell.”

  “Which we create, which is why we’re going back to Haunted High,” Vicken said as understanding surfaced in his tone. “You’re going to synthesize the smell of pain and fear and use it to attract the demons.”

  I nodded. “Exactly. I know the smell and so does Ren.”

  Ren nodded with her gaze out the window again as if my lack of a plan to torture someone bored her.

  “We need Lyris and Brack to use their spells on the room so it will hold the demons. I just hope the chants are strong enough to keep them there for as long as we need,” I continued.

  “How long do we need it to hold?” Alden asked.

  “Until we destroy Chutka the Shambler.” I looked around again, but no one appeared even remotely interested in our conversation. I ducked my head and spoke quietly anyway, “If we destroy Chutka, from what I understand the demons would have no purpose here and leave. We just need a place strong enough to hold them until then.”

  “You can use my basement,” Ren offered.

  I stared at her in surprise. “Are you sure?”

  She nodded. “I’m ready to get out of there anyway. A room full of demons would definitely give me the motivation to do it.”

  “Thanks,” I replied.

  She shrugged as if her offer of giving up her only home was nothing and turned back to the window.

  “So we synthesize the smell, lure the demons into the trap, and keep them there until Chutka is destroyed. Sounds easy enough,” Vicken said. “Why do I feel it won’t be that easy?”

  “Because we’re dealing with demons,” Alden replied. “It’s never that easy.”

  “Unless you’re the demon,” Ren said.

  Everyone stared at her.

  Vicken was about to say something that I was sure wasn’t going to be nice by the look on his face, but then the bus slowed.

  “Is this the stop?” I asked Vicken before he could speak.

  He glanced out the window and nodded. Despite his carefully calm façade, I saw a flicker of loathing in his eyes. I followed his gaze and my heart slowed.

  We were on the far side of the city. Sometime during our conversation, the reaching buildings had given way to trees, thousands of them, packed so close together I couldn’t see between their branches and clinging vines. Where we stared, the trees parted to reveal a long, lamp-lit, sweeping driveway. It curled around until it was lost in the distance, but we could see where the lights continued to follow the side of a hill and then up to a monstrosity of a mansion that perched there like a crouched beast waiting to spring.

  “That’s it,” Vicken said quietly.

  Alden and Ren followed us off the bus. The doors closed and the bus drove away to leave us staring u
p at the far-reaching white wings of an iron wrought fence. Vicken approached the small box to the side of the fence and pressed a button.

  “How may I help you?” a voice asked.

  “Open the gate and send down a car,” Vicken replied in a haughty voice I didn’t recognize.

  “Right away, sir,” the person on the other end quickly replied.

  When Vicken turned, everyone stared at him. It took a moment for the arrogant expression to leave the vampire’s face as though it was a habit he had fought hard to break.

  “What?” he asked self-consciously. “It’s a long walk and we still have to get back to the Academy.”

  Alden cleared his throat. “I, um, I’m not sure this is a good idea.”

  We watched the headlights of a car make its way down the long driveway.

  “Why not?” Vicken asked. “We need a safe place for Finn’s rescued mythics to go.” He indicated the mansion with a sweeping gesture. “A vampire lair is the safest place I know of.”

  Alden and I exchanged a glance, but neither of us argued. The gate opened as the car approached. We turned away from the blinding headlights and when I looked back, I blinked at the sight of a white limousine pulled up next to us. The driver, complete in a white dress jacket, black pants, and a white hat placed perfectly on his head in spite of the late hour, walked around the car in measured steps and opened the rear passenger door.

  Vicken climbed inside without a word.

  “Um, thank you,” I said before following.

  Ren entered the vehicle in silence.

  “I’ve never been in a limo before,” Alden told the driver. “I didn’t think today would be the day, but I’m honored for the chance. Thank you.”

  The driver didn’t reply. He waited without speaking while the Grim climbed inside, then shut the door and walked back around to the front.

  Vicken looked out the window with a distant gaze. Alden and I kept silent, our eyes shifting from the mansion that loomed in the distant to the immaculate interior of the limousine. Wine glasses lined a velvet-covered bar along the left window. Beneath it, a small glass refrigerator showed small, fluted bottles filled with red liquid. I tried to tell myself that it was wine, but I knew better.