by Clare Kauter
"He's trying to give you vampire malaria!" I blurted.
There was a rustling from in the forest and then a figure stalked out into the clearing to join the baobhan sith. I hadn't noticed him approaching – the weird energy of the forest around us must have cloaked his magical void. He glared at me and I glared right back. It was Pierre.
He'd followed me here? I knew I shouldn't be surprised – after all, he'd once followed me to the North Pole – but I still hadn't expected him to show up. I hoped Honey was around somewhere to help me out of this mess.
"That's what you did to her? You gave her vampire malaria?" he hissed. In a flash, he'd crossed the clearing, moving so fast I didn't even see him coming. One moment he was ten metres away and the next he was inches from my face, so close I could see a chunk of green lodged between his teeth. This was particularly concerning since vampires weren't exactly known for eating their greens. My best guess was that whatever it was had gone into his mouth while it was red and had turned green in its time there. His breath certainly seemed to indicate as much. I really would have thought vampires would be bigger on dental hygiene.
I jerked back in shock, trying to get away from him, but his hands clamped around my arms.
"Don't make me hurt you," I said. It would have sounded a lot cooler if my voice hadn't cracked as I spoke.
The baobhan sith laughed. "Oh child, you're funny, I'll give you that."
But something flickered across Pierre's face and he relaxed his grip slightly. I could see as he studied my face that he was wondering if I had been the one to hurt him at the church. He wasn't so dismissive of me as the other vampire. He didn't totally release me, though.
"Bite me, then," I said. "If you don't think I can hurt you, what's the harm?"
Pierre appeared to be debating what course of action to take.
"You'd better not bite her," said the other vampire.
Pierre shook his head. "I know. It's not safe."
"No," she replied, "that's not what I meant. You'd better not bite her because she's mine."
Pierre slowly turned his head to face the other vampire. "Excuse me?"
"You heard me. Run along."
"She is mine to kill."
"This isn't your forest, this isn't your prey, and if you don't leave now I'll kill you as well."
Pierre finally released my arms.
"How dare you?" he said. "I warned you not to bite her. I saved you from a fate worse than death. This – this human changed my wife."
"I changed your life?" I said. "That's really nice of you, Pierre. You've changed mine too. Not necessarily in a positive way, but –"
"He said wife, you idiot," Henry hissed.
But Pierre wasn't paying attention to me. "She is not yours to kill," he said, now doing the up-close-and-personal thing with the other vamp.
"Who's going to stop me?" she asked. "You?"
"I have followed her to the ends of the earth for this."
"And you haven't managed to kill her yet? One pesky human?" She laughed. "Pathetic."
While they argued, I realised that Henry and I now had a chance to escape, but only if we acted quickly (although after Henry throwing me to the vamps earlier I wasn't sure if I even wanted to save him). If we tried to run to the door, the vampires would catch us for sure. I could think of one way to get us out of here, but I didn't think Henry was going to like it, and I definitely wasn't sure whether or not I could trust him.
"Henry," I hissed, "why didn't you turn me in?"
He turned towards me (he had been watching the vampires argue) and paused for a moment before answering.
"Is this really the right time to talk about this?" he asked, giving me a look of total disbelief.
"It's important," I said. "Why didn't you turn me in?"
"I think we have more pressing matters to –"
"What would it take for you to turn me in to The Department?"
Henry sighed, apparently realising that I wasn't going to let this go. "I'm not going to turn you in for what you did to Dick or those grabbers. It was obviously self defence."
"That didn't exactly answer my question."
"If you're asking if I'm going to have you arrested for slaying these vampires, the answer is no."
"Henry, I need you to answer the question I asked."
He rolled his eyes at me. "I wouldn't turn you in unless I thought you were a danger to the public at large."
I grimaced.
"Why do you look concerned by that?" Henry asked. "That should not concern you. That should be something that any person finds totally reasonable."
I took a deep breath, gritted my teeth and said, "I might be about to test your faith in me, Henry."
I slid my hand into my pocket and closed my fingers around the Doomstone. Slipping my hand back out of the pocket and turning it palm up, I unfurled my fingers and revealed the glowing stone, which now appeared to be filled with swirling purple smoke as it pulsated with energy.
Henry's jaw dropped. "You – you – all this time? You've had the stone –"
"Not all this time," I said quickly. "I –"
Suddenly I became aware that the vampires had grown silent. I looked up to see them eyeing the stone.
Pierre glared at me. "You…"
The baobhan sith slowly cocked her head to the side, her neck cracking like a ticking clock. She and Pierre began to creep towards me, never taking their eyes off the stone.
"We can discuss this later, Henry," I said, grabbing his hand.
"You –" he began, but his words were drowned out by the blast.
CHAPTER 13
THE VAMPIRES WERE HIT by a wall of flame at the same time as Henry and I were thrown back through the air. We were carried so far we hit the door of the castle. Immediately we scrambled to our feet and hurried back inside, leaving behind the sound of the vampires screeching in pain as they caught alight. (Lesser vampires might have been killed by fire, but I suspected those two would come out of it OK – just really pissed off. Gulp.)
Henry and I leaned against the inside of the wooden door to the castle and slid to the floor as our knees buckled. That had been a close call and I was shaking, not just from the cold. After a moment, Henry broke the silence.
"This whole time?" he hissed, keeping his voice down, I assumed, so as to not wake anyone else in the castle. "You've had the Doomstone this whole time?"
I shook my head. "Not the whole time," I said. "Just since Ed figured out he couldn't make it work for himself."
His eyes widened.
"So you're helping Ed?" Henry asked, horrified. "Dick was telling us the truth?"
"The truth that he saw me with a ghost, yes," I said. "But Dick was the psycho who carved out that goblin's eyeballs. Ed hasn't murdered anyone since he killed his housemates to get the Doomstone." At least, he hadn't murdered anyone else that I knew of.
Henry crossed his arms.
"He went to all the trouble of killing people to get his hands on that rock and then he just gave it to you?"
I shrugged. "It was Christmas," I said. "I guess he'd forgotten to buy me something."
"You've had it since Christmas?" he hissed. "You let Daisy and Hecate lose their jobs over it?"
"They didn't actually lose their jobs," I said. "And as you'll recall, I helped solve the murder that got you all better jobs than you had in the first place."
"Unless you could somehow see the future and you knew that was going to happen, then you still betrayed us. The fact that it happened to work out in the end doesn't change that."
"I didn't mean to get you guys in trouble," I said. "And I would hand it in, totally, except..."
"Except it's too handy to get rid of."
"Without this stone I'd be dead," I said. "As noble as handing it in would have been, it wouldn't have been particularly smart. It's not like The Department was using it or anything. They just had it locked up in a bank."
"Until it was stolen by your boyfriend, Ed."
"That's funny," I said. "He calls you my boyfriend."
Henry's jaw dropped. "You're still in contact with him?"
"It's not – it's –"
"Tell me the truth: what's going on with you and Ed?"
"Why, jealous?"
"Stop joking around," he said. "Ed is a murderer and a bank robber who owns a lifetime supply of clouding cones – all things you've profited from."
"I promise you, Henry, I've made zero profits since you walked into my life."
"This is serious," he hissed. "How am I meant to trust you after all this?"
I scoffed. "Oh, you're bringing up trust?"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"You were ready to throw me in jail for killing that goblin and attacking that little girl back in Hell," I said. "Had you forgotten that?"
"It wouldn't be the first time you killed someone."
I slapped him. He rubbed his face, blinking at me in shock.
"How dare you? I would never hurt a kid! Not even a really annoying one. I've killed grabbers and demons and someone who was trying to sacrifice me! It's hardly the same thing."
"Hate to break up the party," came a voice from my right. I jumped at the sound of it. It wasn't a voice I recognised – it sounded like someone on helium. When I turned to see who was speaking, I wasn't able to make out a figure in the shadowy entrance hall.
"Well if you hate to break it up then don't," I snapped in the general direction of whoever had spoken.
"Nessa..." said Henry quietly.
The creature, whatever it was, began to laugh. I tried to feel its energy, but the castle seemed to be running interference again. "I like your guts, lass," said the voice. "I bet they'll be delicious."
"Can you not see that we're busy having an argument? You don't want to eat us anyway. He tastes of dog and my magic blood will kill you."
Out from the shadows stepped a little man, no taller than my knee. He wore a red hat and green overalls and his teeth were all sharpened to a point.
He shrugged. "Guess I'll just kill you for fun, then."
I rolled my eyes. "Good luck with that," I replied. He was tiny. If he came any closer I could just kick him away.
"I don't need luck," said the man, grinning maliciously. "I just need a little help from my friends."
And that was when from the shadows stepped forth an army of little men in red hats, all grinning the same pointy-toothed smiles, looking ready to kill.
"Shall we?" hissed Henry in my ear.
"Let's," I whispered back.
CHAPTER 14
SCOOPING ourselves up off the ground, Henry and I ran away from the tiny psychos quick smart. Henry grabbed my hand and dragged me along. Even in human form he could run pretty fast and I was having trouble keeping up with him. He led me down a corridor before stopping and pushing me against a wall, finger to his lips in a 'shush' motion. I opened my mouth to ask what was wrong, but he clamped his hand over my face to keep me quiet.
The sound of footsteps coming down the corridor alerted us to the fact that someone was approaching. Henry removed his hand from my face and shifted into a snake, which creeped me the hell out but was probably an effective deterrent against attackers. Well, either that or they would be more likely to kill you. One or the other.
"Redcapssss are afraid of sssnakesss," Henry explained. "Reportedly."
(Ordinarily his voice didn't change when he shifted, but I guessed that forked tongue was getting in the way of his pronunciation.)
I nodded and pressed myself up against the wall, wedging myself in a doorway while Henry slithered out into the centre of the corridor. The noise of his scales sliding over the rock as he slithered across the cobblestone floor seemed deafening in the quiet hall. Shadows of the approaching redcaps, rendered a lot taller in silhouette, appeared on the wall as they rounded the corner.
"Halt!" one called as Henry reared up and hissed loudly.
I frowned. That voice didn't sound like –
"I don't see anybody down – argh!" screeched Daisy as she caught sight of Henry. "A serpent!"
Who'd have thought someone as powerful as Daisy would be scared of a little snake?
"Really, Daisy?" I said, stepping out of the shadows. "A serpent?"
Henry morphed into gorilla form. "Sorry to startle you," he said. "We were being pursued by a group of redcaps."
"Are you OK?" Daisy asked.
"Of course they are," said Hecate. "Look at them. They're fine. A better question is what they were doing out here in the first place." She eyed us suspiciously.
"I really don't think that's any of our business," said Daisy, giving Hecate a pointed look. I frowned for a second, then caught on to what Daisy meant. Clearly she thought Henry and I had been having a secret rendezvous.
"I'll decide if it's relevant when they tell me what they've been up to."
Hecate's tone took me aback. She sounded suspicious, but I couldn't think why. We really hadn't been up to anything nefarious. Well, apart from me talking to Ed, but it wasn't like she could know that, was it?
"I don't suppose either of you have seen a certain ghost during your wanderings?"
Don't gulp. Don't gulp don't gulp don't gulp. Shit. How could she possibly know? Had she heard me talking to him? Seen me with him? Maybe Ed's clouding spell hadn't worked during dinner after all. Wait, no, that made no sense – if she'd seen him then, she would have just arrested him. So what was she talking about? How had she found out that I'd –
"I'm not quite sure what you're talking about, Hecate, but Nessa and I didn't see any ghost around here. Vampires, yes, but no ghost."
"Is this true?" Hecate asked, rounding on me.
I nodded, perhaps a little too enthusiastically. She flicked her gaze between the two of us.
"You still haven't explained what you're doing up."
"I went to Nessa's room," said Henry. Both Hecate's and Daisy's eyebrows rose, and if they'd been watching me instead of staring at Henry in shock then they would have seen mine do the same. It took every ounce of self control I had (which, admittedly, is not a lot) to get my face to return to a neutral state.
"It's not like that," he said quickly, catching their facial expressions. "I just wanted to discuss the case. While I was there, Nessa had the idea of scrying Alora."
"I thought it would be easier now that we're nearby," I added, not exactly sure why Henry was going to the trouble of lying for me, but grateful anyway.
"Something in the castle was blocking us, so we decided to go outside to try there," said Henry.
"And did you see her?"
Henry shook his head. "While we were out there, we were attacked by the baobhan sith."
"And then Pierre showed up and decided he wanted a bite, too," I added.
Henry glanced at me out the corner of his eye. A warning look.
"Pierre showed up at the coven the other day," I explained to him. "He's been chasing me for a while, but I'm not really sure why."
"Because you're the weakest of us," Hecate said, nodding once. "That must be it."
Somehow I doubted it.
"Probably," Henry agreed. "Anyway, those two attacked us but we managed to escape back inside."
"How?" Hecate asked.
Henry hesitated for a moment before saying, "I'm not sure. There was some sort of... explosion."
"Explosion?" Hecate asked, staring at him intently.
He nodded. "I don't really know what caused it," he lied. "One second the vampires were about to attack us and the next... boom."
Daisy and Hecate glanced at each other. Did they suspect Henry was lying? Surely not.
"What is it?" I asked.
They hesitated for a moment before Daisy spoke. "We might have some idea of what caused that explosion."
"Oh?"
"I can't imagine why he'd..." Hecate murmured to herself, lost in thought.
"Why who would..." Henry trailed off. "Wait, you asked about a ghost earlier. Are yo
u talking about what I think you're talking about?"
"We think Ed was in the area earlier this evening," Daisy said, nodding. "That's why we're awake. We were alerted to his presence."
"How?" I asked, hoping to hell they didn't know I'd been with him.
"The Doomstone was used," guessed Henry. Well, he pretended to guess, I guess.
Daisy and Hecate both nodded. "It was, not ten minutes ago."
"Around the same time as the explosion," said Henry, nodding.
I felt myself tense. Why was he drawing a correlation between the two events? Surely he wasn't going to dob me in now! He'd already lied to the others for me, so I was pretty sure he was on my side. If so, then why was he pointing out that the Doomstone had caused the explosion that saved us? What was he playing at?
"It makes sense," said Henry.
"It does?" asked Daisy, Hecate and I in unison. My voice came out sounding a little squeaky, but the others didn't seem to notice.
Henry sighed, nodding his head. "I've suspected for some time that Ed might be following us."
"What on earth for?" Hecate asked.
Henry shrugged. "I don't know. Perhaps he thinks we might lead him to certain other artefacts."
"The companion items?"
Henry nodded. "It's one theory. We don't really know what Ed wants, after all." He paused. "Although we may suspect," he said pointedly, giving me a look.
"So you think Ed might have used the Doomstone to save you from those vampires?" Hecate asked, looking sceptical. I didn't blame her – it seemed like a long shot.
"If he thinks we're going to lead him to something then yes, it would be in his best interest to keep us alive."
The others didn't look completely convinced, but they didn't argue. The group fell into a pensive silence.
"Um, guys?" I said after a moment of standing around. "You don't think maybe we should head back to our rooms, what with the redcaps on the loose and all?"
That seemed to snap them out of their collective reverie.