Vivi sucked in a quick sharp breath, but met his gaze and sat straighter.
“But your--friend, whatever--said the grass is still dangerous to walk on,” I said.
“It is. Should other humans walk on it, the hunger will still spread to them, even though they will not host the Hungry One. Their food will nourish him, but it will still not be enough, and he will consume their lives as well. Hungry grass will grow over their graves, and the curse will spread.”
“This Hungry Man dude,” said Cherry.
“It’s not the TV dinner guy,” said Tamar.
“Whatever. So what happens to him if we don’t get him out of Vivi and she--you know?”
Boden was still looking at Vivi. “He will claim her corpse to walk the world and beg food from anyone he encounters. Anyone who refuses him will be cursed with the hunger just as if they’d walked across the grass.”
I pictured some emaciated zombie version of Vivi shambling into a large town or a city. And then I thought about how often people went out of their way to ignore me or my friends on the streets if we were panhandling, and we at least looked alive. How many people would she--would this ghost--encounter in only an hour? Hundreds of people could die in a weekend. How fast could it spread? If she died here, where there were a couple thousand people from all over the eastern seaboard, if not the country...“What can we do? You think we’ll be able to stop it?”
“We will do all we can,” he said. “But there is another thing to consider. If the intruders attack tomorrow and we do not come through to this side, if we stay in our realm and do not fight, we must close the circle. Regardless of what progress we’ve made.”
“Yeah, that’s not going to work for us. I don’t have the supplies to open a new one later,” said Joe.
“Then we must prepare for a battle here on this land.”
“You can’t hurt the people here. You can’t even make them aware of what’s happening.” Tamar crossed her arms.
“That may not be our choice to make,” Boden countered.
Despair was making me edgy. “Well, you could choose to play it a little lower-key.” I remembered the red-hennaed fae. “Like not putting on acrobatic fire shows for the whole camp.”
Boden stared blankly at me. So did everyone else. “We have been very discreet,” he said. “We are all being careful not to draw attention to ourselves.”
A little thought bubble popped somewhere in the back of my brain. “I think I may have seen one of your enemies, in that case.” I described the fae in the denim vest who’d been climbing around on the art right before the DJ tent collapsed and caught fire nearby.
“That was...that wasn’t a person either?” whispered Vivi. Her eyes were even bigger, if that were possible.
“Are you sure of what you saw?” said Boden.
“Positive,” I insisted.
“I know what he was,” said Sara. “Or, at least, who.”
She had all our attention. “He’s called the Nain Rouge. He’s Detroit’s favorite urban legend. I was there once for their annual parade, the Marche du Nain Rouge, where everyone dresses up in red devil costumes and has a huge party and it’s supposed to drive him out of the city for the year. Some of the stories say that he’s a harbinger of bad fortune, but others that he causes the bad things that happen when he’s around.”
“Like making a DJ’s sound board burst into flames and the tent collapse on top of it?” I guessed.
“That sounds about right,” she said.
“And all the other accidents and things breaking since everyone got here,” said Cherry.
“There may be one such creature in that city,” said Boden, “but you are describing a race, not an individual. There are many like this one. Most of them dwell in the part of Faerie that is closest to your--Normandy, I think it is? And like any other group, there are kind ones and selfish ones, wise sages and crass villains. I believe I know the one you describe, by reputation. A charismatic outcast, a nomad, a troublemaker. An exile who seeks out places of passage between our realm and yours, searching for a way back in. He is good at finding other criminals and malcontents among our kind and convincing them to follow him.”
“Would he have reason to target your community?” asked Tamar.
He scowled. “He has made forays here in the past. We are a little more remote. More wilderness, less cosmopolitan, yet once there was a path between your world and ours. There are fewer of us, with no standing army close by. If he attacked and caught us by surprise, we would not have time to call in aid. And if he defeated us and took over our land, he could live there in comfort and be better hidden than he could in many other areas.” He looked more and more troubled as he spoke.
“We have to find a way to disrupt their plan of attack,” I said. “That’s just the way it has to be.” I turned to Boden. “Does this information help you? Can you go back to your people and tell them who you think is behind this and make better plans?”
“I think so,” he said. “And I will tell the others who are here. They will do a better job scouting with some notion what they are looking for. Have you seen any others like him?”
We were quiet for a moment and then Joe spoke up. “That bunch trying to sabotage the water battle. Maybe six, seven of them?”
“Everyone here looks unusual,” said Sara. “They’ve been right in front of us and we have no idea how many.”
“If we’re right about this plan,” I said, “then they need not only the element of surprise, but also for you to leave the door to your realm unguarded. Right?”
“Correct,” said Boden.
“We know--well, we’re pretty sure--that they have a demon on their side. But we don’t know how many of them there are, and also, unless the demon possesses a human, he can fight better in your realm than ours.” I could feel the smoke seeping out my ears. “How many of them can there be? If he thinks you guys are a bunch of unarmed hicks, all he needs is to throw down this hungry grass to get your attention and draw you out. Then he follows you, sees where you came through, and brings his guys in.”
“We’re missing something,” said Joe. “If the land here is tainted by a curse, it affects the places in Faerie that are closest. If he’s trying to take over your land, why poison it first?”
“Negotiation, perhaps,” said Boden. “He laid the curse, so he may know how to break it. He is warlike, but it has not helped him here in the past. It could be that if we surrender to him for the good of the land, he will unmake the grass.”
“But then what does the demon get out of it?” I said. Well, other than Vivi’s soul.
“Can’t we just grab him?” said Cherry. “We know who we’re looking for, let’s go rough him up or something and make him give us the cure.”
“If he even has it,” Sara pointed out.
“Really?” Joe lifted an eyebrow. “You’re a histrionic mother when I even mention the fae, and now you’re going to take this guy down like you’re some occult mafia thumb-breaker?”
“It was just a thought.” Cherry crossed her arms.
“I do not advise it. He is a skilled fighter and a trickster, and you do not look like trained warriors.” Boden’s gaze flicked over us.
“I do cardio kickboxing,” said Cherry.
“Regardless, it is wiser to keep them ignorant of how much we know, until we know more. And until I have gathered as many as I can to defend our land.”
“We will.” Tamar shot Cherry a look.
“So we’ve already hurt their plans, hopefully, just by figuring out enough to have warned you and given you an idea what you’re up against. That’s something, isn’t it?” I needed something to cling to at this point, anything.
“Likely so,” said Boden. “I must find my fellows here, and then go back and report what we have discussed. I will find you again when I am able.” Without
waiting for a response, he got up and left the tent.
Vivi picked up a platter of grapes and started a steady stream of them into her mouth. I got the feeling it was as much nerves as hunger.
“Well, that was--something.” Tamar glanced at her watch. “It’s almost time for us to go watch the gates. Who’s going first?”
“There are three stations,” said Cherry. “The gate at the back lot, the main gate, and the far side of the main lot. Sara and I signed us up for all three. The rangers are probably going to give us all blow jobs, by the way. They’re usually walking around camp at this time of night begging people who are still up and not blackout drunk to take the overnights that no one signed up for, so they don’t have to do it themselves.”
“None of us should be hanging out at those posts by ourselves, so let’s just pair up and plan to get some sleep after Dionne gets here,” said Joe.
It was going to be a painfully late night for all of us, but he had a good point. I sure didn’t want to be sitting out in the dark field alone. I volunteered to go with Vivi; it seemed like a good chance for me to answer the ten thousand questions she surely had. Cherry wanted to go with Tamar, so Joe and Sara paired up.
We took a little time to prepare. Everyone but me and Joe--since we were still in ordinary clothes to begin with--changed out of their party clothes into something a little warmer and more practical. We grabbed snacks and hit the portajohns and made sure each pair had a light. The coffee pots were still going strong in the Goblin Market and we got ourselves big mugs to keep us alert through the wee hours. And we agreed that when Dionne arrived, the pair at that gate would text the others as soon as she was safely delivered to Free Radicals. Fortunately Vivi had a cell phone, since I didn’t, a fact I played down as everyone exchanged numbers with her.
The ranger on duty at the volunteer station was indeed shocked that not only were these overnight shifts filled, but that we’d all shown up to do them. We played it off like we were just night owls. I guess she was too thrilled to question it much.
Vivi and I took the back gate. It was the closest to the heart of camp, and we were the ones most likely to need to get anywhere fast. There was a small square pop-up shelter out there with a card table and two camp chairs. The back lot was unlit, which was an advantage for our little scheme, but also spooky. At least there was some moonlight streaming down, so it wasn’t pitch black.
The night air was fragrant with honeysuckle and cool after the sweltering day. Above us, the sky was brilliant with stars, and in front of us, where the cleared lot ended and tall grasses led into the tree line, hundreds of fireflies swarmed through the grasses and twinkled a reply to their celestial counterparts. The camp chairs were pretty comfortable, and the coffee was fresh. I warmed my hands around the mug and sighed in contentment. If I wasn’t sitting here because I needed to smuggle in a demonologist to help keep my new friend from losing her soul, it would have been pure perfection.
Details, right?
“It’s beautiful.” Vivi echoed my thoughts. “I want to just hold this moment, right now. Like if I could take a snapshot with all my senses.” She was quiet for a moment. “This world is so breathtaking.”
There was so much yearning in her voice. I looked down at my mug. “I know just what you mean.”
She glanced sidelong at me. “You know, I think you do, better than anyone else here.”
“I’m sorry.” I wasn’t sure what I was apologizing for. “I hate that we’re scaring the crap out of you, and I know you probably never believed in demons and Faerie and curses and all this stuff and it must seem like we’re all nuts.”
“It’s overwhelming, yeah. I want to just--go numb. But I can’t say I’m not fascinated. You know? I like discovering new things about the world, it’s just, I never had good enough reason to believe this kind of thing was real. I’d rather not have found out like this.” She paused. “I get the feeling you’d rather not have told me anything.”
“If I could have avoided it, I would have.”
We sat in silence for a moment, sipping our coffee at the same time and watching the fireflies blink on and off in the grasses, signaling for mates.
“I just don’t want to die.” I could hear the effort it cost her.
“I know.”
“No, I mean, this was always my greatest fear. Not dying, but--not being ready for it. I’ve always been terrified--I mean I’ve lost sleep, wondering if I’ll get sick, if I’ll find out it’s all going to be over in six months, a year, we’re sorry, there’s nothing we can do. I imagine myself planning my birthday and knowing it’s going to be my last one. Or I think about what it would be like if I had an accident, what it would feel like to realize I was going to die in it. Why do I do that to myself?” Her voice caught in her throat.
“Because you love being alive?” I leaned my head against the back of the chair and watched her.
“My mom died when I was a kid,” she said. “It was like that. One day she was fine, happy, running my Scout troop and working and being in love with my dad, and the next day she came home from the doctor’s and she was changed. And then she was gone. I wish she’d talked about it, you know? Let us in. We all pretended everything was normal. I wish I’d known how she really felt, whether she truly made her peace with it or whether she was scared, or what. What it felt like to know how little time she had left.”
“Well, then, of course that’s your biggest fear.” I didn’t want to say too much. It seemed like she needed to talk.
She smiled, a little. “I guess so. But now, here it is. I might never go home again.”
“We haven’t run out of options yet, okay? Don’t give up.”
She turned her head to look at me, resting her cheek on the back of the chair. “How did you know you were supposed to come here and help me?”
“It’s weird,” I warned her.
“I’ve eaten my weight in snacks today and I’m still starving.” She fished pretzels out of the bag between us. “Weird got a lot more relative a few hours ago.”
I took a long drink of coffee, but she didn’t take the question back. “I had a vision. A couple. Well, one was more of a dream. Telling me that I had to come here and stop the demon, not let him take anyone else. Tamar and Cherry got messages too. I met them here for the first time. All I knew was that there were other people who were supposed to help me.”
“You said--in the yurt today. Was it true what you said, that you used to see him in your dreams too?”
“It was more than my dreams. He haunted me for years. And--my best friend too. She died. I almost did. If I had, I would have belonged to him.” God, it was so dark out here. So many shadows. I shivered.
She thought about that. “Will I belong to him? If I die?”
“That’s not going to happen. We’re going to get you free of him when Tamar’s friend gets here.”
“But that’s what he wants?”
“It seems to be, yeah. At least part of it.” I thought of Joe, pointing out that we were missing something, and it stuck like a splinter. “I think there’s more to it than that, but I don’t know what. He-- took my friend. Not the one I mentioned, someone else, someone who was traveling here with me. So stopping him has to be about something else too. Maybe you’re important to something. I don’t know. There’s so much we’re still guessing about.”
“Jesus, Mari.” Her face was full of sympathy. “You’ve lost people, plural, to this--thing? You fought him for years? And you still came here?”
“Yeah? But, it wasn’t--like that.” I struggled with how much to tell her, and decided to just let it flow. “I just got kicked out of the place I was crashing. I haven’t had a real home in a few years. I wasn’t sure how much of my visions I believed, but coming here was a cheap place to live for almost a week while I figured out what to do next.”
“If I get out of this al
ive, let’s talk. I owe you a couch, at the very least.”
“Thanks.” I took another big drink of coffee to hide how the offer made me feel fragile again.
“So, this--demon. He’s not after you anymore? How?”
I laughed a little. “Oh, friend, that’s a long story. The short version is that I had an accident a few years ago. I was in a coma for a while and a lot of weird stuff happened and it broke the bond between us. That’s how I know it’s possible.”
She digested that. “And that’s how you started having visions? Because of your coma?”
It startled me. “Yes, actually. How--”
“Stephen King fan.” She chuckled. “It made me think of The Dead Zone. But witchier.”
“That’s one way of looking at it.” I remembered something she’d said earlier. “Can I ask you something? You mentioned that things haven’t been great in your life these days. How not-great? Like, bummed out, or worse?”
She looked down at her hands. “Worse. It’s just been a lot. My dad remarried, a friend of my mom’s in fact. She’s had some serious surgeries over the last year, and I took some time off to help my dad with her. Because I could, you know? I’m the boss, and everything. Anyway, it took a lot out of her, and it was touch and go, and that wrecked my dad. It wrecked me too, thinking about losing another mom. But I couldn’t show it. Everything fell on me to be the strong one. So I was half-assing my business, and my business partner was getting more and more pissed at me, and we lost a bunch of clients and had to lay some folks off just to stay open. My boyfriend broke up with me--I guess it was fair. I was drinking too much, coming home late when I did at all, and I was kind of a bitch to him. Like I was mad at him for having needs.”
It made me think of the most stressful parts of my old life. “I get it.”
“My stepmom was the one who saw it, who worried about me. Ironic, right? Through all this, she was so zen about herself. Like she even said she was grateful for the surgeries because it forced her and my dad to slow down and live simple. It’s like it made them peaceful together, when the worst of it was past. Meanwhile I was going home to an empty condo and sitting alone in the dark with a double scotch, smelling the shirt my boyfriend left behind and wondering what my life was all about. You know what’s funny? During those times, I was thinking about what if I died tomorrow. Thinking that if I did, I’d have done a lot of stuff, but not accomplished much of anything. Know what I mean?”
MetamorphosUS: Book 1 of the Mythfit Witch Mysteries Page 25