Dark Heart Surrender (22 page)

Or he found us
, thought Luca wryly.

Jack was regarding Luca with faint disapproval. ‘You kids should take care of each other better,’ he said. ‘I guess it’s easy to get carried away, drinking and …’ He paused, clearly not wanting to get into what Luca might have been doing with Polly that was so distracting.

‘Ade disappeared …’ Luca began to protest but it looked as though Mr Jonas wasn’t particularly interested in the details anyway, he was busy getting a blanket out of the back of the truck.

‘I’m going to bring him back to the house,’ he said. ‘The last thing Lydia Ellis needs to worry about is her son getting involved in a brawl of some kind. We can clean him up and get him home.’ He stepped away from the truck and passed the blanket over to Ade.

‘You’re coming with us,’ he told him paternally. ‘You look as though you could do with a bath and something to eat.’

Ade rubbed at his bare arms. ‘I don’t want to be any trouble,’ he said, lowering his eyes humbly. ‘I just need a lift back into Bale. I can get home from there.’ He drew the blanket over his shoulders, clutching it to him a little pathetically.

‘No trouble,’ said Jack gruffly, pushing back the front seat and beckoning to the boy to get in the back. ‘We’ll see you right.’

D
alya left me by the Water Path while she went to fetch Ulfred and, I had to admit, the serenity of the place was a welcome relief. It was almost impossible to feel troubled while I sat by the burbling water, the clean air pushing all muddy thoughts out of my head.

It seemed a lifetime before she returned with her father. At the sight of Ulfred, tall, bearded, twinkly-eyed, I nearly cried. It was like seeing my own father after a long time. I stood and waved a hand in greeting. He nodded formally in return.

‘Jane,’ he said. ‘It is good to see you. How have you been?’

I smiled. ‘Fine, thank you, Ulfred.’

‘And Luca?’ He pursed his lips, concerned.

‘I don’t know. We’ve been going through a strange time lately. Luca, he is—’

Ulfred nodded. ‘He came to see me not so long ago,’ he cut in gently, getting straight to the point. ‘We talked of the Vulpecula. At that time I didn’t seriously believe that they were living somewhere.’ He sighed. ‘But I realize now that Luca’s instincts should always be taken seriously.’ He looked kindly at me. ‘You’re worried about the boy, aren’t you?’

‘Yes.’ Now that I was talking to people who weren’t going to laugh in my face at my fears, I felt a surge of emotion hit me. All the weird, unsettling events of the past few weeks were coming to roost. ‘I think he’s in danger. They were trying to get to him through me. I see that now.’

‘Tell me about “them”,’ said Ulfred. He settled his large frame on a flat rock by the river. ‘How do they behave?’

‘Well, they’re clever …’ I began. ‘I mean they’re sharp-tongued and sometimes vicious in what they say. But the main thing is the effect they have. They just sap all the strength from you so you can’t fight back. Worse than that, they somehow channel your thoughts so that you think they make sense and that the things they say are right and that you are wrong.’ I stopped. It all sounded so flimsy.

But Ulfred’s expression had turned grave and he began to pace agitatedly in front of me. ‘This is not good,’ he said anxiously. ‘That is exactly how the Vulpecula operate. It has to be them.’ He channelled a fearful look at Jane. ‘And they have found him. They have Luca in their sights.’

‘But why Luca? Why would they have a specific vendetta against him?’ I could feel my heart rate increasing, not at all sure I wanted to hear the answer to my question.

Ulfred hesitated. ‘A long time ago we – the Hunter breed, or a member of the breed – made a pact with the Vulpecula. We would assist their transition to Nissilum, where they could reside, under the pretence of redeeming themselves, living wholesome, non-predatory lives, but in reality to cause a violent and catastrophic war with all that live here. Toppling the Celestials as rulers and instating themselves as some kind of despotic governing force.’

I swallowed an almighty lump in my throat. ‘But they didn’t, did they?’

Ulfred shook his head. ‘No. They were betrayed by the Hunter who had promised them dominion. And they were forced out. They can only remain here if they are invited, officially, and that never happened.’

‘Betrayed,’ I murmured, knowing what he would say next.

‘And they have clearly been waiting for their chance for revenge. Over centuries of bitterness. Waiting for one of us to cross to where they are free to roam. Mortal Earth.’ He looked up at me and I could have sworn there were tears in his eyes. ‘And now Luca has done just that. While he is on Mortal Earth he is an easy target for them. They will use him to barter with us here to carry out the plan that was thwarted all that time ago. Luca must come home. He must come home if he has a chance …’

‘Come home?’ I said. ‘For how long?’

Ulfred had been looking thoughtfully down at the ground but he raised his head at my question.

‘Indefinitely,’ he said carefully. ‘The Vulpecula won’t go away. And there is only one way of truly defeating them, of destroying them, that I know of. And that has great consequences in itself.’

‘How? What would destroy them?’ I asked, my heart in my mouth.

‘Fire. They are terrified of it, of course, but it is their souls that need to be burned, until they crumble. Any other death does not properly kill these creatures. They can rebuild themselves. But if their souls are destroyed then finally so are they.’

I stayed silent, thinking.

‘But, Jane.’ Ulfred’s voice was quiet. ‘I will not let my son endanger himself that way, either. He must come home if he is to be truly safe.’

I arrived back in the woods to find Bobby waiting patiently in the clearing where I’d left him. He stuck out a paw in friendly greeting and I grasped it miserably. I needed all the comfort I could get, because every way I looked the future was bleak. I clutched the dog to me.

‘We’d better get back, Bob,’ I said. ‘I need to make sure Luca is OK.’

As we approached the house, I saw Dad’s truck was parked outside, the door open. Dad came out of the back door and Bobby rushed up to him ecstatically.

‘All right, boy.’ Dad rubbed the dog’s head.

‘Hey.’ I walked across. ‘Is Luca back?’

Dad stopped cuddling the dog. ‘Yep. I found him out near Bale. I think he had a rough night. Had a little too much to drink – nothing serious. More than can be said for the other kid.’

‘The other kid?’ I frowned. ‘What other kid?’

‘Lydia’s boy – Adrian. Got into some kind of fight. Luca was a little vague on the details.’ Dad smiled in the way he did when he was trying to put a good spin on things. ‘Still, they’re both back home so no harm done.’ He shut the truck door and reached out his arm to draw me to him. ‘You OK, Janey?’ he said, as I nestled into him, glad of the warmth and the safety of one of his hugs. ‘You don’t seem yourself lately.’

‘Well, my boyfriend stayed out all night,’ I said, my voice muffled against his sweater. ‘But apart from that …’

Dad stroked my hair, the way he used to do when I was small.

‘Boys will be boys, sweetheart. Try not to build it up into anything more than it is.’

I nodded, steeling myself for seeing my boyfriend. And the odious Ade. I would have to pretend everything was OK in front of my parents. Act as though I wasn’t spooked.

Dad took my hand. ‘Shall we go in?’ He began to lead me to the house when Luca appeared in the back doorway. My father let go of my hand.

‘I’ll leave you two to it,’ he said quietly. ‘Go easy on the boy.’

As he disappeared inside, pausing to pat Luca’s shoulder, I kicked at the ground with my boot.

‘You’re really angry with me, aren’t you?’ said Luca, coming towards me.

I shrugged. ‘Not any more, no.’ I lifted my head to look at him properly. ‘I’ve figured it out now.’

Luca stared at me expectantly. ‘You have?’ He came a step closer.

‘Yeah.’ I stayed rooted to the spot, not ready to totally forgive him yet. ‘It’s Polly. She has that effect on people. She just seems to … overwhelm you. She did it to me too. Kind of steals all your energy. All your free will.’

It was Luca’s turn to kick at a stone on the ground. ‘You’re right – she does. I’d like to say I know exactly what happened after you’d gone. But one minute I was …’ He hesitated. ‘One minute I was drinking a glass of water, the next I was lying on the back seat of Ade’s car in a field miles from nowhere – and the sun had come up.’

‘You don’t remember anything else?’ I probed. ‘Did you…? Did she…?’

‘I don’t know,’ he said quickly, and there was a defensive edge to his voice. ‘I told you – it’s like I was drugged or something.’

I watched him, the uneasy feeling that he wasn’t telling me everything creeping over me. I reminded myself to keep to the important facts and not let any of those other paranoid thoughts get in the way.

‘I don’t think they need to drug us,’ I said after a bit. ‘I think they have more sophisticated brainwashing techniques than that. Centuries-old skills.’

Luca frowned. ‘You seem very clear about that.’

‘I saw your father,’ I said bluntly.

‘How?’

‘This morning – I took Bobby for a walk. I was so … so out of my mind with everything. When you didn’t come home I …’ I swallowed, dratted tears threatening again. ‘I didn’t know what to think – what to believe. All I knew was that I wanted to be somewhere peaceful – with happy memories attached to it.’ To my annoyance a tear slipped out and down my cheek. I wiped at it quickly.

‘Jane.’ Luca’s arms were around me before I could go on, and he pulled me close. ‘You know, I would never do anything to hurt you, not deliberately. You’re the most important thing in the world to me.’

I looked down silently. They were words I longed to hear and I wanted to wallow in them, but I had to tell Luca about my meeting with Ulfred. Somehow I had to tell him everything, he had to know.

‘So.’ I took a deep breath. ‘I thought about the Water Path, and then I thought of Dalya, wishing I could see her again … And the next thing I was at the Water Path, with Dalya walking towards me.’ I smiled. ‘So grown up all of a sudden.’

I looked up at Luca, who smiled fondly. I knew he missed his little sister and it was painful to hear about her second hand. I took hold of his hand.

‘I told her I was worried about you and she knew instantly that she must get Ulfred. That he would know what to do. So he came, and we talked about Ade and Polly and what they’re like, and he said that their behaviour sounded like the Vulpecula. He didn’t even seem surprised.’

Luca bit his lip, still holding my hand. I could see thoughts turning over in his head. ‘What else did he say?’ he said eventually.

I shut my eyes, really not wanting to tell him, but knowing I had to.

‘He says that you should go home,’ I said quietly. ‘Get away from Mortal Earth. It must be you they want – and they can’t cross through into Nissilum. Not any more.’

Luca paled. ‘Go home,’ he murmured. ‘For how long?’

‘For good,’ I said swallowing.

‘I can’t do that,’ he said firmly. ‘There is no way I would leave you.’

‘I don’t want you to go. It’s like the worst thing I could possibly imagine. But if you stay here you’ll always be in danger. They’ll always be lurking, getting back at your family through you.’

‘Is there no other way?’ Luca stared helplessly at me. ‘No other solution?’

I looked away from him. It was so tempting to tell him that if he set fire to Ade and Polly, burning their souls in their bodies, then they would finally go away. But I had to keep quiet about that. Apart from anything else, Luca could soon be on a real murder charge. Adding arson wouldn’t help matters. It wasn’t a viable solution.

‘Jane, is there another way?’ he persisted.

I finally turned back to him, tears burning my eyes. ‘No,’ I said blankly. ‘There is no other way.’

Ade had bathed and was sitting talking to Dot at the kitchen table. I stifled the urge to order him to get away from her. Luca and I had just agreed, after I’d dropped my bombshell, that we needed to act as though nothing was wrong. We couldn’t let Ade know what we knew. I did a cursory sweep of his cuts, which were healing already, and the giant bruise over his left eye. Had he really got into a fight? Or had he roughed himself up to make it look as though he had? I wasn’t going to ask.

‘Hey,’ he said croakily. ‘We wondering where you’d got to. He half smiled, half winced at the two of us. Luca put his arm around me confidently.

‘Ashley got home OK,’ I said, and it took everything I had not to say it with a sarcastic note. ‘She’ll have a bit of a hangover this morning, but she’ll be OK.’

‘Good. I’m glad.’ He made a show of valiantly sitting up straighter. ‘I didn’t behave very well, did I? I should have insisted on taking her home myself.’

Luca and I said nothing. The obvious answer to that hung in the air like a lead balloon.

‘Oh, girls don’t like to be viewed in an undignified manner,’ said my mother chirpily. She bent to inspect Ade’s wounds. ‘You’re looking better already, young man. Next time, try not to rise to the bait.’ Straightening up, she gave him one of her lecturing looks, before turning back to me. ‘You took a long walk, darling. Bobby’s as happy as a sandboy, dead to the world in his basket.’