Desolation (26 page)

“Do you know where the Narrow Man keeps the kids he takes?”

The words dried up in Lucy’s mouth. Then she shook her head. “The Narrow Man is an urban legend. He’s not real.”

“He’s taken another one,” Kelly said. “Austin Cooke. Snatched him right out of his bedroom because the town voted for it.”

“No,” said Lucy, “Austin Cooke ran away. He was being bullied and he … he ran away. The voting thing is a scare tactic to keep little kids from misbehaving.”

Kelly stepped right up to her. “I’m sure Austin was suitably terrified when the Narrow Man came for him.”

“I don’t know anything about that,” Lucy said, shoving Kelly backwards.

“Where does he keep them?”

“He’s not real!” she shouted.

“Where does he keep them?”

“He doesn’t exist!”

“Where does he keep them?”

“I don’t know!”

They looked at her.

She snarled. “You don’t think we want to stop him? Me, the others … But Novak won’t hear of it, and he’s our Chief. He gives the orders, we carry them out.”

“You’re not carrying out his orders right now,” said Amber.

“And I’m regretting that,” said Lucy. “Just like I’m regretting helping you out against the Hounds. But hey, shit happens. You’re gonna get in that car of yours, that goddamn
evil
car, and you’re gonna pick up your friend and get the hell out of town. And you,” Lucy said to Kelly, “you’re gonna do the same. You think Novak or any of my fellow officers are gonna let you off with a caution if they catch you? You’re dead. Understand that? They’re gonna put you down, all of you. Go. Get out of here. And if I see you again? I’ll shoot you on sight.”

A
MBER WOKE ON A
couch with a blanket over her head.

For a moment, she didn’t know where she was. Then she remembered the Hounds, and her parents, and Kelly directing her to the old man’s house. Virgil someone. The van had already been there when they’d arrived, and Amber herself had taken Milo and laid him on to the back seat of the Charger. His pulse had been slow and his breathing shallow, but he was in the Charger and the Charger would heal him. It would. It had to.

Because tonight was Hell Night.

She pulled down the blanket, expecting it to snag on her horns, but it passed easily over her face. She checked her hands in the early morning light. Pale. Flesh-coloured. She hadn’t shifted while she slept. The urge was there, she could still feel it, but it was lessened. Weakened.

She wasn’t surprised. She’d been expecting it, actually. More or less depending on it.

She laid the blanket aside and sat up quietly. The others were still wrapped up in their sleeping bags on the floor of Virgil’s living room. She’d only met him briefly the previous night. Kelly had introduced them and he’d gone off to bed. She wasn’t sure if the other old man – Javier, she thought his name was – was Virgil’s housemate or his lover. The thought of two old gay men living up here in Alaska would have made her heart warm were it not for the town they’d chosen to move to.

She put her shoes on and stood. The clothes she’d been wearing last night, or at least the rags they’d turned into, were now stuffed in a garbage bag. The ones she had on were wrinkled and let the chill in, so she hugged herself as she crept out of the room. Two raised his head, looked at her, yawned and went back to sleep. Amber walked over to the door that led to the garage, but hesitated before opening it. She uttered a silent prayer to someone, somewhere, and slipped inside. The Charger was parked on the other side of the van.

“Please be okay,” she whispered. “Please be okay. Please be okay.”

She rounded the van, approached the Charger, and leaned down to peer through the window. The blanket she’d used to cover Milo was lying on the back seat.

Milo was gone.

Coldness swept through her and she reeled away from the car, that parasitic car that healed and sustained him, but also fed off him. It hadn’t occurred to her to wonder what it would do if he was too badly injured, if he died during the night. Would it leave his body be, or would it absorb it, consume it completely and leave nothing, not even bloodstains on the upholstery?

Milo walked up beside her. “What’s wrong with you?”

She leaped away from him in shock, then grabbed him and hugged him. “You’re alive!”

“Uh, yeah,” he said, enduring the hug with his arms by his sides.

“I thought the car had eaten you!”

“Nope.”

His clothes were fresh. He smelled of soap. She released him and covered her heart with her hands, feeling it beat. “You’re okay?”

“I’m sore,” he said, “but yeah. Feeling fine. I couldn’t find my boots.”

“They’re gone.”

“Damn,” said Milo. “Those were my favourites.”

He went to the trunk, which sprang open at his touch, and grabbed a pair of walking boots from his bag.

Amber watched him put them on. “You’re sure you’re feeling okay? You were pretty messed up.”

“The car takes care of me,” he said. “So do you, for that matter.”

“I look after my employees.”

Milo gave her one of those smiles. “Oh, that’s right – I’m being paid for all this, aren’t I? Bodyguard and chauffeur. How much do you owe me by now?”

“Forty or fifty grand?” said Amber. “No big deal. It’s not like you’re doing this for the money, after all.”

“It’s for the love of the work,” he said, and straightened up. “So you want to fill me in on what’s been happening? I noticed those two from the jail in the living room, and that’s an old man’s shower. There’s a seat.”

“His name’s Virgil,” said Amber. “He’s not from here, and he’s on our side. He might be gay.”

“Good to know.”

“The other two in the living room are Linda and Warrick. There’s also a dog. My parents are here, too.”

“In the living room?”

“In town. Astaroth sent them, but now they want Dacre Shanks’s key so that they can make a deal with Naberius instead.”

“Devious bastards, aren’t they?”

“I know what the town festival is. They call it Hell Night. Jesper’s freelancer, someone called the Narrow Man, he makes the sacrifice, Naberius gets juiced up, and the town gets juiced up right along with him. The town changes, and everyone over the age of eighteen shifts.”

Milo frowned. “Into demons?”

“Yep. Oh, also? The cops are demons, too.”

“I figured as much. Anything else?”

“A kid has gone missing. Austin Cooke. The Narrow Man has him. But we know who the Narrow Man is. He disguises himself as a guy called Moreno, and he owns a hardware store. Kelly and the others, they said he’s a shapeshifter.”

“Is that so?”

“You ever meet one of those before?”

“Not that I’m aware,” Milo said, and opened the car door, reaching into the back seat. He came out with Phil Daggett’s silenced handgun.

“But I still don’t get it,” said Amber. “Okay, Jesper killed kids because he was old and weak and they were easy prey, but the Narrow Man is, like, this big supernatural bad guy. So why doesn’t Jesper tell him to go after some of the grown-ups?”

“Maybe because he wants the adults to share the blame,” Milo said. He ejected the magazine and checked it. “If they all agree that this is how it should be done, if this is the price they’re willing to pay for their precious Hell Night, then they shoulder the responsibility.” Satisfied, he slid the magazine back in, then flicked the safety on.

Amber waited until he was done before saying, “We haven’t had a chance to talk about what Jesper said.”

“That old bastard said a lot of things.”

“But he mentioned a Demon – Demoriel. You recognise the name?”

Milo shook his head. “I don’t, but Jesper sounds like he knows what he’s talking about, doesn’t he? Add in the car thing, and it’s a pretty safe bet that it’s this Demoriel who turned me into what I am today. Not that it changes anything. Now that I know his name, I’m not about to go knocking on his door to ask him some questions.”

“Okay,” she said. “Just checking.”

He smiled. “You really thought I was going to abandon you?”

“No,” she admitted. “But I thought I’d give you the opportunity.”

“Mighty kind of you, but you’re stuck with me, I’m afraid.”

“In that case, I have a plan.”

“I’m sorry?”

“A plan,” she said. “I have one.”

He frowned at her. “Is it any good?”

“I’m not sure.”

He leaned against the car and folded his arms. “Let’s hear it.”

“Well, I was thinking, what do we need to do? We need to get rid of the Hounds, right? We can’t do that alone.”

“Are you proposing teaming up with your parents?”

“What? God, no. No way in hell.”

“Good,” said Milo. “I don’t think that’d be a smart move.”

“Can I tell you my plan, please? Thank you. Here’s what I understand about Hell Night. It’s a blast of power, right? Or it’s a, it’s a needle full of adrenaline, and when it’s plunged into Naberius’s heart – like, metaphorically – his power explodes, and when it explodes it’s siphoned off to recharge the barrier. But it also bubbles up here in town and changes ordinary people into violent, murderous demons. That’s the side effect. That’s what Jesper didn’t expect. But he’s adapted, because that’s what he does. But the barrier is the main purpose. It gets recharged because it
needs
to get recharged. I woke up just now like this. Normal. No horns. You feel it, too, right? My skin isn’t itching anymore.”

“You think Naberius’s influence is weakening?”

“I do,” Amber replied. “I think each sacrifice releases a blast of power that recharges everything for exactly one year. We’re in the last few hours of last year’s sacrifice, and I think that if we can stop tonight’s sacrifice from going ahead, the barrier will get so weak that the Hounds can break through. Maybe. Hopefully.”

Milo looked at her. “Letting the Hounds
in
? That’s your plan?”

“The first part of it, yes.”

“The second part has a lot to make up for, just to warn you.”

“We want the Hounds to ride in, because, once they’re through, we give Naberius his sacrifice.”

“Are … are you proposing
we
kill the kid?”

“It doesn’t have to be Austin, does it? It doesn’t have to be a kid. It can be anyone. In fact … I think it should be Jesper himself.”

“And how does that help us?”

“Once Naberius gets his sacrifice, Hell Night begins, and everyone over the age of eighteen in this town will turn into a bloodthirsty monster. The Hounds come rolling in, and suddenly we won’t be outnumbered. We’ll have a whole army around us.”

“Who would want to kill us as much as they’d want to kill the Hounds.”

“Sure. But if we can – and I mean all of us – if we can find a safe place to wait it out, the Hounds – and my parents – will be the only targets available.”

Milo scratched the stubble on his chin. “That’s … that’s a pretty good plan.”

“Are you being sarcastic?”

“No, Amber.”

She beamed.

“But that means that not only do we have to find the kid, but we’re also going to have to snatch Jesper before tonight. Any bright ideas on how we do either of those things?”

“Snatching Jesper is easy. We still have Dacre Shanks’s key, right? We’re just going to stroll into Jesper’s office, take him by the spindly arm, and stroll right back out again. As for finding Austin, Kelly and the others think that he’s being hidden in the hardware store. Everything closes early today, at lunchtime, so that’s when they’re going to break in, and I think we should help them.”

“They’re going to break into a hardware store? In broad daylight?”

Amber faltered. “Well, I think … I think they’re planning on going in the back door.”

“They’d want to.”

“So what do you think? Should we help them?”

Milo hesitated. He reached into the car, opened the glove box, put in Daggett’s gun and took out his own holstered weapon, then straightened and clipped it on to his belt. “It might be dangerous,” he said, “but it’s not like I almost died last night. So why the hell not?”

V
IRGIL DROVE THEM IN
the Sienna, his eight-seater minivan. Javier sat up in the passenger seat and they talked the whole way, hurling insults at each other. It seemed half-hearted, though. They were nervous.