Night Owls (23 page)

“They’re on the property.” She closed her eyes, as though there were words in the buzzing. “Those wards can’t keep them out all night, but they’ll slow them down for a few minutes.”

Cavale had his cell phone out already, dialing Val. Elly turned to the other three. “Okay. We’ll watch the entrances, get any who make it inside. You two stay close to Justin.”

Lia eyed him as he scrambled closer to the couch. “I don’t suppose you want to go in the other room and have the best, oh, three minutes of your life, do you?”

He blinked at her. “Wh—”

Oh you’ve got to be shitting me.
Elly grimaced, catching Lia’s meaning before Justin did. “You’re a virgin?”

The crimson came back. He couldn’t seem to decide which of them to gape at. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Because it means they’ll fight all the harder to get to you. You’d better hope they want the thing in your head more than they want a snack.”

Lia smiled. “We’ll be fine. I just thought I’d offer.”

Justin scowled at Elly and the succubus, though the blush kept the look from being all that threatening. “How do they even know I’m the one they’re after?”

“You can smell them,” said Elly. “You’ve been doing it all day. I’m guessing they’ve been following you. Or the book’s psychic scent. Something like that, anyway.”

“But . . . but Chaz said they can’t be out during the day.”

“As far as we know, no, but we have to figure they know somehow. You smelled them at the funeral.”

“It was
ten thirty
.”

Sunny and Lia exchanged a look. “Um,” Sunny said. She sighed, setting her keris knife down. “There are rumors. Old ones. About Jackals walking in the daylight.”

Elly felt a chill go through her. “How?”

“Depends on the rumor. Some said they possessed actual jackals, and the dogs’ fur protected them from the sun.” There was a loud crash outside, and a flare of white. Sunny grimaced. “They’re trying to pass the first set of wards.”

“What were the other rumors?” Elly picked up a set of stakes and shoved them in the mini quiver she’d clipped to her belt loop.

“That they sent the sun’s flame elsewhere. I don’t know how it worked.”

“There’s something in the book about deflection,” said Justin. “I don’t really understand it all, but that’s the gist of the word. And something about binding.”

He didn’t get any further than that, though, because the buzzing ward crescendoed then cut off abruptly. Then the howling started.

They weren’t the full-throated, blood-chilling howls of wolves. The Creeps’ cries were high and reedy, devolving into barks and yips at the end.

“Uh. Aren’t your neighbors going to hear that?” asked Justin. “And see what those flashes are?” He perked up as a new idea struck. “Won’t they call the police?”

“Sorry, sweetie,” said Sunny. “The property’s not just warded against the Jackals. It’s about as sound- and sight-proofed as we can make it.”

“Old habits,” said Lia, though the women exchanged a glance that told Elly there was more to it than that. Probably a lot more.

“There have to be fifty of them.” Cavale peered out the window again, squinting into the night. “I can see them moving.”

Lia looked relieved to be off the topic of nosy neighbors. “I don’t hear that many.”

Elly shook her head. “You probably don’t. Professor Clearwater thought one of them might be throwing out illusions. It might only work on humans. Or, um.” She didn’t know the etiquette here. Was it okay to point out that succubi spent most of their time deceiving people, too?

Sunny’s lips quirked. “Or because we deal in them ourselves?”

“Yeah.”

She took her knives out of the box once more—a long one and a short one for her, the other set for Lia. “They’re getting closer. The ladies are
thrumming
.”

“They’re hungry,” said Lia. “It’s been a long time.” She glanced down at her hands, then, with a sigh, reached over and took a lock of Sunny’s hair between her fingers. “I guess we ought to . . . ?”

Sunny kissed her knuckles, a sad smile on her lips. “We should.”

The air shimmered around the women, like heat coming from hot asphalt. Lia’s skin darkened to a dusky purple, her blond hair thickening and twisting itself into mud-colored dreadlocks. Her face elongated, her nose thinning to a vicious slash. Sunny gained a foot of height, then two. Her dark hair retracted into a short cap and her eyes took on a tilt that made her normally sweet face look severe.

Justin stood between them, gaping. Even Cavale, who was used to this sort of thing, had to tear his eyes away. Elly could see why. In their previous forms, they’d been pretty. The creatures that stood before them now were downright
glorious
. They shed their jeans and sweatshirts like snakes shedding their skin. Sunny kicked off her bunny slippers, one of them skittering away beneath the couch.

Justin’s throat clicked when he swallowed. “Do you . . . I mean, shouldn’t you—”

Lia giggled, her voice soft and husky. “This is how we learned to fight. Anything else is a hindrance.”

He found an interesting spot on the ceiling to stare at.

They didn’t have time to revel in his discomfort, though. Elly caught movement by the window. She grabbed Cavale’s sleeve and yanked him toward her just as the glass shattered inward, sending shards exploding across the living room. A Creep thudded to the floor, dead, its singed fur crackling and sparking with the remnants of the magic that had killed it.

“Here they come,” said Cavale. Sunny and Lia closed ranks around Justin, their keris knives at the ready.

Outside, shapes seethed in the darkness, the shadows stretching back to the line of hedges that marked the end of the succubi’s backyard. Golden eyes caught the light from the living room, one pair, two, ten.
There can’t be that many. There aren’t.
Elly hefted one of the glass holy water bottles.
What’s a little more broken glass?
She pitched it outside, aiming for a spot between a pair of glowing eyes.

There came a yelp as the bottle broke, the sound caught between human and canine. A hole opened in the writhing mass of Creeps, but Elly couldn’t tell if the empty space was illusion melting away or the Creeps avoiding the water.

Another one came pelting through the window. For a split second, Elly could see the demonic ward, like a spiderweb with strands plucked loose. As this new Creep came through, the web broke for good, its gossamer threads drifting to the ground and vanishing. It did a number on the Creep before it failed, though. This one made it into the room alive, but only barely. It drew one pained, shuddering breath before Cavale was on it, driving his stake into its back.

Then they were pouring in, jamming themselves through the bay window four, five at a time, crawling over one another to get inside. They were in different states of transformation, some still nearly human except for their claws, others with snouts extended and teeth bared but standing upright. A few had turned all the way: heads completely canine, covered in short black fur, their bodies bulging with muscles and twisted so they loped across the yard on all fours.

Elly loosed more holy water on them, snatching up a plastic bottle this time and squeezing it out in a gush. Two of them clutched at their faces, screaming, and fell back. The other three came on, unaffected. “Those ones are fake!” she shouted, but her heart dropped as two more took the injured ones’ places at the sill. She didn’t have enough water to test every one that came through.

They clambered into the room and more took their places. Another spray of the water had no effect, but the Creep that advanced on her sure as hell
felt
real. Silver and Pointy dropped into her palm as he advanced, snarling.

Elly swung the spike in a perfect arc and felt the resistance as it sunk into the Creep’s chest. The ash spread quickly, radiating outward from the wound. She yanked her spike back as the light went out of the Creep’s eyes.
But why didn’t the water hurt it?
There were burn marks on his face. She
had
hit him, then. He had either ignored the pain, or never even felt it.

If they can walk in the day, can they shrug off the holy water, too?

It didn’t seem to be the case with all of them. Cavale had his own bottle, and was driving a pair of Creeps toward the kitchen with it. One of them yowled with pain, covering its eyes where he’d already scored a direct hit. The other . . . the other mimicked its companion’s actions—cowering, backing away, taking agonized-looking peeks through its clawed hands—but it didn’t make a single sound. Elly realized she could see through that one’s arm, and make out the edge of the end table behind it.

So some were illusion, but others were simply impervious to the water.
Good to know.

She dodged aside at movement in her peripheral vision. A pair of monstrous claws raked the air where she’d been standing. The Creep snapped at her, its rotted yellow teeth clacking as it lunged. Elly dipped and spun, bringing the spike up so the Creep ran right into it.

Another stood right behind it, half-human, with a knife in one hand and the claws protruding from the other. He swiped with the knife first. Too late, Elly realized it was a feint. The clawed hand came up and caught her by the jaw. She swung the spike, but the Creep was taller, his arms longer. She hit empty air.

The claws dug into her chin, five bright flares of pain. She kicked out at him, but he held her fast. She couldn’t see Cavale. Judging from the sounds coming from the kitchen, he was holding up fine. Behind the Creep, she could see Sunny and Lia, whirling about, smoke trailing from their knives. A growing pile of Creep corpses lay at their feet.

She couldn’t shout; the Creep was already squeezing her jaw so hard it throbbed. One good thrash only dug the tips in deeper and made her see stars.
Not going down. Not like this.

Sunny and Lia moved apart, giving her a glimpse of Justin in between them. He had his hands clamped over his ears, like he was trying to block something out. He turned toward her, and for a heartbeat, they made eye contact. She tried shaking her head and got another jolt of pain for her troubles.

Oh, don’t. Don’t play hero. Don’t, don’t, don’t.

He did.

Justin shoved past Sunny, shouting. He knocked one Creep aside, making it fall on its ass by dint of sheer luck. Then one snagged him by the upper arm, its claws tearing through his sleeve. Elly recognized him as one of the three from last night. The big one with the scarred face. Asshole.
All that effort to keep the pigs’ blood off the shirt earlier and it gets ruined anyway.
Justin cried out as the gash opened on his arm.

Elly shouldn’t have been able to hear him over the snarling and the snapping, but that’s when she realized the room had gone silent, the last echoes of Justin’s pain hanging on the air. One by one, the Creeps’ noses—real and illusionary—turned up and sniffed the air.
They smell virgin blood.
Her Creep let her go, the claws retracting and leaving warm blood to trickle down her chin in their absence. He turned toward Justin, his snout getting longer as he let his transformation complete.

Elly checked her grip on Silver and Pointy. Shaking off the agony at her jaw, she darted forward, spike raised.

Not fast enough.

The Creeps surged toward Justin.

23

T
HE
C
REEP IN
front of her exploded in a shower of ash as Silver and Pointy found its mark. Elly pushed right through the greasy cloud, bits of dead Creep coating her skin. She kept her lips closed; once, she’d made the unfortunate mistake of sucking in a breath right after staking one. She’d tasted rotten meat for weeks.

Asshole had twisted Justin’s arm up behind his back and pulled him in close. Justin kicked at his shins, but every movement wrenched his shoulder. Elly could hear him panting from the pain. The wave of Creeps carried her closer, all other enemies forgotten in their desire to get a taste of Justin’s sweet, untainted blood. She uncapped another bottle of holy water as they clambered over one another and splashed it on the closest ones. Two to her left dropped to the floor and rolled, howling. It tripped up a couple of others, but not for long. They trampled over their fallen comrades, intent on the prize in the center of the room.

Elly pulled a rowan stake from her belt with her left hand and swung it to the side. Her arm slipped through the Creep directly in front of her, but connected with the one behind it. Both the real Creep and its illusion clutched at the spot where the stake went in and fell to their knees. She left the stake where it was; it wouldn’t kill the Creep, but he’d be too pain wracked to do much more than crawl. She’d come back and finish him off later. Two more went down in similar fashion as Elly shoved her way to the front of the pack, illusions peeling off as well and thinning out the throng.

Still, for every Creep that fell to her stakes, another took its place. In the brief glimpses she caught between Creeps, Elly could see them pouring in from everywhere now—not just through the broken bay window, but spilling down the stairs, shoving in through the hallway that led to the front door, and streaming in from the kitchen.
Cavale was in there.
Panic shot through her. She hadn’t seen him since he’d backed those others through the doorway. With an effort, she forced herself to face forward again. She’d never be able to fight through the Creeps to get to him.
He can hold his own. Help Justin.

From outside, there came startled, pain-filled yips. They started far away and got closer, fast, like someone had turned up the volume in another room. For a moment, she thought Cavale had made it outside, but then she saw the streak of red tearing its way through the Creeps.
Val.

Elly didn’t know what she’d been expecting, really. Seeing the succubi fight was like watching an exquisite dance. The vampire’s movements were rhythmic, too, but hers were marked by a military precision: rake her claws through this Creep’s spine, step to the right and drive a stake in the next’s chest, step again and shear a third’s head clear off its neck. She never stopped moving, just killed one and went on to the next. Some of her targets were illusions, but she course corrected easily when she encountered one.

The Creeps around Elly seemed to sense that death had entered the room. They started pushing back against her, trying to get away. Elly shoved forward, driving Silver and Pointy into the backs of these Creeps attempting to flee. As she got closer to where the one Chaz had dubbed Asshole had Justin, there was still a wall of Creeps two or three deep. They hadn’t quite realized there was a vampire wreaking havoc among their brothers and sisters.

She burst clear of the seething mass of them and found herself next to Val. Black blood was smeared across the woman’s mouth; she must have bitten a few on her way in. Elly shuddered at the thought of anyone
willingly
swallowing Creeps’ blood. Val nodded at her, then looked around and frowned. Elly followed her gaze.

The Creeps at the front were holding back, pawing at the air and drooling as they breathed in the scent of Justin’s blood, but there was a good three yards between the front-runners and the place where Asshole held Justin.
He’s keeping them away.
As if to prove it, one Creep edged forward from Asshole’s left. It was a furtive movement, like the Creep thought she might be able to dart forward and make a snatch at Justin before his captor could react.

Asshole’s head whipped toward her and he snarled. He wasn’t in full, head-to-toe Creepskin, not yet, but his teeth were sharp, his claws out, his nose stretched into a snout. The woman whined and slunk back, her head bowed so low her chin touched her chest. If she’d had a tail, it would’ve been tucked between her legs.

Sunny emerged from the other side of the circle, taking up a position behind Asshole while Lia guarded her back. Black ichor coated the keris’ blade. It streaked past the hilt and down over Sunny’s wrist, winding like vines down her forearms. Her eyes flicked to Elly and Val, and Elly understood what she wanted. She circled a few steps to the right, passing through a phantom Creep to get a better angle of approach. Val stayed where she was. Asshole yanked Justin close against his chest, using him as a shield as he shuffled in a tight circle to watch them all.

“I can smell you back there, demon bitch,” he said. “Take me down and they’ll tear him apart.”

“We won’t let that happen.” Val reached behind herself almost casually and caught a Creep by the scruff of its neck. Never breaking eye contact with Asshole, she dragged it forward. “Maybe you forgot: I was at Sacramento.” She slid her palm under the Creep’s chin, ignoring its sudden, panicked flailing, and wrenched its head sideways. The crunch of breaking vertebrae told Elly everything she needed to know.

Val took the dead Creep by the collar and tossed it at Asshole’s feet. Its head lolled at an unnatural angle as it rolled to a stop. “You want me to count to three?”

He looked around the room and seemed to realize how much of it had cleared out since Val’s entry. There was the circle around himself and Justin, and that was about it. The others had all slunk away. Cavale came in from the kitchen, a nasty-looking cut on his cheek and the sleeve of his jacket only hanging onto the shoulder by a few stubborn threads. He was marching a Creep along in front of him, holding a fork up to the scrawny man’s neck: Twitch. From the four burnt-looking parallel scratches down the side of Twitch’s face, Elly guessed Cavale had found Sunny and Lia’s good silverware.

“The rest are running,” said Cavale. “I’m guessing the woman’s around here somewhere, but I haven’t seen her yet.”

“How about it, then?” Val stepped forward. Elly and Sunny did the same. “You going to let him go?”

Elly had to hand it to him—he hid his panic well. His snout grew even more canine; his incisors lengthened. You had to be close to see it, and she was a couple of feet closer than anyone else. Val could likely smell it on him. Her nostrils flared as she waited for his response.

Asshole turned a bit, shifting to put Justin more firmly between himself and Val. Elly could tell how he’d assessed the threats in the room: Val was the scariest, and she wouldn’t argue that. But he’d twisted to keep an eye on Sunny and Lia, too. Which meant he’d forgotten what his alpha had told them about herself and Cavale.

He wasn’t looking at her, so he didn’t see the smile that quirked her lips. Val, did, though, and her slight nod was all the permission Elly needed.

Her boots pounded along, squelching in the blood of dead Creeps. She had to jump for it—Asshole was a good head and a half taller. He started to face her, realizing his fatal mistake far too late. Justin shrieked as he was yanked around again. Elly heard the
pop
as his shoulder came out of its socket.

Then she was there, barreling into Asshole. Her aim was true as ever: with one good stroke, the silver spike sank through his leather jacket and pierced his heart. Asshole gasped, sending a spray of ash from his already-turning insides out into the air.

Behind the others, Twitch let out an outraged howl. The other Creeps took an extra second or two to realize that the only thing keeping them from their wonderful feast was gone, but once they twigged onto it, they were clambering over one another to get to Justin.

Val, Sunny, and Lia were already on it, a whirlwind of blade and claw tearing through the first ones to move. Elly hauled Justin up from where he’d dropped into a crouch, intent on putting some extra distance between him and the slavering Creeps. He was muttering as he gained his feet, something she couldn’t quite make out. “What was that?”

He looked up at her and she froze.

His eyes are yellow.
She was certain they’d been brown earlier today.

A Creep broke out of the pack, just out of Val’s reach. It loped forward, a rope of drool trailing from its mouth. Out of instinct, Elly let Justin’s arm drop and readied Silver and Pointy, but she didn’t get to use it. Justin pushed her aside with his good arm and stood waiting for the Creep. It pulled up short, scrabbling back a step when it got a look at his face.

Then Justin let out a string of syllables that made Elly’s skin crawl. She’d heard it plenty of times before, but only from Creeps.

The one in front of him blinked, then whined low in its throat. It did what its packmate had done at Asshole’s snarl earlier, ducking its head and backing away.

Then they
all
were backing away, slinking out of the house as quickly as they’d come. Twitch jerked himself out of Cavale’s grasp and booked it out the window. Val, Sunny, and Lia ran down a few stragglers, but once the Creeps were outside, no one gave chase.

“Let them run,” said Val. “They won’t be back tonight.”

Elly stood in the middle of the living room, surveying the damage. The place had been cozy and neat not an hour ago. Now, the carpets were saturated with blood, the end tables and coffee tables had been reduced to splinters, and the upholstery had been shredded by the Creeps’ claws. The whole room reeked of blood and burnt flesh, and there were streaks of ash everywhere. Not to mention the Creeps’ corpses strewn all around.

Justin was in the middle of them all, like the epicenter of an earthquake. He held his arm and looked at them all as, one by one, they turned to stare. “Elly?” he said, his yellow eyes locking onto her. He swayed dangerously off center and she reached out a hand to steady him.

What the hell did you do?
she wanted to ask, but what came out instead was, “You’re okay.” The first-aid training Father Value had ingrained in her kicked in. She started running her post-fight triage checklist in her head: Justin’s arm, Cavale’s cheek, her own dripping jawline. As the adrenaline wore off, the pain rushed right on in to fill the void. She’d worry about herself after. Justin, his arm, and his newly yellow eyes were her priority. “We’ll get that arm fixed for you. Can you walk to the couch with me?” She guided him to Sunny and Lia’s torn-up sofa and helped him lower himself onto it.

He smiled weakly at her, then went slightly green. “I think I’m gonna throw up.”

 • • • 

W
HERE THE HELL
is Chaz?
He should have been there by now. Val surveyed the shambles that was Sunny and Lia’s living room and found herself straining to hear the dull purr of the Mustang’s motor coming down the street. All the times she’d given him shit for how loud it was, and now she’d welcome its peace-disturbing sound.

She dialed his cell again. Still no answer.
Five more minutes and I go looking for him.

Cavale came to stand beside her. He had a wad of paper towels pressed to his cheek, blood seeping through slowly. Sunny and Lia had disappeared upstairs to change back into more mundane-looking skins and put on some clothes, saying something about “putting the ladies to bed.” Elly sat on the couch beside Justin, murmuring softly to him. His arm hung off-kilter; they were going to have to pop it back into its socket soon.

“He’ll turn up,” said Cavale. “He might have pulled into the driveway and seen them all, realized there was no way in hell he could get past.”

“I thought about that. But it doesn’t explain why he’s not picking up now. And I never heard the engine.” She didn’t know the specifics of the wards Sunny and Lia had laid, but she was fairly certain sound could get
in
, but not
out
.