Desolation

SOMEONE KNOCKED ON HER door and Amber woke immediately and went to spring out of bed. As she was moving, she realised two things. The first was that she had shifted during the night and was now in full demon mode. The second was that she was about to put her full weight on to her left hand, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

The pain hit her like an electric shock. She pulled her hands into her chest, rolled off the bed, and landed on her feet in a crouch, gritting her teeth to keep from crying out.

That knock again. It was calm. Unhurried. No urgency to it.

Amber waited for the worst of the pain to pass, then straightened, and moved slowly to the door. “Who is it?” she called.

“Me,” said Milo.

“Anyone else with you?”

“No.”

She gripped the key between her palms and turned it, and the lock clicked and she stepped back as Milo opened the door.

He saw the look on her face and frowned. “Hurting?”

“A little. I’ll take the painkillers.”

“You shift when you were sleeping?”

“Yeah. You?”

He nodded. He was clean-shaven and his eyes were calm – the benefits of a good night’s rest. “I’m going to head out to the edge of town,” he said, “keep watch for the Hounds.”

“Let me get dressed.”

“No need. I’m just going to be sitting there. You take a look around, see what’s what. If we can hide out here, it’d be nice to know what the town has to offer.”

Amber frowned. “You mean … we’re going to be apart? During the daytime?”

“Is that okay with you?”

“Sure. It’s just … I haven’t been alone in the daytime for … a while.”

“You’ll adjust.”

“What do I do?”

“Whatever you want. Go for a walk. Have some breakfast. Relax. It’ll come back to you. Oh, and …” He pointed to her face.

“What?”

“You can’t go out horned up.”

“Oh yeah. Sure.”

He nodded, and walked off, and Amber closed the door behind him and locked it again. Then she looked around and wondered what the hell she was going to do.

She swallowed some painkillers and brushed her teeth and peed, and as she was peeing she looked at the tub and tried to remember the last time she’d had a real bath. She filled the tub and added in all kinds of crazy liquids until the bubbles nearly spilled out on to the floor. Then she took off her clothes and climbed in, one long red leg at a time. Bracing her bandaged palms on the tub’s edge, she lowered herself into the water, gasping, until her ass touched the bottom. She laughed, then, and sank further, until the hot water was up to her chin.

“Oh, this is nice,” she muttered to the room.

She closed her eyes, breathing in the steam, letting it clear her head of any residual sleepiness. It had been so long since she’d been able to relax, to think of anything other than the chase. Even now, there was a part of her that was still on edge – but it was a small part, and she could have easily drowned it out if she’d been so inclined.

But of course she didn’t. Just because Gregory Buxton had vanished from the Hounds’ radar when he was in this town didn’t mean she would, too. And even if she did, so what? The Hounds would still be able to ride on in here and search. They didn’t need supernatural powers to find her – they just needed eyes.

So she kept that edge, the part of herself that remained wary, and she let it bite at her thoughts and burrow into her head. That edge had helped keep her alive after Imelda had died. After Glen. After her parents.

She wondered about them, where they were, what they were doing. How they were doing. She felt a curious mix of satisfaction that she’d fouled up her parents’ plans, that she’d forced them to go on the run with Grant and Kirsty Van der Valk, that Astaroth was almost as pissed with them as he was with her … but also concern. That part puzzled Amber. She didn’t care about them. They had bred her to be killed and eaten, just like they had her brother and sister whom she had never known. She was not concerned for their well-being.

She was definitely, definitely not. She was almost sure of that.

Thoughts of her parents irritated her, but there was only one other person she could think about that would banish them to the back of her mind, and that was Glen. She only thought about him when she was in demon form. Her heart was harder when she was like this, better able to cope with what had happened to him. With who he was now. What he’d turned into.

She’d been aware of him following her. Some nights she’d look in the side mirror and glimpse something moving behind them. Some nights, when the Charger was quiet, she could hear him above her, his clothes fluttering in the wind.

Why he was following her, she didn’t know. She’d been told that most breeds of vampire were pack animals – they stuck close to the one who’d turned them. But the vampire that had killed Glen had vanished, and his undead family back in Cascade Falls were in disarray – certainly the patriarch was no longer around to guide them. Amber had seen to that personally.

That might be it, of course. Glen could be following her to kill her, to exact revenge for Varga’s death. She doubted it, though. Revenge didn’t seem to be Glen’s style, soulless monster or not. No, what was infinitely more likely was that Glen’s preoccupation with Amber – especially in her current form – had stayed with him even after his death. Maybe it was the one thing he was clinging on to. Maybe he had designs on a coffin built for two.

Amber closed her eyes and held her breath, and submerged so that only her knees and her hands and her horns were above the water line. Down here, in the muted world of the bathtub, she opened her eyes again and looked at herself. She couldn’t blame Glen for his preoccupations, of course. Was she not as magnificent as everyone said? Was her figure not astonishing? Were her features not flawless?

She loved being this way. She loved being tall and red and horned and beautiful. She loved being sexy. She’d never been sexy, not as an ordinary human. Sexiness was for other girls, not for her. Never for her.

She broke the surface of the water, and smiled.

Until now.

After her bath, Amber went for a walk. The people seemed friendly enough, even if she did catch them staring at her from time to time. On three occasions she actually glanced at her bandaged hands to make sure she wasn’t in demon mode, then she put it down to the fact that visitors were probably a rarity around here.

It was a pretty town, surrounded as it was by trees and snow-covered mountains and looking up into a huge blazingly blue sky. It had a smell to it, too – fresh and open and healthy. Invigorating, even. Amber fully acknowledged all of this. Further, she had no trouble admitting that it was downright lovely to see every store open for business – that being quite a change after spending the last few weeks driving through small towns teetering on the edge of survival.

Watching the people file into church, she figured that there was absolutely nothing about Desolation Hill that she found disagreeable, and yet something had got its hooks into her and was pulling her down.

Deciding that breakfast might improve her mood, she stepped into Fast Danny’s, the only one of the three cafe/diner joints on Main Street open on a Sunday morning. There were a few patrons sitting at tables, all of whom examined Amber when she walked in. She ignored them, chose a table in the corner, and sat, started reading through the menu.

The waitress came over, a woman in her forties who looked like she’d had a busy morning. Her nametag identified her as Brenda.

“Just passing through?” Brenda asked, which struck Amber as an odd thing to greet someone with. At the Firebird, Amber had always greeted customers with a smile. There was no smile on show here.

“Kinda,” said Amber.

“Oh yeah?” Brenda said, but not in a conversational way.

Amber had a soft spot for people waiting tables. She knew what a crappy job it could be. That being said, Brenda’s attitude was not going to be earning her any tips.

“I’m staying for a few days,” Amber said. “At the motel.”

“The Dowall Motel?”

“Is there another one?”

Brenda didn’t bother to answer that. “Were you told about the festival?”

“Yeah. But we weren’t told what kind of festival it is.”

“It’s a local one,” said Brenda. “Townsfolk only.”

Amber decided that she didn’t like Brenda’s dismissive tone. She didn’t like being dismissed. Her skin itched. All she had to do was relax and she’d shift, and then she’d be taken seriously. Then she’d be respected.

“That was mentioned,” she said quietly.

Brenda nodded, apparently satisfied. “Okay then, what can I get you?”

And, all of a sudden, Brenda was in full waitress mode and Amber was left with all that hostility and nowhere to put it. “Uh …”

Brenda looked at her, eyebrows raised, waiting.

Amber felt the hostility drain from her. “The Danny’s Breakfast, please.”

“Will do,” said Brenda. “Eggs sunny side up or scrambled?”

“Scrambled.”

“Coffee or juice?”

Had she really been about to jump up and rip the waitress’s face off, just because of her tone of voice? She felt amazingly stupid right now.

“Juice,” she said. “Thank you. Oh, and …” Amber held up her hands. “I had an accident.”

“So I see.”

She gave Brenda a weak smile. “Would it be possible to have my breakfast, like, cut into smaller pieces?”

“You want it all chopped up?”

“Yes, please. Well, besides the egg. Because that’ll be scrambled.”

“Okay,” Brenda said dubiously. “Might cost you a little more, though.”

Amber frowned. “To cut it up?”

“It’s an unusual requirement.”

“But it’ll only take ten seconds.”

The waitress shrugged. “We’ll see if the cook is comfortable doing it. Will that be all?”

Amber hesitated. “Yes.”

Brenda nodded, and moved away as an old man came in.

“Hey there, Brenda,” he said.

Brenda smiled for the first time. “Good morning, Mr Tomlinson. How are you?”

“I’m doing good, thanks,” said Tomlinson. “And you?”

“Doing fine,” said Brenda. “Nice weather we’re having.”

“It is. It is nice weather.”

“Is it the usual, Mr Tomlinson?”

“Sorry?”

“The usual?”

“Oh yes, the usual. Ham on rye with mustard.”

“With the crusts cut off.”

“Just go ahead and cut them crusts off, you betcha.”

“You got it.”

The moment Brenda turned away from him to deliver the order, her smile was gone, and Amber watched as Tomlinson’s own smile slowly faded. He stood there, staring into space. Amber’s mom had once said something about friends and fake smiles, but that was Amber’s mom, so Amber banished the memory from her mind.

A woman came in behind Tomlinson and the smile suddenly reappeared as he turned.

“Morning, Jackie,” he said.

“Morning, Brett,” Jackie said. “Good weather for fishing.”

“It is.”

“Getting your usual?”

“Yes, I am. Ham on rye with mustard, with the crusts cut off. Hey, how’s little Everett doing?”

“He’s doing fine,” said Jackie. “He had a bad cough that went on for a few days. I thought it might be a chest infection, but it cleared up on its own.”

“I heard that,” Tomlinson said, nodding. “I heard he had a cough.”

Brenda arrived back, handed Tomlinson a brown paper bag. “Here you go, Mr Tomlinson. Your usual.”

“Much obliged, Brenda,” Tomlinson said, handing over the exact change. He tipped his hat to them both. “You have a good day now, ladies.”

They smiled at him and he walked out, and then they turned those smiles on each other.

“How you doing today, Jackie?” Brenda asked. “How’s that boy of yours?”

“He’s good,” Jackie said. “He had a cough, but it cleared up. You all set for Book Club tonight?”

“I am,” Brenda said. “What did you think of it?”

“A little racier than what I’m used to,” Jackie said. “Did you like it?”

“I thought it was fine. Racy, like you said.”

“Maybe too racy?”

“Probably too racy. What can I get for you?”

“Just a coffee, thanks. In one of those cardboard cups.”

“To go?”

“To go, yes. With cream and sugar.”

Brenda smiled as she busied herself at the coffee machine. “No fancy lattes or espressos for you.”

“No, thank you!” Jackie said, and both women laughed.

Amber didn’t know what the hell they had to laugh about, but she kept her mouth shut.

For the next few minutes, she sat there and watched the patrons and staff of Fast Danny’s interact with one another. They were unfailingly polite and bizarrely cheerful, and they walked around with bright smiles at the ready – smiles that vanished the moment they thought no one was watching them. But Amber was.

When her breakfast was ready, Brenda returned to her table, set the plate down. Along with her scrambled eggs, she had bacon, sausages and hash browns – all fully intact.

“Um,” said Amber, but Brenda was already walking away.

Amber looked back at her food, then tried to pick up her knife and fork. When she failed laughably at this, she did her best to catch Brenda’s eye, but Brenda was doing an admirable job of ignoring her. Exasperated, Amber looked around, accidentally making eye contact with an old man sitting alone. He wasn’t as old as Brett Tomlinson, but he was catching up fast. He gave her a little smile, glanced at her hands, and folded his newspaper. He stood and walked over.

“You need any help with that?” he asked.

Amber’s first instinct was to thank him for his offer and decline – but that wouldn’t get her food cut up.

“Thank you,” she said. “Yes, please.”

He nodded, hitched his pants and sat, then took her knife and fork and cut up the food.

“Thanks very much,” said Amber.

“No problem,” he said. “I’m Benjamin.”

“Amber.”

“What happened to your hands, Amber, if it’s not too personal a question?”

“I, uh, I caught them in a car door.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Say you did?”

She nodded. “Yep. Broke almost all my fingers.”

“Caught both hands in a car door?” Benjamin asked. “What on earth were you doing?”

“Well, uh, I’m not actually sure. It was something stupid.”

“I’d wager,” said Benjamin, but in a nice way, and Amber laughed. “Was it that black car you came in? Oh, don’t look so surprised. We’re a small town in the middle of nowhere in Alaska – newcomers set tongues a-wagging, and distinctive cars more so.”

“I see,” she said. “But no, it was another car. I’m just clumsy, I guess, and pretty useless until my fingers mend, so my uncle decided to take me on a road trip while I wait.”

“Always wanted to go on a road trip,” Benjamin said, a little wistfully, “but never had anywhere to go to. Where you headed?”

She shrugged. “It’s not the destination that matters – it’s the journey.”

Benjamin chuckled. “That what your uncle says?”

“My uncle doesn’t say an awful lot. What’s it like here, by the way? I’m assuming it’s a nicer town than the name suggests.”

“You’d think,” said Benjamin. He finished cutting the food and placed the knife and fork on the edge of the plate for Amber. “The people are pleasant, you can leave your door unlocked, and three hundred sixty-four days out of the year it’s as peaceful as peaceful can be. But the days are long and getting longer, and, if you want my advice, I wouldn’t stay here.”

Amber sipped her juice. “No?”

He glanced around, making sure no one could overhear. “This is not a nice place to visit, Amber. I have no doubt you’re going to be made to feel very unwelcome in the next day or so. You might even warrant a visit from the Police Chief himself.”

“Seriously? We haven’t done anything.”

“That doesn’t matter. Chief Novak is notorious for running transients out of town on the slightest of whims.”

“We’re not transients. We’re staying at the motel.”

“Novak’ll still see you as a transient – as will the rest of the fine folk of Desolation Hill.”

She leaned closer. “Benjamin, what’s this festival they’re all talking about?”

He smiled sadly, and shook his head. “I’m sorry. There are some things I’m not comfortable discussing in public. You have a good day now.”

“Oh God, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you.”

He stood. “You didn’t, young lady. Not at all. You have a good day now, you hear?”

He walked back to his table, picked up his newspaper, and left. Amber sat there until the rumblings in her belly became too loud to ignore, and she awkwardly picked up her fork and started spearing her food. She was halfway through her breakfast when her phone lit up by her elbow, and a message from Milo came through.

They’re here.

THE ROAD THAT EVENTUALLY became Main Street was the road they had taken into town, but it veered and meandered on its way there, and it was quicker to just cut through the trees. The instant she moved out of sight, Amber let the change happen, and she shifted and gritted her teeth against the pain in her hands. A few seconds was all it took for the throbbing to fade, though, and then she was feeling a whole lot better about a whole bunch of things – the town, the cold … even the Hounds’ arrival.

How tough could they really be, anyway?

She hurried, though. She didn’t like the idea of Milo facing them alone. Together they’d have a chance. Together they might even win. The idea made Amber smile. The Shining Demon could send whoever he wanted after her. She liked the thought of sending them right back again.

Her human side tried whispering in her ear – something about overconfidence. Amber ignored it. She knew what she’d heard. She knew the Hounds were pretty much unstoppable. She knew, technically, that she and Milo would barely be able to stand up to one of them, let alone five. These things didn’t matter. What mattered was how she was feeling right now, like she could take on an army of Astaroth’s lackeys and tear them all apart.

As she ran, she started to hear motorcycles. No shouts, though. No gunshots. No sounds of fighting. She left the trees, stepped on to the overgrown grass that lined the road, where she could see exactly where she was going and there was no danger of her passing the town boundary. She glimpsed the Charger, parked in among a clump of bushes, and looked around for Milo.

Amber got low and crept forward. She could see the Desolation Hill sign now, and the track that ran off to her left. A biker came roaring up that track and she went instantly cold and all her assurances abandoned her. He slowed to a stop and was joined a moment later by another one. The first Hound had a beard and the second one didn’t. The first was in denim and the second in leather. They both wore sunglasses. The first one’s bike was gleaming chrome. The other one’s was black. Neither of them spoke.

She couldn’t take them on. Not the Hounds. With or without Milo. They were the Hounds of Hell and they were unstoppable and they were pitiless.

She heard another engine coming from behind and flattened herself in the grass as a car approached. It passed her, and the bikers parted so it could get by. She watched the driver of the car peer at the Hounds. The Hounds never even glanced at him.

“Curious bastards,” Milo said from beside her, and she nearly screamed.

He was still in human mode. Amber didn’t know how he could stand the itching.

“Were you there the whole time?” she whispered.

He nodded. “It’s called hiding. You should try it.”

“I hid just then, didn’t I?”

“That was lucky. Red skin isn’t the best camouflage in grass.”

“Whatever.” She looked back to the Hounds. “What the hell are they doing?”

“Not much,” said Milo. “Every now and then, they … here, look.”

Amber looked. One of the Hounds got off his bike and walked forward a few steps until he was standing right beside the sign. He sniffed the air.

“Can he smell us?” Amber whispered.

Milo didn’t answer for a moment. Then he said, “I don’t think they can get in.”

Amber frowned. “Get in where?”

“Here.”

Her frown deepened. “What do you …? Wait – you mean they can’t get into the town? Why not? There’s nothing …” She stopped, watching the Hound. “Uh, Milo, are we being chased by mimes?”

The Hound had put his hand out, but it seemed to meet resistance in mid-air, like there was a sheet of glass directly in front of him.

“That’s the town line,” Milo said softly. “Whatever’s in here, whatever made us shift, is keeping them out. Looks like it’s also screwed up their radar. This close, they should have already zeroed in on your position, but they’re not even looking this way.”

“Are you sure?” Amber asked. “How can you be sure?”

“Good point,” Milo said, and he shifted into his demon-self and stood up.

“What the hell are you doing?” She tried grabbing his hand to pull him back down, but he was already stepping out on to the road.

The Hounds observed him as he approached. Amber stayed where she was.

To a chorus of revving bikes, Milo walked right up to the Hound and stood before him. When the Hound didn’t do anything, Milo hit him. The punch whipped the Hound’s head back, and it was enough to provoke him into making a move. But when his hands tried to close around Milo’s throat, they bounced off whatever invisible barrier separated them.

Amber stood up. She could see the other Hounds now. Dressed in denim or leather, bearded or not, they all wore sunglasses and all rode different kinds of bikes. She saw a Harley, and that was the only one she recognised. None of them had any expression on their face. Aside from the sunglasses, that was the one thing they all shared.

The others turned off their bikes, and the sudden silence rushed in to fill the vacuum. They got off and approached, but remained on their side of the town line. Amber felt their eyes on her as she joined Milo. He reverted to normal.

“This is interesting,” she said, unease running down her spine. “You think it runs around the whole town?”

“We’d better hope so,” said Milo.

Amber stood up a little straighter and addressed the Hounds. “My name is Amber Lamont. You know that already, right? The Shining Demon sent you after me because, in exchange for his help, I promised to bring him a man named Gregory Buxton. When I took his help but didn’t bring him Buxton, he called you. But Gregory Buxton is a good man – more or less. He’s done some bad things, some very bad things, but he’s a good man now, and I couldn’t do it, I just couldn’t deliver him to the Shining Demon. You don’t have to deliver me, either. I haven’t done anything to hurt you, and you can’t get in here, anyway, so you could get on your bikes and ride away and tell the Shining Demon you couldn’t find me. I’m sixteen years old – I don’t deserve any of what’s happening to me.”

The Hounds didn’t move. The Hounds didn’t answer.

“Nothing?” Amber said after a moment. “You’re not going to respond? You’ve got nothing to say? You’ve been chasing us since New York and you have absolutely nothing to say to me now that we’re face to face?”

The Hounds looked at her.

“Come on,” Milo said softly, his hand on her shoulder. He turned Amber round and they started walking to the Charger. “There’s nothing more you can do. You put your case forward, now it’s up to them. You did it calmly and you didn’t antagonise anyone. I’m actually quite impressed with how you handled that.”