Demon Accords 8: College Arcane (46 page)

“That’s true. She feels things all the time.
It’s why she always seems to show up when I’m either in trouble or
causing it,” I said.

“The police officer said that he had just
chased out a lady who picked up a girl here. She was in a Prius,”
Ashley said.

“Why did she head east?” Ian asked. “Why not
down the hill?”

“More of them came up the hill moments after
she fled. Maybe thirty or forty,” Perun said, again jumping in
before I could.

“She headed home, to Rowan West. She’ll
activate the wards and hunker down.”

“Will that keep them out?” Jetta asked.

“We seriously beefed up the wards since last
year, when we had an incident. I’ve made some other modifications
to the security as well. But we have to get going. I’m not going to
rely on wards,” I said.

“You are greatly outnumbered. There were well
over fifty that I saw, which means others as well,” Perun said.

“Right. Anyone wants to stay, it might be a
good idea. I’m going,” I said, heading for Beast. Caeco, Mack, and
Jetta were right beside me. Ashley was racing to catch up, her
father and bodyguard alongside her. Justin was closest to the cars,
so he just turned and headed back. That answered that question.

We whipped out into traffic
and raced toward home. Neeve looked out the window and muttered
“
adexe eache.”

“What?” I asked.

“The steeds. They leave marks on the roadway.
I should have noticed,” she said, pointing over my shoulder from
her spot directly behind me. A quick glance showed a patch of
ripped asphalt, just three holes and crumbled blacktop.

“Their claws leave those marks,” she said.
“It’s distinctive.”

They rode horses with claws? I had heard of
the Wild Hunt, but discounted it as fable. Now it was after my aunt
and friend on claw-footed steeds. We were grossly outnumbered and
racing the clock.

But they were going to be facing two witches
on their home turf and here’s a little piece of ageless wisdom for
you, boys and girls: never, ever face down a witch in her home.
Witches are, by training and genetics, a paranoid lot. We tend to
build layer after layer of spells, wards, and traps for any who
would attack us in our beds. After last year’s revenant
infestation, Aunt Ash and I had gone all out. The Wild Hunt was in
for some schooling.

Ve vill kill them all!

WTF?
Spoken
words, in English, with a
creepy German accent, echoing through my head. I reached down and
pulled on the book. It pulled away from my skin with a wet
reluctance, not the clinginess it had displayed before, but the
sticky yucky feeling of drying fluids, like… blood.

Chapter 40

“They took you, Ashley? This Wild Hunt?”
Caeco asked. I stealthily poked and prodded at the book under my
shirt. She glanced around at the motion, so I quit.

“Yeah, a couple of years ago,” Ashley said.
Her father looked scary grim beside her.

“What happened?” Caeco pushed.

“My father and grandfather killed about a
third of them. Then the dragons showed up,” Ashley said. “Declan,
you’re speeding. We can’t get pulled over.”

No sooner had Ashley said the words than a
cop car came over the hill, hit his lights, and started to turn. I
was in no mood for cops. Pretty certain I was bleeding under the
book and I don’t really like to bleed. Makes me grumpy. I waved my
right hand and the lights died, the cruiser stalled, and the cop
was forced to pull to the side of the road.

“Oh,” Ashley said.

“That’s handy,” her dad commented.

“Emergencies only,” I said. “So what do we
need to know about them?”

In the rearview, I could see Neeve press her
lips together and look out the window while Ian answered.

“They’re tough. Real tough and real fast.
Steel and iron is best for damaging them. There will be hounds—like
giant Irish wolfhounds that have no fur and teeth like scissors.
Then there are goblins—short, squatty ape-like things made of
muscle and more muscle with wicked claws and teeth. They’re much
faster than they look, stronger than a man, and will rip you to
shreds. The steeds are more lizard than horse: claws, teeth, and a
long, whipping tail. The riders are elves like Neeve. Faster and
lighter than a human. All of them have decades of weapons
experience since they live so damn long,” he said.

“Not today,” I muttered. Both Neeve and Caeco
heard me, but I didn’t care.

“You are just a boy—you know nothing,” Neeve
said. “You get my Speaker killed and I will finish you myself.”

Schweinehund!
And we were back to German.

I couldn’t help it… I
laughed. “Lady, you got no idea what goes on under my skin. Big
shot elf. Your countrymen? Associates? They’re threatening my only
family and one of my friends and they’re doing it at
my home.
On
my
territory. You don’t
ever, ever come onto
my
ground and think you’re going to get away with
that.”

“Idiot boy, they have an army,” she said,
arms crossed, hard eyes meeting mine in the rearview.

“They better. Forty or so isn’t worth the gas
to get here,” I said, pulling off the road and stopping Beast.

Everyone looked around in confusion, not
seeing Rowan West or a parking lot or really anything but a small
paved area with trees all around. I got out and the others exited
both Beast and Mack’s pickup, looking at me expectantly.

“Where are we? Where is the restaurant?”
Jetta asked.

“Right over there. You just can’t see it
‘cause my aunt powered up the wards,” I said, looking at Neeve as I
said it. “The wards hide the property, act like a Star Trek shield,
and make people forget there was ever a restaurant here.”

I picked up a stick and threw it at the
restaurant that only I could see. The stick exploded into flame,
vanishing in a puff of smoke and ash. “I added a few touches of my
own while my aunt worked the camouflage and Forget Me spells. Let’s
go; Aunt Ash will want to take down the wards in time for the
dinner crowd.”

“Aren’t we going in?” Mack asked.

“No, I don’t want to breach the wards. It’ll
cause them to fall completely. Besides, I gotta throw some
trespassers off my property. Nobody needs to go with me; you can
all stay here,” I said. My friends looked at me like I was an
idiot, then started to gather weapons.

Caeco had her Estwing axe and at least two
big combat blades, Jetta and Mack were unlimbering a pair of
well-used but well cared for Ruger Mini-14 rifles, Ashley accepting
a pistol from her father, who still had three guns under his
Carhartt jacket. I glimpsed two big Glocks with extended mags in
shoulder holsters and some brand of 1911 .45 which looked custom on
his belt.

“You have any steel-tipped ammo for those
Rugers?” Ian asked the brother-sister team.

“Yeah, Caeco texted me in the car. We’ve got
a whole bunch of cheap Russian steel clad ammo we use for target
practice,” Jetta said, holding up a thirty round mag with the
distinctive dark lacquered cased ammo visible in it.

“Good. You’ll be amazed at the effect it has
on them. My .45 ammo and Ashley’s .40 are hollowpoints with iron
filings glued into the cavities. Works awesome,” Ian said, pulling
a massive Bowie knife from a hidden sheath on his back, inspecting
it and putting it away. Neeve just stood with arms crossed,
frowning, her weird weapon bracelets wrapped around both
wrists.

“Ready? Where’s Justin?” I asked. On the far
side of Mack’s truck, a massive black bear stood up, shook itself,
looked me in the eye, and grunted. Okay. All accounted for,
including Justin, in fur.

“There’s a well-cut trail that follows the
edge of the wards and goes all the way around the property. We’ll
walk it till we find this Hunt and then we’ll send them home,
either on their feet or in body bags,” I said, already aware of
where the intruders were.

“They sorta melt,” Ian said.

“What?” I asked.

“If you kill a denizen of Fairie here on
Earth, they melt, turn into little sparkly lights, and evaporate. I
think the same thing happens to humans who die over there,” he
explained.

“Oh, so no bodies. Cool,” I said. “What does
this Hunt want with Ariel anyway? I thought her brand of
precognition was mostly linked to the portals?”

Ashley cleared her throat and looked
pointedly at Neeve. The elf woman seemed majorly reluctant to speak
to any of us, and me in particular. After a moment of enduring
Ashley’s relentless stare, she spoke.

“Our world has three major factions. The
Winter Court, ruled by Queen Morrigan, the Southern Court, ruled by
Queen Zinnia, and the dragons. The Wild Hunt is a far distant
fourth. They occupy mountains that no one else really wants and
they take in the outcasts and criminals of our societies. From time
to time, they hire themselves out to various nobles of each court
as mercenaries of sorts. My guess is that having a Seer who could
predict Portal openings would give them a major boost in power and
status. As it is, they would have had to pay the Keepers to use the
local portal to get to this realm.”

“How do they even know about Ariel?” Jetta
asked.

“Our world is in upheaval. Since Ashley’s
arrival, the dragons of Fairie have a Voice among the Courts, and
trade and negotiations have changed drastically. It has been a
thousand years since the dragons had a Speaker. Everyone is very
interested in her, hence my assignment as her guard,” Neeve said,
her tone even. I glanced at Ian to see how he handled that last
part about Neeve being Ashley’s guard. He winked at me and rolled
his eyes at Neeve’s back.

“Information about her attendance here is in
great demand and was especially so at the beginning of your term.
Much of my world knows all about Arcane. You had your own
introduction when you met my cousin, Eirwen. She came away from
that more than a little bit annoyed.”

“So they know about witches and weres?” Mack
asked.

“In theory. They know little of the reality.
They have heard that you play games with little constructs and
think it a waste. I have watched the games and understand it is
training in reaction and cunning, not raw power. But they think it
the limit of your abilities.”

“Oh… well, today will be a learning
experience for them,” I said, leading the way through the slumping
March snowpack and onto my well-beaten trail, my witch senses
already linking up with my home ground.

First was the Rowan tree that anchored our
property and wards. I felt it immediately, pervading all of our
property. It welcomed me, and I could swear it was brightened by my
presence. It also told me about the intruders.

Next, I felt the solid earth that was our
property, ancient and stable. Then I started to pull in the more
modern, manmade energies. The propane-fired boiler that heated the
restaurant was an ember in my mind, as was the woodstove burning
hard in our family quarters, and the restaurant’s ovens. It was a
mild day, yet Aunt Ash had the heating systems at full bore. That
could only be for my benefit.

Fifty feet into the woods, Caeco’s head
swiveled to the left. My slower reaction caught a flash of black
and red. Something long and lean, bounding over the snow, then it
was gone.

Another twenty-five feet, and her head
snapped up to the trees on our left. A muscular red and black shape
jumped from tree to tree, tracking our progress.

“They’re all around us now,” Caeco said in a
casual tone. Black and red flickered regularly now. Further back,
larger shapes moved in on us.

“Not really. Just behind us, to the left, and
ahead. They aren’t inside the wards,” I said, trudging ahead. On
our right side, the ward shield was a blurry shimmer, arcing up
high over the property.

I got within ten feet of the spot I wanted,
almost there, and wouldn’t you know a man just suddenly popped up.
Impressive, really. He was in my woods, with a foot of snow on the
ground and here he was, horseback… well creatureback, suddenly
appearing only twenty-five or thirty feet away. I plowed ahead,
studying him as I covered the distance to my chosen ground.

Tall and lean, like weathered wood, his
clothes black and red, his face striped in the same two colors. Two
antlers grew from his head—a small rack, maybe four points.

“You’re on private property,” I greeted him,
setting my feet into the snow, twisting and working them down till
the frozen ground was just underfoot.

“Princess Neeve, Speaker,” he greeted Ashley
and her guard. “Father to the Speaker,” he nodded at Ian as his
massive lizard beast held itself still in a way a horse never
would. Meanwhile, I was ignored.

“Hunt Leader,” Neeve said. Ian and Ashley
said nothing.

“Dude, get off my property—now,” I said,
keeping my tone even.

This time, he glanced my way, his overlarge
green eyes measuring me and seeing a lanky kid in a green UVM
sweatshirt, jeans, and hiking boots. I was the only one not
carrying weapons. That should have been his first clue.