The Knaveheart's Curse (7 page)

THE FAMILY ELCRIS

Y
ou’re flat outta luck, kids,” said the doorman. “The Elcrises are all playing golf at Club Lullaby.”
“Is their cousin Zelda with them?” Hudson asked.
“Oh, yes. She likes it out in the country air. She says she found a good nap spot.” The doorman shook his head. “You know teenagers. They love their sleep.”
And so do millennial-old Knaves in dark, smelly, rat-infested Dumpsters, thought Maddy.
“Plan B,” she decided as the threesome headed outside. “The King Kong route.”
“You mean climb the building? But the Elcrises live on the ninth floor,” squeaked Dakota.
“Hudson and I’ve spent centuries scaling heights,” said Maddy. “We’ve still got our excellent vampire skills. And you said you could climb trees. Think of the building as the highest tree you ever climbed.”
Dakota looked uncertain. “I’ll try.”
They decided to scale the back of the building that faced into the alley. That way, nobody would see them. Jumping and swinging from ledge up to ledge was a test of the most flexible hybrid grip and strength. Maddy went first to test and show the route.
“This feels very scary—and illegal,” huffed Hudson from behind.
“For humans, sure.” Maddy was too busy counting floors to pay him attention. Her vampire traits were out in full force. Sharpened teeth, double-jointed bones, and a steel grip in her fingers. Scaling buildings had been a primary Old World activity, when they’d looked for predator-safe places to roost. “This apartment isn’t even close to the challenge of climbing Notre Dame, remember, Crud?” she encouraged.
“Mmph,” came the reply from below.
Finally, the ninth floor. Maddy wrenched open the window and plop, plop, plop, they all dropped inside, to find themselves in a supply room.
“The Elcrises live at the end of the hall,” informed Dakota as they stood and dusted themselves off. “I’ll lead the way.”
“Here’s a question,” said Hudson as they tiptoed down the corridor. “If Lexie’s fate has been written into the
Gospyll
, then isn’t it her destiny? Which means that no matter what we do, we can’t change it?”
“Go ask a philosopher. I’m interfering with Lex’s destiny no matter how it’s been set up.” Maddy was already kneeling to pick the Elcrises’ lock.
“The Argos really don’t like it when you break and enter,” warned Hudson.
“Well, I really don’t like having my sister’s identity transfused,” said Maddy.
The lock held fast. “Cagey Knave,” said Maddy. “Zelda’s on to us. She hybrid-proofed the locks. Not even the family skeleton key could get us inside.”
“Hey, I think I can help,” said Dakota. “My dad’s a ghost, remember? When I wear this cloak, I can pass through doors.”
Passing through doors? No way. The perfect spy technique. “Seeing is believing,” said Maddy.
Dakota closed her eyes, pursed her lips in concentration, and pressed all her fingers against her chin. Slowly, the pond green fabric of her cloak began to change, becoming slicker, thinner, permeating the pores of her skin until Dakota herself had taken on a green and filmy dimension. She stepped through the Elcrises’ front door as if it was made of water and was gone.
A simple click and then the door swung open. Dakota gave a small bow as she stepped aside to let them pass.
“Nice!” Maddy and Hudson high-fived her as they trooped through.
The apartment was dark. In the kitchen, a blender had been left to soak in the sink. “Lisi told me her cousin makes fresh gazpacho every morning,” said Dakota as Maddy let her tongue unroll to test the rim.
“Seems that the secret ingredient in this batch of gazpacho is . . . rat blood. Blech.” Maddy made a face for the others’ benefit, though she secretly liked the taste.
“Rat blood!? Ew! That’s worse than any of your food-swap tricks.” Dakota grimaced. “Lisi’s room is at the end of the hall. She’d have to share with Zelda, because there’s no spare bedroom. Follow me.”
“Locked,” Maddy pronounced, testing it.
Hudson lifted an eyebrow. “Okay, do your thing, Susanality.”
Again Dakota slipped through the door like mist and opened it from the inside.
Lisi’s bedroom was pinkly, girlishly pretty.
“Not a fun place for a Knave guest,” Maddy mentioned. She herself cringed at all the frills and flounces. Zelda’s few possessions—her guitar and some songbooks—were stacked neatly in the corner.
Maddy opened a songbook,
Doomed Tunes for the Faint of Heart
. Inside, she found a pamphlet for Edgewater Retirement Condominiums in Jacksonville, Florida.
“Proof,” Maddy determined.
“Of what?” asked Dakota.
“That Zelda’s not really a teenager, but a soon-to-be retired old Knave,” explained Hudson. “She’s finishing up the last days on the job, training the new blood. Meantime, she’s looking for a quiet place to rest.”
It didn’t take long to find the rest of what Maddy sought. In the back of the closet was the box for Lady-swing Premium Golf Cleats—also known as the Box of Disgusting.
Maddy rubbed her hands together. Apparently Zelda wasn’t so cagey if she’d chosen Maddy’s very own Box of Disgusting to hide . . .
“The poison pick.” As Maddy lifted the box cover, the guitar pick gleamed like a spade. “That’s how Zelda is changing identities with Lexie. When Lexie presses this pick between her fingertips, she’s morphing her hybrid print into Zelda’s Knave one. Then when she presses the poison strings, they cut into her skin and transfuse her blood.”
Hudson stared button-eyed at the pick. “Nice work, Mad.”
“Thanks. I’ll steal this pick to be on the safe side, but I think it’s already done most of its damage.” With great care, Maddy used the edge of her cape to lift the pick from the box, and then she tucked it into the pocket that Carlyle had sewn into the lining.
“Psst! People! And they’re heading this way!” whispered Hudson as Maddy’s ears picked them up, too, from inside the elevator as it pinged to the ninth floor. She recognized those voices. The Elcris family. Mr. and Mrs. plus Lisi and Adam. The whole unsuspecting, Knaveheart-harboring gang.
“Up and out,” commanded Maddy as she jumped and swung into the windowsill, then opened the window. “Good, a fire escape. Move quick!”
Hudson, already in bat form, flew through the window to alight on the ledge.
Maddy checked over her shoulder for Dakota. “Chop chop!”
“Nooo.” Dakota’s eyes were two pools of fear. “I said I was good at climbing
up
trees,” she squeaked. “But I’m all thumbs at getting down.”
“Eeeee! I hear keys jangling.” Hudson fluttered. “They’re coming in!”
Maddy snapped her fingers. “Ghost-glide through that wall into the hallway, and then you’ll have to take the elevator.”
“Oh, okay.”
Thump. Slam.
Dakota hurled her body against the wall. “Except I can’t.”
“What do you mean, can’t?”
“When I’m nervous, my ghost traits don’t work as well.” Dakota continued to slam herself.
Bump. Thwump.
A green sprig fell out of her ear.
Thunk.
“My scared-er, dryad side takes over.”
Thud.
“Twenty feet. Sixteen, fifteen feet. Fast approaching. We’re outta time,” said Hudson. “Sorry, Susanality. Gotta fly.” He flapped away.
“Get ghosty, Dakooty!” Maddy commanded, panic prickling her arms.
“I can’t. Go, go!” said Dakota, shooing Maddy off. “It’s way worse for you to be caught. I’m not enemies with any Elcrises.”
Maddy’s thoughts pinwheeled. True. But she shouldn’t leave her friend in peril.
“I’m serious. Go!” hissed Dakota.
Maddy went—but not out the window. It wasn’t fair to abandon Dakota. She dove back into Lisi’s closet just as the bedroom door flew open.

ALAS, ASLEEP

W
hat are you doing in my room?” Lisi demanded, using just as crabby a voice as Maddy would have expected.
Maddy pressed her ear to the door. On the sly, she had to admit that she was excited for this fight. She always got furious when Crud and Hex stepped an uninvited foot into her room—and they were family. She couldn’t imagine the temper tantrum that spoiled Lisi might throw.
“I’m super sorry,” said Dakota. “The doorman let me in. He, er, thought you were at home.”
“Well, we weren’t. Jeez, look at all these leaves you’ve tracked in here. And why’re you wearing that dog barf green cape?”
Dakota sounded apologetic. “My mom made me wear it. When it’s this hot, she worries about the ozone.”
A moment of silence. Then, “Well, if you want to know the truth, D., I’m relieved you came by,” Lisi said softly.
Huh? Maddy’s eavesdropping ear itched in surprise. She
was
?
“You
are
?” asked Dakota.
“Yeah, I thought you’d dropped me to be friends with that tiny gargoyle, Maddy Livingstone. Here, I even picked up a ticket for you.”
“For me? Thanks,” said Dakota. “What’s it for?”
“Club Lullaby’s Summer Solstice. It’s a fancy dance and raffle tomorrow night. I thought you could sit at my table with me and my family. Including my cousin, Zelda.”
“Oh, lovely.” But Maddy could hear a wriggle of doubt in Dakota’s voice. “Where is this mysterious cousin of yours?”
“Zelda’s not mysterious. She’s great. She sleeps a lot, but when she’s awake, she’s superhumanly talented at playing guitar. We didn’t even know we had any relatives from Denmark. You should try one of Zelda’s gazpachos—they’re a Danish delicacy. Speaking of, wanna eat lunch with us? Dad bought pizza and cannolis.”
“Lovely,” breathed Dakota. “What’s a cannoli?”
“They’re like éclairs, but better. Once Adam ate five cannolis and got sick on himself. It was grr-ohsss!”
“Grr-ohsss!” Giggling, the girls left the room together.
Maddy fumed as she opened the closet door, swiping a bunch of Club Lullaby dance tickets off Lisi’s bureau before she leaped out the window and skimmed down the fire escape. Here she’d tried to help Dakota, only to be traded away for pizza and a couple of cannolis! Her cloak snapped out behind her as she strode home.
“Anyway, I’ve got more important things on my mind,” she said. “Like saving my sister.” She stared at the tickets in her hand. She’d only snitched them to be mischievous, but suddenly the lines of the Knave poem floated like a banner across her brain . . .
As Night then falls to feast and dance / Diverted by a game of chance / A call is made upon phantom arms / To breake this curse’s deadly charms / And spiral Knaeve to dusty grave . . .
Hey! Lullaby was having a dance and raffle. And a raffle was a game of chance, just like in the poem.
But where were the phantom arms? The only phantom Maddy’d met this week was Dakota’s dad, and he was stuck in his portal. Could he be called out to break the curse? Could he help spiral the Knave to a dusty grave? And
which
Knave? The last thing Maddy wanted to do was send her sister spiraling.
At the house, more terrible news. Pete and Hudson were sitting on Lexie’s bed. “Alas, she’s asleep,” said Hudson.
“No!” Maddy slapped her hand to her forehead. “Then Lexie’s blood is blackening to Knav-ish ink. The dire destiny is coming true!”
“I’m sorry, Mads—it happened so quick, it took me by surprise.” The pupils of Pete’s yellow werewolf eyes had enlarged, like two worried eclipses. “Right in the middle of trashing her pressed-fern bookmark collection, she collapsed. Now she won’t wake up.”
Maddy peered over. Wrapped from head to toe in mosquito net curtain, Lexie lay like a chrysalis, openmouthed and snoring.
“No, no, no! Wake up, Lex!” Maddy jumped up and down. “Fire! Police! Hey, Lexie—you’re late for karate class!”
“I already tried all that. It’s no use,” said Pete. “I’ve also put her hands in ice water, pinched her . . . I even let a silverfish crawl up her arm.” Pete bit his lip. “I really thought that’d do the trick.”
“She’s
still
growing.” Hudson pointed. “Behold. Her shirt cuff buttons are popped, and her toes have broken through the tips of her boots. See?” He pinched Lexie’s exposed big toe. Then tickled it. Nothing.
“Oh, poor Lex. She looks so uncomfortable, too.” Maddy patted her sister’s limp hand. She felt helpless. Of all the rotten destinies.
“Let’s pull off her boots and replace them with her fuzzy bunny slippers,” suggested Pete. His voice cracked. “She loves those bunny slippers.”
“Good idea.” But as Maddy leaned down to retrieve them, she spied more than her sister’s fuzzy bunny slippers under the bed. Also pink, but not cute, that rubbery tip of . . . uh-oh, was it really . . . ? Maddy pronged her fingers. By the end of its fleshy tail, she lifted up a dead rat the size of a soda can.
The guys drew back in disgust. “Nasty.”
Maddy swung the rat like a pendulum, testing its weight. Light as a husk. “Guess this is what stained Lexie’s teeth pink. She must’ve chugged it.” Maddy sighed and dropped the rat in a trash bag. More proof—vigilant vegan Lexie wouldn’t harm an ant, much less drink a rat.
“What happens if Lex turns Knave?” Pete asked. “Be honest. I can take it.”
“She’ll have to give you up,” said Maddy as she pulled off Lexie’s boots and replaced them with the slippers. “Knaves are land robbers and plague spreaders. Pretty much the opposite of anything you’d want to be around.”
“But I want to be around Lex more than anybody else,” Pete burst out. “What can we do to stop the transformation?”
“Good question.” Maddy wished she had an answer. Pete looked like he was going to melt with anxiety. “Our best lead is tomorrow night at Club Lullaby. Zelda’s performing. We’ve also got her guitar pick. Maybe we can use it as a lure to make her re-transform Lexie. Zelda can take any other heir. But not my sister.”
“And if she doesn’t cooperate?” asked Pete.
Maddy shrugged, though inside she quaked to say it. “Then it’s war.”
“War? What kind of cock-a-doodle plan is that, Mads? You can hardly cross the water to get to Lullaby without petrifying,” Hudson reminded.
“We might only be hybrids, Crud, but we’ve still got some awesome vampire energy!” Maddy burst out. “Where’s your Old World fighting spirit?”
“Maybe you should tell your parents about all this,” suggested Pete. “They’re part vampire, too.”
But Maddy and Hudson knew better. If their parents found out, all they’d do was tell the Argos, who’d hand over Lexie as quickly as loose change. One hybrid vampire sacrificed for the good of many.
“It’s not the Argos we need,” said Maddy. “It’s phantom arms, from the line of the poem.”
Pete looked puzzled. “Do we know any phantoms?”
“One,” Maddy admitted. “And I’m not exactly sure how to get hold of him.” Nor did she much want to. To get in contact with Dakota’s dad meant getting hold of Dakota, and Maddy was still mad about how her almost-friend had run out on her.
But now was not the time for grudges.
Maddy squared her shoulders, then marched upstairs and made herself sit down in front of the computer. Flexing her fingers, she quickly typed: