Wicked Hungry (23 page)

Blaine shakes his head. “No, Piper’s had his hands full trying to deal with problems at that school of his. Not to mention the ghouls tonight. Maybe it is the Seelie. But I was so
sure
they would never move against us.”

“Yes,” Morgaine says. “The Seelie. Why would
they
move against us?”

“They’re the only ones we haven’t bargained with. Maybe we’ve taken their friendship for granted.”

“How could they do anything so
evil
?” she asks.

Nye raises an eyebrow. “We Unseelie have different notions of good and evil from the Seelie, different as well from werefolk and vampires. But perhaps the gatekeeper is right: perhaps Eleanor felt slighted and wishes to have a stronger bargaining point.”

“Who is Eleanor?” I ask.

“The Seelie queen,” Nye says. “Queen of the Summer Court. The court that creates, that makes all the plants bloom and grow.”

“But you’re not of the Seelie court, right?” I ask him.

He shakes his head. “I am of the Unseelie. The winter court. We make the plants wither and die only to spring forth the next year.”

Blaine clears his throat. “They hold each other in balance. Or that’s how it’s supposed to work. Who knows what’s going on now? No one has contacted you, Morgaine?”

She shakes her head. “Unlike Stanley, I’ve had no text messages. No phone calls. No letters. Nothing. Just these emissaries from the Unseelie court parked in front of my door,” she says, looking at Nye.

He goes down to one knee. “Nye, at your service.”

Morgaine shakes her head. “An Unseelie knight serves no one besides her queen.”

Nye stares at her. “Still, by my queen’s orders, I remain in your service.”

“You told me nothing of this outside,” says Blaine.

“What I have to say is for Morgaine’s ears only,” Nye says. “Outside, who knows who might be listening?”

“Speak, then,” Morgaine says. “What do you know about Carolina?”

“And Meredith,” I ask, looking at the two of them.

“And Meredith, her human friend,” Morgaine says.

Our conversation is interrupted by knocking at the door. Morgaine looks at Blaine, who nods. The knocking grows louder, more insistent.

Blaine walks out of the room. We all stand there, silent, waiting, listening. From the other room comes a short conversation, low voices.

The door slams shut and Blaine returns.

“Zombies,” he says. “The riders are pulling back toward the house and taking Stanley’s friends with them.”

“How many are there?” asks Nye.

“Dozens. They encircle the house.”

“Is Zach among them?” I ask.

“I don’t know,” Blaine says. “But they appear well organized.”

“The house is well-protected,” says Morgaine. “We should be fine in here.”

“And those that are left outside, Milady?” asks Nye.

“Are your riders afraid of a few shamblers?” asks Blaine.

“Afraid of hurting them, yes,” says Nye. “Remember, Gatekeeper, they were all human children once. And will be again, once this enchantment is over.”

“They will stop being zombies?” I ask.

“If we can break them of their addiction, they’ll be normal again,” says Nye. “The danger is that in such great numbers they could overwhelm us. And force us to kill them to get away. I, too, want to know who controls them.”

“It must be the Seelie queen,” Blaine says.

“But how?” says Morgaine, shaking her head. “She has always been our friend, not foe.”

“Then someone else in her court, perhaps,” says Nye.

Morgaine turns to him. “I’m sorry, Nye, I’d just asked you to tell me about my daughter.”

“And her friend,” I say again.

But there is knocking on the door, stronger now. Blaine growls and leaves, Nye following him.

The voices are louder this time, more strident.

Then Blaine is back, looking pale. “The zombies are leaving.”

“Well
that
is good news,” Morgaine says.

But Blaine shakes his head. “They are being pursued. By ghouls.”

Nye enters. “My knights are forming a wedge to protect the zombie children. The zombies continue to flee, but the ghouls are hungry.”

There are shouts, the sound of pitched battle, and a lot of screams. Inhuman screams. But not from wolves. Maybe from the riders?

Hair rises on the back of my neck. The beast within me wants out. “I need to go,” I say. “My friends are out there.”

“Control yourself,” says Blaine, grabbing my arm. “Remember, my men are out there, too.”

“I, too, need to get outside,” Nye says. “My knights need me.”

“I thought you were in my service,” Morgaine says.

Beads of sweat shine on Nye’s pale brow underneath his shiny black hair. “You are right, Milady. Your wish is... my command.”

I want to interrupt and run out the door. There are screams and growls and the sounds of battle. But Blaine squeezes my arm, vise-like.

“Tell me what you have to tell me,” Morgaine says. “And then you may go to your knights.” She nods to me. “And
you
may go to your friends.”

There is another scream from outside, and a crash as something hits the walls.

Nye swallows, and opens his mouth. “Milady, we have spies in the Seelie court. We have heard that they hope to make the gate stay open... forever.”

“But why?” Blaine asks. “Are they mad?”

“Eleanor was against the idea. It is a rash plan of her son, Gilroy’s, who has come to power — or perhaps seized it — while she has been unwell. They hope to go back to having human servants, and to making sacrifices to the old ones.”

“To bring back the old ones and blood sacrifice?” Blaine looks at Morgaine. “Could that be the reason for all of this?”

She nods. “It’s possible.”

“Hold on,” I say. “What’s blood sacrifice? Like when Frumberg killed that dog for the demon?”

Blaine sighs. “Lesser demons take animal sacrifices. The older ones, the only ones capable of keeping the gate open when it is due to be closed — by me, by the way — are unmoved, unless they sacrifice something else. Something bigger.”

“You mean they plan—”

“Human sacrifice,” Blaine says with a nod. “Especially of a child, or a cub of my kind.”

Suddenly I remember what Zach said to me. “The old ones?” I say. “Could they be used to cleanse the forest here? Zach talked about cleansing the forest and the community. He’s a really extreme vegan.”

“Vegan?” Blaine asks.

“He won’t eat anything that comes from animals.”

“Neither would I, or any of the folk,” Nye says.

“You don’t think?” I ask.

Blaine shakes his head. “He sounds just like a messed up kid to me. But this cleansing
—
I don’t like the sound of that. If someone is using Zach to get to the old ones, they could do a lot of cleansing
.
Or killing, to put it more simply.”

“I agree with Blaine,” says Nye. “We have too little information, and the stakes are very high.”

“Is that why you’re here?” Morgaine asks.

“I am here, Milady, because I cannot go outside and help my people battle those ghouls,” he says. Although the room is cold, he wipes sweat from his pale white brow. “By your leave, Lady Morgaine.”

“You may go,” she says. “We will be there shortly.”

There is a tremendous roar, then, from outside. A single word. “GATEKEEPER!”

“Oh my,” says Morgaine. “
That
is no ghoul.”

“Look, Stanley needs to go,” Blaine says. “I’ll accompany him out.”

“Are you sure it’s safe?” Morgaine asks.

“I’m sure it’s dangerous,” Blaine says. “But no one said my job was easy.”

“Protect him, please,” Morgaine asks Nye, her eyes entreating.

“Morgaine, I’m a werewolf,” Blaine says. “I can protect myself. And Connor and Rowan are out there, along with Stanley’s capable friends.”

“Be careful,” Morgaine says. “And bring us back our daughter.”

“If need be, I’ll call the whole clan. But we’ll find them.”

“GATEKEEPER!”

I recognize the voice just as the door shakes and rattles on its hinges.

“What,” asks Nye, “is that?”

“Rewsin,” I say.

“Rewsin?”

“WHO DARES SPEAK MY NAME?”

The door shakes again as it is pounded from outside.

“S
o, we’d better go,” Blaine says.

Nye nods nervously. “After you, then, my friend.”

“Why don’t you open the door, Stanley?” Blaine asks.

“
Me
?” I ask. “Are you crazy?”

“The demon knows you. It may give us an advantage.”

There’s more pounding on the door, and plaster falls down from the ceiling.

“Gatekeeper,” Nye says. “Move aside. I’ll open the door.”

But before he can reach out and touch the handle, I grab it and pull the door open.

Pandemonium greets us.

The dog-demon Rewsin stands on Whelan’s front porch. Around him are a lot of disassembled partly decomposed body parts. The stench is horrible, but I can’t see a single ghoul that is in one piece. Nye’s guards and the werewolves are still here, too — alive, it seems, but hurting. Behind them are my friends, waiting for me: Jonathan, human but foxlike, ready to change; Enrique, pacing like a cat; and their brothers with crossbows ready to fire.

But the ghouls are finished.

“GATEKEEPER!” Rewsin calls out again, then turns to look at me.

“You’re not the gatekeeper,” he says to me. “You’re that boy who was there when he called me into this stupid body. I was going to eat you—”

“He had nothing to do with your calling, demon,” Blaine says, stepping out from behind me. “He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“We have that in common, then,” the demon says. “I want out of here. This body itches.”

He scratches idly at his stretched out skin, and a strip of dog hide falls to the ground. “It felt good, though, to stomp on those ghouls. What a romp! What a party! I haven’t had this much fun in ages.”

Then he looks at us again.

“You are the gatekeeper,” he says to Blaine. “I have a question for you.”

“Speak, demon, I’m listening,” Blaine says.

“Why can’t I get through the gateway?”

“You can’t get through the gateway?” Blaine asks.

Rewsin shakes his enormous dog head. “It’s blocked somehow. Things are coming out, but nothing can go back in.”

Blaine exchanges a look with Nye, who shrugs. Everyone is silent for a moment, but I can smell the tension in the air.

“I have an idea,” I say.

Blaine holds his hand out to still me, but the demon says, “Speak, cub.”

“How about we help you get back through the gateway and you let us all live?”

“An interesting proposition,” Rewsin says. “But I’m very hungry.”

“Very itchy, too, I bet,” I say.

“Good point,” Rewsin says, running a claw against his belly, stripping off more dog skin.

“It’s win-win, isn’t it?” I continue. “The Golden Rule: do onto others as you would have them do onto you. We help each other.”

“Most wizards treat me with the Iron Rule: do onto others as you like, before they do onto you...”

“I guess I’m not like most wizards, then,” I say.

He stares at me hard, and I try not to blink. Eye contact is important when you’re dealing with demons.

“It’s a deal,” the demon says finally. “A mutually beneficial truce. But more than that. I pledge to help you if you help me.”

He reaches out his paw. It feels better than it looks. Under the dead dog hide there’s heat, pure energy.

We shake. I feel a ripple of power in the air, something that envelops me and those around me.

Everyone seems to suddenly relax.

“So,” says Rewsin, leaning in close to me and filling my face with dead dog breath tinged with sulfur, “what’s your plan, cub?”

Luckily, Nye comes to my rescue. “Stanley and I need to talk for a moment about his plans with the gatemaster.”

“Oh,” the demon says, holding a clawed hand up to its dead dog face. “Am I intruding?”

“Just give us a minute, will you?” Nye asks, a thin smile frozen on his lips.

“Watch me back up, back up,” says Rewsin, taking gigantic leaps backward, until he is just at the end of the clearing. “I’ll wait here,” his voice booms across the clearing.

“Kind of thick, for a demon,” Nye whispers.

“I heard that!” Rewsin growls, from the other side of the clearing. “But carry on.”

Blaine turns to me, then to Nye.

“I guess there’s no choice but to negotiate,” Blaine says. “The threat of the Old Ones aside, we can’t leave a demon running around here on this side of the gateway. Not to mention your riders, the vampire hordes, and the werewolf clans.”

“We need to get Meredith back. And Carolina,” I say.

“I haven’t forgotten them,” Blaine says, looking pained. “But my duty puts the gateway above them, no matter how I feel personally.”

His face is pale, and it hits me suddenly how much we all have at stake. My stomach tightens; the hunger is back and I want to bite something, but my phone buzzes.

“THE GATEWAY WILL CLOSE IN HALF AN HOUR. THE CEREMONY APPROACHES. :)”

“We don’t have much time,” I say, half hunched over.

“Are you okay?”

“A little hungry,” I say.

What did your phone say?” Blaine asks.

“Just half an hour until the gate closes.”

“Let us ride, then,” Nye says. “You will have to wait to feed, Stanley. But ride with us, if you will.”

“We’ll run, thanks,” I say, and whistle to my friends.

“Dude, you should have seen it,” Jonathan says, breathless. “It was
sick.
There were ghouls everywhere, and the knights were getting chomped, and the ghouls picked up their weapons and chewed on them like they were food. I thought we were
dead
. Then Rewsin came up and started ripping them apart
.
”

“WHO SPEAKS MY NAME?” bellows the demon.

But we ignore him for a moment.

“I’m just glad you guys are all right,” I say.

“Yeah, we let those black knights tangle with the ghouls,” says Enrique. “Although my brother was shooting a lot of crossbow bolts with Andres.”