Highway to Hell (34 page)

“He went thataway,” said Lisa, pointing to the northwest.

Justin eyed the landscape. There was no sign of Zeke, but the movement of the key was very clear. “Okay,” he said, in
a here-goes-nothing tone, then turned the Jeep and stepped on the gas.

I held on to the seat and glanced at Lisa. “I get the components. But what fuels the spell?”

She gave me a humorless smile. “Desperation.”

Or our needing to find Zeke and his being in trouble, if you believe in help in times of peril. Which I do. I mean, leaving aside all that valley-of-the-shadow-of-death stuff, we were dealing with a demon manifesting as
a pack
of freaking
chupacabras.
The balance was tipped so far toward Team Evil, I figured some help from the bullpen would only even things out.

A quick course correction jostled me out of my thoughts. “Everyone keep your eyes peeled,” Justin said as the key started swinging in confused circles. “He might be close.”

I stood up in the back, grabbing on to the roll bar for balance. The wind whipped through my hair, and the lightning ripped through the clouds, the thunder not far behind.

Not just thunder. Hoofbeats. I braced myself only an instant before a huge, dark beast came tearing across our path.

J
ustin slammed on the brakes and I fell forward across the roll bar. Only Lisa's quick grab at my legs kept me from somersaulting over.

“What the hell was that?” Henry yelped.

The empty saddle registered first. Long legs, waving tail, three-beat gait. I recognized the mare, even in the eerie gray-green twilight. “It's Sassy,” I wheezed.

“Again? Has she got it in for you?”

The wind carried a whistle; the mare bucked and checked her stride. She circled around as if pulled by an invisible lead rope, compelled by training or herd instinct, or a connection to her rider.

“Follow that horse,” I said. The tires spun on the sand, then we shot forward. I slammed down into my seat, adding to the bruises on my butt.

Nothing like field-testing the suspension right out of the gate. Justin struggled to keep the horse's flicking tail in sight as she wove around cactus clumps and mesquite thickets. I looked over my shoulder to the west, where dark fingers of cloud closed like a fist over the setting sun, leaving the desert in shadow.

Lisa's grip on the seat tightened. “Is this as dark as it was when the swarm came out?”

“Darker.” The world had turned into a black-and-white movie.

“Over there.” Henry pointed to Sassy, who was lengthening her lead on us. “She's headed around that copse of trees.”

Justin's jaw set in concentration. “Gotcha.”

Sassy rounded a patch of mesquite. The moment she was out of the Jeep's headlights, something leapt from the thicket and dragged her down. The horse screamed in terror as the thing on her neck flashed silver-white teeth and glowing red eyes.

“Hang on.” Justin cut the wheel and shot the headlights onto the fallen horse, illuminating the horror that crouched over her, its leathery skin like night given substance. It hissed and flinched from the light. There was a shot, and the monster exploded into a cloud of gooey black droplets.

Zeke limped into the spill of the Jeep's headlights, a pistol aimed at the ground to his side. Sassy got her legs under her, whinnying in pain and fear, a trio of gouges in her shoulder. The cowboy caught her reins and shielded his eyes with his hand.

It was very
Wild Wild West
meets
The Thing.
Especially as, just out of the high beams, the monster that Zeke had shot was reassembling itself. A black, oily cloud struggled against the wind, coiled around hot coals for eyes, and spun out into limbs and talons. It was working fast, probably fueled by the power boost from the blood that dripped down Sassy's neck.

“Jeez,” said Henry. “Every time I think I've seen it all …”

“Drive right for it.” I knelt backward on the seat, leaning over into the cargo compartment. With my Swiss Army knife, I punctured the bag of rock salt and filled my palms.

“You ready?” Justin asked, putting the car in gear.

“Go!” He slammed on the gas. Lisa grabbed the back of my jeans to keep me from flying out of the Jeep as it bucked over the dunes.

The nightmare-shaped mist blew out of the path of the headlights, then rode the backdraft straight at me, the claws already solid and gleaming in the soot-dark cloud. I flung my handfuls of salt onto it and heard a satisfying sizzle as the half-formed creature evaporated.

Justin pulled to a stop with Zeke and the horse in the safety of the headlights, and set the brake. Lisa scrambled out over the side of the Jeep.

Zeke's eyes were glazed, his voice numb with shock. “Why won't these things die?”

“Duh,” said Lisa, when she'd reached him. “Magic.”

He blinked. A whole grab bag of expressions flitted across his face—surprise, relief, chagrin. But rather than express any of these aloud, he wrapped his free arm around her, pulling her into a fierce, tight embrace. After a moment, she reciprocated.

Aw.

“What do you know.” Justin watched, both hands still gripping the steering wheel. “Human after all.”

“That's sweet.” Henry's tone didn't match his words. “Except if we get eaten while they're making out.”

The wind blew against my cheek with a wet splat. I thought it was a drop of rain, but when I touched the spot, my fingers came away smeared gooey black. “We've got to go.”

Justin honked the horn and shouted over the windshield. “Get in the car, guys.”

Zeke dropped his arm from Lisa's shoulders and holstered his pistol on Sassy's saddle. The mare's head was down and her hooves planted, her ears twitching on the alert.

I stood and scanned the twilight for hard-edged shadows or the gleam of red eyes. “Where are the others?” I asked Zeke. “Lupe said you rode out with two guys.”

“I sent them back to the corral, and led the … things off this way.”

“We've got to get to the grotto.” Justin put the car in gear but kept the clutch down and the brake set as Lisa climbed in. “Is it far from here?”

“Far enough,” said Zeke, “with those monsters out there. You can follow me.” He swung into the saddle with a wince. If the mare had spooked and thrown him, he had to be hurting, but he gave a wan smile. “Try to keep up.”

He rode ahead of the Jeep, careful to keep Sassy in the beam of the headlights. Full dark had fallen around us. The hair on the back of my neck lifted with the intangible static charge of otherworldly forces nearby.

Lightning flashed overhead, and the shriek of more than
one chupacabra reached my ears before the thunderclap. Did that mean the monsters were closer than the storm? I couldn't remember the formula for calculating the distance of a sound. One one thousand, two one thousand. How few thousands meant we were screwed?

I could
feel
the grotto before it came into sight, like a psychic lighthouse in the storm. The lights of Hector's truck were a beacon against the night and all the forces of darkness. It was like coming home and finding your parents had left milk and cookies for you, times a thousand.

Zeke galloped in ahead of us like the Pony Express. Justin pulled up to the edge of the hollow, stopping so that the headlights shone between the trees that edged the space, illuminating Mary in her hillside niche. Hector stood beside the big shade tree, gesturing to us urgently. “Come on. You'll be safe in here.”

I grabbed my backpack, Lisa snatched up her duffel. Justin got the branding irons, and Henry threw a twenty-pound bag of rock salt over his shoulder with little visible effort. As always, I felt a demarcation as I stepped into the sunken clearing, but even more so with a campfire burning brightly, waiting for us.

Doña Isabel knelt by the icon, the beads of her rosary moving through her fingers as her lips moved silently in prayer. Zeke wrapped Sassy's reins around a low tree branch and hurried to his grandmother's side. “What are you doing here, Abuelita? You should be in bed.”

“Don't interrupt her,” Hector said. He handed a box of matches to Lisa and me both. “Maggie, you light the candles
I've placed along the eastern half of the circle. Lisa, you light the western ones. Hurry.”

We dumped our stuff and did as he said. The grotto was ringed by a hundred or more white candles—short and fat, spaced about a foot apart. We'd walked through them from the Jeep. On my hands and knees, I went to work lighting them, using one match until it singed my fingers, then striking another.

Outside the circle I could sense a building presence, watching and waiting. Beyond the truck lights and the camp-fire, a pair of red eyes stared into our haven, the rest of the demon lost in the shadows. A flash of lightning made it scream, and the sound echoed from the other side of the grotto.

“Keep going.” Justin had come up behind me. He grasped one of the branding irons like a club. “I'll watch out for them.”

My shaking hands could barely hold the flame to the candle long enough for the wick to catch. Lisa had completed her half of the circle, and Hector stopped her before she could continue into mine. Maybe we each had an assigned task. Was that how it was with Hector and the town, and Doña Isabel and the ranch? If each hadn't carried out their separate duties all this time, would the spell have collapsed?

More than one person had said that Doña Isabel never left the ranch. I had taken that to mean “as good as never,” but was it possible she could literally never set foot off the property?

Finally, I had only four candles left. I extended the match to make it three when I heard an unearthly sound, a scraping of claws down Lucifer's blackboard. The corner of my eye
glimpsed movement, shadow on shadow, and Justin yelled, “Duck!”

I flattened myself on the ground. The chupacabra leapt at me, bringing a foul smell, like new asphalt. There was a whoosh and then a thud of metal hitting meat. Justin had swung his iron weapon over my head and knocked the creature back.

The monster was the size of a German shepherd, its hide like wet ink, its teeth translucent, luminous in the dark. Gathering itself, it lunged at Justin. He parried its stiletto claws, then thrust his weapon at its heart. The double-armed cross at the tip of the branding iron didn't stop, but tore into the creature's thick black hide, running through it like a sword.

The demon shriveled, screaming, around the iron, curled up like burning paper, and disappeared. I wished I wasn't about to puke with fear, so that I could enjoy how awesomely cool that was.

Justin shook any dusty remnants off the iron. Catching me staring, he pointed to the candles. “Get back to it.”

Still, I didn't miss his small, crooked grin. I struck another match to finish my task. When I lit the final candle, the whole circle flared up, flames shooting into the air like bars on a cage. The golden light spread to a uniform glow, then disappeared.

“Whoa.” I let Justin haul me to my feet. My eyes should have had to readjust to the darkness, but they didn't. “Did you see that?”

“Yeah. I see it.” He didn't mean the light show; I must have witnessed that with my
other
Sight. Justin was talking
about another Chupy bearing down on us, eyes blazing and claws like Ginsu knives.

He raised the branding iron to club the demon, and Hector gave an inarticulate shout of warning. I caught Justin's arm as he started to swing forward. “Don't break the circle!”

The momentum of his arm carried me around, straight toward the chupacabra and all its teeth. I closed my eyes, certain I was going to break the plane of the candle ring, sure the demon was going to tear into me. But Justin jerked me back against him, and the demon hit the invisible barrier of the circle and bounced off with a furious cry.

“She did it.” I breathed the words in awe, not sure if I meant Doña Isabel or Our Lady of the Holy Force Field. Whichever or both. The main thing was, we were safe for the moment.

A strobe of lightning showed the chupacabra demons retreating to regroup. I took the chance to get my bearings inside the hollow. I had no idea what had happened on the other side of the circle, but Lisa was wrapping Henry's bleeding arm with a bandage from the first-aid kit in my backpack.

“Did one of them get you?” I asked, worried about what the blood of a slightly self-righteous theology major would add to the chupacabras' power.

“Um, no.” He looked embarrassed. “I was supposed to make just a little cut.”

Lisa tied the gauze so tightly that he yelped. “I told you guys. Blood is very powerful. The protective circle needed a
small”—
she chided Henry with a stare—“voluntary donation.”

Justin stared at his friend in bemusement. “So, what happened to sorcery is a slippery slope and all that?”

“It went out the window when I saw the teeth on those things.” He tested the bandage and lowered his voice, just between the four of us. “Besides, I couldn't let the old guy do it.”

Lisa wiped a pocketknife on her jeans and glanced toward the shrine, where Hector and Zeke were helping Doña Isabel to her feet. “That old guy knows his stuff. But to bind these pieces of demon and imprison the whole thing, we're going to need a Velasquez.”