Her eyes shone.
Mouse piled out of the car and hurried over to sniff the coat, tail wagging.
"What do you think?" I asked him.
"Woof," he said seriously.
"He thinks it suits you," Molly said, smiling.
"Goofy motorcycle cowboy meets Scotland Yard?"
Mouse wagged his tail.
I grunted as Karrin pulled in and parked her Harley far down the row from the Munstermobile Munstermobile, in a motorcycle parking space. She eyed me as she came walking up to us, then Molly, and gave her an approving nod. "That's more like it," she said.
"Feels good," I said. I nodded toward the water, where the Water Beetle Water Beetle was chugging slowly back into its berth. Thomas was at the wheel, maneuvering the tub deftly. I waved at him and he replied with a thumbs-up gesture. The boat was ready to go. was chugging slowly back into its berth. Thomas was at the wheel, maneuvering the tub deftly. I waved at him and he replied with a thumbs-up gesture. The boat was ready to go.
I turned to speak to the others, but before I could, I felt my concentration disrupted. An eerie, cool frisson rolled down my spine, all the way down my body to my legs. There was a flicker and a chill from the little wound, and the pain became a little less. At the same moment, I sensed the air grow a fraction of a degree colder, something I would never have noticed on my own.
Sundown.
"That's it," I said a second later. "Sun's down. It's on."
"What if you're too late?" Sarissa asked. "What if they're starting right now?"
"Then we're wasting time talking about it," Molly said. "Let's get to the boat." She beckoned Mac and Sarissa. "This way, please."
I glanced at Mouse and jerked my chin toward Molly. He heaved himself up and went after her, walking just behind our two unknown quantities.
Karrin had opened a storage compartment on her Harley. She shrugged out of her jacket, and then slipped into a tactical harness and clicked it shut around her. She added a number of nylon pouches to it, then took out a gym bag and dropped heavy objects in before shutting the compartment and locking it. She looked up at me and nodded. "All set?"
"I miss my gear," I said. "P90 in there?"
"His name is George," Karrin said. "You want my backup gun?"
"Nah, I've already got the finest killing technology 1866 had to offer on the boat. Glad I didn't name it George. How embarrassing would that have been?"
"George isn't insecure," she said.
"What about, ah...?"
"The Swords?"
"The Swords."
"No," Karrin said.
"Why not?"
She frowned and then shook her head. "This... isn't their fight."
"That doesn't make any sense," I said.
"I've wielded one," she said. "And it makes perfect sense to me. To use them tonight would be to make them vulnerable. No."
"But-" I began.
"Harry," Karrin said. "Remember the last time the Swords went to the island? When their actual adversaries were there? Remember how that turned out?"
My best friend, Molly's dad, had been shot up like a Tennessee speed limit sign. The Swords had a purpose, and as long as they kept to it, they were invulnerable, and the men and women who wielded them were avenging angels. But if they went off mission, bad things tended to happen.
"Trust me," Karrin said quietly. "I know it doesn't make sense. Sometimes faith is like that. This isn't their fight. It's ours."
I growled. "Fine. But tell the Almighty that He's missing His chance to get in on the ground floor of something big."
Murphy punched my chest, but gently, and smiled when she did it. The two of us turned toward the dock and began to follow Molly and the others. I was just about to step out onto the dock when I heard something. I stopped in my tracks and turned.
It started low and distant, a musical cry from somewhere far away. It hung in the darkening air for a moment like some carrion bird over dying prey, and then slowly faded.
The wind started picking up.
Again the tone sounded, nearer, and the hairs on my arms stood straight up. Thunder rumbled overhead. The rain, a fitful drizzle most of the day, began to fall in chilly earnest.
And again the hunting horn sounded.
My heart started revving up, and I swallowed. Footsteps approached, and then Thomas was standing beside me, staring out the same way I was. Without speaking, he passed me the Winchester rifle and the ammunition belt.
"Is it...?" I asked him.
His voice was rough. "Yeah."
"Dammit. How soon?"
"Soon. Coming right through the heart of downtown."
"Fuck," I said. I said.
Karrin held both hands up. "Wait, wait, the both of you. What the hell is happening?"
"The Wild Hunt is coming," I said, my throat dry. "Um... I sort of pissed off the Erlking a while back. He's not the kind of person to forget that."
"The king of earls?" Karrin asked. "Now who isn't making sense?"
"He's a powerful lord of Faerie," Thomas explained. "He's one of the leaders of the Wild Hunt. When the Hunt comes to the real world, it starts hunting prey and it doesn't stop. You can join it, you can hide from it, or you can die."
"Wait," Karrin said. "Harry-they're hunting you you?"
My heart continued to beat faster, pumping blood to my muscles, keying my body to run, run, run. It was hard to think past that and answer her question. "Uh, yeah. I can... I think I can feel them coming." I looked at Thomas. "Water?"
"They'll run over it like it was solid ground."
"How do you know that?" Karrin asked.
"I joined," Thomas said. "Harry, Justine."
I clenched my hands into fists on the heavy rifle. "Get on the boat and go."
"I'm not leaving you."
"Oh, yes, you are," I said. "Raith and Marcone have the other two sites covered, but we are the only ones left to get to Demonreach. If we blow it there, and the ritual goes off, we're all screwed. If I go with you, the Hunt follows me and then goes after whoever is close. We'll never pull off an assault with them on our heels."
My brother ground his teeth and shook his head.
"Let's go, Harry," Karrin said. "If they follow us out over the lake, we'll take them on."
"You can't take them on," I said quietly. "The Hunt isn't a monster you can shoot. It's not some creature you can wrestle with, or some kind of mercenary you can buy off. It's a force of nature, red in tooth and claw. It kills. That's what it does."
"But-" Karrin began.
"He's right," Thomas said, his voice rough. "Dammit. He's right."
"It's chess," I said. "We've been checked, with that ritual on the island. We have no choice but to try to stop it with everything we've got. If that means sacrificing a piece, that's how it has to be."
I put a hand on my brother's shoulder. "Go. Get it done."
He put his cold, strong hand over mine for a second. Then he turned and ran for the boat.
Karrin stared up at me for a second, the rain plastering her hair down. Her face was twisted with agony. "Harry, please." She swallowed. "I can't leave you alone. Not twice."
"There are eight million people in this city. And if we don't shut the ritual down, those people will die."
Karrin's expression changed-from pain to shock, from shock to horror, and from horror to realization. She made a choking sound and ducked her head, her face turned away from me. Then she turned toward the boat.
I watched her for a second longer. Then I sprinted for the Munstermobile Munstermobile as the haunting cry of the Wild Hunt's horn grew nearer. I jammed my key into the door lock and... as the haunting cry of the Wild Hunt's horn grew nearer. I jammed my key into the door lock and...
And it wouldn't fit.
I tried it again. No joy. Half-panicked, I ran to each of the others, but every single one of the locks was out of commission. I was going to bust out a window, but I checked the car's ignition through it first. It had been packed with what looked like chewing gum. The Munstermobile Munstermobile had... had...
Had been sabotaged. With gum and superglue. It was a trick I'd had Toot and company play on others more than once. And now what I had done unto others had been done unto me at the damnedest moment imaginable.
"Aggggh!" I screamed. "I hate ironic reversal!"
The Za Lord's Guard had been escorting us along the way, but I hadn't said anything about staying on the job once we reached our destination. Given the distance I'd had them covering today, they'd probably dropped down exhausted the second I'd set the parking brake.
The thunder rolled closer, my unthinking panic rose, and my wounded leg felt like it might burst into flames.
My leg.
My eyes widened with horror of my own. The Redcap had killed me at that ambush, and I was only now realizing it. The trickle of blood flowing steadily from that tiny wound would leave a powerful olfactory and psychic trail behind me. Tracking me would be easier than whistling.
I could run, but I couldn't hide.
Thunder roared, and I saw a cluster of dim forms descend from the cloud cover overhead and into the city light of Chicago. I could run, but the Hunt was moving at highway speeds. I wouldn't even be able to significantly delay the inevitable. Shadowy hounds rushed down at me from the north, along the shoreline, and behind them came a blurry cluster of dark figures on horseback, carrying bows and spears and long blades of every description.
I couldn't beat the Hunt. Not even with Mab's 'roids in my system.
But maybe...
Then there was another roar-this time not of thunder, but of a hundred and forty horses, American-made.
Karrin Murphy's motorcycle slid to a stop close enough to me to throw gravel over my shoes, and I turned to find her revving the engine.
"Karrin! What the hell are you doing?"
"Get on the bike, bitch!" she called over the next horn blast. "Let's make them work for it!"
She smiled, a fierce, bright smile, and I found my own face following her example.
"Fuck, yeah," I said, and threw myself onto the back of the Harley as darkness, death, and fire closed in around my city.
Chapter Forty-one
I dropped the cartridge belt for the Winchester over one shoulder and hurried to rake in the tail of my new duster before the motorcycle's rear wheel snagged it and killed me. I damn near fell off as Karrin accelerated, but managed to cling to her waist with the arm holding the rifle. dropped the cartridge belt for the Winchester over one shoulder and hurried to rake in the tail of my new duster before the motorcycle's rear wheel snagged it and killed me. I damn near fell off as Karrin accelerated, but managed to cling to her waist with the arm holding the rifle.
Karrin scowled at me, grabbed the rifle from my hand, and slipped it down into a little section on the side of the Harley that fit the short rifle suspiciously well. I held on to her with a free hand, and with the other made sure my coat wouldn't get me killed.
"Which way?" she shouted back at me.
"South! Fast as you can!"
She stomped one of her feet onto something, twisted a wrist, and the Harley, which had been doing around fifty, leapt forward as if it hadn't been moving at all.
I shot a quick glance over my shoulder, and saw the nearest elements of the Hunt begin to slowly fade back. I guess maybe the Wild Hunt hadn't ever heard about Harley-Davidson.
But she couldn't maintain the speed, not even on a wide Chicago street in chilly, rainy weather. There were just too many other people around, forcing her to weave between traffic, and she had to slow down to keep from splattering us all over some family's sedan. Indignant car horns began to blare as she slipped in and out of lanes, adding an abrasive harmony to the horns of the Wild Hunt.
"How we doing?" she called.
I looked back. The Wild Hunt was less than a hundred yards away-and they didn't have to contend with traffic. The jerks were racing along fifty feet off the freaking ground, up in the dark and the rain, unseen by the vast majority of people going about their everyday business. "They're cheating! Go faster! Head for the Bush!"