“He took the key,” Amber said.

Jesper barked a laugh. “Mice and men!” he said. “Mice and men and murderous demons!”

“Shut the hell up,” said Ronnie.

Jesper ignored him. He was practically dancing. “What are you going to do now? Eh? You’ve let the Hounds in, but without Hell Night there’s no one to take them on. They’re going to find you. They’re going to kill you!”

“Astaroth probably instructed them to kill you, too, dumbass,” said Linda.

“You were going to hand me over to be killed, anyway,” Jesper shot back. “Killing me to save yourselves, and now there’s no point in even doing that. What’s the plan now? Are you going to start running again? You’d better. The Hounds are coming for you.”

The van came up the hill. Two demonstrated his happiness by running in small circles excitedly.

“The Narrow Man’s key,” said Amber. “We’ll use that.”

Jesper sneered. “You’ll never get it.”

“He can be hurt,” said Amber. “Did you know that? I bet you didn’t even know that. When he’s Oscar Moreno, he can be hurt. I hurt him. I did it once and I can do it again.”

“Then you’d better do it fast,” said Jesper.

The van parked behind her, and the door opened and she knew something was wrong when Two started barking. Then there were was an arm around her throat and she was yanked backwards as Grant jammed a gun into her jaw.

Chapter 40

AMBER SHIFTED, BUT GRANT just increased his hold on her. Kirsty shoved Linda, who went flying into Milo, and yanked Kelly towards her. Her parents were there, too, leaping from the van. Ronnie lunged at Betty, but she hit him, a strike that sent him spinning, and pounced on Austin as he tried to run. Two came hurtling at Bill, but he kicked him away, and the dog yelped and rolled in the dirt.

Milo had his gun out now, and held it in a two-handed grip, but he was outnumbered. Four guns against one.

“I’ll rip your head off if you try anything,” Grant said in Amber’s ear.

“Drop it, Mr Sebastian,” said Bill. “You shoot any one of us, and the other three will kill your friends. And my daughter, of course.”

“Let them go,” Milo said, not lowering the weapon.

“We plan to,” said Bill. “As soon as we get what we came for.”

“Hey, man,” Warrick said, coming round from the driver’s side with his hands open, “what the hell is going on? What the hell, man? I gave you a lift. What the hell are you doing?”

“They’re Amber’s parents,” Ronnie said, teeth gritted.

Kirsty sneered at Warrick, revealing her fangs. “You are some kind of stupid, you know that?”

Warrick stared at her, then at the others, trying to comprehend the damage he’d done. “Shit,” he said.