“Besides,” Mack said. “Why do we need a gun when you can throw electricity and I can turn into a bear?”
“Was the aufhocker bigger than you when it grew? Are you bigger than a cow?”
Mack fiddled with the fire, poking it until he was happy, and then put the pan on some kind of contraption. Cooking steak would draw every meat eater to them. “Size isn’t everything. We know how it kills.”
“And if they hunt together?” One aufhocker, they might have half a chance. But two? He could make a circle, but it drew energy from him.
“Maybe they only come together to mate.”
“Or maybe they mate for life.”
Mack put a hand on his shoulder. “Would you like to catch one to study it?”
“No. Though that would be useful.” Jude rocked back on his heels, then sat. His jeans were grubby anyway, so what did a little more matter? “Maybe we should’ve made our way back to the car. If one of us gets injured, what will the other do? Do you not think of these things when you’re up here alone?”
“I don’t let it bother me. Hunters and their guns scare me more than mischance.”
“More than size-changing hellhounds?”
“No, I’ve added them to my list of things I don’t like.” Mack flipped the steaks. “What bothers me is why they’ve woken. Do spells run out?”
Jude shook his head, then sighed. “Sometimes. The protection circle vanishes in daylight, and some spells have a time limit. But that kind of spell should’ve held.”
“A sleeping spell lasts forever? Did a prince kiss them awake?”
“That’s not how you break a sleeping spell.” Fairy tales lied, for obvious reasons, as no witch wanted humans learning how to actually break spells. “There’s a physical setup that binds the sleeper.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Jude grabbed a rock, a branch, and the tray the meat had been in and put them around himself. “Usually there’s five things. The witch, or witches, then uses the items as a focus for the sleeping spell which is an elaborate binding spell. To break it, the items need to be disturbed.” He knocked the rock away.
“So someone or something woke them up.”
Jude nodded.
“So we hold them still and put them back to sleep.” Mack grinned like it was the obvious answer to their aufhocker problem.
“I can’t do that magic. I mean, I know how it’s done, and I understand the theory, but it’s not something I was taught.” He’d read lots about magic, though he’d never put it into practice in case the Coven told him off for dabbling in things he shouldn’t be playing with.
“Because they already think you’re dangerous.”
“Yeah. How did the witches—because I don’t think it was just one—keep them still, trapped in the first place?”
Mack scowled as he flipped the steaks onto the plates. “We’ll never know how they did it. And since we can’t put them to sleep, we need to find a way to kill them.”
Jude looked at the meat on his plate. “Got any sides?”
“There were two foil-wrapped potatoes in there, but all your poking around seems to have buried them.”
“If you have more potatoes, I can zap them.” It would give him something to do besides waiting to die.
Mack lifted an eyebrow.
“Well, I can try,” he said with a smile.
By the time they’d finished eating, several potatoes had exploded, but some had been edible. As the fire burned down, Jude found the ones he’d accidentally buried. They’d be inedible now, so he left them in the coals.
The fire and the stars were the only light. While he supposed he should marvel at the beauty of the sky without light pollution, he was missing home and the city and the constant noise of civilization. He was sure it was so quiet he could hear Mack’s heart beating from the other side of the fire.
“You should get some sleep. I’ll stand watch.” Mack took Jude’s plate off him and started cleaning up, carefully packing away all the rubbish.
“I’m not going to be able to sleep. Nor do I want to be lying there wondering if it’s jumped on your back and silently killed you. We should sit back to back.” He hoped he didn’t sound like a whiny baby who was afraid of the dark. It wasn’t the dark he was afraid of, it was the things that lived in the dark.
The tension left Mack’s face, and he gave Jude a small smile. “Okay.”
“You’re agreeing with me?” Why was Mack agreeing with him? They didn’t agree on anything, well, maybe a couple of things. But when they were both fully dressed there was usually no agreement. Was Mack just as terrified of aufhockers as he was? In which case, why didn’t they pack up and run? In the next breath he knew Mack would never do that. He wouldn’t leave his town to be overrun by hellhounds.
“I think it’s a good idea.”
That made Jude even more suspicious. “Should I put a circle up?”
“That would be going too far. We want it to come to us. What about some kind of magical warning when it gets close?”
Jude shook his head. “I can’t do that. And tonight is not a good night to learn.”
“What can you do?”
“Electrocute things and make a protective circle.”
Mack considered him for a moment. “Try not to electrocute me.”
“I won’t.” Or at least he’d try not to.
“I’m going to shift. I’d rather have claws and fur between me and its teeth.”
“Aren’t you lucky?” He was the bait, that was what Mack wasn’t saying. Sit out and wait, Jude. Look like something delicious a hungry, vengeful aufhocker would want to eat. “Should I dab some tomato sauce on to make myself more enticing?”
Mack grinned and kissed him. “I prefer barbeque.”
“We won’t be able to talk if you’re a bear. When it attacks, how will we know what to do?”
Mack’s hand lingered on his shoulder. “I know that you’re worried, I can feel it. I felt more than that earlier.
