Within The Darkest Hollows, page 8
part #2 of The Demon Hunters Series
My search turned up nothing.
“Killian, have a look at this.” Sean walked up to me with a girl in custody. “Found her hiding behind a gravestone.”
“What’s your name?”
The girl hid her eyes from me but said, “Skylar.”
New recruit? “What are you doing here Skylar?”
“Nothin’,” she answered without looking at me.
“She looks familiar.” I looked to Sean to see what he thought.
He released her jacket and came around to face her. Then he nodded in agreement. “What’s your mom’s name?”
Skylar looked at Sean. “Jana” she said.
Sean recognized the name, his eyebrows rose high on his forehead and a slight smile stretched across his face. “Oh hell,” he said quietly then announced loudly, “Hey, found us a new recruit.” The team whistled and hooted their sounds of approval.
“New recruit?” Skylar resembled Sean with her facial expressions.
Patting Sean on the back, I said, “I’ll let you catch her up on the crossover and what’s to come while I finish patrolling with the others.” Sean had a proud look on his face as he looked at the girl. I had never met any of Sean’s offspring; in fact, she may be his first. Jackson, on the other hand, seemed to be trying to repopulate the Earth with his one night flings.
It was always an awkward moment for the new recruits to meet a Demon Hunter and cross the first time. Jackson had perfected the delivery since he had many kids to practice on. Thankfully Sean had watched him and noted what worked and what didn’t. I left to continue my patrol.
“All clear,” Anchor met me near the dirt path leading to the exit and we both found large rocks to sit on.
“So, the new recruit, is she one of Jackson’s?”
“No. For once the answer to that is no. Name’s Skylar and she’s Sean’s kid.”
Anchor looked surprised, “No kidding.”
Jackson came around to us. “The lagoon is clear. No sign of demons.” He looked toward Skylar and Sean. “So, the new recruit, she one of mine?”
“Aren’t they all?” Anchor answered and winked in my direction.
“Most of them are anyway.” He laughed. “I wonder who her mom is.”
“Would you remember if we told you?” I smiled at Jackson as I played along with Anchor’s lead. After the Breach, when my parents were killed in a demon attack, Jackson’s family took Lena and I under their wing. Jackson became a brother to me, and we would always be close, which made it all the more fun to tease him. “She said her mom’s name is Jana.”
“Jana?” Jackson scrubbed at his chin as he thought about the many women he enjoyed in his time off from the Clan. “I’m still on the letter H’s. Just enjoyed a Haley a few nights ago and Heather was the week before.”
“You’re dating alphabetically? What the hell?” Anchor looked as appalled as I felt.
“Unbelievable. That’s messed up. So what happens if you can’t find any girls beginning with the letter I and it’s been like a month? Do you skip right to the J’s?” Jackson looked at me and smiled but said nothing. “Ok, the girl is Sean’s. We were just teasing you.”
“Fair enough. I was just teasing you too. I don’t date in alphabetical order.”
“Oh that’s a relief.” I answered.
“But I have dated girls from each letter of the alphabet.”
“Bull. Who’d you date that starts with X? No one has a name starting with X.” Anchor tried to call his bluff.
“Xena. And her sister Xiomara was hitting on me that night too.” Jackson replied with a smile.
“I thought that started with a Z.” I joined in.
“X as in X-rated. Like the fun we had that night.” Jackson chuckled.
“Ugh. You’re a whore.” Anchor pushed Jackson playfully.
“Hey, just tryin’ to put some more mini-me’s in the Clan.”
Unhooking the potion vial from my belt, I stood and looked toward Sean who seemed happier than his usual self. “C’mon, let’s head back.” We approached the gate and spelled a twenty-foot perimeter around the gate.
“You got your bag?” Sean looked at Skylar, who held a backpack up. Sean used his vial of oils to mark Skylar and aid her crossover. Once she had her Clan tattoo, crossing would be easy.
Back in the compound, Sean was charged with showing Skylar around, getting her a room, and sending her to Lena for a quick check. Anchor and Jackson left for the dining hall while I went to the med unit to see Lena.
“Lena, Casper find anything?”
“Not yet. The Harvesters had cleaned his room so Casper crossed. Surprised you didn’t run into him. Did you find any demons at the gate?”
“No. There’s a team respelling the chamber. But I don’t like it. Jet said the rest of the spell was intact, the only spot that seemed thin was where those five demons were bound.”
“Do you think they escaped from the inside out or did someone or something spring them?”
“I don’t know, if they were sprung, why were only five released, why not all of them?” I leaned against the counter and folded my arms across my chest. “Something’s up though. I mean think about it, if you were a demon bound for years and suddenly free, what is the first thing you’d do?”
“Based on what we know about demons, I’d say I’d cross and either find a body to possess or kill to consume their soul.” Lena said as she crossed her arms and leaned against the metal table behind her.
“Right, but we found no sign of demons in Blaylock Grove. Think there’s another gate to the Human Realm we don’t know about?”
“I doubt it. I think we would have seen more issues. Have the priests in the Human Realm mentioned any possessions?” She pushed off the table and paced over to her desk.
“No, but if these five demons aren’t found soon, we may hear from them soon.” The priests had worked with us off and on when we had chamber spell malfunctions after our Necromancer died. They kept good relations with the Junctures who could contact us when needed.
“Killian! Oh, hey, Lena.” Casper appeared in the med unit doorway. Lena’s face lit up upon seeing him. “I got something.” Casper tossed fighting gloves at me. I arched an eyebrow at him. “Pretty sure Lena can get Tyler’s body tissue off the inside of his gloves—there’s sure to be some dead skin in there from all that Krav.”
“Good work Casper.” Lena smiled.
“How’d you get it?” He was fast, but that didn’t do much against alarm systems and I was sure the Romaitis house was secured with guards and alarms.
“Saw his car in the garage, unlocked. The Krav Maga bag was in the backseat. I just grabbed the gloves and bolted.” He answered smiling and proud of his own cleverness.
“Well done.” I patted the warrior on the back.
“Casper, wanna stay and help me figure this spell out?” Lena asked, and I took that as my cue to leave.
“Let me know if you find Tyler.” Though I’m not sure either of them heard me as they huddled close over the gloves.
Chapter Twelve
Cassidy
“Gram! How is this possible? How am I seeing you? Am I dead?”
Gram’s wrinkles deepened as she smiled, “No, Cassidy. You are alive. But you need to push through this, find ways to keep your wits and stay positive.”
“But I’m alone. No one speaks to me. They don’t even look at me when they bring my food or take my waste bucket.”
“Cassidy, you are not alone. Killian cares about you. Surely they have a plan to rescue you.”
“I don’t know. It’s been so long. I don’t feel optimistic about leaving this incredibly fucking small concrete prison.” Tears fell down my cheeks as the candlelight from the hall flickered, drawing my attention. “Gram, how am I seeing…” Gram was gone. Great, now I was hallucinating. “Rya!” I screamed out my cage door. “I think you can let me out now. I’ve officially lost my marbles. Congratulations!” But no one answered because no one was there.
Regardless of me being crazy or not, the Demon Hunters did care for me. Killian had wanted me far away from Rya and the demons, so surely he would be working hard to get me back to safety. But where were they? And what was taking so long? I’d been here before, Town of Loneliness, Pop. 1, where sadness seeped into the darkest hollows of my soul. But here there was no escaping it.
I hated the sadness.
I hated the dark.
I hated that every goddamn minute I spent confined in this dank cell, rotted away at my soul.
I filled my days with routine. It was all I could do to keep the crushing madness of isolation at bay. Exercise, counting cell bricks, reciting song lyrics. Sleep. Repeat. Sleep. Repeat. Sleep…
***
“Lead me to her cell.”
My eyes opened. The familiar voice stirred me awake. Where had I heard it before or was it just a dream? The candlelight in the hall grew brighter as footsteps approached.
“Just over here, Master,” the guard said as he neared. The light he carried was too bright for my eyes, as they hadn’t seen anything brighter than the faint flicker of a distant candle for days. My eyes couldn’t focus on the features of the two figures standing before my cell door. But it was probably another hallucination because it wasn’t meal time or waste bucket dumping time. I ignored the apparitions that haunted me, lingering a couple of feet away.
“She’s still alive. Remarkable. Rya wanted me to be sure she was not dead.” A disgusted sound came from one of them. “The smell is awful.”
“We don’t shower the prisoners, Sir. And she gave a bit of trouble.” The guard, the shorter of the two, looked like the demonic offspring of a pig and a monkey. At least according to what I could make out in the light.
“Well, this one is important to Rya. Bathe her now and be sure she’s clean or you’ll see what it’s like on the other side of these bars.
“Sir.” The guard nodded and began leading the way out. The other figure remained a moment longer.
“Cassidy?” His voice was a whisper, but I took comfort in someone calling me by my name, apparition or not. My eyes closed to hold the tears in. “Cassidy?” The voice again, called my name.
My eyes tracked to the origin of the voice and found Jace on the other side of the bars. Jace—the reason I had gotten mixed up with all of this demon/demon hunter stuff. My life would be so different if it wasn’t for him. A snarl escaped my lips as I sprung to the bars, arms stretched, trying to tear at the evil before me.
“All of this! All of this is your fault! I wish I never knew about demons and Demon Hunters! I want my life back. I want out. Please, let me out. I can’t stand it here another minute.” The tears fell as I reached for him. “Please, it’s killing me.”
Jace easily moved away, while the guard’s razor sharp claws tore the skin on my forearm. In an unnaturally fast movement, Jace suspended the guard from the ceiling with his telekinetic powers. The sharp words that came out of his mouth were full of anger. “The instructions have not changed. You are not to harm her!”
Ignoring the pain and dripping blood from the new wound, I relished in the realization that the guard touched me. It had been over ten days since someone spoke to me, said my name, or touched me. And today I had the privilege of all three of those affections.
“Bathe her with care, Felcher. No more injuries, understood?” Jace emerged out of the light and the guard’s body crashed to the ground with a loud umph. I was reminded of Killian laying helpless on the ground, body controlled by the invisible force while Rya stripped him of his Clan tattoo. Killian. Would I even see him again?
Felcher came over and unlocked my cell without a word. He looked more pissed than usual as he grabbed my wrist and pulled me down the hall to a grassy courtyard.
Chapter Thirteen
Tyler
Oh, ouch! I felt like I’d been hit by a Mac truck. What the hell? I slowly opened my eyes. A fire pit a few feet away housed a small blaze providing the only warmth and light source for the small hut. Siobhan…
I propped up on my elbows to look around. Siobhan sat perched on a homemade stood with her spear pointed at me, fear in her eyes. What had changed? Last I remembered she had saved me from those creatures and had given me a drink to help heal me. And now? She looked ready to skewer me if I made a wrong move.
“Siobhan, what’s going on?” I pulled my legs up to maneuver off the bed and doubled over in pain. The muscles in my thighs and calves contracted into a hard knot. My fists pounded at the knots trying to undo them, my breath stolen by pain.
“You might want to hold off on moving for a while. The medicine I gave you has a nasty side effect of causing intense muscle cramps. It will pass, but if you don’t want to experience them again, I suggest you lay back and let your body recuperate.”
My left calf finally stopped contracting, so I worked on the right calf.
“Lay back.” Her voice was louder but lacked intensity. Why was she scared?
“No. I’m trying to get rid of the cramp.” The muscle seemed to contract while knotted, “Argh!” The pained cry did nothing to soothe my leg, but it provided the slightest emotional release.
“Lay back, Tyler, and listen to me.” She urged. As I reclined, my left leg cramped again from the movement. “Pinch the skin above your lip, just below your nose. Good. Now twist that skin till I tell you to stop.”
Pinching and twisting, my brain focused on the new pain at the front of my face and soon my leg muscles relaxed from their intense pain. She tossed a cloth scrap at me. “Here, for your forehead.” Taking the cloth, I wiped the sweat from my brow then looked back at Siobhan.
“What’s going on? Why do you have a weapon pointed at me? I’m not going to hurt you.”
She stared at me silently, and finally said, “I don’t think you can guarantee that.”
“What do you mean? Why would you think that? We fought side by side against those creatures. Besides, I can barely sit-up without doubling over in pain. It’d take a small miracle for me to be able to even take two steps toward you.”
“But I saw you…what you are.” Did she mean the demon within? But how? “I’m not going to let that happen again.”
“What are you talking about, ‘happen again’?”
She looked at me debating whether she should continue with the story.
I softened my voice. “What happened to you, Siobhan?”
Her eyes filled with tears, but her expression was unchanged.
“A few months ago a demon possessed me, controlling my actions, my thoughts, my words. I hurt those I loved. One day I found my younger sister pinned on the ground beneath me with a knife to her throat. I knew I had lost all control, so I ran away to some cemetery. The next thing I remember was waking up severely injured on that bed wounds packed, with a Shaman chanting over me.” She wiped her eyes and continued, “But I was free. I could feel it. I had control again.”
“How did you get free?” I didn’t have hope that the same would happen with me, as I was not possessed as Siobhan had been. I was half demon, and there was no erasing that. Still, I was curious how she'd escaped from it.
Her eyes met mine and a smile crossed her face. “I died. The demon tore free from my body looking for another, but the only body nearby for the vile demon to enter was the Shaman.”
“So he possessed the Shaman?”
“No. The Shaman had enough spells, incantations, mojo, or what—have—you to prevent that from happening. With no life source to feed off, the demon died.”
“But I saw a demon come out of someone, and it didn’t find another person to possess. He materialized into his demon self. Why was it different from your story?”
“I’ve seen that happen before too. The Shaman explained that demons placed in a body by a more powerful demon can come out and return to their original form. But a lesser demon must transfer to another live body to remain alive.”
Rya must have helped Jace possess Killian. “So where is this Shaman?”
“He comes and goes.”
“I see.” My eyes trailed down her arms, examining all the bare skin I could see in the dim light afforded by the small fire. She had several long scars on one arm, both legs had scars resembling claw marks, and her chin looked unnaturally smooth with one large dimple. She was attractive and a bit feral looking. Her scars showed her strength and added to her beauty. “So now you are stuck here because you don’t know how to cross or don’t have the magic needed to cross back to the Human Realm?”
“I’m working on it. The Shaman said I have three tasks remaining before we can try again.” She stood and filled a cup with something from a pot near the fire and handed it to me before resuming her perch with the spear. The contents of the cup looked clear like water. “I’m going to get back home.”
“I believe you will.”
She had enough fight and determination, and with the help of the Shaman she might be able to pull it off.
I was about to ask about the three tasks but she began speaking. “So what’s your story?”
I took a sip of the cup and found it was sweetened warm water. “Well, it seems I’ve made a wrong turn.” My face turned up in a smile. “Literally. I was feeling a bit anxious in my surroundings so I went to crossover to the Human Realm, only I ended up here…wherever here is.”
“Looking to possess an innocent person no doubt.”
“Siobhan, I’ve never possessed anyone and I have no desire to.”
“But you have a demon inside of you. I saw it.”
Shit. What had happened while I was out? “What did you see?”
“Your eyes were black, pure black, and the veins in your forearms turned black—just for a moment, but long enough that I saw it.”
There were only a handful of times when I'd lost consciousness and awoke only to find the demon had surfaced and wreaked havoc on my world. Siobhan had scars but none looked fresh, yet she feared me.
“Did I hurt you?”
