Halfway Wicked (Wildes on the Hunt #1)

by Dara Kent

  Halfway Wicked

  Halfway Wicked © 2021 Dara Kent

  All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright act of

  1976, no part of this publication

  may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database

  or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or

  dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  * * *

  First Edition: May 2021

  Published in the United States of America by

  Tik Tok Press.

  The Tik Tok Press Logo is a trademark of

  Tik Tok Press.

  * * *

  Cover Art, Dara Kent Logo, & Interior Book Graphics by Lindsay Tiry of LT Arts

  Tik Tok Press Logo by Jordan P. Fremgen of Eye Of The River Media Design

  Edited by Melissa Ringsted of There For You Editing

  Proofread by Ren Reidy

  * * *

  Print ISBN: 978-1-7349149-5-5

  Kindle ISBN: 978-1-7349149-7-9

  EPUB ISBN: 978-1-7349149-6-2

  * * *

  For more information visit: darakent.com

  To Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Therapy, and Haagen-Dazs Triple Chocolate Fudge Cookie,

  You complete me.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Also by Dara Kent

  1

  Everyone you meet is fighting a war. For most, it consists of battles waged with personal demons from the past and present, the pain coloring every aspect of their lives. For others, like my sister and me, the demons are very real and often come with a body count.

  Who’s to say which is worse?

  Who am I kidding? The demons I fight can’t be drowned with a fifth of tequila. I’ll take the figurative demons over literal any day.

  “I don’t think it’s coming tonight.”

  Scowling, I peered around the edge of the dumpster at my sister, who was leaning against a scarred and tagged brick wall a few feet in front of me. “Stop talking, or it’s going to know something’s up and then yeah, it won’t come tonight.”

  She clicked her tongue. “Perhaps I’m not its flavor. Maybe you should have been the worm on the hook with this one.”

  I shot Lily a patented death glare. Her small, gymnast build, combined with her heart-shaped face, large, blue eyes, flawless ivory skin, and golden halo of curls made her the catnip of demon bait. Me, on the other hand, only served to attract a certain kind of demon. One looking for a challenge. Just shy of what was considered a tall girl, I was curvy but muscular, and no matter what I did my dark eyes never appeared guileless. I wasn’t fooling any demon sniffing around for an easy mark. It was obvious I would put up a fight. Plus, most demons were ever the cliché, choosing the blond nine times out of ten, no matter their other physical characteristics. It was the odd one out that zeroed in on a brunette like me in a crowd.

  “Riss, seriously, I’m cold and tired, and I don’t even get the luxury of a face mask to filter out the stench of this disgusting place.”

  “Oh, now you want a mask when all I’ve been hearing lately is how ridiculous I am for still wearing one?” I wiggled my nose under the three-ply, black cotton on my face. I’d forgone adding a filter, which I thought was progress on my part.

  Lily huffed out a dramatic sigh. “Well, you are a tad paranoid. The virus is long gone since someone took out Pestilence.”

  Annoyance simmered at the reminder that we missed our last target, some unknown hunter taking out the demon before us when we’d been hot on its trail for months. Pestilence was one of the big ones, aka one of the Fab Four demon lords, and surely carried the kind of extra points we needed in the game we were being forced to play.

  Although more powerful than the average demon, contrary to popular belief, Pestilence and his three brothers did not portend Judgement Day. Of course, if left to run amuck they most certainly could cause an apocalyptic event of some sort. So I should have been glad Pestilence’s visit to our realm had been cut short, even if it wasn’t by us. Should be glad but am definitely not. We need to take out every last demon we can find to hopefully stack things in our favor.

  Dropping back into a crouch behind the dumpster, I hissed, “Just shut up and act innocent or whatever.”

  “What more do you want me to do?” Lily demanded. “I’m already wearing this ridiculously outdated baby doll dress that barely covers my ass and standing in an alleyway by myself because apparently innocent and stupid go hand in hand.”

  Personally, I thought that was a given, but I kept quiet, refusing to give in to the temptation to engage my sister in conversation again. She was clearly bored. As for the baby doll dress, it was the only thing I could find amongst our local thrift store’s current choices that were remotely sexy enough to play bait. I only picked it up because Lily had been griping about ruining her nice clothes on hunts. But it would be the last time I bothered since obviously, she’d still find something to complain about.

  “Can we please call this mission a bust for tonight and go home? Riss? Come on. Please?”

  My hand closed around the closest piece of trash, an empty cigarette package, which I lobbed in her direction as my response.

  “Fine. Just a little bit longer and then I’m gone.” She muttered something to herself I couldn’t quite make out, and then louder she said, “La, la, la, look at me, all by myself and completely vulnerable. I hope my big, strong boyfriend gets here soon before trouble finds me. Because I’m so alone and … innocent.”

  Rolling my eyes, I resisted the urge to slap my palm against my forehead. Lily was the queen of passive-aggressive behavior, but I could out stubborn her any day.

  Silence descended on us as we waited.

  And waited. Each individual second turning into an eternity. Truth was, I would have called it a night a while ago if Lily hadn’t kept complaining.

  Flames, burning bold and bright, skittered in front of my eyes, dropping a red haze in front of my vision. Shaking my head, I dispelled the familiar imagery, remnants from a repetitive nightmare I’d been having for several months. Was I dozing off?

  Sighing, I contemplated how much longer I should make my sister suffer in the cold for being a pain in my ass. I wasn’t faring well myself if I was falling asleep on the job, literally.

  My senses came alive, sharpening with adrenaline as a door creaked open farther down the alleyway, followed by heavy tread against the pavement. Sliding one of my wickedly sharp, custom, stainless-steel blades from a sheath inside of my boot, I held it loosely between my fingers, m
y muscles tensing for action.

  “Oh, hey, do you know what time it is? I’m supposed to meet my boyfriend and my phone died.” My sister’s voice was slightly higher than normal, signaling her nerves.

  “What kind of boyfriend would suggest meeting you in a place like this?” a deep, gravelly voice asked, a hint of mirth in his tone. Or was it hunger? Sometimes it was difficult to tell the difference between human predators and demons. Although, in my book, taking out either would suit me fine. It was just the law that might take issue with a trail of corpses leading to me. Thankfully, demons didn’t leave any evidence beyond a pile of ash.

  “Ummm … what’s wrong with meeting my boyfriend here? We’re going into the club, you know, Zeffer?”

  “Underage then. I could get you in if you want. I work at Zeffer.”

  Lily laughed nervously. “Underage. No. Don’t be ridiculous. I’m twenty-one.” In truth, she was twenty-four, and clearly, human or demon, the guy was interested. I just had to wait for an indication of which from my sister.

  “Look at you,” the guy growled. “So innocent … so hard to resist.”

  “A voyeur? Or do you think you’ll be able to help her?”

  Swallowing a gasp, I spun on my jean-clad knees before propelling myself to my feet. I was so focused on Lily I didn’t hear the second guy walk up behind me. His features were difficult to make out in the dim lighting, but I could tell he was tall and imposing. Not someone most would want to meet in a dark alley behind a dumpster.

  Brandishing my blade, I inched backward. “You shouldn’t sneak up on someone you don’t know. You could end up stuck like a pig.”

  “Riss!” my sister yelled. “A little help here!”

  The guy in front of me grabbed my arm, yanking me into his chest. His fetid breath washed across my face, discernable even behind my mask. That’s what I get for not wearing a filter. “Not so fast, hunter. You laid a trap for a demon and now you’re just going to walk away?”

  Shit. Looks like Lily is right after all. She isn’t our demon target’s flavor du jour. This one wants a fight. And lucky for him I’m happy to oblige.

  Dropping low, I managed to break the demon’s hold on my arm. “Yours is human. Just knock him out,” I yelled to Lily before rolling to the side to avoid being snagged by the demon again.

  “He’s definitely not human!”

  Two demons? Double shit. I miscalculated this one badly. Usually, more than one demon left behind more than one body at a time. Somehow, I’d missed clues. My gaze darted to the side toward the fight already in progress, and then back to the demon in front of me. Lily wasn’t as skilled at hand-to-hand combat as me, but she could handle herself when she needed to. And she needs to right about now.

  Bending at the waist while keeping my focus on the immediate threat, I slipped a second blade from a sheath in my left boot and quickly slashed at the demon’s stomach in an effort to distract him. Blood spurted briefly from the laceration before mending to leave nothing but a torn shirt behind.

  I wasn’t worried though. Slaying demons wasn’t a one size fits all kill shot. The toughest part was figuring out the breed, so I’d know where its weaknesses were. The big guy in front of me was humanoid in form, from what I could tell, and since he was using his fists first and foremost, I guessed he was what I called a basic bitch demon or BBD. They weren’t terribly smart and simply liked to cause death and mayhem wherever they could. They also usually underestimated me, and Lily for that matter, failing to realize we weren’t run-of-the-mill hunters.

  Kicking and slashing at the demon’s knees, I opted for the time-honored plan of making the big ones fall hard. Once down, I’d decapitate him. Then it’s ashes to ashes time. Easy peasy.

  “Gemini!” Lily yelled, her voice strained.

  Ducking another pass of the demon’s fist, I ground out, “Please tell me you’re joking.”

  “If … you … don’t … believe … me … check … for … yourself.” Each word was interrupted with a grunt or the sound of flesh hitting flesh. Lily seemed to have the upper hand for now, but I knew things could go sideways fast. Her stamina wasn’t infinite even if she had a little extra beyond what normal humans did.

  Spinning to avoid the charging demon, I stabbed him rapid-fire in the back, the act only serving to bide me some time and doing no real damage. “Which side do you have?”

  “The … right.”

  Okay. If she has the right half of the Gemini pair, that means I have to stab mine in the left eye. Or is it the opposite? Left side, right eye? Ugh.

  Gritting my teeth, I continued to spar with the demon. The thing about Geminis was that they didn’t manifest in their own form; instead, they possessed humans. And killing a demon while they were in a meat suit would ultimately kill everyone involved. It wasn’t a typical possession either. Geminis came in pairs, a right one and a left one, mirror images of each other. They would each slip into a human, taking up residence in one side of the human’s brain.

  My issue was trying to remember if the left side liked the right side of the brain or the left. If I stabbed him on the wrong side, I’d merely piss him off more, and I wanted to end this quick so I could get to Lily.

  Glancing down at the blades in each of my hands, I internally shrugged. Let’s go for the double whammy tonight.

  I scrambled up the side of the dumpster, and leapt off the top, landing with my knees in the demon’s back just below his shoulder blades. He lurched forward, slamming us both into the ground.

  Shit. He’s face down. I didn’t think that move through at all.

  Grabbing the sides of his head, I wrenched to the right, my blades pressed in between his temples and my palms. The demon bucked and roared, shoving off the ground. Swinging my arms around as I stumbled backward, I stabbed wildly at his face, hoping to hit something good. He spun around, his shallow wounds knitting themselves together.

  Baring my teeth, I rushed him, feigning to the right before dodging to the left to get behind him again. Eyeing up the back of his skull, I plunged the blades in as hard as I could.

  The demon slowed but didn’t stop, pivoting back in my direction. Two silver points protruded from his face, neither hitting their mark. I’m so off my game tonight. What the hell is going on?

  Pulling my smaller spare blade from inside of my leather jacket, I performed a quick eeny-meeny-miney-moe in my head, and again rushed the demon. Snarling, he grabbed my shoulders, putting me in the perfect position to connect my knee with his groin. Releasing me as he doubled over, I thrust my blade into his right eye, crossing my mental fingers.

  The demon dropped like a puppet with its strings cut, and I released a sigh of relief as I went to retrieve my weapons. Leaning over, I grabbed the handle of the blade in the demon’s eye, placed my boot on his neck, and pulled. With a click and a pop, it slid free. His lips turned up into a smirk. “Got you,” he growled, his meaty fist slamming into my temple.

  Stars burst across my vision, causing me to falter. The demon was up and on me before I had a chance to recover, his fists pummeling me over and over. I went down hard, confusion muddling my thoughts.

  “Show me what I want to see, hunter.” Shadows erupted from his mouth, their icy tentacles lashing against my skin as they converged around me.

  I was hurtled into a pit of oblivion.

  2

  “Show me what I want to see, hunter.”

  Music blared, a somewhat familiar tune pounding a steady rhythm against my skull.

  “Lily,” I mumbled. “Turn it down. I’m trying to sleep.”

  The song continued on its merry way, ratcheting up my annoyance.

  “Lily, come on. You’ve got to turn it down.” Groaning, I twisted, finding myself rooted in place.

  My eyes snapped open, confusion fogging my brain. It was dark, the only illumination coming from the muted interior of my car’s dashboard and the headlights bouncing off the mound of snow in front of us.

  Us. Me and Lily.
>
  My thoughts crystallized, icy dread digging its claws into my spine.

  We were driving home. I hit a slick patch of road already frozen over. I lost control.

  Swinging my head to the right, my gaze landed on my sister strapped into the passenger seat beside me. “Lily!” I reached for her, unable to move. My fingers fumbled for my seatbelt, too numb to function properly.

  Frustration shot through me. I have to get to Lily! I have to get to her now! Craning my neck down in another attempt to locate my seatbelt, I stilled, shock ricocheting through my system.

  Sticking through my sternum was a piece of metal, long and cylindrical. Blood saturated my clothes. I sucked in a shallow breath, realizing I couldn’t feel it. It wasn’t just my fingers that were numb.

  I’d watched enough medical dramas to know my situation wasn’t good. So much blood. I’ve lost so much blood. I’m in shock. I don’t think … I’m not going to make it.

  “Lily, you have to wake up. Please.”

  My sister’s lashes fluttered, but her eyes didn’t open. Blood dripped down her face from a nasty gash on her forehead. I couldn’t tell if she had any other injuries from my vantage point, but she did at least appear to have fared better than me.

  “Lily, you have to wake up and call for help. Please wake up.” That was assuming one of our cellphones had survived the crash, or if we could even get a signal where we were.