She rose and paced away, then walked back to her mother and sat down heavily. “Okay. Wow. Okay. Umm...Demon hunters. Yeah. Right. I’m twenty-one years old and now you’re telling me that I come from a line of people who hunt demons?” She shook her head. “If I wasn’t in love with a ghost, I would think you’d lost your mind in here, but...you’ve never lied to me, have you?”
“No, I haven’t, and I’m not about to start now. Look, love, I don’t know how long Ophelia can keep open the fabric of space between us, so I have to make this fast. Our family legacy, the Silver Legacy, is the ability to hunt and destroy demons that walk this earth.”
Denny stared at her.
“It is what we do. It is what we have done for almost a millennium.
“I don’t want to be a demon hunter.”
Gwen took one of Denny’s hands in hers. It was the first time in years they weren’t cold and bony. “You really don’t have a choice, honey. That’s the aspect of the legacy that has never changed. It chooses us. If you don’t hunt them, they will hunt you...and they will kill you and everyone you love.”
“But why? If I don’t mean them any harm––”
“Because you will. Doing them harm is what we do. It sounds like you already have done so by saving Pat Patterson. I know this is terribly surprising and somewhat difficult, but one day, you’ll step into the role you were meant to play. That day must be nearing. That’s the only reason Quick would have suggested you find a way to talk to me. He knows something he couldn’t share with you until you were read in.”
“Read in? What the hell? No he doesn’t, Mom. He doesn’t know jack-shit. He’s sitting in a jail cell claiming to be innocent. Set up. He sounded like all the other inmates in there. He even suggested you and Dad were run off the road. Is that true?”
Gwen looked away. More precious moments ticking by. “I believe we were, yes. It all happened so fast, it was hard to tell, but I think we got too close to the truth so they came after us.”
“Why? Who would do that?”
Gwen paused, then softly said, “I know you don’t want to hear the truth, but if you don’t examine it now, it will raise its ugly head to bite yours off. That’s the way of the supernatural world. You’re in it whether you want to be or not.” Gwen squeezed her hand. “And you’re in it, Golden. You are in it up to your neck.”
“And that truth is what?”
“Demons, sweetheart. We were run off the road by someone I was getting close to exposing, close to unearthing. It’s too ugly to go into right now, but you must believe me...your father’s death is a done deal. There isn’t anything you can do about that.”
“And you? Am I supposed to just walk away from you in here?”
Gwen closed her eyes. “Yes, Golden. You need to stay in the land of the living and stop worrying about me and my place in the world right now. I did what I had to do for the Legacy.”
Denny closed her eyes and shook her head. “I’m sorry, Mom, but I really don’t understand. What legacy? Are you saying that you were a demon hunter?”
“I know, honey. I wish we could have had this conversation anywhere but here, but it is what it is. Let me clear the way before answering that. Yes, I believe your father and I were run off the road. No, your brother isn’t capable of the crimes you said he committed, and I do think I know why he was accused in the first place. Demons are notorious for setting people up. It is what they do. They are not what you might think them to be. They are not red with horns and forked tails. They are people. They are inside of people. They are everywhere and nowhere at the same time.”
“Wait, wait, wait.” Denny held her hands up. “Seriously? You’re telling me demons are real and are after our family? That they ran you and Dad off the road and set Quick up for a murder he didn’t commit?”
“Demons are real, and they may very well be coming after you and Pure. The good news, if there is any, is you’re a demon hunter who, with the right training, will be capable of defeating them.”
“I don’t even know what to say.”
Gwen opened her eyes and caressed Denny’s face with one hand. “Honey, your lover is a ghost. Your best friend’s mother is a medium, and you are here on a paranormal plane talking to your catatonic mother. Demons shouldn’t be such a stretch for you. As hard as the truth may be, it is better than wondering what’s happening to you and all around you. Quick knew it was time. He understands that he’s not the one. ”
Denny could only shake her head. “You make it sound like a gift.”
“I know this is a lot to take in, but if Quick thinks you’re in danger, you are. If he doesn’t have the legacy in him, then he must think you do.”
“Because?”
Gwen hesitated. “Because he’s a Silver. I always wondered if the legacy was going to choose him.”
The air was thick with silence.
“And...Dad? Was he a...hunter, too?”
“Oh no. No. He was...collateral damage.” Gwen looked away for a moment, then back again. “Your father’s only flaw was that he loved me. I am pretty certain they were after me when we were run off the road. They won that round. They were trying to get to me before I could finish them off.”
“And so these...demons... set Quick up? Why would they do that? He is harmless.”
The mist thickened.
“Perhaps. I can’t tell without more information. Listen. Is my bedroom still intact?”
Tilting her head, Denny appeared puzzled. “Still intact? Of course.”
“Good. Okay, listen carefully. Open my closet door, the one without the mirror. There is a false wall that will open when you hit a switch near the floor. Everything you need to know is in there. Everything. My journal is on the top of my desk. Read it carefully. Then read it again. Learn everything you can. It’s all part of the Silver Legacy. “
“The...Silver Legacy? Jesus.”
Gwen leaned closer, as if fearful of being heard by someone else. “You listen to me, Golden, and listen well. Your brother isn’t crazy and he isn’t telling stories. If he says he was set up––believe him. Now that he is no longer a threat, they will come after you and Pure.”
“Why not Ster––”
“She is very difficult to get to because of where she lives. While demons are not of hell in the Christian sense, they do not care for the lightness, joy, and peace of convents and monasteries. No, honey, it is you they are coming for. He’s right about that. We don’t have much time. Get to my room. You’ll get all of your questions answered.”
“That’s a lot of the questions.”
“I know. I know, honey, but the grains are all run out.” She looked around, almost fearful. “I am so proud of you, but you have to promise me never to try this again.”
“But, Mom, now that I know we can do––”
“No.” Gwen shook her head. “This was a huge risk on your part, and you mustn’t do it again. Ever.”
“But––”
“I mean it, Golden.” Her voice was firm. “This...this is my fate and there isn’t anything we can do to change it. It is...is it the way it should be. The way it has to be. Your job, your responsibility, is to protect yourself and Pure because, mark my words, they’re coming.”
“But why?”
The mist swirled around them and became thicker. “Read my journal and everything else in that room. Study. Learn everything you can. Prepare yourself. You can do this, honey. I have complete faith in you.”
“Do what?” Denny said in a voice that sounded more like she was five. “Do what, exactly?”
As the mist became nearly impossible to see through, Gwen locked eyes with her. Seconds continued to tick by. “Kill them. There’s no genie’s bottle, honey. It’s what our family has done for generations. We hunt and kill demons.”
“We do?”
Gwen nodded. “Yes. And now, you do.”
***
When Denny flipped the switch in her mother’s closet, nothing happened.
Then slowly, almost painfully, the back wall slid back like a pocket door. The thick smell of musty leather books wafted from the hidden room. When the door clicked into place, Denny peered in.
“Holy Mother of Mary.”
She stood at the door and stared slack-jawed at a room about twelve-by-twelve feet in front of her. In the middle of the room sat a large antique roll-top desk. The room, octagonal shape, had wall-to-wall bookshelves that reached to the bottom of small windows that let in a tiny amount of natural light. The room smelled dank from disuse and was dreary and dim, but had a life to it, an undeniable pulse.
When Denny stepped into the room, motion-sensored lights came on. She stopped.
“Whoa. Mom, what the hell?”
Denny’s eyes caressed the spines of books she was sure Lauren the librarian would drool over––cracked leather, gold lettering, fat books, thin books, books stacked in a variety of ways––she took it all in. There had to be at least three thousand books in the room, most of which had old, cracking spines.
Slowly walking into the lair, Denny stared at the desk. The roll top was open and there were several books and notebooks scattered across the cool green marble top as if her mother had planned on coming right back.
Best laid plans.
“Oh, Mom.” Denny ran her fingertips across the smooth desk, her eyes scanning the ten foot shelves. Along with the books were photos of her family, one of which Denny picked up and studied.
The photo was taken when they were vacationing in Orlando. They all looked so young, so innocent, that Denny couldn’t believe their mother had probably been out hunting demons.
“Hunting demons...” She tried out the phrase when her eyes landed on a leather bound journal. It lay open with a fountain pen in the spine and her mother’s petite handwriting on the pages.
Tentatively, Denny touched the pages. The paper was parchment, yellowed and cracked, not from age...from something else. After pulling up the worn desk chair, Denny carefully sat down. She had no doubt the desk and the chair had been here well before they had moved in. Everything about the space screamed antiquated. When she sat on the chair, the leather creaked as if surprised to have the company.
The room was deathly silent. As if the old leather tomes waited to see what Denny was going to do.
The truth was, she had no idea. None. Zip. Zilch. Nada.
Leaning over the leather journal, Denny tried to read it but couldn’t. Her eyes kept blurring. Without touching the book, she blinked back the tears and read the left hand side.
~~~
He is becoming brazen in his attacks, but his boldness shows an uncontrolled, almost manic desire for confrontation. Verin ought to know better, but it would appear he is going through with the plan. While not dangerous himself, he has the ability to make others act, and that is always frightening. I’ll have to find a way to squash his plans or take him out all together.
The killing is becoming tiresome, indeed, and Robert is beginning to make noises about returning to California.
~~~
Denny stopped reading and pushed away from the desk.
“My mother...wasn’t kidding. She was...a killer. Straight up.” Denny put her hand to her mouth. “And all this time I thought...”
“Don’t make any judgments until you know what the hell you’re talking about.”
Denny turned to see Rush float through the doorway. Normally, Rush walked places, but when her emotions got the best of her, she hovered.
She was hovering now.
“Secret rooms, journals, hypnosis, these aren’t parts of your life, Den. Your mother’s life, yes, but not yours. So not yours. Turn around, lock the door, and forget all this nonsense. Move to Hawaii. Go to college in Europe, but do not accept the life your mother wants you to lead.”
Denny cocked her head as she listened. It took her a few moments before she figured it out. “Oh my god. Oh my fucking god. You knew.” Pushing away from the desk, she whirled around. “You fucking knew all along!”
Rush shrugged and looked away. “Maybe. It’s not really important what I know or don’t know. What’s important is for you to realize that your mother’s life choices do not have to be yours.”
“You knew about this room, too.”
“Of course I did. I’m a ghost. I’ve been all over this house thousands of times. Again, lover, that’s not important. I knew hunting wasn’t something you wanted or needed in your life. You want college. You crave education. Hunting and killing demons wasn’t in your life plan.
“And you didn’t see the need to tell me any of this?”
“It’s not my story to tell.”
Denny felt her face flush as her voice rose. “Not your story to tell? You haven’t stopped yakking in thirteen years but you failed to mention the secret room or the fact that my mother is a killer?”
“Oh no. Don’t you dare yell at me, Golden Silver. This here,” she waved her hand in the air, “was your mama’s doing. She wanted more for you than the life of a demon hunter. She wanted you to have a safer, happier life, but she fucked that up. Royally.”
Denny blinked. “How in the hell would you know that?”
Rush hesitated.
“Rushalyn?”
Rush crossed her arms and looked away. “Look, when you were thirteen, your mother wrote a letter to you. She told me if you ever found this room, I was to show you where she put it, but not before I did everything in my power to talk you out of it. This is me trying to talk you out of it.”
Denny folded her arms across her chest, the mirror image of her lover. “Show me.”
“Not until you hear me out.”
“Don’t fuck around with me, Rush. I am in no mood.” Denny barely recognized her own voice.
Rush hovered higher. “I wouldn’t dream of it, but you’re about to be a bull in a china shop and I need you to be much calmer. So sit your stubborn ass down and listen to me or I’m not giving you shit.”
Reluctantly, Denny sat down.
Rush stood in front of her. “Now listen to me without judgment and without emotion. It is a moot point whether or not Gwen talked to me. I’m a ghost. I know all sorts of shit I shouldn’t be privy to. Your mother did not want this life for you or any of her kids, but if one of you had to have it, she was willing to hand the mantel over to Quick because he was so aimless...so misguided. She was trying to find a way to get your family out of the legacy altogether when she was nearly killed.”
“Get us out?”
Rush shrugged. “I don’t know how she was going to manage that, but it was what she was working on night and day before the wreck.”
“She was obviously unsuccessful.”
Rush studied Denny a moment. “Did it ever occur to you that maybe she just never got the chance to finish the job?” Rush rose, hovered, and then and sat on top of the roll-top desk clutching her legs. “I just know what she said, love, and she wanted to find a way to be free of the legacy...to be free of the killing and the danger. She wanted you to be free most of all.”
“And she told you all this?”
“Heavens, no. Most of the time I eavesdropped, silly. She and your father often had conversations about it, usually whenever she came out of the lair.” She shook her head. “He never came in here, and he was always tense and irritable when she came out.” Rush held her hand up. “And yes, he knew what she was when he married her. He just didn’t want the legacy to fall on one of you, though I totally get why they were willing to give it to Quick. He was just that kind of guy that would never light. At least demon hunting would have given him some direction in life.”
Denny stared hard at her. “I can’t believe you know so much about all of this and never told me. How could you keep this from me? We’re lovers for Christ’s sake.”
“Because it wasn’t time. Your mother liked me. She trusted me. She asked me to let her be the one to explain all this to you. Then came the accident. That did not
change the fact that I made a promise.”
“What else haven’t you told me?”
“A lot. Tons. Don’t be mad at me for keeping your mother’s secret all these years. Like I said, it wasn’t my story to tell so don’t get all butt hurt on me. I’m not the bad guy here.”
“Butt hurt? You’ve been keeping this gigantic secret from me for a long time, Rush. I get to have my feelings about this.”
“This isn’t about feelings, lover, it’s about your life. I don’t want to see you on my side for a very long time. Not many ghosts would say the same thing.”
“Where’s the letter?”
Rush pointed to the top drawer of the hutch. “Fine. You feel your feelings after you read your mom’s letter, but don’t take out your frustration on me. I’ve spent over a decade trying to protect you from all of this, but if you have your heart set on a life that will never be your own, that will put people you love in harm’s way, that will transform you into something you don’t recognize, then go for it. Just know that I warned you. ” Rush vanished.
Denny reached into the drawer and found a letter addressed to her and Pure.
~~~
My Dear Girls,
If you are reading this, it can only mean I was unsuccessful in securing your freedom from a legacy that has been passed down through our family since the fourteenth century. It is not a legacy anyone would want, but it is one our ancestors have been incredibly good at. Being good at a thing does not necessarily mean one enjoys doing it. Remember that. While hunting is an obligation, a duty we accepted centuries ago, it is a dangerous one.
It is also a duty I want you to step away from. Far, far away from.
Our last name is my family name, not your father’s, but he loved me enough to take my name and allow you to take it as well. It is part of the agreement that was made hundreds of years ago between our ancestors and those who are our allies.
Evil is evil, and our family has been fighting it forever. We have made villages, towns, and cities safer by destroying evil wherever we find it, but that duty, that responsibility comes at quite a price.
Darkness Descends (The Silver Legacy Book 1) Page 8