by C. A. Saari
Mr. Wagner paused as he thought over the memory.
“She found his weapons stash in his car, then became suspicious because more often than not he’d come back to her with cuts and bruises. She actually thought he was in a gang for a time.” Mr. Wagner chuckled at that. “She became upset and broke it off with him. So, he made the decision to explain to her what it was, exactly, that he was doing. That he was doing good, not bad. Of course, she thought he was crazy. She didn’t believe a word of it and told everyone she knew. Broke his heart. She had people looking into him which of course led them to us. We couldn’t do our work properly with so many eyes on us. We became known as the loony family in Seattle. Ana had come to us shortly before this had happened and she was already a mess. This wasn’t helping. We even had a crackpot reporter come to us, trying to do a piece on the nutty family outside of town. It was becoming too public, and our second team decided it was time for us to go.”
He was quiet for a time again, almost likely he was trying to get the details lined up before he continued.
“We were told of a need for a second team here in Webber. Usually small towns like this only need one team, but there was an unusually high level of activity here and the current team in the area needed backup. We weren’t asked to take the job, we were told, and I had to pack my team up and leave. Jake, he’s strong and smart and you’d never guess his mother’s leaving had affected him so much, but it did. Jake’s mother left when he was thirteen, the year he became a hunter, so it’d been years but it was hard for him to leave our home. I think part of him had always hoped she’d come back, and if we moved she wouldn’t know where to find us. He kept it to himself, and a week before his seventeenth birthday we rolled into Webber.”
He looked at me then, waited for me to speak. When I didn’t, he did.
“So, you understand why Jake bringing you here, especially before we even knew you could see, did not sit well with any of us. Ana, she wants Jake, Quinn and I are suspicious of outsiders, and Ryan, well, he trusts no one, he trusts your relationship with Jake even less. I have a very broken family here Remi, but we are working very hard to pick up the pieces.”
“And you’re all afraid that I’ll break it again?”
“Jake isn’t.”
“But the rest of you are. You are.”
We had reached the front of the house again, Mr. Wagner stopped before the steps and inhaled deeply.
“The others are, yes. And me…well, I’m working on it.” He smiled when he said that. “Yes, you have been proving yourself to us each day you’re here. I know you’ve had your own hardships and maybe we should be proving ourselves to you as well, but this is where we stand. Jake trusts you, he sees something in you…whatever this is between you two it’s powerful. You have put him back together again, all the pieces that are Jake, but since you’re the one who has, you’re also the only one who can ruin him again, and I don’t think he’ll ever be the same again if that happens.”
“That’s not going to happen.” I said, but Mr. Wagner was shaking his head before I even got the full promise out of my mouth.
“Don’t make promises. You cannot predict the future.”
“I’m making this promise.” I said defiantly and Mr. Wagner smiled sadly at me, that smile angered me. It was so patronizing. “If it takes me a lifetime to prove it so be it.” I turned to the stairs, took two up before I turned back to him. “You know what, Mr. Wagner? I’m at just as much risk of Jake destroying me as he is of me destroying him, and I have no one at my back if that were to happen. But I’ve chosen to trust him anyway. Jake has you and you have Jake. You have your brother and Maria. You have Ana and Ryan. And they all have you. I lost my mother, she died, I have no lingering hope that maybe someday she’ll come back. And my own father, he hurt me nearly every day. He was the only person I had left and he didn’t want me. But I was there anyway, so he hurt me. Yet I still worked and scraped to pay his bills and feed him, to make sure he had a place to sleep at night. I come here and you might not be physically abusing me, but what you’re all doing, with the exception of Jake, is no less hurtful. And you want to talk to me about trust issues? I think out of everyone here right now, again with the exception of Jake, I have sufficiently proved to be the best of you, at least in character. I have been kind to you, and I have kept our secrets, and I have fought alongside all of you, all the while you all treat me like the enemy. If I can do all of that, then I think your cozy, tight little family here all filled with love and protection for each other can find a little bit of tolerance for me, don’t you?”
I couldn’t get a read on Jake’s father after our conversation earlier in the day. He joined us for our morning workout and while he didn’t necessarily ignore me, he didn’t seek me out either. He didn’t glare, or scowl at me like my little speech had offended him, but neither did he look at me with sudden newfound respect or fatherly love –not that I was expecting that- but he did glance at me from time to time with consideration. Not so much curiosity, but as if he was actually considering me. And when he shouted out an encouragement to me when I stepped up to spar with Jake, the room itself had nearly gasped. Then on the gun range as our practice was finishing up, he clapped me on the back and said that I was nearly as good as his son –though no one would ever be as good as Jake, he could hit a target blindfolded, if he could hear his target, he could hit it with deadly accuracy.
And I was pretty sure Quinn took his cues from Mr. Wagner, because even he had softened –the distrust was there yet, clearly, but the constant scowl was gone- and as we suited up for the hunt that night he handed me a new weapons belt.
“That one you’ve been using is getting pretty worn out.” He had said gruffly and had immediately walked off. Jake watched him go with a smile before turning to me.
“What did you and my dad talk about?” He asked in a low voice. I shrugged and tugged off my old belt to put on the new one.
“Just…” Apparently his dad hadn’t told him. Would he sometime? I didn’t want to lie. So I didn’t. “Just about Ryan, and why everyone around here is the way they are. I explained that if there is anyone who understands, it’s me.”
“He told you about Ryan?” Jake asked; he had tensed but he didn’t seem angry.
“Yes. I think he just wanted me to understand.”
Jake hadn’t responded after that. We headed into the woods near the edge of town. Since Mr. Wagner’s team was the secondary here in Webber we never took on the city jobs. Mack, the first team’s leader, and his team were in charge of the city.
My first week of hunting was fairly mellow. It’d been good practice for me, which was good, because tonight my practice was put to the test. We were what I would considered “swarmed”. There were six of us, and nearly thirty of them. I listened with amusement as Jake and Ryan bantered back and forth, betting on who would take the most. They seemed excited. And I guess why wouldn’t they be? This is what they did, and the past week had been pretty boring for them. Shots started popping around me so I joined in. At one point I saw Quinn going hand to hand –I hadn’t seen anyone fight them hand to hand yet, and it was impressive- I got the distinct feeling that Jake wanted to sink his blades in a few as well, but he wasn’t leaving me, so guns it was. At one point I heard Ana scream –more of an angry scream than a fearful one- I looked over and saw that a demon had her lifted, her back against a tree, her feet several feet off the ground. She was kicking it in the ribs –do demons have ribs?- but the effect wasn’t what she was hoping for, a second demon was advancing –were they working together?- I turned my gun and shot, taking out the advancing demon, Ana took out the one holding her against the tree. She spared me the slightest nod and went back to kicking ass.
“I’m out.” I heard Jake yell, I spun and watched him eject his last clip. I reached into my pocket and threw him one of my last of two clips left.
“You need to come more prepared.” I said refocusing my attention on the advancing horde.
To me the hunt had only seemed like minutes, but hours passed before we had either taken out most of the demons or had the rest retreating to wherever it is they went. I glanced around at the team –mostly looking for Jake, though I knew he wouldn’t be far. He was examining his upper arm, where a demon had raked his claws across him, leaving his shirt shredded and probably the skin under it to some extent as well. Mr. Wagner was pulling his own shirt up to look at an angry red mark over his ribcage that I bet was going to be one nasty bruise in the morning –I knew bruises- Quinn was pulling one of his own blades out of his own leg –note to self, DO NOT let the demons get a hold of your weapons, they’ll actually use them- Ryan was trying to stop a nosebleed and Ana was asking him if he could pick the wood chips from the tree out of the long scrapes on her back.
My eyes spanned over the entire group a second time. They all had wounds. Demons –several at a time- had attacked each and every one of them, had swarmed them even when they had their guns, and eventually they’d had to go hand to hand. My brow furrowed as I realized that not one single demon had come within reach of me. Not ONE had come within five feet of me. Not once had I had to reach for a blade. I didn’t have a single scratch on me. I frowned and looked at my team again, they were bloody and dirty, and I looked down at myself. My tight black pants and long sleeved thermal shirt were in perfect condition. I touched the fabric of my shirt as something dawned on me.
“Son of a bitch.” I said on a breath and turned to Jake, fire in my eyes, I’m sure. “Jake!” I barked and stomped over to him, shoved him.
“Easy, baby, I’m hurt.” He looked at me with wide eyes.
“Did you wash my clothes in your protection shit?”
He didn’t even bother to look surprised that I’d figured it out.
“Remi-“
“Don’t!” I held up a hand to stop him. I was so angry, I didn’t even know what to say to him. “Just…don’t!” I spun and walked back in the directions we’d left the vehicles. I was so angry, after everything, after all our arguments, he still didn’t think I could do this. Either he didn’t trust me or he thought me weak, it was insulting and I was angry beyond repair at the moment.
“You wanted someone to have your back, yet you get angry when someone does.”
I whipped my head around, Mr. Wagner stood just behind me.
“What?” I barked. I was in no mood to listen to him stand up for his stubborn, overbearing son.
“He’s protecting you.” Mr. Wagner said. “He’s got your back.”
“No, he did it behind my back.” I argued through gritted teeth.
“Doesn’t matter how he did it. His only concern was making sure he was able to protect you, even if the possibility came up that he couldn’t physically protect you. You wanted someone to have your back Remi, well you got it. You got someone who will do everything in his power to make sure he always has it. One way or another.”
Well, that sufficiently made me feel assy. Thanks Mr. Wagner. I crossed my arms over my chest defensively.
“I don’t like that he continues to think that I can’t do this, I’ve proven I can.”
“Is that why you think he did this? No, you couldn’t be more wrong.” Mr. Wagner took a step closer to me, cock his head. “You have no idea, do you?”
“Idea of what?” I asked, trying so desperately to stay mad.
Mr. Wagner sighed and stepped back. Whatever I should have an idea about he clearly wasn’t going to tell me.
“I can say with certainty that Jake does not think you weak. He knows you can do this, and is proud of the fact that you can. But you can’t blame him for still wanting to protect what’s important to him.” He chuckled then. “He’d wash my clothes in protections if he could, but I’ve learned that the hard way, I have my own laundry soap and I do my own laundry now. You wanted someone to have your back Remi, well here you go. Maybe you should grab his while you’re at it.”
Mr. Wagner turned and went to rejoin the team.
What the hell was that supposed to mean? Grab his while you’re at it. I have Jake’s back. I’ve had it from the start.
“Shit.” I muttered and went in search of Jake. He saw me coming and braced himself for an argument. I felt even worse.
“I’m not going to apologize-” He started.
“Don’t. I’m sorry.” I interrupted. Now he did look surprised. “Look, I know you’re just watching out for me, and believe it or not, I really appreciate it, but, I need for you to let me do this Jake. Can you find a…less intrusive way to be all protective?”
He heaved a great sigh as if I’d just asked him to relocate the Sierra Nevada’s and pulled me into his arms.
“Alright. No more sneaky business…but don’t ask me to fight on the other side of the woods from you, that’s where I draw the line.”
“Deal.”
10
The rest of the week was fairly quiet. And the first week of October rolled in just as quiet as well, as quiet as my new life would ever get, I supposed. After the demon uprising over the weekend they seemed to go back into hiding. School on Monday rolled around and everyone was in mourning for Shaun Andrews, friend, classmate, teammate, as the posters around school read. Our Pep Rally Thursday afternoon was more of a memorial dedicated to him. The football team wore his number on a temporary patch on their jerseys while the cheerleading squad painted it on their cheeks. After the rally Jake and I walked hand in hand back to our lockers when a thought occurred to me.
“So, how come I haven’t heard of more kids having random heart attacks…or things like that? Do demons prefer adults or something?”
“No.” Jake said softly, watching the crowd around us, making sure no one was close enough to hear our conversation. “Parents kind of help out there. They protect their kids from demons without even really knowing they’re doing it. How often do you hear of kids walking around in the woods or dark alleys alone in the middle of the night?”
Good point.
“And I don’t know if you noticed, but when kids are out they tend to travel in packs.” Yeah, I had noticed.
I frowned at that.
“So, if demons are able realize that there’s the possibility of a hunter in larger crowds, then that means they’re able to think things through then?”
“We don’t know for sure if they’re able to plot or plan, we do know that they get used to patterns and they can recognize a hunter after a few encounters.”
“Do they work together?” I asked, the vision of the demon holding Ana to the tree while the other advanced popped into my mind.
“Not that we’ve been able to document. Yes, they come in large groups because we kind of herd them that way, but working together? We don’t think so. At least we haven’t seen evidence of that. They’re all out for the same thing, they need to feed to stay strong, so I don’t think they’re going to fight one of us just to hold us down so another demon can take his meal, out of the kindness of his heart.”
I smiled at that and felt a little more at ease. I’d hate to think that at this very moment demons could be sitting around a table plotting how to take us down. Kind of a scary thought. We got deeper into the crowded hallway and I knew we’d have to change the subject. Too many ears always spying on Jake and my conversations. We made people curious. I looked up at him, his face looked sad.
“I’m sorry about your friend.” I said. He squeezed my hand.
“I know.” I watched as the small smile he gave me faded. �
�Shit.” He hissed.
I followed his gaze. Darva. She’d been seeking him out all week, hugging him or putting her hands on him every chance she got. Gushing and thanking him for saving her life, when he hadn’t actually saved her life, at least not in the sense that anyone else knew about. As far as anyone else was aware, she’d simply had a panic attack and fainted while Shaun had a heart attack, she’d been in no real danger to all outward appearances. And technically I had been the one who actually saved her life. Jake had just simply carried her ass out of the woods. She’d nearly made it to us, her eyes the perfect mixture of grateful and adoring when Jake shoved me right in front of him, and in doing so right in front of Darva as well. She stopped up short and glared at me, before smiling sweetly up at Jake.
“Jake,” She started.
“Actually, Darva. I think you should know, Remi here is actually the one who found you. She’s just really shy about being a hero.” Now I glared at him over my shoulder. Damn him! I looked back to Darva, with some serious annoyance I’m sure. Her gaze flicked from Jake to me. Jake had ever so subtly taken my hand as he stood behind me, but her eagle eyes caught the motion and narrowed in on it. Then she looked back to me, her nostrils flared slightly as I’m pretty sure she nearly threw up at the thought of having to say a kind word to me. That’s when I saw her, really saw her. She was trying to hang on to her dignity, and as she watched our linked fingers, and how closely I stood to Jake, how close he kept me, it was as if it dawned at her then that there would be no boyfriend stealing in this particular relationship. She looked almost sad. And it occurred to me then, why all these years she’d been so horrible to me. The day Kendra announced that she and I would be great friends –as her friend rubbed her sore butt- Darva had been standing right next to Kendra. Kendra had been her best friend. I had taken that from her. And now, the one guy who she apparently really truly wanted, the one guy who probably fit her plan for herself and her future, was now my boyfriend.