by C. A. Saari
Jake, there he was. Wow, he looked like hell. Well, a really tasty hell that I wouldn’t mind spending eternity in, but hell all the same. His hair was disheveled –more so than normally- and the whites of his eyes were red. There was a bandage wrapped around the hand that held mine, his thumb skimmed my knuckle just below the IV that was tapped into the back of my hand. And I could see another bandage peeking out from his shirt sleeve.
Wait. IV?
I focused my attention on it, then realized shortly after that that we were in the clinic.
What the hell? I frowned.
“You’re okay.” Jake whispered. “Look at me baby.” I did. Did I mention I liked looking at him? Ow, why did my shoulder hurt? I opened my mouth to ask Jake, but no sound came out. My throat felt like I’d eaten sand. Scratch that, my throat felt like I’d eaten glass. I brought my hand up –the one that wasn’t sporting an IV- to touch my throat, but there was still lead in it, and the thing just sort of flopped around for a second. I focused all my attention on it, and very slowly and shaky I brought it to my throat.
“You need some water?” Jake asked. Bless him. I nodded. He reached the table behind him and got a cup with a straw and held it to my lips. I took a few sips, I guess it was probably sitting there most of the night because it was luke warm, but lordy, it was some of the best water I’d ever had. It magically soothed the cuts I’d received while eating that glass. I took a deep breath. Double OW! Note to self, deep breaths rip your shoulder apart Rem, refrain from doing so till you figure out what’s wrong with it.
“What…” Hmm, okay, so I was able to push back the glass in my throat, but now a frog had taken its place. Jake let me take another sip of water. Nope, frog was still there. Okay, I’d just talk around him. “…happened to me?” Well that was easier thought than done, that frog was pretty determined I don’t speak.
“You don’t remember?” Jake asked. He’d set the cup aside and had my hand in his again. His other hand reached out to smooth my hair back from my forehead. I shook my head. No, my handsome man, if I could remember what happened, I wouldn’t have asked. Sarcastic humor still intact. Score one for me. “We fought a large nest of demons…nearly lost…” He watched as I frowned in thought.
Nearly lost? No way. That didn’t sound like us.
But…memories did start waltzing back into my head like they belonged there. When I got to the part where Jake was on the ground, his life being sucked from him my eyes widened and I looked back to him quickly.
“You okay?” I croaked.
“Yeah baby, I’m fine. You took the brunt of it. And I’m sorry, I couldn’t get to you. I shouldn’t have left you.” He was on his feet now, he still had my hand, but he was now kissing my forehead.
“…didn’t leave me.” Well, I could be annoyed as well as sarcastic. I guess I was going to be okay. “You were fighting. We all were.” Saying so many words in a row had me feeling like I’d swallowed glass again. I tried to clear my throat but that only made it worse. Luckily, Jake was handy with the water. I remembered being stabbed in the back. Ahhh; that explained why my shoulder hurt something awful. Good to know. That must be why Jake looked like hell too, he’d probably spent the whole night with me without sleeping. I looked at him again, he was back to sitting next to the bed, rubbing his thumb over the knuckles of my hand he was holding. I smiled.
“…so beautiful.” I said, and he smiled too, a quiet laugh came from his nose.
“So are you.” I could see his throat working. Was he fighting not to cry? My big tough Jake? “I almost lost you.”
“Nah, you’re stuck with me.” Oops, sentence too big, more glass in my throat.
“Can’t think of anyone else I’d rather be stuck with.” He said softly.
“How’d we get away?”
“You don’t remember?”
I shook my head. The last thing I remember was getting stabbed in the back and watching as Jake was having his life sucked out of him.
“Ah! She lives.” Mr. Wagner strode into the room, a gentle smile on his face. His bruised face. He had a nice shiner over one eye and one around a split in his lip. “How you feeling?”
“Okay, considering.” I said.
“Yeah, you took a beating. You’re tough though, I’ll give you that.” There was nothing but affection in his eyes. See, I told you I’d win him over. “You’ve been out for a few days.”
My eyes widened. A few days?!?! How many was a few? Three, four?
“Three.” Jake answered, as if he could read my mind. “It’s Tuesday morning.”
Well that explained the glass slash frog in my throat. But three days?
“School…” Oh shit, if I didn’t show up today, they’d have called Bob!
“No, we took care of it.” Mr. Wagner explained. “We didn’t know how long you’d be out, or how long you’d need to recover from your…light experience. So we came up with an excuse that would give you a couple weeks at least. You, my sweet, have contracted a bad case of mono.”
I had to chuckle at that.
“Yes. Your physician called the school personally to let them know you’d be out for an undetermined amount of time, and since I can’t seem to force Jake here to leave your side, you unfortunately gave it to him, so he will be out as well. But don’t think it’s going to be a vacation, I’ll be picking your homework up for you every couple days. Don’t need you two falling behind.”
I smiled again, he really was a good man.
Wait. Go back. Light experience? What did that mean? I had to ask.
“She doesn’t remember?” Mr. Wagner’s gaze flicked to his son. Jake simply shook his head, kept his eyes on me. Mr. Wagner looked back to me again, “Do you remember what the attack was like?”
I nodded.
“Yeah, they seemed organized. Like they’d planned it.”
Mr. Wagner nodded, thoughtfully.
“We didn’t know they could do that.” Now he turned that thoughtful gaze on me. “But…you took them all out. You don’t remember any of that?”
I took them all out? All of them? How badass was that? But now that he mentioned it…I remembered the attack on Jake. I looked to his face, he watched me closely, but didn’t press or say a word. I knew he was just going to sit back and let me work this through in my head, even if it took me all week. It wouldn’t take all week though. It’d only take a few seconds. Because the moment I started to feel that anger deep inside again, I remembered. I’d been angry over the demons trying to take Jake’s light. I’d been desperate for them not to. So very desperate. Desperate to save him, to have more time with him…so that was the “light experience” Mr. Wagner was talking about.
“You remember.” Jake whispered. I nodded.
“Do you know how it happened?” Mr. Wagner asked gently. I was careful with my deep breath, my shoulder thanked me.
“I don’t know exactly how. I remember seeing…” I looked to Jake. Did I say that Jake caused it? Or would that embarrass him? Would it upset everyone else to know I’d hadn’t been thinking about them at all? Ooo, everyone else. “How is everyone else?” I asked.
“They’re fine. Some patches and good rest, and they’re nearly as good as new.” Jake smiled.
“Remi.” Mr. Wagner said, drawing my attention again. “How did you happen?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know for sure.” I said. “It was an emotion, I think. I saw…” Jake. “…everyone possibly dying and I didn’t want that.” I looked pointedly at Jake, he squeezed my hand. “And it just kind of came out.”
“We’ve never seen, or heard of, anything like it.” Mr. Wagner’s voice was still filled with amazement at the memory. “I mean, you probably took out every demon within a mile radius.”
“Awesome.” I said. Jake chuckled. It truly was awesome.
“Well, I guess we can safely say without a doubt now; you are the one.”
“Awesome.” I said again, but this time it truly wasn’t awesome. Jake chuckled a
gain. He smoothed back the hair at my forehead and watched me with affection that I could literally feel.
“Alright. We can talk about this some other time.” Mr. Wagner said. I could have hugged him. I was getting pretty tired. “Get some sleep. Jake, let her.”
“I know dad.”
Mr. Wagner touched his sons shoulder before leaving the room.
“Can I crawl up there with you?” Jake asked.
“I’d be heartbroken if you didn’t.” I said. But I couldn’t scoot over, not only because my body still felt like it had a fair amount of lead in it, but because large movements hurt my shoulder. So Jake moved me, gently, and slid in next to me.
“We’ll move you to our room tomorrow.” He said as I let my eyes drift closed.
“I don’t care where I am, as long as you’re there too.” I said on a breath. If he replied, I didn’t hear him.
Blackness greeted me again.
I woke up the next morning feeling surprisingly better. Not good, but better. Jake was sitting back in the chair next to my bed, reading a book. He smiled when I came to and set the book aside.
“Hey beautiful.” He leaned forward and touched his lips gently to mine. I’m sure I had turd breath, but he didn’t seem to mind. I wouldn’t care if he did, I missed his lips. I told him so and he in turn told me that he’d been kissing me for the past three days. I laughed. Then he handed me my phone.
“That’s been going nuts, you should answer it.”
There was message after message from Kendra, once again ranging from worry to anger back to worry again after I’d gone too long without replying. Finally there was one from this morning about my mono. I guess word was finally out.
MONO? Lol, serves u both right, suckin face 24/7. Speaking of sucking…skool sux WO u. Hit me back asap or I’m comin out there.
I text her back immediately, though I knew she’d be in first period already.
Sorry I haven’t texted. Feel like shit…sleeping a lot.
I don’t think it would have mattered what class she was in, she replied immediately, and continued to do so all day. But what surprised me was the other texts I received. I had exchanged numbers with several girls at the homecoming dance, but hadn’t really expected to hear from them, but I did. They indeed forwarded pictures and wished me a speedy recovery. Informed me that if there were any good reason to get sick, then the infamous kissing disease was the best one. I had to smile. I shot them off a few pics I had on my phone of them, and just that simple amount of activity left me feeling exhausted.
“I’m going to run out for just a while, I need a shower.” Jake told me when my eyes started to drift again. Oh, a shower. I would give anything for one of those right now. Apparently I’d been getting sponge baths, but I felt disgusting and I just knew my hair was a bird’s nest. How dare Jake rub it in my face that he could just jump up and take a shower whenever he wanted. He smiled, he must have seen my disgust.
“Stop it, you’re gorgeous, even with slightly greasy hair.” He laughed and easily dodged me as I swung out at him. “Besides, we’re setting you up in our room this afternoon, I’ll help you with a bath later.”
“Lucky me.” I whispered and drifted off.
The week passed slowly. Kendra kept in hourly touch, and Jake hung out with me as much as possible –but his dad insisted he get back into working out and training- we did homework, listened to music. He helped me bathe –that was always an exercise of self-control- and finally by Friday morning I was allowed out into the shed. I was even allowed onto the treadmill. I got to shoot, but only with my right arm, the kick of the gun made my left arm feel as if it were being ripped apart. I was pretty sure that a muscle had to have been completely shredded when I’d been stabbed because it seemed to be taking the healing progress an extremely long amount of time. But it was healing, I was feeling stronger and participating in more activities every day.
The team had changed towards me as well. I’d found out that both Quinn and Ana were just seconds away from dying, their spirits nearly ripped out of them just before my light had hit. Quinn treated me as if I were the second coming, I think he’d probably throw himself in front of a bus for me at this point. Ryan had given me an awkward hug when I entered the shed again for the first time, telling me; “You’ll do.” I had to smile at that.
Then there was Ana.
“Yeah, so…uh, thanks. I guess.” The corner of my mouth had kicked up in a smile and I guess it must have struck a nerve because she followed up her gracious thanks with; “But those demons wouldn’t have been there like that in the first place if it weren’t for you.”
Jake had hollered so viciously and loudly at her from across the shed that the rafters practically shook. Ana had hung her head sheepishly. “Sorry.” She said. “Old habits die hard.” I had laughed at that, I took no offense. And that was that. I knew she and I would never be girlfriends because I’d always have something that she’d always want, but at least now it was amicable.
I spotted –yeah right- Jake as he lifted weights. His sweat had my mouth watering. Funny, sweat should never be sexy, but when you had an insanely hot man bench pressing three hundred pounds right in front of you, yeah, sweat was damn sexy!
Mr. Wagner had called a meeting and informed us that my “abilities” would remain a secret for the time being. We still had no idea if I could control it, or even reproduce it again and he didn’t want the Home Office –which was, according to Jake who claimed to know little about them, a large group of people who kept order in our line of business- to know about me yet. The Home Office knew what each and every team was doing at all times. They placed teams in their areas, they also provided air cover for any trouble we may encounter in our daily lives due to our nightly work. In other words, they were the principle to our school, that’s how I decided to look at them. Mr. Wagner had a concern that they -or even possibly other team leaders- would want to claim my services; use my abilities. Which he was certain would be the outcome if anyone found out about me. I secretly suspected that he didn’t want to lose Jake yet, because if other teams starting calling on me, Jake would follow. And I certainly didn’t want to be fought over by other teams, “claiming” me like I was a simple tool. My team was here, and I was more than happy to stay and keep my secret. I also secretly suspected that Ana would have been more than happy to leak this information, but like Mr. Wagner, she was not willing to lose Jake. He might not be hers, but she was content to at least see his face every day.
The team went out on their scheduled hunts –I was left behind- but the demon activity had died down again. It hadn’t disappeared entirely though, the team still came home with minor cuts and bruises on a night or two. The demons certainly weren’t gone, scouting had proved that, though the nests were no longer centralized in our woods. At least not yet. Mr. Wagner was pretty sure this wasn’t a one-time thing. The demons would not give up until they had me. Now that we had established that they communicated with each other, and could plan and work together they’d become a whole new threat. A more frightening one. Protections were reinforced doubly and nighttime patrols were set up around the farm.
It was Saturday afternoon and I’d actually had a fairly good workout this morning, I was on my way up the stairs for a shower when Mr. Wagner called me back down into the library. I went and sat in a chair across from him. He tossed a yellow envelope across the desk to me, then sat back in his seat, without a single word. Curiously I picked the envelope up and looked inside. My eyes popped and I stood with a gasp, dropping the envelope back on the desk as if it were on fire. There’d been twenty one hundred dollar bills inside.
“I can’t take that!” I cried.
“It’s your pay.” He returned, calmly.
“My…what?”
Mr. Wagner chuckled. I’m sure he presented it to me this way just to see what my reaction would be, apparently it amused him.
“You get paid for doing this Remi.” He said sitting forward and pushing the enve
lope back to me. “Since this becomes our life, it becomes our job. To start, you make five hundred a week plus room and board. You get paid once a month.”
I swallowed and stared down at the envelope. I couldn’t bring myself to touch it.
“Take it Remi, you’ve earned it. Just like everyone else.”
“Is this…is this how you pay everyone?”
Mr. Wagner chuckled.
“In cash you mean? Yes. Can hardly claim taxes on demon hunting now, can we?”
I rubbed my palms on my thighs, then reached out and took the envelope. It felt completely unnatural to be holding this much money in my hand. I looked across the desk at him. He smiled.
“That’s all.”
That’s all? Seriously? Two thousand dollars handed over and he says that’s all? Well, maybe to this man two thousand dollars was no big deal. Jake had explained to me that his father came from very old money and with wise and clever investments the family fortune had ballooned over the years. Apparently Mr. Wagner had enough money to fund every hunting team in America for the next hundred years. Twice.
I’d had trouble wrapping my brain around that, so I just hadn’t. But now…my brain was working again. I was getting paid to do this. I was getting paid more than any seventeen year old I knew, to do this. I got to kill some butt ugly demons hell bent on killing the people I’ve come to love, and I got money for doing it.
Hell, I would have done it forever for free.