by C. A. Saari
“We gotta head back to the party.” He said peeling out of the parking lot.
“Jake!” I exclaimed.
“Listen.” He said before I could protest any further. “We have to get my truck and get out to the farm. We’ve led the demons away from the party and you’ve seen what happens to them when they cross the boarders, if you’re not there, they won’t cross again. The people at the party are safe, but I don’t know if that’s true out at the farm.”
I nodded. “Okay.” I’d trust him. If he said the partygoers were safe now, then they were safe.
We parked just down the street from Dane’s driveway. Jake said the police would find the truck and just figure it had been taken for a joyride. He did lock it when we left it though, no reason it should actually be taken for a joyride. We kept low as we made our way back to his truck –which he always strategically parked for a quick exit, it didn’t matter where we went, he was always looking for the best way out- and climbed in, he didn’t turn his headlights on until we were away from the house, and he didn’t start speeding until we were out of town.
“Reach back and get our stuff, we should be prepared in case we walk into something at home.”
So I did. I loaded our clips into our guns, put extra in my pockets. I pulled knife belts from the hollowed out seat and looped one around Jake while he drove, but waited until we were close to home before filling it with blades –he was driving extremely fast, if we were to get pulled over how would he explain a belt full of knives to a police officer? Then I put mine on and had our guns on the ready, safeties already off as we pulled into the driveway.
And into chaos.
The farm was overrun with demons. There was gunfire coming from the windows of the house, Jake hit the gas and mowed down as many of the beasts as he could before we skidded to a stop in front of the house. He jumped from the truck.
“Dad!” He yelled.
“Get to the shed.” Mr. Wagner called back to him from a window. “We’re running low on ammo.”
“Come on!” Jake shouted at me, we ran, shooting as we went. As we rounded the house I was hit; knocked down by a demon, whether on purpose or just bad luck, I wasn’t sure, but I went down hard, my gun fell from my grasp and bounced several feet away. I got up as far as my knees before the demon had me by the foot, I turned and kicked it in the face several times, but it was determined. I let it advance up my leg slightly before I brought my other leg around its neck and used the pressure of both legs to twist and snap its neck. I scrambled on my hands and knees to my gun then rolled, and with a gun in both hands I shot as a second and third demon loomed above me, rolled again to avoid the ooze and jumped to my feet.
“Jake!” I called. I couldn’t see him. I popped off a couple more shots and went back around the house, Jake was hand to hand at the moment, slashing with knives in both hands.
“Get the ammo Remi.” He called back. And once again, I was running. I keyed the code into the shed and didn’t even hit the lights, I knew this place blind. I grabbed a duffle bag and filled it with as much ammo as it would hold and hauled it back out of the barn. The weight was a lot to bear, my movements were hindered and I wasn’t going to be running anywhere very fast. I kept my gun out in front of me, picking off demons as I went. Jake came around and hefted the bag from me I covered him as we made our way back to the house.
As if it were by design –it was frightening that the demons seemed to know exactly how to hit us- they had the house surrounded, and every time we picked one off, two took its place.
“We can’t get in.” I hissed, turning my back against Jake’s to keep the oncoming horde off our backs. Jake swore loudly and dropped the bag. “Dad.” He shouted and waited for his dad to acknowledge. “We can’t get in. They’ve blocked the house.”
His dad swore just as loudly, because of the porch, the team inside couldn’t get shots at the demons closest to the doors. Mr. Wagner then asked if we could make a hole.
“No.” Jake replied, as he turned his gun on a demon trying to sneak in on a blind spot. “We don’t have enough fire power down here.”
“Alright, come around to the back, we’ll cover you from a window there, if you can get them off the door there, we can keep them off your backs.”
So we made our way to the other side of the house. And we saw where the demons were coming from, just waltzing in as they pleased.
“Shit.” Jake hissed. “There’s no protections back here anymore.”
“Jake!” I cried. He turned to me, to the direction I faced and before he could join me, my shots we were overrun and they took us down. Our guns couldn’t even help us, and there were so many we couldn’t reach for knives. I was on my back, I felt my arms being pressed into the grass, holding me down. “Jake!” I screamed again. I heard him call back to me, but I couldn’t see him, I was covered in demons. I heard Jake growl out a shout in pain. “Jake!” I screamed again as a mouth yawned over me. I heard nothing back from Jake and my panic skyrocketed. “Jake, please!” Please say something, but I heard nothing. Oh my God, had they gotten him? “Get off!” I screamed and I tried to raise my arms to shove at the demon on top of me. It disintegrated. I gasped and brought my hands up. They were glowing blue. “Oh thank you God!” I cried and began reaching out and touching every demon around me. I found Jake with a demon over him, he hadn’t yet pulled his spirit from is body, but it did have its claws sunk into his ribs. I reached out and pushed it away. It turned to ash.
“Jake?” I said and rolled him to his back. The moment my hands touched him, he gasped, his eyes shot open.
“Remi! Are you okay?”
“I’m okay. Are you okay?” I ripped his shirt back, he had four neat puncture wounds between his ribs bones. “Can you stand?”
“Yeah, I’m okay. It didn’t hit anything vital.” I helped him stand, his eyes widened as he looked at me. “Rem, your hands.”
They were still glowing.
“It’s you.” I whispered. “You make it work.” I looked up at him and he frowned his question. “Both times now, this has happened because I thought you were about to die.”
Jake opened his mouth to say something but then we heard a great shout.
“Hit the deck!” A voice boomed.
So instead, Jake grabbed me and pulled me back to the ground. A hail of gunfire burst around us from what seemed to be an automatic weapon of some kind. Demons fell or ran, I reached out and touched as many as I could as they passed us in their race for the safety of the woods.
Soon, it was quiet again, as if nothing had happened. It was almost eerie.
“You guys okay?” A gruff voice asked.
Jake and I looked up.
“Mick. Good to see you.” Jake said.
“Yeah.” Then he turned his attention to me and my fading blue hands. “Well, this is interesting.”
I stood next to Jake as Maria patched up the wounds in his ribs. He leaned over to kiss my worried lips, but Maria scolded him for moving so much. He chuckled at her and held my hand instead. Mr. Wagner and Mick and several of each team’s members were out reinforcing the protections again, Mr. Wagner suspected that the rain from the night before had washed away the line in several areas. They joined us in the kitchen when they were finished, Ana handed out bottles of water.
Mick’s team was made up of five others besides himself. Two women and three guys. Not unlike my team. Sarah was an older woman –well, older compared to me- in her thirties maybe, she was very butch. Her body thick and wide with muscle, but she had a head of long auburn locks that should have belonged to someone far more feminine than she. The second, Cora was a little pixie of a thing, right down to her super short spiky blond and pink hair. She was just as small as I was and probably a good three inches shorter. And she watched with entirely too much interest as Jake pulled a fresh shirt down over his impressive abs –I told myself if I continued to get jealous every time a girl looked at Jake like that eventually I’d actually turn green.
She looked to be around our age, but I knew Mick’s team didn’t have teenagers, so she was in her early twenties somewhere. Two of the guys, Wally and Shane looked similar, even though they weren’t brothers. Both in their late twenties with big arms, noses with bumps from being broken a time or two, brown hair, though one had mischievous green eyes while the other had cold brown ones.
The third guy, Jason, probably in his mid-twenties, was impressive. He was tall and slender, shaped similar to Jake without the impressive muscles –well, without muscles as impressive as Jake’s, but he certainly had some- I assumed he was built for speed. His black hair was short and spiked in the front. His strong jaw was covered in a five o’clock shadow and his eyes –nearly as dark as his hair- watched Jake and I curiously.
It made me wonder how, exactly, we looked to people. We were clearly attached at the hip, but I wondered what else others saw.
We learned that Mr. Wagner had called Mick’s team for assistance –but as they were hunting in town, they didn’t make it until after Jake and I had shown up- I could tell Jake was upset over the fact that his father hadn’t called him for backup. I knew Mr. Wagner had taken a card from Jake’s deck, he’d thought to keep his son safe and tucked away at the Halloween party. Little did he know we’d be attacked there as well. Jake muttered something about him knowing if he’d answered his phone.
“They were pushing through the protections.” Jake explained, taking up a stance behind and around me where I sat at the island. I could feel his chest bump my shoulder as he spoke.
“I think they figured out the rain had weakened our lines here and we hadn’t gotten reinforcements up yet, we’d been so busy getting them up around town.” Mr. Wagner sounded as if he blamed himself.
“Why are we not talking about this girl here?” Mick said, nodding his head in my direction. He stood in a defensive stance, his feet placed apart, his arms crossed over his chest. He stood near his team, most of who were seated at the kitchen table. Except for Jason, who stood doing Jake’s leaning thing against the back door. He cocked his head curiously as he watched Jake lean into my ear.
“Don’t say a word. Let dad do the talking.” Jake whispered. I nodded. I wasn’t sure what I’d say anyway.
“We don’t know what there is to talk about yet.” Mr. Wagner said vaguely.
“Oh, come on now. Don’t bullshit a bullshiter. You came to me a month or so ago asking questions about the one. Is she the reason?”
She had a name. I thought sarcastically.
Mr. Wagner sighed.
“We don’t know what we’re dealing with here, and until we do, we’d appreciate it if this stayed between us.”
Mick frowned.
“The home office would know what to do. Why haven’t you contacted them?”
“No.” Mr. Wagner shook his head. “We can’t do that yet. If they come for her, I lose two of my team.”
“Two?”
Mr. Wagner turned his head to look over his shoulder, though he didn’t look directly at Jake and I his motion made his meaning clear. Jake scowled and leaned protectively against me when every pair of eyes zeroed in on us.
“Besides, Remi’s a minor. If the home office were to take her, the school would investigate her absence, their investigation would lead them pretty quickly to Jake and that in turn would lead them to us. We don’t need that kind of attention.” Again.
“How long have you known about her? Like I said, you were asking questions over a month ago.”
“I had my suspicions then, but what you saw tonight, that’s a recent development.”
Mick scratched his head and heaved a hefty sigh.
“I can’t say that I agree with what you’re doing David, but, you’re the only person I trust, so if you say you need time, then alright, you’ve got it. My team won’t call it in.”
I felt Jake relax next to me.
“Thank you Mick.” Mr. Wagner said, his voice was as relieved as Jake felt.
“Have you had this many problems with the demons since she came?”
“Since Remi came?” Jake asked, obviously just as offended by my being referred to as she and her as I was. Mr. Wagner shot him a look, but said nothing and Mick only nodded.
“Yes and no.” Mr. Wagner responded, Jake had apparently said what he needed to. “We’ve had a slow month, just as you’ve had. But the hunt that day you and I scouted those nests in my back yard was big. Bigger than any attack we’ve ever dealt with. They seem to be coordinating attacks, something we weren’t even aware they could do.”
Mick shook his head.
“This is why I think you should contact the home office. This is big, if the demons keep congregating in your back yard, breaking through your protections just to get to…Remi” Mick’s eyes flicked to Jake momentarily before he resumed speaking –and I hid my smile. “You’re always going to be in constant danger, always going to be battling in your back yard, what good is that doing anyone else?”
“It does a lot of good.” I was shocked when Ana stepped forward. “If they congregate in our backyard then they’re out of Webber. Town’s never been safer.”
She wasn’t wrong. As much as I hated to think of stepping outside every night to shoot from our back porch. Home was supposed to be safe –so I have heard.
“Eventually,” Jason said in a low tone, drawing everyone’s attention. He was still leaning against the back door and I wish he wouldn’t, that was Jake’s thing. “They’re going to get hungry while they’re waiting in your back yard to get their hands on her.” Here we go again, back to being her or she. I narrowed my eyes at Jason, but I was pretty sure he didn’t care. “They’ll fall on the town like never before just to get their strength back up only to come out here and wait for you again.” His eyes bore into mine at that last, I leaned back into Jake uncomfortable with the way he was looking at me.
Mr. Wagner shook his head.
“We keep the protections up and you continue to hunt in town, like always. Nothing changes.”
“Everything’s changed.” Miss Pixie scoffed.
“You know what?” I finally stood from my stool and stepped forward. Jake grabbed my hand, but didn’t stop me. “You can stand around here and talk about me like I’m just a thing. It’s so easy to do when it doesn’t affect you personally. But I am a person, I’m a teammate, and believe it or not I have an opinion. This is my life you’re talking about here, and if it’s all the same to you, I’d like it to remain mine. So, when I’m ready for,” And then I said it, it sounded foreign on my tongue, but I needed to show that this team was united. All of us. “David to call the home office, then he’ll call the home office. But until then, I’m not ready to quit school and possibly ship myself off to location after location for the rest of my life because certain teams can’t get a handle on their demons.”
Jake stepped up next to me.
“Since it’s Remi’s life we’re talking about here, I think she should be the one to decide who to call and when. And only her.”
“You think so?” Miss Pixie asked, sweet as pie. “Well I don’t think that something that affects all of us should be left up to a teenager with a crush that she’s obviously going to put first.”
“How does this affect you?” Jake asked her. Pixie eyed him up and down, slowly and deliberately. I knew it was meant to make him uncomfortable, but Jake simply raised that one awesome eyebrow and waited her out. She eventually looked away, poor little fairy, she obviously didn’t know Jake very well.
“Alright.” Mick said, finally stepping in. “We’ll let you take the lead on this David, but you know we can’t keep this a secret forever, so you better figure out whatever it is you need to figure out.”
Mr. Wagner –yes, I was back to that- nodded. Mick rounded up his crew. The sun would be rising soon and we all needed to get some rest. On their way out Jason stopped in front of me, stared at me for a time.
“I’m Jason, by the way.” He finally said and held his hand out. I loo
ked at it, debated whether to shake it or not, but Jake beat me to it. He gave Jason’s hand a single pump and dropped it.
“Glad we all know each other now.” Jake said. Jason chuckled and threw me a smile that was clearly meant to be private, yet not.
“Be seeing you.” He said and followed his team out.
I took a deep breath and looked up at Jake.
“Wow. That is a…confident group of people.” I muttered almost breathlessly.
“Bunch of assholes.” Jake muttered, watching Jason’s back until he couldn’t see him anymore. “They’ve been doing this so long they think they’re pretty hot shit. Mick’s been the team leader of the only team here for nearly fifteen years, we show up a year ago and they think we’re rookies.”
“Well, technically, I am a rookie.” I reminded him. He looked down at me and smiled.
“Bet you’re still a better shot than any one of them.”
I pretended to smile shyly.
“You’re just saying that ‘cause you like me.”
“And I’m really trying to get into your pants.”
“These aren’t my pants.” I teased. Jake’s eyes widened in mock horror.
“Then we should get them off you, ASAP.”
I squealed in delight as Jake chased me from the kitchen up the stairs, ignoring everyone else around us. I really loved that no matter what our day was like, or how many injuries we suffered, or the conflict currently going on around us, Jake always wanted to finish the day out with me. Being with me was the last thing he thought of every day.
And being with him was how I wanted to finish all my days.
14
I stuck my ear buds in my ears and set my treadmill to walk. It was early the next morning, Ana and Ryan were working out with me, everyone was tired and in fairly testy moods. Plus it was cold, the cool crispness of October fall was quickly turning into a bitter cold November. Gone were the workout shorts and sports bras. Now we all sported gym pants and long sleeves tees. The cold didn’t help the gloomy mood any.