Colin didn’t think it was such a good idea for her to leave him alone with Jeremy, but it was too late. He tried not to look in Jeremy’s direction as he left the break room in the hunters’ headquarters as well, because one of these days, he really was going to break down and hit the guy.
That night, a small group of them drove over to White Oaks together. It was one of those neighborhoods Anna loved because the houses were architecturally impressive, usually with some sort of Southern inspiration, the lawns were always well manicured, and there was very little traffic, so it was peaceful, quiet. The kind of life Anna wished she could have.
They walked around the block where the murdered woman lived and didn’t sense the demon’s presence so they decided to walk more of the neighborhood. Anna’s friend, Jas, had come along tonight so at least Anna was in a better mood. She and Jas were chatting quietly, out of earshot of most of the group, but Colin knew what they were talking about. They were talking about him. Jas thought he was really cute but couldn’t figure out why he never seemed interested in anyone, and wanted Anna to talk to him for her. Anna was trying to change the subject. Yeah, Colin hated everything about this assignment.
They turned down another street, and Anna and Colin felt it before anyone else did. It was like that feeling some people get in the middle of the night when they wake up for no reason, terrified as if they’d had a nightmare but couldn’t remember dreaming about anything, and they look around their room feeling like something’s watching them and some may even turn a light on just to make sure. The really brave may look under the bed. Or in the closet. But that feeling that something is wrong, out of place, out of belonging in this space – that was what Anna and Colin always felt first. That’s when they always knew one was near. Something was out of place. Out of belonging in this world.
“Anna, it’s behind you!” Colin suddenly realized.
Anna spun around in time to see the mustard yellow form leap down from a roof toward her. They could move so damn quickly. It fell on her and Colin knew she had her knife drawn and pressed against the side of her forearm. She shoved it as hard as she could against the creature’s chest but it was still trying to claw at her. Colin reached her and dug his knife into the beast’s back; it sat up and leered at him with golden yellow eyes of fire.
It smelled as repugnant as any other demon, always reeking of rot and death and some cross between manure and sour mulch. Jas still gagged. Colin and Anna had gotten used to it, as much as a person can. But Jas was trying to help, having drawn her own knife and was slicing at the thing’s leg. Colin and Jas distracted it long enough for Anna to slide out from underneath it and with Anna free, Colin finally felt like he could breathe again.
Jeremy and the other hunter, Max, an older man approaching forty who was slightly out of shape but good with handheld weapons, finally reached them. They could all sense the presence of demons, too, but not as strongly as Anna and Colin, so sometimes, it took them awhile to catch on that something had happened. The jaundiced yellow demon noticed the others approaching and started growing. When it had jumped on Anna, it had been the size of a small ape; as the hunters backed away from it, forming a circle around it to try to keep it from running, it kept swelling like a wet sponge. Jeremy glanced uncertainly toward Colin.
“Should we try to kill it now?”
Colin didn’t take his eyes off of it. It was expending a lot of energy to make itself look more threatening, hoping to scare them off. Colin shook his head. “No, it’s a lesser demon. He has a limited supply of energy. Let him use some up.”
It was almost as tall as the house it had been hiding on now. And Anna was getting nervous. “Colin, do you feel that? It’s not really weaker.”
Colin felt it, but it didn’t make any sense. They had fought these kinds of demons before. They were like cobras that expanded folds of skin to make themselves look bigger but unlike animals, it had always used up some of their power and made them easier to kill in the end. How was this demon doing this?
“It’s something else,” Anna said. And now she was scared. This wasn’t a lesser demon they had stumbled onto, some easily replaceable minion of Hell. This was a greater demon that had somehow been able to disguise itself from them – even from Colin and Anna, which should have been impossible.
“Holy shit,” Colin mumbled. But it was too late. They were here, and this demon was pissed.
“Everybody, back up!” Colin shouted, but the beast’s shiny yellow eyes, like giant cat’s eye marbles, were fixed on Colin. “Anna, DON’T!”
But Anna ran toward the demon and as it swept its arm out to knock her away – which probably would have knocked her all the way to the Amite River – she slid underneath its arm and landed by its ankle, or where its ankle would have been. Anna dug her knife in with both hands and pulled it toward her. Colin had known what she was about to do and tried to distract it but Anna had moved first, so it didn’t notice Colin until his knife pierced into its … knee? … and like Anna, he dragged his knife through as much of the demon’s body as he could. Leaving long, gaping wounds like that was the only way to kill a demon. It allowed the energy within to leak out and vaporize.
While the demon in the forest had been unbelievably hot, like battling a moving furnace – a really ugly, smelly furnace – this one was cold. As Colin dug his knife in again, dodging another blow from the demon’s fist, he could feel it rushing out: like cold air from a freezer or standing in the swirling wind of a blizzard. The others were all stabbing, slicing, dragging their knives through its body and with a slithery hissing sound, the demon’s energy was slowly escaping. But it was so damn strong.
It grabbed Jas and was about to throw her against the side of the house, but Anna leaped onto its arm and dug into it, slicing, hissing, leaking. Anna was shaken to the ground with a nauseating thud. Colin felt like his heart had burst through his chest. She was in pain, but she was ok. Colin gored the demon again to keep it away from Anna while she got back on her feet.
Max had been knocked against a tree and still seemed dazed; he probably had a concussion. The colossal ochre beast had turned its attention back toward Jas, obviously singling out the weakest in the group first, and this time, Anna wasn’t fast enough to stop it. It reached out with one of its long arms and grabbed Jas then hurled her through the air. Colin couldn’t see where she landed. He could, however, feel the agony and anger welling up within Anna.
Jas had been her only real friend here. She had made her lonely existence in Baton Rouge bearable by having someone to talk to, someone to get drinks with and go shopping with, and have some kind of life outside of hunting semi-immortal creatures of Hell. And this semi-immortal creature of Hell had just taken Jas, the only friend in this city she hated, away from her.
Again, he knew what she was going to do as soon as she decided to do it, and he tried to stop her, but he couldn’t. “NO!” It was the only thought he had time for. Anna threw herself at the demon, not at its ankle or leg this time, but at its abdomen where she could reach more of its body to allow greater tears for more energy to release. Colin was right behind her, trying to pull her away with one arm while hacking at the demon that refused to wear down. There were only three of them now. And this thing didn’t seem that tired.
Anna pushed Colin away. She had no intention of backing off. But the demon’s citrine eyes were fixed on her; its hands were useless with three hunters hacking at them, but its mouth was free. Colin saw it bending toward her and knew what it was about to do. He threw himself at Anna and they toppled out of the demon’s reach, rolling away from the seeping cold wounds, still hissing like a tire with a slow leak.
“Stay. HERE.” Colin ordered her then rushed back to Jeremy to help him. Jeremy was about to get thrown against the asphalt of the street when Colin reached the beast’s arm and cut through it, letting a rapid rush of arctic wind blow past him. Jeremy fell to the ground. Colin had finally gotten a good injury on this bastard; he was going to start g
etting weaker now. Jeremy got back on his feet, shaky but not willing to leave Colin alone, and attacked the other leg, trying different angles with his blade, different areas on the demon’s body, different lengths of openings. He finally found a combination that worked.
It must have seemed that the whole thing had taken hours, but only a few minutes had passed since the small ape-like demon had jumped on top of Anna to the time Colin and Jeremy finished killing it. And when Colin was sure the thing was finally dead, he turned around to look at Anna. She had listened: she hadn’t moved, but he had never seen so much anger in her eyes.
Chapter 3
It took them over two hours to find Jas’s body. Anna had only known her for two months, but she had still been the only friend she’d had here. Jas had given her a sense of normalcy, a feeling of belonging in a city she otherwise felt unwelcomed in. And Jas had one of the most generous and forgiving spirits of anyone she’d ever known. How the hell had this happened? How could the hunters, especially Colin and her, have not known what they had walked into? Jas shouldn’t be dead. She couldn’t be dead. Anna wouldn’t even believe it until she finally saw her body in a drainage canal.
They had called the cops, waited until her body had been retrieved from the shallow water and brought away, before anyone was even willing to speak about what had happened. Anna still wouldn’t meet Colin’s eyes even though he kept silently begging her to. She ignored him. Who was this man that had ordered her to stay out of the fight with this demon? This wasn’t Colin. Sometimes, she thought she hardly recognized him anymore.
“Colin,” Jeremy’s voice was low, weary. Jas’s death had taken an enormous toll on everyone. This group of hunters here had never lost anyone before. “You can get Anna home? I’d better get Max checked out.”
Before Colin could answer, Anna cut him off, “I can get myself home. And I’m taking tomorrow off. Don’t call me unless it’s an emergency.”
Anna started walking away from them but she knew Colin was right behind her. Even if she hadn’t heard him, she would have known; even without the telepathy, she would have known he’d follow her. “Anna, come on, you can’t walk home, that’s over ten miles from here.”
“Oh? Is there anything else you’d like to tell me I can’t do tonight?” Anna knew Colin had been trying to protect her, but he was always trying to protect her lately, always trying to take on the world himself, and being treated like she was a Faberge egg all the time got a little tiring.
“Is that was this is about?” His accent was thicker again, reminding her of the boy she had known so long ago. “Anna, you were already hurt, you’re still limping, I was just trying to …”
“I know! You were just trying to protect me. Well, you can stop.” Anna didn’t even know what she was saying anymore. Her grief over losing Jas, the agony of this entire assignment, it was all too much. She was sick of all of it. She wanted out. And there was no way out for her and Colin. Not for a very long time.
Anna started walking again, even though Colin was right. Her ankle did hurt. “Anna, if you insist on walking, I’ll follow you. Or you can just let me drive you, which would be a hell of a lot easier for us both.”
Anna stopped and spun around, and Colin almost ran into her. “I don’t know what’s happened to you, Colin Aedan O’Conner, but you’ve changed. And I don’t like it.”
Anna could feel the effect her words had on him. She knew she should be sorry, but she was too hurt, too tired and sad and scared and lonesome to care tonight.
“All right, Anna,” he said softly, “just let me take you home. I promise, no talking. Not even silently.”
There was so much love and concern and gentleness in his eyes, she couldn’t argue, and she knew Colin. If he promised her something, he would do it. He drove her home in silence, not even letting himself think about what she’d told him so his thoughts wouldn’t bother her. Anna tried not to cry around him anymore, but tonight she couldn’t help it. She cried the entire ride home.
That night, she had such a strange dream. It was one of those dreams that blended reality with fantasy and logic with nonsense. But maybe all dreams are like that. She and Colin were in Russia where a vicious war between the Bolshevik Red Army and the anti-Bolshevik White Army was only prolonging the Russians’ long years of suffering and privation from the war the imperial army had just fought with Germany. Disease and death were everywhere around them. But demons love human misery, and Europe had created a tsunami of suffering.
They chased a demon through the streets of Petrograd, and as Anna rounded a building, she lost sight of the jade silhouette she’d been following. But she almost ran into Jas. Anna froze in the street and stared at her friend, uncomprehending, knowing in some part of her mind that this girl should be dead, and yet, here she stood in front of her. In her apricot sweater and blue jeans, she was a living anachronism, completely out of place in this world. Her caramel skin and radiant brown eyes showed no signs of death; Jas was in Petrograd in 1920 and was alive.
Anna approached her and reached out to touch her, convinced she was only an apparition, a ghost that would dissolve with human contact. Jas gave Anna a funny look. “Girl, what you are doing? Aren’t you supposed to be hunting that green dude that just ran down the street?”
Anna didn’t know how to talk to a ghost. She was afraid to speak, certain that no matter what she said, it would cause Jas to disappear and she desperately wanted her to stay. “Anna,” Jas tried again, “snap out of it! Colin’s on his own. Get your butt in gear and get over there!”
Anna shook her head to try to snap out of it, but that apparently only works in cartoons, and since it wasn’t really 1920, Anna could know that. At least she didn’t think it was really 1920. She wasn’t even sure anymore. “Aren’t you coming with me?” Anna finally asked, pleading with her friend so she wouldn’t lose her again.
“Can’t,” Jas replied nonchalantly, “I’m dead. Now hurry!”
And the way Jas said it made Anna realize why she needed to hurry. She cast one last regretful glance in her friend’s direction then ran.
Anna’s heart was beating so wildly when she woke up, and she felt confused and disoriented. She sat up in her bed and looked around her, gradually recognizing her antique mahogany dresser, the lilac bedspread around her. She placed herself. This was not Russia. She was in Baton Rouge. And Jas was dead.
All morning, she avoided the Internet and television because she didn’t want to see any stories about Jas’s body being found in a canal right outside the city. And she definitely didn’t want to hear if any more bodies had been found. It wasn’t always bodies, of course; sometimes, people were coerced into doing some pretty horrible things, and that was sometimes a clue something demonic was responsible. More often than not, it was just people being people, because God knows, people can be evil enough on their own.
Colin sent her a text around lunchtime and asked her if she wanted him to drop off some takeout from her favorite Chinese restaurant. She thought about not responding, but this was Colin. She couldn’t ignore him forever. She didn’t really want to, she just wanted the old Colin back. So she sent back a short no thank you and threw a frozen burrito in the microwave. If Colin knew how she was eating on her own, he would think Armageddon was about to descend upon the world. Anna just thought she was finally starting to get lazy.
By that evening, she had grown tired of staring at her apartment’s walls and decided to get dressed and find something to do to stop obsessing about Colin and Jas. She couldn’t even stay in bed all day because every time she closed her eyes, she saw Jas’s body lying on top of the water in that dark canal, broken at an impossible angle by the force of the landing after that demon had thrown her… how far? It must have been at least half a mile. There were some images she knew she would never be able to forget: that was at the top of her list.
Anna slipped on a slinky silver metallic sleeveless shirt and black pants and found her vintage 1920s silver chandelier ea
rrings. She didn’t know why she was going through the effort to look like this; she didn’t even know where was going. She just needed to get out of her apartment. She drove around downtown Baton Rouge until she spotted a bar that looked casual and laid back, with outdoor seating and the biggest attraction for her: it didn’t look overly crowded. Anna did her best imitation of parallel parking and crossed the street to have a drink.
With her dark hair pulled back and only a few loose strands caressing her creamy white shoulders, Anna felt sexy, confident, beautiful. She knew someone would try to hit on her. But she was only going to stay for one drink. And she knew how to handle herself. She didn’t need Colin hovering over her all the time. Not anymore.
She walked up to the bar and ordered a Vieux Carré, a drink she’d discovered in New Orleans a long time ago. She noticed a few guys were already checking her out, but she ignored them, tipped the bartender and took her drink outside. One of the men from inside followed her. Maybe if he didn’t turn out to be a complete asshole, he wouldn’t be bad company for one drink.
He was a cute guy, probably early 30s with sandy blonde hair and a charming smile, but Anna had always thought those were the kind of men she had to be the most careful around. Anna let him sit with her but made it clear that she was only here for one drink and wasn’t looking for anyone to go home with. Derek, at least that’s what he said his name was, held his hands up in a placating gesture, insisting he only wanted to talk to her, and Anna tried not to roll her eyes. She’d heard that one before.
But as she sipped on her cocktail, she discovered Derek wasn’t such bad company after all; he was actually quite funny and genuinely charming and he had at least gotten her mind off of Colin and Jas. When she finished her drink, Derek immediately offered to buy her another one and Anna thought about it for a moment – she did have to drive herself home. Drinking another cocktail wouldn’t be a good idea. She was about to tell him no when her phone went off. Someone had texted her. It was Colin.
The Immortals Page 2