Demons: A Hunter's Novel, Book 1

by Felicite Lilly

  Anie turned and stomped up the staircase. I looked down to make sure there wasn’t a herd of ants she was trying to kill. There wasn’t so I let it go. I was pumped to finally get up to the second floor.

  Her tailor shop was in the basement, and I thought for sure that is where she was going to have me sleeping. Her first floor held the kitchen, her dining room, her living room, a bathroom and the porch. I had seen all of those things. We’d been friends since we were kids, but in all the time she’d lived here she had never let me upstairs. She said she wasn’t ready to share her upstairs with anyone.

  After she was changed she refused to even consider letting anyone up there, saying that it was as close to heaven as she was ever going to get. She had become so weird about it I didn’t want to intrude on her personal space and stopped asking. Of course I didn’t have any personal space of my own anymore so I could definitely understand where she was coming from.

  There was a little sitting area next to a window at the top of the stairs. It was nice with two big overstuffed chairs and a table with books and magazines on it. Every other door, which there were six, not that I was counting or anything, was closed. Not even a hint of what was behind the doors. The only things I could see were the paintings on the walls. They were nondescript splashes of brightly colored paint in frames all down the walls.

  She stopped at the first door after the sitting area on the left hand side. She swung it open and motioned me in.

  “This is your stop.”

  It was actually very cozy. It had a queen sized bed with a comforter in dark blue and green and three floor to ceiling windows. I cocked an eyebrow at her and looked at the windows and back to her. Windows normally didn’t bother me, but with a crazy pyromaniac and every other supe tracking me I needed to feel secure. Having everyone be able to see in on me wasn’t my idea of safe. I also didn’t want everyone seeing my girly bits.

  “No one can see in Laney. I had a friend of mine come in and block it with a spell. The windows can’t even be broken. So don’t get stuck in here. If there’s an emergency for any reason the window next to the sitting area is breakable.” The way Anie said it was breakable made it sound like it may be breakable. Like maybe I’d have to get some armor piercing rounds in the near future.

  I had a gun. A lot of things could be killed by a gun, and if not, definitely maimed. Just because I was a Hunter and tried to kill things with my blades, didn’t mean I was stupid. A gun was a gun no matter what type of creature you were.

  I threw down my bag of weapons that now also contained the few articles of clothing I still owned. Unfortunately, one of the only articles of clothing I had grabbed was a tank corset in black lace. I had taken it in case I had to do any undercover recon or I just felt like going out. Looking back now, I should have picked up more of my jeans and pants. As it was, I had black t-shirts, the corset and the pair of jeans I was wearing.

  Oh well, an excuse to get out of Anie’s house to go shopping. And, she’d have to go with me. Knowing her though, she’d probably end up trying to make me pants and jeans to keep me in. Honestly, I don’t think I’d mind that either. I bet she would make me one sweet ass pair of pants.

  “Considering everything I’ve lost, I don’t suppose you’d be willing to help me out with some clothes would you? We could go shopping but –” Anie put her hand up.

  “Fine. I’ll make you some stuff. But you’re paying me.”

  I waited a minute because I knew she’d take pity even though she was pissed at me. She always was a softy when it came to a person in need. “At least half of it!”

  “Done. Can I tell you what I want or are you just going to surprise me?”

  She smiled like the cat that caught the canary. I loved her sense of style and I was hoping that she wouldn’t take this opportunity to have any sort of revenge on me for the little pranks I had played on her over the years.

  “I know your size.” Great. Surprise it would be.

  I looked out the window and before I could turn back around the door was closed. Anie didn’t tell me where she’d be, but her house couldn’t be that big. I should be able to find her. Come to think of it, she didn’t tell me where her bedroom was either. She was closed off, I just didn’t realize how closed off. I was worried about her. The way she isolated herself couldn’t be healthy. In fact, I knew it wasn’t.

  Those were all things we could move through after all the other shit. Right now we had a steaming pile in front of us. All we had to do was figure out how to dig in.

  I unloaded my weapons and stored them all over the room and put a few extra on my person. Call me paranoid…no, you really could, because I was. There was no way I was going to be unprotected. My house had been warded by Hunters and look what happened. But Anie, being in with the supes now, may be better protected than I was. I was hoping.

  I needed to talk to her about putting up Azrael’s sign. After about twenty minutes of getting everything sorted through I went out into the hall. Anie was sitting quietly reading in her overstuffed chair.

  She was reading a book called Hard Bitten by Chloe Neill. There was a dark haired curvy, good looking girl wielding a katana on the front of it. I liked it already.

  “What’re you reading?”

  “What’s it look like?”

  “What kind of book is it, smartass?”

  “Fiction. How humans perceive Vamps. There is some truth to it, but I read it for the love story. If I ever had a kid, and it was a boy, I’d call him Ethan.”

  I had no idea what she was talking about, but she was obviously really into what she was reading. Everything I was seeing of my friend now was telling me she was a softy. What the hell? She was always such a badass when we were together. I knew she had a soft side when it came to someone in need. I thought it was because before she became a Hunter she had been on the streets, alone and always in need. In need of food, clean clothes, a shower, a place to sleep.

  The Hunters didn’t normally bring people in off the street, but when my Father had found her she was young enough and desperate enough that he knew she’d be a good Hunter. He was right. But she was an even better person. She wasn’t as jaded as I had originally thought and I was glad for her. I didn’t want people to be like me. I hope she stayed that way.

  “So, you want to try and figure out what happened at my house?” She huffed out a breath, put her book mark in the book and placed it back on the table.

  “I have a guy I can ask.”

  Well, that was easy.

  “What are we waiting for? Let’s go.”

  “He has to come to us.” Fuck. She was going to ask a Fey. A goddamn Fairy. And if it was the one I was thinking of, it was not going to be a fun conversation. “It’s Kai.” Yep. Son of a bitch.

  This Fairy was a pain in the ass. He was as slippery as they came. His name meant “the keeper of the keys”. He was supposed to have almost any answer when asked correctly. He was known for it, but only if you asked the right question in the proper way. He was deceitful and that was clear from his track record with me.

  The first time I had met him and had the opportunity to ask him a question I asked “Where is the Vamp nest?” I had assumed Kai knew we were looking for the Vamp nest that had been killing the local children in the area when I asked him the question, thinking he would know I was asking for the nearest one. It was truly the definition of what assuming does to someone – it makes an ass out of u and me. He transported me to a nest of Vamps in Alaska.

  When he dropped me in the beautiful house, it was night time so all of the Vamps were awake. Many, however, were in other places instead of their home, their nest. For that one minor thing I was thankful. Because if he had dropped me when they had all been there, I would have been a very pissed off, very dead Hunter. Luckily, there was only a couple I had to kill, because they wouldn’t listen to me about how I had gotten there, before getting out of the house.

  By the time I got back to Miami, I was filled with ire and
ready to kill him. Unfortunately you only got one question per person per week so I couldn’t summon him for a week – even though I had tried to get every other Hunter I knew to summon him for me. When I did, he didn’t show up and simply sent a note instead that said he knew I didn’t have a real question and that next time I should “have better form”.

  I had seen the little twit over the years. We had needed his help on occasion because we couldn’t find something or someone and we needed it/them quickly. I had wanted to kick his ass from the first question I asked him and usually threw a comment or two his way, but always made sure I didn’t push him too far. We needed him, and he knew it.

  Even though I hated that little son of a bitch, I had to give it to him, he knew his shit. He knew about things that we could only ever guess at. He said it was because he had been around so long. I had tried to get him to tell me how long he’d been around for and he simply laughed and said before there were such things as Hunters. And as far as I knew Hunters had been around since B.C… A little scary.

  “Did you already cast the thread?”

  Casting the Thread was a fancy way of saying knocking on the fairies door. If you wanted a certain Fairy you had to cast a spell and then ask for the Fairy by name. If you didn’t care which one came you simply left the spell open. That would be a very stupid thing to do, however. Leaving the spell open allows for more than one and they tend to gang up on you. Of course, Kai didn’t need help ganging up on you.

  “Yes. I did it before the meeting.”

  “Before the meeting? Why before the meeting? How’d you know we’d need him?” My voice was slowly elevating.

  “Because the guy that hired me to keep you safe told me to summon Kai before the meeting.”

  Az knew the meeting was going to turn bad, obviously, and he knew that I was going to need help figuring out what was going on. But what if it wasn’t Az? I needed to talk to him.

  “Anie, can I ask a favor?”

  “Depends.”

  “Is there any way I can put up a symbol on your house?”

  “Depends.”

  “He’s a friend of mine that’s trying to help me. I know what it’s going to look like but he’s actually on my side.”

  “Let me see it.” She held her hand out to me. I pulled the piece of paper from my pocket that had Az’s symbol etched in blood. She saw it and frowned. Her eyes widened a little then and she threw the paper on the table.

  “How do you know him?” She asked, squinting her eyes at me. I knew she wouldn’t take it well.

  “I told you he’s a friend.”

  “It’s already up.” What?! Okay, I needed to take a breath. Don’t jump to conclusions.

  “How do you know him?”

  “He’s a friend.”

  Oh. My. God. She’d fucked him. I could tell by the look on her face. Or they still were. There’s no question in my mind as to what kind of friend he would be to Anie.

  I was suddenly very, very pissed off. I wanted out of the house. I knew we weren’t together. Hell, I had screwed a ton of guys in the six months he had been absent in my life. I knew that logically, but emotionally I was on a rage bender. And it was because this was my friend. It was yet another page in the book of shit I didn’t want to deal with. And I wanted to punch Az directly in his junk.

  I stood up without a word.

  “Where’re you going?” Anie asked my back.

  I was running down the stairs. I wanted to run out of the house. I was upset and that’s what I did – I worked off extra energy by running, doing blade exercises or fucking. But seeing as I was locked in a house with Anie, running seemed like the most logical option. If you gave me a blade right now, I would probably cut her. And even if I could put aside the fact that she had fucked Az, women just weren’t my thing.

  I ran straight to the front door and started unlocking the locks. By the time I was half way through the locks Anie pummeled me to the ground. She pulled me away from the door and into the entry way of the house, straddling my stomach.

  “I don’t know what hair crawled up your ass, but you will not run out that front door for as long as I am responsible for you.”

  “I want to run.”

  “Don’t we all? Just stay here and do something else. Sharpen your blades.”

  Anie knew me well enough that she knew something was seriously wrong. And it involved the Demon who belonged to the symbol we shared on our walls (pun NOT intended). She just didn’t know what had happened with me and Az. Or maybe she did and she was avoiding the uncomfortable conversation that we could currently be having.

  I was tamping down the need to kick her ass right now. She slept with my Demon. She couldn’t have found a different one? One of her own?

  My instincts being what they are, I hauled up off the floor and took a swing at her. She leaned away at the last second and my fist met the edge of her cheek. We had sparred many times when she was a Hunter. I hadn’t fought her since she had become a supe, however. This would be interesting.

  I stepped back and got in fighting stance. She was already there. We started circling each other, but I was never one to wait. I started faking right and brought my left fist up – she blocked it easily with her forearm. I circled faster, trying to throw her footing off. It was never her strong point. She wasn’t so easily thrown and ended up keeping up with me, no problems.

  I was getting impatient. I decided on a totally different tactic. I stopped moving and closed my eyes. I breathed deeply: in through my nose, out through my mouth. It was a way for me to throw her off, having her believe I was done fighting when I wasn’t. Strange thing was, I could still see her with my eyes closed. Well, I could see her outline and it was a dark purple color. Strange did not even begin to cover the path my life was headed down. Maybe I had a tumor. I could hope, right?

  With my eyes still closed, I saw her bounce a little but she had slowed down and I could tell she was trying to figure out what I was doing. As she slowed even further, she dropped her hands at her sides and her outline turned a lighter purple. I decided now would be the premium opportunity to sock her. I stepped forward and swung. She leaned back and I missed. I opened my eyes and Anie looked shocked.

  “Were you just trying to fight me with your eyes closed?”

  Until I could figure out what was going on I didn’t want to share with her that I could see her outline.

  “Yep, you win.” I was done with my flight and my fight, for now. I needed a nap.

  “Why were you trying to fight me?”

  I knew she was really asking me who Az was to me. But what do I say? Because you screwed the only man I’ve ever loved. Because no matter what, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to get over the fact that you have his symbol on your wall. I couldn’t ask her and confirm what I already suspected. The reason she still had Az’s symbol up. She hoped he’d come back. She was hoping that he would still come to her at some point. Hell, did every woman Az had been with feel that way? I know I did. And now I knew that Anie probably did, too. I didn’t want to feel so much. I missed the numbness that I swam in just a few days ago.

  “I’m tired. I’m going to go upstairs to sleep. Let me know when Kai gets here.”

  I had so many things to think about. For instance, why Anie didn’t recognize Az when he asked her to work for him. If they had been together there was no way she wouldn’t recognize him. Once you go Demon you never go back. Which furthered my suspicion that maybe it wasn’t Az who hired Anie.

  I walked into my designated room and laid on the bed. I found I just didn’t want to do anything. So I laid down and studied the inside of my eyelids. Anie didn’t come upstairs to ask me if I wanted anything, which was good because I might’ve started another fight. I had had enough. I didn’t want to deal with one more thing and that included eating. I lay quietly unmoving until merciful sleep claimed me.

  ~X~

  “In a dream I can’t seem to shake, She is standing alone…What a mess that
I make of my days…”

  –The Format, A Mess to be Made

  I smelled food which was strange, because I didn’t remember cooking. I felt a hand gliding up my side and heat searing me in its trail. If I could make battery operated models of his hands and sell them at porn shops, I would because I would make a killing.

  I slowly opened my eyes to Az in bed next to me, under the covers and it didn’t look like he was wearing a stitch of clothing. I was naked too. Because, come on, it was so much more comfortable to sleep that way.

  I loved these dreams. I looked around and didn’t recognize the room. It had big windows and it was dark out. I looked at a tiny alarm clock next to the bed and saw that it said 3:06am. So it was very late at night, or early in the morning depending on how you saw it.

  I searched for the source of the food smell. There was a tray with biscuits and gravy sitting on the side table next to the bed. It was my favorite. It looked like it had been sitting there for a while, though.

  I grabbed his hand from my side and kissed his fingertips. It was a weird thing I liked doing. He always ran so much hotter than I did. I loved feeling the tips of that warmth on my lips. I’m weird, sue me. I looked at him and smiled.

  “I’ve missed you.” I always told him that in my dreams.

  “Me too. I’m worried about you.”

  “No need.”

  “Bullshit. And why were you fighting Aniese?”

  Not our normal conversation in these dreams, considering there was normally, very little talking – and what talking we did normally had to do with harder, faster and yes. But I decided this was a dream, so why not? Why not hear the answers I was seeking?

  “Did you fuck her?”

  He didn’t hesitate. Didn’t waste even a blink to think it over.

  “Yes. About a month after you left me. I wanted to get back at you. After seeing you with all the others…” He ran his hands through his hair in frustration, “She left the sign up I see.”