by Jen Pretty
We ended up back at the hotel, and I called dibs on the bathtub. I was frozen by the time I slid off the motorcycle. So, when I slid into the hot water, it felt like my skin was on fire, but I collapsed into the bubbles and let my muscles relax. My stitches looked fine, still closed up, and not gross at all. I considered burning the clothes I had been wearing; the river had a smell. Not a good smell.
I walked back out in my giant t-shirt and found burgers and fries waiting.
Thank God.
CHAPTER TEN
“Awe, you shouldn’t have,” I said in a mocking tone.
“Probably not. Nobody needs that many carbohydrates or saturated fats.” He looked at the plate of food with distain.
I smiled and popped a french fry in my mouth. Mmm. “Some of us like saturated fat. It makes us happy and full.”
He shook his head. I noticed he had a plate of pasta which he was meticulously curling around his fork and putting in his mouth, so none splattered all over him.
“You’re kind of snobbish,” I said before taking a giant bite of my burger that caused grease and ketchup to squirt out. I set the burger down and wiped the drippings off my shirt.
“Snobbish?” His lips pulled up into a grin.
“Yeah, that’s what I said. You’re stuck up.”
His grin turned into a smile and the corners of his eyes wrinkled. He was such a contrast. He honestly looked like the tough biker guy, sitting there in jeans and a tight black t-shirt. His rough beard was a day past a 5 o’clock shadow, and he had combed his hair back, making him look delicious. But he ate like an old person and spoke carefully like he guarded a secret. I suppose he did. Being half-demon was like a secret society.
Lincoln knew they weren’t dangerous, but that was pretty much all he knew.
“What’s it like being a half-demon?” I asked.
His smile fell, and his eyes dropped to his food. “It’s just like being a person, except I’m stuck like this forever.”
“What do you mean forever?” I asked, setting down my burger.
“Some people get old and die, I do not.”
I stared at him for a while. “Like a vampire?” I’d watched the movie with the cute sparkly boys. I knew all about vampires.
“No, Harlow, not like vampires. They aren’t real.”
I laughed. “Oh, but demons are? As if. There should be hot shifters and bloodthirsty vampires if there are going to be demons trapped in gargoyles that come to life at night.” I ate another fry, shaking my head at the stupidity of this world.
I looked up, and Julian was staring at me with a crooked smile. “You are a strange person.”
“Yeah, I get that.”
He chuckled and went back to his pasta. We ate in comfortable silence for several minutes.
“How are we going to stop whatever’s happening with the gargoyles?” I asked, bringing Julian’s eyes back to me.
“I’m not sure. It's something to do with the demons. One loose demon might not mean much, but if there are more, they might have enough power to change things.”
“Like summon gargoyles?” I asked
“Maybe. We should get going first thing in the morning. We are wasting time here.”
“Helping that woman wasn’t wasting time,” I said.
“No, but we shouldn’t be messing with gargoyles. They aren’t the real problem, just a symptom.”
I nodded and downed the rest of my juice. “Well, I’m going to sleep.”
I pulled back the blankets and slid under the covers. My stomach was full, and my head was feeling better since I took pain relievers. My eyes popped open. “Oh man, I lost my net.”
“I found it under the wharf,” Julian said. He had turned off the lights in the room, but the moonlight came through the balcony doors, making his shape visible at the table. He had a newspaper in his hands.
“Thank you.” One piece of good news. I watched him for a few minutes. “You can see in the dark?”
“Yes,” he replied.
That would be a handy trick.
I woke the next morning feeling much better, and we packed up and moved on down the road. We were only an hour from the coast. Unless the gargoyles crossed the ocean, we had to stumble upon them.
It was cooler today, and the clouds threatened rain. Apparently, Julian was comfortable riding his motorcycle in the rain, but it didn’t sound like much fun. I kept my eyes on the sky, hoping to see a gargoyle so we could chase it down to wherever they were going.
By noon, I had seen no demons fly by, but my stomach grumbled as loud as the stone heads.
Julian pulled off at a gas station and waited while I ate a stale sandwich, tapping his toes.
“Keep your panties on,” I said, balling up the cling wrap and chucking it in the trash. I had only downed half my iced tea when he started up the motorcycle and threatened to leave without me. I threw it in the garbage and hopped on, and we were off again. I had needed to use the girl's room, but Julian was in a hurry.
Back on the road, Julian flew down the highway. My ass was getting sore, but I knew we had to be getting close to the shore. Julian turned off on to smaller and smaller roads, driving through small towns, still going east.
Just before nightfall, we came to a small abandoned town. At least I thought it was abandoned. If this were an old western, there would have been tumbleweeds. But I knew we had found the right place when I heard the first shriek. It came from a small bungalow with a tidy yard. The next scream came from a duplex across the street. They echoed through the night, sending chills up my spine.
I heard a distant scream. Confirming my worst nightmare--demons were all over this town.
Julian pulled onto the shoulder of the street and took out his phone. My gut instinct wanted me to run like hell, but instead, I fingered my amulets, turning them around, so they laid against my chest. I had protection from demons. I was fine. They couldn’t get me.
I sat on the back of the bike, listening to the screams all around me. The town was no bigger than a couple of dusty roads with a few dozen houses. There were no stores or gas station; it was cut off from the outside world. Julian said a few words into his phone and hung up. He dialed again and did the same thing. This happened several times before he turned his head and looked at me.
“I have backup on the way.”
“Yeah, we need a lot of backup,” I said.
“I have five sculptors and some half-demons.” Another mournful scream cut through the near night sky and goosebumps rose on my arms. “You only have to deal with gargoyles.”
“How many demons do you think are here?” I asked, my voice dropping to a whisper.
“Over a hundred gargoyles are missing.”
I hyperventilated. I struggled and pulled off the helmet, dropping it to the ground. My shirt was too tight at my neck, I pulled on it, trying to get air in my lungs. How could there be so many? I heard the grumbling of rocks before any gargoyles came into view, but when they did, at least twenty rock demons were flapping their wings and heading in our direction.
Their stone faces bore snarls and the sound coming from them was angry and sharp. They flew at us talons first, like lions about to take down their prey.
Julian started up the bike and peeled out of the parking lot with a screech. I grabbed onto his shirt, nearly tipping off as he whipped around a corner.
The bike hit full speed, and I wrapped myself around Julian. My helmet still lay in the parking lot. If we crashed now, I would be a red smear on the pavement.
The gargoyles were gaining on us, and a scream burst out of my mouth, uncontrolled. They looked rabid, their jaws snapping and faces contorted into nightmares. The engine roared as the sky blackened. I stopped watching and just closed my eyes, praying they wouldn’t catch up.
A few minutes later I felt the bike slow and panicked. My eyes whipped open, and I looked over my shoulder, but the gargoyles were gone.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
My heart was still r
acing as we pulled into a shitty motel along the road. The sign had several lights out and one that flickered like a strobe light in the dark. There was one light in the parking lot and it cast shadows across the front of the building. I stared into the dark corners and alcoves around each motel room door but couldn’t see any movement. These gargoyles had changed: something was coordinating them and making them aggressive.
Julian stopped the bike and turned off the engine.
“I change my mind. I want to go home.” I tried to scoot off the bike but landed in a heap beside it. Julian looked down at me, his face unreadable. “There are too many. I can’t catch them all, but even if I could, what would I do with them?”
Julian rubbed his hand over his face but didn’t speak. Shadows hid his dark features, the lone light in the lot haloed behind him.
“We need more help.”
I scoffed. “Yeah, like the whole US army. Except then we ‘d have more people possessed by demons to deal with.” Well, he would. I was not dealing with demons. Fuck that. I staggered to my feet and dusted off my pants. “Can we go now?”
Julian shook his head. “We can wait here for backup. It seems the gargoyles are staying in the town.” He walked toward the half-lit sign that said office, and I trailed along behind him because I was a sucker. I should have knocked him down, stolen his keys, and figured out how to drive off on his motorcycle like they do in the movies. We might as well have been in a movie—a stupid made for TV movie with terrible effects. One star, would not recommend.
Inside the tiny office, a little old lady sat in a rocking chair with knitting needles. Her hair was grey and curled in that style that old ladies seemed to prefer. Age spots lined and marred her face. The clicking of the needles continued as she looked me up and down. I was wearing my leather pants which fit pretty snug.
“I don’t rent by the hour here.” she scowled at me.
Julian slung his arm over my shoulders. “We’re newlyweds. Just travelling through to the coast for a vacation.”
What the actual fuck? I looked at his face, and it was that big smile with the dimple. It looked real. He was a good actor. Mental note—don’t trust Julian.
“Awe, that's just lovely.” The old woman set down her knitting and stood with great effort. Her pleated skirt ended just above her ankles, displaying her fuzzy-slippered feet as she shuffled to a rack of keys on the wall. She took a key off a hook and handed it to Julian. “You go on down to the end of the row, and you’ll find that room all made up and clean as a whistle,” she said, a cackle in her voice.
“Thank you, ma’am,” Julian said as he turned and pressed me out the door.
“Why did you tell her that?” I asked in a harsh voice.
“Would you rather she thinks you’re a prostitute?” he chuckled darkly.
I tripped over something, but Julian caught my arm, steadying me. I glared at the ground behind me, but there was nothing there.
Julian unlocked the door and flicked on the lights in the motel room. It wasn't much bigger than my room in Lincoln’s garage back in Humber Falls. The bed was only a double, and there was one chair in the corner. An old TV sat on a rickety stand at the foot of the bed, with a VCR and selection of porn movies stacked beside it.
“Where the heck are we?” I asked.
“Burlton,” Julian answered, flicking on the light to a tiny bathroom that was barely big enough for a person to walk in.
“You mean Crazytown.” I flopped down on the bed, and it vibrated. At first, I thought it was an earthquake, but when I looked at Julian, he was biting his lip, trying not to laugh. “What the hell?” My voice shook making it sound ridiculous.
Julian hit a button on a box beside the headboard, and the bed stopped, I jumped off and stared at it.
“I’m not sleeping in that bed. Things have happened here I don’t want to know about.”
Julian chuckled again. “You are welcome to sleep on the floor.”
The orange shag carpeting looked disgusting. “You sure we can't just go home?”
“You want to leave all those people possessed by demons? How many more will they possess if the demons have figured out how to escape their gargoyles.”
“I get it. God. I’m just saying, this is crazy.”
Julian crouched down beside the bed, looking me in the eye. “I believe in you. We’ll get more help, but you can do this. If we go during the day, the gargoyles should be asleep. We can do the exorcisms while you track down the gargoyles. We can get them boxed up and shipped back home.”
He looked so sure. I nodded agreement, but I didn’t feel that sure. I didn’t want to be in the town with people screaming. The memories were too real. I pulled my amulets out from my shirt. They could protect me.
Julian pulled the sculptor’s stone out of his shirt. “We can do this together. I would like to start exorcisms in the morning. If you help me, we can save a lot of people. Our back up should arrive by tomorrow evening.”
I nodded. Hopefully, the gargoyles would be asleep, though the thought of going back to that town made my skin crawl with phantom pain.
He stood and looked down at me. “You should sleep. I’ll keep an eye out.”
I closed my eyes, but it took hours for me to fall asleep. I tossed and turned, peeking to make sure that Julian was still there every few minutes. Eventually, he sat on the bed beside me, leaning back on the head board and my mind calmed. I realized maybe it wasn’t the wind of the motorcycle that made me feel so relaxed around Julian. Maybe it was Julian himself. Finally, my mind stopped, and I fell into quiet dreams.
The next morning, I was struggling in the shower stall to get my arms up to wash my hair and I considered shaving it all off. Men had things way better in the hair department. If there had been a pair of scissors in my hand, I would have chopped it. The tepid water cooled so fast that there was still soap in my hair when it turned ice cold. I screamed and jumped out, nearly slipping on the tiles. Julian blasted in, banging the door into me which shoved me back under the cold water.
“Get out, you ass.” I slammed the door shut, pushing him back out again. Soap ran down into my eyes, blinding me. I stooped over into the shower stall and let the cold water rinse the rest of the soap out of my hair. Shivering, I dried myself with a dish towel, dressed, and stomped out into the room, my eyes still beet red.
“I doubt your mood will be improved by the fact the old lady brought us a loaf of whole wheat bread for breakfast?”
“Are you serious?” He was serious. Bread and margarine sat on the chair in the corner. Great. “Whatever. Let’s go. Maybe someone has cereal I can steal.” I pulled on my boots, and we were off. I held onto Julian with one arm; the other held my net at the ready. Just in case.
We crawled into town, eyes peeled for any ravenous gargoyles. The town was still empty, and now it was silent too. Demons only let their possessed humans scream at night. During the day, they suffered silently. I only knew because Lincoln told me. I couldn’t tell the difference between day and night when a demon was possessing me. It was just endless pain.
Julian stopped the motorcycle beside my helmet. It still sat exactly as I had left it yesterday. The ghost town hadn’t moved.
I stepped off the bike, trying to be quiet for no real reason other than the town had an air of silence that forced anxiety into my bones. My blood pumped too loud. I wanted to be invisible.
Gripping my net and scanning the area, I waited while Julian set the kickstand and swung off the bike. He pulled his helmet off my head and set it on the seat. He had assured me he was indestructible when he plopped it on my head before we rode out of the motel.
We walked down the silent road, checking for signs of gargoyles or humans, but found none of either. Julian approached a house whose door hung open. Julian didn’t knock. He searched the house, room to room, until he found a man asleep in a bed on the second floor. He wore only pajama pants and was on top of the bedsheets, but sweat beaded all over him and his chest rose
and fell if heavy breaths.
“Hello?” Julian said. The man’s back arched off the bed toward us, his mouth open in a silent scream, and his face contorted in pain.
Julian took out his sculptor’s stone and chanted in a language I didn’t recognize. The man's body writhed, and sweat trickled down his brow to disappear in his hair. Julian’s voice got louder, and with a sound like a rubber band snapping, the man lay still. His chest still rose and fell, but his face relaxed into a peaceful sleep.
Julian pulled the blankets up, covering the man and turned his eyes to me. He nodded, and I let out the breath I had been holding. Tears had slid down my cheeks as I took in the man’s suffering. I wiped them away and turned to leave. More people in this town needed help.
Julian followed me down the stairs, then stopped me with a hand on my arm. I looked back at him, but he said nothing. He just had a serious look on his face. His hand came up to my cheek, and his thumb wiped away a tear that had slipped out despite my rock-solid resolve not to cry anymore. My heart raced in my chest. His dark eyes studied me and his hand lingered for a long moment. Then he dropped his hand and slipped past me to lead the way out of the house.
Weirdo.
I took a deep breath and followed behind him.
The next house was empty. Hopefully, the residents were on vacation or something. We crept into the next house and found a woman lying on the floor in the living room. She was curled up in the fetal position, anguish marring her features. Julian went to her, and I went to check the rest of the house. I climbed the stairs on quiet feet, hoping it was only the woman in the house. But, as I rounded the top of the stairs, I knew it wasn’t just her. Toy soldiers were on the floor in the hall. The little green army men were lined up, pointing their plastic weapons toward the top of the stairs like they could protect the house.
I took a deep breath and continued. There were only two doors upstairs and the first stood open. The room looked like that of a woman. Soft yellow paint with a flowered border along the top of the wall decorated the room. The dresser had a mirror on top with perfume bottles and make-up lined along it.