by Jen Pretty
Down the hall, the door was closed. I prayed that the child wasn’t here. I imagined he could have grandparents or other relatives who took him for a visit.
I stood at the closed door, my hand on the knob, and prayed that it was an empty room, but as the door swung open, my worst nightmares were confirmed. A boy of no more than 5 lay in the tiny race car bed, his face etched in horror. I raced forward and scooped him up in my arms. I couldn’t let this innocent boy suffer a moment longer. I turned to carry him back down to Julian, but my amulets made contact, and the boy squirmed in my arms.
“Julian!” I yelled. Setting the boy down on the floor. I didn’t have a sculptor’s stone. If I forced the demon out of the boy, it would jump to the nearest unprotected warm body—Julian.
I swung my amulets around, so they lay on my back and scooped up the tiny boy again. Sweat soaked his blonde hair and his ninja turtle pajamas. I carried him downstairs, carefully avoiding his toy soldiers. “Julian!”
In the living room, I found the woman sleeping peacefully, but there was no sign of Julian. I set the boy next to his mother and checked the rest of the house. It was empty.
Outside, I looked up and down the silent road, trying to figure out where Julian could have gone. He wouldn’t have left without me. I hurried back toward the bike, but it was still sitting where he parked it. I heard a boot scuff on the road and spun around, coming face to face with Julian. Except he didn’t look right. He had a sneer on his face, and his brow was lowered, so his eyes just looked like black holes.
“Julian,” I said.
“Guess again,” an unearthly voice said using Julian's mouth. A demon.
A chill ran up my spine. “What have you done?” I whispered.
The demon laughed, but it sounded like hundreds of people screaming. My heart raced and my mind froze like a deer in front of a transport truck.
What happened next was probably the stupidest thing I have ever done, and I have done some stupid shit.
I took my amulets off and jumped forward, sliding them over Julian’s head so fast the demon couldn’t stop me. Not like it mattered to him. He jumped from Julian to me so fast, my head spun. I didn’t recognize the pain for a brief second but then the fire began.
CHAPTER TWELVE
My skin was ripped from my bones. I fell to the ground and lost control of my body.
Pain screamed through me, thrashing my heart to pieces and shattering my mind. I prayed for death just as I had the last time a demon took over my body. I prayed so hard I thought for sure one of the Gods would have heard me. I cried and pleaded, but it continued, unending. Time didn’t matter here; it could have been minutes, or it could have been hours or days.
Just as the demon ripped my heart from my chest for the millionth time, the pain vanished and I sunk into the silence and peace. I thanked whatever God had saved me. Whether I had received an exorcism or death, I was thankful. I slept.
When my eyes opened again, Lincoln’s face popped into view. His red bandana covered his hair, and a stupid grin split his face. “Back again,” he said.
I grunted. “You jerk.” My voice cracked, hoarse from too much screaming.
Lincoln laughed. “I’m not apologizing. You are the idiot who gave away her amulets.”
“Yeah, well. The other option was to walk home,” I whispered through my painful throat.
“Huh. Here I thought you saved the day.” He stood up and crossed the room. We were in one of the motel rooms with the vibrating beds. Fabulous.
“Yeah, I'm not a superhero, Linc.” I rolled over and found Julian sleeping beside me. His face was soft and relaxed. I curled up facing him.
“I’ll let the team know you are okay,” Linc said. The door clicked shut, leaving me alone with Julian.
His dark lashes swept against his light skin. His eyes moved beneath his eyelids reminding me of a puppy dreaming. They danced back and forth, watching some movie in his mind. I wondered what he dreamed about. They stopped for a breath, and then his eyes fluttered open, vacant for a second and then focusing in on my face. He let out a huff.
“Thank God.” He leaned across the pillow, and his lips met mine. His hand caught the back of my head when I startled, but a moment later I relaxed and let his lips explore mine. He slid closer, our bodies entwining. He was so warm, like a sunny day in July. His lips pressed with delicious heat, passion exploding from every inch. It was so unexpected from the reserved half-demon. Finally, his tongue slid against my lips, begging for entrance. My heart raced faster with each breath. I opened my mouth with a moan and his tongue swept across mine with searing heat.
The door behind me creaked open, and Julian slunk back to his side of the bed, but not fast enough for the keen eye of Linc.
“God Harlow, keep it in your pants,” Linc said with a chuckle. I heaved the pillow behind at him, but he caught it and kept laughing.
So, I had a wild period after my return from possession. Linc thought it was hilarious, but the town guys thought it was great—a night with the crazy girl. Linc came up with a few new names for me that suited my propensities but weren’t very kind.
Julian scowled at Linc, which was pretty hot but weird at the same time. People didn’t stick up for me.
“I want to talk to you about something, Harlow. As you may know, it’s pretty rare for someone who was previously possessed to come into the community. Usually, they either die in a psychiatric ward, taking the demon with them, kill themselves or a sculptor exorcizes them and never know what happened to them. Few retain any demon traits. So, that brings me to my point. Demons have possessed you twice.” He stopped talking and looked at me with his eyebrows tucked up under his red bandana like I should know what that means.
“I do not recommend it. Zero stars.”
Linc rolled his eyes. “I have never heard of a hunter possessed twice.”
“Well, I’m sorry. I make stupid mistakes. Jesus, Linc.”
“No, Har. I’m saying you are twice demon touched. Who knows what that means for you? You could be able to fly for fuck's sake.”
I sat up in bed and stared holes into the annoying sculptor. “I am not jumping off a roof because you think I can do magic shit.”
Julian laughed from behind me. A real laugh. I turned around and looked at him, but he waved me off and slid out of bed. He stumbled to the bathroom, and I could still hear him laughing from beyond the door.
“What the fuck is wrong with him?” I asked.
“You are the one who was playing tonsil hockey with him,” Linc said with a sly smile.
“Ok, whatever. Did someone save the little boy I found?” I got up and rummaged through the duffel bag. Finding no more clean leather pants, I picked up the dirty ones someone had stripped off me while I was unconscious and pulled them on.
Linc had seen me in my underwear enough times; he didn’t bat an eye. He kept nattering on about some super powers he thought I might have. I blocked him out. I didn’t have superpowers, and this wasn’t a comic book. I collapsed on the bed again, fully dressed. Julian walked out of the bathroom in a fog of steam and pinned me with a crooked grin. That grin wasn’t weird anymore. It was something else.
“Meet us in town, there is still no sign of gargoyles, and we have four hours before sunset. I have to carve more rocks.” With that, he turned and left the small motel room.
Julian lay on the bed beside me, but I dared not look at him. It was a bit awkward now. Well, it was, but then he rolled over, so he was pinning me to the mattress. “Are you afraid of me?” he asked, staring straight down at me.
“No, you saved my life a couple times. You’re probably cool.”
He laughed again. The sound was still startling coming out of him. The smell of soap and the strange effect he had on me combined to make me want to stay in bed all day and night until eternity.
“Ok, let’s go save the world.” He rolled up off the bed and put his shoes on.
I blew out a puff of air. Sure, one world
saving, coming up. I grabbed my shoes off the floor, and we took the bike back to town.
The main street was crowded with ambulances and fire trucks.
“What's going on?” I asked as we pulled up beside Link who was wearing his goggles but had his ear protection around his neck.
“We said it was a gas leak and emergency response are evacuating all the people. We have a few more people to exorcize but want them out of here by nightfall. This was the fastest way.”
“So, you’ve taken care of all the demons?” I asked.
“All the ones that aren’t in stone. Seems to be a lot of gargoyles loose here. As we left yesterday, a horde of them chased us.”
“That’s not great. Any idea on how to trap them?” I asked, swinging off the motorcycle.
Linc scratched his chin. “I heard you had good luck with a cold storage room.”
Julian swung off the bike too and stood beside me, maybe closer than a friend would, edging dangerously into lover territory. “She held a dozen in there. The door was steel though. I think that's how it held them.”
Linc bit his lip and nodded. “We don’t have much time before sunset. We should try to find them now.”
“All right. Let’s split into teams. If anyone finds gargoyles, don’t approach them. The last batch were vicious,” I said, pulling my net free of the motorcycle saddle bag.
Julian and I crossed the street as the rest of the teams spread out around the small town. I wanted to check basements and attics. I hadn’t seen many big trees in town, but the gargoyles loved dark places.
The basements were all about the same. Low ceiling and cement floors, but none of them were holding gargoyles. I found one in an attic. Netted him easy enough as he was dopey, like the ones I had put in the cold storage had been before Julian exorcized the demon from the resident of the home. We put him in a wooden crate to send home.
By nightfall, the humans were in hospitals in the surrounding cities. I stood on the main street with Julian, Lincoln and several other volunteers on our crazy mission and waited. Lila and Gregor were leaning on their bikes talking. Alric had arrived wearing army fatigues like he had dressed up for Halloween. Several sculptors came to help with exorcisms and they stood huddled on the side of the road. Linc had introduced me to them but was too anxious to remember their names.
I watched the sun set down over the horizon and slip into shades of pink. I shifted my feet, nerves chewing at me to get going, chase down the rock demons and lock them away.
We had rented several armoured trucks. The heavy steel would be strong enough and each one could hold at least twenty. I had my net and a plan. Rock-and-roll. Where the fuck were my gargoyles?
We waited as the streetlights flicked on and the sunset.
“Maybe we should make more noise,” I said.
Julian ran his hand down my back and then crossed to his motorcycle and started it up. He revved the engine a few times.
We waited. “Maybe they’ve gone home,” Gregor said from behind me. It was possible. If the demons possessing people called the gargoyles here, they could have returned to their homes once the sculptors sucked the demons out of the people.
Julian flicked off the motorcycle and took out his phone. He made a few quick phone calls and then looked up and shook his head.
“This is weird,” I said. Gargoyles never travelled far. Apart from this weird congregation, they stayed within a quick flight of their roosts.
“Now what?” one volunteer asked.
I threw my hands up. “I don’t know. Anyone have a clue here?”
They all just shook their heads. Great.
The gargoyles vanished, and we had no idea where they went.
“What the fuck is that?” someone said in a whisper.
I looked up and then turned around and found everyone staring down the road. It was a gargoyle, but not a normal one. It was massive, the size of a horse. Its neck was long, and it had wings tucked against its back as it walked on four legs toward us. It had a long tail making it look like a dinosaur, but as it got closer, I decided it was a dragon. A gargoyle dragon.
“Who carved that?” I asked. Nobody replied, their eyes on the monster that approached me. Someone would get an ass kicking for carving a gargoyle that big and ugly.
It grumbled and scraped rocks, but under the sound was a voice. It was speaking English. I felt like they should communicate in an ancient, dead language.
“You will not stop me. The demons will rise. You may be demon-touched, but you are no match for us all.” The dragon's wings spread and flapped hard to lift its heavy weight toward the sky. Dirt flew on the wind it created, hitting me in the face, but I ran forward and grabbed onto one of its legs. The dragon made a high pitch scrapping of rocks and its open mouth came down, latching onto my shoulder. I screamed, feeling the joint wrench, and forcing me to loosen my grip. A moment later, I was on the ground watching the stone asshole fly away.
Everyone else was covering their ears as the dragon gargoyle's stone-crunching sounds faded into the distance. Only Julian had come forward to help, but he wasn’t fast enough to grab a hold, and now his ears were bleeding. I always thought it was a possible side effect of that noise. I would definitely be deaf before I was old.
Julian gave up watching the thing fly away and crouched beside me. His strong hand putting pressure on the bleeding bite wound on my shoulder.
“Mother trucker,” I hissed. “So, that was bad. Did you hear it?” Julian looked up at me, but his ears were still bleeding. There was no way he heard anything. No gargoyle had ever spoken before. I wondered if it was a special gargoyle or if there was truth to Linc’s idea that being possessed twice made me super special.
As if I wasn’t special enough before.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
We met back at the dirty motel so Julian could bandage me up. Linc tried to tell Julian I was fine and we should chase after the gargoyle, but Julian nearly ripped his head off. It was the closest I’d ever come to seeing a real live fight, but no one threw any punches. Better luck next time.
“Take your shirt off,” Julian said, once we were back in the motel room.
“This isn’t the time for a free show.” I collapsed onto the bed.
Julian’s eyes danced with humour, and he shook his head. “I need to clean that bite.”
“Fine, but it will cost you.” I pulled on my sleeve and got my arm halfway in my shirt, but got stuck like that when I tried to pull my other arm in. It was super sexy.
“Ow,” I squealed, as the bite on my shoulder throbbed.
“How long have you been in the stripping business?” he asked with a chuckle.
“Listen here, you get what you pay for, and I don’t see any money in your hand. Help me you jerk.”
He took hold of the bottom hem of my shirt and pulled; I tried to wiggle my way out, but I got more stuck and started laughing. I ended up flat out on the bed, unable to see because my shirt was over my face. Thankfully, I was wearing my gargoyle-ass-kicking, sports bra that was basically a tank top when the door opened, and Linc’s stifled laughter filled the tiny room.
“Shut up Linc. I’m injured,” I said, finally worming my way out of the shirt.
Linc shut the door behind him and flicked the lock. “Well, you and your half-demon need to get your shit together. We got word that gargoyles are in the city.”
“New York?” Julian asked.
Linc nodded.
“Aren’t there hunters in New York?” I asked nobody in particular.
“We have three,” Julian said, but he didn’t look happy about it. “Two are useless, and the other is out of state.”
The mood changed, and I felt weird sitting on the bed in my bra. I grabbed my shirt and tried to pull it on, but it was sticky with blood on the shoulder, and my arm hurt from being gnawed on.
Julian stole the shirt from me. “I’ll clean that before we go.” He grabbed a bottle of rubbing alcohol and a sock from his duffel bag.
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“Oh, hell no, you are not using rubbing alcohol on my open wound.”
He uncapped the bottle and poured some on the sock.
“Be tough, Har,” Lincoln said still standing by the door. Apparently, it was “watch Harlow torture” day. Fun.
When the pain faded, and the screaming stopped, we packed our stuff and hit the road. Julian told the other half-demons to head home. They had some kind of hierarchy that wouldn't appreciate new half-demons in the city. It interested me, and I wanted to learn more, but travelling by motorcycle didn’t allow for fun driving games like punch buggy and twenty questions. I mean we could have played punch buggy, but dying in a fiery crash sounded bad. So, I clung to Julian on the back of his motorcycle. Lincoln drove home to check on our gargoyle situation since we were dealing with a rogue-gargoyle situation and not a possessed-human situation.
By the time we pulled into a hotel parking lot, my ass was numb, and my eyes wouldn’t stay open. The lights of the city lit up the sky ahead. It was nearly morning, the sun would come up soon, but there was zero percent chance I could wrestle stone demons.
I slid off the motorcycle on Jell-O legs and wobbled trying to catch my balance.
“Easy,” Julian said, wrapping his arms around me and pulling me against his chest. I was so tired that I was shivering. It had been a cold ride, but being tired always made me colder. “We can sleep here for a few hours.”
I nodded, my teeth chattering so hard I didn’t want to answer.
Julian walked beside me, his arm around my back as we entered the hotel. The entrance was opulent with a tall vaulted ceiling lit with spot lights to make it shine like the sun. The walls were stone block and wood panels that made it seem like a lodge or fancy cabin, but the plush carpet and leather furniture added modern style and prestige. We approached the reception desk, and Julian placed his black credit card down on the glass-topped counter. The receptionist maintained the bored expression she wore from the moment we walked in.