I hopped in my Chevy and patted the dash. “You need to warm up, boy?”
I started the engine. We needed to leave tonight. Before the light of day shined on a family of dead corpses. No one would know they were soul-sucking monsters with a body count in the hundreds.
We’d leave tonight, casually. Not turn any heads. No one would even remember we were here.
My eye caught movement in the darkness. A figure ran out of the woods, flailing their arms.
It was Augie.
He carried Maya’s cooler. Far behind him, red and blue lights flashed on the lake.
Police.
I squinted in the dark. There was a rowboat turned upside down on the water. I could only assume it belonged to the Johnson’s kid.
“We need to go,” Augie yelled. Maya followed behind him. She tumbled to her knees, her face in her hands. Augie grabbed her arm and pulled her to the truck.
He ripped open the passenger door and pushed her in. Dropping the cooler on the floor, he slammed the door behind him. Maya was covered in blood.
“Maya fucked up,” he said. “We need to leave RIGHT NOW.”
From the lake boomed a man’s voice, shouting. “We got a body—”
I threw the truck in drive. “Loud and clear,” I said. I nailed my foot to the floor and gunned it out of the campground.
I barreled down the road until I hit the expressway. If the cops knew the extent of the damage, they would think a serial killer was on the loose and would shut down the roads within a ten-mile radius. I kept my foot on the gas to make sure we made it out before they got smart.
Maya sat next to me, silent as a shy girl with her tongue pulled out. Not one word. Soaked in blood and water, she shivered.
Dammit.
Maybe I overestimated her. Maybe it was too much for her. Maybe she wasn't ready after all.
I glared at Augie. “What the hell happened?”
“A fucking mess,” he said. “That’s what happened.”
I passed several cars in the night, reaching up to 90 mph. “Did you get it?”
He tapped the cooler. “He’s in there. No thanks to Princess here.”
She must have panicked during the kill. It takes a lot to kill a man, monster or not. It’s especially hard when you have a crush on him.
Augie glanced in the rear-view mirror, his hands shaking. He was capable of taking off a man’s head without a second thought but a few police lights made him scared shitless.
“Christ, what a mess,” Augie said. “There was so much blood, man. She freaked out.”
Maya yelled. “Shut up, Augie. Shut up. I know I fucked up. Just shut up.”
Her hands were covered in blood. Like she dipped them in a can of red paint. Her hair was soaking wet from the lake. If we were stopped by police, I couldn’t explain my way out of this one. One look at her and we were screwed. If the cop looked in any of the coolers, we’d be thrown in prison as serial killers.
My mind rolled through possibilities if we were stopped for speeding. Killing an officer wasn’t an option.
I could disable him and knock him out. When he came to, he’d put an APB on us and the police would be looking for my truck. We’d be in the system with an entire county of police looking for three killers.
Normally, I could easily talk my way out of a ticket. At worst, a simple spell or mind trick would do the job. By the time I was done, the cop and I would be best friends and exchanging phone numbers to meet up at his family's next barbecue. But with these two yahoos beside me covered in blood, that obviously wasn’t an option.
I could call Officer Johnathon Stone and get him involved. But as a police captain, it would leave a paper trail back to him, which was not acceptable.
If we got stopped, I’d have to use one of the gems I had stashed in the cubby. With a simple incantation, I could clear out the cop’s mind and throw him in a daze. By the time he came to, we would be gone, and he’d wonder why the hell he pulled over on an empty road.
I pulled off the expressway onto the backroads. It would eventually join the highway that I’d ride all the way back to the farmhouse.
I gripped the wheel hard enough to pull it off. “Maya, tell me what happened.”
She pulled her knees to her chest and hugged her legs. Her lip trembled.
“I fucked up is all,” she said. “I tried, but I don’t know what happened.”
“Why was there a canoe tipped over on the water?”
“Marcus wanted to go on his boat. He stole a bottle of champagne from his parents.”
“His horde,” I said. “They weren’t his parents. They were his pack.”
“When I needed to kill him, I choked,” she said. Her voice trembled. “He got suspicious, so I freaked. I drilled the corkscrew into his neck. Six times. Then into his head.”
“What about your knife?”
She looked at me with large doe eyes. “I-I don’t think I have it—”
“Where is it now? Where’s the knife, Maya?”
If she left it at the lake or on the beach, both our fingerprints would be on it. We’d be fucked to high heaven. She reached to the small of her back. The sheath was empty.
“I don’t know where it went,” she said. “I must have dropped it. Maybe in the water—?”
“Goddammit, Maya,” I said.
She buried her head in her knees. “I’m sorry.”
Augie smiled.
I scowled at him. “What’s so goddamn funny?”
He slammed her blade on the dash. It was covered in sand and blood. “It was on the beach. I practically tripped over it. Cops would have found it for sure.” He scowled at Maya. “You’re lucky I was there to save your sorry ass.”
I grumbled. “August, enough.”
“She’s the one who chickened out,” he said,
She growled. “I didn’t chicken out.”
“You almost got us caught.”
“I didn’t mean to—”
“You froze,” he said. “Just like I knew you would.”
I punched the steering wheel and raised my voice. “I said ENOUGH.”
They went deathly silent.
I needed to change Maya’s state of mind. I grabbed the file from between the seats and handed it to her. She opened it to the page showing my prior student. “That’s Karen Bell. I trained her.”
Maya looked through the pages. “She’s a hunter?”
“She works for Wilcox’s organization called the Foundation. Wilcox has his agents do numerous jobs. Sometimes that involves killing monsters. They’re like MI5 for the supernatural underworld.”
Maya scanned the report. “It says she was investigating ‘The Church of the Evolving Lord.’ Uncle Joe said it was a cult.”
“First off, don’t call that asshole ‘uncle.’ Second off, the cult is a ruse,” I said. “Somehow, Blackwell and Poe are behind it.”
Augie shook his head. “Those jerks are everywhere.”
“They seem to have their fingers in a lot of pies,” I said.
Maya peered through the files. “It says here that Karen Bell is missing…”
“She went in after another agent disappeared, Del Toro. Karen is one of the best killers I’ve trained. Ruthless. Smart as hell and tough as nails. If she’s missing, there’s something serious going on.”
After over an hour, we finally reached the farmhouse where we were staying. It was built by hunters for hunters. It belonged to a damn fine hunter. One I trusted with my life.
We got out of the truck and I grabbed the coolers. “Get some sleep,” I said.
After I disposed of the heads, I went to prepare for the next day. I’d have to infiltrate the cult, find Zac and Karen, and discover what the hell was going on with that place.
Several weeks ago, I received an omen predicting my death. Obviously, I hadn’t died yet. If I were to kick the bucket while investigating a cult, that would just be embarrassing.
In the morning, I’d see how Maya was doing
. She blew it out there. And she knew it. She could have gotten us all caught or killed.
Maybe she was too young, too emotional, or too naive to be a hunter. Karen Bell was about the same age when I trained her. But she had more focus and less emotion. More daddy issues and less internal angst.
I had more resources back then. And currently, I had neither the time nor the patience to coddle Maya and hold her hand. I’m not a goddamn babysitter.
I was better on my own. Less to worry about. Things were easier that way. I was never planning to build a new team.
Maya was a liability.
I no longer had the Foundation to mitigate my risk in training her. Augie had a psychic ability. That made him a unique asset.
But the only talents Maya had were her uncanny ability to annoy Augie and piss me off.
Another slip from her like tonight could lead to Augie’s death. Or mine. I couldn’t allow that to happen. I’d wait until I was back from my trip before I told her, but I was solid in my decision.
Maya Hayes was out.
Chapter 5
How to Join a Cult
Sitting in the foyer of Jack’s home before the sun came up, I was reminded how much I felt at home here. Jack was away for a couple of months, so it was good I could be here to clean up the place and use the tools that were meant to be used.
I hadn’t been here since the ‘Quentin and Maggie Walker fiasco’ a few years back. A fiasco that left me possessed by a goddamn fallen angel. It’s not fun to have a demon of Hell taking up residence inside you, controlling your every move. Even worse when it’s an ex-angel. Not that I wasn’t prepared for it. But it was still a pain in the ass to deal with at the time.
Taking a deep breath, I picked up the cell phone and called Joe Wilcox. I admit, there was a lump in my throat. He’d see this as a win for him. And I hated giving him that. But I would play by my own rules, not his. It only rang once before he picked up.
“I’ll do it,” I said.
“You will?” he asked. “I figured you’d throw the file in the fire and never look back.”
“I did.”
“Huh. Maybe you’ve changed after all, Sol.”
“You didn’t tell me Zac or Karen Bell were involved,” I said. “You should have led with that.”
“Whatever trips your trigger, big guy.”
“Planning to hold it over my head if they died?”
“Something like that.”
“Where is this so-called cult?”
“East of Chicago. By Willow Springs Woods. I don’t get anything from satellite. It looks like nothing’s out there.”
“I assume you did a flyover?”
“Same thing. Just an empty field.”
“Do you think it’s magic? Some asshat using a cloaking spell?”
“Could be,” he said. “I’d know more if anyone ever came back to tell me. My agents have disappeared off the map, Sol. Even their trackers have gone off-grid.”
“Text me the address where you last tracked them.”
“One last thing, Sol?”
“What is it?”
“Bring Karen home.”
CLICK.
He hung up. He made sure the last thing he said sounded like a command.
Asshole.
I’d bring Karen home, but not because Dumbass wanted me to. And when I got her back, I’d recruit her into my own team. Screw Wilcox. He sent her in to die. It would be nice to have another functional adult on the team, instead of two quibbling children with sexual frustration and emotional issues.
I wasn’t sure what I was in for so I didn’t know exactly what to prep. It could be Forevers causing the disappearances or it could be something else entirely. I went to the hall closet and grabbed a duffel bag, packing it with multiple guns, knives, and grenades. If it was a cult of magic-users, that could prove to be troublesome. So I grabbed a bag of magical paraphernalia as well. Just in case. I’d grab a few more lines of protection soon enough.
I set the bag on the kitchen table. Augie leaned on the table with his back toward me. Maya laughed as he mumbled some kind of gibberish trying to sound smart.
He held up his hands like he was performing. “Every living being is an engine geared to the wheelwork of the universe,” he said with his eyes closed. “Though seemingly affected only by its immediate surroundings, the sphere of external influence extends to infinite distance.”
Son of a bitch. That wasn’t Augie talking. August McKenzie could barely form a word with more than two syllables, much less a sentence of them.
I grabbed his shoulders and spun him around. He held onto a pocket watch that belonged to Nikola Tesla. He must have swiped it from my drawer. He was using his power to channel Tesla’s intelligence.
“Put it back,” I said. “Now.”
“Awww, I was just having fun with it,” he said.
Maya giggled. “Augie is actually pretty smart,” she said. “He knows all kinds of cool stuff.”
“He can channel knowledge as well as fighting ability,” I said. “But Tesla’s watch isn’t a toy. It’s worth more than both of you put together.”
Augie opened the watch and looked at it. It didn’t work anymore but was still an impressive piece.
“I found it in the drawer,” he said. “From our first training session.”
I must have forgotten to put it back in the vault after training him several weeks ago. I was in a hurry at the time. That was sloppy. Now a twenty-four-year-old punk had access to Nikola Tesla’s brain. He’d probably end up inventing a quantum generator just to impress a girl.
I grabbed my duffel bag and headed to the truck. “Put it back in the drawer and don’t touch it again.”
“Are we leaving?” he asked.
“We are not leaving,” I said. “I am. You’re staying here.”
“Why can’t I go with you? We’re a team, man.”
“You need to stay here and keep Maya company,” I said. The thought of him staying behind with Maya wasn’t an ideal choice either. He’d spend the whole time trying to get into Maya’s pants.
More drama.
But I didn’t have a choice. I didn’t want her left here alone for several reasons. She was knocked off-balance after last night. I didn’t trust her emotional state. She could retaliate in some kind of rebellious twenty-one-year-old fashion that didn’t make sense. Either by hurting herself or burning the house down. She needed a babysitter. She needed Augie.
August threw up his hands and whined like a child. “But I really wanted to see the cult today.”
“It’s good to have aspirations,” I said, marching to the truck. I tossed the duffel in the front. I went back inside to get the last piece I needed.
It always made me nervous to go into a situation I knew nothing about. But there wasn’t time to do further research. Lives were at stake. But if magic was involved, I always liked to have a little of my own. The gems and magical items in the bag may not prove to be enough.
I reached the foyer and crouched to one knee in front of a small safe. As I dialed the combination, Maya came in and leaned on the door frame.
“Augie and I are going shooting in the field out back,” she said. “We’re taking a Glock and Smith & Wesson.”
I focused on the combination. “I don’t give a shit. Do what you want.”
“Thanks, boss.”
She seemed like her old self. Which meant she was probably repressing her feelings from last night. Which also meant that one day soon she would explode in a tirade of emotion and grief and probably blow the whole house up.
“Maya,” I said. She turned back. “Don’t set the house on fire while I’m gone please.”
“I’ll do my best not to, Mr. Pastor Man. I can’t promise the same for Augie.”
Maybe I should look into starting a babysitting business for Millennial monster hunters. I’d be set for life.
I cut my eyes to her. “Get August for me.”
She nodded before leaving
.
Last night could have had unforeseen effects on her psyche. Even though she was seeing the best monster psychiatrist in the world, I didn’t want her to have a psychotic breakdown on my watch.
Most kids her age are in college and getting laid at frat parties. Her nights consist of killing monsters who teleport and regenerate from severed heads. Not everyone can handle it.
The mind is a crazy place.
I’ve seen people go through war and lose their minds when they have to readjust to civilian life. Paying bills, doing laundry, and raising little kids can drive a person insane after a lifetime of war.
I remember one soldier specifically. He came back from war overseas and had delusions of his wife and son getting blown up in front of him. He often had visions of his wife with half her face blown off.
He thought he was going insane until I trained him as a hunter. Once he was introduced to that world, he never had delusions again. He became a damn good hunter too.
The mind is untrustworthy most of the time. If a seasoned fifty-year-old soldier can have a mental break like he did, I feared what kind of break a young kid like Maya could have.
Cold air blew in from the window next to me. The sun wouldn’t rise for another hour. The morning cold was refreshing. Invigorating.
The aroma of wicker chairs and musty air in the foyer really brought me back to the good old days. Of course, they weren’t good days at the time. Only in retrospect. After years of romanticizing and unconsciously altering the history in your mind to feel better about your life. Or about the past. Or about a person. Who was I kidding? Those weren’t the good old days.
The good old days never existed. For anyone.
Almost a minute after my request to Maya, August McKenzie bumbled into the room.
He was chewing on an apple. “Maya said you wanted to see me?”
“First off, don’t touch my shit,” I said. “That includes Tesla’s pocket watch. You do it again and I’ll break your goddamn fingers.”
“Maybe I could call social services on you? I’m pretty sure that would be domestic abuse—”
“Not without evidence,” I said. “Because I’ll pump you full of Forever Blood so you’ll heal. And then I’ll do it all over again. And again.” I gave him the stink eye. “And again.”
Faith of a Monster Killer: Killing Forever Book 3 Page 3