by Kim Faulks
He picked up the photo and slipped it into the pocket on his shirt, hovering just over his heart. He would take their memory to his grave, and suddenly he wanted this to be over.
He placed the gun into the waistband of his pants, leaving his own police issue Glock, his badge, and his wedding ring in the safe, and spun the lock. Goodbye, Detective Hunter, and hello Hell's new recruit.
Tonight would be the end of his life, or at least life as he knew it. As he thought of this he realized all that he would miss in this world, his family and friends – the few he had. The restaurants and the cars, the scent of rain on a hot summer's day, the natural parks and lakes he and Michael found as kids. He decided he'd have one last meal at Molly's Restaurant, one last meal of steak and prawns with garlic sauce and steamed potato.
Then he would find and murder Kellah Slater.
Chapter 25
Kellah listened to Lucy as she told her about her sister's relationship with the police officer. She was mesmerized by the way this human could talk. She could go on, and on, and on. Had she even taken a fucking breath?
Amongst the constant movement of this human's mouth, she heard that her sister had called police dispatch after hearing sounds in Kellah's apartment, thinking that someone was breaking in. She snorted. Yeah, she knew exactly who broke in. Fucking Darrion Hunter, that's who. It would have been priceless to see the look on his face when one of his own turned up to catch him illegally forcing entry into her apartment. Probably would have sweet talked his way out of that, anyway.
The police officer who attended was 'dreamy' according to her Lucy's sister. What the fuck is dreamy, anyway? She asked herself. She didn't dream, she had no fucking soul, she had no conscience, there was only a big black empty nothing. Did that mean this officer looked like a big black nothing? Oh fuck. Now she was picturing a black hole that ate everything around him. Don't ignore her Kellah, this human is telling you about her dead sister. In that case, he must be a big, empty, dreamy nothing. Focus Kellah, human emotions remember?
It seemed to be love at first sight according to Francine, well for her anyway. Francine told Lucy he took the details, explaining that he would have to follow up with her again later, and asked for her name and phone number.
Francine was under no illusion of what kind of woman she was. She was neither attractive nor rich, and so she had settled for fifth best most of her life. She had only had two other boyfriends before, and the last one had hurt her almost beyond repair. So when the handsome officer asked for her number, she was skeptical. She rang the station, asking for the details of the officer who attended her call, thinking it was a prank, and that he was doing nothing but cruelly tormenting her.
But it was no prank, it was real. When the officer, called again the next day asking to take her out, telling her that he couldn’t get her out of his mind, she agreed. That was the start of their relationship, and that had been two weeks ago. They had gone out every night since meeting. Francine told her that it had been wonderful, at first. He was a true gentleman, taking it slow and not pressuring her. That was, until two days ago.
Her sister had called her upset, telling her that she made an awful mistake. There was something wrong with her new boyfriend. She didn't want to bring Lucy into it, but something scared her. She said that there was something not right with him, something that she couldn't say over the phone. He could be listening, she told Lucy. At first, Lucy told her she was paranoid, laughing it off. Surely there was nothing wrong. He was a policeman, after all. How bad could he be?
It was the night that Lucy was attacked that she was supposed to meet Francine. She had called in tears and frightened, saying that the thing she dreaded had finally happened. Liam had asked her to stay the night, and Lucy blushed as she told Kellah of her sister's romantic events. She wanted her to hurry to get to the bit that she needed to know, but she couldn't help but be intrigued by the story that Lucy wove.
"Go on," she urged, and Lucy jumped, startled from her memories. She cleared her throat and continued.
"Francine stayed the night, and they ... well, I don't have to explain it. She woke early in the morning and went into the kitchen to make them breakfast, thinking that she would surprise him, and that was when she found it. The bound book was thick, almost bursting at the seams, and curiously she opened it, thinking it was some kind of handed down book of recipes. She wanted to make a good impression, she wanted to surprise him, but in the end it was him that surprised her."
"Go on. Hurry it up, will you?"
"The book was filled with clippings about one person. She wouldn't say who it was. He found her with the book, you see," she said, looking up to Kellah, focusing now on the present. "My sister Francine was always a tough one. She was the one that never got scared. She was the one that scared everyone else. But when she called me, she was terrified."
"Terrified of what, Lucy? You haven't told me a damn thing," she said, throwing her hands up in the air. Fucking humans, she thought. They lead you on, thinking that you're the one tormenting them. Then at the last minute they smile and try to convert you to a Baptist.
"Francine would only say one other thing ..."
"What! She said what!" she yelled as frustration welled inside of her, needing a release.
"She said that he wasn't human."
That stopped her in her tracks, faster than a face full of Holy water and Hunter’s face filled her mind. "She said what?"
"I know. It sounds silly, and I tried to get more information out of her, but that's all she would say. That he wasn't human."
"So," she said, walking towards the door. "I think it's time to go and pay Hunter a visit."
Lucy had a dream-away stare, no longer hearing what she said. “Did you hear me? I said. I’m going to go and finish this once and for all.”
Lucy’s gaze cleared and her head snapped towards Kellah’s direction. "Good. Yeah…that's what I was thinking. Let me get my keys and I'll drive."
She looked at the human and could see that Francine wasn't the only one in her family that was fierce and determined, and she couldn't help but laugh.
"I don't think so, human. Mortals stay here. Immortals go and see the bad man."
Lucy glared at her, and Kellah raised an eyebrow. For all she knew, this police officer probably had a book of porn that he wanted to keep hidden. Freaky stuff involving goats or some other four legged animal. So to keep it from getting out, he threatened Francine and she got spooked. As humans do, she argued.
But that doesn't explain her getting killed, does it genius?
Ah fuck ... well, she never said she was intelligent.
She worded her sentence carefully. "I think it's best if you stay here. I'll be faster on my own, and you don't seem to heal that well when you are missing a heart, or your head for that matter."
Lucy flinched, her face turning ashen, and for a moment she had to think. What … what did I fucking say now? And then it dawned on her. Ah fuck ... her sister.
"I'm going to pretend that you didn't say that, Kellah. I'm sure that's going to be the key to our friendship, so I'm going to get my keys and then we're going to go to that officer's apartment."
She didn't say anything. She was too stuck on that word. The word she could hardly say ... friendship. This human thought of her as a friend? What the fuck ... Was she slipping? What would the others back home think? Devastation set in and she slowly sank to the floor. She’d be the laughing stock of every demon in Hell.
"They probably already know," she thought out loud, horrified.
"Who knows what?" Lucy said as she walked back in, the keys dangling from her finger.
"That a human just applied the word friendship to me. Oh Hell ... Oh Hell ..." she said, and started hyperventilating as she panicked. "Does Father know?"
She could vaguely hear Lucy mutter Dear God, and normally she would have something to say about that. But at this moment, all she could do was to pull herself together while the human, Lucy, wait
ed.
It took a while.
They drove to the address that Francine had given Lucy, and even though Lucy listed her reasons for being involved in this throughout the entire trip, Kellah still preferred to do it on her own. She was still caught up with this whole friendship thing, not knowing really what that meant for someone like her. Gerry wasn't a friendship, it was an agreement. He gives her money amongst other things, and she gives him the penthouse suite in Hell.
But, this thing with Lucy was something different entirely. Sure, she had saved her life, but did that alone give her the ability to see this as a friendship? She didn't think so. If anything, she should have been scared. She should run and hide, and pray to her God that she never saw Kellah again. She looked over at Lucy as she drove and talked. It seemed that all this human did was talk. Friendship, that word still seemed dirty. All she could do was hope that when she was gone, Lucy would forget all about her and move on with her life, and focus on taking care of the animals.
About ten minutes in Kellah looked around, the houses unfamiliar, the street not the one she expected. “Where are we going? Hunter’s place is the other way?”
Lucy glanced at her and then back to the road. “Hunter…I don’t know a Hunter?”
“What do you mean…he’s the officer we’re going to see. Isn’t he?”
The apartment building was in the nicer part of Red Valley. The graffiti kept to a minimum, as well as the bars on the windows. Too nice for a copper's wage, she instantly thought. But, he could have had rich parents, so she didn't think anything else of it. The front door had an intercom system, and when Kellah pulled out her lock picking set, Lucy shook her head and ran her finger along all of the buttons of the apartments.
A woman's voice answered first. "Yes?"
"I'm the cleaner," Lucy said into the speaker. The door buzzed instantly, and Lucy pulled open the handle for them to walk through. Lucy smiled and looked back at her, deviously impressed with herself, and to be honest, so was she.
"Rich people," Lucy said. "Always a sucker."
They made their way to the apartment on the second floor, taking the stairs in case they ran into anyone. Rich people don't take stairs, Lucy explained as she slowly made her way up. Kellah wanted to race ahead, but she could sense that in doing so she would hurt Lucy's feelings. She had done that enough today, so she kept the human’s pace and her mouth shut.
They reached the apartment door and looked around before Keller pulled out the stainless steel locks and proceeded to pop the lock while Lucy stood guard. The apartment was nice, spacious with all the furnishings one would need in the human world. Lucy went to the study while Kellah went to the bedroom. It wasn't just out of habit that she searched the drawers and walls for a safe. She had come to realize that the darkest secrets were kept within view of the ones that held them. Sure enough, as she rifled through the drawer filled with T-shirts, she found the leather bound book.
"Find anything?" said Lucy as she walked in. Kellah didn't answer, she was too busy pulling the ribbon off and laying the contents along the floor.
She didn't understand at first, the newspaper clippings were old and faded. Some were torn after being handled too many times. But as the pieces slipped into place, icy fingers trailed up her spine. The headings, Police officer killed in the line of duty, and Surviving police officer's wife and daughter found murdered, splayed out before her, and the grainy black-and-white pictures of Hunter and his wife and daughter sat underneath the heading. The last one, Surviving Police Officer Investigated over Wife and Daughters Murder.
She couldn't take her eyes off them, the details cruel and callous, outlining Darrion as the prime suspect in these murders. It was something that she would have expected back home. There was something about the image of Hunter, something that felt so familiar that she should know.
Lucy peered over her shoulder as she lifted the photograph closer, her eyes drifting over and over his image. "Who's that?"
She didn't answer, she was caught on a memory, and even though she didn't want to remember that time, she found herself instantly back there. The weeks after she had been pushed through the veil were a blur, as though she was a junkie and her fix had been her home. So, when it was ripped from her she could do nothing but suffer in the cold and dark, trying her best not to go insane.
Can I help you? said a voice from her past as her own cruel and cold voice answered back. Sure, give me your fucking money.
She grabbed hold of that memory and held on tight as her mind replaced the room where she sat to the darkened alley. She found herself there after stumbling towards a tortured sound.
At first, she thought the sound was a remnant of her home, but as she got closer she could tell that no human made this terrifying cry. There was nothing sweet and deserving about this. When she neared she could see an animal cowering and bleeding as it was beaten by the human male, he didn't notice her. He didn't notice anything else as he beat the animal.
Something snapped inside of her, some reflex that she hadn't felt in a long time, and she walked up behind the human, grabbed hold of him and sank her teeth into his flesh. She killed that human, tore him apart as though he was nothing but paper. When she was finished, she held that animal. It was then that she found love and acceptance, and she remembered the warm, soft tongue as it licked her before taking its last breaths and dying in her arms.
She cried then, cried for this creature that had shown only love and compassion, even in its last moments. That was when she found the first warm touch to her cold, dead heart that has stayed with her to this day, and continues to fuel her desire to save the animals in the shelter.
Humans were not to be trusted. Humans were not worthy of the life they had, but this creature had been, the injustice stuck like cold and hard lump in her throat. Then she heard a sound coming towards her in the alley. It was a human, just like the one she had killed with her hands and teeth. He sounded different than the one that begged and screamed only an hour ago. His words were softer, but she neither cared what he said or what he offered. All she cared about was inflicting cruelty back onto the humans who seemed to deal it out so effortlessly.
She remembered the human walking towards her, and her remarks that she wasn't for sale like venom from her mouth. Can I help you? That was what he asked her, the man in this photo, the man she now knew as Darrion Hunter. She reacted badly, she thought, as she remembered what she had done. Sure, give me your fucking money...
No wonder this man hated her. No wonder he hunted her to the end of this Earth, she had been just another betrayal, another hurt, when he was in desperate need of someone to rescue him. She dropped the photos and scuttled back on the floor, arms and legs pushing frantically until she hit the wall. No, Father, please no. But it was too late, it was far too late. Her heart pounded, overriding everything else as she felt a need that raced through her like wildfire, consuming her.
"God, what is it?" Lucy asked, her voice growing higher in pitch until it was almost a scream.
What is it? Nothing at all, only the realization that she was and always has been a monumental fuck-up. It was the reason she was here instead of back home in Hell, and now it was the reason the one she was in love with hated her.
She stared up at Lucy, the words falling out of her mouth as she rushed towards her. "I fucked up, and I'm in love with Darrion Hunter."
Lucy didn't know what to say, so she stood there with her mouth hanging open. Kellah could only guess that this was the last thing the human was expecting. Lucy straightened from where she was bent over her, her eyes narrowing as she looked from Kellah to the newspaper cuttings on the ground. "Let's talk about this later, okay? Right now we need to focus on finding this Liam and finding out if he is my sister's murderer."
Kellah nodded, she didn't want to leave the clippings, somehow it felt as though this Liam had power over Hunter with them, and that she didn't like at all. They searched through the rest of the house, but apart from the bou
nd book, there was nothing of interest. Everything looked normal ... a little too normal.
They left the apartment with nothing but the bound book in Kellah's arms, and were almost through the door of the stairwell when Lucy's head snapped up. Kellah stopped, hearing the ding of the elevator door and the steel doors slide open as footsteps sounded along the hall.
"Hurry up," she growled to the human. "Close the fucking door."
"I need to see ... I need to see what he looks like."
Oh fuck no. She pulled Lucy through the door, but not before her breath caught in her chest and her pupils widened, filling her eye with the glistening black. "He saw me ... he saw me, Kellah."
And that is why you don't befriend a human. They just fuck shit up.
Chapter 26
Paradise seemed to be the best place to start his search for Kellah and the truth, so after his meal Hunter headed towards the dingy nightclub. He didn't have much of a plan, other than find her, interrogate her, and then kill her. He knew at this time of the night the club would be getting busy, and he wouldn't put innocent people at risk.
So, he had to come up with a plan to lure her out into the alley behind the club. She wouldn't allow herself to leave any loose ends, and after he confronted her, Kellah would know that he was a loose end. He wasn't going to be one of those people that thought she was what she looked to be, passionate and kind. One of those people who you knew deep down they would do anything for you. How can someone who looked like her be a cold-blooded killer?
She had hurt him ten years ago, but over the past few months she had haunted his dreams, his thoughts, and his body. Even now, as he thought about her beautiful emerald green eyes, soft skin, and gorgeous lips that he wanted to cover with his own, his body reacted, hardening in places that shamed him. Yes, Kellah Slater certainly had a lot of people fooled, not only himself but Superintendent Harris being one of them, as well. He couldn't help but smirk. I wonder how that was going for him now?