As Lily transformed, John could see that Jeanette began to undergo a change as well. The life in her eyes slowly faded away, leaving a glossed over emotionless look in their stead. Her head drooped down and her posture slumped as if she had nearly lost her balance. Her breathing became heavier and more erratic as she stood there next to Lily. John could sense no humanity left within her now; the poor girl appeared to be just a husk, perhaps a puppet even. Or at least that’s what he assumed.
“Well now.” John brought his hands to his hips. “Hello there, Succubus.”
“Oh?” Lily smiled, an odd rasp to her voice now. “Johnny boy’s well informed...”
“You bet I am.” John smiled. “Say, would you mind doing me a favor? Stay right there, would you?” John raised his right hand to his ear and clicked the ear piece. “Got her.”
“You..?” Lily looked on with a confused look. Suddenly, realization began to appear on her face.
Without a word, Jeanette suddenly made a move. The dark girl rushed forward and closed the gap between herself and John far faster than John would have imagined. She jumped into the air and let out a deeply inhuman growl as she raised her arms to attack, but she was never given the chance. Two suppressed pistol rounds raced through the darkness of the alleyway into the back of her head. The impacts caused her head to explode and sent a black liquid onto the ground as she collapsed into a slump.
“Jean!” Lily howled in surprise. “What did you do to her?!”
“Don’t worry, mate!” A very familiar Australian called out from the far end of the alley. “I’ve got you!”
“What?!” Lily turned around furiously.
“Lazarus!” John shouted in equal surprise. “How the hell did you get here so fast?!”
“Probably should’ve filled you in from the start.” Lazarus said as he slowly approached, all the while his pistol was trained on Lily’s head. “Miss Slut here is attracted to high levels of spiritual energy. You did say you were the bait after all.”
“You!” Lily turned her attention back to John. “You tricked me!” She shouted with rage in her eyes.
“Looks that way.” John said as he shrugged his shoulders. “I guess we caught you, Lily.”
“And now you’re gonna pay for your crimes, demon.” Lazarus stated.
“That so?” Lily turned her head toward Lazarus. “John looks pretty defenseless over here, Hunter.” She raised her right hand and her claw-like nails extended a little further. “Wouldn’t it be terrible if something happened to him?”
“Try me.” John goaded her with a smile.
Lily rushed forward as she attempted to close the gap between herself and John; however, she wasn’t fast enough. John’s right hand had already darted up to his back as the Succubus jumped into the air. She flipped herself forward and brought her tail downward with the full intent to crush or cut John in one swift motion. Before she could ever hope to make contact, a torrent of fire burned up around her would be victim. The flames covered John’s entire body as he underwent a transformation of his own. He felt the weight of his clothes change as his armor materialized around him; and, once again, he lifted his sword from its resting place. He swung it over his shoulder as he moved forward quickly. The sharp blade found its mark against the Succubus’ slender tail and it sliced the limb in two. When all was said and done, Lily landed behind John with a little less weight than she had left the ground with.
“Sl-Slayer?!” She shouted in disbelief. The realization of the matter had finally sunk in, and John turned to see a look of horror on her face.
“Surprise.” John shot her a smirk of his own as he finally felt in control.
He twirled the blade around in his hands and swung at her once more as he pushed her onto the defensive. Lily backpedaled hard down the alley as her nimble frame let her barely avoid each strike. The game had shifted into John’s favor. The alleyway was just wide enough for him to swing his sword comfortably; and after all the training he had been doing with Samuel, he could now chain strikes together more effectively than he had been able to before. Lily had no hope of fighting back, she made one attempt to slash at John with her sharp claws but found them to be utterly useless in a sword fight. As John pushed her back even more, she changed her tactics. Lily suddenly turned tail, what little she had left anyway, and ran. She made a mad dash for the end of the alleyway, only to come face to face with another obstacle.
“Not so fast, little lady!” Hatchet shouted from his end of the tunnel.
He already had his large light machine gun shouldered and ready to fire. Lily quickly scrambled to stop as the muscular man let loose a volley of suppressed rounds trained on her. The succubus jumped into the air and dug her claws into the brick wall beside her before thrusting herself away from it and running along the adjacent wall. Hatchet did his best to keep his weapon aimed at her as she jumped from wall to wall upwards toward the roof.
“Go after her!” Lazarus shouted. He slapped John on his shoulder pad as he ran past.
“I’m on it!” John yelled back in response.
“We’ll circle around! Hatchet, let’s go!” Lazarus ordered as he ran as hard as he could.
John‘s eyes darted around the alleyway for the nearest way to the roof. Close by was the fire escape he had seen before; it was the only way up. He sheathed his blade quickly behind him but found an interesting development. The blade didn’t vanish in a torrent as he had been accustomed to; instead it was swathed in fire and hung suspended on his back. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the leisure to dwell on his newfound ability, and so he quickly made his way over to the ladder. The bottom of it was held a good way above the ground and he had to jump up to reach it, and as he forced himself up he gave a silent thanks for his good upper body strength and all the training he had done recently. After the initial ladder, the rest was a piece of cake. He ran in circles up the metal staircases, using the railings to pull himself up as he jumped up two or three stairs at a time until he finally reached the rooftop.
Lily was already on the neighboring building by the time John made it up. She was a good distance away, leaving John little time to formulate any kind of a plan. He rushed after her and jumped over the alleyway he had previously come from. Luckily, the next building had been a few feet lower than the nightclub, as his jump hadn’t been the best one. He hit the concrete rooftop and quickly rolled up onto his feet without losing any momentum. By the time he cleared the next alleyway, he had found a sort of system to it, and he quickly closed the distance between him and the fleeing succubus.
Down on the street below, John could hear the sounds of screeching tires and the blaring of horns. As he ran he looked over the edge and saw a familiar black SUV running alongside. The sunroof opened up top and Lazarus peered up toward the rooftop chase above. He raised his pistol and fired a few suppressed rounds in Lily’s direction. The bullets pinged around the succubus and caused her to instinctively shield herself, an action that slowed her down. John mentally thanked Lazarus for the support and pushed harder.
“End of the line, Lily!” John shouted out as he slowed himself down.
Lily had reached the end of the current rooftop. The next building was a good distance away, separated by a road with a decent amount of traffic below. The succubus stood peering over the edge as John slowly approached. As he did she turned toward him suddenly and John quickly unsheathed his blade in anticipation of another fight.
“It’s been fun, Johnny.” Lily spoke in the same human voice she had before. “I wish it didn’t have to end this way.” She said with a smile, thought there was something else there as well.
She took a step backwards and fell from the rooftop. John rushed forward to look over the edge. Part of him expected to see her lying dead on the ground but she was a demon, after all, and that wouldn’t be the case. Just as he peered over the edge, he came face to face with Lily once again as she flew up into the air. Her wings had extended to their full length and they beat hard as sh
e lifted herself into the night sky. She spun round and round and gave a wave toward John, as if to add insult to injury. The girl flew higher into the night sky, leaving John unable to pursue down below.
“Dammit!” He shouted and slammed his sword down into the concrete rooftop.
Suddenly a crack rang out in the night air. It was loud enough to be heard over the busy city streets below. Lily’s right wing suddenly exploded in a bright display of force. John quickly turned around as he searched for the source of the sound. There was a billboard a good ways down the road with a great vantage point over the entire area. If Ghost was somewhere, that’s where he would be. John gave a thumb up in the sniper’s direction; he now owed him twice.
There was no time to backtrack down to the alley. Lily had spiraled down and crash landed into a patio across the street. In the time it would have taken John to get back down to ground level and cross the street, Lily would surely have disappeared into the darkness forever. His eyes darted left and right as he looked for a quick way down. The only thing he saw down was something he was not going to enjoy. John took a few steps back and got a running start toward the edge of the building. Once he reached it he jumped and lifted his blade into the air. He brought the sword down on top of a power line that ran from the edge of the building to a pole on the other side of the street. By holding the sword on the hilt with his right hand and the blade with his left, he slid down the wire. Metal sparks rained down on him and the street below as the friction between the sword and the wire came to a head. John released his grip and hoped for the best; the next part was going to hurt.
As soon as he let go of the wire he dropped and slammed headlong into an awning over a store front. The fabric that made up the awning quickly gave way as John tore through it. He fell down onto a wooden table below, which toppled under his sudden weight, and rolled through a few chairs that had been placed nearby. Slightly disoriented from his fall, John pulled himself up off of the ground and began to make his way toward where Lily had gone down. He walked with a small limp from the landing, but moved as fast as he could. Lily had fared far worse than he had; she slowly pulled herself away from the crash site while leaving a trail of blood in her wake. She reeled around quickly upon hearing John approach and forced herself on her feet by pushing her weight onto an overturned table.
“You…” She coughed up a bit of blood. The fall seemed to have taken a good deal of fight out of her. “You’re… persistent.”
“I’ve been called worse.” John stopped and raised his blade toward the succubus. “It’s time to pay.”
“Pay?!” Lily growled. “F- For what?!” Her words were briefly interrupted by another heavy cough. This time a crimson liquid splashed out onto the ground.
“For all the murders.” John stated as he shuffled closer. “Their blood is on your hands.”
“Murder?!” Lily shouted as she slowly limped toward John. “These people! They aren’t alive! I gave them life! I let them live!”
As John drew closer, he could see something had changed. On the outside, Lily’s eyes had shifted from a putrid yellow to more of a deep purple; the inside was a different matter. John could feel something within her, something he had felt before. Back on the plane when he had fought the possessed man, he had felt a struggle inside, some kind of fight for supremacy within the soul. John felt that here as well.
“Justify it all you like.” John said. “You’re still responsible.”
“I could’ve made you happy…” Lily’s gaze dropped.
With a sudden burst of speed, the succubus rushed forward. Despite that, she wasn’t nearly as fast as she had been before. John lifted his blade and thrust it forward. In one swift motion, he impaled Lily through the chest. The blade went in all the way to the hilt and Lily fell limp on top of John. He stood there and supported all of her weight as she gasped for air. The night air felt calm now that the struggle was over. John could hear the sounds of the busy street nearby returning to the way it was as the wind rushed through the patio.
“I wish it didn’t have to be this way.” John spoke softly as he did his best not to move.
“Th-“ Lily’s voice was small, almost inaudible even. She slowly pulled herself off of John just enough for him to see her face. Her eyes were no longer the purple they had just been, but where now the original blue he had seen before. “Thank you.”
With that, she collapsed against John once more. This time he had not been expecting it, and her sudden weight forced him down to one knee. The succubus burned a bright red as it began to fade away, the same as the other demons John had faced. The weight against John’s sword vanished, and with that so did Lily. John stood and brought his sword to rest on his back. The fire licked up around him and both his blade and armor disappeared as he reverted to his normal self. He stood there silently in the stillness of the night; the familiar tone of the SUV was rapidly approaching in the distance. Suddenly, he felt a presence enter into him. There was a warm feeling in his chest that he hadn’t noticed before. He brought his right hand up and placed it on his heart and soon knew what it was.
Lily’s soul.
Chapter Eleven
It was late at night, and so John found himself roaming the hallways once again. It had become something of a nightly routine for some time now; due in part to his restless nature and a bit of boredom. He walked around the fifth floor slowly, watching the others as they were busy with their work. Even at such a late hour, there were still a handful of people in the situation room, though it was far less than you’d see during the day. John made his way over to the transparent map in the center of the room. He stuffed his hands into his pants pockets and began to study it closely. There were a few noticeable changes here and there; for one, the orange circle that had marked the location of the Elemental demon he had faced before had been erased. As well as that, a few smaller green circles had been marked around the map. So far, the city seemed rather quiet.
After getting a feel for the local situation, and having learned as much as he could from the map for now, John decided to wander about again. The workers inside of the HUNTER building didn’t seem to mind his prying; instead it seemed like a welcome distraction. They would smile and acknowledge him before going back to work, some would try and show him what they were doing, and some would even strike up a conversation with the young Slayer. John didn’t know many of them by name, but he welcomed their hospitality just as well. After a while he decided he’d bothered them all long enough and decided to go for another walk. He wandered about until he came across a room with two familiar faces inside. Hatchet and Ghost sat at a table inside of an office that was off to the side of the main room. Their table had a few papers scattered about, as well as two electronic tablets.
“You guys are up late.” John said leaning against the threshold of the door.
Hatchet looked up and smiled at his words. “Work never ends, buddy.” He pushed a chair out from the other side of the table with his foot and motioned for John to sit down. “What’s up?”
“Not much.” John answered as he sat down across from the large man. “Just checking things out, you know?”
“Slacking off more like.” Hatchet joked and kept his attention on the papers before him.
John sighed in his chair as he leaned back and shrugged off the accusation. Ghost shook his head slightly as a small smile formed on the edge of his mouth. The shorter man stacked some papers together and slid them over to Hatchet, who quickly took them and began thumbing through them.
“So what are you guys up to?” John asked.
“Paperwork mostly, real boring stuff.” Hatchet sighed and shook his head. “I signed up to kill stuff; not work a desk job.”
John watched the two men going over what looked like reports. Filing and signing a dozen papers, they shuffled the mess back and forth in a way John couldn’t quite understand. He glanced over to the two white tablets that lay off to the side, neither was being used.
�
�What’s with the tablets?” John asked, motioning over to them.
“Oh, these?” Hatchet reached over and picked one up. “Me and Ghost, here, were looking at some case files on ‘em.”
“Anything interesting?”
“See for yourself.”
Hatchet slid the small tablet across the table and John picked it up, bringing the screen to life by rubbing his finger across it. The directory seemed easy enough to use. John thumbed through it and quickly found himself browsing through every case that HUNTER had dealt with in the past month. He stopped briefly on the two files listed for the Elemental demon and the Succubus before moving on to the unresolved section. He was surprised to find only a few cases listed that had yet to be dealt with. Most seemed like easy jobs, but John paused when he came across one in particular.
The man in the image was well dressed, sporting a sharp white suit and black loafers. He appeared to be somewhere in his sixties, a few wrinkles marring his otherwise clear complexion. His hair was white and short and he had a clean trimmed beard on his face. From the image John couldn’t make out the color of his eyes. There was a sports car behind him, though John couldn’t recognize the make, and a large triangular building stood flanking him. Below the image was a section for detailed information on the target, but this one was an exception. There was little to nothing written about the man, save for his name: Richard Holland. What little information listed offered up no cause for suspicion, but something seemed odd. Something about the man rubbed John the wrong way. Either it was his smile, the way he was dressed, the pompous way he carried himself, he wasn’t sure; but he couldn’t shake the fact that he’d seen the man before somewhere.
“What’s the deal with this guy?” John asked as he handed the tablet across the table to Hatchet.
“This one...” Hatchet said as he looked down at the device. “Now this one’s weird.” He stated. “Guy runs a big ol’ R&D scene up north. He’s some big tech guru.” Hatchet bent his index and middle fingers in emphasis. “But that’s common knowledge. Guy’s spotless.”
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