by Angela Horn
“We get you some food and I call the rest of the pack.”
Sophie followed him into a massive kitchen where he opened a giant refrigerator.
“Anything you want, eat away.” Gus said, dialing a phone. “You were a big fan of pickles, if I remember right.”
Sophie grunted at his comment, having no memory of ever eating pickles in any life. She studied the refrigerator’s contents while listening to the phone ring on the speaker.
A man picked up and spoke over the loud background noise. “Hey, what’s up?”
“Ethan, where are you?”
“Near Raytown.”
“Are the brothers with you?”
“Yeah, what’s going on?”
“You’re not going believe it, but Roman just showed up and he isn’t alone.”
“Roman?” Ethan said and Sophie heard him call someone over. “About time he came home.”
“He’s got Lila and Sophie with him.”
For nearly a minute, there was only silence from the other end. Sophie frowned at Gus who shrugged.
“Come again?” Ethan finally said.
“God brought them back and Roman found them. I’m kinda sketchy on the details, but they’re here at the compound. Oh, and a group of villains are hanging around nearby. Maybe you boys could come back and give us a hand?”
Ethan again said nothing, though Sophie heard him hushing someone.
“What about Anya and the others?”
“Don’t know. Like I said, the details are sketchy. We’ll figure it out when you get back.”
“We’re on our way.”
Once Ethan hung up, Gus studied Sophie with a grin.
“You wanna tell me how you and Lila found each other?”
Holding a pickle jar in her hand, Sophie shrugged.
“Lila got a vision from God that I needed saving. She showed up at my apartment three days ago, killed a bunch of villains, and then told me I had to come with her to kill a rogue hunter. We met up with Roman in Nevada. That’s it.”
“You weren’t hunting when she caught up with you?”
“No and she’s only been hunting for a year.”
“Then what have you been doing for the last seven years?”
“Seven years?” Sophie said, setting the jar down as she considered all that lost time. “I was living as a human, I guess. Who are Ivy and Anya?”
“Girls from your pack. Ethan had a thing for Anya, so I’m sure he’s hoping this resurrection thing goes for the whole pack. Ivy is the only one from your pack who survived. She ran with us until Roman left.”
“Where is Ivy now?”
“I wish I knew. She loved you girls and being the only one to make it out alive tormented her. I wish I could tell her about this, but Ivy didn’t just leave, she went underground. If she’s alive, she’s done everything possible to stay under the radar.”
Gus studied Sophie a moment then smiled brighter.
“You better eat more than a pickle, if you wanna be ready for the rough stuff later. I’m going to check the monitors and see if those villains are ready to make trouble.”
Sophie finally asked the only question on her mind.
“Do you think Lila can get better?”
Gus pondered this question and Sophie thought he might not answer.
“You ever see the movie The Princess Bride?” When Sophie nodded, Gus continued, ““You know how Wesley was only near-death and Miracle Max gave him a magic pill that brought him back? Well Lila is only near-death and that concoction flowing in her is like the magic pill. Instead of true love, it’s God’s will keeping her alive. Technically as long as we keep our heads attached, we can survive pretty much any wound. That’s the theory anyway. I’ve never heard of a hunter coming back from being essentially dead for most of the day though.”
“She hasn’t moved since we found her this morning,” Sophie said, her voice breaking.
Gus again watched Sophie then he smiled.
“Yeah, but Roman says she’s alive and he knew she was dead seven years ago even before Ivy told us. If he says she’s alive then he senses her soul hasn’t moved on. In theory, yeah, Lila can get better, no matter how dead she looks.”
“But do you really think she’ll get better?” Sophie asked, pushing for someone to tell her the truth.
Gus shrugged, clearly unwilling to be the one to give her the bad news.
“She’s Micah’s sister and a big dog. So yeah, I guess she could survive a wound like that. I wouldn’t necessarily bet money on it, but I wouldn’t count her out either,” Gus said, adding quickly. “You know, come to think of it, Roman’s pretty aligned with God’s will. If he says she can come back, maybe I would bet money on it.”
Even unconvinced, Sophie appreciated Gus’s effort to give her hope.
“You go ahead and eat. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
After making a sandwich, Sophie studied the compound. Quite stunning and welcoming with his high ceilings and expensive furnishings, the house’s beauty did little to distract from the fact that Lila was dead in the next room with a desperate, and maybe delusional, Roman at her side.
As her mind panicked at a future without Lila around to tell her what to do, Sophie noticed a woman creep down the hall towards the kitchen. Standing at the doorway, she stared at Sophie, as if waiting for something.
Sophie frowned. “Am I supposed to know you too?”
The woman paused, considering her answer. “No, we’ve never met. I’m Karen and Gus is giving me a place to stay until I figure things out. I assume he’s doing the same for you.”
“Figure what things out?”
“My pack was killed by a rogue hunter.”
Sophie cocked an eyebrow. “Was it the Reaper?”
Karen didn’t need to answer. The way she flinched spoke volumes.
“Lila and I are planning to kill the Reaper,” Sophie said when Karen remained silent.
Obviously relieved by this explanation, Karen became a bit chattier. “He killed my pack. I was lucky I even survived. The Reaper’s an animal, an unstoppable killing machine. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“That’s why he’s going to die. Where was he last seen?”
“Can you really kill him? Your friend doesn’t look so good and the Reaper is the definition of a big dog.”
“Lila will be better soon,” Sophie said with a conviction to her voice she couldn’t fully embrace in her heart.
Karen nodded, edging away from Sophie.
“I heard Gus say something about villains getting ready to attack.”
“We should be safe here especially with Roman. He’s a big dog and I don’t think even a dozen villains would faze him.”
Karen again nodded, slipping farther down the hall. If Karen had barely escaped the Reaper’s wrath, she had a good reason to be scared.
“I’m going back to my room, if that’s okay?” Karen said, already halfway down the hall.
Sophie shrugged. “I’m sure if Gus needs us, he’ll let us know.”
Karen smiled slightly then hurried down the hall and disappeared into a bedroom. Sophie was glad to see her go, since it allowed for some quiet time. Gus would soon return and then Roman’s packmates would arrive with questions. With villains also lurking in the night, Sophie figured silence was a blessing.
Taking her sandwich into an adjoining family room, Sophie turned on the massive flat screen television. Flipping through the thousands of channels, she noticed news coverage about the violence in Colorado, but chose to watch a Seinfeld rerun instead.
Eating while mindlessly watching television, Sophie began to relax. Every few minutes though, the image of Lila lying in a pool of blood reminded Sophie how the fraud of her human life was over. Evil was very real and it had taken Lila.
Sophie dozed off watching television, only to be awakened by a commotion at the front door. Checking the clock, she realized almost an hour had passed as she napped on the couch. Leaving behin
d her half eaten sandwich, Sophie headed warily towards the noises. She heard voices as she approached and recognized one of them as Ethan from the phone call.
Peeking around the corner, she saw three men with Gus. The oldest was handsome in a gruff way and she quickly identified him as Ethan. The other two were the brothers Gus spoke about - a tall dark haired man and his slightly shorter blond sibling. The newcomers were agitated and Gus had to shush them more than once before they settled down.
“How can they be alive?” Ethan asked.
“Roman said the Lord brought them back.”
Ethan rubbed at his dark beard, still riled up. “Where have they been? What about Anya and the others?”
“All I know is that Sophie was only activated a few days ago. Lila a year ago. Roman just found them. They came here because Lila’s been injured.”
“That’s not much to go on, Gus.”
“Hey, it’s Roman,” Gus said, glancing back at the room where Roman cared for Lila. “He shows up with Lila looking a day past dead, even though she’s supposed to be seven years past dead. He’s also got a resurrected Sophie and a story about a demon attack. What am I supposed to do when he asks for help? Send him away? Drill him with questions? We always said if he ever came back, we’d give him some slack on the Lila thing. He’s back, so let’s calm down until he’s ready.”
While the younger men nod in agreement, Ethan only frowned deeper.
“Where are they now?”
“Roman and Lila are in the first bedroom to the left. She doesn’t look good. By that, I mean she looks dead. He’s convinced she’s not and I’m not going to be the one who argues with him about it. Sophie’s sleeping in the family room. She doesn’t know anything, so don’t go hounding her.”
“They’ve been gone for seven years. Ivy swore she saw them die. Swore Micah disappeared. If she lied about one thing, she could be lying about it all. We can’t just sit around and wait to know these things.”
“You’re right about one thing, man. It has been seven years, so waiting a few hours, maybe a day or two, isn’t going to kill us. What might actually kill us is the pack of villains prowling just outside the perimeter. Maybe they followed Roman here or maybe they were planning to hit the safe house while you guys were out. Who knows, but they’re here and Roman’s in no shape to help out if it comes to battle. I don’t see Sophie or Karen being much help either. It’s just us four to clean the barn here.”
“How did Lila get injured?” the taller brother asked.
“Roman said it was a demon.”
The blond brother snorted. “Demons rarely show up and help out villains. Did he actually see the demon or maybe Lila told him what she thought she saw?”
“It was a demon,” Sophie said, stepping out to face them. “I saw it on the ground when we found Lila.”
The men stared at her for a long time. If she knew them before, she felt no connection any longer. They were strangers staring at her in a completely unpleasant way.
“Unbelievable,” the taller brother said, moving closer. “She looks exactly the same.”
“She is the same, man,” Gus said as the three men circled Sophie. “She can also hear you.”
“Does she remember anything?” the blond brother asked.
“I don’t remember you.”
“Yet you and Lila are back together. How does that work?” Ethan asked, his dark eyes displaying the flaring temper inside.
“She found me three days ago in LA. We’re on a mission to kill the rogue that wiped out Karen’s pack.”
“Small world,” Gus said.
“And you don’t remember anything about your old pack or dying seven years go?”
“I didn’t know I had died until a few hours ago,” Sophie said, unwilling to look Ethan in the eyes. “Roman said we had amnesia and that’s why we didn’t remember.”
“And he found you?” Ethan asked.
The blond brother nodded. “Roman did say he sensed Lila. He said that before he took off and we didn’t believe him.”
Ethan’s frown grew more intense. “Because Ivy said she saw them die.”
“Either she got it wrong or God did bring them back,” the taller brother said, now ignoring Sophie. “Either way, Roman was right when he took off.”
“Don’t act like you didn’t think he was nuts back then,” the blond man said.
The men’s agitation returned as the newness of Sophie’s appearance waned. Gus waved his hands in front of their faces, his friendly demeanor hardening.
“Guys, settle down. We’ll get this figured out later. Right now...”
“What’s there to figure out?” Ethan asked. “If these two are alive, so are the others. We need to find them especially if the bad guys are trying to take them out.”
“Did the demon say anything when you saw it?” the taller brother asked Sophie.
“Lila cut off its head, so unfortunately it wasn’t able to share its secret plans.”
This got a smile out of the taller brother who nudged Gus. “Lila always was a big dog.”
“She’s a dead big dog now, isn’t she?” Ethan said.
Sophie didn’t know if Lila was rubbing off on her, but she wanted to punch Ethan. Whether it hurt him or not, she was willing to take the chance.
“Why are you being so nasty?”
“Since you say you don’t remember anything then let me fill you in. You died seven years ago because of Lila. Because of her, you were torn to pieces and gobbled up by hellhounds. That was Lila. We can blame Micah all we want, but you and the others didn’t follow him out there. You followed Lila. Your loyalty was always to her and she used it to get you killed.”
Sophie rolled her eyes. “So your big complaint is that we were loyal to our leader? Well maybe if you had been loyal to Roman, you wouldn’t just be finding out about things now? I think it’s obvious why Anya didn’t like you.”
“Looky who’s channeling Ivy?” the blond brother said with a grin.
“I don’t know what that means and I don’t care,” Sophie said, losing her temper and not caring if she was outnumbered. “Lila does what she feels is right and I doubt she cares what you think anyways, you dumb Chihuahua.”
“Yes, but I do,” Roman said, appearing from the hallway.
The men eyed him uneasily and he frowned at them in return. Even with his clothes darkened with blood and the exhaustion clear on his face, Roman was the picture of calm.
“Ethan, you never could accept what happened and clearly that hasn’t changed.”
Roman’s proximity seemed to douse Ethan’s temper.
“I’m glad you’re back, but this all happened so fast. It’s going to take some time to accept that Sophie is standing three feet from me.”
Nodding, Roman was clearly unimpressed by Ethan’s explanation. His face remained tranquil though. The brothers ignored the tension and went to hug their old friend.
“How is Lila?” the taller brother asked.
“She’ll be fine,” Roman said and Sophie detected a hint of defensiveness in his voice.
“She always was a fighter,” the blond brother said awkwardly.
“Did you introduce yourselves to Sophie since she doesn’t remember you?”
Taking the hint, Gus grabbed the men and lined them up.
“You’ve met and clearly been charmed by old Ethan here. These two are brothers Connor and Logan. You guys remember Sophie, don’t you? She’s the one who was nice to us.”
Sophie nodded at the taller one named Logan and the blond one named Connor. They nodded back, friendly enough, but Sophie couldn’t help moving closer to Roman.
“Can I see Lila?” she asked.
Nodding, Roman focused his gaze on Ethan. “Please stay with her while I talk with my pack.”
Sophie hurried down the hall and into the room. One look at the still lifeless Lila made her turn back and stand at the doorway. She could hear Ethan speaking again, so she peeked around the corner to ea
vesdrop.
“What’s happening, Roman?”
“I can’t be sure. I knew God brought Lila back three years ago, but then she died in Tennessee. I hoped she would come back again, but I never expected her to find Sophie. I imagine more is going on here than a simple mission to stop a rogue hunter.”
“Don’t take this wrong,” Ethan said, “but are we completely sure they’re really Lila and Sophie? Could they be imposters somehow, sent by the devil to trick us?”
At first, Sophie thought Roman wouldn’t answer because there was a long moment of silence. Roman finally spoke and his voice was different, angry maybe.
“You think I wouldn’t know the difference between Lila and some fake? That is Lila. She looks the same, sounds the same, likes the same things, hates the same things. She’s still vibrant and impulsive and temperamental and…”
When Roman spoke again, there was something else in his voice. A pain hinting at how he knew Lila was gone once again.
“God sent me dreams telling me where she was and that’s how I found her. I know Lila’s vibe and that’s the real Lila. That is the real Sophie. This isn’t a trick.”
No one said anything and Sophie sensed the other men didn’t know how to deal with Roman anymore - let alone his tangible grief. Ethan eventually spoke just to break the silence.
“How many times has Sophie died?” Ethan asked.
“I don’t know anything more than what I told Gus. I do know something’s got the villains riled up.”
Gus frowned. “Maybe it’s this rogue hunter? He might be working with the villains and trying to take out Lila and Sophie before they can get to him?”
Roman shrugged. “Maybe, but the villains that ambushed us today weren’t looking for us. They were surprised to find such resistance.”
“And the demon?” Connor asked.
“I don’t know. That all happened when Lila was alone,” Roman said, his voice faltering. Sophie could feel his guilt at leaving Lila exposed. “She’s Micah’s sister and having her alive could pose issues for the demons.”
“You still think they’re holding Micah?” Ethan asked.
“Ivy said he disappeared. If the demons can’t kill him even after all this time, they’d have to keep him locked up somewhere. Lila might be able to find him which would explain the demon’s interest. What it doesn’t explain is why the villains made such an effort to attack a Denny’s in the middle of nowhere?”