Hunting Light: Hunter her Lovers (Demon Hunter Book 2)

by Savannah Rose

  “In South Africa?” I blink at that. I didn’t even know he left the city. “How long ago was this?”

  “A few weeks ago,” she says, looking at me. “He was meeting with the Guild leaders in the country, but we didn’t get much because we couldn’t get very close. My sister has the gift of invisibility, while I have the ability to hear and see things over long distances. Combined, we got a decent amount of information, but it wouldn’t be long before they found us and so we left before that could happen.”

  Her eyes seek Lucifer again, whose jaw is set in stone. I know he doesn’t want to tell anyone of the growing uprising, not yet, not until he knows what to do about it. It will only cause unrest amongst them and they might do something stupid, something that can jeopardize their chances of putting up a good fight, or better yet, nipping this in the bud. “They have an item. Something similar to what changed us. I don’t know, I’m not sure, but it might have changed him as well.”

  “Thank you,” Lucifer tells her. Then looking back at the crowd, as if her information isn’t one of the vital pieces we need, he asks, “Is there anyone else with any information?”

  If there is, no one chooses to speak up. They only watch us, quiet now, their angry eyes dying down. They’re thinking of what she said, about the uprising. Lucifer nods, as if confirming to himself that he won’t get anything else out of them. “Alright, you are all dismissed.”

  They don’t hesitate to leave. The demoness bows before us again, then looks expectantly at her sister. Her sister doesn’t miss the chance to give me another scathing look before she allows them to disappear. Others in the crowd disappear as well, some leaving wisps of smoke in their stead, but the majority pile out, none speaking. All burdened by the news that was just dropped.

  I wait until they’re all out before I turn to Lucifer. “That’s how he turned. He touched the stone.”

  He nods. “It fits. They must have approached him first when they were reaching out to the States.”

  “Yes.” Wheels turning in my head, I begin pacing. “And it would explain why he would want to disappear. The Guild can’t have a demon leading them. But why the mess in the room? Luna said she heard a scuffle. What was the light he disappeared into? And who took Luna?”

  “He did,” Merlidon says, his voice solemn. “Just like when he disappeared, there was a white light. That same white light took Luna.”

  But why? “Is that his ability then? To disappear in a fucking white light as if he’s an angel?”

  He shrugs at that, noting my growing anger. “I don’t have all the answers, Melody. But it makes sense that he’s the one who took her. You said he has a plan, right? Everything that happened, the destruction of this office, taking Luna. It could all be a part of his plan. Whatever that plan is.”

  Rage, fast and all consuming, rushes through me. I whirl away from them, sensing, almost instantly, when Lucifer gets to his feet. But before he has a chance to move, Brotus says, “We might be able to find out.”

  I look back at him. We all do. “What do you mean? Did you find him?”

  He nods. “He’s in the human realm. Melody, he’s at the Guild.”

  20

  “We need a plan.”

  They all look at me in surprise. At Brotus’ announcement, they straighten, and Lucifer begins to rise from his throne, about to make his way to me. They paused when I speak, blinking. I’m sure they’re all expecting me to be the one to rush them. To move first and plan later.

  But if he’s at the Guild, then he’s in delicate company. One wrong move and everything we’re doing – everything I’m doing – will be exposed. “We need a plan,” I repeat more forcefully. “As much as I want to get this all over with, heading to him without a plan will probably be worse than we expect it to be.”

  “It’s hard thinking of a plan when we have no idea what we’re getting ourselves into,” Lucifer says thoughtfully.

  “And we don’t’ have the time,” Brotus cuts in. “He’s there now and we have no idea when he’ll leave.”

  “It’s fine,” I say, though it’s anything but fine. I feel anything but fine. “If he’s at the Guild, I’m betting he’s in his office. He’ll want to be there, to feel the satisfaction of being at the top again. He’s cocky like that.”

  Merlion raises a brow. “We go straight there and we take him out. Don’t give him a chance to run again.”

  “You should do that,” I say. “You’re the fastest out of all of us, and my father won’t have the chance to get away.”

  “As flattering as that is,” Merlidon says, brushing away nonexistent lint from his clothes. “He doesn’t need to run to escape. He can disappear on spot, remember.”

  “Then knock him the fuck out.”

  “That’s all the confirmation I needed to hear.”

  I nod, enjoying the slow smile that spreads across his face. “I’ll have to wait outside and be on watch while you guys take care of that.”

  “You?” Lucifer’s brows shoot into the air.

  I blow air out my nose in frustration, not liking the words even as I say them. They know as well as I do that I’d rather be in the room, getting a piece of the action. “We should be back by now. Luna announced to the leaders of the search teams I selected that I would be back around this time, so they might stop by while we’re there. I can’t risk them going in to see what’s happening.”

  “So, you’ll be a diversion then.”

  “Unfortunately.” I don’t bother hiding my disappointment.

  Lucifer hums thoughtfully. “Not the most solid plan ever but it’s the best we can do right now, I suppose. Is he still there?”

  Brotus nods.

  “Well, then let’s go.”

  I steel my nerves, allowing Lucifer to come to me. I want to find my father, yes. I want to know the truth about what happened, to know why he’s doing this, why Luna is missing, but now I realize that I never gave myself the chance to feel remorse. To feel anything really, other than the brief flashes of anger before I tampered them down and forced myself to focus on the matter at hand. Now, as Lucifer approaches me, I’m … nervous.

  He senses it instantly and reaches for my hand first. “It’s okay,” he says and almost instantly, I feel more relaxed. “We’re here. You’ve got this.”

  “I’ve got this,” I repeat.

  Over his shoulder, I see the other two watching me. They have identical looks in their eyes, and the sight of it nearly knocks me off my feet. It’s something akin to sadness, maybe with a little regret in there somewhere. Their eyes are on me, a twinge of longing flashing behind them before they notice me staring. Eerily, they both school their features at the same time. Merlidon is quick to give me a crooked, encouraging smile. Brotus only nods.

  The sight of it makes me sad. I care for them, and I want nothing more than to say that to them right then and there, but I don’t

  . I don’t have the headspace to focus on that right now. I can only think about my father, about the man – no, the demon – I’m about to face. So, I turn away from them and bury my face into Lucifer.

  A second later, we’re standing in the office. The room has been swept clean in our absence, and to my relief, it’s empty. That is, until I see that he’s on the other side of the room, right before the window he would look out of from time to time.

  Somewhere, far into the back of my mind, I note that it’s the dead of night, and the New York nightlife is in full swing. Peak hours for demons and so the Guild has probably emptied out. Missions upon missions upon missions. I also note that we couldn’t have chosen a better time, because the likelihood of being caught now has been greatly reduced.

  Maybe that’s why I decide to forget all about the plan. I should be heading outside the office – or maybe by the door, I haven’t sorted that out as yet – but I don’t move toward it. Instead, I head toward the window, a scream of rage tearing from my lips. No weapons in hand, I charge after the demon.

  Right at his
desk, is Luna. She’s tied up, struggling, afraid, and her face has been beaten to purple bruises and open, bleeding cuts. Mr. Black tightens the rope on her right before I reach him and he blocks my punch. The Mr. Black I saw earlier, the newly formed demon, looks even more evil with the night’s sky to his back, with the feral look in his eyes. He doesn’t look sane anymore.

  Moving so fast I don’t see him, he whirls, kicking me straight in my stomach with such strength that I’m blown to the other side of the room. Lucifer is by me in a second, while the other two go for Mr. Blacks head. To my horror, he downs them as easily as he does me.

  He kicks Merlidon in the stomach, narrowly missing a dangerous swipe of his claws. He grabs him by neck, squeezing so tightly I’m afraid he’ll snap it. But what frightens me the most is the lack of fight Merlidon puts up. He goes limp, eyes glazing over. Satisfied by that look, Mr. Black throws him to the side as if he’s little better than garbage, just in time to miss Brotus’ club swinging into the side of his head. Mr. Black was always fast, but he was never this fast. He moves so quickly, I nearly miss it. In the next moment, he’s standing behind Brotus in the same manner, hands squeezing Brotus’ head. His eyes also glaze over and he collapses.

  At the sight of them laying on the floor, blood roars in my head, rage hot in my veins. He can do whatever he wants to me, but he cannot touch any one of them. These men who have been everything I needed when I need them, comforting, passionate, protective. No one fucks with them.

  Luna is screaming against the binds over her mouth, eyes wide. I can hardly look at her. My eyes remain on my father, watching him as he bends his head as if empowered by the way the two demons fell. Then, when his eyes land on me, I resist the urge to flinch.

  “He’s different,” I whisper to Lucifer, getting to my feet, ignoring the ache spreading through my back. “He wasn’t like this before. He’s stronger somehow. They aren’t …?”

  “No.” Lucifer’s voice is grim, watching Mr. Black as he turns to face us. “They aren’t dead. They’re dreaming.”

  Dreaming? Mr. Black laughs. Somehow, it sounds exactly like him, yet nothing like him at all. “A quick deduction, King of Demons. I shouldn’t be surprised by that at all. I’m not surprised though, that you failed to pick up on that, Melody.”

  I grit my teeth. Lucifer bends at my ear, whispering, even as he keeps his eyes steady on the enemy. “Don’t let him touch you. If he gets ahold of you, he’ll put you in a dream like state you won’t ever be able to wake up from.”

  Suddenly, Merlidon jerks, then begins writhing on the floor. Whatever dream he’s in is painful, traumatic. He doesn’t scream, but his body bends in the urge to. I almost don’t want to tear my eyes away, but I do, focusing them on Mr. Black again.

  He doesn’t move from behind the desk. He rests a heavy hand on Luna’s shoulder, smirking. Luna flinches, her entire body shaking. “Why don’t you come closer so we can have a more civilized conversation?” He runs his hand over her face, making her flinch in pain this time. “We don’t want anyone else to get hurt. At least, not any more hurt than they already are.”

  I clench my fists. Luna’s eyes are pleading with me, although what she’s asking me to do, I’m not sure. I know she doesn’t want me to run and leave her, but I know she doesn’t want me to stay and face him either. On stiff legs, I draw closer, Lucifer at my side.

  “I’ll have to give you props, Melody,” Mr. Black says. “You’re smarter than I thought you were, though I’m sure you got most of your help from your demon friends.” He chuckles, shaking his head, still stroking Luna’s bruises. I wish he would stop. I wish I could shove that hand down his throat. “You thought I didn’t know, did you? That you were canoodling with demons? Your little friend came running straight to me the moment he found you out, told me everything he knew.”

  It dawns on me. “Ben?” I gasp.

  Mr. Black grins broadly, noting the shocked accusation in my voice. “The one and the same. Poor thing didn’t know what to do. He was crossed between coming to you with it or coming to me instead. But he came to me, thinking that maybe they had you under duress, that maybe they had something on you and that’s why you were cooperating with them, that’s why you didn’t tell anyone. He says he saw you speaking to one of them the day they buried your whore of a friend.”

  Lucifer whispers tender things in my mind, soothing the white-hot rage that explodes within me, keeping me from lashing out. Mr. Blacks goes on, “He thought he was helping you by coming to me. And if all this,” he gestured to his body, “didn’t happen to me, I would have executed you when I had the chance.”

  “How did he not see that you were a demon?” Lucifer’s the one who asks. I can’t bring myself to speak.

  Mr. Black’s eyes flicks to him. “You forget your little human is not entirely so. She has demon blood running through her veins. She’s the only one who can sense demons when she sees them, even when they look as normal as you and I do. Unless they’re glamored. He looked me right in the face and thought I was the same old leader he loved and trusted.” He shrugs. “I would have stuck around much longer if it wasn’t so damn difficult throwing the radars off. Intel was bound to find me out at some point. So I staged my disappearance.”

  “You faked it?” I growl. “You faked your own attack?”

  “It was a little more fun than I was expecting it to be, to be perfectly honest. And then I left, right through the secret door over there.” He points to his right, at a smooth unassuming wall. “But then, inspiration struck. Like a bulb going off in my head. I thought, why not throw her off?”

  “But you didn’t know. You didn’t know about what happened to Charmeine. About what happened to me. You didn’t know about what she said to me before she died.”

  “I know everything that happened to Charmeine,” he says, voice dropping. “I’ve been keeping my eye on her the moment I found out she became an angel. I knew she was the one behind the disappearance of the hunters. That’s why I didn’t want you on the teams. I didn’t want to chance you finding your mother.”

  “But then you just had to run off and do whatever you wanted to, didn’t you? When I learnt that she died, I knew it had to be you. You’re the only way she, an angel, could have possibly died. So, I came back in to leave the note, knowing you would find it. I knew you would think it was the angels and that would throw you off my scent.”

  And I fell for it. He played me like a puppet and I danced to his tune. “It was nice seeing you fumble around like that, seeing you be so adamant that it was the angels. Even when I took Luna here, I made sure to make you see a white light, when in actuality, I teleported with her.”

  I can hardly hear him past the roaring in my ears. Thankfully, Lucifer does all the talking for me. “You became a demon because of the stone, didn’t you? Because the Guild in South Africa called you.”

  “Well, it seems someone has been doing their research. They called me, yes. I was the first one they came to, telling me about the item they found, about the things they could do with it. Of course, I needed to see it with my own eyes and, while there, I made the mistake of touching it.” He shrugs, but his eyes cloud. “Nothing can prepare you for that feeling. It doesn’t come right away. No, it takes a while, sneaks up on you when you least expect it. Thankfully, when it did, there was no one around to witness it. The pain, the strength, it’s indescribable.” Again, his eyes seek Lucifer. “Well, I suppose you know something about that.”

  “I was planning to just hide everything, to just pretend it didn’t happen, but it got worse by the day. I got stronger. My mind wasn’t my own anymore. I felt weak!” Suddenly he bangs his hand on the table, causing Luna to jump. She starts whimpering. I try to meet her eyes, to tell her silently that’ll be fine, but I think tears are blurring her vision. “I couldn’t stand it anymore. I couldn’t pretend everything was fine. I couldn’t bear living in this skin. So, I decided to just end it.”

  “You look perfectly alive to me,” I m
utter.

  “No,” he says, his previous display of anger replaced by an evil smile. “End it all. Carry out Charmeine’s wishes. The uprising in South Africa was moving way too slowly for my liking. They found the stone a year ago, and they’re only now coming out with it. If I wait for them, you demons will already have built up a counter attack. I couldn’t risk it. So, I thought what better way of getting them to hurry it up than by having the leaders believe the Guilds are under attack?”

  “But what about Luna? She has nothing to do with this.”

  “Luna was specifically for you. My next target would have been the Guild leader for Missouri. It would have been perfect. Right after the meeting and another one disappears? I couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity. But then I saw you. You didn’t see me, so caught up with your demon friend that you weren’t even aware of me watching you. And I thought you needed a punishment for your crimes.”

  “So you did that to Luna? She’s served you for years! She’s been by your side since I was just a child! How could you do that?”

  Suddenly, his face darkens and he bangs on the table again. Again, Luna jumps and her whimpers grow louder. “She’s nothing but a sympathizer! She knew about you! She was there when Ben told us about your betrayal to the cause and still, she talks you as if everything’s fine. She took no action, did nothing to stop you. So,” he straightens, but he still looks unhinged. I can’t anticipate his actions anymore. This isn’t my father. “I’m killing two birds with one stone.”

  He moves finally, coming to stand behind her. “Don’t’ try to stop me, Melody. You won’t be able to.” Grinning, he pulls out a sword that materializes out of nowhere. “Behold. Zeus’ lightning bolt,” he says mockingly, “Meant to give strength to any person who wields it. With this, you really don’t stand a chance.”

  He’s wrapped something around the grip. A piece of cloth, to protect himself. Even though he’s using it to his advantage, he knows what it’ll do if it touches him. Lucifer has noticed it too, I’m sure.