by K. B. Draper
My legs were stiff; they needed a run. I scanned the parking lot for Woody, my beloved ’89 Jeep Grand Wagoneer. I found him in the visitor’s parking. One of the deputies must have driven him in while Sheriff Linn was giving me the privilege of a personal Uber ride.
“Hey there, Woody,” I greeted my old friend affectionately, running a hand down the faux wood grain that graced his side. “They didn’t hurt you, did they?”
I unlocked the driver’s door, remembering I needed to get it greased, as it groaned and popped in resistance. “We need to get you a little love, don’t we, buddy.” I gave the dash a little pat before firing him up.
I loved the old beast. He drank gas like a thirsty eight-year-old with a juice box, but he was tough and allowed me to get anywhere, in any kind of weather. An added bonus, since I removed the rear seat his spacious cargo area serves as a store-all and sleeping shelter on rainy nights.
Needing to restock supplies and since I would apparently be taking up residence for a while, I decided to scope out the town for groceries and something that would pass for an outdoor store. I had only caught the edge of town this morning on my way to find the demon, but I could tell there wasn’t a whole lot to Union City. It was likely that all I would find was a one-stop shop where I could get basic food items and hopefully some simple hunting supplies.
I found what I was looking for on the far side of town, Betty’s Grocery ’N Mo. I was pretty sure it was supposed to be “more.” Or maybe it was Mo. I’d met a Mo for sale once; she’d been a big-breasted hooker with an appreciation for leopard-themed spandex and the catchy little reel-’em-in sales pitch of “Mo will make ya mo-o-o-MOoan.” I didn’t buy it, but a bald, buck-toothed white guy had, in the back of a four-door Accord, and that’s how I came to meet Mo and also came to appreciate the elasticity of synthetic animal prints.
Betty was an extremely practical lady and she had everything a demon hunter would need, minus the hookers. I came out with three days’ worth of food; new filters for my water bottle; a half-dozen bolts for my crossbow; a box of 12 gauge shells for Nancy, my sawed-off shotgun; and a new knife sharpener for my various knives, which were in desperate need of attention after their last go-around with a thick-skinned demon. I also picked up some batteries, waterproof matches, a little door grease for Woody, and a pink camo “Princess” koozie for Danny.
Chapter 2
The sun had been down for an hour when the sound of crunching rock under tires found my ears. Someone was turning off the pavement and onto the dirt road, which led to the area of the lake that I had selected for my little stay over. I didn’t lift my head off my makeshift pillow. I was enjoying the stars, the crackle of the campfire, and the breeze that swept over the water way too much to move.
It was a few more minutes before the vehicle made its way down the winding quarter-mile trek to where I lay in lazy wait. I still didn’t lift my head, not even when I heard the truck door open and shut. Though Norm was on heightened alert, the only muscle I moved was the one that lifted the corner of my mouth when the sweet perfume of the ranger caught the wind and drifted past my nose.
Her soft boot steps made their way toward me, and I saw her shadow land at my feet. “Looks like you found me, Ranger.”
“And you found one of my favorite places in the entire park,” she answered.
“Care to share the stars with me this evening?” I asked as I continued to stare heavenward.
In answer, she moved to take a seat on the log I had pulled from the woods to serve as a fireside bench.
Neither of us spoke as we gazed up at the night sky; a sight that can only be fully appreciated away from the lights of the towns and cities.
“You worked a long day,” I finally said.
“Downside to having a murder occur in your forest,” the ranger replied.
At that comment, I rolled my head to the side to take in the ranger. I had a feeling she was never off-duty, but she’d taken off her duty belt giving the illusion that she’d clocked out for the night. “In that case,” I sat up, “can I offer you a beer? I’m guessing you might need one after the day you’ve had?”
I couldn’t help but enjoy the few seconds it took for the ranger to ponder if taking her murder suspect up on the offer of a beer was really the smartest choice, but then again it would play nicely with the “keep an eye on her” plan that she’d discussed with the sheriff. What better way to keep an eye on me than to pretend to be off-duty and have a beer? What would my little ranger do? Risk death or play new BFF?
“That sounds great, thank you,” the ranger decided.
I nodded, concealing my satisfied smirk. Maybe befriending Ranger Parker wasn’t completely off the table. I lifted the top of the cooler next to me and dug out a bottle. I didn’t waste time with a bottle opener; I simply popped the cap off and handed it to her.
“Thank you,” she offered, taking the bottle with only the slightest hesitation before she took a long pull of its contents.
I picked up my own drink, moving to sit on the log next to her. “Want to talk about it?” I offered.
She chuckled. “It’s been a minute since I was in the academy, but I’m thinking they told us not to talk to our only suspect about our ongoing case against them.”
“What did they say about having a beer with number one suspects?” I asked.
“I’m pretty sure they frowned upon that too,” she sighed.
“Yet here you sit,” I said.
She turned to look at me. “Yet here I sit.”
It took all my strength, all my will, not to simply lean in and kiss her, to take possession of her mouth. She didn’t look away from me although she knew exactly what I was thinking, and her racing heart told me she wanted the same. “Why are you here, Ranger Parker?”
At that she looked away from me and down to the beer in her hands. “Ashlyn,” she offered. “And honestly?”
“Honestly,” I repeated with a smile.
“I need to know what happened in my park.”
“And you think I can help you with that?”
“Yes,” she answered simply.
Kicking dirt with my boot, I asked, “Because you think I had something to do with it?”
She looked at me. “Maybe. In some way or another. But right now I’m going with the fact that I think the youngest police officer to ever make detective with the Seattle PD; the detective who closed more cases in a few months than some do in a year… so yeah, I think you could potentially help with my small-town murder.”
It was me that took a long drag of my beer this time, swallowing hard, as I took in cold liquid mixed with the hard memories she’d just thrown out there. So she’d already conducted a background check. Of course she had. Any cop with a badge would have done so; it was basic Investigation 101. A simple name search would tell her I was a cop. Ex-cop, I corrected myself. A good old Google search would tell her the whys of that little story, or at least a black and white version of it anyway. “If you checked me out, which you obviously have, then you know I’m no longer a cop.”
She didn’t deny it. “I read a few news reports. But I also talked to your sergeant and your ex-partner.”
I stood up, uneasy at the memories of what had happened in Seattle, the wounds of regret still too close to the surface. I had loved being a cop. But my dual life had almost gotten my partner killed. My sergeant’s and partner’s belief and collaborating testimony were that I’d saved their life and the lives of several of my fellow officers, but I knew the bitter truth. “That’s not who I am anymore.”
Ashlyn stood at my words, came around the fire to where I had escaped, and stopped in front of me, forcing me to meet her gaze. “Are you sure? Or are you just running from something or someone?”
I opened my mouth to answer, closed it again, and finally conceded, “Maybe …”
“Maybe something? Or maybe someone?” she asked with a sly grin.
“I don-” I started, but was cut off by a wail of
pain, overlapped by a screech of unsuppressed fury that ripped through the trees and reverberated off the lake.
“What the-” Ashlyn grabbed for her nonexistent gun.
I grabbed her arm and spun her toward her vehicle. “You need to get out of here.” Another desperate scream pierced the night air. “Now!”
“That came from the forest.” Ashlyn fought against my efforts. “I need to-”
“You need to get in your truck and leave.”
My heart sighed in relief as I saw a set of headlights screaming down toward us. Danny.
Ashlyn caught the bouncing reflection of lights and spun toward the car screaming to a halt next to Woody. “Who … AJ, tell me what the hell is going on!”
I was still pushing her toward her vehicle, but she dug in her heels and jerked her arm from my grasp. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Danny was throwing his car in park and already exiting before it had come to a stop. “AJ, did you hear …” He trailed off at the sight of Ashlyn.
“Yeah,” I replied
“Hear what exactly?” Ashlyn asked.
Another unnatural screech of raw anger shot through the sky, but this time I could actually see ripples skitter across the top of the lake.
“Hmm, something kind of sounding very much like that.” Danny pointed in the general direction of the sound.
I narrowed my eyes at him.
“I’m getting my gun,” Ashlyn yelled as she raced to the back of her truck.
“Fuck!” I was torn between the need to get to the thing making that god-awful sound and getting Ashlyn the hell out of here. Another scream.
I pointed at Danny, then to Ashlyn. “Stop her.” Before he could protest, I was gone—racing across the short distance to the edge of the lake, then around its edge, leaping down from its far bank and into the forest. I wish I had had time to grab Nancy or even Alice, the crossbow, but Sonny and Cher, my identical boot knives, would have to do.
Ashlyn grabbed her belt and wrapped it around her waist, making quick work of snapping in the four belt keepers that held her belt and gear in place. She slammed the back tailgate, pulled her weapon for a quick inspection, and racked the slide, putting a bullet in the chamber. “You two need to stay here …” She started, realizing with a scan of the area that there was no longer a two; there was a one and he was standing there with a “this happens all the time” look on his face.
“Where is she?” Ashlyn asked.
Danny looked over his shoulder, gesturing with his head. “Somewhere over there, kind of in that general-ish area.”
Ashlyn pushed around him, stared off into that general area, and saw nothing. It was dark, except for where the moon and its reflection bounced off the lake. But that little cast of light allowed her to make out a silhouette, one very fast silhouette racing then leaping from the far edge of the lake and disappearing into the forest.
Danny stepped next to her, seeing what Ashlyn had just witnessed. “Umm, so fun fact: AJ ran track in college,” he offered as a lame excuse. “I’m Danny, Danny Whitefang,” he stated as he held out a hand in greeting.
Ashlyn pulled her eyes away from the now abandoned lake and assessed Danny for the first time. If his last name didn’t hint at his heritage, his appearance was a dead giveaway. He was strikingly handsome with coal black hair that hit his muscular shoulders, which topped the rest of his tall, lean-muscled body. Smooth tanned skin was the perfect backdrop for his kind golden eyes, and wide, bright smile.
“I’m Ranger Ashlyn Parker,” she stammered. She wanted to ask this man a flood of questions, but remembering AJ and whatever the hell that was going on in the forest, she decided to park them for later. “We need to go after her.”
“Yeah, um, she won’t like that idea,” Danny offered as he fell into step after the already running Ashlyn.
“I really don’t care,” Ashlyn responded over her shoulder.
“Good to know,” Danny muttered, kicking up his speed a notch as Ashlyn started to pull away from him. Ashlyn wasn’t near as fast as AJ, no one was, but if she hadn’t been a college track star herself, she definitely should have been.
They crested the far bank, Ashlyn pausing only a second before she began to navigate the rocky decline. She’d think later, when she found AJ, just how she had simply leapt off the rock retaining wall.
Danny was right beside her, grabbing Ashlyn only once when she misjudged the edge of a stone.
On solid ground again, Ashlyn started for the trees. “Which way do you think she went?”
Danny moved in front of her, holding up a hand to keep her where she was, as he examined the area. He didn’t have the enhanced hunter’s instincts he’d been fated to inherit, but he’d mastered all the hunting and tracking skills of his ancestors. He knelt to see a broken twig and the slight impression of AJ’s boot in soft dirt. If AJ had been trying there wouldn’t have been a trail to follow, but she wasn’t attempting to hide her tracks. She was hunting a demon. “This way,” he gestured, and then took off running again.
I came to a halt at the scene in front of me. “Motherfucker!” I kicked the dirt and then spun around where I stood. The demon was gone, or at least gone from the immediate area. I listened for a direction the demon might have gone, but only heard Danny and Ashlyn, double fuck, closing in behind me. I spun back to the blood and entrails covering the small clearing. This in and of itself was gagworthy but with Norm at full attention and with him delivering the smells of the carnage and death via our heightened senses … it was just a smidgen away from hurlfest. I didn’t have much time to take in the scene as I heard my two tag-alongs closing the distance. I did a quick sweep of the area, ensuring the demon wasn’t lurking in the distance, although I figured he was already bunked down munching on whatever little treat he had been able to capture here.
Danny and Ashlyn were a mere hundred yards away now so I started to talk Norm into powering down to avoid Ashlyn seeing our fun little glow-in-the-dark eye trick. Norm was resisting, which wasn’t like him. Though sometimes it took a minute for him to fade into the background, he always ultimately respected my wishes. I took this as a bad sign. I made another search of the area and didn’t see or smell anything new. Ashlyn and Danny were too close now. I moved quickly to the other side of the clearing to give Norm a little more time. A treetop rustled and I felt, more than saw, a shadow pass over me as I heard what I thought to be large wings beating at the air before quickly fading into the distance. “You have got to be fucking kidding me,” I said, searching the sky.
Danny called out, “AJ,” before he and Ashlyn came into the clearing.
“Don’t …” but I didn’t need to tell him any more as he had already stopped at the clearing’s edge grabbing Ashlyn’s arm so she too came to a jerking halt, “step on the guts,” I finished. “I’m coming back around.”
I made my way back, swinging wide to look for any evidence and also stay out of Ashlyn’s sweeping flashlight range. Now that our tree-dwelling visitor had gone airborne, Norm, though still reluctant, receded back into his resting place.
Ashlyn was squatting at the edge of the clearing taking in the scene from a different angle as I came out of the trees next to them. “Did you see what did this?” Ashlyn asked, standing to meet me.
“No. This is all that was left when I arrived.”
Ashlyn nodded and went back to sweeping the flashlight over the scene.
Danny was following the beam of Ashlyn’s flashlight until I nudged him and pointed upward. He looked skyward and then back down to me. “You serious?” he whispered.
“Serious about what?” Ashlyn turned her flashlight, blinding us both.
I slugged Danny in the ribs with an elbow; he was really bad at whispering. “Bear,” I offered as a simple answer. “I think it was a bear. It must’ve gotten ahold of a deer or something.”
“What we heard was not a bear or a deer!” Ashlyn snapped before turning her flashlight back over the pools of blood that were alread
y being absorbed by the earth.
Danny looked at me. I shrugged. I didn’t know what had Ashlyn’s hackles up—well, besides the death that laid at her feet.
Ashlyn carefully walked around the scene and I knew it was only a matter of seconds before her flashlight beam would find what was left of some dude’s innards.
I gave Danny another elbow check and then murmured, “I told you to keep her back at the camp.”
He rubbed his side. “Umm, she has a gun, Sherlock.”
I left him with an unimpressed mutter before I moved to Ashlyn’s side as I knew the next sweep of the light would show that she had another murder in her forest.
Though the sight of intestines displayed on the ground would have shaken the most seasoned of crime scene veterans, Ashlyn didn’t let it show. “A bear wouldn’t have left this behind. I need to call this in.”
As Ashlyn moved away from the clearing to make a call, I went to Danny. “There was definitely something in the trees. What demon does trees?” I asked.
“You get a look at it?” he questioned, as he snapped a couple of quick photos with his phone while Ashlyn’s back was to us.
“No. Nothing.”
“Norm?” Danny asked.
“He was in full effect but we didn’t see anything. I just felt something watching me and I heard … wings,” I replied.
“Wings? Like a bird?” Danny flicked a glance in Ashlyn’s direction to make sure she was still engaged in her conversation.
“Bigger. Way, way bigger,” I answered, watching Ashlyn myself.
“How about smell? Did you …?” Danny took two exaggerated sniffs of the air, as if I’d forgotten what was required to smell traces of demon in the air.
I slowly inhaled, although I already knew what I’d find. “A demon has been all over this place.”
Ashlyn turned as she clicked off her phone. “I have a team heading this way.” She took another scan of the scene with her light. “You two can head back to your campsite; this is a crime scene now. I’ll meet you back there to get your stateme-”