Demon Hunter (Hellfire Academy Book 2)

by C. L. Coffey

  “We were in St. Peter’s Basilica, and there was nothing romantic about it. We went to see if one of Gabriel’s friends knew anything about the Watchers.”

  Leigh-Ann’s eyes went wide, and she leaned in. “And?”

  “Turns out they might be real after all. Descendants of an angel who asked permission to have a child.”

  “That still makes them a nephilim, right?” She glanced over her shoulder. “I bet it’s Lottie.”

  Lottie was a nephilim, but it wasn’t her. “They’re male, which rules her out. They also seem to be good, watching over mankind and all that.”

  “Then why did Gabriel say my dream was warning us about the Watchers? And if it had anything to do with that man, then I really didn’t get good vibes from me.” She shivered. “Something isn’t right here.”

  “Gabriel said something about our translator,” I said, remembering his words. “And how it wasn’t reliable, or something. Can we find a translator online?”

  Leigh-Ann looked at me like I was an alien and then she quickly shook her head. “Sorry, I forget that you didn’t have access to the internet when you were growing up.”

  That wasn’t completely true. Before I turned thirteen, our life was quite stable, staying in one house and going to one school. There was a computer in the house, but my mom used it more than me. I was at an age where it wasn’t quite important for homework, but I didn’t use it for anything else.

  But that’s why I’m so clueless when it comes to technology. And it was embarrassing to admit. My generation was brought up on all of this, yet I felt like I was stuck in a time warp.

  And I managed to make myself sound like I belonged in a retirement home.

  “See, I’ve tried, but it makes no sense what I get back,” Leigh-Ann told me. “I think the problem is the way it’s spelled isn’t how it’s spoken.”

  “I’ll ask Gabriel after gym later.” Quickly, I finished off my bacon. “Couldn’t you have spoken in Spanish? We have that class next.”

  “Our housekeeper is Mexican. She used to help with my Spanish homework all the time. I would have called her up and gotten her to translate.”

  When Dean Pinnosa said our classes were going to change, I hadn’t realized just how much.

  Half of my day now consisted of gym.

  Our schedules were already weird for a college, but this much gym—all morning on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and all afternoon on Tuesday and Thursdays—would have most high school students protesting. I wasn’t completely against it, even if I did have a slight supernatural advantage. Gym was definitely a better alternative to sitting in Gabriel’s office and studying.

  Only, when I walked into the gym, I knew this wasn’t going to be an ordinary gym class. For starters, the bleachers were back out, and it looked like the whole college was seated in them.

  No, that wasn’t quite right.

  There were about fifty people in the gym. According to Pinnosa, the college had about two hundred students. Or it did before Easter. If everyone was back and in the gym yesterday, we were down to about one hundred and fifty.

  That put a third of the student body in one class?

  As I looked around, even though I didn’t know everyone in the gym, I recognized a lot of faces. But there were faces missing.

  With everything that had been happening, Leigh-Ann and I hadn’t had a chance to sit down and compare our schedules. I knew she’d had gym this morning after our Spanish class, and at lunch, she did mention it was time for her English class. Harrison wasn’t here either. Nor was Cash.

  Seeking out the students in my freshman class, I suddenly realized what was happening.

  This was all the nephilim in the school.

  The second shock came when Dean Pinnosa walked out, accompanied by Gabriel. She wasted no time walking to the center.

  “As mentioned yesterday, there have been some changes to your schedule. The attack on our college wasn’t directed at random students as we have told parents and the press. Even the police are unaware of the connection between the victims.”

  Called it.

  “When I opened this college, my intention was to provide a sanctuary for those who sought further education. Over the years, I have been working with a few select members of the admissions team to track down students we suspected might be nephilim to invite them here. And then this sanctuary became a target.”

  “You’re telling me that one of my parents is an angel?” one guy a year or two above me called out.

  “No, Brendon, one of your parents is a fallen angel. For most of you, it’s the parent who left you behind.”

  Ouch.

  She probably wasn’t wrong, but that was not the gentlest of ways to break that news to a bunch of people, a lot of whom didn’t even seem to know what they were.

  “Something has shifted in the world and whatever that was, it means not just angels are after you, but the Fallen too.” Pinnosa continued. “So going forward, your gym class will be your opportunity to learn to defend yourselves and your human friends.”

  “And what if we don’t want to?”

  The question came from a familiar voice somewhere to my side, but I didn’t spot Lottie until Pinnosa zeroed in on her.

  “If it’s not to your liking, Violet, or any of your likings, you may all return to the same academic schedule as your human friends.”

  “We’re half fallen angel, right?” This question came from Cody, sitting next to Lottie.

  “Yes, Cody. And?”

  “What’s to say we’re not going to take what you teach us and go join our fallen angel parent, and use this against you?” He gave her a cocky smirk.

  “Well, Mr. Gibson, if you are asking if you think you can take me in a fight, I suggest you come down here and try it.” Pinnosa gestured to the floor in front of her.

  At no point did I ever expect Cody to do that, but he got up, people hooting and cheering, as he walked down to the front. He stood in front of the dean, his hands in his pockets and shrugged.

  “You think you can take me?”

  “The question, Mr. Gibson, is do you think you can take me?”

  Going off appearances alone, Pinnosa didn’t look like she stood a chance. She had a suit on with a tight pencil cut skirt, a pair of shoes that had to have four-inch heels, and not a hair was out of place on her head.

  To top it off, Cody was tall and broad, and towered above her.

  My money was on Pinnosa. She might have known that Cody was a nephilim, but I was willing to bet he didn’t know she was a sixteen-hundred-year-old saint.

  Cody looked out at the crowd, grinning at the attention he was getting, before turning back to Pinnosa. “I do, but I also don’t want to get expelled for punching the dean.”

  “I’ll make a deal with you,” Pinnosa said, stepping in line with him. “If you can land a hit on me, you will be exempt from any homework until the end of the semester.”

  “Really?”

  Pinnosa nodded.

  Even if the woman wasn’t much to look at, I still would have had my reservations at taking her up on that offer. If a student took her down, in front of everyone, no less, she would never live it down. It was something that could potentially haunt a person for life, and if she was already as old as she was, that was a very long time.

  Cody hadn’t picked up on that at all.

  My first impression of Cody was a guy who’d had access to a lot of money and not a whole lot of discipline. According to him, he’d been sent here as punishment for crashing a sport’s car. Although he was good looking and seemed like he worked out, judging from the muscles in his arms under his rolled-up sleeves, he didn’t strike me as someone who knew how to fight.

  If anything, he struck me as the person who was happy to open his wallet to solve a problem—whether that be to pay someone off, or to pay someone to do the beating—rather than go to the effort himself.

  But as I watched him bring his arms up and clench his fists as he
went up onto the balls of his feet, I was sure he had some experience fighting.

  I still didn’t think he stood a chance against the dean.

  Shifting his weight from one leg to the other, he moved forward, keeping his face protected with his hands.

  Pinnosa’s eyes were locked on him, but she didn’t move.

  Not until Cody jabbed.

  His fist had been aiming for her face, but she dropped her head before he could hit her. His fist barely touched her hair as it followed her head.

  Cody lost his balance, the force of his punch sending his body stumbling forward.

  At the last minute, he recovered, turning to punch again.

  This time, Pinnosa’s hand shot up, grabbing his wrist. Using his momentum, she spun him around, and then followed with her own punch.

  In the next moment, Cody was lying on the ground.

  My lips slowly parted. The room fell into a stunned silence.

  “Now, what I suspect Cody here was really trying to ask was what happens if we teach you all we know to fight and defend, and then you join forces with evil,” Pinnosa said, as though she hadn’t just knocked a student unconscious. “The truth is that’s a risk we’re taking. But even if you are half of a fallen angel, you are also half human. Hopefully, during your remaining time at this college, you will come to learn what the right choice is, and that you are capable of making it.”

  Pinnosa turned to Gabriel, stepping back so he could take the stage.

  With barely a glance at Cody, Gabriel scanned the crowd. “Although you are all in the same class, you will be split up according to your year. Lessons will focus on helping you realize the full potential of your abilities, and how to fight.”

  “And what does the rest of the student body think we’re doing here?” Lottie’s cool voice rang across the room, drawing everyone’s attention.

  I turned in my seat to see her better. Although her question was a reasonable one, there was something about her tone that seemed off, and when I finally picked her out, it was all over her face. She was pissed.

  “Gym,” Gabriel responded, simply.

  “Just like we are trusting you with what we teach you, we are also trusting you with this. There is more than one way to protect the students here,” Pinnosa added. “We want to give you all a purpose, but we all want to give you a means to survive. Plus . . .” She smoothed out an invisible wrinkle in her jacket. “Most of the human students will not be returning at the end of the academic year. Those here are present because either they’re close to graduating, or if they transfer to another college after they will lose credits.”

  “You really think that your good intentions are enough to stop what?” Lottie looked around the room. “Fifty people? From not saying anything?”

  She had a point. Even if I was one myself, there were too many people to be able to keep a secret, and that wasn’t taking into consideration that these were nephilim.

  “Oh, no,” Pinnosa said with a shake of her head. “No, the ward I put around the gym will ensure that no one inside of this room will be able to speak of what happens in this class to anyone outside of the ward. And if anyone in this room does anything to be considered a threat to a human, you will be treated like we would the Fallen. You won’t be expelled but executed.”

  “You said we had a choice,” someone called.

  I didn’t catch who had spoken, but Pinnosa seemed to have zeroed in on them.

  “Yes, Shaelynn, you do. If anyone does not wish to participate, they will not be forced to. You can return to the same academic schedule as the humans. But, as I said, the ward is in place to stop you from speaking of what we’re doing, and should you choose to follow the path of evil, we will stop you.”

  Chapter Nine

  There was a murmur of conversation before a dozen people walked out of the gym.

  Chewing at my lip, I almost considered walking out with them. Coming here and having all of this thrust upon me felt like this was the first opportunity I’d really had to make a choice. Like I could actually walk out and be a normal student.

  It was tempting, but I remained exactly where I was.

  Although Gabriel had long since promised he wasn’t going to kill me—and I did believe him—and I had no intention of going ‘dark side,’ if I left, but what would happen to my mom? To Harrison?

  Surprisingly, Lottie stayed standing, but she didn’t leave the gym.

  “Do you have something else to add, Ms. Tseung?” Pinnosa asked.

  “Where was this training last semester? Or even when we started? Why did we have to wait until now—until our friends died to start training?” Without waiting for an answer, Lottie stormed out of the gym, letting the door slam shut behind her.

  Staring at the door, Pinnosa tapped her finger against her lip. Then, she turned back to the remaining nephilim. “If heaven knew about this place, they would send more angels than you can imagine, wiping you all out. But it was the Fallen who attacked last semester when we had done nothing to prompt it. Most of you are still with your human parent, few of you have the fallen angel in your lives, and even fewer know who that fallen angel is. You all need to know how to protect yourselves, but if we can also show how you can be an ally to the angels, then we can stop them from coming after you.”

  Pinnosa wrapped up wishing the room luck as Cody started to come around, but I wasn’t really paying attention. My mind had drifted back to the night of the Spring Ball when the Fallen had attacked.

  Yes, nephilim had been killed, but they weren’t the targets. They were the students who knew they were stronger than humans and tried to save people.

  According to Leigh-Ann’s dream, their target was Harrison.

  I guess it wasn’t important. Teaching us to protect ourselves and others was. And no one would know about Harrison without giving away what Leigh-Ann was.

  “For those of you that have chosen to remain, I want the junior and senior students to join me here. Freshmen and sophomores, today, you’re going to start work on your stamina. Get running laps around the gym.” Gabriel called out.

  At least it wasn’t dodgeball.

  Just as I was getting to my feet, I noticed one of my shoelaces were untied. As l leaned over to tie it, a pair of red and white Air Jordans came into view. I finished tying my shoelace and looked up to find Ty.

  “You are aware this is the gym, right?”

  Ty looked around, frowning. “The gym? Girl, I thought this was Café du Monde,” he said, laying on the accent.

  I narrowed my eyes. “You spent all last semester avoiding this place.”

  “That was because of Gabriel and seeing as though he knows who I am and I’m not dead, I figured the new lesson plan looked more favorable, especially when I need to protect my prophetess.”

  He was lucky there was no one in earshot.

  When I said nothing, he folded his arms, frowning. “What? You don’t think I can do it? Because if so, you’re wrong—”

  I held my hands up. “Chill, Ty. At no point have I ever said that. I like the idea of someone looking out for Leigh-Ann, even if it is you.” Standing, I nodded my chin in the direction of Gabriel. “Did you clear it with him?”

  “I don’t care if Heaven has a list of who can be a guardian angel and who needs one. I’m not an angel, and I don’t have to do anything they say.”

  “Tyrone? Kennedy? Are you going to stand there chatting all day, or are you going to start running laps?” Gabriel yelled up at us.

  Looking at Ty, I arched an eyebrow. “You don’t have to do anything they say, but I don’t want to spend another semester in detention, so I’m going to do those laps.”

  As I made my way to the gym floor, I could hear Ty cussing Gabriel out under his breath as he followed me. Despite his words, he ran around the gym with me for hours.

  I was impressed. The longer we ran, more of the other nephilim started to drop off, collapsing on the bleachers. Ty, however, kept up with me for almost the whole
time until he eventually shook his head. “I’m done,” he said, panting. He stopped suddenly, bending over, clutching at his thigh as he tried to catch his breath.

  Either all the early morning running I’d been doing with Gabriel was paying off, or no one else was genuinely a runner.

  In the center of the room, as we were running around the edges, Gabriel was working with the upper classes on some basic fighting skills. When I’d worked security at the clubs, I’d completed a basic self-defense course, and a lot of the moves were the same as what I’d learned there.

  Regardless, I’d kept my eye on them as I ran, trying to soak it up through osmosis.

  Because Gabriel’s attention was on the students in front of him, it took him a while to realize I was the only one left running. Although my pace had slowed, and I could feel the sweat dripping off me.

  “How many laps have you done, Kennedy?” he called across the gym.

  I slowed my pace to a walk, my legs feeling like jelly. Was I supposed to have been counting?

  “Sir, I’ve counted a hundred in the last half hour,” someone shouted.

  A hundred in half an hour? I’d been running for nearly three hours.

  Even Gabriel seemed surprised as he looked at me. It was replaced with a more neutral expression

  “And that, everyone, is close to what all of you should be able to achieve,” he told the class. “You all have inherited the strength and speed of an angel. You need to tap into that and use it to your advantage.”

  Now that I had slowed, I realized how exhausted I was. Just as Gabriel called time on the class, I slumped down to the floor and lay on my back, staring up at the ceiling.

  Around me, students drifted out of the class, but I didn’t move. It was dinner next and I could afford to be late. I needed to catch my breath and—

  “You know you have a bed, right?” Ty asked, peering over me.

  “And I will sleep well in it tonight.” Yawning, I stretched out on the floor, tempted to sleep right there.

  “I didn’t know you were in this class, Ty,” Gabriel said, joining us.