Demon Hunter (Hellfire Academy Book 2)

by C. L. Coffey

  “You shouldn’t have done that,” Gabriel told me, putting some distance between us.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, meaning it. I hadn’t meant to put Gabriel in an awkward position.

  “I know.” Gabriel sighed. “And I know you mean well for Siobhan, but I’m not sure bringing her here, when we’re not sure what Ursula’s end game is, is the right move.”

  My lips parted. Horrified, I stared at Gabriel. “Do you think Pinnosa is the reason we got attacked again?”

  Gabriel shook his head. “Actually, no, I don’t. I never told her we went to London. Last time, I told her we went to Rome after visiting your mom—”

  “You told her where my mom is?”

  “No,” Gabriel said, quickly. “She knew we were looking for her at Easter, and that we’d found her thanks to a friend in New Orleans. That’s the only location I ever gave, so if she was to assume your mom’s location, that’s where it would be.”

  “Oh.” I let out a long sigh, running a hand through my hair. I’d retied my ponytail when I got dressed, but it needed brushing to work out some knots. It was also still damp.

  “I have never given Ursula the wrong information, but I’ve also never told her the full details about anything.”

  “Then what do we do now?” I asked him. “I thought when we found the cherub—when we found Siobhan—we’d get actual answers.”

  “We didn’t come back empty-handed. The Watchers exist,” Gabriel said. “I think the best thing is to wrap up here and spend the summer based in my home, with Siobhan. Hopefully we will be able to learn more about the Watchers.”

  “And some distance to figure out what Pinnosa is up to?”

  Gabriel nodded.

  That sounded like a good plan. I looked out the window, noticing we were back in daylight, but it was rapidly disappearing.

  “Return to your room,” Gabriel said, walking back over to me. “It’s your last night to see your friends before the break. We’ll leave tomorrow, as normal, with the others.” He leaned down and kissed me. “You should get some rest,” he said as he pulled away.

  I wasn’t sure getting some rest and saying goodbye to my friends was going to equate to the same outcome, but I left him and walked up to the main building.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  I woke feeling like I’d had no sleep at all. I’d spent most of the night chatting with Leigh-Ann like we were never going to see each other again. I’d needed to tell her everything that had happened, and then Leigh-Ann had gone on the Internet only to discover that every news channel was reporting the latest terrorist attacks in London.

  To make everything worse, after we’d gotten out of there, a train was leaving Charing Cross station. The explosion damaged the bridges so much that the train derailed.

  Miraculously, no one died, but the guilt kept me up the rest of the night.

  Rolling onto my side, I found Leigh-Ann already awake. She was sitting up in bed, on her phone. “Don’t tell me you and Ty do that whole cutesy ‘good morning’ routine?”

  Leigh-Ann looked over and grinned. “Yes, we do.”

  I got out of bed and dashed for the shower before Leigh-Ann. She’d had enough time to get in instead of texting. While under the water, I did a quick check of my body. Short of the Lichtenberg fractures which still showed no sign of fading, there was no evidence of even being injured.

  Why wouldn’t these hideous things go too?

  I stared down at my knee and frowned. They’d grown.

  “What the hell?”

  The marks had only come down as far as my thigh before, but now, they were spreading out over my knee.

  Turning off the water, I stepped out of the shower, not caring that I was dripping water everywhere as I looked in the mirror. Slowly, I turned.

  My back was covered now, too.

  Biting down on my lip to try and stop the tears, I stared at the marks.

  Why?

  Scars didn’t grow.

  A shiver ran down my spine, and it wasn’t from the cold. Reaching for a towel, I wrapped it around me as I tried to stop my hands from shaking.

  Scars didn’t grow.

  If this was growing, it wasn’t a scar.

  But what is it?

  They didn’t hurt or seem to be stopping me from doing anything . . . that I could tell, anyway.

  “Stop staring at it and go see Gabriel,” I told my reflection. If nothing else, he would be able to take me to a hospital and get it looked at.

  Quickly drying off and pulling my hair back into a braid, I then dressed and hurried out of the bathroom.

  Leigh-Ann was sitting on the couch below her bunk and stood when I came out. “Is everything okay?”

  I looked at my friend and gave her a smile. The last thing I wanted to do was have her worrying about me while she was on vacation. “I’m fine. Why?”

  “You look upset.”

  Shaking my head, I made my smile wider. “I’m just upset Isaac got away again. Don’t worry, I have the summer to look for him.”

  Of course, I’d filled Leigh-Ann in on all of that last night.

  “And the summer to look around London with Gabriel. Harrison said you need to see the Tower of London and the Queen’s jewels. I’d forgotten about that. Without the rain this time, hopefully.” She wrinkled her nose. “Then again, you’re probably on some most wanted list after blowing up half of London anyway.”

  The smile fell from my face, and I cocked my head. “What?”

  “You know, the news reports?”

  “No,” I said, slowly. “The part about Harrison.”

  “Oh, Harrison reminded me about the Tower of London. We were talking about you going back the other day. I couldn’t remember the name of the Tower of London. I kept calling it Tower Bridge because it’s right by Tower Bridge . . . why?”

  Harrison knew we were in London.

  Until now, I’d never considered Harrison. Why would I? I was his guardian angel.

  What if . . .

  I hadn’t really done much on that front this semester.

  But he was considered someone who needed a guardian angel, which meant he was ‘good.’

  “Kennedy?”

  I shook my head, bringing my smile back. “You reminded me that I haven’t said goodbye to Harrison. I need to tell him to keep out of trouble while I’m not around,” I told her. “I’ll go do that while you shower.”

  “You can be a little weird sometimes,” Leigh-Ann muttered as she headed for the bathroom.

  How had Isaac known we were in London?

  That had been bugging me.

  Pinnosa didn’t know we were there. I’d thought it was just me, Gabriel, and Leigh-Ann . . . but Harrison knew too.

  And his father was appearing in Leigh-Ann’s visions.

  I was halfway to his room, ignoring the ban on women being in the male dorms, and marched straight to his door, knocking loudly.

  Harrison opened the door almost straight away. “What . . . Kennedy?”

  “Where’s Cash?”

  “He went down to—”

  “Good.” I pushed in past him. “We need to talk. Lock the door.”

  I’d never been in Harrison’s room before. The layout was identical to mine and Leigh-Ann’s, although I wasn’t sure whose bed was whose. Unlike our room, this one was chaos. Judging from the number of open boxes, they’d decided to start packing in the last ten minutes.

  “What’s wrong?” Harrison asked after he locked the door.

  “Who did you tell I was in London?” I bombarded him as soon as he closed the door.

  Harrison stared at me. “When did you go to London?”

  “Last night?” I told him, dryly. “You know, when we were attacked?”

  “Attacked?” The last half of the word was mouthed as Harrison stared at me in astonishment. “Wait, you mean that terrorist attack that’s all over the news? That was you?”

  “No, that was the fallen angels who attacked us. Fallen an
gels who somehow knew we were in London when the only ones who knew were Leigh-Ann and you.” I folded my arms and glared at him.

  Harrison’s mouth dropped open. “You think I said something? To who? I didn’t even know you were in London.”

  “You were talking to Leigh-Ann about the Tower of London?” I prompted.

  “Oh, that? Yes, we were talking about a vacation we had been on a few years ago. But Leigh-Ann didn’t tell me you were there.”

  There was something about how he was looking at me that told me he was telling the truth. “Who else was there?”

  “Just Cash,” Harrison said, shrugging. “But your name never came up. And if it had, he wouldn’t tell.”

  I sucked in a deep breath and closed my eyes. Maybe I was just overreacting and trying to find an explanation from nothing. I needed. . . “Who wouldn’t Cash tell?”

  Harrison froze. “Huh?”

  “That was oddly specific,” I said. “You said he wouldn’t tell. Who wouldn’t he tell? Why would he tell someone anyway? Why does Cash care where I am?”

  With my attention fixed on Harrison, I didn’t miss his Adam’s apple bob up and down. “I can’t . . . I’m not what you think I am.”

  “What do I think you are?”

  Before I could answer, there was a rattling at the door. “Harrison?” Cash called. “Why is the door locked? You know I left my key in the room.”

  “Just a second,” Harrison shouted back. Instead of walking to the door, he walked towards me, grabbed my hand and pulled me.

  “Wha—”

  His hand clamped down over my mouth as he pushed me into his closet. “Please stay quiet,” he said, desperately. “Let me get them out of here then I’ll meet you in the library as soon as I can.”

  “Harrison,” a new voice I didn’t recognize called. “What are you doing?”

  Harrison flashed me a terrified look before shutting the door in my face.

  What the hell was going on? Was this because I was in a boy’s room? I pressed my ear up against the door.

  “I’m sorry,” Harrison said.

  “I really hope you weren’t doing what I think you were doing,” Cash said, only just loud enough for me to hear.

  “Why does this room look like this? You’re both aware that you’re being picked up this morning, aren’t you?” asked the new voice.

  “Yes, Uncle Trent,” Harrison replied.

  Now I really wanted to open the door.

  “You said it would be closer to lunchtime.” Cash grumbled. It was quickly followed up with an unmistakable slapping sound.

  My mouth fell open.

  “After the mess in London, we’ve had to change our plans.”

  London?

  They did know about London. Crap.

  Harrison, or Cash, or both of them, had said something to their father.

  Which meant Leigh-Ann was right and her father was up to something.

  Before I could figure out how a Texan Senator had links to the Fallen, Harrison spoke. “The attacks in London were because of us?” He sounded genuinely confused. “The terrorist attacks?”

  “They weren’t terrorist attacks. Our London members confirmed it was fallen angels. They attacked the cherub after we failed to get there. They were this close to getting her and they would have made her tell them all about us.”

  “You should have let me go to London.” Cash whined. “I wouldn’t have let her get away. I would have gotten her before the archangel got there.”

  “You were here. How do you think we would have gotten you to London? If you’d have done your jobs properly and reported back on everything, we could have been more prepared.”

  “I told you as soon as I found out that Kennedy went to London,” Cash said.

  There was another slapping sound. “Don’t get smart with me. You’ve been here for this long and the best you could do was find out when they were already there. The man on the cherub should have had backup. His death is your fault.”

  My hands flew to my mouth to stop the gasp. What the hell was going on?

  “Leigh-Ann doesn’t know you’re here early,” Harrison said, quickly. “Cash, why don’t you take Uncle Trent to her room to let her know. It’s me that still needs to pack, after all.”

  “Yes,” Trent agreed. “There’s a Watcher’s meeting after lunch, and you two need to be debriefed. What you’ve not packed by the time I get back will be staying here.”

  A moment later, the door opened and closed.

  When Harrison opened the closet door, I stared at him in disbelief, silently daring him to try to deny what I’d heard. Charge or not, I was ready to punch him.

  “I’m a nephilim too,” Harrison told me. “But I’m a special kind of nephilim. I’m a Watcher.”

  Shoving him out of the way as I barged out of the closet, I quickly rounded on him. “And you didn’t think to share that with me before now? We’ve got a damn prophecy telling us to be wary of the Watchers, and this whole time, I thought I was supposed to be protecting you, not protecting everyone from you.”

  “Whoa.” Harrison held his hands up. “No, it’s not like that. We’re like you, but on a bigger scale. We don’t protect one person; we’re trying to protect them all.”

  “What about Siobhan?”

  “Who is Siobhan?”

  “The cherub you guys tried to kill in London.” I snapped.

  “Wait, no, they weren’t there to kill her. They were there to extract her. We can only operate successfully if we can do it in secrecy. The world can’t know about us or angels.”

  I shook my head. “Harrison, I just heard Cash say he wanted to get her.”

  “Yes, get her. Physically. Take her away. Not kill her. We don’t kill humans, and we don’t kill angels.”

  “What about the prophecy?”

  Harrison looked at me like I was losing my mind. “What prophecy? I thought you stopped it before Easter. I’m still alive, and the Fallen didn’t succeed.”

  Leigh-Ann hadn’t told him that she was still having dreams? She’d said her father was in them. Did she know about the Watchers too? Did she know what Harrison was?

  Pacing back and forth, I tried to figure out what to do. Leigh-Ann would have answers, but she was with Trent and Cash. Gabriel would know what to do, but even if I ran flat out, would I be able to get to him in time?

  Staying here, the answer was definitely no.

  “You need to delay your uncle from leaving. I’m going to speak to Gabriel.”

  I half expected Harrison to object, but instead, he miserably nodded his head. “Okay.”

  Hurrying to the door, I pulled it open.

  And nearly ran face first into Cash.

  “Kennedy? What are you doing here?” he asked.

  I stepped back. Just behind him was his father and Leigh-Ann. A flicker of recognition ran through his eyes. “I was trying to convince Harrison to help me surprise Leigh-Ann,” I said, quickly.

  “With what?” Cash asked, looking over my shoulder.

  “Surprising Leigh-Ann.” Stepping past Cash, I threw my hands around my friend. “I changed my mind. I’m coming home with you. If the offer still stands?”

  Leigh-Ann squealed excitedly in my ear. “Of course it does. You don’t even need to ask.”

  As Trent’s dark eyes never left me, I continued to act oblivious to everything. I had no idea what I was doing, but I couldn’t let this opportunity pass.

  Whatever the Watchers were, I had to find out.

  To be continued in Demon Legacy . . .

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  Have you read Angel in Training, book one in the Louisiangel series?

  Acknowledgements

  I don�
�t know why it is that I struggle so much when it comes to writing acknowledgements. I think it’s probably because I have so many to thank and I’m always so worried I’m going to miss someone important off the list.

  I have to say a huge thank you to my writing buddy and editor, Caia, first and foremost. I write every day, but since my gran died back in October, it has been really hard to find the words, and this book was a struggle to start with. As soon as me and Caia started sprinting, I found motivation. It was still a challenge in places, not because I didn’t want to write, but because I had slowed. Now, thanks to Caia’s INSANE word counts that she achieves in our sprints, I find myself pushing to beat her. I doubt I ever will (she writes three times as much as I do in the same time!), but I’m damn well going to try to beat her one day. So, thank you Caia, for helping those words get on the page. But then, thank you also for taking them off there! I know my stories aren’t clean when they get to you, but the job you do is amazing, and I will be forever grateful for that too.

  I have been sat on my covers for a while now, but I’ve been itching to show them off. The best moment is when you get to hold a physical copy in your hands and have one on the shelf. I can’t wait for the whole series to be finished because I want to stare at the beautiful artwork. Eternal gratitude goes to Rebecca Frank for the gorgeous covers.

  Every author needs a loyal team and I have that with Sarah, Naomi (yes, I stole her name), and Libby.

  Sarah is my rock and the one who grounds me. And also reminds me that setting unrealistic deadlines will cause nothing but stress. Last year, I had to sit with her and go through my schedule to so I could move everything around to make sure this series gets completed in 2021. You have no idea how calming and reassuring that has been to me. Thank you!

  Patiently waiting for each book . . . or maybe that’s impatiently . . .? is my Nom. While I’ve been working on those other projects, she’s been politely reminding me that she’s waiting for the next book. Thank you, and I’m sorry for the wait. I’m already working on book 3 though!