Demon Hunters (17 page)

“Are you expecting someone?”

“No. Excuse me.” She turned to answer the
door. I followed behind her. I was about to reach for my gun, but I
then realized I didn’t have it. I pressed my back to the wall as
Gwen opened the door. I tried to see who it was, but there was a
sudden flash and I felt something big and hard slam against me. I
fell onto the hardwood floor and slid back slightly. I heard Gwen
scream as two large beasts rushed in. I twisted over and leapt to
my feet. I turned just as a large arm was swinging around at me. I
threw my arm up and blocked it. It felt like a wrecking ball. I
could hear more crashing and screams from the back.

I charged forward and hit the creature right
in its gut. I heard an otherworldly grunt escape and the monster
swung around wild. I was thrown back and landed with a crash. I
looked around and the broken timbers that were once Gwen’s dining
room table were lying beneath me. I looked up and saw the creature
coming up on me. I grabbed a large piece of what used to be a chair
and stabbed it up into the monster’s chest. The creature fell
forward on top of me, but I managed to roll it off quickly. I
caught my breath and heard something that sounded like a wall
coming down. I dashed through the living room and down the hall. I
ran into the first room I came to and saw the other creature
holding Tyler down and across from them, was Jackal and he was
holding Gwen from behind, his hand clutched at her throat. His head
swiveled in my direction.

“Jake. I see you finished playing with my
other friend. I was just talking with Tyler and his sister
here.”

“How did you find us?”

“I was on your trail right away. The Reborn
may be a bunch of zombies, but I’m not. I knew special measures
were going to be needed to bring Morgan back around. A little
deeper research explained everything else. Now, here we are.”

“What do you want?”

“The Dagger of Sira! Give it to us and we
let these two live the rest of their lives with all their limbs
intact.”

“It’s not here.”

“Don’t play stupid with me, Jake,” Jackal
pressed one of his razor sharp claws to Gwen’s neck. “I really
don’t want to get blood all over this new suit. Just give it to
me.”

“You heard him! It’s not here!” Tyler
gasped. The creature holding him down pressed down harder. Tyler
screamed out in agony.

“Come on, Jake. Just think of it as one more
favor for the cause.”

“What?”

“You didn’t tell him? Oh. Allow me then,”
Jackal turned to Tyler. “Your little private dick there let The
Reborn take back Morgan’s body in exchange for release from his own
curse. He and I worked it all out beforehand.”

Tyler strained his head towards me. I saw
the pain of betrayal in his eyes.

“You did let them take her!” I shook my head
and tried to think of something to say that would make it all sound
less selfish, but there was nothing I could say. I then saw Tyler’s
arms begin to flail wildly. Large hairs began to sprout from his
skin and his body began to grow. The creature standing on Tyler
flew back into the wall. Tyler stood up, fully transformed. His
thick, dark fur flowing freely. His claws shining and his muzzle
dripping with drool. His mouth opened and out came a roar that
shook the ground beneath us. He took one step forward and with
lightning speed lunged forward. Unfortunately for me, he lunged at
me.

I felt his full force hit me right in the
gut and we flew back right through the wall behind me, landing hard
just outside the house. I saw the massive hole in the house we left
in our wake. I then felt a large, clawed hand grab my shirt and
haul me up. I looked down at Tyler’s burning eyes. The rage he was
showing was like nothing I had ever seen.

Regret

Tyler was holding me up in his one hand
while the other was getting ready to plunge into me and pull out
whatever internal organs it could grab.

“You betrayed us!” Tyler’s voice as a
werewolf was deeper and less human. More like a growl. “We, I,
trusted you and you sold us out!” He was right. There was no
defense for what I had done and I was prepared to take my
punishment. In a sick way, I was almost looking forward to it. No
more demon. The freedom of the hereafter. Of course, where my soul
was destined to go afterwards was something of a worry for me, but
I didn’t want to panic about two things at once.

I closed my eyes, fully prepared to feel his
talons cut through my flesh, but instead, I fell. I opened my eyes
and saw Tyler falling to the ground as well with a large hole in
the middle of his chest. I looked past that and saw Jackal, still
holding Gwen, with his hand extended out with a large shotgun in
his grip.

“I couldn’t just let him kill you. You’ve
been such a great help to us,” Jackal pulled Gwen up and poised his
fingers back at her neck. “Now! You know what we want!” I looked
over to Tyler. His eyes were barely open. His head lifted up and he
looked to me.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I am so sorry. I
was stupid. I know that. I just wanted to be free.”

“Venris.” Tyler whispered to me.

“What?”

“Venris.” His head dropped back down and his
eyes closed gently. I placed my hand to his muzzle.

“Hurry it up! You can do whatever you want
with the corpse once I get what I came for!” Jackal persisted. I
looked back down to Tyler. I noticed something shining under his
arm. I pulled at the object and discovered it was a gun. I hid it
away under the waist of my pants and got up and marched into the
house.

“The dagger’s not here. I don’t know where
it is. You just killed the only person on Earth who could get it
for you.” I saw the mad glare in Jackal’s eyes.

“You’re lying! I know it’s here! Give it to
me! Give it to me now or you’ll never be free!”

“Sorry.” Jackal looked away and turned to
the large creature that had been holding Tyler down. It lurched
forward toward me. I jumped back, spun around and found a large
splint of wood that was sharp at one end. I instinctively threw it
at the beast. It ran through the monsters head and popped out clean
on the other side. Its eyes went glassy and then it fell over with
a loud crash. I swung around, pointing the gun I had taken from
Tyler toward Jackal.

“Fine. For now, I will go, but we will be
back.” Jackal threw Gwen down onto the floor. He stepped back into
a dark shadow and disappeared. I ran to Gwen. She seemed too
shocked to realize what was going on. I grabbed a blanket from the
destroyed bed and wrapped it around her.

I looked back at all the debris lying around
and began sifting through it. I could barely tell what any of it
was. I could hear Gwen beginning to cry. Her sobs were coming from
further away. I looked up and saw her kneeling over Tyler’s body in
the yard outside. He had shifted back into his human form. I wanted
to go to her but I had to find the dagger. He had said it was in a
box. I kept burrowing through everything. Finally, I found a very
old looking box that had a very strange molding on it. I walked
over to Gwen who was crying uncontrollably. I knelt by her and
placed my arm around her.

“I’m so sorry.”

“Who was that?”

“Jackal Bledsoe. He’s working with some very
bad people. I know this is not a good time, but is this what Tyler
was looking for?” I held the box out to Gwen. She glanced at it and
nodded.

I opened the box up. There was a large,
ornate dagger resting in a bed of black silk. The handle looked
like it was pure gold with silver accents in the form of some kind
of ancient symbols and a large green jewel was embedded in the
hilt. I picked it up and I felt a shiver as I wrapped my fingers
around it. I looked over at Tyler’s lifeless body. I put my hand to
his head.

“I’m sorry. I am. I do this for you,” I got
up and looked around but couldn’t find anything helpful. I looked
down to Gwen. “I need a fire.”

“What?”

“I need a fire. A big one.”

We began to gather debris and flotsam from
all around. There wasn’t much left of the house anymore. We
gathered everything we found together in a pile in the backyard and
I lit it up. Soon, a large bonfire had started. I took the dagger
and tossed it on top. Gwen and I both stood there watching the
flames dance against the night sky. She seemed more intent on the
flames while I was watching the dagger. I reached in and grabbed
the dagger. It was hot of course, but strong as ever. It didn’t
even bend slightly.

“You’re never going to melt it like that.
You’re going to need something really hot. Like an oven or
kiln.”

“Oven!”

“I think mine is destroyed right now. Sorry.
Why do you want to destroy it anyway?”

“Just think of it as Tyler’s final wish.” I
saw a large stone sitting in the corner of the yard. I ran over to
it and began stabbing at it with the dagger. I plunged the blade
down into the center of the rock and it broke the stone apart,
leaving the dagger unscathed. I lifted another nearby stone up and
placed it on the blade. I then pulled at the handle, hoping to bend
the blade, but nothing. I pulled the dagger out. Not a scratch on
it. Gwen came up behind me.

“Easy. I don’t think you’re going to be able
to destroy it like that, either.”

“I don’t know. He said something before
he...went.”

“What?”

“Venris. Does that mean anything to
you?”

“It might. He had some friends he talked
about. I never met them, but I do remember him mentioning someone
named Venris.”

“Do you know where I can find this guy?”

“Not a clue.”

“Great,” I was sad for Gwen, but I still
couldn’t help but be annoyed by having what we were after but not a
clue as to what to do with it. “Come on.”

“What?”

“We have to go. I need to find this Venris
guy and there is no way you can stay here.”

“Why not?”

“Because Jackal will return and when he
does, I’m sure he’ll bring more of those things with him. This
place isn’t safe for you anymore.”

“I can’t leave Tyler like this.” I looked
down at his limp body in the dirt.

“What do you want to do?” Without a word,
Gwen turned away from me and walked over to a small tool shed off
the side of the yard. She came back with a shovel in hand and began
digging.

We managed to get the grave dug in a little
more than a half hour. We draped Tyler in a large cloth and lowered
him into the hole. Gwen stood over the open grave, tears streaming
down her face. The shine I had seen when we first met had dulled,
and I blamed myself for that.

“Tyler. I love you, big brother. You were
closer to me than anyone on Earth, but after what happened with the
wolf, you moved away and we grew apart. Not just by miles. You
seemed to be living in this other world that I knew nothing about.
I missed you. I just wish you could have opened up to me. Maybe you
were protecting me from something but I would have risked anything
if that meant I could have had my brother back in my life. Where he
belonged. I hope you have peace where you are now.” She took her
shovel and dropped the first pile of dirt into the grave. After a
couple more, I joined her and we had the grave filled in.

“We really need to get out of here.” I could
feel the unstable energy in the air. Whatever was coming was going
to be there soon. Gwen stood before the fresh grave. She bent down
and whispered something into the ground. She stood up and with a
loud sigh; she flipped her hair up over her shoulder and marched
toward me.

“I’m ready.”

We were traveling back over the route Tyler
and I took to get to Blue Haven. The sun was beginning to rise just
as we left San Francisco. It felt like we were enclosed in our own
piece of the world. It had been a quiet trip.

“Stop the car.” Gwen said.

“What?”

“Stop the car! Now!” I pulled over to the
shoulder and before the car could come to a complete stop, Gwen
jumped out the door. I stayed back and watched as she walked a few
yards away and just stop. I studied her for a good ten minutes as
she just stood, quietly, with her back to me. I got out of the car
and started toward her.

“Gwen?”

“He’s dead.”

“I’m...”

“Don’t. I just need it to be quiet for a
bit.” I nodded slowly and took a step back. A cool breeze blew past
us. Her hair fluttered slightly in the gust. I could still smell
the salt of the ocean, which still wasn’t too far from us. She
pressed her arms around herself and hugged tightly.

“I’m sorry.” I said fast enough to avoid her
cutting me off.

“It’s just hard to digest. I knew about
Tyler. I guess part of me knew that something horrible could happen
to him. I knew it was possible. I just never wanted to fully
believe it. I sure as Hell never thought I’d see it.”

“If it’s any consolation, and I’m sure it
isn’t, he’s probably glad to know you weren’t harmed.”

“You may be right. He was always so
selfless. It used to bug me when we were growing up, but I learned
to appreciate that part of him as we got older.”

“He was a good man. I only knew him
briefly.”

“He was a good man. He was always so good.
And all he gets for his final resting place is a shallow grave
right next to my strawberry patch. He deserves more than that! Damn
it!” She turned to face me. Her eyes were red and worn. It looked
as though a lifetime of pain had caught up with her in that one
moment. I knew there was something I could do to make her feel
better, but I didn’t know what it was. I didn’t have much
experience dealing with mourning. All the most important people in
my life had gone before I could chew solid food. I was in uncharted
waters, but that didn’t stop me from trying. I put my arms around
her and she allowed me to take her in. I could feel her start
crying again. Her body shook against mine as the storm of grief
raged within her.