by Scott, J. S.
A Dangerous Hunger
The Sentinel Demons: Book Two
Copyright © 2014 by J. S. Scott
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotation embodied in critical articles and reviews. This is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Content Editing by Roroblu’s Mum
Cover Art: Cali MacKay – Covers By Cali
Copy Editing by Faith Williams – The Atwater Group
ISBN: 978-1-939962-46-1 (Paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-939962-45-4 (Digital Edition)
This book is dedicated to every wonderful member of Jan’s Gems, my fabulous street team. I’ve never seen a more enthusiastic and incredible group of women, and I know I’m blessed to have every one of you in my group. Your support means the world to me. I hope you like Drew’s story.
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Epilogue
“The Sentinel Demons-A History”
AUTHOR-UNKNOWN
Many people believe that demons are evil spirits, possessing humans, taking over their minds and bodies until they are nothing but a shell, a vessel for the evil entity that dwells inside them. What most humans don’t know is that there are also other types of demons, physical beings created thousands of years ago, during a period of time when demons came to rule the Earth, having been set loose by careless gods who used them for chaos and revenge. The gods created them in so great a number that they finally had to confine all their creations to a demon realm, a prison that could contain them. Said gods, who are now considered nothing more than myth, and whose vanity was endless, adamantly refused to destroy the demons—to annihilate all of them would be an admission that what the deities had done was actually wrong. All-powerful, all-knowing gods and demigods did not make errors. They themselves declared it impossible. And how could they destroy their own magic, lose creatures that might be needed later? After all, the gods were usually at war, and what if they needed their evil creations for weapons? So instead, the demons stayed confined to the demon realm, a place where no god would venture—a realm of such vile evilness, such toxicity and so malodorous, that no selfish deity could tolerate visiting.
The realm was hidden, situated between Earth and Hades, a place where the demons remained, multiplied, and grew in strength while the gods ignored their existence. Unfortunately, ignoring such heinous immortals eventually created utter chaos, the demons finally gaining enough power to leave the demon realm and create havoc on an Earth that was, by that time, inhabited by a large population of humans. These demons became known as the Evils.
Devastation ruled, humans being taken in large numbers, disappearing in droves. The balance between good and evil tipped, evil ruling the planet, creating a rift that not even the gods themselves could fix. Desperate to restore sanity to an insane world, the gods tried in vain to destroy the vile beasts that upset the equilibrium, finally putting aside their vanity in favor of survival. But it was too late; the demon population was too large, too powerful, and the egotistic gods weren’t about to venture near the Evils to destroy them.
Desperate, the deities banded together and created a new breed of demon to fight the Evils; the newcomers’ souls would still be dark, but their purpose would be to protect humans from becoming extinct, bringing good and evil back into balance. These newly created Sentinel demons blended in, appearing human…but they weren’t. They were magical beings, although they adapted and took on more facets of humanity as they evolved. Having given the guardian demons the power to recruit humans and thus replace Sentinels lost in the battle between good and evil, the gods no longer needed to be bothered with their “annoying little problem” and went to war with each other once again, losing power as the centuries passed and humans ceased to worship them. However, the Sentinels carried on, striving to protect the human population, governing themselves and growing in magical powers, even though the gods had embedded a set of rules into the Sentinels’ magic—supposed fail-safes imposed to keep the guardian demons in check. Still, the Sentinels brought balance back to the planet in spite of the stifling rules, finding ways to bend them or work around them, angry that the only rule imposed on the Evils was that human victims could not initially be taken by force, or coerced via lies. But manipulation was easy for an Evil, and once a human had agreed to an Evil’s bargain, there was no end to the torture the heinous demons could impose upon the duped individual in order to increase their own strength.
So…are all demons evil? They are all dark at their core, and have some degree of inherent wickedness…but demons were not all created equal.
Evils and Sentinels are both demons, engaging to this day in a battle of good versus evil that has been going on for thousands of years, a war that most humans are blissfully unaware even exists. However, for the small percentage of individuals who actually have encounters with demons…their lives will never be the same.
If there was one thing Drew Winston loved about his earthly Sentinel existence, it was food. Undoubtedly, he loved being a billionaire demon, but he mostly loved the money because it allowed him to get any type of food he wanted, whenever he wanted it, and he hadn’t yet met a steak or a dessert that he didn’t like. Sure, some of the food was better than others, but food was a glorious thing, and he hadn’t tired of any of it during his over one hundred fifty years of being a Sentinel.
If there was one thing Drew detested about living on the planet in the human dimension, it was cats. They were nasty, sneaky animals that did nothing but hiss at him and give him the evil eye whenever he crossed their path, attacking him with claws and teeth if he got too close, so he tried to stay well away from that feline breed altogether. Cats obviously sensed his demon, and to say that they didn’t react well to it was an understatement.
Given his long, unfortunate history with cats, he was a little beyond surprised when a large, orange, very overfed tabby cat made its way over to where he was sitting, curling up not five feet away from him.
“I don’t like cats,” he warned the feline. “And they don’t like me. So scram.” He waved away the animal, but the cat never flinched, and continued to give him a curious golden-eyed stare. Not the evil eye exactly, but more of an assessing glare. The cat didn’t move, nor did it hiss. It just kept peering at him as though trying to figure out who he was and what he was doing in its owner’s territory.
Bloody hell! was the thought that formed as Drew opened the note he’d crumpled in his hand and read it again:
Dear Demons,
I’m not home, so you might as well leave and never come back. I’m getting more than a little tired of this game, and I’m not obtuse enough to agree to any demon bargain. I’m under Sentinel protection. So take your ugly asses back to your own realm so I can get some work done. Trying to corner me and get me to agree to a bargain is pointless.
Dr. Talia Maris
Drew l
aughed. He couldn’t help himself. He wasn’t used to humans who didn’t cower at the thought of demons being on their ass. This woman seemed more irritated than terrified, and that intrigued him.
However, he had to admit that his ego was getting a little bruised, too. He’d been trying to corner this human female to have a little discussion with her about her research for well over a month, and she’d outsmarted him every time. He was a Sentinel, and he never failed to do his duty, and being bested by a human female was getting beyond annoying.
“She’s a smart lass, isn’t she?” he asked aloud, glancing at the cat. The feline tilted its head, as though to say that Drew was stating the obvious. And he was. Any human who could avoid a demon, any demon, for such a long length of time was pretty extraordinary.
He might admire this Talia Maris, but he was getting pretty damn sick of coming up empty-handed, his mission not yet accomplished. The demon world was getting crazy, and he needed to end this task soon, get back to his normal duties. Problem was, his oldest brother, Zach, had his head up his ass because he’d finally found his mate, and his youngest brother, Hunter, was just plain losing his mind. As the only currently sane Winston brother, it was even more important for him to get back to trying to contain the Evils. Zach’s mating time with Kat could have been disastrous had Drew and Kristoff not cleaned up the mess behind some of the incidents that had occurred. The Evils were getting bolder and bolder, now revealing their presence to humans without worrying about the repercussions. After a messy battle in a restaurant during Kat and Zach’s mating period, it had taken Drew and Kristoff days to clean up the mess and wipe the minds of the humans who had witnessed the event. Not to mention deleting any lasting evidence. Sentinel duties were so much easier to carry out in the days before smart phones, videos, cameras, and other technology. And Drew suspected that it wouldn’t be the last cover-up he and Kristoff would need to do. The existence of demons had to be kept from humans or the whole world would probably collapse. The battle between the Sentinels and Evils had been invisible to mankind for thousands of years, and needed to remain that way.
Drew eyed the cheeky note again, trying to figure out this mystery woman he’d been chasing for so long.
This woman knows she’s being pursued. Somehow she realizes I’m after her.
He had no idea how she knew, or why she was under Sentinel protection, but he had no doubts about the veracity of the information contained in the notes he invariably found whenever he arrived somewhere he thought she’d be, only to find that he’d missed her…again. Unfortunately, he had a collection of such short letters, every one of them basically the same.
She always knew when he was close to her, and she bolted, leaving behind another note.
Pulling a chocolate truffle from his pocket, he removed the gold foil, popping it into his mouth with a thoughtful expression. Maybe it was time to change his strategy.
Drew turned his head, eyeing the lazy cat that was still watching him cautiously, a small grin beginning to form on his face, his expression turning wicked as a plan formed in his mind. Fine. If he couldn’t get her to stay in one place, he’d have to give her a reason to talk to him. Looking at the overfed, well-groomed cat with a sparkly collar around its neck, Drew figured there might be something that she cared about enough to meet with him.
“I have some nice, juicy tuna at home,” he told the cat cautiously, shuddering at the thought of getting anywhere near the feline.
The tabby, obviously familiar with that word, lifted its chin interestedly.
Drew felt just the tiniest bit guilty about kidnapping a pet the woman obviously loved. He manifested a cage around the cat, causing it to hiss and spit, a reaction he’d expected from the beginning, but he pushed his remorse aside.
It was time for he and Dr. Talia Maris to end this game, and he planned on being the winner. He could wait for her to return, but he doubted she would come back as long as he was here. Or, he could try to track her down once again in another place, but he knew those ideas were all fruitless pursuits. If she felt his presence, he could be waiting at her home in this rural area of northern Idaho forever. And she’d managed to avoid him everywhere else, too.
He wasn’t going to get anywhere near her unless he took more drastic action, gave her a reason to have to talk to him, even if it did involve stealing a feline.
Drew stood, grasping the handle of the cat carrier, and cursed when the contrary animal clawed him through one of the openings, leaving a tear in his expensive leather jacket.
“Damn bloody nasty animal,” Drew said, exasperated that he had to go to these lengths just to talk to a female who was, judging by some of her notes, probably as cantankerous as her cat. “I promised you tuna, for Christ’s sake,” he grumbled to the still surly animal, eyes narrowed at the cage and holding it away from his body in disgust.
Miraculously, the cat settled down, and was finally quiet.
Drew grimaced, realizing he had one thing in common with the angry animal.
They could both be motivated by food.
He disappeared, fervently hoping it wouldn’t be long before the woman wanted to claim her cat.
Talia Maris pulled her SUV into her long, winding driveway with a sense of relief.
No demons.
She pushed her glasses awkwardly back onto the bridge of her nose, cursing the fact that she hadn’t had the time or inclination to put in her contacts before she’d had to hastily leave her home. Damn demons! The lenses irritated her eyes, and she couldn’t wear them all the time. Not that it really made a difference to her appearance. At five foot eleven, and taller than most men, her plain features and bland, shoulder-length brown hair were enough to make her unattractive, and contacts or not, she was an awkward, homely woman. Her dark green eyes were her only decent feature.
Talia sighed as she killed the engine, ready to finally be back home. At least the demons had left. She couldn’t feel even the slightest demon presence. But she knew it was only a reprieve, and they’d be back soon enough. She’d been avoiding them for weeks now, and they always came back.
She grabbed the grocery bag on the seat and exited the vehicle, locking it behind her. Not that she really needed to worry. She lived in a small town, a rural area that rarely saw any crime. Although the townspeople probably considered her odd, which most people did, she’d always been safe since moving here after she’d finished graduate school. She’d been able to do her research on ancient history and write her texts and history books in peace to make a living. Until recently.
Why are the demons pursuing me now?
She hadn’t been bothered by demons in years, not since Hunter had rescued her from making a deadly bargain with the Evils to try to save her mother’s life. After the bargain with Hunter was done, she’d been under Sentinel protection, and hadn’t seen or sensed a demon since, except an occasional guardian. And she’d liked it that way.
She didn’t have any friends because the title of Freak had followed her wherever she went, and had for most of her life. And her mother, her only family, had died several years ago of cancer. So, Talia was an eccentric recluse who lived in her world of ancient history, her only real and loyal friend her orange tabby cat, Pumpkin.
Being alone is better than being hurt. Talia had learned that particular lesson a long time ago, and she was content with her life. She made a good living from writing textbooks and manuals, and she owned a home she could call her own.
I’m not lonely.
Okay, maybe there were moments when she wished she had someone to talk to other than her cat, but they quickly vanished when she thought about the teasing and taunting she’d endured while at school because she was a paranormal “sensitive,” a woman who saw, felt, and sensed paranormal entities. Before she’d learned to control her abilities, she’d zone out, her green eyes glowing, as she had an encounter with ghosts and other supernatural be
ings. Any friends she’d started to make shunned her after the incidents, afraid of her abilities, seeing her as an oddity. Eventually, Talia had just given up trying, resigning herself to being a loner. It was preferable to being feared or ridiculed, and even though she now had control of her abilities for the most part, she still felt like the freak she’d been labeled earlier in life, even now at the age of nearly thirty.
Looking around the yard, she called for Pumpkin, surprised that her kitty wasn’t waiting for her at the door. Talia had let her out before she’d left, and her feline was probably hungry. She frowned, looking at the note fluttering in the breeze taped on her door. She pulled it off with a yank, reading the lines with horror.
Dr. Maris,
I have your cat. If you decide you want to see it again, wait for me this time. I’m a Sentinel and I need to speak with you. I mean you no harm.
Drew
Talia unlocked the door, her body shaking with anger. How dare this monster make off with her Pumpkin! “Damn kitty-napper!” she sputtered as she walked through her small home to the kitchen, dropping the groceries on the counter, most of the bag containing Pumpkin’s cat food.
She hastily scribbled a note on the back of the one left for her and slapped it angrily on the front door.
Frantic, Talia went back outside to look for her kitty, and then searched the inside of the house as well, unwilling to accept the fact that some despicable creature had actually taken her only friend away from her. She’d had Pumpkin since she’d been a kitten, finding her on her doorstep—weak, hungry, and shivering from the cold. The kitten hadn’t cared that Talia was ugly and tall, eccentric and strange. Pumpkin had loved Talia because she’d taken care of the tiny ball of fur, feeding her and caring for her until she was strong again. From that time on, her cat had just given her unconditional love, something Talia hadn’t had since her mother had become sick and died.
