by Jessica Gunn
This time.
Chapter 2
When we got the call the next morning to head to Fire Circle Headquarters, I figured our time as Hunters was up. Although no one on the team had gotten arrested because of the demon attack at the party, I was sure Jaffrin, Leader of the Fire Circle, or someone else had heard about it and prepped a more suitable punishment.
And yet so far, I hadn’t heard about anything beyond a summons—which didn’t make me feel any better at all.
I shoved my hands into the pockets of my jacket and followed the guys up the stairs on the outside of the building. And held my breath. No matter how many times I entered Headquarters this way, it was as dizzying as the first time had been. From the outside, Headquarters looked like any other building in Boston. But when you blinked and stepped past the threshold, you entered a colonial world with electricity and plumbing.
Insanity. It’d never stop feeling like that. Magik and demons and illusions hiding how buildings really looked like.
When I’d signed up to become a Hunter, I hadn’t really known what it meant. My story was like most everyone else’s. Either you’d been born into a Hunter family or you’d been in the wrong place at the wrong time when a demon had attacked. I was the latter, a normal college student trying to get a degree. Then in a single night, everything had changed. The next thing I knew, I’d dropped out and taken the Hunter oath. I’d signed my life away to attempt to keep others from experiencing what I had. To maybe even stop the Empire of Darkness altogether, no matter how lofty that goal was.
Inside, Fire Circle Headquarters was a buzz of activity. A fire burned in the corner of the main lobby, filling the room with a scent that took me right back to the night of my first demon attack. I’d been camping with friends right before the end of my second semester of college.
Zach led us through the lobby to the woman behind the front desk. I was pretty sure Lissandra lived here in one of the rooms upstairs. Or at the very least near the building. She always seemed to be here working.
Lissandra smiled when she saw us. “Ah, Zachary,” she said to our team leader. “Jaffrin has requested your presence upstairs. He has a special mission he’d like to assign your team.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “A special mission?” Of all the things I’d expected this morning—a warning, being fired as a Hunter—something “special” was not it.
Lissandra nodded and tapped quickly on her keyboard. “Yes. I’m afraid I don’t have any further details. Jaffrin is ready to see you, so you can head on up. Have a good day!”
If I blinked too fast, it was like the Fire Circle was being run like an office building rather than an ancient order of demon hunters. Sometimes it was hard to tell the difference.
“Sure, thanks,” Zach said almost too dismissively. Like he, too, had been surprised.
Up the stairs we went. The entire time I wondered how much of this was a trap and if we really were in trouble for last night. We were hardly the first team to hold parties in a team’s house. But this was the first time I’d heard of demons crashing said parties.
An uneasy feeling filled my chest. I rubbed it, trying to work it out, but still, the dread remained. I didn’t have much left besides being a Fire Circle Hunter. I’d left college to do this. Not that I had been very good at college anyway. But with my parents having moved to Florida and leaving me behind to “do the college thing,” it sort of didn’t leave me with many options.
If we got in trouble and were kicked out of the Circles for the demon crashing the party, my life as I knew it might decidedly be over.
By the time we’d reached the second floor and made it all the way down the hall to Jaffrin’s office, my palms were sweaty. I wiped them on my jeans and tried to focus on the fact that yeah, even though a demon had crashed our party, at least no one had been hurt or killed. That had to be good enough, right?
“Chill the hell out,” Georgie said. I looked up and found him already watching me. “Jaffrin doesn’t want to speak about last night.”
“How do you know that for sure?” I asked.
“Lissandra told us as much,” Georgie continued. “It’s a mission. No big deal.”
“Sure.” I’d believe it when I saw it.
Zach knocked on the open door to catch Jaffrin’s attention. The Leader of the Fire Circle sat at his desk, the dark wooden furniture covered in piles of paperwork. Circles hung beneath his brown eyes and he rubbed the back of his head. Looked like we hadn’t been the only one who’d had a long night.
Jaffrin looked up at the knock. “Zachary. So good to see you and your team.” He looked to each of us in turn, nodding in acknowledgement.
I nodded back, then scrubbed my palms along my jeans again. Calm down.
“You may be wondering why I called you all here so early,” Jaffrin said as he closed the file in his hands. He placed it on top of the closest stack of folders and stood to continue addressing us. “I have a mission I think you all are especially equipped for.”
Parties and putting innocents in harm’s way while intoxicated? It was a damn good thing Jaffrin wasn’t a mind-reader.
That I knew of anyway.
Zach gave us all a look that definitely said: “You’ve got to be kidding, right?” Until last night, we’d mostly flown under the radar. Not like any of us had magik to help us hunt demons with. Those prodigies always got the most attention and help from the Fire Circle. The rest of us “normies” were left to hunt at our own risk with our physical abilities and all the weapons we could carry.
Jaffrin nodded and pressed his fingers together. “Yes. In the area where you normally take your camping trips during your leave, we’ve had some reports of demon activity. I figured it’d be best to send a team acquainted with the area to investigate.”
I raised my eyebrows. “I mean, that makes sense.”
“I quite thought so,” Jaffrin said in a tone that made it clear he was busy and would rather be doing anything else right now. “I’d like you to leave tomorrow morning and spend a few days out there. When you’re done, report back to me with anything you’ve found.”
“Sounds easy enough,” Zach said, giving us all a quick glance. “Anything else?”
Jaffrin reached for some papers and tapped them on his desk to straighten them. “No, that is all for today. I’ll see you when you return.”
He dismissed us and we trailed back out into the hallway.
“Well, we sure got lucky,” Georgie said.
“Yeah,” I said. “Your love of partying could have gotten us all kicked out.”
Zach chuckled. “And instead, we’re getting paid to vacation at work. Can’t say I’d have it any other way. We have the best jobs in the world.”
I rolled my eyes.
Charlie caught the action and lifted an eyebrow. “What? You’d rather spend your time working your ass off like some of these Hunter teams? Always on patrol, always after demons?”
“Considering that’s our job,” I said, nearly glaring at him, “yes, I would. And in case you forgot, our campsite is in the same state that Landshaft is supposedly in. So if there really is demonic activity, this could get serious. So let’s at least try to be serious in return.”
“We’ll get serious about what beer we bring along!” Georgie said.
I seethed quietly, grinding my molars together. One day their carefree attitude would get us all killed.
Landshaft was the demon city at the heart of the American sector of the Empire of Darkness. Even if the Hunter Circles knew exactly where it was located and how it’d been kept hidden for so long, I highly doubted any Circle Leader would send a team in there. After all, demons didn’t typically attack our Headquarters for the same reason.
We were at war. But no one was ready to fully tip the balance just yet.
Both sides were still raising armies.
The Hunter Circles wasn’t some easy job where we occasionally got in fights with demons. The Hunter Circles were an ancient order of d
emon Hunters meant to keep the balance.
I wished some people took it as seriously as it was meant to be.
Chapter 3
We set out the next morning with a packed car and a general vibe that this was probably a fool’s errand. At least we’d be out of the house for a while. I used to camp all the time as a kid. But ever since my life had been upended in college, I’d only gone when the team had.
In fact, I rarely did anything that the team didn’t do together. And most of the time, that meant training or patrolling. Or partying.
Which of course Tanner and Charlie had already begun doing.
“Oh, come on!” Tanner cackled, shoving a can of some local craft brew toward me. “Stop being you and enjoy the trip.”
I took the can but rolled my eyes. “It’s still work.”
Zach looked at me from the driver’s seat, his eyes meeting mine through the mirror. “They’re paying us to camp and drink for a few days. Doesn’t get better than that.”
I’d sure feel better if there was actually no threat of demonic activity. But like Hunters, demons were everywhere. Even if the demons outnumbered us ten-to-one or more.
I cracked opened the beer as we soared down the highway. Zach had the biggest lead foot I’d ever known. At least we’d be out of this car and away from his madman driving that much sooner.
A few hours later, we did make it to the campsite, pulling in through the front gates and traveling down the tight dirt roads to an emptier area. Just in case we did find something we had to fight.
“We’ll set up camp here,” Zach said as he put the car in park. “That way we have a base. We’ll check out the areas right around the campsite tonight and then enjoy ourselves.”
I groaned. Don’t we do enough partying?
Zach turned to me with a raised eyebrow. “That okay with you, old man? You have a bedtime you gotta meet or something?”
“No, I just think we should do our jobs first, Zach.” I understood the party mentality. I understood our unique situation where we didn’t really have much to worry about except doing our part to keep the war between the Circles and Darkness at bay. I completely and wholly got what that did to a person my age. But this was, at its core, a job. “We should head up to the area tonight and make camp there.”
“We’ll be able to teleportante back and forth once we set up camp here,” Georgie said. “Which is a lot safer an idea than staying up there overnight. We’d have to set watches.”
Zach nodded. “And because we don’t know exactly what’s waiting for us, having a safe base is the best idea. We’re not just going to drink, Kian.”
Now that they’d explained themselves, I had to admit it was a good plan. Even if the demons could follow our teleportante trail, we’d be better off fighting them here on ground we knew than god-only-knew-what we’d find twenty miles north of here.
I shrugged, resigning myself to it. “Fine. But we should get going at first light tomorrow so we have as much daylight as possible.”
Zach nodded. “Agreed. Until then…” He opened the car door and got out. “Let’s get this site put together.”
Despite drinking the better part of the night away in our campsite, the team did manage to be ready for sunrise. We put out the fire and grabbed some breakfast, then packed our backpacks and set off.
Most of the land around here was easy to traverse. There were some hills and tough areas, sure. But for the most part, we weren’t hiking up any mountains. The first few hours went by without much talking between us. Tanner and Charlie were hungover, and the others were half-asleep still. Not me.
The crisp, cool air reinvigorated me and reminded me that maybe there really was more to life than fighting demons. It had more than become an all-encompassing occupation. My “normal” life really hadn’t even been that long ago. But when you threw yourself wholly into something, time really did fly.
We continued into the afternoon, reaching the area Jaffrin had described right past sunset.
Zach stopped as the last of the light left the sky and the first stars began shining. “We should go another hour or so. It’s quiet here. I don’t think the rumors are true.” He reached into his pack and withdrew a flashlight.
I did the same, and so did the others. “Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t still be careful,” I pointed out. But unfortunately for us, the moon was barely more than a sliver of light tonight. We wouldn’t be able to see much of anything without some light. But anyone looking for us wouldn’t have a problem at all.
“We’ll be fine,” Georgie said. “Let’s go.” He trudged on ahead.
We’d lost any sort of trail an hour ago and were now mostly wandering aimlessly through the woods. But there weren’t so much as manmade tracks or any signs of normal hunters up here for sport. Why would demons be up here?
Answer: Because it’s so in the middle of nowhere that no one would pay attention.
Which was exactly why Landshaft, the demon city, had been built here centuries ago. I hoped they weren’t the demons Jaffrin had heard rumors of. The demons we fought on a daily basis in Massachusetts were nothing compared to the supposed power level of the demons and soldiers inside Landshaft, or the Talon bounty hunters who helped run it.
“If there are rumors of activity up here,” I said, “then my guess is the demons are leaving Landshaft and searching locally for magik users for this year’s Autumn Fire.”
“A bit early for that, isn’t it?” Tanner asked. We’d talked on the way up about the possibility of running into demons from Landshaft.
I shot him a look this time. “It’s never too early.” Or so I heard. Most of the information Hunters got about Landshaft was along the lines of, “Stay the hell away from it.” And here we were, dancing with the possibility of stumbling into the city.
“Twenty miles from civilization isn’t far enough,” Zach said. “The Hunter Circles would have found the city by then. And there are five of us. We’ll be fine. We still need to cover a bit more ground for tonight.”
I lifted my flashlight to shine it right in his face. “Don’t you understand? If we continue on and run into one of their demons, we could find ourselves captured Hunters.”
Charlie waved my anxiety off. “They won’t want us. We don’t have magik. Can’t make demons from normal humans without magik.”
Tanner’s eyes narrowed. “So then they kill us for fun. Neither option is good. I’m with Kian on this. We should head back to camp and call Jaffrin for better instructions and backup.”
My thumb was already hovering over call on my phone. “I got it. Calling now—”
A loud cry split the cold night air, shattering any remaining sense of calm. The cry carried the weight of pain and fear. And it was most definitely human.
“Shit,” I hissed. Too late. There was no turning back now.
“Let’s go,” Zach said as he took off through the trees.
We followed right behind him, and I drew my Fire Circle knife. At least up here it was safe to assume this wasn’t some mugging or domestic dispute gone wrong like back in Boston.
The dark sky slowed us down as we made our way through the woods, stumbling on logs and uneven footing we moved too fast to avoid, until we came to the edge of a clearing. Zach shot out his arm to stop me as I followed right behind him.
We all stopped, watching as four figures surrounded one that wasn’t moving much. In the darkness and at this distance, it was hard to make out what was happening. But then fire grew in one of the figure’s palms.
Demons. Jaffrin had been right to investigate the rumor.
The demon lifted his fire palm and sent a blazing sphere searing through the air toward the lone figure.
My feet pushed off from the ground as I pushed past Zach and made my way down into the clearing. The fireball connected and the person—bound, it looked like in the flash of light the flames provided—screamed again in pain as fire burnt their skin.
“Dammit, Kian!” Zach called behind me.<
br />
I was already gone, crossing the distance between us and the demons.
They turned to me as my feet pounded against the ground, my heartbeat thundering in my ears. The chances these guys were Talon bounty hunters or other higher-up Landshaft demons…
I swallowed down the panic clawing at my lungs and launched from the ground up into the air, reaching out toward the closest demon. We slammed together and I tackled him to the ground, racing to shove my knife into his chest before he could otherwise react. All demons had magik and I didn’t plan on letting this one live long enough to find out what he could wield.
As the tip of my blade neared his chest, the demon reached out and clamped a strong hand around my wrist, keeping the hit from connecting.
“You fools,” he hissed through gritted teeth. His red eyes nearly glowed in the nighttime darkness. They were the only defining features I could make out.
“Right. That’s what you all say.” I growled and pushed down with every ounce of strength I could muster to counter the demon’s. My Fire Circle knife slid into his chest, through his ribcage, to his heart.
He stopped struggling after that.
I rolled off him and tried to survey the rest of the fight. Tanner and Charlie were struggling with one of the other three demons, and Zach and Georgie each had one. Leaving the human caught in the middle.
My jaw dropped. The human, male, had a glowing energy in his palms that swirled around each of his fingers. Energy like… ether. Their captured target was an ether-shaper!
Wait a minute…
He lifted his bound hands and tossed the ether at one of the female demons. As it leapt through the air, the ether turned from a light, almost-white blue to pure cobalt lined with a golden energy. I’d never, not once, seen ether like that.
Pain burst across the back of my head. I staggered, falling to my knees and barely catching myself with knuckles slammed into the ground. All breath rushed out of my lungs. Then a second hit slammed into my back, knocking me flat to the dirt and moss.
