Awaken (Divine Hunter Series)

by L. J. Sealey

  The woman looked up at him and began to wipe her face with a tissue. “Uh. . . Yes.” As she looked up and her eyes met his, her brow furrowed. At first she seemed weary of him but then she looked surprised by something. A strange calm then settled over her face and she sat unmoving, staring at him from the small gray sofa across the room. Her tears had stopped falling and her hiccupping breath calmed. Her mouth curled up slowly into an unsure smile and she spoke in almost a whisper, “Are you here for him?” She looked down at her fidgety hands then back to him. “My son. . . Are you here to take him?” Her hand snapped to her mouth as she choked back a sob.

  Clearly she was going through some kind of emotional breakdown resulting from somebody close to her being on the ward. He approached her, slowly, placing the two coffee cups on a sideboard as he passed. “Would you like me to get a nurse?”

  The woman, who looked to be in her sixties, brushed her shoulder length gray hair from her face, stood up from the sofa and began to walk towards him, reaching out for him and stopping him in his tracks. She didn’t seem to register that he’d spoken as she repeated her question with a calmness that seemed out of place given the way she’d been when he’d entered the room. Her vacant stare set him on edge−like she was looking right into him, not the body he inhabited, but to him inside of it. For the first time since being dead, Michael felt cold. The skin he was in prickled all over with goose flesh, feeling like thousands of ants were crawling all over him and he found that he couldn’t speak.

  The lady placed both her hands on his arms and smiled up at him with such poignancy. Her deep blue eyes glistened with unshed tears as she spoke, “Please, take good care of him. Look after him until I get there.”

  Michael swallowed hard. What the hell was she talking about?

  Then she kissed her own hand, reached up and placed it on his left cheek and nodded her head to him before walking out of the room.

  After pausing for a moment, feeling quite bewildered, he followed her into the corridor and watched her walk into one of the hospital rooms. He walked over to the window and watched as the woman sat down on the chair next to a young dark haired male lying unconscious in the bed. Her son, he assumed. That’s why she’d been so upset. From the weak signals on the EKG machine just above his bed, and the respiratory machine that was breathing for him, he looked like he was barely hanging on. The woman placed her hand on his on top of the bed covers and leaned in close to his ear to speak to him. Just as Michael was about to walk away, the woman looked at him through the window and smiled. Then she went back to watching over her son.

  The whole interaction had left Michael feeling confused and a little uneasy.

  Before he returned to Lacy, he went over to the nurses’ station and spoke to the same nurse who’d been there when he’d first arrived. “The man in room 3.10? What happened to him?”

  At first it looked like she wasn’t willing to discuss it with him and Michael prepared himself for the usual you’re-not-a-relative speech, but after a sigh she explained. “He was hit by a car, a hit-and-run; doesn’t look like he’s going to make it. They’re turning his life support off later.” Her face was sympathetic. Even though she was probably well used to that kind of thing happening, the look on her face said that it was still hard to deal with.

  “Is that his mother in with him now?” he asked.

  “Yes. She’s hardly left his side, the poor lady.”

  “She was pretty upset just now. You might want to send someone to look in on her.”

  She looked up at him, her smile grateful. “Of course. Thanks for letting me know.”

  He decided it was probably the woman’s emotional state that had made her act that way and shrugged it off. He had too much on his plate right now to concern himself with other people’s anguish.

  He got back to Nina’s room and as he clicked the door shut Lacy stirred. He walked over to her slowly, realising he’d left the coffees in the waiting room. He figured they’d be cold by now anyway.

  “Michael?” Lacy blinked quickly, placing her hand on her neck and stretching her head back. “I’m so sorry. I can’t believe I fell asleep.” Her voice was more husky than usual. He liked it. She shifted in her seat and put her hand to her mouth to cover a yawn.

  “You look exhausted.” He went to the opposite side of Nina’s bed, checked out the reading on the EKG machine−which was a lot more steady than the poor guy’s down the hall−then looked down at the young woman’s face. She was pale, with no help from makeup, and even though she was unconscious and fighting for her life Michael noticed that she looked much better without it.

  “How’s she doing?” he asked.

  “No change. She’s out of it on pain meds at the moment.” Lacy laughed a little and shook her head.

  “What is it?”

  She looked down at her hands as she twisted her fingers together in her lap. “I’ve prayed for her you know. Sat here and actually prayed.”

  “It’s understandable.”

  She looked up at him, her expression sombre. “But it’s not easy when you don’t believe in God. I haven’t believed since I was a child. Religion, ghosts, life after death, all of it seems so story-book to me. I’ve never even been to church. What I was taught about God I was too young to really understand. I think I remember my mother talking about God once but she never cared about religion so I don’t know why she even bothered. I think she thought it was just something she should do.”

  Ironic, he thought, considering she was stood talking to a dead guy.

  “But I’ve prayed for Nina and I don’t know why. I suppose it had something to do with what you said this morning.”

  He walked over to the window, looking out into the bland hallway of the quiet hospital wing. “It’s just circumstance that’s all. And there’s nothing wrong with that,” he said with his back to her. He’d never really had an opinion on God either until now. But there had been times in his life when he’d prayed and hadn’t really known why. Sometimes, even if you weren’t totally on board with the whole religion thing, just believing in the idea of it was a kind of comfort.

  Now, however, he had a whole other opinion about it.

  “But it didn’t work last time.” Lacy said, followed by a sniffling noise which made him turn around to see her wiping away a tear that had just rolled down her cheek. He frowned, not really knowing what to say. He knew it had to be hard for her seeing Nina lying in a critical condition in the bed in front of her. At least he understood now.

  “The first, and only other, time I’ve ever prayed was for Beth; it didn’t work. She died anyway.”

  He couldn’t imagine how hard it was for her, being alone and having to deal with something horribly traumatic from her past. He wanted to reach out to her but thought better of it. In the window’s reflection he saw Lacy get up from the chair and he turned to face her as she walked over to him.

  “I don’t feel right talking like this in front of her,” she said quietly, looking back over her shoulder. She lowered her voice to almost a whisper. “All those years ago, I pleaded with a god that I hardly knew anything about to help my little sister live and yet she didn’t. So why am I putting faith in that same god for Nina?”

  Oh to hell with it. Pun intended. He reached down and took hold of her hand and placed it between both of his. He looked into her pale green eyes which were now a little red. “Because you care, and deep inside you want to believe he exists just like the rest of us. You’re a good person, Lacy. And the way you’ve cared for her”−he nodded towards the bed−“is proof of that.”

  They both stood and looked at each other for what could have been anything from five seconds to five hours, he wasn’t sure. But he knew one thing: He was filled with a sudden urge to reciprocate what she’d done to him last night, but kissing her was really going to complicate things. He studied her face, noticing for the first time the faint freckles that dusted over her nose. Her long eyelashes curled up at each outside corner,
reaching almost halfway to her neatly plucked eyebrows. His attention was drawn to a small, faded scar just above the left brow. He’d tried to ignore what he’d begun to feel for her. He couldn’t possibly get involved with someone given his circumstances and the timing wasn’t at all right. But right now−in this moment−she was drawing him in and he couldn’t seem to stop himself.

  Still holding her warm hand in his, he felt her edge closer. He didn’t pull back, ignoring the shouting and screaming of his subconscious, which was now practically doing back flips trying to get his attention. He knew she was going to kiss him and he wasn’t sure what to do about it. “Lacy. . . I. . . ”

  He was about to put his will power to the test and say something to stop her when she paused, breaking her gaze away from his to look over his shoulder. It was then that her whole body stiffened and her eyes widened as she inhaled a sudden gasp. “Jake,” she whispered.

  Michael spun around to see Jake moving away from the window quickly. He turned back to Lacy grabbing her by her arms. “Stay here for five minutes. Then I want you to go downstairs, jump in a cab and go straight home. Ok.”

  She nodded.

  He was out of the door and running down the corridor after the SOB without even thinking about it. He reached into his inside pocket for his cell, flipped it open and dialled his buddy. “Evo! We have a visitor.” Michael pushed through the door that Jake had just run through that led to a stairwell at the other end of the hospital wing. “We’re on the far left side of the main building. He’s no doubt heading for the fire escape at the bottom of the stairs.”

  “On my way.” Evo replied, hanging up straight away.

  On his descent, Michael leant over the rail and saw that Jake had nearly reached the bottom of the stairwell and was headed for the door. Meanwhile, Michael was only halfway down, still having two more floors to go. Screw this. He placed both hands on the rail and leapt over the thing. He had no idea why, but he held his breath while he dropped down through the middle of the stairwell, seeing the tiled floor approach pretty quickly. He landed without even so much as a wobble, just in time to grip Jake around his neck before he left through the now open door.

  “Where d’ya think you’re going?” Michael growled as he tightened his grip on Jake’s throat. The son of a bitch was trying his damnedest to wriggle free; nearly succeeding at one point until, from nowhere, a large fist came flying through the air. Before Michael could blink Jake flopped unconsciously onto the tiles.

  “Huh! I expected more resistance,” the large guy said as he squeezed his own fist with a look of pure satisfaction.

  “Jesus! Evo. I had it under control”

  “Even more so now.” His face was smug.

  “You ruthless bastard.” Michael shook his head in amusement. Evo was right though, this guy was possessed so there’s no way he should’ve gone down from just a punch to the face.

  Evo crouched on one knee and rolled Jake’s sleeve up.

  “You need to be quick with this.” Michael said as he watched Evo pull a small knife from a strap on his ankle. His buddy drew the blade over the palm of his own hand and, using the forefinger from his other hand, he traced along the wound. Next he reached over Jake and drew a symbol on his forehead in blood: a circle within a circle, then he finished in the middle with a hexagram. Michael had seen, and drawn, that very same symbol on more occasions than he dared to remember. It worked every time though, trapping the demon or spirit inside its human host.

  “Done!” Evo said as he placed his blade back under his trouser leg. Then he grabbed hold of Jake and threw him over his shoulder like he was nothing but a sack of laundry. “Let’s get him in the car quickly.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  As she paced back and forth in her living room−squeezing her fingers together like she was kneading Play-Doh−Lacy waited for word that Michael and Evo were ok and that they’d managed to catch Jake. She was worried sick, almost to the point of actually being throwing up. She took a few deep breaths and decided that if she was going to wear a hole in her blue area rug, she might as well do it with a mug of hot coffee in her hand.

  In the kitchen, she placed the contents in her mug and opened the fridge door only to see she was out of milk. Dammit! Never one to drink her coffee black, and not wanting to nip out to the store just in case Michael called, she thought about pouring a glass of wine instead, cringed for a second, then thought better of it. New rule: She was no longer allowed to consume alcohol when under any kind of stress.

  Mr Hinckley. Her sweet neighbour, and the only person in the street that she’d ever interacted with, would perhaps give her a drop of milk, though she didn’t feel comfortable calling on him at this late hour. He was a nice old man. Lonely now after his wife had died four years ago. He’d popped by a few times with some fresh vegetables that he’d grown in his back yard.

  Lacy grabbed her coat from the hook in the hallway and headed next door. A biting wind made her shiver as she walked down her path towards the street so she tucked her coat in tight to her chest to keep out any draughts. Although it would be early, it wouldn’t surprise her if they had some snowfall before the night was through.

  She reached Mr Hinckley’s front gate but before she opened it she paused, feeling a familiar sense of unease like the other night when she was being watched. She looked down the street one way, then the other. No one there. Her neighbourhood was always quiet at this time and tonight was no exception. There were lights on in most of the houses that she could see, their occupants savouring the warmth inside. She checked around again but there wasn’t another soul in sight. Putting it down to still being a little spooked after the incident with Jake, she ignored it.

  She knocked on the old man’s door, noticing a small, hand carved, wooden angel that was severely weather beaten hanging next to the door. Just the kind of symbolism she needed to see right now. She heard the click of a bolt and the slide of a chain before the door opened and out popped Mr Hinckley’s head from behind the door.

  “Who is it?” he said, squinting as he pushed his glasses further up the bridge of his nose. “Oh. Lacy. Hello.”

  “Hi Mr Hinckley, sorry to bother you this late but you couldn’t spare a drop of milk could you? I can drop some in for you in the morning after I’ve been to the store.” She blew on her hands and rubbed them together for warmth.

  The old man had the kind of smile that made his eyes disappear. His thin gray hair was always combed neatly to one side with a little wave in the front. “Of course, would you like to come in for a minute? You look frozen stiff my dear.” He opened his door wider and Lacy felt the warm air from inside hit her in the face. His house must have been stifling though the old man was wearing a thick, woollen pullover. Wine colored, to match his tie.

  “No, that’s okay. I don’t want to keep you. Besides, I’m waiting for a phone call from someone so I can’t stop.”

  “That’s fine. Just give me a minute then dear,” he said, shutting his door to keep the heat in. After a minute or two, he returned with a carton that was a third full. “Is this much okay? I have another carton so you can take that with you.”

  “Oh, that’s great. Are you sure you don’t mind, Mr Hinckley?” She tried, but failed, to hold back a shiver.

  He belted out a wheezy cough, his face turning plumb purple, and then finished off by patting his chest. She’d noticed his health had deteriorated over the last couple of months. “Don’t be silly child. Now, is that all you need?”

  She smiled. “Yes. Thanks. I just needed a coffee fix that’s all. Busy day, you know. . . ”

  After saying goodnight, and after Mr Hinckley waited for her to get back to the house before going back inside, Lacy heard the muted sound of her phone ringing inside as she approached her front door. She cursed, grabbed her front door key from her coat pocket, nearly dropped it in a panic, and hurried to unlock the door. As soon as she stepped inside, the ringing stopped. “Shit!”

  She rushed into the livi
ng room and saw that the red light on her answering machine was flashing. She pressed play and was relieved to hear Michael’s voice coming through the loud-speaker.

  “Lacy it’s Michael. We got Jake. Figured the cops needed to speak to him, so we’re gonna escort him to the station to let them know what happened. Just wanted to tell you everything’s okay. Oh, and I’m gonna pop to my place before I head back to yours. Uh. . . Yeah, that’s it. Bye.”

  Lacy sighed with relief, the tension draining right out of her shoulders. Thank God everything was okay. Mind you, she should never have doubted that it would be. She had a feeling both Evo and Michael were very capable of handling themselves physically, especially Evo who was the size of a WWE wrestler. There was no way Jake would have gotten away, not with how angry Michael had looked before he’d run after him.

  And had they really nearly kissed? Just thinking about the way he’d looked at her back at the hospital filled her stomach with butterflies. Yep, she was definitely attracted to him. And going by what had almost happened, Michael must like her too. She couldn’t help the smile that stretched across her face.

  She realised that the cops were also going to want to speak to her about what had happened. If she left now she could meet them both over there. She grabbed her scarf, her car keys from the little wooden bowl on the sofa table in the hallway, and headed out.

  It only took her ten minutes to drive to the County Sheriff’s office in the middle of town. She came to a stop right outside the gray, unadorned, concrete building but there was no sign of Evo’s SUV anywhere. Perhaps he’d parked around the back. Inside the station Deputy Teresa James, who Lacy had known since moving here, was sifting through files in one of the cabinets behind the front desk. She looked up and greeted Lacy with a smile. “Hey Lacy. . . Strange seeing you in here.”