Awaken (Divine Hunter Series)

by L. J. Sealey

  His weightless body touched down onto something solid then he felt something touching his arm. As he slowly opened his eyes a blurry shadow appeared over him and a voice grew louder in his mind. “. . . wake up. Michael.” He knew that gentle voice but it took him a moment to place it. Lacy. He blinked and his vision began to clear. Lacy was leaning over him, her face was like an angels. Was she an angel? Had she died too?

  “Michael. Talk to me. We’re safe.” The moment his brain kicked into gear, like someone had jump started the thing and begun to rev the engine to give it more power, everything came back to him. He sat up quickly and looked down at his stomach, feeling panicked and a little dizzy.

  “Where are we?” his voice croaked.

  Lacy placed her hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay. We’re at my place. We’re safe.” She reassured him again.

  “Where’s Alethia?”

  “You mean the woman who helped us?” Michael nodded. “I don’t know. I saw her appear from nowhere and then she did something impossible and those men disappeared right in front of my eyes. I don’t really know what happened after that. Then suddenly we were here, just the two of us.” She shook her head in disbelief. “How. . . How is any of that possible?”

  He placed both his hands on Lacy’s face. “Are you okay?” Remembering the last thing he saw was the demon prowling towards her.

  She nodded her head slowly. “Yes.” She whispered. But there was something in her expression that he couldn’t place. Shit. She’d seen his eyes. Before he could say anything to her she placed her hands in his and pulled them away from her face.

  “You’re wounded.” She reached down and pulled at his coat to get a better look. He twisted his head around to see a bloody hole in the fabric where the tail pipe had penetrated him. He pulled himself up from the floor. Lacy followed him, grabbing hold of his arm to steady him when he wobbled a little.

  “Thank you.” he said to her, noticing a kind of sadness in her eyes.

  She reached down to grab the hem of his shirt, which was soaked with blood, but he put his hand on hers to stop her. “It’s nothing. I’m fine.”

  Lacy’s eyebrows pulled down into a frown. “I saw what happened. You need to go to the hospital and have it looked at. You’re bleeding a lot.”

  “Really, I’m fine.”

  She pulled the shirt up anyway and gasped. “Oh, my God.” Her hand covered her mouth and panic washed over her face. “We need to call an ambulance, now.”

  She went to turn around and Michael grabbed her shoulders, holding her still in front of him. “Jesus, Michael. You have a big hole in your back and−”

  “Lacy. Listen to me,” he interrupted. “I’m fine. I promise you.” She looked confused, bewildered, which was understandable. She inhaled as though she was about to say something but stopped herself. Instead she stared into his eyes for a moment and then the expression on her face suddenly changed to something more like disbelief which told him she’d just remembered what she’d seen.

  “Your eyes. . . What happened to your eyes back there?” She stepped away from him.

  There was no hiding it any longer.

  He knew he had no other choice but to be honest with her. He owed her the truth and now he was going to tell her. . . Everything. Maybe she would understand why he’d run from her at every opportunity. Maybe she would run from him once she knew. The latter was probably for the best.

  He began to move them over to the sofa. “What the hell is going on, Michael?” She walked with him and they sat down next to each other. “None of that could have been real right? It’s not possible that any of that really happened. Tell me I’m completely crazy and I’ll believe it right now.”

  He shook his head. “You’re not crazy, Lacy.”

  Where to begin?

  He inhaled deeply and let his breath out slowly struggling to find the right words. In the next few minutes she was either going to think he was a nut job or that he was some sort of monster. Neither one he was prepared for but it couldn’t be avoided anymore. She’d seen too much to accept some lame attempt at a logical explanation, and he knew she wasn’t stupid enough to believe it anyway. He had no other choice but to come out and say it.

  “I’m not human.”

  He watched her face for any kind of reaction but her expression remained blank. He continued. “The men who abducted you aren’t human and neither is Alethia.” He took one of her hands in his and covered it with his other. “Before I explain things I want you to know that everything I tell you now is the god’s honest truth. And that I have only kept this from you to keep you safe. Okay?”

  She looked up at him through her long eyelashes and nodded her head.

  “A little under a year ago something happened to me. I was murdered.”

  He heard her sudden intake of breath.

  “I don’t know who did it or why, all I know is that I didn’t pass over to where I should have, instead I ended up in Hell. I don’t really remember my time there, and I am pretty sure that’s for the best. I don’t even know how I got free but ever since I did, I’ve been trapped here on earth as a spirit of some kind. Or even a demon. . . hell, I don’t know what I actually am but I don’t think I’m the same as those who took you.

  “Anyway, I figured I must be like this for a reason but what that is I’ve yet to figure out. The next thing I’m going to tell you is going to be even harder to believe. . . You know the monsters and ghosts you read about when you were younger and some of the things you’ve seen in movies, they’re real Lacy, they exist in a different plain which is not really part of our world but sometimes those monsters cross over and end up right here on earth. I don’t know how but it’s true. I’ve spent the last year hunting and tracking them down and sending them back to wherever they came from.

  “I came to Oakland because I suspected something supernatural was killing the students here and I was right. They didn’t just decide to kill themselves they were pushed to do it by a demon. It possessed each of them and made them jump to their deaths. Just after Nina had jumped and we found her lying on the ground I saw the demon leave her body. It had possessed Jake which is the reason he was acting so strange. It’s also the reason he came after you. I believe he would have killed you if you hadn’t gotten away.”

  Lacy’s other hand had moved to her mouth. She choked back a sob. “Oh, God.”

  “The man that took you is that same demon, and the other one is his master who, from what we know, is very powerful. I don’t know why they are after me but I do know that I’m the reason they took you and I’m so, so sorry about that.”

  “We? You mean Evo knows about all of this too?”

  “Yes.” As he looked into her eyes, which were now glistening with unshed tears, his chest tightened with the tremendous guilt he felt over what had happened to her and what she now knew. He needed to help her process the things he was telling her; help her understand that, even though these things existed, and knowing this meant her life would never be the same, he would do anything to keep her safe.

  She just stared at him with a complete look of despair on her face. Her lips parted and for a moment it seemed like she didn’t know what to say. She only managed a whisper. “Is Evo also. . . ”

  “No. Evo’s human just like you.”

  “How. . . ” she cleared her throat and shook her head, “How can I believe any of this? I’ve seen things today that I truly can’t explain, but how can I accept that what you’re telling me is true?”

  Michael swallowed hard. “I understand how hard it must be for you. It took me enough time to accept what had happened to me, but it’s true, all of it.”

  A tear fell from her eye and he reached up and wiped it with his thumb.

  “How can you seem so. . . real? I can touch you, feel you. I kissed you. . . ”

  “Because this body is real, but. . . ” For some reason the words stuck in his throat. He was hesitant because he feared that as soon as he told Lacy the nex
t part, she would run from him. And even though it would be the safest thing for her, he didn’t know how he’d feel once she was gone. Truth is, since he’d met her he’d been able to pretend he had some kind of a life, a purpose, and that he truly was Michael Warden, just a normal guy who worked at the university. A guy that Lacy wanted to be with and who wanted to be with her. He’d considered it. Imagined them being together; imagined kissing her properly, making love to her. But none of it was real. It could never be.

  “But what?” she pressed.

  He lowered his gaze, unable to look her in the eye. “But it’s not really mine.”

  The instant he heard her gasp his heart sank.

  Now she knew.

  Everything.

  He couldn’t be a coward so he looked at her again. “I’m not even real, Lacy. Michael Warden is a walking dead man and I’m just hitching a ride. And now you know why I couldn’t kiss you last night.”

  She stared into his eyes, gaze never wavering. Then her brow creased and when she pulled her hand from his, he thought she was going to bolt but then a rush of breath left her and she put her head into her hands. After a moment when she looked at him again her frown had gone. She looked strangely calm.

  She must have seen the despair in his face as he waited for a response because she reached up and placed her hand on his face. Another tear fell from her eye as she stroked his cheek with her thumb and whispered, “You are real to me.”

  He almost stopped breathing. After everything he’d just told her she should have been running out the door as far away from him, from this whole nightmare, as she could. But instead she was looking at him with adoring eyes like she had done last night before she’d gone to kiss him.

  “Michael, I don’t know how to deal with all of the things you’ve just told me. Part of me, the little girl in me, wants to run away and forget any of this ever happened, but what good is that going to do? It’ll probably only drive me mad in the end anyway. What I do know is this: No matter how hard this is for me to deal with right now, it can’t be anywhere near as bad as it is for you.”

  Shit. Before, she’d just been knocking on the door to his heart but now, after that speech, she’d gone and moved herself in, kicked off her shoes and propped her feet up on the sofa. Now she wasn’t going anywhere.

  He couldn’t speak.

  “You’re not one of those demons, you’re not evil. I can feel your compassion and your kindness, that’s the reason I care for you. You came to rescue me at the risk of your own l. . . ” She stopped herself from saying the word life and then looked away from him to hide her embarrassment. “I’m sorry.”

  He pulled her chin around so she was looking at him again. “Hey. Don’t apologise. I’ve had a year to deal with this, and even though I still don’t have any answers for why I’m like this, I’m kind of used to it.”

  Her lips curled up in a faint smile. “You are real to me,” she repeated, then surprised him when she leaned across and hugged him, resting her head on his chest. He hesitantly placed his arms around her and rested his chin on her head. He closed his eyes.

  He rubbed her back while he thought of how well she’d taken everything. Perhaps he could have been honest with her sooner. He doubted it. If she hadn’t just witnessed what she had there’s no way she would have believed him. And who would blame her for that? He found it hard to believe himself and yet he was smack bang in the middle of it.

  “I don’t think this whole ghosts and spirits thing is so crazy, not now anyway.” Lacy said, her head still on his chest.

  “Oh, yeah? Why’s that?”

  She sat up but he kept his arm around her. “As crazy as it sounds coming out of my own mouth. . . a ghost helped me escape tonight.”

  What was she talking about? He gave her a questioning glance. “I don’t understand.”

  “I was bound to a bed by my ankles and wrists and had no way of freeing myself. A woman appeared in front of me, a spirit, and she helped me get free,” she explained.

  What? He thought the only reason he could see spirits was because he was also dead. How was it possible? And more importantly, why would a spirit help her? He hardly ever interacted with ghosts because they were never easy to communicate with.

  “How?”

  “Somehow, she was able to break the chain and the rope. Then I ran. But when I got to the door of the warehouse it was locked. The spirit helped me again by placing her hand on the door and it unlocked. There’s no way I could have broken that chain myself so I couldn’t have imagined it, I swear I−”

  He placed his hands on her arms. “Lacy, I believe you.” It sounded like she was trying to convince herself more than him. “I just don’t understand it.”

  She smiled and looked down. “I don’t either. But I think, after all these years, I’ve finally realised I’m not crazy.”

  She seemed to be talking to herself rather than him. She wasn’t making sense. “Lacy, what’s going on?”

  She chewed on her bottom lip for a moment. “I’ve been seeing things I can’t explain since shortly after my sister’s death; people who have tried to talk to me, to show me things. My grandma, and the doctors I spoke to about it, put it down to post traumatic stress. And that’s what I’ve thought ever since. I thought I was having crazy hallucinations, worried that perhaps I was losing my mind. Hell, I’ve paid enough out on therapy bills because of it, even spent years trying to psychoanalyze myself to no avail. I hadn’t had one for nearly five years, until a couple of weeks ago when I was on my way to work. I saw something in the road and swerved to miss it. When I checked, there was nothing there. I think that, after all these years of thinking I was a little crazy, I’ve actually been able to see the dead.”

  She let out a heavy sigh but surprised Michael when she laughed. “This has been one hell of a crazy day, huh?”

  He couldn’t help but admire her even more over her attitude to everything especially this new revelation. Well, well. . . So she was gifted as well as beautiful.

  He couldn’t help but pull her into his arms again. “You’re amazing, you know that?”

  “Why? Because you’re not hauling me out of here in a straight jacket?” she said as she rested her chin on his shoulder.

  Michael felt a slight breeze and a shift in his senses. He looked up to see Alethia standing in the doorway of the sitting room.

  “What the hell took you so long back there?” Michael suddenly snapped. He and Lacy had been seconds away from death.

  Lacy pulled away from him. And he realised how angry he’d just sounded.

  Alethia’s face was pale and she didn’t seem herself. “Yes, I’m sorry for that. I had to wait until Varesh was weak. What he was doing to you was draining his power and I had to wait until the right moment before I could use my powers on him. He’s strong and I needed to make sure he was vulnerable.”

  He calmed himself, remembering that she was the reason they were both still here. “What was he doing to me? That hurt like hell.”

  “That’s because it was Hell. He was using Hell’s fire to dampen your powers so that he could rip your soul out.”

  “What fucking powers? Demons keep telling me that I’m someone I’m not, and now he’s convinced I have powers? There is some sure fucked up case of mistaken identity here and I need to clear this shit up before he hurts anyone else I care about.” His eyes flicked to Lacy for a moment and he saw her eyes widen slightly. Yes, well. . . He was all about the truth right now.

  Alethia remained quiet.

  “Are you okay?” Lacy asked as she walked over to her and placed her hand on her arm. “You look awfully pale.” She led her to the sofa.

  “Uh, yeah, sorry. Alethia, this is Lacy. Lacy. . . Alethia.” Michael motioned his hand back and forth between the two. “Alethia is a goddess.” He waited again for a reaction from Lacy but she was more concerned with helping the woman, who actually did look a little sick.

  Alethia sat down, shoulders slumped. “Nice to mee
t you. I’m fine really, thanks.”

  “Are you sure?” Lacy threw Michael a quick look and he shrugged his shoulders.

  “Truly I am. Dematerialising someone usually drains me a little but, like I said, Varesh is powerful. It took a lot out of me that’s all. I’ll be fine once I’ve rested.”

  “Where is he now?” Michael asked as he pulled out his cell ready to text Evo to inform him that they’d made it back okay.

  “I sent them both to see an old pal of theirs. Lucifer will enjoy his company for a while but I wouldn’t count on it being for long. At most, it might buy us a day or two.” Alethia began to cough, her pallor now a pasty gray. She leaned back and closed her eyes.

  Michael hadn’t even thanked Alethia for what she’d done. If it wasn’t for her, Lacy would certainly be dead and who knows what would have happened to him. He had a very bad feeling about all of this. Why was this powerful demon after him? What kind of threat did he think Michael could impose? The whole situation was just getting weird.

  Was it a case of mistaken identity? Perhaps that’s why he was killed in the first place, because whoever it was thought he was somebody else. He could think of no other reason so it had to be that.

  “Would you like to have a lie down on my bed, Alethia?” Lacy’s voice pulled him back from his thoughts and her soft, caring tone warmed him. Thank God she was okay. “You look like you could use a soft pillow right now and I have lots of them on there.”

  The deity gave Lacy an appreciative smile as she managed to nod her head. “I’ll show you to my room.”

  Michael watched as Lacy put her arm around the deity and helped her towards the door. “Alethia,” he called. She looked back at him over her shoulder. “Thanks.”

  “That’s okay. I like diamonds by the way.” She winked at him and smiled a little before they disappeared down the hall.

  He was amazed at how Lacy was handling everything. She seemed completely unfazed by what had happened and what she’d learned about the world she thought she knew. And now she was taking care of a powerful goddess without even giving it a second thought. Like it was just something she did every day.