Awaken (Divine Hunter Series)

by L. J. Sealey

  What?

  Michael got to his feet and faced them. The more this was playing out in front of him the harder he found it to trust his own mind. Lucifer was gone? Where? Jess was here? No. It just couldn’t be happening. “This isn’t real. You’re not real. It’s this place. . . it’s messing with my head again.” He threw a quick glance at Evo who was still unconscious, but was relieved to notice a slight movement in his back. He was still alive. Thank God. But why was he still face-planted on the floor?

  “Afraid not. I’m very real. As real as the last time you saw me. The night we spent together.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  Jess looked strange. She hadn’t really changed from what he could remember but there was something about the way she was regarding him. She looked arrogant, cocky, a trait that was never a part of her demeanour when she’d worked for him. That was one of the reasons he was refusing to believe it was really her.

  She began to walk towards him as she answered. “Oh, silly me. I almost forgot. The suppression.”

  “What. . . ”

  Suddenly, Michael gripped his head as memories began to fill his mind; a whirlwind of images flying through his head like a video on fast forward: both he and Jessica laughing together at the office, sitting opposite each other in a restaurant, walking through the park, her arm linked through his. They were affectionate towards each other. Still gripping both sides of his head he paused when he realised the memory of his old self that followed wasn’t a familiar one.

  Jack stood with Jess in front of the fireplace in his apartment. He thought she looked particularly nice that evening. Her brown hair was up in a neat chignon at the top of her head with a few wispy strands framing her face. Her knee length, blue dress hugged her figure in a way that would attract any man’s attention if they’d been out in public, but tonight it was for his eyes only.

  When Jess had started working for Jack’s company she’d immediately caught his eye. She was a pleasure to look at−attractive in a classic film star kind of way−but she knew it too. He honestly never saw himself dating her though. He enjoyed the harmless flirtation from her and would often reciprocate, but he wasn’t ready for any kind of relationship, even a casual one. So he was surprised that he’d actually enjoyed her company over the last couple of weeks.

  After much repartee, mostly from Jess, he finally asked her out on a date. Jack took her to The Delauney, a swanky brasserie up town, figuring it would be the kind of place she’d be into even though he didn’t much care for the pretentiousness. Afterwards, they went for drinks at a more understated bar down the street. They chatted, they laughed and then Jack dropped Jess off home with nothing more than a goodnight kiss. This happened many more times over the coming weeks.

  At Jack’s penthouse suite at The Cincinnati on a chilly October evening, Jess reached up and clinked her wine glass against his whiskey glass.

  “To us,” she said warmly.

  Even though he didn’t really think there was officially an ‘us’, he smiled and took a sip from his glass. She took it from him and placed it with hers on top of the fireplace. He noticed a gleam in her eye as she stepped in to him. They’d kissed a few times but even though she’d hinted, they’d gone no further. But maybe that would change tonight. He was a man after all.

  Without a word she placed both of her hands on his chest and leaned in to kiss him. He bent his head slightly, meeting her lips with his and slowly sliding his hands around her waist, feeling the curve of her back through the soft material of her dress. Their kiss intensified and he enjoyed it. For the first time, he’d began to feel aroused with her, imagining her naked in his bed and willing to take things further. He pulled her body closer into his and felt her slight gasp against his lips.

  He was just about to move with her over to the sofa, when he began to sway a little, nearly losing his footing. He abruptly broke their kiss and steadied himself by gripping onto the fireplace. He must have gotten carried away, though his head had never spun from kissing a woman before.

  “Jack? Are you ok?”

  Her voice sounded strangely distant. The room was spinning uncontrollably now, like he’d stepped onto a carousel that was on warp speed, everything rushing past him in a blur of color and light. He struggled to hold himself up and felt himself falling, bringing the ornaments from the fireplace with him as he hit the floor.

  What the hell was wrong with him?

  He found it hard to speak but he tried, reaching out to the blurry blue figure that he saw crouched before him.

  “Help. . . me. . . ” he managed to say, his voice weak.

  “I am helping you Jack. It’s for your own good. You’ll see.”

  Distant. . . Her voice was so distant. What did she mean? Did she do this?

  He blinked his eyes tightly over and over in an attempt to clear his vision but it was no use. He was struggling to hang on to consciousness.

  The last thing he saw before he went lights-out was Jess’s face right in front of his. . . smiling.

  When the events of his final day on earth finished playing out, the pain began to subside and all Michael could do was stare at the woman in front of him.

  “We didn’t. . . ?” he didn’t know why it was relevant but felt the need to ask anyway.

  “Oh, no. You were far too incoherent for that, unfortunately. The drugs that I slipped into your drink made sure of that. They did make it easier to smother you to death though.”

  The realisation of what had actually happened that evening made his legs weak and he fell to his knees, playing what he’d just been allowed to remember over and over again in his mind. He’d had no recollection of any of it yet now, it was so vivid it was like it had only happened moments ago.

  “You killed me? Why? Did someone make you do it?”

  Her scornful laugh tugged at his patience. “WHY JESS?”

  Suddenly her face turned serious. “It was our only chance to get you down here without any resistance.”

  “Our? Who put you up to this?”

  “Jack I−”

  “Don’t call me that!” he snapped, “Jack doesn’t exist anymore.” The sound of his other name coming from her lips made him angry.

  She tipped her head to the side. “Very well. Nobody put me up to this. Killing you was all my idea. It was always part of the plan.”

  “What plan? You need to explain what the fuck is going on here Jess and fast. And what the hell’s wrong with him?” He looked at Evo before rising back up to his feet. The weakness he’d felt just moments before had now been replaced by rage. His whole body was vibrating with a need to grip the woman in front of him−if that’s what she was−around the throat and shake the explanation right out of her. He guessed her guards had sensed it too as they looked visibly anxious and moved closer to her.

  Jess threw up her hand to halt them and they responded straight away by retreating back to their posts, clearly showing that she was the one in control right now. She looked down at his friend and then back to him.

  “I’m just keeping him quiet. He’ll stay that way until I see fit to wake him. It’s only you who I am interested in having this conversation with.”

  “You’re keeping him quiet? How?”

  She didn’t answer but she had a look on her face that he couldn’t quite place.

  Michael began to pace back and forth on the rocky ledge; his patience wearing thinner by the minute. He didn’t know how much longer he could keep himself under control but was sure if Jess didn’t start talking, he was going to do something he probably wouldn’t walk away from. Not the way those guards were now looking at him anyway. Things couldn’t get any more fucked up. His friend was in some kind of unconscious state on the floor next to him; his ex-girlfriend was standing in front of him in a place that she shouldn’t even know existed, and the more angry he was becoming, the stranger his whole body felt, like there was a bomb inside of him ticking down to the moment of detonation. He wasn’t
sure why he felt that way or what would happen when it reached zero, but it was very close.

  “You need to calm him down.” One of the guards said to Jess with a voice that was deep enough to vibrate through the very rock they were standing on.

  That caused Michael to stop and face them. He saw something in Jess’s eyes, uncertainty maybe, and wondered if his own eyes had changed like they normally did when he was angry. Maybe that had thrown her off. Whatever it was, she was definitely showing a little vulnerability which Michael was happy to see.

  “She needs to start talking,” he shot back at the guard.

  She didn’t.

  Instead she closed her eyes and inhaled a deep breath. Within an instant her form began to change right in front of his eyes. He watched in disbelief as the woman turned from the pretty, slender brunette, whom he’d had a brief fling with, to a naked, bald, pale skinned creature with pointed ears and long pointed claws at the end of each finger.

  Michael couldn’t believe what was standing in front of him. “You’re a shifter.” Not a question; an obvious observation born from encountering one or two during his time as a hunter.

  “I can be whatever you want me to be,” she said before her form began to change again but this time, as Michael watched the pale demon’s figure wriggle and distort, his breath caught the instant he recognised who was appearing in front of him. “Perhaps you’d like me better like this.”

  Lacy .

  The bitch had turned herself into Lacy. She even had her voice.

  He bit down on his teeth to try and keep inside the whirlwind of emotions he was suddenly consumed with; anger winning over the hurt and the guilt he felt for dragging Lacy into this mess. She stalked towards him and for a moment, when she reached up and gently touched his cheek, he allowed himself to imagine that she was real, that all of this had been a crazy dream and he was waking up to her affections and a normal life; the only way he’d allow himself to be with her.

  No!

  He inhaled sharply and gripped her wrist, pulling her hand away from his face and shoving her back away from him, not allowing himself to think that it was Lacy he’d just been rough with. “Get away from me, now!” he spat.

  “Oh, sweetie. . . you were so much more fun when we were dating.” She smirked and quickly changed herself back to Jess, much to his chagrin, while returning to her guards. It was getting harder to look at her knowing that he’d been close to her and that her deception had caused his current situation.

  He’d never known such loathing.

  “That’s enough Nhang!” a familiar voice projected across the open space that lay behind the guards. As Michael waited, and the three figures standing in front of him swung their heads around, two more horsemen had appeared from the darkness and were riding towards them. Michael then saw that there was another behind them. He looked at the third horseman in disgust as the familiar demon came into view. All three were now riding in a row. Two guards either side of Varesh. They pulled up next to the cliff face to the left of where Michael was standing and all three demons quickly dismounted. The two guards tied up their horses then one of them took the reins from Varesh who left them attending the animals.

  He walked straight over to Jess. . . or Nhang, whatever the hell her name was. “I think you’ve already been far too polite with our guest,” he told her before walking right past her and stopping a few feet away from Michael. Some of his dark, dishevelled hair fell over his face but Michael could still see those fiery red eyes that were now almost burning him as the demon looked him straight in the eyes.

  “I assume you and Nhang have been formally introduced?” Varesh asked without taking his eyes from him. He seemed taller than Michael remembered. Still, it was hard to judge a creature’s size while you were being hurled against a load of scrap metal and almost disembowelled by a burning hand of hellfire.

  “You took your time,” the female shapeshifter said with annoyance. “I almost gave up on you.”

  Varesh looked visibly annoyed at her words. “It was more difficult than you’d imagine getting those vultures to let me out. I ended up having to bribe one or two of them which was a little insulting. Thanks to that bitch of a friend of his,” he raised his chin a little to suggest he meant Michael’s, “I’m minus fifteen of my soldiers.”

  His soldiers?

  Michael continued to stare at Varesh, showing him that he wasn’t intimidated even though the demon had to be at least fifty pounds heavier and six to eight inches taller. Michael swept his eyes over him, his black pants were torn in places, like they’d been sliced with a sharp object, and one leg had material bound around the thigh as though a wound had been strapped. His knee-length, leather duster was worn in places and open enough to show thick muscle. The creature in front of him was strong as well as powerful and Michael had felt that power first hand. Still, he wasn’t threatened by him in the slightest.

  “And the prisoner?” Nhang (because Michael had decided Jess was too nice a name for her anyway) asked.

  “Contained.” Varesh threw her a quick glance over his shoulder, “and un-cooperative as would be expected from someone whose kingdom has just crumbled around him.”

  Kingdom? That didn’t sound good. “What are you talking about?”

  Varesh smirked at him and said, “Let’s just say your little meeting with Lucifer has been postponed.”

  Fuck! He’d taken down Lucifer? Michael was suddenly aware that things weren’t going according to plan and that, no matter what, he and Evo had to get out of there. Though how he was going to achieve that remained to be seen. The whole thing had just gotten so much bigger than he’d originally thought. It appeared there was a new king in town and if he was powerful and clever enough to overthrow a legendary ruler, a powerful creature that even the creator couldn’t control, then, in a word, they were all fucked.

  He glanced down at his buddy again−still breathing. What had she done to him? And what the hell had they gotten themselves into?

  Varesh must have seen him and before Michael could register the demon’s movement. . .

  “Allow me,” was all he said before throwing out a ball of white light from his palm that shot straight at Evo, the force of which threw his body backwards along the rocky ground.

  “NO!” Michael bellowed as he watched in horror as his friend hurled towards the cliff edge but he stopped before he got there. To Michael’s surprise, Evo groaned and shot to his feet holding his head. He took a couple of steps backwards before looking around and realising the sheer drop that was behind him. He wobbled for a moment but, to Michael’s relief, immediately rushed away from the edge.

  “Shit! What the fuck?” He turned his attention to the little crowd in front of him, fixed his eyes on Michael and did exactly what Michael was hoping he’d do: shut the hell up. He joined Michael at his side, eyes widened momentarily as if to ask “What the fuck’s going on man?” but Michael didn’t answer. Instead he spoke to Varesh.

  “What has all of this got to do with me? Why would I be part of this plan? Why did that bitch kill me?” Michael almost growled that last part as he felt the strange vibration return to his body. At the same time he saw a look of shock that quickly changed to fury in Evo’s eyes.

  “You have a lot of questions hunter.” Varesh began to walk away; turning towards Nhang he walked over and stopped at her side. He faced Michael and Evo with a slight grin on his face. “I’m surprised. Do you know nothing of your heritage?”

  “My heritage? What are you talking about?”

  Varesh threw a sideways glance at Nhang who spoke quietly. “Looks like he’s been kept in the dark about all of it. Better for us that he doesn’t know.”

  It annoyed Michael that his questions were still being ignored. “Why don’t you talk to me and not about me? Doesn’t know what? Start talking.”

  “Your questions are of no concern to me. That is a conversation for you and your creator. I’m not interested in briefing you about something yo
u clearly know nothing about. Now, tell me why you are here. What is it that you wanted to discuss with my dear cousin?”

  Cousin?

  “It no longer matters. Evo and I have no argument with you. Whatever it is you think you know about me isn’t true. I have nothing to do with this war so just leave me and my friends alone and we will be no bother to you.”

  Varesh laughed and Nhang looked at him with a malevolent grin which infuriated Michael to point where he had to fight to calm himself down before he acted out what he was now imagining doing to the bastard demon in front of him.

  “I’m afraid you’re wrong about that. And our conversation is over.” Varesh waved a hand to the guards behind him then pointed at Michael. “I want him. Dispose of the other one.” he ordered, then turned to Nhang and the two of them began a quiet conversation as the guards advanced towards Michael and Evo.

  “Ok. What do we do now?” Evo asked quietly out of the side of his mouth.

  Before Michael had time to answer two of the guards had disappeared into thin air only to reappear behind him, each one grabbing an arm so that he was unable to move. The other two did the same to Evo.

  They towered above him. Michael tried to pull free but their grip was like an iron vice. He watched as the other two guards began to haul Evo away towards the edge of the cliff.

  “Uh, Mike. I’m not sure I like where this is heading.” Evo shouted back to him over the howling wind that had suddenly increased in volume and strength.

  Neither did Michael. “He tried one last time to pull himself free from the iron hands that held him back but it was useless. As he watched his friend being hauled off, he felt his anger rise through his body. Helplessly fighting to free himself, he felt the strange vibration rising up from his legs, through his torso, down his arms to the tips of his fingers. His head and face felt warm and he knew his eyes were probably illuminated now. He closed them and took in a deep breath.

  It was hard to register what happened next. In an instant, his head sang and he felt a pop as a warm rush of energy appeared to leave his body. When he opened his eyes again, he was surrounded by a thick white haze and no longer felt the guards grip around his arms.