Set.
“He’s not dead.” Rush appeared at her side. “He’s still alive.”
“I know. Keep them in the bathroom. This isn’t over.” Denny started down the stairs but stopped and turned around. “I’ve missed you.” The voice was still not her own.
Rush blinked and smiled at her. “And I you, whoever the hell you are. Go on before he pulls himself together.”
Denny took the stairs two at a time until she stood next to Cockerton’s twisted and broken body. The human body was dead, but Cockerton the duplo wasn’t. He was in there, recovering, trying to figure out his next move.
Denny wasn’t about to give him one.
“Uh...Den?”
Denny glanced up to see Rush standing by the front door. She looked more alive than she ever had. “Yeah?”
Rush shook her head and pointed outside. “There are more out there, baby.”
“Like how many?”
She shrugged. “Too many. Eight? Maybe ten.”
Denny nodded as she watched the blood spreading out from under Cockerton’s head. “I don’t have much of a choice, love.”
“You can make a run for it, Denny. You don’t have to do this,” Rush pleaded.
“That’s just it. I’ve never had a choice.” Denny grabbed Cockerton by the ankle and dragged him out to the front porch. Standing in a half circle was Cockerton’s backup—eight more demons. He’d not come alone.
Denny turned to Rush and smiled. “I love you, you know?”
“Den, please don’t. It’s not worth it. If you could know what it did to your mother...to your family. It’s not––”
“If this doesn’t work, show Pure the lair. Have them hide in there. They’ll be safe.”
“Please don’t.”
Denny turned to her. “I’m not a coward, Rush. This is something I have to do. In a way, it’s paying them back for what they’ve done to my family. It’s time to even the score a bit.”
The demons said nothing. They just stood there like gargoyles. As Denny dragged Cockerton down the steps, his head hitting each one with a satisfying thump, she took stock of her limited options.
She stopped on the last step. The air heated with demonic energy. It was as if they all breathed in grotesque synchrony and breathed out harsh, hot darkness.
After flinging Cockerton into the yard, Denny remained on the bottom step and held Fouet out in front of her. “If you think you’re going to take me down without me taking, at the very least, half of you with me, you have greatly underestimated me,” Denny growled in the Hanta voice. “You mess with me or my family and I will tear you from limb to limb.”
Denny reached down and opened Cockerton’s mouth. “I told this piece of shit what I would do if he mentioned my mother again. He did.” Denny leaned over and ripped Cockerton’s tongue out of his mouth. Then she bit it in half and spit both halves onto the ground.
“If the name Silver passes your foul lips, I will chase you to the ends of the earth and beyond. You so much as talk to my sisters or brother and there is no rock you can hide under that I won’t be able to find and crush you. You go near my friends or anyone I know and the bloody war I’ll rain down on you will make a typhoon look like sprinkles.”
Denny glared out at the demons. “Look at your leader. Pathetic sonofabitch. I’ve destroyed both of his incarnations without so much as breaking a sweat. Rookie, you say? I crushed a duplo and I’m not even a fraction of the way through my training. And, lest you think me foolish enough to allow him to remain in the game—” Denny slashed down at Cockerton’s neck with Épée and severed his head from his body.
He blew up, scattering fleshy debris everywhere.
The demons backed away as Denny held her weapons up for a fight, the Hanta now fully in control. “I’m the fucking demon hunter, you raggedy-ass shit-for-brains demons. You want a taste of my centuries old anger and hatred? Then step right up. By all means, come and get it, assholes.”
Denny leapt over the stain that had once been Mike Cockerton and snapped Fouet back and forth with ease and precision. In the Hanta’s hand, the whip surged to life. “Come on, kiddies. What are you waiting for? I am, after all, just a fucking rookie, right?”
The Hanta had complete and total control over her.
And she didn’t care.
She strode back and forth, cracking Fouet like a pro. “I’ve had demons like you for a morning snack, so step right up.” She snapped Fouet harder and it crackled and sparked. “Nobody? Really? Come on. There’s eight of you sorry-ass motherfuckers and just one of me. Go for it. I dare you, you spineless cocksuckers.”
The demons backed away as Denny pressed forward.
The Hanta was enjoying itself. It had absolutely no fear. None.
“Fucking cowards. Are you telling me not one of you are gonna step up and take your best shot?”
Denny ran for the closest demon, who, too late, realized it had gone from hunter to prey. As the demon turned to run, Denny raised Fouet over her head and whipped it around until the chain-blade bit into the hip of the demon. Blood spewed from the incision.
She stood over him, her arms hanging loosely at her sides. “Seriously? This is the best they could do? It’s doesn’t really seem fair, does it?” Épée rose and came down fast. The demon exploded in the blink of an eye.
“Tasty. Who’s next?” Denny spun around, urging any of the demons to come at her. Most of the demons ran away, but the few who remained backed up. Delta felt the Hanta ease back into the passenger seat.
“So here’s the deal,” she said, the voice now slightly more her own. “You let everyone know I’m not to be fucked with. Don’t fuck with me, my friends, or my family, because if you don’t kill me right outta the gate, I will hunt you down, and make you wish you were a human. Now get the fuck away from my house before I come after every damned one of you.”
The demons disappeared into the surrounding darkness.
“Motherfucking piece-of-shit low-level dirt-bags.” As the final word fell from her mouth, she felt the Hanta slowly recede into her.
“What. The. Hell?”
Denny turned to find Rush standing at the top of the steps.
“Baby, what...what’s happened to you?” Rush stared at the spot where Mike Cockerton had once been. “What...what the fuck just happened?””
Denny quickly ran up the stairs and passed Rush. “You know what happened. You know all about the legacy. That’s not important right now. How’s Pure?”
“Bonked her head pretty bad, but other than that, she’s fine. Are you?”
“Other than ripping through a bunch of demons and having the crap scared out of me, yeah, I’m all right.” When Denny reached the bathroom door, she put her weapons away and wiped the demon detritus off her face before knocking. “You can open up now. Everyone’s safe.”
The door opened and Brianna flew out the door and hugged Denny, guts and all.
Rush instantly vanished.
“Are you okay? Is any of that your blood?” Cassandra asked, looking Denny over.
“No, it’s not. I’m fine. How’s Pure?”
“At the moment, she is very frightened, but unharmed.”
Denny entered the bathroom to find Pure slowly getting up.
“Denny?”
Denny clung to Pure, squeezing her so hard Pure said she couldn’t breathe.
“Are you okay?” Pure asked, leaning away from Denny to take it all in.
Denny fought back tears that would not obey. “I’m fine.”
“But all that––”
“It’s...um...” She glanced over at Cassandra and Brianna.
“Hunter, we’re Wiccans. Very little of what you tell us will freak us out.”
“It’s demon guts. When a demon is correctly destroyed, it implodes.”
“You...you killed him?”
Denny nodded. “I’m sorry, I––”
“No, Den, I’m the one who’s sorry. You were trying to protect me f
rom something darker than dark, but I wouldn’t listen. Why didn’t you tell me?”
Denny stared at her.
Brianna put her hand on Denny’s shoulder. “We had to tell her. She wanted to come to your aid. She didn’t understand anything that was happening.”
Denny smiled at Pure. “Thank you.”
“You should have told me. I’m not a little girl, you know?”
“Can we talk about this later? I need to make sure Pat’s okay. You get some ice on that bump. I’ll be up in a few.” Denny helped her lay back down before she joined Cassandra and Brianna.
“I can’t thank you enough for everything you’ve done for us.”
Brianna took Denny’s hand. “I appreciate you trusting us with someone so special to you. We were almost too late.”
“Was it hard getting to her...to Rush?”
Cassandra shook her head. “As soon as Rush saw what was happening, she managed to get the demon to the hole. Then it was just a matter of us forcing him into it.”
“I thought we had to kill the duplo’s energy at the same time.”
“It had lost so much of its power by then that we took the chance to destroy it while you kept the other half busy. You did very well, hunter.”
Denny smiled at Brianna. “I owe you both more than I can ever repay.”
“And someday,” Cassandra replied, “we’ll collect on that debt. For now, is there anything else you need us to do?”
Denny shook her head. “No. You’ve done more than enough. Thank you.”
Brianna stepped up to Denny and lightly kissed her cheek. “Stay safe, demon hunter. This world is better off with you in it.”
They found Pat trying to stand up. Blood seeped through his shirt where his stitches had broken open.
“I’ll handle it from here,” Denny whispered, shooing the Wiccans off. “Thank you. For everything.” Kneeling next to Pat, Denny said to him, “Easy, big guy. You took quite a hit.”
“I feel like a Mac truck hit me. What happened?”
Denny looked over at the vanishing blood spot that had once been Mike Cockerton, and shrugged. “He got squirrely, broke your nose and kicked your ass. You busted your stitches open.”
“No biggie. Where did he go? I wanna ‘nother shot at the prick.”
“I think you scared the crap out of him. I don’t think we’ll be seeing him again any time soon.”
“Yeah? So he left?”
Denny chuckled. “You could say that.”
“Cool. When you called for backup, I didn’t know you really meant we were gonna kick some dude’s ass.”
“Did you have fun?”
Pat chuckled, then winced. “More than I’m gonna admit. You know, Golden Silver, since I’ve met you, I’ve seen my fair share of weird shit. Can I keep hanging out with you?”
Denny smiled. “I’d like that, Pat. I’d like that a lot.”
***
After tucking Pure into bed and writing in the legacy book, Denny cleaned up the blood on the floor and tried to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. When she was done, she collapsed on the sofa in the great room. Feeling her ribs, she knew they were already on the mend.
“Rush?” Denny wondered where she was and why she hadn’t been hanging around while she was scrubbing the floor.
It was too early to call Lauren and Victor to let them know she was okay, but she’d do that soon enough.
When Rush finally appeared, she sat on the arm of the chair. She looked sad. “What’s going on with you, babe? And please don’t tell me you’re fine. You tore his tongue out of his mouth for God’s sake. Eww doesn’t begin to cover it.”
Denny studied her for a moment, this ghost who was the only lover she’d ever known. “Don’t, Rush. Don’t act like you have no idea. You knew. You’ve known all along.”
Rush looked away.
“All this time, and you knew why we could do the things we’ve done. Why didn’t you tell me?”
Several moments went by before Rush turned back. “What did you want me to say? ‘Hey lover, you’re possessed by a demon and that’s why we have mind-blowing sex?’ I never could find the time, and when I finally did, I realized it...it wasn’t my place.”
“It wasn’t your place as my lover to tell me the real reason why we could meet on an alternate plane?”
Tears filled Rush’s eyes. “Oh Denny, you have no idea how much I’ve struggled with that over the years, but it’s a lot more complicated than, ‘Gee, baby, you have this family legacy of demon hunting’, you know? It was opening a can of worms I didn’t want to open. A can I...I promised your mom I wouldn’t share.”
“But you knew. All along, you knew what my mom was. You saw her in the lair, you watched her struggling, and yet, you never thought her secret was something I needed to know? You never stopped to wonder if this day would come and that I’d be unprepared?”
Denny felt the Hanta stirring, but suppressed it.
“Baby, you were just a kid. How was I supposed to decide when you should know that? How was I supposed to sit down with you and tell you something as horrific as being possessed by a demon? Tell me, when should I have worked that into a conversation? When was the right time to drop that in your lap?”
Denny could only shake her head. “At some point, you had to know I would find out. What did you think would happen then?”
Rush shrugged. “Exactly what’s happening now––you, pissed off, me crying. It was inevitable, I suppose.”
Denny could only stare at her. That she could keep such a secret from Denny was one thing, but it made her doubt, made her wonder: what other secrets had Rush kept from her? What else did Denny not know? The word betrayal lingered in the air as Denny felt the hot sting of tears in her eyes.
“I trusted you, Rush.”
“And you still can. My job, my only job has been to protect you and love you. I’ve done both those for as long––”
Denny held my hand up. “Protect me?” She felt her ire expand. Or was it the Hanta’s? “Protect me from what? The truth? We don’t protect people from the truth. Only from the vagaries of lies and deceit.”
Rush rose. “I’m not going to talk to you like this. This isn’t how we are with each other.”
“Well, in case you hadn’t noticed, I’m not really the person you thought I was. I’m a fucking demon, Rush, and you never once sat me down and explained it to me. Ever.”
“I’m not sorry, Denny. I did what I had to do, and if I had to do it all over again, I’d make the same choices.”
Closing her eyes, Denny felt it...and she knew she would live until the end of her days feeling it inside her, pacing like a panther in a cage. “You should have told me,” she said softly. “I don’t know that I can ever forgive you.”
“I know that’s what you think, but someday, when you have some distance, you’ll see my side of it. Until then, I think we need a break.”
Denny jumped to her feet. “So that’s it? You’re just going to run away?”
Rush looked at her as tears clung to her lower lashes. “Do you even hear yourself? In thirteen years, you’ve never spoken to me like this. Ever. Yes, you have a demon inside you, but you’d better learn how to control it or you’ll lose a lot more than your ghostly girlfriend.”
Her words hit Denny harder than Cockerton’s fists. “Whoa. Wait. What do you mean, lose my girlfriend?”
Rush walked over and took Denny’s face in her hands. “Golden Silver, I have loved you since the very first time I saw you as a tomboyish little peanut. I’ve watched you grow into this kick-ass demon hunter who shows no fear. I have watched over you, protected you, guided you, and loved you more than you could ever imagine. But you’re on a different path now, my love, a path on which you have so much to learn. A path that a living woman can help you with. I can’t.”
“What woman?”
She laughed. “You have always been so dense about women. The witch, silly. Her eyes say it all. She has it bad for you
and you’re going to need her to help sort all this stuff out.”
“Wait. Are you...are you breaking up with me?” Denny looked at her and shook her head. She knew the answer before she spoke the last syllable. “You are.”
“We knew this day would come, my love, and it is here. It breaks my heart to let you go, but it’s true, Denny, my sweet, sweet girl, it’s time for you to fully engage in your work. To love someone and have them love you the way you deserve to be loved.”
Rush backed away, tears falling from her eyes and vanishing into nothingness. “I will always be here for you, Golden Silver, and I will love you until the end of time, but it’s time, for you to let go of me. You need to live with both feet planted firmly in the living world...demons and all.”
“But I don’t want to le––” Denny could see Rush slowly disappearing through the blur of her own tears. “Rush, don’t go! Please, please don’t leave me.”
“It is because I love you so that I am letting you go. Go on now, Denny, and enjoy your life. Know that I love you. I will always love you. Always and forever.”
Then she was gone.
Falling to her knees, Denny sobbed and called her name, begging her to come back, begging her to stay.
In the end, it was Pure’s arms Denny felt around her as she wept. She cried for the loss of her lover, for the loss of her best friend, for the loss of a life’s plan that would never come to fruition. She cried for a path she stood in the middle of without knowing where it led. For the gaping hole left by her mother, and the imprisonment of her brother.
But most of all, she cried for the Golden Silver whose life was forever changed.
When Denny was finally quit crying, she fell asleep in Pure’s arms, the last vestiges of bodily pain slowly subsiding.
In the edges of a dream gently unfolding before her, Denny saw herself tracking down the demons who had set her brother up. Tracking them down and destroying them without a moment’s hesitation. She would crush them and defeat all of those living in the shadows who got in her way. She would do as her mother and her mother had done before her: she would seek demons out in the darkest of dark corners where they lived and destroy them. This she knew beyond any doubts because—
Darkness Descends (The Silver Legacy Book 1) Page 26
