by C. A. Saari
I wanted to ask Jake about it, after the game, and on the drive to his house, and as we were getting ready for the party –for which I wore my very first pair of skinny jeans and okay, when you can pull them off they actually have the potential to be a girl’s new best friend. Jake saw me in them and feigned a heart attack, claiming my ass was “killing him”- and again on the drive to the party I had wanted to ask him about his father, and how his father felt about me. But there was such a deep bond between them, so much respect there, that I didn’t want to be the source of any contention. So I decided to let it go.
I’d win his father over on my own. I wasn’t sure how I was going to do that, or when, but I’d figure it out. For now, I wanted to enjoy my first high school party, which by the time we showed up, was in full swing. Jake had to park on the grass nearly half way down the driveway from Darva’s large colonial style house. He backed into the spot and pointed us at an angle that would make it easy for us to exit in a hurry and I wondered if he’d had to leave parties in a hurry in the past. He opened my door for me and took my hand to walk me up, telling me not to be nervous.
People were spilled out onto the porch, red solo cups in hand, loud music pumped through the open front door and conversations, laughing and occasional female squeals all melded together. Jake led me through the sea of people, everyone around us seemed thrilled to see him, shouting out hellos, clapping him on the back and announcing his presence to others around us. Girls flirted with him in a way they didn’t in the halls of the school -obviously there were different behavior rules within the school walls- most of them choosing to be oblivious to my presence next to him or the fact that he still held my hand. And he kept me with him, even after several different girls had tried to separate us. It made me think of the animal planet on TV, when lions tried to separate an animal from its herd so they could go in for the kill.
A red cup appeared in his hand and he kept it but not once did I see him drink from it, shortly afterwards one of his friends pressed a cup into my hand as well, telling me –with a really loud, jovial voice- that he was obviously much more of a gentleman than Jake, if I were looking to upgrade. He laughed heartily at his own joke.
Jake leaned close to talk above the noise in my ear.
“You don’t have to drink that.”
I looked into my cup, I recognized beer when I saw it. I leaned up on my tip toes and shouted back at him.
“And you can drink yours.”
I knew he wasn’t out of some kind of consideration towards me. I took a deep breath and tapped my glass to his, then took a drink. He watched my face for a few seconds after, then slowly raised his cup to his lips.
That’s when Kendra found me.
“You came!” She shouted and threw her arms around me. Then she yanked my hand from Jake’s and smiled at him. “I think you can remember how a party works, right Jake? I’m taking my girl to girl dance for a bit, I’ll return her in a minute, okey dokey?” She didn’t wait for Jake’s reply, but instead towed me through the crowd, I looked back at Jake, he was watching me, and already another girl had taken my place next to him. Damn vultures. Kendra pulled me to a makeshift dance floor in the living room. I hadn’t been there for more than a few seconds when I saw a flash of white through one of the windows. I pushed through a couple girls to get closer and watched with growing panic as Darva disappeared into the woods next to her house with a blond boy. I spun, tried to look over heads for Jake, I couldn’t see anything. I could waste the next however many minutes fighting through the crowd to search for him, but by then it may be too late. So I grabbed Kendra.
“Kendra! Listen.” I yanked her to look at me, she came to attention immediately and I loved her all over again. “I need you to find Jake for me. Okay? Find him and tell him to meet me in the woods.” I pointed in the direction I’d seen Darva and her friend disappear to. “Please, Kendra. Don’t get sidetracked. Find him as fast as you can. Okay?”
She nodded.
“The woods that way, got it.” Then she winked at me, as if she knew what we would be up to in those woods. I only raised my eyebrows and nodded,-yeeessss Kendra, kinky kinky, now go fine Jake- then I turned and pushed through the crowd to get to the front door. Once out I ran for the truck, someone shouted “where’s the fire”, but I ignored them. I dug my spare key to Jake’s truck from my pocket –yes, I couldn’t drive, but I had a key, he said it was just in case he lost his or in case of an emergency. I’m pretty sure this qualified.
I turned it in the lock and glanced around me to make sure I was alone before I lifted the seat in the back. I pulled two guns, slid in clips and shoved them into the waist band of my jeans. Then I found a small sheathed knife and tucked the blade end into my back pocket. I pulled my t-shirt over the weapons, but just to make sure nothing would be visible, I grabbed my sweater from the front seat and pulled it on as I closed the truck door and relocked it. I had to make my way around the back of the vehicles crowding the driveway just to avoid any other party goers and nearly five minutes had passed by the time I entered the woods where Darva and her friend had. I waited until I was far enough away from the house before I pulled one of the guns –safety now off- and the knife.
I knew I was going in the right direction when I heard Darva’s weak scream not far ahead, and I ran –towards it- leaping over roots and tree branches as I went, desperate to make it in time. I burst through a small clearing, and quickly took in as many details as I could. The boy lay prone several feet away from where Darva was, a demon currently over her, doing its disgusting sucking thing. There were several other demons near the other side of the clearing. I got off a few shots in their direction while I ran to Darva, I used my knife and jammed it into the back of the demons head and kicked it away from her. It howled much like the one in Jake’s kitchen and turned into the same black ooze. I was already reaching for the second gun in my waist band when the others retreated into the woods. I held both guns out at arm’s length on each side of me and spun a slow circle in place next to Darva. Twigs cracked to my left. Pop, pop, pop, I got off a few rounds and managed to hit a second. Then I stood silently, trying to keep my breath low and calm so I could hear everything, like Jake taught me.
More twigs cracked, but they were further away. I knew what the demons were doing, they were trying to get me to chase them. To leave Darva so they could circle back and finish what they had started. Sorry bitches, ain’t happening.
Another twig snapped to my right, much closer than the others and my head snapped in that direction, gun ready.
“It’s me.” I heard Jake call. I pointed my gun down and he stepped into the clearing, his own gun drawn. He came to me.
“You alright?” He asked; looking me over head to toe, I nodded. “How many?”
“Five. I took two, the rest have moved off.” Jake looked down at Darva. “She’s just passed out.” I said.
“And the guy?”
“I don’t know. He was down already when I got here.”
“Watch my back.” Jake tucked his gun back into his own waist band and went to the fallen boy. He turned him onto his back and I heard him swear, saw him place his fingers to the blonde’s neck, checking for a pulse. He came back to me a moment later.
“He’s gone.” His voice was gravely.
“Did you know him?” I asked. I thought I had vaguely recognized him, but I hadn’t tried real hard to get to know anyone. Jake nodded.
“He’s on my football team.” He then bent and scooped Darva up in his arms. “Don’t forget your blade.” He said. I snatched it up and sheathed it in my back pocket. Jake carried Darva through the woods as I followed, watching our backs. At one point he stopped and looked back at me. “We’re within the protections now.” He murmured. I could hear the party again. I stowed my guns, took Jake’s from his waistband and hid it along with mine then pulled my sweater down to cover them. Jake was already moving off towards the house and I back tracked to the same route I’d taken from Jake�
��s truck. As I was hiding our weapons back under the hollowed out back seat, a wave of people began exiting the house. Jake must have gotten the point across that the party was over. People were shouting as they were trying to figure out how to get cars out of the drive and others were simply walking. I didn’t like to see that, but they’d be alright if they kept to large groups, Jake had told me once that the demons were less like to attack larger groups of people, because the larger the group, the more chance a hunter was among them. I stood off to the side and watched for nearly fifteen minutes before it was clear enough to make my way back to the house. I passed through the living room, Darva was on the couch, several of her girlfriends fawned over her. I kept going until I found Jake and Kendra in the kitchen.
“Oh sweetie!” Kendra cried. She threw her arms around me again and hugged me fiercely. “Jake told me you guys found Shaun and Darva in the woods. Are you okay?”
I frowned, wondering exactly what he had said.
“Yes. I’m okay.”
“You shouldn’t be here Kendra.” Jake said. “You see Remi, she’s fine. Now you need to go. The cops’ll be here any minute. You don’t need a minor.” Kendra had had a significant amount to drink already.
Kendra looked to me.
“Yes, Kendra. Go. I’ll be fine with Jake.”
“I’m not leaving you!” She cried.
“Please, Kendra. You’ll be no good to me once your dad grounds you for the next thirty years.”
Kendra seemed to ponder this, she pouted.
“Alright, but you’ll call me in the morning?”
“I promise.” She gave me another hug, gave Jake one too then hightailed it out of there. I stared after her.
“Hey.” Jake said gently. “You okay?”
I turned to him.
“Am I okay? You’re the one who lost a friend.” I stepped up to him. “Are you okay?”
He said neither yes nor no, but he did pull me into his arms and let me hug him tight. We stayed that way until we heard the sirens.
“What happens next?” I asked. “Are we going to be suspected of anything, since we found them?”
“No. They’ll autopsy Shaun and determine the cause of death to be a heart attack. Did Darva see you come into the woods with your guns?”
“No.” I said with certainty.
“Then she’ll tell some tale of how she watched Shaun…have his heart attack, and how she felt something in her own chest or some version of that, she’ll get a clean bill of health so the cops’ll chalk it up to a panic attack.”
Obviously this, or something similar, had happened to him before. My heart went out to him and I hugged him tighter.
“Jake, I’m so sorry.” I whispered.
He kissed the top of my head several times.
“You did really well tonight.” He admitted. “I’m glad you went out and sent Kendra for me. Darva might not have made it if you hadn’t.”
“I wanted to come for you. It was my first instinct.”
I couldn’t see his face, but I was pretty sure he smiled.
“I’m sorry I doubted you.” He said, his lips in the hair at the top of my head again. “I’m sorry I said you weren’t ready. You are.”
I shook my head, whatever I could have said –though I wasn’t sure what that was- was cut off as the cops swarmed the house.
My eyes fluttered open, I turned to find Jake not in bed with me. I sat up and squinted into the dark. After yawning I looked at his alarm clock, it was just before five AM. I listened for any noise, but heard none. Why would Jake be up before five on a Saturday? I crawled from bed and went to the hall, listened for any noise again, but, again, heard none. The bathroom down the hall was dark, I went in the other direction and looked down the stairs; a glow of light came from the library so I made my way quietly down the stairs and had just reached the library when what I heard next stopped me in my tracks.
“…damn name tattooed on your neck!” I heard Mr. Wagner finish, his voice low and not at all happy. “You don’t think that this is moving too fast, son? You don’t think you should be a little more cautious?”
“Cautious of what Dad? Remi is not mom, she’s proven that over and over again in the past two weeks.”
“That’s my point, Jake. It’s only been two weeks. She’s living under our roof and now you’ve gone and tattooed on her on your neck! I just think…”
“You just think what? Don’t hold back now, dad.”
I could hear the sarcasm in Jake’s voice.
“You’re kids.” His dad said gently. “This is too intense for two kids.”
“I haven’t been a kid for a very long time.”
“I know. That’s my fault. I drug you into this at such a young age-”
“You didn’t drag me in dad.” Jake interrupted. “I’m proud of what we do, I wouldn’t change any of it.”
His dad changed tactics.
“What if something were to happen to her? Or to you? Not only would I lose two hunters, but more importantly I would lose a son. Either way, I’d lose a son. I just think maybe you two should back off each other a bit and take things more slowly.”
“What exactly is it you’re suggesting?” I could hear Jake speaking through gritted teeth.
“Maybe…maybe she shouldn’t be living here.”
Now I heard a rustle of movement and I imagined Jake jumping to his feet.
“It will be a cold day in hell before I let you send her back to him.” I knew he meant Bob. My heart constricted.
“Of course not! I would never do that to her. But maybe there’s somewhere else-”
“If she goes, I go.” Jake interrupted again. I held my breath.
“This is what I mean, son. It’s too intense.”
“Too intense or not, dad, if she goes, I go.”
I heard his dad sigh. He switched tactics again.
“Jake, please calm down and try to see my point. She’s a seventeen year old girl, you’re her first boyfriend. Don’t you think she deserves…more than this? She deserves to go out and learn things, experience things. I’ve tried to do that for you, I’ve tried to give you as much of a normal life outside of this one as possible. Don’t you think she deserves that too?”
“Are you suggesting that I let my girlfriend date other guys?” Jake’s low voice took on an incredulous hilt.
“Obviously not.” His father’s voice was full of resignation.
“Dad, Remi is not mom. I get your caution, mom hurt both of us.” Jake’s voice gentled. “But these feelings I have for Remi…I can’t even explain it other than to say it is what it is, and there is nothing anyone can do about it. There’s nothing I want anyone to do about it other than accept it. Sending her away or freezing her out isn’t going to change it one bit.”
There was a long silence and I found myself holding my breath again.
“Alright, son.” Mr. Wagner finally said, his voice soft and accepting. I let my breath out in a whoosh and covered my mouth, afraid they may have heard me. But after a moment Jake spoke again.
“Thank you. So you’ll start treating her like she belongs here now?”
I could only guess that Mr. Wagner had nodded, because there was no reply, yet Jake wasn’t arguing. Afraid that the conversation was over and Jake would step into the hallway and see me eavesdropping, I tiptoed back up the stairs. The last thing I heard had me smiling all the way back to bed.
“At least your tattoo guy does a good job.”
Mr. Wagner found me at the breakfast table that morning. He asked if we could take a walk together. Had I not heard the conversation just hours before I would be surprised. Instead, I looked across the table to Jake, he smiled softly, so, I stood and followed Mr. Wagner out the front door. We began a slow amble down the long driveway.
“I think maybe it’s time we cleared the air between us, don’t you.”
“Okay.” I stuck my hands in my jeans pockets, and we walked quietly for a time. It was late September
now, the air was getting crisp and cool, the tree’s leaves were bright yellows, gold’s and reds. The days were getting shorter. Shorter meant more hours of darkness, it’s funny how that’s how I thought about the nights now. They weren’t just how many hours of sleep before school in the morning, it was now how many hours of hunting before school in the morning.
“I wanted to explain the pretty blatant cold shoulder you’ve been getting since moving into our home. I’m assuming Jake has explained Ana to you?”
I nodded. Mr. Wagner chuckled.
“I think that’s a case of hero worship, not love. Jake was the first person who showed he understood her, and after what Ana went through with her family, he took a lot pressure off her; he essentially saved her. She’s been his since.”
I didn’t respond to that, because the only words I would have said were “She’s not his, I am.” But Mr. Wagner didn’t want to hear what he already knew.
“And his mother? Has Jake told you anything about her?”
“A bit.” I said. Jake didn’t talk about her much.
“So you can understand why Quinn and I have had our reservations about you. You and Jake.”
“Yes. When the ones we know and love hurt us the most, it’s hard to trust those we don’t know.”
Mr. Wagner turned his head and looked at me, surprise lit his eyes.
“So you do understand.” He murmured. I simply nodded. “Good. Then I guess we’ll get right to the heart of it. Ana, me, Quinn, we’re just instances, so to speak. Ryan is the real issue. What we all went through with him is what makes us so cautious. Mistrustful. Has Jake told you anything about Ryan yet?”
Now he had my attention, we turned and slowly ambled back up the drive.
“No.”
“He wouldn’t. He and Ryan are like brothers now. Jake won’t talk about him until Ryan gives him the go-ahead. And that will probably never happen, so I will tell you. When Ryan came to us he was alone, scared, he had no idea there were others who could do what he did. We had recently lost a couple team members, and he’d been fighting demons for years on his own, so he was pretty skilled, with a little discipline he became one of the best. He fit right in with us, filled the gap the others had left. He met a young woman, and it was good for him. She couldn’t see, she had no idea what we did at night, but after a while she started to wonder why Ryan wouldn’t come around quite a few nights a week, so she started…snooping.”
