Things That Go Bump At Night

by C. A. Saari

  I watched as Jake walked into the shed. He was not dressed to work out today due to his injury. He had on cargo pants and a hooded sweatshirt over a t-shirt. He walked a bit stiffly and I knew his side was bothering him. Halfway across the barn he stopped and watched me. Just stared. I pulled the buds from my ears, letting them hang around my neck and shot him a questioning smile, he continued walking to me and joined me on the treadmill at a slow leisurely walk behind me; his hands came around to grip the handlebars on each side of me, essentially trapping me in. I liked it.

  “Are you okay?” I asked quietly. He leaned forward to kiss my neck, I angled my head to let him.

  “No. I hate that you’re going through this and there doesn’t seem to be anything I can do about it.”

  “But you are. You’re here with me.” I replied, turning my head to him. He kissed my temple and breathed me in.

  “Doesn’t seem like enough.”

  “It is to me. It’s far more than I’ve ever had before and way more than I could ever have hoped for.” I shut down the machine and turned to face him. “You have done everything for me, Jake. I don’t know where I would be right now if it weren’t for you, and I hate that you feel so responsible to do even more.”

  He frowned.

  “I will always do more where you’re concerned. I will do everything.” He reached out and touched my cheek.

  Tell him, Remi. Tell him you love him, right now!

  I opened my mouth to do so and wouldn’t you know it, I was interrupted. A commotion at the door caught our attention.

  “I want to know who the hell called you!” Mr. Wagner shouted as he followed –uh-oh- six men in suits and sunglasses into the shed. Jake frowned and stepped from the treadmill, and stood between me and the newcomers.

  “What’s going on?” He asked. His father shot a look his way, and moved forward with the suits, going between them and his son. Funny how much we would all do to protect those we loved.

  “Good Morning, boys and girls.” The front gentleman called in an overly friendly voice. “I’m looking for a Miss Remi Dexter. Raise your hand.”

  No one moved a muscle and the man’s covered gaze seemed to settle on Ana, who was closest to him. “Are you Miss Dexter?”

  Ana lifted her chin in defiance.

  “Who wants to know?”

  I knew then, that despite how she felt about me, she’d always have my back. I was part of her team now, her family, and to hell with anyone who was going to mess with it or me. One of the other suits leaned forward to whisper something in the first ones ear, who then smiled and continued to scan the barn. His gaze settled on me next.

  “Ah, Miss Dexter.”

  Jake took several steps forward.

  “Who the hell are you?” He asked, his voice dripped with menace.

  “Please, pardon my rudeness. I’m Evan Parker, director of the Portland Home Office. You must be Jake Wagner, you look like your father.” Mr. Parker removed his sunglasses as he spoke, his eyes were jovial and friendly. I distrusted him immediately.

  “What do you want?” Jake asked.

  Mr. Parker cocked his head at Jake in a condescending way.

  “Oh, come now, let’s not play dumb. I’m here to speak with Miss Dexter.”

  “Then you’re shit out of luck, there is no one here by that name.” Jake said.

  “So I’m going to have to ask you to leave my property.” Mr. Wagner followed up. Mr. Parker turned to him with slight amusement.

  “You’re property, Mr. Wagner?”

  “Yes. I purchased this land, I did not use Home Office funds, so you are technically trespassing right now.”

  Mr. Parker laughed lightly.

  “Oh, David. You are in breach of your hunting contract, you failed to register a new hunter on your team by the name of Remi Dexter. I am within my rights to detain you, and given the new information that your unregistered new hunter has special gifts that should have been reported to the Home Office immediately, I am also within my rights to jail you and your entire team for as long as our justice system deems fit. Should a conviction be made I am also within my rights to confiscate any and all of your property.”

  Oh my God. They could throw Jake –and his family- in jail –well, demon hunter jail anyway? If all this man wanted to do was talk, then jail was so not worth keeping my secret for me.

  “I’m Remi Dexter.” I said, going forward.

  “Remi!” Jake hissed, grabbing my arm as I stepped around him. I didn’t fight him, I stopped when he stopped me.

  Evan Parker turned to face me, the warm smile back on his face.

  “Miss Dexter. This is truly a pleasure, I’ve not heard nearly enough about you.”

  “I’ve heard nothing about you.” I retorted, blandly. I don’t care how nice he appeared, if it smells like a snake, moves like a snake, talks like a snake…

  “Well then, maybe we should get to know each other a little better, yes?” Mr. Parker glanced over his shoulder and three of the men behind him moved to separate me and Jake, they pushed me forward while pushing Jake back, he shoved at them, a short scuffle ensued before his father barked at him to stop. Jake gave one of the suited men a final shove before relenting. I noticed now that they were armed, it made my heart flutter slightly. I did not believe for one second they were just here to “get to know me”. I looked to Jake, he was frowning fiercely, that jaw of his working, but he made eye contact with me, gave me strength. I turned back to Evan Parker.

  “Alright. Do you want to sit down, have a nice cup of coffee while we talk?” Part of me was sarcastic, the other part of me desperately wanted this to be over so they would leave again.

  “That is so kind of you to offer.” Mr. Parker said, he obviously missed my sarcasm or he chose to ignore it. “But that won’t be necessary, you’ll be coming with us.”

  “Like hell!” Jake yelled and resumed his fight with the three suits, he punched two of them in the face and was going for the third when the other two joined the fight and grabbed his arms, Ana, Ryan and Quinn all made a move to help him.

  “Jake!” I called.

  “Mr. Wagner.” Parker barked. We all stopped and looked to see that he had a gun pointed at Jake’s father’s head. The entire room went silent. I had to admit, he was a smart man, he obviously knew he couldn’t point the gun at me, I was what they were here for, and pointing the gun at Jakes own head wouldn’t stop him from fighting for me. So...his father was the only person left that Jake would heel for. “You make one more move for me or my men and I will make sure it’s the last thing your father sees.”

  “Stop it.” I said, I hated how torn Jake looked right now; his father or me. That was his choice at the moment, and I did not want him to have to think he needed to make that choice. “I’ll go.”

  “Remi.” Jake said on a breath through his teeth. His eyes looked pained. I stepped towards him, but one of the suits blocked my path.

  “Please.” I asked Parker without looking at him, I couldn’t tear my eyes from Jake’s. He must have acquiesced behind me, because the suit stepped away again. I went to Jake and threw my arms around his neck. “Come find me.” I whispered so only he could hear.

  “Trust me.” He whispered back. I pulled back to look at him, a corner of my mouth kicked up in a smile. Once he uttered those words, there was nothing he wouldn’t do. I knew he come for me. He leaned in and kissed me, hard and wholly and I leaned into him trying to take as much as I could.

  “Enough.” Parker called. One of the suits pulled me back. “No need for dramatic goodbyes. Young Mr. Wagner will be joining us as well.”

  “What?” Mr. Wagner nearly shouted.

  “Obviously I can’t leave him here to plan and plot a way to come after Miss Dexter, so he’ll have to come with us. And it doubly serves my purpose, because if I get wind of you planning to come after either of them as well, I’ll put a bullet through your sons head. Is that clear?”

  Mr. Wagner said nothing, his top l
ip twitched as he fought not to snarl, he reminded me so much of Jake in that very moment and I knew he would do everything in his power to get to his son as well.

  “Is that clear David? I need your acquiesce or I’ll drop him right here on the spot. I surely don’t need the trouble.”

  “Fine.” Mr. Wagner said. But I don’t think a single one of us believed him.

  Parker turned to his men.

  “We’ll leave first, follow with him shortly.”

  Two suits grabbed my arms, I maintained eye contact with Jake even after they spun me around to walk me to the door; I still watched him over my shoulder

  “I’ll be right behind you.” Jake called to me just before I was out the door and he was out of my sight. I was shoved into the back seat of a large black SUV, two suits flanked me, while Parker sat up front and ordered his driver to go. I twisted in my seat to watch the others lead Jake from the barn and into a second waiting SUV. The windows were tinted beyond legal so he couldn’t see me, and once they had him in the truck I couldn’t see him, but that didn’t stop me from continuously twisting in my seat to watch the truck behind us for the next forty five minute drive into Portland.

  We drove up a winding coastal cliff road for several miles, my ears popped and I swallowed hard to clear them, once we reached the top it was another mile or two of winding dirt roads through a densely wooded area before we finally came to a large privacy gate topped with some nasty looking spikes and a huge yellow sign warning that the fence was electrified. The driver stopped and pressed a button on the call box outside his window and the gate slid slowly open. I turned in my seat, hoping now that the SUV behind us was close enough for me to get a glimpse of Jake. But I still couldn’t see through the windows.

  After the gate opened we drove another mile or so before a large compound appeared before us. We passed a guard shack on our way to an enormous mansion with a circular drive, to the left and just beyond the house was a pentagon shaped building and to the right just beyond the house was its twin, I could not see what was beyond that. My SUV took the circular drive to park in front of the mansion while Jake’s veered off to the left and went to the building just beyond. I felt a moment of panic at the fact that he wouldn’t be in the same building as me. The suit to my right jumped out and grabbed my right arm and tugged while the suit on my left shoved at my left arm. I was pretty much dragged slash pushed from the car –where was a blade when I really needed one?

  Another suit had the door to the mansion opened before we’d even gotten out of the truck. Parker led us up the large set of stairs and into an even larger entryway. There were hallways and doorways everywhere. Two winding staircases flanked either side of us and straight ahead in between two hallways was an elevator. That was our destination.

  We took it down one floor. Basement level, I guess. Parker led me and my sharply dressed escorts down a set of winding corridors past even more hallway’s and doorways until we finally came to a stop, Parker unlocked a door and stepped aside so the suites could push me into a white room with a gray cement floor. A rectangular table was bolted to the floor in the middle of the room as were the two chairs –one on each side of the table. I was shoved into one of the bolted down chairs and my hands were zip tied to a metal ring in the middle of the table. Not one word was spoken this entire time.

  Apparently, I scared them. Well, I did kill demons with guns and knives and fists for a living, I guess I’d be scared of me too. Parker’s suits exited the room, but I was pretty sure they were still outside the door. Parker then sat across from me.

  Silence reigned for minutes. If he expected me to speak first, we’d be here all day just staring at each other.

  He smiled.

  “You are quite a stunning young woman.” He finally said. I’ll admit, if he was aiming to throw me off, he succeeded. “I can see why Jake is so taken with you.”

  Still I said nothing, though I really, really wanted to tell him that he was not worthy of even speaking Jake’s name.

  “My source tells me you’ve lived with the Wagner’s for two months now, but tell me, how long have you been hunting?”

  I still said nothing.

  “Have you had the sight for only these two months, or has it been longer?”

  Go eff yourself. I said in my head.

  Parker sighed and rested his arms on the table and laid his hands over mine. I tried to pull my hands away –the inch of movement I was allowed anyway- but he held fast. He was not a hunter. His hands were too soft and I felt repulsed by the touch.

  “I’m going to give you a fair warning here sweetheart, and it’s more than you deserve, but since you’re just so lovely to look at, I feel…a kindness for you.”

  I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from saying go eff yourself out loud.

  “You will start answering my questions, or I will have your obstinacy taken out on your boyfriend. And it will be painful.”

  My hands fisted under his. He smiled.

  “Good. Now, tell me about this gift of yours.” He released my hands and sat back in his chair, smiling like we were the best of friends again.

  “I don’t have much to tell. It just started and I don’t have control over it yet.”

  “How do you make it work then? What triggers it?”

  Well, I certainly wasn’t about to tell them that Jake’s impending death had anything to do with it. They’d probably attempt to kill him in front of me just to see it in action.

  “I don’t know yet. It just kind of randomly happens right now. We were hoping to find a way to get control of it.”

  Parker nodded slowly and watched me for a time. I couldn’t tell if he believed me or not.

  “Can I ask a question?” I asked, I had to, I wasn’t trying to be polite, I just wasn’t sure if just blurting out questions was going to be considered obstinacy or not.

  “Oh, of course.” He smiled again, appearing interested in what was on my mind. “Please, ask anything, I’ll do what I can to answer.”

  “If I’m here to help the cause, why do I feel like I’m a prisoner? And why is Jake being kept as one?”

  Parker chuckled softly and cocked his head at me.

  “I could look at you all day.” He said with a smile. “You are truly lovely.”

  I frowned. He was getting weird with these random compliments…not that they weren’t weird to start with.

  “Mr. Parker.” I said. “If we’re on the same side, what is this about?” I pulled my hands up the mere inch they were allowed to move and splayed my fingers, drawing his attention to my bindings.

  Parker sighed, pretended to brush invisible lint from his perfectly pressed suit.

  “Do you get paid for what you do, Miss Dexter?”

  “For hunting?” I frowned when he nodded, uncertain where this was going. I was pretty sure he knew I was getting paid, since the home office paid most hunters salaries. Mr. Wagner liked to pay his own wages, it gave him more control over his team by keeping the home office out of his business. “Yes.”

  “So, this has monetary value to you?”

  “Well…I suppose.”

  “What if I told you that you could make millions, what would you say to that?”

  “Millions for hunting? Because of my gift?” I wasn’t so much considering it a gift anymore. It had become a real pain in the ass.

  Parker seemed to consider his answer, then shrugged lightly. “Hypothetically.” He finally answered. I frowned again.

  “I would do this for free, Mr. Parker. It does have its monetary value, but I’d do it even it didn’t. Millions makes no difference to me.” All I wanted was Jake. Well, a gun would be nice right now too.

  Parker smiled again, but it was touched with sadness.

  “And there would be nothing that would be able to change your mind, would there?”

  “Not likely.” I answered, dread was building in the pit of my stomach. Change my mind about what? Was he saying he didn’t want me to kill de
mons?

  “I was very afraid you’d say that.” Parker’s sad smile deepened. “You want to know why you’re a prisoner here, Miss Dexter? Why young Mr. Wagner is as well?”

  I thought I did, but now I was a little scared of what he was about to say. I couldn’t respond, I couldn’t even nod. He continued anyway.

  “Mr. Wagner is here solely to keep you cooperative. Beyond that his presence here is unneeded.”

  My heart hitched.

  “You hurt him and I will be the most uncooperative person you’ll ever have the displeasure to meet.” I said through gritted teeth. Parker chuckled.

  “Moot point to be sure, now that we have you secured, but I do so much prefer to do things the easy way. So as long as you’re nice to me, I’ll be nice to him.”

  “What about his father? If you hurt Jake, his father will rain hell down on you.”

  He chuckled, as if this amused him.

  “David and his team are expendable. Now that I have you their presence is unneeded as well.”

  The ball of fear low in my belly just kept churning and churning. I was going to be sick soon.

  “What is it exactly that you need me for, if not to fight demons?”

  “Oh sweetheart. I don’t want to fight the demons, I want to control them.”

  Oh hell.

  “Where do I play into that? I can’t control demons.” I asked, trying to rack my brains for a way out of here. I mentally called up everything I’d seen on the way in.

  “I believe your gift is the key. I had hoped that there was a possibility you’d join me, but I can see that you’re not a forward thinker. You play the good guy to my bad guy, even if it means death for you and everyone you care about.” When I said nothing he pulled that small smile again. “I suppose it was a tad unfeasible to think that you’d be able to control a whole demon army on your own anyway.”

  “Demon army?” I asked; this conversation had taken a twisted turn.

  “Yes. Instead of killing the demons, we learn to control them and I sell their services to the highest bidder. Can you imagine? An army that no natural human can see? They could wipe out an enemy’s opposition in a matter of hours.”