Jack Templar Monster Hunter

by Jeff Gunhus

  “What do you mean, Creach Lords?” I asked.

  “You’re supposed to learn all of this in hunter school,” Eva said.

  “Yeah, they didn’t offer that elective at Sunnyvale Middle School.”

  Eva smiled. Just a quick one, but it was a smile. “The Creach is the term we use for all monsters. Comes from the word creature . The monsters have separated themselves into groups and each group has a leader.”

  “So there’s a Lord of the Harpies?”

  Eva laughed. “No, the lower monsters like the harpies are under the rule of whatever Lord owns them.”

  “You mean like slaves?” I asked.

  “It’s more like having dogs. Harpies are like pit bulls that have been trained to kill. No different. That’s why we don’t celebrate killing them. Someone made them that way. Someone drove them mad.”

  “I saw the black string sewn through their mouths.”

  “Yes,” Eva said. “That’s the sign of their owner.”

  “You know who it is, don’t you?” I said.

  Eva pointed to the lights twinkling through the trees. “Is that your house?”

  “You didn’t answer my question.”

  “I will later, I promise. Right now, we have to gather your things and leave town.”

  Just then, howls erupted in the distance. I had heard the sound in movies and on TV before, but never around here. Probably because this animal didn’t live anywhere near here. At least not for the last hundred years anyway. Still, there was no mistaking the sound. Wolves.

  Eva shook her head. “Wouldn’t you know it.”

  “What?” I asked, squinting into the dark forest in the direction of the sound.

  “Werewolves,” Eva said, spitting the word out. “I can’t stand those guys.”

  “Werewolves? Are you kidding me?” I said. The howls came again; this time, it seemed like they were right behind us. “Shouldn’t we get inside?”

  “I need to see one first,” Eva whispered. “I want to know what variety we’re dealing with here.”

  “There’s more than one variety of werewolf?” I asked. I spun around in a circle. The howls seemed to be coming from the tree line right next to us.

  “Sure, there’s your garden-variety werewolf. Comes out on a full moon, only at night.”

  “But there’s no full moon tonight,” I said.

  “Exactly, so it rules that out,” Eva said quietly, eyes darting back and forth. “Which is a shame, because they’re the easiest to deal with. Then there are the Germanic, Burmese and South American types. Each one harder to kill than the last.”

  Movement to my right caught my attention. As I looked into the black forest, two glowing red eyes appeared, seemingly suspended in midair. I stared back at them, mesmerized.

  “The worst of the lot is the devil-werewolf,” Eva whispered. “Instead of a human that transforms into a wolf, it’s a demon that takes the wolf form. Almost impossible to kill. But we wouldn’t see one of those out here.”

  “Let me guess,” I whispered. “The devil-werewolf is the only kind that has glowing red eyes.”

  “Yeah,” she whispered back. “How did you know?”

  “The way this day’s been going, I just figured.” I nudged her and pointed to the red eyes hovering in the dark.

  The devil-werewolf stepped out from the trees and bared its teeth, snarling.

  Chapter Seven

  Eva pulled out her sword and stepped in front of me. Even though I had only met her hours before, I could tell this latest threat scared her. I raised my sword too, ready for anything.

  The devil-werewolf stepped out farther from the trees.

  It was larger than I could have possibly imagined. I guess there was no reason for me to expect a certain size or shape. I mean, what did I know about werewolves anyway? Still, when the beast came into full view, I could hardly breathe.

  Even though it was on all fours, its head as high as my own. Its massive paws were tipped with nasty-looking claws. Black, greasy fur covered its enormous body. It shined in the little moonlight there was, like it was wet. But it was the face that really threw me.

  I expected a wolf’s face. Instead, it was grotesque and hairless, like a stone gargoyle on an old church. Small, pointy ears. A long, twisted nose. A mouth filled with jagged teeth stretched open in a silent scream. The whole thing made it seem like the creature was in constant pain.

  The glowing red eyes capped the whole thing off. They burned inside the devilwerewolf’s head, pulsing brighter and darker, as if in time to its pulse.

  “Run to the house,” Eva hissed under her breath.

  The devil-werewolf stopped and stared at both of us. Its breath came out in low grunts.

  “I’m staying,” I said.

  “I can handle this by myself,” Eva said. “Now go.”

  “Make me,” I said.

  Eva risked a look in my direction. If looks could kill, I’d be one dead monster hunter.

  “Fine,” she said. “Suit yourself.”

  We both looked at the devil-werewolf. Its eyes burned even brighter. It pawed the ground with its huge claws as it dragged a blood-red tongue across its teeth. It raised itself up on its back legs, balancing on its hindquarters. The creature was massive.

  I shook in place, thinking that I should have taken Eva’s advice and ran while I had a chance.

  The devil-werewolf took another step toward us. I took a step back, then noticed that Eva had held her ground. Swallowing my fear, I stepped back into position, shoulder-toshoulder with Eva.

  “Any advice?” I whispered to her.

  “Yes,” she replied. “Don’t die.”

  The devil-werewolf took another step, but this one was different. Its leg seemed to twist and shift shape. Then it was the other leg. The arms. Everything contorted, muscle and skin twisting and churning. Slowly, painfully, the devil-werewolf transformed into its human form right before our eyes. And if that wasn’t crazy enough, it was actually the human it turned into that left my mouth hanging open in shock.

  Aunt Sophie.

  And even though the woman who had raised me my whole life had just transformed from a werewolf right in front of my eyes, all I felt was embarrassment. Aunt Sophie stood in front of us completely naked. I lowered my sword and turned my back. Eva didn’t budge. “ What are you doing?” she hissed.

  “Jack, I am so sorry you have to find out this way,” Aunt Sophie said. “There have been so many times I’ve wanted to tell you.”

  Eva looked back and forth between Aunt Sophie and myself. “Wait, you know her?”

  “Yeah, she raised me,” I said.

  Aunt Sophie spoke quietly. “I felt it when you broke the seal and attacked a Creach. I’ve been searching the forest ever since. Finally, I came back to see if you were already here.”

  “Uh…Aunt Sophie,” I said.

  “Yes, hon?” she said.

  “Can I ask you to do something for me?”

  “Anything. You name it.”

  “Do you think you could put some clothes on?”

  Aunt Sophie laughed, covering herself with her arms. “Sorry, of course. Let’s walk to the house.”

  She led the way. Eva never lowered her sword even once while we were standing in my backyard . Aunt Sophie walked over to where a robe hung on a hook against the garden shed and put it on.

  “Sorry about that,” she said. “Right after I’ve been a wolf, my human instincts take a while to come back. Modesty about being naked being one of them. ”

  Eva stepped forward, her sword still pointing at Aunt Sophie. “Human’s a bit strong, don’t you think, demon? I don’t care who you are; you’re not getting past me.”

  Aunt Sophie’s expression hardened and I saw a flash of anger in her eyes that I’d never seen before. “Use your head, monster hunter. If I was a threat, I would have stayed a wolf and I’d be eating both your throats right now.”

  “Aunt Sophie!” I said.

  “You ha
ve to stop thinking of her that way, Jack,” Eva said. “She’s Creach and all the Creach are the same. You can’t trust any of them.”

  “I’m so sorry, Jack. I was going to tell you. Tonight. I swear it,” Aunt Sophie said.

  I tried to say something but I couldn’t. Aunt Sophie was all I had. She was both my father and my mother. Finding out that she was actually a demon trapped in a werewolf’s body was kind of hard to swallow.

  I didn’t know how to react. I was angry, confused, hurt, all of it, all at one time.

  Aunt Sophie saw my expression and her face took on that incredible sadness I’d seen in her recently.

  “I wouldn’t have hurt you,” she said. “I swear it on my life.”

  Eva laughed. “An easy thing to say. We both know full well that you wouldn’t have killed him. Your master wouldn’t have wanted that. He wants Jack alive, doesn’t he?”

  “You’re right. My instructions have always been to keep Jack alive so that he could be delivered to my master after Quattuordecim. But if I was going to follow those instructions, then I’d have stayed a wolf, monster hunter, and you’d already be dead,” Aunt Sophie said.

  Eva gripped her sword. “You’re always welcome to try your luck, Creach.”

  “Enough, both of you!” I shouted. “Sounds like you both know a lot more than you’re telling me. Delivered to your master? What are you talking about?”

  A small, quiet voice came from behind us. “If this is a bad time, we can come back later.”

  The three of us spun around. T-Rex and Will stood at the patio door. They looked a little shaken up, what with Eva holding her sword, my aunt in her bathrobe and me yelling at both of them. T-Rex raised a hand to his face and planted a finger in his nose.

  “What in the crap is going on back here?” Will said.

  “You guys look busy. They look busy, Will. We can just go…” T-Rex mumbled.

  I looked back at Eva and Aunt Sophie. “I’ll take care of this. You two play nice and meet me inside. No stabbing with your sword and no ripping out anyone’s throat. Got it?”

  I didn’t wait for an answer. I walked up to Will and T-Rex, arms open wide and grinning ear-to-ear. I high-fived Will, who looked at me suspiciously.

  “T-Rex, my man,” I said, “good to see you.” I put up a hand for a high-five. He pulled his finger out of his nose and slapped it. I wiped my hand on my pants as I herded them back inside.

  “You kind of stink, Jack,” T-Rex said.

  “You really do,” Will said. “What’s that stuff all over you? It smells terrible.”

  I realized that I was pretty much drenched with harpy blood (which I mentioned earlier does really stink). But I wasn’t about to tell them the truth.

  “This? Yeah, we’re doing a play,” I said.

  “A play? Awesome!” T-Rex said.

  “Really,” Will said, unconvinced.

  “Uh…yeah. You saw the sword and heard the shouting, right? Just practicing for a play down at the community center. This is fake blood from a fight scene.”

  T-Rex bought it. He went from being uncertain to being jealous in a second. He stabbed at his nose with another finger. “Do you think I can be in the play? I’m a really good actor.”

  “Sure,” I said. “We’re looking for more people. I’ll get you in, I promise. Just not tonight, OK? I messed up and forgot about rehearsal when I invited you guys over.”

  Will stopped and got in my face. “You know what I think? I think you’re full of it.”

  I froze, thinking that he had somehow figured it out. Will was sharp. He barely passed his classes but when it came to street smarts, Will had his PhD. Suddenly, he grinned.

  “You’re trying to hook up with that hottie, aren’t you?” he said.

  I let out a deep breath and tried to look embarrassed, like he’d just busted me.

  Will smiled, pleased with himself. “ I knew it. I knew you were full of it. You can’t pull one over on me.” He checked Eva out a little more closely. “I don’t know, man. She might be out of your league. Maybe I should…”

  “I’ve got it,” I said. “I’ll call you guys later, OK?”

  “Does that mean we’re not having pizza?” T-Rex said.

  Will threw his arm over T-Rex’s shoulder. “No, it means we’re not having pizza with Jack. He’s abandoned us, T-Rex. He’s followed the siren’s call and is headed straight to the shores of heartbreak and sadness.”

  T-Rex looked at him, confused.

  “Come on, I’ll explain it to you later,” Will said. “We’re outta here. Let’s go into town and get our own pizza.”

  “Thanks, guys,” I said. “I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”

  I heard T-Rex mumble as they left through the front door, “As long as we’re still getting pizza.”

  I shut the door on them and turned around.

  Eva and Aunt Sophie were standing in the kitchen, one on either side of the breakfast bar. I walked in. “All right, so who’s going to tell me what’s really going on here?”

  Eva nodded at Aunt Sophie. “How about you, Creach? You want to tell him?”

  Aunt Sophie glared at Eva, but when she turned to me, her expression softened again. “I’m sorry, Jack. I know this is a lot to take in all at once, but it was for your own good.”

  “Ha!” Eva laughed.

  “Quiet,” I said. “Let her finish.” I looked Aunt Sophie in the eye. “Tell me the truth. All of it.”

  Eva stepped back into the corner of the kitchen, brooding.

  Aunt Sophie nodded. “I’ll tell you what I can. Some things you know. Your mother died when you were born. Your father, not long after. I never met him, but all the Creach knew who he was. And who you were. When he died, he had you with him. You were just a baby, so the Creach who killed your father couldn’t kill you because of the truce. So they took you to Ren Lucre instead.”

  “Who killed my father?” I asked.

  Aunt Sophie held up her hand. “Patience, I will tell you everything. The Creach had you in their possession but the law of Quattuordecim forbade any Creach to hold a human child captive simply to kill him when he reached fourteen . A clever solution was discovered. If you chose to live with a monster, then Quattuordecim would not be violated. You were brought into a room with several of us. You had to choose one of us and only then could we stay with you.”

  “And I chose you?” I asked.

  “You were only a toddler, a little over two. I wanted nothing to do with any of it, but I was forced to comply. I stayed in the corner of the room and remained in my demon form. The others fawned over you, tried to get you to choose them to gain the master’s favor. But you walked right past them and pulled on my hand. I tried to scare you away. I bared my teeth and snarled, but you only laughed. You wouldn’t let go. Then you climbed on my lap and cuddled up to me, falling fast asleep. My master commanded that I raise you among the humans, as a human. And that is what I did.”

  “So it’s all been one big lie? All of it?” I asked.

  “At first, yes,” Aunt Sophie said. “I changed your name from Templar to Smith, hoping to make it harder for the hunters to find you.”

  “So, my name is Templar. Everyone has been calling me that,” I said, wrapping my mind around the idea.

  “Changing your name was the easy part. Moving here to Sunnyvale to live among humans was like the worst imaginable torture to me. I hated everything about what I had been asked to do. For hundreds of years, I had hated humans, and suddenly, I was living among them, caring for the child of the most hated human of all.”

  “The most hated human of them all? Why would you say that?” I asked.

  Aunt Sophie glanced over to Eva, who shook her head slightly.

  “Let me finish my story first, then you can ask her why. I’m sure her answer will be different than mine,” Aunt Sophie said. She sat down in a chair, looking drained. “For the first year, I considered leaving, but I knew that my master would find me no matter where I
went. So, I stayed. And the strangest thing happened. I fell in love.”

  “What?” I said. “I never saw you with anyone.”

  Aunt Sophie shook her head. “I mean with you, silly boy. You didn’t treat me like a Creach monster; you treated me like your mother. Every time you hugged me. Every time you kissed me on the cheek. Every time you ran to me when you were scared or hurt. Every time those things happened, I fell in love with you a little more.”

  “Oh please,” Eva said.

  “But still you watched over me for your master?” I said. “Waiting for the day you could turn me over to him?”

  Aunt Sophie looked hurt. “Honey, if that was the case, I would have already killed this little girl you brought home and we’d already be on our way. I told you, I’m not going to hurt you.”

  “Then what are you doing here?” I demanded.

  “I’m here to save you. I know what he plans to do to you. I won’t let him do it. I just won’t.”

  “Who do you keep talking about?” I asked. “Who wants me so bad and why?”

  Aunt Sophie looked at Eva. “Do you want to tell him or should I?”

  Eva hesitated, then said, “I don’t know what you mean. How should I know who your master is?”

  Aunt Sophie smiled. “Oh, you know. I can tell. And you say it is the Creach who cannot be trusted. Watch this one, Jack. She is more clever than she lets on.”

  “I’ve had about enough of this, old woman,” Eva exclaimed. “If you want—”

  Aunt Sophie stood. “It is Ren Lucre who searched for you, Lord of the Vampires, Protector of the Dark Realms, Eater of Souls, Overlord of all the Creach.” She turned to Eva. “But then, you already knew that, didn’t you? The Black Guard used my child as bait. Was that your idea, monster hunter? Or did your Master Aquinas decide this war was more important than one boy’s life? You ought to be ashamed. All of you.”

  I looked at Eva. “Is it true? Is that why you’re here?” Eva looked away from me, trying not to make eye contact. “So, it’s true. I’m just bait to catch this Ren Lucre guy.”

  “You pronounce it loo-cray. Ren Lucre. And yeah, I’m here to kill him. The Black Guard has their reasons, but I have my own.”