Demons: A Hunter's Novel, Book 1

by Felicite Lilly

  “Shoot.”

  “Don’t tempt me.” Man, I must’ve really upset her. “One, you tell me everything about what is said. I know that your Father will probably not want me in with you for this little conference. So I want to know everything that is said. Capice?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Two, no more secrets, Laney. I want you to share everything with me from here on out.” Oh, thank fuck she didn’t want retrospective information. I couldn’t share everything I had learned previously. But I could keep her in the loop. Somewhat.

  I put my fingers up like a good little girl scout, and said, “I promise.”

  “Well, get your shit together so we can get this over with.” There was the Anie I knew and loved.

  After showing up at HQ and getting asked a thousand questions about why we were there, we were allowed into the front door. We were then frisked by the guards, quite thoroughly, and escorted to my Father’s white room, aka his waiting room. It looked, smelled and felt like a hospital waiting room.

  I had never had to wait before. I used to be the Hunter with free reign. The daughter of the head Council member. But now I was treated like any other.

  Anie kept making comments about how if it was just me I would have gotten through with no questions asked. Anie was under the impression that I wasn’t the reason for all of the security, that it was her. But I knew better. My Father recognized that I was going to be dangerous soon so he had stepped up security. And for some sick reason I wanted him to fear me, I wanted him to quake as I had done when I was younger. Was that justice? Revenge? Or just some Demon magic awakening in me?

  I shouldn’t have been surprised I was being treated this way, but for some reason I was. If my Father had done this, it wouldn’t have surprised me, but it hurt to see people I had known and looked up to treat me like a stranger. But I was a Hunter’s nightmare, with a dash of Angel, in all my 5’7” brilliance. So, Anie and I sat in the sterile silence hurrying to wait.

  My Father swept into his waiting room 20 minutes after our arrival. He didn’t say a word, just walked out and walked back into his office. I grabbed Anie’s hand.

  “I’ll let you know if he wants you to come in, okay?” I told her in a scratchy whisper.

  She looked at me, frowned, and nodded her ascension.

  I pulled the door closed behind me as I walked into his office. My Father’s desk chair was turned away from me. I thought maybe he had left his office somehow. But, no, his dark hair was sticking up over his chair. Without turning to look at me, he started talking. Apparently, I didn’t warrant a greeting.

  “What do you need, ladies?”

  It was like talking to the principal, and I was a student who had gotten in trouble. No warmth. All business. Had he ever really been my Father? How had I ever ended up with the awesome sense of humor I had?

  “Just me, Sir.”

  He spun around in his chair faster than I thought would be possible for someone in his fifties. When he met my eyes his expression was genuinely alarmed, but only for a moment. Interesting. He schooled his expression quickly and motioned for me to sit in one of the chairs in front of his desk.

  The chairs were white, I know, surprise, surprise. They reminded me of the white room outside his door. I didn’t want to sit down, but I knew better than to refuse. My Father had always told me, Treat everything I do and say as an order. I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t mean it. And I knew better than to refuse an order – especially right now.

  I sat down and folded my hands in my lap. The less I touched the creepy chairs, the better. Once I sat down my Father eased slightly back in his. I saw the stubbornness already starting to claw across his features. Most people wouldn’t have noticed it, but I had been raised by the man sitting in front of me and I could tell exactly where his mind was: he wanted to keep whatever secrets he had from me. He wanted me to keep my nose out of his business, even if it was my business too. Had this man ever loved me? Yes, when I was a little kid, before he had started boot camp with me, he used to love me.

  My Father would turn on the side table lamp on my bed when I was, probably about 4 years old, and he would read me a book every night. My favorites were Goodnight Moon, I Love You Stinky Face and my favorite of all, Where the Wild Things Are. The world will never be the same without the genius of Maurice B. Sendak. Some people just naturally spoke to children through words, and he was one of them. Hell, he still spoke to me.

  I remembered my Father reading me the books and becoming animated. After he was done reading the book he would put it down, look me in the eyes and say I love you, Angel. Around the time I turned five, he started the boot camp training and was the time he stopped reading to me and treating me like a child. It was so heartbreaking for me now. But it was also something I would never tell him I felt. Not now.

  The Father he was when I was four, I wouldn’t have hesitated to tell him how I felt. Now, I couldn’t even sit comfortably in the same room as him. He had accused me of consorting, which I had been, but I was still his daughter. He was supposed to love me unconditionally, but that, apparently, didn’t come with every parent/child relationship.

  So I sat across from the man I had once called Father and tried to beat him at his own game.

  “Well, what can I do for you?” He asked.

  “I had an interesting visit last night.”

  “From whom?”

  There was no waiver in his voice. No tell in his eyes. Nothing that would tell me anything. Just like me. I learned from the best.

  “Kai.”

  Now my Father’s jaw clenched tight. If he kept it up, it looked like his teeth would shatter. So, I was utterly surprised when he spoke.

  “And what did the Fairy have to say?”

  He spat the word Fairy out like if it spent one more moment on his tongue he was going to throw it up. I thought there were other words that tasted worse. I mean productive was one I really thought tasted like crap.

  I was nervous for Kai. I had an overwhelming need to protect Anie, too. If my Father found out she cast a thread to get a hold of him, he would go off like a volcano. So I told the simplest lie I could.

  “He was checking on me.”

  It wasn’t a complete lie. There was a grain of truth to it, because Kai and I did go way back. That was one of the best things my Father had taught me, If you are going to lie, use a grain of truth so your face doesn’t give you away. Because, really, are you lying?

  I kept my features trained and didn’t move a muscle. I was trying to get my Father to trip up. He had no idea what my history had turned into with Kai. Other than our first meeting I don’t think he knew anything else. But I could see surprise in his eyes. He looked down at his hands and back up. It was his tell, one I was very familiar with.

  “Kai checking on an outsider, that’s a first.”

  “Not for me. He’s kept me on his radar for a while.”

  “Really?” My Father cracked his knuckles. I wondered if he was going to try and beat Kai to death.

  “Yeah, but I can’t get a hold of him now. I’m worried.” At that, my Father eased back a little in his chair.

  I wanted my Father to believe that Kai couldn’t be summoned. I could tell by the look on my Father’s face that he hoped Kai was dead, not just missing. I said a silent prayer that Kai had hid himself far enough and deep enough that no one could touch him.

  “What’d you come here for?”

  He wanted me out of his office now. He was going to try and push me out soon. I needed to start asking questions and quick.

  “What am I to you, exactly?”

  “You’re my daughter, of course.”

  Lie. He would call me a Hunter over his daughter. One of his most valued Hunters. And although I was his daughter, he would only give me that answer to make me more complacent. To make me think he cared.

  “Is that it?”

  “Of course not. What do you want me to say? Because you obviously want me to say somethin
g, you wouldn’t be here otherwise.”

  “I want you to tell me that I’m your daughter and really mean it. I want you to say that you love me, even if you don’t. I want to know that I mean something more to you other than this shell of what we’ve become.”

  I was breathing hard and I could feel the tears stinging the back of my eyes like a hive of bees. I took a deep breath so I could quell the tears. It worked.

  I stared at the floor and waited for an answer. I looked up after a few minutes and my Father was staring at me like he had no idea what to do with me. I didn’t know what to do with me, but he was my Father and Chief of the Hunters. He should’ve had some idea as to what to do for me, other than locking me up like a criminal. My Father stood and moved swiftly next to my chair. He took my hair and moved it behind my ear, in an affectionate and false gesture.

  “This is bigger than us, Delaney.”

  As I looked in his face, searching for anything I could recognize, I saw a Dark Shadow pass over my Father’s eyes. I felt my world shift on its axis. If a Shadow was passing over my Father’s eyes, it meant that something possessed him.

  A Shadow was a strong spirit, Demon or Angel that had gotten lost or had existed for too long. They were the only three that could become a Shadow. And judging by the way my Father had treated me over these years, I would guess that the Shadow was either a Demon or a strong spirit. As far as I knew we had only come across one Shadow that was an Angel and that was at the beginning of the Hunters’ organization, so, that was before Christ. What? You thought the Hunters were a new organization? Good and evil have been around for as long as time.

  The deceit part of Kai’s prophecy made sense now. I had been raised in and by deceit. I had not been raised by my Father, I was raised by a Shadow. I had been formed in deceit. The man you know as your Father, Kai had said and now it made sense. He had actually been telling me this. That this man sitting in front of me was not my Father.

  I was terrified for my Father, if he was still inside of himself somewhere. I had no idea how long my Father had been like this. Every experience I had growing up was now tainted by the fact there had been the Shadow. I didn’t know for sure what possessed my Father’s body or how to save him. I couldn’t save him unless I found out what kind of Shadow it was.

  As I panicked I stood up and stepped away from the Shadow. I would call him that since I knew, now, he was not my Father. Stepping away from his touch was something I definitely would have done Shadow or not. But I needed to make sure the Shadow didn’t see my fear. If he suspected I knew, he’d probably just kill me. Tell the other Hunters that I had attacked him in his office and he had to kill me.

  “I know that.” I said carefully.

  “Do you?” He asked me with a twinkle in his eye.

  If he was capable of laughing he would be right now. That was when I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt (pun intended) that my Father/Shadow/whatever was responsible for me being what I was turning into.

  I turned to leave but heard my Father clear his throat. In the past it was a subtle way of telling me that I had forgotten something. I automatically turned to face him, standing with my hands robotically at my sides. I then cursed myself for not leaving. The Shadow had trained me for all of these years and I hoped he hadn’t brainwashed me past the point of no return.

  “Just one more thing, Delaney.” When had he started with the Delaney instead of Angel? I was assuming that was when the Shadow had taken over. I’d have to tackle that later since I was literally trapped in the lion’s den.

  “Yes, Sir?”

  “You will tell me if you see Kai again.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  With that I turned and left. As I strode to the door that was one step closer to away, I veered to Anie, grabbed her arm and kept moving. We were outside less than 2 minutes later. I couldn’t run screaming from the Hunter’s HQ. And I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.

  Once we were outside I held onto Anie’s hand, much the same way she had held mine the night my house had burned down, all the way back to her house. She unlocked the door and I pushed her inside in front of me.

  I immediately started pacing. Anie finished locking the deadbolts, and slid down the door stopping when her butt hit the floor.

  “Stop.” Anie said quietly.

  I stopped moving and saw her eyes were shining with questions. Mine were clearly laced with pain and unshed tears.

  “What the hell is going on Laney? You’re scaring me. More than usual.”

  “There’s too much to say. I can’t process everything right now. It hurts to think.” I clutched my chest with one hand and my head with the other. Neither able to reconcile what had just happened. The physical pain of having been raised by a Shadow was just too much to bear. “My Father is possessed by a Shadow.”

  And just like that, saying it out loud made it more tangible. I crumpled to the floor. There was no more I could do. I had to take a breath. I could feel myself closing up like I had done when Azrael and I had broken up. The physical pain with that had been almost as bad as this.

  I had closed my eyes and fought the desperate pain I felt. I felt hands grip my shoulder and someone crouch down on me. I felt protected and looked up through my eyelashes to see Anie was hugging me. I was lucky to have her.

  “For how long?” She asked quietly.

  “I – I don’t know. Forever? When had he started drilling me, verbally belittling me, locking me up when I did something he didn’t like –” Annie rocked me back and forth. She tried to comfort me. She had done it for me before when I was going through things with my Father, but nothing compared to this.

  “Life is never going to be the same.” I whispered.

  “Welcome to my world.” She said. I laughed sadly, because it was true.

  She had gone through a complete life upheaval when she had been changed. And while neither of our changes were voluntary I, at least with any luck, would be able to save my Father and choose which supe I became. Hopefully. How? I had no idea.

  I made it up to my bedroom with Anie’s arms still circling me, supporting me. She helped me undress, leaving me in my underwear and put me under the covers. She patted my arm and told me to get some rest. I knew there was more likely a chance of ice water in hell, but I didn’t say anything. It had been too long since anyone had taken care of me.

  I closed my eyes and let the world die to me. I needed the quiet, even if I wasn’t going to sleep.

  ~XIII~

  “Some hid scars and some hid scratches, It made me wonder about their past…”

  – Of Monsters & Men, Mountain Sound

  I cracked my eyes open and saw it was still pitch black out. I had lost consciousness a couple times so far throughout the night/morning, but to call it sleep would be wrong. There was nothing restful about it, not even for a moment. The Shadow weighed heavily on me and every time I closed my eyes I would reexamine every memory I could conjure to try and remember some sort of normalcy, but there had been none. Not since I was 4.

  I finally pinpointed when the Shadow had most likely taken over. My Dad hadn’t come to read to me one night shortly after my fifth birthday. I remembered being heartbroken and falling asleep, uneasily, after reading myself the story I knew by heart. It wasn’t as good as when my Dad had read it to me, but it was better than nothing. That next morning I sat at the kitchen table without my Dad, which was odd in and of itself. But I didn’t want to bother him in case he had been out on a mission for the Hunters and been up late.

  He had left me very few times since I had been born. When it had happened there was always someone there to keep me company while he was out. The Hunters that watched me would normally make breakfast and play with me while my Dad caught up on his sleep. There was no one around that I could see that morning. So, I made two pieces of toast, buttered them (with my fingers because I was told to never touch the knives without permission) poured myself a glass of orange juice in one of my plastic cups (bec
ause the glass ones were for grownups) and ate breakfast at the kitchen table by myself.

  My Father stomped into the room that morning looking severe and missing the warmth I knew my Father to have. I remember thinking about how the night before must have been horrible for him to be acting like that, and how glad I would be when he started acting normal again. But it never ended. My Father was severe, cold and downright mean from that day forward.

  I should have known, even then. I was a child, but a Hunter by blood. Something should have told me that my Father wasn’t right. Hell, any one of the Hunters who had known my Father should’ve seen the change. But no one had seen my Father the way I had seen him. Maybe things had been bad for so long that I forgot to remember when things were good. And looking back, that was part of it. I didn’t want to remember. The other part was that I was always told not to look back. Eyes forward or you’ll trip and break your neck. Those words had been said to me so many times over the years. I took them to heart and stopped looking at the good that had been in my life.

  The only time I had, really, looked back in my life was after I left Az. I had played over the life I had with him many times in my head. I wondered if I had been selfish in not replaying any of the time with my Father. I guess when there was little to no love lost, there wasn’t much to remember.

  How could I have been so blind? How was I supposed to stop the Shadow? I needed help. I needed Anie. Kai. But most of all, I needed the other half of my heart – I needed my best friend…I needed Az. I just had to figure out a way to get him to show. He knew what I’d do when he’d show up: yell at him for disappearing on me, try and squeeze him for information then – if I got what I wanted – have amazing make-up sex. At least, that’s what I would have done had I not known what I know now. I wondered what Az knew. I wondered where the look on his face had come from. Did he know more than I did?