Triggered (Blackbird Book 1)

by Aly Westman

  “Do you have to go outside to talk to Ty?” I asked.

  “I’d rather be inside, taking a nap.” He smiled. “Besides he’s probably yelling at them for doing something or not doing something or because he has a stick up the ass. Who knows.”

  I gave a small smile back to him. “Do you guys always have to answer to him?”

  Damion’s smile turned to a smirk and I knew he was being more serious. “No. We don’t have to answer to him at all.”

  “What is it you guys actually do?”

  He laughed and rolled over to his back. “Kill bad guys. We are commissioned by your uncle, he tells us where to go. How the business started actually goes back quite a bit, I can tell you what I know though.” He looked over at me.

  I nodded, interested to hear what they did.

  “Ty’s grandfather, your great grandfather, started a company from nothing, just a few investments. But they were the right investments. Your grandfather was supposed to take over but he had a mental break down, or so your great grandfather thought, going on about a another world about how it was in ruins and leaking into our world. He left the business and trained his two sons to hunt. Ty used to tell me that it was better to be the hunter than it was to be the prey. Ty stayed with your great grandfather until he died. He also went to school and took over the family company. He ended up combining the two, hunting and work. Jack didn’t want to hunt.” That was my father. My heart stopped at the mention of his name. “He left, no one heard from him until you were born, or so Ty told us.”

  “Ty’s company, Holdings Incorporated, deals in a lot of different offices. Law firms, hospitals, manufacturing, but there is one division that isn’t exactly on the books. He has a few office’s around the world, most of the focus is in America but we are expanding more overseas. The workers in the office organise the hunters. They send us where we are needed for jobs. They will make sure we have the right supplies. They help stock and set up the safe houses, like this one we are in.”

  “There are two different jobs we get, the first is hunter for hire. If you have enough money, and are being attacked by something, you can hire a hunter. We come, exterminate whatever problem you have, and that money goes directly into our pockets, small percentage to Ty’s offices. Most of the offices are funded by Ty’s other investments though.”

  “What sort of problems are you talking about? It’s not just demons, is it, there are more things out there, aren’t there?” I hadn’t realised when I shuffled closer to Damion, it wasn’t until he turned back to his side that I became aware of how close we were.

  He backed up slightly before continuing, a small smile on his lips. “No, not just demons. Demons can be a common problem but definitely not the only one. Our top exterminator calls are usually vengeful ghosts, demons, and curses.”

  “Curses?”

  “Yep, you would be surprised how many deep pocketed people have enemies. They hire us for protection, or they can also hire a witch or mage.” My eyebrows raised in surprise and Damion gave a little chuckle. “Still with me?”

  “Yeah… It’s just hard to take it all in. I mean, I didn’t know exactly what demons were, I just assumed that they were demons because they were so… evil. Now, it’s like there is an entire world hidden.”

  “It’s not the world that was hidden, we are hiding from the world.” He pointed out. “Ignoring the signs, passing everything off as coincidences or stating events are just unexplainable or bizarre. And the people that do come forward are labeled as crazy. How many times do you hear parents tell their kids ‘There’s no such thing.’ It makes it easy to turn a blind eye when it has been ingrained in your mind that something outside of what we can’t see can’t possibly exist.”

  I thought about what he was saying. Most of my childhood my father would tell me folklore and stories. Whenever I would get scared he would tell me not to be afraid, instead, if it were real what would I do? How would I attack, how would I defend? In a way I guess he was preparing me. “So, you can be a hunter for hire, what is the other kid of job you guys do? You said there was two.”

  Damion leaned in. “The other type, we don’t get paid for. It’s the small town with a large number of unexplained murders, it’s the neighborhood where children go missing, it’s the forests, bridges, or buildings that multiple people go to in order to kill themselves. They are the jobs that people would rather headline as unexplainable instead of digging deeper into the truth.”

  “Why do it? If you don’t get paid. Wouldn’t a hunter be more inclined to take the hired jobs?”

  “I guess you would think so, but the truth is most hunters take the other. Most of us have stories, lives that were destroyed, hardships that were caused by the supernatural. Most of the hunters have lost someone because of unexplainable events. I think we rank those jobs a bit higher on our priority because we are able to connect with it.” He leaned a bit closer to me, his cherry scented breath so sweet that I wanted to taste it. “If you knew there was a girl, locked in a well hole, being tortured by demons. If you had all the tools to save her but she couldn’t repay you, would you still take the job?”

  “Yes.” I didn’t even hesitate. If I knew this was happening to someone else I would track them down and put a bullet in the demon's head without thinking, just like I did with Six.

  Damion nodded. “That is what a hunter does. That is what we do.”

  I looked up at a smirking Damion, his eyes shining as he stared at me. It was kind of a cute look for him. He had a lot of pride in his job, that was without a doubt. I liked that he cared for those who couldn't pay him back. I liked that when he talked about it it seemed like the normal among the hunters, to look after those weaker. I liked him… them.

  The cherry scent filled my nose again and I smiled, reaching up I tugged on his sucker until he released it from his mouth. A smile spread across his face as I put the sucker between my lips. The sweet flavor of candied cherry filled my senses. It made me think of happy times, good times. It made me think of innocence and a carefree life. It was good. I closed my eyes as my body relaxed into the bed.

  I woke a while later to a softly snoring Damion. He had shuffled closer to me, his face inches from mine and his breath blowing across my cheeks. I didn’t have the heart to smack him and let him know it was annoying as hell, so I gently slid off the bed and made my way to the kitchen.

  Quinn was there, emptying bags of groceries into the cupboards and fridge. “Hey,” he said when he spotted me, an easy smile on his face. I got comfortable in one of the chairs at the breakfast bar, laying my chin down on my arms and watching him. “Are you hungry?”

  “I am but a little afraid to try anything,” I admitted.

  Quinn held up a box. “I got this stuff, supposed to be a chocolate drink meal replacer thingy.” He frowned as he read the box. It was quite amusing watching a sexy, well-built guy concentrating on the nutritional facts on a box.

  “Sure.” I shrugged, what harm could it do. “So where are the others?”

  Quinn spoke as he went about getting a glass and mixing my drink. “Well, Corey being who he is, is scouting out the local bar and Seth being who he is, is babysitting him.”

  Interesting. Quinn handed me the chocolatey drink and I sipped on it slowly. Thinking about a few things Damion had said earlier. The drink wasn’t too bad however it did have a chalk like texture to it. “Quinn...Damion mentioned there were other… beings. Not just demons.”

  Quinn paused as he was gathering the empty bags, he set them down and thought for a moment before he spoke. “Yeah, there are. To be honest everytime we think we have seen it all, a new monster appears. You shouldn’t worry about it though, they aren’t all bad, and the ones that are get eradicated fairly quickly.”

  He didn’t understand me correctly. I wasn’t afraid of them, I wanted to know. It wasn’t time for me to die, but I would be damned if I allowed myself to be prisoner by anyone else. And I was fairly certain this trigger painted a l
ovely target on my back. “Damion talked about another world, about it leaking over,” I said. Quinn seemed hesitant as if he were afraid of telling me. He probably didn’t want to put me in shock or anything, I was still recovering. “I don’t want to be left in the dark, I just want to know.”

  “I can’t tell you about all of them, there would never been enough time, but I can tell you the stories I was told, when I was a child. About the other world and that.” When I nodded, encouraging him to go on, he moved to stand across the table from me. He took a deep breath, thinking about what he was going to say, before letting it out. “Okay, let me start from the beginning. These are the tales I grew up with, so I don’t really know how accurate they are. A long time ago, humans and creatures lived together, there was a war and between mortals and those with supernatural qualities. Humans didn’t feel safe, and for good reason. We were prey, we were being hunted. Soon, this mage, desperate to end the war, decided to open another dimension. Most of the creatures left with him, but some stayed here. The ones who stayed were typically able to blend in with the humans. Ty works with the mage now, no one has really met him before, he is insanely old, but he takes care of creatures that come back and forth from dimensions. Ty’s company, and all the hunters under him, take care of the ones that chose to stay here.”

  “You mean, he ‘takes care of,’ as in he hunts them all down?”

  Quinn shook his head, “Remember I told you they aren’t all bad? Werewolves, vampires, shifters and the likes are registered. Vampires can only turn so many in a given year and others can’t make their presence known or cause problems for humans in any way. Each, species I guess you can call them, has their own set of rules. Most hunters have a specialty. We don’t really worry about the rules though.”

  “Why not?” I had finished my drink now, leaning against the table listening intently to Quinn.

  He crossed his arms, his eyes assessing me. “Are you sure you want to know? It’s a lot of information to take in all at once.”

  “I’m fine.” I looked down at my empty cup. “This might sound odd but I think… I think my dad sort of prepared me for this. The level of training he had me do, ever since I was a small child. I thought it was normal until grade school, apparently it’s not normal for a ten year old to be able to take down a very annoying boy with jiu jitsu.”

  Quin gave a little chuckle at that. “No, I suppose it’s not. Seth and I were talking about that, you held the gun like you’ve had some sort of instruction before.”

  I shook my head gently, still careful to not cause anymore headaches as i was still recovering. “You could say that. My father was ex-military, he made sure I was well versed. I never knew why it was so important to him but suddenly it’s becoming a little more clearer.” I pushed the empty glass away. “So don’t worry about overloading me. Just tell me how it is. I also wonder had I known about the demons sooner… maybe I wouldn’t have been taken. I don’t want to take that risk again. Tell me anything you can.”

  Quinn nodded. “Us, hunters, work for Ty. But the mage, he has his own group, we call them assassins. I guess they didn’t want humans governing and killing off creatures so the assassins take care of all that. They know all the rules. The only time they will call us in is when the creatures are affecting human life. They don’t really get a choice, the minute humans are in danger we step in. The only thing Ty deals with that the mage or assassins don't are demons and angels.”

  That got my attention. “There are angels?”

  Quinn nodded. “Yes, but I’ve never had issues with them. Never even come across one.” He leaned on the counter. “We all sort of have our specialties. Corey deals more with demons. Damion is more versed with spirits or entities. And I do more with mythology, creatures of different kinds. I am probably more likely the one to get a call should we have issues with angels, because of my specialty, but I haven’t. From my research they are really powerful anyways, chances of us actually taking down a fallen one is pretty slim.”

  Quinn frowned, his grey eyes scanning my face. “Are you okay? You look kinda pale.”

  My stomach churned, I could feel sweat break out on my back as my mouth began watering. I was trying desperately to hold it together so I could listen to him but I could feel my body giving up. The chocolatey drink was not sitting well in my stomach at all. Shit. I slipped off the stool and made a run to the bathroom, only I wasn’t as steady as I thought. My feet were heavy as if I were wearing cement shoes. I tripped over myself and remember going down and hearing a loud bang before my world went black.

  I was sandwiched between Damion and Quinn when I opened my eyes. The room was dark and my head was pounding but aside from that I felt my stomach heaving again. I sat up between the two and found an easy route of escape by slipping down the end of the bed, this time going easy as I made my way to the bathroom.

  I wanted to scream at my body, I wanted to command it to stop. Tears poured down my face from the mere force in which my muscles thought it was necessary to turn my stomach inside out. I wanted to yell that there was nothing in there so it could stop with the torture. I wish I had eaten, it was so much easier to throw something up than to have this gut wrenching pain.

  When I thought all was finished I looked at the few foaming white blobs that my stomach managed to push out. Was that really worth it? I flushed the toilet and scrubbed my teeth and decided I probably needed some water, I didn’t want Quinn stabbing me with an IV again.

  I was quiet as I made my way to the kitchen. Tiptoeing. Corey and Seth were sound asleep sprawled on the couch. Corey on one length of the sectional and Seth on the other, their feet pointed to the corner.

  I had made it to the kitchen when I heard a shuffle behind me and winced. My eyes burned behind my lids as the image of my first escape came to mind. It was the first time the demons had left me unchained. After pacing out various spots about the livingroom I decided to make a run for it. I tried. I tried so hard to be light on my feet. My father trained me since I was a toddler how to walk across a signing floor, a nightingale floor. He said if I could walk across the nightingale floor without making the boards sing that I would be silent on any floor. I had failed then, I was never able to do it. Six had awoken just as I made it to the door.

  “Ava?” A soft voice came behind me but I jumped as if it had been him, as if it were Six standing there with that damn knife and tight smile. “Easy.” Corey’s eyes met mine, his hand going out to steady me. I flinched and he backed off. “You okay?”

  My hand went to my throat, my breathing rapid, my heart fluttering. “Yeah, sorry. I thought you were sleeping.” I closed my eyes briefly to compose myself and when I opened them he was studying me. His lips neutral as he took in my stance. I took a deep breath.

  “Can I get you something?”

  “I just came for water,” I said, looking at the fridge.

  “Sit, let me get it.” Some sort of understanding flashed behind his green eyes before he turned towards the cupboards.

  I did as he said. Really I just wanted the water and then to crawl back up into the bed and close my eyes, but I needed to calm myself a bit more. I still felt jumpy, as if I could sense the presence of Six lurking somewhere. I distracted myself by watching Corey.

  Corey was wearing a pair of plaid pajamas and a black plain t-shirt. His hair was a short mess from laying down however his eyes were alert, perhaps he hadn’t been as soundly sleeping as I thought.

  He set a small glass of water in front of me and stood across the breakfast table. I picked up the glass and took a few slow sips to avoid his eye contact. “Couldn’t sleep?” He asked.

  I shrugged. “A bit.” I risked a peek at him, his expression studying, as if he were waiting for something to unlock.

  “Hungry?”

  I sighed. “I think I’m done with food.”

  At this his lips tilted up a bit at the side. “Let me make you something...it...it might help.”

  I was about to say no, to
tell him I had just been puking my guts out, however he probably heard me if he wasn’t really asleep. I just let him go about his business.

  “I’m not a great cook,” he said as he searched through the cupboards and took out a loaf of bread, honey, and peanut butter. “Nothing even close to Damion.” He kept his eyes on what he was doing, concentrating. “Damion has been cooking for us since he was able to walk up to a stove. Just you wait until you try one of his own dishes, I bet it will have your stomach humming with delight instead of ejecting all of its contents.”

  He began cutting the peanut butter and honey sandwich into four triangles and I couldn’t help but smile. He paused when he saw what he had done, as if it was an accident, and something odd flashed before his eyes...a sense of nostalgia. He kept his eyes down as he put the sandwich on a plate and set it in front of me, turning his back to me and leaning against the counter.

  I stared at the sandwich for a moment, and then at his back. “I...hope you like it. Like I said it isn’t much,” he said.

  Something was up, but I knew not to pry into others business. So I did what I could do to make him feel better, I picked up the sandwich triangle and took a bite. Now I never really liked peanut butter before, my dad wasn’t a fan so I guess I acquired his taste. But when the peanut butter and sweet honey hit my tongue and melted, leaving way for the soft bread to be chewed...damn it felt good. And what's more, when I swallowed it down it sat differently in my stomach. Instead of feeling like a cement ball about to be rejected, the sandwich melted into my stomach walls, soothing the tension.

  “Ava...I want you to know something. I specialise in demons...each of us kind of has our own thing and mine is demons. It’s not so much because I am interested in them...I was taken by them once...when I was younger. It was only three days...Three days of hell though.”

  I was halfway through the sandwich when I paused, picturing a little Corey in a place like where I was. A shudder rippled through my body.