by Serena Robar
After all, I wouldn’t meet him during the day. The Protector was my best friend and the first time we met she was injured. If he saw me stake that last vampire, it would be easy to assume I was the one who did all the slaughtering. Plus he had gone to a vampire sorority house to find me after seeing the Psi Phi House bumper sticker on my car.
I thought back to the vampire library, when he didn’t seem at all surprised by all the weird stuff around him and when the alarm went off and the bright sunlight burst over us, he quickly threw his coat over me in an act of protection. Then he tried to get me to the House before dawn and even asked if I made it inside okay. It was a very chivalrous gesture, if he thought the sunlight would burn me to death.
And tonight he’d been willing to let me bite him because he wanted me so much. Sure, he thought I had hypnotized him, but I couldn’t possibly have done that so he just really wanted me to kiss him. He liked me despite the fact that he thought I was a vampire. Obviously he’d struggled with this attraction a great deal, and he didn’t need some mangy cat laughing at him for it.
I kicked out at the feline. “Knock it off.”
The cat dodged my foot and I barely grazed its tail.
“No need to get physical, sweetie. It’s just funny is all. If you knew Hunter like I knew him.”
“I don’t understand how you’re not the Protector,” Hunter protested. “I was so sure. I saw you kill that possessed vampire in the parking garage. You live in a vampire sorority house and you only come out at night. You dress all in black and you’re so pale …”
“Hold on there. I don’t look like a vampire, first of all. I have always been this lovely shade of alabaster and I happen to like the color black. It’s very slimming. Second, I don’t live at Psi Phi House, my friends do. I just hang out there. And finally, yes, I did take out one vampire in the parking garage, but staking one vamp does not a Protector make, get it?”
“But you hypnotized me,” he repeated weakly.
I shook my head at him. “No, I didn’t.”
He seemed to absorb that statement then blurted, “Then who are you?”
I scooted away from him a little. “Who am I? I’m the same person I was thirty seconds ago. The same person you were kissing. Is the fact that I’m a normal human girl going to change things for you? And what’s your beef with the Protector anyway?”
“Piper, I’m sorry. Give me a second to get things clear. I’m thrilled you’re a normal, living person. Really, I am. More than you know.” He grabbed my hand in his, slightly mollifying my anger. “But the Protector is another matter. She’s going to bring upon the end of the world.”
“Okay, I’ve had it with this stupid Prophesy! Enough is enough. Listen, I know the Protector. And she couldn’t bring about the end of existence if she wanted to. She’s not that kind of girl, okay? She’s sugar and spice and everything nice and except for staking the occasional vampire who’s out to get half-bloods, she’s a very peace-loving person.”
“But the Prophesy …”
I jumped to my feet and glared down at Hunter and the cat.
“Screw the Prophesy. The Prophesy is wrong. Did you ever consider that? Just like you were wrong about me, the Prophesy is wrong.”
Hunter stood up to face me. “Piper, I wish I could believe you. I wish I had the luxury of believing everything is going to be okay, but I don’t. I’ve seen too much and know too much to do that. Your friend is going to bring about the end of existence as we know it and I’ve been sent to stop her.”
“What do you mean, you’ve been sent? Who made you the boss? Vampires don’t answer to you. They have their own Council.”
Hunter sat heavily and pulled me down to join him. I resisted for about three seconds. I guess if we were going to have a long chat in the graveyard, it was best to be comfortable. The cat went back to licking himself, which I pointedly ignored.
“Piper, I’m a Demon Slayer. My father was a Demon Slayer, my grandfather was a Demon Slayer and his father before him, et cetera, et cetera. I come from a long line of Demon Slayers.”
I waited expectantly for more and when he didn’t continue I said, “So?”
“So? So it’s my duty to protect the world from demon invasion.”
The cat stopped licking itself and looked up, suddenly interested in what Hunter was saying.
I pointed out the obvious. “But vampires aren’t demons.”
“No, they’re not demons but they’re susceptible to possession. For centuries vampires have been prey to demons.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Piper, this is a demon.” Hunter pointed to the cat.
“Are you saying all cats are really demons?”
“No, I’m saying this cat is a demon.”
I shook my head at Hunter and the cat stuck his tongue out at me. Then he whipped it upward to try and pick his tiny cat nose with it. Blech.
“Animals don’t have souls. Demons can possess animals. They just don’t like to.”
I watched the cat go back to licking himself. “I can see why.”
“The only reason demons possess an animal is to try to get close to an ailing human, so they can slip into the body once the essence, or soul, leaves. The window of opportunity is very small. Once in a human body, the demon can survive until the natural decomposition of the body makes inhabiting it impossible,” Hunter explained.
“Okay, so say Kibbles here jumps into a human body at the right time. He can walk around and fake it for a little bit, but then people start to get suspicious when things get smelly and body parts start falling off?”
“In a nutshell, yes.”
“Then what?”
“Then the demon is forced to leave the body. Much like how air escapes a balloon once the balloon is popped.”
I made a face at the whole balloon-popping analogy.
“And there are different types of demons. Not all want to inhabit human form. Some are content to be cats forever, like Kibbles here.” Hunter referenced the cat, who continued to ignore us. “Most are perfectly happy in their own plane of existence. They don’t want to leave. But once in a while, a demon comes along who isn’t satisfied with the status quo. They want more. They’re ambitious. They get the other demons riled up by talking about dominating other planes of existence, like ours.”
“I take it there is just such a demon making the rounds right now?” I eyed the cat suspiciously.
“Yes, and that isn’t him. This is a Sloth Demon. They are perfectly content with their lot in life. Actually, as the name suggests, they really don’t work too hard to change things. This cat has been in our world for a very long time. He inhabits the body of a new cat whenever his old one, well, retires. How many years have you been hanging around now?”
The cat looked at us with glowing eyes and said, “I’m not talking to you if you’re gonna keep calling me Kibbles. You know that’s not my name and not using it is disrespectful, I tell ya.”
Hunter gave him a pained expression, “Fine. Mr. Whiskers, how long have you been a cat?”
“That’s better. I’ve been a cat for fifty-seven human years. I’ve inhabited eleven cat bodies, all alley, except that mix-up in ’64 when I was Siamese. Life as a house cat, of all things. It was embarrassing, I tell ya.”
“If you’re a Demon Slayer, why don’t you just bash Mr. Whiskers in the head, right now?”
The cat screeched and hissed at me.
“Because this cat isn’t a threat. He has no desire to inhabit a human form. He likes being a cat. He’s harmless and he lets me know the word on the street.”
“So this demon is harmless and you let it go on its merry way, but the Protector is some evil mastermind who is going to end the world and therefore must be destroyed. Even if I tell you she’s perfectly harmless, like this cat?” I said.
“The difference is your Protector can be possessed by a very powerful, vicious demon bent on destroying the world and this cat will never be able to do that
. Because it’s still just a cat. But the Protector isn’t as benign as a cat, is she? Now do you see my problem?”
It was a legitimate problem, I had to give him that. Colby on her own would never destroy the Undead community, but Colby possessed by some ambitious, Tony Robbins-type demon might have a shot. It could use her to create havoc within the vampire world and everyone would start turning against everyone else. But there were still things I needed to understand.
“What makes a vampire susceptible to possession?”
“Hah! Answer that one, smarty-pants.” Mr. Whiskers tossed his ears back.
“Uh, well, I don’t really know that,” Hunter replied.
“What? Why not?”
“Because more than two hundred years ago vampires formed a self-governing body to protect themselves from extinction. They started patrolling themselves. They didn’t need us anymore. Any demon possessions were dealt with internally. They were doing a great job monitoring their own and we had other demons to deal with, so, as each generation of Demon Slayer had less contact with vampires, the need to know how they could be possessed sort of died out.”
“No one thought to write it down?” I couldn’t help the sarcastic quality of my voice. But it sounded pretty irresponsible to let that kind of information disappear.
“Of course we wrote it down. All demon knowledge is categorized and written down. The information is kept safe, hidden.”
“So where is it now?”
“Destroyed. All of it. Along with the Demon Slayers who guarded its secrets.”
I noted the tenseness of his shoulders and how he clenched his jaw. He was a statue, wrapped in his pain.
“It was your family’s duty, wasn’t it? Your grandfather who studied ancient pagan scripts? He was a retired Demon Slayer in charge of the archives, wasn’t he?”
Hunter gave me a brief nod and my heart went out to him.
“When did this happen?”
“Not long ago, six weeks. I was away and when I returned I learned my family had died in a fire. The police blamed faulty wiring in the kitchen. Our home was quite old, but I know it wasn’t the wiring. It was arson. The archives were under the house, protected in stone catacombs. There is no way the fire could have gutted beneath the house unless someone deliberately set it in there as well.”
“Hunter, I’m so sorry.” I put my head on his shoulder and squeezed his arm.
“That framed text in the library, the one that was etched? I believe it was etched from the archives. Who made that etching, Piper? That person is responsible for the fire that killed my family.”
“I don’t know, Hunter. All I know is that display is new. It was just moved in the day we looked at it.” I thought about the room a moment. “What about the other symbol? The one on the wall you got so mad about? What does that mean?”
After a moment’s hesitation, Hunter pulled off his T-shirt. At first I thought it was a trick of the moonlight, the way the symbol on his chest flashed silver and black, but his tattoo had an iridescent quality that seemed to shimmer. It was the same symbol we’d seen on the wall.
I traced it with my finger. “What does it do?”
He shivered under the coolness of the night or the soft touch of my finger, I couldn’t be sure. “It protects me from demon possession. A demon can never enter this body, even as my essence leaves, as long as I wear this symbol.”
“If you lived in the house over the archives, how come you don’t know how a demon possesses a vampire?”
“I’ve been gone a long time. I was fostered out to another Demon Slayer and was supposed to return home to finish my training and take over the ancient archives. But I … I left.”
“I don’t understand. What do you mean you left?”
“I mean I quit. I didn’t want to be a Demon Slayer. But I’m a Legacy. I have no choice and I wanted, well, I wanted a choice.” He looked ashamed of himself.
“I’ll find out about the etchings. I promise. I’ll find out who did this to your family and we’ll stop them,” I vowed.
“The only way to stop them is to tell me who the Protector is, Piper. That is the only way.”
I felt like screaming, crying and running away all at once. I couldn’t tell Hunter that Colby was the Protector. As far as Hunter knew, it could be anyone at Psi Phi House and I had to keep it that way. Colby was my best friend. She would not bring about the end of our existence, she just wouldn’t. Demon or no.
“What I want to know,” the cat interrupted us without preamble, “is how come she can hear me talk?”
We frowned at him. “You mean not everyone can hear you jabber on when you’re not licking yourself? Gee, lucky me,” I said.
“Now don’t be getting mad at me. It’s not my fault your boyfriend here wants to kill one of your little friends. I just wanna know how come you can hear me.”
“I’d like to know that as well.” Hunter looked at me in question.
“How the hell do I know? It’s the first time I’ve ever heard a cat talk, I can tell you that.”
“Can you sense demons, girl?” the cat asked.
“Uh, no. This is the first time I’ve ever heard of demon possession. Duh.”
“Is it?” Hunter asked. “Remember when we first met? You said you staked the last vampire. Do you fight vampires often?”
It was a trick question and I didn’t want to give too much away. “Well, Psi Phi House is a sorority filled with half-blood vampires and there are many full-bloods who don’t agree with the new laws giving them equal rights and emancipation. Since they’re my friends I have been privy to an attack or two.”
I hope that was just enough information to appease his curiosity without having to share any more details.
“So, you’ve seen a vampire die before?”
I thought back to the first time I watched a vampire die, the rogue who’d changed Colby. He’d tripped over me onto a picket fence and basically staked himself. It wasn’t a pretty sight: He sort of melted until there was nothing left.
“Yes, I’ve seen it before.”
“Was the garage different? Did it seem unusual to you?”
I snorted at his definition of unusual parking garage behavior. When Colby and I staked those vampires it was certainly different. They seemed to be decaying before we even touched them. Vampires are Undead, but they don’t decay. They look perfectly fit. The one I staked smelled like sour milk and dissolved into foul-smelling goo. It didn’t melt away into nothingness, like the first one.
“Yes, it was different. It smelled really gross. Like dairy gone bad and when the stake penetrated, there was a hissing sound. Like air leaving a balloon.” I looked up in realization. “Ohmigod, do you think those vampires were possessed by demons? I mean demons other than the cat ones?”
“We’re called Sloth Demons, you silly girl, Sloth. Sheesh.”
I made a face at the cat. Now I knew why I was a dog person.
“How did you know they were coming? Could you smell them?” Hunter seemed very intent on what I had to say.
I tried to remember. “Well, let me think. We first noticed them in the food court, but we almost didn’t see them at all. Then they were in the parking garage and they called out to us. Oh yeah, first they shot a crossbow bolt at us, that was nice,” I added sarcastically. “Oh God, cramps.”
“You have cramps?” Hunter asked, confused.
“No, I had cramps. That night. I noticed them at first in the food court, when I was eating. After that, I had them again, right before the bolt. I doubled over from the pain and the bolt just missed us.”
I looked at Hunter for answers. What did this mean, anyway?
“Well, you’re in luck, Hunter. It seems you’ve found yourself a cute little Huntress.” The cat looked smugly over his shoulder, his tail swaying left and right.
Did he just call me a Huntress? I couldn’t be a Demon Slayer. I just couldn’t.
“I am so not a Huntress or Demon Slayer or whatever,” I tol
d them both. “There’s no way.”
“No one is saying you’re a Demon Slayer.” Hunter glared at the cat and tried to calm me down.
“Oh, but he is saying that, aren’t you?” I directed my freaking out at the cat.
“Pretty much,” he replied.
I jumped up and started pacing back and forth. “Oh no. No way. You’re trying to trick me into revealing who the Protector is. I’m not going to do it. She’s harmless!”
I was officially freaked now. I thought I might even throw in some hyperventilating, just for the heck of it.
“Damn it, Mr. Whiskers, why are you here anyway?” Hunter snapped, having completely lost control of the situation.
“Why, I have news, of course,” the cat purred. “Barnaby is on the move.”
I wasn’t sure why Barnaby being on the move would be such major news to Hunter, but it was. I, however, was dealing with my own little crisis of possibly being a Demon Slayer so that kind of consumed my thoughts as Hunter interrogated the cat.
“Tell me everything,” Hunter demanded.
“Not much to tell. I heard Barnaby made a little visit to your world today, via an unconscious mind. I don’t know whose, but he must be getting ready for the full jump if he’s making mini-visits.”
Hunter grabbed me by the shoulders to get my attention. “Piper, you have to tell me who the Protector is. We are running out of time. Barnaby may have jumped into her body while she was unconscious or asleep. Tell me now.”
I’ve never been one to cave to threats, so it was certainly the wrong approach to use with me. Hunter was desperate, I could see that, but I wasn’t giving up Colby. Yeah, we fought but she was my best friend—and I knew in my heart of hearts she wasn’t going to destroy the world. No matter what the fabulous-looking Hunter believed.
“No.” Stubborn should have been my middle name. It’s more fitting than Renee, that’s for sure.
Hunter dropped his hands abruptly, but I noted they were clenched by his sides. He seemed coiled up, ready to strike out at the next thing he saw. I hoped the cat would say something but it wisely kept quiet.
