Broken Angel (Book 1 in the Chronicles of a Supernatural Huntsman series)

by Shannon Lee Martin

  I ran through the halls with Holly at my heels. There had been no time to explain where we were going. I had to get there as fast as I could before David Yu released the demons on our world. If that happened, it would be a disaster of epic proportions. No human would survive the invasion.

  Down the stairs, I ran at top speed. I didn’t stop until I stood in front of the entrance to the Records Room. Instead of peeking through the window as I had before, I threw the door open and burst in with nothing but my pistol to defend myself. The room was no longer lit by the dim haze of the shelving lamps. Everything basked in the eerie red glow of the emergency lights.

  I walked slowly up to the front desk, my eyes focused in horror on the ghostly department head. Barnaby Phillips hung in the air, immobile, his head slumped forward and his arms spread out like a cross. In all my readings about ghosts, I had never heard of anything like what I saw. It sent a shiver down my spine as if someone placed a block of ice directly onto it. Holly covered her mouth with her hands once she reached my side.

  “David did this?” she asked softly.

  Down in the basement there were no speakers to carry the sounds of the alarms. The contrasting silence made me feel as if I had gone temporarily deaf. This only added to the foreboding aura emanating from the mysterious sight in front of me.

  A thud echoed through the room. It bounced off the shelving, distorting its starting point. It sounded like a heavy book hitting the concrete flooring.

  “You go that way,” I whispered to Holly, pointing at the far right end of the room. “I’ll go this way. We’ll meet in the middle. If you run into anyone, holler for me right away. Got it?”

  She nodded her head fiercely, sending her long red curls bouncing around her scarred face. There wasn’t a hint of fear in her large green eyes. With her jaw clenched and her brow furrowed, she was ready to do whatever it took to prevent a demon overthrow.

  I ran swiftly down the left end of the concrete basement. The air was heavy with cool moisture from the pipes that ran far overhead. The occasional knocking of rushing water sent my nerves firing. My head whipped around each time. Besides that, it was quieter than a tomb. There were no feet shuffling, no whispers behind the shelving, no growling from the oncoming demons. It was dead silent.

  The image of Death flashed in my mind as I rounded the first shelf. I prayed, something I never did, that David or I would be the one to depart the world that night—so long as it wasn’t Holly.

  I aimed my pistol down the first aisle, but it was empty. Several rows went like that, with nothing to show for it except the cramps in my index finger from stiffly holding it over the trigger guard. The closer I got to the middle aisle, the more I doubted my gut. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe the Records Room wasn’t where David would release the demons.

  I rounded the last corner, ready to shoot. Holly was at the other end with her pistol raised toward me. In the center, hunched over the floor, was a figure in a black hooded cloak. In front of him sat the ornate black goblet known as the Goblet of Demons. My eyes widened. My heart raced. I tried to take in a breath, but it got caught in my chest and I gave a soft cough.

  The figure’s head whipped around to look me straight in the eyes. He raised from the ground slowly, his long cloak covering him like an impenetrable black cloud. White, ungloved hands raised up to the hood and pushed it back. My mouth fell open.

  “Mr. Rutherford? Sir?” Holly’s voice called meekly down the aisle.

  My eyes narrowed as I set my sights for the middle of his forehead. With his hands still raised, a slow spreading smile took over his face. He was no longer frazzled and anxious, overwhelmed by his work. There was a new air about him, one that brought me little comfort.

  “Miss Paige,” he said in an unusual voice that slithered off the tip of his tongue. “You just couldn’t leave this alone, could you?”

  I said nothing. My eyes bore into his as I waited for him to explain why he would want to end all of mankind, including himself. A cold chill settled in as water rushed through the pipes, knocking at every turn. The dim red lights shone down in three circles—one on me, one on Holly, and one on Casimir Rutherford, the traitor.

  “You would have died no matter what, but at least this way I get to see your nosey, little self possessed by a demon and brought down right before my very eyes. I have to say, it will be quite satisfying to witness.” He curled his lips maniacally as he shrieked with laughter. “I have to ask though…how did you know where I would be?”

  I swallowed the lump in my throat, but never removed the pistol from the clear shot I had. “I remembered that you told me the Records Room was a great place to go when you didn’t want to be found.

  He clapped his hands together as he continued to chuckle. “Well done, Paige, well done. It only took you five and a half months to figure it out. Better late than never, I guess. Or in your case, it would have been better if you never figured it out at all. I’m going to make sure your death is painful…just like your son’s was.”

  I fired off a shot, but he ducked out of the way just in time. My face burned with red-hot fury. One after another, I fired at him, not willing to stop until he was dead.

  Holly dove away from my flying bullets. Casimir jumped up onto the nearest wrought iron shelf and climbed it like a human spider, disappearing into the shadows of the ceiling in a matter of seconds.

  I craned my neck to search the darkness above the red lights, but I couldn’t see a thing. What was he? How was he able to move like that? I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer. The sight of him scuttling up the shelving like a crab made the hairs on my arms stand on end.

  Holly rushed to my side from behind. “Where the hell did he go?” she asked, out of breath.

  “I don’t know, but we better figure it out before he drops on us.”

  I walked slowly with my gun pointed above my head. Holly did the same. This time we stuck close to each other. We had to if we wanted to both come out of that Records Room alive. How long would it be before the rest of the Chamber came down there searching for the traitor? Or were we on our own the rest of the way?

  My mind raced as I searched. How did Casimir know about my son? How could he possibly know what my son felt? Or was the Vice-Head tormenting me before he unleashed a terrible demon to take over my body, killing me from the inside out? I had to know.

  “Look out!” Holly screamed.

  Casimir leapt from the highest shelf. As he floated through the air with his cloak trailing behind him, Holly shoved me out of the way. He landed on top of her with a sickening snap. Holly held her leg close to her chest as blood ran out from the bottom of her pants. A piece of jagged white bone had ripped through the material. She didn’t scream, but she writhed silently on the cold, hard ground.

  Before he had time to right himself, I jumped onto Casimir’s wiry body and pinned him down. My arm pressed firmly across his throat. With the barrel of my pistol against his forehead, I growled through my clenched teeth, “Tell me what you know about my son!”

  His laughed echoed through the aisles, his eyes squeezed tightly shut. The rage inside me bubbled until I couldn’t contain it any longer. I struck my pistol across his jaw. Blood stained his white teeth as he continued to laugh.

  “Tell me about my son!” The words shot forth from me with a ferocity I didn’t know I had, like the roar of a lioness.

  His shoulders twitched, but the bloodied smile never left his face. “I. Know. Everything,” he said, impregnating each word with its own ominous meaning.

  “Did you send the demon to my house to kill him?” Tears threatened to spill over the brims of my eyes. I swallowed hard, trying to force them to retreat.

  “Oh, this is bigger than you and I, Miss Paige. Much bigger.”

  No more games. I wanted answers and I wanted them straight. Another sharp blow to the face might loosen his jaw. The force wrenched his mouth sideways. He spat blood onto the gray floor and coughed into his shoulder before fa
cing me again.

  “You’re strong, I’ll give you that. But not strong enough to stop what’s about to happen to your world. If I don’t do it, another one like me will. You can’t stop it.”

  “Another one like you? What does that mean?” My face scrunched together as I pressed harder down onto his throat.

  He squirmed and hacked into the air, droplets of blood spurting out with each burst. I had to get him to talk. If he knew anything about my son’s death that could point me in the right direction, I had to get him to tell me what it was.

  I moved my gun to his kneecap and pulled the trigger. Casimir howled at the dark ceiling above, his body squirming underneath mine. There was no way I would let him get away this time. I was so close—close to stopping the demons from being released and close to figuring out who my son’s killer was. I could feel it.

  “Who killed my son!?”

  Casimir leaned his head back down to the cool ground as he heaved great breaths through his thin lips. “You did. The moment you had him he was marked for death.”

  None of it made any sense. Why would anyone mark my son? We were just an ordinary family.

  “Tell me what you are and why you wanted to release the demons.”

  He stared through me unblinkingly. “I am a Viscor— ancient, near-immortal being—and we will end humanity to make this world our own.”

  My brow sat heavy over my eyes. “Why do you need our world?”

  His gaze never strayed. “Because ours, along with most of our race, was destroyed. We need to rebuild and repopulate.”

  I took in a deep breath through my lips. “Why did you need the location maps for all the portals?”

  “That,” he said weakly, “is all part of the plan to unite the Darkness to snuff out the Light.”

  I stared off as his words sank in. The cloaked figure of Death appeared next to the shelf, just behind Holly who was still clutching her broken leg. I had little time if I wanted answers. I placed the gun to his other knee.

  “Tell me who killed my son or I’ll shoot you again,” I threatened with a growl.

  He threw his head from side to side in protest. “Wait, wait, wait, no! Please don’t. I’ll tell you.” He sighed through his nose and locked his dark eyes onto mine.

  I felt my entire body tense up. My arm moved away from his throat without me telling it to. Somehow my mind wasn’t being allowed to control my body as usual. Casimir slipped out from under me, the gunshot wound in his knee already healed. Dried blood circled the bullet hole in his slacks, but there was not so much as a scratch on the flesh underneath. It was impossible.

  “You’ll believe anything you’re told if it has to do with your son, won’t you, Miss Paige? It’s your one weakness and it’s the one that will get you killed.”

  He turned and took off down the aisle. The minute his eyes broke contact with mine, my body was free from its paralysis. I fell forward onto my knees. Every muscle ached deeply.

  As he retreated, growing smaller the further he ran, I felt a perilous sinking in my stomach. He knew nothing more about Danny’s death than I did. He was right. It was my weakness and it caused me to let him get away again.

  Just as he was about to round the corner and disappear, Holly threw herself forward and grabbed him by the ankles. He stumbled and hit his jaw on the cold concrete with a smack. I quickly got to my feet and ran to him.

  “Good job!” I exclaimed as I ran past Holly.

  This time I would not let him distract me with lies. I would not let my feelings get in the way and destroy the world. This was bigger than me. I pointed the gun at his head.

  Blood gushed from his mouth and ran down his face. When he smiled it oozed out from between his teeth. “No gun can kill me, Miss Paige. You’ve lost.”

  I fired three shots consecutively into the center of his forehead. It whipped him flat on his back where he lay completely still. Just as a wave of relief washed over me, his fingers twitched, and then his arm raised. He sat up straight and wiped the blood from his unwounded forehead.

  “Nice try,” he said, wiping his hands on his cloak. “Now it’s my turn.”

  With a swift movement, he hooked me in my right temple with his fist and knocked me to the ground.

  When I came to, I was lying on the floor. Holly was nowhere to be found, but there was a smeared trail of blood leading out of the aisle and around the corner. I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them again as a sharp pain ran through my head. Casimir hunched over the goblet once more with a large, leather-bound book opened in front of him.

  His lips moved quickly, but I couldn’t make out the words he said. There was only a slight hissing as he read line after line. The goblet shook violently on its base. I pushed myself up off the ground and limped over to where he sat.

  He stopped reading, but didn’t turn his head to look at me. “It’s no use, Miss Paige. I already told you. You can’t kill me.”

  “Maybe not,” I said, reaching into my jacket pocket. “But I can do this.”

  I pulled out the broken silver necklace still attached to the winged pendent and threw it into the goblet. A white light burst upward, and then everything went black.

  The Trip Home