Hands.
His hand grew back.
Are you kidding me? It’s not until now I realize he didn’t cry out or wince or anything when I cut off his hand.
“Don’t even think about it, witch,” Zorn says calmly. “You will blast her as well, and her frail, fragile human form will break. She’ll die.”
I bring up my gun, but Zorn smacks it out of my hand, and it flies away. Undeterred, I slam the hilt of the angel blade against his temple. He winces from the impact, and a thin ribbon of blood trickles down the side of his face. Good. So he can feel pain and bleed.
I go to hit him again, but this time, it's a ploy. I yank on the chain and pull out the necklace. Sure enough, the talisman is attached. It's a pendant, a brown color, like clay, with a strange design. Maybe an eye? But there are so many extra lines. It's ugly, and I don't even like to look at it, but when I turn away, it feels as if the talisman is watching me.
Talk about creepy.
He blocks my half-hearted attack with the hilt and brings his claws down to my throat.
Darius rushes over, drops down, and slams his shoulder into the gremlin. Zorn puts out his leg to prevent him from being tackled off me, but he’s distracted enough that I slice his chest, bring the blade up, hoping to snag the chain.
I don’t. He backhands me, and Darius grabs the gremlin by the wings and throws him.
That was beautiful. Wow.
Freed from Zorn, I scramble to my feet and race over to collect my gun. The gremlin is flying back toward us. I shoot one of his wings, his shoulder, and miss the next shot. He hardly flinches. Damn. I forgot to switch back to silver bullets.
I do so now as Darius blasts the gremlin with his magic. Zorn waves through the air, making the attacks miss, but I fire enough shots that I make holes in his wings. Down he goes, and I rush over and shoot him again right in the spine.
He lets out a slight whine as I roll him over and stand on his shoulders to pin him in place as I break the chain.
There. Done. The talisman is in my hand. We can leave. We don’t have to kill the gremlin.
But what will Zorn do tonight? Tomorrow? Next week?
He’ll just cause more chaos and pain.
The gremlin stares up at me, his features twisted into a terribly unpleasant snarl. He’s injured, yes, but he’ll recover.
He won’t recover from this.
I take out the angel blade, grip the hilt with both hands, and squat down to shove the blade through his ribs to his heart. The gremlin’s eyes grow wide before turning lifeless a few breaths later.
I wipe the blood from the blade onto the gremlin and stood. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Darius eyes me but wisely says nothing about my overreaching and killing the demonic gremlin. “I guess this is goodbye.”
“Are you…” I should just leave it at goodbye, but I’m curious for whatever reason. “Do you have any idea what you’ll do?”
“I’ll figure something out even if I have to play it by ear for a while. Don’t worry about me.”
“Don’t you worry that I’ll worry.”
Darius grins. “Feel free to call me again if you need an arcane witch.”
“Feel free to lose my number.”
His laugh is lighthearted. “It’s been fun. Try to stay out of trouble, Rebel.”
“That’s a promise I can’t keep.”
“That’s why I said try.”
He turns and heads back to his bike. It actually has been fun, but I’m not going to tell him that. Why did he get on my nerves so much in the beginning? I’m not even sure, but it’s fun to give him a hard time.
What will he do? Go crawling back to HEX U? Take up his own crusade and kill those paranormal creatures he deems evil? I can’t imagine HEX U would appreciate that. Maybe he’ll just wait around for me to call him. Yeah, I bet that’s just what he’ll do.
Zorn’s dead, and Darius is gone, so now, it’s time for me to head on home and help Amad break his curse.
I enter my house, and I'm so glad Amad is still on my couch. He's sitting up, nodding off, looking a lot less for wear.
“Amad,” I say quietly, but he doesn’t open his eyes or lift his head. “Amad.”
Gently, I shake his arm. He blinks a few times.
“Rebel.”
“I have the talisman right here.” I fumble to yank it out of my pouch. “Hurry up and destroy it!”
Amad lifts up his hand, but it falls back onto his lap. He’s too weak to do this.
“Will it still count if I help you break it?” I ask desperately.
The genie shakes his head. I shove the talisman into his hand, and he hits it against his knee once, twice, three times. It takes two more times before it shatters.
I stare at Amad. Unfortunately, nothing seems to have changed. He looks as weak and helpless as before.
“Amad?” I can’t help the nervous tone in my voice. “Amad, you aren’t going to die on me, are you?”
His eyes close.
“Amad!”
One peeks open.
“Did it work?” I hold my clasped hands to my chest.
“I… I was wrong about what the curse entailed. He is… was… tapping into my magic. It was a link between us. He was draining me.”
“He’s dead now, and the talisman is broken. You should recover, right?”
“I… I think so. I just… I think I need some time to recover. I… I do not have the strength now to make your wish. If I do…”
“I don’t need the wish.” I shock myself by not adding right now.
“You deserve it. You earned it, but… I can’t do it right now. I… I would…”
“Don’t say it.”
He almost smiles and makes a sound that might be a laugh but is far too weak to actually sound like one. “A week. I will return in a week.”
“No! I have a healing draught.” I fumble for my pouch.
“Rebel, save it.”
“Why? Why won’t you drink it?”
“I am beyond a healing draught. Either I will recover, or I will not.”
I swallow hard and nod.
Amad shakily climbs to his feet. His steps are agonizingly slow. I move to help him, but his glare has me retreating. He heads out of the house and wanders off.
A part of me wants to follow him, but Amad is a proud genie. He clearly doesn’t want a babysitter.
I just hope he’s going to be all right. The genie is more than a way for me to be able to finish my quest. He’s a good guy. A bit of a dreamer, hoping to find and encourage people to brighten the world, but what’s wrong with having a dream? And there are far worse dreams than wanting to make the world a better place.
My brother. Mason. The vampire hunter. He wanted to make the world a better place too.
My hand rests on my chest. I miss Mason so very much. So much has gone on later, so many near brushes with death… I want to avenge my brother’s murder before I join him in death.
More than anything, I wish I could see him one last time and not just the rocks that mark his final resting place.
Chapter 30
The rocks in my pockets don’t slow my pace. They scrape against each other as I march along the grassland to a particular spot. The pile of rocks is almost tall enough now to be considered a mini mountain, and I place the stones on top.
I open my mouth to talk to them as I sometimes do, but I can't. I just can't. I want them to know I'll soon avenge them, but the words won't come. Instead, a sob comes out, and I kick the stones over. My toe throbs, and I swallow hard, pushing back my grief and anger, refusing to give in to my emotions. I won't cry. I won't.
I push the stones around with my boot, and finally, I locate the very first stone. In the days after their deaths, I used a dagger to carve “Mason” and “Gracie” onto the bottommost stone. Maybe it should be on top.
Footsteps sound, and I glance over. If Darius is here…
But it’s not him. It’s a woman I’ve never seen before.
She’s tall with blond hair, and she walks with purpose right for me. Something in her gait makes me think she’s either a police officer or military.
Slowly, I stand, still holding the carved stone. "Are you lost?"
“No.” She stares down at the scattered stones and smiles sadly.
I furrow my brow. “Why are you here?”
“I knew Mason and Gracie,” she murmurs.
“You did? Who are you?”
“My name is Clarissa Garcia. Did they ever mention me to you?”
I shake my head.
“You’re Tiffany, right?”
I say nothing.
“You don’t trust me.” She laughs. “I get that a lot in my profession.”
I do too in mine, but I don’t say that out loud. “What do you do?”
"I'm a homicide detective. I specialize in supernatural threats."
My eyes grow wide.
“Mason planned on telling you when you were sixteen. I told him not to wait, but… He wanted you to be innocent longer.”
“Do you know they were murdered?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know what killed them?”
“No.”
I do I want to say, but I don’t.
"I learned vamps were real, and werewolves and sirens… A vamp hunter by the name of Blake Damon helped me out several times. He helped save Mason and Gracie from them, but he was bitten in the process. To prevent him from turning, they killed him."
“I had no idea,” I murmur.
“I knew. I just knew when Blake died. Actually, I knew something happened, not that he specifically died, so I called his cell…” Clarissa blinks back tears. “He was a really good friend. They brought his body to Bethlehem for us to bury him. He had lived a wild and adventurous life, killing so many more threats than just vampires, but in the end… I wish he could have retired. I wish he could have found peace, but I think… I so badly wanted him to take a break. That’s how he met Mason and Gracie, actually. He was trying to reconnect with humanity.” She gives a slight laugh and wipes a tear away.
“What are you?” I ask. “People don’t usually just know things.”
“I’m half-demon, half-angel.”
“What?”
“An unlikely pairing, I know.” Clarissa smiles. “Mason and Gracie became Blake’s legacy. He wanted to kill all of the vamps in the world.”
“That’s impossible.”
“You know it. I know it. He knew it. Your brother and his wife knew it. That didn’t stop any of them.”
She smiles at me, and there’s something familiar about the tilting of her head. I’ve seen her before.
“You went to their wedding,” I say. It’s almost an accusation.
Clarissa laughs. “Yes, but I didn’t want to make a scene, so I asked them not to introduce me to anyone.”
“You weren’t alone.” I shake my head. “A guy, tall… He said something, and you laughed. That’s all I remember about you two.”
“I’m surprised you even remember me at all,” she says.
“The next day wasn’t the most fun for me.”
She nods. “I know what happened, and I’m sorry for your loss.”
“The guy?” I would rather not talk about my parents right now.
“My husband. Diego. He’s a cop too.”
“Wow. If you two ever have any kids, they’re either going to be saints or…” I grin recklessly. I want to say rebels but instead say, “Terrors.”
“Well, we’ve been trying. I’m thirty-five now, so I’m advanced maternal age already. Maybe half-demons, half-angels can’t have kids.”
“I’m sorry.”
“There’s always adoption.” She grins at me. “I wanted to reach out to you after…” Her gaze falls to the rocks. “I wrestled with myself whether or not to come forward. I hated myself for not having your brother introduce me after all.”
My eyes widen. “Wait. Blake’s death. That’s what gave them the kick in the pants to get married.”
Clarissa laughed. “Yes. It actually was a ‘kick in the pants’ moment for me too. I didn’t get married right away, but I did propose to Diego.”
“You asked him to marry you?”
“Yes, and it infuriated him. It only took him months and months of asking before I would agree to date him, and then I asked him the big one? Yeah, he so wasn’t pleased, but then he bought me this.”
She holds out her left hand for me to see a large sapphire rock.
“Why a sapphire?”
“I’m no diamond.” She laughs and shakes her head. “A ruby would have been more demonic in my opinion. I needed something else, something more in the middle. Blue fits.”
“Like your eyes.”
“That very well could be why he got me a blue stone and not all of that other stuff. Who knows? We never talked about it.” She has a faraway look in her eyes.
There’s a slight pause, a silence but not an uncomfortable one.
“Did you know I would be here today?” I ask.
“Yes,” she says softly. “I’ve been watching you from afar. I hope that’s okay. I don’t know if now’s the right time to come forward or not, but I thought it might be.”
I nod. “It was. Thank you. I didn’t know anything at all about Blake or you. I figured Mason was going to tell me about vampires considering he gave me a set of iron daggers for my sixteenth birthday.”
“A very practical present for the young woman who grew up to become a bounty hunter.”
I grin. “You know about me!”
She throws up her hands and sighs. “Didn’t I just say I kept tabs on you? I wanted to make sure you were all right. By default, you’re Blake’s legacy now.”
“And Mason’s and Gracie’s.”
“Of course.”
My heart wells with happiness. I haven’t felt like this in a long, long time. “They wanted to make me a ward of the state, but I wasn’t about to have any of that. I petitioned to be emancipated, and once I found a job, I was granted it. Of course, I didn’t keep that job for very long because I became a bounty hunter almost right away. I just knew that was what I was meant to do. I’ve never gotten my GED, never went to college, but I don’t care. I don’t need it. This is my calling. This is… Clarissa, do you believe in destiny?”
“I do.”
“I don’t know why I wasn’t killed in the car crash that killed my parents or why the… why I wasn’t killed with Mason and Gracie, but I was meant to do this. I was meant to become a bounty hunter.”
“You definitely have a very particular set of skills,” she says with a grin.
“Gracie used to talk about wanting to open a business, one that would help homeless people. She wanted to not treat the symptoms but the disease. She wanted to help train them so they could have jobs. I never understood why she didn’t pursue that dream, but I guess she was too busy traveling here and there to kill vampires.” I rub my chin. “Maybe… Maybe I can take that on too. I have money saved up.”
“That would be a lovely way to honor her.”
“Yeah, with Mason being a physicist, there’s nothing I can do there.”
Clarissa grins. “I wouldn’t be able to either.” She hesitates. “Is everything all right?” she asks.
“Everything is just fine.”
She looks down at the rocks I obviously kicked over.
“I can sense things about people,” she says slowly. “You’re at a crossroads. I don’t know what choice you have ahead of you, but whatever you decide is going to change you. Be careful whatever you do.”
I open my mouth, pause, and then shut it.
“You don’t have to confide in me, but maybe talk to someone you trust.”
“I do trust you,” I blurt out.
She grins. “I’m happy to hear that, and if you want to talk to me or tell me anything, I am always willing to listen.”
“Thank you. Thank you for coming, for talking to me, for telling me about
my brother… It’s almost as if he’s back again. Just by talking about him with someone who knew him.”
She holds out her arms, and we hug. I’m not normally a hugger at all, but it feels right to.
“Vampire hunting is a dangerous and deadly profession,” she says as she steps back, holding onto my arms near my elbows. “So is bounty hunting. Be careful. If you need anything… bullets, guns, food, money, anything at all, let me know.”
“I’ve been able to hold down the fort just fine, but I appreciate the offer.”
“You aren’t alone, Tiffany. You’ve never been alone.”
I nod, and she starts to walk away.
“Clarissa?” I call.
She turns around to face me.
“It’s Tiffany Rose. Not Tiffany, not Tiff. Tiffany Rose.”
“Goodbye, Tiffany Rose.”
“Goodbye, Clarissa.”
The moment I walk away from the gravesite, roughly ten minutes after Clarissa left, my cell rings.
“Hello?”
“I just want you to have my number,” Clarissa says.
“And you have mine how?”
“I’m a detective, remember?”
“Abusing authority. Nice.”
“As if you should talk. How many have you killed?”
“You aren’t going to arrest me.”
“No, but make sure you stay under the radar. You’ve done a great job so far, so great that there have been stretches when I’m not sure where you are.”
“You’re like a demonic guardian angel.”
She laughs. “Demonic angelic guardian angel.”
“Hmm. You know, it says a lot that you put demon first.”
Clarissa is silent.
“I’m not saying it’s a bad thing! I mean, I don’t know of many demons, but some of the angels I’ve met… Let’s just say they’re a little judgmental.”
She bursts out laughing. “Are you saying demons are more fun?”
“I plead the fifth.”
“Right. Well, let’s just say that it took some time to come to terms with both sides of myself. There had been a lot of bedlam in Bethlehem, and it made my life utterly crazy, but I lived through it and came out stronger. One of the biggest lessons I learned is that it’s important to lean on others. Doing everything alone makes for a lonely, short life. I don’t want that for you. Blake, Mason, Gracie… they all died much younger than they should have. Find love. Find happiness. And most of all, find peace. That’s all I want for you.”
Hunter's Quest: A Mayhem of Magic World Story (Rebel, Supernatural Bounty Hunter Book 1) Page 19
