by Terry Spear
“Would you girls like something to drink?” Alana’s mom asked.
“Lemon and ginger tea,” Alana said. “With honey for Celeste.”
Celeste shook her head. “I don’t—”
“Medicinal tea,” Alana told Celeste. “It will help soothe your irritated throat and take away the taste of smoke in your mouth. I can’t believe one of our school mates would do something like this. I mean, if he’s lived among us for a long time, why suddenly attack humans or his own kind?”
“I don’t know. I’ve been trying to figure it out since I freed the teen. I thought I saw Mikey at school, only he wasn’t called that when I’d met him. His name is Bengal. At least, it was. Maybe that was a made-up name too. We’d been friends in school, different school, another city. When I had to move to another city halfway across the States, I didn’t see him again. We were thirteen at the time. Now I’m here, and I couldn’t believe he could be also. I tried following him, but I lost him in the crowd.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?”
“What? That an old boyfriend had just showed up?”
“He’s a demon,” Alana said. “We need to keep track of them. But he has to be cloaking his demon aura like you can do. Why would he, I wonder? Only demons would be able to see him. If he has nothing to hide from us, why would he conceal his aura?”
“I did it when I was around you and your friends. I didn’t know how you would treat me.”
“Why hunt our kind of demons? If that’s what he’s doing. And he must know that based on or demon types. Well, except for Hunter. We don’t do anyone any harm.”
“I don’t know. Unless Hunter is the reason for Mikey concealing his demon aura. Most lesser demons, not that I think of myself that way—though when I couldn’t save myself, I did feel somewhat impotent—would fear him for being one of the Dark Ones.”
“Then why confront Hunter? Mikey had to know what he was and how dangerous that could be. It doesn’t make any sense. Unless…”
“Unless what?”
“Unless he’s cloaking his demon kind with another.”
“A Matusa?” Celeste sounded like she couldn’t believe it.
“Yeah. One cloaked himself so I though he was a Kubiteron, like my father. He pretended to be my father. But he was a Matusa.”
Alana’s mother served them tea and cookies. “You’re not still going to Seplichus for spring break now, are you?”
“Yeah, we are. We don’t know if we’ll find anyone we’re looking for, but we have to try.” Alana knew her mother was more than concerned about losing her. But she couldn’t live her life as if at any moment, she would be torn away from the ones she loved. She’d be a basket case. And Alana needed her father to help her control when she was pulled to portals.
“With all those Matusa after you?” her mother asked.
“We’re going to portal jump around. Jared’s been to the hall of records the most. Samson is from Seplichus…”
“Not from that part of the world, from what I understand,” her mom reminded her.
“No, from a village that bordered a swamp. But he knows how to deal with demons since he’d lived there all his life before he showed up in our lives.”
“That’s only a few days from now. Celeste, do you think you can still go?” Alana’s mom asked.
“Sure. More than ever. It reminds me how scary Earth world can be. Forget about how scary Seplichus can be. I didn’t think I wanted to see my parents because I didn’t want to move back to the demon world if I found them. Wouldn’t they be heartbroken if I found them and left them behind? Wouldn’t I be also? I’ve lived here since I was three-years-old, and I don’t know anything about my world,” Celeste said.
“True, but if I’d lost my daughter all those years ago, I’d still be grieving, wishing I could see her and make a connection. Hunter can always open a portal and take you back there to see your family, if you prefer living here.”
“And I can,” Alana said.
“You have trouble every time you go there,” her mother said.
“I do, but if she needed me to, I could take her. Not that I have to, or that I’m going to, but I do have the ability.”
“I know, but it would be better if Hunter took her.”
“Hey,” Celeste said, changing the subject. “do you want to watch Supernatural and see what the demon hunters think works against us?”
Alana switched on the T.V. “Yeah, but I’m not joining their demon hunting team.”
* * *
Hunter hoped that taking out the head honcho would mean the end of their little gang of demon hunters, but first they had to locate Mikey. When they reached his red-brick, two-story home, Hunter knocked on the door.
A middle-aged gentleman opened the door. “Yes?”
“Is Mikey at home? He’s our friend from high school.” Hunter was glad he’d cleaned up and changed clothes. He could just imagine what Mikey’s father would think if he hadn’t.
“No. He’s staying at a friend’s house for the night. Buzz Carpenter. He’s five houses down to our left, this side of the street.”
“Thanks,” Hunter said, then they drove down to that house.
He knocked on the door there, but a woman said, “No, I haven’t seen Mikey in a while. A week or two? He’s not here.”
Someone was lying. Now Hunter wished Alana was with him so she could compel Mikey’s dad to tell them the truth. Then he smiled. He could bring her here. He opened a portal.
“What are you doing?” Jared asked, sounded shocked.
“Calling on—”
“What…?” Alana glowered at Hunter, then she jabbed her finger at his chest. “Don’t you dare call me like this again.”
“We’re getting conflicting stories. She says she hasn’t seen Mikey. His dad said he’s been over here. Hurry, before anyone notices the portal.”
She compelled the woman to speak the truth, but she said the same thing that Hunter had heard already. Then she made the woman forget everything she’d seen and heard.
Hunter closed the portal and grabbed Alana’s arm as if to make her stay with him.
“First, you don’t want me with you. Then you want me with you. Make up your mind.” Alana glowered at Hunter, and he knew she didn’t like it when he forced her to join him by opening a portal. He also knew she’d get over it quickly enough if she could aid them in their mission. She didn’t like being left behind.
“We don’t want you with us,” Jared supplied. “But sometimes you’re a necessary evil.”
Alana smiled at him. Then she scowled, got into the pickup, and Hunter drove her to the other house, Jared and Samson following in the Jeep. She wasn’t usually able to do this either. If her astral self was to go anywhere, he’d have to open another portal. It was scary to think things kept changing for her, and they never knew what to expect.
When they knocked at the door, this time, they got the mom, and she didn’t look anything like Mikey. Nor did the dad, so Celeste could be right. These people weren’t Mikey’s real family.
“Tell us where Mikey is,” Alana said.
“My husband told you that he—”
“Tell us where Mikey is,” Alana repeated. “The truth.”
“Mikey is at that old abandoned house where he and his friends like to play.”
“Thank you.”
Which was no help at all since Mikey had burned down the place.
“Where else would he go?” Alana asked.
“Home? Anna’s house, maybe. Another old abandoned house.”
“What’s Anna’s address? And where is the other old abandoned house?” Alana asked.
The woman gave her the locations.
“Thank you. You will forget you have spoken to us, and that you have seen us. Go inside and do whatever you planned to do.”
The woman closed the door.
“We will split forces. Alana and I will go to the abandoned house. Jared, you and Samson go to Anna’s house. Learn
from her if there’s somewhere else he might go.”
“Wait,” Alana said. “I need to return to my body.”
“Maybe it would be safer for you if you—”
She folded her arms, her eyes glowing red.
“You guys, go.”
Jared saluted Hunter.
Samson said to Alana, “I could take you back to your body and Hunter could go with Jared.”
Hunter gave him a look that said if he wanted to be on their team, and didn’t want to see just how angry he could get—being that he was a Matusa—they did things his way.
“Just saying,” Samson said, and climbed into the Jeep with Jared.
Before Hunter could drive Alana back to her home, she vanished.
“Alana!”
“Home. You’d better come and get me and not go to the other abandoned house by yourself.”
To keep her from danger…it was tempting.
7
As soon as Hunter picked up Alana at her house, they headed over to the next abandoned house.
“Thanks for picking me up to take me with you,” Alana said, knowing just what the Dark One was thinking. He should have left her home and done this by himself.
“Against my better judgement.”
“You know, if you think I will be yours, you would have to agree that we’re a team.”
He gave her a hint of a dark smile. “We are.”
“Okay, so I was talking to Celeste about this, and I was wondering, what if this guy is a Matusa.”
Hunter frowned at her.
“Yeah, I know, what are the odds? But remember the one who pretended—”
“To be your father. Hell. And the guy did act really interested in you.”
“Because I’m a Kubiteron. So, what if this guy hid his aura from us like Celeste did—and we thought he was human. But like the Matusa who pretended to be a Kubiteron, he was able to cloak his aura with another demon type when he was seeing her earlier. What if this guy can do both? A master at deception.”
“He called himself a master demon hunter.”
“But he isn’t. I bet you anything he’s an evil one.”
“Why bother with the gathering of teens to hunt down demons and then eliminate them?”
“A sick joke? He’s what? Eighteen or nineteen like you?”
“Yeah.”
“He’s young, trying to find his place in the world. He’s a demon, laughing at the gullible teens he’s recruited to get rid of his kind. If he truly is a Matusa, the only kind of demon I would think would go after humans like this, he’s dangerous, especially if he isn’t half human like you. Though humans can be just as dangerous. Then he sees some of us and realizes there are other demons in the school. Now he’s not so special. Not when you’re just like him.”
“I can’t cloak my demon type, or make it appear to other demons that I’m human.”
“Maybe you can, but you haven’t learned how yet. Or maybe you’re a slow learner when it comes to that.”
He gave her a disgruntled look.
She smiled at him. Then she got serious. “Okay, so then what do we do? Send him to the demon world? He’ll have to learn to make a way for himself in Seplichus?”
“Yeah. He won’t find it easy, but he won’t be hurting people here then. What about the teen that Celeste saved?”
“She said she didn’t know why they thought he was a demon. Which means, she didn’t see a demon aura.”
“Okay, back it up to the business with Celeste.”
“She dated Mikey when she was thirteen, and she thought he was an Elantus demon. But she had the vision of seeing the kid in trouble, so she went to rescue him.”
“Still, that’s a big coincidence, that she was ‘called’ upon to rescue the teen in the abandoned house, and then taken prisoner. And the guy who took her prisoner was her former boyfriend.”
“Maybe he didn’t know that her blood could poison his when she’s a Camaran. If he’s lived here since he was little, he might not know everything about demon types, just like I was clueless.”
“You didn’t even know what you were.”
“Exactly. Even Jared, who keeps a record on characteristics demon types supposedly have, didn't know that a Camaran demon’s blood could poison a Matusa’s. Which reminds me, if she gets cut, you don’t get near her.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice.”
But she knew Hunter. If Celeste was bleeding, Hunter would go to her aid. “It makes me wonder, again, if Jared’s notion of fitting us into demon characteristic boxes is a mistake. That each of is unique in our own way. Some might have a predisposition for certain traits, but it doesn’t mean there isn’t crossover. What if you have some Elantus demon in your roots way back, for instance.”
Hunter gave her a dark look.
She chuckled. He hated being one of the Matusa, yet he used it to his advantage also. The idea he had other kinds of demons in his blood line—lesser demons—didn’t seem to agree. “The house should be around the bend in this road, right past those woods,” she said.
“Okay.”
“Maybe you should let me out here, and I can sneak around the house.”
“We stick together. I will park here, and we can walk over there together.” Hunter stopped the truck on the side of the road. “Can you put a barrier around the truck?”
“I sure can.” They left the truck and she cast an invisible barrier around it to keep anyone from trying to steal it.
Red and gold leaves were floating to the ground as they crunched on the already fallen leaves. Through the half barren trees, they saw the abandoned house, two-story, wrap-around porch, the white siding turning to gray, lace curtains tattered, most of the windows broken, and the wooden steps splintered.
Near the side of the house, they saw two vehicles and heard movement in one of the rooms in the front of the house. They headed around the back of the house.
Inside, a girl was arguing with a guy. “Anna and Mikey,” Alana said telepathically to Hunter, recognizing their voices.
“You didn’t have to kill her,” Anna said. If Mikey was a Matusa, she’d better watch what she said to him.
“She was a demon. That’s our job.”
“What if she wasn’t? She got out of the circle!”
“Either you listen to me, or you’re off the team.”
“What of her friends? They’ll be looking for her.”
“All demons. We’ll deal with them too.”
“Really,” Hunter said, pulling open the back door and walking into what was once a living room, the floors and walls bare. “I don’t think so.”
Alana was right beside him.
The girl dropped her can of soda on the floor and squeaked. The guy raised his hands to cast a spell, and Alana immediately opened the portal behind Mikey. Hunter rushed forth and using one of his ju jitsu moves, slammed his boot into Mikey’s stomach, propelling him into the demon world. Alana quickly closed the portal.
Hunter turned on Anna. “Are you a demon?”
She shook her head, staring at Hunter as if she were seeing a monster. Tears filled her eyes, and she shook uncontrollably. “What…what did you do to Mikey?”
“Sent him to the demon world, and you’re next, if you’re a demon too.”
She sat hard on her butt on the floor. “No! I’m not a demon. Sheesh. We’re hunting them. He…he was a demon hunter. What have you done?” Anna’s face was pasty white, her blue eyes huge.
They hadn’t discussed what to do next, but Alana wanted to learn all she could from Anna before she decided. She was well aware that if Mikey was a demon undercover, Anna could be also. She didn’t appear to be though, as much as she seemed in shock and terrified.
“What we’ve done is saved you. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll disband this group, and forget you were ever involved in something that was so atrocious. You tortured a teen and killed another, burned her up in a fire. You’ll have to live with that the rest o
f your miserable life. You’re pure evil,” Hunter said.
“She…she was a demon. Mikey said so.”
“You know that’s not true,” Alana said. “You know that Mikey was lying. In his demonic way, he was making you believe what he wanted you to.”
She sobbed. “He…he tricked us? What…what are you?”
Hunter frowned at her. “Demon hunters. Real demon hunters who don’t watch a T.V. show to learn the tricks of the trade. Mikey was the worst kind of demon. You’re lucky to be alive. Now get out of here, tell the others Mikey was a demon and was sent to back to his world. But know this, if someone manages to summon forth a demon, they’ll pay with their lives. This isn’t a game. And if Mikey is able to come through another portal…” Hunter shook his head. “Just hope that he doesn’t.”
Anna slowly nodded.
“I don’t know. Maybe we’re making a deadly mistake by allowing her to walk. Maybe we should send her to the demon world.” Alana glanced at Hunter. “After what she did to our friend, our demon hunter friend, Anna’s no better than the evil demons we’ve had to deal with.”
Hunter stared the girl down.
Alana didn’t mean it. She was all for giving the human girl another chance because she had tried to stop Mikey from killing Celeste. But Alana wanted to impress upon her how Anna had been brainwashed so easily and followed the Matusa, helping him with his evil plans. He hadn’t compelled her to believe anything. She’d had her own freewill, and even now, she was defending him. But she’d never survive long in the demon world.
“No…no, I’ll tell the others that we were taken in by a demon.” Anna looked stricken, glancing at Hunter as if she thought he would save her from Alana, when Hunter was much more of a threat to her. Usually.
“Really, can we afford to let her and the others loose on the world? What if she thinks she can take Mikey’s place? What if she’s stupid enough to believe Mikey again, if he manages to return?” Alana asked Hunter, as if Anna wasn’t even there.
“I…I won’t. He…he can’t, can he?” Anna asked, sounding worried that if she betrayed him, he would come back and kill her.
