by Terry Spear
Hunter was working on his heart-stopping spell on the demon. Maybe that was slowing the Matusa down a bit.
Three of the teens came at them with the scythes. They had to be totally brainwashed or crazy.
Alana was working on a wall of water to protect her team from the wave of fire. Her arm was killing her with the strain, and she’d never cast a spell where she had to spread the wall so far out.
Her dad opened a portal in front of the three kids, and suddenly they were falling inside. She wondered if Jared was invisible and had anything to do with it. Her dad quickly closed the portal.
Her uncle cast a lightning bolt at Mikey, who held his hands high, trying to stop the electrical charges from striking him.
The other kids stood watching, afraid to move.
Hunter was concentrating on his heart attack spell, constricting the blood vessels to the demon’s heart. It took a little time though, and the demon was still pushing the fire against her wall barrier.
Jared and Samson had vanished.
Jared could turn invisible, and Samson could turn into mist. She hoped they were taking care of the kids. This time, she’d wipe their minds completely of all this business.
But they’d have to take care of the ones who went to the demon world also. If they could summon a portal, they could still be real trouble.
The fire began to break through her wall. One section hit the abandoned house and it began to burn. Another broke through and headed for Jared’s Jeep. The Matusa was strong.
She couldn’t hold the fire back and she couldn’t put it out.
“Make a rain spell, Alana,” her uncle shouted. “He’s using some kind of barrier spell against my lightning bolts.”
Rain wouldn’t put out the fire that quickly, she didn’t think. She had to let got of her water wall spell, and feared they were all doomed. The fire broke through as soon as her water wall was down. Immediately, she cast a torrential rain spell. It was only a trickle at first, and she kept forcing more rain to appear until it was a soaker. But it only extended from right before the path of the fire and back all the way to the demon, hoping to stop him if he tried any new fireball spells.
It was dampening the fire, sending steam up, making it hard to see the demon in the mist. And then she realized Hunter was standing in the middle of a section of fire. Her jaw dropped. He wasn’t burning. He was still working on the heart attack spell, and he looked in his element.
Her uncle cast a lightning bolt at the demon again. This time the demon’s face was red with exertion, and he tried to keep her uncle’s lightning bolt from breaking through his barrier.
Mikey suddenly clutched his chest, and Alana knew Hunter’s spell was close to killing him.
The lightning bolt struck the Matusa and because he was sopping wet and was standing in water, the electricity continued to zap him. He collapsed on the ground, his face ashen, his hair standing out like he’d been hit by a million volts of electricity.
Alana continued with her rain spell until the fires had burned out. Steam filled the whole area. She turned her rain on the abandoned house until she could put the fire out there and on the surrounding meadow grasses.
Hunter watched the Matusa for any signs of life, though he didn’t approach him until the electrical charges died out.
Bentos stood there with his arms folded across his chest. “Here I thought I had a role to play.”
“Why didn’t you do something?” Hunter asked.
Jared and Samson appeared next to him.
“He did,” Jared said. “He helped round up all the witless kids involved in this. They’re all tied up in the barn over there.”
“We’ve got to get the others in case they can summon a portal,” Pappalios said. He opened a portal and hurried through it.
Bentos went with him.
Uncle Stephen glanced at Alana. “I’ve got this, Uncle Stephen. Go help the others.”
The electrical charges had stopped, and Hunter went to check on Mikey.
Alana was still trying to put out all the fires. As soon as she’d think they were all out, she heard crackling in a new area.
Hunter was cautious, not trusting that the demon was truly dead.
The guy was staring up at him, his hair standing on end, his face contorted in pain, his hands clutching his chest, but he wasn’t dead.
Hunter extended claws. After a Matusa poisoned him in such a painful way, he didn’t think he’d ever resort to such a tactic. But it was fatal, unless another Matusa had the antibody to save the infected Dark One. Hunter clawed the Matusa across the chest.
“You’re…not…a hero. You’re…just…a…killer…like…me,” Mikey spit out.
“Hardly.” Hunter watched the demon’s face turn bright red with fever, the scratch marks sending red streaks up his chest toward his throat and then to his face. Hunter had been able to fight off his infection for a while, partly with Alana’s healing help, but this demon was already too weak to battle it.
Mikey would never form another group of demon hunters like this again. Shortly, he would die.
Fifteen minutes later, he was dead. An hour later, Bentos and the others finally rounded up the other kids who were hiding in various areas in Seplichus, terrified that demons were ready to kill them for invading their world. But they’d also taken Mikey’s dead body back to the demon world.
Alana had finished putting out fires and was busy wiping the kids’ minds of the demon business.
“When you return home, Dad, can you let Celeste and Wendell know that Mikey has been taken care of?” she asked her dad.
“You know it.”
“What do we do with them?” Bentos asked.
“I’m sending them to the police station to admit to starting the fires on the two abandoned homes, and this whole area. They can take their scythes with them and try to explain why they’re dressed as devil worshippers. They won’t remember what happened here otherwise.” Alana glanced at Hunter. “You poisoned Mikey?”
“Yeah. Fitting end.”
“Ready to see your half brother?” Bentos asked.
Hunter nodded. “It’s time.”
Alana told the kids to go straight to the nearest police station. They hurried to get into vehicles parked on the other side of the barn and tore off.
Jared and Samson returned to their apartment to get cleaned up. They dropped Stephen and Pappalios off at Alana’s mother’s home. And Bentos, Hunter, and Alana went to see Hunter’s half brother.
She couldn’t believe Bentos’s family was in the same city as she was. Then again, Hunter had been living in Dallas.
They saw a sixteen-year-old boy practicing martial arts with another boy. If that didn’t make her think of Hunter and how he was always practicing with Jared. The one boy was a Matusa who looked similar to Hunter. The other was a warlock.
Alana grabbed Hunter’s arm, and whispered, “Matusa and warlock.”
Both boys turned to look at them.
“Dad,” the one boy said, then gave Alana a big smile.
She rolled her eyes, but Hunter tucked her under his arm. He would never have thought his little half brother would be interested in his mate. He should have known better.
“Well, who have we here?” the boy asked, coming to join them.
Bentos said, “Your famous brother, Hunter, and his mate, Alana. This is Rolling.”
Rolling looked down at their rings and lost his smile.
“And your friend?” Alana asked, her brows furrowed.
“Everett.”
“A warlock,” she said.
“Takes a witch to know a warlock,” Everett said.
“She’s much more than that.” But Rolling didn’t elaborate any further. “So what do I do with a half brother?”
Bentos sighed. “You learn from him. Maybe someday you will be as great as him and his mate.”
Hunter smiled. “I will be happy to show you the ropes.” But then he frowned. “Only if you want to do ri
ght.”
“Rolling,” a woman called out from inside a two-story, blue house. “Rolling! Did you take out the garbage yet?”
“I will. I will.”
Hunter chuckled, remembering a time when his human mother was always after him to take out the garbage when he was so intent on saving the world.
“Look forward to getting to know you,” Hunter said.
“Your brother and his ‘mate’ are intense,” Everett said, heading into the house with Rolling.
“I think life is about to get really interesting,” Rolling said.
Hunter just hoped he didn’t get his kid brother killed, but he’d been only thirteen when he’d started hunting demons. His brother was an old man by his standards. He’d have a lot of catching up to do.
“Are you staying, Dad?” Hunter asked.
“Yeah. I’ll see you later.”
“Thanks for your help out there.”
“Thanks for being my son.”
Hunter opened the truck door for Alana and helped her onto the seat. She looked worn out. “I didn’t think my brother would have the hots for my mate.”
She laughed. “I guess tomorrow’s another day of school. I’m going to miss Celeste.”
“She wasn’t at school half the time.”
“Is Jared going to quit now?”
“No. It’s still you, me, Jared, and Samson against the world.”
“And Indigo.”
“Don’t mention it.”
“I think your brother seemed nice.”
“Did you see the look he gave me? He’s itching to prove he’s more powerful than me.” Hunter drove off to Jared’s apartment.
“He might be, depending on the skills he has. I’d watch out for the warlock too. Between the two of them, you’ll have your hands full."
“Aren’t you going to help me?”
She smiled. “I’ll sit back and watch. Learn their strengths and weaknesses first.”
“That’s all in a day’s work for us.”
* * *
Two weeks later at school, Alana saw Anna, the former demon hunter, but this time, Anna was just going to classes, complaining about the crappy nail polish she was wearing to another girl. She wasn’t with any of the other demon hunters. Good, Alana’s mind wipe had worked.
Indigo was doing his ghostly artwork on the board, before the teacher arrived. Alana never got to class this early, but she was determined to graduate from school on time.
Samson hurried to join her. “Where’s Hunter? You’re not supposed to be alone.”
“He’s checking out some of the former demon hunters, making sure none of them remember anything. Jared’s with him too.”
“Okay, I’ve got your back then.” Samson seemed proud he still got to be her guard when Hunter wasn’t there to watch over her.
What shocked her to the core was when Celeste and Wendell rushed into class.
“Celeste! Wendell!” Alana jumped up from her desk, glad to see the two of them. Celeste was no longer wearing casts, just like Alana was free of hers. “What are you both doing here?” She gave them both a hug.
“We had a vision,” Celeste said. “A summoner is at the zoo.”
“Again? Oh, no, oh, no.” Alana tried to meditate, tried to place a barrier around her but all she heard was Samson calling on his phone right before she…astral traveled.
“Alana’s gone. Celeste and Wendell say the summoner is at the zoo.”
“Celeste and Wendell?” Hunter said, rushing with Jared back to the classroom.
The team was back together again, well, with the addition of Wendell.
The teacher walked into the room.
Hunter swept Alana into his arms. “She’s having another episode.”
And then he and the others headed out of the school to their vehicles. “To the zoo.”
And more summoner trouble.
“What did you see?” Hunter asked Celeste and Wendell as he drove toward the zoo.
“Alana’s in the lion pit,” Celeste said.
“Lion pit?” Hunter drove faster. Neither Alana’s meditation spells, nor any barrier she’d tried to erect, had stopped her from being pulled to a portal.
They had to come up with something else.
For now, he was going to kill a summoner and recue his mate from a lion. He glanced at the time. The zoo wasn’t even open yet. Great.
* * *
Alana couldn’t believe she was in a lion’s den, of all places. If she had to, she’d summon a portal and jump into the demon world, but she didn’t want to do anything that drastic, except as a last resort. She was sitting up at the top of the cliffs, just where the lionesses liked to gather. She knew because every time she’d come to the zoo, this was where they’d rest, watching the humans watching them.
Luckily, the two lionesses and one lion hadn’t seen her yet as they were sprawled out down below.
“Alana, we’re on our way. Celeste and Wendell told us where you are. Whatever you do, don’t climb to the top of the cliffs. The lionesses will be headed there any minute. Are you okay?”
“No. I’m at the top of the cliffs, which is where I landed. But one of the lionesses just saw me. She’s trying to figure out what I am. Now she’s coming. The other looked up to see what she saw. She’s joining her. I can levitate myself away from the cliff. But hurry. I don’t want any zoo official to see me.”
“Okay. We’re almost there. Parking. Running.”
“Story of my life, Hunter.”
“Love you, Alana.”
“Love you, Hunter. Always.”
The lionesses took several leaping bounds, and Alana levitated herself away from the ledge. A fence covered the top of the enclosure, so she couldn’t go that way. The lion was standing now, watching to see if she’d come down for dinner.
“Hurry, Hunter!”
And that’s how their lives would always be. One big, dangerous adventure. Just like they liked it. Well…usually.
And the team, plus one, was together again.
About the Author
Bestselling and award-winning author Terry Spear has written over sixty paranormal romance novels and seven medieval Highland historical romances. Her first werewolf romance, Heart of the Wolf, was named a 2008 Publishers Weekly’s Best Book of the Year, and her subsequent titles have garnered high praise and hit the USA Today bestseller list. A retired officer of the U.S. Army Reserves, Terry lives in Spring, Texas, where she is working on her next werewolf romance, continuing her new series about shapeshifting jaguars, writing Highland medieval romance, and having fun with her young adult novels. When she’s not writing, she’s photographing everything that catches her eye, making teddy bears, and playing with her Havanese puppies. For more information, please visit www.terryspear.com, or follow her on Twitter, @TerrySpear. She is also on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/terry.spear. And on Wordpress at:
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Note to Reader:
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Thanks so much for reading my Demon Guardian Series!! I hope you have enjoyed the demon guardians as they and all the trouble they get into!
Terry Spear
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http://terryspear.wordpress.com/
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