Rush and Denny whipped their heads around to find Sarah sitting in the back of the Prius.
“Holy shit, Sarah,” Denny said, grabbing her chest. “You scared the crap out of me.”
Sarah barely regarded Rush. “Oh. Well then. Boo.”
“You go on back to rattling chains, Sarah.” Rush waved her hand away. “We don’t need you.”
Sarah leaned forward. “Apparently, you do, Rushalyn…or should I say, your lover does.”
“Don’t piss me off,” Rush growled. “You don’t want to fuck with me or mine.”
“Your potty mouth never ceases to amaze me, Rushalyn. It’s hard to believe you ever grew up in the south the way you talk.”
“My mouth amazes Denny on a nightly basis, Sarah. Something your nasty ass pussy will never experience.”
Denny held her hands up. “Come on you guys. Enough already.”
“Come home, Denny. I’ll speak with Ophelia for you.” Sarah’s voice fairly purred. “What can I help you with, Golden?” Sarah’s voice was warm honey. “Ophelia wants to talk to someone with a much sweeter disposition than this crab apple.”
“I’m warning you, hag breath. If you don’t get the fuck out of this car—”
Denny looked at Rush, who was scowling at Sarah. “Rush—”
“Sarah,” Rush began with forced sweetness. “I’m Denny’s ghost. Me. If you think for one second—”
“Obviously you failed her or she wouldn’t be here. So why don’t you skedaddle on back to your tiny abode and let us get back to whatever it is that Golden needs.”
Rush started for the back seat. “Why, you thundercunt! I oughtta—”
“Rush, please. Calm down.” Denny pleaded. “You’re not helping.”
“What? She called our home a dive. A hovel. A dump. Don’t just sit there while she denigrates our house…my home.”
“Rush, please listen to me. You made your position clear, and I am trying to respect that, so please go home. If Sarah is willing to talk to Ophelia, then good for us. This is a win-win. Please.”
Rush crossed her arms defiantly and glowered at Sarah. “There’s no winning as long as this bitch is in the picture.”
“Don’t be like that, Rush. Please. Go home. If Sarah is willing to talk to Ophelia, then let her.”
“Fine. But this isn’t over. This isn’t over by a long shot.” Rush leaned between the seats. “My lover, Sarah Parkhurst. And unless you want to spend eternity looking over your fat pork shoulders, you better remember your southern manners.”
Rush faded away, leaving Sarah grinning like the Cheshire Cat. “She’s a handful, that one,” Sarah said. “I don’t know how you do it. Nobody likes her. She’s—”
“My girlfriend, Sarah. That’s who she is, so please show some respect.”
Sarah piped down. “I’m sorry. You just have no idea how much she brags about having a living as her lover. We are all sick of hearing it.”
“Well, she does.”
“Pfft. Enough about her. What can I do for you, Golden? You want me to talk to Ophelia? That is an odd request even for you. What about?”
“Well, you obviously know she’s a medium, a psychic as it—”
“Oh, I know who she is. We know all of those with her kind of power. She’s been trying to talk to one of us for years, but no one has been willing.”
“Why not? You all seem more than eager to talk to me.”
“That’s because you’re neither one of us nor one of them. There is...something different about you, Golden Silver—something very special. You’re not like everyone else. I’m surprised Rush hasn’t spent more time trying to figure you out.”
“Figure me out?” Denny thought about that psychic residue.
She nodded, her curly hair bouncing as she did. “Certainly. You possess something unique to the world—an energy I cannot name nor know anything about.”
Denny stared at her. Unlike Rush, Sarah never changed her clothes. Her language was a little more modern than most ghosts her age but that was probably due to being around so many people in the inn.
“So, what is it you need from me that your lover won’t provide?”
“I just need you to answer some questions. That’s all. I need about thirty minutes of your time.”
Sarah waved her hand in the air. “Time is not an issue for me, Golden. I have all the time in the world.”
Denny nodded, “Excellent. Then I can send Ophelia here to speak with you?”
“On one condition. Right now, you tell me how it is you are in love with a ghost and what you do to have all that crazy sex Rush brags about.”
Inhaling, Denny nodded, hoping she would never have all the time in the world.
****
Ophelia and Denny stepped into Gwen’s room. It smelled of old people, antiseptic, and death. Denny hated the smell of the facility. No, she hated the facility, period.
Kneeling in front of her mom’s wheelchair, Denny smiled. “Hi, Mom. You look nice today. Princess has your hair all fixed up. Nice.” She waved her hand at Ophelia. “This is Ophelia.” Denny turned to Princess. “Thank you. That’s good for now, Prin. I’ll let you know when we leave.”
“You sure? I no like leebing you mudder.”
“She’ll be fine. Thank you.”
After Princess left, Ophelia held one of Gwen’s hands and one of Denny’s. “Now, my dears, you need to be very clear ‘bout how many ways this can go wrong—because it can. Once a mind is set free from the physical self in which it lives, it can wander…get lost even. And that ain’t the worst of it. Are you sho’ this is the path you wanna take?”
Denny nodded. “It is.”
“Then let me get out my metronome and we’ll get started.” Ophelia pulled out a scarred wooden stand that had a single hand ticking back and forth. “I want you both to look at the metronome but listen to my voice. Listen to my words, feel your chest go in and out, and allow yourself to relax. Relax.”
Ten minutes later, Denny was in a light blue space with a chest level mist hovering above the ground. She glanced down and checked her body. It felt so real. This place felt as familiar as the plane in which she and Rush had their physical moments together. Was that where they were?
“Denny?”
Hearing her mother’s voice made Denny’s knees weak. She hadn’t heard that mellifluous sound in over six years. There stood her mother wearing her hospital pajamas and the Uggs the girls had given her for Christmas.
“Mom?” Crushing her mother to her, Denny tried not to cry.
Gwen pulled away. “Oh Denny, what have you done? What have you done?”
Denny held her mother’s hands. “I miss you so much. So very much. I had to come.”
Gwen sighed. She looked healthy and vibrant, like she did the day before the accident. She stood tall and proud, her short hair brushed and well manicured—a far cry from the gray, fragile woman sitting in the wheelchair.
“Honey, you should know that I’ve heard every single word you’ve said to me these last six years, but you shouldn’t be here. This...this is very dangerous.”
Denny frowned. She thought Gwen would be happier to see her.
“Oh sweetheart, I’m so happy to see you. Of course I’m thrilled to talk to you, but I know how dangerous this is. I know the risks involved. Why are you here?”
Denny cocked her head. “Mom, what could you possibly know about the supernatural? You never gave any indication you were interested in it or knew anything about it at all. Any time I tried talking to you about ghosts and stuff, you always changed the subject. You seemed so uninterested.”
Gwen took Denny’s hands. “Oh honey, there’s so much you don’t know about your mother or your family. So much I tried to keep from you, to protect you from. But since you are here, then that must mean it’s time.”
“Time?”
Gwen nodded. Her eyes softened and sad. “Time for the truth, sweetheart. Always the truth. But first, tell me why are you here?
What could have happened that would have driven you to such lengths?”
Denney studied her a moment. “You want to know why and not how?”
Gwen grinned softly. “Like I said, there’s a great deal you do not know about me, but I know a whole helluva lot about you. Start with the why.”
Denny told her about the visit to Quick and that he wanted Denny to talk to their mom. Gwen’s eyes never left Denny’s face. When Denny finished, she swallowed back her sadness that her mother hadn’t been more excited to see her. “So, here I am, talking to you. I…I thought you’d be more excited to see me…to talk to me.”
“Oh love, I am. More than you could know, but this is…wrong. It is unsafe.” Gwen looked away and then back again. “Quick understood. I never thought he did, but it is clear now that that’s not true.”
“He said he’s innocent. He is, isn’t he?”
Gwen chose her words carefully. “Honey, I wish I knew, but I don’t. It’s not like that here. My heart tells me he could never do such a thing.”
“And your head?”
“My head knows what it knows. It’s not important right now.”
Denny sighed and reluctantly asked the next question. “Help me out here, Mom. Quick intimated that Pure could be in danger. Are we all in danger? And if so, from what?”
Two chairs appeared, and they sat down opposite each other. A slight mist hovered a foot above the ground.
“You could be. Quick would never have told you to try this unless he was more than concerned. He knows the score.”
“About what? What score? Come on, Mom, what is this all about?”
Gwen looked down at her hands. When her eyes connected with Denny’s, she inhaled a slow, deep breath. “The supernatural has always been drawn to you, my sweet daughter. You have something within you that I had hoped would stay away, but you’re being called by the very world your girlfriend exists in.”
“You…my…”
“I told you, I have heard every word these past six years. Of course I know Rush is a ghost. Did you think you and Pure were the only ones to see her?” She leaned in closer. “Now listen to me. There’s not much time, and this isn’t going to be easy to hear, but trust me, Denny…it’s the truth. Every word of it.” Gwen looked away and then back again. “Things are…attracted to the paranormal energy you exude and you emit this energy because...” Gwen hesitated a moment.
“Because? Just tell me, Mom. What is it about me that enables ghosts to talk to me and weird shit to happen? Because trust me…weird shit is happening.”
Gwen cocked her head. “What weird shit?”
Denny told her about throwing Pat Patterson twenty feet and the strange voice that came upon her. She told her every strange feeling she’d been having lately.
“I see.” Gwen sighed when Denny finished. “Quick was correct in telling you to talk to me. As much as I didn’t want this, and still don’t, it is good you came, but what I have to tell you isn’t going to be easy to hear. It is going to change everything you thought you knew and challenge the very fabric of your reality.”
“Jesus. Then spit it out. I can take it, Mom. I’m a big girl now.”
“Well, there is no easy way to say this. I used to wonder how this was going to play out…how it was going to sound, but you can never truly be ready to share a truth like this, so here it is. You attract supernatural energy to you because…well…because like attracts like.”
“Meaning what?”
“Meaning you are a supernatural being. I was hoping it wasn’t true, but it is.”
Denny stared at her. “A what?”
Gwen squeezed Denny’s hands. “Don’t panic or freak out when I tell you, but…well…here goes…you aren’t just a supernatural being. You come from a long line of demon hunters.”
Denny stared at her. Seconds ticked by. “I’m sorry. Did you say demon hunters?”
Gwen imperceptibly nodded and looked into Denny’s eyes, letting the news sink in.
Denny rose and paced away. Walking back to her mother, she sat down. “Okay. Wow. Okay. Umm…Demon hunters. Yeah. Right. I’m twenty one years old and now you’re telling me that I come from a line of people who hunt demons?” She shook her head. “If I wasn’t in love with a ghost, I would think you’d lost your mind in here, but…you’ve never lied to me, have you?”
“No, I haven’t, and I’m not about to start now. Look, love, I don’t know how long Ophelia can keep open the fabric of space between us, so I have to make this fast. Our family legacy, the Silver Legacy, is the ability and knowledge to hunt and destroy demons that walk this earth.”
Denny stared at her.
“It is what we do. It is what we have always done for hundreds of years. Hundreds.”
“I don’t want to be a demon hunter.”
Gwen took one of Denny’s hands in hers. It was the first time in years they weren’t cold and bony. “You really don’t have a choice, honey. That’s the aspect of the legacy that has never changed. It chooses us. We don’t choose it. If you don’t hunt them, they will hunt you…and they will kill you and everyone you love.”
“But why? If I don’t mean them any harm—”
“Because you will. Doing them harm is what we do. It sounds like you already have done so by saving Pat Patterson. I know this is terribly surprising and somewhat difficult, but one day, you’ll step into the role you were meant to play. That day must be nearing. That’s the only reason Quick would have suggested you find a way to talk to me. He knows something he couldn’t share with you until you were read in.”
“Read in? What the hell? No he doesn’t, Mom. He doesn’t know jackshit. He’s sitting in a jail cell claiming to be innocent. Set up. He sounded like all the other inmates in there. He even intimated you and dad were run off the road. Is that true?”
Gwen looked away. More precious moments ticking by. “I believe we were, yes. It all happened so fast, it was hard to tell, but I think we got too close to the truth so they came after us.”
“Why? Who would do that?”
Gwen paused, then softly said, “I know you don’t want to hear the truth, but if you don’t examine it now, it will raise its ugly head to bite yours off. That’s the way of the supernatural world. You’re in it whether you want to be or not.” Gwen squeezed her hand. “And you’re in it, Denny. You are in it up to your neck.”
“And that truth is what?”
“Demons, sweetheart. We were run off the road by someone I was getting close to exposing, close to unearthing. It’s too ugly to go into right now, but you must believe me…your father’s death is a done deal. There isn’t anything you can do about that.”
“And you? Am I supposed to just walk away from you in here?”
Gwen closed her eyes and nodded. “Yes, Denny. You need to stay in the land of the living and stop worrying about me and my place in the world right now. I did what I had to do for the Legacy.”
Denny closed her eyes and shook her head. “I’m sorry, Mom, but I really don’t understand. What legacy? Are you saying that you were a demon hunter?”
“I know, honey. I wish we could have had this conversation anywhere but here, but it is what it is. Let me clear the way before answering that. Yes, I believe your father and I were run off the road. No, your brother isn’t capable of the crimes you said he committed, and I do think I know why he was accused in the first place. Demons are notorious for setting people up. It is what they do. They are not what you might think them to be. They are not red with horns and forked tails. They are people. They are inside of people. They are everywhere and nowhere at the same time.”
“Wait, wait, wait.” Denny held her hands up. “Seriously? You’re really telling me demons are real and are after our family? That they ran you and dad off the road and set Quick up for a murder he didn’t commit?”
Gwen slowly closed her eyes and shook her head. “I’m telling you demons are real, and they may very well be coming after you and Pure. The good
news is you’re a demon hunter capable of stopping them. With the right training, of course.” Gwen opened her eyes and caressed Denny’s face with one hand. “Honey, your lover is a ghost. Your best friend’s mother is a medium, and you are here on a paranormal plane talking to your catatonic mother. Demons shouldn’t be such a stretch for you. I’m surprised at how hard you are taking this, but now you have the truth to deal with. It is better than wondering what is happening to you and all around you. Quick knew it was time. He knew he was not the one. That’s why he sent you to me. Because I should be the one ushering you into the legacy.”
Denny could only shake her head.
“I know this is a lot to take in, but if Quick thinks you’re in danger, you are. If he doesn’t have the legacy in him, then he must think you do.”
“Because?”
Gwen hesitated. “Because he’s a Silver. I always thought the legacy was going to choose him…that he was the obvious choice because he’s always been so…difficult.”
The air was thick with silence.
“And...dad? Was he a hunter, too?”
“Oh no. No. I imagine he was…collateral damage. Your father’s greatest flaw was that he loved me. I am pretty certain they were after me. They won that round. If what happened occurred the way I think it did, they were trying to get to me before I could finish them off.”
“And so these…demons… set Quick up? Why would they do that? He is harmless.”
The mist thickened.
“Perhaps. I can’t tell without more information. Listen. We don’t have much time. Is my bedroom still intact?”
Tilting her head, Denny appeared puzzled. “Still intact? Of course.”
Gwen heaved a sigh. “Good. Okay, listen carefully. Open my closet door, the one without the mirror. There is a false wall that will open when you hit a switch near the floor. Everything you need to know is in there. Everything. My journal is on the top of my desk.”
Denny felt as if she’d been slapped. “A...false wall? Mom, what in the hell is going on? What were you? A spy or something?”
“No, honey. I told you. I was a demon hunter. It is what I was and what my mother was and what my grandmother was. It is part of the Silver Legacy. “
Demon Hunter Page 8
