“Rush?” I wondered where she was and why she hadn’t been hanging around while I was scrubbing the floor.
It was too early to call Lauren and Victor to let them know I was okay.
When Rush finally appeared, she sat on the arm of the chair. She looked...sad.
“Are you okay?” I asked. I didn’t have any idea what she had been through. There hadn’t been any time to talk.
“I’m fine, but what about you, Den? What’s going on? You…you tore his tongue out of his mouth. Eww doesn’t begin to cover it.”
I studied her for a moment, this ghost who was the only lover I’d ever known. I felt betrayed by her, and although I didn’t want to show it, I was angry with her. “Don’t, Rush. You knew. You’ve known all along.”
Rush looked away.
“All this time, and you knew why we could do the things we’ve done. Why didn’t you tell me?”
Several moments went by before Rush turned back to me. “What did you want me to say? Gee lover, you’re possessed by a demon and that’s why we have mind-blowing sex? I never could find the time, and when I finally did, I realized it...it wasn’t my place.”
“It wasn’t your place as my lover to tell me the real reason why we could meet on an alternate plane?”
Tears filled Rush’s eyes. “Oh Denny, you have no idea how much I’ve struggled with that over the years, but it’s a lot more complicated than, ‘Gee, baby, you have this family legacy of demon hunting’, you know? It was opening a can of worms I didn’t want to open. A can I…I promised your mom I wouldn’t share.”
“But you knew. All along, you knew what my mom was. You saw her in the lair, you watched her struggling, and yet, you never thought that was something I needed to know? You never stopped to wonder if this day would come and that I’d be unprepared?” I could feel the Hanta stirring, but suppressed it. Anger wasn’t the proper emotion at this moment, and I realized that I would forever have to temper the Hanta’s emotional response with my own.
“Baby, you were just a kid. How was I supposed to decide when you should know that? How was I supposed to sit down with you and tell you something as horrific as being possessed by a demon? Tell me, when should I have worked that into a conversation? When was the right time to drop that in your lap?”
I could only shake my head. “At some point, you had to know I would find out. What did you think would happen then?”
Rush shrugged. “Exactly what’s happening now—you, pissed off, me crying. It was inevitable, I suppose.”
I could only stare at her, my heart hardening into a block of ice. That she could keep such a secret from me was one thing, but it made me doubt, made me wonder what else she had hidden in the depths of her spirit. What other secrets had she kept from me? What else did I not know? “I trusted you, Rush.”
“And you still can. My job, my only job has been to protect you and love you. I’ve done both those for as long—”
I held my hand up. “Protect me?” I felt my ire expand. Or was it the Hanta’s? “Protect me from what? The truth? We don’t protect people from the truth…only from the vagaries of lies and deceit.”
Rush rose. “I’m not going to talk to you like this. This isn’t how we are with each other.”
“Well, in case you hadn’t noticed, I’m not really the person you thought I was. I’m a fucking demon, Rush, and you never once sat me down and explained it to me. Ever.”
“I’m...I’m not sorry, Denny. I did what I had to do, and if I had to do it all over again, I’d make the same choices.”
Closing my eyes, I felt it...and I knew I would live until the end of my days feeling it inside me, pacing like a panther in a cage. “You should have told me,” I said softly. “I don’t know that I can ever forgive you for not.”
“I know that’s what you think, but someday, when you have some distance, you’ll see my side of it. Until then, I think we need a break.”
My eyes snapped open and I jumped to my feet. “So that’s it? You’re just going to run away?”
Rush looked at me as tears clung to her lower lashes. “Do you even hear yourself? In thirteen years, you’ve never spoken to me like this. Ever. Yes, you have a demon inside you, but you’d better learn how to control it or you’ll lose a lot more than your ghostly girlfriend.”
Her words hit me harder than Cockerton’s fists. “Whoa. Wait. What do you mean, lose my girlfriend?”
Rush walked over and took my face in her hands. It surprised me that I could barely feel her, but it was enough.
“Golden Silver, I have loved you since the very first time I saw you as a tomboyish little peanut. I’ve watched you grow into...well...into this kick-ass demon hunter who shows no fear. I have watched over you, protected you, guided you, and loved you more than you could ever imagine. But you’re on a different path now, my love, a path on which you have so much to learn. A path that...a living woman can help you with. I can’t.”
“What woman?”
She laughed. “You have always been so dense about women. The witch, silly. Her eyes say it all. She has it bad for you and you’re going to need her to help sort all this stuff out.”
“Wait. Are you…are you breaking up with me?” I looked at her and shook my head. I knew it before I spoke the last syllable. “You are.”
“We knew this day would come, my love, and it is here. It breaks my heart to let you go, but it’s true, Denny my love, my sweet, sweet girl, it’s time for you to fully engage in your work...to...love someone and have them love you the way you deserve to be loved.” Rush backed away, tears falling from her eyes and vanishing into nothingness. “I will always be here for you, Golden Silver, and I will love you until the end of time, but it’s time, my love, for you to let go of me. You need to live with both feet planted firmly in the living world…demons and all.”
“But I don’t want to le—” I could see her slowly disappearing through the blur of my own tears. “Rush, don’t go! Please, please don’t leave me.”
“It is because I love you so that I am letting you go. Go on now, Denny, and enjoy your life. Know that I love you. I will always love you. Always and forever.”
Then she was gone.
Falling to my knees, I sobbed and called her name, begging her to come back, begging her to stay.
In the end, it was Pure’s arms I felt around me as I wept. I cried for the loss of my lover, for the loss of my best friend, for the loss of a life’s plan that would never come to fruition. I cried for a path I stood in the middle of without knowing where it led. I sobbed for the gaping hole left by my mother and the imprisonment of my brother.
But most of all, I cried for the Golden Silver whose life was forever changed.
When I was finally quit crying, I fell asleep in Pure’s arms, the last vestiges of bodily pain slowly subsiding.
In the edges of a dream gently unfolding before me, I saw myself tracking down the demons who had set my brother up. Tracking them down and destroying them without a moment’s hesitation. I would crush them and defeat all of those living in the shadows who got in my way. I would do as my mother and her mother had done before me: I would seek demons out in the darkest of dark corners where they lived and I would destroy them. This I knew beyond any doubts because
I am the Demon Hunter.
About the Author
Linda Kay’s life isn’t a life—it’s an adventure. She’s ridden elephants, camels, and ostriches. She’s been charged by a bull elephant in Africa, had a python around her neck in Thailand, caught crocodiles in Costa Rica, and spent time with an orphaned cheetah. She’s raced catamarans in the Caribbean and speed boats in the Gulf of Mexico. She’s ziplined, jumped from an airplane, and rafted down rivers, once on a bamboo raft. She’s spent time in the desert, the bayou, the rainforest, and the savannah always in search of the next big adventure.
Each and every thrilling journey her life takes finds LK taking copious notes so that someday, she might share them with you, her
wonderful readers.
Where will she go next?
What trouble will she barely escape?
Stay tuned, dear readers, the best is yet to come.
You can find Linda Kay online at
www.sapphirebooks.com
www.lindakaysilva.com
and on Facebook
www.facebooks.com/linda.k.silva
Other books by Linda Kay Silva
Man Eaters - ISBN- 978-0-9828608-9-2
They prey only on human flesh, and as the virus spreads and the horde of man eaters grows, firefighter Dallas Barkley struggles hourly to keep her little band of survivors from the grasp of killers who never tire, never sleep, and never quit longing to make a meal out of them. As martial law sweeps through the country, Dallas’s new family must fight off not only voracious man eaters and a deadly military containment procedure, but rogue survivors who obey no law of the land as they wantonly take from those they perceive as weaker. But Dallas and her people are far from weak.
With a cowgirl named Roper and a medic called Butcher, these three women must brave the darkest hours of the bloodiest days as they work together to create a safe haven in a world destroyed by a man-made plague ravaging the country and threatening their lives. Only by placing their faith, loyalty, and love in each other’s hands can they hope to survive. Only by forging bonds stronger than death can they hope to beat back the hordes of undead.
In the Nick of Time - ISBN - 978-1-939062-01-7
Jessie Ferguson has her hands full. Between sending her soul to the jungles of Viet Nam and visiting the oak groves of Merlin’s backyard, Jessie races against the clock to save her little brother caught in a time and body she does not know. With danger lurking around every soggy corner for American troops slogging through the bug-infested rain forest, Jessie must find who Daniel was and get to him before he becomes a casualty. If that isn’t enough, she must return to the Druids and face the wrath of Morgana. Jessie has slipped through time again and again, but never has so much been at stake. Can she reach Daniel before a bullet finds him first? And does she have the power to face a foe as deadly as Morgana?
As sand falls through the hourglass, can Jessie get to both In the Nick of Time?
The Horde - ISBN- 978-1-939062-22-2
They just keep coming.
Dragging their lifeless limbs and gnashing their broken teeth, the horde of man eaters presses forward. For every man eater Dallas and Roper put down, twelve more are created.
After spending nearly a year in the bayou, the survivors once again, set out in search of a safe haven where they might do more than survive, but thrive.
Thrive among the hordes bearing down on them. Thrive amid government attacks on the new compound they call home.
As Dallas and Roper build a new life, the ever present military launches surprise attacks, the bloody horde keeps on clawing at the walls, and the rest of mankind devolves into something barbaric and unrecognizable.
Can Dallas and Roper lead their people through the maze of thinking and brain dead killers? Can they find a place to once and for all go on the offensive?
Or it is, as some survivors believe, too late?
Magical Echo- ISBN -978-1-939062-03-1
There are a lot of bodies buried in the Las Vegas desert, and Echo has to work doubly hard not to end up one of them. Between murderous antics of supernaturals who are off the grid, and becoming mired in a murder investigation with too many unanswered questions, Echo and company must navigate the treacherous waters of the Vegas strip. As Echo realizes there is an enemy within her ranks, she must call on the one person who wants nothing more to do with her, as well as accept help from some of the most unlikely allies.
Can Echo solve the murder before becoming the killer’s next victim?
Does she, at last, have what it takes to lead her people through the darkness of Vegas and back into the light? And, perhaps most importantly, what magical secret lies dormant within Echo waiting patiently to come to life?
Echo’s Revenge- ISBN - 978-1-939062-26-0
The recipe for disaster is evident when empath and mentor Echo Branson steps into the ring once more to face off against Genesys labs and her evil father. Caught up in an intrigue of someone else’s design, Echo must find a way to save the supernaturals held captive on a Hawaiian island before it’s too late. Alone and in the lab where Genesys performs excruciating experiments on others like her, Echo learns that she is far more powerful than even she realized...but even that power, even her incredible supernatural abilities cannot save everyone she loves. In an effort to destroy Genesys completely and for good, Echo must face her greatest fears and finally let go of the one person responsible for creating her.
Is her attempt to crush her father’s plans of creating more supernaturals worth the price she has to pay in the end?
Is Echo’s Revenge ultimately the end of Echo Branson?
Mob Rule - ISBN - 978-1-939062-40-6
Dallas Barkley never realized the zombies walking the planet and destroying their country would be the least of her worries. Not in her darkest nightmares, not in the farthest reaches of her mind could she have imagined that the flesh eating, mindless man eaters would actually be the least of her concerns. Fighting off the zombies in an effort to reclaim her home, Dallas and company discover a different kind of nightmare...a different sort of Hell.
As the country falls into disrepair, as the world outside turns its back on the once powerful United States, Dallas and Roper lead their cadre of survivors back home to California in an effort to establish another safe zone for survivors of the zombie apocalypse. What they find on their trek back is nothing less than horrifying. What they unearth as they attempt to out run the tireless zombie horde is something far more frightening than the soulless ghouls tirelessly chasing after them.
As Dallas and her new family struggle to return home, they learn just what happens to a society in which there are no rules, no laws, and nothing but chaos and anarchy. What happens when men devolve into a creatures surrendering to their baser instincts? And what happens to those they feel are weaker than they are? What happens to women when men are allowed complete and total freedom to do as they wish?
Who becomes the victims when society is run by Mob Rule?
Dallas and Roper are about to find out.
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