by Jen Pretty
I could have asked Julian about it, but I wasn’t talking to him, so I was on my own.
The limo pulled up to the hotel and I trailed Julian up to the suite. I made a beeline for the bathroom to change out of the pretty dress I had worn to look good next to Julian and pulled on my dirty leather pants. I had almost worn them out at this point, but they were worth wearing. I had tucked my wallet in the side of the duffel bag. I had 14 dollars in cash and a coupon for a burger at a fast-food restaurant. Sweet. I yanked on my slayer hoodie and grabbed my net on my way back out the door.
“Harlow, wait,” Julian said, as the door swung closed behind me.
I was done waiting. I took the elevator down to the lobby and found a cab sitting at the curb.
I slid in the backseat, and the cabbie took off.
“Where to?” he asked.
“Library.”.
His radio was on and he nodded his head along to the beat as he drove. The city was wide awake now and people crowded the streets. Horns honked and pedestrians congregated on street corners. Lights changed and traffic moved bumper to bumper. Everyone was in a hurry to get somewhere. But when the cab pulled up to the library, a police officer waved through the cab driver — no parking near the rock demons. The taxi stopped two blocks down, and the driver looked back at me. “You sure you want to be here?” he asked.
It smelled like urine and garbage and some indescribable food, but it seemed safe enough.
“Yup.” I handed him my fourteen dollars. He looked at it, then back to me. “Keep the change,” I said.
He swore a bunch and tore away like his ass was on fire. Maybe I should have given him the free coupon too. I hiked back to the library. Police were all around the building, directing pedestrians to cross the street. I slung my net over my shoulder and walked up to the yellow tape that flickered in the breeze. An officer stopped me as I ducked under.
“Excuse me, ma’am. You can’t be in here.”
“Actually, I’m here to solve your little problem,” I said snidely. I was so done with men wasting my time.
Another man leaned up against the building with a smirk on his face. “Let her through, Jerry. This here is the Almighty Harlow.”
Jerry looked me up and down like I was a sideshow in a circus and then turned to shoo more gawkers. I guess I was a bit of a freak. And this was defiantly a circus.
“And who might you be?” I asked the man. He was blond with deep blue eyes and a grin that suggested really wicked things. I would have jumped at him a couple years ago during my wild phase. Now I was more cautious and eyed him with suspicion. I didn’t need male drama, no matter how hot the male was. I just wanted to lock down demons and go home.
“My name is Spencer. You’ve probably heard of me.”
I blinked at him. “Never heard of you. Are you famous or something?”
He narrowed his eyes. “I think you aren’t as great as they say. Probably never even been demon possessed.”
I laughed. “Well, nice chat. I have work to do.” I stomped off down the sidewalk toward the main doors of the library.
“Wait,” he said, as he jogged to catch up.
“Look, I’m done with this garbage. I am here to do a thing, so either you are here to help or get in my way. Which is it?” I put my net over my shoulder and my other hand on my hip, waiting for him to answer.
“I’m here to help.”
I rolled my eyes and wondered if he was even a hunter. “Fine. The plan is to see what we are dealing with, then we can decide on a plan.” My plans were always brilliant.
A limo pulled up, and I recognized the driver. “Time to go,” I said and hustled to the door where another officer was standing. Spencer followed and as we approached, the officer took out a key and unlocked the chain that was holding the doors shut. Spencer and I slipped through, and I heard the chain rattled and the click of a lock behind us.
Inside the library was as bad as I pictured it. Books covered every surface except bookshelves. They’d toppled tables over and had torn light fixtures from the walls. But the biggest surprise was that there were gargoyles everywhere. They lined the tops of shelves, perched on desks and the large light fixtures that hung from the ceiling. The grumbling was low, and they weren’t moving much, except for one. The giant dragon gargoyle flew lazily through the high-ceilinged room and set down in front of us.
His grumbles ramped up like a plane engine starting slow and then increasing until Spencer was on the floor covering his ears. I kept my eyes on the rock demon in front of me and before long words were rumbling out below the sound of rocks grinding and people screaming.
“You dare try to stop us. We will have our revenge,” he said.
“Yeah, whatever, rock goblin,” I said.
The gargoyles eyes narrowed, and his lips peeled back. “Ooh, scary,” I laid on the sarcasm thick to make sure there wasn't a communication gap.
The dragon gargoyle launched himself at me, but I was ready. I caught his head in my net and then swung around and sat on his back, tucking his wings in with my thighs. All he could do was thrash about under me like a bull at the rodeo. He grumbled and screeched, but I stuck with him, even as he smashed into desks and other gargoyles.
I felt a strange energy build up inside me. It burned like tequila, and I wished I had salt and lime. The heat spread from my center out until I was sweating and my leather pants were getting slippery. Then I felt a snap like a rubber band, and the dragon gargoyle froze like the statue.
I slid off, panting and exhausted. I reached out blindly and felt Spencer laying on the floor. His chest was rising and falling, so I figured he was okay. He wouldn't hear for a day or two.
“Fuck me, that was weird,” I said, as I played back what had just happened. The rest of the gargoyles still grumbled in the background, but they were slow and stayed put. I lay there and let my chest heave, trying to talk my stomach down off the edge of vomiting. I gagged a few times, but I am the master of my own stomach.
I heard the chains rattling on the door, and squinted my eyes open, turning my head to see who was entering. I recognized the tall figure with broad shoulders before he spoke.
“You should have waited for me,” Julian said.
“You aren’t the boss of me,” I said wisely. “Besides, I had my new friend, Spence.” I reached out and patted Spencer's chest, then left my hand there for a second to be sure he was still breathing. Poor guy had passed out cold.
“Hmm,” Julian said, his eyes studying my partner in battle. “You know who that is, right?”
“I just said his name is Spencer.”
I rolled over to look at my bud, but his eyes were still closed, and blood trailed from his ears. Gross.
“That is the nephew of Nicholas,” Julian said like I should know who Nicholas was.
I blinked at him for a few moments. “And Nicholas is?”
“The greatest hunter of all time and his nephew is not a hunter. You just risked this boy's life, Nicholas won't be pleased.”
“Well, tough shit for Nicholas. The kid said he was a hunter. How old is he anyway?” Now that I saw him with his face relaxed, he looked rather young.
“Sixteen.”
“Oh, crap.” I giggled. This was not a time to be giggling, but I had had indecent thoughts about a sixteen-year-old. Man, they grew up fast in New York. That was hardly my fault.
Julian shook his head. “So want to tell me what happened to this one?” He pulled my net off the frozen gargoyle. I felt better and tried to sit up. All the blood rushed out of my head, and I wavered like a Weeble wobbling before I saw clearly again.
“I’m not too sure. It was hot though.”
Julian raised one eyebrow and pursed his lips like he had something to say about that, but wisely bit his tongue.
“Not that kind of hot. I felt like I was on fire and then it sort of-” I snapped my fingers “-and he froze.”
Julian looked around at the crunching gargoyles swaying on the han
ging lamps. “Can you do it again?”
“I don't think I can stand right now. So, that’s a no,” I said laying back down on the floor. Screw it. This is where I lived now. My new home was the floor of the New York Library. I had squatter's rights. I closed my eyes and attempted to drift off to sleep.
It was peaceful; the gargoyles lulling me to sleep with their quiet grumbles, until strong arms scooped me off the floor and carried me toward the door. “What are you doing? Put me down!”
“You can rest in the car on the way back to the hotel. You need to eat and rest because there are a lot of gargoyles here and we still don't know why.”
“Ugh, fine. Whatever. Take me to the limo.” The driver was holding the door as he always did. A curl of smoke rose between Julian and me.
Julian groaned. “If you don't mind, could you move your amulets?”
I grabbed them and held them in my hand, so they wouldn't touch his dress shirt which now had a hole seared through it.
“Sorry,” I muttered. It was his own fault for carrying me, anyway.
Julian scooted into the limo and set me on the long bench seat that ran down the side of the limo. He crouched beside me, his eyes tracing my features. After a long awkward moment, he moved to get out.
“Wait, where is my net?” I screeched before he could disappear out the door.
Julian leaned down and picked it up, holding it so I could see it from my position. I breathed a sigh of relief.
The door closed, leaving me in the dark. I sighed and rolled over, enjoying the cool leather seat. My skin still felt too hot and tight.
The door opened and closed again, and I assumed it was Julian getting in until a voice I didn't recognize spoke.
“You always endanger civilians or just on special occasions?” His voice was deep and held the kind of dark sarcasm I admired. I rolled over on my seat and almost tipped off, but gravity didn’t get me this time, and I laid eyes on the stranger.
“Only when they tell me they are hunters and are here to help me. You can't blame me for a liar’s actions.”
The man sprung forward, his face right in front of mine. His blond hair was short, and his startling blue eyes were hard as stone, matching his bared teeth. He could have been a hot gargoyle at that moment. “And you didn't think it odd that such a young person was a hunter?”
“I was seventeen when I became a hunter. You want to back off, or want me to make you back off?” I was pretty sure I could at least slap him. Not hard, because my hand still felt tight like I’d picked up a pizza pan without an oven mitt.
“So, it’s true. I assumed the tale was an exaggeration,” he said. He rocked back to sit on his ass on the floor of the limo, resting his head back on the seat and rubbing his forehead. “I was on my way. You shouldn’t have gone in there without proper back up.”
“And who the fuck are you?” I asked. Why were people always telling me to wait for them? Bunch of self-absorbed idiots.
He sighed like his life was so tragic. Pretty sure I had him beat in the “rough life” department. “My name is Nicholas Farley. Until you, I was the only demon-touched hunter.”
I figured he was Nicholas. He and Spencer had a family resemblance, but I had always wanted to say, “who the fuck are you?” It didn't come across quite as gangster as I was hoping. Maybe I needed an accent. I mouthed the words a couple of times, trying to give it a better ring.
“What are you doing?”
“What?” I asked, startled out of my thoughts.
“You are mumbling. You sound like the rocks.”
I gasped in indignation. “I could never sound like the rocks.”
The car door opened and Julian slid in. “You piss her off already, Nick? That's a record for you, isn’t it?”
Nicholas gave Julian the finger and Julian's lip ticked up in his patent-pending half smile. The car rolled away, and I wondered if Nicholas meant to come with us—wherever we were going.
Julian stripped off his jacket and dress shirt. I side eyed him so as not to drool over him conspicuously. His toned chest was freaking yummy even if I was angry at him for acting weird around his boss. He slipped on a new dress shirt that didn't have a hole burnt through it and buttoned it up before tucking it in. He re-tied his tie and pulled his jacket back on. There. Clean and shiny again.
My eyes shifted to Nicholas who was grinning at me with a look in his eye like, “I caught you drooling over the demon.” Jerk. Whatever.
I closed my eyes and tried to force myself to fall asleep. My mind wouldn't stop replaying what happened in the library. If I could freeze the gargoyles, they wouldn't be such a big problem. We needed to figure out why they were flying away. It wasn’t long before the limo stopped. I considered sitting up, but lying down felt great. I needed more sleep.
“Come on, Harlow. The boss wants to speak to you,” Julian said.
“He didn’t want to speak to me earlier,” I replied, not moving. He had just sent me off with the secretary to get coffee, which I never even received.
“Well, now he’d like to talk to you and Nick.”
Nick hadn’t moved either. I wondered how much authority the half-demon had in this city. He was awfully bossy.
“Please?” Julian whispered from right beside me.
“First, tell me why you were an asshole this morning,” I said.
“You pissed her off first? Classic Julian,” Nickolas said.
The driver opened the door and was waiting for us to exit. Julian slid back over and pulled the door shut, closing us in private.
“Could you both just come up, please? I think it will be worthwhile. He might have information about the gargoyles.” Julian sounded desperate, not as if he believed what he was saying. I wasn’t sure why the half-demon leader made Julian so weird, but I would find out.
No more Miss Nice-Huntress.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
I led the charge off the elevator on the top floor of the high-rise office building. Julian put his resting bitch face back on before we exited the car. He looked like a stone.
At the end of the open office stood the glass-framed office of the winged half-demon. He was sitting behind his desk, his wings tucked in behind him, typing on a laptop. The secretary from last time—Elaine—stepped in front of me and I had to stop my march or I would have run right into her. She had a smile plastered on her face.
“Can I escort you to the conference room? Mr. Gamagin will be with you shortly,” she said.
“Fine, escort me to the conference room.” I glanced over her shoulder and saw the winged half-demon was still typing away on his computer.
She led us past a bunch of people busily typing and faxing or whatever office people do, and to a room that had glass walls like the leader's office. But this room was four times the size and had a long glass-topped conference table with dozens of chairs around it. Demons really liked glass, I guessed.
“Can I get you anything?” she asked.
“Coffee,” Nickolas and I said in unison.
Julian ignored her and took a seat to the right of the head of the table. His face was still a stone mask. I didn’t like this Julian. I didn’t like how easy it was for him to change who he was.
I sat across from Julian once Elaine scurried off and Nicholas sat beside me. He slumped down in his chair, looking relaxed, and completely contrasted Julian who was sitting straight in his chair, his chin raised.
Elaine came back in with two coffee cups and an insulated carafe on a fancy serving tray along with creamers and sugar packets. “Can I get you anything else?” she asked.
I wanted to ask her to go find the real Julian since the one in front of me seemed to be plastic. Instead, I muttered a “no, thank you,” and she disappeared back out into the flow of people.
We waited a long time for Mr. Gamagin to grace us with his presence, but when he finally did, it was in a flurry of wings and expensive suit. He didn’t just enter a room; he enveloped it. His black wings collapsed behind
him and then stretched out as he came through the doorway, nearly brushing Nicholas and I as he passed behind our chairs.
“Good afternoon,” he said, from the head of the table. The sun illuminated him from behind, accentuating the bones and stretched skin that made up the massive pair of wings on his back. It also haloed around his head, making him look more like an angel than a demon. He didn't fool me though. Between Julian's weird behaviour and my gut instinct, I knew this guy was a dick. I had radar.
“Hi, how's it going?” I mumbled, taking another sip of my coffee. It was my third. I was pretty sure I could fly at this point. Caffeine gave me invisible wings.
“Well, I thank you for asking. I am pleased to see you are uninjured after your recent encounter with the gargoyles.”
His eyes raked over me as if he could see through me and I crinkled my nose. “Yeah, thanks.” I took another sip of my coffee.
“Would you care to stay with me tonight?”
Coffee sprayed out of my mouth in a fine mist, covering the table. A few drops hit Julian’s face. He blinked but made no other reaction. I grabbed some napkins off the tray and threw one at Julian while I patted my face and then wiped the table in front of me.
Nicholas burst out in raucous laughter. I glared at him for a second and then turned to the winged half-demon. “Hum, that's a very nice offer, Mr.-” What was his name?
“Please, call me Collin,” he said, still not reacting to the mess I made.
“That’s a nice offer Mr. Collin, but I must decline.” No is a complete sentence, but manners matter.
“Perhaps another time,” he said, smiling. His smile was super creepy, like the imitation of a smile.
I looked back at Julian whose face was still stoic, but he was dabbing at the coffee I spit on him with a napkin. I glanced at Nickolas beside me, and he was still covering his mouth with his hand stifling laughter. What a strange group.
