by K. B. Draper
“I didn’t change anything!”
“Okay. Sorry.” I took a step forward and she retreated one. I stopped, holding my hands up in surrender. “So explain what you mean.”
She let out a heated breath, calming. “I was told I was just upset. Confused in chaos. Traumatized. Distraught ramblings by an emotional teen …” She sounded as if she was reading a medical report. “At some point I stopped arguing, stopped telling the story.”
“Will you tell it to me? Your story? Your words?” I asked softly.
She huffed out a laugh. “Because we’re into sharing now?”
“Ashlyn, it’s different. I ca-”
She waved a hand at me. “Can’t. I know. So you’ve said.” Suddenly exhausted, she leaned a hip on the high stone border that lined the short staircase. “Maybe what I have to say will change that.” She didn’t give me time to protest, just started into her story with a rush. “He was in his camp, our camp, the one that we favored and had chosen for the weekend. The fire was going when I arrived. I’d seen the smoke and flicker of flames before I made it there. I was going to surprise him, sneak up on him since he wasn’t expecting me until later. I came in behind our tents. He’d set them both up already. I saw a shadow against the trees and thought he was probably stacking more wood for the fire. I shot between the tents, ready to scream his name only to see him …” Her rush of words slowed, she pushed off the wall, and went back to the pacing routine.
I waited.
She stopped looking at the ground before her as if she was seeing something more than weathered stone at her feet. “He was just lying there on the ground. When he saw me, his eyes were wild with fear. His mouth was opening and closing, trying to warn me to run, but the blood coming from his mouth and the cut across his throat wouldn’t let him make a sound.” She paced back and forth on the top step.
Ashlyn stopped abruptly, the inner war she’d been waging finally won. She turned to look at me with a slow assessing stare. “Do you believe in monsters, AJ?”
“I’m a bigfoot hunter,” I said with a slight grin.
She cracked a small smile and came back down the stairs to stand before me. “Touché.” She took my hand, led me to the wall, and pulled me down next to her. “I saw something that night. Actually, I saw a few things that night I can’t explain or haven’t found the answers to, not yet anyway.”
“And you think I can help answer those questions?”
“I do.” She held up a hand to stop my protest. “Let me finish, tell you what I saw, and then you can deny whatever you want, okay?”
I nodded. “What did you see?”
“A woman.”
That was not at all what I was expecting. “A woman?”
“Yes. She was kneeling over my father’s body. But she was beautiful in a way I can’t even describe.” She looked down, running one boot over the top of the other. “I mean, it wasn’t like a beauty I’d ever seen before.” She looked up at me with a weak grin. “Though recently there’s been some close competition.”
“Describe her.”
My request erased the playful grin and her focus went back to her boots. “She was …” she sighed, “angelic in appearance, but dark. Dark hair, dark eyes. She was kneeling over my father. I thought at first she was helping him. Like he was hurt and she was assisting him. When I screamed and ran toward them, she turned, and …”
I laid a hand on hers. “And what?” I coaxed.
“For a split second I saw she had these teeth.” She ran a hand over her own teeth. “They were sharp. All of them. She had two that were like fangs, longer than the rest. And her nails were …” Ashlyn looked at her own hands. “I don’t know, talon-like. But then she changed. I blinked and she was normal. Her teeth were normal, and her hands …” Ashlyn shrugged. “She smiled at me, told me that my dad had an accident and she needed my help to save him. I remember thinking she was going to hurt me, just her look, her grin, but my dad needed help so I went to them. My father’s eyes were pleading with me to run but I ignored him. There was just so much blood. I wanted to help him. He grabbed a burning stick from the fire and swung it at her. He caught her arm and she let out a scream. I’ll never forget the sound that came from her; it was hate, rage. It was pure evil and it was the same sound we heard the other night,” she said, looking directly at me.
“Ashlyn.” I didn’t have anything more than that to say.
“She killed him. Drove her fangs into his neck. Tore-” Her stoic mask slipped for the briefest of moments. “She was … it was …”
“Evil,” I provided.
“Evil,” she agreed.
I knew that evil, knew the creature would have done the same to Ashlyn just to spite her father, even though he was no longer there to witness it. “How did you get away?”
“I didn’t think I was going to. The rage on her face when she turned to me told me she was going to kill me and she was going to like it.”
I knew that look, too. Every evil thing, whether man or demon, that I’ve ever hunted had that same look. It was one of pleasure, the pleasure of causing fear and of the thrill and anticipation of the pain they wanted to inflict.
“She caught my ankle as I started to scramble away. She had me. There was no way I was going to break free of her. I knew this, though I kicked and fought anyway. She would’ve killed me, I have no doubt, except … a man intervened.”
“A man?”
“A Native American man.” She paused to let that little bombshell land and explode at my feet. “And though I only saw flashes of him as he and the woman began to fight, there was one thing I did see quite clearly.” She paused again. “His eyes.”
That had me looking away before I could stop myself. “Huh,” was my genius reply.
“He was fast like you, strong like you.”
“Yeah, but how about his witty repartee?”
“AJ, I know there’s more to all of this. You …”
I stood, pulling away from her. “Ashlyn, we’re not going to go there. I just can’t. Won’t.”
Ashlyn let me do a couple of back and forths before stopping me with a hand on my arm. “Tell me what I’ve been hunting for since my father’s murder isn’t just my imagination.” Tears started to form in her eyes again. “Look me in the eyes and tell me what I’ve been hunting for, for the last twelve years, doesn’t exist.” Her voice softened and she ran her hand down the side of my face. “Tell me I’m wrong about you.”
My heart shattered and healed in the matter of a heartbeat. My brain was screaming “Not again. Not again.” But my heart was beating “Maybe this time.” We were both searching for the answers to our unasked questions.
The last time a woman found out what I was—saw the monsters I chased and the destruction I could yield—she ended up fearing me as something no different than the demons I fought. Ashlyn was simply projecting her residual hero worship from some white-eyed Native American man. And, yes, I will be having a little chat with said Native American later. If she really knew what I was capable of, I doubted she would still be looking at me that way. In reality, Ashlyn had no idea of the depth of the oogity boogity world she was trying to force her way into. All she knew was that her father was dead and she wanted answers. But most people couldn’t or didn’t want to deal with what lurks in the darkest regions as it awakened too many fears and brought them too many nightmares. I didn’t want that fate for Ashlyn.
She must have sensed the change in my demeanor and felt my emotional defenses go up.
She stepped back. “You aren’t going to let me in, are you?”
I looked away from the disappointment and pain in her eyes. “I want to, I just …”
“Don’t trust me?”
“I’m trying to protect you,” I whispered.
“I don’t need or want your protection, AJ. I need answers—and damn it, I want you.”
I started to respond just as my phone chimed with a text. I pulled it out to see Mr. Perfect Timing lighting up my screen.
My heart jolted when I read the message, “911.” I glanced up and caught movement out of the corner of my eye. I spun to the hills just as a large winged demon flew into the forest.
“We need to go!” I grabbed Ashlyn’s hand, pulling her with me. I didn’t have time for flashlights this time. “Just do what I do,” I said, already in a sprint, navigating us safely back to Woody.
It took us only minutes to get back to the parking lot and into Woody. I hit reverse and was backing out of the parking space as Ashlyn shut her door. “AJ, what’s going on?”
“I don’t know, but Danny needs me,” I said, throwing Woody into drive.
Ashlyn didn’t say anything more until we got to the locked park gate. “I’ve got it,” Ashlyn said as I skidded Woody to a stop.
“I’ve got it.” I jumped out and kicked the gate where the chain held it together, causing the wood and chain to splinter and snap. I was back in the driver’s seat before Ashlyn had even been able to get the gate keys out of her pocket.
Ashlyn watched the gate slam against the support post as Woody pushed through. “Seriously?”
“Adrenaline,” I said, shoving Woody’s gas pedal to the floor.
I broke more than a few traffic laws driving back to the campsite. I rolled down the window as soon as we were a mile or so out, wanting to hear or smell anything that would give me a clue as to what lay ahead of me and what caused Danny to hit the 9,1,1 buttons on his phone.
When we broke through the trees, I saw Danny standing silhouetted by the flames of the campfire. “Fuck me,” I said on a relieved breath before the copper tinge of blood drifted in on the wind. I was opening the door at the same time I was putting Woody in park. “Danny!”
Danny whipped around at my voice. “AJ, it’s-” His words cut off when he saw Ashlyn. “It’s umm.” He fumbled unconsciously, fondling Nancy as his brain searched for an Ashlyn-revised version before he realized he was playing with an illegal sawed-off shotgun in a national park in front of a park ranger. He slid Nancy behind his back.
“Smooth. You’re okay?”
“Yeah, but something.” He paused again as Ashlyn stepped up by the fire. “There’s an issue, you know, with a certain someone else.”
I could smell the pungent scent of death now.
“What’s going on?” Ashlyn asked, looking around for the emergency and for what just caused us to go full on NASCAR across the county.
“You think it’s still?” I asked Danny.
“Good chance. I didn’t see it go.” He shot his eyes to Ashlyn and then rolled them to the highest point of his eye sockets.
“What are you not saying?” Ashlyn demanded. When Danny stared at her, she spun on me. “AJ?”
“I need to go check on something. Stay here with Danny.”
Ashlyn grabbed my arm as I started to turn away. “The hell!” Ashlyn protested. “If you’re going in my woods, I’m going with you.”
“It’s not safe.”
Ashlyn looked me up and down. “Not safe for me, an armed park ranger, but safe for you, the perfectly normal unarmed civilian?”
I wasn’t unarmed. I had weapons tucked in my waistband, boots, and a couple of other places. “This isn’t up for discussion.” But I knew by the raised defiant eyebrow we would be discussing it later.
“Excuse me?”
“Ashlyn, please.”
“You have two options: I go with you or I’m taking Danny to jail for having an illegal firearm in a National Park. Your choice.”
“You don’t understand,” I said, but given the story she had just told me, maybe she understood more than most.
“And whose fault is that?” Ashlyn closed the gap between us. “AJ, I’ve been waiting twelve years. I will do this with or without you.”
And she played those cards well, a royal flush of revenge and strength to trump my wimpy pair of kahonas trying to protect her. I wasn’t going to win this hand and I was smelling blood, a lot of blood. “You do exactly what I say,” I ordered, pretending I still had control of this situation.
It was a slower trip into the forest this time, pacing my footfalls with Ashlyn’s. She was in great shape, fast even, but she didn’t have the benefit of a warrior spirit turbo booster. The scent of blood led me east this time, around the outer edge of the lake. As we got closer to the scene, I started to pull ahead. The look I shot Danny told him to stay close to Ashlyn.
The thick smell of demon had Norm charging to the forefront and me pushing my legs to the limit with both boot knives gripped firmly in my hands.
I took out a nasty spider web just as I broke into a living nightmare. My mind had two seconds to revisit what Danny and I had found yesterday before Norm screamed in my head, something the usually silent spirit did not do.
A man stood in the center of the carnage. His blond head lifted. He didn’t make any other moves, though I had Sonny and Cher cocked and ready to throw.
His eyes made me hesitate. They were silver and filled with the sorrow and pain of a man who had lived a thousand years. A black tear slipped from the corner of his eye. “This is not of my doing,” he said simply, his voice low and dusty as if he hadn’t used it in a long time.
“Demon in the forest with blood all around him. I don’t think I’m going with Colonel Mustard on this one.”
He held out his hands, palms up. “I will not deny that I have blood on my hands, but this is not of my doing.”
I glanced at his hands; they were clean as was the rest of him. He was tall, nearly seven feet, with the strong build of a well-trained soldier. He wore only a skirt, a kilt-looking thing, made of thin, layered, ornately engraved silver blades. Matching silver plates covered his knee-high boots and a silver-handled sword, still in its scabbard, was at his side. His skin was pale and his chest was marked with scars of war. He looked like a larger, blonder version of the dude from the 300 movie. He was rather magnificent if you’re into tall, pale, and demon.
With the slightest of movements he rolled his shoulders and large, black-feathered wings unfolded behind him.
I stepped back.
“You have nothing to fear from me, Hoyo Abi,” he said. “I am here only in search of my child.”
My jaw dropped at that little verbal bomb. “Umm, yeah. Sorry. I’m going to need you to repeat that.”
His eyes looked beyond me a split second before I heard Danny and Ashlyn’s footfalls. He looked back at me and straightened. “I, like you, am hunting for her, the one who did this, the one who has my child. I give you my word no harm will come to you or yours from me, unless you keep me from my quest.” His wings expanded, then collapsed once with a strength that caused my hair to lift from my shoulders. And he was gone. I watched the sky as a flash of a shadow passed before the moon. Then nothing.
I glanced around the forest floor, taking in the full scene before turning and meeting Ashlyn and Danny. I didn’t want them walking into what lay at my feet. I caught them just before they could see the destruction behind me. “You don’t want to go in there,” I growled.
“Uh, AJ,” Danny said, blinking awkwardly at me.
“What?” I was not in the mood for charades.
“Um … You left your headlights on,” Danny answered. I narrowed my eyes. “Your headlights,” he repeated slowly, as he blinked both eyes hard one more time.
“I think that’s code for your eyes are glowing,” Ashlyn stated.
“Fuck!” I started to storm off but got stopped mid-stomp by someone grabbing my arm.
“AJ, don’t you dare walk away from me,” Ashlyn ordered.
I dropped my head. I’d been careless. “Fuck,” I said again as I slammed my eyes closed, rubbing them as if I was on day forty-six of my thirty-day contact lenses.
“AJ, please,” Ashlyn moved around to stand in front of me. “Look at me.”
I slowly opened my eyes, deciding to let Ashlyn see who or what I really am. It may be the better way to convince her to run and leave all this behind her. It worked e
ffectively on the last girl.
I knew my eyes were still white when I opened them. Norm and I were still on “What the holy shit, there’s a demon baby?” sensory overload. Though Danny had referenced, very poorly I might add, “headlights,” it wasn’t as if my eyes actually glowed. I couldn’t be used as a replacement for a Maglite or go all X-men, Cyclops and laser beam, which really was kind of unfortunate. My irises were simply white. I had stared at my reflection in a mirror for hours after Norm moved in, peering deep into a stranger’s eyes. The best descriptor I’d found for what I saw reflected was smoke. White, hot smoke. The white in my eyes actually swirled and twisted in a slow, silent dance, but that was only if you dared to look into them. To date, Danny was the only one who wasn’t afraid of what hid inside me … until now.
“They’re beautiful,” Ashlyn whispered.
Current status of the “get her to run and hide” plan? Mission Failure. I covered her hand lingering on my cheek. “We should probably talk about what a freak you are later.”
Ashlyn gave me a playful wink. “Says the girl with white eyes standing in the forest after going bionic woman a few moments ago?”
“Right. Which reminds me …” I stepped back to look at Danny. “We have a new thing going on.”
“What? What happened? Is there another body? Or not a body in there?” Danny asked.
There were several bodies, none of them human, but that didn’t make it any better. In some ways it made it worse. “Not human. There’s not a mur-” I stopped myself as what had been done to the animals was most definitely a murder. “Animals, deer mostly, I think.” I know my face was giving away everything I felt.
“I have to-” Ashlyn started for the scene.
“Don’t,” I grabbed Ashlyn’s arm as she tried to push past me.
“It’s my park.” She swallowed hard. “It’s my job,” she said, her back stiffening, finding more resolve by defying me. She slapped my hand. “Let go of my arm. I need to see what happened,” she ordered. I held onto her for another long moment and she glared. “Now,” she ordered again, this time through gritted teeth.
I could pick her up and easily carry her away from the scene, but from the determination in my ranger’s eyes I could tell I would have to tie her to the bumper of her truck to keep her away from here. Knowing if I wanted a shot in hell of tying my ranger to a more appealing place, I would have to release her. I loosened my grip, only to catch her hand. “Ashlyn, you don’t want to see what’s there,” I tried again in a softer, pleading tone.
