Demon Hunted

by H. M. Sandlin

  “Fine, let’s continue,” I told him.

  We went over different forms for a couple more hours before he finally let me stop. I sat down on the ground, not caring how dirty it was. I was covered in dust from head to toe anyway. Ian brought me a bottle of water, and I chugged the whole thing. I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be walking tomorrow after the workout he gave me. My muscles already felt sore.

  After a few minutes, Ian helped me get up, and we walked inside to make a late lunch. While I was finishing my sandwich, he opened the front door and grabbed a small package that had been left there.

  “Kellan dropped these off to help you start learning about our world.” He opened the package and handed me three books. “You’ll need to start reading them at night. I’ll answer any questions you have later. Now we need to go practice magic.”

  “Already?” I asked, almost too tired to care. I wasn’t used to this much physical activity. I thought I was in shape, but I was very wrong. Compared to Ian, I was barely fit at all. Training was going to be torture.

  “Using magic is more mentally exhausting than physically, though the higher magic does take a lot out of you physically. We won’t be working on anything like that, so you don’t have to worry. I even have a chair that you can sit on while you practice.”

  I followed him to the chair outside and sat down while he walked around me.

  “We don’t know what type of magic you possess, so we’ll start small and see if we can get you to link to it easily.”

  “Is it usually easy to link to?”

  “For some people. Others struggle to get a firm grasp on their magic for weeks before they can use it. Let’s see how you do,” he challenged me.

  I hated when someone challenged me. It always made me want to do more than they expected. I would show Ian I could link to my magic. Only one problem remained. I had no idea what I was supposed to do to link with my magic. I looked at Ian, and he started laughing.

  “You need to learn to control your emotions. I could see every thought as it crossed your mind. Your face is very expressive.” He smiled. “Do you want any pointers?”

  “Yes.” I gritted my teeth, wanting to smack the smile off his face. It was infuriating knowing he was right. I couldn’t do this alone, but I wanted to prove I would be able to handle whatever he told me to do.

  “You need to clear your mind. Once you can do that, you need to call to any magic in your body, asking it to show itself so you can use it. You need to be able to command it to do what you want. Magic can be deadly to those that can’t control it.”

  I tried to clear my mind and focus on my magic, but too many thoughts kept intruding on my concentration.

  “It’s ok. Keep breathing and focus on your magic.”

  “If it was ok, I would be able to do this,” I mumbled under my breath.

  “What was that?” Ian asked with a smile in his voice. At least someone was getting a kick out of this.

  “How do I know what my magic feels like?”

  “Everyone says it feels differently. Some describe it as a whirlwind of power inside them, and others like the touch of a feather. One thing everyone agrees on is that you’ll know it’s your magic as soon as you find it. You have to look inside yourself.”

  Look inside yourself. Sure. I’ll get right on that. I tried to concentrate on finding my magic, but without knowing what to look for my thoughts started to drift. I wondered who my real mom and dad were. They had to be magical, too, or at least one of them was.

  I thought about the first time I had known without a doubt that I was different. I had been in high school. I was walking past the football field on my way home from school when my body started to tingle. It had happened before. Many foster parents had taken me to doctors who said it was overactive nerves, so I didn’t think anything weird about it.

  The feeling kept getting worse until I had to clamp my teeth shut to keep from yelling out. When I looked around to see if anyone could see me, I saw a small group of kids under the bleachers. They were holding hands and saying strange words.

  I tried to walk away, not wanting them to think I was spying, but gray smoke started to swirl in front of them. Red eyes materialized in the smoke, and claws lashed out at the kids. One of them screamed, and they started running.

  I couldn’t look away as I watched the smoke begin to dissipate. Right before the smoke cleared the thing turned and locked eyes with me. It started laughing as the last of the smoke blew away, and it disappeared. That was the first time I saw the monster.

  I didn’t tell anyone what I saw. The next day at school there was an announcement that students were attacked by a stray dog, and everyone should be careful walking home.

  That’s when I learned monsters were real, and I started to put together the tingling with danger. I saw a couple more monsters over the years, never realizing they were actually demons, and I wasn’t crazy.

  I tried to turn my attention back to Ian, but I felt a slight shift in my energy. I focused on that feeling, and it got a little stronger. I tentatively reached out with my mind to touch it and jerked back when it felt like I grabbed a live wire. I could feel something similar to electricity running through my veins. There was too much, and I struggled for a way to stop it. The energy kept coming, begging me to release it back into the world.

  “Ian,” I struggled to say. Even my mouth felt heavy from the amount of energy trapped inside me.

  “Serena, you need to let go now. If you don’t, the magic will overwhelm you.”

  “How?” I whispered.

  “Picture the magic leaving your body and traveling into the ground.”

  I did what Ian said, but the magic kept coming. The ground beneath me began to rumble and shake.

  “Serena, you need to stop pulling magic into yourself. Cut off the supply. Wherever the magic is coming from, you need to stop it.”

  With the last of my energy, I focused on the magic coursing through my body. I followed the flow until I came to the source. I imagined a valve to shut it off, like I was turning off a faucet, and the magic stopped pooling inside me. I focused the last of the magic toward the ground.

  There was one last big rumble, and everything went still. I was struggling to breathe, and I barely felt Ian lift me up and take me inside. He laid me on the couch gently. I heard his steps move away from me, and I let myself drift. When I heard his footsteps coming back, I opened my eyes and stared at him.

  “You need to drink this,” he said, helping me sit up. “It will replenish some of the energy you lost.”

  He brought the cup to my lips, and I slowly took a few sips. It was similar to the drink he had given me at the club. It tasted just as good, and I finished the glass quickly, handing it back to him for more.

  “No more,” he said. “This is agganon. It’s a special drink made by some magi. We can only have it in small doses. It’s very addicting, but it will help restore you.”

  “Thanks,” I said. “What happened out there?”

  “You found your magic.”

  “Is it always like that?”

  “No. I’ve never seen anyone pull so much magic from around them. Usually, a person uses magic that they have inside them. Very few can use magic from nature. It’s wild magic and not always stable. Most species can’t use wild magic, including demons, so both your parents had to be magi. Using wild magic will definitely narrow down the search for what else you are.”

  “So I’m still a freak, even in the magical community?” I sighed. This was not going to be my day.

  “You aren’t a freak, but you are powerful. Hopefully, your magic didn’t travel too far. We don’t need everyone knowing about this.”

  “I felt something while I was pulling the magic. I think there was someone on the other side of the hill behind your house. It felt like they were heading to your cabin to spy on you. It was a really weird feeling. They ran away when I released the magic,” I told him.

  “Do you know who it
was?”

  “No. Is this bad?”

  “It could be. It depends on whether they saw you and how much they saw. Stay here. I’m going to go check it out. Maybe they left a trace so I can figure out who it was.”

  “No, I feel much better. I’m coming with you.”

  He started to argue with me, but I stood up and walked to the back door. “Let’s go,” I said. “We need to check it out before any evidence blows away.”

  He shook his head, but he followed me out the back door and to the spot I thought the person was at. I didn’t see anything, but Ian told me to stand back. He closed his eyes and moved his hands, letting a circle of magic spread out and cover the area. In the center, a small flash beckoned me forward. On the ground, a tiny shred of paper lay on top of the dirt.

  “What is it?”

  “I think it’s part of a wrapper to a sandwich place. I’ll find out which one,” Ian said, picking up the paper and putting it in his pocket.

  “Will that help us?”

  “Maybe. It depends on how many people from this compound eat there. It might at least narrow down the list of who could have been watching.” We continued to look around but didn’t see anything else.

  “If there were any other clues they would be lit up. I think that’s all we’re going to find.”

  “So that’s what you were doing. I was wondering.”

  “Yes. It’s a spell that helps me find clues to whatever I’m working on. It’s been an invaluable tool for me.” He looked into the woods. “Luckily, I don’t think whoever was watching would have been able to tell it was wild magic, or that you were the one using it.”

  “What do we do now?”

  “We go back and start practicing again.”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea. That one didn’t go so well. Remember?”

  “You found your magic. I would say it went perfectly.”

  “Except for the person trying to watch us.”

  “Yes, except for that, but you have no control over what other people do. You can only worry about yourself.”

  “I think I’ve heard that quote before,” I said, smirking at him. “I don’t think I like it either.”

  Ian laughed. “Come on, the sooner you get the hang of this, the better. After today, people will be watching and waiting to feel that amount of energy again so they can trace it back to whoever used it. You.”

  “Fine.” I sighed. We went back to the same spot, and Ian told me to call for my magic again, but this time he wanted me to stop the flow of magic as soon as it started to pour into me. I did as he said and shut it off the second I felt the light touch of magic that called to me before.

  “Good,” Ian said when I told him. “Now call the magic to your hands and try to make a small fire.”

  “Won’t that burn me?”

  “Not if you’re the one creating it.”

  I thought about a small fire. I pictured it in my mind, sitting in my hands. I could feel the magic moving down my arms, and I closed my eyes, concentrating harder. At Ian’s gasp, I opened my eyes to an amazing sight. I had created a flame, but instead of it being red, it burned with a black center and a blue ring encircled it. I held it in one hand and put the other into the flame. It felt warm, but it didn’t burn.

  “Will it burn you?” I held a hand out to Ian, but he stepped back.

  “That will burn anything it touches, Serena, except the person who created it. I need you to extinguish it. Think about the flame no longer existing, and it will disappear.”

  I barely closed my eyes before it was gone. “Hey, that was easy. Can I do it again?” I asked excitedly. Maybe I would be good at this magic stuff after all.

  “I don’t think you should call that fire again unless it’s an emergency. That was pragaras gaisras. It’s a form of hellfire. Nothing can put it out except the person who created it or their death. This is proof that one of your parents is a demon, and a very high level one.”

  “Great. I didn’t want any proof that I was from hell,” I told Ian sarcastically.

  “Technically, it’s not hell. Not the way you’re thinking.”

  “I know, I know. It’s another realm, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s the demon’s realm. And it even has hellfire. It must be similar to the hell I’m thinking of.”

  “Serena, that could save your life at some point. Just because you’re part demon doesn’t mean you’re bad. Look, you can barely stand the thought of hurting someone. That doesn’t sound very demony to me.”

  “Did you just say demony?” I asked, laughing.

  “Yes,” he laughed too. “It got you smiling, didn’t it?”

  “I suppose so. What do we do next?”

  “Let’s keep practicing your spells. Do the same one, but this time try to picture an ordinary fire. If you can do pragaras gaisras, you should be able to create any type of fire.”

  I spent several hours working on magic. I made sure never to pull any more than a tiny amount to work with, and I did everything exactly as Ian told me to. Many of the spells I couldn’t do at all. I couldn’t control any type of weather, and I definitely wasn’t an animal whisperer. Ian said it was a real thing and that some magical beings could even borrow the sight of animals to help them. That seemed like a cool talent, so of course, I didn’t have it.

  I was able to do most of the basic spells Ian taught me. I could make myself invisible for small periods of time, though it didn’t hide my footprints or my scent. I was able to transport across his backyard, but that was as far as I could go, which didn’t help me much. I could even glamor myself to look like someone else. All the spells were basic, so it didn’t point us any closer to what else I was. Finally, Ian called a break, and we headed inside.

  I showered while Ian made dinner. When I walked back into the kitchen, Micah and Beth were there.

  “How are you doing, Beth?” I asked, giving her a hug.

  “I’m fine. You don’t have to worry about me. How are you? Did you learn anything about where you’re from?”

  “Not really,” I said, glancing at Ian. He shook his head. He didn’t want me telling Beth anything. “I can do a few basic spells, but that’s not enough to figure anything out. Most magi’s can do them.”

  “I’m sure you’ll figure it out,” she told me. “I wanted to come say good-bye.”

  “Where are you going? You can’t leave. It’s not safe.”

  “Don’t worry. Micah is taking me to a safe house on the other side of the compound. It’s where a bunch of families live. Besides, it’s only for a short time while they figure out what’s going on in town. Right?” she asked, looking at Micah.

  “Of course. I’m going to be out looking every day until we figure it out. It will be safe for Beth to return home soon, I’m sure.”

  “Why can’t you stay with me?” I asked.

  “You’re going to be very busy training. I’ll come in a couple of days to check on you and see how you’re doing. I took some time off work for a family emergency, so no one will know anything’s wrong.”

  “Please be careful, Beth. I don’t want anything to hurt you.”

  “I will, but you have to promise the same.”

  “I promise.”

  “I’ll make sure she’s looked after,” Micah said. “My sister lives in the houses behind the compound. She’ll keep an eye on Beth and make sure she’s safe. And I’m going to stay with her when I’m here to make sure she’s ok.”

  “Thanks, Micah,” I said, giving Beth another hug.

  I watched as she left with Micah. Hopefully, he would find the demon, and Beth could go back to her life. If not, I would have to work harder and learn everything, so I could help protect her.

  I sat on the couch, and Ian brought me a book to read from. As I read, he slid onto the couch next to me and pulled my legs up across him. He gently started to massage them, starting at my feet and working his way up my calves. The muscles were so sore it almost hurt when he rubbed t
hem, but his gentle touch helped take the soreness away. Walking tomorrow was definitely going to be tough.

  As he rubbed my sore muscles, he asked me questions about what I was reading. He explained some of the parts I didn’t understand, and we discussed three of the realms, including the human realm before my eyes started to drift closed.

  “Thanks, Ian,” I said softly.

  “Anything for my mate,” I heard him answer.

  I didn’t respond. I didn’t want to be mated. I still didn’t know exactly what that meant, but it sounded a lot like marriage, and I barely knew Ian. I wasn’t going to get married just because he said we had to. I would have to question him more about this mate thing, but right now all my body wanted was sleep.

  I train too much

  Each day went exactly the same. We trained all day, and every evening I would read while Ian rubbed my aching muscles. After two weeks, I was doing much better with weapons. I had a natural ability with the daggers, but I was useless with some of the weapons, like the mace.

  I learned a bunch of different spells, but they were still beginner level that almost all types of magi’s could do. We weren’t any closer to finding out the rest of my heritage. Having wild magic negated all the tests Kellan said would work. The tests were made for regular magi’s.

  “Serena,” Ian said one day when we were working on a special spell that would help me hear noises from far away, “you need to stop fighting your magic. I know it scared you that first time, but now you won’t let in enough to do any bigger spells. You need to let that fear go. I’m here, and I won’t let anything happen to you.”

  “I can’t. It’s too much power. Plus, I don’t want anyone to see it.”

  I had a valid point. Someone was sneaking around Ian’s house trying to spy on us. So far, we hadn’t been able to find the culprit, but Ian was hoping they would come again soon. He placed additional protections around the house to trap someone.

  “You need to be able to use your magic, sweetheart. How will you protect yourself if I’m not there?”

  “With the daggers. I’m pretty good with them.”