Demon Hunted

by H. M. Sandlin

  “We must go,” the voice whispered to me. “We will see you soon. Find us when you’re ready to learn more.”

  “Wait,” I said, but the presence left me. So did all the others that I felt nearby. I glanced up at Ian. “Did you feel them at the end? Do you know who they are?”

  “Who?” he asked. “There was no one here but us. Are you ok?”

  “I’m fine,” I told him, “but the voice that helped me came back. It helped me again. I don’t know if I could’ve embraced my magic without it. And there were others. I could feel them nearby, but I don’t know who any of them are.”

  “Maybe they’re your people, your family. Maybe they’ve been waiting for you.”

  “Why would they be waiting for me?”

  “I don’t know, but I think that’s the only thing that makes sense right now. Only someone with the same powers as yours could’ve helped you through that. I don’t know anyone who knows how to use wild magic. They must have known about you and were waiting until you needed their help.”

  I didn’t know how to reply to that. If they were one of my parent’s people, then they might know how to find them or at least why they left me. I remembered the voice telling me to find them. Now that I had my magic, I could do that. I turned to leave.

  “Where are you going?”

  “I need to find them. They might know more about me.”

  “How are you going to find them? You don’t even know how to use your magic yet.”

  “It doesn’t matter. Once I find them they’ll teach me.”

  “And if the demon catches you first? What will you do then? Or what if it tracks you to them, and they have no defenses set up like we do at the compound.”

  “They have wild magic too. They can destroy it.”

  “Are you absolutely sure? Because if you’re not, you could be bringing them a huge problem. Wild magic is stronger than other magic, but it still depends on who is using it. Could you tell how strong they were? If they’re all strong, they could defeat a high-level demon, otherwise the demon will hurt or even kill a lot of their people.”

  My excitement dropped. “I’m not sure. They didn’t say how powerful they were. I just thought since wild magic was the most powerful they would be fine.”

  Ian cut in. “It is the most powerful in the right hands. You still have a lot to learn. We’ll keep practicing, and you’ll keep reading the books so you can learn more about magic and our world. I promise I’ll help you find them once you’re trained and the demon has been dealt with.”

  “Thanks, Ian.”

  We headed back through the portal and were passing the compound when a large group of people ran out of the building, heading toward the cars.

  “Where are you going? What happened?” Ian asked.

  “The club was attacked again. Kellan is looking for you.”

  “Attacked by who?”

  “I heard whispers it was another demon.”

  “The same one?”

  “No. A different one. We need to get there.”

  “Serena, you need to head to my place and stay there. I need to go to the club and find out what happened. I’ll try to send Beth to you, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get ahold of her.”

  “Can I come with you? I can help now.”

  “No, sweetheart.” Ian reached out and put his hand on my cheek. “You need to stay here. You aren’t far enough along in your training to fight a demon.”

  “But I can help.”

  “No. I don’t want you getting hurt.”

  “I don’t want you to get hurt either.” I leaned into his palm. I was scared he was going to get himself killed fighting the demon. I remembered how battered he was the night I met him. The demon had left him alive that night. What if he didn’t this time?

  “I’ll be fine,” he said. He leaned down and placed his lips on mine in a gentle kiss. “I’ll be back soon.” I watched as Ian got in one of the cars and headed down the driveway. I started walking away from the compound.

  “Wait, girl. Where are you going?” I turned around and saw Councilman John coming down the compound stairs.

  “I’m heading back to Ian’s,” I said, uncomfortable in his presence. I tried to keep walking, but he hurried after me. “How is your training going? Have you been able to do anything significant yet?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Can you do anything special, or are we wasting our time on you?”

  Something told me not to tell this man what I could actually do. “So far nothing special, though I’m getting good with the weapons.”

  “So you’re useless to us,” he said before turning on his heel and walking away.

  I continued to Ian’s cabin quickly. No one else bothered me on the way. I was only there a few minutes before someone knocked on the door. I opened it carefully. Beth stood there, and I gave her a big hug.

  “I’m so glad you’re here,” I told her.

  She hugged me back. “If I didn’t know better, I would think you missed me,” she said, laughing.

  “I have missed you. This place makes me very uncomfortable.”

  “Don’t let them make you uncomfortable,” Beth said. “You need to be here. It’s the only way to learn more about yourself. I want to know everything you’ve learned so far.”

  I put together some sandwiches for us and grabbed a bottle of wine.

  “You don’t have anywhere to be, right?”

  “Nope. I’m here with you until Micah gets back. He dropped me off on his way to the club.”

  “Good, because this may take a while and a lot of wine.” We both laughed. We spent the rest of the day talking about everything. It was great to have Beth around to talk to about all the crazy stuff in my life.

  Demons don’t die

  “Don’t you think they should be back by now?” I asked Beth as the evening ended.

  “I don’t know. Maybe they’re tracking the demon.”

  “It seems like it’s taking a long time. Ian hasn’t even called.”

  “Neither has Micah.”

  “Should we try to call them? I don’t want to bother them if they’re in the middle of a fight or worse.”

  “I think we should give them more time. If anything bad happened, I’m sure someone would have let one of us know.”

  I got another bottle of wine out, and we continued talking late into the night while we waited for the guys. I watched Beth nod off and jerk back awake.

  “It’s ok. Try to get some sleep. I’ll keep an eye out for them,” I told her sleepily.

  I felt someone lift me up and carry me across the room. I opened my eyes and met Ian’s grin. I must have fallen asleep waiting for him.

  “You had a long night,” he said, laughing.

  I snuggled in closer to him, still tipsy from the wine. “We were worried about you. Is Micah ok?”

  “We’re both fine. Micah is taking Beth to her cabin now. Let’s go to bed. We can talk about it in the morning.”

  I let Ian put me in bed and curled against his side when he put his arm around me. I could get used to this, I thought to myself. Maybe being his mate wasn’t a bad thing.

  I blinked as sunlight streamed through the window and watched the rise and fall of Ian’s chest. I got out of bed as quietly as possible so I wouldn’t wake him. He had to be exhausted after such a late night. I glanced down at him and saw bruises on his face. I pulled the sheet down and looked at his bare chest. There were gashes and cuts everywhere. Whatever happened last night had been bad.

  I made breakfast and did some stretches while waiting for Ian to wake up. I was outside working with my daggers when he came out.

  “Good morning, Serena. How are you feeling?”

  “I’m fine. No hangover at all.” I flushed thinking about how much we had to drink. “I should be asking you that question. What happened last night? You look like you got beat up pretty badly.”

  “It was another high-level demon.”


  “A different one?”

  “Yes, but it was from the same group. Another wrath demon. I think it was looking for you.”

  “Why? What do they want with me?” I could hear my own voice get louder. I was scared having one demon after me. Now Ian thought there was another one.

  “We don’t know, but you’re safe here. They haven’t found you. Having a high-level demon after you is bad, two is terrifying. Whatever they want, it’s important. To send two high-level demons to this realm would have cost them a fortune in money and in magic. Not to mention how many people they had to sacrifice.”

  “They kill people to come here?”

  “The higher the level of the demon, the stronger the sacrifice needs to be. They either use more people or a strong magi if they can catch one.”

  “What am I supposed to do? I don’t want people dying for me. I should leave. They’re going to keep attacking your people if they can’t find me.”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “Maybe we can work together. You would know the location of the demon if I was out there. When they come after me, you can have guardians standing by to kill them. If that doesn’t work, I need to leave town and run away. It’s the only thing I know for sure that works.”

  Ian looked thoughtful. “Let me talk it over with Kellan first. Maybe we can use something of yours to create a fake trail to trap the demons.” We didn’t speak about me leaving for the rest of the day.

  Ian left for a meeting with the council that evening. When he got back, I could tell he wasn’t happy about whatever they had discussed by the dark look on his face. He paced around the room, muttering to himself, while I tried to read. Finally, I stood up and stopped his pacing.

  “What’s the problem?” When he told me the plan, I smiled.

  “Why are you happy?”

  “Because I want to leave the compound. I don’t want to sit on the side and let other people get hurt protecting me.”

  Ian huffed and tried to resume his pacing, but I placed my hands on his chest and leaned in for a kiss.

  “I know you want to protect me, but I’ve learned a lot from you these past few weeks. I can defend myself.”

  “You don’t know what you’re up against,” Ian tried to say, but I kissed him again, and he fell silent.

  “Everything’s going to work out,” I told him, silently hoping I was right. I wasn’t an idiot. I knew a high-level demon could take me. I was going to fight it anyway. At least then it might give me some more information on why it kept following me around.

  Ian remained still for another minute before grabbing the back of my neck and pressing his lips to mine. He poured his frustration into our kiss, not stopping until we were both breathing heavily. He looked down at me, a small line appearing between his eyes.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “I don’t want to lose you. I know you still don’t believe in mates, but I do, and you’re mine. It would kill me if something happened to you.”

  I reached up and pulled him down for another kiss. He pulled away after a few seconds. “We can’t do this.”

  “Why not?”

  “It makes our bond stronger. I don’t want to force you into a mating you don’t want.”

  “Can’t we be together without mating?”

  “No. I wouldn’t be able to control myself. I can barely keep from declaring you my mate as it is. If we let this go any further, I’ll claim you, and I don’t want to do that without your permission. You can’t unclaim a mate.” I didn’t know what to say to him. He was right, I didn’t want to be claimed, but I did want to be with Ian.

  I watched as he got ready for bed. He didn’t say anything else. I climbed into the bed and closed my eyes, unsure what to do. I felt Ian slide in next to me. He wrapped his arm around me, and I felt him give me a light kiss on my shoulder before he settled onto his pillow. I took a deep breath enjoying his arms around me.

  I opened my eyes slowly to humming coming from the kitchen. I threw on my clothes and walked out to see Ian making a large breakfast.

  “Good morning, sweetheart. I thought you might be hungry.” He handed me a cup of coffee as I sat down.

  “Thanks. You didn’t have to make me breakfast.”

  “I wanted to. You make me happy, so I want to make you happy too.”

  A knock sounded on the door, and Ian frowned.

  “Go get it. It might be important.”

  Ian opened the door, and Kellan walked in. “Good morning, Serena,” he said after saying hi to Ian.

  “Good morning, Kellan.”

  “Did Ian explain what the plan is?”

  “Yes.”

  “I want to go over it one more time with you. Today you’ll leave the compound with Ian. You can do whatever you want, but stay with Ian. You’ll need to get around as much of the city as possible so the demons can track you. Once they’re following you, lead them to a secluded area so we can deal with them. There will be guardians trailing you everywhere you go, and more are stationed around the city as backup if you need it. You must stay in contact with us at all times. Ok?”

  “Ok,” I said. “How are you going to get rid of it? I thought it was tough to kill a demon?”

  “It is. That’s why we have so many guardians going with you. We can send the demons back to Vammoriel if they’re weakened enough.”

  “How do we weaken a demon?”

  “Fight it. You need to wound it enough that its strength starts to fail. Then the magi can send it back where it belongs.”

  I nodded and looked at Ian. He didn’t seem to like the idea, but he didn’t argue with Kellan.

  “You need to be careful,” Kellan warned me. “These demons are very powerful, and they’ll try to get away if they think they’re going to lose. You need to keep them from fleeing, but also keep yourself from getting caught. I think only one will come after you at a time. We haven’t seen the two demons together. Remember, everyone else thinks the demons are after Ian, not you, so stay with Ian so they don’t figure it out. We don’t need anyone learning about your heritage.”

  “Maybe the demons are working against each other. That would be a benefit to us. It will be much easier if we only have to fight one at a time,” Ian said.

  “When are we doing this?” I asked.

  “As soon as you’re ready to go. Finish your breakfast and get dressed. I expect you to be leaving within the hour. We want to do this in the daylight, if possible. It will weaken the demon even more, but I doubt they’ll attack until evening.”

  “I’ll be ready,” I said, balling my fists to hide my shaking hands. I wanted to get rid of the demon, but I was scared it would get me first. I was used to running. Staying and fighting was not my natural response to a threat, but I was slowly changing that. Learning to fight was a good thing for me. I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life in hiding.

  Kellan left after talking quietly to Ian for a minute. I finished my breakfast and hurried to shower and get dressed.

  I watched as we drove through the compound gates, an irrational fear that the demons would appear the second we left keeping me from talking. We drove in silence until we reached the town.

  Ian turned toward me. “What do you want to do first? We can stop by your apartment, or we can go get lunch.”

  “Let’s go to my apartment. I don’t have much there, but I want to make sure nothing’s been touched.”

  When we got to my building, I looked around, trying to spot any danger. I didn’t see anything, and Ian didn’t seem concerned, so I used my key to let myself in. Ian followed. I stopped a few steps in, shocked by what I saw.

  All of my stuff was thrown on the floor. Even the cups in the cabinet were now broken pieces of glass scattered across the tile. I walked forward slowly, gently pushing my destroyed belongings off to the side. Ian squeezed my hand in support while he spoke into his phone, telling Kellan what we found.

  When I got to my room, I let out a g
asp. My bed was slashed to ribbons, foam pieces were thrown everywhere. Even though nothing in the apartment meant a lot to me, it still bothered me to see it all destroyed. I walked through the rest of the apartment quickly and then stepped outside to wait for Ian.

  When he came out, he gave me a hug, and I rested my head against his chest for a minute, drawing strength from him. I pushed away and started toward the car.

  “Let’s go to the club next. We can walk around after that to make sure they find me.” I wanted this over with as quickly as possible.

  We parked at the club and strolled through the streets casually. I knew we probably wouldn’t get a visit from the demons until closer to nighttime, but I stayed aware of my surroundings just in case. We walked to a diner for some lunch, and I tried to relax.

  “Remember, other guardians are here. When the first demon appears, they’ll help us fight.”

  I choked down the food so I would have energy for the upcoming fight. We left and started heading back toward the club. There was an abandoned warehouse only a few blocks away that was private enough for a fight.

  The closer I got to the warehouse, the tenser I became. Once we were inside, Ian reached out and pulled me close to him for a kiss. I could see the fear for me in his eyes, and my own fear reflected back to him.

  “Be careful,” I whispered.

  “You too. Don’t do anything crazy. If you feel like we’re going to lose retreat to the other guardians. They’ll protect you. The demon will be going for you. You need to stay away from it so we can kill it before it hurts you. Remember, there are at least two demons after you. Don’t go anywhere alone or the other one could get you. Stay with the guardians no matter how scared you are.”

  “I know,” I told him. “We’ve been over this a hundred times. It will be fine.” He kissed me on the forehead. We both stiffened at the same time as we felt tingles run down our backs.