Hunters Series - Burn Part Four

I stood up and ran down the stairs at full speed. The blonde demon turned when he heard me and started at me. He moved faster than anyone should and slammed into my body. I hit the wall by the door hard and teetered almost losing my balance. The demon was right there, face twisted in disgust. I shot back to the door. Just a couple feet more and I’d be out. I felt a hand on my leg and I fell forward slamming my face into the floor. The blonde demon pulled me back to the water demon, who smiled wide in approval at me.

“That one is a fighter.” He said turning away from me and back to the blonde demon. “I’ll keep looking for the list and when you’re done with her,” He looked at me with a wild grin, “Let me know. I want to keep her.”

The blonde demon cracked a slight smile and let go of my leg. It fell to the floor with a loud thud and I pulled it back to me. My mind was still fuzzy from the fall, but I managed to stand. I straightened my body up and the blonde demon was still a good foot taller than I was. He just smiled at me and watched me. He knew that I couldn’t get too far while he was in the room.

“Give me a good reason to keep you alive.” The demon said through a straight smile. I said nothing, just glared back at him. “Not going to even play?” He started walking closer to me with that smile. If I didn’t know better I would have thought that he was some sophisticated man from somewhere across the ocean.

I struggled against the urge to step away from him, but I didn’t want to seem as though I couldn’t handle it.

“You look familiar. Have we crossed paths before?” He said stopping less than a foot in front of me, not looking me up and down with that same smug smile. Again, I said nothing, but held my jaw down tight to try and hid the fear that was creeping up so fast.

“Still nothing, huh.” He seemed a little disappointed and turned away from me. I looked at the door. Now would be the time to make a break for it. The door was open still and was less than two feet away. I looked back at the demon, his back still to me, and ran as fast as I could for the door. Again, he was there before I could get out, his face less than an inch in front of mine. I held my ground and he smiled again. “I know you look just like her. You know who I’m talking about don’t you?” He didn’t move from his spot and neither did I, but was bracing for what I knew was coming next. “Kate Barrester, Your mother.” His smile widened as he spoke.

I tried not to flinch, but knew that I did by the way that he looked at me, satisfied that he had finally hit some kind of nerve. “She was a fighter too. You must get that from her. Your dad is too complacent to be a good fighter. He can’t even catch a little old water demon.”

I glared at him and tired to hold my breath.

A quick glance towards the kitchen and I caught something in the corner of my eye. It was C.J. He had a shotgun in one hand and was creeping along in between the kitchen and the living room towards us. The blonde demon seemed as though he was to into getting a rise out of me more that expecting anyone to interrupt.

Then C.J shot the gun missing blonde demon by only an inch or two. I dove into the kitchen.

“C.J, come on we have to get out of here!” I shouted to him. I heard him scramble to me and we both ran out the kitchen door. I looked up from the ground and saw a huge blue dodge pickup. He motioned for me to get in the passenger seat as he started the truck. I glanced back to the door and saw the blonde demon racing out after us, but C.J had the car in gear and was plowing over the snow in the other direction.

I watched the snowy road in front of us turn into blacktop as we drove. I didn’t know how long it had been, but knew that we had traveled at least to a main road in Montana. I was still unsure what he had been doing there and why he had showed up like he did.

“We’re far enough away now that it will take some fast running to catch up.” He said with a slight smile on his face. C.J liked the hunt, it was written all over his face. “Did you get it?”

“Get what?” I said twisting to look at him.

“The disk, duh.”

I remembered the SD card that I’d taken from the house and felt inside my pocket. My hand found it easily and I pulled it out to look at it. This is what they were after and now, I would be what they were after.

“Good. We don’t want those guys to get their hands on it.” He was still driving as he talked and seemed to have no intention of slowing down or stopping to explain things to me. So I took it on myself to ask the questions while he was driving. Most people can talk and drive, right?

“Who was the blonde demon?” I started with the most important question, at least to me.

“He’s the one that we were looking for. I guess he was there all night just waiting for the right time to show himself.” He said not looking at me. “His name is Karchack. He’s bad news and we, being the idiots that we were walked straight into a trap that got most of us killed.” I got the impression that he was venting frustration now. I decided to keep the fact that he knew my mother to myself and focus on him, at least for now.

“What happened?”

“After we left this morning, we got a lead that he was holed up in an old abandoned house. Scott and Caleb covered the front and me and David got the back, but there was more than we thought going on in there.” He hesitated for a minute. “Karchack was there with at least one demon from every element. For some there were two. That water demon that was at Paige’s.” I nodded as he spoke. “He was there too. What we caught before they attacked was something that I didn’t believe.” He looked at my hand where the SD card was. “Until now.”

“That’s why you ended up at Paige’s house.” I said looking down at the floor. The fact that I’d still been there was just dumb luck. “They’ll be looking for us. When they can’t find the list, they will just figure that we grabbed it.” He nodded.

“We need a place close to lay low until we get an idea of what to do.” He said. I could tell he was thinking. “I think I know just the place.”

He drove for awhile without offering any conversation. I guessed that he liked it quite when he was thinking of what to do about things and the next move. I took the time to think about all of the things that had happened in the last few days.

My dad had gone after the water demon that was working with Karchack and had me stay with a friend of his, which was now dead. He had also left me right smack in the middle of the war that he was trying so hard to keep me out of. I also wondered if he was out there looking for me. I had to get to a phone and call him. At least then, I could let him know that I was still alive.

“Pull over at the next gas station.” I announced to C.J. He looked over at me with a look that would have put a lesser person in their place. “I have to know if he’s still alive.”

“Who?”

I didn’t answer him; I was too far away in my thoughts, and my worries.

He reluctantly pulled into a lone gas station on the abandoned highway. I wondered how anyone could make any money out here in the middle of nowhere, but maybe that was the plan. Just to be left alone.

The payphone was on the outside of the building and was bitter cold to the touch. I held my breath to keep my lungs from freezing and dialed the number. It rang the four times that it always did before going to voice mail. I thought about leaving a message and then decided that it probably wasn’t a go

Good idea. One thing that my dad had always taught me was to never leave a trail that a demon could follow and by calling him, I had already broken that rule.

I held the receiver in my hand with my other hand on the button to hand up. I so wanted to call him again and leave a message letting him know how I really felt, but found the brain function to put the phone where it belonged and walk away. C.J just looked up at me when I walked to the truck. He already knew that I hadn’t talked to him without having to ask.

“So where are we going?” I asked after we had gotten back into the truck and started down the highway.

“I know a guy in Jackson that owes me a favor. We can stay there for a few days and decide what to do next.” He looked at me for a brief second before turning his gaze back to the road in front of him.

“So, Wyoming, huh. More cold and snow. Why can’t we ever have to chase a demon to someplace warm, like Nevada?”

C.J snickered and kept driving.