Hunters Series Burn Part Two

We drove that short hour drive in silence. I didn’t want to stay there and be sheltered like a child. I was Twenty-Two years old, a full-grown woman by most standards, just not my dad’s.

We finally pulled up to Paige’s well-kept old house. It was set off in a clearing on its own plot of land. She had her living room light on and we could see her rush to the door as soon as she saw us.

“Talia, Jack. It’s been a long time.” She greeted us at the porch of her house even before we had gotten around the car. Paige was a tall thin woman in her late thirties. She was a very beautiful woman and always seemed to look at my dad in all the right ways.

“Nice to see you, Paige” My dad swung his arms around his body as he walked to greet her. This seemed to be an old quirk that he had never gotten rid of.

“How long has it been, ten years?” She asked with her arms crossed in front of her. “You should stop in more often.”

“I haven’t been in Montana for a few years otherwise I would.”

“Well, come in and stay for a bit.” She extended her arms ushering us into the tidy little house.

The inside was just as you would expect a well kept home to really be. The walls were covered in dark colored paints that made the room glow in an odd kind of way. The furniture was all brand new and clean as could be. Compared to the cheesy hotels that I was used to, this was a palace.

“Talia, why don’t you go on upstairs and get settled in. Your room is the first on the right.” She was smiling as she spoke. I looked from her to my dad to see what I should do. He simply nodded to tell me to go on.

I walked up the stairs towards the hallway thinking about how long I was going to be staying here. The last time my dad had left me, it had been because of a demon that was targeting hunter’s kids. He ended up catching it in Fort Worth and killing it without a hitch. At least that was what he had told me at the time. I only ended up staying here for a little over two weeks, so I had high hopes that this would be a repeat.

Let me tell you a little about Paige. First she’s not really my aunt. She’s just a really good friend of my dad’s. She is a really great person and has been through some shit. When I first met her, she was hunting Vampires down in New Orleans a few years ago. My dad and I happened across her when a demon and one of her Vampires were in a deal together. Remember demons want power and they don’t care who or what they have to work with to get it.

Paige was in a scuffle with the vamp when our demon decided to end the fight and came for her. Lucky for her, my dad was just a few feet away trying to hear what was going on at the scene. My dad killed the demon before it got within two feet of her. Took its head off in one sweep. Then Paige staked the vamp before it knew what hit him. That was how my dad worked. Kill them first, ask questions later.

After the vampire nests had been cleaned out down in New Orleans, she decided to just live the rest of her life at her inherited home in the wilds of Montana. The trouble is that hunters just seem to keep coming by, us being one of them.

I found that first door on the right and opened the door. The room was made for a kid. A little girl, but there wasn’t one, at least not anymore.

After I had taken a look at where I’d be staying, I made my way back down the stairs as quietly as possible. I figured that they were making plans about how long I’d stay and what it was that he was after.

“I don’t want Talia to know, Paige.” He was saying to her. “She’s not going to go through this life like we do. I don’t think that she can handle it.”

“Jack, she’s a smart kid. I don’t think that you give her enough credit.” Paige was at least defending me.

“If she knew what happened…I mean what really happened, and then she would never be the same. I can’t do that to her.” He was holding his hands out in front of him looking at the carpet.

“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of her. You’ll be back before too long. You always are.” I could see a smile on her face as she said this and her hand on his forearm. He held onto it with his other hand for a minute and met her eyes. I suddenly felt as though I was interrupting a private scene and decided to make my presence known.

“So, have you two decided how long I’m going to be staying” I said popping around the corner of the stairs. I decided to pretend like I’d just came down and not make a big deal out of what I’d heard, but I still kind of wondered about it.

“As long as I need you to stay.” My dad boomed at me and pulled away from Paige. “You know what to do if there is a problem, right?”

“Of course. It’s been the same routine since I was six. I think I have it down by now.” I started off at him. Then I wished that I hadn’t.

“I just want you to be safe.”

“I know.” At those words he turned away from me and started out the door.

“Dad.” I called after him and started to follow him for a minute. He turned and looked at me. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”