Beloved (Heart Hunter Series Book 1)

Chapter 8

Megan floored the rental back to the old trail in the woods, taking no care whatsoever in avoiding potholes and low hanging branches. Snaps and bangs echoed on every dimension of the car, its engine revving almost loud enough to drown out Kara’s anxiety over how big of a drop the suspension hit every few seconds on the never-serviced road.

They parked the already dark car in the darkest spot they could find, hoping to avoid being seen by anything. The last thing they needed was to be ambushed from behind.

Megan led the way up the trail. It wasn’t long until the dank moss smell of the deep woods drifted around them and the familiar landmark of a twisted tree wrapped in century old barbed wire came into view.

Kara felt more confident in their second approach even with the likelihood of some kind of doom ahead of them. She had an amulet and the Demons didn’t know it. She basically had the key to their front door—they would ambush them and finally get a chance at getting the upper hand.

The path was steep and the way was gray and din. Megan had pulled out a small red flashlight from somewhere within her rather minimalist attire and had it trained on the ground ahead of them.

“Do you always wear clothes like that when you hunt?”

Megan flashed her a grin. “Life’s more fun when you live on the edge.”

“If by the edge you mean platform boots, I don’t get it. How are you gonna run in those things?”

Megan laughed. “You’d be surprised by the punch they pack behind a kick. No need for running.”

“Let’s hope that’s true.” Kara stopped and narrowed her gaze ahead. They were twenty feet from the clearing. “Almost there.”

“These Demons don’t know what’s coming to them.” Megan trudged forward.

The familiar creep of something watching writhed up her neck. Kara twisted around to search the dense forest around her. Her dull cramps suddenly got worse and pulsed from her sides down her back, causing her to hunch forward a bit to ease the strain. Megan didn’t seem to have the same problem. Did she not sense the eyes trained on them from somewhere?

“Kara?” Megan called. Kara had stopped in her tracks. Megan was almost in the clearing.

Kara swallowed back the feeling, letting it fade into the darkest parts of her mind and she scurried to catch up. Whatever was around, it wasn’t being obvious like a Demon. She wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.

“I gotta say…” Megan rubbed her hands together with a greedy grin.

“I’ve never been more pumped to kill some Demons before. I feel like the Fire has lit me up.”

Kara pulled out the amulet from the pocket of her grandmother ’s worn leather coat, her very old and very own Hunter coat—and swiped away the drops of water to let the amber stone catch the passing moonlight above them and it glowed as if on fire out of nowhere.

“Woah!” Megan’s eyes became entranced on the red aura.

“It means we’re here,” Kara breathed a sigh of relief.

The wind had died down in the hour they’d climbed the trail but the rain was starting up with a vengeance again.

This was right about where they’d been attacked the night before but this time, there was no shiny mirage or signs of the Demons. Kara’s cramps were gone. She prayed they weren’t too late.

“Pass me the amulet.” Kara held out the relic and Megan snatched it.

Her hair was glued to her body by the water of the skies pouring down on them. Kara could taste the hollowness of it when she opened her mouth to speak.

“Ready?” Megan’s grin twisted into her features.

Kara gulped. “Do it.”

She slicked back her own hair, trying to see the ground below the red fire light now pouring from the amulet. The clouds obscured the moon and it was dark. Kara wished she had thought to be more prepared and brought her own flashlight.

“Are you sure this does anything?” Megan growled once she’d wound

the side of it. “Your ex didn’t just pull a fast one on us, did he?”

Kara swallowed the l ump in her throat but it didn’t go. It sat there foul and heavy. He couldn’t have done that to her. Except he could.

“Here, let me see it again.” Megan handed her back the amulet and with her hand now free, held her jacket above her head to shelter her from the rain.

“I’ll be waiting under that tree—smoking.”

She didn’t know if Megan saw her nod of acknowl edgement—Kara was staring deep into the ruby. It was too dark to see five feet away without squinting and yet the bright red of the stone mocked her with its clarity and light.

She turned the amulet on every plane, praying it would work to save Josh, her soccer-loving, annoying little brother. The frustration propelled her and Kara wanted so badly to throw it as hard as she could against the boulder she knew was somewhere at her feet—but she squeezed it as hard as she could instead—willing the pain in her hand to give her some satisfaction of physical pain that could mirror the horrifying pain in her heart.

She felt a sharp edge dig deep into her ring-finger. The warmth of blood as the skin gave way. Kara didn’t remember that edge—only the smoothness of the tarnished brass grasping the ruby in its time-smoothed claws.

“Ow!”

Megan was beside her almost instantl y. The red glow illuminating the her hand and the amulet in a bloody glow.

And that’s when Kara saw it. The small sharp edge that had pricked her. A small pyramid on the side of the amulet—a pin with a microscopic space that indicated it was not obviously mel ted onto the metal . It drank her blood up.

“What the fuck!” Megan’s excitement filled her ears.

She’d been in many messed up, dangerous situations since ascending into her Hunter bloodline at fourteen years old, but this particular situation took the cake.

Her palm began burn and she dropped the amulet to the ground and j umped back, knocking into Megan beside her. They both glanced at each other with wide eyes and then to the amulet, which vibrated on the ground below them, kicking up mud and grass with its quakes.

Drops of rain pelleted against them that now dripped from their over- soaked clothes to the grass that just the night before had been yellowed by sun and bone dry. It only reminded Kara that in twenty-four hours anything could change, and it had. She swallowed back the numb ing mental picture of James walking away from her and into the night. He might be gone but Josh she wouldn’t let go of. Her brother was all she had left, and right here and now she would seize this one last chance to make it alright. To bring him home.

The amulet continued to violently j ump on the ground, and it expanded and turned clouded and wispy—air whipped up around them like a cyclone, making any nearby leaves and sticks airborne. Kara squinted through the rain and circling wind. The ground beneath their feet vibrated and with it, the whirling gusts slowed into a motionless warp of time. The red gem of the amulet still had edges in the small hurricane of forest that was spinning around them. It engulfed their bodies, still expanding around them, covering the moss and iron smelling atmosphere in a hellish shade of red. She swallowed the last of her courage as the vortex curved around them and quickly collapsed its edges towards them, sucking the world from them and morphing the surrounding forest into gray cave walls. Kara gasped for air as the breath in her lungs evaporated. It was replaced with the heaviness of gases that her lungs were never meant to breathe. Her body struggled to find the oxygen in the cocktail. Her tongue seared with the taste of acid, her nose stung from the wall of sulphur. She looked over her shoulder to Megan, her vision blurred. She blinked a few times past the tears to slot the image of the Demon hunter beside her as more than a blurry black mound.

The wet rock around them narrowed to the furthest reaches of her vision. Leading to what appeared to be a claustrophobically small entrance.

“Let’s go,” Megan’s heaving voice echoed along the cave walls. The deeper they ventured into the cave, the darker it got. “Of all the dimensional folds, they choose this one?” Megan coughed. Kara felt like a fish who’d been pulled out of the ocean in a net. She breathed in deep and heavy breaths and couldn’t get enough. They wouldn’t survive long in this kind of atmosphere. “Can you… breathe?”

“Barely.” Megan coughed. “Can’t fill my lungs.”

“We’re suffocating.” Her adrenaline surfaced as fear for her brother multiplied. She didn’t know how he could possibly survive in such conditions. She’d ascended—gained more strength, power, endurance and even for all that, she was barely holding on to consciousness. “We need to find him. Now.” Kara jogged forward into the darkness, slipping on loose rock and gasping for breath in between the grating echoes.

Noises of Demons arguing hit the edges of her hearing. They grew louder with each step they took further into the fold. Her heart sparked with hope as the last turn led to flickering candlelight along the stone. Kara took Megan by the arm and stopped her mid-step before she fell off the edge that disappeared wordlessly in front of them.

Megan was doing her best to suck in quiet breaths as she inched right back as a Demon’s shadow moved across the walls from below them. Kara’s toe edged the drop down to the cavern, getting a good view of what they’d have to scale to get down there. It seemed like a big feat when they had no time and little oxygen.

She swore under her breath as she began to count the Demons below. They were outnumbered by at least eight very large Demoni c beings whose skin shown like crystals in the flickering light of fire.

“What are these things?” she whispered.

“They’re straight out of a hell dimension—” Megan hushed.

“We’re running out of time!” A familiar voice bellowed from below.

Kara could almost place the inflections. “I don’t understand how you don’t know where she is. I’m not leaving another town without draining the Hunter ’s blood from it!”

Megan pushed at her shoulder and gave her a knowing look. “You and me.”

There was a high screeching voice replying in garbled tongues Kara couldn’t decipher.

“I don’t care if you think this boy you’ve brought me will lure her in, he is totally useless! I want… Her. We need only ascended Hunters. Do not make me repeat myself again peon.”

“We need to attack while we’re still conscious.” Kara’s staggered breaths collided with her sparked instincts. She glanced around the edge and down into the bottom of the cave, spotting the next l edge they could jump to.

“How can a reckless little Hunter like her go flat out missing?” The Demon speaking stepped into view and Kara went white under the recognition of the human body standing amongst the crystalline Demons.

“Mr. Polanski,” she gasped.

Megan’s brow furrowed. “Who’s that?”

“My principal.”

“Your Principal is the Demon leader trying to kill us?” It didn’t make sense in her head and it didn’t make sense when Megan said it aloud either but it must have been true. There he was, Italian leather shoes and all, angry as he lectured to the Demons groveling around him.

“She is weak—I have seen it. An easy collection, so easy… And yet not one of you pathetic snots has brought her to me! I set all this up perfectly, she won’t be missed, not one of those meatbags will miss this one… Not one

will even look for her.”

Kara’s heart sank from the truth the Principal Polanski spoke. No one would miss her. It lit a fire in her belly. She would be missed if Josh didn’t die. She just had to save him.

“Makes sense why I was kicked out of grade twelve yesterday.” Kara’s face set into a snarling mask of determination. She was pissed off she’d been

stalked and hadn’t known it. That her principal of all things was a Demon and she couldn’t feel it. Her Hunter blood wasn’t working the way she was told, her instincts were weak, but it didn’t mean she wasn’t going to prove the hell beasts below her wrong.

“Agreed.” Megan pulled out a silvery dagger.

“Where’d you get that?”

Megan paused to look over at her, not hiding the shock on her face. “You don’t have anything?”

Kara didn’t reply and Megan rolled her eyes, pulling out another from behind her back and handing it to Kara.

“They’re silver. It will hurt them a whole lot more than iron or steel.”

“Thanks.” Kara didn’t have time to be embarrassed at her outright lack of preparation in front of Megan. They locked eyes, readying themselves for the descent. She took the biggest, deepest breath she could muster.

“One, two, three!”

Kara breathed out and launched herself off the ledge, hoping to use the step below as an intermediate support on the way down but she slipped on the slick wet rock at the edge and fell the fifteen feet to the cavern floor instead. Her head hit the unforgiving edge of the stone wall on the way down and she blinked a few times to get her shuddering vision to focus.

“Well, well.” The bare feet of her principal waltzed into a view. She never thought she’d ever see anything but those alligator shoes on his feet.

“Who is responsible for this?”

Kara pushed herself from the ground, not letting the sting of the scrapes and bruises she’d collected on the way down stop her now. “Where is my brother?”

He laughed. “Oh, don’t tell me you just walked right in here for me? I love how stupid Hunters are.” He reached for her and she had nowhere to go. The wall of the cavern was already pressing at her back, she had dropped the dagger on impact and it laid just beyond him, pointing its sharply honed tip at her like a disappointed teacher. His long fingers dove at her and she tried to grasp the dagger by its blade but she was too slow—he lifted her off the ground by the throat with a crushing laugh.

Her hands wrung around his hands, her short nails dug into the crevices of his knuckles but they were too hard to be skin and she couldn’t get a hold enough to even make a dent.

“Hey, scum, up here.”

Mr. Polanski expression of triumph let confusion flash across his features as he looked up. Megan was in a quick descent above him, dagger glinting in her grasp. It found purchase in his shoulder and she took him down hard to the ground and he lost his grip on Kara in the fall. He roared and tried to throw Megan off his shoulders. Kara watched him flicker between her principal’s form and the giant crystalline Demon he really was. Megan could barely hold onto his giant form.

Kara scrambled against the slick rocks, sharp edges grating against her skin. Her lungs betrayed her and the lack of oxygen slowed the time around her. She dry-heaved, stomach wanting to jump from her body.

She had to find Josh before she fell unconscious. Crawling, she managed to get to her feet. There were Demons all around her—some with their bright, slitted eyes trained right at her, some with their eyes trained to the ceiling, chanting in wet and guttural growls. She had to pass them to get to the stack of bodies glowing with hard purple light at the only real end of the cavern and it looked so far away.

“Grrrlll. Mine.”

One last futile breath and she dove head first into the Demon barreling towards her in an attempt to grab her. She managed to j ump up and out of its grip and took its arm into her own. It’s skeletally thin arm was hard and cold in her hands. She tensed her oxygen-starved muscles beyond their ability and pitched it towards the closest make shift pit fire. It screeched as it landed in the fires—its hard body still easily impaled by the spear hanging above it.

The smile at its lucky demise felt odd on her face, but she would take the victory.

She didn’t have long—more Demons were leaving their posts. Two more rushed at her but she was running out of time and energy to fight them. She had to get past them.

Scanning the floor just ahead of her, she tried to see if sharp rockiness of the high cavern walls had also afflicted the floor. In the dim light it was hard to tell, but she was fairly certain she could make it, even if it was a little sharp. With a quick test to ensure the floor was wet enough for her sneakers to slide and barely any time to move out of the Demons collision zone, she took a large step back and two fast steps forward and allowed her body to fall. Kara could feel the small rocks below her sliding body tear into her but the pain seemed so far away it didn’t matter.

The ceiling was instantly obscured by the crystalline forms of the Demons as she slid beneath them. They weren’t very bright. She watched them strike one another in her absence and as she neared clearing them completely, she hooked her arms on their legs and pulled their already teetering bodies down to the ground beside her.

A noise like shattering glass echoed around her. She had no time to lose and no weapon to defend herself with. Her eyes returned to the shimmering glow at the end of the cavern and she ran. The sharp, gagging smell of decay hit her hard as she got to the edge of the light. Iron clung to her tongue and her mouth went dry. The light had obscured it before—but at the edge of the violet glow she could see could she a pile of bodies, unmoving and human.

She could see Josh. His small frame propped up and half laying on the bodies—his eyes closed, his body limp and mottled with dark circles.

“Josh!” She called for him. As she leaped to the threshold of the magic light—she hit the ground in front of it instead and she was dragged back. Her breathing rasped into a scream as anger, fear, and the instinct for blood took over. She ripped her leg from the Demon and lunged from the ground at it.

In a blind rage—she had its neck in her hands and she twisted, snapping the hardened bones—mucharder than hers or any humans—in its neck. She jumped off the Demon as it crumpled beneath her like a doll.

“Josh!”

“He doesn’t hear you.” The voice of her principal echoed across the cavern and she looked over her shoulder to see a losing battle. Megan was subdued, forced down into the hard floor by two Demons. The Hunter was still fighting tooth and nail to get free but it was in vain. These Demons were much stronger than they were used to and suddenly, it showed. Kara could still hear Megan cussing them out in her struggle.

Her eyes went back to Josh. She could grab him and run—she was tired and the world had black edges, but she had to try. She looked back towards Megan and saw more Demons moving from the shadows. The chanting she’d drowned out by the intensity of the fight—was eerily quiet. Only whispers whirled around her. The two Demons she had smashed earlier by the looks of their broken and vein-like shatter mar ks over their uncovered bodies, were descending on her.

She was so spent.

Their nails tore into her, causing blood to trickle down her arms and appear from under the cuffs of her coat. One drop, two drops, the blood left her fingertips and hit the dirt.

“Why are you doing this?” She shouted as they dragged her back towards the center. She closed her eyes against the tears starting there. She couldn’t lose like this. Her chest was heavy. Her body ached. Her baby

brother needed her.

They stopped moving. She opened her eyes to the face of her principal smiling maniacally down at her. Light from the fires cast across only one half of his face.

“After seven hundred years of being repressed by human Enchanters and their supernatural creations, I think it’s time for a rebellion. Don’t you?”

“If you think killing me will help with that, you’re delusional,” she spat.

The thought was almost as amusing as it was daunting. Hundreds of years of Hunter blood backed a battle won against the Demons in the modern world. There was no way a small bunch of Demons could combat that—even if they were from another Hell dimension. Even if they were better than her dimensions’ Demons in every way. They were horribly outnumbered both by the Hunters and the humans. Even if she and Megan lost this battle there were hundreds more of them to finish the job.

“You are not the first Hunter we’ve killed, and you and that feisty one certainly won’t be the last.” He glanced over to the pile with a slow grin and Kara followed his motion. Panic shot through her as she realized who was contained within the pile of bodies there. Hunters. At least a hundred of them.

“Don’t be so naive, Kara. It’s all about the quick and fine el ement of surprise. It’s exactly what I did when I killed your principal for his skin. He didn’t see me coming. I walked into the school and consumed him at his desk. Two seconds tops, the secretary didn’t even have a chance to hear him scream.” He twirled around, showing off the stolen body. “I kind of like the look now though, I think I’ll keep it.” He walked toward her, picking up the dagger she’d dropped earlier on his way “Forged silver, impressive.”

Kara shook from the next wave of adrenaline pumping through her veins. If she couldn’t win now, she wouldn’t get out of here alive, let alone have any chance of saving Josh. It propelled forward and she thrashed against the Demons that held her, breaking the contact of one but it wasn’t enough. She sagged against them, spent. Her teeth lightly chattered. It was getting so cold being wet.

“You won’t get away.” Her voice sounded weak even to her.

Mr. Demon Polanski laughed as the two Demons squeezed her hard enough to make her knees buckle. She hit the floor. “You see, you belong to us. Your blood is stolen, an insulting dilution infused by those extinct Enchanters. They were weak to succumb to the dogmas of such disgusting shape-shifting-humans—all hail the Lycan.” He shouted the words, they echoed in every crevice of Kara’s body. He stomped towards her, dagger pointed straight to her heart. “Your existence is a mockery of The Dark and Unholy Fire. A product of Lycan greed. A currency of power. You mean nothing. You are nothing, Hunter.”

Her green eyes focused on him. “So, what, you’re going to kill us all?” “Yes.” The dagger tip dug into her. “And when The Coven notices their genetic pool of pathetic soldiers is all but gone we will have built the cause. They will be forced to put their own Elites on the line but we will have already won.”

Kara couldn’t piece together what he spoke of—a coven? Elites? But what she did understand was that their lives were in far more danger than she’d anticipated.

He smiled at her. “I will pluck one Hunter ’s heart at a time until I take back all that was stolen from us. No one will be able to stop our rule. Not even the Lycan. We’re the true form of what they all wish to be.”

“You’ll never w in!” Megan shouted. “You fucking delusional peice of shit. Go back to the shithole where you came from before you regret it!”

“I’ll build an army greater and stronger than any Hunter or Lycan can fight. I will win, I cannot be stopped.” He smiled and looked back to Kara.

“Let’s get on with it then.” He dragged the dagger down her chest, just below her ribcage where it began to cut into her flesh.

Mr. Polanski’s face morphed into the Demon that had killed him, his body followed suit, elongating, hardening, thinning. Before her loomed a seven foot shimmering Demon, smiling ear to ear as he drew his arm back to puncture into her soul.

This was it, her end, in a dark wet cave, hidden away inside the folds of some dimension. No one would ever find her—what was worse, no one would ever look. She hadn’t ever done anything right, unable to answer her calling or protect the ones she loved. Her fate had been sealed from birth, a damnation she would never escape, one that had killed her.

“Do you want to know the best part?” The Demon chuckled. “Your brother was useless. He suffocated to his death… But it all worked out, it made you want to find us, didn’t it?”

Her eyes met the fluorescent yellow glow of the leader’s. The curves of his lip showed off doubled rows of sharpened teeth. “He begged, please don’t hurt my sister.”

The Demons all started to laugh and then they silenced.

“What’s that smell?”

He looked up, the Demons holding Kara followed suit. “Well, look at this turn of events!” The leader stared at the large shadow of a black wolf standing in the tunnel entrance above. A snarl scattered across the walls.

Kara couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Tom had sent his lackeys after her to ensure she survived. She thought the situation had been bad before, her fate, if she lived, filled her with a heavy dread. There was no way, dead or alive this ended in her favor. Leaping from the l edge, the wolf, all teeth and fury, collided with the closest Demon that held Megan flat on the ground. He grabbed it in his massive jaw and a crack like the splitting of ice hit her hearing. The neck broke with a precision that Hunters didn’t have. Megan somersaulted to her feet and shoulder-checked the nearest Demon—its body colliding with the stone walls of the cavern. It screeched and grappled Megan in a bear hug and then Kara couldn’t make out which limb was whose as Megan and the Demon fell to the ground—all arms and legs and noise.

Another crack ricocheted throughout the space and Kara turned to see the wolf—jaw dripping with bright blue blood—standing over the last nearby crystalline Demon’s corpse. He turned to the Demons left, all surrounding her and the leader, and snarled. Blue blood scattered across the air.

Kara could feel Mr. Demon Polanski tightened his grip on her. She winced.

“Hold your ground!” He shouted—but the leader was too late to gain control over the panic. The stalking wolf galloped towards them and the group fled in fear. He took off after the nearest one and it shrieked as he tackled it to the ground—finishing it off quicker than a blink. Kara grew more afraid of this wolf—it slaughtered Demon after Demon and they barely had a moment to fight back.

She felt her body drag across the ground but she was too dizzy and warm to resist. If she died now then it would be quick. Josh was gone. She had nothing left to hold her here. The disgusting crunch and squish oscillating around her was not the kind of ending soundtrack she’d anticipated.

Her body stopped moving and she opened her eyes to the dark eyes of the wolf—its mouth open and dripping, tongue out and panting—shoulders pulled back and ready to pounce. He was not even five feet from her—she could smell his fur—a mix of the mossy ground of the forest outside and sharp iron and sulfur.

Whoever was holding her, shook her and propelled her forward. She crashed to the ground, her face hitting rock.

“Take her!”

The wolf pounced towards her, she shut her eyes. The sound of nails grabbing at rock and a slick whoosh of air hit her across the face. She opened her eyes and turned up to see the wolf mid-leap above her.

Kara turned away just as his teeth collided with the Demon’s face. She started to crawl away towards the hazy purple cloud she knew to be the resting place of her baby brother.

“Kara! Behind you!” Kara recognized that voice—it was Megan’s.

A foot crashed down on her back. “What Lycan would care to work with a Hunter?” Mr. Demon Polanski spat.

“I… don’t know, but he’s not working with us—”

“Lies!” His hands—now enlarged and sharp grasped her shoulders and hauled her to her feet. Her toes dangled below her. “I will savour this.”

He shrieked. Then she hit the ground again—this time her hands caught her fall.

“Take that, Bastard!” It was Megan. She sounded so distant.

Kara scrambled to her feet and turned to see Mr. Demon Polanski yanking a smoldering dagger from his shoulder and a giant wolf standing between them—hi s tail practically grazing her shin.

His fur was raised all down his back and around his neck, cresting him with a ma ne above his square shoulders. He was silent.

“Impressive. An Alpha. To what do we owe the honor?”

A deep growl quietly rose from the wolf—filling the cavern until it was the only thing she could hear.

“Go back to your precious coven, tell I’m coming,” the Demon leader taunted.

Kara didn’t care to see out what that meant and she seized the moment and ran away from the standoff towards the purple haze.

She didn’t care if it killed her. She dove head first into the magic translucent wall. It tore through her body like the unfiltered radioactive heat of the sun. Her body scorched from the inside out—she could feel each organ light afire. Screaming, she landed on the other side and hit the dirt hard. The red hot pain left as quickly as it came on.

She pushed to her hands and knees and crawled towards the unmoving body of her brother, he was still dressed in his soccer jersey, though it was now riddled with dark stains and holes. She heaved a deep unsuccessful breath with each movement of her limbs. The air was so much thinner there. She was careful not to look directly down at the bodies below her. Small white orbs prevented her from climbing directly over any lifeless

faces. Tears streaming down her face—she reached him. One finger turning to a fistful of his shirt collar—drawing his face into the crook of her neck and pulling his entire body into her arms—rocking him.

“Josh!”

Amidst a stack of death, she ran her hands over his shaggy hair in hopes of he was still alive. “Kara.” He didn’t move, but she heard his whisper clear as a bell across a barren field.

“Josh… I’m here! I got you now.” She drew him even closer—rubbing his back.

“Kara.” He coughed violently and gasped for air. She could hear the fluid in his lungs rattle with each inhale.

She looked around, vision blurry, to figure out how to get him off the pile, where to go to get him out of there. Someone was running towards her long hair like a battle flag trailing behind them. Kara blinked a few times and Megan swam into view.

“We need to get out of here!” Megan pointed behind her. Kara watched as the giant black wolf and the Demon leader tumbled across the cavern floor, growls and screeches and heavy thuds, and then they both were up again, sparring with claws and teeth. The leader grabbed one of the spears, hot and red from the flames of one of the pit fire and stabbed towards the wolf.

Why would one of Tom’s men risk their life so passionately for her. He probably knew nothing about her except her name. He could turn and go at any moment—unless he hadn’t been given the choice and instead of Kara’s life, he was fighting to keep his own from ending at the hands of an enraged Tom. That seemed more plausible.

“My brother is alive.” Kara held onto him tighter. “He spoke to me.”

Megan looked up at them, brow drawn and dark. “We need to leave right now.” Kara tried to lift herself off the pile, Josh’s limp body gripped tightly in hers, but she didn’t have the energy. She fell back, losing her grip as her shoulder squished into something wet but not quite soft. Reeling back from the sudden sensation, she slid down the pile of bodies to the rocky floor, landing eye to eye with the cloudy haze of another Hunter. Their mouth was agape—skin white and marred with dark black lines where veins would have been.

Kara shut her eyes, but the image didn’t leave.

“I’ll help you… Ah! Fuck!” Megan screeched. Kara got back on her feet, eyes opening to see Megan still outside the space where Kara knew the purple wall had been. “This thing just burned the shit out of me !” Megan held up her arm to show her the length of her forearm, bright red and burned, sections of skin already blistered and bubbled.

“How did you get in there?” Megan demanded.

Kara swallowed as she realized she hadn’t been anywhere near burnt like Megan just had. “I-I don’t know. It didn’t hurt me like that.”

“What the fuck!” Megan fumed. She ripped part of her pant-leg off and wrapped it around her arm. “Dammit this stings. I’ll try to find another way in” And with that Megan ran away from her and along the borders of the enchanted force field, attempting to find a way in.

Kara climbed back the few feet to where Josh was leaning, still pale and motionless. She dug her heels down into the pile, hooking into something she didn’t want to know any more about and heaved him onto her chest, wrapping her arms in a bear hug around him. It took all her strength to navigate her way down and not fall. Each step brought a new sickening sound, smell or sensation and she didn’t dare look down. She swallowed a gag on the last step and couldn’t hold him anymore. She put him down, the muscles in her back and arms shaking.

THWACK.

A loud echo shot across the cavern and Kara looked up to see the wolf limp and lying on the ground. She held her breath, waiting to see movement from him but all she got was a twitch of a paw. They were back on their own. The leader trudging slowly towards them with a shit-eating grin. A section of hard skin on his cheek was detached from his face and flopped down with each step he took.

“It was a good try. I finally experienced some kind of challenge.” He laughed. There were no other Demons to hear him gloat—just her and Megan were left but it didn’t stop him. He kept laughing.

Megan was just outside the barrier, she’d grabbed her dagger from earlier and held what looked like a knotted wooden club in the other.

“Kara, I could use a hand.” Megan grunted, not turning to look back at Kara down at her brother, his body laid flat against the floor. She moved his arms neatly to his sides and leaned down to hug him before whispering a wordless apology.

She stood and blinked back the last of her tears.

“I’ll be right back…”

Kara shot straight through the barrier.

The Demon stopped laughing, stopped walking towards them.

“How did you do that? You should be alight with fire!”

“I guess your magic trick is faulty.” Kara took her stance beside Megan and clenched her fists, ready to kill. “You should ask for a refund.” Megan piped in, smashing the club she found into the ground.

“Impossible.”

There was a rough cough from behind her and Kara heard her brother gasp for breath. Her patience drained and she charged the Demon, not waiting to see if Megan followed.

She had no weapon, only her hands, her feet, her practice. He was large and slow compared to her. He tried to grab her but she rolled from his oncoming claws to get behind him. He turned to follow her and Kara saw the end of the club come up from his left side and smash into his ribs.

Megan’s face popped into view—she was grinning ear to ear.

“I am gonna fuck you up so bad!”

The club slammed on him again. He roared, lashing out and knocking the club from her hand. Megan retaliated with a quick thrust of the dagger into his forearm.

Scraping filled Kara’s head—the advantage fueling her as she picked up a jagged rock from the ground and smashed it into his back. Mr. Demon Polanski did not know who to focus his attention on. They wailed on him with anything they could—rocks and fists and pieces of wood scattered on the outskirts of the cavern.

Kara didn’t realize she was screaming until she was out of air. She leapt up onto his shoulders and hit her fists against the sides of his head. Each contact left new lacerations across her knuckles and red blood swirled against blue. Hard thuds started to shudder through his body.

Megan’s swearing singing their victory against the beat. He collapsed onto his back and Kara’s second step onto solid ground saw her foot s tomp down on his throat. It was too hard to crush beneath her sneakers, but he wheezed below her in pain regardless.

“That’s for taking my brother”

Suddenly Megan’s club was in her grip. Her knuckles were white on its hard and polished handle. It rose straight into the air.

“And this is for all of those other Hunters you ripped from the world.”

She smashed it down across his face. His angled nose crunched below the wood. He gargled and turned his broken face away from her, his hands shooting up to guard it. And then he did not move. Megan leaned down and ripped a cord from his neck. An amulet twice the size of the one they’d used to enter the dimensional fold swung at the end, its ruby swirling and spotted with bright lights. He turned back towards them, the only recognizable feature proving it was his face was the slitted yellow eyes. They were wide and full of fear.

“Mine now.”

“No!” He struggled to his feet, throwing both Megan and Kara off in different directions. The Amulet flew from Megan’s hand and a soft shatter ricocheted off the walls. The ground started to shake.

He roared with anger. “You will die here, Hunters!” But he didn’t charge either of them as they scrambled to get up from the ground; he looked upwards, knees bent and eyes narrowed onto the high shelf of the cavern—to where Kara and Megan had entered.

Megan launched herself towards him, but he was already in the air, his feet landing easily on the surface 20 feet above them. He looked down—blue blood still gushing out of his face and then he disappeared from view. Megan raged, attempting to climb the rock face but she slipped eachtime as the trembling afflicted the walls and got more and more violent.

Pieces of walls started to crash around them. Blinded by the need to hunt, they hadn’t thought through their escape and Kara saw now how trapped they were.

There was limited time to escape, Kara turned towards the purple barrier. It was detaching from the walls in a sticky putty kind of way. Tendrils of it, like spider webs clung on and faded away with each blink.

She hobbled over, the last of her energy flowing out of her heavy limbs. Preemptively wincing, she crossed the broken barrier but felt no pain this time. She collapsed in front of Josh—his eyes did not open but his hand slowly reached out and found her wrist.

“I was afraid.”

Kara hauled him to his feet. They did not settle on the ground so she let his feet drag across the cavern floor and started to make her way back to where Megan had been, back to where the Demon leader had escaped. She swallowed a few times, unable to speak for a few moments.

“I know, I’m so sorry. I’m here now.”

Kara was so distracted, she didn’t see Megan until she practically tripped on her. She was kneeling on the ground, hands on her thighs, dry-heaving with shallow breaths.

“I can’t… no way out. No air.”

Megan was right, the air felt like it was being slowly sucked from her lungs. Every breath in was like two breaths out.

She sat beside Megan and settled Josh across her lap. What little energy she had she used to stroke Josh’s hair. Her eyes searched the cavern around them and settled onto the big black wolf. He was still lying on his side—the battle had taken its toll on him, he didn’t look so good.

“I don’t either…” Her vision blurred as tears trickled down her face.

She didn’t wipe them away, her hands too busy coaxing her brother to care. She didn’t need to see as they withered away.

“He does.” Josh’s head turned in her hands and she took away to wipeher tears. She wanted so badly to see his bright green eyes to prove to her he could make it.

His gaze was on the wolf. Kara choked back another wave of emotion as she could now see his eyes. They were dull, the whites filled with red.

“Who?”

She slowly turned her head back to where he was looking, to where the wolf had been. The wolf got to his feet, his eyes locked with hers. A fire lit in her belly. A single ounce of determination flowed back into her.

“We need your help!” She called to the wolf.

He was beside her in an instant.

She could feel Megan grip onto her arm. She was with her too. There had to be a way.

The cavern was still shaking, the rumble of the rock was gaining in volume.

“What are we going to do?” Megan shouted.

The wolf lay down and she didn’t hesitate to swing herself up on him.

“Come on, Kara!”

She looked back down to her brother as he smiled at her and her heart thudded in her chest. “Go with him.”

“You’re coming.”

“Leave me…”

“No!” She was grabbed by the collar of her coat in what seemed like a bite. “Wait!” She tried to swing out of it and grabbed Josh with all the strength she could muster just as she was hauled into the air by the big black wolf. She had Josh but the ride wasn’t easy to hang on for.

Her legs hit the dirt and the wolf dragged her through the tunnel system as the rock fell behind them, Megan clinging to his neck above as the dimension fell apart. Josh began to slip from her hands but she refused to let go, her arms would have had to rip away for that to happen.

In her despair, she hyperventilated between her hope that Josh would be okay as they leapt from the vortex into their world and her life was spared. Yet again.

Her eyes opened to the starry sky above and she took a deep breath of Earthly air that made her body spark with life.

Megan appeared in her vision. “You okay?”

She began to tear up. “My brother.” She scrambled onto her hands and knees, grabbing up Josh in her arms. He struggled to breathe.

“He needs a hospital!” She looked up to Megan who stepped back and let the wolf step forward. He sniffed the boy and lied down in offering of a ride.

Kara and Megan picked up Josh the best they could and climbed onto the back of a wolf so big, she just then came to terms with his size and power. He was bigger than most Demons and it was no wonder he had massacred the whole lot of them so easily. Aside that strong leader who had effectively gotten away but she was trying not to think about that. Josh was the only thing that mattered right then.

He carried them through the thick bush, at a stride and speed they couldn’t compete with. The trail was only minute s to the parking alongside the highway.

The black car waited where they’d put it thankfully and Megan helped Kara lie Josh across the back seat. Her baby brother ’s eyes continued to open and close.

“I’m staying back here with him.” She told Megan and tossed her the keys.

The Hunter nodded and shut the back door, she spun to face the wolf, who looked right past Megan and into the vehicle.Kara swallowed. Feeling his watch and the way it blasted through her soul and made her feel all kinds of mixed emotions. “We need to go, Megan!”

She called from inside the car.

The dark haired girl booked it around to the other side of the vehicle and got in the driver’s seat.

“Get there, fast.”

Megan started the car. “With pleasure.”

Kara looked down to Josh as his eyes continued to open and close with the most shallow breaths. “We’ll be at the hospital soon.” She brushed a hand through his hair. “I’m so sorry, Joshy.”

He looked up to her but he didn’t quite look right. In fact, his face was paler than nor mal and his lips bluer than blue.

“Hold on, Kay? Just hold on.”

Megan had the car at breakneck speed, in fact if they hit bump, Kara was sure the car would go flying. The hunter behind the wheel glanced over her shoulder at her. “How’s he doing?”

“I don’t know … He won’t talk.” Kara searched her brother and his shut eyes as he moaned with the rumble of the vehicle.

“Well, I’m at a buck twenty. Let’s see how fast this thing really goes.”

Megan put her foot on the floor and car lurched forward at a whole new speed. One they’d definitely go to jail for if the cops in that town cared enough.

Kara didn’t look up again, keeping her eyes solely on Josh.

“Those Demons were gnarly, eh?” Megan took the corner on the highway hard.

Kara braced against the seat she sat on, holding Josh in place. “That wolf might have changed my opinion on Lycan though.”

“Don’t be too convinced, he was just making sure I survived for Tom.”

“What do you mean?”

Kara sighed and shook her head. “Nothing. Just part of the deal I made.”

“Not a bad deal. It saved all of our lives!”

Kara hoped that was true and mostly that it just saved Josh’s life. That would make it all worth it.

“Where’s the hospital?”

The car sped past the first fast food restaurant as they got back into town. Megan slowed the car—just a tad.

“Turn right up here. Follow the hospital signs.”

“Sure.” Megan careened the vehicle through a red light and made the right hand turn.

“If this thing gets a ticket, they’ll just bill Sherlock Holmes right?”

Kara sighed. “Yeah, I don’t know.”

Megan let out a giggle and stepped on the gas again. “Whatever, he can afford it.” She pulled the car into the hospital and broke the speed by breaking harder than necessary.

Kara fumbled with the door. “Can you help me carry him in?” Her eyes went to Josh as he struggled to just take a single breath. “Josh hold on!” “Kara.” He looked up at her. “I love you, Joshy.” Kara threw the door open as Megan came around but when Josh grabbed her hand and looked in her eyes she saw the truth she hadn’t wanted to see the entire drive there. His chest rose and fell and that was all.

Kara’s panic hit a new high. “Josh!”

Megan grabbed Josh under the arms and pulled. “Grab his feet!”

Kara hurried out, almost falling to the cement and they carried him to the entrance of the hospital. “Help!” Kara shouted as soon as the doors slid open.

Josh hadn’t breathed since inside the car.

A few nurses turned at the desk and rushed over.

“Help!” She yelled at them.

“What’s happened?” One demanded as another grabbed a cot from down a hall on wheels.

“He’s not breathing!” Kara managed and Megan help lift him on top of the bed and the nurses stepped in, feeling for a pulse.

“No pulse. Cardiac arrest.” One muttered to the other and they grabbed him to wheel him away. Kara tried to follow and both the nurses told her to stay behind.

Kara ripped at her hair as the cot disappeared behind a pair of swinging doors.

Megan turned to her. “They got him. It’s… ok.”

Kara shut her eyes as the tears came. “It’s not… It’s so not.”

Megan let out a sigh and they waited, while the guilt of situation weighed down on Kara. Her eyes went to the paper hanging pumpkins and ghosts above the reception desk as they twirled in the bit of breeze coming through the automated doors that refused to close the last three inches.

“I did this… I let this happen to him.”

“We got him out,” Megan tried to reason with her.

So much time passed Kara thought it could be the next day but in reality it had only been twenty minutes—of nothing. No movement, no sound, no word on if her brother was alive. Just her, Megan and a bunch of cheesy Halloween decor.

“Kara.” Megan’s voice perked up from where they sat in the empty waiting room seats in the emergency triage.

Kara looked up as a doctor walked through a pair of swinging metal doors and straight over to them. His white scrub wasn’t so white anymore from the night shift and his expression was less than energetic.

“Did you just bring the young boy in?”

Kara held her tears. “Yeah. That’s my brother, Josh.”

The doctor nodded, adjusting the stethoscope along his neck. “There was nothing we could do, we tried all we could. He died.”

Kara shook her head as the information went in one ear and out the other. It wasn’t true, it wasn’t happening. It wasn’t real. “I’m sorry for your loss.” The doctor breathed it out this time, like it would help lessen the blow.

“He’s… he’s not dead!” Kara exploded. “There’s no way he’s dead!”

She shouted.

“Miss, you’re going to have to calm down.”

“Go back and try again!” She pointed across the waiting room to the doors that had taken her brother away.

“We did all we could.”

“Like hell you did!” She shoved past him to see for herself when the doctor grabbed her.

“You can’t go back there.”

She took his grip, used it against him and sent the doctor flying back into the seating. The chairs skidded and bounced out of the way with his crash, making a string of flickering purple lights hit the ground.

Megan’s low snicker was heard by all.

“W-what are you people?” The doctor stared at them. |

Kara’s sneer as soon as it begun faded and her head slotted together what she had done. “I… I’m sorry.”

Megan glanced at her in confusion.

The doctor stood. “You need to leave the premises, now.”

“I need to see him.”

“I’ll call your parents but you’re not seeing him. You just assaulted me.”

Kara swallowed back her emotion. “Please. I’m sorry,” He grabbed a pen from his pocket and snapped it down, walking to the reception desk. “What is your parents’ number ?”

“You won’t get ahold of anyone.”

“I need a number, Miss. Now.”

Kara stared at him with her guilt rising and her mother ’s cell phone number—that always went to voicemail—left her lips. ‘Thank you.” The doctor turned and left them. “If you can keep calm, I will call the police to help get you home.”

“Shit, this is fucked.” Megan waved a hand in the direction he’d gone.

Kara hung her head. Everyone she’d ever felt even a smidgen of love for had left her world in less than a few hours. The truth burned through her.

Alive: her current status in the world would stay for another day, even if she didn’t believe she deserved it. Kara broke to tears. Of all the things to happen to her, of all the days to live—this shouldn’t have been the one.