Authors: M. R. Merrick
Against my better judgment, I nodded. “In case you hear anything else, where can I find you?” I asked. He pointed to the end of the alley
“You live in an alley?” I raised an eyebrow.
“Look closer.”
I focused on the end of the alley, relaxing my eyes and pulling magic from within. Layers of illusion peeled off, revealing a glowing blue and red neon sign that read
Revelations
. It had been so long since I’d had to look through any type of glamour that it took some effort, but there it was.
“What’s in there?”
“It’s a club. A safe haven for Underworlders. Not exactly your crowd.”
“True enough.”
He ignored me, turned and walked to the end of the alley and disappeared through the door to the club.
I shook my head and ran a hand through my wet hair. Two demons in two days hadn’t tried to kill me. Willy was a sad excuse for a demon, but a demon nonetheless. I didn’t have much choice but to let him go. As for Rayna, if Marcus hadn’t been there last night, who knew what the result of our fight would have been.
I believed what Willy said. Somehow I didn’t think he was even capable of lying. My gut told me he was telling the truth, and with demons, my gut wasn’t usually wrong.
I turned my back on the bar and started walking out of the alley. What Willy said about the Circle coincided too closely with what Marcus had been telling me. Maybe I was accepting that it might be true. I still couldn’t figure out why the Circle would do these things, but maybe someone else could. Maybe these questions needed a mother’s touch.
~~~~~~
The rain stopped as soon as I got home.
Figures
, I said to myself, walking up the four flights of stairs. My shoes squeaked with every step and my clothes were water-logged. I couldn’t wait to change.
Mom was sitting on the couch with a book in hand. “It must be really coming down out there.” She was trying – and failing – to conceal her laughter.
“Very funny,” I said
A towel, a pair of gray cargo pants and a white t-shirt later, I was dry and dressed. I threw on a black hoodie to try and rid myself of the chill.
Our apartment looked even smaller than usual after being at Marcus’s. An old couch, an even older chair and a coffee table filled the living area. The walls might have once been white, but they were now tinted with nicotine stains from the previous tenants, and did little to set off the decor. An ancient TV sat on the floor, but it rarely worked.
“Where’ve you been?” Mom asked.
There was no easy way to tell her, so I threw it all on the table. “Do you know Marcus Starkraven?”
She didn’t look as shocked as I’d expected. She paused for a moment. “I do. He’s a good man.”
“So you know he’s not dead?”
“I’ve known Marcus a long time, Chase. We’ve been in contact over the years.”
“Did you know about Rayna too?”
“There are a lot of things you don’t know: about the Circle, me, and your father as well.”
I couldn’t do anything but listen. She was about to tell me either something I wouldn’t expect, or something I wouldn’t like. Maybe both.
“The Circle is made up of people from all over the world, and not everybody has the same ideas as to what the Circle should be anymore. I was exiled with you not because your father suspected me of being unfaithful. I knew things about your father – and the Circle – that I wasn’t supposed to. Over the years, a lot of us learned that the Underworlders weren’t all soulless demons, as we were brought up to believe. A small group, including Marcus and me, came together to oppose the council. We thought we could work together to achieve a common goal. The council, as you can guess, doesn’t care much for opposition and didn’t think much of our plea.”
“So what happened to Marcus?” I asked.
“The night that Marcus disappeared, he and your father were on a hunt, but your father wasn’t hunting Underworlders. He had gotten wind of a rumor about a hunter having impregnated a demon. When he found out about Marcus having befriended a witch, Rayna’s mother, he could only assume that Marcus was the ‘traitor’. Riley was furious. He took Marcus out and tried to kill him. Marcus escaped, but your father had hurt him badly enough that he believed he was dead.”
“What happened to Rayna’s parents?” I asked.
“Rayna’s mother disappeared that night, to keep herself and unborn Rayna safe. But she made the mistake of coming back, thinking that after nine years the Circle would have forgotten about her. But the Circle doesn’t forget, and that was the night Rayna’s mother was killed. When Marcus found Rayna, the two of them disappeared. Nobody knew where they went or what had happened, not even me. Marcus didn’t know who he could trust, and his first instinct was to keep Rayna safe. As for Rayna’s dad, nobody knows what happened to him.”
“I can’t believe you kept all this from me. You left me to think that everything the Circle taught me was right, and believe it was my fault we were exiled. I’ve spent all this time thinking I was a disappointment,” I said.
She sighed. “You were angry at yourself and the Circle. I thought if I told you, you would turn your anger on me, and I couldn’t bear to lose you too.” I started to walk away, but she reached for my arm. “Chase, by the time you stopped being angry, I didn’t want to tell you because I feared it would bring all the pain back.”
“It’s been a long day. I’m going to lie down.”
“Please don’t be angry with me.”
“I’m not angry. I just need some time to figure things out.”
“Can I just say…”
“What?” I asked, unable to veil the hostility in my voice.
“Please give Marcus’s offer some consideration.”
“You knew?”
She nodded. “He called after you left and told me. I’m sorry for the way this has all come out. I spent so long trying to figure out how to tell you that you found out in the worst way possible.”
“You can say that again,” I said, disappearing into my bedroom.
I fell into my bed and stared at the cracks in the ceiling, my mind swelling like a balloon. The old thoughts and ideas engraved in my head were some of the only constants in my life, and now they had to fight these new ones or be erased.
I was thrilled when the phone rang and it was work calling. It was supposed to be my day off, but I took the shift without a second thought. Work would distract me, and the overtime wouldn’t hurt.
~~~~~~
I got off shift after midnight, and what had turned out to be a busy night was just what I needed to clear my head. The walk home on the warm summer night, however, gave all my thoughts plenty of time to rush back.
I chose a different route home than usual. It took longer to go through the park, but after running into Marcus, Rayna and the vampires last night, I was hoping that wandering off the beaten path would save me some bruises.
Halfway home, I heard strange noises and a tingle trembled down my spine. I cursed myself for taking the long way. I couldn’t win.
I saw the silhouettes of people and slipped off the path to join the shadows. I thought it was demons beating the crap out of someone. Plenty of Underworlders would do that for kicks, but when I heard the voice of the victim, I knew that wasn’t the case.
“I sw- sw- swear I t- told you what I know.” The stutter was easily recognizable as Willy’s and I got the feeling of déjà-vu. Hearing him plead with his attackers made me feel sorry for him. It was only earlier today that I had a blade to his throat, and he still had a shiner from his last run-in with hunters. This guy was having a worse week than I was.
I approached the scene and saw three men taking turns kicking Willy, who was on the ground with his back against a tree.
“Hey,” I said.
All three of them turned and stared at me.
“Keep walking, buddy,” the one in the middle said. “Wait a second. Chase? Chase Williams? Well, I’ll be damned.” It was Brock at the center of this assault.
Brock was a hunter a few years older than me, and a fire elemental. He had always been broad shouldered, but he’d bulked up since I saw him last. His red hair was trimmed into a crew cut over the familiar pale, freckled face. It had several scars, but the one across his left eye was new to me and ruined some of the effect of his bright green eyes.
Brock and I had never gotten along. We both had different ideas about how to get things done. This scene was a good example of the way he did things. The other two hunters were younger than me. I recognized their faces but I didn’t know their names. When I’d been part of the Circle, I never paid much attention to the younger ones.
“Been a long time, Brock,” I said.
“That it has, brother. That it has.”
“I’m not your brother, not anymore.”
Brock’s smirk made his face scrunch up and he gave his half-snort laugh I hadn’t missed.
“That’s right, you’re the son of Riley Williams, exiled by his own father for being a disgrace.” He slugged one of the others guys in a joking way and they chuckled with him. Anger shot through me and I squeezed the blade in my hand.
“Whatcha got there, a knife?” he laughed. “What, you’re saving demons now? Pathetic. You’re still a hunter, Chase, even if you’re not in the Circle.”
“Last I checked, hunters fought evil. They don’t torture the innocent,” I said.
“This…thing is hardly innocent, but you’re right, things have changed. You would know that if you hadn’t come up short,” Brock said.
I took a step towards him and looked over his shoulders at Willy.
Willy’s chameleon skin cycled through different colors, trying to deflect any attention it could away from him, until it found one that let him blend in with the tree. His button-up shirt was torn and his jacket was pushed up above his shoulders. Blood ran from both nostrils, trailed down to a busted lip and dripped off his chin. His left eye was swollen shut.
“If this is what the Circle has become, then I’m happy not to be a part it.”
“Bullshit! You would come back in a second if anybody wanted you,” Brock retorted.
“I took an oath to protect the innocent and so did you.”
“He’s a demon, Chase. We kill them; it’s what we do.”
“Maybe, but this isn’t killing, this is torture, and I won’t stand by and watch it. What did he do to deserve this?”
“He didn’t give me what I wanted.”
I could sense Brock trying to conjure his element and I laughed. “You and I both know you aren’t strong enough to create fire; you can barely control it.”
“Last chance, Chase. Leave,” he said.
“I’d be happy to, but I’m taking him with me.”
“So, being out of the Circle, you’ve turned to the Underworld. That’s weak, brother, but so be it.” He reached behind him and came back with a Zippo. He flipped it open, and as the spark lit I could feel the oncoming heat.
I dropped to my knees and rolled to the right, taking cover behind a tree. The entire area lit up with the glow of silver and green flame.
“Things aren’t the same as when you left, brother. I’m stronger now than ever before. I don’t need to create fire. I just need to take it with me.”
I peeked around the tree to get a feel for the battleground, but the flash of silver and green was all I saw. I slipped back behind the trunk and the fireball just brushed my skin, leaving a patch of raw flesh.
A grunt came from behind me and I risked poking my head back out. Willy had jumped onto Brock’s back, wrapping both arms around his neck. He wasn’t doing much but hanging on, and it occurred to me then that Willy didn’t know how to fight. He was strong enough to pick up a truck, but he didn’t know how to use that strength.
I took the opportunity for what it was: a distraction. I squeezed the handle of my blade and moved towards Brock. The butt of the handle made a loud crack as it hit his cheek bone and forced him down on one knee. With Willy still clinging, he lost his balance and fell.
The other two hunters sprang into action. The first wasn’t as fast as me and I dodged as his knife came down near my chest.
I countered with a kick. My heel hit the back of his head and sent him face-first into the dirt. The other boy was behind me before I could move and his fist hit the back of my head. I felt my skull crack and I braced myself with my arms as I hit the ground.