Aftermath (20 page)

“Wrong being,” I
heard Marie say when I felt Stephanie’s body ripped off mine and
watched as she flew to the other side of the room. I got up to see
Stephanie’s body crumbled on the ground below a float. Shreds of
paper mache and purple, green and gold glitter were floating down to
the ground.

“What
are
you?” Luke was by my side, helping me to a stand, but he was
talking to Marie, whose hands were still held out defensively. I
quickly put the facts together, and realized just exactly what Marie
was.

“Never mind that.
Focus on her!” Marie pointed to Stephanie who was already trying to
stand again. It was shocking to see Stephanie recover from that,
especially after seeing the hole she left in the float.

“How is that
possible?” I wondered out loud.

Luke sniffed the air.
“Sulfur.” He growled, looking completely feral.

I watched Luke,
concerned at his drastic change in behavior until Marie said,
“Demon.” Then I realized Luke was in Hunt mode.

Stephanie/Demon smiled,
completely unaffected by the blow, and we all stood there defensively
waiting for its next move.

The Neptune float next
to us started to shake and before I could react, I was whisked away
to the other side of the building. Luke set Marie and I down in time
to see the float crash to the ground right where we had been
standing.

Luke cursed, and I
realized he wasn’t going after it because that would leave us
vulnerable.

“Don’t have all
your powers in your current form,” Luke taunted. “Why don’t you
come out so we can play hardball?”

I didn’t know what
powers the demon was limited to in Stephanie’s body, but I knew
what Luke was doing. As long as the Demon was in her body, in order
to kill it, he would have to kill her, too.

“So you can save the
human? I’m not stupid. I won’t give up my only protection.” The
voice that came from Stephanie was still strained and deep.

Luke shrugged. “I
could care less if a human dies in the cross fire. Ah well, I guess
this Hunt won’t be much of a challenge after all.”

I looked at Luke to see
if he was bluffing but he gave nothing away. What scared me was that
I didn't think he was.

Another object came
flying at us and I found myself, once again, moved in a blur. I
steadied myself as Luke put me down and shoved me behind him.

“Don’t. Touch.
Her.”

I looked around, but
Marie wasn’t next to me. I found her at the same spot we'd left
her, the head of the Neptune float burning in flames beside her.
Marie’s hands were still held out toward the float and she was
shaking.

The Demon remained
where it was, laughing. “Protective of her, are you? Thank you for
revealing that. It will make it so much more fun when I tear her to
pieces.”

Luke growled again as
he ripped a pole from a float with his bare hands. “It will take me
1.5 seconds to impale this through your heart. The iron will kill
your demon form.”

“And the humans…?”

Luke shrugged again.
“We’ve already established this: I just don’t give a damn.”

The demon let out a
sole laugh. “You are alone, with two, well, one-” he looked at
Marie, “and-a-half, humans to protect. Do you really think in those
1.5 seconds that I couldn't have that light overhead crush her? Or
that float? Or pole? Or truck? There are
so
many ways to die
in here. And the only way she’s remaining alive right now is
because she’s relying on your—“

A blur shot by my face,
ramming straight into the demon and taking it down. I looked beside
me to discover it wasn’t Luke. If Luke was surprised by our new
visitor, he didn’t show it.

A woman was holding the
demon down and it thrashed beneath her. I felt someone’s hand touch
my shoulder and I looked to my right, startled. “Hayden,” my
relief came out in a sob.

I threw my arms around
him and buried my face in his neck. We pulled apart when the woman
called out to us.

“Marie, are you all
right?” I ignored the woman, running toward Marie and mentally
assessing her for any wounds.

“I…I’m fine.”
She stared at her hands as they shook. I grabbed one of them in mine
as the woman restraining the demon called out for Marie this time.

“I recognize that
voice,” I spoke as we anxiously walked together toward the demon.
When we stopped, the woman threw back her chestnut hair and I saw
exactly who it was. Rachel Vitale.

I was speechless as
Rachel focused on Marie. “Cast a spell to free her body or I will
have to destroy her.”

“I…I can’t,”
Marie said in a shaky voice. “I don’t know how. I don’t even
know how I did what I did.”

“Let your emotions
guide you. The rest is ingrained in your blood,” Rachel coached.

Marie thought for a
moment, inhaled a deep breath but then shook her head in defeat.

Rachel shrugged. “Very
well,” she said, and gripped the sides of Stephanie’s head.

“Wait!” Marie
called out to stop her. “I will try.” Marie got down on her knees
next to Stephanie, or whatever it was that was inside her, who was
still thrashing about, trying to get free.

Marie held her hands
out in front of her and squeezed her eyes shut. When nothing
happened, she opened them with a disappointed exhale.

“Try again,” Rachel
barked.

Marie looked at her and
then went back to trying to rid Stephanie’s body of the demon.

“Think about what
this monster could do to humans if unleashed on New Orleans. Go back
to what you felt when it was on Adriana, about to kill her.”

I gasped as a dark
smoke started to come from Stephanie’s body. It swirled around her
until it covered her like a blanket.

“That’s it,”
Rachel encouraged, and let go of Stephanie to take a step back.

Marie swallowed and
squeezed her eyes shut tighter. Stephanie’s body rose from the
ground as the dark smoke struggled to keep inside of it. I heard
Marie call out in anguish, as if the task were just as difficult for
her. “C’mon Marie,” I whispered in worry.

Marie let out one last
scream before the black smoked disappeared as if it had been
suctioned out, and Stephanie’s body, now limp, fell back to the
ground. There was a collective sigh, and Marie fell back, exhausted.

I ran over to her and
helped her to a stand. “Are you okay?”

“I…I’m fine. Just
tired,” she lied.

“Do you want to talk
about it?” I asked, hoping she would. When she didn’t answer, I
corrected my sentence. “I’ll be here when you’re ready to talk
about it.”

Rachel barked an order,
“Luke, take Stephanie home. She should be out of it for at least a
day. Tell her parents she had too much to drink.”

Luke nodded. “Won’t
she say something when she wakes up?” I studied his expression,
wondering if he meant we should just get “rid” of her. The
thought of him still being so cold and calculating sent me reeling
back.

Rachel shook her head.
“She won’t remember anything that happened after the demon took
possession of her body, which, I am guessing, happened right before
the parade. These types of spirits can only last a few hours inside a
human before they have to feed on it and find a new host.” She
spoke so informatively and coolly. I had known for a while that she
knew more than she let on. I just didn’t know how much. And I never
would have guessed she would be one of
them
.

I swallowed at the
picture Rachel had painted in my head. Essentially, Marie had saved
Stephanie.

“Thank you, Marie.”
I turned toward her to find her looking ill.

“Take Marie home,
first. She needs to rest,” Rachel added to Luke’s duties.

Marie and I nodded at
each other as we walked away with Luke, who was carrying a still-limp
Stephanie.

I sadly watched them
walk away. I felt horrible that people were getting hurt because of
me. Hadn’t I caused enough trouble with Hayden and Luke? Now
Rachel, Stephanie and Marie were involved.

I felt a strong hand
rest on the small of my back and turned to Hayden with a sigh,
“Hayden.” I burrowed my face in his chest as he held me. The
scent of him made it feel like I was home again.

“I know,” he said,
reading my thoughts.

I pulled back from him.
”Where were you? I tried calling and leaving messages. You worried
me so much.”

“That was my fault.”
Rachel came towards us; her demeanor had seemed to change since this
whole incident. She was no longer the meek, kind teacher I knew. She
was stronger, more intimidating, and more informal. “Hayden was
tracking me, and I must say, I gave him a run for his money.”

I shook my head, not
understanding. “Why? What are you?” I remembered that she hadn’t
been in class today and we'd had a substitute. Hayden was also
missing during that time, so the facts checked out.

She tilted her head
with a warm smile, a smile that did not suggest she'd just helped
kill a demon. A smile that was almost…

“I’m your mother.”

…motherly.

My eyes wouldn’t
stop blinking. I looked at Hayden for confirmation. He nodded
triumphantly with a hesitant smile. Hayden knew about my mother—or
lack thereof. He was the only person to whom I'd admitted trying to
find her. He knew how I felt about her and my lingering questions.
Yet he still looked at me, waiting to gauge my reaction.

My
mother
?

He'd found my mother?

I
had
a mother?

Then, the biggest
realization came to me.
Rachel
was my mother. I had known
Rachel for almost two years. She was my teacher, she was my friend.
We'd talked and emailed each other. I shared things with her that I
couldn’t with Nikki or Marie. And she was my mother!

“
You’re
my
mother?” The words came out with disbelief and thinly concealed
wrath.

“Adriana…” She
used my full name to scold me. Like a mother would. Had she expected
me to be happy? To welcome her with open arms?

Yes, of course there
was a part of me that was excited, that couldn’t wait to pick up
things where we'd left off. To make up for time lost. But that was a
naïve, childish fantasy. The fact was, she had known me for two
years and had never said anything. She had listened as I complained
about the situation with my father. And my father! He had to have
known she was my teacher, and he didn’t say anything?

I gripped the sides of
my head with my hands. “Oh my gosh.”

“Ana,” Hayden
wrapped his arms around me, but I pulled away.

I looked at him
apologetically. It wasn’t his fault. He was trying only to find out
what I was, how could he have known it would lead to this? “Hayden,
please just bring me home.”

“Adriana, I know you
must have a lot of questions.” Rachel held up her arms to stop us.

“Heck yeah, I do!”

“I will explain
everything in time.”

I snorted. Of course,
it wouldn’t be that easy. No one could ever just tell you
everything! Everyone had to be so dang cryptic! My chest heaved with
rising anger. “Hayden, please.”

He nodded and led me
out of the warehouse. I heard Rachel click her tongue as if she was
about to say something else but she didn’t.

When we were in the
luxurious confines of Hayden’s familiar black sports car, he
started to speak. “Ana, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you what I was
doing.”

“It’s okay. You
couldn’t have known.”

“When I first saw you
again tonight, there was this look on your face. It was one of relief
but with something else.”

I let out a puff of
breath. “I thought you weren’t coming back.”

“Adriana… you can’t
be serious.”

“I don’t know what
was going through my head.” I lacked any emotion to my words. I was
drained of everything: surprise, anger, fear, love.

“Since the dive
accident, I had been trailing the being that had come after you, when
I noticed other beings were there as well. One of those was another
of my kind. That’s when I started tracking your mother. I lost
track of time and I never imagined that you would take my absence
like this. I assumed you trusted me.”

“I do.”

He turned my chin to
face him, and his gaze raked my body hungrily before pressing a
punishing kiss to my lips. He pulled away just an inch, his beautiful
bruised lips opened to speak. “Ana,” he whispered, “I’m
trying to trust you, too.” I pulled his head back down to me to
finish our kiss. We both suddenly got lost in each other. His kiss
grew more demanding, and we were panting and gripping each other like
we couldn’t get enough. My hands dug into his shoulders as I tried
to urge him closer. He pulled back again, looking at me with dark
eyes and lowered lashes. "I can’t share you, Ana. I can’t.”
His lips brushed softly against mine. “I won’t.”

I didn’t reply, too
drunk on a kiss to form a coherent thought.

He pulled back into the
driver’s seat as a sobering thought occurred to him. “I know, I’m
not being fair. I shouldn’t be bringing this up right now. Not with
everything going on. I will take you home so you can rest. I’m sure
you have a lot to think about.”

I pressed the tips of
my finger to my swollen lips. “I love you, Hayden.” I didn’t
want him to feel guilty, thinking I was in a vulnerable state. I had
wanted him just as much as he had wanted me.

He nodded and drove
away and we sat in comfortable silence for a while, each in our own
thoughts.

“What is she?” I
asked suddenly.

He paused, looking at
me. He knew what ‘she’ I was referring to: my mother. He was
watching me, preparing to gauge my expression again. “She’s one
of us. A Hunter.”

I exhaled a shaky
breath. “She’s a hunter.” I wasn’t asking for confirmation,
somehow I just knew. My mother was a Hunter. My dad was definitely
human so that would make me, what, half-blooded? “So I’m
half-Hunter?” Did that even exist? Did I have supernatural
abilities, then? That wouldn’t explain the dreams. Even Hunters
didn’t have those.