The Soul Healer (25 page)

“I’m leaving,” I said with a nod. “I’m leaving and then I’ll figure out how to get you guys out of here. Although you’ll probably free yourselves, since you’re a lot more capable than I am. But I’m going to get better. I’m going to learn how to use my strengths and become a better person. And now I’m going to shut up, because I’m talking to myself like a crazy person.”

I hefted the chair once more, ignoring the screams of protests from my arm muscles. (Yeah, I really needed to have started weight training…yesterday.) This time, I was going to do it. This time, I was going to break that freaking door. And hopefully no hunters would come running at the noise because that would totally screw up my plans of escaping.

I let out a battle cry at the top of my lungs and ran
toward the door. But before I could collide with the wood, there was an audible click, and the door slowly swung open. My cry ended with a startled curse, and I veered sharply to the left, crashing into the wall hard enough that my teeth clicked together painfully.

“You idiot!” I yelled at whoever had opened the door. “Stupid, I almost took your head off!” I didn’t know why I was yelling—if it were Charles, then I should have hit him with the chair. He deserved it!

No one answered, and I felt an unexpected chill wash over me. Turning my head slowly to the partly open door, I gasped as the very last thing I expected to see stood there, watching me.

A demon.

Chapter Thirty-nine

“You have to be freaking kidding me,” I said. What the hell was a demon doing in HQ? Had it risen from the dead in the autopsy room, grabbed its head, and come upstairs to eat me? How had it broken through Charles’s spell and opened the door anyway? What the hell was going on!

A sudden, scary image of dead hunters littering the halls of HQ filled my mind. Were they under attack? Had the sorcerers come, angry at the hunters for killing their beloved summoned pets? And was I smack dab in the middle of their stupid war?

“Yeah, no way,” I told the demon, who remained in the hallway. “I just decided that I wasn’t going to sit around and wait for others to come to my rescue, so I’m sure as hell not going to let one of you drooling idiots ruin my plans for the day, okay?” I shook my chair at it, pretending I was a lion tamer. “You want a piece of this, jerkface?”

The demon didn’t respond (I didn’t expect it to, as most of them were too stupid to form words), but it must have understood me because it pushed the door open and stepped into the room.

I promptly dropped the chair and screamed, backtracking as fast as I could.

It was a spider! A freaking spider-demon with three arms on each side and fifty-billion eyes on its hairy spider face.
Holy crap, it’s disgusting!
Where was the bug spray!

Okay, obviously I wasn’t squeamish and could deal with watching my boyfriend behead demons or see them all cut up for an autopsy. But spiders were a different story. I had never been afraid of them until I was ten years old, and my dad sent me to stupid sleep-away camp, and I woke up with one the size of my fist crawling on my face. I wasn’t exaggerating. It was huge, hairy, and
on my face.
I screamed bloody murder, waking up all the girls in my cabin, which set them off once they saw the monster crawling around. The camp counselors tore the cabin apart and never found it, so needless to say, no one slept that night.

The next morning, I called my dad and told him to come and get me or else I was going to set the cabin on fire, as that was the only way I could be convinced that the monster was dead. He made it to the camp in three hours (it was a four hour drive), packed me up, and we never spoke about it again. Nor did he complain when I made him kill spiders lurking in my shower drain or crawling across my ceiling.

Sorry, but six years was
not
enough time to get over that traumatic experience. I could be sixty, and I would still be petrified of spiders. Which is why I wanted to cry, throw up, and develop superhuman strength that allowed me to crash through the wall and run far, far away from the most horrible thing I had ever seen.

I was so scared, I couldn’t even come up with a name for it. Sob.

The demon walked toward me, opening its mouth and making a retching noise. Stomach turning, I inched away slowly, wondering if the thing had a hairball stuck in its throat and was about to hurl it at me. The noise it was making sounded kinda like what Bo, Rafe’s kitten, made, except Bo was a cute little ball of orange fur, and Charlotte over here was
nasty
. Charlotte? Yeah, I guess that worked. The demon opened its mouth and grinned, revealing a set of extra pointy, very white teeth. It made another nasty, nausea-inducing noise, and spit something at me. Screaming
again
, I dove out of the way, and Charlotte’s spitball of doom narrowly avoiding hitting me on the shoulder. It landed on one of Charles’s now empty bookshelves, and proceeded to burn a hole into the wood.

Oh. My. God. Charlotte’s spitballs had acid in them. If I didn’t start moving
now
, I was going to end up looking like a piece of Swiss cheese.

I jumped to my feet and ran to my right, which took me away from both Charlotte and the door. The demon turned to follow me, shuffling slowly. Too slowly. Seeing my chance, I made a sharp turn, heading straight for the doorway. When I shot through the door, Charlotte was still turning around, waving its arms and making more retching noises. I had no desire to stick around and see what it was going to do next. Halfway down the hallway, I realized I probably should have shut the office door behind me, but there was no amount of chocolate cake in the world that would make me go back there.

Reaching the elevator, I smashed my palm against the down arrow, but the button didn’t light up. Of course not.
Try the stairs
, I told myself, remembering my earlier plan to escape. Nothing had changed. Well, except for the horrible arachnid demon chasing me, but everything else was still the same.

I had only seen the stairs once, from the lobby, so I knew they had to be around here somewhere. But when I turned two corners and still didn’t see them, panic began bubbling up my throat, threatening to burst out at any second.
Calm down!
I scolded myself, taking deep breaths. So what if I could hear Charlotte’s footsteps creeping after me. If I couldn’t find the stairs, I’d pick a room, barricade the door, and hide inside until it went away.
You’re fine. Stop worrying!

And just like that, I found the stairs. I skidded to a halt and threw my body at the door as I grabbed the handle and twisted it. To my utter surprise, the door flew open, and I almost went barreling down the stairs. I caught the banister at the last moment and steadied myself with a nervous laugh. It would be
just my luck that I’d finally find a way to escape, only to break my neck before I could make it outside. Shaking my head, I gripped the banister tightly and raced down the stairs as fast as I dared. I was halfway down when I heard the door bang open. Looking up, I saw Charlotte smiling down at me before it shot another acid spitball. Its aim was off, but it was still too close for comfort. No longer caring if I broke my neck, I let go of the banister to cover my head with my hands as I flew down the stairs.

Charlotte simply jumped over the side and met me as my feet touched the ground level.

“Noooooooooooooooooooooo!” I screamed, pushing open the door to the lobby and promptly crashing into something solid. I flailed wildly, fully convinced I had met another demon. “Let me go, you a—”

“Gabiella?”

I paused mid-flail and looked up to see a very confused Kain staring at me. His hands gripped my shoulders—not so he could pull me close to eat me, I now realized, but to steady me from toppling over (and probably to prevent me from smacking him in the face). I still wasn’t sure what side Kain was on, but at that moment, I sure as hell didn’t care.

“Demon!” I pointed behind me, a bit hysterically. “With lots of arms and eyes and acid and
kill it, Kain, please!
”

His blue-green eyes widened as he watched me, probably thinking I had completely lost my mind. “A demon? Here in HQ? Are you sure?”

“Of course I’m sure!” The door to the stairwell burst open and Charlotte stalked out, snarling as acid dripped from its fangs, making holes in the floor. “See!”

Kain’s
mouth dropped open. “What the bloody hell is going on?” he swore, his British (sorry,
English
) accent back in full force. Pushing me behind him, he drew a quick silver crescent moon in the air, the same as Rafe always did, and summoned a skinny sword. Assuming a fighting position as he and the demon eyed one another, he asked me over his shoulder, “What are you even doing here? You were supposed to escape! And where’s Philip?”

I could definitely hear the concern in his voice, which only confused me. I had been certain Kain had betrayed us, but he was either a really good actor or…

Actually on our side.

I didn’t have time to question him, however. The demon let out a bellow of rage and launched itself at Kain. He deflected its first attack, but Charlotte quickly spun, hitting Kain with one of its extra arms. The hunter took a couple of stumbling steps
, but kept his balance and turned, slashing low with his sword, striking Charlotte in the arm. The sword sliced through the demon’s skin easily, and the arm flopped to the floor with a sickening plop. Charlotte howled in pain, green blood spurting everywhere, and Kain took the opportunity to jump away and position himself between me and the demon once more.

“One
down,” he said a bit gleefully, “seven more to go.”

“Please just kill it,” I moaned. “Just cut off its head and kill it, Kain!”

“Why, Gabiella, and here I thought you enjoyed looking at these creatures. Why else would you have gone to the autopsy room?”

“I don’t mind if they’re normal—” Kain raised his brows and I flushed. “Normal as in,
not spiders
, okay?”

“You’re afraid of spiders?” Why was he grinning? I was going to kill him!

After he killed Charlotte, I meant.

I gave him my best death glare. “Listen
, Wentworth, kill the damn thing first, and you can make fun of me all you want afterwards, all right?” My fist would be in his face, but I decided to leave that little bit out…

Kain laughed. “As you wish, Gabiella.” He raised his sword and charged
forward, yelling a battle cry that echoed off the walls of the lobby.

Chapter Forty

Charlotte stopped crying to meet Kain, lifting its remaining
limbs and slashing at the dark-haired hunter. Kain avoided three arms, but two more hit him on his shoulders, and he let out a groan, stumbling backwards. Charlotte went on the offensive, opening its mouth and hurling spitball after spitball. Dropping his sword, Kain rolled across the floor, a dark blur of movement that took him across the room and away from me.

With Charlotte’s attention directed elsewhere, some of the icy fear that had immobilized me began to melt, and I realized my chance at freedom was only a few feet away. I stared at the door. It was so easy. I could walk out, while Kain and Charlotte were fighting, and never look back. Sure, I had no money or phone, but I was sure I could find someone to help me. I could leave it all behind right now.

I heard Kain let out another oomph of pain and winced. No. There was no way I could do that. Maybe he had betrayed us, but Philip cared for Kain, and I liked Philip. What kind of giant bitch would I be if I just left Kain in the middle of a battle? I mean, it’s not like I could contribute much, but I could stick around for moral support!

Just then, Charlotte let out another shriek, which was followed by a wet plop as a second arm hit the floor. Kain, panting loudly, rejoined
me at my side, wiping green blood from his face. “Messy bastard,” he said, still grinning. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Why did they always grin when they were covered in disgusting demon goop? Did you have to be semi-insane to be a hunter? Or was it just a boy thing?

“Can’t you just,” I waved my fingers vaguely, “cast a spell and make it go boom?
Please?
”

Kain eyed the demon,
his lips pursed together thoughtfully. “I suppose I could, but where’s the fun in that?”

“
Fun!
” My raised voice bounced off the walls of the lobby. “
That’s
why you’re teasing it? Because you want to have
fun
?”

“Gabiella, in this line of work you need to have a little fun or else you go insane.”

“I think you’re already there,” I muttered, watching as Charlotte stalked toward us, a little lopsidedly now that it had lost two of its arms. Blood dribbled from the stumps, making an emerald trail across the once spotless floor. I wondered who would have to clean that up, and hoped it was Jonathan. Or better yet, Scott.

Where were they, anyway? They had been so eager to prove themselves last night, and today, when an actual demon was running around HQ, they were nowhere to be seen. As if reading my mind, Kain asked quietly, “Where
is
everyone?” He had resumed a battle stance, his eyes on Charlotte, but his question was directed at me.