Awaken (Divine Hunter Series) (8 page)

“Mike.” A familiar voice said through the phone.

“Hey buddy. I have a situation here that I’m gonna need your help with.”

L
acy paced up and down the empty corridor praying for some news. She was still shaking from the ride in the ambulance. Seeing the medical staff fighting for Nina’s life in the back of that vehicle was pretty harrowing to say the least. She’d sat stone-still watching as they cut Nina’s clothes open then stuck needles into her skin as one of them used an air bag to pump oxygen into her lungs. She was sure she’d nearly passed out on more than one occasion, but managed to stay conscious for the rest of the journey.

Nina had been in the OR for nearly two hours. There was no doubt she was in a bad way. The fact that she was still alive was a miracle in
itself, after the distance she’d fallen.
Jumped? Oh, God.
Lacy struggled to push the image of her lying on the ground from her mind as she choked back a sob. The fact that Nina had no one there for her made things worse. Lacy had tried to find someone to contact−family member or a friend, but according to Miss Taylor, who she’d spoken to when she’d called the Dean’s office, there was only one name listed as her next of kin and the number on file was unreachable. That poor girl whom she’d sat next to in the ambulance−her life slipping away from her with every second−had no one.

Lacy leaned against the cold cream wall opposite the double doors that Nina had been rushed through. Her arms were folded around her chest as she waited anxiously. The sparse corridor was quiet for the most part, except for the occasional nurse who would come through the doors and rush down the long empty space, each time making Lacy stand to attention in the hope that they
were bringing Nina back through with good news.

But it was a lot better than sitting around in the waiting area like she had to begin with. The harsh memory from her past back in England had already started to rear its ugly head so she’d left the stark room pretty quickly, not wanting to relive the last time she’d spent hours waiting for news in a room that looked so similar.

But it was too late.

Memories she’d locked away for such a long time had already begun to creep back into her head, reigniting feelings of dread similar to that day, back when she was just a young girl. Sitting in that room on her own, waiting for news, had made her remember that day as though it were yesterday; only then, the patient had been her sister.

Her beautiful younger sister had been taken through similar looking doors nearly sixteen years ago, but she hadn’t lived for long after she’d been wheeled back out of them. Lacy took a deep breath and closed her eyes. The anniversary of her sister’s death was approaching; a time that she more than dreaded every year.

November
2nd, 1996.

She pictured her sister’s face. Her long wavy brown hair had run half way down her back and her squeaky laugh had always made Lacy smile. They’d run around in the patch of wasteland at the back of their small town house in Chelmsford where they’d lived with their mother Sheila. There had been just the two of them at home the day the accident happened which was nothing unusual. Their mother thought nothing of leaving a twelve year old and a nine year old at home alone while she went to work. Of course, Lacy discovered much later that
work
actually meant working on some gentleman in his fancy apartment across town, but at the time she thought Sheila worked shifts at a local pub. Lacy found out a couple of years after her sister’s death that, in actual fact, her mother was nothing but a high class hooker who pleasured lonely businessmen.

Although Sheila was always in and out of the house, she would always make sure that there was food prepared for them, mostly sandwiches and stuff to reheat in the microwave, and that the cupboards were well stocked. She was out of the house a lot and if anything, it made Lacy and her sister Beth’s relationship stronger. They were close and Lacy would always do whatever she needed to do to look after her.

Their house had been small: a two up, two down affair that had the bare minimum as far as furniture was concerned. Lacy and Beth had shared a bedroom which had been painted lilac when they were much younger. Their mother had painted a rainbow on the wall between their beds which made the room feel a little brighter and cheerier than it actually was. Lacy remembered the small lamp, that had sat on the bedside table in between their beds, that she’d put stickers all over. The bulb inside it was dim and she’d always made sure it was on when they were in bed until Beth fell asleep because Beth was afraid of the dark. There was no garden to speak of, just a small concrete yard with a tall gate leading to an alley, across which was their playground: an empty plot of land that had a chain link fence around it. There was a part of the fence that had been cut and even though they weren’t supposed to leave the back yard, whenever Sheila went out to work the pair of them would go in there to play, but they knew never to leave the alley, not with the busy road at the end of it.

Lacy desperately wished that she could go back in time and not let Beth out of her sight that day like she had done. But there was no changing the past no matter how hard you wished for it.

The hardest part of remembering was the pain that she’d gotten so good at hiding away. She never let herself think about it which was the only way she stayed sane and how she’d managed to get through every day, even sixteen years later. But today, here in this hospital, she was failing miserably. It was too familiar, too tragic, and was triggering every memory she’d ever shut out.

She squeezed her eyes shut as she thought back to that day.

Lacy wanted some tinned custard. Beth was in the yard outside playing catch with a tennis ball so Lacy had gone into the kitchen, straight into the cupboard and grabbed a tin of
ready-made custard. Remembering how her mother had done it, she reached for the tin opener, placed it in position at the edge of the tin and squeezed the two handles shut. The metal point pierced the tin and she twisted the handle around over and over until the lid snapped off. She got a small pan from the bottom cupboard, poured the contents of the tin into it and placed it on top of one of the rings on the electric cooker. She turned the dial to half way. As she waited for the custard to heat up, she looked through the small kitchen window and saw Beth crouched down stroking the tabby cat from two doors down. She watched as the cat arched its back to her and walked around in circles enjoying Beth’s affection. She reached into the cupboard by the sink and grabbed two small bowls.

As she looked up from what she was
doing, she noticed that the back gate was now open. Immediately she went to the back door and saw that Beth had followed the cat out into the alley. She went straight out and yelled at her to come back into the yard. Beth protested and continued to stroke the cat.

“You’re not allowed out of the yard without me, now come back in before. . . ” Lacy remembered she’d left the custard on the heat and ran back in the kitchen, just catching it before the whole contents had boiled over the side. It was a mess. She poured what was left
in the two bowls and put the pan into the sink. She took two spoons from the drawer and put one in each bowl, pleased at how grown up she felt.

She went to the back door and shouted to Beth. She couldn’t see her anywhere. The gate was still
open, but Beth was out of sight. She stepped into the alley and when she realized how far Beth had gone, she gasped and then called out to her sister, as all she saw was Beth running towards the main road after that stupid cat. . .

Lacy’s hand went to her mouth, holding back her sobs, as what happened next played out in slow motion in her mind: running down the alley after Beth, her shouts for her sister to stay where she was falling on deaf ears as Beth followed the cat between some parked cars and straight out into the road.

What happened after that was still quite blurry except for the vision of little Beth lying in the road with people rushing around her. Lacy remembered that far too clearly. Her memories flicked through her mind like a movie on fast forward
, only picking out the bits that she’d hung on to: the driver of the car who was in shock with his hands in his hair, who had a look of sheer horror on his face; the ambulance crew running to her sister’s side, the panic, her mother in hysterics in the hospital waiting room as some stranger−she still didn’t know to this day who he was. . . probably one of her mother’s clients−tried to calm her down. Then came the worst memory of all: the doctor coming into the room and telling her mother that Beth was gone.

The sensation
of a wet tear travelling down her cheek brought her back to the present. It had been a while since she’d thought of that day. No matter how distant it now was, it didn’t get any easier. The pain was still very much the same. Only now, she was much better at locking it away.

H
er head fell back against the wall.

S
he closed her eyes and thought about Nina, who had been in a similar position on the ground as her sister had all those years ago. She wasn’t religious−who could blame her? Her faith had been taken away that day in the hospital when she’d told herself there couldn’t possibly be a god. Not if someone so precious to her could be snatched away so cruelly. Despite this, she silently prayed.
Please God, if you
are
there, let Nina survive this.

As if by coincidence−
because that’s all it could have been−the double doors in front of her burst open. She stood up rigid as the gurney that Nina was lying on was wheeled out and into the corridor by a tall man dressed all in white and a nurse walking by his side. A man in green scrubs followed soon after and walked straight over to Lacy. His name tag was pinned to his breast pocket and he was removing a paper face mask that dangled from one ear.

“
Miss Holloway?” he asked as he held out a hand to her. She nodded. “Hi. I’m Doctor Green, Nina’s surgeon.”

She w
as surprised how young he was. His short, salt and pepper hair was out of place atop his young features “Hi,” was about all she could manage to say as she shook his warm hand.

“
We’ve managed to stabilize her but her condition is still critical. The impact of the fall had caused some internal bleeding in her abdomen, which we’ve managed to stop. She has a couple of broken bones: a break in her left tibia and another in her left femur. But we’re more worried about the swelling in her frontal lobe. We’ve managed to release some of the pressure from around the area, and the swelling seems to have reduced slightly, but we will need to keep a very close eye on her.”

Lacy exhaled a long
breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding, remembering that she did still need to breathe if she wanted to remain vertical. The situation was too similar to her sister’s all those years ago and she realized she wasn’t handling things very well. “I want to stay with her.”

“Of course. They’re just about to take her
up to ICU. Go and get yourself a coffee and some fresh air and give them time to get her settled.” The doctor placed his hand on her arm and in a kind voice said, “She’ll be well looked after here.”

Lacy smiled as best she could.

S
ince waking up dead, Michael had spent most of his days alone. For that he’d been grateful: no distractions. Giving him plenty of time to do what he’d become very good at: seeking out and fighting evil supernatural beings in the hope that they’d be of use to him during his search for the truth. Not that he was ever into company all that much, even before his death. He’d had lots of friends and acquaintances due to the nature of his career and had been fortunate enough to enjoy many of life’s luxuries. But his success had attracted many people. He’d had enough of all the fake friends who’d admired his status more than anything else.

There was none of that now.

Being who or what he was now, the only human interaction he’d had was when he’d needed something from them. He’d used people, taken advantage of kindness that was offered to him on many occasions, and tried his hardest to remain alone. He’d even dated the odd female to get information; of course, that never lead to anything more than a movie, dinner or a midnight stroll. There had never been so much as a kiss between him and the few females he’d interacted with. They, on the other hand, had been more than willing, but for him it was just business and nothing more. As soon as he was satisfied that they were of no more help to him, those people were quickly forgotten about, never seeing or hearing from him again.

Well, that is, except for one person: Evo. His go-to man whenev
er he needed a little back up. A human whom he now considered a friend and a person he could trust with his life, or. . . death. Whatever.

The last he
’d seen of him was about three months ago when he’d been in Colorado on the hunt. He’d needed a little help with a
Djin
that had been sapping the life out of some of the clients of a small bar on the outskirts of the city. Michael had never encountered one before and hadn’t liked the look of it either. He’d needed as much information as possible about the son of a bitch before he’d dare attempt to take him on.

His friend knew a lot about the supernatural world and the
things
that shared the earth with them now. Evo was a living, breathing, demon encyclopedia, but he hadn’t always been that way. His life had been on a downward spiral until one day, in Ohio nearly nine months ago, Michael saved his life.

His mind went back to that rainy
night in January.

Michael had only been in his new body for a little over a month and was still adjusting to it. It was a whole new experience for him after being ethereal for the first part of his new existence and he was still finding it hard to accept the way things were for him now. The why, however, was still yet to be discovered and Michael had made it his sole purpose to find out who, or what, had killed him.

He
’d hunted high and low, crossed many states and cities, searched through the dregs of the underworld for the kind of creatures he was hoping to get information from but all he’d encountered were a handful of wraiths which were, quite frankly, useless at giving information. And then there were the endless lost spirits that wandered the streets and buildings trapped in a world that was neither life nor death; some for all eternity, others, until they found peace with whatever was keeping them there.

After a few day
s in Cleveland, Michael had become restless. He’d spent his days scouring the local papers and internet news sites for signs of unusual activity−all to no avail−until one night after he’d re-acquainted himself with Mr Daniels in a small, dingy bar on the corner of 9th Street and Sumner.

He
’d propped up the bar feeling sorry for himself for the past hour, unsure what to do next, until his ears pricked at a conversation between two men who were sitting at the opposite side. A thin, red-haired man was talking about something that had gone down last night at one of the clubs downtown. Michael wasn’t really paying much attention, but from what he gathered, it was your usual, city nightlife stuff: police cornering a man in an alleyway after some sort of altercation. The guy was found crouched over a
stiff
−nothing unusual about that.

As
redhead went on, Michael ordered another JD without the coke this time. One thing he’d discovered about his new self was that he could drink and drink and it hardly affected him, much to his annoyance. Well, he was determined to keep going tonight until it did.

The female behind the bar placed a napkin in front of
him, followed by his order. As he looked up at her, she winked and a flirtatious smile graced her lips. “There you go handsome.” Her hand lingered on his glass, then she stroked her finger up the side seductively. Michael just about managed to raise the side of his mouth, then went back to ignoring her, supping back the frosty contents in one.

“
Apparently the guy was all kinds of crazy,”
he heard redhead saying to his overweight buddy sat beside him. They reminded him of a couple of characters from
Cheers.

“
Yep. They usually are,”
his buddy said.

“
This guy more so. Jock was there when they hauled him off. He said the guy was protesting his innocence, and then he shouted something about a big guy with red eyes, dressed in black, who’d just disappeared in front of him.”

Michael looked over at the men
.

Plump-guy laughed
. “It takes all sorts.”

Well
, now their conversation just got interesting. “Hey!” Michael shouted over to
Norm
and
Cliff
over the bar. “Did they take him downtown?”

“
What d‘ya say man?” redhead grunted, clearly wondering why their private conversation had just been interrupted.

“
The crazy guy? Did they take him downtown?”

“Uh. Yeah,” h
e scoffed. His buddy looked equally annoyed.

Michael took no
notice. He held up a twenty to Blondie behind the bar, slammed it down next to his empty glass and left without saying another word.

Standing in the doorway of an unused building, Michael watched the doors to the precinct across the street through a thick blanket of rain. A few hours outside the police department and there was still no sign of the man he’d heard about at the bar, so he could only assume they were holding him overnight which would make things way more complicated. Michael could hardly walk in and ask to have a private conversation with the guy. He was going to have to think about breaking him out of there.

Just as he was about to head over there
, he hung back as a young male, around 6ft, with scruffy, brown hair came through the double doors and walked down the steps from the building. He hadn’t seen the guy enter the precinct and as he was dressed in a scruffy denim jacket with a hooded sweatshirt underneath and dark colored cargo pants, he assumed he wasn’t an employee. He had to be the guy he’d been waiting for.

Michael pulled his hood over his head, crossed the heavy traffic, and followed him making sure he kept his distance. The man
took a left at the end of the street. He was clearly on edge; jumping with every noise. His head darted around in all directions, no doubt making sure he wasn’t being followed. Fortunately, he hadn’t spotted Michael. He turned right, heading down an alleyway up ahead between a couple of rundown apartment blocks. Michael picked up his pace a little so he didn’t lose him.

He followed the man
into the alleyway still staying well back so as not to startle the guy. A foul smell of human garbage filled the air as Michael passed a row of dilapidated dumpsters on the left side. Just then, he felt a strange shiver run up his spine, which stopped him in his tracks. He watched as the man he’d been tailing also halted.

The man’s
head crept around. Michael hurried to a dumpster and crouched down beside it, peering over the top where he could see the man scanning the darkness like he’d sensed that someone was watching him.

“Hello! Is
someone there?” He heard the stranger say.

The sensation that Michael had felt
just then began to get stronger, a coldness creeping up his spine and heightening his senses. It was familiar to him. He’d felt it before just before fighting one of the many creatures he’d battled over the last few months. But what was causing it this time?

Michael stayed in his position and continued to watch the
man walk further down the alley, taking tentative steps this time. Michael stayed back, sensing his trepidation.

There was something else in this alleyway with them and it wasn
’t human,
that,
Michael was sure of.

Soft lights that hung over
the two fire doors from the apartment block began to flicker, causing the man to stop walking again. He looked back, but didn’t notice Michael. “Who’s there?” His voice was broken. He was scared.

It took a moment for Michael to register what he saw next. A dark figure jumped down from a metal fire escape that clung to the side of a building up ahe
ad, landing in front of the man who yelled out in shock and stumbled backwards. Gaining his footing, the man walked backwards as the dark figure walked towards him, eyes as red as crimson, closing the gap between them.

Demon.
Michael was certain. He’d seen eyes like those before.

The young man
spoke, “Who are you?” he asked. His voice trembled.

The demon
lunged forward and gripped the frightened male by his throat, lifting him into the air like he was nothing. The man he’d followed was tall, but there was barely anything of him. He didn’t stand a chance

“Someone
you shouldn’t have seen,” was the demons reply as it began to squeeze the poor guy’s throat, abruptly cutting off his cry for help.

Shit
!

Michael stepp
ed out from behind the dumpster. “Let him go,” he ordered as he walked towards them. He heard the strained chokes coming from the frightened man as he struggled to breathe under the demon’s grip. As Michael got closer to them, he noticed the demon’s eyes were more illuminated and the crimson glow was now fixed on him.

“
Of course.” It mocked as he flung the man away like he was flicking a fly. There was a thud as the man hit the wall on the other side of the alley. “But you’re just delaying his fate.”

The demon’s voice was deep and angry, with all its focus now
only on Michael. A black buzz-cut revealed deep scars upon its head. Its all-black attire dishevelled, floor length leather jacket worn and faded and there were black binds wrapped around its wrists. Its skin was pale and its fingernails dark and jagged.

S
hit!
He was a mean looking SOB. It looked like it had used the body it was in for a long time. Some demons preferred to use only one vessel.

“
Leave him alone. What could you possibly want with him?” Michael asked as they circled each other in the dimly lit space.

“
He’s seen too much.” The demon snarled back at him.

“
And who’s he going to tell? Besides, who would believe him?” Michael had positioned himself in front of the man who was now slumped against the wall and coughing in pain.

“
I’m not about to take that risk. Why should it concern you? He’s human. He’s nothing.”

The demon knew Michael wasn’t human. He
tried a different approach. “Exactly, so why waste your strength on a weak human like him?”

“
Enough of this!” The demon ordered as he made a charge for the man. Michael jumped and grabbed hold of the demon’s neck, but his strength was no match for it and it threw him off with no effort at all. As Michael hit the floor the creature stuck a boot into Michael’s side, sending him skidding across the wet concrete. He quickly managed to get to his feet and before the demon got to deliver another kick, Michael swung a right hook into the side of its skull which momentarily knocked it off balance.

In the short time it took for the SOB to shake the hit off, Michael had managed to grab his blade from out of the strap inside his
coat and slashed at the demon that laughed as it jumped back out of the way. Michael knew from the demon’s strength that it was playing with him and that at any moment the bastard would strike to kill.

He felt
a familiar feeling of rage building inside of him. It seemed to be happening more often lately when fighting and each time it got stronger. It was that rage that had helped him defeat the many demons and other creatures he had battled with in the few months he’d been a part of the underworld.

Just as the demon was gearing up
for his next strike, Michael braced himself. Taking a deep breath, he crouched over ready to pounce. But the demon halted suddenly.

“Your
eyes! It’s not possible.” Then the demon growled a word Michael didn’t recognize. “Gazriel!”