Firefight in Darkness (11 page)

“We’ve considered the risks, and we’ve considered the benefits.” Sebastian continued, wrapping his arm around Thea to comfort her. “This scenario, however dangerous it may be, may just be the key to getting him. He clearly has some kind of attraction to Blythe. We should use that against him.”

“Hot damn, you are serious!” Blythe hooted, fist pumping the air. “Just think of how much fun we’re gonna have, cowboy.” She added as she turned to Jax, grinning ear to ear.

“You always somehow get what you want, don’t you?” He grumbled, looking extremely unhappy. But, an order was an order, and you didn’t question the person paying your salary. “Alright, well, we should probably leave soon then. Go say your goodbyes. There’s no way of knowing how long we’ll be on the hunt.”

On impulse, Blythe hugged Thea and Sebastian, beaming at both of them. “Thank you, I won’t let you guys down.”

Whirling around, she practically skipped off to where her family was waiting so she could tell them the good news.

♦ ♦ ♦

No one, and really no one, was happy about it. But she was getting exactly what she wanted, so she didn’t really dwell on their feelings too much.

Besides, it was Thea’s idea. If they had any concerns or doubts, they could take it up with Mother Earth. It was no longer her problem.

Though saying goodbye to Lucian had been tough, she tried not to focus on it too much. Nothing bad was going to happen to her, and they’d probably be gone less than a week anyway because the plan would work so flawlessly that Dante would fall right into it. Then all of their worrying would have been for nothing.

It was going to be up to her father to keep up with the Fire duties while she was gone, a fact which amused her more than worried her. Not only was he pissed off about her leaving Euphora, but he was also now forced to work, largely under Thea’s supervision. And his two girlfriends were both angry with him. In her eyes, it was karma at its best. He was just sleeping in the bed he’d made, simple as that.

When they had arrived back in Los Angeles that afternoon, Jax took her to a different hotel located closer to the night club in the hopes that Dante was still in the area. He booked a room for each of them, then led her to the hotel restaurant so they could work out their plan.

The restaurant was crowded with people as the lunch rush had just begun, so they were forced to settle down at a tiny two person table in the corner while they waited to order.

As they sat down, Jax reached into his back pocket and pulled out the tracking device Rian had given him. It looked exactly like an iPhone, only a little bit larger, with a screen that lit up at his touch. On the screen were six buttons labeled: Human, Demon, Dryad, Fury, Muse, and Fate.

“Guess we should find out if this thing works.” He commented as he pushed the Dryad button. Blythe leaned over to get a better look at the screen, noticing with wonder how it suddenly looked like radar, a series of circles representing the area around them with a line scanning clockwise. When the line reached where Blythe was sitting, a red dot appeared.

“Is that me?”

“No, it’s Elvis.”

“Ha, ha, very funny.” She grabbed the device out of his hand and began playing with it, hitting the Human button. “Oh, look, there’s you and all the other silly humans. Only…geez, what are all these other dots?”

She tilted the device so he could see the screen.

“The device senses the presence of the being you request, and depending on how recent the being was in the area, the dot will be a different color. Red means the presence is very strong, as in the being is definitely still in the area. Yellow is recent, but the being has likely moved. Green is even older, and blue is the oldest. Therefore, many of the dots you see on there are people who have come and gone from this restaurant throughout the day.”

“Wow. That’s so cool.” Grinning, she switched back to the home screen and pressed the Demon button. The radar popped up, and the scanner line began its curve around. When she saw a red dot appear towards the bottom, representing what was behind her, she whirled around in shock.

“It says there’s a demon sitting right back there!” She whispered, her eyes wide.

He scanned the back of the room, but it was impossible to tell out of the dozens of people which one was the demon. The radar was accurate to within a three foot radius, but the area it was suggesting housed a demon was currently a ten person table full of normal looking people.

Without missing a beat, he unclipped his cell phone from the holster on his belt and immediately launched into a screen which showed a long list of names. He selected the name on the top, and then aimed the phone’s camera towards the back table. Taking a picture, he then looked back at his phone as it seemed to be processing the image. Within three seconds, the word NEGATIVE in big, bold letters popped up on the screen.

Huffing out a breath somewhere between disappointment and relief, he began to put his phone away before Blythe interrupted him.

“What is that? What did you just do?”

“I checked to see if Dante is the demon possessing the human back there. It’s not him, so no need to worry about it.” Nonchalantly, he took a sip of the ice water the waitress had just dropped off.

“How?” She leaned towards him across the tiny table, her eyes bright with exhilaration and intrigue. “Tell me how you did that.”

He leaned back in his chair, watching her carefully. He wasn’t sure how much information he should share with her, since the less people who knew about his methods the better. After all, if it came out that he had such a device, then the demons would find some way to be one step ahead of him. And he was a cautious man. But, then again, perhaps she had a right to know as she was now waist deep in this operation with him.

“It’s something the Enforcers recently created, a program we install into our cell phones so it doesn’t raise suspicion. How it works is you take a photo of the demon you want to keep tabs on, and it registers their unique signature. You see, Rian’s device only shows one type of being at a time, so if Dante was in demon form while he was here, we could easily confuse him with another demon. But with this, I can see exactly if it is him based upon his signature. The only downside is that if he is in Dryad form, this device won’t pick up on him because it only registers the demon components of his genetic makeup. Which is why Rian’s device is so useful.”

“When the hell did you get the chance to take a picture of Dante?” She demanded, more out of curiosity than irritation.

“At the night club, just before he approached you. I didn’t even realize you were there until I saw him watching you from the bar. I wanted to be sure that just in case I lost him, I would have the ability to find him again.”

Impressed, she leaned back in her own chair and eyed him, chewing on her bottom lip as she thought. “When were you going to let me in on this useful little tool of yours?”

“I had no reason to share any more information than was necessary with you before. But, now that I’m forced into using you as bait, I guess it doesn’t hurt none to show you.”

She rolled her eyes and snorted at him. “Whatever. Okay, so that demon back there isn’t Dante. Aren’t you still going to kill him or something?”

“That’s not my job.” He replied simply, cocking one eyebrow at her. “I’m employed to hunt down one demon at a time.”

“Yeah, but they’re evil…shouldn’t you do something about it? I mean, he’s back there possessing a human, he needs to be stopped.”

His eyes narrowed as he leaned towards her, his voice lowered conspiratorially. “Darlin’, just how many demons do you think there are in this world?”

Cocking her chin up defensively, she smirked. “I don’t know, a few hundred?”

“Try nearly three million.” He felt his own lips twitch into a self-satisfied grin at seeing her mouth fall open in shock.

“You have to be kidding me.” She couldn’t believe it. Why had no one ever told her this before?

“Your education in the ways of demons is obviously lacking.” He saw her rev up in indignation at his words, and found he couldn’t help but enjoy the crease that formed angrily between her eyebrows as her eyes fired up with deadly heat. “Before you attack me, let me fill you in.”

She let out a breath as she crossed her arms over her chest, her initial anger sizzling into irritation. “Alright, fine. Educate me, cowboy.”

“You see, most of the demons that come to the surface from the underworld are not worth taking the time to worry about. They usually are just trying to sell their wares, whether it be weapons, drugs, alcohol, to the willing human masses. Where do you think methamphetamine came from? Or absinthe? They’ve been running that crap up to the surface for hundreds of years, and there’s not much we can do about it. However, there are very, very dangerous demons out there who come to the surface to wreak havoc. They’ve influenced nearly all the evil that has occurred to the human race since the dawn of time. Hitler, Jack the Ripper, most recently Saddam Hussein. All possessed by demons, all committed terrible crimes against humanity.”

“So you’re saying that all those guys did bad things against their will?”

“Not necessarily. A demon can only possess someone who is in a weak emotional state, whether it be grief, anger, despair…they have to have something to latch onto. Hitler was already teetering on the edge because of his anger, so he was an easy target. And that demon was particularly evil. Notice they never found Hitler’s body? That’s because the Enforcers had to destroy every bit of it so they could be sure the demon was obliterated for good.”

“Wow.” Taking a deep breath, she tried to digest everything he had told her. She had never realized, had never known, the magnitude of the demon influence on the human population. Sure, she’d known about demon alcohol and weapons because she had been told that her father had enjoyed them, which had been one of the many reasons she had despised him as a child. But maybe she had just been much too sheltered all her life to the truth.

The waitress approached suddenly to take their orders before rushing off to get the meals that were waiting for the table in the back. Glancing over her shoulder, Blythe scanned the faces at the table, wondering if she would notice some quirk, some sign that would let her know who the demon was. But they just looked like normal, happy people, smiling and laughing with each other. It alarmed her that they had no way of knowing that evil resided among them, hiding out in the body of one of their own.

♦ ♦ ♦

About an hour later they headed over to the nightclub to see if they could find any sign that Dante was still in the area.

They walked along the sidewalk, Blythe in jean shorts and a bright yellow tank top, her wine red hair glowing hotly in the bright sunlight and her eyes shaded by jet black sunglasses. She kept in step with Jax, despite her legs being much shorter, as he walked steadily and efficiently in boots, faded jeans and an equally faded plaid shirt rolled up at the sleeves. His sharp eyes were glued to Rian’s device as they walked, searching for any sign of Dryad or demon.

Anticipation was building inside of her as they approached the club, joining the thrill of the hunt that she recognized as pure bloodlust. She wanted, so badly, to take out Dante. And while she would have preferred doing it solo, having the bounty hunter around was proving to be more useful than detrimental. After all, he was the one with the fancy gadgets and the knowledge of demons. And she was the one with the thirst for revenge. Coupled together, she had a hunch they’d make an excellent demon hunting team.

“Don’t you think someone’s going to notice you staring at that device and think you’re up to something?” She asked him suddenly, glancing around at all of the people who were walking the streets with them.

He actually stopped and stared at her, eyebrows raised. “Trust me, being glued to various devices was perfected on the streets of Los Angeles. I thought you were savvy to the human world?”

“I am.” She pouted a bit as she saw a group of teenage girls breeze past them, all clutching their cell phones and chattering away at each other. “At least, I thought I was. I’ve never used a phone before.”

“You’re not missing out on anything, trust me. More trouble than their worth, most of the time.” Beginning to walk again, he widened the scope on the device to a half mile wide as he switched back and forth from Demon to Dryad, hoping to catch something. He began to turn down the alleyway to the side of the club, when suddenly he got a hit.

“There’s a demon around the back of the building.” He began to walk swiftly down the alley, Blythe in his wake.

“Right now?” She asked, excitement blooming within her.

“Stay behind me.” He told her as they approached the backside of the building. He slowed to peer around to catch a glimpse of the being his radar was picking up on.

“I don’t need protection.” She snapped as she tried to round the corner, hands held out, ready to destroy whatever it was that lurked just out of sight.

“You will do what I tell you.” Jax grabbed her arm and pulled her back, keeping her at his side. He glared at her, the scolding in his eyes making her feel like a bad child. “Wait until I can determine the full scope of the situation before you go charging in, alright?”

“Fine.” Rolling her eyes, she waited for him to glance around the corner. When he pulled back, his eyes were sharp and focused, but she could all but feel the adrenaline pumping through him. He was just as excited as she was at the idea that they could be within feet of their target.

“There’s a human beside one of the dumpsters, he looks like he’s been freshly possessed.” He told her as he pulled out his phone and reached around to snap a quick photo of the man. They both held their breath while they waited for the device to determine if the demon was Dante.

When NEGATIVE flashed over the screen, they both cursed under their breaths.

“Well, shit. Now what?” Blythe asked, disappointment clear in her eyes.

“We go talk to him, see if he knows anything.” After putting both devices away, he reached for the revolver in the ankle holster housed in his right boot. “Don’t do or say anything unless I tell you to, you hear?”