Jack Templar Monster Hunter (17 page)

I felt Will, T-Rex and Eva grab hold of me to support me. Never in my life had I felt so thankful to have friends.

“Come on,” I heard Eva whisper in my ear. “Let’s get out of here.”

I suddenly realized that I had been crying. I wiped the tears away and stood with Eva’s help. I let them guide me to the Mustang, but I kept looking back at the spot where Ren Lucre’s body had lain.

I can’t tell you how I knew, but I’d never felt so certain of anything in my life.

This fight wasn’t even close to being over.

I
walked through my house for the last time, carrying the single suitcase that I had filled with things from my room. I crossed the living room, limping from my wounds. Eva had wrapped them and the bleeding had stopped, but the pain was still there. I walked gingerly through the disaster zone. At least the Creach had carried their dead away. Incredibly, the item I was looking for was still on the fireplace mantel.

It was a picture of Aunt Sophie at a beach somewhere, holding me when I was just three or four years old. She was smiling and looking at me like I was the one thing that she loved most in the world.

And I realized that this had been true. Even though she had started from a place of hatred, tasked with the assignment to raise me only so that I could be put to death, she had found love in her heart. The picture showed the true Aunt Sophie and the true way she had felt about me. After her sacrifice, this was how she deserved to be remembered.

I packed the framed photo in my bag, took one last look around the house, and left it for the last time.

Outside, Eva, Will and T-Rex sat in the Mustang. Eva started up the engine as I jumped in.

“You all right?” Eva asked.

I nodded. Truth was, I was pretty choked up, but I was tired of crying. I was ready to move on.

Eva put the car in gear and rolled slowly down the driveway.

Next, we stopped at Will’s house. It had grass growing two feet high, shutters falling from the windows, and a white fence that was half-eaten through by termites. He stared at it for a few long seconds, then turned to us.

“There’s nothing for me here. I want to go with you guys,” Will said softly.

I looked at him, not sure what to say.

“C’mon, you know what they’re like. They’ll probably be glad to have me out of their hair. Besides, it’ll probably take them a few weeks to even notice I’m gone,” Will said.

I looked at Eva . I could tell the choice was mine.

“We’re not coming back,” I said. “Not ever.”

Will nodded. “I wouldn’t want to. Being a monster hunter might be the one thing I’m good at. You leave me here and I’ll end up like those losers down at juvy hall. You know I will.”

“Well, I could use someone to watch my back,” I said with a smile. “I’ll need all the help I can get to find my father.”

“Yeah!” Will said, high-fiving me. “This is going to be awesome.”

Eva eased the car forward and we rolled down the street toward T-Rex’s house. Noone spoke. We knew we were just seconds away from a very difficult goodbye.

“Stop,” I whispered to Eva. “Stop right here.”

Eva slowed to a stop at an intersection. If we looked to our right we could see down the street and see T-Rex’s house. Unlike the rest of the sleeping neighborhood, all the lights were on and there were people walking around. The front door was wide open.

“Grandma,” T-Rex cried out, trying to climb out from the back seat. Will held him in place. He pointed to the van parked out front. Printed on the side in neat block letters were the words Child Protective Services.

I turned in my seat. “You told me some people were trying to take your Grandma to retirement home, remember?”

T-Rex nodded, “And take me away from her.”

“That’s what Child Protective Services does,” Will said. “If I hadn’t lied for my folks, they would have taken me away ages ago,” Will said.

“If you go over there, they’re going to put you with another family,” I said. “It might not be that bad.”

T-Rex wiped his tears. “No, you guys are my family. I’m going with you.”

Eva shot me a look that said this wasn’t a possibility. There was no way T-Rex was cut out for the hard journey ahead of us, let alone ready to be a hunter. I grinned. I’ve never been one to let little things like that get in my way.

“Then you’ll come with us,” I said. “The more help I have to find my father the better.”

Eva looked at me hard. “We talked about this; you can’t go after your father. Not yet.”

“I just defeated Ren Lucre,” I said. “I think I’m ready.”

“You were undisciplined and reckless. If those monsters had attacked us at the end, we’d be dead now,” Eva said. “If you’re going to do this, do it right. Get the training first, then go for him.”

“But I—”

“If you do,” Eva said, “I will go with you on the rescue. And I can bring others.”

“And if I don’t go to the training?” I asked.

“Then you and Will are on your own. I won’t go just to watch you die,” Eva said.

My heart told me to go search for my father right away, but logically, I knew that Eva was right. Without her, I would already have been dead several times over.

“This guy, Aquinas…” I said.

“Master Aquinas, “ Eva said. “And she’s a woman.”

“She knew my father? Can she can tell me what really happened to him? To my mother?” I thought back to the last thing my mother said as she left me:
Forgive me. What I did, I did only to protect you.
I hadn’t mentioned it to the others, but the words ate at me. What had she done? Why would I need to forgive her for it?

And there were so many other questions. Was I really the last Templar? Had Ren Lucre accepted my challenge out of caution, or did I really have Creach blood in me?

Eva took my hand in hers. I felt the blood rush to my face and suddenly I could think only of the kiss she had given me right before the battle. I looked into her eyes and found them looking at me kindly. “I can’t promise you’ll find answers to all your questions, Jack. Only that you will find more there than I could ever give you.”

“And can she tell me what the Jerusalem Stones are?” I asked.

Eva dropped my hand and her eyes turned instantly cold. “What did you say?”

“Jerusalem Stones. Ren Lucre mentioned them two different times. At the river. Then again which we were fighting. What are they? Some kind of weapon?”

“That also would be a question for Master Aquinas,” Eva said. I could tell she knew more than she was letting on, but I already knew her well enough that I wouldn’t get anywhere pressing the issue with her.

I looked back at Sunnyvale. There was nothing for me there. All the answers I sought were ahead of me. And it seemed that many of them were to be found at the Academy.

“All right,” I said. “ You win. We’ll go to the Academy first.”

Eva put the car into gear and slowly rolled through the sleeping streets of Sunnyvale.

As we approached the town limits, I asked her, “So, what’s this place like?”

Eva grinned. “It’s no summer camp. It’s hard-core monster hunter training. It’s grueling. The instructors will push you harder than you thought possible, then they’ll push you some more. Over half the candidates don’t make it past the first week.”

“What could be so bad that they’d quit so fast?” Will asked.

“Not all of them quit. Some of them are too injured to continue,” Eva said. “It’s by far the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. And considering some of the things I’ve done, that’s saying a lot.”

“Sounds great,” Will said.

“Sounds like it’s exactly what I need,” I said.

“Do they have pizza there?” T-Rex asked.

Eva made the last turn and reached the town limits. We were on the crest of a hill overlooking a wide valley to the east. As if on cue, the sun broke the horizon and the sky glowed orange with the sunrise.

“Next stop, Monster Hunter Academy,” Eva said.

She floored the gas, the wheels spun out and we were on the road to our next adventure.

I
’m at the Academy now and the things I’ve seen and done here are unbelievable. I thought my first night as a monster hunter was incredible, but what’s happened here at the Academy blows all of that out of the water.

This place is way more intense than I ever imagined. Eva didn’t do it justice when she said that it was the hardest thing you could do. It’s the hardest thing you could do… times ten.

Not only that, but I found out some things while I was here that could change everything. I’m not sure who’s reading my mail that I send out from this place, so I can’t tell you about it right now. It’s so nuts that you might not believe me anyway.

If I get out of here in one piece, I’ll write down everything that’s happened here. It’s so incredible that it deserves a book of its very own.

If I don’t get out of here, I just want to make sure that you’re taking the necessary precautions.

Don’t forget that you are part of the fight now. You may only be a recruit, but because you chose to read this book, you are still a monster hunter. And the monsters know it and they will find you.

Be careful out there. Double-check the shadows. Lock the doors. Bolt the windows. Stay in groups, if you can.

I hope you survive long enough to hear about my adventures at the Monster Hunter Academy. Because it will blow you away.

Do your duty, come what may.

-
Jack Templar

By the way, I’ve set up a website to keep you posted on what’s happening and help you to protect yourself from the Creach:

WWW.JACKTEMPLAR.COM
.

The password for the secret area is MONSTER.