5
Hunter
It was rare that I felt bad for a monster, but this time I did. Even before we started up the old, dusty steps of the church’s bell tower, I could hear it crying. A quiet sobbing born from a broken heart, I was sure of it. Something inside of me, that I’d thought long dead, ached at the sound of someone suffering alone, and I could feel the creature’s hopelessness before I even spotted it.
Outside, the slow patter of rain began, and it seemed to grow darker as Ellis and I wound up the steps to the top of the bell tower. Every so often, I looked back at the unicorn. In his hand, he held a sword that had been soaked in holy water. And even though Mae had his panties in a twist, I could see the sympathy in his eyes too.
Apparently, both of us were feeling sorry for a monster today.
When we reached the top of the steps, I spotted the creature and stiffened. The purple people eater was... a woman. She wore torn threads of cloth over a painfully thin body. Her skin was a soft purple color, and she had one strange, bent wing, and one curved horn. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and her eye, a glowing purple color, was filled with unshed tears.
For one minute, I almost didn’t gather my shadows to myself, but then I spotted the four shapes strung up in the rafters of the bell tower like purple alien cocoons, and all my sympathy vanished. I silently pointed out the shapes to Ellis, and his eyes hardened. I tried not to think about the three kids, or Frank, and however the hell the creature killed them, but images flashed through my mind and anger made the shadows gather to me like the weapon they were.
And then I saw one of the shapes move.
Hell, they’re still alive! Now, we just had to keep it that way.
Jaw clenched, I moved into the room. Like something out of a horror movie, lightning crashed outside, almost all around us, and thunder shook the whole building. Rain fell from the open areas around the bell far above us, splattering little, cold drops on the ground near us.
I stepped forward, and a board creaked beneath my feet. Shit. The creature jerked, and her gaze went to me. Gone were all signs of the crying woman, replaced by the cold fury of a beast.
She rose, long nails elongating at her sides. “Where is my child?” Her voice was raspy, filled with a threat.
“Your child is long gone,” I told her, even though I knew it was pointless.
The loss of this woman’s child twisted her. Changed her. I didn’t know if she was a demon long ago and lost her child, or if she had been a human, but she was neither now. She was simply a creature of legend. One so focused on her suffering that she had started taking other people’s children in her grief, and killing them.
A monster.
Her lips twisted into a parody of a smile. “They are my children now.”
“No,” I said, then released a wave of my shadows toward her.
For a minute, she was cloaked in my darkness, as my shadows did their work to tear her apart, and then I drew my shadows back to see what was left of her. At first I only saw her giant, strange wing wrapped around her body. And then, it pulled back and the purple people eater stood, unhurt.
Hell.
Ellis made an angry sound behind me and charged at her. I almost shouted a warning, but it was too late. He raced up to her and swung his sword, but she easily avoided his blow and sent him flying back, crashing into the wall. Dust fell down around us, and the bound shapes above the creature began to shake and move.
My heart lurched. If we weren’t careful, we might send the children and Frank falling to the ground. And falling from that height… that could kill them just as fast as this creature.
The creature whirled onto Ellis and stalked toward him. I lifted a hand and sent her flying back from him, but she caught herself before she hit the wall, and I sensed her fighting my control.
Damn it. She was strong. Stronger than I ever expected.
Ellis stood and retrieved his sword. Whatever damage he had sustained was likely already healing. Lucky unicorn asshole.
He reached her just as she broke free from my control. His sword swung. Her claws caught it and sent it back toward him. He ducked, striked again, and landed a blow to her wing.
She shrieked, the sound so loud and high that Ellis and I both winced. Our hands went to our ears as the volume and power of the sound grew worse and worse until I was sure my damn ears would start bleeding. And then she launched herself at me.
Fuck. I stumbled back and managed to grab a dagger from my belt before she could barrel into me. She hissed as I flashed my blade. And then the rain outside the bell tower grew harder.
Her gaze moved from me to the sky. “My child...”
I only had one second to realize what the hell she planned to do when her legs bunched and she launched into the sky. Never before could I have imagined a one-winged creature flying, but she managed it. Her movement was creepy and not at all natural, like a puppet being controlled by strings that jerked it unevenly in the air. But she gained height with each second that passed.
Which we couldn’t allow.
As she headed for her escape, I grabbed the handle of my blade and sent it flying, using my shadows to increase the speed. My shadows gathered around the dagger like an angry smoke, and I narrowed my eyes and forced my shadows faster and faster.
It struck her in the chest, and her gaze snapped to me, death in her eyes. But instead of attacking me like I had hoped, she simply ripped the dagger free, sending purple blood splattering down her body from the wound. Then she dropped the blade, letting it fall, only to clatter onto the ground far below.
And then she escaped, leaving us behind.
“She’s going to get another kid,” Ellis said, breathing hard.
I nodded. “And probably not take them back here.”
“Fuck!” he muttered, then turned to inspect the building and the cocoons high above us.
I pulled out my phone and sent a text to the guys. We needed backup if we had any hope of tracking her down again before she was too far gone to easily find.
“What did you do?” Ellis caught my gaze as I turned off my phone, and there was an edge to his words I didn’t understand.
“Calling for backup.”
“No,” he said, resheathing his blade.
“What the hell do you mean no? We need all the help we can get.”
“Not if it means bringing Mae.”
Anger rose inside of me. “What’s your problem with Mae?”
He marched up to me. “Why don’t you have a problem with her? We don’t know her. She’s fucking Bloody Mary, and all three of you are acting like it’s perfectly normal just to completely trust some strange woman. Hell, they brought her on a damn hunt.”
“We can trust her,” I said.
He turned away from me and started climbing up the rafters to free the kids and Frank. I watched him, thoughts turning. Ellis was a pretty damn go-with-the-flow kind of guy. The fact that he wasn’t this time worried me. Have I been so clouded by my feelings for Mae that I’m being reckless?
I hated that I didn’t know.
“You should have seen her in the mirror realm,” I said quietly.
Ellis reached the first human wrapped in purple sticky threads, or whatever the hell it was, and pulled his sword free. Breathing hard, he held onto the wood while he sawed the person free. I stood ready with my shadows, to ensure no one got hurt when the pod came free.