DARK SOULS (Dark Souls Series) (31 page)

“Excuse me for liking a little dramatic flare in my life, little demon,” he said, stepping over the basketball stand as he took a seat on the floor in front of me. “The Hunter is the only one who can expel a demon from its host. He has quite the goody-two-shoes style. Save the human, destroy the demon, blah blah, gag me with a spoon.”

I pressed my lips together at this revelation. A picture of Gwyn writhing on the ground wrapped in gooey tentacles flashed through my mind.
If she’s the Hunter, then I’m turning into a cupcake
, I thought. Yet, I had to concede that despite my lack of nice feelings towards her, I still didn’t want to mention her to Derek. I remembered my promise to myself: protect humans, all humans. Even the bitchy ones.

“Consider yourself lucky that the Hunter didn’t spot you,” he added.

“I didn’t sense anything. No warning, no nothing. Why would the Hunter just expel a demon and then leave?”

“That I have no answer for. There are a lot of demons here. Perhaps he was otherwise occupied, and thought to come back to the Bogmar later. They don’t move very fast, you see, unless in water. As you probably noticed, they have no feet.”

“That seems pretty careless of the Hunter.”

“Not necessarily. You were right around here, correct? Not a human soul in sight. It would probably take the Bogmar at least an hour to clear the shipyard. There really is no other explanation, Emily. No one else can expel a demon.”

I hesitated, biting my lip as I looked at him through my eyelashes. “Not exactly....”

Derek glanced sharply at me. “Spill it.”

“This morning, I might’ve...expelled a demon.”

“
What?”
Derek leapt up from his seated position and started to back away from me, clutching his chest protectively like I was going to just reach in and pry him out. “You didn’t think to make that the first thing to tell me?”

“Relax, Derek, I’m not going to do anything to you. I don’t even really know how I did it in the first place. It was in a little girl. That really got to me and I was fighting hard to save her, refusing to let that thing inside of me win, and I all of a sudden felt this pressure build inside me, and I just pushed at it with my mind, releasing it. I watched this white ripple in the air crash into the little girl, latch onto the demon, and push it out. It was this small, decaying thing. I didn’t expect it to almost kill me.”

I said this all in a rush, having to gulp in air once I finished. I wasn’t sure if I should tell him what I was thinking, if I should voice what had been niggling at the back of my thoughts for weeks. But looking at him, it didn’t seem that I had to. He was already piecing it together.

Derek stopped backing away, but remained in place, lifting a hand to shake a finger at me like an exasperated teacher disciplining his most troublesome pupil. “Okay, I have a few problems with that statement. You were able to create a ripple effect in the air with your mind, forcing a demon out of a human host? No weapon was used? Nothing?”

I shook my head, but Derek didn’t even seem to notice as he continued his rant. “Even that psychotic Hunter has a weapon. And you’re also telling me that you came face to face with a Leiche?” His tongue rolled over the strange name, his tongue dipping down to his lower teeth at the “c” and pronouncing it
Lay-he.
“Those demons are one of the deadliest you can come across, and very, very high in the ranks. They’re the only demons left that are known to prefer children as their hosts. They are disgusting, rancid things, but still hold a lot of power. And wait,” he froze, his eyes once again glaring down at me. “There’s a thing inside of you? A demon? Are you fighting with a demon inside of you?”

His voice was becoming higher the longer he ranted.

“What do you mean the Hunter has a weapon?” I asked instead of answering him.

“You answer me first,” he said, hands now on his hips. I expected him to start tapping his foot in impatience, something my aunt would always do when she faced off against my temper tantrums.

After a brief stare-down with Derek where neither of us blinked, I finally relented, remembering that I needed information more than I needed to win a who-can-be-more-obstinate contest.

“I’ve been fighting what I can only describe as a darkness inside of me,” I said. “Like thick, black smoke, curling around…it feels like a—like something’s floating, inside me, especially when there’s a demon around. She begs me to kill the demon, to consume the blue mist. And it is only when I let her take me over that I...transform,” I explained, my head lowered so I was speaking into my chest.

Derek’s silence caused me to look back up at him. He was staring at me pensively, the skin around his eyes remaining taught and his lips pressed together.

“This is really beyond my expertise,” he finally managed. “I think you might be the deadliest creature I have ever come across. And what’s worse, you can’t control it.”

“She’s getting stronger. I can feel her, just waiting for her chance to take me over for good,” I said, fear mixing in with my words. I finally decided to tell him. “Derek, what if…what if I’m the Hunter?”

Derek froze, his eyes unblinking as they settled on mine. “That would be very unfortunate.” He sat back down, his eyes never leaving mine. “But I told you I could sense when the Hunter was near. It’s this feeling—it’s hard to explain. I don’t get that with you. Not at all. You can’t be the Hunter.” He broke his gaze from mine, looked up to the ceiling. “You can’t be.”

I didn’t know what he was thinking, his face tight, his eyes worried. I never thought I could worry a demon, but here he was, sorting through me, trying to understand me, and very much freaking out every time he learned more about me. What kind of demon was
he, anyway? Why did he come back for me?

I took him in, watching him as he sat in silence, staring at anything but me. If only I could understand him as much as he was trying to understand me.

I let both of us sit in silence for a while, sorting through our thoughts, until an idea struck me, so tempting that I had to voice it out loud. “Derek, can Hunters evolve? Become more powerful? Different? Maybe I’m like, a Hunter 2.0.”

“Good lord, I hope not.”

He began inching away from me again, his eyes once again wary before he shook his head, sighing. “I will do everything I can to figure out what you are. We need to stop you, before this turns into something neither you or I can stop.”

“Yes, please stop me,” I said. “Please just make me normal again. Get her out of me.”

Against my will, tears pooled in my eyes. I didn’t care if Derek’s motives for helping me were for his own self-centered reasons; I was past that point. I had my own selfish motives for wanting this to end. Even if I could be the Hunter, the one to rid demons of this world, I just wanted her out of me. I wanted the suffering to stop.

“The Hunter uses a weapon,” Derek continued, answers being the only form of comfort he could give me. “I’ve never seen it myself, thankfully. But I’ve heard speak of it.” He shrugged. “That’s the only description I have.”

“Wonderful.” I sighed in exasperation, wiping the wetness from my eyes with the heel of my hand. I stood up.

“Where are you going?” he asked. “We have so much more to discuss. Like the fact that you now have a problem.”

“No more discussions. We need to start
doing,
” I called over my shoulder as I turned away from him. “And what’s one more problem on top of the thousands of others that are piling up on me?”

“Consider this to be a major problem to put at the top of that list,” he called, his voice sharp. “The Leiches don’t work by themselves. They’re not isolated creatures.”

“And?” I finally paused and turned around.

“There are four of them. Well, three now. And the others will know one of their brethren was killed. They’ll come for you.” 

“Let them,” I said, my voice flat.  “You just informed me that I am the deadliest creature you’ve ever encountered.”

Derek shook his head from side to side. “Oh little demon, that right there is what could kill you. Don’t be so arrogant in the face of so much that you don’t know. You were nearly killed by one Leiche. What do you think three of them at once will do to you?”

A shiver of fear laced down my spine at Derek’s words, but I refused to show it. “I’ll be ready for the Leiche.” Then I said, so quiet he didn’t catch it, “They know what I am.”

I slammed my mouth shut, glad he didn’t hear me. I didn’t want him to get to them first. For once, I wanted to be at the front of the “What is Emily?” line, a line that everybody, every
thing
, kept pushing their way into before I ever got the chance. 

“I hope you’re ready, I really do. And it’s Leigh
es
if you’re talking about more than one of them. I’m no teacher if I can’t tell you how to correctly pronounce a demon.” He breathed in deeply, looking at me long and hard before adding, “Let’s see what you got, little demon. Let’s see where this ‘darkness’ of yours takes you. I dare you.”

I froze, raising my brows at him in answer. Never, in my entire life, was I ever able to turn down a dare.

“Yes, yes, I realize you could potentially kill me, but I’m hoping that instead of doing so, you’ll take this as an opportunity to hone—”

I flashed towards him in a blur, pulling at the power of the darkness within me as I slammed him into the back wall, holding hard onto his neck but making sure I had bunched his shirt collar in my hand so I could leave his skin untouched.

“Okay, okay,” he said, his voice tight and garbled as he raised his hands up beside his head in surrender. “Point made.”

“It’s best not to piss my darkness off.”

I slackened my grip on him only slightly, but it was enough for him to take advantage of my distraction and shoot his hands towards me, latching onto my shoulders. He dug deep, but he was smart enough to stop before he punctured my shirt and touched my skin. His movements were a blur when he lifted me up and flipped me over him and into the very wall he had just been slammed into.

I felt the pain as my back cracked into the concrete before I landed, my left shoulder slamming into the ground before my body followed. I was all too aware that I probably resembled an upside-down rag doll, but I didn’t acknowledge that embarrassment as I flipped myself back up into standing position and readied myself for his next onslaught.

He was nowhere to be found.

I glanced side to side, up then down, but even my sharpened vision couldn’t make him out through the casting shadows of the sun filtering through the dusty windows. The only sound I heard was the distant hum of traffic, cars honking, truck engines sighing. Faint laughter floated through the windows with the traffic, the sounds blending into the classic thrum of the city, but no sounds of Derek.   

I closed my eyes, realizing that I would have to access that deeper part of me in order to locate him. The dark flame blazed as I touched upon her.

Where is he?
I asked her.

Suddenly, I felt the heat of him above me, pulsing like a low fire in a warm brick hearth. My eyes snapped open and I looked up just in time to see him leap from a beam and fall on top of me, sending us both skidding across the ground amongst the debris.

He had me on my back, his face close to mine. I shouldn’t have been shocked at his changed appearance, but I couldn’t help it. The bumbling, spectacled Derek was gone, and in his place was a pulsating, angry beast. His eyes were slanted upwards, higher than even a cat’s, and glowed a dark scarlet, his muscles straining under the real-Derek’s skin. His brows had pushed outwards, creating a raised ridge across his forehead that sloped down at the center towards his nose, shadowing the lids of his eyes and creating a permanent, fuming scowl. I watched as another ridge formed out of his skull, the smooth surface of his forehead rising at the top of his hairline and sloping into a line down the center, joining his nose and dividing his face into two halves. His mouth remained the same size, but as he took a breath I saw his teeth, his gums rimmed with sharp, tiny incisors.

“Come on, you’re not done yet,” he laughed deeply, the low sound of his strange new voice rumbling in his chest.

My darkness was fighting me hard, pushing against me to be let through, to consume this delectable demon that had literally landed right on top of me. I forced her down, knowing full well that I needed this training; I needed this power.

I struggled to free my arms, but Derek continued to press them into the ground, his body barely moving against my attempts to free myself. I felt him against my clothing, pressing into me, the power of his demon pulsing so close to my skin.

I wanted it. Oh, I wanted it.

“Not as strong as you think, huh little demon?” He laughed again.

My mouth twisted at his taunts, and I allowed the flame to come closer to the surface of my skin and pulse behind my eyes.

“Not going to work, I’m afraid. I’m not looking into those deadly eyes of yours,” Derek said, almost sounding normal despite his malformed face and throaty voice. 

My struggles were useless against him—he was too strong and he had prevented me from using my greatest weapon: the burning. But I wasn’t about to give up.

And so I did the next best thing: I head-butted him.

It turned out he was incredibly sensitive between the eyes, because as soon as my head cracked against his, he yowled in pain and rolled off me. My own forehead seared with pain, throbbing from the combination of connecting with the sharp ridges on Derek’s face and his skin.

“It burns!” he screamed, writhing around on the floor.

“Oh no, what have I done now…”

I shook off my own searing headache and ran over to him, turning him onto his back to see what kind of damage I had inflicted.

Derek lowered his hands from his monstrous face, smiling.

He grabbed me by the arm, twisting me over him and slamming me beside him until he was once again on top of me, his forearm pressed up against my neck and his mouth inches from my own.

“Dead,” he whispered.