Chapter Eleven

A re you scared?”

Gina looked to Shay, not sure how she should answer that question.

Dusk had begun to settle on the island, sprinkling a dusty orange glow over the horizon. She looked out to sea, then back at Shay. There was a tightness in her stomach, but she felt that before a major shoot, too. Then again, she wasn’t in Hollywood and this was no movie. Any blood spilled wasn’t going to be the special effects variety. “Not really,” she finally replied with a casual shrug.

“How can you not be scared?” Shay asked.

“I guess because I’m more angry than frightened.” Which was the truth. “So rather than cower in fright over what might happen to us, I’m going to do something about it. And stop these things from hurting anyone else.”

Shay nodded, her shoulders relaxing a little. “I guess that’s a good way to think about it. I’m angry about it, too. But I have to tell you, a part of me is scared as hell.”

“I think that’s perfectly normal,” Olivia said, stepping up next to them. “We don’t know what we’re facing, and it’s possible we could die out there.”

“Oh, that makes me feel so much better.” Shay sighed.

Olivia offered a soft smile. “Sorry. What I meant was, if you’re prepared for the possibility of death, it makes you more aware of the things you need to do to avoid it. If you don’t have a little fear about this whole situation, then you’re not normal.”

Gina supposed she wasn’t normal, then, because she refused to let fear creep into her thoughts, refused to acknowledge that night so long ago when she was so scared she wet the bed, too afraid to get up and go to the bathroom for fear something was going to attack her while she huddled alone in the house without her mother.

No, she’d never feel that vulnerable again. And no damn monster would put her in the position of having those feelings.

“Fear makes you weak,” she muttered, watching the orange sky shift to shades of gray.

Derek couldn’t help but smile at the way Gina was loaded down, guns in holster, UV rifle slung over her shoulder, the sunglasses he’d just handed her pulling back her hair as she slipped them on top of her head.

“Any idea how many of them are on the island?” Gina asked, buckling on her ammo belt.

She looked sexy and deadly. A pretty lethal combination in black pants, a black tank top, her hair blowing back in the soft breeze created from the storm clouds floating in from the shore.

“No clue,” he said, forcing his mind back on task. “But I’d bet there’s a lot of them, so we’re going to have to be sharp.” He looked around at all six new hunters, wishing it didn’t have to be like this. “We didn’t want to do it this way. God knows you all need more time for weapons training, but you’re not going to get it. Stay close to the other hunters and follow their lead. We have demons to kill here, and I don’t want a single one of them leaving this island alive. I do, however, want all of you coming out of this breathing.”

Derek surveyed the teams. His trained hunters, plus six new ones. Fourteen in total, counting himself, since he’d be leaving two with Lou tonight. Not very high numbers considering what instinct told him they were facing on this island.

Nervous energy skimmed along his spinal column. He shook it off and straightened, forcing whatever was rushing inside him to calm down.

He didn’t like these damn sensations he’d been having lately. Focus was important in hunting demons. He couldn’t afford a distraction right now.

“What’s wrong?” Lou asked, coming up beside him and motioning him to the side.

“Don’t know,” he said as they walked off alone. “Been having some weird feelings lately.”

Lou stalled and tilted his head. “What kind of feelings?”

“If I knew what they were, they wouldn’t be weird, would they?”

“Funny. Now describe them.”

Cracking a smile, Derek said, “I’m not really a ‘share your feelings’ kind of guy, Lou. But thanks for asking.”

Lou rolled his eyes. “You always were difficult, boy. And you know what I mean.”

“I can’t really explain it,” Derek said, trying to be serious, but it felt damn stupid to voice what he couldn’t put into words. “They’re almost like premonitions. Like something’s off-kilter, or about to happen, but I can’t pinpoint what it is.” He shrugged as soon as he said it.

“Anxiety probably, though if you tell anyone I said that I’ll boil your insides with the nuke.”

Lou snorted. “You know anything you’ve ever told me has always remained confidential. And you’re not the anxiety attack type.”

Lou studied Derek. He felt like he was being examined under a microscope.

“What?”

“Nothing. It’s just that you’ve been doing this for a while. I think you’ve simply developed extra senses about the demons. You’re worrying for nothing.” He placed his hand on Derek’s shoulder. “Listen to those feelings, Derek. They could save your life.”

He hated when Lou got all otherworldly on him. Gave him the creeps sometimes. “Yeah. I’ll do that. But I’d rather rely on my guns.”

After gathering up the teams and splitting them into three groups, they headed off into the jungle. Derek’s team had the fewest, the other two having five members on theirs.

But he had Gina and Ryder, in his opinion the strongest on the team of new hunters. If he was going in one man down, he wanted to compensate by having the best. And okay, he wanted to keep his eye on Gina, too, and he wasn’t about to psychoanalyze the whys of that one. It just made him feel better to have her with him tonight.

Dalton as lead of team two had taken Jake and Shay, while Rafe as team-three leader had taken Olivia and Trace. The teams had a good mix of talent between experienced hunters and new recruits. Now Derek just had to hope his hunters could keep the new guys alive through tonight.

The game was on.

Battle plan laid out, fully armed and connected to Lou via their ear com devices, they headed into the jungle, each team branching out in different directions. Using the GPS hooked to his wrist, Derek led his team east and into the depths of the jungle.

“Stay tight and in formation,” he said to Gina and Ryder. “Keep moving. If you see something, then say so. Listen for commands from me or Linc or Lou.”

“What are we looking for specifically?” Gina asked. “Will Lou lead us to hot spots, or do you have a place in mind?”

“Lou will tell us immediately if there’s a hot spot in our vicinity.” They all wore thermal tracking devices so Lou knew their locations and could tell them if there was any demon activity in their area. “Otherwise, we’re just takin’ a walk. There’s no way to figure out where these things are.”

“So basically we wait for them to come to us,” Ryder said.

“Yeah.”

“That sucks,” Gina mumbled.

Linc snorted. “You get used to it.”

Gina nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of Linc’s exceptionally deep voice behind her. Though she didn’t turn around since Derek was still walking, she asked, “How do you get used it? How do you do your normal hunting when you’re not on an island?”

“Track ’em the same way we’re doing right now. Lou does his thing, lets us know where they are, and we hunt until they make an appearance. Then we kill them.”

“How do you do that in the middle of a major city?” She couldn’t even imagine taking high-tech weapons like the one she carried into the middle of Chicago or New York City.

“They don’t want to be seen any more than we do. They mostly hunt in smaller cities and towns. They use stealth, the cover of night, and inconspicuous areas where they’re less likely to be spotted,” Derek explained. “We hunt and fight at night. They want to kill us as much as we want to kill them, so once we spot them we’ll either give chase or they’ll come after us. We bring them to a secluded area like an alley or someplace where no one’s around and do our thing.”

“Still, it’s not like there’s no people around.”

“You’d be surprised how people disappear when they see guns drawn,” Linc said. “Besides, not too many people are around in the middle of the night, even in the city. Only the bad element, and they see nothing. If there’s nothing in it for them to profit from, they’re not interested in getting involved. You point a weapon like these at them, they’re gone.”

Okay, that made sense. “But what about the police?”

“We make sure they don’t see us,” Derek said.

Amazing the hunters had been fighting so long without being found out. Just more proof they were good at what they did.

Would she ever measure up? Would she ever be that good? She hoped so. She’d like to think she could fit in well with these hunters. She’d already started to relax—a little. If it wasn’t for the fact they were looking for evil monsters, Gina would enjoy this night walk. The jungle was peaceful, the oppressive heat and humidity of the day obliterated by a cooling night breeze wafting off the ocean. The only sound was the treetops shaking in the wind, crisp, like rattling paper overhead. She could almost relax.

Almost.

But then Derek held up his hand and they froze. Gina’s stomach clenched, her grip tightening on her weapon as she waited, listening and looking for signs of anything around them.

“Turn your lights out and put your shades on,” he commanded.

She flipped her shoulder lanterns off and put the sunglasses on. Just like the night-vision goggles she’d worn last night, only much lighter, they fit snug around her entire eye, no doubt to shield them from any UV blasts.

But she still didn’t detect any movement or see anything.

“What’s up, Derek?” Linc asked.

“Something’s coming.”

“Lou hasn’t signaled,” Linc came back.

“I know. He will. They’re coming. Just north of us. Five of them.”

How the hell did he know that?

“I’m tracking five that just entered north of your position, Derek,” Lou commed. “And they’re splitting.”

Gina shivered like someone had just walked over her grave. Okay, that was damn spooky.

“Got it, Lou,” he said, turning to them. “Linc, take Ryder and track west around those trees. See if you can intercept a couple of them. Gina, you’re with me.”

She nodded and followed. Apparently they were going to meet the demons head-on. Stepping up her pace, she sidled up next to him. He glanced at her. “You comfortable on weapons?”

“Yeah.”

“Feel confident?”

Oh, right. She was about to meet up with demons. Creatures from Hell. Things that weren’t human that she was supposed to kill with this futuristic flesh-melting weaponry. She’d never in her life felt less confident. “I’m fine.”

“It’s okay to be nervous.”

She rolled her eyes. “I can handle this.”

He stopped, looked ahead, then at her. “I know you can handle this. That’s why I wanted you on my team tonight.”

When he turned and walked ahead, it took her a second before she could kick-start her feet into moving.

He couldn’t have complimented her more. With a wide grin, she hustled up behind him again, more determined than ever to prove him right.

“They’re here,” he whispered, taking a deep breath. “Pure or half demons, ’cuz I don’t smell the stench of hybrids.”

That was good to know. She wasn’t sure she was ready yet for the big hulking stinky ones.

Then she saw it. A flicker of movement to her left. Like a flash of white lighting as it breezed by.

“They’re fast, Gina. Get ready to run. He’ll circle and pop up behind you before you know it, otherwise. Get your vision tracked and follow, but stay sharp. They like to gang up. And stay with me at all times.”

She nodded and drew her weapon up rib high, acknowledging that her hands were shaking, forcing a calm she didn’t feel.

It was just adrenaline. Not fear. She was ready for this fight. Prepared. Armed and strong. She could take these bastards.

“What scares you, little girl?”

For a split second, her eyes closed, and she was propelled back in time once again, becoming that frightened child all alone. As she gasped back a sob, reality surged and she pivoted.

The sonofabitch was fucking with her mind, and that she would never, ever allow. She aimed and fired, the UV light surprising the demon. He threw his hands up, but it was too late. An unholy scream emanated from the creature as it boiled and bubbled, smoke pouring from its frying flesh before oozing to the ground in a gelatinous pile.

Gina walked over to it, watching the remains rise and fall as if it was still breathing.

“Don’t ever fuck with me like that again,” she whispered to the darkness around her. “You can’t scare me.”

Blinking back the moisture in her eyes, she turned. Derek was watching her.

“You okay?”

“Yes.”

He focused on her for a second, then nodded. “Nice shot. Now let’s move.”

It didn’t take long for another to dart by them. Like ghosts, they flew by, almost as if they were taunting them, playing a game of cat and mouse. Derek took off in a fast run, Gina right on his heels, digging down when she was nearly out of breath. When he increased his speed to nearly inhuman levels, Gina almost lost sight of him. For someone she’d easily kept up with just a few days ago, he’d sure stepped it up all of a sudden. She was wheezing, her lungs were on fire, and if he didn’t slow down soon she was going to be left behind.

God, these things were fast, zooming around trees and through the bushes with lightning speed. Relentless, Derek refused to let go of his target, but finally halted so suddenly Gina almost ran up his back. She dug in her heels and stopped just in time to see him aim at a demon coming right at them. The gun whirred with a low humming sound, but she couldn’t see anything coming from the barrel.

Nevertheless, the microwaves had obviously hit their intended target. The demon flew in the air, shimmying and shaking as the waves hit it, its eyeballs protruding from their sockets, white and bulging. When it hit the ground it began to sizzle, bumps popping out on its skin like a bad case of hives. Its skin turned bright red and began to bubble.

“Stand back, Gina,” Derek said.

She did, and he took several steps backward, too.

Gina watched in horror and fascination as the demon began to expand, its skin stretching like a balloon filling with air. Wider and wider it expanded, more than skin should be able to inflate.

“This is where it gets really messy,” Derek said.

Suddenly, the demon blew apart with a loud pop, parts of it flying all over the jungle.

Gina grimaced and looked at Derek. “Oh, that’s so gross.”

Grinning, he said, “Yeah, isn’t it? Now, let’s go get the last one.”

Strangely, it seemed that the last demon was hiding. Or maybe it was stalking them, ready to pounce from behind a tree or thicket of bushes.

Gina and Derek combed the area, communicating back and forth with Linc and Ryder, who were engaged with their own set of demons.

“See anything?” Derek asked as he looked left and she looked right.

“Not yet.”

But suddenly it was right there in front of them, appearing out of nowhere. Derek dropped his rifle as the demon lunged for him, its clawed hands and dripping fangs reaching out, trying to bite, to scratch, to insert its paralyzing toxin.

Human-looking in every way except for its hideous fangs and claws, it was just like the one she’d seen the night before. Nearly bald, with pale blue eyes, but emanating pure evil as its twisted, grimacing face glared at Derek.

Derek grabbed its wrists and held it back, struggling to keep it at bay.

Shocked for a second, Gina gaped at it, her mind scrambling for what to do.

Shoot it, dumbass!

Then instinct roared to life and she grabbed the handgun out of the holster at her hip, taking careful aim as the demon and Derek struggled in a fierce dance. She didn’t want to hit Derek in case they moved suddenly, but she knew Derek didn’t have much time. The muscles of Derek’s arms bulged with the effort it took to keep the demon from sinking its fangs into his arm.

She fired a shot, striking the demon in the throat. It let go of Derek and reached for its neck, blood pouring over its hands.

Derek pushed back, panting and fighting for breath as he leaned over and braced his hands on his knees. Gina rushed over to him.

“Are you all right?”

“Yeah,” he said, nodding. “Thanks.”

She looked at the demon, horrified to see its flesh melting off its bones, a strangled, bubbly cry tearing through the night as first its flesh disappeared, then muscle, then organs disintegrated, until nothing was left but skeletal remains that dropped to the ground.

“You have some seriously kick-ass weapons, Derek.”

“Yeah.” He stood, inhaled, exhaled, and turned to her. “You did good. Thanks for thinking so clearly. You saved my life.”

Beaming, she nodded. “You’re welcome.”

“Lou, we’ve hit all three here. Any other activity?” he commed.

“Other teams completed. Nothing else going on. Head back.”

“Got it. Out.” He turned to Gina. “We’re done here. Let’s go.”

That was it? She was primed, exhilarated and pumped up with adrenaline. She wanted to kill more demons. Why weren’t there more demons? What did he mean they were done?

Hell, she was just getting started. What was she going to do the rest of the night?