Beloved (Heart Hunter Series Book 1)

One little pill made every ounce of pain slip away. She could sink beneath the warm water, let the void fill her lungs and never have to wake up again. A ringing noise just beyond the fog of the water jolted her from the daydream. She hesitated, listening to the ear-splitting chime from beneath the watery abyss. At the last possible moment of breathlessness, she broke through the barrier, gasping for enough air to let her survive the distance between her and the sharp sound. She rose and pulled her long, dark hair from her face water sloshing all around her and pooling to the tile floor. The high-pitched tone in plain air shattered her hearing and she slapped her palms over her ears. From behind the creases of the shower curtain, her overexposed vision brought the warm colours of the morning sun into view. If it wasn’t the hollow cries of a Demon in the night, it was….

“The phone!” She slammed the faucet off with the side of a fist and tried to scamper out of the bath but with the extra momentum against the soapy bottom of the porcelain bathtub, she lost her footing. The counter across from her was just within reach and she grabbed it to save herself, but the damage was done, her injured hip had twisted in the slip and now throbbed. She looked down at it. The dark red and purple bruise wasn’t getting any easier to look at as it festered from the night before. Let’s just add this to the list of ugly traits I’m collecting.

She snatched a towel off the floor, which dripped from one corner. Her fingers secured the double wrap around her body and she marched for the door. “Josh!” she yelled, pausing only a second to adjust the bath sheet.

“Josh, where are you? Answer the phone! It could be Mom…”

When he didn’t answer her, she bounded down the stairs, wet feet cleaning the worn and scuffed floorboards. Her pivot around the end of the bannister allowed her to nab the phone off the receiver on its last ring.

“Hello?” Josh ran past her towards the front door, almost knocking her over in the process. “Sorry, I’m late for school! I had to find my soccer ball.” The shaggy-headed twelve-year-old grabbed the doorknob. “Looks like you got a handle on it anyway, super-sister.”

She rolled her eyes before the voice on the other end of the phone stopped her mid-motion.

“Kara?”

Why does that sound like him? Her throat dried up, causing her voice to crack the moment she tried to speak. “Yeah?”

“Kara, it’s James.”

It didn’t seem possible, but then his voice came around again like a boomerang, reminding her of the last four years of her life. A meet during a Demon hunt in an airport. His flight was delayed. Her naive heart palpitating for a handsome older boy. She let him into her world… into her life, and he had left.

“Kara?”

“Why are you calling?” she demanded, glaring at her brother now hovering at the front door—his hand lingering on the doorknob.

“Kara, who is it?” Josh’s eyes widened when she didn’t reply. “Is it actually Mom? ”

She ignored his concern. The longer the silence on the phone held out, the more it infuriated her.

“What do you want, James?”

“It’s James?” Josh let go of the front door and lunged at the phone.

“Leave me alone, Josh!” Her hand shot out and grabbed him by the collar, she heard a few threads tear and gently let him go. “Get to school.”

“Yeah.” He shuffled towards his backpack laying on the floor. “Fine.”

She watched him leave the house. The silence on the other side of the phone line stretched itself to the boundaries of snapping, right as her brother slammed the front door to the frame.

She winced.

“Are you okay?” James said on the line.

Once upon a time, that question from him would have made her day, now it just made her uncomfortable. “It’s just Josh,” she said. “Right.”

Every word of his polished English accent brought back a memory they shared. The last one reminded her too vividly of the last time they had been in the same room together.

“Is there a point to this wonderful phone call?”

“Well, yes,” he said.

“Oh? And exactly what is that? No, you know what? I don’t want to know. I’m not doing this again.”

Kara swept her thumb over the talk button and when the display flashed call ended, she chucked it aside to the coffee table. She turned back to the staircase while the phone slid across the uneven oak. With her knuckles white as she gripped the bannister, she dashed forward up the stairs two at a time to her room. Why did he phone me? Why did I hang up? Damn it, Kara! Only steps into her bedroom, she collapsed to the floor, adjusting the towel to protect her skin from the cold boards and leaned her head against the iron rods of her bed frame.

She wanted to hear his voice once more. It was more addictive than any drug to her, and yet she still found herself reaching under the bed for a ziplock bag of salvation. She pressed her cheek to the ground as far as she could and shoved her arm under the bed until her fingertips touched the plastic with a crinkling noise.

A light knock at her door disrupted her search.

“Josh! I told you, go to school… I am beyond annoyed right now and I’m just”

“He went to school.”

The same voice that had been on the phone was now behind her. She scrambled to a less guilty position, contorting her body to meet him. Her eyes scoped his lean stature before settling on his stare and furrowed brow. She clutched the towel tighter around her. This was the boy she’d spent the last year trying to forget. If he could still be considered a boy with his blocked jaw and broad shoulders…

“What are you doing here?” She forced her mouth to close before she said anything incriminating.

“I did attempt to knock, but the front door swung open.”

“It’s sort of… broken. At night I jam it up with wood.” She made herself shut up.

His eyes flickered down to her bare legs and back up again. “Your brother seems to think you’re not okay.”

“So he’s the one who called you?” Panic spread through her chest as she tried to make sense of everything. The day had started off as a normal Monday morning in her realm of sanity. Aside, James should not have been standing in her room.

“Yeah.”

There was a loud silence. Kara took in his clean-shaven face and short, dark hair. His verbena cologne was a stark juxtaposition to the wet musk of the house. He was more refined and distinguished than she remembered. While appearing far more grown up than she could comprehend.

“You need to explain what’s gone on.”

Her lips parted. She couldn’t say what needed to be said. This doesn’t feel like a dream…

“Kara?” James’ voice cut her from thought.

“Josh made a mistake obviously, because nothing is wrong and nothing has gone on.” She sprung off the floor with borrowed confidence and stomped toward him, nudging him backward. “I need to put on clothes.” She didn’t wait for his response and tried to walk past. Instead he met her step for step, looking above her frame to survey the room. She tried to quicken her pace and block his view. The disarray of her room mirrored the chaos of her life. He stopped moving and sighed. She collided into him, sore hip first. His breath fanned her face. She involuntarily tensed and took a moment to steady herself.

“You hung up on me.” He stared at her.

She shrugged a shoulder. “Why bother calling if you were here?”

“I was trying for Josh. Last time I talked to him, you weren’t home . And if that was still the case I was going to go… look for you, I suppose.”

She wrapped her arms across her chest, supplementing the thin protection of the towel. “I’m home now. I went out with friends last night, that’s all.” She tried to make the lie that left her lips believable.

“He didn’t ring last night.” He reached out for her forearm, making contact with his fingertips. “Are you alright?”

Do I look alright? The simple touch had her in knots and the passing seconds were hard enough to endure. “You don’t get to touch me.”

Hurt shaped his brow. “Kara.”

“Josh freaks out, he’s a kid, he’s dramatic, you know that. You didn’t need to show up.”

“Well, I did.”

The longer she stared at him, the more her adrenaline surged. She thought of her bony limbs and the bruises she shouldn’t have. All of them exposed if he looked just a little bit harder. He probably already had.

“Okay, I can’t have a conversation like this, I need to get clothes on.”

She limped to grab the door, her collision with him bringing the pain in her hip back to the surface. It would fade but she never did heal as fast she thought she should.

“Have you been hunting?” He stared at her unblinking. “Kara.” His soft tone didn’t match the vein bulging from the clench in his jaw.

“Why do you keep saying my name like that? It’s super annoying.”

“First off, I didn’t come here to fight with you.”

“First off,” she mimicked his accent, turned away from the wall he’d become in the hallway and marched back into her room. She pulled open the top drawer of her dresser and the handle came off in her hand. She threw it to the ground with a near miss to her foot. “I’m changing!”

“I’ll be downstairs.” She heard his heavy gait come towards her and she tensed, ready to use her super human strength to flatten him, but the door shut with a gentle click instead. She resisted the urge to dive under the bed and silence the nerves building. Instead, she took one not so calming deep breath and attempted to dress herself.

Her first few shirts were no good. Rips, dirt, blue goo. She didn’t remember the last time she did laundry. She settled on a grey tank-top that may have been white once in her life and tucked it into her waistband to hide a stain of dark brown. It was likely blood and hopefully hers. Her eyes wandered to the cracked vanity mirror and the reflection back made her wince. While her hair dried the Virginian humidity attacked. She ran her fingers through her dark waves in a failed effort to flatten the frizzy ends and left the room from fueled embarrassment. The narrow staircase grew closer as her fears of confronting his questions grew stronger.

She poked her head into the living room. He stood with his back towards her staring down at something in his hands. There was a picture missing from the ash covered brick mantle. Her mom used the fireplace more

than the thermostat.

She wanted to say something but hesitated. His smell was intoxicating - it could have been that her house smelled that bad and he had become quite literally a breath of fresh air compared to it, but she suspected it was her heightened sense of smell that made his scent so appealing.

“How sore is your hip?”

Miffed at the frankness, she could only stare at hi m. She didn’t know when he had turned to her. The photo was back on the mantle. Dust brushed away from the image of her and Josh five years ago, hands covered in mud playing in a riverbed. They caught a freshwater snail and took it home . She didn’t remember what happened to it after.

He came towards her. “Maybe you should sit down?”

“I’m fine.” She gave him a shake of her head. “I have to go to school.”

The thought that this would be her first day back since her suspension had entered her mind last night. She was mid-kick. She lost her precision in the anxiety. The suspension itself wasn’t her fault, but the loss of focus was.

The Demon had gotten a good counter swing back at her. Mr. Polanski had made it clear she wouldn’t be coming to school ever again the next chance he got. A second attempt to recover her error, she’d jabbed the Demon in the soft part of its human-worn jaw with two knuckles.

“How did you get hurt?”

“As much as I wanna have this conversation…” She gave him an awkward glance and went to walk away but he reached for her hand. She stopped and stared at his touch but didn’t pull away. James was the one to drop the contact.

“This town isn’t getting any better on the Demon activity is it?”

“Improvement isn’t forthcoming.” She tried to brush the topic off with a laugh along with the claws of terror ripping into her gut.

She didn’t understand why he cared so much, being human had him beating her survival odds by a lot. “Not many Hunters around here anymore, considering we’re the last bloodline left for a few hundred miles.”

“ Mm.” He glanced around the room of old furniture and shag carpets.

“House looks…”

“Mom’s been a no-show for weeks, she says she’s hunting but I know better, partying likely. I don’t know where she is and I don’t care. Other than that, I wish she’d leave more money for food. I got fired from another gas

station job. Sorry, can’t show up to my shift need to go hunting.” She laughed at her own expense. “You can see why I’m still not popular in this town.”

The corner of his mouth twitched and she knew what he was thinking; nothing’s changed. Absolutely nothing.

“I really should go to school.”

“I’ll drive you.”

“Oh, you don’t have to. All good.” She went to look for her backpack, she hadn’t seen it in days.

“I’m offering.” His voice followed her into the other room.

“I have my truck.” She opened the closet door in the hall and it unhinged. She managed to catch it in a clumsy hold before it fell into her face.

“That thing is likely to self-destruct at any second.” He was by her side without a sound, taking the door and leaning it against the wall for her. “It’s a miracle it’s even drivable.”

“It only shakes a bit when you turn to the left.” She stuck her head inside the mothball filled hole in the wall in search of the black and checkered backpack she’d had since grade eight. Moving Josh’s coats and hoodies aside, she found it under a pair of her brother ’s muddy soccer cleats.

“Ugh…” She grabbed the bag and threw the shoes to the floor. “Josh…”

“Does he still play?”

“Soccer? Yeah. After school program-thing…” She shook out her bag. Dirt flew everywhere and she had to scrunch up her face to prevent it from getting up her nose. “Stupid sport.”

“Hey now…” He scolded her playfully.

“Oh, do you still play? Sorry.” She wasn’t sorry.

James’ eyebrow raised and she couldn’t help a small smile once her eyes landed back on him, the familiar feeling of teenage normalcy being with him afforded her a crack in her current annoyance. She felt human. Other girls wished for straight hair, or blue eyes. Kara wished she had never been born into a Hunter bloodline.

The slam of the front door interrupted her thoughts. She turned to face the intruder, instinctively taking a defensive stance, eyes locking on a blonde haired, blue eyed teenage girl, mouth open and already mid-sentence.“We’ve got fifteen minutes” Her friend’s eyes landed on James and her jaw unhinged. “What the hell is going on?” Definitely not the time to go into the gory details on that one. Kara walked towards her only neighbourhood friend, whom she’d dubbed her best friend when they had been six years old. She ditched her empty dirty backpack—she would just carry her school books around for the day. “Let’s go, Jessica. I can’t be late.” Her friend didn’t move when Kara walked past and pulled her gently by the arm. Instead, Jessica popped her hand on her hip and planted her feet.

“Why are you here, Dray?”

“Because I care about your friend.” A more tactical person would have made an effort to contain their annoyance. Kara was sure James hadn’t even tried.

Her heart pitter pattered in her chest and she couldn’t help the smile that crept into her features; she looked away to avoid eye contact with James and instead belined it to her keys on the small coffee table a few feet away. For once she’d dropped them in a convenient place. Jessica made a loud gag noise that helped ease Kara out of the awkward fuzzy feelings she was battling. She took Jessica by the arm, yanking this time to break her friend’s stance and get her out the door. James followed them outside and caught up as Kara opened the driver side door.

“Take my car. Please.”

Kara’s eyes flickered towards the outstretched key ring in his hand and then across the street to the sleek rental car. She was tempted to take it, but the reality of borrowing such a nice possession stopped her.

“Kara, let’s go!” Jessica hollered from inside the truck.

“It’s fine, we’re good, James. See you later.” Kara yanked the old truck’s door from the rusty frame. The hinges screamed for lubrication.

“I have nowhere else to be so, yes, I’ll be here.” He took the door to shut it for her. His hands left the frame with a slowness that made her stare at him. With his step back, he spun the keys around his finger and walked away towards the midnight model car with only a light layer of Virginian dew.

Jessica muttered beside her. “I can’t believe this, Kara. You’re all into him again!”

Her eyes darted from the rearview mirror. Yeah, I know. She wanted so badly to tell him to get lost—but her head spun so quickly she couldn’t give it the shake it needed.

“Don’t forget, you guys were all like boyfriend-girlfriend and then he was all like: Kara, you’re a girl with superpowers. A Hunter. I can’t be with you.”

“He didn’t specifically say that, he just said he couldn’t continue our relationship”

“While you were practically naked. Underneath him,” Jessica rolled her eyes. She opened a jar of nail polish on the dash that filled the cab of the truck with a less-than charming scent of enamel . “What boy even says that

when he’s about to get some?”

It wasn’t an easy thing to divulge to her friend, how when he came around she felt complete and without sounding too Disney-whole inside. She hated to think of it in a supernatural way, but the bond she’d shared with

him at one time felt just that too amazing to be true.

“I dunno…” Kara felt the blush on her cheeks as she adjusted her hands on the wheel. “One that isn’t ready?”

“Bull.” Jessica scoffed. “More like the one that’s gonna regret it. It’s like he said you’re not good enough.”

She winced, as much as Jessica’s words sounded like a lie, they sure didn’t feel like one anymore.

She spent the last year trying to erase James Dray from her memory and all her attempts had been in vain the moment his voice slid from the phone. She was blindsided by his sudden appearance, and for a split moment forgot the pain she’d endured when James had abandoned her. The first idiot choice she’d make. A new danger-loving boyfriend with a need for money he didn’t have and his executed ideas to get the life back he’d lost in the darkest areas of the underworld. It was a tighter and faster spiral each time she’d knock on his door. She’d tango with any drug he’d hand her, anything that could sedate her hunter senses…

And her human heart. It had made it all easier to be numb. It made it easier still.

“I know one thing.” Jessica capped the polish and blew on her nails to dry the touch ups she’d managed to make. The smell was giving Kara a terrible headache. “I wouldn’t trust him. He’s so…”

“Hot?” Kara tried.

“Moody,” Jessica sneered. “Not to mention, bossy and anal retentive about everything… like did you see his hair, do you think he has a personal stylist to groom him every morning?”

“It’s cut short,” Kara mumbled, “It’s probably just gel.”

“No, it’s way too perfect. It means, he’s a total control freak. Plus, you forgot didn’t you… he’s old.” Jessica loved to point out the five year age gap between James and her, like it made such a difference. At one point it had, and he’d always treaded lightly on their friendship. He’d kept tabs on her from a distance but that had ended a year ago with his touch and kiss that still held her memory captive. Her friend leaned back in the seat and let out a long dramatic sigh. “Reminds me of my Dad, like ew… You know, he tried to ground me yesterday—over coming home like, only an hour later than I said I would be. I told him good luck grounding a seventeen year old.”

“Being grounded isn’t really that big of a deal”

“It doesn’t matter. I’m just going to do what I want anyway.” Her friend’s voice blended into the whooshing that always came from her door. Ever since the day she’d got the vehicle it had never shut properly with its credit card thin space between the driver’s side door and the frame. Her mom had said she’d get her whatever-she-was-screwing to fix it but she threw him out before that had happened and her mom hadn’t done anything about it since, let alone ever grounding her for anything. It was a teenage rite of passage she’d never been blessed with and never would. Like any parent should, it would have been nice to have someone who could think about what’s next for her.

Instead she had her baby brother to worry about, a house with a chronic no food problem and a mother who was never around to do anything. To Kara, one day of being grounded would be a dream come true, she could stay home and clean her room or even lay on her bed listening to the Billboard top 40.

But instead she came home and took care of Josh, did all of five minutes of homework and then went out into the night to make her presence known to the Demons who called Virginia Beach home . Sometimes she slept, sometimes it was through first period but mostly she walked around exhausted. The thought that any day was realistically her last one weighed on her more than her day to day—as miserable as it was.

She didn’t want to die. She just wanted some rest but Demon Hunters didn’t take days off or retire. They just grew weaker and weaker as the blood in their veins grew thinner. The same strength that came as a rite of passage suddenly sucked all the marrow from their bones and with a feeble last breath, they turned to dust.

Spontaneous combustion without the internal pure, or they were killed by the Demons they were destined to cull. One or the other.

“Kara, hello, you’re driving past the school!”

“Oh crap!” She slammed on the breaks and swung the steering wheel towards the school parking lot. The truck careened with a groan and hit the curb. They bounced out of their seats as the wheels jumped and the truck slid to a stop inches from the principal’s blue Honda Civic.

“Jesus, Kara!” Jessica grabbed her bag. “If I don’t die from the Demons in this town, it will totally be from you.”

“Not funny.” Kara made a face as Jessica exited the vehicle with a wave. Cranking the wheel to find a place to park, she noticed the lack of students milling around and a full lot of cars.

Her heart sank. She’d screwed up again.