A New Companion, Part 34

The demons weren’t all that hard to kill—some of them were easier than others, to be sure, but none put up much of a fight, not when I was on a roll like I was. That being said, I wasn’t having an easy job of dispatching them. For one thing, there were far too many, and even after what felt like day of fighting they were still there, terrible in their own ways. Eventually I realized that I was fighting a losing battle, and fled, taking with me an odd jacket I found on one of the stronger demons. I made my way back to Alex’s house, where I knew I’d find him and Adrienne. I was anxious to get back to where Adrienne and I had left off, back in the bar in Russia. When I arrived at the house Alex was asleep, passed out. Good—he needed the rest. I was in such a rush I just dropped all my stuff on the floor and went to the back.

“Ramsey!” Adrienne yelled when she saw me. “Are you alright?” she asked. “You’re covered in blood!”

“None of it’s mine,” I said. “But I do need to wash my clothes…”

“Let’s get you out of them, then,” she said with a sly smile. I smiled back and she helped me peel the blood-soaked clothes off of my body. Some stuff happened after that that I’m sure you can figure out on your own. My clothes were in the washed so a few hours later I showered and threw on some clothes from Alex’s room. When he woke up I went to talk to him.

“That was strange,” he said.

“What was?”

He pulled a lemon out of the pocket of the Jacket I’d given him. “I was just thinking how handy it would be to have a lemon for my tea.”

“Whoa… Weird,” I said. Just then Adrienne came in, freshly showered. I walked over to her and put my arm around her waist. She smiled and kissed me on the cheek.

“You two seem to have hit it off quite nicely,” Alex said.

“What can I say?” I said. We all laughed. “But I’m curious,” I continued. “That jacket seems pretty amazing… I wonder what all it can do.”

“Let’s see.” He reached into the pocket while closing his eyes tight, as if trying to visualize something. When he pulled his hand from the pocket he was holding a large axe, far to big to fit in the pocket.

“What the hell do you need an axe for?” I asked.

“I dunno, I just wanted to see if I could do it, that’s all,” he said. We laughed again. I was getting pretty anxious, being cooped up in the house like this. I wanted to go for a walk, get my thoughts in order.

“I’m going out for a minute,” I said. I left the house quickly and, once outside, cut another portal with my sword. This one led me into a forest somewhere in Europe. The weather was nice here and I enjoyed it, walking through the trees quietly. I was pretty tired—I hadn’t slept since they’d found me outside the bar in Russia, but I was so nervous—I expected demons to jump out at every corner. I was also worried about Stewart and his demon, as well as what he was doing in that big cloud over Birmingham. Obviously there was nothing I could do to help him, because if there was I think my demon hunter’s sense would show me.

That was another thing. I was becoming one with my uncle. It was to the point where I knew everything he’d known, how to fight, how to survive. The sword felt natural in my hand, and it wasn’t just my body automatically performing the attack anymore—I knew what I was doing, and part of me thought that the magic wasn’t in the sword anymore—it had moved to me. In fact, I knew it was true, knew that even if I lost this sword I’d have all of its powers still. That was good, I knew, but I didn’t want to lose the sword—it was the only thing I had of my uncle’s.

As I was walking, though, I heard something move just out of sight. I drew my sword quietly and waited. It was getting closer, whatever it was, but my uncle was telling me not to attack, that whatever it was, it was a friend. I waited, and out from the woods bounded a creature that was much bigger than me. It was a blur at first, moving faster than I could see. It was on top of me before I knew it, but it did not attack—it was licking my face. Because of my uncle I knew this was a griffon, and not just any griffon—it was his. It had the head of an eagle, only much bigger—an eagle’s wings and front talons, as well, but the rest was that of a lion. It had a diamond encrusted saddle strapped to its back and it was the most gorgeous auburn color.

“Well hello,” I said, rubbing my hand along its smooth head. It sort of purred in response. It seemed to recognize me, and I it. Its name was Harx. I sheathed my sword and looked at the beast carefully. “You’re mine, now, aren’t you?” I said.

It nodded. “Good,” I said. I mounted the beast, grabbing a set of reigns that were tied to the saddle. Flying it turned out to be much easier than I thought, but then again it came to me as readily as swordfighting did, and I owed it all to my uncle. It flew fast—amazingly fast, but I didn’t have time to fly all the way back to America. I decided to try and make a portal with just my hands—I focused on an area way out in front of us and there it appeared—a portal leading straight to Alex’s house. I dismounted and let the beast roam and hunt the woods surrounding his house—I knew that if I had need of him he’d come with no hesitation.

I walked inside. The floor was covered in weapons of various size and shape. Alex was in the middle of trying to put a giant maul from his pocket. There were probably a hundred medieval weapons strewn across the floor. “What the hell,” I said, laughing.

“What?” Alex asked. “I thought we should be prepared.” He laughed too. I brought them both outside to point out Harx, who was now flying in circles above us. They were both impressed. We walked back inside, then, and I pulled Adrienne aside.

“You look like you could use the soothing touch of a woman,” she said. Man, she really picks up on things quickly.

“There’s only one woman I can think of that could soothe me,” I said, and pulled her into a kiss. We stumbled into a bedroom in the back. I’ll have to remember to get Stewart and Alex both to give me a few high fives for this. Lucky, lucky me.



-The Knight