On the Road Again. Part 26

Goddamnit. I hate it when Stewart gets his so called “Bright Ideas.” There’s no way I can convince him not to do this—there’s no way I can tell him I don’t want any part of it. He doesn’t get it—he may be indestructible now but me and Alex are just as fragile as ever. Even with the powers this sword gives me I’m breakable. I haven’t figured them all out, how to use them, and every now and then a flash of my uncle’s extended memory explodes into my head, causing me to be nauseous. I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to follow Stewart into the Mafia’s base and kill a bunch of people, innocent or not. And I definitely don’t want to hurt Zach, wherever he is—I need to talk to him.

Whatever part of me that wanted to know information about my uncle knew my best bet was to stay with Ser and Stewart, but they were going down a road I wasn’t interested in. But what about Alex? He seemed to be an innocent bystander in all of this.

“What’s on your mind?” Stewart asked.

“Oh, me? Nothing?”

“You were staring off into space for like twenty minutes, dude,” Alex broke in.

“It’s just… I can’t stay with you guys.”

“What?!” Stewart said. “Why not?”

“I want to go, and I want answers, but I’ve got a feeling in my gut, I think it’s from the sword. It’s pulling me in another direction, and I don’t think I should ignore it.”

“That feeling is that of the demon-hunters,” Ser said. “It pulls you toward the closest demons.”

“Why aren’t I pulled to you, then?” I asked.

“Because I have long since learned to mask my presence.”

“Oh,” I said. “Well good for you.”

“You’re really gonna go, even after we just met up?” Alex asked.

“Yeah, I have to,” I said. “I’ll be back before you know it. I continued to avoid Stewart’s gaze, but for different reasons now. One, I wasn’t sure just how powerful Ser was, and I didn’t want Stewart to know I didn’t want to go with him. Also, I thought that if I looked in his eyes he be able to convince me to go, and I really didn’t want to.

“Fine,” Stewart said. “Go.”

“What if he joins with Zach?” Ser said, his voice cold and angry.

“I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

“Goodbye. I’ll see you all soon.” And I was off. I realized when I got outside of Ser’s protective circle that I still wasn’t properly dressed for the cold. All I had was a red leather jacket and jeans, but I refused to let the cold get to me. I followed the pull of the demon to the south. It was odd. I was remembering something Stewart said, how just weeks ago I didn’t even know magic was real, but now I was fighting Demons and vampires and whatever else. I was taking it all pretty well, I thought, but that was mostly because of my uncle’s presence. He made me feel stronger.

It wasn’t long before I found the demon. This one was possessing a large bald man, his eyes were red like fire and his hands rounded like claws. He was at least eight feet tall, built like a ton of bricks and angry. He was holding up a girl who looked to be about my age—tall, blonde, fucking gorgeous. I couldn’t let him do anything wrong to her, but they were so far away…

I knew what to do. Before I knew it the sword was out of its scabbard on my back and its tip was pointed in the direction of the demon. I pushed the power in me forward and it exploded in a burst of white plasma toward them both. It exploded on the man, melting away at his skin and revealing a red-furred, horned demon who was even taller than the man before. He dropped the girl, who screamed, and he started toward me. He was steaming from my attack and looked to be in pain. I wanted to make it worse. As he approached I jumped and flipped in the air, bringing the sword around in a high arch. I landed on his back and in one fluid motion stabbed the sword into the back of his neck, cracking his spine. I felt the body go limp beneath me, and I felt a power surge in me like nothing I’d ever felt before. I knew that as I became more in synch with my uncle I would grow more and more powerful. The demon lay dead beneath me, its tongue lolling out of its mouth. The girl was curled up and crying on the street. She wore a loose blue dress which hung off her in folds.

I approached her and said in my softest voice, “You look cold. Come with me.”

She looked up, tears filling eyes which were as big as moons, and blue. I grabbed her hand and pulled her up. She was weak, but I supported her with my arm around her waist. We made it to the nearest bar, where I ordered two drinks. She spoke for the first time.

“Thanks.” She didn’t look at me.

“It’s no problem. You alright?”

“Yeah I think so.”

“What’s your name?” I asked. “Mine’s Ramsey.”

“That’s a nice name,” she said. She spoke perfect English, although she did have a strong Russian accent. “I’m Adrienne.”



-The Knight