My Heart be Damned (7 page)

I didn’t know whether to be offended or thankful. I did need a break; that was undoubtedly true. Bursting for the toilet was a phrase I’d used to describe my state over an hour ago. Now I was downright desperate. Did it have to be Marshall, of all people, to let me finally have a break?

“Okay, fine,” I snapped, backing down.

“You’re welcome!” He called after my retreating form
.

Chapter Seven

Sneaking Suspicion

The end of my shift seemed to take years to arrive, rather than mere hours. The stress of my first day hadn’t gotten any better over that amount of time, either. In fact, just when I thought I might get to hand my tables over and start getting ready to go home, Emily demanded that I empty the trash, and it wasn’t just one bag, or even two, but five giant sacks of it. It was just as well that I could lift multiple bags at once.

The air outside was chilly as I stepped out with no coat. My hair whipped around my face, and I lugged the bags toward where Emily told me the dumpsters were.
I rounded the corner and froze.

This was the same alley where I’d saved Chuck from the thugs. Coming out of the side door leading into John’s office was Marshall. He wasn’t alone. I stepped back and pressed myself against the wall, keeping out of sight, though
I could see him perfectly well.

He leaned back through the door before backing out, pulling a wheelchair from the building. His passenger was a middle-aged woman, covered with a blanket, dark hair pulled away from her face. Who was that?

“Dane, I don’t want to go home. I haven’t left the house in days. The walls are suffocating me,” the woman said, startling me.

Marshall kept pushing the wheelchair anyway. “Mum, you’re not well. You could catch all kinds of things in there. If you catch even a cold...”

The woman sighed. That was Marshall’s mother? She was so frail, so unlike what I would imagine her to be. I wanted to walk away and stop intruding on their conversation, but at the same time, I was rooted to the spot.

“Don’t start the lecture again,” she said. “I know all of this already. I’m supposed to look after you, you know.”

“How did you even get here?” Marshall demanded.

“I called a cab.”

“Don’t do that again. I thought John was gonna have a heart attack when you showed up.” He stopped to bend and kiss his mother on the cheek. “I love you, but you’re such a difficult woman.”

“I love you, but you’re such a buzz kill. What I have right now is a poor excuse of a life. I need to get out and have fun, Dane.”

Marshall groaned and straightened up. “At least you have a life.” Then he pushed the wheelchair around the corner towards the car park, and I tuned out of their conversation.

It took me a few moments to remember I was still holding bags of trash. I threw them in the dumpster and rushed back into The Hut.

I kept replaying Marshall’s soft attitude to his mother over and over. I’d thought he was a straight up idiot. Then, all idiots must have a reason for being that way. Right? I grabbed the last bags and headed back to the alley. I still didn’t fully trust the guy, but if he could be that caring and protective over someone, he couldn’t be all bad.

Having an after school job was hard. The good thing about it was I was so tired in the evenings, that I had no energy for my graveyard compulsions.

Except, when Saturday rolled around it was my day off.

I spent most of the day at Mercy’s house, listening to her parents argue downstairs while pretending that I couldn’t hear it. When I couldn’t deal with it anymore, I took the Tube h
ome and forced myself to sleep.

A few hours later, my eyes flickered open to moonlight, pouring in through my bedroom window. Stretching, I rolled onto my back and stared up at my ceiling. I was still fu
lly dressed and now wide-awake.

I sat up, trying to persuade myself to change into my
pajamas
. Downstairs, I could hear my dad laughing on the phone to someone. A few months back, he’d told Daniel and me that he’d been seeing someone. Sometimes, since then, he wouldn’t come home for a few days. Other times it would be in the early hours of the morning. I’d yet to meet this woman, and I didn’t ever intend to meet her. I listened for a few minutes, picking up a flirtatious tone in my father’s voice.

Groaning, I slid off the bed and pulled on my duffel coat. The window always stuck at night, but with a strong heave, I pushed it open and climbed onto the ledge, peering down. It was a long drop down. We were on the sixth floor of our building, and I couldn't even make it to the ground uninjured.

Sucking in a deep breath, I leapt the distance to a lamppost a few feet away and a couple floors down. With the grace of a cat, I landed on the light and slid down the pole easily. Then I plugged in my earphones and took off at a run toward the graveyard.

Before the graveyard even came into view, I could tell something had changed. Evil surrounded the area; so thick, I could taste it. Slowing down, I crept the remaining way, eyes peeled, body on full alert. I knew what was here, but it didn’t mean I was prepared for it.

I stopped, spotting two figures strolling towards the exit gate. A man and a woman. Both extremely good looking, both completely out of place in a dark cemetery. Breath held, I stood with my back pressed against the black gate.

“...Thought she’d be here,” the man was saying.

“Give it time. It’s barely one.”

I sucked in a deep breath. They were looking for me. Why were they looking for me? I wasn’t exactly a threat anymore.

“Think we should circle one more time?”

“Yeah, might as well.” The woman flicked her long, black hair back. “I can’t wait to see how we’ll be rewarded.”

“With power and riches beyond our wildest dreams.” They both laughed. “Fuck knows why he’s so obsessed with that dead Hunter. Now this one. I’ll never understand him.”

I narrowed my eyes. They could not be talking about my mother. I took a deep breath. No, there were loads of other Hunters around. What were the chances it was about my mum?

“You’re not supposed to understand. You’re supposed to follow,” the woman hissed.

There was no doubt, as to what they were now. Both moved too gracefully, too powerfully to be human.

“Hold on,” the man ordered, putting his hand out to stop the woman walking any further.

“What?”

“I can smell her.”

My eyes widened. I didn’t want to get into a fight today. Not when I was so totally unprepared. No weapon. No help. No idea of what they wanted. I was breaking all the rules my mother had consistently drummed into my head.

You see, the thing about the Damned is that they’re strong. Like really strong.  A regular human wouldn’t be any kind of match against one. This was why The Sisterhood made us – Hunters. We matched their strength and agility. We sent their souls back to Hell. Sworn enemies. All of this, plus a day job. Like in the memory I’d relived in my dreams last night, my mother had spent most of my life trying to make Hunting sound like something amazing. She would tell me stories before she took me into that graveyard when I was six years old and make us out to be superheroes. The night I turned sixteen, I found out the hard way that she was wrong.

My focus was elsewhere for literally seconds, but it was all they needed. When I turned back, they were gone. I spun around, coming face to face with the woman. She was even more beautiful than before up close. The Damned sure knew how to pick a host.

“Well, well,” she said, smiling widely. “What do we have here?”

I began to back away, my heart thumping wildly in my chest. “Someone in serious need of conditioner?” I offered, gesturing to her split ends.

“I love coming across witty Hunters. It makes it that much better when I kill them. Then they have no snappy comeback.”

“That’s not going to happen,” I said, sounding more confident than I felt.

I was still backing away when I hit something hard. I didn’t need to turn around to know I’d just backed into the other one. My only chance of getting out of this alive was by attacking before they attacked me.

“Can you believe how lucky we are?” the woman said. “Find her on our first night looking? Seal will be pleased.”

“
Sssh
! Don’t say his name!”

“Oh, what does it matter? She’ll be dead before long.”

I took my opportunity. Swinging forward, I punched the woman and ducked as she stumbled slightly and jabbed back - straight into the guy’s nose. I swung out my leg and swept both off their feet. They crashed down to the ground beside me. I should have run then, should have fled for my life.

But, I got cocky.

The woman flipped to her feet and squared up to me. We circled each other for a bit, and then she flew forward at me, slamming her fist at me so hard that my face whipped to the side. Pain burst behind my eyes.

I came back with a punch of my own. The first one connected with her face, but she blocked the second one. She charged at me. I sidestepped, kicking her in the back. She hurtled forward just as the guy stood up. He rushed at me and slammed me into the metal gate, pulling back only to throw a hit at me. I dodged, and his hand went through the bars. Taking this as my opportunity, I got him with an uppercut before smashing his head into one of the poles.

Then the other one was back. She grabbed my shoulders and yanked me backwards. I fell to the floor, but quickly rolled to a crouching position as she went to kick at my head. I blocked her and jumped to my feet, chest heaving. Her fist hurtled towards me, connecting with my cheek. Then her foot kicked in the side of my knee. Something crunched and I dropped in a pain
ful heap, my eyes losing focus.

“You’re not doing so well,” she said, panting slightly. She kicked me in the side, flipping me onto my back, and then her booted foot came to rest on my neck.

“I’m new at this,” I grunted.

“Bad for you. Good for me.” Her foot moved, ready to make the killing snap when I reached up, grabbed her ankle, and twisted. She howled and fell back, allowing me the chance to hobble to my feet. I tried putting weight on my knee, but a searing pain shot up my leg.

I hesitated, looking back and forth between the two, fear flooding through me. The dude still had his arm trapped between the metal poles. The woman was on her back, grabbing at her ankle. If I were to escape, then this was my only chance.

So I ran. Well, tried to run. I hobbled along on my one working leg, dragging the other one behind me. If the man managed to get loose, I had no idea what I was going to do. If my mother were still alive, she’d kill me for this mistake. Turning to check they weren’t following, I spotted a familiar looking dark-haired man inside the graveyard, squatting by a tombstone, just staring at me.

Marshall?

No, there was no way I was seeing right. I turned away. When I looked back to make sure it wasn’t he, I was too far away to see anything. Whoever he was, I hoped they got far, far away from here. I didn’t need an innocent person’s death on my conscience.

I managed to get free and down to the main streets of the city. At least in such a busy place, I could lose them. Still limping, I darted across the road, failing to take notice of the cars. A squeal of tires and the long buzz of a car horn blared before I actually saw the oncoming vehicle.

I turned in its direction, caught like a deer in a pair of headlights when the car’s bumper slammed straight into my stomach.

Everything went black even before I hit the ground.