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“This has to end. Now,” I announced when I walked into the family room where everyone was sitting, enjoying each other’s company. Silence blanketed the room and all eyes locked on me. Valerie shook her head.
“You don’t want to do what you’re thinking.” she said.
I ignored her, focusing on Damian. “How are the demons getting through from hell?”
He blinked at me and shrugged and I moved my gaze to Steve’s.
“If Paradise Cove is a portal to heaven, then Black Cove must be a gate to hell.”
He paled and so did Jennifer. “We closed that,” he said but the hesitation in his words belied the confidence in his statement.
“You killed one demon,” I said. “But did you really close that gate?”
“I don’t think it’s one location,” Damian said thinking back on how easily Michael showed up wherever he was called. Lucifer could do the same before he was vanquished to hell.
“Demons aren’t angels,” I answered his train of thought. “They have to be escaping by some means, and from your memories, they existed back when you were turned. But they haven’t overrun the earth, so they have to have limited access topside.”
“They aren’t escaping. They’re following orders.” Damian said.
“Either way, they’re getting here through some sort of portal. It isn’t through the same means that an angel has of just popping in whenever they damned well feel like it.”
Faces stared at me with vacant eyes and the anger in my soul flushed a heat over my skin that scalded. I had to stop this madness. I was not going to live in fear for the rest of my life and the only way to do that, was to do what I had said to Valerie in the car.
I was going hunting.
I turned toward the closet and pulled out my coat. “They want a fucking war, they got one,” I muttered.
Steve shot to his feet and grabbed my arm before I got out the garage door.
“Don’t,” he started and I yanked the fabric out of his grip.
“I have to. We...” I twirled my finger around pointing to everyone in the house. “We will never know peace if I don’t do this.”
“Chris,” Valerie said, approaching me.
I turned my angry gaze in her direction. “I want the fucking fairytale.”
She stopped her approach and just stared, pleading with her beautiful eyes and I gritted my teeth.
“It’s hunting season,” I growled, repeating the words my father had said many years ago. I glanced at the sudden paleness in Steve’s cheeks before turning away. I didn’t wait for a reaction; I stormed to my car and slid inside, willing everything in my way to yield. When the garage door opened, I had a clear path out of the house and I punched the gas, leaving a spray of gravel, dirt, and exhaust in my wake.
Each mile that passed ratcheted my anger and people on the highway gave me a wide berth, and in some ways I felt like Moses parting the Red Sea. The power smashed through my veins in time with my heartbeat and throbbed in my temple. By the time I pulled into the driveway at the cottage, I was in an all-out frenzy.
I had never ventured to Black Cove and the only way I knew how was by following the small brook from Paradise cove. I trudged across the snow toward the lake and slowed at the singe spot, growling low in my throat at the sight of it. He was still messing with our lives and I was damned if I’d allow that.
I stomped through the trodden path to Paradise cove where the moss was still clear and the ice at the edge of the water was beginning to thin enough to see the water underneath. I turned my back on the beautiful prisms in the water and focused on the stream trench that disappeared to the right of the entrance.
“You’re not going to win with that much anger ruling your emotions,” The voice broke over the cove like soft rain, shocking every nerve in my body. I turned and swallowed the sudden lump in my throat.
“I have to try,” I said, staring into my father’s preternatural eyes and he smiled that knowing smile that bit under my skin.
“I know you do. But you’ve got to get a handle on your fury, otherwise, they’ll use it against you. I really don’t want to see you up here yet... if you get my drift. Neither does your mother. She wants grandkids,” he said and flashed that smile again. “So do I.”
Just seeing him reinforced my belief that the portals exist.
“Is Black Cove the only one?” I asked and he shook his head.
“There aren’t many, just a few dozen around the world,” he added. “But trust me when I say they’re harder to find than Black Cove is.” he sighed. “I know they exist, but I don’t know where they are.”
I nodded and turned away, stepping toward the woods.
“Son?”
I glanced back at him.
“I’m proud of you,” he said.
“I haven’t done anything, yet,” I said and he faded into the layer of fog that crawled across the ground. Leave it to my father to make me feel completely inadequate at a time when I needed strength. I stepped off the moss into the snow, willing the thick brush to yield to my passage. I couldn’t have cut a cleaner path had I had a machete in my hand, and I used the time to build the power and temper the fury to the point rational thought ruled.
As I got closer to Black Cove, the air thickened. Unwelcomed fear licked my skin, leaving it tacky under my coat and I shifted. If my father could show up in Paradise Cove, could Lucifer appear in Black Cove? I glanced down at the chain holding the pendant over my heart and prayed that if Lucifer appeared, that chunk of rock would protect me from having my heart ripped out.
The combination of fear and fury does funny things to a man. With each step, my heart drove faster and the evilness of the landscape penetrated my coat, chilling me, and drawing sweat from my pores. I knew the distance was a little under a mile, but in the thick brush, it seemed longer, and I had a new appreciation for Steve.
He’d carried Jennifer’s unconscious body the entire way, without the benefit of any supernatural powers to cut a clear path. He ran on tenacious willpower, the drive to get her to safety, and he nearly bled-out in the process.
The forest echoed with unfamiliar noises, some sounding more like screams of the dead than forest creatures, and I slowed, knowing I was approaching the perimeter. The stench of brimstone settled on the air and I put my hand to my nose to stop an unwanted sneeze. The last thing I wanted to do was announce my presence in the area.
I closed my eyes, pulling the details of the landscape from Steve’s sketchy memories. If I mapped out my approach correctly, I would come in on the narrow path next to the sink hole. There was no maneuverability if I was attacked there and I had a feeling that sink hole wouldn’t be a pleasant place to fall into.
I thought about just sending out, from where I stood, a rolling wave of destructive power across the landscape, clearing it clean; but that was unreasonable, especially if I miscalculated and went farther than the reach of Black Cove. Killing a human being wasn’t on my to-do list. I had done it once, granted it was warranted, but it still haunted me to this day.
Which left me the option of cutting through the thick woods until I was parallel with Black Cove’s rotting moss bed. A twig snapped to my left and I froze. Demons weren’t the only things Lucifer commanded and I set a deadly cocoon around me. If anything grabbed for me, they’d find themselves roasted to a crispy corpse.
I worked my way slowly through the woods, quietly carving the path. I’m sure my electrified safety net was enough of a disturbance to announce my presence but I kept my thoughts masked. I curved back towards the cove, ignoring the drop in temperature. My adrenaline acted as a body warmer, setting my blood on overdrive enough so that even my palms were covered in a light sheen of sweat.
The dense forest thinned and I saw my first slivers of the setting sun penetrating the trees. A thread of fear bit into me. I really didn’t want to be here after dark and looking at the progression of the dying rays, I knew I wouldn’t have a choice. Twilight was on the horizon and with it would come things just as nasty as demons.