Chapter One

A Chapter by S.L.B

Chapter One

“What we do with ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal.” �" Albert Pine

Ronnie

The back alleys were dark and wet �" the puddles splashed every time I threw the demon down. He was weak, which meant this was one of his first times out. His demon form wasn’t much bulkier than his human form was, but it sure made him a hell of a lot stronger than he would’ve been. His tattoo was located on his forearm, nice and small; could’ve fit under a wrist band if he wore one. It was of a black scorpion with red eyes. That’s how I found him…he was trying to ‘impress’ a group of girls, and when he saw me, I winked and went out the back way. Of course he followed me and next thing he knew, he was in a dumpster. One thing led to another and that’s how we wound up here; him on the ground with wounds all over.

“Where is he?” I grabbed the demon by his neck and held it tight as I crouched over him. “Where is Accursius?”

“What makes you think I’d tell you?” He spat blood in my face and sneered at me, baring his short, but sharp fangs. His hair was matted with sweat and blood and his face was covered in a mix of blood, dirt, and sweat. His blood red eyes were glaring up at me with hatred and disgust, but I didn’t care.

“You want to live don’t you?”

“Not if it means giving him up,” he laughed. “Besides, he’s probably out with some pathetic human right now.”

“Alright,” I sighed, standing up after letting him go. I pulled out my dagger and threw it down, watching as it pierced his heart. He grunted loudly and I watched as his red eyes turned to a lifeless black. Sure he was dead, I pulled my dagger out and watched as his body turned to ashes. Normally a dagger to the heart wouldn’t kill a demon, actually it wouldn’t at all, but it would if it’s been soaked in holy water; even the slightest bit. I really hated it when I had to kill demons without getting any answers. They couldn’t possibly like Accursius enough to die fore him. Nobody likes anybody that much; not in this world. Especially not demons. You can say you do, but when the situation comes, you change your mind and you don’t want to die because you’re scared.

So what’s so great about this demon?

After a long shower, I changed into a pair of sweats and a tank top and walked out to the living room. My dad was reading the paper, his feet propped up on the coffee table, and I could see his tattoo snaking its way up his arm: a pronged vine piercing a heart, the whole image black with silver lining it. My mom was in the kitchen making some of her favorite tea, her hair pulled back in its usual braid. Her black tattoo snaked up the side of her neck, breaking off into two branches that went in both directions of her jaw-line about an inch. The image of a double-ended whip being noticeable. My brother, Chett, was sitting in the recliner in the far corner of the living room, watching something on T.V. He was twenty years old, just one year older than me. I could see his tattoo running from above his left brow and down along is cheek, ending at his jaw line; it was of an arrow, the head pointing up and the notch ending perfectly on his jaw line. The only two parts of it that were silver was the head and the fletching while the rest was the normal black. That’s all his was…nothing nearly as elegant as they can get.

His was an arrow for one reason and one reason alone: he was one hell of an archer. He stays unseen and unscented in every battle, camping out if necessary, and when he shoots, the chances of him missing are nearly zero. I’ve only seen him miss once but that was because the battle was in the middle of a storm and a tree branch almost fell on him while he was a tree. He soaks his arrow in Holy water and has the arrow head carved in the shape of a cross, which inflicts twice the damage it would with only one of those two. The reason I said ‘arrow’ instead of ‘arrows’ is because it seems like there’s only one arrow in the quiver, but he never runs out; no matter how many he shoots.

That’s usually what our tattoos are for; they determine our abilities and the weapons we master. The one I have is the only one nobody can figure out because it has nothing to do with mastering specific weapons or any abilities. I’m able to use almost any weapon anyone gives me, although I usually can’t use it as good as the person that mastered it, but just good enough to do fine in a fight.

“Where’s Andie?” I climbed onto a bar stool in the kitchen and looked at my mom, who was looking at me expectantly.

“She’s out with Trick for a few hours; why?”

“Just wondering.” I shrugged casually and looked at the counter top. Andie, or Andela, is my older sister; she’s two years older than Chett and the one I go to most for advice. Her tattoo is located on the inside of her wrist and is of an eye with a silver iris; it has nothing to do with any weapon master, but instead it gives her the ability to get, what one would call, premonitions. However, she can only see what’s currently happening to slayers. The only time she can get something on demons is if a slayer is by the demon or the situation involves both a demon and a slayer.

Then there’s Trick, her boyfriend. The only tattoo he has is a giant star, not filled in, which is something he got done. Originally he doesn’t have an actual slayer tattoo, which typically means he hasn’t mastered any weapons or abilities. That’s even what the demons believed at first, but his name’s ‘Trick’ for a reason. He’s actually mastered every weapon the slayers use, but because of that, he doesn’t have any abilities.

“Speaking of Andela,” my dad said, jumping in, “she called earlier and said you were going at it with a demon tonight.”

“Yeah, but he wouldn’t give me any answers.” I got up and sighed as I walked towards my room.

“Did you clean up after yourself?”

“There’s not much to clean up after they turn to ashes,” Chett jumped in. I looked at him and grinned when he casually shrugged, keeping his attention on the show he was watching.

I guess it may seem weird that my brother and sister still live with us, but that’s how slayer families live; everyone stays together unless something happens that causes someone to move out. There are over a dozen other families like us in our city, but everyone’s spread out; we have to be. It’s safer. We still have connections with them, so if we need each other we can get a hold of each other and get help. That’s the bright side. The down side is that all the families set their kids up with a slayer from another family so the bloodlines will continue. That’s how Trick and Andie met; he’s from the Hanwell family, which is one of the families that’s a few miles north of us. Chett’s girlfriend is from the Ains family, who lives near Trick’s family, but obviously not too close. Her name is Monica and she has a tattoo of a horse running across her upper back, which fades from one spot to another, reappearing with a different weapon in its mouth each time. She has no mastery but does have the ability to temporarily copy a mastery or ability, but it only lasts for a very short time.

I’m pretty sure my family was sure I was into the guy they picked out for me a few years ago, but for some reason, I wasn’t. Usually, every slayer that a family picks out for another one goes well. They both typically start to feel something for each other, if they hadn’t already, after about the first year. The pairing rarely fails because of, once again, the tattoos. I guess I could say they can sometime control, or at least influence, our emotions towards someone. The tattoos have smaller…or more sensitive nerves along them, so when, or if, the selected partner touches it repeatedly, the nerves get used to that one person’s touch, which is how it can influence emotions; eventually the nerves begin to feel nothing but comfort and a level of pleasure from it. The slayer decided for me has touched part of mine several times but never has it even begun to get used to it. If anything, it’s starting to feel a little uncomfortable. No one in my family knows about it, but if it gets worse or doesn’t stop, then I’ll probably end up talking to Andie about it. In the mean time, I’ll just have to suck it up at go to sleep.

My mom and dad were out with the other families at one of their weekly meetings to discuss plans and future ambushes and all that boring s**t. Chett went over to Monica’s and Andie was still asleep. This gave me an opportunity to snoop around in the bookshelves to try and find something…anything on what happened to my aunt. I’m curious as to why she and I are the only ones, that I know of, that have had the trail of gold stars as a tattoo, and I’m even more curious as to why she became a disgrace. My parents get really pissed when I start snooping around for answers about her.

I looked through every book on the shelf, skimming page after page. I started with the newest books and spent the longest time getting through those, and by the time I was about to get to one of the oldest ones, Andie’s bedroom door opened, making me hustle to put all the books back. They weren’t as neat as they were before I took them, but they weren’t going to get any more organized for now. Andie came out in pajama shorts and a tank top, her brown hair in a messy bun.

“Hey little sis; watcha up to?” She smiled at me as she walked into the kitchen and to the fridge. “Are you really doing more research? You know mom and dad don’t want you doing that.”

“If they would just answer my questions then I wouldn’t need to be snooping through the books anymore.” I crossed my arms and watched Andie as she pulled out a carton of orange juice, unscrewed the cap and took a drink straight from the carton.

“Maybe they don’t know any of the answers, Ronnie.” Andie shrugged as she took another drink of juice before putting it away. “Just don’t worry about it. Focus on something else.”

“Like what?”

“Go find another demon to torture and kill. Better yet, go find your boyfriend; give him a nice time.” She winked at me and gave me one of her playful smiles she usually uses if she feels she’s right or has a point. “Oh, wait no need to look for him; he’s on his way here; should be here in the next few minutes and if you don’t want him seeing you like that, then I suggest that you go change.”

“How do you know he’s on his way here?” I stepped towards her and eyed her cautiously. Okay, stupid question to ask someone who gets premonitions but too late to take it back now.

“Oh! Trick and I ran into him last night and I kinda sorta told him you’d be glad to see him and that he should come over today and hang with you.”

“Oh my God I can’t believe you did that.” I plopped down on the couch and sighed, putting my feet up on the coffee table. “What if I already had plans today?”

“Do you have plans?” She asked that slowly and I know she knew the answer to that.

“No…but what if I did?” I stuck my tongue out at her and laughed when she started laughing. She just shrugged and glanced out the window.

“Good thing you don’t because he’s here.” She raised her brows at me and nodded her head to the door. Rolling my eyes, I groaned and stood up, reaching the door and opening it just as Corin was raising his hand to knock. He smiled when he saw me, his face turning a little red when he saw what I was wearing.

His blonde hair was still a little damp from his morning shower and his blue eyes looking me from head to toe. He scratched the back of his head and scuffed his foot on the doormat. His red T-shirt and light denim jeans looked good together, and kept his skin from looking any paler than it normally was. I could easily see his tattoo on his forearm, taking the image of a spear, which was the weapon he mastered. Some of the spears he uses are double ended while some are not. He only has one spear, but once he throws it, he’s able to rematerialize it from his target and back to his hand. If the spear winds up getting broken by the demon he throws it at, the rematerializing ends up fixing it so that it’s in one piece and perfectly fine. Like Chett’s arrows, the head of the spear is carved in the shape of the cross.

“Hi Corin.” I had to force myself to sound at least the slightest bit excited that he was there, even though I really wasn’t. He looked a little embarrassed as he walked into the house when I stepped aside for him.

“Hey Veronica…um…do you want to hang out today?” He put his hands in his pockets and shrugged his shoulders a little bit, looking away from me. I looked at Andie and saw her nodding her head at me, giving me her ‘you better say yes’ look. I just rolled my eyes and looked back at Corin, putting on a smile for him.

“Yeah; just let me get dressed quick and we can head out.” I turned around and gave walked away, going to my room. I was hoping that Andie would’ve followed me but she didn’t. I threw on a pair of jeans, a spaghetti strap tank top and a pair of my favorite sneakers before going into the bathroom to brush my hair and teeth. After putting on just a touch of make up, I stepped back out into the living room and noticed that Corin was still standing in front of the door.

That’s one thing about him; he’s overly polite and usually won’t sit down unless he was told to. Not to mention that his guard was always up so he didn’t relax a whole lot. The only time he was open to having a good humor and ‘party’ attitude was when he was out luring demons away in order to slay them. Otherwise it’s kind of difficult to get him to loosen up. He gets embarrassed fairly easily, and once he gets focused on something, like a battle, he doesn’t avert his attention until the battle’s over. That’s the only time he won’t get embarrassed or ashamed or anything.

“Ready?” He opened the front door and smiled at me as I walked up to him, glancing back at Andie, who was smiling triumphantly. Looking back at Corin, I noticed that two colors were swirling around in his crystal blue eye color: grey and black. Grey stating that he was anxious and black stating that he was nervous. I needed to make sure that I wouldn’t make eye contact with him long enough that he could pick up on my emotions. That would not be good.

“Yeah.” I stepped outside, him behind me, starting to close the door. Before it was shut all the way, however, Andie came to the door and waved, which is when we turned around.

“Have fun you two!” She sounded cheery and excited, and I knew that she’d probably get some sort of premonition about the two of us if I wasn’t smart. I looked over my shoulder at her and gave her a death glare, which she just waved off and walked inside, closing the door behind her.

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