Chapter Three

Demons in the House

Within minutes Jen and the three boys were outside a two storey house in Stanmore. “Mamma? Paps? Boys? Food.” Tony called out as Zeke, Saint and Jen followed him into the living room.

Edmund, Greg and Angel came into view. Edmund was sitting on the couch looking amused. Greg and Angel had Tony’s younger twin brothers hanging off of them. When Edmund saw Jen walk in his eyes grew wider and then darted between Jen and Zeke for an explanation.

“Jen!” Greg and Angel threw there arms out in a big movement. The twin boys giggled as they copied the older boys.

“Jen!” the twins burst into a fit of giggles. Greg and Angel took this chance to tickle them.

Jen laughed as she watched the antics of the boys. The living room was one of twelve rooms the house had. There were four bedrooms, one spare room, a study, three bathrooms, the living room, a dining room and a kitchen.

The room they were in was fifteen by fifteen at least, with white walls and white tiles. There were three cream couches in a ‘U’ shape around the wide screen HD TV. A large red carpet was over the tiles and a small coffee table was in the centre of the carpet and the couches. Art work covered all the walls and Jen had the feeling not all the artwork was done in the recent century. There were three archways and a glass door. One archway led them back into the front room where the door and staircase was. The second one, which was on the same side, led to a hallway. The third took you to the kitchen. The glass door led to a small courtyard.

Jen couldn’t imagine the owners of the house ever being anything like what Tony described.

“Oh yeah.” Tony laughed cutting through Jen’s thoughts. “Did I tell you I have two monkeys for brothers?”

The two eight year olds came to salute at Jens feet. “I’m Joseph!” the first brunette child grinned.

“I’m Lucas.” the second brunette wore an identical grin.

They both had sparkling blue eyes like Tony and were taller than the average eight year old. “I’m Jen.”

“They’ve never had a girl before.” Joseph frowned.

“Are you Tony’s girlfriend?” Lucas asked pursing his lips.

“Are you Zeke’s girlfriend?”

“Are you Mysterious’s girlfriend?”

“What about Angel?”

“You can’t be Greg’s girlfriend, he’s going out with Alicia and she’d kill you if you were.”

“Alicia sends us lollies.”

“Do you have lollies?”

Edmund’s smile grew as he watched Jen answer simply, “I’ve very sorry but no. I don’t have any lollies and I am none of their girlfriends.”

“Will you be my girlfriend?” Luke asked blushing.

“No, I want her to be my girlfriend!”

“But she’s pretty!”

“Exactly!”

“Sorry but I do have a boyfriend.” she bit her lip and blushed. Edmund’s face instantly fell.

“Who is he?” Joe asked.

“Do we know him?” Luke frowned.

“Enough with the questions. Are you bloody detectives? No. So who cares?” Tony rolled his eyes.

Joe and Luke didn’t care and were now bombarding Jen with even more questions such as favourite foods, music and flowers. Food was getting passed around as Jen was seated next to Joe. “What’s your favourite colour?”

“Green and pink. I can never decide.”

Edmund listened without anyone noticing. Angel loaded the DVD and sat back down on the sofa.

“So Jenny? What are you doing here?” Greg asked.

“Hey!” Luke yelled.

“We’re asking the questions!” Joe pouted.

“Go to bed boys.” A nice woman with long curly black hair, blue eyes and a heart shaped face came out from the kitchen.

“But Mamma!” they yelled.

“Bed!” Tony laughed.

“Antonio.” The woman had a sharp Italian accent. “Don’t tease your brothers. Say goodbye and go upstairs. I’ve run a bath for you.” she told to Joe and Luke.

“Alright Mamma.” The boys looked defeated but hugged each of the older boys saying goodnight. “Bye Jen!” they chorused together.

They rushed past the woman who called out to them. “I’ll be up in a minute.” She then looked to the boys who were all hastily digging into their food and drinks and watching the movie intently. “Isn’t anyone going to introduce me?”

Apart from Edmund they all went to speak at once with their mouths full but she put her hand up to stop them. “Just eat. My name is Maria and I am Antonio’s mother.” she held out her hand but saw Jen looking for a napkin as she had food all of her hands. Maria laughed taking her hand away.

“Sorry.” Jen frowned at herself. “I’m Jennifer. I’ve been hanging out with these guys all week.”

Maria nodded smiling. “Well my home is your home, so don’t feel pressured to ask for anything. You may do whatever you wish in my home.” Maria went to hug her but she was held back by something. Jennifer’s necklace flashed red and Jen’s eyes darted upward. No one noticed but Edmund who frowned.

“Jehovah.” Jen whispered. Unwillingly Maria’s eyes turned inky black. Maria didn’t flinch though. Demons flinched at Holy names and they revealed something of their natural forms. Jen stared nervously. Maria’s eyes were back to blue now and they were darting all around the room looking for something. They fell on the guitar case. “Do you play?” she asked a certain level of fearfulness in her voice.

Jen was taken aback by such a normal question after such an abnormal event. “What?”

“Do you play guitar?”

“Yes…” Jen continued to stare. If she left the boys could be in trouble. If she stayed, they were all in trouble.

Edmund kept staring between Maria and Jen uncertainly. “Maria?” A male Italian voice was heard from the hallway.

“Hey Paps, could you take your wife out of here?” Tony called out as an older version of Tony with brown eyes walked out. “Oh yeah. Jen, my Dad, Antonio Senior. Paps, Jen.”

“She plays guitar.” Maria warned. Jen knew she was in trouble. Demons could read each others minds if they wished.

Antonio looked at Jen then his eyes darted to another room. Jen got the feeling he was trying to tell her something. Her instincts kicked in. “Where’s the bathroom?” she asked setting down her wrap and looking around waiting for an answer.

“Mamma can you show her?” Tony asked.

“Follow me darling.” Maria said turning on her heel curtly.

Jen stood carefully. Her footsteps were unusually silent as she let her hunter senses take over. Edmund, who was still staring, noticed the change in Jen’s posture. From her almost relaxed shoulders before, she was now still and tense. Her eyes were flashing dangerously. He bit into his wrap and continued following them with his eyes until they were out of sight and in the hallway.

Jen was no longer the girl with an odd surname. She was Emerald Hunter following a Demon towards an unknown destination. What would Jeremiah or Chase do if they knew what I was doing?

Probably come in, guns blazing and kill the demons… then kill me.

She tried feeling nervous or something other than the safety she was convinced was false. Her gut instinct had never been wrong but Jen didn’t trust her own opinion at that moment.

Maria led her up to a bedroom across the hall from the bathroom. The room was lavishly decorated with a red fluffy carpet and a large bed in the middle. The dark brown wooden bookshelves which were on every wall were filled with all kinds of literature ranging from early-Eighth Century to modern classics of the mid-Twentieth Century. Not much filled the shelves from modern days and most books were leather bound or hardcover.

There was a window with a small desk and an inbuilt wardrobe opposite the shelves. Jen took into account the size of the window. If need be, she could immobilize both demons and make an escape. Neither of the demons would be able to touch her guitar case and none of the boys would be able to open the secret compartment.

Her secret would still be safe for a while.

“I can’t kill you tonight but I will if you hurt anyone here.” Jen warned as soon as the door was closed behind her.

“We’ve had hundreds of chances to hurt them in the past seven years. Do you really think we were waiting for you arrival, Miss Hunter, to do so?” Maria smiled.

A small moaning noise followed by a pop, revealed Antonio, sitting on the edge of the desk, looking Jen over. “So, shall we call you Emerald, or Jennifer?”

“Only humans who aren’t employed by the law can call me Jennifer.” she growled.

“Before you make anymore death threats.” Maria frowned. “Let me tell you, we aren’t bad.”

“Last time we killed it was somewhere in the Seventeenth Century.” Antonio added.

“Like I believe that.” she spat.

“You should. It’s the truth.” Antonio smirked. “We could’ve figured someway to kill you by now and let you leave the house afterwards for show. That is of course if we weren’t good.”

“How long have you been impersonating Mr and Mrs Arcadia?” she asked.

“Six years. We saved Tony and the twins.” Maria answered.

“From what?”

“Mr and Mrs Arcadia.” Antonio explained in a business like voice. “They weren’t very nice people, you see. They were going to cut their losses and go their separate ways.”

“By cut their losses…” Jen frowned.

“I mean kill the boys. We were posing as an elderly couple who owned a bakehouse at the time. They tried to murder them in the street behind our shop. Tony was already bleeding and the Twins were barely a year old. They drugged them and we went and saved them.”

Jen’s postured loosened. “So what’d you do to the elderly couple?”

“We’re Shape Shifters, not Possessors.” Maria explained.

“So what happened to the Arcadia’s?” Jen’s stance became tense again.

Maria looked at Antonio. “We didn’t kill them for demonic reasons. It was just to save our boys.”

“They’re not yours.” she said. “They’re human.”

“We love them as if they were our own.” Antonio explained.

Jen frowned. “Can you love?” they both glared at her. “Under the circumstances, even though I don’t know if I should trust you, I can not do anything about you yet. As you know I’m a hunter…”

“And a witch.” Antonio added.

Jen froze still. “No I’m not.”

Maria smiled softly. “All demons know darling.”

“Well all demons are wrong. I refuse to call myself a witch.” Jen frowned. No one knew the powers she possessed. She didn’t even understand them all. In the alley with Sarah McCann she had caused the light to repair itself and magically her knife hit its target and worked as a boomerang. But Jen didn’t want to be a witch. If she announced she was a witch it would meaning having to give up her independence.

She stared Maria right in the eyes. “If you’re really good, how come there have been killings in this area?”

Maria shook her head. “It wasn’t us. We can tell you that someone at the school is into summoning. We don’t know who. It’s confusing. Sometimes when we go to the school we have to transform to our original forms because someone is calling us. In our original forms we’re stronger. But we are still reverted Demons so we can’t fight. Even if we start fighting we become vulnerable.”

“You killed the Arcadia’s!” Jen almost yelled at them to see their backward logic, but she knew it would never work.

“It took us a week to reason with ourselves it was the wrong thing to do for the right reasons.” Antonio sighed.

“We are trying.” Maria added. “It’s not right for us to go against our nature, but we do it everyday.”

“For our love of the boys and the love we had for life when we were humans.” Antonio looked at Maria and held out her hand. “We sold our souls for a promise to be together forever.” Maria looked at him sideways and then just nodded, smiling all the same.

Jen looked at the two of them and wondered if she could ever do that. Sell her soul to be with Chase forever.

“Jen?” Saints voice rang out. “Are you being girly in there because really there is no one here to impress.”

Jen hissed quietly to the demons, “We’re not finished.” She swung the bedroom door open knocking Saint to the bathroom door. She leapt up while Saint was still confused and grabbed the doorframe to swing herself over Saint’s head. She kicked the bathroom door open in mid air and landed inside the bathroom. Jen turned around to see Saint’s eyes still closed and he was clutching his head in pain. She shut the door on the scene and leaned on it, sighing.

She had sighed so many times that night, she was wondering if she would lose her breath all together soon.

Jen felt extremely bad for hurting Saint but it had to be done or else she could’ve been caught. She flushed the toilet for effect and opened the door to see Maria huddled over a crying Saint.

“Sweetie I’m so sorry.” Maria hugged him. Edmund appeared out of no where and lifted Saint up easily. He pulled Saints head into his shoulder and on his lap. He cradled the younger boy on the floor.

“I’m okay.” Saint insisted through the tears. His face was red from the pain.

Jen knelt down beside Saint, Edmund and Maria and looked genuinely worried. “Saint? Are you okay?”

Edmund glared at her angrily as Saint shook his head instantly regretting it. A lump was starting to form just as his vision was starting to return fully. “Let me get you some ice.” Jen stood up as Zeke and the others came down the hall.

“What happened?” Zeke frowned.

Edmund looked up at Jen but Maria but in. “I swung the door open and hit Marcus.”

Edmund stared at Maria for a moment before sighing. “Hey let’s get him home.” Zeke said.

“No!” Saint cried. “Zeke please…don’t…”

Zeke looked at Maria. “Mrs Arcadia? Can Saint stay tonight?”

“We always have beds for you boys. You can all stay tonight if you want.” Maria said then added, “You too Jennifer.” The underlying message was clear to Jen. Trust us.

Edmunds eyes were furious but he still stayed quiet. Saint felt himself being lifted up by Zeke. “We’ll finish eating first.”

Jen, Edmund and Maria stood together awkwardly in the hallway. “You two should go back to the living room too.” Maria smiled sweetly.

Jen smiled uncomfortably and started walking down the hallway. Edmund followed. Before they entered the living room he slipped his hand into hers and pulled Jen into a spare room.

This one had a small study desk, a single bed and an inbuilt wardrobe. A nightstand all in a dark mahogany wood with dark green sheets and walls made the room look warm and cosy. Edmund shoved Jen on the bed and fell down over her, supporting himself with his hands over hers so she was pinned down. He kept his knees firmly on her thighs so she had no real chances of moving.

“Jehovah.” she whispered in fear. Edmund was himself but an angrier version. He didn’t even hear her.

“You should be on the gymnastics team.” he stated simply, venom dripping from his words. His once hypnotizing voice was striking fear in her. Fear she had only felt once before in her life.

“What do you mean?” Jen whispered, her heart racing faster than ever before. Edmund kept staring at her. Seconds ticked by uselessly and understanding crossed Jen’s face. “You saw.”

He kept his steely gaze locked onto her face. “I didn’t want to…I had to.” she tried to explain to him but it didn’t seem to matter.

Edmund didn’t flinch or move a muscle. Jen felt horrible. “Edmund, please don’t tell them. Don’t tell them I was in the room with Mr and Mrs Arcadia. Don’t tell them I hit Saint. Don’t tell them I can do that stuff.”

His eyebrow darted up in a questioning glare. “Why?” he asked quietly. “Why shouldn’t I tell them everything and just let you go. You hurt Saint and then outright denied it.”

Jen shuddered slightly as he moved closer to her studying each of her movements carefully. She couldn’t control it. Tears formed in her eyes and fell down her cheeks. She hated the way Edmund seemed to have control over her like this. Jen hardly ever cried and when she did, it was become of an intimate death rather than fear. Edmund’s face softened and guilt wavered through his eyes. His eyes flickered to the mirror above the nightstand and he let out a quiet hiss at himself.

Jen watched him with a fearful curiosity as he pushed himself off of her and sat beside her. He darted his hand under her waist and pulled her up against his shoulder, then reached out and carefully wiped some tears from her face. He breathed in deep then out again. “Why can’t I tell them?” he repeated quietly, rubbing his own face with the back of his hand.

“Because if they know I won’t be able to do my job.” she whispered.

Edmund was about to ask more when his mobile started ringing. He answered it quickly. There was meaningless yelling on the other side. He shut off the phone. Anger and fear reflected in his eyes.

“If you hurt Saint again I won’t tell.” He looked at himself in the mirror and then back at Jen. “I’ll just finish you off myself” While she knew she could have taken on any demon, Jen knew that faced with Edmund, he would win.

She watched him stalk off. She wiped the tears away furious with herself. Why? Why did he make her tell the truth? Why did he make her feel guilty? No one had ever done that to her before. She shivered as she left the spare room heading into the living room once more.

She sat down on the couch, Angel next to her, and picked up her wrap. It was getting cold. She ate it in silence while the boys ate, commenting on the movie as they did so.

When Jen looked up finally she noticed Edmund had left. “Where’s Edmund?” she asked.

Zeke looked up at her noticing the anxiousness in her eyes. “Don’t worry Jen. He went home a little while ago. His Dad called.”

Author's Note

Anything need editing?