Chapter Five

Chasing Saints

As she walked to her home much later that evening with her guitar case in hand, she felt an uneasy weight lift off her shoulders as she saw Chase, standing at the end of the street. His cropped blonde hair was perfectly gelled and his blue eyes shone brightly.

Jen stopped in her tracks in the middle of Enmore road and stared at Chase, just grinning at her. In one of her rare girly moments, Jen squealed and ran down the street at him. Chase jogged towards her. She dropped the guitar case as he lifted her up, swinging her around and around. People in the street glared and smiled at the happy couple.

Chase put Jen back on the ground after what felt like an eternity to the couple. He rubbed the side of her face with his thumb and smiled. “Man I’ve missed you Jen.”

Jen buried her face into his chest and just stood there, satisfied. “I’ve missed you more.”

“Is it possible?”

“Probably.”

He laughed and leant down, kissing her softly. Jen wasn’t satisfied with that and slid her hands through and over his hair. He pulled her flush against him and realised she wanted more. “Where are you staying? Jer just said Enmore.” He panted.

Jen licked her lips and smiled. “In a bin.”

He chuckled and kissed her chastely. “You’re such a loser.” He linked his fingers in hers and pulled her down the street, taking her guitar case off the floor.

The two of them chatted as Jen led him into the back alley she lived in. He told her about the demon hunt he went on in Melbourne. Told her he was still experimenting with exorcism. She scolded him. “Stop that, please Chase.” Jen squeezed his hand. “What if the demon possesses you? Just kill them and be done with it.”

He looked away and then looked back at her, smiling. “But exorcism keeps the human alive.” Jen looked at him and saw that there was something he wasn’t telling her.

“I know it sounds cruel, but I don’t care much for he human’s life if yours is on the line.” She let go of his hand for a second and unlocked the lid of her bin. She tried pushing the lid up but she was still weak from the morning.

“Hey…” Chase slid his hands over hers and lifted the lid up for her. She leant back against the bin and Chase pushed some hair off her face. “What’s wrong with you? I noticed you limping before too. You’re weak.”

Jen shook her head. “I’m fine.”

“Jen, health in our line of work is probably more important than skill. At least when your healthy enough, you can hightail it out of there.” Chase was three years older than her, but three years in a Hunters life was a life time.

Like her and every other hunter she knew, he started hunting at twelve the time most made their first kill. But unlike her, Chase was very much against killing the human hosts. The scar that she knew ran across his chest was a trophy he would forever wear from his first kill. She leant against his tightened chest and ran her finger across where he knew the scar was underneath his black t-shirt and leather jacket. “If that’s so, Chase, then why do you continue to exorcise demons when you know it takes away some of your own life force each time.”

He looked away from her for a second. When he looked back he lifted her up by her hips and kept her upright against the side of the bin. Chase leant down and kissed her gently and then more forcefully until she was pulling him tightly against her and begging for more with her body alone.

“You’re such a predictable little girl.” he snickered as he pulled away from her. He turned and lifted her up onto his back then climbed into the bin, closing the lid above them.

He locked it from the inside and the two fell into an interesting argument as they tried to physically prove who missed the other more.

As they lay between the covers of her bin, hours later, she knew that it was the most romantic moment she’d had in a long while. It didn’t matter that they were in a large yellow industrial bin or the fact that her ankle was swollen to three times it size. She was with her boyfriend, the one she loved more than almost anything in the world.

Chase kissed Jen’s forehead and rubbed her arm. “I love you Jennifer Rae.”

“I love you too Chase.” And while everything else Jen had felt over the past week she was unsure of, the fact that she loved Chase was undeniable.

                ******

The phone rang waking Jennifer and Chase up from their sleep. For a second she thought it might have been Edmund, checking in on her. He offered to do so and that made Jen uneasy. Edmund had walked Jen to a motel where she told him she would stay. After breaking the lock on the door so she could pretend to go inside and after Edmund finally left her alone, she jumped out of the back window and bolted through the streets of Sydney and back to Enmore.

Jen reached over her stomach, found the small flip mobile. Chase was groaning in her ear, tugging her closer towards him in his half-sleep. She looked at the name and flipped the phone open. “Hey Jer?” she said, pushing herself up into a sitting position. grouchily, Chase did too, keeping his arms around her waist.

“Confused yet?” Jeremiah asked through the phone.

“You have no idea. I’ve spent a week here and have found nothing apart from a few deaths that could be domestics.” she replied, leaning back onto Chase who started drawing circles on her inner thigh. “Want to update me?”

Jeremiah laughed. “Well it’s like this. Mr and Mrs Antonio and Maria Arcadia. Shape shifters. You know who they are?”

“They cooked me dinner.”

“Gracious of them.”

“Demons and grace. Not very common.”

“A demon cooked you dinner?” Chase whispered into her ear.

She shrugged her shoulder and kept listening to Jeremiah. “Don’t kill them.” Jeremiah stated simply. “Not yet anyway.”

“Okay.”

“At the high school there is a Marcus Jordan Smith. Twelve years old in year seven. He hangs out with a bunch of guys ranging from ninth grade to twelfth. Met them yet?”

“Destiny. She’s a b***h.”

“She’s my ex-girlfriend actually.”

“You and Dez broke up?”

“A month or two ago. Anyway, I don’t think destiny has much to do with any of this. I just think you’re a magnet for trouble.” Jeremiah said slightly disapprovingly. “Anyway Graceland Smith, Marcus’s aunt, doesn’t exactly live up to her name.

“Ah…” Jen sighed. “Into a little black magic?”

“Just a bit.” he answered. “She has a dark side. She only adopted her brother’s son because her parents made her. A witch of a woman. Apparently someone at the school has been summoning something big. Big enough that hundreds of demons seem to be congregating around the inner-west.”

“Maybe they’re having a tea party.”

Jeremiah chuckled. “You always find the good in the Supernatural don’t you.”

“I like to believe there is some good in everyone.” It was a complete lie on both of their behalves. They had grown up and learnt how to kill and extinguish Supernatural races.

Jeremiah lowered his voice. “Tonight at eight, meet me outside Marcus’s apartment. You take the eastside, I’ll take north.”

“Jer…”

“And if you can, keep an eye out for Marcus when you’re around him.”

“They call him Saint.”

There was a paused and Jen instantly regretted what she said. Chase’s hand stopped moving and Jer fell silent. Jeremiah Ford was a good friend. He had taken care of her since she could remember. Jeremiah and Eric had been best friends and he had become a sort of brother to her. He now thought that Jen was getting too close.

“Don’t worry about that. It slipped.”

“Jen, are you going to be alright?”

Jen sighed. “Have I ever stuffed up a hunt before?”

“I’m not saying you have. But I’m also not saying you’ve come back from some of these hunts with more than physical blows.” he said sincerely.

“I didn’t know you cared so much about my emotional stability.” Jen teased.

“Jennifer.” he said seriously. “You know I…”

There was a long pause. “I know Jerry.” she said softly. “I’ll be fine.”

“Okay.” Jeremiah was never good at expressing himself.

“I’ll take care of her, Jer.” Chase said into the phone.

“Was that Chase?”

“Yeah. He got here a little while ago.”

“Did he finish up down in Victoria?”

“Apparently.”

“Well tell him to come. I have a feeling we’re going to need all the help we can get.”

“Love you Jer.”

“Yeah… Love you too.” he hung up and Jen looked up at Chase.

“Looks like we’re hunting tonight.”

Chase ran a hand down Jen’s arm. “Before we leave, tell me what the matter is. Tell me what happened to your ankle. Tell me why you’re shivering.”

In that moment, Jen realised how cold she was. She leant back into Chase and took either of his hands then crossed them over her stomach. “The boys involved included me into their group. I’ve been hanging out with them and I don’t want anything to happen to them. Last night there was a thunderstorm and…”

Chase stopped her talking by pressing his lips against hers. She sunk into it and sighed in his mouth. When he pulled back she frowned at him. “What was that for?”

“For not being there when you needed me.” Chase stroked her hair over and over. “You’ve always hated thunder. Since before the accident.”

Jen shifted uncomfortably in his arms and held him even tighter. “Maria Arcadia. A demon, posing as a human took care of me… but to do so she needed to burn off my protection symbol… Thus the ankle.”

“A demon took care of you.”

“It’s not the weirdest part.” Jen shifted back and turned to face Chase. “One of the boys, his name is Edmund. I think… I think he can control me.”

“What?” Chase looked panicked now. “What do you mean control you? Has he hurt you? Has he done anything to you?”

“No, no… he saved my life actually. If it wasn’t for him, I would have frozen to death under the swing set in Montague Park. But no, it’s just that… When he says something to me… Well I listen and obey.”

Chase thought about this for a moment then started pulling on his t-shirt. “What?” her heart pounded as she thought that maybe he was leaving her. “Where are you going?”

“We’re going, to Jeremiah. I’m going to think about what you said and do some research. Then we’ll deal with this Edmund guy.” He eyed her carefully, “Jen are you… Are you keeping some emotional distance? I mean, are you getting to close to these guys? Because if we have to kill one if he’s possessed and you can’t…”

“I’ll be fine.” she told him. “I can separate myself emotionally.”

Maybe she was getting too close. It didn’t matter anyway. She was hunting tonight.

******

Chase and Jen were playing naughts and crosses. That was how interesting this case was. The two of them sat on a large hill in the bushes near the apartment. They had a foldout chair each, a canteen of coffee, a light, binoculars and piece of paper each. It was a traditional stake out.

They were staking out Graceland’s apartment. It was on the third level. Saints room was the second window from the right. The window left of Saints was an old style kitchen with rusted cabinets and a flickering light. Graceland was in the kitchen making some concoction.

Grace was a thing woman with a drawn out face. Her lips were thin and cracked and her eyes were a watery blue. She had a stubby nose which was always pale even when she was sick. Her hair was thin and wiry, a pale washed out blonde.

“No wonder she had no kids.” Jen muttered to Chase as they once again drew. “Who would want to get with that pile of dirty skin and bones?”

“A very, very desperate man.” Chase shivered internally. “New game?”

“No. We’ll just draw again.”

“Maybe we should spar.”

“Every time we spar you turn it into a make out session.”

“… Maybe we should spar.”

Jen chuckled and watched as Grace disappeared from the kitchen window. Jeremiah was around the other corner of the apartment blocks watching the balcony, living room and Grace’s room and some of Saint’s room.

Jen got out her radio and pressed it to her lips. “Can you see her?”

Jeremiah replied, “Yeah. Man you should see her bedroom. Freaky demonic s**t is pinned up all over.”

“Great.” Chase mumbled, withdrawing a deck of cards. “A true follower of the arts.”

Jeremiah grew silent. “Chase?”

“Yeah?”

“Grab Jen and don’t let her watch.”

“Watch what?” Jen was extremely confused but her question was answered when she saw Saint’s bedroom door slammed open. Chase wrapped his arms around her waist to pull her back but Jen had already been standing up at that point and pushed him away.

Saint wasn’t at home before and Jen hoped if anything magical was going on it would go on before. Now Saint was being dragged into his room by the ear.

“Close your eyes Jen!” Jeremiah’s worried voice crackled through the radio which was now lying forgotten on the ground by both Jen and Chase who were staring at the window but fighting each other at the same time.

Graceland looked tiny and unwell but she was strong for an old crone. She threw Saint to the ground before withdrawing an athame. From her back pocket. She was speaking, saying something to Saint who was out of Jen’s vision. “No!” Jen cried, lunging out. Before she fell down the hill, Chase grabbed her around the waist to pull her backward. “Stop!” she screamed, throwing out her arm and twisting it.

Grace pounced down just as something odd happened. She froze in place. Jen frowned in confusion. Grace had stopped in mid jump, frozen in time.

Jeremiah’s voice came from behind her clearly. “What the hell?”

Chase and Jen spun around and looked at Jeremiah before looking back at the window. “Jer…” Chase mumbled. “I think she’s…but she can’t be…could she be frozen?”

Jeremiah frowned. He was a tall South African man with deep brown, humbling eyes. He usually wore all black so when he was out at night only his teeth and the whites of his eyes weer seen. “She is frozen.” he stated. “But how?”

Jen then became more shocked. “I think I did it.”

“Jen you couldn’t have.” Chase said. “You don’t know how.”

Jen shook her head. “I said stop, I threw my hands out, I think…?”

“From this distance? I know you’re a witch but no one can control their powers that well! Anyway, you can’t speak Latin.”

“I swear.” Jen looked at both boys earnestly. “I froze her.”

“Jen you couldn’t have.” Jer grabbed her by the shoulders spinning her around. “You have no formal training.”

Jen looked back to the window as she watched a nervous Saint stand up and watch his Aunts frozen figure. He started bolting around the room packing his bag. Every now and then he’d glance back at Graceland in fear but continued packing his bag.

A white Mitsubishi Lancer GL parked in front of the building. As it stopped Edmund jumped out of it and bolted to the apartment. “Who the hell is that?” Jeremiah asked as a black Honda Accord Euro pulled up and Tony and Zeke bolted out.

“Edmund, Zeke and Tony.” Jen ran a hand through her hair, staring downstairs in panic.

“Crap!” Jeremiah growled. “Come on lady…Unfreeze!”

Chase looked at the three boys, frowning. “Which one’s Edmund?”

“What are we going to do about a frozen lady?”

 “Should I try unfreezing her?” Jen asked desperately.

“Which one is Edmund?” Chase almost yelled.

Jeremiah frowned and looked to the window with the same look of desperation on his face. Edmund was already knocking on the front door as Zeke and Tony reached him. “Okay!” Jeremiah stood by her watching carefully. He was usually calm and collected but none of this seemed to make sense to him. “Try unfreezing her.”

Jennifer stuck her hand out. “Unfreeze!” she whispered. There was a pause. Nothing happened.

“See!” Jeremiah said exasperated.

“Shut up!” Jen yelled at him. She looked back to the window. She extended her right arm and twisted her wrist. “Move!” Grace unfroze.

Jeremiah and Chase both had a look of shock spread across their faces just as Jennifer gasped.

******

Just as Aunty Grace unfroze, Saint threw his bag over his shoulder and ran out of the apartment. Graceland yelled in fury as some kind of recognition crossed over her face just as she heard the door slam.

“Get back here you witch!” Grace yelled running to the door. Saint saw Edmund, Zeke and Tony outside the front door and grinned in relief, running towards them. Edmund and Zeke pushed Saint in behind them on the staircase and Tony dragged him down.

Graceland started to chase them down the stairs. “Mysterious! Get them out of here.” Zeke ordered. He pulled his hooded jacket over his hand and pulled the cords up to the point where just his sunglass covered eyes were visible. He spun around, ready to face Graceland who started running down.

Edmund looked shocked shaking his head and tugging at Zeke’s shirt. “Mysterious! Get out of here now.” Zeke ordered again. Edmund kept tugging on Zeke’s shirt. Zeke pushed Edmund down the stairs just as Graceland turned the corner towards them. Edmund looked up from the floor angrily just as Graceland pushed Zeke hard in the stomach winding him.

Edmund stuck his foot out tripping Graceland. Once she regained her posture her raged blinded her and she went after Edmund with a knife. Zeke saw what she was going to do before she did it. She lunged out falling on top of him and grabbed his collar.

Edmund held her right arm with the knife in it, high above his head and struggled to keep the surprisingly strong woman away from him. Zeke tried pulling her off of Edmund from behind but she was to strong, so instead, Zeke stole the knife.

Graceland cried in fury and Edmund loosened his grip on her arm and a second later, she punched him twice across the face, alternating fists and then spitting on him.

As she went to throw another punch, Zeke used her instability to haul her off of Edmund and throw her into the staircase. She went to get up again, but Zeke held out the knife in front of him. “Stay the f**k back!” he yelled.

Graceland stared at the knife, an animalistic fury pouring from her eyes. She hissed at them, but stayed on the stairs. Without taking his eyes off of Graceland, Zeke helped Edmund up and backed down the staircase slowly.

Graceland stayed where she was, snarly all the way. She jumped up at one point but Edmund shouted out, “Stay!” and she did. Once they could no longer see Graceland on the wrap around staircase, Zeke and Edmund bolted the rest of the way down. Edmund jumped into the front seat of his car and Zeke jumped into the passenger and the two bolted out of there.

******

After Jen saw she had three missed calls on her phone, two from Saint and one from Tony. She called Tony up who said to come down to his place. Jeremiah, Chase and Jen talked long into the early morning and decided what to do. Chase was going to go talk to his contacts and dish up as much as he could on Graceland and Saint whilst Jeremiah would go through some demonic bars. Jen had to retain her cover and find out how much Saint knew about what his Aunt was going to do to him. Chase dropped her off in front of Tony’s house on his way to the public records office. Jen was very much aware of Edmund who sat on the steps outside the house. “That’s him.” Jen said. “Edmund.”

Chase looked him over once. “Emo kid?”

“Don’t be mean.” She leant across and kissed Chase lightly. “Text if you find anything.” She got out of the car and headed to the door. Edmund stood up and nodded at her. His face showed no emotion but in his eyes Jen could see nothing but fear and sadness.

“Who was that?” Edmund asked in a hushed voice as he opened the door for her.

“A friend.” Jen replied and left it at that. “What’s happened?”

Edmund led her into the living room where Zeke, Tony, Greg and Angel were sitting. “You guys? What’s up?”

“Didn’t you get Saint’s calls?” Tony frowned.

“He told us he called you.” Greg added.

Jen shook her head. “He did, I don’t have voicemail. I was with a friend and I had my phone on silent. Then Tony called.”

Tony nodded. “Well um…Saints aunt is a bit of a whacko. She tried to ah…stab him from what he’s told us.”

Zeke shook his head. “She saw us.”

Edmund looked away as Zeke kept speaking. “She saw me and Mysterious run away.”

“She’s never met us before.” Greg added. “She won’t know where to find us.”

“It’s just a matter of time.” Zeke kept saying.

Angel looked sympathetically at Edmund. Jen knew there was something she was missing. She couldn’t see the fight on the staircase from the hill so had no idea what happened.

Zeke spun around to face Edmund. “Why couldn’t just run like I told you? Now she has both our faces and no offence but yours is a little easy to pick out in a crowd with the red and all.”

Edmund shrunk back fear etched on his face. “I told you, I ordered you to leave! I was going to handle it. I was going to pull my hood on, hold her off and run. She wouldn’t have seen me and you wouldn’t be in trouble.” Zeke kept yelling. Angel sighed and Greg looked away. “But no. You had to hang back. You had to freaking be a hero! I told you Ed, leave!”

Edmund started breathing heavily. Jen looked at him worriedly. Tony frowned. “Zeke stop.” he tried.

“We’re both in freaking trouble now Ed. Is that what you wanted? Why the hell do you do stupid stuff like that?” Zeke was really giving it to him.

“Zeke…” Angel mumbled, his eyes darting between Zeke and Edmund.

“Why the hell did you not listen?!”

“Shut up!” Jen yelled as she saw Edmund looking fearful. Suddenly Edmund used his long legs and broke into a run and bolted out the front door.

“What’s your problem Zeke? Couldn’t you see you were scaring him?” she shouted.

“Edmund’s a big boy Jen. He can take it.” Zeke growled walking up to her. It seemed Zeke was ready for a fight and anyone would do. Tony stood up, ready to jump in front of Zeke but Jen was faster.

“Well obviously he can’t!” Jen shoved him away and back with force. “You’re a b*****d you know that. He’s your friend. He was obviously trying to protect you and you go and give it to him like that, scaring him half to death. You don’t know his story, you said so yourself, so what if you just added to it?”

Maria and Antonio rushed in. “Boys!” Antonio frowned. “Marcus and the twins are sleeping.”

“What is going on?” Maria asked.

“Sorry Mr and Mrs. Arcadia.” Zeke frowned. “Jen and I just had a little disagreement.”

Tony sighed as he grabbed his jacket. “I’ll go find him. Jen, you coming?”

Jen nodded. “Yeah I’m coming.”

Tony opened the door for Jen and she stepped out. “I have a pretty good idea where he went.” Tony said.

“Where?” Jen asked as she got into the car.

“The park. He lives in the apartments behind it.”

“Apartments?”

“Yeah.” Tony started driving. He owned the Honda Accord which they were currently driving in. “It took us a while to figure out. He doesn’t say a word, you know. Zeke is the oldest. When we first got to Blue Sky he took Mysterious and I in. Made us his friends. Compared to the other students, we don’t have such bad lives and we’re not as… aggressive. So we had to stick together so others wouldn’t tear us apart.”

Jen looked out the window an aching feeling spread across her chest. “Have you been to his house?”

Tony nodded. “Yeah. I did once. Zeke goes once every now and then. Only when Mysterious lets him. We’ll catch him on his way there. Don’t worry.”

They kept driving until they saw someone bolting down the street. “There.” Jen said unbuckling her seatbelt. Tony pulled up a little ahead of Edmund and jumped out of the car.

“Mysterious!” Tony called out running up to his friend.

“Edmund.” Jen bolted ahead of him and grabbed his shoulders. “Edmund?” she repeated. He looked at her, tears staining his face. She grabbed his shoulders and pulled him down to her height. “It’ll be alright okay? Zeke didn’t mean it. He was just angry you got yourself into trouble too.”

Edmund tilted his head as Tony wrapped an arm around him and helped take him to the car. “Come on Mysterious.”

Edmund shook Tony off him. Tony stopped in his tracks disappointed. Jen looked back to Tony and shrugged. Edmund was in the back seat and Jen went next to him. Tony hopped into the car and drove back to his place.

When they arrived and as Jen got out of the car with Edmund, Zeke walked out of the house. “I was just coming to find out what was taking you guys so long.” Zeke tried to crack and joke but he saw Edmund’s face. “Ed…”

Edmund looked away. Zeke grabbed Edmund’s arm but he flinched away. “Ed? I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled at you but you did something that got you into trouble. You’re like a little brother to me. Thinking about cops coming after you…What would you do if it was Saint?”

Edmund looked up and shook his head. “I would never, ever do that to Saint.”

Zeke looked shocked for a moment but regained composure. “Well we’re different in the way we deal with things.”

“Extremely different.” Edmund closed his eyes tightly. “Just don’t…just don’t.” he stalked into the house and grabbed his own jacket and his keys. “I’m going home, don’t follow me.”

Tony and Jen wanted to follow him but for some reason they stayed put. Zeke went to grab him but Edmund was already in his car. Jen had that weird feeling again. The one which always happened when Edmund talked to her and for some reason, she had to obey.

Author's Note

Spelling and grammar... Oh and I'm Australian... awkward... Mum not Mom and such... So if I blantantly ignore some spelling advice, it's because I speak the Queens English... Sometimes...