I had a hard time envisioning my mother as a supernatural exterminator. But then again my mother had been sick for so long that I had trouble envisioning her as anything other than bed-ridden and frail.
Chapter 9
"Oh no, no, no, you don't just get to walk away after dropping a truth bomb like that!" I chased him up the stairs, but he was still as nonchalant as ever.
My mind was racing, and my thoughts were all over the place. I didn't even know where to begin with the questions.
Draydon kept walking, unamused at my willingness to learn.
"Wait a minute. You're a hunter, so how the hell did you get trapped inside that portal thing in the cave?"
With everything that had happened over the last few days none of us really had anytime to process any of it, including how we'd found Draydon. The pieces were all there, I just didn't know how to fit them together.
"And why was I able to see you every time I fell asleep?"
The last question was the winner. Draydon's feet froze where they were, and my body collided with his in the middle of the hallway.
"Wait, you were able to astral project to the realm? That was you?"
He spun around and was staring at me so intensely that I squirmed underneath his gaze.
Why did it matter? Why was that the question that made him flip his lid?
The ball was in my court now. I held the talking stick, and for once I had information that he wanted. I was the one with the currency.
I fought the urge to answer him right away. The people pleaser inside me was still alive and well, demon or not. The old Scarlett would have just answered him right away, no questions asked. But one good thing that I'd learned since the trials was how to stand my ground. How to recognize my worth, and more importantly how to leverage the two.
I looked at him out of the corner of my eye and sized up how open he was to negotiating. The spot on my forearm that he'd burned with the cross still throbbed, and the last thing I wanted was for him to go nuclear and reach for it again.
"You first." I said, deciding to go the bold route. "I'm not saying a single word until you answer my questions. How the hell were you stuck in that... dimension?" I grabbed a word blindly, but it seemed to fit so I rolled with it.
Draydon groaned and thought for a second. I was sure he was mapping out all of his options, just as I had. And there was no doubt that his fingers were probably itching for his cross weapon, but eventually he shifted his weight and crossed his arms.
I chuckled to myself, relishing in the small moment of pride that I'd won.
Also that I wasn't going to have to fight him because I had no doubt in my mind that he could probably have kicked my ass if he wanted to.
"That realm is called a hunter trapper. It's like a little pocket of reality bubbled away by magic and used as a prison for my kind. Usually by the creatures being hunted— witches, vampires." He paused. "Demons."
His eyes flitted to mine with a faint hint of disgust at the word.
"Think of it as a magical prison cell where time is frozen. Hunters can be trapped in them for eternity, forced to relive the same day over and over until someone releases them."
I stared on, quietly processing what he had said.
"I was lucky that mine was just a physical prison, and I was safe with the dagger inside it. Others haven't been so lucky."
My brows furrowed at what he'd said. I couldn't understand how anyone would possibly feel lucky for being trapped in a paranormal prison.
"The thing about hunter trappers is they don't have to be a physical portal, sometimes the spell is woven in the mind. Think of it like a daydream that you're trapped in forever. Destined for your body to live on autopilot."
There was still so much I had to learn about magic and what it was able to do, but from what he'd said it seemed like it could do a hell of a lot.
I couldn't imagine being trapped inside my head for eternity, it was darker than any place I'd ever been. I could barely stand it when I was in control, but to be held captive by it would be a completely different ball game.
Before I could ask another question Draydon turned and continued down the hallway.
It started happening again, the uncontrollable urges. They started out as just a tingle but turned into a nearly undeniable vibration that flowed throughout my entire body.
For the first time I noticed how attracted I was to Draydon. His uncaring attitude, paired with his deliciously dark complexion and his bulging muscles— I was surprised that I was able to resist him that long.
After all, I was so horny I probably would have had sex with a potato if it said it wanted it.
Get your shit together Scarlett!
I snapped back to reality and followed Draydon through an exit that led to a rooftop bar and sitting area.
Again I questioned the architecture of the building.
How many people drove to a hotel in the desert and wanted to hang out on the roof in the beating rays of the sun?
The second I walked through the threshold of the door I was hit by a wall of heat and realized how cool the air conditioner had made the building.
"Your turn." Draydon said as he sat down on the edge of the rooftop with his legs dangled over the edge.
I gulped. I'd hoped he would have waited before asking me to fess up on my end of the bargain because the truth was there really wasn't anything to fess up in the first place.
I sighed, deciding that truth was the best policy.
"I grew up thinking I was human. My entire life I lived in fear of the supernatural, and then one day in the middle of the human uprising I found out I wasn't even human to begin with."
The words tasted sour coming from my lips. I didn't know who I was breaking it down for more, him or myself.
"After I found out that my entire life was a lie, I started having these dreams, and you were in them, in that place. I don't know how I did it, or why it was happening, but it did."
Draydon stared intently, taking in every last word.
The words hung between us in the squelching heat. I couldn't tell if I was imagining it or not, but for a few seconds there it felt like Draydon hated me a little bit less. And that was saying a lot for a guy who basically hung around in the background doing two things— protecting my mother and hating me.
I wondered what kind of person Draydon was wherever he was from.
Did he have a family? A lot of friends? Did anyone miss him after he was banished to the hunter trapper? Someone as handsome as him had to at least have a girlfriend or a wife.
Who was more than likely dead by now.
No wonder he was so brooding.
We sat quietly while Draydon devoured the words, running them through his mind letter by letter.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out the wallet that I'd swiped from the body in the car and flipped through it. There were a few coupons for fast-food restaurants, a few dollar bills and an ID.
Jackson Johnson.
The smiling face in the photo didn't seem to match the putrid body I'd seen inside the car. It was hard to connect the two in my mind. That person had been someone's something. Son, father, brother, lover, and now he lay in a shallow grave in the desert.
A twinge of empathetic remorse trickled through me. My mind traveled back to the farmer whom I'd almost killed, and the little girl’s photo in his wallet.