Jake
Waking up alone is the last thing I expect after the past few days with Jasmine, but I’m relieved when I see a note on my nightstand. It says she’ll text me later, which is good, but I still wish she’d woken me up to say goodbye.
Instead, she left, and for some reason, that makes my heart feel heavy.
I shouldn’t worry, but what if something happened last night?
The longer we keep secrets between us, the more I worry that one day I’ll wake up and she’ll be gone for good.
I wouldn’t know if she skipped town or if she died.
I sit up in bed, unsure of what to do next.
Hunter offered to meet up with me today to show me some areas of town, and I think it might be good to go around the main strip and see if anyone has seen anything out of the ordinary. If I have Hunter with me, people will tell us the truth since they know him well.
An hour later, Hunter and I have gone to three different stores, all dead ends. We end up at Fernhollow Coffee to decompress and grab a snack.
“Maybe they’re gone?” Hunter asks regarding the demons.
I shake my head. “Unlikely. That’s too easy.”
Hunter shrugs. “Do you know what you’re going to do when all of this is done?”
“I…No. I mean, kind of?” I don’t want to tell Hunter about the Council, because I don’t know if that’s going to be a thing, and I don’t want to risk it.
“Falling in love with Fernhollow, huh?”
I chuckle. “Something like that. This town sure has its quirks.”
“Eh, that’s just small-town charm for you.”
“If you consider a main street closing down to celebrate a dog’s birthday a small-town thing, then sure,” I say, taking a sip of my latte.
“It’s Harriet’s dog. It happens every year.”
I throw out my arms. “I don’t even know who that is! The mayor?”
Hunter laughs. “No, that’d be hilarious, though. She owns the salon in the middle of Fernhollow Road. It’s a block or so from here.”
“You’re only proving my point, Hunter,” I deadpan. “Anyway, there’s someone I’d stay here for, but I don’t know right now if that’s what she wants.”
“You’ve been here for how long and already have a complicated relationship?”
“Don’t judge me. I couldn’t have predicted it,” I say, not thinking before I speak.
Hunter’s mouth opens. “Is she your ma—?”
“Don’t utter those words out loud,” I demand.
He holds his hands in the air. “My bad. Really, I didn’t know.”
“It’s fine,” I say, mostly into my drink, but it’s toward him. “Anyway,” I say, glancing up at Hunter. “She’s the reason I want to stay here, if you must know.”
“Well, we’d better keep talking to the townsfolk, then, huh?”
Three hours later, we still aren’t any closer to figuring out where the portals are.
We finished visiting all the open businesses on the main road, but nothing unusual was reported.
Often, they would interrupt the questions being asked to talk to Hunter about Rebecca.
Hunter apologized multiple times, but at that point, I knew we weren’t going to find anything.
Demons want to stay hidden. They aren’t going to suddenly appear, even if that’d make my job a hell of a lot easier.
On our walk to Hunter’s car, I pull out my phone to see a missed text from Jasmine.
“Jasmine says hi,” I relay to Hunter as I type out a response to her.
“Jasmine from the vet?”
Oh, fuck. I palm the back of my neck. “Pretend you didn’t hear me tell you her name.”
“I know who she is, dude. We’ve taken all our foster animals there. Rebecca somehow is the town’s animal whisperer and can’t say no to an animal in need. The spare bedroom in our house has been converted.”
“For the animals?”
“Yeah, for the animals. It’s ridiculous.” Hunter throws his arms in the air. “Sorry, I love the little fellas, but it’s a lot sometimes. I’ve been to the vet a lot. Tell her I said hi.”
Ten minutes later, Hunter heads home for the evening once we get to his car.
Instead of going to the hotel, I walk farther down the street to the western park.
It’s nearly dark outside, and most people have gone home, so I have the trail to myself.
With everything going on, I haven’t had enough time to simply think.
The longer I’m here, the less I want to leave.
I miss my friends, but I know I’d miss Jasmine more.
Her life is here. Fernhollow and Starview have their similarities.
The climates can be similar, depending on the season, and there are ample forests for me to run in.
If I manage to land the Council position, I’d still have opportunities to see Silas and the rest of the pack. He’d let me manage my duties from here.
Today’s call with Silas was still stressful, as I haven’t had much of an update for him.
He relayed to me that the demon activity has lessened, and although he thanked me for it, I didn’t have the heart to tell him it wasn’t anything I’m doing.
I couldn’t tell him my hypothesis for why there are fewer demons in the area.
How do you dump that information on someone?
How can I tell my best friend since childhood that I don’t want to come home? That I’ve found a new home?
Fernhollow has my heart held hostage. As I walk alone in this park, my anxiety is lower than it’s been in a while. When I started medication, there were still days when I struggled to get out of the house. Even knowing the pack depended on me, it wasn’t enough.
There was something missing.
Fate knew I was missing Jasmine, and as my gaze drifts up to the darkening sky, I can’t help but wonder if this entire trip is the start of something bigger.
Unfortunately, the hopeful feeling lasts a fraction of a second. My neck lines with goosebumps. The sky is darkening too quickly, which only tells me one thing.
Someone else is close by, and it’s not a local wanting to say hello.
“Here goes nothing,” I mutter to myself as I veer left off the path and into the surrounding forest.
My wolf scents an unfamiliar presence. It draws us deep into the forest, far away from wandering eyes.
I pull out my phone and send Jasmine a text.
There’s a demon.
Jasmine
Where are you?
Stay where you are. I’ll call you when I get back to my room.
My phone vibrates as soon as I pocket it, but I don’t pull it back out. It’s only Jasmine calling me, I’m sure, and I don’t want to risk her talking me out of pursuing this. If I can’t protect Jasmine around a demon, what kind of mate am I?
Clouds now blanket the sky as I stop in the middle of a clearing. The cawing of crows breaks through the silence, and I like to think they’re here to protect me. Even if I can’t influence them like Jasmine can, I hope they know to protect the mortal realm from demons.
“Show yourself,” I yell with a growl.
A man whistles as he stalks toward me, hands up in defense, but I don’t trust anything.
I widen my stance, getting ready to shift if I need to, because I have nothing else on me for defense. Not that a gun or knife would defeat a demon. From what I’ve read and what I’ve witnessed, you’d need something stronger to end a demon’s life before they end yours.
“You shouldn’t be here,” the man says, his tone laced with anger.
His hair is black, matching his irises, and his skin is a sickly white shade. He’s wearing a long black coat that nearly touches the ground, and he’s surrounded by his own shadows. There’s a pair of horns atop his head and a long tail curling around his legs.
I tilt my head at his message and scoff. “Me? You’re trespassing on our territory.”
The man shrugs and leans against a tree.
“I’m sorry, is this boring you?” I ask.
“I don’t understand why you’re protecting her, is all,” he taunts. I snarl at his vague mention of Jasmine. “We don’t get it. Why save the girl who abandoned her home?”
“You don’t get to talk about her.”
“Do you know who you’re protecting?” He raises his brows, mocking my silence. “Her family is awfully worried about her.”
The man pushes himself off the trunk. He walks to the side, closer to me, giving me no choice but to move as well.
It’s a standoff, but one that could change at any instant. He could throw his magic at me. If I’m not prepared, I’ll die. If I’m unable to defeat him, I’ll die. On the off chance that I get a swipe of my claws at him, I stand a chance.
I’ve been prepared for this and am ready to shift and defend, if needed.
The man stops walking. He lets out a large sigh. “Well, should we get this over with?”
“You could leave. Tell the others to stay out of our goddamn realm before more of you die.”
The shadows around his legs circle and move up his torso until he’s shrouded in them. A black cloud of magic is ready to fire at me.
I force myself to swallow down any fear I might have. Any regret I have doesn’t matter, because I need all my strength and attention focused on these next few minutes. I can’t make up for anything if I’m not breathing.
From what I’ve read about demons—and what little Jasmine has told me—they rarely make the first move.
Their magic flows through them, meaning if I bite or scratch at their shadows, they will feel it.
It won’t always stop that tendril from harming me, but it’ll lessen the blow.
Their magic is an extension of them, so if I can run around this demon and attack him enough times, weakening his shadows, I stand a chance.
Once he smirks, I know it’s time. If I don’t shift now, I’ll die. He won’t wait. He’ll see me as an easy target, which I’m not. I’m the opposite, and he’s going to learn that.
As easy as breathing, my bones shift into my wolf form.
It’s second nature to let my wolf come forward and take over, ripping my clothes to shreds and replacing them with a thick layer of gray fur with orange accents.
My wolf is like a second consciousness, and it’s important we stay aligned, especially now, when we rely on communication to defeat our enemy.
Everything that happens while I’m in wolf form, I feel. It’s not like we’re separate entities, and I could easily shift back over. Again, it’s about how we talk with each other and the trust I have in my wolf to do his job.
Okay, here we go.
My wolf growls, the sound echoing through the forest trees. The demon dips his head and smirks, his ego fueling his plan to kill me and silence me.
We stalk around each other until I pounce first, but I fake at the last minute. Instead of diving for his chest, I dip and grab his leg, which he wasn’t expecting.
“Fuck,” the man shouts, swinging his right hand out from his body.
I don’t think anything of it, already forgetting this man has demon magic until it’s too late. His shadows wrap around my back ankle, gripping it tight.
The shadows are cutting off my circulation, and I release my grip on him, moving to swipe at him. He uses his shadows to throw me to the other side of our battlefield, and I’m pretty sure I’ve missed him when my back slams against a tree.
My wolf groans, and I wince from the pain. My ankle is definitely broken, and I won’t be able to walk much on it. I’ll need healing salve to quicken the healing process if I get out of here.
My wolf growls, but not at the demon. He growls at me for second-guessing how this will end. I shake his anger off and beckon him to look up at the demon.
I’m expecting the demon to be stalking toward us, shadows ablaze, but instead, he’s on the ground, surrounded by a puddle of blood. His shadows are slowly fading into the forest floor.
The man’s chest is…well, not much of a chest anymore.
We luckily threw most of our weight into our swipe before we were thrown, and we hit a few major arteries.
Turns out, we got lucky. The demon looks up, meeting my gaze.
It’s hard to tell from this far away, but I’m fairly certain he mouths, You don’t know her, before he dies and his body turns into ashes.
My mind could be playing tricks on me. It’s possible he said nothing at all.
After all, how would he know this information?
A minute later, I shift back into my human form and am presented with my broken ankle that I somehow already forgot about.
The last words the demon said haunt me, and it’s not fair that they plant doubt in my mind.
The last thing I want is to go behind Jasmine’s back for information, but I also need to know what she’s hiding.
Jasmine should willingly give it to me. If we’re to be mates for the rest of our lives, I need to know I can lean on her and trust her to tell me when things are important.
It’s one thing to keep secrets from friends or not relay information that isn’t pertinent to me, but if it’s something I should know—something that people are killing others for—that’s different.
None of it adds up, though. If Jasmine showed up in Fernhollow a few months ago, when we got reports of the demons, then I’d think more of it. She’d be a lead, for sure. But she’s been here for a decade. A decade of little demon activity in a town that’s full of paranormal creatures.
I find my phone by a tree on the other side of the clearing. Twenty missed calls and over fifty texts wait for me. They’re all from Jasmine. I text Hunter my location and ask him to bring me clothes. Once he lets me know he’s on his way, I call Jasmine.
“You’re an idiot.” Jasmine answers on the first ring.
“I’m sorry.”
“Why would you actively go after a demon, Jake? They could have killed you.” She sucks in a breath, and it breaks my heart to know I’ve made her upset.
“I had to.”
“You didn’t.”
“I did. What if they came to claim an innocent?”
“They wouldn’t—”
I interrupt, my voice echoing in the night. “What if they did, Jasmine? I wouldn’t have been able to accept that, knowing I could have stopped them.”
The clouds have mostly disappeared, but it’s still dark outside.
“Are they…”
“Yeah.”
“And you…are you okay? Where are you?”
I smile to myself. “Hunter is coming to get me. I’m okay. Broken ankle, but it’ll heal by morning.”
“I can come to you.”
You don’t know her. The words the demon might have said are stuck in my mind, and even though I want to see Jasmine, I know I need time to myself.
I’ve accepted that she’s going to keep me in the dark—at arm’s length—but I need to figure out how to address this with her.
The last thing I want to do is give her an ultimatum.
I settle on, “I’ll come over tomorrow. You have a busy day at work, remember?”
I know my wolf won’t let me go much longer without seeing her—not that I want to, either.
Jasmine’s quiet for a moment, and I worry about her response, but she says, “Okay, right. Vaccination day. Tomorrow night, then. Text me when you get back to your room.”
The next hour is a blur after Hunter finds me and takes me back to my hotel.
He asks a few questions, but I’m sure he can tell I’m not in the mood to debrief about what happened.
While I wait for answers, I’m going to make a list of everything I know about Jasmine and hope that starting tomorrow, she can help me fill in the cracks.