The Rising
CH.1
There was a difference between dead and undead and, right now, Jade West was quickly starting to hate the way the eerie cemetery was setting her nerves on end. Which meant something was definitely wrong considering her love of all things dark and creepy. Sighing, the pale woman ran a hand through her long dark locks while gently tapping the loaded, wooden crossbow against her leg. The church bells sounded again. It was officially two in the morning and yet, to her growing agitation, the graveyard remained devoid of any action.
The whispers that landed her in a deserted cemetery at two in the morning on the holy day came from her usual informants; town gossips. It was the same in any land and the word in this town had been that for the last six weeks there had been reports of attacks on townspeople every Sunday after dusk. Now, Jade could've taken that one of two ways. The occurrences were either happening after midnight on Saturday or before midnight on the sacred day. Really, there was a third option; to ignore it. But, seeing as how the atmosphere in the tavern was charged with rumors of seeing humanlike figures attacking unsuspecting people she just had to investigate. Human-like was exactly her area of expertise.
Jade knew that her current reason for being in the America's was not to focus on anything other than what she had been hired to do. Wasting her time on her first week in the new country on what might be a case of a necromancer gone to the dark or maybe even a rogue sorcerer wasn't going to pay her debts but, being the hunter that she was, her interest was piqued and she couldn't just let it go. Unfortunately, as the time ticked by, it seemed that there wasn't much to hold onto anyways and she may have just wasted a precious two days' time on superstitious grumblings.
"Dammit," she hissed, kicking at a random tombstone. After checking all the graves to make sure they hadn't been disturbed upon arrival, the European had spent over four hours in the small town in California. It was bad enough she was expected to traverse this heated and rugged terrain looking for a dead man but she also had to do it when the Americans seemed to be at their worst.
As she turned to start back towards the humble inn she had taken to lodge in, a movement caught her attention. It was a simple flicker of light that caught in her peripheral for the briefest of moments- anyone who wasn't trained to pick up on such threats would have dismissed it immediately- but Jade knew better and had her bow at the ready within the second.
"Wer ist da?" The hunter questioned quickly in her native, German tongue then, after remembering where she was, reiterated with just as much force. "Who is there?"
A heavy silence was her answer for long moments but she didn't waver, just waited. Evil would present itself when most inopportune for her or when boredom set in for them. She wasn't in the business of presenting easy wins and was more than capable of waiting whatever it was out. Arrow trained on the darkness, another speedy movement to her right made her whip around on instinct. Then one more to her left, and then again in the other direction. If she kept this up, she would be dead from the whiplash alone. But, to her relief, the game quickly ended and out rushed a figure from the blackness in front of her.
Not taking the time a usual human would take to gawk and scream, she shot off two quick rounds hitting her attacker head on. Seeing the arrows pierce a broad, bare chest and not slow their target, she dove out of the way of the impending tackle. Rolling back onto her feet and rearming the bow, Jade let loose another arrow only to have it caught between ashen hands. Humanlike was right, Jade thought as she subtly tried to shake the growing unease out of her system. Standing before her was a very smug demi-demon.
She cursed under breathe at her obvious bad luck. Demi-demons ranged a wide variety of species and abilities. This one seemed humanoid upon first glance but, after looking closer, she could see where the skin seemed to sag loose around the man's frame. "Wendigo." Jade said utterly confident she now knew what she was dealing with.
"Cute, hunter." The gravelly voice sent an unpleasant tingle down her spine. The dark woman wanted to cringe at the sight of the mouth jerking haltingly with each word the beast spoke. "You are such a long way from home, no?"
"You are such a close proximity to death, yes?" Jade mocked the demi-demon outwardly, though her heart had not stopped its painful pounding in her chest. Never in Europe had she had to deal with a flesh eating demon that inhabited the bodies of the dead, and that left her lost as to how to kill one. The most she knew was a name and a vague description from a passing conversation on the subject of such monsters once.
The unfortunate corpse snapped its head back as its unwelcome inhabitant shrieked with laughter. "Such a brave hunter hmm? Or should I just consider you stupid girl?" The insult rolled right off of the woman's back as she was desperately trying figure a way out of this situation. Yep, this was definitely not in her job description.
"I would argue with you but you've got me there." She answered with a wry grin. She was going to die. She was going to be eaten by a demon in some random dead guys body, in a continent she despised, and all because she couldn't keep her nose out of other people's supernatural problems. This was just perfect.
He took a step forward. "You will make this easy for me no?"
"I'm sorry," Jade let her hands fall to her sides, "but I'm not an easy girl to get along with." And with that said, she snatched a silver tipped dagger off of the belt at her waist and sank it deep into its chest; praying to whatever gods were listening that this thing had a serious silver allergy.
Unfortunately the Wendigo just let loose another bone grating laugh and wrapped rigor stiffened arms around her body, crushing her to him. The smell of burning, rotting flesh hit her nose and her stomach rolled instantly. Leaning down to chuckle low in her ear, the demi-demon teased its prey before he feasted. "You came so willingly human. Perhaps you are stupid? A pity really, on such a beauty like you."
He squeezed her harder into him, forcing a gasp from her lips but she remained as relaxed as possible. Her free hand was desperately searching for anything on her belt that would free her but her fingers only brushed handles and glass, not able to free anything in such small space. Leaning back, he stared into her guarded emerald orbs, admiring her defiance even in her hopeless position and prepared to strike.
Seeing his- not the corpse- but the actual jagged, gleaming teeth of the monster in the moonlight set her heart beating faster; if that was even possible. Oh God, she was really going to die. He leaned towards her neck and grazed the skin their but froze. Suddenly, his grip loosened and he spun around, a sound of complete agony passing through his borrowed lips.
Jade felt her knees give out in relief but all her training nearly instantly kicked back in and she caught herself on a tombstone, regaining a solid, defensive stance. It was wasted on the newly bloodied flesh of the corpses back though as her former captor remained turned from her.
Over the rapid rise and fall of his shoulder, Jade could just make out the slim figure of someone standing in front of the demi-demon. The initial surprise of her rescue wore off immediately as the corpse's sickly skin began a nasty crackling sound. Before she knew what had happened, before her stood nearly seven feet of muscly, scaly Wendigo. The smell of burnt, rotting flesh was all that was left behind as evidence to there ever having been a disguise.
"Tu canis! Carnem et ossa tollitis!" The cannibalistic half-demon roared with fury at his attacker. All pretenses dropped, the hunter was at a loss of words at the sight in front of her. While experienced for her twenty-two years of age, she had never encountered a demon this threatening before and had to fight savagely against the natural instinct to flee with her arms flailing in the air.
A distinctly female voice answered smoothly back to whatever curse was muttered in the Wendigo's Latin language. "Now Wennie-boy, there's really no need to throw such hurtful slurs around."
Whoever this woman was, she was certainly not afraid to taunt a massive creature from hell that looked like it was some fucked up hybrid; ram, goat, snake mix.