Chapter 4

As it turned out, fighting tiger demon things that could spit out fire was not as easy as it sounded, especially after being in a car wreck the day before. Luckily, Jackie wasn't kidding about being the One Woman Wrecking Crew. It was the most amazing thing John had ever seen. He had never seen anyone fight like her. She was both unbelievably vicious and graceful at the same time.

"John look out!"

John turned around and found one of the demons lunging at him. He ducked down and used the creatures momentum to tackle it and put himself on top. Being careful to keep the demon's head pointed away from him, John managed to stab the demon in the chest. It wasn't easy because the damn thing was putting up a hell of a fight. "How the do you make this look so easy?" he asked Jackie.

"Tons of practice," Jackie replied. She pulled a stake out of her pocket. "Watch this." Without even really aiming, she threw the stake right between one of the last two demon's eyes.

John got his own stake out of his pocket. "Let me try that." He tossed at the stake at the last demon. The blunt side of it hit the demon on the head and bounced off harmlessly to the ground.

"Uh…I don't think you threw it right," Jackie said slowly.

"Really Jackie? How could you tell?"

The demon didn't really take having a stake thrown at it well. It opened its mouth and let out a blast of fire at John. John literally had to jump behind a rock to keep from getting hit. "Jackie!"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm on it," Jackie assured him.

John peeked out from behind the rock and saw that Jackie had literally jumped on top of the demon's back. She struggled with it for about a second before snapping its neck. "Ta da!" she said proudly as she jumped back up to her feet.

John sighed and looked around at the six demon corpses on the ground. "We're lucky I'm secure with my masculinity or we would have a serious problem right now."

"Why?" asked Jackie.

"You killed five and I only got one. I know some dudes who would not be taking this well."

Jackie gave him a grin. "Yeah, I've run into a few guys who've had that problem. Most of them get over it."

"And the ones who don't?"

"Well usually I just punch them and leave. I don't take that kind of shit."

John laughed. Despite all of the sudden weirdness being introduced to his life, he found himself enjoying the time he was spending with Jackie. She had a sense of humor, she was confident, independent and gorgeous as hell. "So what are we going to do with these bodies?"

"Nothing," said Jackie. "It's not like I live down here so they can rot for all I care. Oh and while we're near the subject, if you kill something in the hotel, you're taking care of the body. Rupes had to make that rule when we tried to dump all of that responsibility on him."

"How nice of you guys. I'm not sure how he puts up with all of you."

Jackie grinned. "Neither are we. We're still expecting him to snap any day now."

They left the cave and walked back to the hotel. On the way, John noticed how normal everybody seemed. They were going about their every day lives, like nothing was wrong in the world. "It seems so peaceful here right now," he said quietly.

"That'll change soon enough," Jackie muttered.

When they got back to the hotel they found Chris waiting for them outside. They could tell by the look on his face that something was wrong. "What happened?" Jackie asked.

Chris sighed. "A couple of things. One being that the freak Alan Grump escaped from jail and apparently has some apocalyptic ritual planned. But we've got a few hours to find him and stop him."

"Who's Alan Grump?" John asked.

"Cult leader that keeps trying to end the world because he has genocidal tendencies," Jackie explained. She raised her eyebrows at Chris. "But I've got a feeling that's not the worst of the news."

Chris shook his head. "No, it's really not. Cody's mom was just killed and his dad was arrested for it, so yeah, Cody's freaking out right now."

Jackie winced. "Son of a bitch. Where's he at?"

"His room. Christina's in there with him."

Jackie rushed into the hotel, leaving John and Chris alone. John wasn't quite sure what to say. He was the outsider in the situation. He didn't know Cody that well, so he figured he would let Jackie help the guy out.

"I think Cody's more mad than upset," Chris said suddenly. It sounded like he wanted John to understand something very important. "Both of Cody's parents fucked him up pretty badly. That's why he moved into the hotel. Mommy didn't love him and Daddy beat the shit out of him."

John wasn't sure he wanted to know this. "Why are you telling me this?"

Chris shrugged. "I just thought you should know. Knowledge is power you know." He sat down on the bench that was right outside the front door. "Although ignorance can be bliss." He sighed. "So what do you choose? Bliss or power? Or is it possible to have both?"

John frowned. "Are you talking to me or yourself?"

"Both," Chris admitted. "I go off on my own little tangents all the time. Jackie says it's because I'm too smart for my own good."

"Just how smart are you?"

"My IQ is 192."

"Damn. You are smart."

"That's what people say. Although that didn't stop me from being dumb enough to get that girl pregnant at a concert in Kansas City a couple of moths ago." Chris grinned sheepishly and went into the hotel.

John frowned. "Damn. I had him pegged down as a virgin."