The entire hotel went into lockdown mode. Jackie put up every protection spell that she knew and Andy and Tony barricaded the windows and doors. Then everyone went into the lobby so they could explain what was going on to John and Lita.
Rupes decided to kick things off with some disturbing facts. "Demons used to rule this dimension thousands of years ago. But the demons back then were much bigger and much more deadly. Now eventually, humans became the dominant race and the old demons either died out or were banished to another dimension. However, there were these things called the Anduros. They did something nobody saw coming: they turned themselves partly human so they could stay in this world."
"That's really nice Rupes," John said slowly. "But what does that have to do with Harvey?"
"Harvey is an Anduro demon," Jackie said quietly. She was looking down, avoiding everybody's worried glances at her.
Oh. Well that explained the sudden story telling. "Okay, so Harvey's this really old demon," John said, getting with the program. "Jackie told me he was a demon before. But really, how bad is he? You guys fight demons all the time."
Jackie let out a small moan as she doubled over in pain. Andy managed to catch her before she fell to the floor.
"What's wrong with her?" Lita asked.
Rupes sighed. "I was getting to that. Harvey and Sarah had an affair, which resulted in Jackie. With Sarah being a witch, the powers she passed on to Jackie fed into the demon that Harvey passed along, which made Jackie about as strong as him. Unfortunately, he knows that and that's why he wants to kill her before she kills him."
"And is he doing this now?" John asked. He pointed to Jackie. "She looks likes something is fucking killing her."
"The demon," Jackie hissed. "The demon inside me…it knows he's coming…it wants out." She pushed Andy and collapsed to the ground. Everybody but John backed away from her. She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. "Get away John," she ordered.
He shook his head. "Jackie…"
"GET BACK!" she snarled. She crawled behind the receptionists desk to escape from their stares.
"Don't go back there," Rupes warned John. "She's unpredictable when she gets like that. She might accidentally hurt you."
John was about to snap back when the television turned on all by itself. Spike let out a yell. "Jackie! Harvey has hijacked our TV!"
Harvey chuckled. He was sitting in a classroom with a bunch of terrified children. His face was scarred and twisted into a permanent sneer. His cold black eyes had no trace of humanity in them. "How observant of you Spike. Tell me, what are you going to notice next?" His eyes fell on John and Lita. "Well, well, well. What do we have here? Some fresh meat?"
"What do you want Harvey?" Rupes asked.
"I want my dear daughter Jackie," Harvey replied. "I've been here for several hours and she still won't come out and play. It's forced me to up the stakes in our little game." He waved at the kids behind him. "I've decided to play a game. It's called Let's See How Many Of These Brats Have To Die Before Jackie Gets In The Game. Oh and I also brought in someone else." He reached down and pulled up a vampire by the hair. "I brought back Jake. You remember Jake, don't you Jackie? Your undead ex-boyfriend that broke your heart into a million--"
An ax was hurled into the TV, effectively destroying it. "Holy shit!" Leslie yelled, taking the words right out of John's mouth. John turned around to see who threw the ax and gasped. Jackie was standing back up, but she looked worse than ever. The veins that had been showing before had turned black and had raised up above the skin. Her body was covered in a black and red leather body armor. Her eyes were about as black as Harvey's were.
"I think she's definitely ready to get into the game," Tony muttered.
Andy shook his head. "Jackie, you can't go after him. He's just trying to draw you out. We don't even know if he really has all those kids or if he's just trying to trick you."
"He's just trying to trick me," Jackie said. Her voice had a coldness that John hadn't heard before. "He's standing outside the barrier of the protection spell with Jake. He does have him."
John decided to speak up. "Speaking of Jake, did you know he was a vampire before you started dating him? Could you not pass up that cliché?"
"John, now is not the time to be asking that," Christina warned him.
Jackie growled and stormed upstairs. They could hear her punching the walls and slamming doors for several minutes.
Clarissa sighed and put on a fake smile. "Anyone want dinner? I'm starving."