Chapter 1
He walks into the adoption center and talks to the receptionist. She smiles and leads him to a room with a bunch of kids laughing and talking in it. A seventeen year old blonde girl looks at him and quickly turns away. He leans against a dresser.
Another girl of six years of age walks up to him. She was wearing a green dress with a white long sleeve shirt under it and sandals. She had wavy brown hair and green eyes. He squats down next to her.
"What's your name?" he asks her.
"Hannah."
"Hi Hannah, I'm Will."
"She's watching us..." she tells him.
"Who is?" he asks her.
"She is," she replies pointing at the blonde.
He turns his head and looks at the blonde. She quickly turns her head.
"I know. Why don't you do me a favor and go get her for me?"
"Okay," she says and smiles.
Hannah tells the blonde that he wanted to talk to her and she walks up and stands to him on his left. Will stands back up and leans against the dresser again. The blonde walks up to him.
"This is what, your third adoption center this month? Talk to me Jim, tell me something that I need to hear."
"Tell you what Will? You ARE the hunter, are you not?" replies the blonde.
"Tell me about the devil's return. Speak to me Jim."
Jim falls silent.
"When Jim, when? When's it gonna happen?"
Again, Jim is silent.
"Why all the people? Why does he need this many souls."
"Jim, you're gonna tell me somethin' or else you will return to hell where you belong."
Jim starts speaking in the old language. "The devil builds an army for when he returns so he can once again rule the world."
Will begins to lose his patience.
"When Jim, when?"
The blonde girl looks at Will and grins. Will curses under his breath as the demon possessing the blonde reaches out of the blonde towards Hannah. Will pulls out a stake and nails Jim to the dresser just as the demon touches Hannah. The demon starts to scream in pain as the kids scream and run out of the room as Hannah stands stiff as a board staring at the blonde. Will quickly moves across the room picking up Hannah and squatting against the wall beside the door.
"Shhhhh, it'll be okay," Will whispers into Hannah's ear as he strokes her head. "It'll be okay I promise."
The demon continues to scream as it tries to break free of the silver stake. In the sky above them, screams of winged demons are heard. Will looks up at the ceiling to make sure none of them were coming through and then into the hallway to make sure no demon was there. Hannah finally comes out of her state of shock.
Sensing this, "Come on Hannah, we have to go," he tells her gently.
Hannah turns and looks at him. "I'm scared Will."
"It'll be okay, I promise," Will tells her still speaking gently.
Will looks out into the hallway again to make sure it was still clear.
"Let's go sweetie."
Will takes her by the hand and they both quietly move towards the front door. When they got to the front door, Will tries to open it but finds that it's locked. He curses under his breath. Noticing an open office on his left, they both go into it. He pulls out a hand full of red brick and lays it across the doorway. He again looks into the hallway to make sure it was still clear. He takes her by the arms so they were facing each other.
"Hey," he says quietly, "you wanna play a game with me?"
"A game?" She sounded confused.
"Yea, let's play a game."
"What kinda game?" she asks him.
"Let's play hide-and-go-seek."
"You want me to hide from you?"
"No. You and me are gonna hide from all the bad guys," he tells her.
He again looks into the hallway again as the screeching of winged demons gets louder. He turns back to her.
"Can you do me a favor Hannah? Can you remember another way out of here besides the front door?"
"No," she replies.
"Please Hannah. You have to remember."
"I...I...can't remember Will. I don't know!"
"Is the other way out in the back of the adoption center?" he asks her knowing that patience is the only way to get an answer.
"I don't know," she says sniffing.
"Is it maybe in the back?" he asks her.
"I don't know. We're not allowed in the back."
"Ok, well we're gonna go in the back and hide from them there, ok?"
"Okay," she replies.
He motions for her to be quiet and takes her by the hand and quietly and slowly they move towards the back. He opens the door to the back room and cusses. The back was designed like a maze. The hallway was wasn't a straight hallway, there was a lot of walls. He quietly closes the door behind them and the start the long walk to the back.
Hearing something, they stop and put their backs against a wall. He puts his hand in his pocket and pulls out a hand full of red brick dust and puts a line of it on the door in front of them, and then on the door behind them.
"Why do you put that on the door?" Hannah asks him.
"It's a special kind of dust that a friend of mine put a curse on that keeps us safe," he responds.
"What's a curse?" she asks him kind of lost.
"A curse is a spell, and to answer your next question, my friend did it for me."
Looking around the corner, he sees four winged demons. Will was surprised to not say any more than that. He pulls out a fire/uv bomb.
Will looks at Hannah and says, "You wanna do me a favor Hannah? I want you to stand in the corner and close your eyes. Can you do that for me?"
"Why?" she asks him.
Will holds out the bomb he just pulled out of his pocket. "There's four demons around the corner and this is gonna kill them."
"So why do I need to stand in the corner with my eyes closed?"
"Cuz this bomb is gonna explode and have a really bright light, and I don't want it to hurt your eyes."
"Okay."
She goes and stands in the corner facing it. He tabs the bomb and the ground and throws it around the corner. The instant it hit the wall it exploded. The winged demons were gone instantly. Will taps Hannah's shoulder and mentions for her to follow him.
"How come you didn't close your eyes?" Hannah asks him.
He smiles at the fact that she knew he didn't without her looking at him. "Because I am used to the bright light it produces," he explains to her.
"Then how come I had to do it and you didn't."
Will stops and squats so they're face to face. "It's a long story sweetie, I'll explain it to you later, ok?"
Hannah shakes her head and they start back up again. They finally come to the end of the hallway only to face a door leading up stairs. Will curses under his breath again and outlines the door swing with red brick. Suddenly the flies across the room and shatters against the wall and a winged demon flies into the room but quickly stops at the brick line. It screams at him while it hovered where it was stuck.
"That's right you stupid bitch," Will tells the demon and grins at it as he pulls out a nine mm gun with hollow points filled with UV light.
Will shoots his gun and covers Hannah with himself as the demon explodes in a ball of fire. Will picks up Hannah and he climbs the stairs with her in his arms. He puts her down on the top after looking over the railing to make sure it was clear. Feeling something horribly wrong was gonna happen, Will takes off his silver blessed cross from around his neck and squats in front of Hannah.
"You wanna do me a favor Hannah?"
"What's that?" she asks him being calm for once after he showed up.
Will shows her the necklace. "I want you to wear this alright? Can you hang on to it for me for a little bit?"
"Why? Don't you need it?"
"I need you to hang on to it for me? I might lose it," he said lying to her.
"Ok."
Will puts it around her neck and smiles to her.
"Now don't you look pretty with it?"
Hannah smiles at him when he says that. Suddenly, a winged demon dives through the ceiling and tackles him. Ten more winged demons dive on top of him as well smothering him.
"Run Hannah!"
Hannah just looks at the mass of demons fighting Will.
"Hannah! Run!" Will yells again as he tries to fight them off.
"Do it Hannah! Run! Now!" Will yells a third time as more and more demons kept coming.
Finally Hannah takes off running towards the door as the demons finally get Will on the floor. Hannah stops behind the door and hears Will scream. Understanding the situation, Hannah takes off running.
Chapter 2
Two days later, Will bolts up out of his coma. He looks around and realizes he's in the hospital. He pulls out all the needles that are in him and all the heart monitor things and stands up. Danielle walks into the room a few minutes later. Will smiles at her.
"Hey sweetie," as Danielle walks up to him.
They kiss each other and hug.
"Now, did you bring me my bag of goodies?" he grins at her.
"Don't I usually?" Danielle responds grinning back at him handing him a black duffel bag.
Will takes the bag into the bathroom and returns a few minutes later wearing his khaki shorts, an orange shirt, and his sandals. He clips his nine mm, cocks it, and returns it to the holster underneath his shirt. He takes his black jacket and puts it on.
"Thanks for the stuff sweetie," he says kissing her on her cheek.
He jumps out the closed window with his tail exposed. His tail fixes the glass in the window. Danielle looks at him funny and goes and looks out the window to see him spread his wings and disappears into the sky.
Later that night, Will sits down at the table Danielle was sitting at.
"Sorry I'm late sweetie," he says.
"Is it any different than any other time?" she asks him.
"I had some unfinished business to take care of," he responds.
"I'm worried about you Will."
"Why's that hun?" he asks her looking a little surprised.
"You're evolving a hell of a lot faster than you were before."
"Wadda mean?" he says surprised.
"Well, you've got a tail and wings now."
"So?"
"What do you mean so? You're a winged demon now Will, do you understand that?"
"I've had the wings and tail before I picked up Hannah. By the way, how is she doing?"
"Hannah's fine, you know that. She's in the same place as the other few that you've picked up. How long have you had the wings and tail?" she responds.
"About a day before Hannah."
"Well check this out hunny." She slides a hologram across the table.
He hits the play button and the hologram starts. A picture of a blonde headed kid appeared.
"That's Blake, who is also a winged demon. But he's not a normal winged demon, he's a black winged demon."
The hologram switched picture switched to Blake standing above the camera. Blake picks up his foot and diamond shaped crystals appear above the camera.
"Instead of stainless steel stakes like you do, he has diamond crystals."
"If I may correct you babe, but the stainless steel stakes are gone and I'm beginning to peel," he replies.
Danielle looks at him wide-eyed. "You're peeling!"
"It itches like a mother fucker too!"
"Come on, we're going," Danielle tells him standing up.
"Where are we goin?" he asks her also standing.
"To the lab," she responds.
"Again? Do we have to?" throwing down money for the check.
A couple hours later, he's laying down on a bed waiting to get moved into the cat scan. He looks up at her and grins.
"Couldn't wait to get me in the lab again by yourself could you?" he teases her.
"Shut up Will. You have such a dirty mind," she replies.
She starts to walk behind the wall to start the process of the scan when he sits up.
"Before we start this, you might wanna come take a look at this Danielle?"
She turns around and looks at him. He pulls out a small box and holds it up to show her. She walks back to him.
"This is for you," he tells her holding it out to her.
She looks at it and opens it to find an engagement ring in it. She looks at him shocked. "Whadda say hun?" he says smiling at her.
"Yes," she replies landing a hug on him.
He returns her hug and kisses her forehead. "Now how 'bout that cat scan?" he teases her changing subjects.
"Yea...how 'bout that cat scan?"
He smiles and lays back down on the table to wait for her to send him into the cat scan. Two days later, Danielle and Will were sitting at table at their favorite restaurant.
"So watcha find on the cat scan?" Will asks Danielle.
"Nothing," she replies.
He looks at her surprised. "Wadda mean nothing?"
"There was nothing there!"
"Nothing. Absolutely nothing. It came up with nothing there."
"That's interesting."
The waiter walks up with their food and delivers it to them and the start to eat. Will ponders on the information that he had just received and then asks, "What does that mean?"
"I don't know what it means. I've never seen anything like it, and neither has any of the other staff members."
"Do you think we should run more tests?" he asks her taking a sip of his beer.
"When's your next opening in your week schedule?" she inquires.
"Um," he sips his beer again as he thinks. "I'm not sure, I'd have to get in touch with my secretary!"
"What are you talking about," she laughs. "You don't have a secretary. You don't even have a schedule. You work with a team that fights against hell!"
He grins at her. "When's your next opening hun?"
"Tomorrow morning at nine," she replies.
"Sounds like a plan to me," he says smiling at her.
They finish their meal in silence.
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