Cursed [Book 1] ✔

Chapter 19: Time to Clock In

Work. That was a funny word for what lay ahead of me.

At the club, I spied two Lillin under thrall. I didn't need Rosalind's puppet tricks to take care of them. She had been giving me sword lessons along with everything else, and I knew how to flourish with the best of 'em.

After dispatching the Lillin, I followed the strong scent of a Djinn feeding on a girl in the men's bathroom. It was a too late to save the girl; she had been drained dry. The Djinn was just as unlucky, meeting with the pointy-end of my sword, then being immolated with my fire lore.

Soot, ashes, and smoke swirling in the air around me, and I had never felt so clear. This was what I had been meant to do. I underestimated the demons then, and I grew arrogant of my powers.

The next few weeks proved to be a profitable time for the demon hunting business. With each kill, specifically that of a Djinn, I was led to more and more demons. Some nested together and some hunted alone, but they were all linked to each other by smell. One always begot the other, and their strong odors lingered on the hair, on the skin of one another.

Lillin were easy to find and kill because they never kept a low profile anyway. Watching the news or reading the paper would put me on the trail of a few silver-eyed baddies with a lust for blood.

Djinn were harder to come by, even though they carried with them an alpha-like scent that reeked for miles round. They were smart, powerful, and fast. Each demi-god had his or her own special ability that made it that much harder to kill or catch up with them. In each city, there was usually no more than two or three.

One Djinn by the name of Klocan had the bothersome advantage of invisibility. Fighting him was a demoralizing experience for me because I would slash at nothing but air, hearing his laughter echo around me. There was no way he could mask his scent, nor stave his giggles, and in the end I followed his scent to an empty room and unleashed the fire within me. In seconds, the room was filled with light, heat, and me, and nothing more.

Soon I had slaughtered my way past Tampa and was on to beheading demons in Sarasota. On the wind, I could taste the sweet and burning stench that belonged to the Uzita demon.

In my hotel room, I would practice fishing. Scanning the minds of the patrons in the room next to mine was no problem. Casting my net to reach a greater radius was challenging. Even so, I kept on, knowing I would master it someday. Besides, I had plenty to keep me busy.

Once I found a nest of Lillin, it was only a matter of time before I found other points to follow, taking me deeper and deeper into the woods. I fell into a pattern of efficiency that served me well. In two weeks, I had cleaned out Sarasota of the demon population. When I arrived in the next town, I was disturbed to discover the number of demons was growing exponentially as I moved lower on the latitude of the grid. It was as if they were drawn to the heat, which tended to increase with the downwards geography.

The next Djinn I tracked was seaside. She had her prey writhing in her arms. Both of them lay on the beach, bodies tangled together, the moonlight playing peek-a-boo with the clouds. At first glance, they might have appeared to be making out. From the alkaline smell of blood mixed with burnt pork, I knew the activity they were engaged in was not at all innocent.

I took each sinking step in the sand slowly. With the help of the sand and my new body's practiced grace, my approach was soundless. Even so, I was sure that the Djinn could smell me. The wind had shifted and was blowing away from me.

The monster looked up at me, its silver eyes glinting momentarily. Then it resumed its feast.

"Enjoy it while you can." I knew my words would be carried by the wind.