Consuming Fire

Chapter 85

Hunter gasped for breath as she lay on the scratchy, marble floor. She looked up at Jack as he gripped his head and roared, as though there was something trying to tear its way out of his chest. He stormed to the opposite side of the room and started smashing apart giant wads of concrete from the staircase. The ground shook violently from the force. He was growing dangerously close to Eli's body, a body she didn't know was alive or not.

"Jack!" she shouted and a searing pain tore through her chest. "Stop it!"

"You did this!" he thundered and collapsed on the ground, rolling in the debris and causing gashes to open on his skin. Hunter didn't know how she did it, but she must have had some energy still reserved inside her. She pushed herself to her quaking feet and stumbled to him. Unafraid, she bent over his writhing body and the moment her hands touched his shoulders, he flipped and gazed up at her. "Hunter, I'm so sorry!"

Her heart broke at the look in his eyes. The darkness was starting to wear off, but it was putting up a damn good fight.

Hunter didn't know much about demon possession or exorcisms, but she imagined it was something like this. When she was 'possessed' in the warehouse, it was the rain that pulled her back to reality and flushed away the fire. It was the thought of her mother's words and her memory of Eli. She had to bring back strong memories for him and help him fight the fire. The darkness.

"Don't let it turn you into a monster!" she begged him. He was straining against it, the black veins flickering on and off under his skin. She started panicking, wondering how she could draw the real Jack out. "You have too many people who love you! Clare needs you, she's alone. And Eli, h-he wants his best friend back, don't you want that? And I need you to remind me of when things used to be so normal and simple and ... I can't just let you fall into the hands of this darkness forever because it was my fault it consumed you in the first place. I'm so so sorry. Please, Jack, fight it for the people that love you!"

Jack was heaving, but the more Hunter shouted in his ear as he lay on his stomach, his fists clenched hard, the more his breathing decreased. Hunter's tears were dripping onto his huge arms. She wished she could draw out all the darkness, all the hate and regret and anger and evil possessing him and put it all on herself. But this was his battle.

"Fight it," she whispered, gently stroking his shoulder. She kept whispering, watching his clenched muscles slowly unclench, watching the darkness fade away. It was working. The darkness was slowly releasing its evil clutch on her friend.

And then from behind them there came a loud, very obvious clapping.

Hunter turned.

Jet was slowly approaching them. Each footstep made crunches on the gravel. He limped from the still healing stab-wound in his stomach, but didn't let it show on his face. He'd lost a lot of his confident snark, and now it looked like he was running on pure, psychotic rage.

The fire burned white-hot inside Hunter. She kept hearing the sound of Mosi's body as Jet ripped it apart from the inside. Hunter could only imagine how much he wanted to do the same to her for taking Mikayla.

"Is there something I can help you with?" she said to Jet in the most casual manner she could muster.

"Actually, I think he's still struggling a little bit." Jet peered around her and frowned.

Jack glared up at Jet, breathing hard through his nose. He was still in a battle with the darkness, wanting to stand beside Hunter, but something was holding him back. Perhaps it was just Jet's presence that reminded Jack of ICE and what had trapped him there.

"See, I don't think he'll ever change, Hunter. People like us will forever have darkness in us, a darkness that we can't tame."

"No, you're a special case," Hunter spat and lit her palms on fire. "Jack is different. He can-"

A hand snatched her ankle and wrenched her feet out from under her. She went crashing to the ground, the air knocked out of her lungs. She turned over weakly and looked up into the darkness as it swam in Jack's eyes again.

"Jack no," she breathed.

Jet was laughing. "You think a little pep talk is going to get him to release the most powerful evil inside his soul? You're stupider than I thought. I told you, it can't be tamed!"

Jack reached down and grabbed Hunter by the collar of her suit. He lifted her off her feet, dangling her above the ground.

He's going to kill me.

"I'm afraid that the war is not over yet," said Jet. "But your fight is. Unless-"

"Unless what?"

"Unless you tell me where you're keeping Mikayla."

Hunter felt like laughing. She didn't think Jet was capable of any feelings, of any longing for Mikayla at all.

Even if she did tell him – which would risk the entire operation and every life at the SSS compound – he would kill her anyway.

Hunter stared down into Jack's menacing eyes. If Jet was capable of feelings, surely Jack was too. She'd seen it. He fought the darkness. Something brought him back, now she needed something more powerful to overcome it.

"I'm waiting!" shouted Jet.

"You'll have – to kill – me first."

"I won't have to kill you," he laughed. "Jack my little puppy here will do it for me!"

Something in his tone made Jack suddenly stop and realize that's exactly what he was – Jet's puppy, used as a torture device. Still with his hands around her neck, Jack lifted his other hand and pointed it at Jet.

Jet's face fell. "Wh-what are you doing?"

Jack clenched his fist. Jet's body twitched violently and his arms wrapped themselves around his stomach. His eyes grew wide. He looked like he wanted to throw up. His muscles started to seize and his skin paled.

Then, his torso exploded. Blood splattered all over the two of them. Jet's body was shredded in half as though something had ripped him apart like the leg of chicken.

Even though Jet was the spawn of the devil, the way he died would never be erased from her mind. It certainly wouldn't have missed the eyes of the public and news crews who captured it on tape.

But Hunter had other things to worry about.

"Jack, please-"

"No more games," he growled. "This ends now."

You're right. It ends now.

Hunter didn't think twice about what she did next. There was no other alternative, no more ideas in her disoriented mind, only a need to save Jack and everyone else affected by his power. She couldn't if she was dead.

So Hunter pulled her hands away from Jack's wrists that still clenched her collar and placed them on his cheeks. Jack's eyes followed her hands and, for a moment, he was frozen in shock. Almost in slow motion, Hunter pulled his face toward her, the pressure on her throat becoming hard to ignore, and with as much passion and love as she could muster so that he could feel it, she kissed him.