Retaliation: the beginning

Chapter 17: "The truth behind the veil."

The three little hunters were not nearly as coordinated as Clay had originally expected. It was shameful, yet that was what they returned to without his guidance.

"Why did we leave?" Kimberly asked. She really, really hoped that Clay didn't change his mind about them.

"We could've easily won." Timothy added in, making to crack his knuckles to release the pressure.

Shane simply nodded in agreement.

"You've got to get to the stage in life where going for it is more important than winning." He slowly walked into his desk poring himself a small glass of whisky. "And no you could not."

"Why?" The oldest child finally spoke.

"Because..." Clay narrowed his eyes. He was not at all annoyed by the questions; he was all about this method of learning, but he didn't want to say it; he didn't want to break what's left of their spirit.

Thus, he held up his glass and drank it all at once.

"I have to make a call, you're dismissed."

Up close Kim could see how tired he looked. There were dark half-moons under his eyes, and his lids were pearly with sleeplessness. "Good night." She said as she closed the door.

Defeated, Timothy slid on the wall biting his bottom lip. "He's throwing us away, isn't he?"

Shane looked away.

"No, he's not, he is just-"

"Disappointed." Shane finished on her behalf.

A heavy silence settled, occasionally interrupted by the sound of Timothy's finger cracking. He knew exactly what his father was thinking behind his stoic and annoyed expression. Assuming that he was disappointed, what could they do to change that?

***************

Isaac sat up with a gasp; he'd fallen asleep at his desk. His laptop lay open in front of him and his ringing phone was clutched tightly in his grasp, he took a look at his caller id.

Clay. J.T

He snorted to himself as he pressed the high speaker button, "Jay T my man, how are you doing?"

You chose a quit interesting timing to respond to my calls, I was starting to think you were dead.

"Aha I see your sense of humor is still as dark as ever." he teased feeling groggier than usual.

Why?

"Why what?" he flexed his fingers before combing them through his sandy hair.

Why didn't you answer any of my calls?

"Busy."

Doing what?

"Stuff."

Isaac heard one of the longest sigh of his life. Frankly, His head throbbed; he was unable to think through the conversation.

"So to what do I owe the pleasure?" he rummaged through his desk before pulling out a bottle of Aspirin and popping one into his mouth.

I think you already know.

Isaac smirked, feeling the erg to tease even more "Do I now?"

Groaning threw the phone Clay gave up.

You were right.

Closing his eyes, Isaac massaged his temples and tried to clear his mind. "About what exactly?"

About the Book, about everything.

"I know," he answered, voice raspy with sleep "I heard things are hitting up." He stretched his limbs before shedding his clothes and changed into something new.

Heard? from who?

"The Goodwins?" Elias wondered out loud, he didn't realize he was only replicating words after them, however he wasn't one to blame, he didn't understand a word they said, as if they were speaking codes only they could understand, the Blake family were truly a puzzle to him.

"Yes, have you ever heard of the murders?" Mrs. Blake asked.

Ely gave it a thought; he did hear that name before, if only he was paying attention. "I heard about it on TV but they didn't say much."

Mrs. Blake gave him an annoyed look causing Aaron to muffle his laugh, he had never seen her make such an effort.

"The Goodwins were the family of the first huntsman, Samuel Goodwin." She finally said "They were the first hunters to believe in the demonic companionship."

"Demonic companionship?" Embarrassed, he scratched his neck. He did it again.

Luckily, Aaron felt the need to explain. "It's a pact between a hunter and a low level demon, to serve and protect."

"Like Derek?" he started to link things together.

"Yeah, unfortunately, there were members that didn't like that idea." Aaron looked down for some reason.

Mr. Blake continued with a theatrical proceed to the book shelves. "Some of the huntsmen agreed that all demons no matter what level they are should be exterminated." She tapped her fingers along the raw of large dusty books, "Samuel tried to persuade his comrades, it only made theme more determinate because the next day he turned up dead, stabbed with a demon blade to the heart."

"They killed their friend?!"

Mrs Blake shook her head "They killed the impulse and the rest followed later, every time a Goodwin tried to reach out his voice they disappeared, until none of them remained."

"That's just cruel, how could they do that?"

"Because they are above the law." Aaron spat out.

The blond tsked in response"No one is above the law. You kill you pay, that's how it's supposed to be."

"I wish everybody thought like that." Mrs Blake gave a small smile.

"So what does this story have to do with what's happening now?"

"The book that we found," Aaron explained further "It was Samuel who created it, to document every piece of information about the supernatural creatures he encountered in his life."

"The general idea was to pass it to the future generation of hunters in his family. But then he got murdered and the book was confiscated by the most trusted Huntsmen, they kept it long enough."

"Some say it got lost, and others say it got stolen."

"The point is; it has been years since the book was last seen." Mrs Blake summed "And for some reason it came back to the surface now."

"What does that mean?"

"Somebody is preparing something, and it doesn't seem promising."