Dark Hearts

Part IV (Chapters 3 & 4)

The Templar

George waited in his car in front of Catherine's house. There were no Templars guarding her house tonight, no need to. She was out of town, thousands of miles away, but Jason didn't know that.

It's been a couple of hours, three cups of coffee and so far, no sign of the warlock, he had to keep his distance, Jason had been on the run for years and by now he must have known how to lay low as much as possible. George has exchanged his Charger for something more low-key; a blue Prius that parked hidden in the middle of the parked cars in the street, or as hidden as George hoped.

He grabbed his last cup of coffee and realized it was empty. He sighed in frustration "where the hell are you, Jason?" he muttered to himself and leaned forward to the steering wheel; hoping to see any shadow moving.

He did.

Jason looked left and right before crossing the street, there was no one there, it was well past midnight, only he and his stalker in the Prius and... his imp of course, who appeared out of nowhere and landed on Jason's shoulder, the Imp looked around, more skeptical than his master but he didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, Jason walked towards the house and nodded to his demon, the imp jumped from his shoulder and landed stiffly on the ground, then he started picking the lock, George waited for the imp to explode from the protective wards at the door, but he never did.

He frowned in confusion as the imp successfully opened the door and Jason entered.

What was that? George thought, not understanding what just happened in front of him, every Templar's house had Holy spells and wards to protect them from demons and even some Creatures of the Night, a demon like Jason's Imp should have been blown up the instant he was near a ward, why weren't Catherine's wards working? George cursed and got out of his car. He grabbed his gun and moved in quick but careful steps towards Catherine's house.

He stood by the side of her white wooden fence and peeked at the front door which was now shut. He half crouched; half walked by the fence until he was at the back. He jumped the fence easily; landing silently on the green loan behind it, he went to the back door, placed his gun behind his back and grabbed a lock pick from his blazer's inside pocket, just a few turns and the door was open, luckily for him it didn't squeak or make a sound, he grabbed his gun and entered the house slowly, as steady and as subtly as he could be, the entire lower floor of the house was dark, George heard no sound nor noticed any move, his eyes adjusted slowly to the dark but he could not see his target anywhere, he heard a faint sound of shuffling and fiddling coming from upstairs; they were most probably in her bedroom, George climbed the stairs slowly, treading lightly, careful with every step he took; making sure he didn't make a single sound as he climbed, once he was up there he saw a faint light coming out of Catherine's bedroom. He walked towards it and stood by the door.

"What are we looking for?" a sharp voice spoke. Most likely Jason's imp, George heard things falling on the floor and some scratching sounds, Catherine is going to be pissed. He shook his head.

"Anything about Azazel's case" Jason said, his voice was different from the last time on the roof, less drunk and more worried.

"People usually keep condoms in their bedroom, Jason" the Imp protested "not high-profile cases"

"A case as big as this? She would most definitely keep a memento, hopefully more"

The imp stopped complaining and shuffled all over the room, George heard Jason walking inside from here to there, searching with his imp. George has to take the Imp out first, one bullet would send him away for a good time while he dealt with Jason, it won't kill it though, Imps don't die like normal demons, they are bound to their masters, not even a blessed weapon or an exorcism could permanently kill them, only when their master dies can an Imp truly dies, but even some scholars debated that. Once the imp goes away Jason's powers will be weaker, with no source of replenishment he will be drained quickly.