Chapter Ten (Julian)

"I don't understand. What's this thing?" Daimonas asked as we sat in Adam's truck in the parking lot across from the expensive hotel Orion was currently occupying.

"I already told you what that was." Adam deadpanned, furrowing his brow in a frown as Daimonas tried to shift gears in the car, but Adam caught his hand and pried it away before he went back to staring out the window intently, eyes searching the crowded streets of the city through the snow that had begun to fall around us. We'd been sitting outside the hotel for the past two hours. All according to operation Kill Orion.

Hunter had come up with the plan, and plan B, and plan C. No surprise there considering he was a paranoid son of a bitch, but a smart paranoid son of a bitch.

But since we'd caught up to Orion and managed to track down what hotel he was staying at thanks to our little captive, nothing had happened. Hunter specifically told us to stay here and not move. We had to gather information on Orion before we jumped his bones. He told us to just watch and wait.

Meanwhile, he, Peter, Walter, and Kyle were somewhere nice, safe, and sound somewhere in the Kyle's van. They were keeping in touch with us and Seth and Kipp, also doing some hacking and stalking. Seth and Kipp were just down the street in Seth's car, hidden in an alley, doing the same thing as Adam, Daimonas, and I.

Well, Adam and I anyway.

I was officially diagnosing Daimonas to have severe ADHD because the guy one second was excited about the stakeout and then he started bugging Adam about the truck, then he was conjuring more burgers, as if the two dozen burgers before didn't fill him up, and now he was complaining.

"I'm bored," Daimonas declared, leaning on me as I stared out the window, then paused to scowl at him as he went on, "Can't we do sssomething elsse? Why don't we jussst burn the hotel down?"

"Because there are innocent humans there?" I offered sarcastically. Daimonas scrunched up his nose.

"From what I've ssseen of humansss, I don't particularly like them. On my way here from your Cali placce, I had thesse men wearing black outfitsss telling me I couldn't get ssssomething to eat without your money ssstuff. They hit me with a sstick when I told them to go away. Ssso I tried to eat them inssstead."

"Daimonas, those were police officers. You don't hurt them, even if they piss you off."

"That'sss ssstupid. If they're gonna be jerksss, I'm gonna eat them."

"No, because that's illegal."

"What'sss that mean?"

"It means against the law. It means you can't do it and you'll go to jail for it, or prison."

"What'ss wrong with prisson?"

"For a guy like you? Dropping the soap."

"What'sss that mean?"

"Sssh." Adam shushed us. Daimonas pouted and I just rolled my eyes, ignoring Daimonas when I saw Adam's eyes locked on something intently. I frowned and turned my head, peering out the window to see a woman walking down the street with a big smile on her face. She was a pretty thing, petite and cute with thick dark red hair that fell in waves over her shoulders, a light scatter of freckles across her face, and bright green eyes that matched her dark green tunic under a blue winter jacket and jeans. She approached someone at the doors of the hotel and it took me a moment to see that it was Orion!

Of all people, she was Orion's girlfriend?

Even the soulless can have a lover, kid. That's what Orion had told me when I expressed disbelief in his relationship. It made me frown as I watched the woman step back and bring Orion out into the sunlight. While she looked sugar and sweet, Orion looked like a bad ass mother fucker in his black riding jacket, his aviators hiding his eyes from the sunlight, his blonde hair swept back sexily from his face, tight black jeans hugging long muscular legs.

He was smiling, though. Not smirking. But really smiling as the woman took his hand and led him down the sidewalk, laughing at something he said.

Ugh, jeez, I was gonna feel a little bad for making the girl cry when she found out her boyfriend was ripped into a million pieces. How did such a nice girl get tangled with such a dick like Orion?

"Shit." Adam muttered. I frowned, glancing at him as he leaned back from the window.

"What's wrong?" I asked. Adam stared at me.

"Can't you tell?" He asked, confused. I wrinkled my nose, just as confused as he was now.

"Tell what?"

"Julian, his girlfriend is human." Adam deadpanned. My eyes widened and I snapped my head to stare out the window again to see Orion and his girlfriend rounding the corner and disappearing out of her our sight. Before I could say anything, the walkie Hunter had given us crackled and we looked down as Seth's voice came over the speakers.

"So, someone explain something to me here," He said slowly, the sound of Kipp sighing miserably in the background following before there was a pained yelp from him and Seth continued, "Why is our guy walking around with Aphrodite?"

"Who?" Daimonas asked.

"Don't do anything," Adam told Seth, ignoring Daimonas, who made a face, before Adam continued, "Not yet. Not until Hunter gives us the go ahead. Right now, just follow them. We're gonna go into the hotel and see what we find."

"Sounds good." Seth replied, still sounding annoyed. We climbed out of the truck and casually crossed the street with a crowd, before approaching the hotel. Daimonas just stared up at it open mouthed, having to have me grab him by the arm and drag him in behind Adam, who approached the front desk.

"Hello," He greeted politely, making the woman behind the counter blush lightly, "I'm looking for Orion Cipriani?" The woman shifted uncomfortably, blushing as she tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. Yeah, she was flirting with him and it mildly annoyed me. It was no surprise, though. Women were always doing this when Adam was around and it was like they totally ignored me or the fact that I was giving them a dirty look.

"I'm sorry, sir, but I can't do that," The woman replied daintily, "I'm not allowed to give out personal information to strangers." Adam feigned surprise.

"Oh, I'm not a stranger. I'm a friend from work and he left his wallet there. I was just returning it." He answered with a charming smile that made my heart jump in my chest. The woman smiled dreamily.

"Oh, then that's okay, I guess." She said sheepishly and looked up the room number. Adam nodded and wrote the number down before we left with Daimonas trailing behind us. I shoved my hands into the pockets of my jacket, pursing my lips as I resisted the urge to demand why Adam had to go and use the flirty card on people when I was right there.

"Sssomething sssmellss good." Daimonas purred, about ready to turn course for whatever he was smelling, but I caught him by the back of the jacket, scowling as I tugged him toward the elevators.

"Ah, what're you doing? That'sss not fair. I'm hungry." He complained as we got into the elevator and Adam hit the floor number. I rolled my eyes, keeping Daimonas by my side as he watched in awe as the number Adam hit lit up. Daimonas reached out to hit a number, but I took his hand and lowered it to his side.

"Don't, we can't ride this thing all day." I scolded. Daimonas pouted, folding his arms over his chest and reminding me of a sulking child. Adam smirked out the corner of my eye and I shot him a look before he cleared his throat and nodded, pretending to be serious now.

"Behave, Daimonas, or we'll put you in time out."

"What'sss time out? Isss that like prissson and ssoap?"

"No. It's worse. Time out is when you have to stand in a corner and stare at that corner all day and not be able to move." Adam replied. Daimonas looked horrified and clasped his hands behind his back tightly, going silent now as he just looked innocently around the elevator. I raised an eyebrow at Adam, who shrugged. I guess we both weren't expecting that to work. We were quiet until the elevator brought us to the tenth floor. We walked down the hallway, checking all the rooms until we came to Orion's.

"How're we supposed to get in?" I asked Adam, who frowned.

"I still haven't mastered picking locks."

"You were practicing?"

"Hunter was teaching me."

"Ugh."

"It's open." Daimonas replied. Adam and I turned to look at him confused. He just stared back blankly, apparently not comprehending our confusion. Adam and I exchanged curious glances before I reached out and twisted the door handle, my eyes widening to find that it was unlocked. I threw a look at Daimonas, who just smiled sweetly. I shrugged and we walked inside. It was a standard single bed room with clothes tossed on the bed along with a laptop and several files of papers spilled everywhere.

"Time to do some digging." I decided as we stood in the room in silence. Adam nodded in agreement and shut the door behind Daimonas before he went to the files. I went to the laptop and popped it open to see the screen saver was on. It was a slideshow of photos, all of them of Orion's girlfriend.

In a few of them, she was laughing and smiling. She was sleeping in a couple of them. In another she was hugging Orion around the torso, her cheek resting on his chest as Orion hugged her tightly, smiling as if it were the best day of his life. I grimaced and cleared my throat, moving the cursor so the slideshow vanished to reveal several open windows behind it.

Most of them were maps from Google, a couple of them Wikipedia pages about major cities, and a couple pages about Jack Reese. I frowned, scrolling through the articles and grimacing the whole time.

Jack sounded like a real psycho. He'd killed tons of people over the years, and there was even a private URL to a website all about Jack and his vampirism. It went on to explain how murderous he was and how he didn't care who he killed. Man, woman, child. He'd kill whoever got in his way.

I opened up the last tab, pausing to see a conversation between Orion and his girlfriend. I nibbled my lower lip, wondering if I should respect his privacy, but then I remembered this was Orion I was talking about.

Screw his privacy.

Olivia: I'm at work right now. Can I stop by later?

Orion: Sure, I need a break from all this studying anyway. My dad is working me to the bone.

Olivia: My poor baby. Well, when I stop by, I'll treat you to dinner. How's that sound?

Orion: Perfect. Oh, and I made that CD you wanted. The one with our photos from the trip to Cancoon, but one of them developed weird.

Olivia: Aw, poo, which one?

Orion: One of the ones we took on the beach, but I have a friend I can contact to see if I can get it fixed.

Olivia: Yay! Oh, crap, my boss is nagging me to get back to work. Sorry, sweetie, I gotta go, but don't forget! I'll stop by today around three.

Orion: Ah, I really want to kill your boss.

Olivia: Baby.

Orion: I won't, I won't. Anyway, talk to ya later... I love you.

Olivia: I love you too, sweetie.

I stared at the conversation and how... normal it was. Well, up until the part where Orion threatened to kill her boss. Did she know about Orion and the things he did? Or did she think he was kidding? I couldn't be sure, but I knew one thing for sure.

Orion loved Olivia. Going through his Facebook profile, he had tons of pictures and status posts about her and he was always buying her things. On his computer were thousands of pictures of them together on vacation or lounging around at home or just plain goofing off. It was still hard to believe that someone as cruel and sick as Orion could have such a sweet girlfriend.

Judging from the conversation and all the photos, she was your stereotypical goody-goody church girl who had straight As, graduated college at a young age. She was perfect and sweet and why the hell did she ever choose Orion of all people?

While I admit that in all the photos and things he said on his Facebook about her, he was obsessed with her. He adored her and showered her with affection. It was a side of him I never thought would exist.

"Find anything useful?" Adam asked me as he looked up from the files he'd been going through. I looked up, then frowned.

"Not really. It's all the mushy gunk between him and his girlfriend. Her name's Olivia." I added, doing a few clicks in hopes of finding more information in the articles, but I was coming up empty. Adam frowned, glancing at me out the corner of eye before looking back at his files.

"He seems pretty interested in Jack." He admitted thoughtfully. I paused, nodding at that.

"Yeah, I guess so. Guess he wants to know who's bunking with him." I answered. Adam just hummed in response and went back to reading. I sighed, about to go back to typing when I saw Daimonas staring at the door to the closet. I frowned.

"What're you doing?" I asked. Daimonas continued stare for a moment without speaking, and then, without breaking his gaze from the closet door, he spoke in a chilling voice.

"Ssssomething'sss in there." He whispered. Adam looked up and I glanced at him, watching his grim expression as he set the files down and got up. I followed as we approached the closet, staring at the door.

"What is it?" I asked. Daimonas shook his head slowly, frowning. I took it that meant he had no clue. I took a deep breath and reached out slowly to the door before twisting the handle and jerking it open fast. Instantly Daimonas gave a cry of shock and leapt back, getting behind me. I stared into the closet, stunned.

The clothes had been pushed apart to reveal a wooden shelf in the back. Four jars of black something sat on the shelves. For a moment, I thought it was just full of black mold or something, but as I looked closer, the black stuff was moving inside the jars. My eyes widened and I looked at Daimonas, who was staring at the jars with wide, horrified eyes.

"Daimonas... Are those what I think they are?" I asked nervously. Daimonas stared at them a while longer, still looking agonized before he looked up at me and nodded. Adam frowned, reaching into the closet. I almost went to stop him, but he'd already picked up one of the jars. He stepped out of the closet and held the jar up so we could all look inside. It was filled with black smoke and at the bottom was what looked like what used to be a human hand, but was now being slowly devoured. It was like watching something decay, but rapidly. The flesh stayed raw and bloody, bits of skin disappearing.

"Are these... like you?" Adam asked at last. Daimonas nodded weakly, studying the jar with a wary expression as he kept behind me, merely peering over my shoulder.

"From which batch?" I asked.

"A new batch," Daimonas answered quietly, studying the black fog, "They're only a few dayss old, but they're manifessting sslowly becaussse they have no hosst. How they've survived thisss long without a hossst isss beyond me. Our speccciess can only ssssurvive by taking a hossst. That guy mussst be doing sssomething to them ssso that they can live."

"Like feeding them human parts?" Adam asked dryly, grimacing in disgust as the rest of the human hand was desolved. Daimonas shrugged, then stopped suddenly as if he heard something. For a second, I thought someone was going to come into the room, but then he cocked his head and leaned toward the jar, like he was listening to them.

"Are they talking?" I asked. Daimonas nodded slowly, too focused on whatever the thing in the jar was saying before he frowned, moving away from the jar.

"What'd it say?" Adam asked. Daimonas glanced at us, shifting uncomfortably. It looked like he'd rather be anywhere else, but here. Then I remembered what Daimonas said about this kind not enjoying each other's company, but he was older than these ones. Why was he acting like he was scared of them?

"It wants out. It wants a host," Daimonas hesitated, looking into the closet to stare at the jars of black fog before he turned to face us, "They want both of you."