Part 13 (1/2)

'I think that's perfectly normal,' Olivia said, stepping up next to them. 'We don't know what we're facing, and it's possible we could die out there.'

'Oh, that makes me feel so so much better.' Shay sighed. much better.' Shay sighed.

Olivia offered a soft smile. 'Sorry. What I meant was, if you're prepared for the possibility of death, it makes you more aware of the things you need to do to avoid it. If you don't have a little fear about this whole situation, then you're not normal.'

Gina supposed she wasn't normal, then, because she refused to let fear creep into her thoughts, refused to acknowledge that night so long ago when she was so scared she wet the bed, too afraid to get up and go to the bathroom for fear something was going to attack her while she huddled alone in the house without her mother.

No, she'd never feel that vulnerable again. And no d.a.m.n monster would put her in the position of having those feelings.

'Fear makes you weak,' she muttered, watching the orange sky s.h.i.+ft to shades of gray.

Derek couldn't help but smile at the way Gina was loaded down, guns in holster, UV rifle slung over her shoulder, the sungla.s.ses he'd just handed her pulling back her hair as she slipped them on top of her head.

'Any idea how many of them are on the island?' Gina asked, buckling on her ammo belt.

She looked s.e.xy and deadly. A pretty lethal combination in black pants, a black tank top, her hair blowing back in the soft breeze created from the storm clouds floating in from the sh.o.r.e.

'No clue,' he said, forcing his mind back on task. 'But I'd bet there's a lot of them, so we're going to have to be sharp.' He looked around at all six new hunters, wis.h.i.+ng it didn't have to be like this. 'We didn't want to do it this way. G.o.d knows you all need more time for weapons training, but you're not going to get it. Stay close to the other hunters and follow their lead. We have demons to kill here, and I don't want a single one of them leaving this island alive. I do, however, want all of you coming out of this breathing.'

Derek surveyed the teams. His trained hunters, plus six new ones. Fourteen in total, counting himself, since he'd be leaving two with Lou tonight. Not very high numbers considering what instinct told him they were facing on this island.

Nervous energy skimmed along his spinal column. He shook it off and straightened, forcing whatever was rus.h.i.+ng inside him to calm down.

He didn't like these d.a.m.n sensations he'd been having lately. Focus was important in hunting demons. He couldn't afford a distraction right now.

'What's wrong?' Lou asked, coming up beside him and motioning him to the side.

'Don't know,' he said as they walked off alone. 'Been having some weird feelings lately.'

Lou stalled and tilted his head. 'What kind of feelings?'

'If I knew what they were, they wouldn't be weird, would they?'

'Funny. Now describe them.'

Cracking a smile, Derek said, 'I'm not really a share your feelings' kind of guy, Lou. But thanks for asking.'

Lou rolled his eyes. 'You always were difficult, boy. And you know what I mean.'

'I can't really explain it,' Derek said, trying to be serious, but it felt d.a.m.n stupid to voice what he couldn't put into words. 'They're almost like premonitions. Like something's off-kilter, or about to happen, but I can't pinpoint what it is.' He shrugged as soon as he said it.

'Anxiety probably, though if you tell anyone I said that I'll boil your insides with the nuke.'

Lou snorted. 'You know anything you've ever told me has always remained confidential. And you're not the anxiety attack type.'

Lou studied Derek. He felt like he was being examined under a microscope.

'What?'

'Nothing. It's just that you've been doing this for a while. I think you've simply developed extra senses about the demons. You're worrying for nothing.' He placed his hand on Derek's shoulder. 'Listen to those feelings, Derek. They could save your life.'

He hated when Lou got all otherworldly on him. Gave him the creeps sometimes. 'Yeah. I'll do that. But I'd rather rely on my guns.'

After gathering up the teams and splitting them into three groups, they headed off into the jungle. Derek's team had the fewest, the other two having five members on theirs.

But he had Gina and Ryder, in his opinion the strongest on the team of new hunters. If he was going in one man down, he wanted to compensate by having the best. And okay, he wanted to keep his eye on Gina, too, and he wasn't about to psychoa.n.a.lyze the whys of that one. It just made him feel better to have her with him tonight.

Dalton as lead of team two had taken Jake and Shay, while Rafe as team-three leader had taken Olivia and Trace. The teams had a good mix of talent between experienced hunters and new recruits. Now Derek just had to hope his hunters could keep the new guys alive through tonight.

The game was on.

Battle plan laid out, fully armed and connected to Lou via their ear com devices, they headed into the jungle, each team branching out in different directions. Using the GPS hooked to his wrist, Derek led his team east and into the depths of the jungle.

'Stay tight and in formation,' he said to Gina and Ryder. 'Keep moving. If you see something, then say so. Listen for commands from me or Linc or Lou.'

'What are we looking for specifically?' Gina asked. 'Will Lou lead us to hot spots, or do you have a place in mind?'

'Lou will tell us immediately if there's a hot spot in our vicinity.' They all wore thermal tracking devices so Lou knew their locations and could tell them if there was any demon activity in their area. 'Otherwise, we're just takin' a walk. There's no way to figure out where these things are.'

'So basically we wait for them to come to us,' Ryder said.

'Yeah.'

'That sucks,' Gina mumbled.

Linc snorted. 'You get used to it.'

Gina nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of Linc's exceptionally deep voice behind her. Though she didn't turn around since Derek was still walking, she asked, 'How do you get used it? How do you do your normal hunting when you're not on an island?'

'Track 'em the same way we're doing right now. Lou does his thing, lets us know where they are, and we hunt until they make an appearance. Then we kill them.'

'How do you do that in the middle of a major city?' She couldn't even imagine taking high-tech weapons like the one she carried into the middle of Chicago or New York City.

'They don't want to be seen any more than we do. They mostly hunt in smaller cities and towns. They use stealth, the cover of night, and inconspicuous areas where they're less likely to be spotted,' Derek explained. 'We hunt and fight at night. They want to kill us as much as we want to kill them, so once we spot them we'll either give chase or they'll come after us. We bring them to a secluded area like an alley or someplace where no one's around and do our thing.'

'Still, it's not like there's no people around.'

'You'd be surprised how people disappear when they see guns drawn,' Linc said. 'Besides, not too many people are around in the middle of the night, even in the city. Only the bad element, and they see nothing. If there's nothing in it for them to profit from, they're not interested in getting involved. You point a weapon like these at them, they're gone.'

Okay, that made sense. 'But what about the police?'

'We make sure they don't see us,' Derek said.

Amazing the hunters had been fighting so long without being found out. Just more proof they were good at what they did.

Would she ever measure up? Would she ever be that good? She hoped so. She'd like to think she could fit in well with these hunters. She'd already started to relax!a little. If it wasn't for the fact they were looking for evil monsters, Gina would enjoy this night walk. The jungle was peaceful, the oppressive heat and humidity of the day obliterated by a cooling night breeze wafting off the ocean. The only sound was the treetops shaking in the wind, crisp, like rattling paper overhead. She could almost relax.

Almost.