Chapter Sixteen: Ben Taylor
1067 Words
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
BEN TAYLOR
There was a knocking on my bedroom door. I was staying with Emma and her family, indefinitely, so I’d been moved into one of the many guest bedrooms. When I’d first arrived, the place had been covered in dust, and Louisa had had to do an inspection of the room for pixies. According to her, they were “vicious bastards who liked to hide in dark places”. It had taken a whole afternoon to get rid of them.
But aside from Emma, I hadn’t had very many visitors and was surprised when Louisa knocked there. Things had been awkward at best between us ever since she’d discovered Emma and I were sleeping together.
“Lou,” I said, wide-eyed, “what’s wrong?”
“They’ve taken her.”
“Who?” I asked.
“The demons,” she answered, a dark look in her eyes, “Lilith. Clark made a deal to protect her from Oberon, and I just watched as she…I don’t know…it was like she got sucked up by a black hole.”
“s**t,” I hissed, “the baby?”
She frowned. “You think I f*****g know? I just watched my sister get sucked into a black hole! I don’t know how the baby is.”
“No, I mean---” I stopped short, realizing how dumb I was to ask the question. But part of me thought, no matter how messed up it was, that a baby might mean the difference between the two of us surviving.
I wasn’t a faerie king. I was a poor kid, from Montana, whose father was a monster hunter. Emma Endless was a girl who traveled between worlds. I was a boy who wrote about them.
I didn’t have anything in the world to offer her, except for my heart. I wasn’t even sure that was good enough.
“It’s Clarks,” Louisa answered coldly, “does that change your interest in her?”
I glared. “Actually, that makes me worried for even more.”
“Good,” she replied, “then we’re on the same page. What do you know about the world of demons?”
I sighed. “I know that they can be a real b***h. I know that I’ve been fighting one off for half of my life.”
Louisa scowled. “You didn’t think to tell me about that?”
“I was a little too stunned in between the finding out my fiancé was engaged to a faerie King thing and being kidnapped by him,” I reminded her.
She huffed a little. “Oh. Right. How do we get her back?”
I ran a hand through my short, brown hair. “Hell if I know. I’m not a demon hunter!”
“That’s my sister, you f*****g arsehole!” she shoved me. “If you don’t help me bring her back, Ben Taylor, so help me I will gut your insides. Do you understand?”
“I understand,” I said, “give me a minute. I…I’ve got to make a call.”
“To who?” Louisa asked.
“I’m not the demon hunter in the family,” I replied, “I’m only the son of one.”
She frowned. “What are you, a Winchester?”
I laughed. “Puh-lease. The Winchesters have nothing on me. I’m a Houdini.”
Louisa snorted. “You’ve got to be kidding. Like, the magician?”
I scratched my head nervously. “Yeah, like the magician.”
Louisa Endless was fierce, and strong, and I was fairly certain that she was responsible for killing a wicked witch or two although she wouldn’t admit it. In all honestly, she reminded me a bit of my father. Maybe that was why I always desperately wanted her to like me.
“He can get my sister back?”
“Yeah, if you’ll let him come.”
Louisa sighed. “Do whatever you need to do, Taylor. But if you don’t bring her back, I will get someone to turn you into a frog. I know people.”
“Hey!” I objected. “This isn’t my fault. Remember whose fault it actually is. The same person who got her pregnant.”
She scowled. “I know whose fault it is. But I’m the gatekeeper. I can’t kill the faerie King. You, on the other hand, lied to me, and are disposable.”
I opened my mouth to object but closed it quickly. She was right, and she had more than just Emma to be angry with me. “Louisa…” I whispered her name.
She glared. “Don’t apologize, Ben. Apologies won’t bring Emma back. Save my sister. The rest is all shit.”
“Right,” I said with a nod, “right.”
Then, I took out my cell phone, and called a number I’d been dreading talking to for years. I wasn’t even sure that I would get an answer. There was no telling what part of the world he was in, or if he was even in this world.
“Hello?” Dad’s gruff voice said into the phone, surprising me.
“Hey Dad,” I said, “it’s Ben. I’ve got a job for you.”
“I know,” he replied, “been waiting.”
“It’s in---”
“Already bought my ticket,” he replied, before I could finish.
“Great so---”
“See you soon.” He hung up abruptly, leaving me to stare at Louisa in shock.
“Well?” she asked.
“He’s coming,” I replied, “apparently he already knew.”
Louisa frowned. “I don’t like the sound of that. I don’t like the sound of that at all.”
“Neither do I Lou,” I agreed, “neither do I.”
- Writer
