Chapter 32

All Henry could think of, as he and Jewel made their way out of the headquarters, was who had hurt her so? She seemed completely coldhearted, and devoid of any and all compassion. Then again, given her appearance, he probably should have expected it. At the very least, he should have been prepared for something. Go figure the girls that looked like her were the ones he was interested in, and always most likely to be hurt by, or out of his league.

“We’re taking your car.” Jewel told him simply. “That way, I can keep a look out for potential rifts, and you can be somewhat useful to me.” Henry shot her a look, which she responded to with a challenging glare. Given the situation, he figured it was best to just play along.

“You’re not the first newbie I’ve been asked to train.” She continued, “so just be a good boy, follow my commands, and we can finish this task quickly.”

“Gladly.” He responded. His first impression of her was gone, and the one he was forming, he didn’t like.

“Good. I don’t like working in teams, and I’d much rather be alone. But because of my numbers, Jon knows pairing people with me is the fastest way to level them up. After all,” she chuckled, “I haven’t gained a new D.E.D. in over a year.”

That comment caused Henry to pause. Looking at her, she was roughly around his age, meaning early 20s. How long had she been with the organization? His mind flashed once again to the young kid he’d seen at initiation. How early were Exorcists scouted? There was so much he needed to know.

“Why is that?” Henry couldn’t help but ask. “Wouldn’t it be better if you could have multiple D.E.D.?”

“Who said I didn’t?” She responded simply. “All I said is I haven’t had a new one in a year. I’ve got all the D.E.D. I want. I don’t need anymore. I just need mine to get stronger. The fastest way to do that, is to kill any D.E.D. I come across. And the quicker I can kill them, the quicker this process goes.”

“Don’t you even care about what they might have to say?” They had gotten to his car, and she paused, the passenger door open, as she looked at him.

“Listen,” she narrowed her eyes at him. “If we’re going to do this. We are doing it my way. I don’t need your questions, I don’t need your morals. We are Exorcists. We kill D.E.D. to keep our world safe. If we didn’t, they’d kill us. It’s simple. The only reason I use them, is there isn’t another way to keep the world safe. As for what they have to say,” she looked at her current on, “I prefer to choose D.E.D. that can’t speak. After all, things that are about to die, would likely tell any lies they could to stay alive. So I wouldn’t trust them anyways.”

With that, she got into the car, and waited for him to finish getting in. His two D.E.D. passed easily through the car and got settled in the back, though he noticed even his Drakeling was keeping its distance from the Cyoeraeth. Which was a further indication of how powerful it was.

“I was just curious,” Henry muttered as he got into the car and started it up.

“And I don’t feel like dealing with your curiosity. I’m here to kill shit, and get you stronger. If you have questions, ask Jon, or someone else on the team.” She turned and looked out the window. “Answering your questions isn’t part of my task.”

“I get it.” Henry pulled away from his parking spot. “I’m an inconvenience. Sorry to harsh your mellow.” It was going to be a long 12 hours. Henry could already tell. During the meeting with Jon and the other members of the Strike Team, he’d learned that their assignments lasted for 12 hours, and they were given specific areas to patrol. Different areas had different rates at which rifts spawned, which were determined by the amount of people that joined in such areas, as well as various other natural and manmade factors which would affect the resonation of an area.

Because of their current mission to get Henry stronger, he and Jewel had been assigned to one of the more populated areas of Colorado Springs. That is, the stretch of area mostly up and down Powers, where various shops, restaurants, movie theaters and such were located. Additionally, there was an extremely large hospital. Furthermore, it was relatively close to the mall Jon had taken Henry too, and was included in their patrol route.

“First stop is the Imax.” Jewel said nonchalantly, not even looking towards Henry. “There aren’t any rifts opening just yet, so we’ll force one there.”

Henry had found based on his hunting efforts yesterday, that actual rifts didn’t form as frequently as he thought. That being said, he knew his potential helped super charge an area, and if there was enough ambient energy in an area, or some sort of landmark or feature that could focus the energy resonating from him to amplify the frequency, a rift could form. The theater they were heading to, had a massive water feature in the front, as well as a plethora of other buildings and such around it. If Henry had to guess, it was a prime spot to amplify his frequency, and cause a rift to appear.

“As you wish.” He said snidely. A quote from one of his favorite movies, though he’d filled the statement with dripping sarcasm.

“Throw more sarcastic movie quotes my way and I’ll make you regret it.” Jewel said without even looking his way. “I’ll make the next 12 hours hell if you push me.” Of that, Henry had no doubt.

“Sorry.” He mumbled. She was making the day about as dark as her eye shadow.

“Don’t apologize either. Have some pride. Grow a backbone. Exorcists need to be strong, capable, and ready to do whatever it takes to defeat the enemy.” Her advice, was contrary to what she was expecting of him. Seriously, this girl was all over the place.

“So-“ He stopped himself before he could apologize once again, and simply turned the music up. At the very least, he figured some music could help the mood. His choice of music from his iPod, at the very least, earned him a temporary approving nod from Jewel, before she went back to staring lazily out the window, a look of brooding crossing her face. Whatever she was thinking about, she was deep in thought. Part of him wanted to broach the subject, but he decided against it. She was still too much of a wild card, and he didn’t think the two of them could get along.

Instead, he decided he should just keep his head down per say, and do his best to level his D.E.D. as quickly as possible. The faster he got stronger, the sooner he could leave the Reaper behind. And that, he could only imagine, was a worthy goal. After all, while he was defeating D.E.D. right now to level up, he still intended to grow his party. With the Reaper by his side, he doubted he would be given that opportunity.

On top of that, there was one other thing that kept his mouth closed. With how cold she seemed, how calloused she seemed with regards to killing D.E.D., he had to wonder what else she was capable of. Because ever since his conversation with JJ, Henry had begun to wonder. Who in the organization had been the ones to kill his friend’s father? If anyone was a good suspect, it was the girl next to him, with her ominous, silent D.E.D. After all, someone who seemed to relish the nickname Reaper, could very well be a murderer, right?