Emily p.o.v

After tossing and turning a countless amount of time in an attempt to get comfortable on my bed, it occurs to me, that what I was lying down on wasn't my bed. I sat up in an upright position to find myself someplace that was not my hotel room. I inspected my surround to try and establish where I was until my gaze landed on the man sitting at the desk with his feet up.

‘That right I remember now” I thought to myself while getting up from the couch.

I started to roam around the house a bit, probably getting more comfortable than I should but I didn't mind. The apartment was as bland as the owner itself. Still roaming around the living room, I stopped when I glanced at a picture of what I am guessing is Derek with his parents. They were sitting around a Christmas tree smiling at each other while Derek was unwrapping a present. His eyes were alive and filled with happiness, the kind only a child held. Now when I look in them, all I see is cold and emptiness.

“I wonder what could have driven this boy into a life like this” I thought to myself. I heard quick movement behind me then felt what the presence of what I assume to be derek.

“What do you think you are doing?” Derek asked with a menacing tone

I turned around still holding the picture “Is this your family?”

He glared at me before he let out a breath of air that he was holding on to. He nodded in confirmation before grabbing the picture and placing it back in its place.

Derek turned around and started walking towards a door “Get ready, we’ll go out to eat breakfast.”

After he went through a door that led to what I assumed was the bathroom after seeing a glimpse of the inside. I took this time to look around his apartment more and see if he has anything hidden that will make this dull room more interesting. While walking around, I noticed something on the floor that made my heart sink in an instant. The clip of the gun was under the dining room table, clearly undisturbed since I had popped it out last night. I quickly grabbed it and checked the weapon that was hidden under my shirt and clearly saw that empty slot. I let out a groan at the fact that I threaten Derek last night with an unloaded gun.

The sound of a door closing resounded, and Derek came into view “there is an extra toothbrush that you can use.”

“Thanks” I respond and head to the bathroom.

I walked into the bathroom and look myself over in a mirror, groaning at the face that greeted me back. I had bags under my eyes, and my brown hair was disheveled and all other the place. Grabbing to a comb that was on top of the sink, I started the laborious task of making myself look decent. While I was not attempting to look nice for anyone, it was still normal to look acceptable.

Ten minutes later and I walked out of the bathroom to find Derek sitting on the couch with his feet up on the coffee table while using his cellphone. He had changed his clothing and now was a black t-shirt that firmly hugged his body, showing his toned muscle that obviously came from continuous training. He wore simple grey joggers that nicely complimented his black t-shirt and black low top vans. If any other person saw this, they would assume Derek was another typical man instead of a professional hit.

Derek looked up at me with a smile “Ready?”

“Yeah” I quickly responded snapping myself out of my thoughts.

He got up and started walking out of the apartment with me following him shortly. His apartment was on the fourth floor, so the walk down the stair was a bit awkward. I did notice something through this little moment, the whole building seemed to be devoid of any other tenants.

“Are you the only person who lives in the building?” I asked him

Derek nods his head in confirmation “Don’t want noisy neighbors, so I bought the building.”

“Pay must be pretty good,” I said absentmindedly only earning a small sound of agreement from Derek.

Taking out my phone to check what time it was, I noticed I had fifteen text message, 6 missed calls, and two voicemail all from the same person, Francis. Francis was the priest at the nearby church, but he was also the district leader for an organization set to protect no magical civilians. Every person that Derek had been killing were people that work under Francis. I looked over the first few text messages.

“Emily, have you reached your destination?” - Francis

“It's been half an hour since you were supposed to have reported” - Francis

“Where are you? Are you okay? Emily respond to know that nothing happened” - Francis

“I sent out a search crew to look for you, I pray that you are well and for your health” - Francis

I skipped over a few of the rest of the message and sent a quick response to put the poor priest mind at ease.

“I'm fine, will pass by later to report what happened, so call off the search.” - Emily

Not a full minute had passed by before I felt my phone vibrate.

“What took you so long to respond, you had me worried! Okay, I will be at my usual place today so come by whenever” - Francis.

A small smile mostly because at how fatherly Francis can be at times. I met Francis half a year ago, and in that short time, we had become very close to each other.

“My car or yours?” Derek asked me grabbing my attention

I pointed at the car a few feet away “Mine since its close.”

Entering my car I looked over to Derek “so where to?”

Twenty minutes later we pull up in front of a food truck. I glanced over at Derek as if he were insane for eating from a food truck. I am not a picky eater or anything of that nature, but it another thing eating food made by some random guy inside a small truck. Before I had time to protest, Derek was already hopping out the car and heading to make the line. Hitting my head against the steering wheel, I debated on skipping breakfast but felt the growl from my stomach demanding food. I relented and got out of the truck and moved over to where Derek was standing.

“Can we just eat somewhere else?” I asked him

Derek looked at me with an offended expression “Are you kidding? Mike here makes the greatest sandwiches in town, you won't regret it.”

Derek may say that, but it doesn't change the fact that I will protest it until the end. When we reached the front of the line, I heard the voice of the man coming from inside the truck.

“DEREK! My man, coming to get your usual?” The man known as Mike asked Derek

Derek returned the enthusiasm “You already know it! Make that a double

Mike turned his heads in my direction and looked me over before holding out his hand “Names Mike, good to meet you.”

“Emily and good to meet you as well,” I said shaking Mike’s hand “so what is Derek’s usual?”

“It’s a surprise” Derek cut in “now let's go sit down, Mike will bring the food over.”

Derek placed his hand on my lower back and practically led me away from the truck and to one of the tables. Generally, if someone attempted to put their hands on me, I would be breaking their hands. But I am oddly finding Derek’s touch comfortable. His hand is soft and warm, and my body is relaxing into it. Maybe that is why when we reached the table, and he took his hand off me, I felt a bit disappointed.

Choosing to ignore the feeling, I sat down on the chair “So I guess you come often?”

“Yeah, I don't really make breakfast at home, so I come here” Derek responded with a sheepish smile.

I could not help but laugh at the innocent face he put on. It looked at that of a teenager who just shared an embarrassing secret. My gaze shifted from his chocolate brown eyes down to his smile that was complemented by the dimples on both sides of his cheeks. A light stubble was starting to show from him not shaving recently.

“So what exactly do you have in mind to prove to me what you said about Michael?” Derek asked me

I pondered for a moment “well for starters we have to go visit this friend I work with. He much more knowledgeable than me on this topic.”

Derek shook his head in understanding “alright, lead on today.”

At that moment Mike showed up at the table holding two trays with two set of burger, seasoned fries, and a milkshake.

“Here you go,” Mike said as he placed the tray on the table.

I stared at the burger in front of me with disbelieve, not because of it being over the top or having multiple things on it. The disbelieve came from the fact that the burger completely normal one that you can go to any fast food joint and get. When Derek had said it was a surprise, he had me believing that it was extraordinary. I grabbed the burger and went to take a bite, but noticed that Derek and Mike were staring at me.

“What?” I asked a bit annoyed

They quickly shook their head “nothing, just want to see your reaction.”

“Okay?”

I took a bite of the burger and that when the flavor overpowered all of my taste buds. The meat was well done but still held onto the moisture that most people only get when eating a meat medium rare. The cheese, lettuce, and tomato complemented the toasted bun that crunched with every bite I took. While this was typical in most place, what really stood above all was the sauce. It completed and made everything come together with a sweet taste that let an amazing aftertaste on the tongue. It did not take long until I was wolfing down the rest of the food in front of me.

“Slow your roll girl” Mike laughed.

Derek was now laughing as well before digging into his own food at a moderate pace.

“What kind of sauce did you use?” I asked Mike

He scratched the back of his neck “its actually a homemade one, Derek here was actually the one who gave me the recipe.”

My eyebrow rose at this revelation “Oh really?”

Derek just shrugged it off and kept eating his food until Mike had excused himself to go help out customers.

“So you know how to cook?” I asked

Derek nodded his head and responded, “Yeah, my mom enjoyed cooking, so I helped her all the time in the kitchen when I was younger.”

“That must be nice, you still cook together?

He lost the spark he had in eyes “No, my parents are dead.”

“Oh god, I'm sorry Derek, I didn't know” I tried to apologize

“It's alright, don't worry. It happened a long time ago” Derek waved his hand, “but we should get going, so lead the way.”

After that Derek got up from his seat and started to head out in the direction of my car. I stood up from my chair and went over to where Mike was standing.

“Hey Mike, thanks for the food,” I told him smiling

He returned the gesture “No problem, make sure that idiot doesn't get into trouble.”

“No promises,” I said waving goodbye.

Reaching my car, I found Derek leaning against the passenger car using his cellphone. He looked pretty concentrated on whatever he was doing that he did not notice when I unlocked the car doors.

“Telling your boyfriend Michael about me already?” I said jokingly

He still did not respond and kept on doing whatever he was doing on his phone. I walked over to him to take a peek and found him playing one of those racing games. A sudden urge to smack him across the head arose inside me, but instead, breathed out and shook his shoulder to grab his attention.

“Let's go wannabe gamer, we are going to go see Francis,” I said while walking around to my side

Derek Finally looked up from his phone “Francis? The priest across the city?”

“That same one, you know him?” asking with a curious tone

He nodded his head “No, but everyone knows about him because of the work he has done in the community. Should be cool to meet him.”

-Later that day-

Derek crashed onto a table filled with books, sending them flying to the floor while a six foot three man wearing a priest outfit was running at him ready to punch him again. I quickly stepped in and grabbed Francis from further attacking Derek.

“For a priest, you sure are violent,” Derek said wiping some blood from his lips

Francis screamed back enrage “Yeah, killing people’s friends tend to do that

Francis kept struggling to get out of the chokehold I currently was holding him in. Usually he pretty calm, but after finding out Derek was the hit that killed all of his friends he lost it.

“Francis, calm down, I will explain everything to you” I tried to reason with him “But you have to calm down first.”

Francis continued thrashing around but slowly stopped trying to get out of the hold. When I release him, he fixed his collar and gave Derek a menacing glare before turning back to me.

“Emily I trust you have a valid reason behind this, so please explain,” Francis said

“Derek was tricked, he didn't know about Michael or the kind of people he was going after. To him, they were corrupted officials” I began

“You believe that? For all we know, he could just be lying”Francis retorted

“Well he isn't a demon like all the other for starters” I exclaimed

This caught Francis attention, and he gave Derek a side glance to look him over. Just like me, Francis is able to recognize the energy wave a regular demon would give off. It is one of the reasons why we were certain about Michael's mafia group being composed of demons.

“Seems so” Francis stated, “Ill amuse the thought that you were actually tricked.”

“Yeah whatever,” Derek snarled.

I rubbed the bridge of my nose as I kept listening to Derek and Francis bicker at each other.

“Guys! Back on topic” I screamed catching their attention “Francis from what we told you, do you have an idea of what Michael plans might be?”

Francis gave a side glance at Derek before going pondering “alright, so my initial thoughts about Michael wanting control over the city might be true.”

“That doesn't explain why?” Derek stated, “or why have me kill those figureheads.”

“Because without killing the opposing force, then how can you truly take over a city” I chimed in this time

Francis pointed at me in agreement “The main reason why we are here is that the portal that they can use to go between Hell and Earth. As long as we are here, then he can never call up an army to take over the city because we can counter.”

Derek nodded his head in understanding before he walked to a map on the wall of the room. There were markings and pictures of all the people that were killed, as well as locations on Michael's men.

“How are you finding the location for Michael’s men?” Derek asked

“I have informants spread across the city, they find people, and we investigate” Responded Francis.

At that moment one of Francis’ informants, Antonio, walked into the room and handed a sheet of paper over to Francis. Francis looked over the content of the document before he went over to the board and circled a house and pinned the paper to the wall, so its content was visible to everyone.

“Looks like you have your next check out point,” Francis said before looking over at me

I nodded my head “This is an apartment complex, you don't think.”

“No” Derek interrupted “ I recognize this address, from what I know only one person lives here, David.”

“You still can't be too certain, so when you go make sure to handle things quietly and don't get caught up,” Francis told me “Do not take any unnecessary risk, it's better to live for another day.”

I assured Francis that I would be careful before looking over at Derek to let him know that we were leaving after grabbing supplies. He followed suit and went into the private storage area located in the back of the church. I grabbed simple things such as binding tags, holy water, and banishment tag before placing it into a backpack and leaving towards my car.

Getting inside I looked at Derek with a serious expression on my face “Listen I know I'm just another hit for you, but this is real, and I need you to take it seriously.”

He gave me a stern expression in return “You might be another hit, but I am taking this seriously. I might not know if you are lying or not, but until then I will help you to the extent of my ability.”

With that out of the way, I shifted my gear into drive and started heading over to Rick’s house.