Read Her Dark Destiny (Hunters of the Dark #1) Page 11

I was dreaming again that night. The dream I’d had since before I could remember. There was a rustling sound and I opened my eyes to find myself deep in the woods. It was dark, but the moon was full so I could take in my surroundings. I was in an old forest, with the tallest trees I’d ever seen and bushes and shrubs that crowded the forest floor, fighting for territory. Leaves littered the dirt ground, mostly moldy brown leaves, but some fresh red and orange ones as well. They stood out here and there like signal flares. I wondered briefly if I should follow them. Maybe they’d lead me to where I was supposed to be. Was I lost?

  That was usually about the time when I smelled my prey and realized that I was not human. I could look down and see a red leg, ending with a black paw. I was a fox. I could suddenly feel my tail moving to and fro behind me, my tongue among sharp teeth, my ears alert to the sound of the rabbit that was leisurely making its way through the brush, scavenging for food.

  My breaths came faster as I skulked through the bushes, keeping to the shadows. It was almost as if I could hear the rabbit’s heartbeat, I was so hyper-aware of it. And then I could see it, oblivious to the danger it was in. It hopped from one grassy shrub to another, its nose twitching in consideration. As it turned its back, I leapt from the shadows...

  Usually, Shanna Hunt woke up screaming after her dream. She wasn’t sure if something felt different this time, but she thought that she should be quiet. She grabbed her brown stuffed bunny and hugged it tightly to her chest. “I’m sorry,” she whispered to it. It didn’t reply, but its glass eyes stared back at her, comforting her. She was thirteen, too old for stuffed animals according to Lila, her next-door neighbor, but she didn’t care. She loved Hoppy.

  Cautiously, Shanna got out of bed, and walked up to the door, her bare feet cooled by the hardwood floor. She turned the door knob carefully and eased the door open, unsure of what she would do exactly, but knowing that her parents always made her feel better after her dream. Even if she could look in on them for just a minute, she was sure she’d be able to fall back to sleep and hopefully dream something a little more wholesome.

  She slipped out of her bedroom and down the hall, where she could hear voices in the living room. And the voices were singing, which was strange because her parents never sang. Her father always complained if her mother so much as hummed. Suddenly, a little nervous, Shanna inched her way to the living room and peeked around the wall that opened up into the large room.

  It took a moment for her to realize what she was seeing. Her parents weren’t singing. They were lying on the floor in a chalk circle, staring silently up at the ceiling, their eyes looking around wildly. She was about to call out to them when she noticed who was really singing. Shanna almost cried out. They were things from out of horror movies. Orange, hulking figures in dark blue robes. A light blue crescent moon adorned the back of the robes with a pitchfork of dark blue in the center. They were singing something that Shanna didn’t understand. It sounded old, the air felt charged with energy. Shanna was frozen with fear.

  Suddenly the song ended and each of the demons took a gold cup and poured the contents into one of her parents’ mouths. A red liquid dribbled out of the side of Shanna’s mother’s mouth.

  The creatures traced shapes in the air with clumsy gestures and tossed colorful dust over her parents’ still forms. Shanna wanted more than anything to wipe it off of her parents, but she couldn’t.

  Before she could follow what was happening next, the creatures had buried blades deep into the bellies of her parents and pulled them out with quick, easy strokes. Blood pooled quickly over their clothes and flowed across the floor. Her parents’ mouths opened and screams erupted throughout the room.

  But they were her screams, not her parents’. Her parents were lifeless, growing pale, bleeding until the whole circle of chalk was filled with crimson, and then spilling over even those boundaries. Shanna couldn’t believe the amount of blood that came from her parents. She couldn’t believe that it was so easy to kill two people she loved. A quick puncture into the stomach and it was over. Goodbye, Life. Goodbye, Love. Goodbye every comfort she’d ever known. Human beings were too fragile. Much too fragile.

  The demons watched her scream for a moment, considering her. They didn’t make a move to stop her, they just let the bloodcurdling noise ensue, as if she were calmly pleading a case to them. Then they walked past her, toward the front door. One of them smiled at her, a smile that held no apology, no sympathy. Merely the type of smile one always bestowed upon a child - one that let them know that they were too young to understand, that one day they would grow into knowledge and maturity, but that point in time was a ways off.

  Then she was alone. Alone with the two corpses that used to watch over her.

  And she has been alone ever since.

  ***

  Sitting up with a start, Shanna found herself clutching a hand; Unable to focus, she held the hand with a fierce grip, as one clings desperately to a life preserver amid a sea that flows to the horizon. When her senses had realigned themselves properly, she realized it was Jade, who laughed awkwardly, pulling her hand away from Shanna with a “Hey, I’m happy to see you too.”

  A glance around told her that she was in her hotel room, wearing a thin paper gown as if in preparation for surgery, a thought that sent icy alarm over her rekindled limbs.

  “Oh, that,” Jade said, noticing Shanna’s eyes descend on her clothing, or rather, lack thereof. “We had to get that slime off of you. But I was a complete lady. Amelia and Rachel did the hard work. Well, not so much Rachel, since she stopped to say ‘ew’ every few seconds.”

  “What...what happened?” Shanna stammered, fighting off another wave of dizziness as she looked up at Jade.

  Jade looked away, a smile assuming her lips. “Yes, well, that slime from the devoura goblin, we discovered, actually paralyzes a victim, which could also send them into unconsciousness. Probably makes them go down the throat easier, I would imagine.”

  Shivering, Shanna wrapped her arms around herself.

  A pile of clothing was then attained from a table and set down beside Shanna, whereupon Jade made a point to turn around as she changed.

  Shanna gratefully accepted the offering, which she was happy to discover as her own, and quickly slid into them. “Is everyone back now?”

  “Yeah. We’re going to meet in Valor’s room in half an hour to go over what we uncovered. Felicia’s working her mojo on the devoura goblins you managed to capture right now, but so far, nada. But, hey, the presence of magick residue would suggest a witch is involved.”

  Shanna smiled and looked up at Jade’s turned back sheepishly. “You can...turn around now.”

  Obeying, Jade managed a grin. “Your slimed clothes didn’t make it, I’m afraid. You might have to buy something for tomorrow, but then again, it sounds like our stay might be a little longer than expected anyway, so the others will probably find themselves in the same predicament.”

  “Longer than...”

  “Yeah. Something’s going on around here. Valor thinks it best to stay until the trail goes cold.”

  Shanna frowned and nodded, immediately distracted by the news. Maybe they could end this threat to hunters sooner than she ever imagined possible. But what did that mean for them as a group then? Despite her reluctance to join, Shanna found some comfort in what had occurred with Cameron and Felicia. They had been there for her when a monster had rendered her incapable of helping herself, when it had, indeed, been ready to eat her. If she’d been alone, she wouldn’t have survived the experience. She’d be in the belly of a beast. And what about the others? If their identities were revealed amid this, and there wasn’t a need to stay together as a group, what would happen to them? Should they even be outed in the first place, or would destroying the threat to hunters mean they were free of being targeted altogether? She was finding it all hard to sort out. And the more she battled alongside the others, the more attached she became. If they were goin
g to disband, better do it sooner that later.

  “And anyways, the magick residue wasn’t the only good discovery about tonight,” Jade smiled at Shanna, a twinkle in her eye. She was obviously very excited to share the news with Shanna.

  “Are you going to elaborate or keep me in suspense all night?”

  “Well, there was this girl…”

  “Girl?” Shanna blinked.

  “Oh, yes. In one of the devoura goblins.”

  Shanna’s jaw dropped. “Like what I was going to be? And alive?”

  “Alive,” Jade confirmed, “But unconscious. We just got her out of the thing’s sack and cleaned up. You see, the devoura goblins store people in a-”

  “I know, I know,” Shanna interrupted. “But the girl…she’s going to be alright?”

  Jade looked slightly affronted, but nodded. “We don’t know how long it will take for her to snap out of her suspended state. It could be a very gradual process of weeks.” She paused and cocked her head. “However, I’m more optimistic than Felicia. I expect she’ll wake up much sooner. I give her a few hours.”

  “You…you know what this means? She could have the answers to…well, to everything!”

  “Yes, she very well could. But she could also have just gotten in the thing’s way. She is a hunter, after all, and probably fought with the thing.”

  “A hunter?”

  “Yes, one of the missing hunters.”

  “One of…can I see her?”

  Jade hesitated, but nodded. “She’s in the next room. Come on.”

  Shanna began to follow, but paused and touched Jade’s arm. “Hey, thank you. Really. For everything.”

  Sheepishly, Jade shrugged. “Hey, you’re welcome. It’s nothing you wouldn’t have tried to do for me.”

  “Yeah, but I wouldn’t have had your brain to work with.”

  “Few do.” Jade winked and led her out of the room and into another.

  As Shanna closed the door quietly behind her, she looked over to see Felicia bending over a devoura goblin in deep concentration. Valor could be heard out on the terrace, even through the thick glass door, in a phone conversation. And on the bed nearest the door was a girl beneath a paper hospital sheet, a bandage over her right eyebrow. The girl was around the same age as herself and very beautiful. Just now, her hair was spread out around her to frame her pale, lifeless face, like she was on display in a casket. Shanna could, however, just make out the shallow breaths that the girl took beneath the sheet.

  “It’s Becca, right?” Shanna asked, still gazing at the still form.

  “Yes. Becca Reichert,” Jade answered.

  “I remember her from the screen of missing hunters.” Bending over, Shanna lifted a small hand into her own and shivered at the cold limb’s touch. She looked up the girl’s arm to her face, imagined the gray, hard eyes that would stare back at her some time soon.

  “She’s had a hard time of it, you know,” Jade murmured. “She was a prostitute, lived on her own since sixteen. At least that’s what Valor told me.”

  Shanna glanced over at her. “I hope she wakes up soon. She could have a life with us.”

  “Yeah.”

  Returning her gaze to the fallen hunter, Shanna smiled tightly. This could have been me, she realized. If I hadn’t joined The Agency, left with Jordan that first night, I would have been stored like this, waiting for…for whatever was planned for me. With an involuntary shudder, Shanna dropped Becca’s hand and stood up stiffly. “She’s pretty,” she mumbled in a chocked voice, and left the room with another grateful look in Jade’s direction.

  ***

  “Sometimes witches skin devoura goblins until there’s nothing left but their heart and the sack that creates the suspended environment,” Amelia announced as Shanna entered Valor’s room a half hour later. “Everything can be removed and they will still survive down to their basic components. The heart is the only thing that can destroy it.”

  “Why do witches want them?” Rachel asked.

  “To store human hosts. Witches can transport their essence into another body. It’s how they last for centuries. When they find a body they desire, they simply shove it in a devoura goblin closet and wait until the time is right. Demons utilize it in the same fashion sometimes, but I’m sure it’s the more higher class among them.”

  “I’ve certainly never heard of it,” Shanna concurred, taking a seat on one of the beds, beside Cameron.

  “You gave us quite a scare,” he greeted her with a squeeze of the hand. “You’re alright?”

  “I’m fine,” Shanna affirmed, happy to receive his attentions.

  “And now that everyone has arrived,” Valor said, standing up, “Let’s get down to business.” She puffed on a cigarette and paced for a moment before continuing. “Every one of the three teams met with some form of resistance. Very...coincidental. This would never have happened in a normal city. Obviously, there is something brewing here that has increased monster activity. Now, aside from the devoura goblin attack, one group has been attacked by something new.”

  “It was something else alright,” Jade confirmed, looking around at the others with a glimmer of excitement in her eyes. “It was an ugly thing with arms halfway down to its legs and a living shadow. Scared the crap out of me.”

  “It’s nothing that I’ve ever encountered before,” Rachel agreed. “Whatever it is, it’s either very new or very old, and possibly, I mean…it had a vampire vibe to its features, but it acted so contrary to any vampire I’ve seen. It was completely cold and alien, not sneaky and sophisticated. It had no teeth, no cloak, and I’ve certainly never seen the types of things it did…its shadows were completely at its whim. I could feel its power, its hunger.” She shook her head. “Sorry, I don’t mean to get carried away or anything, but it made me feel really vulnerable. And like Valor, I assume that our friend isn’t coincidentally here at the same time as the vampire activity has increased.”

  “So, what are we basing this connection between this thing and vampires on?” Jordan asked, his arms folded in front of him to keep his shirt closed.

  Rachel raised an eyebrow at the shirt. It wasn’t what he’d been wearing earlier. It was much too sophisticated for his tastes: A really fine microfibre, probably close to a three hundred dollar price tag. Jordan was too sporty and casual for that sort of thing. So, where had it come from? Rachel observed smugly that his sister hadn’t even noticed the wardrobe change.

  “Well, it looked like a plump, homeless Nosferatu,” Jade related vaguely. “Except freakier. Hey, what if it is a vampire? An old one?”

  Rachel looked at her sideways, as if considering. “Well, I’ve tussled with vampires centuries old. I haven’t noticed any differences between them and newer vampires, besides their reflections and skill. If it is an old vampire, it would have to be an extremely old one to have...evolved so much.”

  Jade rolled her eyes at this, a little out of character for the hunter, but Rachel chalked it up to bitterness at her reprimand earlier.

  “And how did your vampire hunt go?” Amelia directed her question at Jordan suddenly. “Did you keep on his tail?”

  Jordan looked startled for a moment. “Me? Uh, no. He gave me the slip. How about you?”

  “We kind of dusted ours,” Amelia informed him. She glanced over at Brett. “Now we’ve all seen a vampire, at least.”

  “Oooh,” Rachel cooed. “What did you think, Brett? Kind of unnerving, huh?”

  Brett shrugged. “I wasn’t so impressed. I was hoping for bats and shit.”

  Felicia handed out photos of the creature in question, courtesy of Rachel’s cell phone. Although slightly blurry, the frame did justice to what the others had been describing. Shanna shuddered upon first glimpse.

  “Since nothing is known of this creature, use caution if confronted with it in the future,” Valor warned. “Our team of scholars is working hard to gain some kernal of information, but have thus far tur
ned up nothing. Now, the only concrete lead we have was from the final group. Vampires were seen leaving a bar. Following the vampires led to nothing, so I’m sending you all back out to that bar. If we’re lucky, it will turn out to be a creature meeting grounds. If not, we’re back to square one and we’ll start fresh tomorrow night.”

  Shanna nodded to herself, although she’d expected more definitive plans. Not that she was necessarily disappointed with the results. A small lead was better than no lead.

  The group dispersed to get ready for the bar, Shanna was forced to swallow her pride and ask for an outfit from Rachel, who was only more than happy to borrow her some clothes, in a smug sort of way.

  ***

  “Did you find it?” Cameron asked Shanna as he walked into her and Amelia’s hotel room, examining the same floral pattern of cream wallpaper that existed in his room.

  Shanna sighed as she flopped down heavily on the edge of her bed. “No. My dagger’s not here. Hopefully, it’s back in Lime Bay, otherwise it’s just gone.”

  Cameron nodded and smiled reassuringly. “I’m sure you’ll find it.”

  “I hope so.” Shanna laid back on the bed and stared up at the unfamiliar ceiling, feeling a little sad again to be away from her new home for the night. She didn’t want to have to get used to another strange room tonight, not when she had a nice cozy one not forty minutes away. “Did I tell you my best friend was killed by a vampire?”

  “A vampire? No. I know you’ve only seen one so...I assumed it was a basic kill.”

  “No, it wasn’t. I didn’t even kill the bastard. Felicia did. I found Kelly...her throat was ripped open, she was white as a sheet, just staring up at the ceiling. It was horrible. And the vampire just mocked it all.”

  “That really sucks, Shanna. But you have to let that go. Get passed it.”

  “I know. I know.”

  Cameron let out a breath slowly. “Are you really up for going out tonight? Because I’m sure Valor would be fine if you wanted to stay behind. There are more than enough of us to-”

  “I’m fine,” Shanna interrupted him. She shook her head with a sad smile. “Really, I’m fine. There just hasn’t been much time, you know? I still...think about her.”

  “Yeah, I know what you mean.”

  Shanna looked up at him. “Have you lost someone close to you too?”

  “I think we all have.”

  ***

  “So, hey, just to be all nosy, what’s up with you and Cameron?” Jade asked, wiggling her eyebrows as they followed Amelia to the bar the vampires had left earlier that night.

  The hunters had decided to split into two teams, by sex. They reasoned that people would be more prone to talk to people who were allegedly single.

  “Yeah, we’ve had enough with the speculating,” Amelia related. “Color in the details.”

  “You speculate about us?” Shanna asked, biting her lip. “Don’t you have more important things to think about than us?”

  “Hey, the rest of us are getting no love,” Jade told her. “We need to live vicariously through someone.”

  “Oh, is that how it works? Well, we’re getting along...great,” Shanna assured them. “We have a lot in common.”

  “They’re both nerds,” Rachel helped her.

  “We’re both nerds,” Shanna admitted, laughing.

  A door suddenly opened up ahead of them and a man slipped out of a noisy bar, the laughter and cheer cut off abruptly as the door slammed behind him.

  “That’s the bar,” Amelia murmured beneath her breath. “Pass by it the first time.”

  The hunters slowed down as the man that had left the bar moved along in a drunken daze and eventually disappeared. Shanna glanced over at the door of the bar as they passed by and was subsequently startled by the poster she spied there. It was a negative of a struck match, the words “sponsored by the black flame” printed across the top of the page. Something inside of her was trying to recall something. Something extremely vital. It was like a tickle in the back of her throat that she couldn’t quite get rid of, but nagged her nonetheless. A flicker of recognition? But where would she have seen such a thing before? She’d been in Lime Bay for only a day and hadn’t ventured out. She certainly hadn’t been to New York before today, unless she’d seen it earlier during their shopping spree. She smiled as she recalled the comic book store they’d stumbled across while shopping. Cameron and her had been like old friends, talking, reminiscing, about the things they bought in such stores. It reminded her of happier times. She was so lucky to have someone like him in her life.

  She trudged along beside the others for half a block before they ducked into an alley.

  “Okay,” Amelia said. “This next time’s the real deal. Anyone have any concerns?”

  No one said anything, but Shanna couldn’t get that nagging feeling out of the back of her head.

  As they left the alley and walked over to the bar once more, she suddenly remembered. “Oh, my God.”

  Rachel and Jade looked over at her expectantly, suddenly alert. They cautioned the others to stop.

  “What is it?” Amelia asked, watching Shanna closely. “You look pale.”

  “That poster on the door. I remember where I’ve seen it before.”

  “What poster?” Rachel wondered. “I didn’t notice...”

  “It was...it had a struck match. A negative of a struck match. It said it was sponsored by the black flame.”

  “Okay,” Amelia encouraged her. “Okay. Now where have you seen it before?”

  Taking a deep breath, Shanna recalled the night she nearly died. It was a night she wanted to put behind her for good. But here it was again, creeping back up into her life. Because the poster that had been back at that bar, hanging innocently from its front door, had been the same exact poster that had hung outside Styx on that fateful night.

  Shanna bit her lower lip. They hadn’t been able to stop the shape-shifters and vampires of the Crimson Rope. And Jordan...Jordan had been after them for a year. Did that poster mean that they were in New York, just a few short feet away from where Shanna stood that very moment? Would she have to face that terror again?

  The thought sent a cold sweat over Shanna’s body as she realized that more than ever, she needed her cross-dagger.

 

  Chapter Fourteen

   

  Shanna stared at the poster and saw it in her head as it had been at Styx, freshly applied. This poster had come unglued on the upper right corner, flopping slightly over the ominous imagery.

  “This is definitely it,” she confirmed, her tongue suddenly feeling large in her dry mouth. She swallowed hard and looked around at the others, wondering what they were thinking. If they’d been at Styx, they would be expecting the worst, but as it was, they looked fairly calm, like this was just an average, everyday hunt. Shanna hoped they were right. She frowned suddenly. “You know, it’s a little strange.”

  “What is?” Jade asked.

  “It’s an old poster. At Styx, it was brand new. If this was The Crimson Rope’s new place, wouldn’t it be just as new?”

  “Maybe it’s not an indicator of The Crimson Rope at all,” Amelia suggested. “Maybe it signifies something else.”

  Shanna nodded slowly, mulling over the possibilities. Maybe she didn’t need to be so frightened, after all.

  “Everyone got their ID’s?” Jade applied.

  A mumbled affirmative rose up around them as Amelia flipped her hair back and pushed the door open confidently, disappearing inside the bar.

  Shanna hesitated as she watched the other hunters go in one by one. Natalia went in just before her and sent Shanna a look that told her to be on guard.

  Nodding after her, Shanna ducked in through the door.

  The dark interior of the bar settled over them ominously as none but a blue light softened the blow of shadows. A woman was on-stage in back, singing a slow, heart-breaking blues number int
o a microphone with the saddest voice Shanna had ever heard. She was instantly taken in by the song as she followed the others to seats as close to the stage as they got - which wasn’t very close. It seemed that most of the area immediately around the stage was open, as if for a crowd to gather.

  “She is good,” Jade murmured as she set her purse down.

  “What can I get you hum - uh, ladies?” a waitress asked them after a moment, trying her best to hide her surprise.

  “I assume you serve human products?” Amelia asked, nonchalantly.

  The waitress hesitated, but nodded. “One hundred and one beers on tap, if that’s what you want.”

  “I’ll have a Pepsi,” Rachel spoke up, turning to the others with a sheepish grin. “I get sloppy if I have even a little.”

  “And I thought I was a light-weight,” Amelia teased before ordering a wine cooler.

  The waitress smirked at their requests, but scribbled them down on her pad. “I’ll be right back with those.”

  Scanning the crowd quickly, Shanna noted that the bar was full of patrons who at least resembled humans, albeit their glasses were filled with thick red liquid and the room wreaked of blood.

  “I don’t feel so safe, all of a sudden,” Rachel commented. “There must be over a hundred vampires in here.”

  “Show no fear,” Amelia ordered. “Just act natural. Few have even noticed our presence. If they wanted to hunt humans, they would be doing just that instead of getting blood served to them here.”

  “Well, that makes me feel better,” Jade muttered, her voice thick with sarcasm.

  The blues singer abruptly left the room and instruments were quickly hauled across the stage. The patrons started to talk amongst themselves as a band began to hook up equipment and delve into a sound check ritual.

  “Hey, it almost feels normal here,” Jade whispered as she looked around with the air of a sightseer. “Just like any regular bar we’d find in New York.”

  “This is a regular bar,” the waitress told her as she began setting down their drinks. “We just cater to a different crowd, if you know what I mean. But hey - a vampire’s money is as good as anyone else’s.”

  “Are you a vampire?” Shanna asked before she could stop herself.

  The waitress paused and looked her over. “Are you kidding me? Of course I’m a vampire. Any human stupid enough to serve a vampire is just asking for it. Except Donna. Donna’s a human, works Monday nights. She gives vamps ten seconds on her arm for twenty bucks. Some like their blood real fresh, you know? Most don’t mind it just warmed up a bit.”

  Jade took a sip of her beer and smiled. “So, do you serve blood by blood type or what?”

  The waitress grinned. “Yeah. Real funny. We serve the blood of people who were intoxicated, so the alcohol’s still there, you know? We still get that buzz. It would be too hard to separate it all by type. And in the end, it doesn’t matter much. As long as the drink’s there, it’s good.”

  “Any pregnant womens’ blood served here, by chance?”

  The waitress raised an eyebrow. “Honey, if you’ve got a fetish, that’s your business, but don’t start hassling me, alright? It’s degrading enough serving you.” She walked away quickly, keeping busy with the other patrons.

  “Maybe this club really doesn’t have anything to do with the pregnant vampires,” Rachel suggested. “Maybe we’re on the wrong trail and that sign is just some generic monster club thing.”

  “Either way,” Amelia reminded her. “This bar needs checking out, even if the two aren’t connected. Don’t forget the big picture here.”

  Shanna nodded her agreement and glanced up at the stage as the microphone was tested out. She did a double-take, causing everyone at the table to look up.

  The lead singer was gorgeous with his shaggy brown hair and a hint of stubble over movie star good looks. The type of lead singer of a band one would see on MTV idolized by the masses, he donned a white t-shirt with blue sleeves that barely grazed the shoulder, showing off his arms. His black jeans were low-rise, so when he lifted his arms to ruffle his hair like an underwear model, his shirt rode up, revealing a hint of his six-pack.

  “Wow,” Rachel muttered. “Vampire or not, that is one hottie.”

  “You’re telling me,” Amelia confirmed. “I’d like to break off a piece of that to take home.”

  Shanna was struck by the guy as well. He had beautiful full lips, which is what Shanna loved on a guy. The rest of him certainly didn’t hurt either.

  One of them killed Kelly, she recalled suddenly. She looked away, ashamed at her immediate attraction to the vampire. They were vicious, cruel killers. Closing her eyes, Shanna conjured up an image of Grant, his smug smile stretching over a flushed face, a twinkle of glitter at the corner of his mouth. Or vise-versa. Shanna scowled as she opened her eyes. It didn’t do the trick, however. Her eyes were once again, inexplicably, drawn back to him, no matter how hard she resisted. She eventually just relented and allowed herself to stare openly, despite the shame that rose as companion to her desire.

  “Hey, thank you all for making it out here tonight,” the guy suddenly spoke into the microphone with a deliciously deep voice. A guitar whined in the background for a moment before the guy looked back and grinned, introducing his bandmates. “And for those of you who don’t know who I am, I’m Damien.” Shanna noted that “Damien Farr” was the name printed on the drum set in stylized calligraphy. She let the name play over her mouth and decided that she liked it.

  The band suddenly erupted in song and Damien crooned out a rock song that Shanna had heard from the likes of Pete Yorn or Val Emmich, while playing his own guitar. If Shanna hadn’t been completely sold on him previously, she was at that moment. It was like he was born for this sort of thing. She watched his Adam’s apple rise and fall, the sweat gather on his forehead, all while drinking in his voice.

  “Well, vampires are good for something, all right,” Rachel commented after the song had ended. “If it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t have this...this beautiful man before us right now.”

  “A-men,” Amelia agreed, clinking her glass with her own.

  “Now, I’m feeling pretty lonely out here,” Damien admitted to the crowd, gazing out at the patrons at their tables with a lopsided grin, imploringly. “Anybody care to make this a real party?”

  Immediately, dozens flocked to the front of the stage, mostly women, but several men as well. As Damien played his next song, the people closest to the stage reached up toward him as if he were God and would heal them with but a touch of his hand. They chanted up at him, echoing the words he sang out to them. The others started dancing with each other or by themselves, keeping their eyes glued to the stage at all times, as if by turning away for a second, they could miss something spectacular.

  “He’s got them in the palm of his hand,” Jade observed, clearly enthralled herself. “Hey, anyone want to go up there with me?”

  Amelia and Shanna looked at each other hesitantly, but agreed to go up and dance together. After all, Shanna reasoned, they had to mingle for awhile if they wanted to get any questions answered.

  Dancing as close to the stage as she could get, Shanna studied Damien up close, watching his fingers dance elegantly over his guitar strings, his foot tapping to the beat, his eyes sweeping over the crowd. She was having fun just being there until she noticed a group of men around her beginning to shower a little too much more attention on her than the stage. It was like what any group of guys did when checking out a pretty girl - sending each other looks, licking their lips - but with more of a malicious edge in their eyes. And these weren’t typical guys.

  Jade noticed the change in attitude of the dancers and joined Shanna where she danced, glaring defiantly at the vampires. The vampires just seemed to get more encouraged by this and began to bump into the girls, jostling them.

  Shanna started to panic a little and seized Jade by the arm as the current song came to an
end.

  “Now, what’s this shit?” Damien addressed the audience, eyes focused on the men around Shanna and Jade.

  The vampires immediately backed off and dispersed, as if afraid of Damien for some reason.

  Damien smiled at Shanna and Jade, a smile that melted Shanna’s fears. “No bar fights, now. Human or vampire, this is a haven.” He winked at Shanna and went into a little introduction for his next song before he proceeded.

  One more number and the hunters had had enough of dancing and returned to their seats.

  “Okay, fun’s over,” Amelia said soberly. “Time to start asking some questions.”

  “Questions, huh?” The waitress asked as she reapproached the table. “You’d be sick of asking questions if you had my job. ‘What’ll it be’ leaves a tad to be desired, if you know what I mean.” She looked around at the girls, suddenly suspicious. “What kind of questions are you asking?”

  “Oh, we’re just trying to understand a few things,” Rachel spoke up in a surprisingly charming manner. She glanced down at the name tag of the vampire’s shirt and smiled. “You see, Abby, some strange things have been happening around here. Pregnant women getting turned, new players in town. We just want to understand what’s going on exactly.”

  Abby leaned against their table. “What’s going on? See, I think you girls know what’s going on. What are you really trying to get at here? You’re not fooling anyone, you know. It doesn’t take a vampire to tell you’re all packing crosses and stakes underneath your clothing.”

  Shanna looked down at her clothes before looking away uncomfortably.

  “We want to know who’s running things around here,” Amelia stated boldly, lifting her chin to meet Abby’s eyes.

  Abby smirked. “Look, Hon. No decent vampire is going to give you any info, let alone send you to rub elbows with the top dogs. Hunters or not, you’d best put this thing out of your pretty little heads while they’re still attached to your pretty little shoulders.”

  Shanna hadn’t noticed the band stop playing, but she was suddenly acutely aware that someone was standing directly behind her, even before he put a hand on the back of her chair. The others looked up at the same time as she did to discover Damien looming over them. For some odd reason, she had expected it to be him.

  “Mind if I join you ladies for a drink while the band rests for a few?”

  Rachel opened and closed her mouth while Amelia gestured to the empty chair beside Shanna.

  Shanna looked at him sideways as he sat down and instantly became hyperaware of him - the cologne he wore, the small silver hoop in his right ear, the mole in the crook of his left elbow. She dared not look at him directly, instead focusing her gaze on Natalia, who she deemed least likely to freak out by the attention.

  “I’ll get you a drink,” Abby mumbled before disappearing.

  Damien smiled broadly at the girls as she left. “So, what brings you fine ladies to this modest little unmarked tavern?”

  Jade smirked. “Hey, the poster at the door tells a tale all its own. We’re here to learn about what’s going on around here.”

  “Going on? This is New York City. What isn’t going on? There’s certainly nothing happening that you should be concerned with.”

  “Oh, but we are concerned,” Amelia told him. “Care to share anything that might help us out?”

  “Are you hunters?”

  “Yes.”

  “You wish to destroy La Faer Noir?”

  Shanna tried not to let on that she’d never heard the name before, but she could tell that Damien realized his mistake as the other hunters visibly tensed up and inhaled sharply. But he only smiled at this reaction.

  “Maybe,” Amelia hesitated. “Probably yes.”

  Damien gazed at Shanna from the side and gave her a thorough once-over. “I will...consider telling you something of interest. But first, indulge me?”

  “An exchange of information?” Jade asked.

  “An exchange, yes.”

  Abby approached them at that moment and set down Damien’s mug of blood, which sloshed in the glass thickly before settling again. She sent Damien a questioning look before leaving the table in a hurry.

  Damien once more looked at Shanna. “Do I know you from somewhere?”

  Rachel rolled her eyes. “You’re probably centuries old and that’s the best line you could come up with?”

  Ignoring the comment, Damien continued to stare at Shanna.

  Shanna glanced at him briefly as he seemed to grow more confident in his assumption.

  “I’m from Minnesota,” Shanna murmured. “If you’ve played up there...” Her blood suddenly ran cold. He’d seen her on the video feed from Styx. If he was looking for a bounty, he would…and the others would know…

  “No, not...not there.”

  “What would you like to know?” Natalia asked suddenly, drawing everyone's attention, as she rarely spoke. It seemed to Shanna like she was trying to distract Damien from figuring something out. Had Valor decided to let her in on the secret as well? Had Natalia discovered the video on her own? It left Shanna feeling a little unsettled.

  “Why the interest in La Faer Noir?” Damien asked, fastening his eyes on Natalia.

  “They’re killing hunters,” Amelia stated her guess confidently.

  Damien tapped his lips lightly with his index finger. “Are they now? That would be completely unprovoked, of course?”

  Amelia glared at him.

  “Pregnant vampires are suddenly on the rise,” Jade jumped in. “They have to know something about it.”

  Nodding, Damien looked over at Jade. “They do seem to know everything that’s going on. I wouldn’t be surprised if they knew about something like that.”

  “And a new creature we’ve seen,” Shanna found herself saying. “Looks like the old silent film vampires.”

  Damien’s eyes jumped to hers, as if they were pouncing upon them. They seered into her eyes like hot pokers, skewering her mind, groping for information, for something familiar to grab ahold of. She could almost feel his gaze inside of her, a spotlight, highlighting the thoughts within her. And then she could actually picture it internally, spy on precisely what he was doing. Her mind was a library, a literal library of thought and knowledge, that he slowly sifted through until he lit up exactly what he wanted.

  He’s reading my mind, Shanna realized, finding herself paralyzed, both mentally and physically. He’s...inside my head.

  The light illuminated a book tattered and dusty with age. Its spine was creased and worn. Hundreds of years old, its pages brittle and yellowed. A golden clasp kept it sealed. The light dissolved the clasp as easily as it highlighted the pages of the books around them.

  Enough.

  A stern voice. It abruptly threw a wall up around the library of information inside of her. It blocked the spotlight from piercing through, from peering at her thoughts. A familiar voice...

  “I hope you’re not doing what I think you’re doing,” Natalia suddenly addressed Damien calmly.

  Damien glanced up at Natalia, surprise written over his face, followed quickly by hurt. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  Natalia merely stared at him, unblinking, unsmiling.

  Shanna looked over at Natalia, a little confused. It hadn’t been Natalia in her head. It had been...someone else.

  “La Faer Noir,” Amelia prodded Damien.

  “La Faer Noir,” Damien echoed her. “Yes...I am a member of this club, I admit. Most vampires are. As are werewolves, demons, shape-shifters. They’re probably the closest thing we have to a government. The rich, the powerful, the elite. The top-ranking officers, of course, make the important decisions. But killing off you hunters is beneath them. They wouldn’t concern themselves with such a…miniscule threat.”

  “Miniscule?” Jade echoed, sounding a little hurt.

  “Beneath them?” Rachel said a little more loudly. “But who…?”
<
br />   “There is an organization that has been…focusing its efforts on hunters recently.”

  “Do we have to guess?” Amelia asked viciously.

  “The Crimson Rope, of course.”

  Shanna flinched at the name, then nearly gasped at the revelation. This was it. It was why they were here together. To fight this group. This group that had terrorized Shanna days earlier. The group that had murdered her best friend in cold blood. They had a definite name to attach to the villain they sought. Half of the battle was already won.

  “They’re based here? In New York?” Amelia demanded.

  Damien laughed. “It rings of fate, does it not?

  “Why are you telling us this?” Shanna suddenly asked.

  Damien stared at her for a moment, before his face suddenly lit up, as if particularly pleased about something. “Diana.”

  Shanna looked confused and immediately glanced over at Natalia, the only person at the table who seemed to have any intelligence as to what was going on. Natalia didn’t appear shaken in the least, which calmed her slightly, but she couldn’t still her racing heart. This vampire was spilling a lot of information. He wasn’t planning on letting them leave with that, was he? Or was there some ulterior motive for his loose tongue?

  Damien caught the look that passed between Shanna and Natalia and winked at the girls.

  “Diana’s in charge of The Crimson Rope?” Jade asked, clearly muddled. “Who’s Diana?”

  Damien only smiled.

  Amelia sighed. “What is their main purpose? Their goal?”

  “To indulge,” Damien said. “The Crimson Rope deems us natural rulers of the Earth. The strong, the powerful, the....highest lifeform on the chain of life.” He paused, as if for dramatic effect. “They feel that as such, they should do as they please.”

  “By massacring hundreds of people for fun?” Shanna demanded. “That’s how a superior species acts?”

  “Many of our kind see them as an embarrassment,” Damien informed her. “Demonstrating little or no restraint makes them appear as little more than animals.”

  “Little more than animals,” Jade snickered. “Couldn’t have said it better myself.”

  Damien turned away from the other hunters, as if he were done with them, and focused his attention on Shanna. He put an arm around her back, causing the hunter to stiffen. “You are not seeing someone, are you?”

  “Seeing...” Shanna stared at him, unsure of what to make of him. She couldn’t help but feel an energy as he looked at her. It was as if she were the center of the world. He was so...beautiful. Longings deep within her stirred, causing her to feel things she’d never felt before. More than anything, she wanted to kiss Damien’s delicious red lips. They called out, begged to be grazed by her own. And as ashamed as it made her feel, she could feel her body turning against her, desiring nothing more than to fall into the vampire’s embrace, to be consumed by his dead flesh. Lord help her, she wanted to know every inch of him, body and soul.

  “Hey, she’s seeing a great guy,” Jade vouched for her. “Cameron. He’s...you know, alive.”

  “His touch is warm,” Amelia added coldly.

  Damien glanced at the hunters, but returned his gaze to Shanna. “You are a beauty. Maybe one day, I will be able to prove your friends wrong, but for now, I only hope to do so to you.” He reached out hesitantly and brushed a strand of Shanna’s hair back from her face. As his finger danced over her flesh, Shanna felt a great warmth and realized that Amelia was wrong about a vampire’s touch. He felt as warm as any human.

  Without another word, Damien reached into his pocket and handed Shanna a card. Then he was gone, back on-stage before Shanna had fully recovered.

  The other hunters looked at her expectantly.

  Shanna stared down at the card for a moment, feeling slightly revolted by her recent desires, then set it down quickly in the center of the table, as if she couldn’t rid herself of it fast enough.

  It was an invitation to a party for her and one guest. The party was the following night. Atop the card was a drawing of a red cord that served as a border, strings of red liquid dripping randomly like stalactites. Beneath that, the words “The Crimson Rope” were prominently featured.

  The others looked uncomfortable through the next set of songs. But Shanna wasn’t. She watched Damien perform on stage like music incarnate, sex made flesh. She heard every murmur, every chord he plucked. And everything about his stance, his lips, his eyes, were speaking to her and her alone. Shanna watched him strum his guitar and wished only to be in its place.

 

  Chapter Fifteen

   

  “So, then this giant crab is all up in my face, pincers snapping, eyes bugging out, and I’m like, holy shit, right? It’s like, nine feet tall or some shit.” Brett shook his head. “I started tweeking out because, don’t tell the ladies this, but I had a bad case of crabs at one point and man, did that thing bring back some unpleasant memories.”

  Cameron winced with a look over at Jordan, who sent him a smile and a roll of his eyes.

  “And I felt this itching, but it was all in my head, you know? I had more important things to worry about, like keeping my head att-”

  “Speaking of more important things,” Jordan interrupted, “We’re here.” He pointed his thumb back at the small tavern with the infamous poster upon it.

  Brett closed his mouth and stared at the door with the other two. It looked like any other doorway to any other bar. Could it really be full of vampires and the like? Could passing through that door put their lives in jeopardy?

  “All right,” Brett said confidently, “Let’s get this party hopping, huh? Me and my company card are gonna be buying some one-on-one time with the porcelain god tonight.”

  “I’m shocked,” Cameron mumbled, walking into the bar.

  Almost immediately, a man carded the threesome, towering over them an intimidating two feet. After a hasty examination, they were let through and their suspicions were affirmed. Vampires crowded the bar in every direction.

  A wide bar greeted them to the left, where a crowd three-deep waited to get served. To their right, several pool tables and dart boards were manned by players adorning pool sticks and glasses of thick red liquid, presumably blood. Directly ahead of them was a large seating area where a band was playing and people were dancing. The girls could be seen at one of the front tables.

  “Uh...what do we do now that we’re here?” Brett asked. “We don’t want to go where the girls are. I mean, you know, not our girls.” He wiggled his eyebrows.

  “Order yourself a drink at the bar,” Jordan told him. “We’ll go round up a booth. Just act natural. People or...or whatever, will be more prone to talk to you if you’re yourself.”

  Brett considered for a moment, then nodded and headed toward the busy bar.

  “Are you sure he’ll be okay by himself?” Cameron asked, looking back over his shoulder.

  “I think Brett can handle himself,” Jordan replied. “Besides, the way his mouth ran on the way here, he’ll get some stories out of these guys better than we ever could.”

  “Yeah, he’s been rather...talkative tonight.”

  “Finally coming out of his shell a bit. I don’t think he’s used to people like us. He’s coming around, though.”

  They found seats at the booth closest to the pool tables and took a minute to size up the room. A few of the vampires had noticed their presence, but didn’t seem too interested in them. In fact, they seemed content to ignore them altogether.

  Jordan found himself suddenly fingering the black shirt he wore, the shirt with the buttons torn off. He’d found himself unable to take the thing off. It held some irresistible pull. He felt a little embarrassed by it, but it only served to make him feel that much more confused. He could smell a musky cologne emanating from the shirt. He could feel a dampness where the vampire’s sweat had soiled it under the arms and across the back and
chest. He got a little rush from having it on his person, like he was having sex in public. A few buttons had needed to be sewn at the chest, so it could at least close on its own, but other than that, he was wearing it like a schoolgirl would wear a letter jacket, in complete regard for the boy who’d previously worn it. He admittedly harbored erotic thoughts about Noel and this would be the closest he would ever get to acting them out - by wearing his shirt. He wanted to savor it before he tossed it out with those fantasies, like garbage. No man, dead or alive, would get him to switch teams. This one little act of perversion he was displaying would be his one big hurrah to get it out of his system. Then he would expunge men from his mind. And meet a nice girl. It was funny how he’d never taken women seriously throughout his life. He’d slept with them, dated them, but never really put himself out there. He was never invested or emotionally there for them. Why was that? Why did he keep such a distance between himself and those he was intimate with?

  Suddenly, he felt guilty for his thoughts. His sister was gay and proud of it. He felt like thinking the way he was was insulting her somehow. Like being gay was good enough for her, but not for him. Like he was inherently superior if he was attracted to the opposite sex like most people.

  “I’ve always hated bars,” Jordan confessed, trying to distract himself. “They’re so...rowdy and amateurish. This is Brett’s world. Mine is more solitary. The cinema, the bookstores...that’s where it’s at for me.”

  “I feel the same,” Cameron told him. “I would much rather bury my nose in Daredevil on a Friday night than watch the drunks make a scene.”

  “If I had a glass, I’d drink to that,” Jordan laughed, smiling at the hunter.

  “I think they were purposely not taking my order right away,” Brett huffed when he joined them a few minutes later. “Lousy service around here. You’d have to be dead to get something before you starved to death.” He took a seat next to Cameron while someone else sat down beside Jordan. “Oh, and this is Tim. Met him in line.”

  “Hey, guys,” Tim greeted, taking a long drink of his blood.

  Jordan forced himself to stay where he was, although his body was begging him to scoot away from the new arrival. Tim was a cute blonde kid who looked to be about fifteen, lean and tall in a sleeveless navy shirt with a hemp necklace. Despite his youthful appearance, his demeanor suggested that he was well into his twenties, although for all they knew, he could have been a lot older than that. Jordan felt something sinister from this vampire and sitting so close overpowered him with a sense of creeping dread. It was strange how Noel hadn’t evoked similar instincts.

  “Yeah, so you wanted to hear what was going down, right?” Tim asked, looking around the table.

  Cameron shrugged, as if to make the conversation seem more casual. “Well, I mean, if there’s anything to say...”

  “Ever heard of The Crimson Rope?”

  Jordan glanced at the boy, trying not to show his excitement at the name. “We may have heard a few things about them.”

  “Yeah, well, there are some really fucked-up rumors about things they’re doing. Don’t know if any of it’s true though. But anyway, I hear there’s a new kind of creature in town that they’ve taken under their wing. Some super vampire or something.”

  “A super vampire?” Jordan asked, trying his best to sound surprised.

  “Yeah. And they’re trying to help it with some shit. I don’t know. It’s all hearsay anyway. Who can tell if it’s true?”

  “What do you think they’re trying to do for it?”

  “Well, I know the inhumans have some kind of system in place to keep a balance among the different species. Through La Faer Noir, our government-of-sorts. The Crimson Rope’s probably helping them get set up in it or something, I’d assume. Oh! Shit! The party!”

  Jordan and Cameron exchanged looks.

  “The party?” Cameron echoed.

  “Yeah. There’s some ball tomorrow at a mansion The Crimson Rope usually rents out in the city here. It’s some charity function. Some big names from La Faer Noir are supposed to be going. And celebrities, CEOs, politicians - you know, humans invited to high society functions who can donate a shitload of money for some bogus cause. But hey, the real show is always in the upper rooms anyway. The new guy’s supposed to make a special appearance. An introduction really.”

  “An introduction, huh?” Jordan sent Cameron a look that said “Jackpot.”

  “Yeah.” Tim looked over at Brett and nodded to him. “Now, you were saying something about a giant crab, right?”

  Brett grinned.

   

  This conversation had given them plenty of information, Jordan thought as he gazed around, but it was of no concern to him now that it was over. He wanted to look elsewhere. The bar seemed quite friendly, in spite of serving monsters. No riots, no violence. It was a very civil establishment. Which made it all the more creepy in Jordan’s opinion. He wondered how the girls were faring. He could see the back of his sister’s head from where he sat, but that was it. Longing to join her, Jordan obediently sat still as Brett rattled on. His eyes weren’t only searching out his sister, however, as he soon became conscious of them seeking the chiseled features of Noel. He tried to acquit his mind from wandering back to the vampire, but found it impossible. The more he tried, the harder it became. So he just leaned back and took a deep whiff of the cologne that was embedded in the shirt, lingering in the immediate area. He succumbed. But it would be only for the night, he told himself. Only for the night.

 

  Chapter Sixteen

   

  Four months earlier…

  “You sure stay out late,” Kelly startled Shanna as she closed her apartment door behind her. “It’s past four.”

  Quietly taking off her coat, Shanna smiled weakly at her friend, trying not to show how much pain she was in. “Yeah, I...I lost track of time, you know?”

  Kelly watched her closely as she kicked off her shoes. “It is a school night, you know. And bars close at one. Where the hell were you?”

  “You don’t have to play mom, Kelly.”

  “Well, someone sure as hell does.”

  Shanna sent Kelly a sideways glance.

  Kelly sighed. “Look, I can respect your privacy. I really can. But without a parental figure, you have all of this freedom and...and I guess I just never realized you took advantage of that.”

  “How long have you been here?” Shanna asked, noticing the half pot of coffee in the kitchen as she set down her keys.

  “Does it matter?”

  “Of course it -”

  Suddenly grabbing Shanna’s arm, Kelly caused her friend to gasp. “What happened?”

  Shanna glanced down at her bruised arm, black and blue from shoulder to elbow. Her leg was also cut, but she didn’t mention that. “I’m fine. There was just this...this stupid thing. An accident.”

  Kelly looked up at her, not believing her, but not pushing either. She turned around and went into the bathroom. “I’m going to run a warm bath. Get undressed.”

  Shanna smiled gratefully and peeled off her clothes, balling them up to hide the demon blood left behind on them. She walked into the bathroom to see Kelly gazing into the bathtub, not really seeing the water fill the tub before her. The scent of jasmine was pungent in the air. Bubbles floated at the top of the water.

  “I appreciate this,” Shanna stated.

  Kelly glanced up and smiled thinly. “I know.”

  ***

  “So, you must wear some kind of perfume or something to attract these guys,” Amelia teased Shanna as they walked back to the hotel beneath the glow of passing orange streetlights. The streets were quiet with the exception of the occasional car rattling by and the rare bat feeding near the lights overhead.

  “I...” Shanna sighed. “Yeah, it must be...something.”

  Natalia looked at her with that sidelong look of hers and Shanna fell back to walk alone with the h
unter.

  “He was in my head,” Shanna told her as soon as Amelia had moved out of hearing range. She felt odd confiding in the one among them so void of warmth, so unaffected. But it felt right somehow, like she was placing the secret in safe hands, to an authority figure. She expected Natalia to do the right thing with the information, as she seemed more likely to understand it than anybody.

  “I assumed as much,” Natalia answered in her cool voice.

  “But so was someone else. Someone put up a defense against him, forced him out.”

  Natalia raised an eyebrow. “Did you recognize this person?”

  “No.”

  “A deceased friend or relative? Someone from your past?”

  “I couldn’t place it. It was...I mean, it seemed familiar. I just...I can’t think of where I’ve heard it before.”

  Natalia nodded. “Maybe it will reveal itself with time.”

  Shanna shrugged and rubbed her arms, as the night was growing cooler. “So...you know about La Faer Noir, don’t you?”

  “Why do you presume that?”

  “Don’t play coy with me. You’ve been a spy among the monsters for years, from what I hear. I find it hard to believe that not one word was mentioned about this monster government.”

  “I know many things,” Natalia replied vaguely.

  “Care to share?”

  “About as much as Valor and Felicia do.”

  Shanna looked over at Natalia sharply. “What do you mean by that? They didn’t seem to know anything about La Faer Noir.”

  “Indifference doesn’t constitute ignorance.”

  Allowing a sigh to escape her, Shanna sent the girls ahead of them a smile as they glanced back at them. They were probably wondering what Shanna and Natalia could ever be discussing. What did they have in common? But the truth was, Shanna felt safer with Natalia than any one of them. She wondered if Natalia felt the same toward her. Probably not. Shanna was, after all, touchable in battle. Natalia was not.

  “We have no need to worry about La Faer Noir right now,” Natalia said. “The Crimson Rope is behind the assault on hunters. I have a feeling that they’re behind a lot of things going on around here.”

  Shanna nodded and they both fell into silence as they kept their distance behind the other hunters for a few more blocks.

  So, that’s that, Shanna realized suddenly. The others were seen with me. They’ve all been targeted by association with me. But…the situation itself wasn’t one that lent itself to discretion. They probably would have been assumed hunters anyway. So, why should I feel guilty? Why do I still feel guilty?

  “You should ask Amelia to give you a crash course on blocking out probing minds tonight,” Natalia told Shanna suddenly.

  “Oh, I should, huh?”

  “Yes.” She paused for a moment. “I would suggest you not bring Cameron with you to the ball as your date. Pick from the other two men.”

  “Why?”

  “You’re too distracted by Cameron. We can not afford for emotions to come into play here.”

  Shanna looked away and sighed. “You’re probably right. But...what about the rest of you? Are you going to just...sit on the sidelines? Wait for something to go wrong?”

  “Do you expect something to go wrong?”

  “No, but I don’t see you sitting this one out either.”

  “I won’t be.”

  Shanna laughed softly. “Would it kill you to elaborate for once?”

  Natalia smiled thinly. “I plan on persuading Amelia to assist me in apprehending the witch who had the devoura goblins in her thrall. She would most likely be on the guest list for tomorrow night’s festivities and I make for a very persuasive replacement, no matter the individual.”

  “Replacement? As in, kill her?”

  Natalia didn’t say anymore.

  Back at the hotel, Amelia was only more than happy to give Shanna surprisingly simple exercises to perform when her mind was being probed by a telepath. After that, they reconvened with the others in Valor’s room to compare notes with the guys.

  “So I recognized that poster that said it was sponsored by the black flame,” Shanna related. “I thought it was a sign of The Crimson Rope, but it must be this La Faer Noir.”

  “The Black Fire,” Jordan spoke up. “It sounds French, but it’s not exactly. Le Feu Noir would be the correct translation if it were. It’s close though.”

  “Yes, but this tavern has nothing to do with The Crimson Rope,” Rachel said. “Neither does La Faer Noir. It’s The Crimson Rope we need to focus on here.”

  “I quite agree,” Natalia concurred. “A few La Faer Noir officials will be in attendance at The Crimson Rope’s gala, but they are of no consequence. If it comes to it, we will deal with them as we deal with any threat.”

  “Yes,” Valor said, a cigarette fixed in her hand as usual. “We can’t allow ourselves to get overwhelmed and distracted.” She paused and looked over the hunters slowly as she took a tobacco drag. “And I would love to hear what Becca has to say on the subject.”

  “Becca?” Shanna echoed. “She’s awake?”

  “I’m a bit fuzzy in the head is what I am,” a scratchy voice informed them from the room’s doorway, where Becca herself was leaning on Felicia as she ventured inside. “You’ll have to excuse me. I’ve been out of it for about a week now.”

  “It’s good to see you on your feet,” Valor greeted her.

  “It’s good to be on my feet,” Becca said with a smile. “I guess I have you and yours to thank for that.”

  Shanna watched as the girl settled herself into a chair and was handed a glass of water, which she held with shaky hands. She still looked pale and a little sickly, but her eyes held a spark that Shanna was happy to behold.

  “Becca was a steady source of information for us before she disappeared,” Valor revealed. “She practically grew up on the streets, so she sees and hears things most of us wouldn’t be around to catch.”

  “Yes, it’s all very glamorous,” Becca said dryly.

  “So, you’ve heard of La Faer Noir?” Shanna asked her before she could stop herself.

  Becca glanced over at Shanna before smiling. “I thought you were hunters. I can’t believe you don’t know about La Faer Noir. I’m particularly surprised at The Agency. I thought they’d have known about it, at least.”

  “It sounds vaguely familiar,” Rachel murmured.

  “It should,” Becca snorted. “It’s only one of the wealthiest global clubs around. They have senators, celebrities, probably a prime minister or two, in their pocket. No one you want to mess with.”

  “Hey, yeah,” Rachel said, suddenly excited. “I think my parents were members. They did a lot of fundraisers and charity auctions. In fact, I’m sure my father donated to them every year, attended some sort of function for them.”

  “So, what about them?” Jordan demanded.

  Becca smirked. “Well, they’re the vampires. And I mean, the vampires. And demons and werewolves and witches. La Faer Noir is built on centuries upon centuries of demon intelligence. New York is just one branch of a monster and if you ever succeed in taking it out, they’ll rebuild before you even locate the next one.”

  “Like a hydra,” Shanna mumbled. “Cut off one head and two take its place.”

  “Exactly. And, I mean, most of their members aren’t monsters, but the head of the club is...exclusively. It’s their government. If there was a head honcho vampire, head werewolf - they would be running this club, calling the shots. They have unlimited resources at their disposal.”

  “Okay,” Valor smiled tightly. “But La Faer Noir is not who we’re fighting here. It’s their check and balance system. It’s where they get a lot of their funding from. Fine. But that’s not what we’re interested in. What we are interested in is who is targeting hunters and why. And the answer to that-”

  “The Crimson Rope,” Becca said immediately.

  “S
o you can confirm this?” Jade asked excitedly.

  “Oh, yeah. And then some.” Becca took a sip of her water before looking around at them all, as if savoring the suspense she was subjecting them to. “About two weeks ago, I caught wind of a rave. It’s almost the perfect set-up. No advertising aside from word-of-mouth and fliers. Low expenses. They’re always a little out of the way to avoid police notice. And they’re full of the young, the fit and the stupid. It’s a freakin’ buffet.”

  “So, this rave was…” Jordan prodded her along.

  “Sponsored by the black flame,” Becca looked over at him. “And La Faer Noir wouldn’t cater something like this. It’s totally The Crimson Rope’s calling card, using their cut of government funds, thus the sponsorship. I assumed they put that whole bit about the black flame on the fliers to warn away any young monsters. That or invite them to the feast.”

  “Assumed? As in past tense? You don’t think that any more?” Jade clarified.

  “Yeah. I went to the rave to check it out. I snuck around and a few kills later, snuck into a control room of sorts and stayed hidden there for awhile. There were video monitors all over one wall, labeled circuit breakers along another. Everything wired to that room. Then this red-head comes in, acting like she owns the place, asked if any hunters had been spotted yet, and there’s my face on one of the monitors, freeze-framed.”

  “Whoa,” Rachel gasped. “You’re saying that they put that ‘sponsored by the black flame’ bit on the fliers to lure hunters there?”

  Becca nodded. “I’d been to a Crimson Rope surprise party once before, so I knew that the fliers were new. It certainly got my attention though, didn’t it? I was expecting some big kills.”

  And stupid me, Shanna thought to herself with a shake of the head. I was there for a night of fun. Walked right in to that one. Literally.

  “So then,” Becca continued, “Vampires would go in and out of the room, asking questions, giving reports, bringing in food. It made me nervous, you know? I wasn’t sure I was going to get out of there. I mean, there were a lot of creatures. And there I was still freeze-framed on that one screen. Anyways, a lil’ while later, she tells them to lock the doors and make the announcement. Then, they watch one of the screens for awhile, trip the circuits and the place is in chaos.”

  “You were captured?” Felicia asked.

  “Not right away. I escaped and laid low for awhile.” She turned to Valor with a sheepish grin. “Sorry, but I couldn’t risk exposing myself to make contact. I’d been marked.”

  Valor nodded for her to continue.

  “So, over a week ago, I go out to get some food and I’m spotted. I thought I lost the vamp, but when I got back to my place, those goblins weren’t too far behind.” She threw up her hands. “And that’s it.”

  There was a short silence following Becca’s relation of the story, a silence ultimately broken by Amelia.

  “So,” the sorceress said slowly, “We definitely have a face to our enemy. The Crimson Rope. We stop them, we’re safe. At least for now.”

  Shanna looked around at the other hunters’ excited faces. She was a little unsure about this. Everyone else seemed really pumped though. Could they be right? Could they end the threat with the downfall of this...little group? It seemed too easy.

  “Now, it’s not that simple,” Becca explained, as if reading Shanna’s thoughts. “The Crimson Rope has some notorious vampires in its folds.”

  “Scarlet Fever,” Jordan snarled.

  Becca blinked. “Yes, I think I heard someone call her by that name.”

  “So,” Rachel ventured slowly, “We get into this rented mansion, stake the baddies and we’re home free. What have we got to lose here?”

  “You mean, besides your lives?”

  “We can hold our own.”

  “How do we get into this party?” Jordan asked.

  Becca shook her head. “You won’t. Unless you’re invited.”

  “Well, that will give me an in,” Rachel spoke up.

  Valor watched her as she slowly let out a breath of smoke. “How’s that?”

  “My parents enrolled me in everything from Triple A to their elite diamond club. I’m sure I’ve got a membership to La Faer Noir, if they hawk memberships for financing. And if this group’s raising money at this charity ball thingy, they’ll probably take any donators La Faer Noir will throw their way.” She paused. “And my parents never liked hearing the word ‘no.’ I can make some calls.”

  “All right, Rachel!” Brett beamed.

  “So, Rachel goes in with a date, and so does Shanna,” Jordan said. “What about the rest of us?”

  “You’re all going in,” Valor said confidently. “It just may take a little creative tweeking for that to happen. I’ll get the scholars on it immediately.”

  Shanna nodded to herself, excited to have a plan of action in place. She wondered briefly what destroying this group would consist of. Setting off plastic explosives? Destroying the head? So much for diplomacy in the modern world.

  “That’s that,” Valor announced. “Everyone meet back here tomorrow morning. Ten sharp.”

  Shanna stood up abruptly and quickly sought Felicia and Cameron. She felt awkward about what she had to say, but she needed to relay her thoughts. “Look, I never got to thank you guys for the whole thing that went down in that alley. I just want you to know that…I owe you one, okay?

  Felicia and Cameron looked at each other, equally embarrassed.

  “It was really nothing,” Felicia assured her. “We have to have each other’s backs, you know? That’s what this is all about.” She shook her head. “Anyways, I’ll see you guys tomorrow, same bat time, same bat channel.”

  She left Cameron and Shanna to themselves, the former beaming from the speech.

  “You didn’t have to thank us,” Cameron told her. “It think it’s pretty much assumed that that’s what we’re doing here.”

  “I know. I just…felt I needed to acknowledge that bond as teammates. It seems important and…well, Jordan saved me at Styx. I’ve been screwing up at every turn and I just feel like I’m getting in the way, I guess.”

  “Hey, hey,” Cameron cupped her chin and forced her eyes to meet his. “You are not in anyone’s way here. It’s an adjustment period, that’s all. Okay?”

  Shanna nodded, not trusting herself to speak, but feeling better than she’d felt all day. She looked over toward Valor and was startled to find Becca staring at her. The moment their eyes met, the other hunter looked away, blushing, and leaving Shanna feeling awkward.

  She’s probably just wondering how you were getting into the ball, she told herself. No one elaborated. She cocked her head and looked back at the girl. But then again, she never asked.

  ***

  Standing at the window of her hotel room, Shanna watched the dark outside as her thoughts toiled within her. Natalia had come by earlier to make arrangements with Amelia. The two of them would be meeting hours before the others were to convene in the morning, to carry out their own separate mission. She wondered briefly how often Natalia performed such feats. Probably fairly often. She had to have been held in high regard with The Agency as their pet spy, which made her wonder why Valor hadn’t entrusted the girl with the notion of them being outed. Did she fear Natalia would rebel? Or that there was simply no need to relay the information to her? Shanna sighed. She probably did know. She should just ask the girl and be done with it so she wasn’t worrying over it. It would feel good to talk to someone about it after all, and Felicia was too close to Valor to lend Shanna a comfortable ear.

  In the end, it doesn’t matter, she told herself. They’re out. They walked into that bar, and have to deal with the consequences now.

  “What are you thinking?” Amelia asked as she stirred a clay jar with finality and began to pour a mixture of salt and herbs in a circle around her bed.

  Shanna wrinkled her nose. “And you would be doing…?”
r />   “Just creating a circle of protection. I always do it when I go to sleep. That way, no one can do me any harm when I’m most vulnerable.”

  “That’s a…neat trick.”

  Amelia glanced up at her quickly before finishing the job and settling down amid the sheets. “So, you haven’t answered my question. What troubles young Shanna Hunt, monster fighter extraordinaire?”

  Shanna shrugged. “I don’t know. Life, I guess. What we’re doing here. Stuff like that.” She turned away from the window and slithered into her own bed, flicking off the bedside light. She allowed the darkness to settle over her. “Do you ever wonder what life would be like if you...took more risks?”

  Amelia shifted in her bed. “More risks? Like how do you mean?”

  “I don’t know. I just look at a guy like Damien and wonder what my life would be like with him.”

  “Are you having doubts about Cameron?”

  “No, I just...I just wonder is all. I mean, Cameron and I...aren’t even together officially. But what if we’re not supposed to be? How do people ever pick the right path? There are just so many ways to go.” She paused. “And, well...I kind of forgot about Cameron tonight after the whole thing with Damien. Is that normal? Do girls forget their crushes when they meet handsome strangers? You’d think they’d at least be in the back of their minds, as...I don’t know, guilty phantoms or something, you know?”

  “Yeah. I...I don’t have an answer for you, Shanna. I think life is supposed to be like this. Kind of feeling your way through it, fumbling in the dark. You could take more risks, but...why would you? More excitement? A feeling of something grander? Whatever you choose is how things are supposed to be. You don’t get to know the ‘would have’s’ or ‘should have’s.’ Just the repercussions.”

  “Yeah.” Shanna sighed and stared up at the ceiling. “How many other people do you think have been right here, looking up at this ceiling?”

  “I don’t know, but they certainly haven’t been having conversations about the things we have. Our lives are exciting, fulfilling. You should be happy about that, at least. We’re not ordinary, insipid.”

  “I am grateful,” Shanna told her.

  “Your friend…Kelly, was it? You must miss her a lot yet.”

  Shanna looked through the screen of darkness at the other bed. “I do. She was an ordinary girl. But she was also extraordinary. And happy. I wish I could be happy like that.”

  “She didn’t have her parents ripped from her at an early age either, I’d wager. We do what we can with the cards we’re dealt. I, for one, have no regrets.”

  “I wish I had your confidence.”

  “You’ll get there. You just need a little encouragement. Don’t compare yourself to the rest of us. It’ll only hold you back.”

  “I…yeah. Thanks for the pep talk.”

  Amelia chuckled. “Anytime. Goodnight, Shanna.”

  “Goodnight,” she murmured in return, welcoming oblivion.

  ***

  Shanna was in a tunnel. A light was fast approaching. Or rather, she was fast approaching a light. The sun. Yes, so near the top of the tunnel now that she saw the bricks illuminated by its rays. The bricks of the...well. Yes, it was a well. She was flying above the well now. No, hanging was more like it. She was suspended over it, like her fate was being considered. Then she fell, right back into the well she’d ventured out of. But this well seemed older, more eroded. Hadn’t it been restored a moment ago?

  “The Turks have arrived,” a woman whispered as she passed by Shanna in the castle‘s silent, dark hallways. “We must take our leave of this place immediately.”

  “But what of his majesty, M’lady?” Shanna asked, suddenly aware that she wasn’t herself, but another woman. She was wearing a green cloak and had her hair up off of her neck, exposing it to the cool night air that blew in from the narrow open windows. It felt lovely. The Turks could wait. They would never capture her. They wouldn’t be able to lay a finger on her.

  “Yes, we will rouse his majesty and be off before they realize we have gone.”

  A perfect opportunity. The opening she’d been waiting for.

  Shanna felt herself move forward, pulled by the body she inhabited, and point out of the window that overlooked the river behind the castle. “The Turks have surrounded us, M’lady. I’m afraid it is too late for escape.”

  The woman pushed Shanna out of the way of the window and stared out into the night, searching the surrounding forests, the river. She made out the reflection of torchlight reflected in the water, but beyond that, all was still. “Are you daft? Those are merely reflections of our own sconces.”

  As the woman turned to face Shanna, she was greeted with a rough shove that sent her flying back out of the window. To the woman’s credit, she clung to the ledge for a moment before Shanna pounded it with her fist, only screaming as she was a few feet above the river. Then, lovely silence once more.

  “I heard a scream,” a guard suddenly appeared. “I thought it was the princess.”

  The princess. Yes, Shanna thought. That’s who it had been. A shame, to be sure.

  “She was hysterical!” Shanna suddenly found herself sobbing. “She claimed that the Turks were coming.”

  “That they are,” the guard confirmed, nodding for her to proceed.

  “She said there was no escape and she’d rather...rather die than be taken.”

  The guard’s eyes widened. “Are you saying....?”

  “The princess is dead! She leapt to her death! She’s...she’s gone.” Shanna paused. “You must wake his majesty. Get him to safety. Tell him nothing of this matter until we’re far away from here.”

  The guard nodded. “Yes. Yes, that is...that is wise, Diana.”

  Diana. Of course she was Diana.

  Diana watched the guard’s retreating form and glanced once more out the window at the river below. She smiled to herself, congratulating her performance. “Wise, indeed.”

 

  Chapter Seventeen

   

  “Were you able to liberate the magick detector?” Natalia demanded, searching Amelia’s person for the device.

  Amelia shrugged and gestured back over her shoulder.

  Rachel appeared, smiling brightly into the van at Natalia, the magick detector strapped over a shoulder. “Surprise.”

  Natalia stared for a moment before turning away, making Rachel unsure of whether she were conceding to her presence or just irritated.

  “Don’t blame Amelia,” Rachel told her, climbing into the van. “I wouldn’t let her have the device without my involvement. I can be a pest.”

  “You don’t say,” Amelia clambered up front and brought the van to life.

  “So,” Rachel said, taking a seat beside Natalia. “I hear we’re going to bag us a witch.”

  Natalia looked up at her solemnly. “This is not a game.”

  “I...I know that. Look, Natalia, I just want to help. Really. I just hated the idea of staying in my room when you guys were going on some adventure. This is what I’m here for. I’m at your disposal. Just tell me what you want me to do.”

  “It’s positively scary when she attempts to sound reasonable,” Amelia muttered from up front.

  Rachel sighed.

  “Refrain from getting in the way and do not stray from my instructions,” Natalia told her.

  “Got it,” Rachel brightened. “So what’s the plan? And why did it have to be done so damn early?”

  “I presume to borrow this witch’s identity for an evening to infiltrate the party. Amelia will charge me with magickal energy so I don’t raise any eyebrows when I enter the mansion, because I hold no doubt that they will be perusing for magick and glamours at the doors. Then, I proceed to take out the creatures checking the guests that walk through the doors so Amelia has no problem coming in, with the magick she exudes.”

  “But how is Amelia going to get in without an invitation?” r />
  “You’re going to allow them entry via the garden in back. The scholars have located blue prints. You’ll be briefed.” Natalia glanced out the window. “It’s right around here. Amelia’s group picked Shanna up to rush her to the hotel, so she’s aware of which alley the devoura goblins communed in.”

  Rachel nodded, amazed at the amount of words pouring from Natalia‘s mouth. It was more than she’d heard from the hunter in a week.

  “You’ve secured an invitation to the gala, I presume?”

  “Of course.” Rachel smiled.

  “And Brett will be your guest?”

  “Gee, I thought Felicia was the only psychic.”

  “We’re here,” Amelia announced, abruptly stopping the van.

  Scanning the warehouses around them with a shudder, Rachel followed the others out of the van. Everything seemed sinister so early in the morning, before the sun had roused. The buildings themselves seemed to be watching them.

  “Run the detector,” Natalia ordered Rachel.

  Rachel obliged, bringing the device to life with the flick of a switch. She didn’t get any readings right away, but as they got closer to a nearby alley, the gauge indicated that they were picking up greater and greater amounts of magick.

  Natalia walked ahead of them, scouting for danger as Rachel followed, with Amelia taking up the rear at a distance to keep from upsetting the machine. A little ways into the alley, the detector blazed into the red for a moment, before falling down the scale minisculy.

  “This spot has the highest reading,” Rachel informed them, pointing the machine at a blank, brick wall. “Maybe this is where she used her magick on the goblins?”

  Approaching her position slowly, Natalia fixed her eyes upon the wall, as if scrutinizing it. A tug of a smile was coerced when she was before it, and she reached out to turn her hand in the air as if a doorknob were present, when all Rachel could see was air before the bricks. That changed, however, as Natalia pulled upon that invisible doorknob and the air shifted and shimmered like hot air from a radiator. Before she knew what she was seeing, Rachel perceived a door before her, materializing so suddenly that it drew the breath from her lungs.

  “Whoa,” Rachel breathed. “That is...something.”

  Natalia ducked into the doorway stealthily, Amelia following her with a wink. “A glamour. Don’t knock the magick.”

  Shaking her head in wonder, Rachel examined the door quickly before filing in after them. It was dark within. She could barely make out Amelia’s head of red hair before her, let alone keep from brushing up against crates and cobwebs that set her nerves on edge. “It’s filthy in here,” Rachel muttered. “What kind of a witch doesn’t know a spell to clean up a bit?”

  “Ever see Fantasia?” Amelia retorted.

  The room was suddenly flooded with light. Rachel blinked stupidly until her eyes pivoted to a woman a few feet ahead of them, atop a set of stairs. She had raven black hair pulled back into a French twist, a gold needle sticking out of the bundle of hair. An orange robe concealed any indication of what weapons she boasted, however the devoura goblin at her side was indicative enough that she meant business.

  “How thoughtful of you to drop by,” the woman said, smiling maliciously.

  “Yeah, just keep bringing on the super villain cliches,” Rachel replied, forcing a grin upon her face to hide her fear. She glanced at the others and suddenly realized that Natalia was nowhere in sight. Only Amelia and herself were in the witch’s view.

  “You are the ones that destroyed my pets.”

  “Friends of ours, actually. We’re just here to finish the job.”

  The witch smirked. “Yes. You seem a little ill-prepared for that feat. But before I turn you into toads, I insist that you explain that device strapped to your back. You used it to find my lair, yes?”

  “Toads?” Rachel scoffed, ignoring the question. She looked at Amelia with disbelief written over her face. “Are you kidding me? Don’t get out much, do they?”

  “I grow weary of your words.” The witch sighed and a blue light suddenly appeared in her left hand. “I think I’ll just destroy you.” She tossed the blue light at them before Rachel could react.

  Amelia was prepared for this, however, and holding her hands together with only her index fingers pointed out, like a gun, she whispered an unintelligible word and the blue light dispersed before it reached them.

  The witch looked as surprised as Rachel felt. “What is this? A witch hunting down a witch?”

  Amelia laughed. “I am no witch. I haven’t been tainted by darkness. I have a strong will.”

  “Oh? We’ll see about-”

  The witch was abruptly cut off as Natalia pinched a fold of skin in the woman‘s neck from behind. The witch went limp without so much as another word. A quick jab into the devoura goblin’s body with a dagger, and that problem was dealt with as well.

  It all happened so quickly that Rachel could barely follow the events. Indeed, she hadn’t even seen Natalia creep up behind the woman. She was grateful, however, as they joined Natalia at the feet of their fallen adversary.

  “Disrobe her,” Natalia ordered Rachel.

  Rachel nodded and complied, intrigued as Natalia set a plastic device up against the woman’s face.

  “What is that thing?” Amelia asked.

  Natalia glanced up at her. “It will record the woman’s features so an exact glamour can be created. Now, observe the woman’s energy signature so you can replicate it for me tomorrow night.”

  Amelia sighed and examined the witch.

  Looking down at the robe she’d gathered from the woman, Rachel folded the garment above a grotesquely tattooed body. Strange symbols and words were jumbled all across her flesh among several pentagrams and pitchforks. For some strange reason, she felt pity for this woman. She seemed more a victim, a brainwashed lemming, than the evil creature she knew her to truly be. She would have killed them if she’d had the chance. Yet, she just seemed small and insignificant, lying there unconscious. Helpless. Rachel felt guilty, dirty even, for taking advantage of her.

  Natalia stood up. “We are finished here.”

  Rachel moved to follow her, sending one last look back at the witch. She shook her head to shrug off her guilt and slipped out the door.