“Reveal!” Amelia suddenly shouted.
Christabel started as the door to the hallway suddenly flew open, as if a strong gust of wind had forced it.
“Shut the hell up!” Christabel demanded, already on her way to silence Amelia.
Halfway to the sorceress, however, she suddenly faltered.
“Ugh!” Christabel cried and threw herself to the ground as Shanna made out a Chinese star fly by and embed itself into the opposite wall. The monster grabbed Jade and held her up before her as a shield, glaring at the doorway.
Shanna looked up and was never happier to see anybody in her life as Natalia materialized at the door, calm and collected as usual, undaunted by the bedlam presented to her. In fact, she seemed almost bored as she took the scene in. Her blonde hair, so light that it seemed almost white, billowed behind her softly and caught the light that gleamed off of the gun she suddenly pulled out of her holster. “That was your first and last warning: let the girl go.”
“No,” Christabel huffed. “I want a car waiting for-”
Shanna was suddenly showered with warm teal blood as Christabel’s head snapped back with the bullet Natalia fired through her right eye. Watching in morbid fascination, Shanna followed Christabel’s body as it slowly teetered and fell limp to the floor, letting loose a river of teal before melting into muck.
“Took you long enough,” Amelia muttered. “Another minute and we wouldn’t have had any more reason to delay.”
“You should try asking for help a little more nicely next time,” Natalia said as she cut a shaken Jade free of her ropes.
“Mmm. I’ll keep that in mind next time I’m three minutes from getting my head blown off.”
Natalia looked at her with something of a smile, or as near as she got to producing one, before quitting the room, and leaving Jade to the job of freeing the rest of them.
Chapter Seven
“Yeah, so, you can tell the scholars that we’ve made a mistake,” Shanna told Valor, glancing back at the hidden room and the strangers examining it with utmost scrutiny. What were they looking for, anyway? She watched as a man picked something from out of Christabel’s left nostril with a tweezers. She shuddered and added “so Cameron can come home,” without even thinking.
Shanna watched the scene for nearly another minute before she realized that Valor hadn’t made any form of reply. Glancing over at the woman, she noted the cigarette burning in her hand, an inch of ash at its tip from neglect. And she had a faraway look in her eyes. Shanna knew immediately that something was wrong. A vise gripped her heart as she shuffled all of her attention onto Valor and pleaded with her eyes for things to be alright. “Valor?”
The short black hair that nearly hid the right side of Valor’s face fell to the side as she finally drew the cigarette up to her mouth with a long, time-stopping drag. She let the smoke out of her lungs with as much suspense, then looked at Shanna calmly. “There is a small problem.”
“I think we got everything we need,” a man addressed Valor. “We’re headed back to the labs.”
“Yes, fine,” Valor smiled at the man as he moved along, closing his doctor bag of horrors.
“What kind of a problem?” Shanna asked in a quiet voice. She wondered for a moment whether she had been heard or not, as no reaction was given. Clearing her throat, she repeated her question as Valor sucked on her cigarette again and nodded that she’d heard.
“Shanna, there’s no way of sending word to the scholars about this. They remain radio silent until they reach their destination. And their destination…isn’t able to receive messages. At least not frequently. They may begin…they may not realize our mistake until it’s too late.”
“Too late? What do you mean too late? Valor, we have to do something.”
“Of course, of course,” Valor waved a hand at her. “Let me think a moment.”
“What are they going to do to him? What are they going to begin?”
“Torture, of course,” Natalia suddenly appeared in their midst. “Cameron will be tortured to their satisfaction, then dissected like an animal, like a commonplace monster. Isn’t that fairly accurate, Valor?”
Valor looked irritated at the information she’d conveyed, sending Shanna a sharp look. “Yes. I’m afraid so.”
“Dissected!” Shanna cried.
“We won’t let it come to that,” Valor assured her. “They’re taking him to a facility in Europe. They will be going by boat to exercise caution; It will take them a few days to reach their destination. If we fly you out there, you should be able to intercept them.” She opened her mouth and promptly closed it.
“But what?”
“But it may take all of you to stop them.” Valor sighed. “They keep radio silence in an effort not to be deceived by the enemy’s efforts to regain their comrade. I’m afraid a hunter showing up and nicely asking them to release their prisoner will not suffice. We will have to use force to retrieve Cameron.”
“God,” Shanna closed her eyes. “What a mess. I can’t believe I…I can’t believe I let this happen.”
“It was Jade’s fault,” Valor told her confidently. “She should never have let either Cameron go without incapacitating them both.”
“But what was Cameron hiding?” Natalia wondered aloud, a finger pressed to her lips thoughtfully.
Shanna closed her eyes and summoned the moment back to her mind when the mix-up had taken place, back in the deserted streets in front of the van. God, how she wished she’d just shot him! Jade had retrieved the magick detector and found a strong reading on Cameron, indicating a glamour or…or something. God, had he been framed? Had someone planted magick on him? The imposter had played along afterward and they’d shipped Cameron, the real Cameron, off to…to Frankenstein’s laboratory overseas. Shanna shook her head. Why hadn’t she just followed her instincts? Why hadn’t she just shot him? She would never forgive herself if something happened to him because of her stupidity. Why was she always making these mistakes over and over again? Was it just her curse? Kelly had been too much to take. This…this would be the breaking point. If she lost this…this sensitive, beautiful boy, because of her weakness at hunting, she would have to give it up. She wasn’t helping anybody by making these blunders. She was only making things worse.
“We can’t waste time here,” Valor spoke up. “Shanna, Natalia, go pack enough clothes for a week. I’ll brief the others. I want you all on a plane by morning.”
Valor taking charge made Shanna feel a little better about things as she hurried to her room, but she couldn’t help but wonder what Cameron was undergoing at the hands of these…scholars…right at that moment. He must be terrified. He must hate her for her betrayal, for delivering him into the clutches of madmen. Scholars…what kind of scholars tortured and dissected people?
They weren’t supposed to be given people.
Shanna shook her head. Monsters were animals. Why shouldn’t they be… Damien’s face flashed into her mind and she grew all the more confused. She wasn’t sure what was right or wrong anymore. All she knew was that she wanted Cameron home, safe and sound, for this mistake never to have happened.
Throwing open a suitcase in her room, Shanna began to pull clothes from hangers, paying little attention to coordination. Realizing she held a soft blue cotton t-shirt, she sat on the edge of her bed and held it up to her cheek. Cameron had mentioned how he’d liked how the shirt felt, when they’d been shopping in New York. He’d kept pretending he couldn’t keep his hands off of her for that reason. Shanna laughed to herself as the moment hit her with overwhelming clarity. The laughter quickly died in her throat.
“God, I can’t believe how nauseous I feel from the crap that bitch fed me,” Amelia said, opening Shanna’s bedroom door after a half-hearted knock. “Seriously, if Natalia weren’t such an action hog…” She stopped when she saw Shanna, the startled look on her face, the tears streaming down her chee
ks. “Oh, honey…” Amelia rushed over to her friend and put her arms around her. “Honey, it’s…it’s going to be alright. Cameron will be fine. He’ll be just fine.”
Shanna nodded as she buried her face in Amelia’s chest, embarrassed by the weakness she was showing, too mentally exhausted from everything that had happened to try hiding it anymore.
***
“God, I hate flying,” Jordan mumbled with his arms crossed over his chest. “It’s so unnatural. Anything that weighs literally tons should not be able to fly.”
Jade looked back at him from the head of the private jet’s luxury seating. “Baby.”
Shanna couldn’t help but smile at that. Despite being in such a crazy, awful situation, she felt a little better being surrounded by these people. These friends.
“Should I be offended that this plane is so small?” Rachel asked loudly from the back, to nobody in particular.
Even Rachel, Shanna mused with a grin. She looked around at the lot of them and was suddenly hit with a shock - she’d been searching for Cameron’s face among them. She closed her eyes and tried to shake off her nausea. That Christabel…how could she just take his place like that, invade their lives through him? It was disgusting.
“Penny for your thoughts?” Amelia asked from the seat beside her.
Shanna shrugged. “Oh, I was just thinking about Christabel.”
Something of a dark look passed over her face before softening. “Yeah, she wasn’t the brightest bulb; She got a lot further than she should have.”
“It’s going to be weird seeing Cameron after that,” Jordan threw in from across the aisle. “Christabel was acting, building herself up for us, as him. I was having a real nice talk with him for about half an hour before Shanna stumbled in and broke it up…probably just in time. He…she was just so calculating and patient, with this…this intimate history, this humanity in general that was all feigned to tear us down at the perfect moment. It was all false. But it was convincing. Man, I’m going to have nightmares of Cameron waving a gun in my face for weeks. Even though it was all an illusion in the end…a role she disguised herself beneath.”
“Is that what you do?” Rachel suddenly asked Natalia, who sat beside her. “You know, being The Agency’s super spy and all?”
Shanna turned back to watch Natalia’s lips curve upward.
“Hope you never find out” was the response.
“Hey, I’m really sorry about Cameron,” Jordan told her with a piteous look. “We’ll be one step ahead of these guys, though. He’s as good as back.”
Shanna nodded, not trusting herself to speak. She refused to turn and look at Amelia, who’d seen her break down already. Hell, Jordan had already seen her break down too, back at Styx, after Kelly had died. They must think she was utterly useless at this point. After all, this mission was all set up to fix her mistake. She smiled reassuringly at Jordan, reminding herself that he had confided a great secret to her, about his homosexuality, about his affection for the vampire Noel. And he knew about her…infatuation with the vampire Damien. They shared something the others wouldn’t understand, because they were the same sort of experiences, the same brushes with the dark. Trust like that was earned.
“I just can’t believe how dim Christabel was,” Amelia changed the subject like a good friend. “I mean, taking that gag out of my mouth and just leaving a sorceress to weave her spells like that? Was she crazy? She was just asking to be taken down. Although…not killed, necessarily.” She glanced back at Natalia with a glare. “After all, we could have gotten a lot of information out of her.”
Natalia didn’t reply, but Shanna knew killing was second-nature to the seemingly inhuman hunter. She was raised by The Agency to infiltrate, to kill and to win at all costs. Amelia was at the other end of the spectrum: she drew strength and magick from the earth, she believed that things weren’t so black and white as bad versus evil. She thought that monsters deserved a chance and shouldn’t necessarily be shot down on sight. Shanna couldn’t say she didn’t agree with her there, especially given her encounter with Damien. Before meeting Damien however, she wasn’t sure whose side she would be on. Not that Natalia was one to kill anything that moved. She’d even left the witch Rocquele alive when she could have just as easily killed her, after stealing her identity for a night. But if things could go easier with a little blood on her hands, she wouldn’t mind spilling it, monster or otherwise.
Brett was the one of the party who was completely anti-monster. He hunted them for sport. To him, they truly were animals, nothing more.
So where did Shanna fit into things? What was her philosophy? She was so confused at this point, but…she really needed to start examining things if she was going to stop making such bone-headed mistakes, if she was ever going to be as strong as those around her.
***
The plane touched down just outside of Arta, Greece, on a private landing strip. From there, they split into groups and traveled south in two vans, along winding roads, the Mediterranean Sea off to their left, the smell of salt and damp air reinvigorating the weary travelers who’d had little sleep over the past night.
Shanna amused herself by looking out over the deep blue sea, watching as it disappeared with the horizon, and alternately moving to the other side of the van to view the majesty of the Pindus Mountains on the right, their tips silvered by snow, a stark jagged contrast to the low-lying, calm waters. She wondered at the idea of this sea emptying out into the ocean. She wasn’t accustomed to seeing the ocean, coming from the Midwest. She’d spied it in her few weeks living in New York already, but had truly been overwhelmed by its vastness upon flying overhead, across the Atlantic, seeing nothing but this great blue blanket covering the world as far as the eye could see. What a gift the ocean was. What wonders must it hold that had yet to be discovered? Shanna recalled seeing a special on Animal Planet, about the creatures found deep in the ocean, creatures that had never seen the sun. There were truly frightening things with bulbs dangling before them like fishing rods to lure stray fish for meals, large fish whose skin was all but translucent. It really was amazing what was upon the world yet to be discovered. It was amazing the places things were able to hide.
The gentle rocking of the van ultimately lulled Shanna to close her eyes and rest her head back against the stiff headrest. The others spoke in low voices, providing all the white noise she needed to drift and collect much-needed rest.
***
The air is so smoky, Shanna waved her hand before her to disperse the smoke of the club that was doing its best to choke her. Bile threatened to climb her throat as she pushed forward through the crowd of people, all painted emerald green from the laser lights of the dance floor. Her eyes burned as she shut them against the harsh environment, pushing her way blindly forward to the throbbing beat of Britney Spears, making her head dizzy and causing colors to dance behind her ears and eyelids. She could barely think in here. She ventured to open her eyes and saw that she was at the back of the dance floor. Next to the stage was the exit that led to the basement. Styx, Shanna thought wistfully. Yes, I’m in Styx. She looked back and saw a small bar, with three people sitting on the stools. Grant the vampire waved at her from behind the bar, his white towel wagging with every gesture. On one stool was a boy she barely recognized from Styx that night - a boy she’d danced with, whose lightning bolt necklace she’d used to save herself from a shape shifter. Next to him was herself, smiling gaily at the crowd around her, searching for something. She didn’t give this a second thought however. It seemed entirely natural that she should be over there as well as where she was near the exit. On the last stool sat Valor, staring at her coolly, bringing her cigarette up to her mouth, then down to her knee amid a cloud of smoke, over and over again. Each mouthful of smoke seemed to exponentially increase the smoke around them. The smoke was coming from her!
“Quit it with the smokescreen already,” Sh
anna pleaded, coughing on the ashen air. She waved her hand before her again to no avail as the smoke suddenly became too thick to see anything around her.
Quickly ducking through the exit door, the room behind her shifted to a blood red as it was shut off from her. She tried to look back, but found herself unable to. She could only see ahead of her, where she found herself on a train. Silence welcomed her as the club vanished from view. It was bright. Extremely bright. Sunshine poured into the train through the open blinds as if it were actually water pouring into a sinking car. It was suffocatingly cheery, like memories from a forgotten childhood. One she’d never had the opportunity to experience.
I remember this, she brightened. This is the same train I rode in on the way to Lime Bay, to my new life as a hunter.
“It’s not fair,” a whiny voice drew her attention to a bench where a little blonde girl sat, arms crossed in front of her to portray a pout.
Shanna walked slowly over to her, but it felt more like floating since the ground beneath her didn’t seem to exist.
“Who are you?” Shanna asked.
The little girl ignored her question. “I want my mommy and daddy. I want to go play outside.”
“But we’re on a train,” Shanna explained. “Maybe you can play when it stops.”
“It never stops. Never. It just keeps going and going.” The little girl looked up into Shanna’s face, fresh tears running down her cheeks. “But it’ll stop eventually. Just when you don’t want it to. Until then, it keeps going and going and going. You open your eyes and you’re still moving. You scream, but you’re still moving. It’ll crash one day though.”
“I hardly think -”