by Andrew Lynch
There was a jagged hole in the side of the house, with light from inside spilling out into the garden. A figure lay on the lawn dressed in pajamas. It looked like Ariel, but I couldn’t quite tell. Inside the house I saw… yes, that was indeed Johnny with a pair of Sworn Elvish daggers. I hadn’t wanted to believe it. I’d ignored the facts that were right under my nose, literally, when I met them all in the park. And I could have reasoned away the daggers. But Rel was in the room with him. Even then, I could have explained it all away. Johnny could have just been a young, rogue hunter that had won the blades from a kill. But the statue… I couldn’t ignore the gargoyle in the room. Beating on the Fiend. With the help of Johnny and Rel.
I had some questions, is a mild way of putting it. Monsters didn’t live together. Didn’t help each other. Not like this. My old commander in the Scions, who had set me up in Sanctuary, was going to be receiving a very sternly worded email.
A loud crash and a billowing of smoke came from the illuminated room as the Fiend threw the gargoyle upwards.
I gave myself a second to check my gear. Pistol in hand, check. Shotgun over shoulder, check. C4 in pouch, check. I’d added the Scion issue gorget to my impact vest since I last went out in search of the fiend - just in case I found Rel, a bit of neck protection couldn’t hurt. I automatically thumbed the pouch where my Lyfe should have been. Nothing.
I muttered under my breath. ‘No big deal. You’ve gone in plenty of times once the effects have worn off. This time, the effects never started. No big deal. Fiend, Gargoyle, Elf, Draugr, all in the same place. No. Big. Deal.’
Johnny was slammed against a wall, and stayed down. Rel moved like a blur around the plodding Fiend. I crept forwards into the garden. I moved to the fallen girl, and as I got closer, I could see it was indeed Ariel. I couldn’t see any injuries and she was breathing steadily – it looked as though she had simply fainted… How did a happy, innocent student like her get mixed up with these monsters?
Finally, something clicked in my brain. Earlier, that had been a compulsion! Not many monsters could do that. Could she be a… I tilted her head to the side and pulled back her long blonde hair. I recoiled and pointed my gun at the siren. They had been small, not properly formed, but those had definitely been gills behind her ear. Was everyone around here a monster? What kind of messed up place was Sanctuary?
But Ariel wasn’t conscious, and I had bigger problems. I turned back to the fight. Just as I did, I saw Rel slam her fist into the Fiend’s brain. Damn Draugr. That was no small feat. But Fiends didn’t care much about physical damage. Rel must have either been toying with the Fiend, or had never fought one before. I didn’t see any silver on her for the killing blow.
Sure enough, the Fiend shrugged it off, and managed to grab Rel. She struggled, but couldn’t seem to break free.
The Draugr or the Fiend? Who should I help? Surely both were mindless beasts, capable of great harm. The Fiend had left behind two corpses that the news sites had found out about. But the Draugr had hurt my son. Almost killed him. Now, my son wanted to go on a date with it. Her. Reliquiae.
I pointed my gun towards the two. Who deserved my first bullet? I could just wait thirty seconds, and the Fiend would have solved my problem for me. Somehow it had turned the tables on Rel. On a Draugr. That… was odd. I had thought she’d been playing the innocent schoolgirl routine well, but letting a Fiend consume her was real commitment.
A Siren, Elf, Gargoyle, Draugr, and Fiend. All within ten metres of each other. Maybe I didn’t know everything about what was happening here, because that still didn’t make any sense to me at all.
The first four all seemed to be working together against the Fiend, so… clearly I needed to find out more.
As if the Fiend could sense I had made my decision, it pulled Rel in front of itself, blocking my shot. It hunched down behind her. Hiding from me or ready to bite Rel’s head off, I didn’t know, but either way this was going to hurt her.
I aimed at the Fiend’s throat, the only place that would incapacitate it momentarily. It’s plague glands were hidden at the back of its neck. If I popped one, I’d stun it for long enough to finish it.
Rel’s head was in the way. There was only one choice. I didn’t hesitate. I pulled the trigger, and a second later, Rel and the Fiend fell to the floor.
After the deafening crack of the gunshot, the night was silent apart from ragged, wet gasps from the Fiend. I only had seconds, so I sprinted forwards, holstering my pistol. I jumped over Rel’s body and landed on top of the Fiend. There was a growing puddle of green slime growing behind the Fiend’s head. It stank worse than the time I’d tracked a Djinn through the sewers of Delhi. Well okay, maybe not quite that bad, but I refused to breathe through my nose.
I unzipped my impact vest, and reached inside my jacket. From my inside pocket, I pulled out my pen. I unscrewed the nib and pulled the metal inner out. Between the silver metal, the Oak heartwood, and the blessed ink, this pen was my monster-killing multi-tool.
I looked for the gaping hole in the side of the Fiend’s head, left there by Rel. Normally I’d have needed a point blank shotgun blast, or my C4 to make this hole, but I guess a Draugr fist worked just as well. I dropped the silver into the hole. It wouldn’t have done much to the Fiend’s skin, the monster would have barely noticed. But a shard of silver directly against its brain?
It bucked me off, throwing me against a wall. It convulsed and roared, but the fit was short lived, the sound dying in its ruined throat. I picked up my shotgun from the couch where it had landed next to me. It shouldn’t need anything else, but this was for good measure. Also, I’d come here to relieve some frustration. I moved as close to the thrashing Fiend as I could, and rested the butt of my shotgun against my shoulder, aiming at the monster’s head.
Three shots in quick succession. The silver would remove its ability to regenerate, stopping it from growing back its plague glands and brain. It slowly stopped moving, its head a mess of ruined skin and bone and sludge-green blood. I kicked it hard, just once, just to prove to myself that the fight was finally over, and grinned.
I slung the shotgun back over my shoulder, and zipped my impact vest back up. Time to do the rounds, and check the pulses. Johnny, the gargoyle, and Ariel, all had strong, steady beats. Just had the wind knocked out of them. I chuckled to myself as I walked around the grim scene - these young monsters seemed about as competent as young humans.
Finally I walked over to Rel. There was a small red dot, barely noticeable, right between her eyes. I felt the back of her head. I’d used piercing rounds – I used the shotgun for when I wanted collateral damage to really mean something – so the exit wound wasn’t too bad. I grabbed her arm and dragged her over to the couch. I sat down, positioning her facing away from me between my legs.
I rolled up my sleeve.
Chapter 29
Reliquiae
I jerked awake, throwing my hands in front of my face.
“Ow!” a man’s voice shouted behind me.
I spun around to see Mr. Anderton sat on a couch, blood spilling all over his hand.
I grabbed at my forehead. There wasn’t a hole. But he’d shot me! I remembered the feel of the bullet slamming into my head!
He stared at me as he wrapped his hand up in a bandage pulled from his vest.
“Hello, Rel,” he said, warily.
“‘You… you shot me, right? I remember you shooting me!”
He cocked a half smile, just like Rick’s. “I told you I would.”
“What the hell is your problem! You just shot me! Am I dead?”
“Not at all. You’re as alive as I am. It only took you a few moments of sucking on my wrist, and look, you’re good as new. I saw the hole close itself in front of my eyes. Just like the huge claw marks disappeared from your back when you… you know.”
“But… you shot me in the head!” My brain couldn’t process it. There are things you can count on in life. The tides will ebb and flow. The su
n? Probably going to rise. And a bullet in your brain will kill you. Facts of life!
“I said that I’d killed a Draugr before, remember? Well, it wasn’t the bullet that I put in its head that killed it. In fact it barely flinched when I tried that. I got worried when you fell, but a bit of my blood, and you seem fine.”
“I’m…only young. I guess,” I said blankly. What was going on? Why was Mr Anderton being – friendly? It had to be some sort of trap. Perhaps he wanted to get me to incriminate Ariel and the rest of us. But I felt too weak to focus and think this through properly.
He nodded, accepting my excuse for being slightly affected by a bullet through the brain.
“What about the others?” I asked, carefully.
“They’re alive. I would have called for an ambulance, but I needed answers first. Answers like, would you,” he waved his good hand around at everyone, “monsters want an ambulance?”
“We’re not monsters! We’re supernaturals. That Fiend was a monster!”
“I can’t say I’ve ever made a distinction before.”
He hunted us but didn’t know there was a difference? Did he know anything about us apart from how to kill us?
“So… you have four supernaturals at your mercy. Except you just brought me back to… life, or consciousness, or whatever. Why? You’re a Hunter, I’ve always been told you’d want to track us down and kill us all.” I fingered the bridge of my nose, where there should have been a bullet hole. “And, yeah, why am I still here? You hate me, don’t you? I mean, after Rick…”
“That is a very good question.”
I looked around the room at all of us. My head was foggy and sluggish, and no one else was stirring. I thumbed the corner of my mouth, and wiped away a drop of Mr. Anderton’s blood. “You already made your decision.”
He sighed. “No. Not really. But whatever it is that’s going on here, I didn’t really feel like killing children today. Assuming you even are children. I don’t know anymore.”
“I’m sixteen,” I said weakly. He grunted like it didn’t really matter. “And what’s going on here is we’re just trying to live our lives. As people.”
“Me too, kid. Me too.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and crossed his legs. He was only missing a cup of tea, and he would have been the perfect picture of civility in this wrecked room. “You know, I’ve never come across more than one monster at a time? Now I’m sitting in a room with five of you. Do you have any insights about this?”
I was pretty sure that telling him anything would be a bad idea. I wasn’t exactly sure what this whole ‘Masquerade’ thing was, but telling a hunter? However, he was heavily armed…
“‘There’s just a few of us,” I hedged.
He nodded thoughtfully. “And Tom - I mean your dad - is he…?”
“An Incubus,” I admitted.
He snapped his fingers. “Damn. I should have gotten that. And your mom?”
“Succubus. I’m adopted.’
He nodded in strange approval. “It’s nice to see a proper family unit, I suppose.”
I heard a moan and looked around to see Johnny’s head rolling to the other side. Mr. Anderton hauled himself to his feet and carefully picked out a safe path around the gently smoking green blood.
“From his daggers, I’m guessing he’s an elf?” As he said it, and as I nodded, he ran a finger behind Johnny’s ears, and tweaked a long elvish ear up from the long blonde hair. I’d never actually seen them before. They were about the same length as Mr. Anderton’s hand, and slimmed to a point. They would have stood up from Johnny’s head like antennae if the hair hadn’t kept them hidden. Normally the elvish glamour kept them hidden too, but Johnny was unconscious, so I couldn’t really hold that against him.
He squatted down next to Johnny, who was just coming around. I saw Johnny’s eyes widen as he recognized who was staring at him, and he was opening his mouth to say something when Mr. Anderton’s fist smacked into the side of Johnny’s head.
“Woah! What the hell?” I jumped to my feet. “Why did you do that? He’s harmless!”
Mr. Anderton stood back up after checking Johny’s pulse. “Rel, if there’s one thing you take away from this right here,” he said, indicating the entire mess of a room. “It’s that no elf is ever harmless. They are vicious and evil creatures.” He pointed a finger at me and caught my eyes with his. “Never forget that.”
With that, he made his way back to the couch and sat down heavily.
I heard a loud pop behind me and jumped. I looked around, and the floor was now covered in even more green goo.
“Just its second plague gland, nothing to worry about,” Mr. Anderton said absently.
“Yeah, about that,” I began. “Something’s been bugging me. How did you kill it, where all of us failed?”
“Oh, Fiends are strong and extremely resilient, but they’re not too dangerous if you know what you’re doing. I’ve dealt with plenty over the years.” He looked at me. “Come on now, did you really think a group of kids would be more effective than a trained soldier? It didn’t hurt that you punched a hole through its head, of course. That definitely made things smoother for me. I’d have dealt with it when I found it in the crypt if I hadn’t chosen to get you out of there instead.”
That wasn’t a big deal? The thing that just dealt with a gargoyle, elf, siren, and almost a draugr? I didn’t want to know what he thought was a big deal.
“So we just needed to know where to hit it?”
“Effectively, yes. Knowledge is power, and all that.”
“Knowledge is power. You know, I don’t even know why you’re so scared of me. I don’t know what a Draugr really is.” Why did I say that? He didn’t care! I must have still been fuzzy from having a bullet tear through my brain.
His mouth opened and closed a few times before he finally said, “I was never the info guy. Or tracking. I only got told what little I needed to know to finish the job.”
I slumped down on the couch next to him. Yup, this was weird, but right now, everything was weird, so what did it matter if I sat next to the man who had wanted to kill me six hours ago.
“Doesn’t matter, I guess. My parents know someone, and they’re coming soon.”
He nodded. “A monster… monster specialist? That’s a bit odd.”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. They both seem really weird about it, like they don’t really want to call her over. Some Ms. Raich. From Europe.”
He stiffened next to me and cleared his throat. “They should definitely be ‘a bit weird about it’. I know her. Used to work with her.”
“Does that mean she’s… a hunter too?” I asked.
“‘She used to be on my team. She was the researcher, yes. She also used to be my wife.”
Chapter 30
Reliquiae
“He’s blaming you,” Bhav said down the phone.
“What? I didn’t do anything!” I said. It had been a week, and so much had happened that I’d forgotten entirely about Chad. “Ooh. Wait, hold on. I mean, yeah, I saw him in The Grind. Gave him a stern talking to. But that’s it!” I considered this one of those little white lies that people wanted to hear.
“He’s annoying. He walked up to us, and Peter was about to start something, when this loser just drops to his knees and starts crying. We called him every name we could think of. In multiple languages.” I could hear the sound of the mall they were walking around in the background. “Now he’s just following us around quietly. Can you make him stop?”
I actually had no idea. Maybe I could. Did his bond to me last that long? Could I glamour him over the phone? I mean, I hadn’t been feeling hungry again, so maybe I still had some power left in me. “Put him on.”
After some muffled voices, Chad’s voice blared through my speaker. “Hey babe?”
I rolled my eyes, but unfortunately it didn’t have any effect over the phone. “Why are you following them around?”
“Saying sorry the only way I know
how. Duhh.”
“By stalking them and getting in their way?”
“Yah.”
“Okay. Well… stop?”
“No way! They’re totally starting to get used to me and accept this. Trust me, I’ve gotten loads of girls this way.”
“You’re really creepy, Chad. Put Bhav back on.”
More muffled voices, and Bhav spoke. “That didn’t sound good.”
“It didn’t go according to plan, sorry. Look, I’ll come over and help you out, but I’m really busy today. Just ignore him. The second I’m free, I’ll give you a call, okay?”
We said goodbye, and I put my phone away. I turned around. “Really sorry, guys!”
Ariel, and Erin were busy texting each other, accepting that friends needed to be contacted at any time, day or night. My mom and dad seemed less accepting.
“I do apologize, dear, if we’re getting in the way of your social life,” my mom said.
“Now, Freya,” my dad began, “you know that talking to boys is far more important than having an official parlay.”
“Oh hey, sarcasm again, what a unique take on the situation, dad.”
My mom laughed. “She’s better than you.”
Dad didn’t seem too happy about being out-sarcasmed, but I knew that his sulking wouldn’t last long. He was still feeling happy about me actually being alive and Mr. Anderton not actually hunting us down.
“Everyone ready?” I asked.
Ariel’s eyes shot up even though her thumbs kept typing. She beamed a radiant smile at me and bounced up and down.
Erin held up one finger, not saying anything. I gave her a few seconds. Still waiting…
“How’s the boyfriend, Erin?”
Another few seconds before she finally looked up from her phone. “Okay. Done. He’s awesome, obviously!”
