Table of Contents
Copyright
Title
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Thank You
Also By
Author Bio
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, locations, and incidents depicted in this work are of the author’s imagination or have been used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, locations, or events is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2017 Madison Stevens
No portion of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without the prior written permission of the author.
Cover designed by Najla Qamber Designs
Jace (Luna Lodge: Hunters of Atlas #6)
by
Madison Stevens
Conservation researcher Veronica has come to the rural town of Eagle Ridge to investigate reported animal attacks that have left pets and a man dead. The locals need the help, and she could use the data to complete her research work.
She doesn’t expect to find anything that unusual. After all, she’s been dealing with dangerous animals for years and thinks she knows the habits of desperate creatures. She certainly doesn’t expect a mutant killer.
Hybrid Jace is desperate to locate a killer Glycon his people believed already dead. They know it’s only a matter of time before the monster strikes again, costing another innocent life and exposing the hybrids to the outside world. It’s just hard to investigate the Glycon when the beautiful Veronica keeps showing up and Jace’s mind goes more to passion than the enemy.
With a ruthless enemy still on the loose and secrecy at a premium, Jace's going to have to risk it all if he wants to save Veronica and take down the monster.
Chapter One
The frigid air nipped at Jace. With each step, little billows of air escaped his mouth. He trudged through the thick snow blanketing the forest floor. The nearly full moon overhead helped guide him as he moved in near silence.
He wondered what a human would think if one ran into the two hybrids, with their bright eyes, prowling about in the dark.
Many people feared dark, cold, and quiet nights, worried on some level about hidden monsters.
Jace found it comforting. It was almost as if he was in his element.
The cold and snow didn’t seem to bother him as much as some of the other hybrids, let alone humans.
Jace wondered if in his past life he had lived somewhere cold. It was so hard to tell when there was nothing to go on with his memories stolen from him by the Horatius Group. Still, instinct told him that he likely had.
He thought often about his earlier life. About what sort of man he had been prior to his capture by the Horatius Group. He wondered if he’d had a family or a wife, if they missed him when he never returned home. And just where exactly home had been.
He’d learned a lot about the world after being brought out of cryogenic suspension, but learning more about the world didn’t help him learn about his past.
As for his family, for all he knew, they’d been killed by the Horatius Group, or whatever ancient society run by the ancestors of the modern evil organization.
Even if they hadn’t been killed, they might have died long ago. He just had no way of knowing.
There were so many memories, now lost, probably forever. It was hard not to think of them when he was out on a task in the wilderness.
He wasn’t alone, but his current mission partner, Marcus, wasn’t making a lot of small talk. So Jace had a lot of time to think.
His self-reflection was more about simple curiosity than anything else. He wanted to know the answers, but most days he didn’t care that much or even think about it. After all, they had plenty of threats to worry about in the here and now.
Obsession over the past consumed many of the other hybrids at the compound. They remained tortured by the ghosts of their past lives.
Jace took things as they were. Whatever man he was before likely shaped who he was today. And if it didn’t, then he had been given a second chance to get things right. No matter how special the hybrids were, no matter what ancient and powerful blood they carried in their veins, the past was forever beyond their reach.
Marcus moved in and flanked him from the left. For a moment, Jace had nearly forgotten about the other hybrid. Considering how hard Marcus liked to ride him in normal circumstances, Jace was surprised that could even happen.
Maybe the older hybrid’s recent experiences had tempered him. He’d finally bonded with his Vestal.
Still, it wasn’t a totally happy experience, they’d been attacked by a strange Glycon. While most of the Horatius Group’s monsters were men who’d been made more bestial and stripped of most thoughts, the rogue Glycon seemed to have retained some measure of intelligence.
Marcus had defeated it, only barely, with the help of some breaking ice and a frozen-over pond.
They still weren’t sure what the Glycon showing up meant. Some of the evidence suggested it had nothing to do with the Group, but the coincidence was very strong.
Today’s trip was a little follow-up. They weren’t sure how much information they could glean from a dead Glycon, but the leader of the hybrids, Rem, had made it clear they couldn’t just leave it there.
After all, even if they couldn’t get any intelligence from it, they couldn’t leave the body there for humans to find when spring arrived and melted all the ice.
The locals had been crawling all over the area because of the murder of the man who owned a nearby cabin. They’d chalked it up to a wild animal killing the man, but they’d be able to put two and two together if they found the Glycon’s body.
Marcus held up a hand. Jace halted.
Ahead the tree line stopped right next to the embankment of the large pond, the frozen-over grave for the Glycon. The bright light of the moon shimmered against the white snow.
Jace frowned at a path of tracks that cut through the otherwise undisturbed snow. The weather had improved compared to the blizzard of a few weeks prior, but they’d received more than a few inches since then, including snow the previous night.
“What the fuck?” Jace said as he leaned down to examine the prints. “Bare feet?”
Not boots, not shoes. Not hooves. Not paws. Bare human feet.
No. Something was wrong. The tracks were larger than a normal human foot, with more than a hint of long nails. The depth of the compacted snow suggested whatever made the tracks weighed a lot more than a typical human as well.
He scratched his eyebrow. A single set of tracks led to the pond and then back from the pond. Given the snowfall the night before, it suggested that whatever had made the tracks had made them within the last day.
There was one strong contender for the source of the tracks, and it didn’t bode well for either the humans or the hybrids in the area.
“I thought you said the Glycon was dead,” Jace said, looking up to Marcus.
Marcus glared down at him. “It was.”
“What made these tracks then?”
“What, you think it just held its breath for several weeks in freezing cold water?” He let out a low growl. “No, it was dead.”
Marcus stormed out into the middle of the pond and stopped, his bright blue eyes narrowing. Jace stood and made his way over to see just what the angry hybrid had found.
Not more than half-way there, Jace spotted broken ice. Snow lay around it, as if something blocked the flakes from the most recent snowfall. When he’d reached Marcus, he could see the worry on his face.
“It was dead,” Marcus said, shaking his head. “I don’t care if it was different than other Glycons, there’s no way it could have survived down there for that long.”
Jace stared down at the water through the hole. “Maybe the police found him.”
If the human authorities had found the Glycon, the hybrids were in for a world of pain. And if the Horatius Group didn’t know where they were, they soon would.
Marcus shook his head. “It would have been on the news.”
A small measure of relief started to shoot through Jace, but a more disturbing possibility pushed it back.
Jace shrugged. “Not if the Horatius Group got to them first.”
“We don’t know if the Glycon had anything to do with the Group. It said it wasn’t from the Group.”
“And what if it lied? What if it’s part of some plan of the Group?”
Marcus stood there, rigid and unmoving for several seconds until he finally turned to stare at Jace. “So we may have a super-charged Glycon that has come back from the dead on the loose, and the Horatius Group may be in the area,” he said, his voice practically a growl. “Damn it. We need to get back to the compound and tell Rem.”
Jace nodded his agreement. Whatever this was, they were all in terrible danger.
Chapter Two
Veronica sat outside in her car trying to compose herself before getting out. This was it: the final investigation she needed for her paper.
The paper would put her over the top and finally land her a full-time conservation job with the Department of Fish and Wildlife. She loved her internship, but she swore some of the animals in the area probably got paid more than she did. Her college debts were mounting, and minimum wage wasn’t going to cut it.
A stack of folders sat beside her in the passenger’s seat. Veronica reached over and pulled the top one out and flipped through it one final time.
Nothing super-interesting. Just a little summary of the area.
Eagle Ridge. Small town. Not densely populated, but with enough people that most local large wildlife avoided the city limits.
This was the farthest she had traveled from her university. Before, she’d mostly been sticking to the small rural areas near the school, but a few internet alerts to her e-mail about the town caught her attention.
With a recent attack on a local man and reports of several missing dogs and cats, everything pointed to the involvement of a large predator in an area that had been missing them for years.
Veronica couldn’t have come up with a better scenario to test some of her theories about animals retaking their land in the clash between man and animal. This was also potentially a perfect opportunity for her to test out her concept about using sound to create an invisible barrier around relatively isolated places such as Eagle Ridge.
First though, before she could begin to plan any sort of field tests, she needed to learn more about the nature of the animal attacks in the area. She didn’t have a lot of resources to waste on improperly calibrated tests.
She looked up from the paperwork and stared at the mountain home in front of her, the moonlight illuminating the structure in the darkness of the early night. The picturesque surroundings still left her in awe.
Maybe it wasn’t the wisest thing to go driving at night to a remote location after a fresh snowfall, but she wanted to scope out the area both at night and in day, and since she had some time to kill, it seemed like a good idea.
Besides, with the white snow reflecting the moonlight, the darkness had been pushed back enough that she felt safe.
Now, looking at the house, she was far enough away from the city center that it almost felt like she was in the middle of nowhere. Veronica could understand why people would choose to live this far outside of a large city. This sort of beauty couldn’t be found where she’d lived most of her life.
Not wanting to waste any more time, Veronica climbed out of the car into the cold night air and made her way to the house. She lightly rapt on the door and smiled brightly when an older woman answered.
The woman gave her a quick up and down before meeting her gaze. It was always the same thing no matter where she went. For some reason when people saw her, they assumed there was nothing going on up top.
Maybe it was her honey blond hair, which she liked to keep in a ponytail or her short stature. Her busty frame that was about fifteen pounds too heavy didn’t seem to help her much. All anyone saw was a big-titted blond bimbo.
Veronica ignored the urge to reach out and slap the ever-loving piss out of the woman. Instead, she made sure her bright smile stay plastered on her face. No reason to annoy a possible research resource.
“Hello,” Veronica began. “Ms. Lewis, I presume? Sorry to call on you so late. My name is Veronica Deacon. I’m a conservation intern with the Department of Fish and Wildlife. I’ve been told you had a pet that disappeared recently. I’d like to ask you some questions about that.”
The woman scowled at her. “It’s about time someone came out here,” she snapped. “I sent in my report a week ago when Mr. Fluffy went missing. I thought maybe I’d have to wait a day or two, but not so long.”
The woman stepped inside fully and then nodded for Veronica to come inside. She stepped into the warmth and was glad she wasn’t being forced to ask all her questions outside.
Veronica flipped open the notebook she was carrying and scribbled the name Mr. Fluffy on the page.
“And Mr. Fluffy was your cat?”
The woman stared at her as if she’d just sprouted another head. “Of course he is. Don’t you people pay attention when a report has been made? No wonder it took so long for them to send someone.”
Veronica resisted the urge to flip off the old bag. “I apologize. We’re not always given all the information, so it’s necessary to verify everything.”
Ms. Lewis nodded, though the scowl didn’t totally leave her face. She picked up a picture frame off the mantle. She stared at it for a moment before handing it over to Veronica. A white fluffy cat stared back at her with a birthday hat placed on top of its head.
The cat didn’t look any happier than her owner.
“That is the most recent photo from his birthday party in November.”
That was a new one for Veronica. A birthday party for a cat. Hell, given some of the decoration in the background, it looked like it was a better birthday party than she had herself this past year.
A twinge of jealousy pinched her, and she shook it off. She needed to maintain some sort of limits.
There was no way she was going to be jealous of a cat, especially a cat that didn’t even look that happy. Veronica was fairly certain that was the first step toward insanity.
“He’s beautiful,” Veronica said. She handed the photo back to the woman.
Ms. Lewis stared lovingly at the photo, running a finger over the picture in the frame.
The sight filled Veronica with sadness. She was in town to test out a theory, but that didn’t mean she was heartless. People in the town had lost their pets. Their companions.
That sort of thing was the whole reason she’d pursued this field of research. She wanted to protect both pets and wild animals. She wanted to create a safe solution for both sides.
“And how old is Mr. Fluffy?” she asked.
“Just turned seven.”
It wasn’t uncommon to see a cat wander off in his later years. Many did that when they were close to the end of their life. But seven was far too
young for that to be a plausible explanation.
“Do you remember where you last saw him or where he liked to go?”
Ms. Lewis sniffed a little as she stepped over to the window by the porch. “He liked to sit outside in the chair,” she said. “In the winter, he didn’t go out often, but sometimes he liked to watch the birds.”
Veronica nodded. It wasn’t much to go on, but it was more than she had before.
“Thank you for your time,” she said softly. “I’m just going to take a look around. See if I spot anything. I’ll keep an eye out for him while I’m in town. He might have just been caught up in some weather and couldn’t find his way back.”
Ms. Lewis nodded. They both knew the chances of finding her cat were slim, but Veronica could see the hope in her eyes.
“Do you have any clue what might have happened? Any strange animals roaming around?”
The pain from before disappeared from the woman’s face and was replaced by suspicion.
Ms. Lewis leaned in a little this time as she spoke. “No strange animals, but if I were you, I’d start with the crazy cults that moved in down the road. I wouldn’t put it past them to steal my pet for some evil ritual.”
Veronica frowned. “Cults?”
Ms. Lewis gave her a firm nod.
Veronica hadn’t heard anything about cults, but her background research had concentrated almost entirely on the ecology of the area, and the ranges and types of animals present.
“One moved in some years back. They call themselves the Azilians. They worship Atlantis or some nonsense. Now they’re always having shifty people come out of there and trying to get the women in town to join up. I bet you it’s like some satanic sex-crazed group. Likely sacrificing the animals to Satan.”
It wasn’t the first time she’d been told something like that during this sort of investigation. Sometimes, rarely, an explanation like that even approached the truth.
Still, she didn’t want to jump to any conclusions. She’d also been involved in enough rural investigations to know that in a small town like Eagle Ridge, the rumor mill was strong. Anything odd was often assumed to be evil.
Jace: #6 (Luna Lodge: Hunters of Atlas) Page 1
