Dead of Night (Hunters of the Dark #4)

by Dave Ferraro

Chapter Fourteen

  Shanna stepped into the living room of the mansion to find Krystal, Jade and Hunter talking together excitedly. She shrugged out of her jacket as Amelia and Rachel entered the room behind her. “Hey, guys. What’s up?”

  Krystal beamed at her. “We found bodies in the basement.”

  “Bodies?” Shanna raised an eyebrow.

  “Bodies,” Hunter confirmed. “A ghost apparently led us to them, and Krystal was able to identify them in a room behind a false wall.”

  “The room is decked out with all sorts of satanic stuff,” Jade explained. “It’s really creepy. The bodies were at the bottom of a dry well. They probably pounded and screamed and tried crawling up those walls for days before they died.” She shivered. “And our little necromancer here says that she can tell that they’re a mixture of men and women, and that their deaths were all about fifteen years apart from one another, except for the newest one, which has been dead for only ten years old.”

  “Well, that’s disturbing,” Rachel said, crossing her arms. “But obviously, they wouldn’t be the students if they’re that old. Any idea why they’re here?”

  “Not yet,” Jade shook her head. “I’m going to call a team in tomorrow to retrieve the bodies, then I’ll perform autopsies.”

  “Can’t Krystal just ask them?”

  Krystal smiled thinly. “No. I can control dead bodies, but they’re just shells. And the ghost is no longer here. Once we located the bodies, she up and vanished. But those kids who are disappearing definitely weren’t killed by the ghosts. It’s something else.”

  “I would like to take a look at this room,” Amelia said slowly. “Perhaps I can make sense of it.”

  “Be my guest,” Hunter told her. “But given the symbols on the wall, I would say that someone steeped in magick is our culprit. It was also likely protected with some sort of cloaking spell or I imagine you would have felt it.”

  “I would think so,” Amelia agreed, frowning.

  “We had a little excitement ourselves,” Rachel said, filling them on their discovery about the vampires.

  “That is a rather unsettling find,” Hunter said, folding his hands in an arch before him. “We have to get to the bottom of this quickly, as well as find out about these teenagers. Krystal’s friend was most likely abducted after their date last night.”

  Shanna’s eyes widened. “What?”

  Krystal nodded glumly. “We just have to find him.”

  “Hopefully Quinn and Natalia are having successful nights,” Hunter agreed. “We need a lead desperately.”

  Amelia pulled out her phone and looked down at it before glancing around at the others. “If Scarlet Fever is actually behind the vampires, we need to know that’s the case.” She met Shanna’s gaze. “Krystal would be able to feel Scarlet’s ashes in the ruins of the building that was burned down. But since she’s here and we don’t want to waste any time, I’m going to call Valor in on this.”

  “Valor?” Shanna frowned.

  “She can get Damien or Noel involved. They could scent out the ruins, see if they can verify that her ashes are there.”

  “Do it,” Hunter agreed. “I am of the mind that Shanna is correct, given her testimony and what I know of vampire’s severe allergy to fire, which usually causes them to burn like kindling, rather quickly, but better to be safe and completely rule out the possibility.”

  They heard the front door open at that moment and Amelia went into the other room to make the phone call as Natalia appeared in the doorway, looking like a completely different person in a low-cut brown top with a lot of beaded blue necklaces of various sizes, and a short blue skirt. With her makeup and hair done the way it was, Shanna found it hard to believe that Natalia wasn’t a high school student.

  “I believe that Quentin is in trouble,” she announced.

  Shanna and Krystal exchanged looks. “What do you mean?” Shanna asked, standing straight. “What’s wrong?”

  Natalia pulled the necklaces over her head and tossed them onto a nearby table. “I caught snatches of conversation, very carefully-worded, almost in code, but it leads me to believe that the more popular students are involved in the occult, and are doing something to Quentin and another boy, Steven.”

  “Steven?” Krystal’s eyes widened.

  “Yes. There is undoubtedly someone guiding them through their actions, but I can’t get anything out of them. They’re being very tight-lipped. All I can infer is that whatever is happening is happening tonight.”

  “Well, we have to do something,” Krystal said, a note of panic threading through her voice. Shanna’s heart went out to her, given that her friend was one of the boys involved, but Shanna couldn’t help but feel more anxiety over Quinn’s disappearance. He was a hunter, unlike the other boy, but he was still new at this. He wouldn’t know how to get himself out of this situation. Shanna wasn’t sure she would be able to.

  “Can you think of anything else?” Hunter asked, frowning. “Even something that might seem insignificant?”

  “Nothing helpful to this situation,” Natalia replied. “Some of the students made reference to a man, a dark figure that they’ve seen on the lawn of the school, in the shadows, watching them.”

  “The zombie!” Krystal said, looking satisfied.

  “Perhaps. But I find it more likely that this is a ruse to throw people off their trail and blame someone for the disappearances of their classmates.”

  A loud knock sounded at the front door.

  Shanna glanced down at her watch and saw that it was nearly midnight. “That will be Eric.”

  “Eric?” Krystal echoed.

  “He can read minds. He’s helping me with something.”

  Natalia perked up. “He can read minds?”

  Shanna nodded. “Yeah. I know it’s weird, but he’s part of this group, The Athena Corps.”

  “I know of them,” Natalia said. “He would be of great help to us here.”

  “Help to us?” Shanna frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, he could read the minds of the other students to give us a location.”

  “And find Steven!” Krystal brightened. “That’s brilliant!”

  Amelia returned from her phone call with Eric in tow. “Look who showed up.”

  “Hey,” Eric said, waving sheepishly. “I thought there would be less of you here.”

  “Plans changed,” Shanna murmured. She glanced over at Natalia, who met her eyes. Sighing, she looked to Eric. “If you’re willing, we could actually really use your help with something before we get to my…other problem.”

  Eric’s eyes darted around the room before returning to Shanna. “Whatever you need.”