Night Cries (Hunters of the Dark #2)

by Dave Ferraro

  Shanna felt awful. He was still scarred. He’d been scarred for the last five years, but had been hiding it from everybody. But he couldn’t get close to someone without them feeling it. He must have felt so terribly alone. And she’d had no clue. She’d kissed his lips, but never touched his face. She recalled moments when she would reach up to cup his face, tousle his hair…how he’d always be ready for her, catching her hands, holding her back, keeping her at a distance. It must have been so hard for him to have done that, moving so slow in their relationship because he was afraid of her finding out and thinking that he was repulsive.

  “I’m sorry,” Cameron said. “I’m sorry I lied to you. I wanted to tell you. I wanted someone to...to really know, for once. I’m just a weak, pathetic freak.”

  Shanna’s heart went out to him and she wrapped her arms around him once again, drawing him close to her. She put his head to her chest and let him cry, tears dampening her shirt.

  “I’m the one who’s sorry, Cameron. You must feel so lonely.”

  She stroked his hair until the tears stopped coming and he pulled away from her.

  “I didn’t want to lead you on,” Cameron told her. “I feel awful for doing it. I just didn’t want you to know...what I am.”

  “Cameron,” Shanna said, looking him in the eyes. “You are a beautiful, beautiful person. No matter what you think. I still l-” She paused and smiled. “I don’t want to say ‘I love you.’ I hardly know the real you. But I do have strong feelings for you. They’re not going to go away because of this. I’m here for you. I want you to tell me everything, okay? Relationships are hard and full of hard truths. If this is the worst you can throw at me, we’re going to be very, very happy together. I don’t care that you’re scarred. I care that you feel for me like I do for you.”

  Cameron nodded, taking a deep breath. “Shanna, I was so scared that you’d...run off. That you’d hate me.”

  “Oh, I could never hate you.” She looked over his face again. “Can I...see your face? Your real face?”

  Cameron froze for a moment. “I…I don’t…I mean, I’m very sensitive about it. I don’t want…you to see me like that every time you look at me. I’ve always been a very vain person. I was handsome. And…I still am very vain. I want you to see me and see a boyfriend you never want to leave. That you’re not disgusted with.”

  Shanna shook her head. “Cameron…”

  “Wait,” Cameron interrupted. “I’m not saying no. I just want you to be sure that this is what you want. I don’t want to hide anything from you again, so if you want to see me, I’ll let you see me. But…are you really ready for that?”

  Shanna searched his eyes for a moment before nodding. “Yes. I am.”

  He looked skeptical for a moment, but he whispered beneath his breath and his face wavered and the illusion dropped away.

  Shanna looked at his face with a smile frozen upon her lips. There were three angry pinkish-red scars diagonally positioned over his face. The skin looked to have bubbled up over the claw marks, but that was just how they’d healed. The right side of his face was also missing part of its cheek near the corner of his mouth. She could see the teeth beyond, white and strong.

  Cameron was watching her intently, obviously worried about how she would react. In the end, she leaned forward and kissed him on the mouth. Not just a soft, gentle kiss, but a long, deep kiss, her tongue swiveling into his mouth freely, her hand on his left cheek.

  When she finally pulled back, she was still smiling. “See? That wasn’t so bad, now was it?”

  Cameron smiled back at her, painfully aware of how his right cheek made him look ghoulish when he did so.

  “And now,” Shanna said. “No secrets between us.”

  Cameron laughed lightly before whispering his glamour into being once more. “I promise. No secrets.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  As Jade watched Todd split a wire, her mind wandered and she wondered how Jordan was doing at that moment with the research. They were closer now than they’d ever been in their lives growing up, having the same goals, the same vendettas, hunting together as a team. It was funny how they fought in their own ways - Jordan with his gentle, prodding manner and Jade with her rough, shoot-’em-up attitude. Jordan was way too queasy about fluids and dissection to do what she did for The Agency in the infirmary. She felt like she was protecting him from it in a way by taking it upon herself to make these discoveries. Protecting him like she hadn’t been able to do for their parents.

  She sighed. She hoped Jordan made close bonds with their friends here, maybe took a liking to one of the girls. It wasn’t good for them to only have each other. No matter how much she wanted them to be together always, they needed to gradually move apart from one another. Always in each other’s lives, but at more of a distance. She couldn’t protect him forever. And she didn’t want one or the other’s death to cripple the survivor. It was for their own good that they shifted some of that support to other people. That’s why she’d insisted that they hunt with others so much. To wean them both from their security blankets.

  A flash of that night came to her. They’d gotten home from soccer practice late. Jordan had been complaining once more about the crap he’d gotten from her being on the team, the only girl. His embarrassment.

  “I just wish you’d act normal. Be a fucking cheerleader or something,” Jordan had sneered. “The guys call you a dyke, you know.”

  Jade had laughed in an easy manner, not letting on to the fact that this disturbed her, the idea of people knowing about her. She would really become an embarrassment to him if people found that secret out. But she loved to get rough, loved to feel her muscles working hard, growing sore. She loved that inevitable exhaustion that settled in her bones after a game. And to be completely honest, she loved how powerful, how invulnerable, she felt when she beat the boys, showed them up. She held a little grudge against them for their easy lives, having the opportunity to have the girls without becoming a joke. They never had to really work for it, keep their desires in check. They could be as blatant as they pleased. It really pissed her off sometimes. It was the most satisfying experience being provoked, then being admired in the end for her successes. It sure shut them up quick. It also festered a resentment in the boys that inevitably was thrust in Jordan’s face. But that couldn’t be helped. She didn’t want to give up her sport because of that, did she?

  Jordan had been the one to open the door. He’d stepped inside and froze. He’d looked around in a startled, confused manner and put a hand up to his face. He’d run inside.

  Jade had followed, frightened by his reaction. She was infinitely more frightened by what she’d seen. The first thing that had struck her was the smell. It was nearly tangible in its potency, choking her, gagging her. Like tin on her tongue. But seeing the blood firsthand was worse. Blood adorned the walls, as if splattered upon it; buckets of paint being emptied. She’d walked into the room only to have her shoes sink into the soaked carpeting.

  “No, no, no!” Jordan had screamed. He was kneeling in the blood, hands shaking uncontrollably. Didn’t he realize he was getting covered in the stuff? The police wouldn’t like that.

  Jade moved to him, kicking something out of the way. Something wet, glistening with blood. She paused. It was yellow, six inches long, and had definitely been torn from something. She stopped thinking about it and covered the distance between herself and Jordan. He was holding the upper half of their mother’s body, weeping over it, his tears mingling with the blood. The blood that was starting to dry at the edges of the puddles in the carpet, on the walls. She’d looked away, toward a corner where a potted plant stood silently. Her father’s leg lay beside it, the socks she’d bought him for Father’s Day not quite reaching the mangled tear where clean bone poked out, bright white against the crimson pool where it rested.

  She’d thrown up.
Jordan hadn’t. The show off.

  ***

  “This is boring,” Krystal sighed as she tossed a book aside and leaned back into her chair, her head lolling back to stare up at the ceiling. “Can I go with the hunters next time?”

  Hunter didn’t even look up from his book. “No.”

  Jordan smirked and continued to skim over the page in front of him.

  “Can I go see how Todd’s doing?”

  “No.”

  Krystal made a face. “You’re such a stuffy guy for what, twenty-five years old? You’re kind of like my dad.”

  “Your dad sounds like he gave you good discipline.”

  She froze and looked at him. “I…I suppose so.” Looking away, she examined a nearby bookshelf and pulled something off of it.

  Jordan, curious, craned his neck to see what she’d gotten ahold of. It was an old tape player.

  Blowing dust from the thing, she looked around for an outlet, only to be stopped by Hunter as she made an attempt to cross the room.

  “That’s none of your concern,” Hunter informed her, taking the tape player gently from her hands.

  Krystal sighed again. “Well, I’m going crazy here.”

  “If you’d like, you can go work on your studies.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “Your idea of fun is really lame, you know that?”

  “Bordering on masochistic,” Jordan murmured.

  Krystal smiled over at him for the help.

  “Fine, fine,” Hunter relented. “Go see what Todd and Jade are up to if it will alleviate your boredom for a spell.”

  “Thanks, Hunter,” Krystal said, quickly leaving the room before he had a chance to change his mind.

  “She’s a handful,” Jordan commented when she’d gone.

  “You have no idea.”

  “I don’t understand why she’s here. She was in the same van as Cameron, right?”

  Hunter looked at him warily. “Yes, but none of that’s important presently. What is important is the task at hand. You want to be able to get home, don’t you?”

  Jordan sighed. “You never really had much fun as a kid, did you?”

  “Yes, I did. I just know how to commit to an important task. And I’m no longer a child.”

  “You’re being pretty hard on everyone, yourself included.”

  Hunter seemed to ignore him this time, and slid the tape player to a corner of the desk he was working on. As Jordan watched him, he saw the scholar pause in his work to run a hand over the player. But he very quickly resumed his work as if the distraction had never occurred.

  Jordan suddenly had the feeling that there was something more to what was going on than what the scholars were letting on. Just what was Krystal’s deal? Why was she with them when she was very obviously not a scholar herself or…well, a monster of any kind? And what was on that tape player? Why were they shrouding themselves in so much secrecy?

  ***

  “These ruins are kind of creepy,” Brett commented as he followed Amelia to where she’d left Shanna, Cameron and Natalia waiting.

  “Yeah, and it’s going to be dark soon,” Ligeia informed them. “Talk about creepy. Not that the night is usually creepy here. It’s usually really nice; the hot air cools down and the stars come out. It makes for a romantic time to stroll along the beach. But without the people here, it’s just spooky. I’m used to the noises of the bars and automobiles - the night life. Now, there’s just this silence and the crashing of the waves on the shore.”

  “What are we going to do when night falls?” Serene asked, turning to Rachel. “Are we going to go somewhere you and your friends are not again?”

  Rachel looked taken aback, but quickly recovered. “Look, I’m sorry for all of the secrecy, but the less you know, the better.”

  “That didn’t make me feel better,” Ligeia commented.

  “It wasn’t supposed to. It’s just supposed to keep you alive.”

  Amelia looked back at them, a what-the-hell-are-you-doing expression on her face.

  “Okay, what is going on here?” Serene demanded. “I’m tired of being in the dark. I want to know what you know right now.” She stopped and crossed her arms over her chest.

  Sighing, Amelia walked back to them and put a hand on Serene’s arm. “Look, whatever happened to your city, to drive your friends and family away, was pretty awful. We believe there’s something at work here…something dangerous, that will explain how we've become intangible too. We just need to find it. And the less people it involves, the better, because we don’t want you to get hurt.”

  “But what about you?”

  “We can hold our own. To be honest, we deal with this sort of thing all the time. That’s why we came here. I’m sorry we lied to you, but we’re not tourists.”

  “Sorry,” Rachel shrugged when Serene turned to look at her. “She’s right. You might think of us as…paranormal investigators. We want to find out what’s going on here. It’s obviously not normal. It involves…strange elements. Most people don’t understand them.”

  “Like ghosts or something?” Ligeia piped up. “Because these ruins are said to be haunted by the elders of the town. There are strange energies at work.”

  “Right. Exactly like that.”

  “And you can locate these energies?” Serene asked.

  “Perhaps,” Amelia replied. “We need to at least try. That’s the only way we’re going to get out of here.”

  Serene and Ligeia looked at each other for a moment before nodding.

  “All right,” Serene confirmed. “We’ll accept that for now. Lead on.”

  Amelia smiled gratefully and they continued over the ruins to the same building she had gone through with Shanna and the others earlier. After making their way to the courtyard, Natalia reappeared among Shanna and Cameron and they decided that they would have to split up and systematically go through the ruins to try to find clues as to what was causing the extraordinary events.

  “I’m with Serene,” Brett immediately volunteered, followed by a similar enthusiastic outburst from Saul for Ligeia’s company. Cameron and Shanna naturally stuck together, while Amelia and Rachel paired up, leaving Natalia to go on solo, something she professed to prefer anyway.

  When Rachel and Amelia were alone within the area of ruins they would be exploring, Rachel looked back quickly the way they’d come before turning to Amelia. “I don’t like this.”

  “Like what?” Amelia inquired, her eyes shifting over to the other hunter.

  “Those two girls. Serene and Ligeia. They seem a little more…I don’t know, cunning, than they let on. Like they’re acting.”

  “You think they know more than they’re telling us?”

  “I…I don’t know what to think. Those girls, the scholars, these ruins…the whole situation feels completely out of control and I don’t like it one bit. This is one fine mess we’re in here.”

  “We can handle it. Think of whose company you’re in. Do you think anything could get the better of Natalia? If anyone here is shifty, she’s shiftier. And Hunter? Despite my own feelings toward his men, the guy really has a solid head on his shoulders. I think we can depend on him.”

  “I hope you’re right,” Rachel sighed as they stepped into a building, its roof missing, the sun creeping into corners it was never meant to illuminate. “But that Krystal chick? She gives me the heeby-jeebies.”

  “Yes. There is definitely something off there.”

  “You think so?”

  “I know so. I feel a lot of power coming from that girl. To be honest, it’s a little frightening. I don’t know what the scholars are playing at here, but they may have taken on more than they bargained for with her.”

  “What happened to Hunter’s solid head?”

  Amelia stepped over a crumbled bench and looked over at Rachel. “Despite that, he still had me tortured, didn’t he? I think he can remedy our current situation, but he
has a lot of learning to do.”

  “It doesn’t exactly make you feel very confident in The Agency, does it?”

  Amelia smiled. “Visum et Repertum, the scholars, have been around for a long time. I’m sure The Agency has a lot of resources at their disposal thanks to them. I’m just not sure it’s enough. And I’m unsure of their overall agenda.”

  “Uh…to kill monsters?”

  “Yes, but to what end? Once they’ve wiped out the monsters, their job is done? That’s that? Where’s the profit? Where’s the power? I have a bad feeling that The Agency, and Visum et Repertum by extension, want something out of this. I’m just unsure of what it is.”

  “I think you’re wrong. I think you’re seeing crazy conspiracies where there aren’t any.”

  “Let’s hope you’re right about that.”

  “And anyways, once the monsters have all been wiped out, I’m sure The Agency employees can all retire with fat paychecks into a safer world. Isn’t that enough of a reward?”

  “You forget that the government funds The Agency. I’m not sure anything will be good enough for the government.”

  “Cynical much?”

  Amelia laughed as she led them to a doorway at the back of the room. “Maybe a little. I’m just tired of playing hand puppet for a bunch of old rich white men. Anything they’re involved in makes me a little skeptical.” She touched the cross necklace that lay at the base of Rachel’s throat. “Anything.”

  Rachel looked down and shrugged. “I wear it because it keeps the vampires away. I don’t question it. It’s a tool I use.”

  “Hmmm. We don’t know each other too well, do we? Despite all of the time we’ve spent together. You don’t believe in God? That there’s something powerful out there orchestrating all of this?”

  Rachel chuckled. “You really don’t know me. I believe a pointy piece of wood through a vampire’s heart kills it. That’s what I believe.”

  Amelia nodded as they stepped out of the building and into another courtyard, this one much larger than the one they’d convened at earlier. “Huh. I wonder if this was the center of the village.”

  Rachel took in the benches skirting the courtyard, the paths that led out in all directions, and the statue of a woman at the center, imagining what it all would have looked like back in the days of the Ancient Greeks. Presently, there were vines growing over the ruins every which way, this area obviously not kept as neatly as some of the more accessible ones.