by Dave Ferraro
“Hunter?” Shanna looked surprised. “Hunter’s just a scholar. He’s not…I mean, not that Damien is, either. I mean…not anymore.” She stopped and shook her head. “I’m not saying this right, but I’m with you, Cameron. That’s what matters. I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you about potentially outing you and the others, but…we just talked yesterday and it didn’t seem like something I needed to bring up right away.”
“But you would have?”
“Eventually,” Shanna said with a shrug.
“And letting Damien drink from you?”
Shanna looked away. “After awhile, sure. But I don’t exactly feel too great about doing that myself.”
Cameron nodded slowly, then moved to touch her neck.
Shanna put a hand out to stop him, but he pushed her hand away and brushed her hair back to reveal the scar that Damien had left on her neck. He stared at it for a moment before looking up at the sky again.
“I want you to tell me everything,” he said. “And I want you to be mine. Only mine. It’s stupid, but anyone who gets to be with you when I don’t makes me feel like I’ve lost something. When you opted not to go to the houses with me the other day, to stay behind and do research, that made me sad. I…” He took a breath. “I want you to know me. I want you to be able to tell if an imposter is me or not.”
Shanna stiffened.
“But I’m not upset about that. We just haven’t spent enough time together. But that’s what I want. And I want to know all about you, too. What makes Shanna Hunt tick.”
“I want that, too.”
“Good. Because what I look like…under this glamour…I’m disgusted by it. But you make me feel good about myself. Almost normal. And you…god, you’re just so beautiful, and I don’t want to be jealous of the Damiens and Hunters that give you a second look, but…they don’t have the scars I do. And you’re…you.”
“Cameron…” Shanna put a hand over his. “You don’t have anything to worry about. Let’s just…enjoy each other. Get to know each other like you said. I’m yours, okay?”
Hunter smiled. “Yeah. Okay.” He leaned over and kissed her.
Shanna returned the kiss and brought her hand up to his face. She was suddenly shocked to feel the scars again, although she should have been expecting them, and suppressed a shudder. Then lost herself in the moment.
***
“Anything yet?” Hunter inquired, nearly stumbling as he slid down a small embankment where Natalia was stationed, watching the beach in diligent silence.
“No,” Natalia answered without so much as a look in his direction.
“No, I didn’t think so. Surely when the sun begins to go down, the pattern will continue and the singing will commence.”
“We can expect to either be attacked outright or offered an exchange for the captives.”
“Oh….really?”
“They want Amelia to aide them. They will coerce her through us first, I suspect.”
Hunter tilted his head. “Yes. That sounds about right.”
“Come nightfall, we should gather together. They’re probably already aware of our presence here.”
“In that case, maybe I should take a look in on the others myself,” Hunter offered.
“I already have.”
“Oh. Very thorough.”
“I’m assuming you are aware that Rangda was speaking to Shanna on the tape?”
Hunter flinched visibly. “Wha…I’m sorry, but what? What do you mean Rangda was speaking to Shanna?”
“She addressed you by last name. She addressed Miss Hunt by hers.”
“Oh.” Hunter sat up straight. “Oh! Rangda was a seer. She would have hypothetically known that Shanna would end up listening to the tape. But she still didn’t say anything to her….right?”
“Perhaps we should replay the tape just to make sure. At a later time. We have immediate concerns.”
“Of course.”
“You were unaware of Shanna being addressed in the tape before you let her hear it?”
“Why…yes, of course. I didn’t think-”
“Natalia!”
They turned to see Amelia skid down the embankment with more grace than Hunter had previously demonstrated.
“What is it?” Natalia asked, getting to her feet.
“Jade…she’s gone.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Damien walked along the grass, shaking his head. “It’s like a crop circle,” he announced, indicating the perfect circle where no grass grew. He stepped into the dirt area again, then back onto the grass. “So, I’m walking through a building right now?”
Smirking, Valor dug through her backpack a few feet away, near the bushes and trees that encircled the scholars’ tower. “Not quite. The building doesn’t exist here. It’s on a different frequency. I can’t believe it’s that hard for you to grasp.”
“But the grass knows. It doesn’t grow over the building’s foundation.”
Valor paused. “True…” She shrugged. “Maybe plants are sensitive to…I don’t know. I’m not a scientist, alright? Save the questions for the scholars.”
“But aren’t you a scholar now?” Damien asked, toeing the edge of the grass. “I mean, you’re no longer a hunter.”
“I’m in charge of the hunters. I don’t hunt anymore, but I don’t research.” She paused. “Well, I occasionally research, I suppose. But I more…utilize The Agency’s resources and collect data from others.”
“To research the best course of action?”
Valor shook her head as Damien smirked. “Think what you want. I really don’t give a damn. I’m not here to satisfy your curiosity.”
“You’re here to save your hunters.”
“Correct, as I’ve stated before. You know, I’m getting a little tired of talking in circles.”
Damien gave her a serious look. “Then don’t.”
Valor returned his look and shook her head. “The bugs and tracers have all been found out, obviously. So why is La Faer Noir still concerned with us, if they’re so powerful?”
“Yes, I heard about the shape shifter. And the devoura goblins.”
“You had no hand in them?”
“Personally?” Damien smiled. “No. I officially don’t know anything about them. I heard after the fact, when word of Shanna’s predicament reached me.”
“Oh, officially, huh? You may as well have fought the hunters yourself. I bet you would have had a laugh out of sending Shanna’s boyfriend up the river and blowing sand into her face or whatever the hell Lupe did. Interesting how they weren’t interested in harming Shanna, just distracting her, taking her out of the fight. You’d think someone was watching over her.” Valor looked up at Damien, to gauge his reaction. She was surprised to see he’d gone pale. Well, paler. She stood up, forgetting what she’d been digging around her bag for. “What?”
“Shanna…”
“Shanna? Oh, she’s fine. We did tests.”
Damien slowly shook his head. “Lupe isn’t one to be taken lightly. If she was involved…and your hunters walked away from the fight…your hunters may be in more danger than you realize.”
Valor crossed her arms over her chest. “Tell me.”
“Well, it’s nothing specific. And nothing pressing, I’m sure, yet…Lupe gets what she wants, no matter how many times she has to target her prey. She will be back, if she hasn’t gotten what she wanted already, which doesn’t sound very likely.”
“To get a man on the inside?”
“Perhaps,” Damien frowned, looking up at the tree line. “Or perhaps something as simple as revenge.”
They spent a moment in silence that was almost broken a few times by Damien, shifting his head and opening his mouth to say something, but holding back in the end. When he did this for a fifth time, Valor scoffed. “What is it, already?”
“I wonder… It’s very odd, but I fee
l something strange here. Something powerful. It’s…tugging at me. Don’t you feel it?”
Valor glanced around. “Do you think the hunters are here?”
“I…no, it’s something else.”
“The sirens?”
Damien’s gaze suddenly snapped toward the scholars’ tower.
Rachel started at the sudden attention from him, as she was certainly invisible to the vampire. She blinked and took a closer look at Damien’s face then, and looked from him to Krystal, who very suddenly ran inside and slammed the door shut behind her. She heard the bolt slide into place, metal scraping against metal.
“It’s…it’s gone,” Damien informed Valor, shaking his head and continuing as if never having felt anything at all.
Rachel stared at the door Krystal had disappeared through. “What the hell?”
“Hello!?” a voice called out.
Rachel quickly ducked into some nearby shrubbery as Damien and Valor exchanged looks and turned toward the voice.
“Is someone there?” the voice called out again.
“Yes, we’re…here,” Valor announced as the speaker came into view.
Rachel closed her eyes and cursed to herself as the tall woman came into view, hair sweeping the air behind her in a single thick braid. Ligeia. She frowned. Wait…but she was communicating with them, the people on the other plane. How…? Her frown deepened as the siren engaged the other two.
“I thought I was the only one here,” Ligeia began after quickly introducing herself. “I returned from camping to find everyone gone. It’s eerie.”
“Oh, we were just passing through and decided to take a look at the ruins,” Valor said, sending Damien a sidelong glance. “We thought that the town looked unexpectedly…empty. Did something happen?”
“I…I don’t know,” Ligeia rubbed her arms. “It’s horrible this quiet though.”
Rachel bristled, recalling the similar lies she’d been told by the girl.
“You’re from town?” Damien questioned her. “You didn’t notice anything strange?”
“Not out of place, but…I know it sounds strange, but when I touch any animals, I go through them. It’s like they can’t see me. I don’t understand. There was a blast up the road, then a white light…I woke up to this.”
“Wait…” Valor put a hand to her lips. “God, I need a cigarette. Would you?” she handed her backpack to Damien, who took it without a thought and begrudgingly began to sift through its contents. “Can you see a building here?” Valor asked Ligeia, pointing behind her.
Ligeia blinked. “Oh. I guess I messed up. You’re on the regular plane.” She laughed. “No matter. I’ve got a job to do anyway and this was getting rather tiresome.”
“Valor, look out!” Rachel suddenly jumped out of her hiding place. “She’s a siren! Get away from her!”
Ligeia glanced up and smiled a cruel smile, but of course Valor heard nothing. Nor did Damien, though they both sent each other looks at the strange words coming out of Ligeia’s mouth.
“What are-” Damien began, but was cut off when Ligeia dealt him a blur of a strike that sent him reeling, slamming into a nearby tree, where he fell to the ground unconscious after his head smacked against the bark with a satisfying thunk.
Valor stepped back, but Ligeia hardly seemed concerned with her.
“The pretty one,” Ligeia cooed. “Rachel, I believe? I’m sure you will help me to save your own skin.”
Rachel stood and stared for a moment, unsure of what to do.
“I need to get inside that tower,” Ligeia announced. “If you just-” She suddenly fell to the ground with a strike to the head from a stone Valor had picked up.
Ligeia felt the inside of her mouth with her tongue. “That hurt,” she claimed, quickly recovering and backhanding Valor.
Valor screamed as she fell to the ground just a few feet from where Damien lay.
“Now,” Ligeia sighed. “The main event. Where were we now?” She turned to Rachel, shocked to see the hunter suddenly disappear inside the tower. “You’re a quick one, I’ll give you that.” She tossed back her hair and looked up at the building. She walked around it a few times and sighed again. “A tiny window up top, too small to be of any use. One door. What to do?” She smirked as she saw a pair of eyes peek out from a slit in the door. “Little pig, little pig, let me in.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The singing began at twilight. The very moment the color behind the clouds was devoured by the Mediterranean, an operatic voice washed over the shadow land. The men were oblivious to the sound, having put in their earplugs hours ago, but it would have broken Shanna’s heart, that beautiful song, had she not known the source.
“It’s to the East,” Amelia announced, standing up with the others at the song’s abrupt appearance.
“Can you lead us to it?” Natalia asked.
“I’ll try,” Amelia looked hesitant, but nodded. “Follow me.”
They stepped out from the sanctuary of the ruins and onto the sand of the beach, the surf competing for reign over the night’s soundtrack. Shanna felt extremely vulnerable as Amelia led them along the seemingly empty beach for over thirty minutes. They walked silently, the men unable to communicate aside from gestures, the others too focused on their surroundings to break the silence amongst them. Shanna kept her fingers threaded through Cameron’s, watching the shrubs and trees that obscured her view of anything that was more than a few feet from shore. The sea began to churn in earnest the longer they walked, and a single low, gravelly bout of thunder threatened them from above. They had no light to guide them, but the small amount of artificial light that carried to the beach from town seemed sufficient for their purposes. It was eerie out there, with no one and nothing around, a gorgeous female voice resounding like they were on Broadway, nevertheless.
They continued their trek as sand gave way to smooth stone, and surf and song both swelled in unison. A dark object loomed large in the dark nearby, slender like a knife, as if dimpling the clouds with a jagged edge, only a small amount of pressure necessary to pierce the pregnant clouds and release their weight onto the passersby.
“The lighthouse,” Hunter breathed, sending a look in Amelia’s direction. A flash of lightning from the troubled sea confirmed this, highlighting the white broken structure before allowing it to rest in darkness again amid the rumble of thunder.
“The song is strongest there,” Natalia indicated with a nod.
Shanna gazed up at the rocks she indicated, not far from the lighthouse itself. She tilted her head to the side, trying to ascertain if that was the right direction. The wind seemed to be working against them, sending noises from the sea, from the trees, to disorient them. Amelia, for all of her powers over air, seemed unable to calm them.
Climbing up the rocks carefully, they combed the area slowly before giving up.
“This is getting us nowhere,” Amelia sighed.
“She’s right,” Shanna agreed, following the rocks with her eyes up to the lighthouse and the tree line beyond.
“What about the lighthouse?” Amelia asked.
“We searched the lighthouse. Rachel searched the cellar too. There’s nothing there.”
“But the sirens wanted the light shattered so as not to give away their comings and goings around here,” Natalia offered. “There’s something nearby.
Amelia’s eyes widened. “Of course! That must be it.” Then she frowned. “Unless there’s a secret passage under the lighthouse,” Amelia suggested. “Or a cave, perhaps?”
“A cave?” Natalia echoed.
Amelia watched her for a moment. "What are you thinking?"
“The entrance could be underwater, in the sea. That’s why we don’t see anything. There’s nothing to see. It’s all under rock.”
“Then the voice we hear must be from some hole in the cave’s roof,” Amelia suggested. “Which means we’ll never find it.”
“We could just find the entrance,” Shanna said.
“Yeah, but if it’s underwater? That’s crazy.”
Natalia walked over to the edge of the rocks and looked down at the cold, angry dark water of the Mediterranean, the waves disintegrating in the face of stone. “I can hold my breath for a long time.”
***
Krystal groaned and tried to sit up, then screamed in pain. She took a few calming breaths and searched the rubble around her with eyes leaking fresh tears. “My god, that hurts,” she sucked in a breath, realizing at once that her leg was pinned beneath a heavy beam and possibly broken, and that she couldn’t see anything else around the rubble of stone and splintered wood. She cocked her head. “Rachel? Rachel, can you hear me?” She listened for a response, then tried again louder. When she didn’t receive a reply, she shifted to try to move into a position that would perhaps help her move the beam. Big mistake, as blinding pain radiated up her torso and sent her flat on her back, breath knocked out of her from its intensity. She closed her eyes and took a few more calming breaths, recalling the tower coming down around them as the siren Ligeia broke through the walls to get at them, so easily, to get…Todd. Yes, she’d wanted Todd. She’d wanted to stop the device from being repaired.
A cough nearby prompted Krystal to sit up again, but she was careful to keep her leg still as she did so this time. “Rachel?”
“Yeah, it’s me,” Rachel said, voice breaking. “Are you okay?”
“I’m pinned,” Krystal announced. “A beam’s on my leg. How about you?”
“I’m okay. My head hurts, but it’s just a scrape.” She suddenly appeared over Krystal and gazed at the beam on her leg. “That looks heavy.”
“My leg…”
“I may have to get somebody to help me move it.”
“Todd.”
Rachel looked up and shook her head. “No, I don’t think Todd can help anymore.”
“He’s dead,” Krystal said with sudden clarity. “Yes, I…I see.”
“But he said he finished the device before Ligeia wrecked the joint. If we can find it…” Her voice trailed off and her jaw dropped. “What?”
Krystal watched calmly as Todd lumbered over to her and made short work of pulling the beam off of her, his glassy eyes unseeing, blood dripping from his mouth in black rivulets.
