by Susan Reid
Chapter 5
Marqcursed under his breath as Twinkie shot through his legs with an abrupt hiss into my apartment and nearly tripped him, just as I opened the door.
“Be lucky he didn’t reach up and claw one of your boys on his way in.”
“I really hate that cat.” He stated flatly, closing the door behind him.
I laughed. “Don’t take it personal, it’s the water he hates.”
“Sure. Alright, let’s see it.” Marq demanded.
I chuckled, looking at him over my shoulder as I headed into my bedroom to retrieve a pair of pants for him.
He was doing way better than the first time he visited the bar —completely stark naked. We weren’t sure what to make of him…meaning what he was exactly. Being completely nude was nothing to him and I was certainly impressed but Cole and Jax nearly blew arteries. He was temporarily banned until he covered up. Some nights I know that he forgets on purpose, wanting to test the waters and toe the line when he knows the bar will be full of females, normally on weekend nights.
Once we became more than casual acquaintances, I compromised with my brother and decided to keep a few articles of clothing on hand for him, so he wouldn’t become permanently banned.
“It’s a little hard to take you seriously playing doctor in those sexy briefs.” I commented.
He followed me. “We can play doctor later. What happened? How did you get hurt?”
“It’s not a big deal.” I said, finding a pair of knee-length khaki shorts for him.
He paused, standing close behind me as I handed them to him.
“No big deal, huh? Then why would you want me getting dressed instead of the opposite?”
I smiled coolly. “Being in pain kind of takes away the romantic aspect for me.”
“So, you really are hurt bad. Let me see it.” He insisted more firmly this time.
Dropping the shorts and assuming my wound must be covered up, he went for my tank top and lifted it.
There was no point in resisting or keeping him from doing it.
“What the hell did that?” He frowned.
I didn’t want to look at it but I did anyway.
Shit. It had gotten worse since just this morning and now, I was beginning to worry.
Maybe I should drink that nasty stuff Erian gave me after all.
“It was a Nocturna.” I reluctantly admitted.
I moved over to the bed and sat, flinching slightly at a small prick of pain that radiated down my side as I did.
“A Nocturna? Here? When did this happen?” Marq was both shocked and angry at the same time.
He joined me on the bed, trying to get a better look at it again.
Marq and those in his city were safe from Nocturna as long as they remained concealed under the ocean. Contrary to popular beliefs, sharks, dolphins, and whales actually protected them and their city from any would be invaders —and Nocturna can’t really breathe in salt water very well too.
“Last night. There was just one. Well, one that we were after.” I said, remembering tall, dark, and deadly. He was still out there, somewhere.
“Are you serious? Where did it come from? How did it manage to do this to you?”
“Blindsided. My guess is he thought I was the weaker one because I was female. I almost proved him right by letting my guard down for a split second.”
There was a brief pause of silence.
“So…you’re not going to turn into one of them, are you?”
He was thoughtful.
I furrowed my brows and shook my head no.
“It doesn’t work that way. You’re born Nocturna, not created. They can’t turn other beings like us. There are some higher ones in the Ascendants that can envamp but only humans.”
He nodded. I’ve never seen him look so serious before.
“That’s good then.”
I pursed my lips and shifted away from him.
“Why? Would you suddenly be repulsed by me if I did turn into one of them?”
He smiled flirtatiously. “Don’t mistake my intrigue for repulsion. If anything, I’d want you more.”
“Would you let me feed from you?” I flirted with a gleam in my eye.
“Depends on how you do it. If it sustains you, you can drink from me all you want.” He grinned.
I laughed. “Why does that not surprise me?”
“Back to this ugly wound though. Don’t any of the Animators or Mages have something for it?”
“Yeah, I got some stuff from Erian already but it doesn’t seem to be working apparently.” I hesitated and re-examined the bite.
Thin, dark-purple vein like marks began to fan outward from the fang punctures. Those hadn’t been there this morning.
“I’m worried about you, Kai. Maybe one of our healers has something that can help.”
I thought of the stranger’s words.
He had offered the same thing, too. Not trusting his kind in the least, I wondered why he even wanted to help me. Now, I was beginning to regret not taking him up on his offer.
“You guys have dealt with Nocturna bites before?”
“No but we have some very good doctors and an abundance of highly effective resources.”
“Well, if you think they’d be able to conjure up something, I’m open to try it. In the meantime, they say that physical activity can sometimes help stimulate self-healing.”
“Now I can definitely help with that.” Marq smirked, moving in quickly for an enthusiastically passionate kiss.
My cell phone jangled annoyingly as if it had been waiting for us to start fooling around on purpose.
I planned to ignore it, thinking it was probably a situation downstairs but something nagged at me to answer it this once.
I reached for it but Marq caught and pulled my hand away from it, gently forcing me back and cradling me against him more firmly.
Foreplay and making love were two of Marq’s strongest talents. It was something I completely put my entire body and attention into and it pissed me off whenever there was any distraction…even from Twinkie.
As if on cue, my cell phone went off again. This time, it continued to ring persistently with a purposeful annoyance. This had better be good or some damned emergency.
Considering no one ever came knocking on my door, I already knew it had to be Cole before even looking at the display and it had nothing to do with our stellar Twin connection either.
Marq held me still and growled, both demanding and breathless with passion close to my ear. “Let voicemail pick it up. Whoever it is will get the hint.”
I shifted and sat up to seek out the phone. “I would but I know who it is.” I replied.
He sighed with agitation. I found my cell on the nightstand and answered.
“It’s about damned time. Let me guess who you’re with right now and he better not have shown up naked again.” Cole spoke before I could even say anything.
“What’s up?” I ignored his statement.
“How’s the injury? Isis told me it doesn’t look any better.”
“It may take a while but it’ll heal.” I lied.
“You’d better take whatever Erian gave you. Don’t be stubborn.”
“Yeah, yeah. What’s the emergency?”
Marq took advantage of my distraction, pushing aside my hair to plant soft, nibbling kisses along the nape of my neck.
“I took some photos but I think you’re gonna want to see this in person if you’re up to it. We found a corpse.”
I froze.
It couldn’t have been the Nocturna that was near death last night…or was it?
Cole continued on in my silence, “We almost missed it. It looked like some random floating driftwood on the east shore. It’s kind of fresh— to use the term loosely.”
“Damn.” I whispered.
“Damn is right, because this one isn’t human.”
Chapter 6
Usually the cover of darkness was our best ally but knowing that
Nocturna were skulking around the island now made it potentially dangerous.
Nightfall fell by the time I made it out to the small cavern where Cole, Pierce, and Phillip had created a small bonfire beside what appeared to be a twisted pile of gnarled, charred wood.
Water trickled off of the rock ledge from above creating a sparkling curtain of steadily falling water.
The smell is what hit me first. Decay of something long since dead. I flinched and coughed initially with a hand clamped over my nose and mouth.
“The work of a Nocturna?” I spoke first as I stepped up to the semi-circle they had formed around it.
Cole was crouched beside the carcass, using a titanium tipped arrow to poke around and inspect it.
“No, though very similar in the nature of the kill.” Phillip replied.
I knelt down beside Cole to get a close up of the grisly remains.
What was left of the skin was dark, tight, and leathery in appearance almost like the dried out peel of a rotting banana. It was nothing more than a ghastly skeleton with arms reaching back over its shoulders as if…possibly trying to fend off an attack from behind.
Hmm. Chilling.
Observing the permanently gaping mouth, I noticed that the corpse had fangs. Cole did say the body wasn’t human.
“Looks like he or she has been dead for a while.” I began.
“Don’t let the appearance fool you. The flesh is still soft and pliable to the touch. It only looks this way because it’s been drained of all fluids.”
I was stunned.
“Drained?”
“Completely.” Pierce added.
“Dead or not, this is the third Nocturna that we’ve come across in less than a two days.” Phillip said. “At this point, it’s just Nocturna. Soon, the rest of the Ascendants won’t be far behind if they aren’t here already. We’ve been keeping tabs on the news around the world. Nothing profound yet.”
“This isn’t the one from earlier? The one we were hunting?” I then asked.
Cole shook his head. “I don’t know but I seriously doubt it. We lost reception on the tracking device not long after that other one took off with him, which means that either it was discovered and destroyed or it died out on its own.” Cole pointed to the carcass, “This one didn’t have a tracking device at all but that’s not the interesting part. Look closer.”
Reluctantly I did, seeking out where Cole was pointing towards the hollowed carved out pit in the chest cavity of the dead thing. “Notice anything missing?” Pierce asked.
It was hard to distinguish much of anything at this point, it was already disintegrating.
“How can you tell what’s missing?”
“There’s a hole in the chest where the heart is supposed to be and the throat has been torn away.” Cole informed.
Brows furrowed, I looked at each of them for that confirmation.
“So something ate or stole its heart. That’s disgusting but not unheard of.” I frowned.
“I agree. It’s kind of a karmic way to die for a Nocturna if you think about it.” Cole said ominously, poking at and tapping each fang.
I nodded, unable to agree more.
A silent pause settled among us and for a brief moment, the only sound was the gentle showering of water echoing throughout the cavern and a few lonely crickets and frogs.
Though I was pretty sure they all had the same initial surprising reaction, the discovery seemed to be even more shocking the second time around for them.
Finally, I stated the obvious. “Okay, so another hunter like us took this one out.”
No one replied immediately.
Cole scooted down towards what looked like the head and beckoned me over with a nod, pointing to the ragged hole in the corpses’ throat.
“That’s not a cut. It looks as if it was either ripped out…”
“Or ravaged and crudely devoured.” Pierce finished.
“Crudely devoured?” My brows rose.
“By hand or by mouth.” Pierce clarified.
Sunlight saps their strength, it doesn’t kill them but their bodies quickly dissolve and wither away with prolonged exposure, especially if they’re already dead. I would have said that may have been the reason this body was discarded so carelessly but since it rained last night, the time and cause of death was unknown.
“I’m going to guess that this had to have happened between pre-dawn yesterday night or earlier before the sun went down.” I surmised.
“Maybe.” Cole agreed.
“No sign of any other beings in the area though.” Pierce added.
Stabbing Nocturna in the eyes takes away their senses and any kind of power they may have over you, then you behead and burn them. Being that the head was still attached, whoever did this didn’t intend to kill it…at least not by conventional methods.
“No injury to the eye sockets.” Phillip noted.
Cole rose to stand. “I doubt they’re swimming out all this way for a place they didn’t even know existed.”
“No gateway found?” I asked, standing up too and still transfixed on the gruesome corpse.
“We already had Isis, Sage, Noemi, and Ladd do another aerial search from the air and they didn’t see anything. We’ll probably need to drag out a few more ATV’s and have some others join in to do another ground sweep again.” Cole suggested.
For some reason, my mind kept bringing forth the mysterious Nocturna that appeared last night to take care of the one that bit me.
“No news around the mainland either?” I asked.
“No, nothing significant so far except for the typical suspects here, you know Lobishoman and Chupacabra. There’s been a few cattle and animal bloodletting but no humans. No one in our circle has mentioned seeing any sign or sight of any Ascendants either.” Phillip replied.
“For now, I think I’ll stay the night at your place to make sure you stay safe.” Cole told me.
I sighed. “I can take care of myself.”
“I didn’t say you couldn’t and you don’t have a choice. I hope Marq took a rain check.”
“And what if he didn’t?” I grew annoyed with a hand on my hip.
“Jax sent me a text and said that he showed up practically dangling again and that he almost got into a confrontation with him about it.” Phillip commented.
Pierce chuckled while shaking his head and Cole frowned.
“Jax exaggerates and he started it. Marq was covered.” I said flatly.
“Uh-huh. If everyone can see his ass and the shape of his junk clearly then he may as well have been naked.” Pierce grimaced in disgust.
“Let’s get out of here.” Cole sighed in irritation.
“What are we gonna do with this?” Phillip motioned to the second time corpse.
Cole gave it a firm kick causing it to roll into the small bonfire where it immediately caught fire with an abrupt whoosh of sparks and flames. Surprisingly, despite being damp, the fire began to consume and disintegrate it into ashes almost immediately.
We all waited a bit and then Pierce doused the fire completely, leaving behind billowing, acrid hissing steam and smoke.
With a hand up to cover my nose and mouth from the foul stench once again, I stole a final quick glance over my shoulder at the rising smoke. I had a weird foreboding feeling as we filed out of the cavern.
Chapter 7
Once the bar closed after about two in the morning, the quick last minute meeting to compare notes and findings only lasted about half an hour. The off duty access slowly turned into an intense poker game, complete with drinks, food, obnoxious behavior, and music.
The guys were huddled around a table in a cloud ring of glitter dust smoke near the bay window, and raucous laughter erupted every now and then.
Isis, Clee, Riza, Noemi, and I formed our own drinking group around the bar counter. Clee is Cole’s girlfriend and she’s an Earth magic user or an Animator, which means that she can take anything of the Earth and transform it into something e
lse or a temporary new living thing. She can even devise weapons, medicines, and physical entities called Golems.
We still found nothing, assuming that the portal must have been closed and the creator had truly been that mysterious Nocturna. There wasn’t much else that we could do without tangible evidence or leads though. Unfortunately, all we could do now was sit back and wait for another Nocturna to strike again. Hopefully, it wouldn’t end in another injury or death for us or any humans for that matter.
Erian injected me with some new concoction that stung initially but it was supposed to stop the spread of the apparent tainting. Though the scratches were finally healing, the fang punctures still looked infected and hurt slightly when I moved at times.
“Hey, I’ve been working on perfecting my gravitational manipulation. Anyone want to volunteer for me?” Isis beamed after knocking back the last of her bomber shot.
“Hell no, not while you’ve been drinking.” Riza chuckled and adamantly declined.
“Clee?” Isis turned to her next.
“I’m with Riza.” Clee shook her head emphatically.
“Don’t even think about it.” Noemi beat her to the punch just as she turned to face her.
“Thanks guys.” I replied flatly just as Isis turned to me with a pathetic look of rejection that was supposed to make me volunteer out of pity.
“Come on, Kai.” Isis whined, hopping off of the barstool and preparing herself.
“Practice and consuming liquor does not make me any more confident about this.” I told her.
She sighed wearily. “It actually helps me to relax and focus. Please?”
“She’s not gonna shut up.” Riza laughed.
“I can fix that easily.” I stated.
Riza, Noemi, and Clee laughed.
“I’ll gather some dirt and leaves and create a mattress.” Clee offered jokingly.
I groaned in annoyance.
“Take another shot. At best you won’t feel anything until morning, you’re already injured.” Riza quipped with a shrug.
“Funny. You know, this will really come in handy if I can perfect it.” Isis tried to convince me.
