The text was a reply: They’re about to find out.
Gathering around Elizabeth outside the cafeteria, the group was a chorus of “What’s up?” and “What’s going on?”
Darcy spoke above the chorus. “Mom, what’s wrong?”
Silence spread through the group, and they noticed Priest standing off in the distance behind Mrs. Witherington. She looked at each teenager with a shadow of fear in her eyes.
“Something has happened. We’ve—we’ve contacted the other council members. The council is convening here.”
The five teens stirred, uncomfortable, curious. They had heard so little about the council, and wondered so much. What was so important that the Council of the Hunters would gather at Hunter’s Key?
“Chen’s been taken. Hunter’s Grove is under attack again.”
“Where? Who took him?” demanded Nash.
Keenly, Darcy observed, “Why would the council convene here for someone who has gone missing? It’s happened before and nobody showed up.” Her voice was laced with a nervous shimmer and lingering spite from the lack of response when her own mother went missing.
Elizabeth’s eyes found the ground beneath her. She acted like she was on uneven ground, like she was having trouble standing upright. “There’s more. I can’t get into it here, but it’s about you. All five of you.”
Chapter 1
Charlie leaned closer to Loch, allowing his mind to reach out to his mentor.
It’s harder than I thought. Lisa and I have been teaching ourselves spells, reading books like you would have wanted. The town has been safe, mostly, until today. There’s a lot to worry about, even though it’s been quiet these past few weeks. But it’s still hard without you here to teach us. What do we do, Loch?
An image flashed in his mind. Stairs. A torch. Shadows flickering up and down a curved stone wall. A wooden door, and then ... a book.
A familiar book.
“Charlie.”
Charlie exhaled, and looked up from where he was sitting next to Loch. His mentor, still in a coma, breathed in and out steadily, assisted by the machine pumping air into his lungs.
Gripping the doorframe, Lisa stood there with a concerned look on her face. Aware that his eyes were red, Charlie blinked and stopped using his Sight, letting the vision go.
“What is it?” Charlie asked, tucking the image of the book away in his mind for later.
“Nash and Darcy are here. We’re ready.”
He nodded.
“How ...” Lisa hesitated. “How is he?”
Charlie allowed his Sight to take over again, watching the shadows and lights shifting over Loch in their furious dance. “He’s fighting it. Some days it looks like he’s breaking through.”
“And today?”
“Today is darkness.”
Lisa walked over. Charlie felt goosebumps when she touched his shoulder. “We’ll help him through it.”
And in the meantime, what do we do without him? Charlie wondered to himself.
He stood up, letting her hand brush off. “Let’s go meet everyone.”
“Right,” she said quietly.
The sun splintered through the stained glass windows of Hunter’s Key, casting unusually clean lights and colors through the large hallways. Their steps were hesitant and awkward over the floors—loud on the wood and stone, quiet against carpet. The lack of conversation between them made them both nervous. Charlie cleared his throat.
“Have they said anything yet?”
“They were waiting on you.”
“Oh.” Charlie searched for something to talk about. “How is Liev? I mean ... how is he adjusting?”
“He’s doing okay.”
The way she said it, Charlie wasn’t so sure.
“What about—”
“He’s fine, Charlie.”
He nodded. “Good. That’s good. I’m glad.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Charlie saw Lisa looking at him. “Thank you, again.”
Charlie didn’t answer. He still found it difficult to shake the guilt for Liev’s death in the first place. “So ... the kitchen or the parlor?”
“They’re in the parlor.”
“Mrs. Witherington chose the meeting place?”
“Yeah.”
“I kinda miss meeting in the kitchen.”
She raised an eyebrow at him. “Does it really matter?”
He grinned sheepishly.
They passed through the open doors, into the very room to which they had been summoned before their travel across the sea to rescue the town of Drakauragh.
Elizabeth Witherington looked up as they came in. “Charlie, Lisa. I was wondering where you two were.”
From across the room, Nash picked up a small pillow and threw it over the coffee table, where it landed neatly in the face of a snoring Liev. The pale Vadiknov twin woke with a snarl, punching the pillow across the room as Nash burst into laughter. Next to him, Darcy sighed and shook her head. “Boys will be boys.”
Lisa crossed over, shooting a sour look at Nash, and sat next to her brother, who had begun to wring another pillow between his hands. His eyes aimed for Nash.
“Guys!” Elizabeth scolded. “Please. Can we get down to business now?”
The closest empty space, which was next to Lisa, beckoned Charlie to come sit down. She glanced at him, smiling, sending a blurry buzz through his brain. He felt like the entire room was watching as he walked past the couch to the window seat instead.
“Something I should know about?” whispered Priest, who leaned over from the dining table, a slight grin decorating his leathery and otherwise tired face.
Darcy was first to break the awkward quiet in the room. “So what is this about, Mom?”
“This is about a lot of things. As we talked about before, the council is coming to Hunter’s Grove.”
“Why are they coming now?” asked Nash. “I mean, I want to find Chen as soon as possible, but why are they coming after he’s been kidnapped, but not when the Dark Prince was about to break free, or when Drakauragh was under attack? We could have really used the help then.”
Priest waved his hands in the air. “They aren’t coming for Chen. They are coming precisely because of the events in Hunter’s Key and Drakauragh. The Dark Prince is an enemy—was an enemy—that has been trying to raise a group of creatures known as the Ancients from a slumbering captivity. The witch you faced in Ireland, Hecate? She is an Ancient. That she was awake and walking the earth is a serious matter.”
Nash sat forward. “Then ... what about Chen?”
“We haven’t forgotten him,” said Priest. There was a dangerous somber tone to his voice. “The timing is inconvenient, and I doubt it is coincidence. We will form a team and track down whoever has taken Chen.”
Elizabeth stood up and started pacing. “For right now, though, we need to focus on preparing for the council. Everything will depend on the decisions they make during this meeting. And while Chen is important to us all, the very thought that the Ancients could be coming back from the past is enough to send our society into a frenzy.”
Charlie frowned. “Everything will depend on what decisions? What do you mean?”
Darcy’s mother stopped in front of the fireplace. The circles around her eyes grew more ominous, a subtle change which Charlie noticed. “When you defeated the Dark Prince, Loch named you ‘monster hunters’ out of necessity. Technically, that is against the laws of our society and ... there is a chance that the council will not recognize you all as hunters. You have not been subjected to the years of training most of us have, and you’ve not been properly chosen to be the next generation.”
“But we’ve fought armies, stopped a Greater royal from raising the Ancients, and stopped three witches from opening a portal and destroying an innocent village. What more do they need us to do?”
“It’s nothing but formalities,” said Priest. “That is all, Charlie. Many of my own council meetings were merely to make an offici
al decision that had already been acted upon.”
Elizabeth finally sat down, to the relief of everyone. “Unfortunately, the modern council is not like the one you were part of, Priest. They are more particular about their sense of control, and they are political.”
“Bah! Just like the Church. I will not allow the Council of the Hunters to behave like those false leaders. It won’t be that easy if they want to play politics.” He waved an irritable hand.
“Careful. You don’t hold as much sway as you once did. This council doesn’t know you.”
“Regardless, my sword is still an effective tool for reasoning.”
Elizabeth sighed, giving up.
“So what do we do?” asked Lisa. “I don’t know about everyone else, but I believe in what I do. I’m not ready for a bunch of old people to get together and say we can’t fight monsters just because they weren’t there to see it.”
Liev growled in agreement, while Nash asserted, “If they think they can stop us, they have another thing coming.”
“Guys.” Darcy was worried, watching the tremble bristling under her mother’s calm appearance. “I don’t think it’s going to be that easy.”
Elizabeth shook her head. “It’s not. These aren’t just figureheads or lawmakers. These are some of the most powerful hunters alive today. A decision from them is not something you can ignore.”
“There are more important things to worry about right now,” said Charlie, surprising all of them. “While we talk about what might happen to us in a couple of days, Chen is missing, and who knows what is happening to him.”
Like Priest, Chen was a hunter misplaced in time, captured by the Dark Prince and suspended as a food source for two centuries. Since being freed, he had instantly become one of their closest friends, loyal and steadfast, spouting quips that were equal parts wisdom and wry humor. Chen was a quiet and steady strength in their growing family. No one felt right knowing that he was out there at that moment, being held by some mysterious force.
“Where did he go missing?” asked Liev.
Priest answered. “From this very house, lad.”
Confusion rippled through the room. “But how?” asked Lisa. “The Key would incapacitate, if not outright kill, anyone not invited here.”
Elizabeth glanced pointedly at Liev. It was only for a second, but Lisa caught it, and Charlie did, too. “Perhaps we’ve had too many monstrous influences like, Dräng,” she looked away from Liev, “muddling the house’s senses.”
It took everything in Charlie not to retort in anger at her. His eyes burned, and he fought the Sight down as quickly as it had sprung up, but not before catching a glimpse of the black mist that still hovered in front of Elizabeth’s eyes.
Everyone else in the room remained quiet. Elizabeth knew they didn’t believe that Dräng was to blame. It had been a source of tension for the last few months, and there was no sign of it getting better any time soon.
Charlie looked to Priest. As much as possible, he would avoid working with Elizabeth. At least until he and Lisa found a way to get rid of the dark magic clouding her memories.
“Where exactly did he disappear from? Liev and I can track him.”
“I’m not a bloodhound,” Liev called. “It doesn’t really work that way.”
“It could,” Lisa urged him quietly.
“It was in the barracks,” Priest said. “He was training against the wood dummies.”
That far into the house? thought Charlie. “And we couldn’t stop it?”
Priest shook his head. Suddenly, his face seemed worn, weary. “Chen sensed it coming. The entire Key shook, and the gargoyles charged in. There was no other warning. Whatever took him attacked me from behind. When I woke up, he was gone.”
“But why Chen?” asked Lisa.
“We don’t know,” said Elizabeth.
“Chen was a portal guardian, like me,” Priest explained. “A council member. We think that may be a reason. However, we are not certain. Why take Chen, but not me, and not Elizabeth?”
Lisa sat forward on the couch, her mind turning in circles, and asked, “And we don’t know what it was that took him?”
“No. Although, we have a suspicion—”
“We know! We know what it is!”
Everyone in the room turned to the window, shocked to see two men standing outside.
“Fish! Dink! How are you guys?” asked Nash, always happy to see his offbeat friends. “And why are you standing outside the window?”
Dink smiled, leaning on the frame. “We were listening, all spy-like.”
“Dink, shut it,” Fish said in exasperation. “We were walking the grounds. But listen, I think what took Chen is the same thing that’s been killing the animals in the woods.”
The five teen hunters sat up, looking at each other and at their elders. “What animals?” asked Darcy. “What’s he talking about, Mom?”
Elizabeth grimaced. “I thought you all needed a break from chasing monsters, so I didn’t want to say anything. Not just yet, until we knew better what we were dealing with.”
“What are we dealing with?” Darcy asked, not hiding that she was upset. She hated little more than being treated like a child.
“There is something else in Hunter’s Grove,” Fish answered from the window. “Whatever it is, it’s mean. Downright vile. At first we only found squirrels, mangled and twisted, but recently we’ve found two wolves and a deer killed in the same manner. Chunks had been taken out of them, and they’d been drained of a lot of blood, but it looked like they were more toys than dinner.”
Darcy glared at her mother, who winced. “How long?”
“Fish and Dink started finding them when you left for Drakauragh.”
While the tension grew between the two Witheringtons, the rest of the group took action. As hurt and upset as some of them were by being left out of the loop, they wouldn’t miss a beat now.
“A vampire?” asked Nash.
Lisa shook her head, giving him a look of Are you serious? “Vampires kill to eat, not play. Mostly.”
“Unless they’re royals,” argued Liev.
“I said mostly.”
“Royal pains in the—”
“A wolf, then?” Nash said, trying again.
“You saying something?” Liev growled.
“I wasn’t ... I didn’t mean ...”
The white twin laughed. “I’m kidding, Sparky Foot. But really, this doesn’t sound like a wolf. They enjoy the hunt, sure, but we, I mean, they, aren’t sadists.”
Lisa eyed her brother with concern.
“So we don’t know what it is,” said Charlie, getting frustrated. “We’ll figure it out. Let’s just stop wasting time and go after it.”
Hunter’s Key shook, the warning of a feral animal washing over them all. Priest stood up, rattling the dinnerware on the table.
“This is the same feeling from last time. It’s back. And this time we’re all here, cooped together. Convenient!”
They were ready for a fight. The twins came to life with black tendrils and white, jagged shards of energy, while Darcy hardened herself, dagger in hand. Nash’s foot crackled and seared in anticipation, and Charlie’s eyes glazed over red, searching the room for any sign of a threat. Elizabeth and Priest, having dealt with this stress for weeks now, drew the full-sized blades they carried, while Fish and Dink were ready with their locked-and-loaded, talisman-adorned munitions.
Waves of anger washed over them as the room continued to shake, emotion from the Key and its gargoyles at being bested the last time this intruder was here.
“Where is it?” cried Darcy.
Gargoyles shrieked. Fish and Dink backed away from the window. “Uh, hey guys. Y’all might want to see this.”
Fish raised his rifle, aiming for the woods. “I was afraid something like this might happen.”
Chapter 2
As the other hunters ran to the windows, Charlie’s Sight penetrated the Key’s enchantment. He saw th
rough the walls around him, all the way to the tree line where, to Charlie’s surprise, a small inferno marched through the woods, highlighted by a few attacking gargoyles. Looking closer, he realized ...
“Is that ... it’s Donnie!”
Nash spun around, unable to see through the walls like Charlie. “What?”
Charlie didn’t answer, instead rushed to crawl through the window, past Fish and Dink, eyes peeled, the others not far behind.
“What is he doing here?” Liev asked, scowling.
Charlie frowned, looking at the swirl of fire and smog around his classmate. “Nash.”
“Yeah?”
“Can you see what I see? Is there anything ... with him right now?”
“No.” Nash squinted, looking hard at Donnie—but he could only see their old bully of a classmate, seemingly normal enough. “What is it, Charlie?”
“I have no idea.”
He wondered what the others could actually see, as the spiraling wreath of burning smoke collided with the gargoyles. Donnie strolled calm and arrogant, dodging the sentinels that did get through. Charlie saw Donnie’s face contort in rage and the thing behind him, whatever it was, expanded, knocking the stone beasts from the air.
Finally unhindered, Donnie took a deep breath, smiling and waving at the monster hunters. “Sounds like you guys have a lot going on. I could have helped, you know. If you would only have let me in.”
“Donnie!” Charlie called out. “What is that thing?”
“Hey, Charlie! I forgot, you can see everything, can’t you? This is my friend.” The others gasped and aimed their weapons, the entity revealing its presence.
“It isn’t your friend, Donnie. It’s wrong, filled with dark magic.”
Donnie laughed. His companion, now in the form of a man engulfed in fire, chuckled as well, speaking in a deep, slick voice. “You’re one to talk, kid. Weren’t you and your friends the ones who wanted nothing to do with Donnie?”
“That’s not true!” Charlie shouted.
Donnie allowed his rage to overtake him. “It is true! And you’re going to pay for it. Your little council isn’t the only thing that’s coming to Hunter’s Grove.” He smiled, turned, and went back the way he had come.
Charlie Sullivan and the Monster Hunters: Council of the Hunters Page 2
