Face the Dark (Hunters of the Dark #3)

by Dave Ferraro

  Chapter One

  “So Lime Bay might not be so bad after all,” Shanna decided, taking another bite of her chicken parmesan at the locally-owned restaurant she was dining at. “This is the best that I’ve ever…you wouldn’t think you could improve on chicken parmesan.” She smiled over at her companion as she swallowed. “Thank you for bringing me here.”

  “It’s my pleasure,” Cameron returned her grin. “I’m just glad that you like it. I had a few days to explore the town while you went to get Jade from that hospital in Greece with Jordan and Amelia.”

  Shanna paused, her fork halfway to her mouth again. During their last mission, fellow hunter Jade had been seriously wounded. One of the sirens they were battling in Greece had removed her left arm. If Natalia hadn’t thought quickly and cauterized the wound, she would have bled to death in a matter of minutes. Now, while she was missing an arm, she was at least alive, and back at the mansion where they lived on Marvel Hill, in the company of her friends. Taking a bite with less enthusiasm than before, Shanna nodded. “Jordan said that she was going to be kept out of the field, working in the lab and the infirmary. She’s not going to like that.”

  “Not one bit,” Cameron agreed.

  They ate in silence for a moment before Cameron cleared his throat and pushed his food aside. “The mall has a lot of little local stores too, if you want to take a look,” he offered.

  Shanna shrugged. “Maybe.”

  “There’s a comic book store.”

  Shanna perked up. “Yeah?” It was one thing that Cameron and her had in common, a love for comics. She hadn’t stepped foot in a store for months, and was itching to get caught up on a few series that she’d fallen behind on. “Well, maybe a quick look.”

  “I thought that might entice you,” he grinned. He suddenly touched one of her hands with his own, gently. “I’m happy to just spend some time with you. Alone. On a date.”

  “It’s a nice change of pace.”

  Cameron leaned back in his chair as Shanna finished her food and tossed her napkin over the top of her plate.

  “I am so full,” she confessed. “That was amazing. We’ll have to come here again.”

  “I was hoping you’d say that.”

  Shanna watched him for a moment, noting that his smile seemed a little forced. She leaned forward. “Is something wrong?”

  Cameron smiled, and shrugged. “It’s nothing really. I just want to be able to show you a good time.”

  “Well, you did. Mission accomplished.”

  He looked away, and Shanna followed his eyes as they wandered over to the waiter’s back at another table. “Cameron,” she pressed. “What is it?”

  He returned his gaze to her and shook his head. “It’s stupid. It’s…ever since we got back from Greece, I can’t help but feel a little inadequate.”

  “Inadequate? Why?”

  “Well, because…” He sighed and met her eyes straight on. “You don’t look at me the same way you look at Damien Farr.”

  Shanna blinked and looked away, which she knew immediately was the wrong reaction, because she saw confirmation in his face. Unconsciously, her hand reached up to touch the side of her neck where there were still the faintest of scars from when Damien had drank blood from her after she’d offered it to him. She could still feel his lips on her neck, even now. After the dozens of kisses she’d shared with Cameron between that time and now, Damien’s left the strongest impression. She couldn’t help how she felt, and she wasn’t sure if it was merely because he was so unattainable, or if she was just infatuated, or what. But when he’d swept into Greece looking for her alongside Valor, she’d certainly felt…happy. Safe. Excited. She saw Cameron every day, so she was bound to feel more of a thrill in the snatches of moments with Damien. But was it stronger with Damien overall? Was she meant to be with him?

  When her eyes returned to Cameron’s, she saw that they’d narrowed. His hands were white-knuckled on the table in front of him. “Do you feel anything when you kiss me?” he asked in a whisper. “Or do you just think of him?”

  Shanna scoffed. “Cameron…”

  Cameron grabbed her right hand roughly and brought it up to his face, kissing her wrist tenderly. “Does that do anything for you?”

  Feeling uncomfortable, Shanna tried to pull her hand away, but he kept an iron grip on it.

  “How about now?” he asked, pushing her hand against his cheek. “How does that make you feel?”

  Shanna swallowed hard. In Greece, Cameron had revealed that he wore a glamour to cover up his face, where he’d been disfigured by a shape shifter. He had a long scar that ran the length of the side of his face, and a hole in his cheek where the monster had taken a bite out of it. As Cameron forced her hand against his face, she felt her skin brush lightly against his teeth through that hole, and it took all she had not to shudder and make him feel worse.

  “That doesn’t matter to me,” she told him, voice steady. “I already told you that I don’t care about your scars.” It was an utter lie, however. As much as she cared for Cameron, whenever she felt the scars, they overwhelmed everything else. It was all she could think of when she touched his face, when she kissed him… She couldn’t see them, but just knowing that they were there, especially after Cameron had dropped his glamour so that she could see them, at her request, she couldn’t block the image when she felt them. They were burned into her mind. “You’re what matters.”

  Cameron watched her for a moment before nodding and releasing her hand. “I’m sorry. Just thinking of Damien drives me crazy. I feel like he has power over you.”

  “I control my actions,” she said. “No one else. And I want to be with you.”

  He smiled. “I know.”

  A chirping issued from Shanna’s purse on the chair next to her. She scowled and dug through its content until she came up with the new cell phone that The Agency had provided for her. “A text,” she announced, frowning down at the screen. “They just raided a warehouse full of monsters in New Jersey. Lots of bodies inside. They want us to join them.”

  Cameron stood up. “Did they give you an address?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Then let’s go.”

  “So much for our date,” she said, standing up with him.

  He shrugged. “So much for anything normal in our lives. I guess this is what we signed up for. When duty calls, we run.” He paused. “We’ll have to visit that comic store another time.”

  “Another time,” Shanna echoed, following him to the door.

  With his hand on the door, Cameron paused and looked back at her. “I’m going to use the restroom quick before we get on the road.”

  Shanna nodded and took a seat at a booth in the lobby, watching him disappear into the men’s room before shifting her gaze outside.

  A minute later, Cameron was washing his hands at the sink, smiling to himself. He’d been pondering taking Shanna somewhere, on a quiet little weekend trip. Just the two of them. Something romantic, where they could just be themselves and enjoy each other’s company without…the distractions of their occupation.

  He looked up at his handsome face in the mirror, continuing to grin as he grabbed a paper towel. He wondered if he could just put a request into Valor to get the ball rolling. It would be a nice surprise for Shanna. Surprises were romantic, right?

  Cameron blinked and froze, his eyes on his reflection. When he’d opened his eyes, he thought he’d seen something shift behind him. He tensed and turned slowly, sweeping the bathroom studiously. Was it his imagination? He had almost been replaced by a shape shifter recently. He was allowed to be a little paranoid, he supposed.

  Chuckling to himself, he glanced back at the mirror, the sound choking off as he caught a glimpse of his face. His face flickered. Or rather, his glamour did. For just a few seconds, he saw his scar, in all its hideous glory: thick puckering red scar tissue, and the gaping
hole where there was no skin at all, but a ghoulish glimpse of teeth, like some freakish zombie. He swallowed hard as his glamour went back on, covering the wound.

  He held his breath for a few seconds, then tentatively touched his scar, watching to see if his glamour failed again. It didn’t. Was it a fluke? He frowned. He certainly hoped so. He’d never had any trouble with it in the past.

  He glanced up at the door. He didn’t have time to examine it further now. Shanna was waiting for him.

  Taking a deep breath, Cameron fastened a grin on his face and walked out of the restroom, meeting Shanna at the door. “Ready?” she asked.

  Cameron took in her blonde hair, her beautiful smile, the unconsciously sexy way she moved and nodded, suddenly panicked that his glamour would flicker again in front of her. He tried to put the thought out of his mind, but once it had been summoned, it wasn’t so easy to get rid of. Not when Shanna was looking so lovely next to him.

  “You okay?” Shanna asked as she fastened her seatbelt. She was watching his face carefully.

  Smiling reassuringly and praying that his glamour held, Cameron nodded. “Of course. Let’s go bag some bad guys, huh?”