CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Tuesday, August 30th
FIRST THING IN THE MORNING, Kandice went back to the campus. Her history group was meeting for brunch to discuss the paper and divide the work. The group consisted of five members, including her. When she entered the cafeteria, one of the members recognized her and flagged her down.
"Hello," she said, bubblier than Kandice would have preferred. "We just started. My name is Kim." She pointed around the table. "That's Brian, John, and Brett."
Kandice said hi and took her seat.
"Did you read the assignment?" Kim asked.
"Yes," Kandice said. "This morning."
"Good. We've already divided up the work. You'll do the bibliography. So, if you would read the chapters and send out the best quotes to the guys, that would be great. I'll present the project on Friday."
"Okay."
Kim's voice had reached an octave that gave Kandice a headache.
What was the point of meeting in person? She could have emailed out the assignment since it seemed she was the group leader.
Kim continued, "Brian has chapter one, John chapter two, and Brett chapter three. The paper is due Friday. Let's plan on turning it in Wednesday night. That way, I can prepare for the presentation."
"Sounds good," Brian said.
"Yeah," Brett said.
John only nodded.
"Okay." Kandice stood up. "Well, I have somewhere else to be. I'll send those quotes over."
As she walked out of the cafeteria, Kim's voice carried behind her still going on about the assignment. The outside fresh air gave a sweet relief to the tension building in her temples. College was nothing like the movies, but her first night history class had been interesting at least. The basic classes everyone had to complete were ridiculous. It was high school all over again but with adults. Maybe once her schedule was full of higher-level classes only, college would be more enjoyable. Either way, school would be a serious drain on her ability to continue hunting. There had to be a way to make time for everything.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Wednesday, August 31st
THE NEXT MORNING, Kandice managed to attend to all her classes again, but it had been a real force of will. She'd been out until nearly 3:00 AM looking for Lance, to no avail—she'd given up all hope of fighting Aether Walkers on nights before school. There would be no way to ever explain the cuts and bruises.
By 4:30 PM, her mind was burnt. School was exhausting and her bed called her name. But with her aunt at the house, she'd likely end up doing chores.
The apartment search wasn't going well either—thankfully the internet made it a cinch to look up. All the one-bedroom apartments near the campus and close to Blake's neighborhood were out of her desired price range. This left her trapped, she needed to find a roommate, get a job, or make nice with her aunt and stay—none of which appealed to her.
Kandice took a seat in a corner at the student lounge. It would be easier to get her schoolwork done before leaving school, instead of driving home and trying to do it in her room. Now to decide which subject to tackle first.
The worst first was the old saying right?
When the line for the coffee bar died down, she ordered an extra-large black coffee, sweet. With some caffeine to help wake her up, her school work wasn't that daunting. Her old laptop also came in handy since the lounge computers were all full, it would take time for her to get used to the amount of people always at the school. Over the next hour, she finished her portion of the group project and emailed a copy to everyone in the group. With her worst class out of the way, she pulled out the textbook for her Mesopotamian history class.
Kandice hated having to take US history again. The information bore her, but the Mesopotamian course was the opposite. The Professor only required the first two chapters to be read before the next class, but she had already started on the third. Kandice knew she needed to focus on her other three classes, but the textbook was full of information she'd never seen before.
The high school teachers never spoke of the Anunnaki. After discovering them in her textbook last night, she read several more web pages on the subject to satisfy her curiosity. There were many conspiracy theories and alternate history ideas around them. The descriptions and depictions of them interested her the most. The ancient Mesopotamian people had to be describing Aether Walkers.
She sat her textbook aside to focus on her English course work. Their first assignment was to pick a poem and a short story and write a paper on each regarding what themes the authors played with. Kandice hated having to explain herself to strangers. It was tedious to pour her thoughts out to teachers, or now, professors. School would be more efficient if they gave tests over the required information and called it a day.
By time Kandice left school, she was ravenous. Her fingers had typed so many words that her grip on her moped was a little weaker. The best part about leaving school at 9:00 PM, was zero traffic. She made it home in under fifteen minutes. Her aunt was already asleep, and Blake had his door shut. Kandice laughed to herself and wrote a sticky note for his door.
I know you're not asleep.
So, the only reason to close your door
Is that you're jacking off. Eww!
-Love K
The note would make him laugh if he noticed it. The longer it stayed up, the funnier it would be when he discovered it. When they had been at their old house, he would sometimes forget to close the door. Those moments were always funny, and Kandice would fall on the ground laughing at him freaking out. When they moved, he realized how close their rooms were and changed his habits.
She turned on the news. There was a report of another murder that sounded very much like an Aether Walker attack. Police were looking for a man with blue hair, a bystander reported him fleeing the scene. Lance was still in town! Her searching for the past week hadn't been pointless. It was time to redouble her efforts to find him.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Wednesday, August 31st
KANDICE SNUCK OUT OF THE HOUSE just after 9:30 PM—which was early for Kandice, but worth the risk—her aunt went to bed at 9:00, but there was no telling when she actually fell asleep. Finding Lance was her top priority.
The garage door made a loud creak as it shut behind her, but at this point it didn't matter. Her aunt already kicked her out. Deep down, Kandice knew she'd been looking for any reason to leave her aunt's, but needed a justification for abandoning Blake. Since Jackie had drawn the line in the sand, it made it easier for her to leave Blake alone.
She skipped downtown. Lance hadn't been there all month, and he might very well leave victims to their own devices when dealing with the weaker Aether Walkers. No one person can save the world. Instead she focused her efforts around her house, moving north towards Round Rock—a good twenty miles north of sixth street. The news reported the attack had been right on the border of Austin and Cedar Park. Lance might only hunt in the northern part of the Austin metro area.
Just before midnight, Kandice spotted an Aether Walker driving on a main road. It resembled an oversized werewolf, with its head and shoulders coming out the top of the car—just as before.
Kandice made a U-turn on her moped at the first break in the median and rushed after the black SUV. She split lanes for the first time to make it through a light and keep up with the giant wolf. It was hard to miss the brown fur flowing in the wind, but sitting through a light would have set her back.
The Aether Walker pulled into a Walmart parking lot, with Kandice close behind.
Despite the late hour, a sea of vehicles shined under the glow of the security lights. After witnessing the full force of the previous massive Aether Walker, Kandice wouldn't take any chances of being in the way. She parked in the back rows and watched as the SUV drove closer to the front and park. Her phone let her zoom in to get a better look at the Aether Walker's human form. The camera showed a Japanese man wearing a lavender dress-shirt.
The image made her
hands unsteady.
The small man picked up a man that had to weigh three-hundred pounds. From the phone's perspective, the large man levitated above the head of the Asian man, but through Kandice's own eyes the werewolf bit into the man's chest.
It was hard for her to watch as the victim died, but any attempt to fight the Aether Walker would end in her own death.
Why were there so many massive Aether Walkers in town?
In six months of her hunting, there had only been the smaller versions but now she'd seen two in one month.
What brought them to Austin of all places?
Two matching mustangs peeled into the parking lot—the sound of screeching rubber trumpeting their arrival. One turned at the first parking strip while the other continue to barrel down on the Aether Walker. It squealed to a stop less than car-length from the werewolf, which towered over the car. The wolf swiped at the hood, and its claws made the most thunderous sound—like nails on a chalkboard.
The other spectators in the parking lot ran toward the store's doors.
Lance—recognizable by his sapphire hair—stood beside the mustang, and in an instant jumped upon the werewolf. With a twist, Lance tore the werewolf's head clean off its shoulders in one quick motion. Blood rained down around Lance, like a sprinkler head had burst. She could see a black puddle forming in the middle of the parking lot, flowing from the werewolf.
Kandice kept looking between her phone and the scene. The tall man with arms that hung to the ground—both in person and on the phone—boggled her mind. Lance was like nothing she'd seen before—not an Aether Walker, but maybe not human either. A small part of her mind told her to run, but her gut told her to move closer.
Her gut won.
Kandice yelled at the top of her lungs, "Lance!"
She pushed her moped to full acceleration to reach him before he sped off.
He yelled out to her, "Follow me," and then hopped into the mustang.
He revved his engine before squealing down the parking lot—not slowing down as he ran over the body—toward the way Kandice had just come from. Kandice turned her moped around to follow. Her poor moped was being pushed to its limit to keep up.
When they exited onto the street, Lance sped off too fast for her to follow. The other mustang she'd seen, pulled up beside her on the left. Kandice could make out the old man as he stuck his hand out and waved for her to follow—which she did.
They took the on ramp to the highway, and in the distance Lance's tail lights swerved between traffic.
The mustang in front of her tried to speed up, but as the distance between them grew it slowed down and moved over to the far-right lane—he intended to keep her close. They stayed in the far-right lane for several exits before getting off again.
Kandice hadn't been paying close attention to where the old man was leading her at first, but she instantly recognized the neighborhood they turned into. It had been her neighborhood.
She stopped her moped in the middle of the road when the mustang turned down her old street.
There's no fucking way.
The mustang slowed down in front of her old house and turned into the driveway.
Should I follow or run away?
They were strangers to her—other than knowing they killed two Aether Walkers—but that didn't mean they weren't trustworthy. There were a million questions that needed answers, but she'd survived the past year by being cautious and avoiding situations out of her depth. The old man got out of the car and waved for her to come. This risk was worth the possible answers.
The old man's hair might have been black in the past, but it had shifted into a spectrum of gray that leaned more towards white. Aside from the hair, Kandice wouldn't consider him old—at least his face didn't show the typical signs of aging.
Lance wasn't inside the house, and the old man welcomed her in with a wave.
"No English," he said.
Kandice could tell by his accent he was Russian, or thereabout. He kept his distance and gave her plenty of space as she looked around what used to be her home. He went into the kitchen and put a kettle on the stove. When he pulled a bottle of vodka from the fridge, Kandice noticed how barren the house was. If she didn't know better, she'd say no one lived there.
He poured a healthy serving into two glasses and offered one to Kandice.
As she picked it up, the old man clinked his glass to hers, "Za fstryé-tchoo!"
Kandice smiled, "Cheers."
Hope that's what he meant.
The man nodded before tossing back the glass, downing its contents in one gulp. Kandice drank her vodka much slower, sipping at it rather than gulping. She never drank, but tonight warranted an exception. It wasn't every night someone died in front of her, and now it was becoming an all too frequent occurrence. At least Lance had been there to stop more deaths from happening.
Shivers ran down her spine as she looked around, trying to find something to draw her attention away from being alone with the old man. He gestured for her to take a seat on the couch.
Kandice played on her phone to pass the time, the film of Lance ripping the man apart with his giant arms confused her more with each watch. His appearance in the film made little sense. He was the same on and off the camera whereas Aether Walkers were human only on film.
Since he was more humanoid than the others, maybe he was a good type of Aether Walker? The reptilian had made sure the woman got home safe, but he was a human on film unlike Lance.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Thursday, September 1st
AFTER A GRUELING FIFTEEN MINUTES, Kandice heard a car pull into the driveway. It had to be Lance, but if someone else came to the door, she needed to run. Two people would be too many for her to fight. The back door would be her best bet for a quick escape unless they blocked or locked it.
Lance walked into the living room, and the old man passed him a glass of vodka over the counter. Her muscles loosened as she breathed normally again.
"Bóo-deem zda-ró-vye!" Lance said, then drank the vodka with one gulp before looking at Kandice. His eyes were a frost blue, the same shade as the old man's.
There was still a slight blue tint in his hair, but the blond was starting to take over. His arms were no longer hanging to the ground. Overall, he was rather attractive, when he didn't look like a club kid turned into a monster. His lips were his most appealing feature, they looked sad, as if longing for someone.
"I see you were able to follow Slava," Lance said.
The old man raised his head when he heard his name, but went back to drinking when he realized Lance was talking to Kandice.
"Yeah," she said. "You sped off so fast I couldn't keep up."
"I had to drop off the old car and get a new one. Besides, I knew Slava was close, and would catch that I wanted you to follow."
"Who is he? Who are you? This is the second time I've seen you kill a massive Aether Walker. It'd be nice if I could get some answers already."
"I like that name. What does it mean? What you call Aether Walkers, we call Nechist, or Them."
"I learned about the concept of the Aether around the time I first saw one, and it seemed to fit. The Aether is a place where everything exists before it's here in thought or form. . . . Honestly that's beside the point, I would appreciate it if you would stop changing the subject already!"
"Calm down," he raised his hand to placate her. "I'll answer your questions the best I can. I'm impressed to find you tracking these Aether Walkers."
He paused and swished around the air in his mouth, the way one would a fine wine. "As you call them."
"Let's sit," Lace gestured to the couch.
He walked over to a sectional, a long L shaped smoke colored couch, that could fit six or seven people.
When he sat down, Kandice sat opposite him to look him in the eyes while they talked. If someone was lying to her, it'd be clear in their eyes. Slava brought them the bottle of vodka before leaving through a door connected to the living room
—into what used to be her parents' room.
"Do you want more vodka?" Lance asked, looking at the half full glass in her hands.
"No, I don't drink." Memories of her father rushed into her head, but dissipated to focus on the topic at hand.
If this wasn't fate, it doesn't exist. There was no way finding them was a coincidence. It has to mean something.
"I see. Slava is my grandfather, he brought my mother and I here from Russia after my father died. He won't speak English because he grew up in the USSR, but he is fluent in it."
"Of course he is," she fought the urge to roll her eyes. "He told me he didn't speak it."
"Yeah, he likes people to think he can't speak it. Now, as for what I am. I'm what we call a Podmenysh. We're a tiny group that can see the Nechist, or Aether Walkers . . . I'm stealing this name. My grandfather taught me how to change into what you keep seeing me as."
Kandice noticed his hair no longer had a tint of blue in it. "How do you change?"
Does he become an Aether Walker himself?
"It's complex, but the easiest explanation is magic. Not spells like you see in movies, but rather intricate writing and drawings on paper. It's also how I'm able to track the most dangerous of Aether Walkers."
"Does everyone in your family see them?"
"No. It skips generations, at least in our family. My grandfather sees them, and I can, but my mother never did."
"What do you mean by our family?"
Did one of my relatives see Aether Walkers?
"My grandfather knows other families that can see them. I've met a few of them before, they all have several members who can see them with no rhyme or reason. But, they can't all change the same way I can."
"Does your grandfather change?"
"Slava used to."
Lance looked down at his glass and poured another serving of vodka. Kandice took a sip from her own and waited as he drank his a little slower. All of her questions so far had been personal, she forced herself to back off—knowing all too well how painful it could be when strangers pry.
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