by Dave Ferraro
“This is it,” Cameron announced, bringing a nondescript black van to a stop at a deserted corner where Styrofoam cups and deserted magazine pages danced in the air over the sidewalk. The streetlamps buzzed softly amid the darkness, joining the eerie chorus sung by insects hidden deep in cement cracks and high on dirty warehouse ledges. The artificial orange light only served to heighten the feeling of desertion that seemed to blanket the warehouse district of Lime Bay, New York.
“There’s no moon tonight,” Jade murmured, staring out of the windows at the building before them. She reached back and patted her ponytail subconsciously as she observed the night and the paper mill that was their destination. Turning to the others, she couldn’t help but let a wide smile crack her stoic expression. “Let’s make some noise, huh? Light the place up.”
Cameron grinned back at her sheepishly beneath his head of unruly brown curls, tossing her a pack complete with a microphone extension and straps to thread her arms through. Jade had used this device before. A magick detector. It had once detected radiation, a Geiger counter, but had been converted to help them pick up magick residue, as it was more useful in the art of monster hunting. A gauge on the back of the device went from a soft green to a blazing red to indicate the level of magick in the area of the extension.
“So, I’ll watch from the van for any surprises,” Cameron confirmed, turning to the third and last member of the party present. “And if I see anything fishy, I’ll honk. Incessantly.”
Shanna Hunt nodded to her new boyfriend as she withdrew a dagger from its sheath on her leg and swept her eyes over the shape of the cross that it resembled. Running a finger lightly over its sharpened edge, she assumed a brave air and returned the weapon to its residence, sweeping her blonde hair back dramatically and picking up a tranquilizer gun. She turned to Jade expectantly. “Okay. Let’s do this.”
Slipping out of the van as shadows, the two girls avoided the light and skulked stealthily over to the paper mill, creeping down a narrow alleyway that ran alongside it to the loading dock in back. Without a word between them, Jade flicked on the power to the magick detector and began running it over the blank brick walls slowly, searching for an entrance hidden by way of glamour.
Keeping alert to the noises around them, Shanna kept an eye on the half-dozen entry points to the dock alternately while Jade worked.
The past month had been a time of leisure for the hunters, in wake of the first mission they’d been thrust into so soon after they’d met. The Agency had gathered them all for a single cause: to destroy the threat that was rapidly picking hunters off the whole world over. And they had. They’d infiltrated a party headed by The Crimson Rope, a faction bent on controlling the monster world, and had literally burned them to the ground. Since then, the assignments they’d received had been few and far between. The scholars that worked behind the scenes for The Agency, named Visum et Repertum, fed them information via Valor, the woman who was their charge. She briefed them on assignments and they went and killed things, or collected them, as the assignment demanded. In return, the hunters lived comfortably in a sprawling three-story mansion on Marvel Hill where they’d all settled into ridiculously large rooms, all expenses paid with a hefty salary and company cars on the way. It was all very posh. It was what they deserved for facing the odds against them and protecting the world from that which lived in shadow and fed upon it in secret.
“I think…it’s here,” Jade murmured, powering off the magick detector and fumbling in her leather coat pockets.
Shanna glanced up toward the way they’d come. Although she couldn’t see the van from where they were stationed, she could all but feel Cameron watching nervously. The past month had seen their relationship grow dramatically. They’d gone on several dates and had spent enough time together to have a real affection toward one another. She had, in fact, grown to appreciate everyone in the house in different ways. But the bond that was being forged between her and Cameron was like nothing she’d ever felt before. She’d had a boyfriend once upon a time, but this feeling was new. She didn’t have to hide part of who she was from him. He got to know every facet of her life and he wasn’t afraid. He, in fact, participated in it. But still, Shanna was a little worried about getting increasingly more intimate with him, and whether he was ready for that step yet. They’d only kissed a handful of times, and it seemed each time that the kiss was ended too soon for her tastes. She’d reach her hands up to cradle his face or run her hands through his hair, and she’d find he’d caught her hands halfway there, and drawn back, completely closed off again. She didn’t quite understand. Did he just want to take things slow with her? Was he afraid to move to the next level with her? Or perhaps…he wasn’t as invested on his end of the relationship as she was. As much as she loved having a boyfriend, she was thoroughly confused by it. But…the romantic, tender moments seemed to make it all worthwhile in the end.
“Jesus,” Jade looked up at Shanna with a shake of the head. “I finally found it. Deep pockets.” She opened a small velvet pouch and sprinkled the powdery contents over the area in the bricks the detector had indicated. The air around the bricks shimmered like a mirage before taking on a shape: a door appeared among the bricks, a wooden door about four feet tall with a large iron handle in the very center. “Well, that looks fairly medieval. And…small.” She shrugged and pulled on the door handle. It opened without making even the tiniest of sounds.
The two hunters looked at each other for a moment before Shanna gestured to the yawning passageway with her head and muttered “After you.”
“You’re such a bitch,” Jade smirked, ducking into the door.
Shanna followed, a grin stretching out over her face.
While they’d attended The Crimson Rope’s party the previous month, they’d taken advantage of the situation and had sifted through laptops, bugged cell phones and clothing - anything that could help them in the future. Through snatches of conversation and scribbled notes, the past few hunts had been commissioned. Presently, they were searching for harpy eggs that had been smuggled into America by an unknown agent. They were to be picked up the proceeding night, so Shanna, Jade and Cameron had been charged to get to them sooner, carrying them back to the laboratory on Marvel Hill to be studied by scholars, and destroying whoever was responsible for their presence on American soil. It seemed very straight-forward, provided the “unknown agent” wasn’t a creature of immense power. Usually The Agency would utilize Felicia Wales, a “retired” hunter who served as a scout and consultant, to check out the area before moving in. Unfortunately, time was of the essence and Felicia had been sent on another task overseas. In light of these events, they were going in blind. But if Shanna had learned anything over the past month, it was that she had some very powerful allies.
“It’s so dark,” Shanna muttered, awkwardly making her way along the passage and suddenly gasping involuntarily as her hand landed in a particularly thick mesh of spider web.
Jade suppressed a laugh and squinted down at a sheet in her hand. “Okay, Miss Tough-as-Nails, it says here that past the hidden doorway, there’s going to be an open chamber, at the back of which the eggs are stored for pick-up, behind an altar of sorts.”
“And Valor said they’d have to be kept cool, like in a refrigerator or something,” Shanna recalled squinting up ahead at a doorway where flickering light threw sporadic shadows over its frame.
Jade put a finger up to her lips for silence and crouched down as she proceeded along toward the doorway, as if making herself as small as possible would also make her quieter.
Following diligently, Shanna cast nervous glances into the corners around her. Jade wasn’t exactly stealth girl, for the most part. She appreciated a good fight and that had a tendency to make Shanna nervous. Cameron had related to her how, on a particular mission a week prior, she had simply burst into a room, guns blazing. “She’s kind of…reckless,” he’d said with a shrug. “But smart. Damn smart.” And she was smart. She’d be
en the one to create the magick detector. She tinkered with plenty of weapons to help them in the field, as well as poured over books about monsters daily, searching for answers to some of her burning questions like why vampires feared crosses, or why only silver could harm a werewolf. But it seemed to Shanna that the girl needed to focus some of that enthusiasm for knowledge on how to be more cautious.
Catching up to Jade at the doorway, Shanna paused to look over the room ahead of them. Torches burned in sconces along the walls, leaving no shadows with which to work with. Stepping into that room meant instant exposure if anyone should be watching for intruders. Across the room was the altar mentioned by the scholars. Behind that should be their prize. The harpy eggs.
“Ready?” Jade asked, tensing visibly, jaw set.
“Ready? For what?” Shanna demanded. “We haven’t discussed…” She let her words die on the air as the other hunter stepped out into the room carelessly, eyes sweeping over the area ahead as she proceeded.
A low sigh escaped Shanna as she moved to follow, also casting her eyes about for anything out of the ordinary. It seemed too easy. Shouldn’t they have some sort of guard watching the eggs? A little shiver crept up her spine as she tried to convince herself that no one was supposed to be able to find this room in the first place. It was hidden by a glamour in an obscure area.
Then why is it in Lime Bay, the same city where The Agency is based? A voice hissed in her head.
Shanna tried to shake off her unease, but found herself almost convinced that this was a trap.
“What’s with the torches?” Jade hissed over her shoulder. “Shouldn’t they be more careful being beneath a paper mill and all?”
“Ah, and here we have the curious hunters at last,” a voice proclaimed loudly from behind them.
“I knew it,” Shanna murmured to Jade as they both turned and looked up over the doorway from which they had just entered the room, where a loft overlooked the altar. A woman stood there in a blue cloak, gazing down at them with satisfaction. She was bald with prominent cheekbones and long unpainted nails on both hands. Small tattoos oozed out from behind her ears to spill onto her cheeks, dancing eerily in time to the flicker of the room’s flames.
“Where are the eggs?” Jade demanded. “Give up their location and we let you live.”
“But that’s not your assignment, now is it, Dear?” the woman asked. “Your assignment specifies to destroy the person responsible for the eggs’ presence here.” She wore a maniacal grin as she said this, a grin that broadened as she saw the confusion in their anxious looks.
Jade glanced at Shanna uncertainly. “Is this a…test?”
The woman in the cloak suddenly roared, her eyes becoming black. “These are not the same girls, Lupe. I wanted revenge for the theft of my identity.”
“You’ll get your revenge soon enough, Rocquele,” a voice answered sweetly from behind the hunters.
Shanna turned, startled to see a very pretty blonde girl had stepped in front of the altar. She looked as if she belonged in a beauty pageant. Her eyes were highlighted with soft blue eye shadow, her lips were painted a delicious pink, and she wore a yellow top that left her tanned shoulders exposed. She leaned casually back against the altar as she looked them over.
“Lupe,” Shanna echoed, the name familiar to her ears. Then she looked up sharply and pronounced the name with clarity. “Lupe.”
Jade looked at her sideways, but Shanna was staring fixedly on the figure before her. The woman had been at The Crimson Rope’s ball the previous month. She was the one who’d beaten fellow hunter Brett up so badly that his face had just started looking normal again.
“My reputation precedes me,” Lupe purred, stepping up to the hunters as if they were old friends who’d bumped into each other at the mall. She paused and the smile left her lips when she got a good look at Shanna. “You. I wasn’t really expecting you.”
“I was expecting that bitch Natalia,” Rocquele screamed.
“Hush,” Lupe snapped. “You’ll get your revenge. On her and the others. For now, we have two little mice to play with. And a message for them to deliver to the others.”
About the Author
Dave Ferraro grew up in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, where he was warped by a steady diet of comic books, horror movies and young adult novels. He is the author of the paranormal fantasy series Hunters of the Dark, as well as Dark Genesis, Twice Bitten, and the middle grade fantasy Secret Santa. He won Library Journal’s Self-Published E-book Award for Fantasy in 2015 for his novel Yokai. He graduated with a B.A. in English and creative writing from Saint Cloud State University, and currently resides in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
