"It’s getting closer," Holt warned. "Twenty yards to the tree line."
An acrid smell hit my nostrils. I wrinkled my nose as the breeze brought the scent of perfume and the Leftovers my way. Somehow, this area smelled worse than the Immortal Plane ever had. It was like the combination of Planes caused it to be ranker than either—though, who knew, maybe it was just my luck to get the nastiest location. I braced myself, peering past the couple.
"Fifteen yards and coming in hot," Holt warned. He sucked in a breath as a long snout emerged from the trees behind the vloggers. Jessica, clueless, smacked Dan’s shoulder for not telling her that she had a bit of pink lip gloss on her teeth.
For a moment, the beast paused. It had no eyes. It looked like a cross between a Komodo dragon and a turtle, with a hard outer shell covering its back. Its huge nostrils sniffed at the air. I dialed back the scope on my binoculars to take in the size of it. It was as a big as a tour bus. The creature parted its lips to let its tongue slither out. It was several feet long and coated with a strange green sludge.
"Don’t let that tongue touch you," I warned my team. "Move into position, now!"
Someone grumbled on the line. It was either Evans or Jones, both of whom seemed to like me as much as sandpaper on skin. I shouted the command again, feeling my adrenaline and frustration spike. I was their Captain, but they hadn’t all accepted that yet. Still, I heard the sound of boots coming up behind me.
"Five yards," Holt cried. I leapt up and over the ridge. In my ears and the distance, I heard Jessica scream so loud that I nearly ripped my comm out of my ear. The beast careened toward her, but Dan shoved her out of the way in the nick of time. I booked it to their position with my firearm drawn. In the distance, I heard Colin’s rifle. The beast cried out and turned toward us, but Colin's bullet found its mark in the beast’s side. The shell was as hard as a supernatural tortoise’s.
"Aim for the skin underneath, Colin. That thing's shell looks bulletproof," I reported. Jessica and Dan screamed, rushing toward us as they fled the beast.
"It's really a monster," Jessica cried, sounding shocked. I growled and removed her vise-like grip from my arm.
"Out of the way. Go back to the road," I snarled. I jerked my hand to gesture behind me as Colin let another bullet fly. Jones and Evans came up behind me, heading for the monster like we’d planned.
Jessica’s eyes went wide, but then her hungry gaze shot to the camera in Dan's hand. "Babe, we need footage of this."
I didn't have time to scream at her. "The federal government wants a word with you. Get back, or I'll shoot you for trespassing." While Jones and Evans surrounded the beast, which reeled back, snuffling, Holt sprinted up to me. He glared at the couple, yanking Dan back by the collar as he attempted to turn his camera on.
"Do you want to die today, son?" Holt demanded.
Jessica screamed again. “Look!” I turned around to see Jones leaping away as the beast snapped at him. Where its tongue darted out, droplets of saliva fell into the dirt, the soil beneath it seemed to boil. My heart thudded hard against my chest.
"Get them out of here and get that camera," I told Holt. He nodded and took off. I fired at the beast, nailing it straight on the nose. It screamed in pain and fell back, only coincidentally missing Jones, who was getting too close again. "Stay away! Look at the freaking dirt." He rolled his eyes, then found the ground and took a hasty step back. Just my luck for Fenton to stick me with two hotshots.
The beast’s leathery skin was resistant to most of the shots. It reared back, then lurched forward as if to headbutt Jones, missing him by inches with its tongue. Jones let out a cry as he was knocked to the side. Evans got the message quickly and retreated closer to me.
"Colin, the skin's too tough," I reported on the comm. One of Reshi's knives rested in my equipment vest.
From afar, I heard Holt shouting, "If you kids don't turn off that camera—"
"Get everything, babe!"
I seethed with frustration. We needed Holt here, not wasted on babysitting duty. Did they want to get people killed today?
"Evans, cover me," I told her. "I'm going for the neck. This knife is the only thing that's going to get through." It was still full of dark energy from the harvester evacuation, where I’d fought off a few errant beasts before the meld. Hopefully that would help here in the Leftovers.
My throat tightened at the memory of Kane looking over his shoulder at me, smirking, making fun of the way the harvester children clung to me. Not now, focus.
I darted forward as Evans leveled her shots, moving toward the front of the beast to distract it from my side assault. Jones was pulling himself up, but Colin and Evans were making up for him. I sprinted up toward the beast as Colin nailed it in the cheek. The neck was always weakest, and it looked like that was where the shell connected to the skin.
I leapt into the air, grabbing a low-hanging tree branch, then pushing myself off the trunk and landing on the creature’s back as it shrieked in pain from the last shot. It felt me on its back and tried to buck me off, but its size and width worked against it. I held on like hell, grasping at the strange bit of matted fur that grew at the base of its neck.
My hand found the knife and I drove it in as Colin aimed another shot. Evans and Jones covered the feet. My blade sunk in with some resistance, but blood sprayed out. It smelled the way it did when we killed shrieking decays. I gagged; the smell was overwhelming in combination with the stench from the trees. Focus, Roxy. I just needed to land my blade in the other side of the neck, and that would be enough. Already I felt the beast stumbling. I sucked in a breath and worked my knife free.
"Are you okay?" a low, rumbling male voice whispered in my ear. "It pisses me off when people don't listen." He sounded furious. My heart froze. I knew that voice. And that hearing it was impossible.
"Kane?" I whispered.
Commotion blocked out the voice in my head for a moment. "Roxy, take your strike," Colin yelled into the comm. My fingers felt numb around the knife, blood dripping over them.
“Roxy,” Kane said.
“Stop talking to me!” I cried. Colin took in a sharp breath. Before I could apologize, the world shifted, and I was flying back into one of the bushes at the base of the nearby tree, thrown off as the creature lurched. My back hit the ground hard, my teeth jolting in my mouth, and my head swam with confusion.
"Does she need an assist?" Jones asked over the comms. He was forty with two kids at home. At that moment, I wanted to punch him in the face. “I thought you were supposed to be an expert.”
"Don't be afraid," Kane’s voice muttered darkly. Where was it coming from? He wasn’t behind me.
“Jones! It’s coming at you again!” Evans’ voice rang through the comms. At thirty-two, she was a decorated soldier; she and Jones had been teammates before. “Taylor, get yourself together.” Jones let out another cocky comment and I could see the fight getting away from me.
"Warriors need to fight. It's what we do." It was Kane’s voice, clearer than the comms, gentle yet fierce, as if he were trying to help me through this.
"Stop," I whispered, forcing myself up from the scratchy leaves, back throbbing. He wasn't—couldn’t be—talking to me. Shadows crowded in on the edges of my vision.
Kane was gone. Officially, he was missing in action. I had already mourned him just in case, because that's what soldiers did. We abandoned hope for practicality. Even if I knew Kane was too stubborn to die. I fought off the sudden heat of tears springing to my eyes. Nope. Not here. Not now.
Kane's voice said, even gentler, "it's going to be okay." I’d never heard him use a tone like that. I shook the shadows from my vision and willed the sound to be gone. When I finally got my bearings, I charged forward, aiming at the beast's neck as Evans and Jones feinted back and forth with it.
"Get it parallel to the forest again," I shouted to my team. “I’ll lure it after me!” I was bleeding. My arm must've gotten cut in the fall. The beast’s nostrils flar
ed and it lurched after me, revealing the wound on its neck from a profile view. It lunged at me—and then its neck spurted gore as the sniper rifle cracked.
I wrenched back, narrowly avoiding the dying beast's tongue as it collapsed onto its side. Finally, I could breathe out in relief. Jones and Evans were good, but Colin almost never missed.
“Fall back,” I ordered my team. It wasn't our job to bag the baddies. A team of scientists would be dispatched when it was all clear.
I shook my head and ignored a snicker from Jones and a smirk from Evans. They’d had front-row tickets to my dramatic freak out and fall, but if I responded to Jones’s obvious desire to make a “fall back” pun, I’d just look petty.
From across the clearing, Jessica was shouting. "You can't just, like, arrest us. We have rights."
I stalked over to the couple. Jessica was valiantly trying to fight her way out of Holt's grip near the ridge where we’d originally hidden. I scowled at her, but she didn't see me yet. Dan looked down at the ground, embarrassed.
"You can't hit me, I'm a girl," Jessica blurted to Holt. He raised his eyebrows and darted a glance at me.
"Well, it's your lucky day. I'm a girl and I pack a killer punch, so if you don't want to deal with that, then I suggest you listen," I snapped. She paled as I poked my finger in her face. "We just fought off a monster to save your sorry butt, so shut up and say thank you."
Jessica lifted her camera with a little smirk, as if that would deter me. "What spooked you out there?" she asked.
Holt sucked in a breath. I’d told him earlier to get the camera. I narrowed my eyes and wrenched it from her hand, letting it fall to the ground with a satisfying crunch.
"Jessica Laurence, you are under arrest for trespassing on government property." I grabbed handcuffs from my kit and went for her wrists as Holt cuffed Dan, who put up no resistance. Jessica fought for a bit, but I was rough. I wasn’t going to feel bad about it. She’d endangered the lives of several people today. I had soldiers under my command, and I was responsible for their lives, even if they didn’t respect me.
Can I blame them, after I had a hallucination in the middle of battle? I swallowed that bitter thought as I directed the captured vloggers to sit on the ground. Without their camera, they were powerless.
The flight back to Chicago put me in a foul mood. No, it was the mission. I stewed sourly in my seat as I reviewed everything that had happened. Jones and Evans had followed my orders, but there’d been an undercurrent of disrespect while they did it. I understood their position, of course, and I couldn’t say I’d have been any better in their place. But they didn't expect poisonous tongues, since they’d spent their most recent years fighting redbills. They had years more experience than I did, but I was the one in charge thanks to my experience in the Immortal Plane. My team was still skeptical, and they’d just watched me spaz out.
I ran my hand through my hair and sighed. Now, I had to convince these people that I knew what I was doing. Half of my team was resentful. Colin hadn’t said a word, but even Holt, who treated me civilly, had looked askance at my mishap today. I leaned my head against the window to watch the glowing lights of Chicago come closer, reflecting off the lake.
Had I really heard Kane’s voice? I wasn't crazy, right?
What does it mean? Without realizing, I traced the slant of Kane's usual scowl onto the window with my finger. I’d never imagined how much I would miss it.
The captain announced that we were landing soon. I pulled myself away from the window and pushed the thought of Kane far from my mind.
Chapter 3
Lyra
Bryce sprinted from the other side of the compound to join us just as Dorian and I caught sight of Cam—far into the trees on the forested side of the destroyed Bureau office. His eyes were trained on a wall of scraggly vines hanging between the tree trunks, head cocked to the side, gun at the ready. He darted into the overgrown mess, not a move I would have expected from the serious and careful soldier. The rest of us followed, Bryce looking livid.
"Get back here," Bryce bellowed as his nephew’s red hair disappeared deeper into the forest. "I'll have you back on that plane sooner than you can call your mother to beg for forgiveness."
My pulse staggered. "Cam, he’s right—we don’t know what’s out there."
We caught up to him in a small clearing at the beginning of a rough path through the forest. The small spiky creatures gathered at his feet, but they weren't attacking, instead skirting and bouncing around his boots.
"I came here for a reason. I heard something, and the creatures came running. They're scared of something in the woods," Cam said, and now that I took a better look, it did kind of look as if they were using Cam as cover. It was incredible to see how some immortal creatures could show such familiar emotions; maybe he’d felt bad for them.
I listened for something else out there—crashing footsteps, other creatures’ sounds—but there was nothing but Bryce's heavy breathing as he caught up. Then a pained screeching erupted from the depths of the forest. It sounded like a single creature. Dorian's breath hitched beside me. His fangs didn't appear, but his face tensed as he stared into the distance.
"Scanner," I told Sike, who was already tugging it out of his bag and tuning it. He inhaled sharply, shaking his head.
"There's definitely something out there. It's big. I don't know why it didn't appear on the scanner before.”
Again, a strangled scream from one of the rodent creatures echoed in the distance. My stomach clenched with dread as Sike muttered to himself, scrolling through the scanner. "Whatever it is, based off the energy levels I’m getting, we should assume it’s a threat."
"The screams told us that," Dorian said dryly. "Is it moving toward us?"
Sike shook his head. "The image keeps glitching. Maybe fifty yards away? It looks like it’s moving north, into the forest."
Fifty yards away we could work with. I turned to Cam. Bryce had already reprimanded him enough; there had to be a reason this serious young man would break rank.
“We should prepare to investigate,” I said. "Sike, let me know if that presence gets any closer to us. Cam, what brought you here exactly? The sound of the animals?"
Cam winced, as if expecting another rebuke—Bryce didn't look far off from it—but his voice held steady. “I thought I heard a human voice, shouting in the forest."
My eyebrows shot up with interest. "What did the voice sound like, to you?" We’d warned him that sounds and sensations in this area could be misleading. I wanted to make sure it wasn’t in his head.
Cam paused in recollection. "Scared. Like they were surprised or hurt." His answer sounded sure. It was hard to tell if he’d experienced Immortal Plane trickery, or not. "I thought I heard someone crying for help, but then these guys came rushing up screeching. I haven't heard anything since."
The group stilled for a moment, all listening. Besides the typical muttering and eerie groaning that had been happening the whole time, and the continuous rodent screaming, it was hard to tell. "I don't hear anything,” I said, “but if you're right, Cam, this could be big."
"If it's real," Dorian countered. Bryce grimaced. We all remembered the effect the redwood trees had had on the humans during his first visit. Vanim, the vampires’ destroyed city, held dark memories within its remaining walls that still made me shiver to think about. Some of the nearby trees had spoken, and never about anything pleasant.
Cam looked disappointed. "It's no offense to you, Cam,” I told him. “But we need to consider every option."
"It is offense to you," Bryce countered with flared nostrils. "Don't run off again. You might find yourself running around a tree shouting at the top of your lungs about people who don’t exist." He knew, because it had happened to him. I noticed Bryce didn’t choose to share that part of the story. Foolhardy bravery must have been a family trait.
On the other hand, if there was even a chance of a human survivor… I made a decision. We needed
to act as if the monster was close, even if it was retreating.
"Let's move in," I said. "If someone is out here, we need to try our best to rescue them." I glanced at Sike's scanner, where the image continued to flicker and glitch uncertainly. “We have a general direction, and we can follow the sound of those blue rodents, so we should be able to find this creature quickly.”
"I'm game, but let's not kill ourselves to save a phantom," Bryce said. One of the blue rats darted around Cam's leg and scampered into the underbrush. "You'll have to leave your friends behind, Cam." That sounded more like his usual boisterous teasing, perhaps a peace offering. Despite his composed face, a hint of red came to Cam's face. He turned away from us slightly. Oh goodness, I'm not sure if I can handle Bryce family dynamics in the field.
"Let's move," I pressed. "Follow the terrifying screeches."
Sike chuckled. "You really know how to motivate people, Lyra." I bit back a dry grin, settling into mission mode. My focus was one hundred percent on my team and the forest around me: the looming trees, twitching vines and faint cries. It was disturbing, but we had no choice. If there really was a person here, they’d been waiting months for rescue. We had a duty to them.
We headed into the underbrush, moving swiftly but quietly, leaving the clearing around the buildings behind. The sunlight overhead was quickly choked out by shadows; the vines wove a net across the upper branches of the trees, but we could move through the trunks, in between unfamiliar shrubs and more mushrooms. I rarely brushed a tree trunk; it was almost as if they were flinching from my touch.
I did my best to avoid the crunchy leaves that seemed to have fallen from some of the vines. Everywhere in the Immortal Plane I’d been had been mild to warm; maybe the immortal plants had showed up during the meld and then reacted to the Mortal Plane's crisp, late winter air. I kept my gaze ahead, scanning the shadows, though I stopped to let one of the rodents dart across my path. I didn't want to punt it forward into the mouth of a monster.
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