by Heather Karn
I stared over my shoulder at him, almost uncomfortable with this conversation. The touchy feely version of my trainer always threw me off and I never knew how to handle him. Shrugging off his hand, I nodded.
“I’ll be fine for now, but if that changes, I’ll come to you or someone else. I promise. Can we go now?”
Raven nodded and led the way from the room, his magenta eyes on alert and a scowl passed toward the desk clerk who appeared ready to pee his pants. If the man thought I was someone to reckon with, he’d just learned there was someone worse residing under this roof. It was his lucky day that another clerk had checked us in.
Shannon and Jackson stood outside the truck, waiting for me to slide in before they climbed inside after me. After buckling up, we were on our way. Someone had refilled our water bottles and handed me a full bottle. I wasn’t sure who’d emptied it the first time since I hadn’t touched a drop last night, but I was too parched to care. Add to that, Lee was my brother and I didn’t care about his germs, I’d drank Raven’s blood, and bit Jackson to drink from him. After that, drinking from a random water bottle was nothing.
For the next hour, the others conversed and laughed, except for Raven and I, but when the car grew eerily quiet, the hairs on my arms stood on end. In the distance were sparse skyscrapers and barely visible rubble piles. Signs warned civilians to turn around and take another highway to bypass the area. We ignored them and continued until a large fence and guard station came into view.
“We’re here,” Raven announced, setting off a series of explosions in my gut until I was certain I’d puke from nerves. He took my hand and squeezed, slowing the truck as a guard approached to speak to him. “I promise, Koda, if he’s not here, we’ll find him. You have my word. Now, let’s see whose luck it is to guard this graveyard.”
Chapter 3
A large, fortified gate and guard house came into view, and as we drew closer, a few of the men stepped out toward the road. One of them was larger than all the others, reminding me of Raven. When we were close enough to make out facial features, Raven chuckled and visibly relaxed.
“Is that who I think it is?” Avery asked, sticking his head between me and Raven.
“It sure is.” Raven reached for the window buttons and rolled all four windows down, giving the guards approaching visible access to all of us.
“Who?” I muttered, turning to Raven.
“An old friend.”
While they spoke, I studied the man approaching our truck when Raven parked, leaving his hands on the steering wheel. The man wore the black, sleeveless uniform of the elite, and dark sunglasses hid his eyes from the rising sun. His men spread out behind him and on the other side of the truck. Our civilian clothes made us appear suspicious, rather than on their side.
“What have we here?” the man asked, the black of his hair, or what was left of it, glinting in the rising sun. He’d shaved all of it except a short mohawk down the middle of his head. “Captain Cartana, to what do we owe the pleasure?”
“Lance,” Raven greeted as the man leaned against the truck and peered inside. His eyes caught on me and his mouth popped open a little before he closed it.
“You did it,” Lance murmured, turning his attention on Raven. “You finally convinced one of the females to leave the safety of their House to join you out here? How?”
Unsure of what was happening, I took a deep breath, scenting the new man. I barely controlled my eyes going wide when I smelled his vamlure scent.
"That's not quite how it happened," Raven chuckled. "I can't say much more than that."
"Understood. Now, what can I do for you?" Lance peered deeper into the truck again, as did some of his men, trying to see who else was inside. "That's quite a packed truck."
"We're in a hurry," Raven told him, leaning back and finally taking his hands off the wheel since Lance knew we weren't any threat. "General Davis should have called to give us permission to cross into the city."
Lance's lips pressed into a thin, white line. He met the eyes of one of his men and nodded toward the guard house. "Go check yesterday's log." The man ran off while the vamlure turned his attention back on us. "My team just got back from our two days off, so we're catching up on what we've missed. Usually no one wants in. Most want out." He chuckled, the sound of it raising goosebumps on my arms. "I have to say the last full moon was a riot. We almost had an escapee, but we put it down before it ran too far from the fence. Those werewolves are getting braver and gutsier."
"Stronger too," one of the men standing near the truck added. "And more conniving in human form."
"They have to be, what with all the other Threats mashed up in here with them," Raven murmured, his eyes staring straight ahead without seeing the horizon.
"We've been slowly clearing the Threats from the city limits," Lance explained as his man jogged back to us. "I hope you're armed, though."
"Yes, we are," Raven finished and pinned the young elk shifter approaching with a hard stare. "Well?"
The shifter nodded, giving his full attention to Lance. "The logs show that General Connor Davis called last night to give Captain Cartana and his team access to the city for twenty-four hours once they arrive."
Lance thumped his hands against the truck near Raven's door. "All right, go ahead, but I'd be back before the sun sets, but definitely before your time limit. You of all people know what lies in that city."
"Yeah we do," Avery muttered from the back seat, setting me on edge. If this mission wasn't so important, and if I didn't need this information so much, I would've run from the thought of entering the city. However, I didn't have any ideas of where to search for Gerald next, so this was my only option for now.
Lance handed over a handheld radio, which Raven passed to me. "Call if you need backup, but I should warn you that if it comes down to that, you'll likely be dead before we reach you."
"Understood," Raven commented as Lance and his men backed up, drew their weapons and faced the gate that was opening. As we inched forward, the windows rolled up and I held my breath. This was it. Either we were making the worst mistake of our lives or I'd find what I came for.
The truck cab remained silent as Raven drove the truck over a makeshift bridge that made me lightheaded as water rushed underneath it. All of the original bridges on this side of the city had been destroyed in the initial attack, and these smaller bridges were put into place. They were much easier to destroy in cases of emergency, but also easy to construct.
"Do you know where you're going or do you need the GPS or address?" I asked Raven, ready to dig my father's note out of my back pocket. He'd left Gerald's address on the bottom of his letter, which was why we were here in the first place.
Raven shook his head, driving much faster than I would've been as we approached the city. "No, I know where we're going. You all need to listen to me. Whatever happens, don't wander off. I don’t care what you see. They’ll try to draw you away from the group if they can. This place is littered with werewolves, ghouls, and other Threats."
Ghouls. I'd had a run in with a young one weeks ago, and I wasn't prepared to face another one. It had almost killed me, and I didn't want to meet another of its kind.
Avery sighed from the back as the first of the demolished buildings loomed ahead. "You do realize that we're going to be on foot for most of this, right?"
"Unfortunately. Let's hope Lance's team and the others have cleared some roads as they search for Threats." Raven gripped the steering wheel tighter and scowled at the buildings we passed.
Some rubble littered the road, but nothing we couldn't maneuver around or just drive over with the large truck. Even Shannon was tense beside me as the morning sun fell behind the remains of the structures now surrounding us. An eerie silence echoed around us, and even though the destruction had occurred almost a full decade earlier, it appeared like dust still hovered in the air, or was falling from above. Nothing moved, but I could feel eyes on me, much like when Raven and I had gone
in search of the Stalker, Louis.
"What's out there?" I asked, my voice breathless.
"You name it, it's out there," Raven murmured. "Almost every Threat you can think of fought here, and also died. We have to be fast.
"How do they even survive?" Luella whispered, like she didn't want her voice to carry outside the car. I was right there with her.
"Off one another," Avery muttered. "Ghouls eat the dead, other creatures eat the ghouls, even more eat those creatures, and on full moons, they all hide from the werewolves."
That brought on a sickening thought. "So, what do the werewolves eat while they're human before and after the full moon?"
"Anything they can." Avery's words made me want to puke as the first shadow of life appeared ahead of us before disappearing into the shadows and dust. I swallowed hard as my hand settled on Raven's leg. He kept his hands on the wheel, but I needed the contact. Even Jackson had brought his head up to rest it in Shannon's lap so she could knead his ears. More than anything, I was glad I wasn't the only nervous person in the crowd.
We drove for another ten minutes before too much large debris blocked our route. Before exiting the truck, Raven turned it around so it would be waiting for a quick get-a-way. In my heart, I prayed and hoped we wouldn't need to use it for that purpose.
"Anyone see anything?" Raven asked, not bothering to crack the window to scent the air. It would be pointless. We knew what was out there, and their scents would be surrounding us.
After everyone gave the all clear, we climbed from the truck, Jackson leading the way in front of Shannon, his hackles raised in his attempt to protect her from the unseen danger. It was sweet, but she'd have as much luck defending him. In fact, she could probably do a better job with her magic, but he was protective of her, so she didn't argue. The moment my feet touched the broken blacktop, my senses became even more alert.
"Stay at my side," Raven directed, joining me on the passenger's side of the truck. He locked the doors the moment they were all shut. "This way, and Koda, if you need to bite something, do it. Most of these creatures will die by our venom."
Avery handed me my sword, which had ridden in the back seat by him. Everyone else checked their weapons, which were a combination of bows and arrows, knives, axes, and swords. With the knives Raven gave me on my first mission strapped to my thighs and stuffed in my boots, and the sword hanging at my hip, I was as prepared as I could be. Even Lee was outfitted with a weapon that appeared suspiciously like a halberd, which in my opinion looked like a mash up of an axe and a spear. I didn't even want to think about what creature he'd need to use that against.
Raven led the way, with me right behind him and the others spreading out behind us. It only took me a few steps to pull one of my thigh knives from its sheath. Knowing my string of bad luck wasn't likely to end anytime soon, it was better if I was prepared. My trainer was far too confident, but then again, he'd seen far more fights than I had, and he'd lived to tell the story of St. Louis's fall. Maybe this wasn't nearly as terrifying as the initial attack.
The airborne dust hung around us, like it was frozen there. No breeze reached us to make it float around, so it should've fallen to the street. In fact, it wasn't even floating from above, descending to the ground. It was just floating, or hovering. Not moving. It created a far eerier surrounding than I'd been prepared for.
"What's up with the dust?" I whispered to Raven, and to my surprise, he didn't try to shush me.
"Magic. The warlocks and witches who destroyed this place left a lot of their magic behind, and it collided with those around them, causing spells to backfire and morph. This city is an example of what not to do with magic."
"So then why'd they do it?"
"The Elite magic users were given orders to destroy the city. The civilian magic users panicked."
"How much farther?" I asked him, jumping closer as a window shattered to our right, further up the next block, but nothing followed the glass to the ground. In fact, nothing besides the glass moved at all.
"Three blocks. Calm down, Koda. They're trying to scare us, and it's not the way in we have to worry about."
"It's the way out," Avery grumbled, his crossbow at the ready.
Swallowing down bile that threatened to rise up my throat, I followed Raven, praying I hadn't killed my team with the need to check out the old home of my dad's contact. I should've just found another way to find the information I needed. The man would be crazy to live here still.
But he might've left me clues. Anything. I'd take whatever little crumbs I could find, and not just because of my need to know who my birth parents were, but because I needed to know why I had a group of supernaturals trying to kill me. The odds of my adoptive parents giving me a pendant of the Third House couldn't be coincidental with the timing of the attack. Someone knew something I didn't, and I wanted to know what it was before I died.
The sun crept higher in the sky as we avoided the debris littering the roads and kept our eyes peeled for an attack. Scents of strange creatures surrounded us, and I couldn't place most of them since they were so muddled within one another, but one of the scents was certainly ghouls. Even eating one another, how had the creatures survived this long being trapped within this city with no access to humans?
After three blocks, and no danger in sight, though I could still feel eyes on me, Raven turned us to the left, and half a block later, he led us across the street to a building that had been torn apart above the twelfth floor, or as close to twelve as I could count from the outside while still keeping an eye on our surroundings. The front door was broken off its hinges and lying diagonal across the main entrance. Avery helped Raven rip it from the wall and toss it aside before they stepped apart to reveal the inside of the destroyed apartment complex.
"Okay, Jacks, do your thing," Shannon directed, following her familiar into the building as he padded up the stairs without a sound. His nose was by far the best in the group, and if danger lurked inside, he'd find it. The rest of us followed them inside, with Avery and Lee bringing up the rear.
With Jackson's help, we located two ghouls on the third floor, and I almost puked when I realized they were eating the dead body of another ghoul they'd probably killed. It was one of the most disgusting sights I'd ever laid my eyes on, and I fought not to gag as Shannon brought a vine houseplant back to life and strangled one of the monsters so Raven could take its head off. When the other tried to make an escape to the staircase, he ran straight into me, and I didn't think, but acted on instinct and Raven's council. With a mouthful of venom and elongated teeth, I bit down on the first piece of goopey flesh I could find and pumped his body full of venom. He trembled against me until his body sagged and I released him, the taste of death on my tongue.
This time I did gag, and Luella handed me a bottle of water from her small bag so I could rinse and spit. "Thanks," I coughed, handing the water bottle back. "That was disgusting."
"But well done," Raven countered. "Let's go. We don't have much time before other creatures come to feast on these three."
"You really want me to puke again, don't you?" I muttered, following him up the stairs to the seventh floor.
"It's the circle of life, Koda. Might as well get used to it." Raven's chuckle led the way into a long, dingy hallway with room numbers listed on every door.
"Well, the circle of life is disgusting."
Halfway down the hall, we stopped in front of room 736, the room listed on the address in the letter. Taking a deep breath, I prepared myself for what we might find inside: nothing, a dead body, a torn apart room, anything. There was only so far I could anticipate what lay on the other side of the wooden door, and I tried to think of the worst case scenarios so that I wouldn't be too disappointed in the results.
Without asking if I was ready, Raven took charge and kicked the door in, busting the door frame as it gave under the intense pressure. Splintered wood fell to the floor as he stepped inside, and I almost didn't follow.
"You sure you didn't want to check the door knob first before you went all caveman style?" Luella grumbled. "I'm sure every Threat between here and the truck heard that crash."
"Every Threat between here and the truck already knows where we are," Raven grumbled, stepping aside to show me the room. "I think we're in the right spot."
Chapter 4
At first glance, I wasn't sure what made Raven announce that we'd found the right apartment. The living room was completely plain and void of any real decorations. A kitchen was off to the right, and it was also plain. Not even a throw pillow was out of place. This guy was either not a bachelor, or one of the cleanest single men alive. Maybe he had some sort of OCD that made him have to live in perfect conditions? Or he'd been expecting guests and he did what I always did and threw half of his belongings into the closet to hide them until after his company left.
On a second sweep of the room, my eyes locked on a black marker design on the painted brick of the fireplace. The black was in stark contrast to the white paint, but the design was small enough that most people wouldn't even notice it. Without my enhanced senses, and knowing what I could be looking for, I never would’ve noticed the symbol of Third House from across the room.
"We'll guard the door," Avery murmured to us as he and Lee stationed themselves in the hallway on either side of the door, with Jackson standing between them, his sensitive ears twitching in every direction. Luella and Shannon crossed the room to the two large windows, one in the living room, and the other in the kitchen.
Raven led the way to the fireplace that was built into the wall between the two windows, and once he reached it, he pulled out a knife and worked the brick loose. When he was able to pull it out, I swiped the paper tucked behind it before Raven could reach for it. With the paper in hand, I stepped back and opened it with trembling hands. I didn't need Raven to tell me to read it out loud. We were already short on time, and everyone was dying to know what it said as well.
