The Immortal Huntress

by Kelly Hall

  Ignis pulled a small vial he’d pilfered from Doc’s office out of his pocket and collected the sample.

  The angel winced. “Couldn’t you have just used a needle?” He pulled back his hand which had already begun to heal.

  Ignis shrugged. “I didn’t steal a needle.” He stood and held the blood to the light. “I’ll get right on this.”

  Rebekah hated to hold Ignis up, knowing how excited he was to get busy concocting the spell. “I’ll be going to check on Estelle in a little bit.”

  “I’ll go if you need me,” said Ignis, though by his regretful expression, she knew he didn’t want to.

  “I’ll see if Father Timms can go. He’s going to come and help me locate possible dens.”

  “Perfect!” Ignis wasted no time and disappeared around the door.

  As Aziel got to his feet, she stood with him, still holding Luna.

  “Report to Canter, and tell him I appointed you.” As she returned Luna back to her hip, he gave a nod and hurried out.

  In the short time she was alone, she wondered if she had done the right thing, but considering that decisions about his blood were part of his free will, she didn’t think she could get in too much trouble. She couldn’t let it bother her. “What’s done is done,” she mumbled.

  “What’s that?” Father Timms walked into the room and pulled out his phone.

  “Sorry, I was talking to myself.” She waved him over to have a seat.

  “Is that what happens when you live the life of an immortal?” Father Timms lowered himself to the chair and placed his phone on her desk.

  “Yes, it has gotten worse with time, I’m afraid. Thankfully, my brain remains as young as my body, so my mind is healthy, but I do tend to pick up a bad habit here and there.”

  “I’m doing the same thing in my older years,” he admitted. “Guess we are two of a kind.”

  “How’s the new office?”

  “It’s fine, thank you.” He poked at his phone and then pushed it toward Rebekah. “This is a map of an underground tunnel system in the city. I called down to the stationary unit and was told that there hadn’t been any problems with the shifters, and as far as the rogues, there have only been a few sightings reported. Mostly people freaked out by seeing wolves in the city.”

  “Did they report anything other than sightings?” she asked. “What about trappings, kills? Have they made any?”

  “They still claim the Church told them that this is your jurisdiction and that you’re handling it.”

  “And since they are so grossly understaffed for some reason, they won’t send anyone to help, right?” She wondered how bad it really was.

  “I’m not sure taking their four hunters out of their assigned areas would do much good.”

  “Four?” Rebekah couldn’t believe it.

  “Yeah, apparently grossly understaffed was not an exaggeration.”

  “That’s something else to look into. Las Vegas is a big city. I can’t imagine why its stationary unit and nearest training academy are suffering, unless it’s for the same reason.”

  Father Timms gave her a regretful look. “It would seem that someone is deliberately hitting this area. I’ll keep digging. Something is bound to turn up.”

  “What is it about these tunnels that make them special?” she asked.

  “Other than the fact that they were used by the mob, and that they are close to the areas where the attacks took place, they also provide a shortcut to several key locations, including the old hospital.”

  “The old hospital?”

  “Yes, you know it as Sunny Days, and the tunnels go down to where a few older casinos were located. They demolished a few of them, I’m afraid.” He pointed to the map on his phone and showed her where the two met up.

  “There are a lot of tunnels. It’s like a big maze. There is this one hub.” She indicated the middle area where all of the tunnels seem to intersect.

  “Yes,” said Father Timms, “This one leads to the club district. This one is nearest to the parking garage outside of Sunny Days, which is still part of the old hospital grounds. And here, you can see the tunnels jutting off. A few of those are dead ends now, but that doesn’t mean they’ll all be empty.”

  “I can’t see them wanting to close themselves in. They’d most likely be at the hub, right? That would be a good central base of operations.” Rebekah had seen their patterns before, and they usually kept a scout near each of their entrances, but the majority would be in a large pack. Most packs weren’t more than eight or ten in number in these kinds of conditions, but this wasn’t a normal situation.

  “We’ll have to get a few of the stationaries to give us some information on where the majority of the sightings have been, and what time of the day or night. I want to go in and take them by surprise.”

  “Surprise is good.” Father Timms got to his feet and placed his fist over his heart. “I’ll get right on this.”

  “Oh, I’m afraid the cat’s out of the bag. The hunters know I’m the Immortal Huntress.” She gave a long sigh. “And by the way gossip spreads, I’m sure the entire academy knows about it by now.”

  “You know, Rebekah, it’s not the end of the world. I mean, is it such a bad thing?”

  She had never wanted to be known or regarded like some kind of celebrity, and those that had no use for such things would only see her as vulnerable. “There’s just an awful lot of pressure to being me. I was in the open over a century ago, and it didn’t do me any good.” She took a deep breath and pushed the memories back down below the surface before they had a chance to rise.

  Chapter 23

  Rebekah checked in on Ignis, who was hard at work, and then she and Father Timms headed out to check on Estelle.

  After the long drive, which Father Timms made in less time than Jarreth, thanks to more experience behind the wheel and a lead foot, they made it to the nursing home to check on Estelle’s status.

  When they entered, Rosa wasn’t at the front desk, and there were no attendants in sight. If it hadn’t been for the music that played softly in the distance, she would have thought the place was empty.

  “They must be in the lunch room having a program,” said Father Timms. “These homes try to have entertainment from time to time.”

  “We’ll just peek in and see if Estelle’s in her room, and then I’ll find Rosa.” She led the old man down the hall.

  “Okay, just don’t leave me here.” He gave her a wink.

  Father Timms, though he was nearly sixty, was sharp as a tack and in excellent health. His physique was still strong and muscular, and despite becoming a priest, he’d kept his gym membership.

  “As if.” She had heard Delilah use the term and rolled her eyes not only at the priest, but at how much she was allowing the young hunters to rub off on her.

  They continued down the hall until they came to Estelle’s room, and though she wasn’t in her bed, there was a strange shadow cast across her pillow. It brought Rebekah’s eyes to the window where a dark, swirling stain, just like the one in the alley, coated the glass.

  “They were here. The dark mage and the shifters, they came.” She reached over to the bedside and took a tissue from its box, then she carefully wiped the window. “It’s mostly on the outside.” There was a pinhole in the glass, and a tiny spot came off on the tissue, which Rebekah then tossed in the trash.

  “There’s no doubt they were targeting the old woman,” said Father Timms.

  “There’s no doubt they’re trying to kill off my mother’s bloodline.” She wondered how anyone else might know of the prophecy and want it fulfilled. “I don’t understand this. I need to find her.”

  As they turned to leave, Rosa came into the room. “Ms. Ward? Oh, I’m so glad you’re here. I was just about to call you. They moved Ms. Riley down the road to the hospital. She’s not improving, and I’m afraid there wasn’t anything more we could do for her here.”

  Rebekah raked her hand through her hair. “If you d
on’t mind me asking, when was she discovered?”

  Rosa took a moment to think. “She was found early this morning when one of the night aides came to make her rounds. She’d just checked on her an hour before and said that Ms. Riley was fine then.”

  Rebekah thought of the old woman down the street in the hospital with no one to look after her. With the wolves attacking her and Jarreth in the daytime, Estelle was nothing more than a sitting duck.

  “Thank you. I’ll head right over.”

  She and Father Timms left the room and hurried out to their car without an attack. She only hoped that Estelle was safe and that the hospital was going to be secure.

  Father Timms drove down the road and found the hospital entrance, and Rebekah braced herself as they took the sharp turn. “Surely, those mongrels wouldn’t attack a hospital during the daytime.”

  “Not unless they used their human forms. The hospital most likely wouldn’t let their kind of riff-raff in. They’d call security. But I have a feeling if they haven’t done anything yet, they most likely won’t until early morning when it’s still dark and the hospital has less people roaming around.”

  “But they hit you in the daytime, so maybe the mage is using a cloaking spell. Something that shields them within a certain perimeter.”

  Rebekah hadn’t really considered a cloaking spell, but with the mage involved, it was certainly a possibility. “I think they have a scout who sensed me. Maybe the mage knew I was close and can sense me somehow, too. Ignis has such abilities. We know they are staying close by, and even though I thought that they had abandoned their last den, perhaps that’s not entirely true.”

  Father Timms stroked his beard. “Where did you say the attack was that killed Merik?”

  “It’s only a few miles down the road. I’m sure that’s part of the club district where the tunnels lead. I think they had a den there, but what if it was just a part of the den or close to the entrance?”

  “It’s possible. I’ll try to locate all of the entrances.” He pulled into the first parking space he came to, and then the duo went inside, finding the front lobby.

  Rebekah looked around the room, scoping for shifters as Father Timms went to the counter for Estelle’s room number. The waiting area only held an old woman and a few children, no one who would fit the appearance of a rogue shifter.

  Father Timms waved her over, and they walked toward the west tower elevator.

  He leaned close to her. “She’s in two-thirty-three.”

  They weaved through the halls, following the little signs all the way. Once they came to her room, they were pleased to see the area around it was busy and the room was just beside the nurses’ station.

  Rebekah pushed the door open, and Estelle was sleeping soundly with a tube in her nose. A bag of liquid hung near her bed and connected to her arm, and the beeping of her heart monitor was the only sound.

  “She’s stable for now,” came a voice from behind them. “I’m sorry, I saw you come in. I’m Nurse Teri. I thought you’d like an update on her condition since you’re the first visitors she’s had.”

  “Yes, thank you. I’m her niece.” Rebekah walked to Estelle’s bed and noticed the woman’s hands were bandaged. “What’s this? Was she injured?”

  “Oh, I’m afraid we’re not sure about that. We think she injured herself before or during the stroke. She’s comfortable for now, but I’m afraid her heart is weak and getting worse.”

  “May I see them?” Rebekah gestured to the bandaged hands.

  “Sure. They aren’t bad. The bandages are mostly so she doesn’t pick at them in her sleep.” Nurse Teri stood by Estelle and unwrapped them. “The home seems to think she did it on her bedrails, but I can’t imagine how.”

  She turned the inside of Estelle’s palm over, and Rebekah covered her mouth in disbelief.

  The wounds didn’t go all the way through her hands, but the first few layers of her skin had been scratched right in the center of her palms.

  “I’ll just get some fresh bandages.” Teri stepped away, and Rebekah and Father Timms exchanged a look.

  “It’s like you said, Father. A mockery.” She knew whatever they were dealing with was pure evil. “I’ll be back, Estelle. I’ll stop whatever is happening.”

  When Teri came back, Rebekah ensured that the staff would keep a close eye on her and vowed to herself that she would kill every last one of the parties responsible.

  As they left, Father Timms had a hard time keeping pace with her as Rebekah hurried down the halls. “I have to get back to the academy and see Ignis,” she said. “Someone interrupted that dark mage. It’s the only reason he didn’t finish killing her. By the looks of those marks, he was just getting started.”

  Father Timms reached in his pocket and gripped his crucifix. “It seems like he did enough damage.”

  “I know. I hope she can hold on long enough.”

  The hurried out to the car, keeping an eye on their surroundings and making sure that they weren’t being targeted.

  As Father Timms drove back to the academy, Rebekah called Ignis.

  He answered the phone with a certain cadence in his voice. “Just call me your favorite mage because I’ve got the spell finished. I’ve also got a great idea for how we can see what happened to Merik and the others.”

  “Are you talking about time travel?” Rebekah had always wanted to see it done.

  “No. This is much easier, and we don’t have to relive any of our past. Although I would like to go back and find out what happened to my Rubik’s cube.”

  “No one wants to go back to the fucking eighties, Ignis. And I already told you that I’d buy you another one.”

  “Mine was special. I got it from Whatshername.”

  “Exactly. You can’t even remember her name, so how special could it be? Look, I’ll be home soon. Be ready for me.” She turned to look at Father Timms and then leaned farther away, turning her head toward the window. “Does the entire school know?”

  “Considering this is the hunter’s equivalent to high school, yes. The fact that the Immortal Huntress has been posing as the new commander has made its way around a few times by now. I’m sure even the first-year trainees know all about it.”

  “Thanks for the reassurance.”

  “Anytime.” With that, he hung up, and she sat up in her seat, knowing that all she could do at this point was own it.

  When she got to the camp, she found Ignis in his room, where he’d turned his dresser into a makeshift lab. He stared into a bubbling beaker. “I believe this is what you’re looking for. One dream-state tonic and spell. The only downfall: I’m not sure how to reverse it.”

  “We’ll worry about that later. What’s this about being able to see what happened with Merik?”

  “I’m hoping that I can use an old spell that I found today, but I need to go back to the scene and see if I can find a reflective glass or surface.”

  “Like a mirror or a window?” Rebekah sat on the bed behind him.

  “Metal sometimes works, as long as it’s imprinted with what we need; the moment of Merik’s death.”

  “Will it work? I don’t have time to waste.”

  “I can’t guarantee anything, but I’m thinking the magic was enough to leave an imprint, and with this particularly old scrying spell, I might just make it happen. It’s either that, or time travel, and even though you’re quite resourceful, I don’t think you would be able to gather the requirements for that. No matter how badly I want to figure out what happened to my cube. I swear, it was there on my dresser one minute and gone the next.”

  “Okay, we’ll stop by the alley after the hospital. I need to get back to Estelle’s before it gets too late. I’ll have to get Father Timms to find Canter and ask him to get the others ready. I want them fed, rested, and gearing up when I get back. With any luck, we go tonight.”

  Ignis and Rebekah went back to see Estelle and found the woman’s condition had worsened. Not only was she paler, b
ut the beeps from the machine were at a slower pace than before.

  As Rebekah talked to the nurses, Ignis put the potion to her lips and fed her all he could. Then he closed his eyes and chanted the spell. A few minutes later, when he opened his eyes, nothing had happened.

  “No, no, no,” he mumbled. He repeated the perpetuum somnium chant and cursed beneath his breath. “Dammit!”

  Rebekah walked up behind him. “Is there a problem?”

  “Yes, I think whatever got to her, whatever that dark mage is using, ate the angel’s blood. It’s not working.”

  “It ate the blood? How could that happen?”

  “It was angel’s blood, not light. So, maybe the blood wasn’t effective enough.”

  “Well, we can’t ask for his light. It’s not going to happen, no matter how evil this thing is.” Rebekah wasn’t going to ask, not after Aziel had made it clear it was an affront to God. “So, what do we do about Estelle? We can’t leave her here to fend for herself, and I already have these nurses asking more than enough questions about us being here while reminding me of visitation hours.”

  “I can’t cure her, Rebekah. Whatever course her health takes, it’s already on the path. But I can try to make sure that nothing gets to her again with a protection spell. That should hold the shifters off.”

  “That’s all you can do then. Let’s get it done, and we’ll go across town to Debauchery. Maybe the scrying spell will work, and we’ll get some answers.”

  “Of course, it will. I just hope that this spell holds. If whatever that dark mage is using is strong enough to get through the security wards at the academy, malfunction our hologram, and eat angel’s blood, I’m not sure it can’t null and void this protection. I’m making it extra strong, though.”

  Rebekah turned and made sure the nurses weren’t going to walk in and ask Ignis why there were sparks flying from his fingers. He worked his magic, casting wards around the room and putting a protective layer over and around her. “That should do it.”

  “Good, let’s get to the alley. I’m anxious to see what happened.”