by Jack Knight
Asher and I dropped what we were carrying on the table. Atasha quickly grabbed one of the bottles I had been carrying, poured the contents all over whatever mixture she was creating, and started rubbing it on Magnus’ black arm while she let out a string of Latin.
It almost sounded like she was reciting poetry, running through it so fast I couldn’t actually catch any of the words. After about a minute, she looked up at everyone and barked, “Sigil of the Mother Earth, everyone! Now!”
All of the Reapers immediately drew a knife, cut their palms, and started drawing the same glyph I didn’t recognize on the floor in a circle around Magnus and Atasha. I had to stand back, because I had no idea what they were doing. I had never even heard of that sigil before.
Finally, a few minutes later, after Atasha had run through her insanely long spell three times, Magnus’ arm started to regain some color. We all waited with bated breath as she recited it two more times, until finally Magnus looked almost good as new. He was now lopsided, because the healed arm didn’t regain any muscle, but he slowly opened and closed a fist, and everything seemed to be okay.
Sensitivity would say I should let him heal in peace, but I couldn’t help myself.
“What the hell happened in there?”
Magnus looked up at me and chuckled. “I couldn’t get out, they were too much to take alone, so I blew up the building. It was protected from magic, so it took a little extra effort.”
“We’re so sorry,” Asher apologized quickly. “I figured it would be way worse if we ran back and tried to get you.”
“You left him?” Atasha demanded as she turned to look up at Asher.
Magnus placed his good arm on Atasha’s shoulder. “It was the right call,” he assured her and Asher. “I wouldn’t have been able to figure a way out if I had to worry about you two.”
At that moment, the front door of the church burst open and Ezra came striding into the room. The doors slammed closed behind him and he walked right up to the group. His eyes slid over everyone until he found me.
“What happened?” he asked. His tone was calm and even, but I could feel the tension rolling off of him.
“We followed the Hunters, they were attacked by the new vampires. We tried to save them... and things went a little wrong,” I summed up.
Ezra took a deep, slow breath with his eyes closed and then opened them again to glare at me. “Until whatever is happening is over, we stay away from the new vampires and the Hunters. We don’t have a part in this.”
“What about Torn? He was a part of this,” Carver demanded.
Asher looked like he was about to say something, and I glared at him. I gave the smallest shake of my head as I could without drawing attention. Not only did I not trust Ezra very much, but we weren’t sure Torn was actually alive. Nobody needed to know about that until we were sure.
Then, I turned to Ezra, his words finally making it through to me.
“Wait, you want us to let the Hunters die?” I demanded.
Ezra slowly turned his head back to me, he had looked at Carver to reply, but I had spoken before he could. “Listen, Maddison,” he said in a cold, stern voice, “I know what you’re going to say. One of us has already died. I’m not risking everyone’s lives for those corrupt Hunters.”
“Without the Hunters,” I spat, “there’s nobody to keep supes from spilling the secret. If we leave this alone, whoever is creating the vamps will make even more. They’re too strong to keep in check. We have to stop this thing now, or we’ll have an army of super-vampires running all over the world and the secret will be out within days.”
Ezra fell silent and put his hands on his hips. He just glared at me for several seconds before he finally said, “You’ve had a long day, I think you should go to bed.”
Everyone in the room turned their heads to look at me. My entire body felt like it was boiling with the rage that surged through me. First off, he was telling me to go to bed, like a father. Second, this was an order from the leader of the Reapers, I couldn’t ignore it.
Or, I couldn’t let him know I was ignoring it.
Not trusting myself to speak, I turned around on my heel and walked briskly back toward the hallway that led to the bedrooms, but I didn’t go to mine. I headed straight for the computer room. When I burst in, I slammed the door behind me and started pacing up and down the length of the room.
“You’re angry,” Gen said simply. She had turned her chair to look at me, but I hadn’t noticed. “You’re not sad or guilty, so Magnus is fine then?”
“Yeah,” I grunted, not interrupting my pacing for even a second.
“Well, it’s barely been a half hour, I don’t have any info for you yet.”
I stopped while facing Gen and growled, “Yeah, I kinda figured that.” I took a second to calm myself and explained, “Ezra showed up, he told me to go to bed because I didn’t like the order to let the vampires kill the Hunters.”
“Ah, daddy issues, got it,” Gen said with a poorly contained smirk. “So, you’re still going after them, then?”
“Of course I am,” I snapped as I crossed my arms over my chest.
Gen nodded. “And, you realize that whoever is making these new vampires is creating them so that once they agree to obey their creators commands, they’re supernaturally bound to that promise, right?”
I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about.
“Yeah, of course,” I lied.
Gen’s smirk grew, she wasn’t even trying to hide it anymore. “Yeah, of course. So, question: are you going to kill them all?”
I froze for a second. It seemed like the only option. Especially if Gen was right and they obeyed their creators commands because they had no choice. Gen was really smart, and it fit with the interactions I had had with the two vampires.
The first one escaped without ever agreeing to obey. The second one couldn’t even remember where he was made, because he had been ordered to forget. The only way to stop these things from killing all the Hunters on Earth was to kill them, it didn’t seem like there was another option.
“Yeah, I guess I have to,” I answered with a sigh.
For the first time ever, I had a hunt that I wasn’t excited about.
“Last question,” Gen’s smile disappeared and her voice sounded unsure. “If Torn is creating these vamps to kill the Hunters... you’re going to kill him, too, aren’t you?”
I hated the idea. Just the thought of it made my stomach squirm, but what choice did I have? If it was Torn, and he really was threatening the entire world by creating an army of super powered vampires that were going to wipe out the people that scared supes into staying in line, I had no choice, right?
As soon as I thought about it, I realized why the idea was so repulsive to me, even though I knew it was the only option.
I had basically decided to join the Reapers. I was one of them, and so was Torn. Killing a member of the Reapers wasn’t the part that bothered me. What bothered me was killing someone that was part of the organization I had joined, because I believed what they had become was something that needed to be destroyed.
If Torn was the one doing all this, and I decided to kill him, how was I any better than my own mother?
Chapter 24
“HEY, WAKE UP!”
I jerked awake, my mind wasn’t ready to take in the faces around me. They all looked completely unfamiliar, even the blonde girl with glasses who was much too close and smiling at me.
“Whas... huh?” I mumbled as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes.
“I thought I might ask around to see who wanted to help you.”
That was Asher’s voice.
When I started waking up properly, I took in the room around me. I was still in Gen’s computer room, I remembered sitting down in one of the chairs, but that was it. I must have fallen asleep.
Now, though, the room was full. Darius was sitting in a chair on my right, Atasha was across the room, sitting in a chair beside Magnus, wh
o’s arm looked completely normal again. Carver, Asher, and Gen were standing in front of me. Even the vampire guy, Kevin, was sitting on one of the computer tables, playing his GameBoy.
“Wait,” I said groggily, “help me what?”
“Ezra is wrong,” Atasha said from across the room, “it is our duty to protect the innocent and all the mundanes.”
At the last word I looked up at Asher with a raised eyebrow.
“She means ‘humans’,” he explained with a chuckle. “You really need to start spending more time with your fellow Reapers.”
It took a great effort to sit up straighter in the chair and focus on what was happening. I really needed coffee before I could engage in a conversation like this.
“You all remember,” I asked as I looked around the room, “that Ezra said I couldn’t do anything, right?”
“Sometimes,” Darius said conversationally, “Ezra is wrong.”
It was starting to hit me that every Reaper, except Ezra and Torn, were in the room. Every one of them wanted to help me, they wanted to do what was right instead of what they were told. These guys were the exact opposite of the Hunters. Maybe I could stick around longer than two weeks.
“Okay, but we still don’t know where the vamp factory is,” I said as I rubbed my eyes again.
“That’s why we’re waking you up,” Gen countered. “I’ve got it narrowed down to three buildings. Hurry up and get ready so we can head out.”
It was chaos over the next couple of minutes. I hurried to get ready, and run to the kitchen to get coffee, and everyone else did the same. Before I knew it, we were all standing outside the church, people were splitting up into groups and getting into cars. Gen, Atasha, and I grouped around a map of the city the Gen had laid out on the ground.
“These three circles are the buildings that might be able to hold the factory,” Gen pointed out.
“What’s the X?” I asked, pointing to a spot on the map that had been circled and then crossed out.
“That building was recently acquired by a hospital,” Atasha told me. “There’s people there all the time, no way that would go unnoticed.”
“Then, why’s it on the map?”
Gen laughed. “Dude, I had one night to search through every possibility in the city, I made one mistake, no big deal. Now,” she gestured back at the spots she had circled, “these three are all equally likely to be it. I think this one is most likely,” she pointed at the one farthest from the church, “so I think we should head their first.”
I shook my head. “There are eight of us, right? We split up, see if we can find anything, call in backup when it’s spotted.”
Gen looked uncomfortable, but shrugged, “That’s also a plan.”
“Maddi and I can search this one,” Atasha pointed to one of the circles, “You, Asher, and Carver can take that one,” she pointed to the one nearest the church, “which leaves Magnus and Darius for that one.”
“That’s seven,” I pointed out, trying to figure out how Atasha could have forgotten one of the Reapers.
She turned her head to smile at me. “It’s daylight.”
I let my head fall forward in disappointment. “Kevin stays here and coordinates then.” I had completely forgotten one of the Reapers was a vampire. I needed more coffee.
“Let’s go kill a bunch of insanely powerful vampires, possibly led by one of our own!” Gen cheered playfully as she leapt from the ground and raced toward a car.
“You and me, hotshot,” Atasha told me with a smile.
Yay. Spending time with more people I didn’t really know, my favorite.
I jumped into Atasha’s car, which was rather plain compared to the cars of the other Reapers, except that it was dark green, so it looked like a bush speeding through the street.
It took a while to drive all the way across town, and we made the entire trip without speaking a word. I much preferred it that way, but I got the feeling it was a little weird.
We were all working together to stop these vampires from killing every Hunter on Earth. They had all volunteered to help me. I should say something, right? How do you talk to people? I had very little experience with pleasant conversation.
I could ask her if she was banging Magnus, the way she had acted when his arm was dying seemed to connote something a little more than just fellow Reapers, but I didn’t think bringing that up would be “pleasant”.
Before I could figure out how to act like a normal person, Atasha pulled up outside a warehouse. It didn’t have any windows, the walls were covered in graffiti, and it was surrounded by a bunch of other buildings that looked just as dirty and unattended as it did.
I shook my head before Atasha even turned off the car. “No way, it’s too close to other buildings, and there’s not a single person walking around here. Someone would notice a bunch of people coming and going to this place, it would draw too much attention.”
Atasha unbuckled and started to get out of the car. “We should at least take a look.”
Obviously, it was a waste of time, but we had already come all the way out here. Until we heard word from whoever did find the vampire factory, there wasn’t much else to do.
I hopped out of the car and followed Atasha over to the warehouse’s door. She was standing next to it, a knife in her hand, just waiting for me.
“Well, go on,” I urged, gesturing to the door.
“I don’t know any battle spells, I’m a healer,” Atasha answered pointedly.
“What? You don’t know any?” I asked.
Atasha looked at me in a way that felt just a little condescending. “When I specialized, I devoted myself wholeheartedly to healing. I didn’t bother with anything else.”
Right, specialized. Because I knew exactly what that meant.
“Alright,” I shrugged as I opened the door and walked inside. I knew that the vampires weren’t going to be here, so it didn’t really matter.
Ten feet into the warehouse, and it was already clear that nobody had been inside it in months, at least.
The place was completely bare. It was just concrete walls and dust so thick it felt like I was walking on carpet. After just a few minutes, I didn't want to waste my time anymore. I turned around and headed back toward the door I had come in through.
When I walked through the hallway, I heard Atasha's voice, quiet and soft, echoing toward me. I assumed she was talking to Gen or Kevin and didn't bother to care until I got close enough to hear the words.
"... empty warehouse to throw them off. They're onto you, and I don't know how long I can keep the girl distracted."
I stopped walking. The layer of dust hid my footsteps well enough, but that didn't mean I wanted to risk it. I stood still and waited while whoever she was talking to said their part. There was no other voice, so Atasha must have been on the phone.
"Just ward the place or something," Atasha hissed. "We can't kill the Hunters if they destroy all your creatures before we can even get started!"
Atasha was talking to whoever was making the vampires. She was in on the plan to kill the Hunters.
Red hot fury raged through me, and I drew my knife as I sprinted out of the building. Atasha looked up as I passed through the doorway, but I had already cut my hand.
"Murus adnecto!" I screamed.
Atasha was thrown off her feet and slammed into the wall of the warehouse. Right when she collided with the concrete, she dropped her phone and it clattered to the ground.
The magic was still tingling through me, keeping Atasha pressed against the wall. She cursed to herself as I knelt down, keeping my bleeding hand directed at Atasha to keep the magic going, and picked up the phone.
“Torn,” I said as I put the phone to my ear.
“Ah, Maddison, such a surprise,” Torn’s voice answered sarcastically.
That was enough to confirm it. I hated that I had been right.
“Where are you making the vampires?” I demanded.
“Atasha can show you
where to go. Bring her here, just the two of you.”
“Because I’m that stupid?” I asked.
There was silence for a second, then I heard a grunt of pain.
“Maddi, don’t come here!”
That was Matt’s voice, I would recognize it anywhere.
“So, you’re coming alone, correct? Or, do you want me to leave your friend’s head outside to wait for you?”
I gritted my teeth together as I growled, “Fine.”
Before Torn could say anything else, I dropped the phone to the ground and stomped on it. I lowered my hand, ending the magic keeping Atasha to the wall.
She fell a few inches and landed on her feet, glaring at me as she seethed, “You broke my phone.”
I pointed my knife at her and growled, “You’re taking me to Torn. Now.”
Chapter 25
ONCE AGAIN, I WAS IN the car with Atasha. She was driving, because she refused to tell me where we were headed. Chances were she was afraid I’d kill her if I got the information ahead of time. And, I definitely would have.
I had my knife pointed at her the entire time, ready to strike if she tried anything at all.
“Why are you doing this?” I demanded as we made our way across town.
Atasha glanced at my knife, but answered in a conversational tone. “The Hunters killed my parents when I was young. They deserve to be destroyed.”
“Weren’t you a Hunter?” I asked.
Atashsa nodded and looked at me when she gave a brief smile. “I was. So were my parents. But, instead of killing their target, they decided to let it go. Apparently, someone had taken out a hit on some vampire because it stole the guy’s girlfriend, or something. They saw no reason to kill someone who had done nothing wrong. And, for their morality, they were publicly beheaded for their disobedience.”
I felt a twinge of sadness. Yeah, that sucked, but it didn’t give her the right to turn around and kill every Hunter.
“And, you don’t care that without the Hunters the world will go fucking crazy?” I pressed.