Hunters in the Night

by Ramsey Isler

  I didn’t either, of course. But I still had an advantage. You see, Kellar hadn’t grown up fighting dirty in the streets of the Bronx. I had.

  I threw a clump of dirt in his face. He flinched and took a few steps backwards. He was heading back towards the lamppost and the safety of the Rift. I certainly couldn’t let that happen, so I slid forward and kicked his shins. Kellar howled and fell backwards, but he twisted his torso, extended his arms and landed on his hands. In a second he was back on his feet with a wild look on his face. I scrambled off the ground and took a swing at his left temple. He blocked, spun, and delivered an elbow to my chest. That hurt. But I kept my focus. I had to keep Kellar close. If he got back into the Rift, I was a dead man.

  His last attack sent me reeling backwards, but I reached out and grabbed a handful of his hair and yanked. His body lurched along with mine, but he was able to keep his footing. I needed him on the ground, not on his feet. So, once I regained my balance, I kicked him in the knee.

  He cursed, and I heard him utter a quick pain relief spell out of reflex. But the Rift was still just out of reach. Kellar bent down to take weight off of his injured knee, giving me the opportunity I needed. I hit him right in the jaw with a left cross.

  That really hurt. You see it in the movies all the time, but actually hitting a guy in the jaw with your bare knuckles hurts like a son of a bitch. But Kellar went down like the Titanic. As soon as he was out, I ran back to the cover of the Rift. Kellar wasn’t moving, but I wasn’t taking any chances. I used my magic to scoop up a massive clump of earth. It hung in the air for a second, then I floated it over to Kellar. I slowly dumped it over his unconscious body, leaving his head free so he could breathe. Once that was done, I fell to the ground. My breaths came in short, wheezy gulps. I felt sick, excited, and tired, all at once.

  “Little help over here?” Newton said, breaking me out of my stupor. I turned and saw he was still bound by Kellar’s spell even though he was knocked out. A warmth spread throughout my body, calming me. He was safe, and that meant the world to me.

  I walked up to him and paused for a moment. It’s always tricky to dispel another nightcrafter’s magic, especially one better than you. Especially when you only know a limited number of spells. So, instead of trying to break Kellar’s binds with brute force, I carefully pushed each one back through the Rift.

  “Where’s our backup?” I asked him as I got rid of the last bind. “What happened to the exchange?”

  Newton looked at me with sad eyes. “There was never going to be any exchange, Kal.”

  I was puzzled, and I’d just opened my mouth to question further when Newton just closed his eyes and shook his head. Then I finally realized what he meant. “So that’s how it is, huh? We just had to fend for ourselves.”

  Newton shrugged. “That’s the job. Speaking of jobs . . . we still have one left.”

  “And what would that be?” I asked.

  Newton pointed at Kellar and said, “Delivering him to Dominique.”

  EPILOGUE

  “He will kill us all. You know that, right?”

  I said the words to Dominique as we stood on the dark side of the two-way mirror separating us from the brightly lit transparent chamber that Kellar sat in. He was perfectly calm and seated in a Zen meditation position. He breathed freely. He looked completely relaxed, except for his eyes. Those eyes were burning with hatred.

  “He will try,” Dominique said. “But it’s not him we have to worry about at the moment. How long do you think it will be before the other nightcrafters come looking for him?”

  “It may take a while for them to realize he’s missing,” I said. “He was known to disappear on a whim. Nobody checked up on him.”

  “That’s good news,” Dominique said. “We should have all the time we need to get the info we’re looking for.”

  “I don’t know about that,” I said. “He will be difficult to handle. As long he’s conscious, he’s dangerous.”

  Dominique gave me a humorless smile. “I’m sure you can handle whatever he throws at us. After all, you’re the one with that special brain.”

  “Uh huh,” I mumbled. As part of the debriefing, Newton and I had been compelled to give the details of the whole encounter that night. I’d wanted to keep that part about Kellar not being able to void my memory a secret, but Newton spilled the beans. I wasn’t mad though. He was doing his job, and he was trying to protect me. The more valuable NATO thought I was, the less likely I was to end up in one of these white cells if things turned sour.

  “We’ll make sure he and Madison are kept as far apart as possible,” Dominique said. “That way if we do have a breakout, we won’t lose both of them.”

  “And where is Madison?” I asked.

  “Someplace safe,” Dominique said. “Just like your parents.”

  There it was again. Her little dig to remind me who was really in control here; a little barb to throw me off my line of questioning. But I wasn’t going to take her bait. I needed answers.

  “What happened with the hostage exchange?”

  Dominique sighed. “We didn’t have enough time.”

  “How much time would you have needed?” I asked. “An hour? A day? I just want to know for future reference.”

  She turned to me, slowly. She looked tired. Bloodshot eyes, sagging shoulders. “What do you want from me, Kal?”

  “I want you to tell me the truth,” I said. “I want you to tell me that you left me and Newton out there to die.”

  “Yes,” she said plainly. “I did. You got captured by the most powerful nightcrafter alive and demanded we make a hostage exchange in thirty minutes. That would have meant exposing agents to Kellar, and it would have meant taking a very dangerous and very valuable asset out of a controlled environment and putting her in the wild with little preparation. Madison probably would have escaped before we even got to your location. Maybe that was Kellar’s plan all along.”

  “You could have done something. You could have tried.”

  “I could have, yes. And I could have gotten agents killed and lost a valuable enemy asset in the process. All for a deal from a man I had no reason to trust. I made the choice I had to make, Kal. It was hard, don’t think for a second that it wasn’t, but it was the right choice and you better hope that you’ll always have someone like me around to make that kind of choice so you don’t have to.”

  She was right, of course. But just because she was right, that didn’t mean I was wrong. “I did it for Newton,” I said.

  Dominique sighed. “I know you did. You figured he was worth more than your life and the strategic value of Madison. You didn’t do all the math, though. You didn’t account for all the variables. I can’t fault you for that. That kind of thing is not your job. It’s mine.”

  “No regrets, huh?”

  “Not a one,” Dominique said.

  I just nodded. There was nothing I could say to that. I turned and headed for the door.

  “Wait,” Dominique said. “Before you go and get some well-deserved rest, stop by my office in a couple of days. I have something I want to give you.”

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “I’m not sure if I can get it yet,” she said. “But if I can, it’s something you’ll want.”

  “Well now I’m intrigued,” I said. “Can you give me a hint?”

  “No,” Dominique said. “As you know, I hold my cards close to the chest. And I don’t want to disappoint you if it can’t happen. Just come by in a couple of days. In the meantime, I have something else for you that I can tell you about.”

  * * *

  Since my apartment was still compromised, Dominique had to find other accommodations for me. I spent one night in a hotel then moved into my new digs: a rooftop house. It’s one of those unique New York City things. With Manhattan land so rare and valuable, it’s often easier to just plop a little house on top of a building. It also helps keep things nice and secret. No neighbors, and the building was the t
allest on its block so nobody could peep in. The cozy four room house used an A-frame shape, creating a triangle that even a keen observer would easily mistake for the peak of the narrow office building it had been built on top of. It even had a private staircase which, while a definite plus, would have been a pain for most people carrying groceries and furniture. But a few smashed light bulbs and a featherweight spell made it all easy for me. It was like my own little secret pyramid above all of Manhattan.

  Dominique hadn’t been kidding when she told me about rewards for a job well done.

  But I knew this wasn’t what she had been talking about the last time I saw her. The house was just a necessity — a way to keep me isolated but close and comfortable. She had something of more importance to give me. I was sure of that.

  After getting used to my new home, I went down to our new office. We had never found the nightcrafter who Newton had detected snooping around the United Nations building, so Dominique had no choice but to move the whole operation while Newton and I had been in Newfoundland. The new department headquarters was in the same inconspicuous government building that housed Newton’s secret basement lab. It was a downgrade, for sure, but it was also a lot less likely to be a place of interest for spies.

  I met Dominique in her new private office on a slightly overcast day. The city was dappled in alternating light and dark as the clouds lazily shifted, casting shadow over some parts and revealing light over others. As soon as Dominique saw me she gave me a tight smile, and a nod. Then she opened a drawer in her desk and retrieved a gold box a little bigger than a hardcover book. She held it out to me and said, “This is for you.”

  I opened the box. There was a shiny medal inside. It was a circle of five golden eagles surrounding a five-pointed white star trimmed in gold, with a blue center full of gold stars. It wasn’t the prettiest thing I’d ever laid eyes on, but it was impeccably crafted. The velvet-lined presentation box also contained a miniature replica of the medal on a little ribbon, a blue lapel pin with a silver eagle in the center, and one of those horizontal ribbon pins that military personnel use to show awards. The top of the box held a note which read, “The Presidential Medal of Freedom is hereby awarded to Kalani Kai for especially meritorious contributions to the security and national interests of the United States.”

  “That is the highest civilian award our government offers,” Dominique said. “It is given solely at the discretion of the President.”

  I looked at the signature on the note. It was the President’s name. “Is this a real signature, or a stamp?”

  “Real,” Dominique said. “He signed it himself yesterday when he was in the city for a briefing on what you and Newton accomplished. Newton is getting a medal too, although he doesn’t know it yet.”

  “And the President just decided to do that on his own?” I said.

  “He may have had some suggestions from me.”

  “Is this your way of apologizing?” I asked.

  “I only apologize when I’m wrong,” Dominique said. “This is my way of saying thank you.”

  I tried to hold back the smile I could feel bubbling up from some happy place inside me. I wanted to be angry with her. I wanted to hold on to all the frustration and suspicion I’d felt towards her ever since she refused to tell me where my parents are. But she just handed me the first award I’d ever been given in my life, and it was a higher honor than I could have ever dreamed of. Still, I wasn’t in the mood to just let her off the hook completely. “Well . . . thank you,” I said. “But it would have been nicer to receive it from the President personally.”

  Dominique gave me her best “Bitch, please” glare. “We’re never going to put the President in the same room with a known nightcrafter. Not even you.”

  “Fair enough,” I said. “I guess I should just be happy and find a case to put this in.”

  “No actually,” Dominique said as she reached out and grabbed the box from my hands. “You don’t get to keep it. Not yet, at least. The awards are classified. Just like everything else we do.”

  A wave of disappointment hit me. My shoulders sagged and it felt like all the air in my lungs just rushed out of me. But it lasted only a moment. In a flash of realization I came to terms with what Dominique was saying . . . what she had always been saying. This was just the way things were; the way things had to be. This was the job I signed up for. “I should have expected as much.”

  “Yes,” Dominique said. “You should have.”

  I left her office after that. I didn’t give her any further thanks. I didn’t say anything at all. I just left. There were no more words that needed to be said between us. Our relationship had always been based on necessity and mutual benefit. Nothing more. Once it was clear that there was nothing else we could do for each other in that room, I left. I didn’t think twice about it, and I’m sure she didn’t either.

  My mouth was a little dry after that meeting so I headed to the kitchen to grab some water. Newton was there. As usual he was drinking aromatic coffee and reading something on his tablet. I hadn’t seen him in a couple days since he was mostly occupied with keeping Kellar captive. His hair was even messier than usual and he was wearing the same clothes as the last time I saw him. But when he saw me he smiled, and the world felt right again.

  “You’re still here?” he said. “I figured they would’ve shipped you off to Brussels to meet with the big wigs and get your shiny new corner office.”

  “Not yet,” I said. “Besides, somebody has to help you figure out all this magic business.”

  “True,” Newton said.

  “How are you holding up?”

  “I’m learning as I go,” Newton said. “Adapt or die. You know how it is.”

  “I most certainly do,” I said. I grabbed a ceramic mug and poured in some chilled water from the cooler next to me.

  “Kellar and Madison seem to be locked up tight for now,” Newton said. “We’ve earned a vacation, don’t you think?”

  “I guess?” I said. “What were you thinking of?”

  “I just happen to know a nice quiet place in Newfoundland,” Newton said with a sly grin. “And there’s another meteor shower coming up. Should we steal away for a bit?”

  The last time we’d been in that little cabin with the green siding, Newton had practically shut off all his feelings, and with them any chance of us exploring the possibility that we might be more than friends. Now he was opening the door again. I didn’t know why at first. But after a moment I figured that maybe capturing Kellar and keeping any nightcrafters within a hundred miles of New York City from phasing into the Rift had changed him. Maybe it had given him hope.

  I wanted to say yes to his proposal. Badly. But the job wasn’t finished yet. Hope wasn’t going to change that. “I think it will have to be a staycation for me,” I said. “I have a feeling I’m going to be needed here.”

  Newton sighed and said, “Yeah. I figured.”

  “But it would be nice to go back to that little cabin one day,” I said. “When the Rift is closed, I’m going to take you up on that offer.”

  Newton perked up. “Then screw the vacation! I better get back to work on figuring out how to close that damn thing.”

  “I love your enthusiasm.”

  “You better,” he said as he finished his coffee and walked towards his lab. “People who don’t appreciate enthusiasm are a bore to work with.”

  I laughed. Newton gave me a playful wink and then went off to do whatever a scientist studying magic has to do. Then I finished my water and followed him back to the lab. We still had much to learn, and many more dangers to face, but the nights felt a little less scary now, and the future never looked so bright.

  ###

  The saga continues!

  Spies in the Dark

  Book 2 in The Nightcrafters series

  Get it from ramseyisler.com

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