Hunting the Rogues (Shadow Claw Book 8)

by Sarah J. Stone

  “As long as they sleep out in the cemetery” – she sighed – “letting them be should be fine. I mean, they listen to you, right?”

  He nodded. “They say I’m their master since I have the power to control their dark energies. That aside, what happened? You’re a mess.”

  “The chimeras,” she explained, “the Morbus launched an attack on Golden Manes. From what I gather, it’s some sort of a test run to incite fear for the Morbus within the realm. They are pretty powerful, I must admit.”

  “But you guys won, right?”

  “Well, we drove them away,” she said. “The pack Alpha and Luna didn’t want to co-operate but the attack pushed them to go for our sanctuary and give into the pact.”

  Silence ensued. Viria adjusted herself in her chair until her back was against the arm rest and legs thrown over the other. Mitch watched discreetly. She was tiny. Well, she wasn’t very short, but she seemed like it with how skinny she was. She looked thinner than before. He remembered her fuller and healthier before. Her cheeks had sunken in halfway, making her jaw and cheekbones seem more prominent. It wasn’t just her cheeks, but her eyes, too. Her hair had dulled and was matted and puffed in places from being so unkempt due to the battle. It seemed to bother and she released the mane from its hair tie, grabbing the long locks tightly in her fist. She slipped her dagger out and sliced through her thick hair with no care in the world. Trapping it in the hair tie, she aimed for the trash can at the end of the room and landed a perfect shot.

  “Wow,” Mitch deadpanned, “you don’t give a shit about yourself, do you?”

  “I stopped a very long time ago.” She laughed, running a hand through her hair. “I need a shower, though.”

  The door slammed open and Fae gasped.“VIRIA!” she yelled, “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO YOURSELF?”

  “A little impromptu makeover?” she stated with a smirk. Mitch rolled his eyes as Fae rushed past him and fussed over Viria.

  “Off with the shirt!”

  “Whoa, wait,” Mitch said as he started to get up, “Lemme lea – goodness, Viria, you have no shame.None.”

  “It’s fine,” she said as she aimed the torn shirt toward the bin. “Sit down.”

  Fae plucked the shirt out of Viria’s hand. “Don’t you want to keep this?”

  “Oh, yeah.” She sighed with a shake of her head. “There’s enough blood and fur caught in this. I wanna see the genetic codes and algorithms.”

  “All right, now stay still,” Fae ordered. She pulled the straps of her black bra down her shoulders and got to work. “It’s already started to become infected.”

  “You’ve dealt with worse.”

  “Doesn’t mean it needs to happen all the time,” she snapped and Viria rolled her eyes. Mitch couldn’t understand Viria sometimes. She was a smart young woman who knew what would be the best action to take at what time. She knew she needed to be in her best condition to be able to carry out these missions. She knew how important her health was in this.

  But he could see her dark energies depleting. He could see her giving up a little. Maybe it was more her mental health than physical that was dragging her down like this. Maybe she needed him to share his dark energy again to sustain her. And he did so quietly. The change was instantaneous.

  “Yeah, I know.” She sighed. Her body relaxed into Fae’s. The witch looked at Viria with a raised brow, a little sympathy showing through.

  “You’re too hard on yourself,” Fae told her carefully. Viria nodded.

  “I just need some rest, I think?”

  “You need a lot of it.” Fae nodded. “You wash up when I’m done with you. I’ll have Yale bring up some food for you.”

  Viria nodded as she melted into the couch as Fae cut away the sleeves of the jeans from her thighs to work on her legs. She looked at Mitch and he understood that she knew he was the one doing it. She gave him a grateful smile. He smiled back. If Fae noticed anything, she didn’t say. But she wrapped up quicker than they expected and left with a pat on Viria’s head.

  “I’m gonna go shower,” she announced as she stood and ruffled her hair.

  “I’ll just stay and read up on something.”

  “Yeah, you do that,” she nodded and disappeared into the bathroom.

  ****

  Kevin had never felt more useless in his life. Hewas almost guilty for it. All he could do was look after Dahlia and wait for Nina to come back. The only thing he got to help out with was the relocation. Nina had sent him away the night before to the Shadow Claw pack for it, along with Dahlia for a checkup with the pack doctors. He felt uneasy leaving Nina on her own, but it was a safe place.

  But now he sat before their intruder, fuming with rage.

  Safe my ass, he grumbled internally as he stared Hunt Grace down, making him feel more uncomfortable by the minute. Nina whacked him upside the head as she emerged from the bathroom after changing Dahlia’s diaper.

  “Stop it, Kevin.”

  “He tried to—”

  “Not hurt me,” she said, “I promise. You’re taking this wrong.”

  “So what are we supposed to do with him?”

  “Wait until Viria comes around to deal with him,” she said. “She’ll take him to her brother who’s been assigned the new future member of the Council.”

  Kevin was silent for a moment. “Wait, you didn’t know?”

  “Nope.” She threw an arm in the air. “I need to meet him, too. I’m the one who bestows the powers. My parents didn’t even tell me although I’m sure they met him.”

  “Why is everything so disconnected?” He sighed.

  “Not anymore, I believe,” Ivanna said, entering the room. “We had other priorities.”

  “And Nina’s safety wasn’t in it?” he demanded while trying to get up, but Nina pushed him down on his seat by his shoulder.

  “She didn’t inform me the ambush was in her knowledge,” she said, “She took the risk herself. A little warning before-hand would have been appreciated.”

  “Is it of any use discussing this now?” Nina said.

  “No.” Ivanna sighed. “Is he going to give up anything about his acquaintances?”

  “Doesn’t seem like it,” she replied, looking at the pale boy. His eyes were downcast. Ivanna could feel the fear and confusion radiating off of him.

  “Hunt,” she said. “Did you know what you were getting yourself into?”

  The boy only shrugged lightly. “I just wanted to get away from my community, is all. I have to do this to survive.”

  “What about the other rogues?” Nina asked gently. “Are they the same as you?”

  He nodded. Ivanna felt something was off. Hunt spoke again, “You said my brother was the new head of the community I came from. He’s a very righteous man. He’ll kill me.”

  “Which is why I’m asking Viria to come here and take a look,” Ivanna explains. “Once she deems you safe, we’ll call your brother here and talk him out of executing you. Trust me, he personally doesn’t want to harm a hair on your body.”

  “Guys,” Kevin interrupted, “what about the other rogues back in the maze?”

  “I had Gaea send a team to capture them,” Nina said. “They’re sitting in the dungeons as of now.”

  “What about Agatha?” Ivanna asked.

  “Gale was caught with them,” she explained, “Agatha made a run for it so we’re still searching for her. All the others in the Council are completely free from influence and contact from rogues and the Morbus.”

  “It’s been all night,” he said. “Have you two slept at all?”

  The girls gazed at the large windows overlooking the horizon. The sun was rising now. And they felt absolutely exhausted.

  “We’ll sleep after everything has been dealt with,” Nina said.

  “I’ll go make coffee for us, then,” Ivanna said. “Hunt, how much sugar do you take?”

  “No, thank you.”

  Nina and Ivanna exchanged glances, shaking their heads. “Just ge
t the sugar pot up here then,” Nina said.

  “Nina, he tried to charms speak you!” Kevin cried out. “I can’t believe you’re showing him hospitality.”

  “It’s our community protocol to take care of prisoners,” Ivanna said and left the room. Kevin looked at Nina incredulously and she put her hands up.

  “There was no such protocol under Morrigan,” she explained. “Ivanna must’ve changed a lot of things around here after her death.”

  “I hope this kindness doesn’t get her killed,” Kevin grumbled.

  ****

  Sighing, Viria plucked out a few tissues to wipe off the blood trailing down her skin. It was staining the towel she’d wrapped and she knew she couldn’t put on her bra and risk staining the few clean clothes she had. Fae’s healing spells should have come into proper affect by now, but maybe her body didn’t have enough energy to activate and heal. Her body was too sore to try and move anymore, but she’d have to manage the wounds. And there were too many.

  “Mitch,” she called out from behind the bathroom door, “could you get me the first aid kit? Fae left it on the desk.”

  “Yeah, sure,” he replied. She heard his feet shuffle against the carpet, and the clatter of things being assembled into the kit. A knock came at the door and she opened to accept the kit.

  “Do you, uh… need any help?”

  “If you don’t mind,” she said opening the door a little more. She could definitely use help. Mitch walked inside and turned to look at her, his face contorting into worry.

  “That really is a lot of scarring, Viria…”

  He placed the kit on the marble top sink with determination and patted the spot by it. Viria walked over and floated onto the surface. Dampening a cotton ball with antiseptic, Mitch got to work. He pulled a stool to sit on and placed the heel of her foot on his knee. “The dark energies are flowing out faster from here,” he explained. “This won’t take too long.”

  Viria only nodded. She couldn’t trust herself to speak. It wasn’t anything new, being taken of medically. Fae, Ivanna, and Blake had tended to her every wound and scar. She couldn’t understand why she was getting flustered right now.

  You like him, idiot, a part of her reminded. She groaned internally. There was no point in denying it and she knew that well. She had been attracted to Mitch ever since the beginning, and him healing and growing into his skin, becoming who he was before he’d died was not helping her like him any less. She hoped it was momentary and worth nothing, but she really did like Mitch for who he was. He was thoughtful and caring, capable of learning, and funny if he wanted to be. And she felt no shame or fear in being who she was around him. She only hoped he was his true self around her.

  His hands were rough and calloused, but it didn’t hurt as he held her calf steady. He went on dabbing away cotton balls and replacing them with band aids. A wound at her knee was particularly large and needed to be wrapped with gauze.

  “You’re really quiet,” he noted with a glance. “Something’s wrong.”

  “It’s nothing, really.”

  He stopped for a moment, then breathed deeply as if indecisive. Getting back to work, he chose his words carefully, “I can easily tell if death has taken place.”

  Viria remained quiet for a moment, trying to formulate an excuse. But she couldn’t, so she stuck with the truth. “I don’t think I have the right to complain about it.”

  “Why not?”

  “It’s not like I’ve never killed people before.” She shrugged. “I’ve killed many.”

  “For good reason, yes,” he said, “but you feel guilty this time. Tell me why.”

  Viria’s throat closed in fear as she looked away. Would he really listen?

  Mitch’s hand slid to her small foot, gently massaging her toes between his fingers. “It helps to talk, Viria. I won’t judge, okay? Death happens to everyone at their time and simply needs an excuse. Killed, sickness, accident, but the goal is death no matter what.”

  Viria really liked what his hands were doing. Her feet were sore and swollen from the battle and throbbed with a light pain. The massaging helped.

  “I didn’t mean to kill him,” she finally forced it out of herself. “I really didn’t. He had a weak spot and I only wanted to take him down to capture and get information from. I killed him instead. I hadn’t meant to.”

  “He was bringing a lot of people pain,” Mitch said comfortingly as he got back to work on her wounds. “You still did what you had to.”

  “I mean, I get it that I would have killed him, anyway, but…”

  “You didn’t intend to in that moment,” he said with a nod. “Intentions play a huge role in how you feel about your actions.”

  “It kills me if things don’t go the way I plan.” She sighed. “It was just so sudden. I didn’t even know I’d killed him until I turned him around to look at his face.”

  Mitch understood the memory she associated this event with. The first time she’d killed someone at nine and didn’t understand what had happened until later. He couldn’t figure out how to comfort her, though.

  “I extracted all I could from his memory,” she continued as Mitch moved on from her legs to her arms, “but that’s all I wanted. Not to kill him. He could have led us to other bases or some other clues.”

  “You did what you could and what you had to,” he reassured her. “He was meant to die, Viria. If not by your hands, then by someone or something else in that moment.”

  “I usually carry out an investigation and lay down my reasons before doing anything like this.”

  “You had no choice this time,” he said, moving to her face and holding her chin gently, turning her to take a look at the gash on her cheek and mumbled, “This one is pretty bad.”

  “They were really strong, Mitch,” she said. “I don’t know how I took them on, but I did. We need so much time to prepare against the existing ones. They’re not smart when it comes to combat, but most of the shifters aren’t either.”

  “I looked into your progress while you were gone, by the way,” he admitted. “Crunched some numbers. It will take a long time to build a proper co-operative army for them. They’ll also most likely work on making something that would control the chimera’s free will. What I want to understand is what they’re exactly functioning on? Because they won’t have souls.”

  “I don’t get it…”

  “Well, souls are the root maintainers of the consciousness in a sense, right? Now, you have chimeras who weren’t supposed to be born in the first place. Outside the womb, where there is no direct connection to the soul of another being, which is usually the mother. So they should have no free will, at least.”

  “They were a test-run,” Viria recalled, “but it definitely seemed like they had free will. They had opposing views and with each other and weren’t robotic in their mannerisms and behavior. But, look, as long as they have brains they don’t really need a soul.”

  “Viria, what happens to a person when they die?” he asked.

  “The heart and brain stops,” she replied. “Soul leaves the body.”

  “What happens to ghouls?”

  “They process dark energy to move about.”

  “Chimera with conscious thoughts, feelings, and free will? Their brains and hearts are working, but there was no essence of life. Something needed to be done to get them to function right. Why do you think ghouls can move about even when completely dumb?”

  “They have dark energy to sustain them,” she said. “You’re saying chimera have a supply of dark energy from somewhere? Is there a ghoul in league with the Morbus?”

  “Could be, Viria,” he said a little absently as he dabbed away at her neck. “But as I was saying. I crunched some numbers and with the progress they’re making, it might take a long while before anything really happens.”

  “You’re saying you have something worse coming up than this test run attack?”

  “You don’t think so?” he said finally shifting to
her face, “You know what, I should wrap you up like a mummy.”

  “Funny,” she deadpanned. He only smiled, grabbing her chin and leaning in close to look at her forehead, cleaning the blood away. Viria remained silent as his hand cupped her cheek to tilt her head while he worked on a line of scratches along her temple. He was really close now, his breath brushing Viria’s face. It was surprisingly fresh and she figured his internal organs must have healed, too. It seemed he’d put on some cologne. She still hadn’t come around to properly observe him and what had changed since he started evolving, but the only thing that was a giveaway about Mitch being a ghoul were his eyes. His irises were still cloudy and grey.

  He started working on her nose and chin, his eyes leveling with hers. She looked anywhere but into them. Her gaze fell onto his lips, and she couldn’t help but frown. Why was it the guys with the full lips and eye lashes? She’d noticed too many men blessed with them.

  “You know about Sigmund Freud?” she asked. His lips parted into a lopsided grin.

  “I was a psychology student in highschool.”

  “So you know how the guy says how girls envy guys because they have dicks?”

  “His theories on gender are really fucked up, Viria.” Mitch laughed. “I wouldn’t bother giving them too much value.”

  “Okay, but it’s not really the dicks girls are envious of,” she said and Mitch looked into her eyes and raised a brow at her.

  “Really?” his face showed absolute amusement.

  “Yeah,” she stated thoughtfully. “It’s definitely the eyelashes and lips. Guys always have fuller ones and that’s really unfair.”

  Mitch laughed, shoulders shaking as he gripped the edge of the marble top to lean his head into her neck for stability.

  “I wasn’t being funny!” Viria cried, suddenly really nervous of how close Mitch was. “It’s true!”

  “So, you think,” he started as he pulled away, “I have better eyelashes and lips.”

  “They are rather nice, I must admit,” she said, observing his face. It set her aback when a mischievous look overtook his features.