by Dave Ferraro
Amelia put a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t feel like that. Jade is her own person. Even if you are twins. Even if you spent your days growing up in each other’s company, you can never truly know what it’s like to be her. She has thoughts you don’t have. And she reacts differently than you do. All you can do is be there for her and try to…I don’t know, love her, guide her…” She shook her head. “Something like that.”
Jordan nodded slowly. “Yeah. You’re right.” He seemed to have calmed down as he turned back toward the house he was to watch for the night. “Want to have a cup of coffee with me?”
Amelia smiled. “Sure.” She paused to look back in the direction of the helicopter, then moved to follow him indoors.
Chapter Twenty
Jade doubled over, and drank in the air her lungs were screaming for. She looked up into the dark of night, searching for a sign as to where the helicopter had left the figures she’d seen vacating the craft before it made its abrupt departure. She’d been so far away. She could have sworn it was about where she stood now.
She frowned and swallowed, willing her breathing to even out, so that she could hear…
A crashing from behind her caught her off guard and she kicked out blindly, catching a figure high on its body, sending it sprawling back into a gaggle of bushes lining an empty driveway.
“Okay, you have to be doing this on purpose,” Cameron stated, staring up into her horrified face.
“I’m so sorry!” Jade apologized, helping him to his feet. “I didn’t hear…I didn’t realize you were behind me.”
“Oh, it’s fine,” Cameron shook her off gently and rolled his shoulder back. “You can land a kick, though. Jesus.”
“You should try me when you’re not skulking around in the shadows.”
“I wasn’t skulking…I was being careful to stick to the shadows while I was following you, in case…you know, whatever was attacking the town came looking for the helicopter people too.”
“So, you were skulking.”
Cameron laughed. “All right. You caught me.”
“Well, thanks, but I can handle this myself.”
“No matter what type of beastie is behind the mass evacuation?”
Jade bit her lower lip. “All right, all right. I wasn’t really thinking about that, but that doesn’t mean I can’t handle myself.”
“Of course. Wouldn’t imply it. Even though I just kind of did.”
Smiling, Jade conceded. “I’m happy for the help. Really. Now if we can just locate…”
“I thought I heard something over here, but it’s nothing. Maybe an animal.”
Jade and Cameron looked at each other as a brunette guy stared past a row of bougainvillea at exactly where they stood, through where they stood, completely oblivious to their presence.
“Hey, we’re here!” Cameron yelled.
Jade shook her head. “Doesn’t matter. He can’t see or hear us. Let’s follow him to the rescuers. Then we can figure out what to do next.”
“We don’t know what to do next?”
“We…didn’t really get that far in the planning,” Jade admitted. “We were focused on getting back to our normal frequency.”
They quickly scampered after the young man who’d just disappeared around some hedges and followed him up a drive to a house with a light on within. As they approached the house, they both gasped, excited, as they recognized Valor lifting a cigarette to her mouth and straining as she peered at their surroundings.
“When I said your heightened senses would come in handy, I meant that you wouldn’t hinder me with wild goose chases as well,” Valor stated gruffly as the man stopped beside her.
“Well, it sounded like someone in the bushes. I apologize. Should I just ignore anything that might be one of your precious hunters so I don’t bother you?”
“I knew this was a mistake.” Valor tossed down her cigarette and turned her heel over it, effectively extinguishing it.
“No, no, I’m sorry. I’m just on edge,” the man admitted. “After you told me about the scholars out here, and a whole group of trigger-happy monster hunters…it tends to make me a little twitchy.”
“That’s Damien,” Jade breathed as she watched the pair enter the house, the soft light from within illuminating their features briefly, causing Damien’s eyebrow ring to glisten briefly as they stepped inside.
“Damien…” Cameron stared at the vampire hard. “What’s he doing here? And what’s he doing with Valor?”
“Obviously, he’s helping her. For some reason.”
Cameron grunted as Jade scampered up to the door, saying “They heard me throw you into the bushes.”
“Yeah, I got that. But how did they hear us?”
“They didn’t hear us. They heard the bushes.”
Cameron nodded as they entered the house as quietly as they could.
“I’m going to look for something to write on,” Jade announced. “Maybe it will be that easy.”
Watching her move toward the kitchen, Cameron sauntered into the living room where a lantern was burning bright, illuminating maps and papers spread out on the tables and floor, as well as the familiar figure of Valor, crouched over a folder. Cameron watched her for a moment as she pushed aside a stray hair and scowled down at the papers.
Then Damien entered the room from an adjoining hall. “Two bedrooms. I’ll take the small one.”
“How noble.”
“That’s why I’m here. To be noble.”
“Hmmm. Is it?” Valor looked up into his beautiful, pale face. “Tell me, just how did you know that the hunters had disappeared?”
“I’m resourceful.”
“La Faer Noir is watching us.”
“We keep our tabs.”
Valor shook her head. “Unbelievable. You’re scared, aren’t you?”
“Not likely. This is La Faer Noir we’re talking about. And I came here for my own purposes.”
“Really? I would like to hear them.”
“I’m not in a sharing mood.”
“She won’t fall into your hands.”
Everyone in the room seemed to freeze. Jade entered at that moment and stared around in wonder. “Gee, what’d I miss?”
“That’s right,” Valor sat back in her chair calmly. “We know about Shanna and her likeness to your Diana. But that’s all it is. A likeness.”
“I’m not here because of that.”
“Oh?”
“I’m here because…I have a vested interest in her. I don’t want to see her harmed.”
“A vested interest? Because she was your date for the ball?”
“No. Because I like her.”
Valor scoffed.
“Okay,” Jade cleared her throat. “Maybe we shouldn’t be eavesdropping here…”
“She let me drink from her that night,” Damien boasted. “She loves me. I can feel her burning for me.”
Jade looked at Cameron quickly, watched his fists curl up tightly until his knuckles were white.
“She’s young. It’ll pass,” Valor said dismissively. “She’ll see you for what you are.”
“Well, until then, I’m here to help you find her. Despite your own intentions for her.”
Valor smiled at him, amused. “Now I have nefarious intentions for her too, do I?”
“I know that you sent her through some hoops, that you convinced her that she was identified by monsters and her very presence put the others’ lives at risk.” He moved closer to her, dropping his voice intimately. “But we both know that you always intended to “out” the hunters, send them into something akin to a vampire bar, if that convenient moment hadn’t come along. You want them to need The Agency’s protection, so they won’t leave. So they can’t.”
“I’m sorry but-”
“And you want Shanna most of all. So bad you can taste it. You set up this ploy to make her feel particularly invested in you
r little Agency. She already did a naughty thing for you, behind her friends’ backs. She feels like she’s a part of you now.”
Valor just stared at him for a moment, as if considering, before she spoke again. “And I suppose you feel she’s a part of you because of her noble blood offering?”
“No.”
“Or her resemblance to Diana?”
Damien grinned.
Valor sighed. “Look, this is an extremely shaky truce we have here. Just don’t get in my way and you’re free to help. Together, we can reach the same objective.”
“To extract Shanna.”
“To extract all of them.”
They gazed at each other momentarily, warily regarding one another, then both fell silent, pouring over various maps and files.
“Well…” Jade put a finger to her lip. “That’s…interesting.” She glanced over at Cameron and touched his shoulder, but he shrugged her off.
“That fucking…” Cameron marched across the room and punched Damien, only his fist went through him and he fell onto the floor, sending papers flying. “Asshole!” He hit at Damien again and again, to no avail, seeming to get more agitated with every attempt.
“Windy,” Damien murmured, gathering a few papers together.
Jade wrote briskly on the pad of paper in her hand and held it over a page that Valor was reading.
Valor didn’t even register it.
“I knew that would be too easy,” Jade muttered.
Cameron punched the wall and both Valor and Damien bolted up.
They walked over to the wall where Cameron stood, walked through him, disregarding him, and scrutinized the small dent he’d made there.
“I think we’ve picked an angry house,” Damien said, touching the dent tentatively.
“No. I felt a chill through my body, like a ghost,” Valor announced. “I’m sure it’s the hunters. They’re on a different frequency, with the scholars. I sort of feared this had happened.”
“I’m sorry. What?”
“Never mind. It’s just going to be more difficult to locate the hunters than we originally expected. It’s not so much a matter of locating them as it is…helping them rematerialize. Here. Or something. It’s a thing.”
“Lovely,” Damien said with a sigh. “Wait, so they’re here now?”
“At least one of them.”
Damien smiled. “Maybe…” He shook off his grin and glanced at Valor. “So, what now, Boss?”
“Now, we make a plan.”
Cameron and Jade looked at each other before Cameron stomped out of the room. Damien stepped through Jade on the way to his chair, and sent a chill through her that she felt to her core.
***
Rachel sighed as she tossed another book aside and glanced up at the others in the room. Hunter had his nose deep in a book. Shocking. She smiled to herself and scanned over the texts Natalia had been looking over before she’d abruptly left with the helicopter appearance on the horizon. Perking up, she grabbed a book with a faded brown leather cover. There was nothing particularly interesting about the book design, but it appealed to her nonetheless. She opened it to a random page and frowned down at the heading. Keeners. Her eyes danced down the page as she read on: “The five great Gaelic families were attached to keeners, or banshees, who would sing at the death of a family member’s funeral, or, it is rumored, at the moment a family member has died in travel, far away. These banshees are faerie women who appear ghostly in white or gray, with long beautiful hair that they vainly brush with a silver comb. Their mythology is sometimes confused with the mermaid, which is arguably where the report of the silver comb comes from, as mermaids would leave their combs lying on the ground and whisk off any humans who dared to pick them up.” Rachel sat forward. Could this be it? Could these mysterious singers be banshees? Or…or mermaids? Could they have “whisked” off the people who went to see what had been singing? “There are also later reports of banshees appearing and wailing to a family before a family member or close friend has died. Other sources state that the banshee may appear as a young maiden, a matron or an old hag with a sheet wrapped around her torso, and in this form the banshee is often confused with the mythology of Bean-nighe, who also portents death, as she is seen in different states of age washing the bloodied clothes of someone who is about to die .”
Rachel shook her head. All of the myths seem to blur together and get muddled - was any of it pure truth? What if they were dealing with a banshee? What would be true and what would be false? It would be impossible to tell until they confronted it. How utterly frustrating. Perhaps research wouldn’t help them at all, but would hinder them with falsehoods and expectations.
She turned the page and saw a phrase in Latin scrawled in the margin by hand. It was only a few words long and she sounded them out aloud, as if they would take on some meaning with her breath. She paused after her clumsy interpretation, dramatically. But nothing happened, of course. Why should it? Someone had written a note in the margin of a book and she thought that it would unlock some huge mystery? She shook her head and glanced around at the others again to see if anyone had noticed her whispering under her breath. Hunter was still lost in words, and Shanna…Shanna was very obviously staring off into space despite the book in front of her, like she had been since Natalia left. Rachel wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d walked over and found the book upside-down. The silly girl was probably mooning over Cameron or blaming herself for something or other. She was good at that.
Sighing again, she threw down the book in her hand and walked over to Hunter. He didn’t even notice her as she picked up a book with a navy blue book jacket and began flipping through the pages. She suddenly paused and laughed lightly. “Hey, Shanna, this looks like you.” She frowned and looked closer. “Actually, this looks exactly like you. Like, exactly.”
Hunter looked up and threw a hesitant look in Shanna’s direction.
Shanna smiled lightly. “Yeah, she does look like me, doesn’t she?”
Rachel glanced up, then stepped forward and marched up to her. “Shanna, what’s going…” She looked down at the illustration again, then up at Shanna, reaching up to push aside her hair.
“What…?” Shanna fought her off, but it only seemed to make Rachel more determined, and suddenly Shanna’s hair was pushed back and out of the way, exposing her neck and the two healed puncture wounds there.
“Shanna…Diana…” Rachel shook her head. “I don’t…Diana was an evil vampire and you…you can’t be a vampire. Despite the pasty complexion and dark circles under your eyes. I’ve seen you in the sun.”
“She’s not,” Hunter assured her, taking a closer look at the scars on Shanna’s neck with interest. “Diana died a very long time ago with many witnesses to her death. Shanna may have been reincarnated from Diana, however. But let’s keep that between us, shall we?”
“Is that why you wigged out earlier with the translating?” Rachel asked suddenly. “Because Diana could do that?”
“I…” Shanna’s voice trailed off as Hunter looked up at her.
“Have you always had these marks?” Hunter asked, referring to the scars on her neck. “Are they birthmarks?”
“No…I…” Shanna felt the strength leave her body and she slumped down into a nearby chair. “I let a vampire drink from me.”
“Are you crazy?” Rachel shrieked. “No…you know what? I’m not surprised. I knew you were freaky. But don’t…don’t you know how dangerous vampires are? I’m a vampire hunter. I know. You can not trust them. At all. No matter how nice and harmless they seem, they’re not.”
“I quite agree,” Hunter piped up.
“It was so Damien, wasn’t it? Not that I could blame you there…”
Shanna looked up at Rachel. “Yeah. It was Damien.”
Rachel sighed and sat down as well, thinking of Cheitan, the demon she hadn’t allowed to help her at The Crim
son Rope's mansion. She’d wanted with all of her being to let him in, but…he’d been a demon! She couldn’t do that, no matter how nice he’d been. Yet here Shanna…had. Didn’t she realize the dangers? And why did Rachel herself feel so jealous?
“Shanna, you have to be careful here,” Hunter told her. “You look like an important figure to them. They probably think that if they can corrupt you, that they can get her back. You can not let them taint you.”
“I…I know,” Shanna stammered. “I know now, I mean.”
Hunter sighed. “All right.”
Rachel raised an eyebrow. “All right? That’s it? She offers her neck up to him and that’s all right? Since when? And what do you mean important? Just how important was this vampiress?”
“She was…” Shanna let out a breath. “Protégé of Vlad the Impaler?”
Rachel paled. “And you can obviously understand other languages, like she was able to do, I presume?”
“Well, we don’t…for sure…” Hunter stammered in his attempt to help.
“Maybe you are her. Maybe if you’re changed into a vampire, you’ll be just like her.”
Hunter wrenched the book from her and looked it over quickly, drinking in what it said.
“What else are you hiding?” Rachel demanded.
Shanna looked defeated. “I’ve been having visions. Visions of Diana’s life. And her life before becoming Diana. She’s horrible. I’m nothing like her.”
“Hmmm…I’m sure she was a raging lunatic before she was changed into a vampire then?”
Shanna opened her mouth, then closed it. She was right, of course. Before she’d become Diana, Emma had been a frightened girl with a gift she didn’t understand. Much like Shanna herself. If she was changed into a vampire, would she…could she… She remembered Emma seeing the future, her fear at the indifference to her brother’s dead body in her arms. Shanna shuddered and closed her eyes. She couldn’t be like that. God, she couldn’t!
“Okay,” Hunter said. “Let’s just stop for a moment and assess…” He trailed off and cocked his head.
And then Shanna heard it. The beautiful voice she’d heard before the vans had crashed the day previous. The sensual song that had interfered with the dimensional shifter and had left them in their present situation.