"I'm sorry, Mr. Frog. I promise I'll be more careful next time," she said. She watched as the runner went toward the bridge, where the Dark Place was. They didn't go there anymore. Hank supposed that it was safe for adults and went back up to join her friends.
2
The Path
"Someone needed to tell that little girl to smile." Stacy swerved around the little girl and continued down the winding path.
The way was longer and that was better for the step count, but there were more kids and other obstacles this way.
The path led down a steep incline to a darker and more secluded portion of the greenbelt. This was the old growth that predated the development, with live oaks, magnolias, and other shade trees cooling the air and taking away about three hours of daylight.
This was the perfect place to stop. Stacy took her pulse and then turned to another app on her watch. She tapped a few things and waited for her location to show up on her watch, then pushed her fingers in the soil. The power felt like sharp nails tapping on her skin. This was gonna make them money.
"So, how is it?" the voice in Stacy's comm said. Stacy watched the scanning bar fill, then hit upload when it turned green.
"Even better than they said, Jason. I'm using low bandwidth—there're a lot of people here. You should see it in a few seconds." The upload button emptied out. There was a whistle.
"No names! " Jason turned on the camera. "Yeah, this is the next spot. Setting it on the map. We'll come back with a team—"
Stacy screamed.
His screens filled with hands reaching out of the ground and grabbing Stacy's body, pulling it into the ground.
"Turn the camera off..." Tot said. "They will find us."
"No way! Tot, where the hell are you?"
"I'm scoping out the area like I'm supposed to! She was just going for a run! I didn't know we were doing the hunt now?" Tot's voice was already out of breath. "And no names!"
"What's the use of being a striker if you're not there to make kill shots?" Jason yelled into his mic.
"I'm getting there—oh shit!"
Jason turned on Tot's camera and retched. The claws coming out of the ground were already shredding Stacy's flesh, blood staining the grass under her. It glowed and disappeared into the grass and all he could do was watch.
Tot's camera stopped and it leveled on Stacy's face, the claws pulling at the corners of her mouth and slicing it through, pink flesh and blood pouring. Tot reached for her sword but couldn’t make her fingers move.
"Don't cut 'em, shoot them, Tot! Shoot them!" Jason yelled.
"It's too late," Tot whispered. She could feel herself dry heave—there was so much blood. But she had what she was there for and that was all that mattered.
There were claws out of the ground and cutting at her legs now. It was the warm blood running down her legs that woke her up. She grabbed the tube—never leave the money—then swung wildly at the tentacles, leaving them on the ground.
She ran until all she saw was black and gravel bored into her face as she landed on the trail.
3
The Call
The Dot and Dash in Georgetown, TX from the outside looks like a gas station and convenience store that was cleaned up and repurposed as a rustic barbecue joint, with aged wooden picnic tables and benches, clear glass where the garage bays doors were, and bottled sodas served from metal washtubs filled with ice.
But the Dot and Dash, especially to the powered, was known for morphing itself to the needs of the area in which it found itself, an important trait in a restaurant that prided itself on only being ten minutes from your current location.
Fish and Anna were sitting at their own table with a map mat that covered it with just enough room for their plates on the edge. Ray was at the table butted up against it, eating creamed corn and reading a book. Dottie, the global proprietor of the Dot and Dash, had her fiery red hair cut short and her forest green eyes fixed on the realistic 3D map. It showed a greenbelt in the north of Austin, with trees swaying in the breeze and kids running the down the hill with wooden swords.
"You know that to the nonpowered here you look like you're playing a board game or something," Dottie said. "I've already had some folks asking if I'm running a game night."
Anna smiled up at Dottie. "It has a shield feature, so I can change what it looks like to the nonpowered. Right now, it looks like 'Ticket to Ride,' but I can have it look like a flat map, so you can say that we're just lost."
"That'll draw even more attention—who uses paper maps anymore?" Dottie said and placed a dish with cheddar slices in front of Ray. Ray looked over the edge of her book and smiled.
"How exactly does that look at a human body, Anna?” Fish’s nose was leaning into the map, almost touching it. "This is specter mode, right?"
"Yeah, here!" Anna pulled Fish back up, placed two fingers on the map, and magnified the area. "It records and shows the concentration of specter power in an area over a period of time. I was testing it after the update."
"This is that new Version 7, yeah?" Fish said, running her finger over the grass and flicked the top of a tree. Birds flew out. "This is cool."
"Will you stop messing with it, Fish? Dad just got this for me—"
"You mean Clancy?" Fish leaned back with her arms crossed. This was still a sore spot between the sisters. They were both the children of Thomas Noble, the Shaman of the South—known as the Judge—and Mireille LaCoure, known as the Mother of Shamans, or simply Mama Ray.
Anna was three when Clancy, the Judge's longtime Director of Elites, was compelled by the Judge to find Ray, who had run off with her children. Once he found them, Fish—who was seven at the time—ran into the team's arms excited to see her father again. Anna was born while Ray was on the run and never knew the Judge. She was a three-year-old clinging to her mother until they took her away.
When it was just the Hunters and Ray, the Judge took control of Clancy's mind and forced him to shoot Ray in the head.
Many people said that Clancy and Ray were having an affair. Others said that the Judge tore them apart days before their wedding. What side of the debate you were on was largely dependent on where you lived and how closely you adhered to the Spenser Doctrine.
Either way, Fish was raised by the Judge and his wife while Anna was raised in the Shaman State of the Last Frontier of Alaska by the Shaman there, Clancy's sister, Sydney. Both were devoted to the men that raised them, which often put them on opposite sides of the "who shot Ray," and "which one is Dad" debates.
Anna placed her hands on her hips. "Yes, Clancy. The man that raised me. Taught me to hunt, play the saxophone, and to comm. The one that held my mother's specter in his body for years because Thomas Noble—bio-father—ordered a hit on our mother. So yes, Clancy."
"Mom made a deal and shouldn't have run off." Fish thrust a hand on her hips and a finger in Anna's face.
"She wouldn't have had to if she wasn't threatened with having all of her power removed by a man that wanted to use her as a brood mare," Anna retorted. "I would think you would want a mother that wanted you, with or without powers."
"Y'all know I'm right here and can hear you, yeah?" Ray said.
"Along with everyone else, right?" Dottie said. She took a step to intercede, but Ray help up a hand and Dottie stopped.
The LaCoure daughters were already too deep in the heat of sibling bickering to hear the older women.
"Okay, what do you call the Shaman of the Last Frontier?" Fish matched Anna's pose.
"Mama Syd. From what I hear, you're not even allowed to call Lady Siobhan Mom. I think that's foul considering none of the kids that call him Dad are his."
Fish opened her mouth to say something, frozen in that pose for a beat, and then closed her mouth. "You got me there. So, explain how that looks like a human body?"
Anna magnified the area again and tilted the image, so it looked like they were seeing it from the path. "The specter signature is an oval about six feet
in height and about four feet wide, enough for a body."
And just like that the argument was over. Dottie shot a bewildered look over to Ray. Ray just shrugged.
"What's that?" Fish was pointing at a dark blue spectral pattern with several yellow green dots around it. "I was going to say a slithen, but the body is usually above ground as well. Right where the oval is." Fish counted the dots around the dark area. Ray got up and sat next to Fish.
"There's not enough tentacles either," Fish said. "There's usually about thirty or more coming out of the ground. This is half that."
Ray reached for the creamed corn and got a handful of air. She reached over to the other table, grabbed the corn and pieces of cheese—that letter could stay there and burn as far as she was concerned—and sat back at the map, looking at the general area.
"Does this map have layers, Anna?" Ray bent down and shoved her nose until it nearly was in the map.
"Can y'all not shove your face into the map? " Anna tapped onto the edge of the map and there was a harsh beep.
Big letters filled the edge of the map facing Ray.
PLEASE FILL THE POWER WELL TO POWER THE LAYERS FEATURE.
Then a loading bar raised the surface of the map under them.
Anna pressed into the map and the loading bar filled about a third of the way. Fish ripped Anna's fingers away from the map. Tiny tendrils of power stretched and disconnected with a little pop.
"You're going to wear yourself out doing that. Go get something to eat." Fish tilted her head toward the counter then pushed her fingers into the map. Anna didn't move, but just put her head on her hand.
"I'm going to get some more brisket and avocado." Ray walked to the counter. Dottie was at the register and picked an avocado from a pile of them and gave it to Toby the server.
"Add some extra moist brisket and some ribs to that, would you?" Ray said and pulled out money from her bra. Dottie looked at her without saying anything.
"I know that look, Dorathea. Go ahead and give me your lecture so my girls can get some energy back."
Dottie shook her head at the sound of her full name, "I forget how long we have known one another, Mireille. But you should talk to Jakob—"
Ray held her hands up and scoffed, "I don't want to talk to Jakob Noble. Talking to Jakob Noble leads to talking Thomas Noble and I want none of it. Leave the politics to the politicians, Dottie. I'm going to hunt and be freeeeeee."
"Texarcana is changing, Ray, and you are part of that whether you want to be or not," Dottie said. Toby placed a tray of glistening brisket, ribs, a dish of sauce, and the sliced avocado down.
"Don't you think I have had enough of that?" Ray picked up her tray walked off.
I know you have more than any other, Ray. That's why fate has trusted you with the burden. Dottie words filled Ray's mind. Ray stopped and looked back at Dottie.
I don't want any part of this. I wanted the Hunt; I wanted to spend my life with Clancy, and I wanted to raise kids with him. I only got the Hunt. I'm not going to lose that too by letting the Shamans pull me into their petty wars.
Ray knew that was not an option as soon as she said it. And finding Texarcana's Elite Hunter Handler Christian Brandt powering the map for the girls at the table only proved that.
4
Small, Discreet Favors
Christian Brandt had filled the map and expanded the layers by the time Ray made it to the table. He saw her and gave her a genuine smile that lit his body up. Ray always felt a little better when she saw it. He always came at the behest of the Shaman of Texarcana.
"Hello, Ray." Christian's voice had a soft, mild quality about it as if he were engineered to put a person at ease. She pulled him into a hug before he could bow.
"Hello ,Christian, what does Jakob want?" Ray whispered into his ear.
"A small, discreet favor, since we're going straight for formalities," he whispered back and pecked her on the cheek before letting her go. "Fish and Anna saved me time having to sell it... you have already found what was left of Stacy Beauacy—"
Ray let out a groan “That's really her name? Stacy Bow-acy?"
"For her sins, yes, apparently." His eyes went wide for a flash. He was the only one Ray ever knew who could grin with his eyes. “It looks like a penny paper hunt gone wrong. "
Ray chuckled and looked at the slices, "Yeah I know them... they watch high-level pros on a dangerous hunt, they listen to some low-rent lawyer tell them that they can do what we do for less money and less training and they end up with limbs missing or dead. "
"We have been able to discern who the others in the team were and the striker. Stacy and the comm didn't know one another, but they both knew the comm well enough to take the job."
"That isn't unusual. The comm is usually the link to the whole thing when a team is formed," Ray said and looked over at the map. Anna and Fish were fingering through the layered view. The terrain was separated into slices stacked up to the women's eye level and they were focusing on the middle section.
Just under the mass was a cooler portion. First a couple of blue dots, then the dots spread until they made a macabre inkblot version of a body. Athletic, female, and very dead.
"I told you there was a body," Anna said a little loudly for a barbecue joint. Fish shushed her. The lower layers were slices of the ground and what looked like a chrysalis with arms with three taloned fingers on its hands sinking into a glowing white body mass.
"Triskull babies." Ray flipped the layers of soil until she reached two more chrysalises a little farther down. "They're really young. Haven't even gotten their skull faces yet."
"Was the contract for the triskull?" Anna asked Christian, placing her chin on his shoulder.
"And why wasn't an Elite team called for a something so dangerous in a residential area?" Fish said, placing her elbow on his other shoulder and leaning on it. "Once that skull blooms and morphs into the three heads in one, they can drag full-grown cows into hell. I have an alert for them, but there's weren't spots that were hot enough to even sustain it."
"No, it appears to be a poaching job at best," Christian said, lifting Anna's chin off his shoulder with his finger and pushing it away.
"And we didn't know it was a triskull until... now." Christian leaned toward Fish until she was standing straight.
"Are we the only Elite Hunters in the state?" Ray stayed at the table. She'd known Christian since she was a teen and never did care to get into his personal space.
"No, just the only ones powered enough to charge that map to the precision we needed at the moment." His eyes grinned again.
"Oh, I doubt that was the case," Ray scoffed "Can we go back a few hours?" Ray pressed into the map until the menu showed up. She tapped Timeline, then adjusted it from days to hours and another loading bar showed up with an oval to place her finger. She pressed in and she could feel the power leave her hand. After a few moments, she could feel fingers grab hers. When the bar got to half full, a thumb ran itself over the top of her hand. She snatched it away as soon as it filled.
"This thing sure does take a lot of power, girl," Ray said to Anna. "Are you going to be able to keep this up?"
Anna nodded. "Daddy warned me that it would take weeks to fully charge it, but once it was, it would take that much to top it off. He said he would stay connected and help."
"Yeah..." She could feel him trying to connect to her mind. She pushed the idea of him out of her head and moved the map to an hour ahead. A few dogs and a power walker. She fast-forwarded a bit more and there was a little girl practicing her spinning and roundhouse swing, then stopped, stooping over something. Ray zoomed in and they all looked at Christian.
"You see that?" Fish said. "She did a spectral pull..."
"Yeah, I saw that. Who is the little one powering the soul and making it fertile for things that will kill her, Christian?" Ray continued watching until Stacy came along and tested the soil.
"The reason for the discretion. And more than a little urg
ency," Christian said.
Anna's phone buzzed several times. "I've instructions and... payment. That's expecting a lot, isn't it?"
"The Shaman knows you already want it... for reasons other than the money."
A rare and dangerous monster within eating range of small children, training as Hunters.
"Son of a bitch knows how to sell a Hunt."
"No, he just knows who's buying." He laid his hand on Ray's shoulder. "Oh, and Ms. JoJo would like you over for dinner next Sunday night."
By the time she could think of a witty thing to say, he was gone.
5
The Best of Intentions
"It isn't murder if a Hunter was killed on a hunt." The blonde woman was opening another jar of bread and butter pickles, then placing them on a white square platter in front of her. "Every Hunter knows the risks."
The women around Kyla Pulter's table nodded together, even if tentatively. The attack had made it on the news—at least the one that her legs ripped to hell. The other was a missing woman's report. They were shown separately so the normal people watching the local news wouldn't know that they were connected. The nonpowered wouldn't even know that they were connected, not unless they looked closely. Kyla smiled and placed more pickles on the plate. They wouldn't look closer than they needed to.
"I know, Kyla." Meg pulled a pickle off the platter. "But that wasn't a regular hunt—"
"It wasn't supposed to be a regular hunt. It wasn't a 'hunt' at all," Kyla said with air quotes over her head. "They were supposed to be syphoning spectral power from the ground."
"And something was there first!" Cammie said louder than she intended. She snatched meat off the platter and stuffed it in her face before she washed it down with her glass of wine in a single gulp. "And whatever that... that thing was, it cut that girl to shreds, something that's here because of us."
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