Rebels and Realms: A Limited Edition Urban Fantasy Collection

by Heather Marie Adkins

  Anna chuckled at that and waved him to hand her his mod. "She pimps a lot of stuff, but she actually likes the Cake Ball flavor they make." She took a long draw and exhaled. A whiff of vapor and nothing else exited her mouth. Vape Doorway Guy arched an eyebrow. He took the mod and looked at the screen and then a test puff and a long stream of vapor exited his mouth.

  "You're new at this, are you?" He laughed.

  "Nope, but I need to," Anna rolled her eyes at him. "Boss man wouldn't be in there, would he?"

  "Yeah, but he's up there with your uncle. He's not taking walk-ins right now."

  "Good to know." Anna pulled out her ID and waved it in front his face. He stood bolt straight and his eyes glowed.

  "Noble, Anastasia. Alias: Anna Benjamin-LaCoure. Hunt #SA9." His voice lost the easy Texas twang and turned cold and robotic. "Access level, Shaman's Heir. Allowed to pass." Vape Doorway Guy's body relaxed, and he opened the door.

  "You could have just asked me to open the door." He glowered at Anna with his twang back in full affect.

  "Then I wouldn't have been able to see a full-on synth/organic in process—it's kinda exciting stuff. How does it feel to be a cyborg?"

  "Better than being dead, I suppose." Vape Doorway Guy pressed his hand against the wall he was leaning on and slid it to the right, revealing a set of marble steps and a light wood staircase. The railing was smooth and glassy under Anna's fingers as she went up the stairs. She loved the look of the old places, when people had to build buildings to leave their mark on the world. Her fingers ran up the railing all the way up to the second floor.

  The second floor was polished marble floors, with that same shellacked light wood in the crown molding and the desk. The young man behind it stood when Anna skipped up to the desk and scanned her ID. He gave her a bow as she walked by, picking up his laptop and removing the cords.

  The Young Desk Dude opened his mouth to protest, but Anna just held up her hand.

  "I can imagine that this looks like just another high-level muckity-muck with a title doing what she likes, and to an extent it is. I get how that can be a pain in your ass," she said, and the Young Desk Dude let out an exhale as if he wanted to tell her all about it but was smart enough to just agree and perhaps get his laptop back and finish his work. He reached for it and Anna pulled it back from him, raising her hand a little higher.

  "What this is is a Hunter trying to solve a problem that has already killed one Hunter and placed another in the hospital—in a residential neighborhood." Anna whispered the last part as if there wasn't anyone else in the room. Young Desk Dude gasped and nodded subtley but with full understanding. The powered life was one of responsibility more than anything, like taking care of a baby sibling. The powered saw the world the way it really was. There were "ghosts"—specters that were too strong to be absorbed into the world and still had form, and monsters of all types. The nonpowered were not trained or ready—emotionally or mentally—for that reality. As the older siblings, the powered moved the dangers out of the way so the nonpowered didn't have to worry.

  And having a monster that could kill so close to houses was a problem. And someone hiding it was a bigger one.

  "The Shaman is in there with Master Gale discussing a development—"

  "Black Spur," Anna said. Young Desk Dude stopped mid-word and swirled his head around, trying to figure out what to say. He settled on a solid nod.

  "Right. There is a specter plain there that isn't on any map and they shielded it so not even Mama Ray could…" And he stopped.

  Anna smiled and waved her hand at him. "That doesn't bother me. My mother was—is, whatever. She was one of the strongest Hunters in the SSoA. It caused a lot of trouble, but specter plains are common. There's always someone wanting to keep their family pets or loved ones close if they have enough power and they keep the power levels down so something doesn't—" She leaned back as the realization came to her. She opened the laptop, popped a flash drive into it, and starting typing.

  "Specter plains are common," Young Desk Dude said, "but they wanted it so even the strongest Hunters couldn't find it. It's a pain in the ass though, and the Black Spur HOA was supposed to have a Hunter there to siphon the power."

  Now it was Young Desk Dude's turn to have a realization. "Those were those 'dog attacks' that weren't really dogs." He lowered slowly, then sank into his chair. He reached over and lowered the laptop monitor. Anna looked up.

  "I don't have the clearance for the information that you want. You will need to be in Master Gale's office."

  Anna scoffed and closed the laptop and handed it over. He pushed it back.

  "You're going to need that... he doesn't like to think through using the tech, so I had to connect his clearance to his specter, so he could access his stuff to any computer that had the right programs." He nodded slowly, and Anna met his cadence until she took the laptop back.

  "This will probably be a good time to walk into that room considering that network has confirmed the Shaman and his clearance is in there as well..."

  He nodded even deeper. Anna winked and pranced into the Area Master's office.

  Nathaniel Gale looked like a man that knew no joy in his life. Tall and solid at over seventy, his weathered leather face was the one that Anna knew all of her life, with its sour scowl of a mouth and flat brown eyes. He never smiled and when he truly did, it looked like it was at gunpoint. That was the face that Anna saw when she entered the room and she skidded a moment, a quick flash of paranoia at the crooked smile-ish twist in his mouth as he stood from behind his desk.

  "Lady Anna Noble! I didn't know the LaCoure cowboys were in town. You're keeping things from me, Shaman! Sorry, you're going to have to wait."

  In one of the chairs across the desk, Jakob Noble turned and smiled at his youngest niece. Unlike Nathaniel, Shaman Jakob Noble had an easy, firm smile and the shimmering gray eyes that all the Nobles had, including Anna.

  Anna kneeled with her left hand over her right fist at her uncle. "Shaman, it is good to see you."

  She stood and bowed to the Area Master. "Master Gale."

  Jakob bowed slightly, "Lady Anna, please." His baritone voice boomed through, leaving no doubt that he had time for her and thus so did the Area Master. He waved to the seat next to him before Nathaniel had time to protest.

  "What brings you out of the comfort of your trailer and here with us, Lady Anna?" the Area Master said, stressing the word trailer, his tone clear that he was using it in the worst sense of the word.

  "We're having the cargo trailer dry cleaned, so I decided to slum a bit and get some information on the Black Spur hidden hot spot—you know the one where they found that Hunter ripped to shreds and her specter absorbed and put another in the hospital?" Anna swiped the track pad on Young Desk Dude's computer, then reached behind her and pulled out her membrane map roll from her pack.

  She unrolled the map on the map table and pulled up the logs from the day of the attack, the layers of the oval and the human body that appeared above her head.

  "That is Stacy Randel, Hunter #5223. She was the hunter that was hired to siphon off power from this area. You guys have been retired longer than I have been alive, so I don't have to tell you that this oval is a high-power spot."

  Both men bristled, mainly because they were both closer to seventy than not. Nathaniel cleared his throat. "I have been doing this longer than you cowboys, so I have to ask what makes you think that she is who you say she is?"

  Jakob waved the Area Master away. "We can find that out fast enough."

  He pushed his finger into the map, and an authentication box popped up. He scoffed and glared at the box and a set of password dots flowed into it. The map came back, and he zoomed in until the body filled the entire map. Another AUTH box popped up and Jakob moved past it, shooting a side glance at Nathaniel. He opened a window above the map—which also asked for a password—and several lines went from the window to the body.

  Nathaniel's eyes darted between th
e screen, the Shaman, and Anna.

  Anna rolled her eyes. "You are killing me with the superpowers. Are you really controlling it with your mind, Uncle Jake?"

  "I am and getting quite irritated with public access records being behind three"—he grunted when another password request popped up—"four password requests." The window opened and a white woman with brown hair and a pleasant smile dressed in a plain red T-shirt and jeans appeared.

  Randel, Stacy. Hunter #ABE5223 REPORTED MISSING

  Jakob held up a finger and make a small swipe to the right. The picture slid away and her hunting and driving license appeared. Another swipe and her hunt rankings, rated in the hundreds of thousands, and her hunt registry—twenty-one confirmed kills/captures in six years—appeared. He gave it a little shrug and swiped again.

  The next screen had a scrubber and a play button and a blank screen.

  "Where's her last hunt?" Jakob asked, still looking at the screen.

  "According to what I can find, she hunts enough to keep her license and maybe make some Sunday money," Anna said.

  Jakob stood silent for a long moment. "Has the body been identified?"

  "We only have—" Anna started, but Jakob cleared his throat and she stopped.

  "I'm sorry, but I was asking the Area Master." Jakob's voice went dark and Anna bowed and backed up out of instinct. The Nobles were a force in the Shaman States and there was nothing that they couldn't find out or influence. Thomas, the Judge, was the active intrusive one; you conformed to his wishes and he kept the order and you flush with cash. Jakob, simply Jakob, followed a more organic approach that allowed new ideas and creative ways to run the seven US states that made up the Shaman State of Texarcana.

  Most knew, or knew of, the dread that came from looking at your phone and seeing the Judge's name on their screen. Many Area Masters and even other Shamans that displeased the Judge disappeared. Fewer knew the Judge's fury was nothing compared to what waited for fools that strained Jakob's patience thin.

  Jakob placed his hands behind his back and tilted his head until Nathaniel was barely visible in his sight.

  "Was the body officially identified?" Jakob's question was in a low-toned whisper. "All this secrecy would make someone think that the Area Master is trying to hide something from his Shaman."

  Nathaniel squared himself against the Shaman. Anna bit her lip and softened her stance in case something popped off. There was perhaps a six-inch height difference between the two men—at six feet, Nathaniel wasn't slight by any means. But the boom in Jakob's voice and the power crackling in the air that was making Anna's already curly hair poof out made him look and feel seven feet tall.

  "We like to solve our own problems, Shaman. It keeps us from having to bother you and being overrun with freewheeling cowboys."

  "I'm about done with the snide remarks from you!" Anna thrusted out her finger at the Area Master. "Because you want to run a bunch of side deals, a woman is dead, and another is in the hospital talking to Fish, trying to clean up your mess." She turned her back to him only to swing to him again. "And in case you haven't noticed, you are in Texas, wearing boots, you got a hat, and no Hunter experience over the minimum when Bush was still a Governor, so I would lay off calling folks 'Cowboys'. That, and I'm a Chiefs fan."

  Jakob groaned under his breath.

  "Can we not have the 'The Cowboys are Football' sermonette right now?" Anna said, her voice still at full blast. Jakob met that with an eyebrow and a slightly amused smirk and she withered a little.

  Nathaniel took advantage of the levity to slide in between Jakob and Anna, hands on hips.

  "You have no right to speak to anyone without my permission."

  It was Anna's turn to raise her eyebrow at Nathaniel. "We are on a hunt, Area Master." She waved her ID through the map window. The blank video was replaced with a sunburst with wings and a set of revolvers facing outward and the words "Crypto LaCoure" over it. Below that were the Hunt portraits of Anna, Fish, and Mama Ray inside a green box. The words "On Order of the Shaman" were below the box.

  Nathaniel went pale and focused on the screen, trembling to keep from looking at Anna's triumphant smirk.

  "We need to talk, Area Master; I don't like that there are secrets between us."

  An upbeat funk song played, and Jakob patted for his phone. He smiled as he swiped the screen.

  "Christian!!" He leaned in and listened as the muffled words on the phone made his teeth clench. He snapped his head over to the map. It zoomed out to the area south of it, just past a foot bridge. There a man was limping away, blood streaming down his leg. Passersby ran up, but he waved them away and pointed to ahead of him. They helped him on the path, their phones to their ears.

  "Route those 911 calls to friendlies. And where the hell is Ray?" He listened for a moment, "What do you mean you can't see her?! Give me her last coordinates!"

  Within seconds, a marker appeared on the bridge. Jakob kept the wounded man in focus but turned the map, so he could see the bridge. Nothing. He moved so he could see underneath. It was clear with waves in the air that looked like heat rising. He zoomed into the area and an AUTH box showed up. Jakob hissed.

  "SCN override. Noble, Jakob," He touched the screen and a Texas flag flashed with the words Override Accepted and Ray was on the screen slicing tentacles with razors at the end. Anna jumped for her bag, put her earwig in, and touched the map.

  "Mom! Momma! Hunter, do you read me?" Her eyes darted between her mother fighting and her uncle, who was shaking his head.

  "We have eyes on her. Yes, Anna and myself. Yes, we can't contact her either. There's a shield around it that the Area Master will be lifting momentarily." He snapped his fingers to Nathaniel as he thrusted a thumb into the map. Nathaniel stayed in place.

  "I-I gave my word, Shaman," he said, his voice weak, little more than a whisper. "There are powerful people…"

  Jakob Noble bared his teeth. "I gave you an order. And there is no one more powerful than me."

  Nathaniel looked at Ray, her teeth sinking into a tentacle around her neck as she stabbed and ripped through it.

  "Why are you just standing there while a nonpowered and an Elite Hunter—" Anna let out a wail, ripped her earwig out, and started ramming her thumbs on her phone screen. She didn't have to lift the phone to hear the voicemail. She hung up and dialed again. When she got the message again, she switched to texting "I'm going to do something about this."

  "NATE! NOW!" Jakob's baritone roar ripped through the room. The Area Master moved to the map and started going through screens.

  "Anna, go get your sister and meet me back at your house." Anna tried to say something, but the cold glare in her uncle's eyes stopped her cold.

  She took another look at the map just as more tentacles ripped across Ray's stomach. She was used to seeing her mother get hurt on the Hunt, but it was never easy to see.

  Jakob repeated the request and Anna nodded. Her phone rang as she was leaving.

  "Thank God! Mom got impaled and I can't reach Fish."

  7

  We Know This Life

  The vast majority of the population never understood why they needed to have such a huge hospital between Austin and Waco. All they knew—or cared about—was that it had a twenty-four-hour emergency room, trauma center, full testing facilities, and two hundred beds, which was huge just about anywhere you went.

  Fish was a Hunter and citizen of the South, so she didn't vote for the bond that built this hospital, but as soon as she walked in and found the card reader discreetly sitting at reception, she knew that it was tailored to the powered. She slid her card under the reader and the magnolia—symbol of the Shaman of the South and their elite team's symbol—appeared on the screen over the lower right corner of her name: Noble, Monroe. Alias: Fish LaCoure Hunt #SA14. Fish groaned, cleared the screen, and walked up to the smiling face looking at her from the reception desk. She looked at her screen and rose slightly and bowed.

  "Hello, Lady Fish. We
have a concierge coming for you now." She held a hand out to a young woman in a pantsuit that had a wreath of bluebonnets around a solid green star, the symbol of the Shaman State of Texarcana on her jacket.

  "Lady Fish, my name is Xander Walsh, the Legate concierge for the Spenser Weatherby hospital here in Round Rock. Welcome." The woman bowed and led Fish through the double doors.

  "I have to admit that we were surprised when your father called and said to expect you." Xander leaned in. "Your father has been very respectful of the boundaries and doesn't involve himself in Texarcana as he does in other states."

  Fish put her hands on her hips and gave Xander the side eye. "And he still is... as funny as it sounds, I asked him to call ahead to make sure I didn't have to get loud and ensure full cooperation." Fish looked at the signs and walked over to the elevators, signaling for Xander to follow. "I've never seen so much secrecy about a Penny Pincher hunt in my life."

  "That's because it's not about the Hunt itself," Xander said. She gave Fish a look that said this was about politics, not monsters.

  "It's never about the Hunt anymore. That's why Mom wanted out," Fish said to no one. It wasn't until a years ago that she understood why Ray would run from the Judge. She spent years being angry.

  "Once you get to a certain level, you have to care about the people of the Hunt and that is where the focus should be. Not that Ma has disregard for Hunters—she just wants the Hunt more."

  Xander nodded her head and gestured to another elevator. "This is the one that we will be taking." Fish rolled her eyes and pressed the button in the one that she was in.

  A spectral screen appeared inches from Fish's face. The Judge appeared on the screen. Xander and Fish knelt and bowed.

  "We do not have the time for contrarianism, Fishie-Fishie," he said, his eyes kind looking at his oldest daughter.

  Fish glared at the screen and then to Xander, who was looking down, her lips pursed.