"Dad!" Fish collapsed into a pile of teenage "so over this." "I am twenty-four years old!"
"And that's old enough to know how to accept the courtesies offered to you as a future Shaman. Take the Legate elevator, dear." And the screen vanished.
Fish slowly turned her face toward Xander.
"You repeat that name and I will burn this hospital to the ground, my grandmother's name on it or not," Fish growled. Xander nodded, following Fish through the opening single elevator door and down a small hall.
"We have a series of rooms that are not on the actual two hundred bed count. We reserve them for elite Hunters like yourself, but this was a special case."
The elevator door had opened to an actual hospital room. It was private, but sparse. There was a single bed with a dark-skinned woman that looked up from her reading. She looked from Xander to Fish and to Xander again. She shook her head and sent a bolt to Fish's head.
"No! You are not getting me! I'm not worth it," the woman screamed, tears running down her face.
Fish and Xander both sent up a shield and took a step forward.
"Do you know who I am?" Fish said.
"Yeah! And you're here to kill me!" The woman shot a smaller bolt that petered out before it reached them, then swooned and fell back on the bed.
"What do I look like, a Daughter of Eve?" Fish said, and all three women took a moment and stared at Fish. She was raised and trained by a DoE, had petals on her flower—she still used that term, such a stupid thing to call kills—and only came back to the Hunt after seeing her mother for the first time in a decade.
"You are quite the Daughter of Eve, if we are honest," Xander said. The woman nodded hard in agreement.
"Once I thought about it, I can totally see why you would think I would kill you. But listen…" Fish held her hands up
"I didn't know that it was going to kill them!" her voice was weak. "They got Stacy. All I was supposed to do was get the specter."
"Listen, listen, listen." Fish softened her voice as she and Xander made their way to the bed, shields still up. They reached the edge of the bed and Fish recorded the interview on her phone.
"Garner, Charlotte. Alias Tottie Garner Hunt #3387." Fish read aloud from the file. "I'm not here to kill you. You wouldn't have seen me if you were going to die by Fish LaCoure's hand." Xander raised her hand to say something and Tottie recoiled. Fish rolled her eyes.
"Did I or did I not say I was not here to kill you?" Fish leaned in.
"Y-You said you weren't going to kill me."
"Right! I kill monsters and bad people. I mean really bad, evil people. At the very worst, you're just piss-poor at Hunting and I'm trying to figure out what the hell you were doing there and what the hell turned your booties inside out."
Fish looked up at the woman. Her legs were wrapped in gauze. Fish reached down and started on one of the dressings. Tottie tried to pull her leg away, but she fell back into the bed before she could stop Fish.
"There has to be fifty stiches here." Fish waved her hands over her body and stopped at Tottie's wide eyes. "I'm a nurse practitioner and I specialize in trauma. And Xander is the hospital concierge. She has a license to kill if I try to do something to you." She looked Tottie in the eye. "I saw the tape and how that Hunt went sideways. If you're in any kind of trouble, Crypto LaCoure is the team you want on your side, okay?"
Tottie nodded slowly and started to weep. Fish sat on the side of the bed and placed Tottie's head on her chest. Tottie wailed into her chest for a little longer and looked up at Fish.
"I can give you the money back! She came to me and said that they gave Jason—that's our comm—the siphoning job, but she said that the pink shoe specter was the only thing that mattered. That it was worth money and that's why she was willing to share."
"Who? Who hired you?" Fish asked.
Tottie looked up at Fish and her tears went from clear to bright poisonous green. The trembling became stronger and Fish pushed her down.
"I need her strapped in!" Fish yelled. Xander nodded and her eyes glowed. Within moments, four workers in scrubs ran in and strapped her down. Fish pulled Tot's lip open and held up a light.
"Were you given anything to eat or drink when you talked to them?" Fish said. Tot nodded. "They had-had cheese and stuff." She struggled to get the words out.
Fish turned to the first orderly. "Do you have a charcoal slurry pack here?"
Without even replying, the orderly produced a packet that was solid white on one side and a clear side that showed the smooth black liquid. Fish pointed to Tot and the orderly tore the tear tab at the top and poured the contents into her mouth. It sat there in a pile like black poo.
"She isn't swallowing!" someone called out.
"Scope her and see if her throat is closed," Fish said, lowering her head until her lips were next to Tot's ear. "You are not dying today, my dove. Relax and answer me. Does it feel like you are choking?"
Tot shook her head no.
"There's a spectral block in her esophagus!"
Fish sighed. "This part is going to hurt. Try to relax if you can. Closing your eyes will help." Fish tilted Tot's head back and pointed for the scope. She made her hand glow and the scope went bright. She pushed it through the charcoal and there was a sizzle and the smell of dried earth in summer. She tilted a bit and pushed down.
"She was introduced something that kept her from talking and taking an antidote." Fish pushed a little further and Tot jumped a little and Fish pulled the scope out of her mouth.
"You will feel the heat and I already told you that this will hurt, dove." Fish put the scope back in and pushed a little further. "Anything made of spectral power can be siphoned out or absorbed. That's what we're doing. Found the block. Can you absorb spectral power?" she asked Tot. Tot went to move, and the nurses held her head.
"Blink once for yes. Two for no," the nurse said.
Two blinks.
"Shit... either this was well thought out or this person has a shit ton of dumb luck. Okay, since I will be absorbing it, you will feel a little woozy. Try to fight it. Three, two…"
Fish rammed the scope down Tot's throat and the power flowed out of her eyes and ears like someone turned on a bright light inside her head. The light faded, Fish pulled out the scope, and Tot gasped, swallowing the goo. She choked and coughed, spewing black goo all over Fish and the nurses. One placed a tube with a little water into her mouth and the coughing subsided.
They removed the brace and sat Tot up.
"Give her another pack!" she said to the nurses.
After a few packs, the color was back in Tot's face. The staff cleaned up Tot, and Fish and the guards were set near the door. Tot looked at the charcoal packs then back to Fish.
"They made us drink an elixir. The handler said it was a simple nondisclosure agreement." Tot's voice was small.
"NDAs don't choke you out if you talk," Fish said, leaning back at the console. "Your vitals are improving."
"Thank you." Tot breathed deeply, then again to make sure she still could.
"You're welcome and that's a good start, but a better finish is to tell me what you were doing there."
Tot turned away from the Hunter, but Fish grabbed Tot's jaw and swung her face back, so they were eye-to-eye.
"Who hired you?"
"Jason only said that it was a handler that claimed to work for the Area Master. We got a coded and keyed spectral tube and a geolocation. My cut alone was more money than I've seen in my life. The tube is with my gear."
Tottie gave her all the information that she knew, and Fish took notes and recordings. Once the Hunter gave Fish everything she needed, Fish signed off on the tube and pulled out her phone to register it. There were a bunch of calls and texts.
The first one was from Anna.
"Second victim and we lost Mom."
8
Wood, Leather, Vanilla
The tentacles weren't Ray's worst problem here. She'd fought triskulls before and these
weren't even full-grown ones. Not that it made them any less bloodthirsty or dangerous, but this should have been a few minutes' work.
And it would have been had her spectral sword deployed. Right now, she had the triskull's tentacle in her mouth—the image of that ran through her head and she hoped to God that this was not the point that Christian's visual came back on. She made a mental note to say that she sank her teeth into it when she told this story, then jammed both of the hand knives into the flesh appendage and pulled. A warm gush of brown blood plastered her shirt and stung her skin. A noise rang in the back of her head, like a baying and screaming. They crawled under her skin—she could feel the spectral power they used to reach her. She strained to find the source of the yelling and tap their power. The acidic brown blood pulled into her flesh, but there was no power to heal her.
That was the worst problem.
A Hunter's longevity was based on their ability to heal. Food was the go to, but the most powered of the powered could pull the specter power from any living thing as long as the process didn't zap all their power in the process. And any other time, on any other hunt, this area would have kept Ray heathy through the entire fight. Power all around her and not even the grass was giving up the ghost.
Ray spat out the bite of flesh and ran to the tentacle that was reaching out to the group of people that was starting to gather just on the other side of the bridge.
She made it a few steps when another tentacle shot out of the ground in front of her. Its skin was still translucent, spectral energy pulsing in the space between the skin and the green core…it was still young. The tentacle hadn't hardened to bone yet. That was a good thing; it would have been like chipping at stone with a spoon.
Ray crossed her arms in front of it and the faces of several creatures—a hob, a few dogs, and what looked like a woman appeared in the energy as she slashed through. She snatched the piece as it hit the ground and power flowed over her skin into the raising triskull.
All of the faces turned to her and screamed and the three swiped before she could react. She could feel the razor bone talons at the end of the tentacle slice through her flesh and the blood pump out of her body. Her fingers worked her way down to slashes in her belly even though she willed herself not to and thought for a moment that it was her intestines that she was feeling.
She dismissed it, but her head felt light. It had been so long since she had seen her own blood. Her mind swirled as she cut and jabbed at the tentacles rearing up. There was a tap on her shoulder and she dropped as an actual sword flew above her head and through the tentacles.
The ground shook and the screams from the creatures it was eating to heal rang in her ears. Thick tentacles shot up this time, and the older man made a strong, graceful spin, taking out three. One knocked him down from behind. He sent a bolt from his palm as he went down but formed a ball and burst into a bit that flowed into the tentacle.
"It's eating all spectral energy, Clancy! Give me a sword!" Ray yelled, and a Bowie knife struck in the ground next to her head. She pulled it toward her and jabbed it into the tentacle next to her. It writhed, and the screams made her insides vibrate. She looked down.
It wasn't the screams; it was the wind against a thin membrane that was keeping her guts in.
She was able to get another shot in before the edges of her vision grew dark as an arm slid under her shoulders and raised her up. She smelled wood, vanilla, and leather.
"We had them beat, Clancy." And then everything went dark.
9
A New Plan
There were so many cops in the greenbelt and now they were going door to door, asking questions. She was so glad that the others had left after Mama Ray did. She could say what she needed to say without worried faces tipping off the cops.
When they reached her door, Kyla smiled brightly, offered chairs and drinks and answered all their questions.
"Yes, I heard about the attacks. But I also heard that they got the dog that did it. Some kind of stray," she said with a bright and sunny tone without a hint of concern.
"No, I only let the kids play in the area right behind my house. It's high enough so I can see them from the kitchen," she said with all the warmth and authority of a good, responsible parent.
"A YouTuber was in the area visiting and passed out some stickers, but everyone has a channel nowadays and they knew a family in the area. I've seen them before." The voice of a woman that was a pillar of the community and knew what was going on, but not too arrogant.
She handed them one the stickers. The one asking the questions passed it to his partner. The partner's eyes went wide.
"Can I keep this?" the partner said, and Kyla nodded, careful to keep her face neutral. Of course, there were powered cops out there and being powered was not a crime or even the issue here. The partner flipped the sticker front and back, then looked up at Kyla with a little nod.
Then he pulled out his phone and held it over the back of the sticker. He looked at the screen and his face darkened.
"Where did you say that you were during the attacks?" the partner asked, showing her the dates again. The lead cop took a step back and the partner held out the phone, keeping his dark glance on Kyla.
She feigned slight concern.
"I was here with a few neighbors when the last one happened and it was my turn to host the playdate during the first one. A few of the moms came back with the news."
The partner was still glancing down at the screen when a three-ring tone came from it and he tapped the lead on the shoulder.
"Thanks for your time, ma'am. You have a good day."
Kyla closed the door behind them and leaned back on the door, hoping that what called them away didn't make them return. She looked at the sticker in her hand. She ran to the counter, picked up her phone, and flipped the sticker over.
It was blank, so she opened the camera and hovered that over the sticker, then remembered the giveaway cam on the Shaman Communication Network. She opened that and hovered it over the sticker.
Hello Kyla and Baylee! Click here to follow the Crypto LaCoure channel! And click here to…
Kyla expelled the phone from her hand, then looked at the sticker in the other hand and threw that down too. Baylee was dead, wiped from the face of the earth.
"No... no no no," she said, picked up the phone and removed the app, and then powered the phone down. It was able to read both specters from her touch. They must to have known that there was a triskull that attacked those hunters. And if they knew that, then they knew about the shield.
Then she ran upstairs to the locked drawer. She knew that this was perhaps the worst time to go anywhere near it, but she feared that it may be the last time she would, too.
The tube was still there, and the power was getting stronger.
"Another day, Baylee," she whispered into the tube. "Just hold on another day. It's getting strong enough to make you flesh and blood again."
10
One Question, One Answer
A blender full of pulverized kale, spinach, avocado, various tropical fruits, celery, ginger, turmeric, a whole lime—peel and all—and a carrot looked like baby puke and tasted only slightly better. The same blender full of vegan death dumped and mixed into the bath water of one of most powerful Hunters in Texas and the states that shared a border will glow a bright green and shoot into the gashes of her body, stitching up the cuts in her stomach from the inside out.
Ray's torso jerked up, her body tensed in that position until all the green glow was gone. Her body lowered back into the water and she managed to open an eye long enough to see Fish looking at her screen and adjusting something in the water. Ray braced with weak arms and strained to sit up. The ripples in the water caught Fish's and the hob's attention.
"Nope! Make sure she stays down," Fish said. Becca, the chief house hob, toddled over to the bath, jumped and floated down, gently landing its gumdrop-shaped body on Ray’s chest. Ray strained against the weight, but gave up
and slid back against the tub, her face trying to protest.
"That triskull cut you open like a Tauntaun. It was everything Clancy could do to get you out of there and stop you from rubbing your liver." Fish ran the sensor over the water and Ray leaned back and looked out the window at the end of the tub to the greenbelt beyond.
Greenbelts were common in Central Texas where the desire for unspoiled beauty was ingrained. Clancy bought his house from another Hunter, but the seller took their healing tub with them. She couldn't blame them—it was a massive porcelain, clawed-foot creature, deep but narrow. It was in their family for generations and their middle child wanted to take it with them to Arizona.
Clancy had a two-person stainless steel tub built into the floor with a little ledge to set monitoring equipment on and two stairs on the inside rather than the outside.
Ray braced her hands at the bottom of the tub. Even that slight movement made the fresh muscle closing the cut strain. She clenched her teeth and pushed up. Fish reached under the water and swept her mother's left hand, lifting the screen above the splashing water.
"Ma! Stay down. Let the green death and the specters do their work." Fish tapped on the screen again. "We're going to have another two or three rounds of the green death, then transfer you to bed."
Ray managed to open her mouth but ran out of will before she could close it again, leaving it dangling before forming words.
They had the whole area in a containment shield. Ray's weary thoughts flowed through the mental link to her oldest daughter. Fish looked up for the first time.
Shields were made to keep specter power inside of a certain area. You couldn't draw the power from it unless you built it, had permission from the person that built it, or…
You mean to tell me that that thing was born in it? Fish spun around, focused on her mother's weak face.
Rebels and Realms: A Limited Edition Urban Fantasy Collection Page 58