by Dave Ferraro
Chapter Twenty-Five
“That didn’t go as well as it could have,” Cameron muttered, sitting in the conference room at the table with the other hunters, except for Jade, who was with Rachel in the infirmary. He leaned back in his chair, arms crossed over his chest. “Now what do we do?”
“We try to research another way to defeat this thing,” Amelia said. “There’s got to be something.”
Jordan cleared his throat. “I know this is way out there, but what if we infect the rest of us with this mark? Maybe in a large group, we can defeat this thing.”
“No way,” Valor shook her head at the head of the table. “We need to wait for the demon to sever the strings binding each of you to your bodies, which is putting too much of this in his hands.”
“I can sever them while we’re awake, actually,” Amelia said. “It’s a simple spell to prepare one for astral projection.”
Valor stared at her for a moment, but slowly shook her head. “No. Still too risky. Plus, from what Hunter and Shanna have observed, the men will be killed by this thing almost instantly.”
“But the rest of us can do it,” Amelia insisted.
“We need you here, assisting in research. No one else is going to be put in harm’s way unless we can’t come up with a better idea, and that’s final.”
Amelia shook her head, as if she didn’t agree, but didn’t say anything else.
“So, we’re just going to put our faith in books?” Brett asked, bewildered. “That’s our only plan?” He sat back. “I wouldn’t want to be Shanna or Rachel right now.”
Shanna met Cameron’s eyes and felt his hand give her thigh a reassuring squeeze beneath the table.
“All of the scholars are on it too,” Krystal assured him. “We’ll get to the bottom of this. It’s not like he’s indestructible. We just need to find the right text.”
Brett looked at her for a moment, then scoffed. “You’re just trying to make it seem better than it really is. Which is really a sign that this is hopeless.”
Sighing, Krystal put a hand to her head.
Shanna turned her eyes toward the library door as it swung open, revealing Jade, carrying a backpack full of books and papers. She smiled as she entered the room. “Rachel’s still stable. No sand or anything for awhile now.”
“That’s good news,” Krystal said.
“But it won’t really matter if we don’t stop this sand guy soon,” Brett retorted. “He’ll just kill her anyway She’ll be a…sandbag or whatever.”
Krystal glared at him. “Remember how I was trying to make things more optimistic? You’re not doing that.”
“Here are the things you asked for,” Jade said, handing the backpack she carried to Hunter.
“What is it?” Jordan asked, hopeful.
“I, uh…” Hunter cleared his throat and dared a glance at Natalia, who narrowed her eyes, before he continued. “I’ve thought of something we could try. It may not help, but if there’s anything…” He paused and glanced at Shanna. “I think this needs to be resolved as quickly as possible and we could be experimenting with other areas to find a way to beat this thing.”
“Just spit it out already,” Brett said, bewildered.
“What do you want with Shanna?” Natalia asked bluntly, earning a surprised look from everyone in the room, save Hunter.
“I…well, I thought that Shanna could listen to some audio and maybe read some things and maybe...well, Rangda spoke to her once in Greece, about the statue, clearly foreseeing what would occur there. It stands to reason that she left other bits of information for her elsewhere, maybe about the Dream Demon in particular. After all, why would she have made the effort to contact Shanna once if she knew she would just die shortly afterward? It could be the thing we’re looking for to end this crisis.”
Natalia searched his face for a moment and indicated the door. He nodded and the two of them left the room together, leaving the others staring after them, confused.
“Uh…what?” Brett scratched his head before the door cut the hunters off from the pair.
Natalia immediately spun to stare Hunter in the face. “You of all people should realize how dangerous it is to start relying upon demons. It gives them an opportunity to possess a victim.”
“I know, but what choice do we have?”
“Do you know what I think, Hunter?” Natalia said, stepping a little closer to him. “I think that you realize this will bring forth Rangda eventually. You’re even willing to sacrifice Shanna for your ends, for your vengeance against the demon.”
Hunter’s eyes widened. “I - I would never...”
“People do plenty of stupid things subconsciously, but I don’t believe for a second that you haven’t thought this one through. I hope this is the last I hear of Rangda for a long while.”
“I-”
“A long, long while.”
Hunter let out a deep breath as Natalia continued to walk down the hall without him. He shook his head and scratched it lightly, suddenly wondering exactly what he had been thinking. Of course the thought had occurred to him that Rangda would grow strong enough to enter the mortal world through a victim. Especially if that victim let down her guard to it. But there were too many factors here to put the idea aside. It was too risky not to try looking for answers from Rangda. He realized he was making excuses, but unfortunately, it was a great opportunity to end the current threat. Vendettas aside, this was the best bet to beating their current obstacle. And that was that.
With a sigh, Hunter walked back into the library and smiled reassuringly at Shanna.