by Dave Ferraro
Chapter Thirty
A loud crash suddenly drew everyone’s attention to the neglected depths of the room.
Shanna, still watching all from within her mind, didn’t understand what was happening for a moment, but quickly put it together, as Brett stood before the smashed aquarium of Vepar, the demon mermaid. She flopped pathetically on the soaked red carpeting, her fishmen at her sides, trying desperately to help her to the aquarium’s shallow water, the only available standing water in the vicinity. They were practically impaling her on the jagged glass in their desperation to get her safely to breathable water. Brett looked triumphant in all of this, but ready to collapse himself. He would be of no additional help to anyone.
“You have feelings for this vampire,” Upir’s voice drew her back to her own battle.
Shanna shifted her perspective to glance in the direction the monster indicated. Amid the chaos, the other mora had seized the moment to overtake Damien and Noel. Each were in the arms of one of the creatures. They were held before the monsters like hostages, human shields for wooden bullets.
Catching Damien’s gaze, Shanna felt her heart leap into her chest. Then she thought of Cameron and was ashamed.
“Feelings?” the creature before her demanded. “Feelings for this monster?”
“I’m not sure,” Shanna whispered. “I might have feelings for him.”
Upir sneered. “And despite your indecision, you are prepared to deny the comfort you may find in him? You would remain a fragile, confused being?”
“Yes.”
“The feelings, the weaknesses, the struggle of it - why?”
Shanna held her chin high. “The weaknesses that you’ve illustrated are not weaknesses by my standards. Concern for others, teamwork, caution, pity, emotion, inner turmoil…yes, even breaking down - it’s all beautiful, and it’s all human. It’s what makes us, us. And I wouldn’t trade it for the world.” She paused. “And I think your little show has done the opposite of the intended - it’s reinforced my respect for human life. It’s made me appreciate my fellow man better. I can see now why they are worth fighting for, why we do this. I’ve been jaded, numbed to the feelings of others in my isolation, but…something has cleared and…and I am happy to do what I do…for others. And I’m happy to do it by these humans’ sides.”
Shanna stopped, but her thoughts broke out audibly through her mind, nonetheless, like fireworks bursting. Thoughts from deep within, from a place she very seldom ventured, a place she tried to ignore. “I feel so lost. When my parents died, I wanted nothing more than revenge. I trained and fought to get it and…I got it! But I kept searching out demons and killing and…I don’t know why. It’s like I’m still trying to avenge something, but I have no idea what. I don’t know what I’m doing here or who I am.”
“These thoughts are from the recesses of your mind,” Upir grinned triumphantly. “Your heart beats this conflict into your very veins, your entire fiber. We can stop it. We can direct your anger and hurt, make it disappear. You have it in you. You want to kill. By every facet of the word, you are a murderer. You are destined to move beyond this mortal plane. You must realize this, feel this. You must…join us.”
Shanna’s eyes widened as he spoke. She did feel alone, adrift in the world with no purpose, like something was missing, like she was destined for something beyond what made up her life. But…didn’t everyone feel that way to some extent? Like nobody gets them, that they don’t belong? She couldn’t believe that giving in to this was the answer. She glanced over at Damien, imagined his glittering fangs buried in her neck hungrily…no. Kelly’s still body blazed through her mind like an explosion. That’s what that path led to. Death.
“But you have already chosen death,” Upir reminded her. “You live among it. You are intimate acquaintances.”
Squeezing her eyes shut, Shanna shook her head with determination. “No, no, no, no, NO! You’re trying to make me lie to myself, preying on my insecurities, warping the truth, but it won’t work. I…I know what I am. I’m a hunter. I may have…have started my journey out to avenge my parents, but…” She looked over at Amelia, deep in concentration in her duel with Samantha, at Brett, still standing over the shattered aquarium, at Jordan unconscious on the floor. Turning back to Upir, she smiled. “But I’ve learned what’s important to me. I genuinely don’t want to see people hurt. People like my parents, like Kelly, like these people I fight beside. That’s what I stand for and that’s why I can never join you. It’s in me. In my blood, to fight for what’s right.”
Upir gazed at her with something akin to pity before he sadly shook his monstrous head and waved his scythe back toward Damien and Noel. “So be it. You leave me no choice. Watch as the winners reap the spoils of battle and feel helpless as you are forced to watch, hunter.”
Shanna straightened and observed with wide eyes as the mora buried their tongues into the throats of the two vampires, slithering into their flesh like leeches. She watched, mesmerized, stricken, as they began to lap at their tainted blood.
The painting of Diana flashed into her mind then, but not as a static image like she’d previously viewed it, for blood flowed steadily over the backdrop, her eyes looking into her own with pleasure. “I can feel your excitement…I feel it through your veins…Your will be done.” The face screamed, a sound that met her ears as nothing more than high-pitched static, blood expelled as projectile vomit in her direction. Shanna blinked and nearly gagged as the flash dispersed, leaving another nightmare in its place. Watching, weak and helpless under Upir’s thrall, she quickly grew ill at the sight of blood drizzling down Damien’s pale neck.
***
“Plenty of juice left,” Amelia murmured to herself, sweat dripping down her brow with the effort it took to hold the force field against the energy bolts Samantha threw at her. “Plenty.”
She faltered for a moment and the field ceased to exist.
Samantha smiled and readied for another attack, the bat-like leather wings that extended from her back curling in anticipation.
Amelia didn’t give her the chance. She launched at the succubus and grabbed her wrists, keeping her from throwing anything at her, mystical or otherwise. Amelia then butted her head into Samantha’s face, causing blood to drip from the demon’s nose. Then, with a quick turn, the sorceress picked the shards of glass from the aquarium up with the wind and shot them at Upir, who’d been looming over Shanna for ten long minutes, obviously assailing her mentally, bypassing any opposition.
The shards pierced Upir’s hide, venturing completely through his body before hitting the opposite wall and raining to the floor. As they exited his chest and arms, they sprayed his blood over Shanna before the wounds quickly knit closed of their own volition. But the job had been done.
“Similia similibus curantur,” Amelia mused aloud as Shanna’s eyes cleared of their mesmerized quality.
Samantha laughed then as she tossed Amelia from her easily and gingerly rubbed her wrists. “There is fire in this one. Pay attention to me now.”
“We’ll see who’s afire after this battle,” Amelia said, throwing up another force field stubbornly as Samantha began tossing energy bolts at her once more.
Shanna stood up abruptly and smacked Upir in the jaw.
Upir laughed and swung at her with his scythe to mow her down.
Prepared for such an attack, Shanna cleared the blade and suddenly stood up straight. “I can feel your excitement.” She grabbed Upir’s hand that held the scythe and squeezed the fingers so tightly that they were forced to let go of the weapon. With one fluid motion, Shanna guided the scythe in a horizontal swipe to slit open the mora’s chest. “I feel it in your veins.” There was no hesitation as Shanna pulled a wooden stake out from her garments and shoved her hand deep within the wound she’d made. She felt the monster’s ribcage and shoved her stake through its openings, into its undead heart. She smiled as Upir gazed down upon her with shock. “D
eath and I seem to be on pretty good terms, after all,” Shanna smiled as Upir melted before her eyes, a pudding of ash and liquid flesh.
“That is quite enough,” Samantha’s voice suddenly sounded stern from across the room.
Turning in her direction, Shanna beheld Amelia on the floor at the demon’s feet, cradling her arm in a daze. But it wasn’t the sorceress whom she’d addressed. It was the mora who were feeding off of Noel and Damien.
The mora looked up at her voice, but continued to feed nonetheless.
“Disrespectful,” Samantha muttered. “This is what you’ve come to show us this night, Scarlet?”
“No, Samantha,” a voice announced so near to Shanna’s shoulder that she jumped. The redhead was right behind her, near enough for her to see the amber flecks in the vampire’s jade eyes.
Shaking her head, Samantha gazed at the mora unflinchingly, tilting her head back toward the shadows behind her. “Tessa.”
The blonde girl appeared as if from nowhere and looked at the mora, a sadness touching her eyes.
The mora froze then, as if paralyzed.
Noel and Damien immediately sunk to the ground, alive but weak from loss of blood. They groggily stood on shaky legs, Noel stumbling over to where Jordan lay unconscious. Damien gazed over at Shanna before quickly withdrawing a stake from his coat and stabbing it into the chest of the mora that had been beside him. It glanced off harmlessly, splintering into shards.
Damien visibly paled.
Shanna suddenly jolted, feeling slightly nauseous. She stared down at herself, then at what remained of Upir, her eyes eventually landing on the splinters of wood at Damien’s feet.
“Tessa, please...” Samantha said, sounding tired.
Tessa nodded and the mora disappeared.
“What…Samantha!” Scarlet objected. “You can’t just-”
“I do what I please,” Samantha suddenly turned on the vampire with rage in her eyes. “This pathetic display of power was sickening. The mora were truly monsters, abominations, made in our blood, feeding on our blood. You are reckless.”
Scarlet tensed.
“Do not think that I was unaware of your true motives in all of this. To breed such powerful creatures…what an army you would have had in time. An army capable of asserting you into La Faer Noir’s inner circle, if not take it over completely.”
“Samantha, you can’t-”
“I did not give you permission to speak,” Samantha warned. “If I were you, I would hold my tongue and wish that you’d never attempted such treachery. You are no longer in La Faer Noir’s favor. I expect to hear very shortly of The Crimson Rope’s disbandment.”
Shanna looked from one woman to another and couldn’t help but smile.
Scarlet gave a stiff nod and traversed to the door without another word. She opened it slowly, with a look of contempt in Samantha’s direction. Thick black smoke poured into the room through the opening along with a figure amid a coughing fit.
“Sh-Shanna!” Cameron called out. His eyes were watery, his hand covering his mouth haphazardly.
“What is…” Damien murmured, shifting his eyes to Shanna.
“Hey, guys,” Rachel sauntered into the room with her shoes in hand. “I kind of, ah, started a fire. Accidentally.”
Shanna quickly crossed the room as her two friends entered, bypassing Cameron with his wide smile, shrugging off the confused expression that followed her to the door.
With one foot in the hall, Scarlet was stopped by an iron grip on her upper arm. She turned to look into the mass of fury etched in Shanna’s face.
“Shanna…” Damien whispered. He glanced at Samantha, who looked back at him without a hint of expression.
“You’re not going anywhere,” Shanna spat in Scarlet’s surprised face.
Chapter Thirty-One
“Well, this has turned into an interesting night,” Samantha commented as Tessa drew up to stand beside her.
Jordan suddenly sat up in a daze, Noel assisting him, looking him over. The vampire kissed the hunter on the mouth while Damien, stone-still, stood overhead, a hand over the bloody wound upon his neck.
Shanna saw all of this out of the corner of her eyes as Scarlet followed Shanna back into the library slowly.
“Didn’t much like the reward I put on your head, I take it?” Scarlet mused, with a wave of her hand. “Yes, very nasty business, my dear. If it makes you feel any better, I put a much higher price-”
“You murdered my best friend,” Shanna cut her off. “All this time, I thought that it was Grant, but he just brought her to you and fed off of your scraps.”
Scarlet looked startled. “I…I didn’t know. My men…they bring sna…they bring sustenance…”
“You don’t even remember her, do you?” Shanna shook her head. “Unbelievable.”
Scarlet cocked her head and sent her a sympathetic look. “You poor dear. But surely she isn’t worth dying over?”
“She is.”
Smoke continued to billow into the room as Rachel and Cameron revived Valor and Felicia. It was getting hazy in the room as the temperature rose steadily.
Shanna started as a window suddenly blew out and fire began to engulf the curtains at the opposite end of the room. The floor-to-ceiling bookshelves were perfect fodder and fed the blaze’s tumultuous appetite quickly, bringing the inferno ever closer to the individuals yet remaining.
“We have to get out of here,” Cameron yelled as the roar of the fire did its best to drown him out.
“Go,” Shanna told him with a definitive look. “Everyone out. I have unfinished business here.”
“Yes,” Scarlet smiled sweetly. “This will only take a moment.”
With that, swords appeared in both of the women’s hands.
“I wish I could stay to watch what promises to be a spectacular scene,” Samantha said. “But I must be off. May the best woman win.” She smiled then and walked away without another word, just a nod at Tessa.
Shanna watched her retreating form with a shiver as Tessa followed in her footsteps. The blonde girl looked back at Shanna once before she was swallowed by the shadows, sending her an unsettling wink.
“I believe that’s our signal, Dear,” Scarlet murmured. “I am truly sorry that I must kill you.”
Shanna snarled and launched herself at the vampire, sword swinging furiously.
Blocking all of her swings, Scarlet winced at the strength of her blows until she had the opportunity to be on the offense. Then it was Shanna’s turn to dodge the sharp edge of her blade.
“If I’d known she was so precious to you,” Scarlet leaned in to her thrusts. “I would have savored the wench.”
Shanna shoved the vampire’s sword aside as she swung and darted in faster than Scarlet could recover, earning herself first blood: a slash just above the collarbone.
“Ugh,” Scarlet put a hand over the wound and looked at Shanna in wonder. “I would much rather have emptied you of your hunter blood. But I will taste it before this duel is done.”
“You’re not getting a drop of my blood, you murderous bitch.”
Scarlet let Shanna play into her overconfidence, just as she’d done with Jordan earlier and sent the hunter into a lunge from which she couldn’t recover. Shanna fell to the floor unceremoniously, whereupon Scarlet kicked her sword out of reach. With a brash strike to Shanna’s shoulder, the vampire smiled and licked the blade of her sword with a look of fondness. “Wrong already.”
Not expecting Shanna to recover so quickly, Scarlet was shocked to find her own sword knocked from her hand in a moment.
“I never liked swords anyway,” Shanna confided with a wistful grin. She grasped beneath her dress for her dagger, wishing for the hundredth time that she had her cross dagger on her person. Her hands only closed on air. She must have lost it during her battle with Upir.
“I don’t need a sword to kill,” S
carlet bore her teeth and leapt at her.
“Shanna!” Amelia cried.
Shanna looked up as she dodged the attack and was met with an insurmountable screen of smoke. She’d been so engrossed in the fight that she hadn’t noticed the room around them. She sputtered on a lungful of ash and suddenly found her sword in her hand once more.
Thank you, Amelia, Shanna thought with pleasure as she slammed the brunt end of the weapon into Scarlet’s face.
Scarlet yelped and fell backward to the floor as Shanna, determined to keep her on the defense, kept her sword on the vampire, forcing her to stay down.
“You’re a human,” Scarlet spat, looking up the length of the sword at her. “A weak, pathetic human. I will kill you just like I killed your little friend.”
“I am human,” Shanna countered. “And I have friends because of that. Friends who give me all the support I need.” She indicated her sword. “It seems like all of your friends deserted you, you selfish evil thing.”
Scarlet closed her eyes briefly before grabbing the blade of the sword in front of her and holding it steady enough so that Shanna wasn’t able to move it an inch. “I am all I need.” She jumped to her feet and slapped the sword aside, quickly grabbing hold of Shanna’s throat a second later.
Surprised as she was, Shanna could do little else than grasp at the fingers that were cutting off her air.
“Let’s finish this,” Scarlet said.
Shanna looked down into the vampire’s face, distorted by hate as it was, and saw Kelly in it. The cranberry hair was suddenly the orange-red hue of Kelly’s again. She was aglow - a beacon, a shooting star, a volcano. Darkness threatened Shanna’s vision as she kicked instinctively out into nothingness. The smoke penetrated everything, even the hand at her throat.
Then just as suddenly, Shanna was free, on the ground, gasping at the little hospitable air left clinging to the red carpet. She looked up and saw Kelly. No. She saw a phoenix. A fire atop Scarlet Fever’s head. She was on fire. It spread swiftly from her hair to her dress, before engulfing her completely. She flopped about, screaming in agony for a moment before a section of the ceiling collapsed onto her, burying her beneath rubble, in a tomb of ash. Ash that would join the building’s last stand in face of the fire, as the structure itself was reduced to its basic components.
The smoke had thoroughly consumed the room by then. Shanna had no more breathable oxygen to depend on. She leapt to her feet and ran toward where she remembered the exit being, stumbling into the hallway and ending up on the floor, choking on the coiling, suffocating air.
She felt like she was going to pass out. Sweat was gathering in her eyes, adding to the irritation of the smoke. Her lungs were on fire. Her throat felt raw. She didn’t think she’d be able to move another inch.
And then she felt a cool salve against her flesh. A small relief to the fever that was consuming her body. She couldn’t see what was going on, but she suddenly felt like things would be alright. She was flying across the hallway. Flying…in someone’s arms. Stable, strong arms.
Breathable air revived her as suddenly as the smoke had overwhelmed her. She opened her stinging eyes to find herself in Damien’s arms, his cool hands holding her desperately against him in his haste. He was looking above her, straight ahead, in great concentration. The smoke was pouring upward in spirals of tendrils, up toward the chandelier several floors overhead.
“Damien…” Shanna croaked.
The vampire’s eyes snapped down to her. His eyes danced at her speech. “I’m here.”
“Amelia was right,” Shanna mumbled. “You do feel cold.”
Damien didn’t seem to hear her as he whisked her down to the second floor landing. The fire was worse here. It had consumed the very railing of the balcony, had consumed the walls. The extreme heat made Shanna feel nauseous amid the jostling she was being subjected to.
Before she realized it, they had turned toward ground level, taking the steps two at a time.
As Shanna watched the inferno pass her by, she started at the painting of Diana upon the wall, as if she hadn’t expected it to still be there. But it was. The woman who boasted her face stared back at her sadly as fire burned her within the frame. Shanna held the girl’s eyes as the fire split the parchment, melted the paint and peeled the skin from her lovingly-rendered face. She didn’t tear her eyes from the painting until they were across the ballroom floor and at the front entrance, bursting out through the double doors and into the sweet fresh air of the outdoors.
“Shanna!” Jordan coughed as he met them. “Shanna, you’re safe. Thank god.”
“Put…” Shanna cleared her throat. “Damien, you can put me down.”
Damien smiled into her face and obliged.
It was more difficult for her to stand than she would have imagined and was forced to lean on Damien’s frame for support as she tried to disperse her lightheadedness.
“Scarlet?” Jordan pressed. “Scarlet Fever? Is she…?”
“Dead,” Shanna told him.
Jordan nodded and beamed at her, pressing his fingers up to her eyes.
Shanna watched in wonder as he pulled back fingers covered in tears.
“I…” Shanna smiled. Why was she crying? She had won. She’d beaten Scarlet Fever, beaten The Crimson Rope. The hunters were safe! And Kelly…Kelly was avenged. She wiped angrily at her eyes and smiled all the brighter.
“What about the mora?” Jordan asked Damien. “Will they come back?”
Noel appeared from behind him and bravely squeezed his shoulder. “They violated our law. The members of La Faer Noir do not feed upon each other. Such behavior, I assume, has shown Samantha that they can not join our ranks. Like she said herself, they are truly monsters.”
“Are they?” Natalia walked up to them from out of the blissfully cool night air. “Wholly unlike yourself, I suppose?”
“Natalia!” Brett called out. “Thank God. Lupe...she was going to find you and-”
“She has been incapacitated,” Natalia replied, not even looking in his direction.
Brett paused. “Oh. Well, alright then.”
“They aren’t like us,” Damien announced to Natalia. “We are civil.”
Natalia smiled and turned her attention to Shanna, examining the cut on her shoulder.
“It’s nothing,” Shanna waved her away.
“Hey, my man,” Brett said as he walked over to Jordan. “You alright? You look a little tired around the eyes.”
“Yeah, you don’t look so pretty yourself,” Jordan smirked. He looked back at Noel and grinned.
Noel nodded and turned to walk away.
“Did you see me, Dude?” Brett asked as Jordan watched Noel blend into the shadows. “Did you see me kick Tuna Girl?”
Jordan smiled to himself, then shook his head. “No, no, Dude. I missed it. Sorry. I was kind of unconscious at the time.”
Brett held up a lock of blue hair. “That’s okay. I got the souvenir.”
“Yeah, you really did, didn’t you?” Jordan laughed.
“You’re weak,” Shanna whispered to Damien as she watched Natalia walk away with Jordan and Brett.
“I lost blood, if you hadn’t noticed,” Damien replied.
Shanna put a slim hand up to his wound, but thought better of it. She touched his ear, ran her hand through his short hair. “You were brave, you know. You tried to keep me out of this whole thing. You fought for me.”
Damien glanced at her, then looked away. “You are special, Shanna Hunt. You are very special. But I know now that you are not ready for this. You are not ready for me.”
Shanna dropped her hand. “Oh.”
“But I am confident that some day, you will be. You will know your destiny and you will desire to stand by my side in the darkness.”
“The darkness,” Shanna repeated. “No, I don’t think so, Damien. I don’t think I’ll ever want to be a part of the dark side of life. I’ll never be
ready to become what you want me to be.”
“You’ve tasted it. You were consumed by it.”
“No, Damien.”
He opened his mouth, but decided against what he was about to say.
Shanna pushed the hair away from her neck. “I know what I can give you, though. Strength.”
Damien looked over at her, confused for a moment. He closed his eyes. “Shanna, I don’t...”
“Just a little. Call it a parting gift.”
Sending a brief glance over at her friends, Damien turned to her and embraced her, his mouth warm against her neck.
Chapter Thirty-Two
“So, you and Noel, huh?” Shanna asked as she watched a cavalcade of firefighters attempt to put out what remained of The Crimson Rope’s mansion.
“Yeah,” Jordan replied, looking back at the others in the distance, nearly a block from the husk of a building. “I...I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t tell anyone right away. I want to tell them, especially Jade, but I just need to find the right thing to say. And I...I don’t want people to feel weird around me, you know? Can you imagine what Brett would act like if he knew? I want them to get to know me first.”
“Your secret’s safe,” Shanna assured him. “I’m just a little confused. I just hope you…I don’t know, what I’ve heard about you, how you’ve acted, it’s very contradictory. You don’t have to put on a show with this.”
Jordan nodded. “I think I can come to terms with things. Really. I just didn't know this about myself. It'll take some getting used to and…well, it’s hard to just let go of innate prejudices. I want to get past them though.”
Shanna sent him a sidelong glance. “As long as you’re happy with your decisions. Just…talk to me if you need to, okay?”
“Cool,” Jordan let out a breath. “Now, speaking of hot vampires, what’s with Damien? I mean, if you don’t mind me asking.”
Sighing, Shanna shook her head. “I...I don’t really know. I want to…just be friends with him, but it’s so hard when I’m around him. I think I just need some space, I guess. I want it to work out with me and Cameron and I just don’t think I can do that with Damien around, tempting me. And I mean, Damien’s cute and all, but Cameron...Cameron and me really bond on that special level. I want to see how deep that bond goes.”
“So, Damien bad, Cameron good. Got it.”
Shanna laughed softly. “Yeah. If Damien ever comes around again, just remind me where my heart lies.” She looked thoughtful for a moment. “You know, Damien went into my mind when we first met. How would I know if he wasn’t...I don’t know, mesmerizing me somehow? Does that sound stupid? I mean, Amelia taught me some tricks to keep people out of my head, but hypnotizing...it’s different, right?”
Jordan shrugged. “I have no idea. Maybe no one knows. You should talk to Jade though. She might have some answers.”
Nodding, Shanna was surprised to find Becca had appeared in their midst just ahead of Felicia, who held up a hand in greeting.
“Hey, how are you two feeling?” Jordan asked lazily.
“Like I got kicked in the side of the face,” Felicia laughed, gesturing toward a nasty bruise over a cheekbone. “But Valor got it worse. Didn’t stay down as soon, you know? She says she’s fine, but the scholars insisted on bringing her to the hospital to get looked at.”
“And I’m completely fine,” Becca admitted. “I freaked a bit in there, but I’m whole and bruise-free.”
“Good,” Shanna told her. “You’ve been through enough already.”
“Yes, I have,” Becca concurred. She paused and took a deep breath. “Which is why I’m not coming back to Lime Bay with you guys.”
Shanna and Jordan exchanged looks.
“With The Crimson Rope disbanded, hunters are safe again, at least for now, so I’m staying here in New York City.” Becca shrugged sheepishly as she continued. “This is home for me. I just…don’t belong with you guys. Nothing personal.”
“Well, I just hope you’ll be happy here,” Shanna hugged her. “And call us if you need anything.”
“Don’t worry about me,” Becca said, already turning away from them. “I’m sure when Valor finds out, she’ll be hassling me at least three times a day.”
Felicia grinned, shaking her head, and followed the girl, leaving Jordan and Shanna alone once more.
“So, where were we?” Shanna asked, turning back to him.
Jordan considered. “Damien bad, Cameron good.”
“Oh, yeah.” She looked past Jordan then, at Cameron, who was slowly approaching. She recalled Damien’s determined countenance as he whisked her from the burning building. Cameron…wouldn’t have been able to do that. Yeah, he has to breathe…
“So, Damien was actually in your mind?” Jordan prodded. “What was that like?”
“Uh…creepy. I felt violated. He opened something that was locked and…” Her voice trailed off for a moment. “And I’ve been having these visions ever since…”
Jordan stepped back to look her in the face. “Visions?”
“Hey,” Cameron greeted as he encroached on their conversation.
“Hi…” Shanna looked back at Jordan with a sheepish smile. Jordan just grinned and walked away toward the van that would take them back to Lime Bay.
“So,” Shanna started bashfully, “Some night, huh?”
Cameron smiled easily. “You could say that. I heard you took out the big guys. Plural.”
“I…I guess so,” Shanna frowned. “The Crimson Rope’s gone, Scarlet’s ash, the mora… To be honest, I’m a little worried that this could spell the end of The Agency. Well, the hunter group part of it. I mean, we just got together and I really...”
“Sssshh,” Cameron leaned in and hugged her. “There are still monsters out there. We’re still needed. If what we did today proves anything, it’s that we’re needed, that this works.”
“I hope you’re right,” Shanna said. “After all, it was my friends that gave me the strength to beat the bad guys. I couldn’t have done it without them.” She grinned. “Including you.”
“Me?” Cameron teased. “I think that means you owe me one.”
“Again.”
“Oh, yeah. Yeah, again.” He laughed. “So, what do I get?”
“We’ll see.”
“What if I told you that I wanted to date?”
Shanna looked over at him quickly. “Date? Um…I mean, yeah. Yes.”
Laughing, Cameron leaned over and kissed her softly.
Shanna responded after her initial surprise had worn off and drew back after a few tender moments.
Cameron smiled, holding her hands, just watching her.
Shanna tried to block the impending images of Damien that assaulted her at such a time, and found herself looking into Cameron’s deep brown eyes with a sense of serenity. Damien had said she wasn’t ready for him, so she could do nothing, whether she wanted to or not. Cameron…Cameron was sweet, he shared interests with her and he was really cute. Why not get to know him better? Who knew what it could turn into? If she didn’t take the chance, she would always wonder.
Cameron beamed and indicated the vans. “We should probably join the others.”
“The others. Yeah,” Shanna smiled. And she smiled all the way home.
Chapter Thirty-Three
“Thank God that’s all over with,” Jade said even later that evening as they walked from their designated vehicles to the doors of the mansion. “I’ve never been so happy to be home in my life.”
“Home,” Amelia echoed with a smile.
Rachel snorted, then practically ran up the front steps and inside ahead of the others.
“You know, this place kind of felt like a hotel when we first got here,” Jordan confided. “But now, actually having been in a hotel for days on end, it doesn’t seem so bad. I mean, my stuff’s all here. My
room’s waiting for me, decorated like I want it to be and…anyways, that’s what makes a place yours, right? It’s not so bad here, after all.”
Shanna smiled as they walked up the stairwell to their separate rooms in silence, as if just enjoying being in Lime Bay once again.
Upon seeing Cameron walk into his room, Shanna couldn’t suppress a grin as she pushed open her own door. He had killed Redd, he’d revealed. The red grizzly bear. All things associated with that horrible night at Styx were dead and gone. Including Kelly. She turned on the lights and sighed, disrobing quickly, eager to take a shower in her own bathroom again. She smiled. Her own bathroom. Jordan was right. Her things, as few as they were after leaving her old life so abruptly, were here. The things she really cared about. Her best clothes, her Kitty Pryde statue, her stuffed rabbit. She gasped as she caught sight of her cross dagger on her bureau. She snatched it up and caressed it like a pet, softly, delicately. She felt herself tear up a little bit and laughed. God, she was pathetic. She forced herself to put the weapon down, despite her excitement at having found the object. It had been there all along, waiting for her to return to it. At home, all along. Shanna laughed, giddy with excitement. Of course she was home. Of course this was no hotel. This was where she belonged. She knew that now. She liked it here, with friends down the hall, her familiar things all about. She was exactly where she wanted to be.
Shanna stepped into the shower and made it as hot as she could stand. She welcomed the heat as it devoured any lingering sense of cold or fear she harbored. She had survived her first mission, after all. The hard part was over. She could work alongside these people. The last forty-eight hours had proven that. She had a new family, new friends. She could share her life with them.
She scrubbed her skin and scalp until she was sure all traces of soot and smoke were gone. Then, turning off the water reluctantly, she wrapped herself in a thick white towel. She couldn’t see herself in the foggy mirror, so she walked into her bedroom.
Being completely dark outside, she could see the reflection of everything in her room, lit up by the overhead lights, in the dark window.
And the window was open.
Frowning, she walked over to the window suddenly, letting her towel drop to the floor. She gazed outside, feeling the wind caress her naked body, letting in the night noises.
But he’s not out there.
Shanna nodded to herself. No. Of course he wasn’t out there. Why would he be? And why should she want him to be?
Shanna walked over to her bureau and gazed into the mirror. She gingerly put a hand up to the twin puncture wounds on her neck. She closed her eyes and imagined Damien’s mouth upon her bare neck, felt his hunger for her.
“No,” Shanna whispered. “God.” Now I know what you felt, Kelly. I know what you felt as you died in Scarlet’s embrace.
She forced herself to look at her neck. Her tainted neck. God, what had she done? How could she have...and to Cameron? Shanna felt tears well up in her eyes. She tried to calm herself and forced herself to get dressed.
It wasn’t like Cameron and her had been going out at the time, right? They hadn’t even really spoken their specific feelings aloud by then. She scoffed. Then why did she feel so awful?
***
The mansion looked more ominous at night, more like a stranger, than it did during the day, Shanna reflected as she stepped outside once more. The gargoyles at the gates, as predicted, were haunting. The climb up Marvel Hill, to cite its proper name, had been something from a horror movie, with the dark forest surrounding them on their steep ascent. But she knew the moment she walked within the confines of the mansion’s warm walls, that she was home again. Home, where she could curl up on her bed with a good book, where she could stand at the balcony and stare out at the trees rustling in the wind. She could take a late dip in the pool if she wanted to. Home. As soon as she investigated the area’s dark corners and hidden rooms, she would feel better about the place. The gargoyles, the museum-like eloquence, would all just add to its charm. Because it would be where she belonged.
With a happy sigh, Shanna looked over at Amelia, on the steps beside her, gazing out at the moon-bathed earth. “We did a good thing today.”
Amelia laughed. “You sure have a knack for stating the obvious.”
“But, I mean, the night was so strange and surreal. It felt like it was all…I don’t know, meant to be?”
Cocking her head, Amelia nodded. “Yeah, it was strange how things turned out. The mora are still at large, with the exception of the ones you and Rachel killed, a few vamps were put to rest, we’re all intact. But I’m kind of uneasy about things too. La Faer Noir…the remainder of Scarlet’s troop… It seems a little bit like we’re not much better off.” She looked at Shanna. “But we got a lot accomplished. We got information off of their computers and bugged their things like mad. And The Crimson Rope - dead! The methodic extermination of hunters - over! We couldn’t have made better use of our time, really.”
“And now that the big threat to our existence is gone, we can move on to other things” Shanna added. “But it feels like I have more questions now too.”
“You mean, about the portrait?”
Shanna smiled thinly. “So you noticed, huh? Yeah, that among other things.”
Amelia nodded. “Well, we’ll get those questions answered. It just might take a little time. But, hey, you’ve got some help now. It makes things a heck of a lot easier.”
“Yeah,” Shanna agreed. “Yeah, it really does.”
Epilogue
One week earlier…
“Spider-man,” Kelly mumbled between spoonfuls of frozen yogurt, waving a spoon before her like a composer. “Now that’s someone with some issues. I mean, Jesus, keeping things from his girl and aunt, playing superhero by night, then pretending to be some nice, normal kid. It’s screwed up. Who could juggle all that so easily?”
Shanna looked at the television in front of her without really seeing it, letting its blue light flicker over her features mysteriously, propped up on both elbows on the floor. “Don’t you think everyone kind of does that?”
Kelly paused, spoon halfway to her open mouth. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, we all have secrets we keep from each other. We all think things…and no one knows about it.”
“Shanna, I know about the vibrator.”
Hitting Kelly playfully, Shanna laughed. “I’m serious. We all have these deep, twisted thoughts in us. You have to to be human. Even the frickin’ pope. I mean, I’ve imagined strangling someone before, I was so mad - sick crap like that, you know?”
Considering, Kelly dipped her spoon into her carton. “Well, yeah. I guess so.”
“Tell me something.”
“What? Like…okay. I’ve imagined…”
Shanna glanced over at Kelly, sobering at the somber face that suddenly materialized there. She was about to tell her to forget it when she continued.
“Remember Danny? When I was dating him, I was so in love, right? Well, toward the end of that year, I had thoughts. Of cheating on him. Stuff like that. He was this dream guy and yet…I wanted something else too. More than what I got from this perfect guy. And when he dumped me, I didn’t even care. Isn’t that weird? I loved him, yet wanted to cheat and didn’t feel much when we broke up.” Kelly chuckled. “Isn’t it funny how sometimes people can leave your life and leave such an impact upon it. You can think about them every day for years. Then others...you don’t even give a second thought. Even important people. Close friends, lovers...it’s weird. It’s like they just fade away and you don’t even notice. Know what I mean?”
Shanna tapped her bottom lip with her forefinger. “Yeah...”
“They’re there, then they’re not there. No big deal. In and out of your life like an apparition. That’s what Danny was to me. I just didn’t care. A year of my life wasted on someone I loved, but didn’t…inv
est in, I guess. God, don’t let me waste the rest of my life like that, okay? That’s a year I could’ve been screwing Orlando Bloom or something, know what I mean?”
“Deep one minute, vulgar the next.”
“That’s how I like it.” Kelly beamed. She shook her head and looked over at Shanna with a smile. “Well, there’s that and I think everyone wants to screw three guys at once and doesn’t want to own it because it’s so smutty. But, I know what you mean by all this. It’s…no one suspects these secrets. We walk around like everything’s at face value and it’s not. It’s all bottled up in our perverted little minds.” Looking at Shanna thoughtfully, she nodded to her. “How about you? What screwed-up things are you carrying around?”
Shanna met her gaze head-on and opened her mouth, almost letting things tumble out she knew she couldn’t allow. Ever. She would have to carry the burden, keep the people around her safe…like Spider-man. It was lonely, it was terrible, but…it was the price she paid for what she did. As much as she’d like to share, it wasn’t a fun secret. It was wholly dark, actually killing things by night, taking it that one step further to feel the satisfaction as a demon stopped moving in her arms. She was kind of a serial killer in the way she got off on hunting these things, searching for her next victim, her next demon, and the satisfaction its death brought to her, propelling her on to the next. God, she really was messed up, wasn’t she? But she had to do it because it was necessary. She consigned to that fact. She understood it. Kelly never would have to. So she searched for an arbitrary secret to relay and kept the shadows and nightmares to herself.
“You know, there’s this club opening up,” Kelly announced when the discussion was at an end. “You should come with.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. You stay cooped up in here much longer, you’re going to be the apparition.”
Shanna smiled thinly and looked down at her ice cream. “Maybe I will.”
“Good. Now, I need more brownie chunk goodness. Grocery run?”
Nodding, Shanna stood up, a smile on her face. She was glad for moments like these. Real moments. She could have been reading inside all day, but then she wouldn’t have had this smile upon her face. She wouldn’t have had this conversation. It wasn’t a waste of time. Nothing was. Kelly was wrong there. But sometimes people did vanish from lives unnoticed. But not people like Kelly. Never people like Kelly.
Shanna shut off the lights of her apartment as she walked out, not looking back once, but keeping her eyes focused on the lava of hair before her.
There would be secrets she would keep in life, aspects of herself that would remain hidden from others forever, but it was all worth it in the end. Because they made up who she was. She was Shanna Hunt. A regular girl. A loner. An orphan. A fighter. A hunter of things in the dark.
THE END
Here’s a sneak peek at the second book in the Hunters of the Dark series, Night Cries: