Chapter 26: Chapter 26

“Thanks for meeting with me. I know your time is valuable, so I’ll get right to it. I have some disturbing footage from a hunt in Hungary last night. Mila sent it to me a few hours ago. I’ve been trying to figure out what I’m looking at, but I must admit, I haven’t got a clue. Part of me thinks we should just wait a few days until Aaron and Cadence get back, but I decided to go ahead and let you see it. Maybe we can figure it out together,” Hannah said.

“That sounds slightly terrifying,” Elliott mumbled. “Something you’ve never seen?”

“I know. I thought I’d seen just about everything imaginable,” Hannah admitted. She pulled up the video Mila had sent her from the hunt on a large screen behind her on her office wall and swiveled her chair to watch it with them.

The footage wasn’t steady at all, an indicator that the person recording was running, but eventually, Hannah knew, it would level out. “This is from Mila’s perspective. She was on a hunt with her team in Budapest what would’ve been the night before last, their time. They were chasing a Vampire they believe to be working with Daunator, a woman by the name of Honey.”

A tall blonde Vampire came into frame as Mila entered an empty, narrow street. “Well, if it isn’t our old pal Eliza,” Elliott remarked as it became clear the Guardian combating Honey was their ex-teammate.

“Right. I would like to get her footage, too, but I haven’t contacted her yet. Watch what happens... here.” Hannah pointed up at the top of the buildings, and as Mila looked up, a scratching sound could be heard, growing louder and louder, and then some black human forms came over the walls on every building. Even when Mila turned her head to look across the street, they were pouring down the sides of the building there, too, crawling head first toward the streets, several stories in the air.

“What the hell?” Jamie asked, clearly stunned by what he was seeing.

“What are they?” Aurora asked.

“That’s what I want to know.” Hannah sighed, running a hand through her strawberry-blonde hair. “As you can see, everything about them is black, except for their eyes.”

“And they’re dressed so weird,” Elliott added.

“Some of them aren’t. Some of them are wearing regular clothes. Jeans and leggings, modern stuff.” Aurora had a point, but many more of them seemed to be wearing clothes that would’ve been popular in that part of the world when Hannah was a girl, or even before that, a very long time ago.

On the video, Mila gave the order to fall back as soon as she recognized the unfamiliarity of the new threat. They watched as most of her team complied. The footage became very shaky as the Leader ran back to their vehicle, and five of the team members loaded up. “Where’s Eliza?” Jamie asked, concern in his voice despite all of the girl’s transgressions.

“You’ll see,” Hannah replied, holding up a finger to indicate it was coming up.

The vehicle raced back down the street where they’d seen the creatures. Eliza was fighting them, a knife in her hand, and several of them were bleeding a dark, blackish red blood. When they clawed at the Guardian with their talons, they were able to draw blood from her, too. Vampires could do that as well, but most Guardians would stop bleeding fairly quickly because a Guardian couldn’t be killed by a Vampire. Somehow, Eliza’s reaction looked different.

Eventually, Eliza managed to get inside of the vehicle, and they sped away, running over many of the creatures. It was difficult to tell if they got up or stayed down, and then the clip ended. Hannah turned it off and swiveled around to face the others. “Well?”

Her teammates sat there, stunned, for a long moment, and Hannah kept her patience, waiting for them to process. When they finally broke the silence, it was Aurora who spoke first. “I have no idea what those were. But I don’t like them.”

“I don’t either,” Jamie agreed, “although, I will say, they sort of remind me of the demons we encountered inside of the portal. But all of those were shaped like creatures—or a mix of creatures. Not people.”

Elliott was nodding. “I agree. They were all black like that, too, with red eyes. But not a single monster inside of the portal was shaped like a person.”

“It’s good to know we have seen something similar, though,” Hannah said, forcing a smile. “All right. Can you think of anyone else on campus we could talk to who may have seen these before?”

“Schmitz?” Jamie looked at each of them to see if they were in agreement.

“He was so forthcoming with information the last time,” Elliott joked.

“Wouldn’t hurt to ask.” Hannah made a note on a pad of paper on her desk. “Anyone else?”

“Where the hell is Henry?” Elliott seemed to just notice for the first time that Christian wasn’t there. “Doesn’t he usually know everything—or think he does?”

“He’s on vacation.” Aurora’s tone indicated that this was common knowledge and Elliott shouldn’t have had to be told.

He glared at her. “I know that, but if he were here, he’d probably know exactly what they are. Besides, since when does anyone around here take vacations?” Elliott shook his head.

“I haven’t tried to contact Christian because I didn’t want to bother him while he’s out of the office, but it might be a good idea if no one else knows anything.” Hannah set her pencil down and sighed, wishing they had more answers. The temptation to contact Aaron was always there, but now more than ever, she wished her boss was home. He’d be there soon enough. Surely, they could wait another day....

As if she’d conjured him from a dream, her office door opened, and Aaron walked in, Cadence beside him. “Hey, guys.”

Everyone flew out of their chairs at once, hugging the happy couple and welcoming them back. “You look so tan!” Aurora said, squeezing Cadence tightly.

“Spend two weeks on a beach and that’ll happen,” Cadence replied with a laugh.

“What are you doing back early?” Jamie wanted to know, stepping aside so Elliott could hug Aaron. “We weren’t expecting you just yet.”

“Do you want us to leave?” Cadence giggled.

“No, just a surprise,” the doctor reassured her.

“We just... needed to get back.” Aaron’s tone told Hannah something was on his mind, and she wondered if maybe Mila had managed to get ahold of one of them.

“Well, it’s great to see you. We were just discussing a few situations that have been going on in other areas....” Hannah stopped talking as she noticed Cadence’s expression for the first time. The Hunter Leader was staring at the video screen behind Hannah’s head, her face pale, her eyes wide, and her mouth a thin line. “Cadence? What’s the matter?”

“What... is... that?” She pointed at the screen, at a frozen image of Eliza fleeing the black monsters.

Aaron’s hands were on his wife’s shoulders. “That’s alarming.”

“Yeah, well, that’s what we were just discussing. This is the night before last in Hungary. Their time.”

Cadence was shaking her head violently. “That’s not possible.”

“What do you mean?” Aurora asked as Jamie questioned if she was okay.

“Why don’t you sit down, Cadence?” Aaron pulled the closest chair out for her, which happened to be the one Jamie had been sitting in, and lowered her to the seat.

“Kid, what’s goin’ on. You don’t look so good.” Elliott leaned down and put his arm around her.

“I, uh, want to see the video. And then I’ll explain.”

All eyes shifted to Hannah, and she nodded, moving out of the way so the others could see the screen. She started the video over from the beginning, and they all watched in silence, though Hannah had a feeling the teammates behind her were probably watching Cadence’s reaction just as much as they were watching the footage again.

When it was over, Hannah turned back to study Cadence. Someone produced a water bottle and handed it to her. She opened it with shaky hands and took a sip. Once she’d set it down, Hannah’s clinician voice took over. “Have you seen them before, Cadence?”

“Yeah.... in a dream.”

Hannah’s eyes shot to Aaron, who was standing behind Cadence, one hand on her shoulder, the other on his hip like he was almost as shocked as his new bride. “That’s the reason we came back early. We felt like maybe the dream was an indicator that something was amiss. But we had no idea it was real.”

“Is this exactly what you saw?” Hannah asked, pointing at the screen.

“Yeah, pretty much. I didn’t recognize Mila, but that’s her shooting the video, right?” Hannah nodded. “It’s like I was Eliza, though. Everything was from her vantage point.”

“How bizarre,” Aurora said, folding her arms.

“Does anyone else know about this, Hannah?” Jamie asked from just behind Aaron.

“Not that I’m aware of, except the Hungary team. I told them to keep a lid on it for now.”

“Why did you ask that?” Cadence turned to face the doctor. Hannah wanted to know as well.

“I’m just wondering if maybe it wasn’t a dream. Maybe it was a message.”

“But from who?” Hannah asked.

“I don’t know. That’s why I asked. I don’t think it would be from Daunator, though.”

“All right—dream aside, we need to know what those things are. We literally just walked in the door about ten minutes ago. Dropped off our carry-ons and went to tell Cadence’s parents we were back. Liz mentioned this meeting, so we came over. So... let her go say hi to her sister, and then we’ll get together in the office upstairs and see what we can figure out.”

Everyone nodded at Aaron as soon as he was done speaking, and Hannah felt a wave of relief wash over her that she was no longer in charge.

“Where’s Christian?” Cadence asked, glancing around. “Did you guys kick him off the committee?”

“No,” Hannah said, smirking. “He’s on vacation.”

“Vacation?” Aaron said, pausing on his way to the door. “Christian Henry is on vacation?”

“That’s what I said,” Elliott muttered.

“Yes. He said that you guys being at the beach made him think it was time he took some of the vacation days he had saved up. I’ll agree that I thought it was odd, but I didn’t argue,” Hannah explained.

Aaron had an odd look on his face, as if he was doing a difficult math problem and some of the numbers didn’t add up, but he didn’t say more about it. “We’ll see you guys in a half hour or so, okay?”

The team agreed, and Aaron and Cadence left the office hand in hand. As soon as they were gone, Hannah noticed Elliott smiling at her. “What?”

“Happy, ain’tcha? You ain’t in charge no more, and you’re glad for it.”

“You sound like Heather,” Aurora muttered, picking up the pad and pen she’d brought and walking out the door.

“Yeah, I’m happy,” Hannah admitted. “I never want to be Guardian Leader for as long as I live.”

“What? You mean if Aaron decides he’s retiring as soon as Daunator is out of the picture, you’re not taking over?” Jamie asked, a sarcastic grin on his face.

“Nope, Doc. That means you’d be up,” Hannah said resolutely.

“I’m not sure I’d want it either...” the Healer admitted.

“Well, then you guys better go ahead and decide who number four is before I have to have a show down with Christian. Seriously, can you imagine him trying to run this show? We’d all be dead by mornin’, and I can’t even die.”

“You think you’d want to do it, Elliott?” Hannah asked, shocked

“Hell, yeah. But I wouldn’t do things the way Aaron does. I’d be the biggest delegatin’ son of a bitch you ever did see. I’d sit in that big office up there, eat some snacks, and send y’all out into the world to conquer.”

“Oh, well then, by all means, I’ll vote for you.” Jamie rolled his eyes, headed for the door.

Elliott picked up the water bottle Cadence had left behind and took a long drink, following behind the doctor. “Damn right you will. You want Christian telling you what to do?”

“I don’t want you telling me what to do either....”

“Unless Aaron would agree to bring someone better in from the outside, I’m the best option we got, man.”

“I vote for outside....”

Their voices faded away down the hall, and Hannah sat down on the edge of her desk, glad to be number two again.