“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.”
