The Travelers: Book Two Read online

  “Better safe than sorry, in my mind,” answered Aaron.

  “We won’t need all of this,” said Carson.

  “Besides, they wouldn’t work,” Ty added.

  “Why not?” Aaron asked defensively. It wasn’t clear to who he addressed the question.

  “Alina knows of a special weapon we can use. I’m working on making some, but they take a while.”

  “So, because of something she said, you’re going out there unarmed?” Aaron asked, his temper flaring again.

  Out of the corner of his eye, Aaron saw Desmond tense again. His swollen eye and bruised face reminded him that he didn’t want to suggest Alina was anything other than perfectly pure.

  “We’re not unarmed,” said Carson, “I’m your weapon.”

  Aaron laughed and clapped a hand on Carson’s shoulder.

  “I love you buddy, but having this will make me feel a lot better,” he said tucking a handgun into the holster at his waist. His t-shirt hid it from view and Gemma couldn’t help but wonder how many people on the streets hid their firearms in the same way. It was an unsettling though.

  “We’re just going to take a stroll around the neighborhood, keep an eye out for any weird stuff. If I happen to run across a shadow, I’ll dispatch of it,” said Carson.

  Aaron nodded, but didn’t remove his gun. Nearly a decade in the military taught him better than that.

  He noticed that Izzy wasn’t anywhere to be seen. He wondered if that was because of him.

  Who was he kidding? Of course it was because of him. He had treated her horribly.

  Still, he’d tried to explain everything to her. Was it his fault if she didn’t want to listen to him?

  Gemma took Carson into her bedroom and kissed him as he laid down in her bed.

  In a few moments, Gemma and the wolf emerged.

  “I’m never going to get over that,” Trick said.

  “It is quite fascinating,” Ty added.

  Gemma’s hands shook as she gave the big dog a pat on the head.

  “You guys be safe. Call me if anything happens!”

  <<<>>>>

  Hours passed and the men hadn’t seen anything more than a few random animals and a passing car or two.

  Dez was getting restless.

  “Nothing’s happing out here. Let’s just go back to the clubhouse,” he said.

  Aaron shook his head, adopting the role of leader in Carson’s current state. He was used to spending hours perched in one spot; at least with this he got to move around.

  “It’s still early,” he said.

  Trick yawned, “Yeah, maybe for someone that slept all day.”

  Aaron answered the jab with a pointed glare but kept his mouth shut.

  “Be quiet,” he whispered.

  “What are you—”

  “Shh!” he snapped at Trick.

  “Why do I need to be quiet?” Trick whispered, drawing another heated glare from Aaron.

  “Just shut the fuck up for a minute.”

  He peered around the next cross street and waved the rest of them forward.

  “Howdy!” Albert, the Neighborhood Watch leader, shouted at them, hands waving wildly in the air.

  Trick snickered, “Was that what had you spooked? A little old man in a track suit?”

  Aaron ground his teeth together.

  Carson whined and backed away from the rest of them, slinking in between houses to hide from Albert’s view.

  The leathery old man approached the group with a too-wide smile splitting his wrinkled face.

  “What are you fellas doing out so late?”

  Aaron’s posture stiffened and he was suddenly a soldier again.

  “Just keeping an eye out, sir. Things have been a little crazy lately,” he said.

  Albert frowned; “Have they? I noticed something the other night, but you can never trust these old eyes.”

  “What did you see?” Ty asked.

  Aaron didn’t appreciate Ty taking the reins from him, but he had to remind himself that there was no clear hierarchy in their little group. While Carson wasn’t around, Aaron liked to consider himself the de facto leader, but lately that hadn’t been the case.

  “Oh, you would call me a kook if I told you what I thought I saw!” Albert said with a breathy chuckle.

  “Try us!” said Trick.

  “Well, you know, there have been so many missing pets lately… I could have sworn I saw a giant lion! Could you imagine? A lion in Hannaford Glen? It’s preposterous, like I said. But it would explain those missing pets, wouldn’t it…”

  Aaron’s eyebrow shot up of its own accord. The old man was right: normally he would call him a kook, but he remembered the massive creature that dueled his best friend.

  “A lion? That is interesting. Have you seen anything else?” he asked.

  The old man shook his head.

  “Mrs. Kruft swears she was attacked by something, but there’s not a scratch on her.”

  Trick shifted on his feet uncomfortably; wasn’t that the woman Carson attacked?

  There was a whine in the bushes to Aaron’s left; he looked down and saw Carson’s faint silver-white shimmer through the leaves. What was he whining for?

  Aaron looked over his shoulder and saw it: a slow tide of dark mist rolling in toward them.

  Trick noticed something too, “Weird… does anyone else smell—”

  “Vinegar,” Aaron answered, his hand reaching for the gun at his hip.

  “It’s an old neighborhood, there are always weird smells,” Albert said.

  The thick fog continued to roll in towards them. As it grew closer it was bottlenecked in between houses and as the particles were pushed together, they coalesced into something bigger.

  Soon, from the fog, three shadowy wolves formed. Their pitch black lips pulled back to reveal gleaming teeth. Their guttural growls were enough to make the hair on Aaron’s arms stand on end.

  “Oh my,” Albert said, backing away from the creatures to take cover behind Aaron.

  Aaron’s eyes darted to his friend in the bushes; he was going to have to blow his cover if he was going to help them.

  Carson leapt out of the bush onto the back of the largest wolf. He sank his teeth into the wolf’s neck and clamped down with his powerful jaws. Where he expected to taste blood there was nothing. He ripped the animal’s throat out and it dissipated into a mist once again.

  The other two wolves turned their attention to Carson once he’d dispatched their leader.

  One wolf tackled him and the other tried to get at his throat.

  Carson wasn’t having it though. He swiped his powerful claws at the wolf on top of him.

  The second grabbed him by the leg and tore a chunk from his flesh. Carson yelped in pain, but turned it around and lunged at the smallest wolf.

  Aaron pulled his gun free, but felt Ty’s hand on his arm.

  Ty glanced to Albert and shook his head; there was no use in blowing their cover even more when the gun wouldn’t even work.

  Another sharp cry of pain and the fight was down to two wolves: one dark and one light.

  Carson dragged his back leg behind him, limping as the wolf circled him.

  Aaron wanted to jump in; he wanted to help. He considered himself a man of action and he couldn’t stand not being able to do anything. Even as Carson fought for his life, Aaron felt… jealous?

  But that didn’t make any sense! He wanted out of the combat zone, he wanted to come back to life as a civilian. How could he possibly be jealous of this fight?

  A part of Aaron that he never noticed before fidgeted and squirmed. Something deep down within him was begging to be released. He didn’t know how though. He didn’t know what that meant. He didn’t know what any of this meant.

  Carson snarled and snapped at his opponent. The black wolf took his time; he was cold and calculating, waiting for Carson to make a mistake.

  Carson launched himself; the other wolf rolled out of the way and pounced o
n Carson, his claws aimed for Carson’s soft belly.

  Aaron couldn’t watch. There was nothing he could do but watch his best friend be disemboweled. He’d watched so many of his friends die. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this here. He was back home now. It was supposed to be over.

  He tried to, but he just couldn’t watch; his eyes squeezed shut. His first thought wasn’t about his friend about to die or what they would do once the shadows turned on them. His first thought was Izzy. Where was she? Was she okay? What if these things found her next? What if they already had?

  One of the wolves shrieked and Aaron was almost afraid to open his eyes.

  Just as he did, he saw a flash of white turning the corner and breathed a sigh of relief.

  “That was way too fucking close,” Aaron said, his voice trembling. His hands were trembling, too. In fact, his whole body seemed to be shaking; his adrenaline was cranked up to 11 and he didn’t know how to turn it down.

  “Well, that’s one thing we can agree on,” said Ty.

  “W-what… what w-was that?” Albert asked.

  All eyes turned on the hunched old man who’d been forgotten in the fray.

  “Uh…” stammered Trick; he looked toward Ty for an explanation.

  “Well, you see… swamp gas mixes with —”

  Dez interrupted.

  “Stray dogs fighting. There’s been packs of them roaming around. That’s where the missing pets have gone. They’re vicious.”

  Everyone looked at Dez as if he’d just sprouted another head. No one counted on him to be one with words and they certainly never expected him to come up with a passable story on the fly.

  Aaron smirked, pretty impressed.

  “I… but those didn’t look like regular dogs. Didn’t they just disappear?”

  Aaron’s smirk slipped into a frown.

  “You must be confused, they all ran off,” he said.

  “We’re lucky they didn’t turn toward us,” Ty added, real fear adding a hint of authenticity.

  “This neighborhood has gotten too dangerous for you to be doing this, Albert,” Aaron said, “Why don’t you let us take it over for you until this is all cleaned up?”

  Albert still looked ashen in the flickering street lamps.

  “I’ve been doing it for so long,” he muttered.

  “And it’s been appreciated. We just don’t want to see anything happen to you,” Aaron said convincingly.

  They escorted the old man home, each trying to shake off their shock in their own way.

  Aaron knew for sure now that Carson couldn’t do this on his own; he needed help. That was such a close call and they still didn’t know the extent of Carson’s injuries or if he’d even made it home.

  His phone rang.

  “Hello?”

  “Hey, it’s Gemma. Carson’s back, but he’s beat to hell. Are you guys okay?”

  “We’re fine. We’ll be back in five.”

  Gemma hung up the call and went back to tending her boyfriend.

  “I told you this was dangerous,” she said, washing his wounds. He refused to let her use her powers knowing how taxing it was.

  “But someone has to do it, Gem. They could have killed Albert tonight. That could have been any of us.” He sucked in a breath as the warm washcloth brushed over his raw nerve endings.

  “You have to let me heal this or you’re going to need stitches,” she said, motioning to the large gash from his waist to his knee.

  “I don’t want you to hurt yourself in the process,” he said, his eyes shining with so much love and devotion it made her heart ache.

  “I won’t overdo it. Besides, I could always just wait until you’re asleep.”

  “You better not!”

  “I just want you in peak physical condition,” she said, resting her hands over his wound.

  “Oh, and why’s that? You don’t want me fighting monsters,” he said.

  “Well, there are things you do — that I enjoy — that you would need full use of your legs for,” she remarked, a fresh tinge of color heating her face.

  “You’d be surprised at what I could do while incapacitated.”

  She laughed and poured herself into him. All of the love she had for him flowed through her fingertips into his mauled flesh, knitting it together and repairing the damage the creatures had done.

  “Whoa, enough enough,” he said, pushing her away.

  Gemma didn’t even realize how much she’d given him until she opened her eyes and the room spun before her.

  “You really need to get that under control, sweetheart,” Carson said giving her a kiss, “But thank you.”

  She smiled, the color already returning to her face, “It’s hard to put limits on my love for you.”

  “And the award for cheesiest line ever!” Trick announced as the rest of the group barreled into her tiny cottage.

  “Don’t be jealous,” Carson teased.

  “Me? Only of your super powers and those didn’t seem so super tonight…”

  Carson pulled himself out of bed despite Gemma’s silent protest, to address everyone.

  “Those were unlike anything I’ve seen before. Typically the shadows are anchored to a human… there was no humanity in that. I think it may be getting stronger still.”

  “You mean it’s just floating around out there, attacking people?” Gemma asked, her eyes wide with fear.

  “I don’t know. It kind of seems like it,” Carson said.

  “How can we fight that?” Gemma asked.

  “If tonight’s any indication… we can’t,” Ty answered solemnly.

  Chapter Five

  “Yeah yeah yeah,” Izzy groaned at the person knocking on her front door. It was the middle of the day and she still hadn’t gotten out of bed.

  It wasn’t intentional. Her nights had been plagued by nightmares and so she tried her best to avoid sleeping at all.

  Being awake wasn’t much better though.

  Throughout the day, unbidden, images would crop into her mind. Gruesome images. Horrible things.

  But not always. Sometimes they weren’t horrible. Those typically went unnoticed. She wrote them off a daydreams.

  Was there such a thing as daymares?

  The door rattled on its hinges again.

  “I’m coming!” she shouted.

  Reluctantly, she slipped into a pair of shorts and a tank top and tried to formulate the insults she was going to hurl at whoever dared knock on her door.

  Her hand closed around the knob and she jerked the door back with more force than necessary, sending it flying out of her hand.

  “Gemma?”

  “Hi!” Gemma answered, holding a frozen cappuccino for each of them.

  “Hey, look, I know what you’re trying to do, but don’t bother.”

  Despite her protests, Izzy still reached for one of the frosty beverages Gemma offered.

  “How do you know why I’m here?” Gemma asked.

  “You’re here because you can’t stand Carson and I fighting. My relationship with Aaron is hurting everyone. Blah blah blah. I don’t care, to be honest.”

  Izzy sipped her drink too fast and cringed when the brain-freeze hit her.

  “I’m not here for any of that. I just wanted to make sure you’re okay,” said Gemma.

  “Uh, yeah. I’m living in paradise, can’t you tell?” Izzy asked, gesturing around to her unkempt home with a snarky grin.

  “Well… it’s just…” Gemma faltered.

  “What?”

  “Alina and I are worried about you,” she said.

  “Well, don’t be. Like I said, I’m fine.”

  Gemma nibbled on the end of her straw, trying to come up with the perfect response.

  “That guy? Preston Waters? He’s getting stronger,” she said.

  “So? Are you afraid he’s going to come after me again?”

  As soon as the words left Izzy’s mouth she wondered why she wasn’t worried about that. She went back to liv
ing in her house like nothing had happened. She’d gotten so wrapped up in proving Aaron wrong that she forgot to worry about herself.

  “Well, that too, but…”

  “What aren’t you telling me?”

  “The shadows are getting stronger. Carson… he almost… well, he said that they’re getting worse.”

  Izzy’s expression softened, but she still didn’t concede.

  “I don’t plan on fighting them…”

  “You don’t have to plan on it for them to come after you,” Gemma sighed, “There are monsters out there, Izzy. You’ve seen some of them. You know what they’re capable of and they’re getting stronger. Please. We’ve already lost you once. Just come back tonight. The boys are going to go on patrol again.”

  “Again?”

  “Yeah, long story.”

  “Okay, I’ll let it go. A stupid kiss isn’t worth dying over,” Izzy said.

  Gemma smiled, “Right.”

  <<<>>>

  It all happened too fast to know what was happening.

  It was a routine patrol. They’d been stationed there for months already.

  A truck came into town.

  Aaron stopped them and spoke to the driver; everything checked out. He was clear.

  His back was already turned when the driver was hit.

  The truck took a sharp turn, barreling over pedestrians until it crunched into the school building.

  In the following chaos, crying children streamed out of the crumbling building.

  Aaron gave the orders to help evacuate.

  He made the call.

  It was the wrong one.

  <<<>>>

  “So, this is the area I thought we’d patrol tonight,” Ty said, pulling up a map on the big screen for everyone to see.

  “There have been incidents at all the dots in the past 72 hours,” he said as dozens of tiny red dots covered the map.

  “So, we can take Mitchell down to 23rd, to Freemont and —”

  “No, not there,” Izzy said.

  She felt their eyes boring into her. She felt the heat from their gazes; she knew they were judging her.

  “Do you have another suggestion?” Ty asked, perhaps a little defensively.

  Izzy took a deep breath and looked at the map.

  The screen undulated and warped making it difficult to focus. Another deep breath and she let her eyes relax.