H.U.M.A.N.S (The Veiled World Book 1) (5 page)

Chapter 7

Once
the bar closed after about two in the morning, the quick last minute meeting to compare notes and findings only lasted about half an hour. The off duty access slowly turned into an intense poker game, complete with drinks, food, obnoxious behavior, and music.

The guys were huddled around a table in a cloud ring of glitter dust smoke near the bay window, and raucous laughter erupted every now and then.

Isis, Clee, Riza, Noemi, and I formed our own drinking group around the bar counter. Clee is Cole’s girlfriend and she’s an Earth magic user or an Animator, which means that she can take anything of the Earth and transform it into something else or a temporary new living thing. She can even devise weapons, medicines, and physical entities called Golems.  

We still found nothing, assuming that the portal must have been closed and the creator had truly been that mysterious Nocturna. There wasn’t much else that we could do without tangible evidence or leads though. Unfortunately, all we could do now was sit back and wait for another Nocturna to strike again. Hopefully, it wouldn’t end in another injury or death for us or any humans for that matter.

Erian injected me with some new concoction that stung initially but it was supposed to stop the spread of the apparent tainting. Though the scratches were finally healing, the fang punctures still looked infected and hurt slightly when I moved at times.

“Hey, I’ve been working on perfecting my gravitational manipulation. Anyone want to volunteer for me?” Isis beamed after knocking back the last of her bomber shot.

“Hell no, not while you’ve been drinking.” Riza chuckled and adamantly declined.

“Clee?” Isis turned to her next.

“I’m with Riza.” Clee shook her head emphatically.

“Don’t even think about it.” Noemi beat her to the punch just as she turned to face her.

“Thanks guys.” I replied flatly just as Isis turned to me with a pathetic look of rejection that was supposed to make me volunteer out of pity.

“Come on, Kai.” Isis whined, hopping off of the barstool and preparing herself.

“Practice and consuming liquor does not make me any more confident about this.” I told her.

She sighed wearily. “It actually helps me to relax and focus. Please?”

“She’s not gonna shut up.” Riza laughed.

“I can fix that easily.” I stated.

Riza, Noemi, and Clee laughed.

“I’ll gather some dirt and leaves and create a mattress.” Clee offered jokingly.

I groaned in annoyance.

“Take another shot. At best you won’t feel anything until morning, you’re already injured.” Riza quipped with a shrug.

“Funny. You know, this will really come in handy if I can perfect it.” Isis tried to convince me.

“Handy for who?” I wanted to know.

“What’s the difference between this and your levitation ability?” Clee asked.

Isis’ eyes sparkled when she smiled big.

I grunted spontaneously out of sheer natural reaction. In less than a nanosecond, I was slammed to the ground by an invisible, yet extreme weight that was nearly crushing the breath out of me. The pressure was threatening to flatten me clean through the cement floor and I couldn’t even move a single limb.

It was as if all of my insides were trying to pool to my center and spill out through my belly button. Nausea and the sour smell of not quite digested alcohol began to well up into my throat.

“Creating and generating an extra force of gravity around you…” Isis wiggled her fingers.

“Damnit, Isis!” I managed to gasp and mumble.

“And taking all of it away entirely…” She sing-songed, smug with confidence now.

Suddenly, the weight was gone and I was lifted up into the air, feeling as if I weighed nothing.

“Stop! Let me down! I swear I’m gonna puke!” I warned her.

Isis was grinning and clapping her hands giddily, proud of herself. Clee, Noemi, and Riza were smiling and impressed. Even the guys and Twinkie stopped to watch.

“Wow, not bad.” Clee complimented.

“Sweet.” Phillip nodded approval.

“Isis, so help me, if I don’t land gently on my feet I will beat your ass!” I threatened, feeling chunks begin to force their way up.

“We may have our first lead!” Duncan’s announced through all of the music, conversation and Isis’ concentration. He shuffled quickly up the stone stairwell, crossing the main floor of the bar, and joining us at the counter.

I plummeted down with arms flailing to try and break my own fall but I landed hard with a thud anyway, grunting and cursing angrily. The vision behind my eyelids burst into a spray of stars upon the impact of my forehead and the floor.

“Oh crap! Sorry, Kai!” Isis gasped as she bent down to help me up.

I bit my lip and fisted my hands, trying to keep myself from jumping up and choking her.

“What happened?” Cole asked as the guys abandoned their card game and moved to gather around the television mounted above the liquor display.

No one seemed to care that I just bit it though Isis was to blam
e
— and I wouldn’t let her forget this one.

“Breaking news.” Duncan said with remote in hand once he found the local Puerto Vallarta news channel.

The attractive female reporter was already speaking in fluent Spanish with the darkly lit, painted background of the city and police lights behind her. Coincidentally, they were filming near the docks of the super busy Los Muertos port.

Interesting.

The camera panned to a middle-aged male witness standing next to her. He was an older, nervous-looking man in a knit cap, sweatshirt, and rain boots. There were bags under his haunted dark brown eyes but he was dead serious when he began to speak animatedly:
“Monstruo con ojos rojos. Vi a dos de ellos. Tiene que ser sangre del diablo o Chupacabras. Apenas me escapé de mi muerte!”

The reported replied,
“¿Qué aspecto como?”

“Como un hombre y una mujer, como tú y yo. Pero los ojos eran como diablo.”

“Eyes like the devil.” Cole repeated for confirmation.

“A male and a female. They looked human.” Duncan translated.

“Well, guess that confirms it. They’ve abandoned us and found the mainland, realizing where the majority of the food supply is.” Jax commented.

“We’re gonna have to find and take care of them and whatever gateway they’re using without giving ourselves away.” I said.

“Yep and this port may be exactly where we need to start looking.”

“I see it.” Clee whispered, focusing more on the background than the reporter and her words.

“You do? Where?” Cole asked as everyone gathered around to scrutinize all of the images on the LED screen.

Clee pointed up at the television. “See that group of boats and that large blue and white yacht to the right of her?”

“Ah, Bingo! She’s right.” Noemi replied.

We had to wait for the camera to pan around again but we followed her direction and then we noticed it too.

The image of all of those boats shimmered as if behind a heat source.

“I’ll be damned. Video cameras did the work for us. It’s fucking huge and right in the middle of the dock.” Jax whispered.

“Oh man.” Pierce whispered.

“Shhh.” Duncan urged after turning up the volume.

It turns out that there was a human body found after all.

Chapter 8

B
y
the next evening there was barely a slight improvement on the bite marks though the scratches were completely gone. I was beginning to feel somewhat abnormal, internally. I felt feverish inside, kind of like my already fast metabolism was becoming unstable and speeding up even more. I found myself sporadically sweating and trembling out of the blue for no reason all day today. It was also as if all my natural senses and talents for scenting have been…heightened. The smell of grilled hamburgers and hot wings was extremely strong and I could distinctly smell all of the spices from the kitchen down below.

What the hell was happening to me? Even the possibility of seeing Marq tonight and picking up where we left off last didn’t strike me as appealin
g
—and that was really bizarre. I hope he’d understand that this was more than a clichéd ‘headache’.

Twinkie, already full on sardines, was having a field day chasing and diving at the small prisms of dappling light that dotted the cement floor. Sunlight was filtering in through the canopy of tropical leaves that draped over the six wide skylight windows inset on the ceiling of the bar.

We try to be eco-friendly here.

  Shyenna, Marq’s younger sister, came in with her best friend, Coye. I was surprised to see her without Marq trailing her or her being in his wake. She wore a skin tight dress that clung to her body very well… and not just because it was still slightly damp either. All eyes followed her whenever she made an entrance, even fully clothed.

Though their faces and gem-like jade green eyes were similar, her long, bleached, nearly white hair was the opposite of Marq’s jet black hair, which I found weird.                                                                                                                                                                                        

Then again, I don’t understand the world of the Undines at all either.

“Hey, Kai! Long time no see.” She smiled excitedly as they seated themselves at the counter. Coye was a bit plain looking next to Shyenna. She had a cute face but her dark red hair and marble-like, yellow eyes made her appear kind of creepy to me.

“I should say the same. Where have you been hiding out?” I greeted them.

“Well, I was told by mom and dad that I needed to spend more time at home but there’s a festival going on in town that I don’t want to miss, so I had to get away. You should wear your hair down more, it’s so gorgeous!” She complimented me, reaching over to bounce one of my dark, loose curls in her cupped palm.

I usually didn’t wear my hair down for the simple fact that I was lazy when it came to conditioning, glossing, and taming. It tends to get in the way anyway.

“Blind luck. I didn’t even feel like bothering with a clip or braid tonight. What’ll you guys have?”

“I’ll take a Pomegranate Cosmo.” Coye ordered.

“We’re celebrating but I shouldn’t drink in my condition, so I’ll just take an Aloe Vera and pineapple juice spritzer.” Shyenna smiled proudly while patting her abdomen.

My jaw dropped. “No way. You’re expecting?” I smiled.

“I just found out today.” She grinned big.

“Congratulations!”

“Thanks. You know, Marq is going to be a father too. Did he tell you?”

I couldn’t stop the corners of my mouth from turning down a bit. What?

“No, I didn’t know. He didn’t mention it.”

“Oh,” Shyenna waved her hand at the sudden realization of what the news must have meant to me, “It’s not like you think, Kai. He and she aren’t in a relationship, just keeping the bloodline going, that’s all.” She assured after reading my expression.

I shrugged to play it off. That was another thing that I would never understand about the Undines. How could you mate and produce offspring with someone you didn’t have deep feelings for? Or did he? I wondered. A wave of jealousy spiked in me momentarily. “It’s cool, I understand.”

“So when are you and your crew going to come and party with us on our turf?” She changed the subject.

“I don’t know. Soon, maybe. Is he coming tonight?”

He said he would when we last parted.

“I don’t think so. Dad needed him to take care of a few things since confirmation she was pregnant.”

I nodded, disappointed and wondering who the ‘she’ was.

I knew I was being silly. It wasn’t like I could ever be impregnated by Marq, it didn’t work that way, kind of like how humans can’t reproduce with animals.

The only other beings that we were compatible with other than other hunters were Earth elementals, hence Cole and Clee.

Yes, the coincidence of their adorable, comic strip names were more than a sign that they were meant to be together. At least, that was my thinking. I couldn’t wait to be an Aunt.

Besides, I don’t know if I ever wanted kids for myself anyway.

The eligible hunter bachelor pool wasn’t that big to begin with and I wasn’t going to mate and get pregnant just to keep the race going. I needed more of a permanent commitment and the feelings that go with it.

“Hey.” I heard Cole call from the kitchen.

I turned to see him beckoning me over with his index finger.

Riza came out to take over for me briefly, though she was already half dressed in her fighting attire so that she could join the stake out team.

There was a new mission tonight, to find out what was going on at the huge Los Muertos gateway that we finally located and to try and get it closed promptly.

“What is it?” I asked him once we were behind the swinging door.

There were three fire elementals and an air user that made up our kitchen staff, and they were busy preparing dishes and cleaning in the background. The aroma of everything was vivid enough out in the main floor, and now the smell of grease, sauces, and spices were nearly overkill to me. I opted to simply breathe in and out of my mouth but it didn’t help much.

“We’re about ready to head out to the port. How are you coming along?” He asked.

“Better but I think I’m gonna stay behind on this one. I’m not feeling so good.” I decided on the truth this time.

Cole’s brows furrowed. “What’s wrong?” He studied my face.

“I’m just not feeling like myself. I’ll wait up for you guys and keep an eye out on things here.”

He sighed. “Let me see the bite.”

“Not now, we prepare food back here. It’s healing, don’t worry.” I assured him.

He paused and eyed me. “You’re worrying me.”

I laughed it off. “There’s nothing to worry about, Cole.”

“Alright. You call any of us if it’s anything significant or you’re in trouble. I already have four guys staying to keep watch outside and around the bar anyway.”

“Same goes for you too. Be careful out there.”

“No need to worry about me, sis.” Cole said, leaning down to brush a quick kiss on my forehead.

What the hell? Cole never did anything remotely affectionate like kissing me on the forehead. It was as if I were his little sister…granted the fact that I was older by ten minutes.

“What’s up with that?” I smiled crookedly, swatting a swath of my long, in desperate need of a trim, bangs from my face.

“Don’t make it weird or too mushy. See you in the morning…and get some rest.” He said with a wry purse of his lips, and then he turned to exit the kitchen.

I decided to close the bar an hour early even against the protests of some of the patrons. I had a whole night ahead of me, straightening, taking inventory (since a trip to the mainland for supplies was right around the corner), and restocking. Twinkie did a thorough check underneath all of the tables before retiring on the lip of the bay window to clean himself. I kept the television on mute just in case there was any more breaking news about the strange devil beings and more dead bodies. I plugged an auxiliary cord into the one of the mounted wall speakers and attached the other end to my phone, tuning the radio to a preset 90’s R&B station.

The rich, melodic baseline and groove of TLC’s ‘Creep’ began to play, making me want to dance and sing more than clean.

This was one of those sporadic moments where I felt like literally doing an intense cross-fit workout, rearranging the furniture in my entire apartment, or swimming a few hundred or so laps.

Pierce, Ladd, Diego, and Stone were on the other end of the walkie-talkie that sat on the counter. They were the four that stayed behind to scout around outside for a while before retiring to the mainland back home.

“Hey guys, I’m locking up so if you need anything, knock four times or call me first.” I relayed first.

“Copy that, we’re good.” Pierce replied.

“Alright, be safe guys.”

Stone chuckled. “Night, Kai.”

“Night.”

I started by sweeping and mopping the floor, then wiping down the tables after rearranging some of them and setting all of the chairs on top. Twinkie watched me with one eye open while I worked, curled up in an orange furry ball on the bottom step leading up to my apartment.

I found myself singing out loud from time to time while I finished stocking the liquor and condiment supply shelves.

A sudden low, buzzing noise immediately separated itself from the music and it was distinct. Then, a strange scent unexpectedly lingered teasingly up to my nose. I really didn’t make the connection until I realized that the buzzing sound was actually Twinkie.

When I glanced over at him on the steps, he was standing upright on his two back legs, hissing a forewarning.

Though it was adorable and hilarious when he did that, it alarmed me this time.

My eyes quickly darted around the expanse of the bar, penetrating into each and every dark corner both in regular and infrared view.

Not wanting to take any chances, I ducked down momentarily to unlock the safe beneath the counter and retrieved my spare short arm rifle.

“What is it, Twinkie? What are you seeing?” I called over to him.

There couldn’t possibly be anyone in the bar. I locked it and there was only one way in and out that anyone, other than the staff, knew about.

Marq?

I reached for my phone, killing the music, and then went for the walkie-talkie.

It was dead.

That was impossible! I had just put fresh batteries in it a few hours ago. There was definitely an entity in here. I could smell it but it seemed familiar.

Twinkie emitted another low grumble, slowly stalking towards the center of the room.

I flipped on more lights, aiming my gun to the exact spot but I couldn’t see anything.

Then, Twinkie just stopped. Sitting back down on his haunches, he watched that particular spot for a moment longer and then he returned to his napping as if it was nothing after all.

Now that was creepy and odd.

“Really, Twinkie? Some watch cat you are.”

I surveyed the bar again, making rounds all the way up the stairwell to my apartment, where Twinkie took the opportunity to dive through the open door and cower in his cat bed, and then back down into the kitchen and cellar.

All was as it should be so far.

Now, I was paranoid. Twinkie had a talent for spotting entities and things that we couldn’t see right away as well as those who may be enemies beneath the surface. I should have made him stay downstairs with me and assist in the search.

Well, maybe he had the right idea. I guess I’ll just retire for the night and take the walkie-talkie upstairs with me to find new batteries.

I had a cache of assorted weapons stashed in my apartment but I was going to keep this rifle with me on my way up, just in case.

Pushing the kitchen door open, I instantly picked up on the faint scent that wafted by me earlier once again. It was a light and …like expensive, exotic cologne or soap.

Keeping my back to the wall, I slowly leaned out of the kitchen door and cautiously peered around the door jamb. Using the scope of my rifle, I panned across the expanse of the entire bar once again —and nearly screamed. A gasp caught in my throat and I tightened my grip on the rifle and trigger out of reflex.

I was stunned beyond all reason and comprehension but ready to fight. Sitting casually at the bar as if waiting on a bartender, was a Nocturna.