The Last Veilborn

The impact hit before I could even understand what was happening, slamming into the warehouse with such force that the entire structure seemed to buckle around us. One second, I was standing inside Warehouse 17 with my weapon raised and my eyes fixed on the dark corridor ahead of us, waiting for the signal to move. The next, something struck the side of the building hard enough to shake the entire floor, throwing me against a steel support beam and knocking the air out of my lungs while dust and broken pieces of concrete rained down from the ceiling. "Caelan!" Riven's voice came through my earpiece, loud and distorted by the interference that had suddenly swallowed the warehouse. I pushed myself away from the beam and forced my legs to steady as I checked my surroundings, trying to determine whether the impact had caused structural damage or if something had breached the building. The emergency lights were still working, but they flickered so badly that the warehouse seemed to disappear and return every few seconds, while somewhere above us, metal bent with a long, painful groan followed by a deep sound that did not belong to any machine I knew. "I'm here," I answered, forcing myself to stand straight even though every breath sent pain through my ribs. "Everyone report your position now, and don't move until I know where each of you is. I want a full status check before anyone takes another step." Static answered me, thick and sharp enough to make my ear ache. I touched the side of my earpiece and tried again, raising my voice as if volume alone could force the signal to return. "Eryx, do you copy? Kael, Lyra, Maelis, respond immediately. Riven, give me your position and tell me if you can see anyone else." Nothing came through. My stomach tightened as the silence stretched longer than it should have. That should not have happened, because Eryx had built the most reliable communication system in our unit, a system capable of keeping a signal alive in places where normal equipment failed, and we had tested every channel before entering Warehouse 17. There was no reason for all five channels to disappear at the same time unless something had interfered with the network deliberately. Then Riven's voice returned, broken by static but still clear enough to understand. "I'm on the east side near the loading area, and Lyra is with me, but I lost sight of Kael and Maelis after that impact. Eryx isn't answering either, and before you ask, no, I don't think this is a normal breach." I looked toward the eastern side of the warehouse, where the flickering lights barely revealed the rows of stacked containers and abandoned machinery. "Stay where you are," I ordered, keeping my voice calm even as unease spread through my chest. "Don't move deeper into the building until we regroup, and if you see anything unusual, do not engage unless you have a clear target." Riven paused, and when he spoke again, his voice had dropped into a tense whisper. "Caelan, something just moved behind the containers." I tightened my grip on my weapon and scanned the darkness ahead, searching for any movement that might confirm what he had seen. "Can you see it?" "No, and that's the problem," he replied, his breathing becoming heavier as he tried to keep his voice steady. "Whatever it is, it isn't moving like the creatures we've trained against. I saw the shadow cross the wall, but there was nothing there when I turned around, and I'm telling you, I was looking directly at the spot." Lyra spoke somewhere in the background, her voice sharp and controlled despite the danger around them. "Riven, stop talking and look at the floor before you take another step." There was a short silence, followed by the faint sound of someone shifting their position. Then Riven said, "Caelan, we have blood, and there's more of it than there should be if no one was injured during the impact." My heart dropped. "Whose blood?" "We don't know," he answered, and the uncertainty in his voice was worse than any confirmation could have been. I started moving immediately. I ran through the nearest corridor, stepping over broken cables, shattered concrete, and pieces of metal while keeping my weapon raised and my eyes fixed on every dark corner. The warehouse had been abandoned for years, but according to our information, there should have been no active supernatural presence strong enough to cause this level of interference, and the mission was supposed to be a controlled investigation of an unstable Veil reading. It was never supposed to become a fight for survival. "Riven, I'm heading to you," I said through the comms, forcing my breathing to remain even as I moved faster. "Do not engage anything unless you have a clear target, and keep Lyra behind cover until I reach your position." "That's going to be difficult," Riven answered, and I could hear the strain in his voice as something moved near him. "Something is already coming toward us, and it's moving faster than anything I've ever seen." A loud metallic crash exploded through my earpiece, followed by the sound of containers being dragged across the floor. Then Lyra shouted, "Move!" Gunfire followed immediately. I ran faster. The sound echoed through the warehouse, bouncing from one wall to another until I could no longer tell where they were, and when I turned into another corridor, I saw a dark figure move across the far end before disappearing behind a stack of containers. I stopped so suddenly that my boots scraped against the concrete. My weapon came up immediately as I aimed at the place where the figure had vanished. "Riven," I said, keeping my voice low while my eyes searched the darkness. "Was that you?" "No," he answered without hesitation. My breathing slowed as I tried to listen for movement. "Lyra?" "No," she replied from somewhere beyond the containers. The voice that answered me next was not Riven's, and it came from much closer than it should have. "Caelan, get down!" I dropped without thinking. Something flew over my head and crashed into the wall behind me with enough force to crack the concrete. I rolled across the floor, came up on one knee, and fired toward the movement, while the muzzle flash briefly lit the corridor and revealed a twisted shape disappearing through a broken doorway. I fired again before it could vanish completely. The creature screamed, producing a sound so unnatural and distorted that it seemed to vibrate through the walls. It was not a normal human sound. "Caelan!" Riven shouted through the comm, his voice filled with panic despite his attempt to hide it. "Are you hurt? Tell me you're not hurt." "I'm fine," I answered, though my shoulder burned from the impact and my hands were shaking slightly around the weapon. I stood and checked the corridor, moving slowly enough to avoid exposing myself to another attack. "Where are you?" "Loading area, east side, but we're pinned down near the containers." "I'm coming." "Don't." I stopped, my eyes still fixed on the dark doorway where the creature had disappeared. Riven's breathing was heavy, and for a moment I could hear nothing except the faint crackle of the damaged comm system. "There's something wrong here," he said, speaking more carefully now. "The emergency route is sealed, and it wasn't sealed by the impact because the lock shows a manual override."