Shadow Stalker: Blood of the Vampire Hunter Book Two

Chapter 1 Lenin Street in Magadan reminded Jo of pictures she’d seen of Europe after World War II. Buildings were toppled, some of their brick and stone edifices pouring across sidewalks into the street, metal frames jabbing up into the air as if to serve as a reminder of what could happen to those who don’t heed the new world order put into place by the Vampires after the Revelation. The place was deserted, as abandoned as most towns in the western United States had become, and as Jo McReynolds drove along in the beat up Jeep with the bullet holes riddling the back, she was reminded a little of Denver, Colorado, the place she’d taken to calling home a few years ago when her split with LIGHTS, and her immature berating of her father, had caused her to leave this team, and all teams, behind. Now, she was back with LIGHTS, though not physically with them at the moment. The only other soul in the vehicle with her was the Guardian she’d started working with in Denver, Zane O’Braughnin, and he had never been a part of LIGHTS, not until she’d dragged him into it, anyway, a few weeks ago, when her family had shown up begging her to come along with them to find Holland, the b***h Vampire they believed had information about where Jo’s mom might be. She’d said no, but here she was, leading a team into the cold decay of Russia looking for a bloodsucker who was supposed to have information about where to find a ghost. Jo was quite sure, after all, that her mother was dead. Or she had been, anyway, until recently. Now, she was only about seventy-five percent sure that Cadence Findley McReynolds had been taken out by a mob of Vampires back when Jo was only fifteen and had yet to Transform into a Vampire Hunter. She still recoiled every time she thought of that day, how her mother had fought to save her life and the life of her young daughter, while Jo ran and hid. While Jo hadn’t seen them kill her mother, she had seen the blood. So much blood…. And the trail had stopped cold. In the decade since, her father, Aaron, and another Guardian, Christian Henry, had been searching everywhere for Cadence, but there had never been anything to go off of, never even the smallest clue to lead them in the right direction. If she was alive, and that was a big if, she could be anywhere in the universe. Jo’s eyes wandered up to the sky. Night was falling, pinpricks of stars revealing themselves, a sliver of moon reminding her of the network of portals humans were oblivious to that hung right above their heads and all around them in spaces she couldn’t even comprehend. She didn’t think her mother was still out there, but if she was, how in the world would they ever find her? “You all right, Jo?” Zane asked, his hand coming down on her thigh. The touch brought her back around, even though he lifted his warm palm away before she could get used to the feel of it, begin to welcome it again. Or was she already there? “Yeah, fine,” she said, giving her head a slight shake in an attempt to clear her mind. It didn’t work, but she did need to at least attempt to put as much mental effort as possible into this mission. She certainly hadn’t been able to do that the last time, when she’d sent her team in against a horde of Vampires shooting bullets that could actually take out Guardians. While she did have part of the team now researching scandium and another group working on ways to negate its ability to allow Vampires to kill Guardians, several were waiting back at the hotel for her return. They were tasked with studying maps and researching mines in the area, boring work that none of them really wanted to do. The quicker she completed this task, the better for all of them. Especially her, because she didn’t want to do it. That’s why she’d sent her Aunt Cassidy here the first time. Cass didn’t fail at much, but there was a history between herself and the Guardian Jo was on her way to visit now, so the meeting had been over before it even began. Eliza and her husband Lucas, a Souled Vampire, which meant he hadn’t lost the essence of himself when he’d been Resurrected, had kicked Cassidy and her party out not long after they’d arrived, saying they only wanted to speak to Jo. Why, she didn’t know. But here she was, making the trip through the streets of Magadan to the outskirts of town, away from the port and nearer the mountains, hoping to convince a couple the rest of LIGHTS hated to help them with a mission Jo fundamentally disagreed with. It all seemed to blend in nicely with the utter chaos the rest of the world had disintegrated into. The navigation on the IAC, or Intelligence Assistance Communicator, in her head told her to turn right off of Lenin, which she did, and then followed a few other roads north. Nothing came to life around them as they drove. It seemed to get colder the closer they got to the mountains, not that they were capable of feeling it. Temperatures had no effect on them, save for the blazing heat of a fire or the freeze of ice, and even then, it was more the tissue destruction that would hurt, not the elements themselves. Jo could walk through a blizzard and be fine. She could wear a leather jacket on a summer day, and often did, and never feel the heat,. “We’ve got to be close,” Zane said, ducking his head slightly to look up at the mountains out of his window. Jo had loved looking at the Rockies back home, but the more she saw of these snow covered, jagged monstrosities, the more she was beginning to hate the great outdoors. “Yeah, nav says about five more minutes.” “And you know what you’re going to say?” he asked. A glance in his direction revealed exactly the smirk she expected to see on his handsome face. “Not a clue.” He chuckled. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out.” “I’m sure I won’t, but thanks.” “Do you think they’ll mind that I came with you?” This was a serious question, one she’d been contemplating ever since they’d left the hotel earlier that morning, hours ago. They hadn’t moved their base since the last attack. Decent hotels were few and far between, and their next target was closer to their last one than it was to where she was now. “I have no idea. But I don’t think they’ll kill you.” She said it with a shrug, indicating she was kidding, but the fact that Vampires could kill Guardians now made it less humorous than it might’ve been. She didn’t think Lucas was the type to kill someone he didn’t have a quarrel with anyway, even if he had a load of scandium bullets, which he probably didn’t. The fact that the new weapon had only been used in one instance, at least that Jo was aware of, made her think they were still in development and not readily available, particularly not to Souled Vampires, which were a bit of a problem to the unsouled type she’d been fighting. Ahead, a lantern hung from a pole near a narrow entryway. Jo recognized this as the turn off having seen it in her aunt’s mind via the IAC they all had implanted in their eyes. It allowed them to speak to each other without anyone else hearing, amongst other things, and it was responsible for the map she was following now. Jo slowed to turn, recognizing this was a driveway, not a road. About a half mile down the winding route, she came to a gate. She was expecting this as well. Snowflakes rushed in through her open window as she rolled it down, melting against the flush of her face. Whomever answered the call button she pressed barked something in Russian so distorted through the speaker, even her IAC couldn’t pick it up well enough to translate it. She looked at Zane, who simply shrugged. He had no idea either. “This is Jo McReynolds,” she began, expecting to have to give a lengthy explanation for who she was and what she wanted, but before she’d even gotten her full last name out of her mouth, the metal barrier in front of her began to move. Turning to Zane, she said, “That was easy.” He arched an eyebrow but said nothing, his way of reminding her that nothing is ever easy. On the other side of the gate, she began to understand his reason for doubting the level of difficulty. Dozens of armed guards took up positions on either side of the Jeep, escorting it toward the large house at the end of the lane. Their eyes glowed amber, an indicator that all of these people were Souled Vampires. She hadn’t gotten the impression from Cassidy and her parties visit that they’d been quite so amassed, but then, perhaps Jo hadn’t been paying quite enough attention. Slowly, Jo eased the Jeep along, awaiting instructions from these greeters, should they bark them. It wasn’t until she was near the house that one of the men signaled for her to stop and shouted something she didn’t understand. This time, it wasn’t in Russian, but his broken English was uninterpretable to her. “He said turn it off,” Zane said. He always was more attuned than she was. She did as she had been told, her eyes taking in the mansion now situated to her right. It was huge, probably ten thousand square feet, in a modern style, though not with the sort of wide windows one might expect from twenty-first century architecture. Instead, massive white walls encapsulated much of the living space with a broad, gray porch, probably slate, she thought. Lights illuminated the shrubs along the outside and poured out from the few windows that were visible from the front. It looked like the home of an affluent family, maybe in Seattle or Aspen, before the Revelation. Now, the idea that Eliza, Lucas, and their clan of Souled Vampires lived here, perhaps pretending the world around them wasn’t crumbling like fisted sand seemed as wrong as the idea that these Vampires might have a tiny chunk of rare metal shaped into a bullet that could kill the Guardian sitting beside her. Jo didn’t open her door; one of the guards did. He took hold of her arm, forcing her out, though he didn’t yank her as she thought he might. Thank goodness I wasn’t wearing my seatbelt, she thought. On the other side of the vehicle, Zane was also removed. “Who this person?” one of them asked, gesturing at Zane. “You were to come alone.” “He’s… nobody,” Jo said, watching him tip his head to the side in consideration of her remark. “I mean, just company for the long journey. He can stay here.” The guards discussed the situation in Russian but didn’t come to a conclusion before the door to the house opened and a shadowed form emerged. “He can come inside.” An airy, male voice with only a slight Slovak accent called. Jo couldn’t see him, but she felt his eyes on her, and then, he disappeared back inside. Lucas, she thought. It had to be. The guards checked them both for weapons, roughly enough that Jo thought she was back in jail--or maybe at the airport--and then they were allowed to walk inside. Not having any weapons made her feel as exposed as standing on stage with no clothes on would have, if she had ever had that experience, but she had to remind herself these people were supposed to be their friends, sort of. Besides, she could kill Eliza, a Guardian, with her bare hands if she needed to. The Vamps as well, assuming none of them shot her before she got the chance. The odds of her taking them all out were against her, but she’d never played to the odds. Most of the guards stayed behind, either looking over the Jeep or heading back to the road. She wondered if that was their job, to just stand outside all damn day and night and make sure that nothing and no one infiltrated the fortress. She wondered what they ate. Most of the Souled Vampires preferred animal blood to human because they did have a conscience, but she knew there was such a thing as evil Souled. Inside, the house was as much a palace as Jo had expected. They followed a few of the guards through a foyer lined with expensive works of art, their shoes echoing on immaculate wooden floors, down a long hall to a living area where Lucas and Eliza stood in front of modern white sofas that looked so soft Jo imagined one might sit and stroke the couch all day, like it was a pet.