The Last Veilborn

I felt the impact before I could process what kind of hell had exploded inside the warehouse. Something hit the building with such force that it felt as if the entire structure had bent around us. One heartbeat later, I was standing inside Warehouse 17. My weapon was raised, and I forced my eyes to adjust to the darkness at the end of the corridor while waiting for the signal to move. Then another powerful blast struck the side of the building. The floor shook beneath my boots, throwing me against a steel support beam and knocking the air from my lungs as dust and chunks of concrete began falling from the ceiling. "Caelan!" Riven's voice came through my earpiece, broken and distorted by the sudden surge of static across the network. I spat out saliva that tasted like metal, pushed myself away from the beam, and forced my shaking legs to steady. I needed to know whether the structure was still stable or if something had already entered the building. The emergency lights sparked and flickered so quickly that it felt as if the warehouse was being killed and revived every few seconds. Above us, a steel beam slowly bent with a sharp, painful screech, followed by a deep rumble I could not compare to any machine I knew. "I'm here," I answered, forcing my voice to stay steady even though every breath felt like a knife against my ribs. "Everyone, report in. Don't move until I know where each of you is. Check your status now." Only static answered. It was thick and painful, scraping against my ears like something sharp. I touched the side of my earpiece and raised my voice, hoping I could force the signal back through sheer volume. "Eryx, can you hear me? Kael, Lyra, Maelis, respond! Riven, where are you? Do you see anything?" No one answered. My stomach tightened with the familiar feeling that came when I already knew something had gone terribly wrong. It was impossible. Eryx had set up our communication system himself, and it had worked in places where signals were dead and no equipment should have functioned. We had tested every channel before entering Warehouse 17. There was no reason for all of them to fail at the same time unless someone had interfered with the network from inside or outside the building. A few seconds later, Riven's voice broke through the static. "I'm on the east side, near the loading area. Lyra is with me, but I lost sight of Kael and Maelis when the impact hit. Eryx isn't responding either, and Caelan... I'm sure this isn't a normal breach." I turned toward the eastern side of the warehouse. The emergency lights flashed so quickly that I could barely make out the stacked containers and rusted machinery. "Stay there," I ordered, even though my chest was already tightening with fear. "Don't enter the inner section until we regroup. If you see something moving, don't fire unless you're sure it's hostile." Riven went quiet for a moment. I heard his breathing grow heavier through the comms. "Caelan... something is moving behind the containers." I tightened my grip on my weapon and aimed into the darkness. "Did you see it?" "No, and that's the problem," he whispered. His voice was low, but I could hear the fear beneath it. "Whatever it is, it doesn't move like an ordinary intruder or any creature we trained for. I saw a shadow cross the wall, but when I turned to aim at it, it was gone. I was looking directly at that spot, Caelan, but it disappeared like smoke." Lyra spoke behind him, her voice colder and more controlled, though I could still hear the tension in it. "Riven, stop talking and check the floor before you take another step." The line went quiet for several seconds. I heard shoes moving across broken concrete. Then Riven spoke again. "Caelan... there's blood everywhere. Too much blood. It can't be ours because no one was hit by the impact." It felt as if someone had poured ice over my head. "Whose is it?" "We don't know." I did not hesitate. I ran into the narrow corridor, jumping over loose cables, broken tiles, and twisted pieces of metal. My weapon stayed raised, ready to fire at anything that moved in the darkness. The warehouse had been abandoned for years, but according to the intelligence report, there had been no high-level supernatural interference in the area. It was supposed to be nothing more than an unstable Veil reading. A routine check. This was not supposed to become a fight for our lives. "Riven, I'm coming to you," I said, forcing myself to breathe through the pain in my ribs. "Don't attack without a clear target. Stay with Lyra until I get there." "That's going to be difficult," he replied. I could hear movement around them. "They're getting closer, and damn it, they're faster than anything we've seen in training." A loud screech of metal exploded through my earpiece, followed by the sound of a container being dragged across the concrete. Then Lyra screamed. "It's moving!" Gunfire erupted in rapid succession. I ran faster, nearly tripping over the debris as shadows crossed the walls around me. I could no longer tell where they were coming from. When I turned past a row of broken doors, I saw a black, fast-moving figure leap behind the containers. I stopped so suddenly that my boots skidded across the concrete. I aimed at the exact place where it had disappeared. "Riven?" I called, keeping my voice low and sharp. "Is that you?" "No!" he answered immediately from the darkness. I took a slow breath and listened to the space around me. "Lyra?" "Not me!" she answered from the opposite side. The voice that answered next did not belong to either of them. It was much closer. "Caelan, get down!" I did not question it. I dropped to the floor. Something flew over my head with a violent rush of air and crashed into the wall behind me, leaving deep cracks across the concrete. I rolled across the floor, pushed myself up on one knee, and fired at the movement. The muzzle flash lit the entire corridor, revealing the twisted, skeletal body of a creature slipping through a broken doorway. I fired again before it disappeared completely. The creature screamed. It was not human. Its voice was a broken, high-pitched howl that seemed to shake the foundation of the building. "Caelan!" Riven shouted through the comms, fear breaking through his attempt to stay calm. "Are you all right? Did it hit you?" "I'm alive," I answered, though my shoulder burned from the impact and my fingers were still shaking around the weapon. I stood carefully and scanned the corridor. "Where are you?" "We're still in the loading area on the east side, but we're trapped between the containers." "I'm coming." "Don't." I stopped. My eyes remained fixed on the dark passage where the creature had vanished. Riven's breathing grew heavier through the comms. Several seconds passed with nothing but static between us. "Something is wrong here, Caelan," he said. The humor had disappeared from his voice. "The emergency route is sealed. Not because of the structural damage. Someone manually overrode the lock through the system." I frowned and checked the mini-map on my wrist device. The emergency route was flashing red. "That's impossible." "I know you're going to say that, but look at what's happening. Unless Eryx can override the system, we're trapped in here with whatever that thing is." "Where's Eryx?" "I don't know. I spoke to him earlier, but the connection was cut." I stared at the screen on my wrist device, waiting for any signal from Eryx. Nothing came through. "Find him," I said, forcing myself to stay calm. "I'll get to you and Lyra. Once we regroup, we'll head straight to the communications room." "Caelan, listen to me." Riven's tone changed completely. He was serious now. "Don't move around alone. There's no point in trying to play the hero when we don't know how much damage this building has taken. We leave together." I closed my eyes for a second. I remembered how many times he had said the same thing during training. He always valued the team more than himself. "I'm not leaving you there," I answered. "I know," he said, his voice softening. "That's why I'm warning you. I know you'll run straight into danger without thinking about yourself." Despite the tension, I almost smiled. That was Riven. He had always sounded more like an older brother than a fellow Hunter. "I'll be there in two minutes." "You'd better be. And don't expect me to carry you out if you die in there." The signal cut off. Then the lights above me went out. Total darkness swallowed the corridor until I could no longer see the end of my weapon. I stopped and pressed my back against the wall. There was no sound. Then I heard breathing nearby. It was heavy, wet, and so close that it seemed to come from directly beside me. I turned quickly. Nothing. I raised my weapon and slowly stepped backward, fighting the panic rising in my throat. "Riven?" I whispered through the comms, hoping he would answer before I found the creature again. Only static responded. "Riven, answer me!" I called louder. "Where are you?" Still nothing. Something moved to my left. I fired without thinking. The bullet struck the concrete wall and sent sparks across the corridor, but nothing was hit. My heart was beating as fast as the situation was changing. This was not an ordinary creature. They did not move without making a sound unless someone was controlling them. They also could not disable our communication system this quickly without someone directing the attack from inside. That meant there was a traitor. Or everything had been planned from the beginning. I replayed the briefing in my mind. Unstable Veil activity. Unknown supernatural signature. Simple investigation. It had all been a lie. I knew that now because every step I took inside the warehouse felt like proof that someone had prepared this trap before we even arrived. The doors should have been open.