The Monster Hunters

  “I would,” Ray spat. The red eyes stopped, hovering a stone’s throw away. “But I don’t feel like dying once and for all. Remember, I know all about your magic rock. Why don’t you come over here and we’ll finish up some family business.”

  “Knock it off,” Susan ordered. She sounded just like Julie when she said that. “We’re not here to fight. I offered a truce, and I’m standing by it.”

  “You’ve got your truce for now, but mark my words: I’m going to end your miserable non-lives eventually,” Earl vowed. “You threatened my family, so you have to die.”

  Susan was livid. “I promised I would leave Julie alone.”

  “We’ll see . . .”

  “What do you want?” I asked, speaking up for the first time.

  A second pair of eyes approached, swaying through the trees. She stepped from the shadows, an eerie mirror image of Julie, wearing the same dress that she had in Mexico. Her white teeth cut a razor line through the darkness. She was hauntingly beautiful as the humidity turned into swirling fog around her legs. “I want this necromancer gone. He knows I’ve helped you, and now he’s trying to destroy me.”

  “Help?” I spat. “You can’t call anything tainted from the Old Ones help.”

  “What’s it done to you?” Ray asked eagerly. “What did it unlock?”

  “Don’t answer him,” Earl ordered. “Ray talks a big game but he sucks at black magic. Damn near tore an interdimensional hole out Alabama’s backside. Caused the death of his own son. He always let his pride blind him to danger.”

  “I told you that wasn’t my fault!” Ray shouted. “I did the best I could.”

  “And little Ray got his guts torn out for it, as well as over a hundred and twenty other innocent people, including ninety-seven of my Hunters. Appleton was too good for you. I should have left you in that rift with those Old Ones you love so much.”

  “I was lied to,” Ray insisted. “The spell should have worked.”

  “You can’t blame anyone for that but yourself. Nobody lied to you. You dabbled in things no man should, and we all paid for it. If I had known what you were doing, I would have taken you out myself, blood or not. The only person lying here is you. You even set the archives on fire to keep us from finding a way to close your precious gate. You knew exactly what you were doing.”

  Ray laughed. It was an angry, bitter sound. “I didn’t torch the archives, you old fool. I was at Gulf Shores getting ready for the party when that bomb was set. I got suckered, just like you, just like everybody else.”

  Earl hesitated. I could tell he was angry, itching to fight, but that had thrown him for a loop. I realized with a shock that this was the first time the two had actually spoken since the Christmas party that had almost ended everything. “We always thought you were working on your own.”

  “I promised Owen I’d tell him as soon as I knew for sure. The same man, or used-to-be man, that we’re fighting now arranged it all . . .” Susan said. “My poor, distraught husband did what he did out of love. He just wanted to bring me back. If only he had known I was a vampire, and being kept as a slave, unable to contact him— No, Earl, save that anger. Ray was used. This damn necromancer preyed on his weakness, his mourning for me, and twisted it to his advantage, used him in an attempt to establish a bridge to the other side. That’s your real enemy, and he’s been your real enemy all along. He hates MHI for what it stands for, and he hates you personally, as he has for years.”

  “No,” Earl stated. “Enough of your lies. Don’t make excuses for Ray’s bad decisions.”

  “What? You can’t handle the truth? You don’t want to hear that you punished your grieving grandson, when he was only trying to do the right thing? You don’t want to hear that you’ve been wrong all this time? Well, too damn bad,” Susan said. “You screwed up. The real bad guy was under the nose of the mighty Earl Harbinger for years.”

  “Who then?” he demanded.

  “The man who arranged for me to be enslaved in ’90. My death was part of his plan. Oh yeah, he was thinking that far ahead. He needed Ray broken and searching for something. The man who orchestrated the destruction of your company and the deaths of all your Hunters in ’95, and when you stopped him there, the government completed his job and shut you down anyway. But it goes back even further, and you were too stupid and guilt-ridden to see it. You lost an entire team of Hunters to him before that, simply because one of them knew too much.”

  “Give . . . me . . . a . . . name. . . .” Earl said through clenched teeth. His eyes were bright gold now, and he was barely containing his rage. I honestly thought he was going to hop that fence and go toe to toe with both of the vampires.

  “What’s the matter?” Susan chuckled. “Losing your cool?”

  The forest suddenly ignited with light. A red parachute flare was drifting through the sky. The vampires were both clearly visible now. The alarm began to sound, an old-school air raid horn blaring one harsh note across the entire compound.

  “It’s a trap!” Ray shouted as he moved back into the darkness.

  “Damn you,” Susan said as she melted away. “I was trying to help.”

  “No! Give me a name!”

  But the vampires were gone.

  “What did you do?” I shouted.

  “Nothing,” he replied. “Somebody must have picked us up on camera. I’ve got to go after them.”

  “You’ll never catch them. They’re way too fast.”

  “Watch me.” He dropped his Tommy gun on the ground and shrugged out of his jacket. “A human couldn’t track them, but I can.”

  “You’re going to change?” And not on the full moon? That was insanity. He never did that. It was utter and reckless stupidity.

  But Earl was desperate. “I’ve got to catch them. They’re too damn evil to live.” One impossibly strong hand grabbed me by the shoulder. The hair on his arms was now carpet thick and his fingernails were abnormally long. “Don’t let anybody follow. Get them inside the main building. It’s too dangerous out here.”

  “We can take Susan.”

  “No.” He smiled beneath glowing eyes. All of his teeth were razor sharp and pointy now and his words were slurred and hard to understand. “Because of me.” He took three steps, leapt effortlessly over the eight-foot fence and disappeared into the forest.

  “I want everybody evacuated from the barracks and into the main building, now!” I shouted at the approaching Hunters. Esmeralda’s man Cooper was in the lead. He had his FAL shouldered, was fully geared up, and was sweeping his rifle from side to side. Behind him were a couple of real Newbies, one of the Haight brothers from Utah, Dawn the beauty queen, and one make-believe Newbie, Herzog, still trying to be incognito.

  “What’s going on?” Cooper asked.

  “Doesn’t matter. I want everybody inside. Button the place up. This isn’t a drill.” I must have looked kind of weird, since I was just wearing shorts, a tee-shirt, and sandals, but carrying Abomination in one hand and a Thompson in the other. I had tossed Earl’s leather jacket over one shoulder, figuring that if he didn’t end up committing any atrocities out there tonight while he was shape-shifted and insane, he’d probably want his stuff back in good shape.

  All of us started back across the parking lot to the main entrance. Cooper was excited. “Yesterday Julie started having us take turns, working in pairs, monitoring the security system. She told us to be ready for anything. We caught a couple of figures on thermal and went to check it out. We were just getting off shift and these guys were coming on. When we saw the undead we sounded the alarm.”

  “How’d you know they were vampires?”

  “I had two on thermal, but four on night vision,” Cooper explained. “No body heat. Dude, that was like an ‘oh shit’ moment.”

  I bit my tongue. He had done exactly what he was supposed to have done. The timing had sucked, but it was what it was. “You did good. Head that way and clear out the barracks. And no word about vampires to anyone, got it
?”

  “Sure thing.” Cooper ran off with the two Newbies in tow. Dawn hesitated, like she wanted to talk to me, but I had to hand it to her, she followed orders. Herzog, on the other hand, didn’t give a damn about my MHI seniority and stayed with me.

  “You better go keep up appearances.”

  “Shut up, punk,” the undercover MCB agent snapped. “What were you doing outside without coverage?”

  “Taking a stroll,” I replied. “I do love spring nights.” In the distance there was a terrible noise. A wolf’s howl, but it was unbelievably loud and the pitch sounded too human. I had to remember that Earl wasn’t just a werewolf. He was the friggin’ king of werewolves, the ultimate alpha male.

  Herzog almost leapt out of her boots. “What the hell was that?”

  I was terrified of werewolves myself because of personal experience, but I didn’t let it show. “That there is why I want everyone inside. For an agent, you sure are jumpy.”

  The noise startled the stocky woman from her usual hard-core façade. “Screw that. I’m no field agent! I’m not used to this crap. Let’s go.” She took off, moving with the speed of somebody who figured they were about to be monster chow, stubby legs pumping.

  Not a field agent? I frowned. That didn’t make any sense. She’d been assigned to protect me. Myers had said they were some of his best men . . . handpicked. We were about a hundred feet from the front door and Hunters were piling out, throwing on weapons and gear in response to the alarm. I caught the short woman in a couple of steps, let Abomination hang by the sling, grabbed Herzog around her bicep, and spun her back to face me.

  “Hey!” she shouted.

  “Not a field agent? What are you?” I demanded.

  She began to stammer something. I squeezed harder. “I’m a clerk!” she squealed. “Admin clerk. But . . . but I’m a fully sworn agent. I’ve been through MCB school. Let go.”

  “A clerk?” I released her arm.

  Her face fell. “I was at the IRS and I came across some top-secret returns about PUFF. I did some poking around and that’s how I found out about monsters. I’ve never actually seen one. Even the MCB needs somebody to shuffle paper, so they offered me a job and sent me through the academy.” Harbinger howled again. He was fully transformed now and he sounded relatively close. “Please, let’s get inside!”

  “Why are you on a protective detail?” This didn’t make any sense at all.

  “I don’t know. Agent Myers assigned me to Agent Franks’ command for this mission.” Her beady eyes darted around nervously. She was really freaked out.

  “What about Torres and Archer?”

  “Oh no, Anthony’s a full-on pro. He’s been on all sorts of missions. But Henry’s more like me. He’s a crypto-commo geek. That’s what he did in the Army. But he’s cool and he’s actually been on a few missions with real monsters, but I don’t know if he’s actually ever killed any. Please, let’s get out of here, before whatever that is comes and gets us.”

  She sure had been a lot tougher when she had been threatening me with a gun. “Go.” I nodded toward the door. Something was fishy. Franks was a one-man wrecking crew, but the Goon Squad weren’t the hardened killers that I had been led to believe they were. Torres had been by far the nicest of the bunch but he was the only one who had actually seen the elephant.

  I would have to think about it later. A bunch of Hunters were fanned out, covering the entrance, weapons pointing outward in a rough semicircle of potential destruction. I had to remember that only the old-timers and the ones wearing Happy Face team patches knew about Earl’s little secret. The alarm died off and two giant spotlights ignited on the roof, sweeping randomly across the perimeter.

  It was a relief to see Julie come trotting out, brutal M14 in her lovely hands. “What’s going on? Are you okay?” Herzog’s stocky form pushed past Julie and retreated inside the relative safety of the fortress.

  “I’m fine. Your parents are here.”

  “Damn them!” she shouted. Several other hunters jumped at that.

  “And . . .” I raised Earl’s empty jacket. She knew right away what had happened.

  “Everybody inside now!” Julie ordered. “Move! Move! Where’s Dorcas?”

  Our receptionist was leaning in the doorway in a flowery old-lady nightgown. Her hair was up in curlers. The reason she was leaning was because she hadn’t had a chance to attach her artificial leg yet. It was tucked under one arm. A massive stainless-steel revolver hung loose in her hand. “Yep?”

  “Once everybody’s in, I want a full head count. We’ve got a Code Silver.” She gestured at Earl’s leather jacket.

  “Aw shit. Not this again,” Dorcas muttered. “Let’s go, kiddies.” She pushed off from the doorframe and hopped out of sight.

  I stayed with Julie at the entrance until the last of the Newbies was roused from the barracks and herded inside. She glanced around, careful to make sure that there was nobody close enough to overhear us. “Why’d he do it? The full moon was a week ago. He didn’t have to change.”

  “He did it on purpose. He was going after your folks,” I whispered. “I think he was dead set on not letting them get away.”

  “That was stupid.” Julie shook her head. She hadn’t had a chance to tie her hair back, and it was so dark and shiny that it reflected the spotlights. “Well, at least he should have some judgment right now. The closer to the full moon, the more out of control it is. He shouldn’t wander into town and eat anyone. Sometimes I’m really glad we’re in the middle of nowhere.”

  “What about Skippy’s village?”

  “They know to get inside when they hear the alarm. Skip knows what to do and they’ve all got silver bullets. Earl goes in there and they’ll shoot him. Nothing personal, that’s just how it is, and Earl would understand. Their wargs will give them plenty of early warning. Let’s get inside.”

  The two of us were the last ones in. We pulled the massive doors closed behind us and threw down the bar. There were a bunch of really confused, half-asleep, heavily-armed, almost-graduated Newbies wandering around the reception area. The Hunters experienced enough to know about Code Silver were busy getting everybody calmed down and oriented. Julie rested her head on my shoulder briefly so she could whisper, affording us a tiny bit of affection amid the chaos. “I hope he catches them . . .”

  Wrapping my arms around her, I squeezed her tight. It would be really nice to have the curse of Susan and Ray removed once and for all. “Me too.” Damn it, we had almost had a name. I had been right. The shadow man was somebody from MHI’s past. If we knew who he was, we could find and destroy him, but that was assuming Susan was even telling the truth to begin with.

  I let go of Julie so she could get back to damage control. Monster Hunters by their nature are not an easily riled bunch, but they were also intensely curious, and with Earl out running naked and hairy through the woods chasing vampires, that left Julie as the de facto head of operations. She needed to get everyone taken care of.

  Dorcas had finished taking a quick roll and reported in. “Your grandfather’s upstairs, has his hearing aids out, so slept through the alarm. Milo’s in Cazador at his house. Everyone else who should be here is accounted for.” She added the next bit with extra volume for anyone listening. “Oh, and Earl Harbinger is in Montgomery on business.”

  I noticed my folks standing near the wall of memorial plaques; they’d apparently been woken up by the alarm. Mosh was coming down the stairs. So I had some explaining to do myself. I started toward my parents and was almost there when a whisper filtered through my mind.

  This message from Susan was weaker than the others. She was either further away, or hopefully busy getting her arms pulled off by an angry werewolf. It was a single word.

  . . . Hood. . . .

  That sounded familiar. I paused, turning slowly. The wall of plaques stretched before me under the Latin Sic Transit Gloria Mundi. My hand automatically flew to the silver surfaces, passing quickly through them, each c
ool to the touch. I found the one I was looking for within seconds.

  A. MARTIN HOOD

  1/14/1960-10/17/1986

  Chapter 12

  3:45 a.m. Back in the conference room, with the only people who I knew I could trust: Julie, Trip, Holly, and the absent Milo on the speaker phone.

  “Do you remember this guy, Hood?” I asked. “Supposedly he died in ’86.”

  Julie shook her head. “Kind of, but I was too young. I know I met him, but I couldn’t tell you anything about him. Milo?”

  “You sound funny on speaker. You aren’t that high-pitched in real life, Julie,” he replied. “He was the one who made the balloon animals at your birthday party a couple of years. He was really good at that.”

  “Oh! Dad’s pudgy friend.”

  “Yeah, Marty Hood. The fat funny guy. He was on Earl’s team when I first joined up. Couldn’t ask for a nicer Hunter. I was a really young Newbie and he was always helpful. He had a reputation of being smart. One of the nerdy, brainy types, rather than the kick-in-the-door-and-blast-everything kind of Hunter. No offense, Z.” That made me smile. I had a bit of a reputation. “Julie—him, your dad, and Myers were good friends, like brothers. Earl loved him like a son. I didn’t know him that well, but I really liked him. He died not too long after I came aboard.”

  That didn’t sound at all like the hyper-intense religious fanatic I had met.

  Holly cut in. “Yeah, he was man of the year, but was he British?”

  Milo answered immediately. “Yes, he was. I remember that. I thought it was funny, because he was from Birmingham, only the England one, not the Alabama one.”

  Holly sat back in her chair, looking smug. “Bingo.”

  “Looks like we’ve got our wizard,” Trip replied. “He must have faked his own death.”

  The speaker-phone box was a triangular plastic thing and the noise that came through it had to have been Milo Anderson clearing his throat. “Uh . . . that’s not real likely, Trip.”