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Chapter 10
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2021-02-19 12:00:53There were a few locations in town where one might seek out knowledge, but the best place was the tavern, and so they decided to try their luck there. Despite the early hour, the doors were open, and more than a few citizens gathered inside, their complaints and worries reaching the ears of the newcomers before they’d fully stepped inside.
Many spoke of the rotten potatoes, how there was no end in sight, how the Englishmen refused more than a token show of help, and how the Irish were left to starve or forced to move away. Only a few hinted at the rising death toll in the village attributed to the others, and no one dared speak those words. One man, who’d clearly been there for quite a while, was crying about the death of his son just a few days earlier, and while his friends attempted to console him, it was the mead that began to quiet him after some time.
“There’s nothing that can be done, then, to save the crop?” Kian was asking a group
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Aaron Chapter 11
After a few moments, he returned to Kian who was rubbing the back of his head but otherwise looked just fine. “Who was that fellow?” Aaron asked, glimpsing back the way he had come.“I don’t know,” Kian admitted. “But I’ve never encountered someone so strong.”“Or so fast.”“You don’t think he could be a… Dark One?” Kian asked, finally moving his hand off the back of his head.“No, I don’t think so,” Aaron said quickly, though he wasn’t sure. If Ward really was a Dark One, wouldn’t he have destroyed them? Why would he offer an explanation for the English’s reaction to the Dark Ones? No, he didn’t seem to be evil—just leery of trusting anyone. And definitely not human, though what he might be, Aaron had no idea.“Come on,” Kian insisted, tugging on Aaron’s sleeve. “Let’s go visit our paren
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The plan worked and the Dark Ones gave chase to the two men, abandoning the children and rushing after the meddlers instead. Aaron knew there was absolutely no way that he could possibly outrun the Dark Ones; he had heard numerous stories of those who had tried and failed. Even as he began to accept that his fate was sealed and that he may never see his sweet Aislyn again, he realized a strange sensation, one he’d certainly never felt before, was beginning to spread throughout his body. His legs began to tingle, and while at first he thought it was due to the speed he was approaching, he soon realized that wasn’t it at all. He suddenly felt stronger, faster than he had ever before.A quick glance over his shoulder revealed that Kian was taking another path, a smart move. Perhaps that way one of them would escape. However, as the monsters closed in, they also split, and Aaron knew he’d have to turn and face his assailant soon. He couldn’t keep running f
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Neither of them made mention to their wives what had happened, though they didn’t discuss keeping it a secret. It just didn’t seem like the sort of thing one mentioned to a person who was not there; no one was likely to believe them anyway.The next morning, Aaron met Kian outside near the road. They decided they must return to the tavern to try and find Ward. Without a word to their wives of where they were going, they set out, certain that Ward would have some answers, though the longer time went by, the more Aaron began to doubt anything about the experience was real.As they walked along, Kian voiced the same thoughts. “That did really happen to us, didn’t it?”“I think so,” Aaron shrugged. “I mean, it couldn’t be a dream or else one of us wouldn’t remember, right?”“Right,” Kian agreed, though his voice wavered. “I do hope those girls made it home safely. I would hate
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“Very good. You are quick learners,” Ward nodded. “Kian O'Braonain, your clan was one of the greatest Hunters in all the world many hundreds of years ago. All Vampires feared the silver swords of the O’Braonains.” Turning to Aaron, he continued, “And the McReynolds clan comes from the descendants of the great Guardian Leaders. Not only that, your mother’s clan, the O’Riordans, were also highly skilled Guardians. With the blood of both of these clans coursing through your veins, you are sure to become one of the strongest Guardians of all time.”Both men were still having trouble accepting the information. Aaron looked at Kian and only shook his head. His friend, a stunned look in his eyes, finally asked, “May I have some water?”With a smile, Ward stood and crossed to a cabinet where he produced two glasses and filled them with water from a pitcher sitting on the counter before he took his chair.
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Killarney, Ireland, 1847The pain shooting through Aaron’s body was agonizing. Though it tended to radiate through his limbs most of the time, there were moments when his stomach muscles contracted so tightly, he thought he might pass out from the pain. Likewise, he’d had a throbbing headache for the last several weeks, and each time he moved he felt like his cranium might split in half.The Transformation process had begun nearly three months ago, and though it had started off with just the uncomfortable shooting pains in his limbs and soreness in his muscles, with each passing day it grew more unbearable to the point that he wasn’t sure how much longer he could take it.Despite the anguish, he had work to do, and so he pushed through the pain each day from sunup to sundown, getting us much work done on the farm as he could, though he knew he would’ve managed so much more if he’d only been pain free.Kian was also i
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A few days later, Aaron returned home to find Aislyn on her knees, retching into a bucket. Running to her, he dropped down next to her, pulling loose strands of her red hair back out of the way. “Are you all right?” he asked once she had finished and began to steady herself.“I’m fine,” she assured him, managing a smile.He rushed to bring her water and a towel to wipe her mouth. Once he helped her up and over to the bed, where she insisted on sitting instead of lying down, he took care of the bucket and ran back to her side. “Aislyn, do you have fever?” he asked, feeling her forehead. “When did you start feeling ill?”“A few weeks ago,” she replied, but she was still smiling, and though he had no idea what there was to be happy about, he took a deep breath and let her continue. “Aaron, I’m not ill,” she assured him, placing her thin hand on his knee.“What do you me
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However, as the days passed, he began to realize something wasn’t quite right with Aislyn either. At first, he had thought it was just the pregnancy. She was becoming more and more lethargic. Her skin was even more pale than usual, and her eyes had dark rings beneath them. He insisted she spend her days in bed, even though she argued, saying she was fine and had much to do around the house. He won out, however, and she continued to rest. Even with more sleep, she didn’t improve, and when she broke into a fever, Aaron panicked. He checked her entire body for any signs of infection. She insisted she was fine—that she had not interacted with any of the Dark Ones. She would recover fully with more rest.Aaron ran into town to find a midwife. By the time he returned, Aislyn was hardly even lucid. The woman checked her over and assured him that if she drank an herbal remedy, she would be fine in a day or two. She believed it was only the pregnancy wearing her down
Last Updated : 2021-02-24Aaron Chapter 18
Aislyn’s color had still looked good when Aaron returned from the field. The pale tones he’d noted earlier had been replaced by the rosy cheeks he hadn’t seen in weeks. She had wanted to get up and fix dinner, but he insisted she stay in bed and rest. He’d managed to catch a rabbit that afternoon, so he threw together a stew which wasn’t half bad.He’d gone about his evening routine as normal so that Aislyn wouldn’t suspect anything, but his mind kept returning to what Kian was asking him to do. Imagining himself standing in his friends’ home, preparing to end his wife was too much for him. He had no idea how he was going to do it. By the time midnight rolled around, his stomach was cramping and his palms were sweaty. Realizing he had no choice but to follow through with his promise, he took one more glance at the sleeping face of his own angelic wife, slipped out of bed, and got dressed, praying that, by the time he reached the
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Eliza was crying, apologizing, making excuses. “I’m sorry,” she said, wiping at her nose with the back of her hand. They were sitting at a table in a small storage room just outside the conference room. He had told the rest of the team they could debrief without them, and Elliott was going over things with them now. Aaron was doing his best to stay calm while she tried to catch her breath. As angry as he was that she’d almost caused a disaster during the hunt at the zoo, the important thing was that she learned a lesson from all of this.Her breath catching in her throat so that she could hardly get the words out, Eliza stuttered, “I just… you said we were team one.” She plucked a tissue out of a box near her elbow and blew her nose.After giving her a moment to attempt to settle down, he took a deep breath. “No, I did not say you were team one,” Aaron insisted. “I said you were team two.”&ldquo
Aaron Chapter 55
Within minutes, Aaron began to feel a little bit different. While he still found Eliza very attractive, some of the things she said, the questions she asked, were no longer cute or endearing; they were annoying. He realized she was asking basic questions, things she should know by now. Clearly, she wasn’t paying attention while he went over the first part of the meeting, because once the Hunters joined them, she asked about some of the topics he’d already covered. It was too early to admit it, but he realized there was a possibility that Elliott and Jamie might be right.Eventually, Eliza ran out of questions, stupid or otherwise, and the team loaded up and travelled to the zoo. Even though he was beginning to wonder about his relationship with Eliza, she sat next to him as he drove one of the two SUVs full of team members, and when she reached for his hand, he gave it to her, hoping he’d feel different about the possibility he was being manipulated once the
Aaron Chapter 54
Shenandoah, Iowa, America, 2010Shenandoah High School was not that big as high schools go. Only about four hundred kids went to school there. Aaron was sitting on the roof of the ag building, which provided a pretty good view of the parking lot. He had spent a few days here recently, including the first day of school that year. No one had ever noticed, particularly the kids who were so wrapped up in their post-school-day conversations, it was easy for him to go unseen.She was not one of the first people out of the building, and he assumed that was because she really wasn’t in a rush to get out of school. She’d always done well, got good grades, and this year she was participating in a slew of extracurricular activities, including cheerleading. Cadence Findley was the all-around American girl.Aaron saw her friends head into the parking lot first. There was Taylor, the blonde, Sydney, with the short black hair, and sometimes another girl wh
Aaron Chapter 53
Aaron could see Holland and Giovani now, though they were at a distance, and it seemed like they were aware of the Hunters, too. Morris had reported that he was certain they had known his team was there several times and had made no move to leave or attack. They had simply found a way to disappear at the end of the night before he could move in. Tonight seemed different, however. Holland was looking around, as if she was looking for someone in particular. And then her eyes stopped; she was looking right at him.They’d met a few times before. Aaron had been called in to help out in France where the redheaded woman originated and preferred to spend her time. Despite her odd name, she was a former Frenchwoman and she didn’t take kindly to having LIGHTS members on her turf. She’d been with her longtime beau, Carter, every other time he’d come into contact with her, and since he hadn’t been running the operation, there hadn’t been much he could
Aaron Chapter 52
New York City, America, 2000The Blue Moon Nightclub was a popular destination for humans and Vampires alike. While the NYC team had always patrolled it closely, recently a well-known European Vampire had taken a liking to the place, and Aaron’s old friend Morris, now the Area Leader, had called him for help.The Vampire was what they commonly referred to as “ancient” even though she wasn’t one of the original Vampires, which were the true ancients. Still, she’d been around for centuries and her power had grown strong over the years. Likewise, she had hundreds of children—their term for the minions Vampires created by infecting others. While Morris had a strong team, he was certain he couldn’t handle this on his own, and so he’d called Aaron in, hoping that if they couldn’t defeat her, at least they could run her along.Aaron assembled his strongest team members and flew them on one of LIGHTS private
Aaron Chapter 51
Des Moines, Iowa, America, 1996Janette Findley had continued work with the team, even though she was no longer a Hunter. She lived in a large Queen Anne in Des Moines, and Aaron spoke to her several times a day as she had volunteered to work as his assistant a few years ago as things began to grow and he had found it difficult to get everything done. Being the Guardian Leader with no Hunter Leader—as none had ever been appointed—was challenging in and of itself. Recently, there’d been more and more Vampire activity, and the team continued to face recruiting challenges to keep up with the need. It was more than one man could handle on his own.Sitting on her sofa was calming, and for a moment, Aaron leaned his head back and relaxed, something he seldom had a chance to do, particularly since Christian had perfected and installed his Intelligence Assistance Communicators in everyone’s eyes. Now, any Hunter or Guardian in the world could r
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Tulsa, Oklahoma, America, 1985“Tell me why we are doing this again,” Jamie insisted from the passenger seat of the Buick Somerset Aaron was pulling into a parking spot outside of a shady looking nightclub. It was past midnight, a time when they would typically be hunting the undead, but tonight their mark was someone else entirely.“’Cause Janette asked us to,” Aaron replied as he put the car in park and turned off the engine.“Yeah, but if the Tulsa team has already approached this guy several times, and he doesn’t want to join them, why would he go with us now?”“I don’t know,” Aaron replied, pushing the door open. “She asked us to try, so we’ll try.” He got out of the car and headed into the establishment, hoping to get this over with rather quickly.It only took him a moment to find the man he was looking for. At six-two and well over two hundred pound
Aaron Chapter 49
Jordan Findley was buried in his hometown of Des Moines, Iowa, on a sunny June day before a crowd of thousands. The local papers read that he died in a small plane crash, but the LIGHTS team members all knew the truth. Such occurrences were so rare, Aaron couldn’t even think of another time a Hunter had purposely killed a Guardian. Accidents happened from time to time, but never something like this. Teams were organized to hunt down Skelton, but so far there hadn’t even been a sign of him, causing speculation that he had been killed as well.Janette had yet to recover from her loss. Having spent one hundred thirty years married to and working side-by-side with this man, she had always assumed she’d die long before he even considered trying to find a way out of his existence. He could potentially live forever. She would pass on; that was the way it was supposed to be. This was an unnatural ending that she had never seen coming. Now that she was faced with a l
Aaron Chapter 48
Skelton, a former beau of Janette’s, had returned a few months ago from an independent career that had spanned over a hundred years. He had said he had a special project he needed help with, but so far, he’d not explained himself and mostly hung out in the apartment he’d been provided by himself, rarely making an appearance on the larger campus that encompassed fifty acres on the outskirts of Kansas City.“He’s harmless,” Jordan assured them both. “Just an old man looking for absolution.”“Just an old nut looking for asylum is more like it,” Janette replied, shaking her head.“I have a meeting with him this evening. Hopefully, he’ll give us some direction for this project he has in mind. I’ll tell him to wait until I get back though. There’s no sense in you having to worry about that and everything else.”“All right,” Aaron said with a nod as he looked to
