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Chapter 15
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2021-02-19 12:02:29Killarney, Ireland, 1847
The 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
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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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Killarney, Ireland, 1847The herbal remedy only lasted for so long, and before too many days, Aislyn was clearly ill again. This time, she was hardly conscious by the time the midwife got there, and though she checked her over thoroughly, she could not tell what was the matter. Without a diagnosis, she was unwilling or unable to make a recommendation and left, telling Aaron she was sorry, but his wife would likely die within a day or two.This answer was not acceptable to him, and though he had to travel far to find a third midwife, he was able to do so. Leaving Aislyn alone was not ideal, but he was fearful to ask a family member to sit with her because he did not know if the illness was contagious. He’d called upon Kian to see if he might come over and sit with her while he traveled to town, despite the fact that he had yet to come by and assure Aaron he was not angry about the situation with Shannon, but Kian was nowhere to be found. Ultimately, Aaron
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Something was different; something was wrong. He was an intelligent man, and he knew his wife very well. So, the fact that he was unable or unwilling to admit to himself or to anyone else that Aislyn was acting peculiarly was blamed on a number of other things. She’d been sick. He was going through changes himself. Shannon’s death was disturbing to both of them, as was Kian’s disappearance. No, Aislyn wasn’t quite her former self, but who would be after a long illness? Additionally, she was nearly five months pregnant. She was certain she’d return to her usual disposition just as soon as the baby arrived.When Aislyn refused dinner because she was nauseous and kept her eyes squinted because the light hurt her eyes, Aaron dismissed both as symptoms of the pregnancy or the illness. Her skin became paler; the circles under her eyes darker. Her skin was cold. He had never had a pregnant wife before, but he imagined all of these things could be
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Asking Kian to help him was out of the question. Not only would he refuse, Aaron knew that, if he employed the assistance of another, he would grow to hate that person, laying the blame on them for the action he was too weak to take himself. He understood now why Kian refused to speak to him. Even though they both knew better, he held Aaron responsible for Shannon’s death.He wouldn’t put this burden on anyone else’s shoulders. He would perform the task he must carry out in order to spare the children of Killarney, and then he would put Ward’s proclamation that he was unable to die to the test. If it proved true, he would go about finding a Hunter who would finish him off. That was a task he was quite certain Kian would be willing to perform.That day, he went about his typical tasks, as did Aislyn. She even hummed a lullaby as she swept the dust out the door. After dinner, they read the Bible together, though Aislyn refused to touch it, and cha
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London, England, 1888London was much different than the peaceful rolling hills of Killarney, and while from time to time, Aaron missed the life he’d left behind, joining Ward’s team in London ended up being the best decision he could have made at the time. Now, over forty years after he’d left his home in Ireland, he was finally beginning to feel as if he had the hang of being a Guardian, though he was still learning.Sitting in an office with a decent view of Hyde Park in the distance, he went over the notes Ward had provided him regarding the recent incidents in Whitechapel. None of them were quite certain how many victims they were looking at since the area had a reputation for being an uncouth slum, but with the recent demise of a young woman drained of most of her blood with slashes across her neck, it became clear that it was time for Ward’s team to take action.As usual, the facts in the press were not at all reliable. Wa
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“See, I told you it stinks,” Vicky muttered as the team made their way down an alley, clinging to the shadows, hoping to ferret out a Vampire who might be willing to talk. Though most were not willing to work with “the enemy” occasionally they’d find one who was willing to provide information for the promise of safety.“Smells like flowers to me,” Edmund, a Guardian who was born and raised in London and was fairly new to the team remarked, flashing his charming British smile at her.“Nah, that’s just me you’re smelling,” Vicky replied with that delightful grin, and Aaron felt the muscles in his stomach tighten.“Let’s just focus on the task at hand and put the odors out of our minds, shall we?” he asked, though the rest of the team would take it as an order. Technically, he was only in charge because Ward had given him the file, and he took it upon himself to organize the explora
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
