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Chapter 116
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2024-10-29 19:42:56Start Volume 4: Mother Hunter
The portal wasn’t quite what Jo McReynolds expected it to be. The tunnel was dark, and the material beneath her feet was some sort of a cross between hardened volcanic ash and marble. It had the color and consistency of the first on top, but down below, it was so hard, it felt like they were standing on the core of the Earth.
Even though they weren’t even on the planet anymore.
Jo had traveled to quite a few places in her twenty-five years, some of them stranger than others, but this was her first time leaving the planet.
Christian Henry was leading the way, carrying a bright flashlight, even though the Hunters and Guardians in the group could see through the dark just fine. Her concern wasn’t for Christian, her aunt, Cassidy Keen, her sort-of boyf
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Leading a team meeting was a lot harder than it looked.Cadon McReynolds stood at the front of the conference room, staring out at almost three dozen faces. He’d seen his father do this more times than he could count. Aaron always made it seem like it was the simplest task imaginable. Just stand up here and talk, tell everyone what the plan was, and they would listen and then do it.Now that he was the one standing here, he could see why his sister had had so many problems with it when she’d first started leading the LIGHTS team. Still, Jo had made it look easier than this.“Well, Cadon, where do you want to start?” Elliott Sanderson asked from a chair to his right. The Guardian was slouched so low, he looked like a high school student in the back grow of math class. Except for mu
Night Slayer Chapter 118
The monsters coming out of the darkness around them were unlike anything Jo had ever seen before, and she’d been watching horror movies since she was a toddler--or thereabouts. Some of these things were conglomerations of mythical creatures--with heads and claws of one species and bodies of something completely different. Some had wings, others had horns where they shouldn’t be, and the one thing they all had in common was that they were trying to kill them.Or eat them alive.In the darkness, even with her superhuman eyesight, Jo was having trouble aiming at the monsters. Most of them were so dark black, it was difficult to see them against the backdrop of the tunnels. Jo found herself aiming less and firing more, which was never a good way to wield a weapon.Somehow as they were fighting the mons
Night Slayer Chapter 119
Having an airport in close proximity to headquarters had always been a positive, but as Cadon rode over to the facility in the passenger seat of an SUV piloted by Elliott, he wished it was further away so he’d have more time.They were going to check on their own aircraft to see if any of them were salvageable, but Margie had also ordered a couple of transport helicopters to be there in about an hour. She’d talked to the Australian prime minister and gotten the go ahead to let LIGHTS borrow two choppers and their pilots for a few days, so long as they were just dropping off and coming right back. She didn’t want to lose a warbird rescuing prisoners that weren’t related to any of her friends--apparently. Now that Jamie was free, the Austrailians would be withdrawing back to their own continent pretty quickly.They had also been given the
Night Slayer Chapter 120
“What the hell was that?” Scott asked as he and Jo turned from the sound the scream had come from and made eye contact with one another.“It was Cass--but I don’t know why she’s screaming,” Jo said. She took another glance at Ryker and saw that he seemed to be recovering from the cuts in his arm and the pain from the Transformation serum. She started heading in the direction that the scream had come from as she asked both Cass and Zane, “What’s going on?” over the IAC.Zane said, “We found a body.”“What?” Bile began to rise in the back of her throat as Jo picked up the speed, not quite sure which tunnel to go down and not wanting to follow the wrong one and end up wasting valuable time.
Night Slayer Chapter 121
The choppers from the Australian army were huge, plenty big enough to carry the whole team to California with everyone comfortably tucked into a seat, as opposed to the flight they’d taken from Russia to the United States where they’d had to sit in the haul on the floor.Looking out the window at the midwestern landscape morphing into the mountains could’ve been serene if Cadon didn’t have so many other things to think about. The flight wouldn’t be nearly as long as the last one they’d taken. It did give Cadon enough time to think about life in general. He would’ve almost rather had someone chatting in his ear the entire time than have to be alone with his own thoughts.He missed his parents. It wasn’t difficult for him to admit that, but he tried not to focus on it. He’d gotten used to the hole in his
Night Slayer Chapter 122
The tunnels seemed to wind on forever. So far, Jo had followed behind Christian without questioning where they were going or why, but she was beginning to wonder if maybe he was just leading them around in circles, trying to see exactly how long they would follow.Time was different inside of the portal. That was something Jo had been told for years. She didn’t quite understand what that meant until she was inside of the tunnel herself. It was impossible to keep track of how long they had been traveling. In some respects, it felt like only a few minutes. But in other ways, she thought it might’ve been hours. Maybe even a full day or more.“Where are we going?” Cassidy finally asked. It wasn’t a surprise to Jo that she was the one who asked first.Christian paused to shoot a monster. So
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The sound of single bullets being fired in a rhythmic pattern had Cadon’s heart in his throat as he sprinted down the hallway, looking for where the prisoners were being kept. To him, it sounded like the ping of assassins putting people down, execution-style.“I’ve got them!” Elliott shouted, and then, the gunfire was interrupted by a barrage of gunfire. Cadon recognized Elliott’s Barretta’s tone as it fired repeatedly. He was fast, and his aim was good. Hopefully, he took down enough of the Vampires and Assassins that no one else would be killed.Cadon was running in the direction from which the gunfire was coming, other members of his team behind him, when suddenly a body appeared in front of him. Dressed in black, with menacing sharp teeth exposed, the man had a savage look about him.
Night Slayer Chapter 124
There’d been a few times in Jo’s life when she would’ve been quite happy with having no sense of time. If she could've sped up some of her classes in school, or slowed down some of her vacations, that would’ve been nice. A longer time on the beach with her parents… that roller coaster she loved so much lasting for an hour instead of a few minutes… sitting atop a mountainside looking out at the valley below next to her dad…. Those were all experiences that she would’ve liked to slow down.Walking around in this tunnel with a crazy Guardian who was whistling some song she thought had to do with pirates on repeat was not an experience Jo wanted to hold onto for the rest of her life.“What are you even humming?” Jo finally asked Christian, hoping the annoyance in her voice wasn’t as obvious to him
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How Christian went about opening the portal, Jo wasn’t sure. It was like he cast a magic spell of some sort, though, when Scott asked him how he had done it, all Christian said was, “Science.” The next thing she knew, there was a wavering light in the wall of the black tunnel. An orange boundary grew brighter around the edges, and then inside of that, there was a moving orange light that seemed like a flickering fire in the distance. It was slightly different than the portal they’d come through, but it was close enough, and she was in a hurry to get her mother home where she belonged.Christian went through first, followed by Cadence, Cassidy, and Scott. Ryker followed him, and Zane insisted that Jo go ahead of her. But she grabbed hold of his hand to make sure that he didn’t get left behind. If he couldn’t come through the opening for some reason, she was staying, too,
Night Slayer Chapter 140
“Do you want to hold your mom’s hand?” Jamie asked Mallory as she lay on the operating table in his office. Cadon couldn’t believe how quickly everything was beginning to look like it used to. Even with the American government under collapse and citizens taking it upon themselves to hunt down Vampires and dispatch them, despite the laws that were still on the records, furniture, and other supplies were not that hard to find if one knew where to look–apparently.“Yeah, I’d like to hold her hand,” Mallory replied. She was so nervous, Cadon could see her shaking from his spot behind Jamie and slightly to the Healer’s left. Annastasia was standing on her daughter’s other side and had no problem taking her hand.“It’ll be fine,” Jamie assured her. Cadon had lost count of how many times he&
Night Slayer Chapter 139
The angry monsters were coming at them, and Jo, Zane, Scott, and Cassidy were outnumbered at least ten to one. The chances of them being able to shoot all of the monsters dead before any of them died were slim to none.Thankfully, Cassidy didn’t have to shoot the monsters in order for her to get them out of their way. As Jo and Zane worked on shooting them, Cassidy used her powers to create a bubble around the monsters, one they couldn’t break through. Jo held her fire, afraid she might do something to mess Cassidy’s plan up. The men followed suit. The monsters were contained, but it wasn't clear how long they would stay that way, and they were still blocking the group from reaching the door, the only means of escape.For now.Cassidy directed Jo, Scott, and Zane to move behind her. “Get out
Night Slayer Chapter 138
The penthouse was far quieter than Cadon had ever experienced before. At least, he couldn’t remember a time when his previous home wasn’t buzzing with noise of some kind. Whether it was his parents talking and laughing or loud music coming from his sister’s room, noise always filled the space. Now, he was sitting on a foreign sofa in a room that was painted the wrong color and had no decorations on the wall, and all he could think about was whether or not any of his family members would ever be in this home with him again.He’d decided to stop sitting in Christian’s office after a couple of hours of waiting for Jo to come back through the portal with his mom. It wasn’t that he didn’t have faith in either his sister or his mother. It was just… Ashley had told him the room was finished, and he’d needed to see it.
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Over her twenty-five-year-long lifetime, Jo had had to go to lots of places she would’ve rather never visited. She could think of several. The opera. A friend’s piano recital. The principal’s office. A cave full of bat poop. The gates of hell.Yep, through the doorway that led to hell had to be the least favorite place she’d ever gone that she had no choice but to travel to.Once they crossed through the doors, everything changed drastically, which was a shock to Jo because she thought the portal already seemed so much like hell itself. These tunnels that led down to the depths of despair were even more terrifying and lonely than anything she’d ever experienced before.“Are you getting a signal from Cass on your IAC?” Scott asked as Jo tried to keep her focus. All arou
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Sitting in Annastasia and Mallory’s living room--again--Cadon tried to stay quiet and let Jamie and Ashley answer all of the questions the girl had. Plenty of questions popped out of her mouth as they were talking about the pluses and minuses of becoming a Hunter. Mallory’s biggest concerns seemed to be actually having to fight Vampires and the pain that she would have to undergo in order to turn herself into a Hunter.“I have a medicine I will give to you after I give you the first shot, the Transformation serum,” Jamie was explaining. “I can’t give it to you until two minutes after the first shot, but most people don’t have a reaction until after those two minutes have passed anyway. For most people, the first Transformation shots aren’t painful at all. When some LIGHTS team members have chosen to have a second Transformation shot, later in their career, so
Night Slayer Chapter 135
Standing alone in the tunnel with no way of reaching the hole her mother had just disappeared through was more terrifying to Jo than she was willing to admit. Just a split second after her mother’s feet were gone through the opening, her heart started hammering in her chest, and she felt like she was going to throw up. But she took a second to assess the situation and reminded herself that she was okay. Lots of people knew where she was.That didn’t mean they’d be able to get her out.She knew her aunt could float her out, though. At least she hoped she would be able to. The thought that her powers might not work through the floor made Jo nervous. She took some deep breaths and waited.Only a few seconds had passed, but the panic was already there. “I trust you, Mom,” Jo whispered. &ldq
Night Slayer Chapter 135
Cadon wandered back over to the building where he thought he’d find Jamie and Ashley. He just hoped he didn’t run into them making out again. Even though they didn’t look old, they were still his friend’s parents, and that was kinda gross, sort of like walking in on his own parents making out.Not that that would ever happen again.He pushed the thought aside. Sometimes it was hard to remember that his dad was gone. He just hoped that his sister was having some luck locating their mom.Cadon entered the building and heard voices coming from the office on the left right inside the door. Jamie’s office. The door was open, so he stuck his head in. Ashley and Jamie were sitting across from a couple he didn’t recognize. The male looked familiar for some reason
Night Slayer Chapter 134
Jo could hardly believe that she was walking alongside her mother. She kept wanting to quiz the being beside her to see if she really was Cadence Findley McReynolds, or if this was some sick joke played on her by the Vampires. Maybe this was a demon that happened to look like her mom. Maybe it was a Vampire that someone as powerful as Holland was able to make look like her mom. It was just… surreal.“Do you know where we’re going, honey?” Cadence asked. “I’ve been up and down this corridor lots of times.”“You have?” Jo was surprised to hear that. “Yes, I think I know how to get out.”“Yeah, for the first… I don’t know how long… I kept trying to figure out how to get out, but after a while, I just sort of gave up, I guess. H
