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Iwas losing brain cells by the second.

Brushing my red hair out of my face, I concentrated on the sight below me. It was Valentine’s Day, and I was busy stalking a statuesque brunette. This ridge I hid behind was a perfect hideout with the tame brush providing camouflage. I hadn”t been to Salt Lake City much, but it was nice enough despite the proximity of the nearby Leftovers. Nice enough, if I ignore this idiot.

How had it come to this? My scanner and my binoculars were trained on Jessica, an amateurvlogger. We’d seized on the opportunity to use Jessica and her dutiful boyfriend, Dan, as pawns for this game. If they wanted to sneak into restricted zones, they were going to do some of our dirty work. We didn’t plan to let any harm come to them, but maybe it would teach them some respect for military no trespassing signs.

”It is so dry out here,” Jessica fretted as she patted her face with a tissue. It would only dry her out more, but who was I to offer beauty advice? I was a soldier who slept in the dirt half the time. ”Danny, can you get my cream?”It had been easy enough to bug their equipment. We could hear everything.

Dan, the camera man in a faded V-neck shirt and scarf, happily fetched Jessica”s hand cream. It took every fiber of my willpower not to gag profusely over the comm system. This was the first mission where I was truly in charge, and I didn’t want to look that unprofessional.

“Your hair is fine,” Dan insisted after Jessica paused to adjust it again. Their matching nose rings glinted all the way from here. ”It”s more than fine. It”s beautiful.”

She smiled at him. ”Thank you. Let”s do this.” She sucked in a deep breath and steeled herself for Dan”s countdown. The red light on their camera went on. Behind her, the immortal plane trees made a gorgeous and frightening backdrop on the screen.

”Welcome, everyone, to TheTruth with Jessica. This season, I take you to the heart of the weird, the conspiracies, and the downright unexplainable. I’m attacking the subject of the Leftovers in today’s video. The truth is out there if you look for it.” She delivered a mega-watt smile to the camera, to which Dan gave a thumbs up.

As much as I disapproved, I had to hand it to this flimsy-looking chick for doing a show in one of the most dangerous parts of the US.Colin had said that, according to her easily stalkable online profile, she was twenty years old. Apparently, she was shunning college to break into restricted government areas and film her stupid show. Of course, this footage wouldn’t matter if she got herself and Dan eaten before we could step in, and we were absolutely going to confiscate it afterwards, but still, she had guts. Too many of them.

Jessica pushed on. ”I”m standing on the outskirts of the area known as the Leftovers near Salt Lake City. I”ve been granted exclusive access by an unnamed government agency.” I fought a roll of my eyes. She hadn”t been granted anything by anybody—besides an unwitting status as bait.

I had wanted to yank the two of them out immediately when the Bureau’s scanners caught them sneaking into the restricted areas for a second time, but Hindley, my lion of a direct supervisor, had seen it as an opportunity. She’d suggested we use them as bait—after all, bait made monsters easier to hunt. And once they had a good scare, we wouldn’t have to waste resources fishing them out of trouble once a week.

I hadn’t even been that amused. Amazing how leadership positions had pushed me into a newer, more mature place. I used to rag on Lyra all the time over being so serious, but now, I had a better idea of why; I didn’t want to watch these idiot kids get torn apart by monsters. I glanced briefly at my team. We had five members, including my former teammate and rebel, Colin. Judging from his occasional sigh at Jessica”s monologue, I could tell that I wasn”t the only one suffering.

Dan trotted after Jessica as she made a few dramatic steps back. For one moment, she twitched and stiffened. I searched for a sign of what had spooked her, but then her face relaxed into an easy smile. Probably just acting for her show.

I’d rejoined the Bureau after Fenton personally issued me an apology on their behalf and offered a promotion that came with a hefty paycheck. Before taking the job, I’d consulted Lyra about it. She and Bryce were starting their own company, and she’d invited me to join… but the thought left me restless. I wanted to find my own way, not tread in her footsteps forever. The subordinate role was starting to chafe, and Lyra said I could always try the job and leave if I hated it… but after so long without a paycheck, the Bureau job and the relative stability it promised was attractive.

The Hellraisers, the newly founded department that I’d joined within the Bureau, weren’t here to be babysitters. We’d earned the nickname because we were all itching for the hunt. We were here for the monsters that hadn’t stopped arriving in the Mortal Plane since the meld. I needed to keep my eyes on the prize.

I settled back down behind the ridge. Neither of the duo had spotted us. So much for finding the truth, Jessica. You can’t even spot the five well-trained professionals around you. On my orders, Colin had his sniper rifle trained on the tree line. If a monster darted out to grab Jessica, we would get it. I’d arranged each of my team members several yards away from each other, perfectly spaced to head down at a moment’s notice to extract these two morons.

”It”s a true mystery that occurred during what many called the end of the world,” Jessica narrated, looking more casual than ever as her thin mauve cardigan flapped gently in the breeze. It was chilly, but maybe she was tougher than she looked. ”I was in my apartment in Sugarhouse when it happened. I nearly drowned when my own living room sank into a lake. Officially, the government says it’s over, and my apartment went back to normal, but we know there’s more to the story. What about Ogden? Whole neighborhoods there have lost contact with the outside world.

“And what are we to make of these strange sections of land known as the Leftovers? The term sounds as innocent as packing yesterday”s casserole for lunch, but that”s just because the government is trying to downplay how frightening these places are when they’re so close to our homes and schools. Monsters of all kinds have been reported near these areas, some of them venturing further into the suburbs. They’ve tried to cover it up, but last week, a child was lost to the very trees behind me. His friends valiantly tried to rescue him, but the monster was too quick, too ferocious. There’s supposed to be some investigation, but believe me, they’ll never find that boy.”

I inwardly corrected her facts out of sheer boredom. First, the government hadn”t even named these places the Leftovers. Officially they were meld sites, but a couple of journalists had floated “Leftovers” in the first twenty-four hours and the term had stuck. Second, that ‘innocent child’ had been a teenaged boy had been shooting fireworks into the trees. Third, his friends hadn”t tried to rescue him; according to an eyewitness who’d been working down the road on a nearby downed power line, they’d run like hell. Fourth, there had been no investigation because the body had quickly been found and retrieved, and nobody’s accounts of the incident had differed.

Of course I was sad for the boy and his family, and I was determined not to let anything happen to these idiots, but... I’d raised my siblings to be smarter than that. Wild like me, maybe—it”s in our blood—but never stupid.

”Got anything, Holt?” I commed to a man several yards away with a bulky black scanner in his hand. I could make out his shaved head from here as he bent to focus on fine-tuning the controls of his scanner. Holt had spent years in supernatural work, although he’d largely dealt with smuggling. Apparently, black-market sellers loved supernatural stuff. Holt’s previous job had involved snatching up illegal movers of redbill talons and beaks. Guess there”s a buyer for everything. I’d spent so much time fighting redbills, before I made friends with them, that I never considered someone actually wanting a piece of them as some sick trophy.

At fifty, he was the oldest of our group and had the most military experience. I’d been instantly impressed with his resume when Hindley forked it over onto my desk, along with the rest of my team assignments. He’d far outranked me in the Bureau, but everyone who’d joined the Hellraisers had to basically start over. Each of my team members had done supernatural work with the Bureau, but no one besides Colin and me had experience in the Immortal Plane. I hoped this first experience would be enough to show Holt and the others what it was like to fight an Immortal monster.

”I”ve got a big one,” Holt muttered. ”It”s darting through the woods parallel to Miss Vlogger, keeping low to the ground.” He paused. ”It seems to be following her, at least. Maybe it can smell her perfume. I know I can.”

”Got it,” I said with a chuckle. ”You hear that, Colin?”

”Yes, the perfume is overdone and entirely too floral,” Colin replied. ”I”ve got eyes on something moving in the underbrush.”

Jessica tossed her head as she went in for a dramatic take. ”It”s incredible, the feeling that this place has. You can feel how disturbed it is, like the land is telling you that it shouldn”t even exist. Fans of my blog will be familiar with the interview I did with Father Jacobs, a prominent spiritualist, who believes that these supernatural creatures are humanity”s darker energies emerging from the shadows due to society”s moral deterioration. Spooky, huh?” She paused to wrap her cardigan around her, as if the thought of being in this area was truly bone-chilling. ”We”re out here doing the real work, while the government hopes that you continue eating lies.”

This was it, the big dramatic take. Dan walked forward for the close-up as she did her best serious face for the camera. ”My name is Jessica Laurence, and we”re here to find out what”s really happening in the Leftovers.”

The leaves rustled for a moment. Dan tilted the camera so Jessica could get a gander at her performance on his camera. They reviewed the footage, unaware of the danger.

”It’s getting closer,” Holt warned. ”Twenty yards from the tree line.”

An acrid smell hit my nostrils. I wrinkled my nose as the breeze brought the scent of perfume and the Leftovers my way. Somehow, this area smelled worse than the Immortal Plane ever had. It was like the combination of Planes caused it to be ranker than either—though, who knew, maybe it was just my luck to get the nastiest location. I braced myself, peering past the couple.

”Fifteen yards and coming in hot,” Holt warned. He sucked in a breath as a long snout emerged from the trees behind the vloggers. Jessica, clueless, smacked Dan’s shoulder for not telling her that she had a bit of pink lip gloss on her teeth.

For a moment, the beast paused. It had no eyes. It looked like a cross between a Komodo dragon and a turtle, with a hard outer shell covering its back. Its huge nostrils sniffed at the air. I dialed back the scope on my binoculars to take in the size of it. It was as a big as a tour bus. The creature parted its lips to let its tongue slither out. It was several feet long and coated with a strange green sludge.

”Don’t let that tongue touch you,” I warned my team. ”Move into position, now!”

Someone grumbled on the line. It was either Evans or Jones, both of whom seemed to like me as much as sandpaper on skin. I shouted the command again, feeling my adrenaline and frustration spike. I was their Captain, but they hadn’t all accepted that yet. Still, I heard the sound of boots coming up behind me.

”Five yards,” Holt cried. I leapt up and over the ridge. In my ears and the distance, I heard Jessica scream so loud that I nearly ripped my comm out of my ear. The beast careened toward her, but Dan shoved her out of the way in the nick of time. I booked it to their position with my firearm drawn. In the distance, I heard Colin’s rifle. The beast cried out and turned toward us, but Colin”s bullet found its mark in the beast’s side. The shell was as hard as a supernatural tortoise’s.

”Aim for the skin underneath, Colin. That thing”s shell looks bulletproof,” I reported. Jessica and Dan screamed, rushing toward us as they fled the beast.

”It”s really a monster,” Jessica cried, sounding shocked. I growled and removed her vise-like grip from my arm.

”Out of the way. Go back to the road,” I snarled. I jerked my hand to gesture behind me as Colin let another bullet fly. Jones and Evans came up behind me, heading for the monster like we’d planned.

Jessica’s eyes went wide, but then her hungry gaze shot to the camera in Dan”s hand. ”Babe, we need footage of this.”

I didn”t have time to scream at her. ”The federal government wants a word with you. Get back, or I”ll shoot you for trespassing.” While Jones and Evans surrounded the beast, which reeled back, snuffling, Holt sprinted up to me. He glared at the couple, yanking Dan back by the collar as he attempted to turn his camera on.

”Do you want to die today, son?” Holt demanded.

Jessica screamed again. “Look!” I turned around to see Jones leaping away as the beast snapped at him. Where its tongue darted out, droplets of saliva fell into the dirt, the soil beneath it seemed to boil. My heart thudded hard against my chest.

”Get them out of here and get that camera,” I told Holt. He nodded and took off. I fired at the beast, nailing it straight on the nose. It screamed in pain and fell back, only coincidentally missing Jones, who was getting too close again. ”Stay away! Look at the freaking dirt.” He rolled his eyes, then found the ground and took a hasty step back. Just my luck for Fenton to stick me with two hotshots.

The beast’s leathery skin was resistant to most of the shots. It reared back, then lurched forward as if to headbutt Jones, missing him by inches with its tongue. Jones let out a cry as he was knocked to the side. Evans got the message quickly and retreated closer to me.

”Colin, the skin”s too tough,” I reported on the comm. One of Reshi”s knives rested in my equipment vest.

From afar, I heard Holt shouting, ”If you kids don”t turn off that camera—”

”Get everything, babe!”

I seethed with frustration. We needed Holt here, not wasted on babysitting duty. Did they want to get people killed today?

”Evans, cover me,” I told her. ”I”m going for the neck. This knife is the only thing that”s going to get through.” It was still full of dark energy from the harvester evacuation, where I’d fought off a few errant beasts before the meld. Hopefully that would help here in the Leftovers.

My throat tightened at the memory of Kane looking over his shoulder at me, smirking, making fun of the way the harvester children clung to me. Not now, focus.

I darted forward as Evans leveled her shots, moving toward the front of the beast to distract it from my side assault. Jones was pulling himself up, but Colin and Evans were making up for him. I sprinted up toward the beast as Colin nailed it in the cheek. The neck was always weakest, and it looked like that was where the shell connected to the skin.

I leapt into the air, grabbing a low-hanging tree branch, then pushing myself off the trunk and landing on the creature’s back as it shrieked in pain from the last shot. It felt me on its back and tried to buck me off, but its size and width worked against it. I held on like hell, grasping at the strange bit of matted fur that grew at the base of its neck.

My hand found the knife and I drove it in as Colin aimed another shot. Evans and Jones covered the feet. My blade sunk in with some resistance, but blood sprayed out. It smelled the way it did when we killed shrieking decays. I gagged; the smell was overwhelming in combination with the stench from the trees. Focus, Roxy. I just needed to land my blade in the other side of the neck, and that would be enough. Already I felt the beast stumbling. I sucked in a breath and worked my knife free.

”Are you okay?” a low, rumbling male voice whispered in my ear. ”It pisses me off when people don”t listen.” He sounded furious. My heart froze. I knew that voice. And that hearing it was impossible.

”Kane?” I whispered.

Commotion blocked out the voice in my head for a moment. ”Roxy, take your strike,” Colin yelled into the comm. My fingers felt numb around the knife, blood dripping over them.

“Roxy,” Kane said.

“Stop talking to me!” I cried. Colin took in a sharp breath. Before I could apologize, the world shifted, and I was flying back into one of the bushes at the base of the nearby tree, thrown off as the creature lurched. My back hit the ground hard, my teeth jolting in my mouth, and my head swam with confusion.

”Does she need an assist?” Jones asked over the comms. He was forty with two kids at home. At that moment, I wanted to punch him in the face.“I thought you were supposed to be an expert.”

”Don”t be afraid,” Kane’s voice muttered darkly. Where was it coming from? He wasn’t behind me.

“Jones! It’s coming at you again!” Evans’ voice rang through the comms. At thirty-two, she was a decorated soldier; she and Jones had been teammates before. “Taylor, get yourself together.” Jones let out another cocky comment and I could see the fight getting away from me.

”Warriors need to fight. It”s what we do.” It was Kane’s voice, clearer than the comms, gentle yet fierce, as if he were trying to help me through this.

”Stop,” I whispered, forcing myself up from the scratchy leaves, back throbbing. He wasn”t—couldn’t be—talking to me. Shadows crowded in on the edges of my vision.

Kane was gone. Officially, he was missing in action. I had already mourned him just in case, because that”s what soldiers did. We abandoned hope for practicality. Even if I knew Kane was too stubborn to die. I fought off the sudden heat of tears springing to my eyes. Nope.Not here. Not now.

Kane”s voice said, even gentler, ”it”s going to be okay.” I’d never heard him use a tone like that. I shook the shadows from my vision and willed the sound to be gone. When I finally got my bearings, I charged forward, aiming at the beast”s neck as Evans and Jones feinted back and forth with it.

”Get it parallel to the forest again,” I shouted to my team. “I’ll lure it after me!” I was bleeding. My arm must”ve gotten cut in the fall. The beast’s nostrils flared and it lurched after me, revealing the wound on its neck from a profile view. It lunged at me—and then its neck spurted gore as the sniper rifle cracked.

I wrenched back, narrowly avoiding the dying beast”s tongue as it collapsed onto its side. Finally, I could breathe out in relief. Jones and Evans were good, but Colin almost never missed.

“Fall back,” I ordered my team. It wasn”t our job to bag the baddies. A team of scientists would be dispatched when it was all clear.

I shook my head and ignored a snicker from Jones and a smirk from Evans. They’d had front-row tickets to my dramatic freak out and fall, but if I responded to Jones’s obvious desire to make a “fall back” pun, I’d just look petty.

From across the clearing, Jessica was shouting. ”You can”t just, like, arrest us. We have rights.”

I stalked over to the couple. Jessica was valiantly trying to fight her way out of Holt”s grip near the ridge where we’d originally hidden. I scowled at her, but she didn”t see me yet. Dan looked down at the ground, embarrassed.

”You can”t hit me, I”m a girl,” Jessica blurted to Holt. He raised his eyebrows and darted a glance at me.

”Well, it”s your lucky day. I”m a girl and I pack a killer punch, so if you don”t want to deal with that, then I suggest you listen,” I snapped. She paled as I poked my finger in her face. ”We just fought off a monster to save your sorry butt, so shut up and say thank you.”

Jessica lifted her camera with a little smirk, as if that would deter me. ”What spooked you out there?” she asked.

Holt sucked in a breath. I’d told him earlier to get the camera. I narrowed my eyes and wrenched it from her hand, letting it fall to the ground with a satisfying crunch.

”Jessica Laurence, you are under arrest for trespassing on government property.” I grabbed handcuffs from my kit and went for her wrists as Holt cuffed Dan, who put up no resistance. Jessica fought for a bit, but I was rough. I wasn’t going to feel bad about it. She’d endangered the lives of several people today. I had soldiers under my command, and I was responsible for their lives, even if they didn’t respect me.

Can I blame them, after I had a hallucination in the middle of battle? I swallowed that bitter thought as I directed the captured vloggers to sit on the ground. Without their camera, they were powerless.

The flight back to Chicago put me in a foul mood. No, it was the mission. I stewed sourly in my seat as I reviewed everything that had happened. Jones and Evans had followed my orders, but there’d been an undercurrent of disrespect while they did it. I understood their position, of course, and I couldn’t say I’d have been any better in their place. But they didn”t expect poisonous tongues, since they’d spent their most recent years fighting redbills. They had years more experience than I did, but I was the one in charge thanks to my experience in the Immortal Plane. My team was still skeptical, and they’d just watched me spaz out.

I ran my hand through my hair and sighed. Now, I had to convince these people that I knew what I was doing. Half of my team was resentful. Colin hadn’t said a word, but even Holt, who treated me civilly, had looked askance at my mishap today. I leaned my head against the window to watch the glowing lights of Chicago come closer, reflecting off the lake.

Had I really heard Kane’s voice? I wasn”t crazy, right?

What does it mean? Without realizing, I traced the slant of Kane”s usual scowl onto the window with my finger. I’d never imagined how much I would miss it.

The captain announced that we were landing soon. I pulled myself away from the window and pushed the thought of Kane far from my mind.