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The wind hit my face as evening came. I grunted a complaint, feeling the sting of the icy blast on my cuts. Winter was cruel. Diving into a bush left me with plenty of scrapes on my face, although Sylas had already disinfected them. The smell of ointment hit my nostrils, and I wrinkled my nose.

”You”re a glutton for punishment,” Holt said with a shake of his head and a laugh. We were standing on the edge of town, hours after the creature’s attack. The Bureau soldiers who were already stationed here fanned out with the rest of the Hellraisers. I blew warm air onto my hands as I reached for the scanner. My gloves were too clunky to use when operating this device, and I would take the cold over being slow any day.

I shrugged. ”I can”t miss the action.” It was simple, but it was true. I was sore all over and patched up, but I needed to be part of this. It drove me more than any cup of coffee or adrenaline could. Some might say obsessive, but I prefer “dedicated.” ”We need to keep an eye on the borders, and I won”t sleep anyway if I know you guys are out here.”

We weren”t in the Leftovers, but on the boundaries of it. I had a feeling that the monster was gone for the moment, but various small creatures chirped in the late evening as the sun fell. There were more monsters than the beast in the forest, monsters that seemed to awaken right around sunset, judging from the low sounds. I studied the scanner”s screen, but there were no big blips on the way.

”We have to keep this town safe,” I muttered, glancing back down the road to where the town sat nearby. There were lights on in some of the houses. The old Bureau soldiers had told the residents to only use one light or a lantern if possible, to avoid drawing attention to themselves. I was glad to see only one small light coming from each of the houses I could see in the distance. Good. Although these people were stubborn to stay behind and live like this, at least they were following the rules. It was more than I could say for a certain member of my own team, but he was off scouting with the twins. I had changed my mind about putting them together, since the twins had been on relatively good behavior recently. They would need to learn to work together at some point, and a low-stakes patrol seemed like a good way to test the waters. I was sure—and secretly delighted—to imagine that they were ragging on him mercilessly.

”We”ll keep them safe,” Holt said as he stared at the town. It was not lost on me that he’d attached himself to my side when I’d insisted on taking part in the patrol. A subtle look had passed among all the Hellraisers when I announced that I was coming out with them. They wanted someone by my side, after everything that had happened.

A headache brewed at the back of my head, where I’d bumped my skull. My precious painkillers would wear off soon, and I”d have to beg Sylas for more.

Holt checked his scope and reported in to his comm that we were clear on our side.My team chimed in with their own reports for our first mini shift. The twins were good. Evans had made progress on the bordering area near the town sign with a few of the other Bureau soldiers. Everything was oddly calm after my attack, but the lack of activity didn’t reassure me.

Something was off about that monster. I had never experienced a creature who could do… whatever it didin front of me. One moment, it had been there, and the next, vanished. I glanced out at the trees as if they might fork up an answer for me. What weird things were going on in this forest?

”What are you thinking?” Holt asked. I snorted and glanced at him. It was the kind of question passed between friends, which we weren’t yet, although I hoped we could be one day. But I knew that he’d already guessed what I was thinking about; I’d given my team a full report earlier.

”The monster,” I said honestly. ”Its abilities are worrying me. Before, I thought vampires were unique with their ability to travel between planes, but now it seems we”ve met a creature that can do even more than that.” I’d floated the theory to the Hellraisers that we might have a monster that could vanish or teleport on our hands. I didn”t tell them about Kane”s voice, but that supported my theory. Kane was not in the Mortal Plane, and still, he”d seen the monster, too. Was he in the Immortal Plane? The beast had to be transporting, somehow, back and forth between worlds. It might be teleporting to the Immortal Plane, too, but I would have to ask Lyra to check with our allies there once she made contact. Speaking of which, I hadn”t heard any news from her team, though I’d asked for updates when I gave my report of the attack. Maybe Hindley didn”t have anything to pass on or couldn”t reveal anything based on the clearance level.

Oh, Bureau politics. That”s something I didn”t miss.

”You think that thing will come back?” Holt asked as we walked around the area. He checked his scope. I would have checked mine, but my bruised face made the positioning awkward. I trusted him to tell me what he saw as I kept my eyes on the scanner.

”It might.” I listened to the quiet night. All I could hear was the wind against us. I wrestled one glove back on my left hand to fight off the chill. ”I”m glad we have enough manpower to guard the locals. I still can”t believe they willingly stayed, or that the Bureau allowed it.” It was a bit intimidating to have high-risk people to protect. The other Bureau captains from the stationed squad and I had agreed that patrols were necessary around the area, to make sure the monster didn”t come back to harass the residents. For all we knew, it could simply spring out of the air inside someone”s house and take them. Even more concerning, I was positive that the beast was purposefully abducting people. I remembered its frantic attempts to take me somewhere. Something about the behavior seemed strange to me, especially after dealing with immortal monsters that often attacked without any hint of strategy or long-term planning.

”The residents are scared but stubborn,” Holt muttered. ”I can”t say I”m surprised that the Bureau let them stay. Think about it, Captain. You have a whole town of people who have seen highly dangerous supernatural activity. If they left, they might start talking to journalists.”

”Or, God forbid, vloggers,” I said bitterly. Holt laughed.

He made an interesting point. Even if I didn”t agree, there was some logic as to why the residents had been here at all. The Bureau already had enough bad or controversial press in the news. If we ever hoped to get people back on the side of vampires, it was imperative the public know as little as possible until we had a handle on things. The best thing to do was to keep them away, or, in the case of this strange mountain town, keep the residents safe and isolated.

”I”m still calling Hindley to suggest evacuation,” I informed him. I had mentioned it to my team during our brief after my cuts got patched up. ”If she agrees, that works better for us. Sylas took a picture of my pretty bruised face to show her, so hopefully she”ll get the higher-ups to see reason.” Weird. I never thought I”d be begging Bureau officials to get a clue again, but life had a funny way of working out. If they disagreed with my decision, I would strongly encourage the residents to seek shelter with family elsewhere. They hadn”t seen my bruises yet, which might convince them.

Holt whistled idly as he looked through his scope. ”Home is a funny thing. People will do anything to avoid leaving it.”

My chest clenched with mixed emotions. A sudden sadness I hadn”t felt since before I began to hear Kane”s voice waged war against my own determination. Home was a hard place to find, for some of us. As a soldier, I’d never felt at home in Chicago. I was at home in the field. I stared down at my dirt-covered boots. Perhaps that was why I was stomping around even while injured. This was as “homey” as it got for me. And Kane? His home was destroyed ages ago. He was wandering now, unable to speak to me, trying to find his own way back.

Before, I would”ve criticized the people who stayed with all the elegance of a sailor. Now, I understood them better.

”People can still surprise you, though,” I said. ”But thanks for the philosophical lesson.”

Holt snorted. ”No lesson here, Captain, just a middle-aged man rambling from his own experiences.”

We fell into a comfortable silence as I scanned the area again. If I pulled my night vision goggles down, my eye sockets protested, but I could see the trees well. They looked creepier with the goggles on. I quickly pulled them back up.

Kane was out there. Not in the forest, but somewhere in between all this madness, and I was going to find him. He was alive. I resisted the urge to reach out for him again, knowing I was better off focusing on the mission. Besides, I had lost our connection after the monster disappeared. Our ability to speak seemed to ebb and flow, like catching a radio station at certain times.

It was technically Lyra”s job to rescue him, not even my assignment. But she doesn”t have a psychic connection to him or know that I have one. No. I needed to focus on myteam. They needed me more than Kane did, given the tensions within our group at the moment. Kane could handle himself; I was confident of that.

Holt”s watch beeped. ”Time for a shift change, boss,” he said cheerfully.

We headed down the road and met up with the twins. Holt seemed stiffer than usual as he and Jones paired off together and started back to camp for rest. Jones, for his part, was perfectly cordial. He”d been that way since I’d reprimanded him for firing his gun at the monster. During our brief, he had even offered to take the first patrol while I recuperated from the monster attack. I’d declined, of course. I’d said that Sylas, Colin, Holt, and Jones would be resting for the night while the twins, Evans, and I took the late shifts.

”Did you bully him?” I asked the twins as we went to meet Evans and gather reports from the entrance teams.

”Oh, we might have said a few things,” Jessie said with a little smirk. ”He”s so boring, though. I hope he gets a bit more life in him after some sleep. It”s not fun to tease someone who doesn”t react. What a jerk.” That was unexpected. I was glad to hear that he was obviously showing some restraint with the twins, given how grating I knew they could be at times. Especially when they were trying to get a rise out of someone.

Jordan agreed wholeheartedly as he bit into an energy bar.

”Eat it quickly,” I told him. ”The monster has a crazy sense of smell.”

”For granola bars?” Jordan asked with his mouth full.

“Maybe. We don’t know anything about it.”

Evans greeted us on the road. Nothing terribly interesting was happening on her side of things.

”The air feels strange, though,” she admitted. We made our rounds up and down the road, setting back to where the monster had attacked me. This side was the most dangerous. If the beast came back, I thought it was more likely that it would appear where we had last seen it. Maybe it could only portal in and out of the Leftovers?

The twins wandered over to the lake, leaving Evans and me leaning against a boulder in full view of the abandoned house where the monster had waited for me. Seeing it now sent an instinctual shiver of fear down my spine. The body remembered everything that happened in battle.

”I hope it stays quiet tonight,” I said, taking a stab at conversation. We had a long night ahead, and the twins looked more likely to explore than hang back for a chat. Besides, I needed to make progress on my working relationship with Jones, since he and Evans were tight. I wasn”t blind to in-group politics, although sometimes it surprised me that they were actually friends.

Evans made a sound to acknowledge that she heard me, but her eyes were on the trees. Her skin was paler than usual, like she felt sick. ”I hope we don”t see it again.” She paused. ”Although I guess I only saw a flash of it for a second. It was strange-looking.”

”It was very albino-ish,” I said, crossing my arms. An awkward silence came over us. It was different than my time with Holt, but not the worst.

The Bureau might request me to attempt to describe the monster for one of our sketch artists who were compiling data, but I wasn”t the best with words. Based on what I”d seen of monsters from the Leftovers, the Bureau might as well have just hired fantasy illustrators for this work when we couldn”t get pictures. The biggest thing was to note whether a creature might be one of many… that would be a big problem. The red eyes came back into my mind. I certainly hoped this monster didn”t have siblings.

Evans cleared her throat abruptly. ”The teeth I saw, though. It reminded me of a chimpanzee.” She turned to study me. A beat of anxiety flickered beneath her reserved gaze. ”And yet it didn”t try to crush you?”

”No,” I admitted. ”I don”t know what to make of that.” If I were a starving monster, I would”ve eaten me in two bites, but this thing had held me in its mouth for some reason.

She was quiet for a long time. All we heard was the occasional beep from my scanner and the twins talking quietly in the distance. Finally, she sucked in a breath.

”The Leftovers freak me out.”

I hadn”t expected her to be so candid. ”They”re weird,” I agreed. ”Far worse than the Immortal Plane, in my opinion. You know what you”re getting in the Immortal Plane.”

”Do you?” She appeared genuinely curious. ”I”ve only heard stories. I was part of one team who helped with Moab, but it was after the infestation, just before the tear grew wider. We had to evacuate. I remember bite marks in the street signs.”

Nodding, I thought back to how Lyra and I had made our way through that city. There were so many adventures that I had dived into, never knowing if I would return. I’d joined the Bureau for the sense of purpose and adventure, and I loved completely immersing myself in action. Without it, I was like a fish out of water.

”I do prefer the Immortal Plane to the Leftovers. There”s a logic to the Immortal Plane, just like our world,” I explained. ”The first time I went, though, I ended up having hallucinations. Human minds take a long time to adjust to the Immortal Plane. It was in the old vampire city.” I shivered, recalling the strange memories well. ”I wouldn”t recommend touching anything if you go there.”

Evans shot me an actual smile of amusement. ”I”ll keep that in mind.” She sighed heavily and looked out at the trees again. ”You know, I didn”t think I”d ever want to leave redbill work, but the redbill populations essentially all vanished after the meld business, and they’d been on the decline since before that. Jones and I found ourselves pushed out of our niche almost overnight. The Bureau told us there was more supernatural work for us, but I never imagined anything like this.”

I paused. This was the first time she’d opened up to me, about her or Jones. I’d failed to consider that their old area of expertise essentially didn”t exist anymore. As I understood it from the vampires, the wild redbill population had started to shift when we had our first trial with the vampires. Dorian and the other vampires were able to communicate with the redbills and instruct them to return to the Immortal Plane through the tear.

“That must’ve been hard,” I admitted.

She waved her hand. “It’s fine. We learned a lot of great stuff.” She pulled up her sleeve to show me a scar I hadn’t noticed before. “Jones may be a bit pig-headed sometimes, but he really had my back during some of those missions. I narrowly missed being a redbill’s dinner, thanks to him, on one of our hairier adventures.”

I nodded, wondering if I should say something. She obviously knew about the tension between us; it would have been hard to miss it. I didn’t want to confide in her about my struggles because I wasn’t sure Evans truly trusted me yet, and it would be unprofessional to speak my mind as freely as I had when I was just a soldier. It seemed premature to say anything like that.

I wish you were here, Kane. I”d really like to talk to you. It was hard not having him there, even as just a running monologue in my head. As I considered my response, the twins waved me over to the lake. Thank goodness. My heart beat fast in my chest. Had they found something?

”We rescued you,” Jessie told me under her breath, so Evans couldn”t hear. My sister flashed a grin at me, but there was something off about it. ”How are you?”

”How am I?” I asked with a raised brow of interest. ”Nice of you to care enough to ask.”

Jordan rolled his eyes. ”You know what we mean.” The twins stared at me seriously. They were truly a force of nature when they came together like this.

”We”re worried about you,” Jessie said softly. ”We”ve been noticing that your attention span is, like, all over the place. You’re short-circuiting out here. That isn”t you, Ro—Captain. You”re usually laser-focused when it comes to work. What”s up?”

”Spacey and jumpy is how I”d describe it,” Jordan added.

I debated telling them.

This was my chance. I could tell them about Kane”s voice and confess all my worries. But a tiny concern grabbed at me. Was that really what a captain should do? It could give me so much relief to finally talk about it, and they would probably believe me, but… this confession would make our team politics even messier. If I kept a secret with just them, then the group would subconsciously know something was off, and the twins would try too hard to defend me if I ever spaced out.

”I appreciate it,” I said finally, my tongue as heavy as lead from the guilt in my mouth. ”But I”m fine. It”s just being in a leadership position without being able to be the full Roxy… I”m having to grow up.” It was a reasonable excuse, and one I hoped they would identify with. They knew I’d struggled with my attitude and added responsibilities. Hell, they were going through the same journey, on some level.

The twins were part of the Hellraisers, but I couldn’t drag them into my personal problems. The connection—real or psychic or a product of the Leftovers—was my burden to deal with at this point. I didn’t want them to worry.

Jessie sighed. ”Fine. Well, tell us if you do need anything.”

”Seriously. We”re here for you,” Jordan added, and opened his arms wide to illustrate this. ”We can take the patrol closer to the woods, if you want.”

”It”s fine, I”ll be up there with Evans. We”ll start our rounds,” I said. As I went back up to Evans, the interaction haunted me with every step.

This was what leaders did. They took on weight.

I’d said I was fine.

Was I?