Page 27

Sylas had sent Joseph to a medical clinic ten miles from the Leftovers. Roxy and most of my team made the trip to visit Joseph to see how he was and possibly speak with him about what had happened to him. We”d left Cam back in town, since he wanted all the details from the teams in the area for his reports, and Chandry had gone with him. I swore, Cam loved to do comprehensive paperwork more than anyone I”d ever met.

Upon our arrival at the hospital, the doctor led us to Joseph”s private room. Since he was a rescued Bureau employee, everything was highly secretive. He had a limited number of nurses, and Roxy had to push for us to get access at all.

”He”s stable now, but try not to tire him out,” the doctor said. ”The dehydration and fever caused most of his stilted speech. He”s fully coherent now, and I”d like to keep it that way,” he advised us, before leaving us just outside the door.

We found Joseph in his bed. He looked a million times better than he had when we’d left him. The mid-morning sun cast him in a much more flattering light, and the nurses had helped him bathe. Under all the scratches and dirt, he turned out to be a handsome older man with kind but sad eyes.

”Hello there,” he said softly when we came in. Sike clutched the recovered laptop in his hands, and Joseph”s eyes sparked with recognition. He waved Sike over. ”That”s mine. I”m glad you found it.”

I glanced at Joseph”s heart monitor. He was stable, but still looked frail. We needed to get as much information out of him as we could without hurting his recovery process. I asked him how he was feeling, but he waved me off.

Part of me wanted to find a moment to privately ask Joseph if he”d seen my parents. They were still missing somewhere out there. Dorian hadn”t found their bodies among the survivors he and Cam had come across in the Leftovers. I couldn”t rightly prioritize my parents over the others who were missing, but I had serious worries about the survivors of the Black Rock office.

I may not want to know… What if I found out my parents were gone? It would destroy me if they had still been at the office and Joseph saw them get kidnapped by the Ghost or something. My throat tightened as I waited anxiously for Joseph to begin his story.

”I”ve got a story to tell, and I know you”re here for it,” Joseph said bluntly. ”An IV drip does wonders for the mind. I can”t remember what I said to you when we first met, but thank you for returning my knife.” It was sitting beside him on the table, out of reach. ”It was a gift from my father when I was a boy. He passed away, so I”m happy you found it.”

”You”re welcome,” I said and glanced at the blade. It was rusty, just like the last time I”d seen it. Joseph caught my stare. ”I was surprised by the state of it. It seemed to age terribly in the Leftovers.”

”There were a lot of surprises waiting for us in Black Rock,” Joseph said cryptically. ”That place works like nowhere else I”ve ever been. The physics don”t make sense. It was utter madness when the first wave hit us. People screamed. I knew it was bad when the trained soldiers cried out. I was part of a group of fifteen people who were left afterward. There were a few other researchers, but it was mostly soldiers. They insisted on patrolling around the camp. We started hearing the monster after the first few days, and it started picking off the patrols.”

We arranged ourselves around him. Roxy and I took the only two chairs available by his bedside. Dorian and Sike stood to the side, perhaps anxious about how he would be affected by their appearance. Bryce stood by the door, conveniently blocking anyone from looking inside. The nurses and doctors had already signed special nondisclosure agreements at Bryce”s request, and the Bureau would ensure their silence about the presence of vampires.

”Most of the Black Rock population had already disappeared, and we all hunkered down inside the building because of the monster. It showed itself early, but I never had a run-in with it. I had another researcher with me, but one day, he took off into the night. I think he just had a mental break. I chased after him but couldn’t find him, and then… when I came back, all the soldiers were gone.” Joseph shook his head sadly. ”I continued my research to keep myself sane. There was nothing else to do. I kept studying the monster and observing it whenever I could find it. I thought that if I learned everything I could about the monster, then I’d have a better chance of surviving it. It didn”t seem interested in me, at first.”

At first. What changed, and what was this thing after?

”I”ve got lots of data for you here,” Joseph said, and attempted to open the clunky device. Roxy jumped up to help him raise the screen, and he slowly typed in his password. ”I never planned on parting with the laptop, but the monster had other plans for me. I have all my research on it, since we couldn’t update wirelessly without internet. There were a few cameras set up in the woods before the chaos started. Using that, I was able to capture images of it.” He navigated to a folder and clicked on a file, opening a blurry but recognizable photo of the beast in the woods. It had been taken using night vision, showing the creature in its pale physical form.

“The Ghost,” I murmured.

”That”s the same monster that grabbed me,” Roxy confirmed. It was the same for us. It felt like this beast had been terrorizing us for so long, but it had only been a few days. Joseph coughed weakly and scrolled through graphs that I didn”t understand. “It has a really sensitive nose—I slashed at it, and it dropped me. That’s how I got away.”

Ah, so that’s where that cut had come from.

”These are recorded sightings and observational data from all the times I had encounters with ‘the Ghost,’ as you call it.”

I stared at the screen. ”Did you go into the forest often?”

”Every day, but only during daylight. Although there were a few times when I hiked overnight to see if I could find a trail of what happened to the others,” Joseph said. Well, that explained why the other Bureau teams hadn”t found him. “I was still hoping to find my colleague, Kevin, and I was afraid to set out into the middle of rural Utah alone with no idea of where I was going. I thought my odds of someone finding me were better if I stayed put, near the supplies. While I waited, I ran experiments on our backup generators until they died. I just kept working… I have theories about its capabilities. Portal work seems to be its most powerful and dangerous ability. When the generators failed, I overtook the other researcher’s work, since it wasn’t on the computer. He had some technology he was fiddling with, some kind of device that he’d experimented with near Moab. All I knew from his background was that he’d gone with the soldiers to help with the meld.”

I leaned back in the chair. That thing can definitely make portals, but how and why? And what’s the connection with the other researcher?

Roxy and I told him everything we knew about the Ghost, based on our experiences. Dorian and Bryce occasionally chimed in, since they had also been targets. Joseph listened attentively, focus and clarity showing on his face despite his fatigue.

He rubbed his face. ”Everyone who has been targeted, myself included, has connections between multiple planes. I must have become part of that group when I started messing with my old colleague’s work, which had some interplanar qualities. The Black Rock soldiers all helped him transport and build the device. Isn”t that interesting?” He began typing excitedly on his computer, making a note. I considered his theory. He was a true scientist, with his ability to spot patterns quickly and determine what had suddenly made him a target like his old colleagues. It was true that most of us had a lot of experience with interplanar travel.

”The ability to portal is huge,” Dorian said in awe. ”The monster doesn”t require a gate like vampires do, though.”

Joseph looked thoughtfully at Dorian. ”It does appear to have strange capabilities. I set up several of the more high-powered scanners when I still had electricity from the generators. The readings were interesting. Some of my devices also seemed to actually call the beast. I left a few on overnight in the woods, and by the next day they”d either been destroyed or dragged off. I recognized the teeth marks immediately.”

”But it was attacking that Jessica and Dan duo.” Bryce grunted. ”Doesn”t that mean something?”

Roxy huffed. ”Unfortunately, Jessica and Dan have been lurking around the Leftovers far too much. They had no idea what they were doing. I bet they got lost in the Leftovers, and they clearly stumbled onto an area they shouldn’t have been in. They could’ve had some weird interaction with a spot in the Leftovers where the planes were stronger, some kind of flux area. Or maybe it has something to do with Jessica’s weird ability.”

I puzzled over the theories. The memory of the Ghost”s first attack made me sit up straight.

”It left the airplane, but came back when our comms went off,” I said, recalling the sudden return of the monster that had seemed so strange that night.

”Yes, I think there”s something to that. The creature senses things,” Joseph mused. ”I”d been working with some of the surviving technology to generate theories… There”s something about the creature”s invisibility that disrupts the electrical field. I have blueprints on my laptop for a device that might be able to keep it visible long enough to fight it.”

Blueprints? I would send those over immediately to the nearest tech teams to see if they could take a look at it.

Sike whistled. ”You were busy.”

”I was lonely… until the beast came for me at last.” Joseph sighed. ”As you”ve seen, it has some sort of obsession with abduction. It was odd, though… It didn”t seem as if it intended to hurt me.” How can he say that? The Ghost had hunted him down and torn his arm off.

I couldn”t help the disbelief in my voice. ”Your arm.”

Joseph shook his head. ”No, the creature wasn”t actively trying to harm me, from what I can tell. It was carrying me securely in its mouth, but I fought it. My arm was mostly torn off when it tried to keep me from escaping. If it had really wanted to hurt me, it easily could”ve killed me. Whatever it’s doing, it”s desperate to take people to a specific location. It might be trying to balance energies in its own way, identifying sources of interplanar energy and dragging them to the source. But it”s stubborn about it; it doesn’t seem to care if it hurts us or itself in the process of ‘cleaning up.’ I don”t remember how I moved around in that transparent area after it dropped me.” He said the last part as he looked sadly at the new bandages, where his arm used to be. ”Those days were feverish and filled with delusions that still haunt me.”

”Is there anything else you can remember?” I asked. It was important for us to get as much information as possible, even if it sounded like fever dreams. Beyond being shaken and weak, Joseph had a strong mind. I had a feeling he remembered things better than he thought.

He stared at the window with a perplexed look, recalling some memory we couldn”t see. ”There was a group of children that came to help me… humans and vampires, mostly, and some with fur and scales. They saw my infected arm. One of them cut off the mangled limb. I think he told me that he was sorry, but it had to be done. When I woke up, they were gone. I thought I’d dreamt them, but then I saw my arm. I heard other voices as well, but I was so feverish that I”m not sure which memories can be trusted beyond the children helping me. They had to exist if my arm was like that, and the doctor told me whoever amputated the limb likely saved me from certain death. I was alone for a while before they showed up.”

Were those children the same voices from the night Sike and I camped together? They had to be… They were discussing Joseph by name. Perhaps he had originally been dropped near the children, but then somehow gotten moved and separated, possibly by the Ghost.

Joseph stifled a yawn, clearly tired and worn out even from our short chat. We needed to let him rest and recuperate. The Bureau would likely be sending their own follow-up team to take transcripts of Joseph”s testimony. Bryce had already phoned our liaison between the Bureau and the government, and we would be able to look at copies of all of Joseph”s work, since it pertained to our rescue mission.

”We”ll let you rest,” I told him. ”Thank you. We truly appreciate everything you”ve told us. I hope you feel better.”

As we said our goodbyes and left, Joseph”s eyes were already closing.

Our buzzing group poured into the parking lot, and I unlocked the off-road SUV that the Bureau lent us. It was just big enough to fit our group of five. As we climbed into the car, Roxy called the Hellraisers to warn them of an upcoming meeting when we arrived. I started the engine and drove us back.

We met near one of the station points just outside of town. Cam joined us, reports freshly filed, along with Chandry, who smiled brightly. The other Bureau soldiers were out doing patrols in the forest near where Roxy said she was attacked.

”Learn anything good?” Jessie asked. Roxy”s siblings, the twins, were every bit as wild and mischievous as she was when she first came to the Bureau. Roxy had changed a lot, though, since I”d seen her last. She handled her team well, with a tempered energy that made Bryce and me often exchange impressed looks.

”Yes, we did,” Roxy replied. ”It”s becoming clearer that both Callanish and the Hellraisers have similar goals, at least. The monster that we’re looking for is the same creature Callanish dealt with in Utah.”

”Utah?” Jordan echoed. ”Wow, it certainly gets around.”

You have no idea. The Ghost could jump multiple states and planes. It was impressive… and worrying. We had told Roxy”s team about it, but it was difficult to understand for someone who hadn”t experienced multiple planes. The Hellraisers, besides Colin and Roxy, had experience with monsters, but had never traveled to the Immortal Plane.

Bryce surveyed the twins. I could tell he wanted to give them some tough love, just like he had with Cam. ”We”re working together,” he announced. ”It seems like the simplest solution. We have missing people being kept in the other plane, wherever it is. We need to get back into the transparent space, but we have no idea how dangerous it is. The Ghost has made a home there.”

”I”ve been calling it the Pocket Space,” Cam confessed. ”In my reports, I mean.”

Roxy nodded. ”Okay, so this Pocket Space, we need the Ghost to open a portal to get there. Or can vampires portal to it using a gate?”

Dorian shook his head. ”Unfortunately, no. It really is a weird area that our senses have zero grasp on. We only have connections between the Mortal and Immortal planes.”

The Ghost it was. ”We need it to open a portal with its powers. We managed to force it to do that when we cornered it in the building, and Chandry held the portal open long enough for us to cross,” I explained to them. ”We”ll need to contact our Immortal Plane allies before we make the attempt.”

It was always our plan to include more of our allies. We desperately needed more people on this job. I wondered what Reshi would make of the Pocket Space.

”More vampires?” Evans asked, her voice a little high.

”Yes. It’s vital to get help,” I said, and Roxy shot me a halfhearted smirk. As if that surprises anyone. ”We”ll work together to try to rescue the people who have been left behind. So far, we have three… but there could be more, from what Joseph said.”

Roxy glanced down the road. ”There have been abductions in town. Maybe they were people like Jessica, who were developing abilities. If the Ghost is taking people from the plane and not immediately eating them, they could still be alive.”

We stood to save more people. My hopes rose. Now, we needed a way to lure the monster out.

”Everyone can brainstorm ways to lure the Ghost out and force it to open up a portal when we corner it. Ideally, I”d like to capture it in the process of opening a portal, but we have to prevent it from dragging off more civilians, at all costs.” I surveyed the group. So far, the only skeptical faces were Jones and Evans on Roxy”s team. Every team had some issues, though, and they looked older. If I had to guess, she”d probably had some trouble with them. It was always my experience that older people had a problem answering to someone younger.

Jessie and Jordan grinned. Cam looked wary of the duo, but hopefully he”d work that out as we went along. Beggars can’t be choosers. And to be fair, it looked like Roxy had a good team. We wrapped up the meeting, and Roxy sent her teams off to patrols or rest. I stayed with her as Dorian shot ideas around with Bryce.

”Want to take a walk?” I asked Roxy as she wandered back. Bryce, Dorian, Sike, and Chandry were still chatting among themselves. She’d mentioned wanting to talk about something, so I was eager to steal a few minutes away from everyone. Roxy gave me a grateful smile, and we wandered down the road toward the town sign. ”Your team looks good.”

”They”re a work in progress,” Roxy said with a grin. ”I guess I am, too.”

”Everyone is,” I told her. Although I knew Roxy often thought I was Ms. Perfect, I struggled just as much as everyone else. ”How are Jones and Evans?”

She let out a chuckle. ”You picked up on that already? It must be written on their faces. Evans is all right, but Jones has given me some insubordination. I hope things will get better. I”ve already stood my ground.” We reached the town sign, and she went quiet for a moment. ”Lyra, something weird has been happening. It”s going to sound insane.”

I raised an amused brow. ”I am married to a vampire, Roxy.”

”I know that,” she said, scratching the back of her neck. ”Look, just listen. I”ve been… hearing Kane”s thoughts.” Her story tumbled out. She told me how she’d thought she was going insane until she and Kane had finally connected during her intense fight with the Ghost, her speech becoming flustered during her explanation. It was hard to think that Kane and Roxy had a psychic bond, but I didn”t doubt it, in the end. They were so similar. Things had happened between them, although Roxy told me it wasn”t as serious as my relationship with Dorian.

”I think he”s in the Pocket Space,” she said as she finished her monologue. Her tone was a touch breathless. It must”ve taken her so much energy to keep this a secret. ”Do you think we could find him? He can survive on his own, but… I want to help him.”

I was willing to pursue it, although we needed more evidence. ”If you think he”s there, then I”m willing to float the idea to everyone else. We’ll look for him when we search for the others. We don”t have to tell them about the voices. We could cook up a story… at least for your team. The only issue is that I”d like more physical proof.” She nodded with understanding. We had to make sure he was there. Also, it might be harder for her team to understand the truth behind Roxy”s experiences, especially if they weren”t used to supernatural weirdness. ”I know you”re worried about him. We all are, but you”re right. Kane is strong.”

Roxy sighed heavily. The wind blew her bright red hair into her face as she gave me a concerned, searching stare.

”The thing is… his voice hasn”t come back. I don”t know what that means.”

Her revelation sank in. Had we lost Kane? If she hadn’t heard from him since that moment, he might be injured, or worse. Wherever he was, I hoped he could hold on until we could find him. Please be okay, Kane.