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As much as I had enjoyed meeting the residents of this sleepy mountain town that had been thrown into chaos, I was just as happy to see them go today. Well, most of them were going. A few stubborn old folks were determined to stay in their cottages up in the neighborhood, but they’d had to sign waivers citing their refusal to leave the area. It would be a big headache for the government and the Bureau, but my job was just to hunt down this monster. The Bureau could figure out the locals.

The goal was to lure the Ghost out and capture it. It sounded easy in theory, especially when I considered that we had two great teams working together, but this monster was wily.

Thanks to Joseph”s extensive research, we were able to enact a decent plan. We took his blueprints and sent them off right after leaving the clinic to some nearby Bureau techs who were at a station about thirty miles away. The Bureau had mobile spots all over, filled with researchers who had more than enough on their plates, since the Leftovers continuously produced samples for them to study. Luckily, the machine became a priority for them, and they delivered a prototype to us several hours later. They’d used Joseph”s design to roughly engineer a device that would allow us to deliver an electric shock to the creature. The device combined old redbill equipment that we already had, since Joseph’s design utilized older Bureau technology. We hoped, based on Joseph”s theories, that it would keep the creature from turning invisible and sneaking through a portal away from us.

I met up with Lyra in the road. The afternoon sun was hitting the mountainside, casting us in partial shade.We had lent her team more winter gear, since they had lost most of their supplies during their mission in Utah. Her breath floated in the air as she went over the schematics for the device again. Cam pointed to something on the paper. He was good with Bureau technology, and his obsession with reports and details helped immensely. Who would’ve thought Bryce’s nephew would be such a pencil pusher?

”We”ll have to be careful with this prototype,” he warned us. ”You see that little button? It controls everything, but they didn”t exactly have time to put a safety on it. It”s very sensitive, from what I can see.”

I nodded. ”Got it. The little button makes a big charge and we take out the beast.”

Lyra exhaled evenly. ”I hope it”s that easy.” But we all knew that it might prove much more complicated. Our teams filed in during their appointed time slots. Bryce looked refreshed today, but I worried about him after Lyra had let it slip during our heart-to-heart that he was being affected by the vampire”s curse. He would definitely want to rescue Arlonne if we managed to get the beast to create the portal.

I still can”t hear Kane. I tried to bury this worrying thought, knowing that I needed to focus on this mission. I was glad Lyra had been kind enough to hear me out and believe me. Now, we needed to find Kane among the other survivors, if he was there. I highly suspected he was. Kane, of all people, knew how to adjust to his surroundings, since his entire journey as a vampire warrior had involved him working twice as hard. But he’d mentioned protecting the others. Was he talking about the children that Joseph, Sike, and Lyra had told us about? I’d thought they might be the harvester kids we were with during the meld, but from Joseph’s description, there were humans, vampires, and wildlings as well.

My head spun as our teams came together for our final briefing and I showed Lyra exactly where I had been attacked. The plan was simple. We would use all our vampire comms at the same time, creating a big use of energy that we suspected would draw the Ghost toward us. If it was attracted to interplanar energy, then hell, we would give that thing as much weird plane interaction as it wanted.

Our plan was to allow the Ghost to tear open a portal, but have only one team go through while the other group focused on keeping the monster back. The Hellraisers would try to prevent it from actually leaving the Mortal Plane, using Joseph”s new device. The invention was new, and, assuming it even worked, we couldn’t be sure how long the effect would last, meaning we had to act fast. While we held the Ghost off and hopefully captured it, Lyra”s team would use the portal to travel to the Pocket Space, where they could rescue the others. The Hellraisers would have to keep the monster alive, of course, since Lyra and her team would eventually call us on the vampire comms for an extraction. If we captured the creature, we reasoned, it could be useful with its portal abilities.

”Remember, if you don”t hear from us in a day because the comms don’t work, just plan on extracting us anyway,” Lyra said. Dorian fiddled with one of the vampire comms in his hand.

”Got it.” We had been over the plan a few times, but everyone was on high alert and on edge. Even Jones looked nervous, with a paler face than usual. If we wanted to succeed, we needed to work together flawlessly, but the plan was full of variables… which didn”t make the outlook optimistic. Still, what other choice did we have? We risked losing more lives to the Ghost if we didn”t capture it. Sure, Joseph thought it was relatively harmless and bent on balancing energies in a weird way, but he’d also lost his freaking arm. We had to get Arlonne and Kane—if he was there—out of that place. Dan and Jessica, as well. They had gotten themselves into quite a mess by disobeying both the law and common sense, and they were not equipped to survive in such conditions.

”Are we sure this is going to work?” Holt asked me under his breath after we broke away from separate team briefs. He stared at me, worry in his usually kind and calm eyes. ”There”s so much we don”t know about the creature.”

I”d give him that. ”You”re right. There”s a lot we don”t know, but I can personally vouch for Lyra and Bryce. They have a great team with lots of experience in Immortal Plane conflicts, especially Dorian.”

Evans watched Dorian warily over my shoulder. ”It”s… interesting… to work with vampires.” Her attitude about it didn’t surprise me. I remembered how difficult it had been for me, at first, when we worked with the vampires. We had so much propaganda shoved down our throats during training that it was hard to get over those biases. Evans was older than me, so she would naturally be more skeptical.

”Trust me,” I told her gently. ”We can trust them. Without the vampires, this world would”ve been blown to hell.”

Jones scowled, but he said nothing. I paired him and Evans off to wait on the left side while I put the twins and Holt toward my back. Colin stationed himself in a tree just on the border of the Leftovers, while Chandry and Sike hid with Holt”s group. I was to play bait again, since it had worked last time, but I had Dorian and Lyra with me.

”You ready?” Jessie asked over the comm.

”I”m set,” I replied. We”d taken every type of Reshi device with us, especially the comms, to attract the Ghost. Lyra glanced at me and lifted her comm. We were ready to start.

We activated the special comms several times. It was strange, standing there and just setting them off without speaking. A few minutes passed quietly. I watched the abandoned house again, but there was no sign of a monster breathing this time.

My desire to talk to Kane was heavy in the back of my mind. Surely, it wouldn”t hurt to try while we just waited, right?

Are you there, Kane? Silence greeted me, along with the soft sounds of mortal birds chirping in the distance on the non-Leftovers side of the road. I”m here. I”m with Lyra and Dorian. We”re trying to get to you… or, at least, to where we think you are.

There was no reply. I missed his voice more than I liked to admit. After telling Lyra and having her agree that it was indeed Kane, it felt even more real to me. I wanted to hear him and know that he was safe. Worry gnawed at me. Had something happened to him? Lyra”s concerned face when I’d told her about Kane surfaced in my mind, crystal clear. She was worried too. She’d probably shared it with Dorian, as well, which worked for me… just as long as my team didn”t know yet.

We can have that conversation later. I paused. Kane, your intrusion really made things complicated for me for a while, but now I want to hear you.

Again, we clicked the comms on and off and used them to call to one another. I needed this stupid Ghost to come out, so I could kick its butt and capture it. Kane felt so close to me. If we could rescue him… My heart soared inside me. Come on, Kane. Listen to me.

A low-sounding howl issued from the forest. My heart hammered against my chest in nervous excitement. Lyra shot me an urgent look. It was the beast. We both recognized it.

”Two hundred yards into the forest,” Holt said on our comms. ”Team A moving in.”

”Team B following,” Jones called. ”Guns ready… but we won”t fire.”It was probably hard for him to say that, but I appreciated it. My palms grew sweaty as the howl got louder. Even though I’d tussled with many a strange creature in my experience with the Immortal Plane, this monster had cradled me in its mouth. It was disturbing. The memory of its teeth pressing into me made me shudder with disgust.

How could Joseph think it doesn”t want to hurt us? But I remembered how the Ghost had held me in its jaws. It had been poised to do more damage if it wanted to, and yet it hadn’t. Why?

The trees shifted slightly on the forest line.

”Incoming,” Lyra muttered.

”It has one white claw visible at the moment,” Colin said on the comm. ”Not sure why, but I can see it.”

I saw it now, a smear of white as the beast came charging at us. The creature appeared unable to fully shift to invisibility for some reason. Lyra and Dorian rushed in front of me while I pulled out the device. Lyra brought out her knife, one of Reshi”s designs, and Dorian positioned himself in front of me. If they could lure the beast forward with their own interplanar vibes, then I had a better chance of stealing forward and using the device on the creature. Stealthily, my team was moving in to ambush the Ghost while Callanish waited nearby to run into the portal.

The howl struck my ears loud and clear. I gritted my teeth. Come on, you stupid monster. Take them to Kane.

Lyra sucked in a breath as the Ghost pushed past her, suddenly smacking her to the side with its claw. Dorian landed a blow, but the monster was too frantic to notice. It wanted me. I fired a shot at the visible claw, but the beast moved faster than I remembered. I jumped to the side as a gust of air hit me. After tangling with this thing the first time, its movements were easier to predict.

If I can just get it to show its nose…

”It”s only going for Roxy, now,” Bryce said on the comm. ”Whatever this thing wants, you”ve got it, Roxy.”

And yet, Dorian and Lyra had been targets before. We’d all set off Reshi”s devices, so what did this mean?

The creature came back around. Its cover disappeared for a moment, and then it shifted completely to white.

”Move in,” Holt cried on the comm. I heard their thundering footsteps behind me as I tried to focus on the Ghost. My gun aimed up at the beast, and it dove at me again, but Lyra was quick this time. She landed a blow on its side before Dorian yanked her out of the path of the beast’s retaliation. When the monster came back, the Hellraisers were around it.

My team trained their guns on the beast, which let out a furious roar as it jerked its head side to side. The scar from my hit on its nose had almost healed. If we needed to, we could fire there, but I didn”t want to hurt it too badly. It was just an animal, really, even if it was from the Leftovers. Lyra and Dorian set off more of Reshi”s communication devices. The Ghost curled in on itself for a moment, screeching in pain.

”It”s working,” Lyra yelled. ”We”re overwhelming it.”

The creature leaned its head back and unleashed a ferocious roar, then turned to the side and made a step forward. My stomach twisted abruptly, a reaction to something strange happening around us.

”The portal,” Dorian shouted.

”Hellraisers, move,” I commanded. Colin fired a shot just in front of the creature, blocking its way to the invisible portal. Chandry sprinted easily across the field and launched herself at it. Her hands latched onto something, and she forced the portal to stay in place.

I darted forward and pressed the device against the beast”s skin. It roared. For several seconds, the beast flashed back and forth between invisibility and visibility, until it finally settled into the white scaly flesh.

The team members ofCallanish rushed through the portal, andLyra glanced back right before she jumped with Dorian. ”Good luck,” she called. Chandry slipped through last. With that, they were gone. Sweat dotted my brow as I pulled away from the monster. The sensation in my stomach faded. The Ghost collapsed on the ground and let out a pained whimper.

Holt cursed. The beast sprang back up easily. I pulled back, firing up the device again. The Ghost hesitated. Its head was tilted toward me, but it clearly hated the tool I had just used on it. What was its limit? The device hadn”t been enough to get the monster completely down. As we’d suspected, the effect was temporary, but how often could we use it before we hurt the creature too badly?

”Captain,” Colin said on the line. ”I think you need to be careful. I”m coming down.”

Anxiety spiked within me. ”What is it, Colin? It”s not attacking.”

”It”s not, but something”s wrong with it,” Colin insisted. Jones twisted his face in disbelief as Colin came sprinting over. The beast gave a labored breath. I hesitated, but Colin would only break position for something important. He was exceptionally good with animals, especially with redbills. He had a gift for dealing with them.

”Talk,” I told him. ”Quickly, before this thing decides to scoop us up.” I angled the device at the Ghost, and it crouched with a low, warning growl. We had formed a circle around it. Colin”s brow furrowed worriedly as he looked at me, his cheeks pink from the sprinting.

”Look at it,” he insisted. ”Really look at it, Captain. It”s suffering.”

I paused. Colin had a big heart, which could sometimes go too far. He wanted the Ghost to stop hurting, but it was a threat. Still, I studied the creature, as he’d asked. When I looked closely, the limbs that were now visible thanks to the device were thin and worn-looking. I frowned as the monster snapped its teeth together. We had no idea how this device had affected it.

”Can we just tie it up?” Jessie suggested. We’d brought ropes, chains, and nets with us, but I had hoped the device would do most of the work. If we couldn’t use it again, that changed things.

How could we restrain this thing without letting it make a portal, or killing it?A sudden cold chill came over me. The wind hit, but it wasn”t just the weather.

”Roxy,” Kane said. Oh no, not now. I”m busy. Give me a few minutes.

A ragged breath came from Kane. My pulse suddenly spiked with dread.

”Are you there?” he asked, and his voice was strained. It was never strained. ”Things are getting bad here.”