Page 19 of Echoes From the Void (Shadow Locke Shifters #3)

Chapter 18

Matteo

The corrupted twins’ final scream still echoes in my head as we stand in the asylum’s shadow. Frankie and Finn lean against each other, drained from granting mercy to Valerie’s victims. But something else catches my attention—a sound at the edge of hearing, like claws on stone. Like something escaping.

“There’s more,” I growl, my fangs descending as I scent the air. Copper and chemicals, fear and corruption. A trail leading into the darkening forest. “Someone was watching. They’re running now.”

“Matteo—” Leo starts, but his words cut off as another screech tears through the twilight. Not the twins this time. Something else. Something alive.

“Go,” Frankie says, understanding in her dark eyes. Through our pack bonds, I feel her exhaustion warring with rage. “Hunt them down. Find out what else they’ve done.”

“I’ll set the charges,” Bishop adds, Guardian marks pulsing as he pulls demolition equipment from his car. “This place needs to burn.”

Dorian looks up from his temporal calculations. “The time stream shows multiple signatures fleeing north. At least four distinct entities.”

My shadows writhe with predatory anticipation. More prey. More answers.

“Together,” Leo says firmly, moving to my side. After seventeen years, he knows better than to try stopping me. “We hunt together.”

I bare my fangs in what might be a smile. Through our oldest bond, I feel his sunshine powers gathering, ready to balance my darkness like always.

“The blood will tell us everything,” I promise, already moving toward the forest’s edge. Already tracking the scent of Valerie’s fleeing assistants.

Behind us, Bishop begins laying charges that will erase this place of horrors. But some horror has already escaped into the shadows.

Time to hunt it down.

The child’s scent from the facility still clings to my skin as I track our prey through the darkening forest. Not the corrupted twins—something else. Something still alive. Still suffering. Three hours we’ve been hunting, following trails that reek of fear and something worse.

Leo moves like my shadow, perfectly in sync after years of friendship turned to more. His sunshine powers gather in his hands, ready to illuminate any darkness we find. Ready to balance my rage like always.

“Trail’s splitting,” I murmur, pausing at a fallen log. The copper-chemical scent branches—one path leading deeper into the woods, another curving back toward civilization.

“They’re trying to confuse us,” Leo notes, but his tone carries certainty. He knows I won’t be fooled.

A branch snaps ahead—clumsy, panicked movement. Amateur. The scent sharpens—fear sweat and antiseptic, like the facility’s labs. Like Frankie’s memories of pain.

“One of Valerie’s assistants,” I growl, feeling my fangs lengthen. “Female. Injured.” Blood scent carries on the wind, making my shadows writhe. “Afraid.”

“Good,” Leo says, his usual warmth hardening to something dangerous. Even his sunshine can cast deadly shadows when needed.

Bishop appears on our right, moving soundlessly with Guardian grace. “Got confirmation from my mother. The Council wants them alive for questioning.”

“Alive doesn’t mean unharmed,” I remind him, earning a grim nod. Through our pack bonds, I feel his own rage at what we found in those labs.

“More movement at your two o’clock,” Leo warns, shifting to flank wider. “Multiple targets.”

Perfect. More prey.

“Formation three?” Leo asks, but I’m already moving. Years of training together, of protecting each other, make words unnecessary. He knows my hunts like I know his heart.

The assistants break into a run, crashing through underbrush with pure prey behavior. My shadows hunger at their panic, at their amateur attempts to throw us off.

“Amateur,” I mutter. “Running uphill.”

“Thinking height means safety,” Leo agrees, his power pulsing in time with mine. “Want to show them how wrong they are?”

Through our bond, I feel his fierce joy in the hunt matching mine. This is what we’ve always been—my darkness and his light, perfectly balanced in pursuit of justice.

The prey cluster together—four of them now, backs against a rocky outcrop. One pulls out something that makes Bishop swear.

“Essence injectors,” he warns through gritted teeth. “Like the ones from the facility.”

The memory of Frankie’s screams in that place hits me like a physical blow. My shadows lash out before conscious thought, smashing the injectors. One assistant screams as darkness coils around her throat.

“The children,” I say, letting them see my fangs. “Tell me about the children.”

“You don’t understand,” one babbles, blood trickling from her nose where my shadows grip too tight. “The essence trials were necessary. The realms are collapsing, we needed?—”

“Wrong answer.”

I reach for their blood the way I learned to sense pressure points and energy flow in my mother’s clinic. But where she uses it to heal, I use it to extract truth. My shadows slip into their veins, tasting copper and corruption and?—

Images flood in: laboratories, essence trials, Blackwood’s growing instability. A hidden temple deep in the shadow realm. And something else. Something worse.

“No,” I breathe, the revelation staggering me. “That’s not possible.”

Leo steadies me instantly, his hand warm on my back. Through our oldest bond, I feel his question, his concern.

“Matteo?” Bishop lands beside us, Guardian marks blazing. “What is it?”

The assistant laughs suddenly, more blood trickling down. “You think Valerie’s working alone? It wasn’t just her father. Ask the Guardians about Project Sunrise. Ask them about?—”

My shadows move before she can finish, silencing her. But the blood has already shown me everything—decades of experiments, children twisted by corrupted essence, a program that goes deeper than just Valerie’s madness.

“There are more facilities,” I tell Leo and Bishop, my voice rough with rage. “Not just the asylum. They have... they have whole compounds. Hidden in both realms.”

“How many?” Bishop demands, his Guardian training taking over.

“Too many.” The blood tells me numbers, locations, horrors beyond counting. “And they’re not just experimenting anymore. They’re...”

“Succeeding,” the assistant chokes out. “The merger of light and shadow... it’s finally working. The next phase is?—”

My shadows tighten, cutting off her words. But through her blood, I see what she means. See the tanks full of twisted children, the successful fusions of essence, the plans for what comes next.

“Call Frankie,” I tell Bishop. “Tell her... tell her we found them. All of them. Every child they took.”

Leo’s sunshine powers flare, responding to my fury. “And we’re getting them out.”

“No,” I say, feeling my fangs lengthen fully as the blood reveals its final secrets. “First we make these ones tell us everything. Then we burn it all down.”

The assistant tries to speak again, but now it’s both my shadows and Leo’s light holding her in place. Together, like always. Balanced in violence like we’re balanced in love.

“The blood knows,” I tell them, feeling both predator and healer rise in perfect harmony. “And now, so do we.”

The blood speaks in images and sensations: children strapped to tables, essence being forced into unwilling veins, Valerie standing over it all with clinical detachment. But there’s more—older memories, deeper truths. A program that started long before Valerie, before even her father.

“Project Sunrise,” the assistant gasps as my shadows extract each secret. “It was supposed to be different. Light instead of shadow. Healing instead of harm. But they couldn’t control it, couldn’t force the merger?—”

“So they switched to shadow essence instead,” Bishop finishes, his Guardian marks pulsing with rage. “Made it darker. More controllable.”

“Not controllable,” another assistant laughs, blood staining her teeth. “Never controllable. Ask your mother, Guardian. Ask her about the first trials.”

Bishop goes still. Through our pack bonds, I feel his shock ripple out. “My mother...”

“Later,” Leo cuts in, his hand squeezing my shoulder. He knows how the blood-truth can overwhelm, has seen me lost in it before. “Focus, Teo. What else are they showing you?”

I push deeper, letting my shadows taste every secret in their veins. The images come faster: a compound hidden in mountains, children in tanks of liquid shadow, something massive stirring in the depths...

“Father,” I breathe, understanding clicking into place. “They found him. Frankie’s father. The Eredar?—”

A high, thin scream cuts through the night—not from our prisoners, but from somewhere deeper in the woods. A child’s voice, twisted by pain and corruption.

“They’re moving them,” the assistant says, smiling despite the blood running from her eyes. “Right now. Evacuating every facility. You’ll never find them all in time.”

Leo’s power flares like captured sunlight. “Want to bet?”

I bare my fangs, feeling the predator rise. “The blood doesn’t lie. And yours has shown us everything—every location, every access code, every shadow path they use.”

“You don’t understand,” she tries, but I cut her off with a snarl.

“No. You don’t understand. Those children? They’re pack now. All of them. And we’re coming for them.”

Another scream echoes through the trees. Closer this time. Desperate.

“Bishop,” I say, not taking my eyes off our prey. “Get this intel back to Frankie and the others. Tell them what we found. Leo and I?—”

“Are going hunting,” Leo finishes, his shadows gathering with deadly intent despite the playful smirk on his face. Through our bond, I feel his perfect understanding. His readiness to follow me into darkness.

“The Council wants prisoners,” Bishop reminds us, but his tone carries acceptance. He knows what needs to be done.

“They’ll have their prisoners,” I promise, feeling my shadows thicken as night falls. “After we make them understand exactly what it feels like to be helpless. To be experimented on. To be?—”

“Unmade,” Leo says softly, his usual bright demeanor completely gone. His shadows wrap around mine like an embrace. Like always.

The scream comes again. A child begging for help.

We move as one, leaving Bishop to handle the cleanup. The child’s trail leads us deeper into shadow-thick woods, pain and corrupted essence leaving a scent like burned sugar in the air. Leo moves at my side, his shadows dancing between playful and predatory. We’ve hunted together since high school—me tracking bullies who hurt his sisters, him keeping my predator nature in check.

“There,” Leo whispers, pointing to a crude shadow path torn into reality. “They’re not even trying to hide it anymore.”

“Sloppy,” I agree, scenting the air. “Three adults. One child. The essence is... wrong.”

“Wrong how?”

Through our bond, I let him feel what I sense—the twisted merger of essence, like what we saw in the asylum but... fresher. Still changing. Still salvageable maybe.

The child screams again, closer now. Through the hastily made shadow path, I catch glimpses of a small form being dragged between larger ones.

“They’re trying to transport the successful subjects,” I growl, feeling my fangs lengthen fully. “Before we can find the other facilities.”

“Not happening.” Leo’s shadows gather like a storm about to break. “Plan?”

I bare my teeth in what might be a smile. “Since when do we plan?”

“Fair point.” His answering grin carries an edge of darkness. “Fast or quiet?”

Another scream tears through the night, raw with pain and corrupted essence.

“Fast,” I snarl, already moving.

We burst through the shadow path together, our darkness combining into something deadly. The first guard goes down before he can raise his essence injector, my shadows finding the pressure points my mother taught me about. The second manages to pull his weapon, but Leo’s shadows tear it apart.

The third guard holds the child—a boy no older than ten, essence corruption already spreading black veins across his skin. “Stay back! This subject is unstable, if the merger process is interrupted?—”

“Wrong choice,” I tell him, letting him see my fangs. Letting him see what his ‘subject’ could become. “Holding a child like that? In front of us?”

Leo’s shadows flare. “Really wrong choice.”

The guard tries to inject the boy with something, but my shadows are faster, more precise. The syringe shatters. The guard’s wrist breaks with it.

“The blood knows,” I remind him as he falls. “And yours just told me everything about where you were taking him. About all the others.”

“You don’t understand,” he gasps as my shadows constrict. “The realms are dying. We need vessels strong enough to?—”

“To what?” Leo asks pleasantly, his shadows wrapping around the boy like a blanket. Gentle now, always gentle with the innocent despite his deadly power. “To torture children? To play at being gods?”

“To save everything,” the guard insists. “Project Sunrise was supposed to?—”

I silence him with shadows in his veins. Through his blood, I see more facilities, more children, more horror. But I also see hope—coordinates, access codes, shadow paths leading to every hidden compound.

“Matteo,” Leo says softly. The boy has collapsed in his arms, corruption pulsing under his skin.

“I know.” I kneel beside them, letting my shadows taste the essence corruption. It’s like the twins in the asylum, but newer. Not fully merged. “Hold him still.”

Leo cradles the child while I reach for blood and shadow both. My mother taught me about healing. The streets taught me about hurting. Somewhere between, there has to be a way to help.

“The blood knows,” I whisper, feeling for the corruption’s pattern. “The blood always knows.”

Power flows through me—not just shadow, not just predator instinct, but something deeper. Something that knows about balance, about the thin line between healing and hurting.

The boy whimpers once, then goes still as my power draws the corrupted essence out. Not destroying it like Frankie and Finn had to do with the twins, but... redirecting it. Remaking it into something sustainable.

“There,” I breathe as the black veins fade. “He’ll live. He’ll need help, but he’ll live.”

Leo kisses my temple, his pride flowing through our bond. “And the others? All the children they took?”

I stand, letting my shadows spread into the night. The blood has shown me everything—every facility, every victim, every secret they tried to hide. But what I saw in the guard’s blood... it’s worse than we imagined.

“Project Sunrise wasn’t just about merging essence,” I tell Leo, watching the child breathe easier in his arms. “It started as a Guardian program. They were trying to create perfect vessels, children who could channel both light and shadow. But something went wrong.”

“The corrupted twins,” Leo realizes. “They weren’t Valerie’s first attempt.”

“No. The Guardians had been experimenting for decades. Trying to stabilize the realms by creating perfect vessels. When it failed...” I pause, the blood-truth making me sick. “They brought in Blackwood. Made it darker. More brutal.”

“And now?”

“Now they’re succeeding. The essence trials are working. They’re creating stable vessels, but the cost...” I look at the sleeping child. “The cost is too high.”

Through our oldest bond, I feel Leo’s shadows darken with fury. “How many facilities?”

“Twelve. Hidden across both realms. And in the deepest one...” The blood shows me something massive stirring in shadow-thick depths. Something that makes my predator nature recoil. “They found him. Frankie’s father. The Eredar. They’re using his essence for the final phase.”

Leo goes still. “We have to tell Frankie.”

“We will. But first...” I gesture at the guards, still held by my shadows. “First we make sure these ones can’t warn the others. Can’t move any more children.”

Leo’s shadows dance with deadly intent, his usual bright nature completely gone. “What do you need?”

“Hold the child. Keep him safe.” I bare my fangs, feeling the predator rise. “The blood has more secrets to tell.”

I spend the next hour extracting every detail—security protocols, guard rotations, shadow paths between facilities. The blood tells me everything, showing me exactly how deep this conspiracy goes.

When we’re done, when the guards have nothing left to give, we leave them for Bishop’s cleanup team. The child stays asleep in Leo’s arms, his breath finally coming easy as the corruption fades.

“We’ll need the whole pack for this,” Leo says as we head back. “All of us.”

“Yes.” Through our bond, I feel his fierce determination matching mine. “We hunt them all. Save them all.”

“Together,” he says, shadows curling protectively around the sleeping child.

“Together,” I agree.

The night welcomes us as we return to our pack, carrying one saved child and the knowledge to save many more. The hunt isn’t over.

It’s just beginning.

And this time, we know exactly what we’re hunting for.