Page 42 of Night Fall
Mya looked from Greg to Luke, only to find that they seemed to be just as confused as she was. “What are you two talking about?”
“This map is imbued with witch magic, but in a way that no spell or immortal can access.” Daniella’s eyes touched Mya’s then Greg’s. “No matter how long either of you spent reviewing it, you would never have been able to see the true contents of the map.”
Mya gasped.
Luke stepped forward. “Wait a second, I’ve never heard of anyone being able to do that.”
“It’s extremely high-level magic,” Greg said, crossing his arms. “Could it be familial?”
Johanna shook her head. “No, a witch’s magic is similar to an immortal’s. It needs purposeful intention and energy. The fact that this is still emitting magic either means that Constance has touched it recently, which we know couldn’t possibly be true, or that it’s spelled.”
Daniella nodded. “And I believe the way to break the spell is with blood. Your blood, Johanna.”
Johanna tilted her head to the side. “My blood?”
“Or Luke’s. Both of you have been infected with Constance’s blood, and I think this map only reveals its contents to someone who has received her blood.”
Johanna and Luke looked at one another. His grip on her waist tightened, and then Johanna asked, “Where do you need it?”
Mya watched as Daniella ran her fingers over the map. Nothing stood out to Mya, nor seemed different from one place to another, but Daniella eventually paused and said, “Here.”
Mya edged closer as Johanna pricked her index finger with one of her fangs. She hovered her finger over the spot, then let several drops of blood fall where Daniella had indicated.
At first, nothing seemed to happen, then the aura around the map grew stronger. The air seemed to vibrate as the map began to illuminate. Before Mya’s eyes, mountains, forests, and buildings began to appear. Their images grew stronger until the map was colored in rich and vibrant details. When the last of the images had settled, a thick black ‘X’ appeared, circled over one of the buildings. They all bent closer, scanning the map as best as they could.
Five seconds later, it burned to a crisp. But that didn’t matter. For the first time in eight months, they had a lead.
***
The whole thing was a bust.
Mya and her family drove to the spot on the map, where they found a nightclub packed with people. Greg and Luke reluctantly stayed in their cars while Mya, Daniella, and Johanna went inside.
Johanna did a mental scan of the club members and found who they were looking for immediately, but the men recognized them too. Six vampires stood and began to approach them. Mya, Johanna, and Daniella lured them outside to a back alley, and when the nightclub door shut, they killed everyone, save for the leader.
The man refused to speak. Johanna broke into his mind, planning to use her abilities to break the truth out of him, but there was nothing. It was as if his entire mind had been wiped clean. The moment she pulled out, the man’s eyes widened and his head exploded, sending bits of matter everywhere. Then the dead vampires’ heads did the same, leaving them staring at one another in shock.
Their group searched the immediate area to see if someone nearby had caused the explosions, but they found no one. At a loss, they went home, each with their mate—the other half of their soul—while Mya went home to an empty house.
She didn’t blame her family. They had done their best. They tried to help, and they were just as disappointed as she was, but disappointment wasn’t all she felt. She was in agony, enraged, and fed up with the entire world. Their lead, their first real lead, had taken them nowhere. They had absolutely nothing. She had absolutely nothing.
Mya couldn’t sleep. She worked her way through the dark web, searching through forums. She ran background checks on the IDs of the immortals they’d killed, but she came up empty. Each ID was a fake, and the recognition software database she’d hacked into couldn’t find anything on them either, not even a Missing Person’s Report. It was as if they were ghosts.
Her hands shook, and she knew there was only one thing that could settle her for the night. She changed into black pants, a black tank top, leather jacket and boots. She filled her pockets with her usual weaponry—throwing knives, stars, dust, small containers of alcohol and gasoline, matches, a lighter, a collapsible staff—slipped Erik’s ring and the necklace she kept it on into the hidden pocket within her jacket, picked up her sword and headed out to hunt.
***
Mya watched from the skyscraper, scanning the streets for rogue vampires. The wind howled around her and tugged strands of her hair from her braid as she waited. New York City was loud, even at night. The sounds of police sirens, ambulances, and the countless amount of people biking, walking, and talking never ceased. The city never slept, and because of that it was the perfect playground for immortals, whether they were sane or not.
A deep growl mixed with a mocking laugh echoed from her right—the sound of a predator trapping its prey—exactly what she was looking for.
She jumped from building to building, using her vampire speed to fly along the rooftops until she stood above the alleyway. She leaped down from the tall building, carefully timing her fall so that she landed directly onto the rogue vampire’s head. Gravity took care of the rest, and his body folded in on itself—tendons snapping, bones breaking—until it resembled a pancake. It made her smile, and the poor human who would have been dead had it not been for Mya, exited the alleyway none the wiser.
Mya took down several other rogue vampires that way, both alone and in groups, but it still didn’t ease the frantic beating of her heart. She was beginning to think nothing would, until she came across her third rogue vampire group and noticed that they were stabbing and cutting their victim. They normally preferred to tear their victims limb by limb while they drained them dry.
She sped forward, grabbed the nearest vampire, and pulled their arm back, breaking it in one motion. She moved so quickly that the others hadn’t even sensed her presence until the vampire began to howl. He only got out a squeak of the sound before she stabbed him clean through his head.
The other vampires who turned toward her—teeth bared, faces contorted with murderous intent—died within the next two seconds. Then Mya got a look at the man they were trying to disembowel. He was an immortal. His hair was covered in dirt and blood, his face bruised, eyes sunken in, but for a single moment, they met hers, and time stopped.
