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Chapter Twenty Three
Anna stared at the computer screen and re-read the article.
Austin was leaning against the table frowning. "You dreamt of them?" He asked.
Jenna glanced at him. "Yes, I told you, just a couple nights ago."
"But you don't remember what the dreams were about?" His voice held an edge of doubt.
"No, okay? Sorry my visions aren't more helpful."
"Hey, don't get mad, I just don't understand what they have to do with Anna."
"I'm not saying they have anything to do with her. I don't know."
Anna clicked on some related articles then decided to do a search on the victims. Pictures of both men and women of varying ages, ethnicity, and class came up on the screen. She scanned their faces and her heart lurched as her gaze landed on the face of a man she'd seen before, a man who wasn’t quite a man.
Jenna noticed her reaction. "What is it?"
Anna cleared her throat and pointed at the guy. "I’ve seen him before. He’s the guy from the bar in the airport, the guy with black eyes." She shuddered, remembering that she'd expected to see that bartender on the news as a victim of a violent murder.
"Whoa. So these brothers are what? Hunting the demon possessed?" Jenna asked.
"If I had to guess…
"Wait a minute," Austin interjected, "it could be a coincidence."
The girls looked at him doubtfully.
"It may just be they hunt down and kill people connected to violent crimes, and that this possessed guy was one of them."
"And I, who can also see shadow men, am dreaming of them why?" Jenna cocked a brow.
Austin shook his head, "I don't know, but what exactly do you plan to do? These guys are locked up for murder...
Anna stood. "I'm going to talk to them."
"No!"
"Why not? They're in jail, it's not like they can hurt me,” she rolled her eyes, “as if they could anyway."
"I just don't like it, Jesus Anna haven't you learned your lesson about strange and dangerous men?"
Anna cast him an injured look and he tried to put a hand on her shoulder but she shook it off. "It's not the same anymore, what exactly can they do to me, what can anyone do? I hate to break it to you, but I'm the dangerous one now. And if these guys are demon hunters, or whatever, than they might know things, things that can help me understand more about what I am."
"Yeah, if. Or they might just be fanatics...
"You're right," she cut in, "they might be. But I'd say the fact that Jenna is dreaming about them gives me a reason to look into it. Sorry, but if I have a chance to find out anything, I'm taking it. And spare me the "That's what you did last time," speech, I'm hardly the same vulnerable girl."
It was his turn to look injured and she winced and put her arms around his waist. "I know you're afraid for so many reasons, and so am I," she said softly. "But we can't keep pretending that everything is normal, or avoiding the larger issues like…Will I Age." She felt him stiffen and squeezed him, looking up at his face which held a tightly guarded expression.
"I love you," she told him. "But I have to figure these things out." And she did love him, though she always felt that her love was missing something. That no matter how wonderful he was, he was not her soul mate. They still hadn’t progressed past the stage of her jerking him off while sucking on his neck. He had tried to do the same to her, tried slipping his hands underneath her waist band, but she resisted. She had this crazy feeling sometimes like she was cheating on someone she hadn't even met. The idea of sex seemed wrong to her, she just couldn't bring herself to that place. Even when she was aroused there was a block in her mind.
She let go of him and went back to the computer, jotting down the address of the jail and its visiting hours. If they were what she thought-she would get them out. With the amount of money she had, she didn't see a problem, and if money didn’t work, well...she'd been working on a new ability she'd discovered. It seemed she could make herself invisible to people by concentrating on the area around her as a force field. She wasn't sure of the mechanism, but like everything else she used her imagination to enhance it.
The first time had been an accident. She was walking down the nature path by her house when she'd heard people coming from the other direction. She had been so lost in thought she hadn't noticed them before that. Usually she would stretch out her hearing to make sure there was no one around, this time she'd forgotten. She'd turned to race back the other way, but then heard people coming from that direction as well. She looked into the woods, but the trees were too spaced apart and they might see her running off.
It wouldn't have mattered so much except she’d recognized both of their voices as former schoolmates and knew they would stop to talk to her, which she’d had no desire to do at that moment. She’d reluctantly started walking again wishing hard she could disappear.
And then they were walking past her without even glancing her way. She’d stared after them noticing the area around her body was slightly static. That’s when she’d recalled the Mistress warning her about static electricity and how the vampires she’d seen in London had been able to conceal themselves from the people around them.
After that she'd practiced it on her friends and like all of her new abilities there seemed to be degrees and she was figuring out how to control them.
She turned to Jenna and Austin. "There's visiting hours tonight from 7 to 9. I plan on being there, so are you coming with me, or do I go alone?"
"Definitely coming," Jenna stated and Austin nodded.
**
They pulled into the jailhouse parking lot at 6:30. She'd called ahead to see what the requirements were, and since the inmates could only have one visitor at a time she was going in alone. She'd decided to talk to William first, since he was the older of the two, although, she conceded, that might make him more difficult to derive information from-especially if he had the basic big brother instinct to protect his younger sibling. She had a backup plan though. If she couldn't get either of them to talk she intended to use her dimming ability to slide in later on and hopefully find something out that way. She refrained from expressing that out loud however, since Austin would definitely balk.
Once inside she was led into a room with windows and little phones, just like on TV. William was already seated on the opposite side as she sat down. His eyes indicated surprise and his gaze turned curious as he picked up the phone. The guards moved out of earshot and she decided to go with a direct approach.
"Tell me about the Shadow Men.”
His eyebrows lifted slightly then dropped and he resumed his quizzical expression."What do you know about them?" he asked finally.
"Not much,” she admitted. “I can see them." She watched him carefully but his expression didn’t change. "Look, I just need to know if you and your brother are doing what I think you're doing. Because if you are then I want to help you."
"What do you think we're doing?"
"I think you're hunting them. The ones that take over people."
Now he looked startled, recovering his composure a little slower than before. He leaned forward in his chair. "Who are you?"
"I'm...no one really. Just a girl who has been able to see these things for a few years, with a whole lot of questions and no answers."
"So you're what, about nineteen?"
She nodded.
He shook his head a little studying her. "What made you come to that conclusion, that that's what we’re doing?"
"Well…my friend dreamt about you, although she doesn't remember the details, and I also saw one of your alleged victims in an airport once and his eyes were black. It was the first time I'd ever seen one inside a person."
He drew in a sharp breath. "There hasn't been any female seers in over a century. If you're telling the truth....then the line didn't end after all."
She wrinkled her forehead. "The line? Is that what I am, a Seer?"
He laughed shortly. "You really don't know anything."
She shook her head.
"So how could you help exactly?"
"I have a lot of money. You must have a bail bond."
His skepticism turned to interest. "Our bonds are set at two hundred fifty G's apiece."
"That's not a problem."
He stared at her, his lip curving. "You're gonna shell out half a million on a hunch? What if I'm playing you?"
She studied him and chewed on her lip considering. "Do you plan to see the trial through?"
He shook his head, "Not if we can help it." He leaned back and waited her out.
He has intelligent eyes, she thought, if he wanted to take advantage of her it would make more sense for him to convince her she would get her money back. Instead he’d outright said they weren't sticking around. This was an honorable guy, she could sense it. A little voice in her head tried to dispute her...you trusted Jake too, look where that got you. But she ignored it because she hadn't really trusted Jake. She'd felt the whole time that something was off, she had just been so desperate to learn something that she'd ignored her instincts. "I want to talk to your brother first," she told him.
He nodded and stood up. "Nice meeting you..."
"Anna."
"Nice meeting you Anna." He hung up the phone and she got the distinct impression he didn't believe she would end up rescuing them.
She spoke to the guards who had been chatting away in the far corner, and one got up to retrieve Josh.
When he was brought in she was struck by a kinship that she couldn't explain. It was something in his eyes as he sat down and stared at her, pain and fear mixed with weariness.
"Hi, I’m Anna,” she said simply when he picked up the phone, “I just spoke to your brother."
He nodded, waiting.
"Can you tell me something about Seers?"
His brows lifted and he stared at her for a moment. "What do you want to know?"
"Anything at all. I am one I guess, I didn't have a term for it until William said it, but I've been able to see the shadow men, or demons, for the last three years."
"Will talked about seers?" he looked surprised.
"Yeah. He said he thought the female line had expired."
He nodded. "There hasn't been a girl seer in over a century."
"So he said." That collaboration went a long way to fading any doubts she had left about what they were. "Look Josh, I want to help you guys. If you are what you seem to be, then I don't want you in here, I don't want to see you end up with a life sentence...or a death sentence for that matter. I need answers and you need out."
"Did he tell you what our bail is set at?"
She nodded. "Yeah and he also told me you wouldn't stick around which means I wouldn't be getting it back. He could have lied about that, but he didn't." She spoke quietly, the same as Will had, though the guards seemed preoccupied and disinterested in their conversation.
Josh just looked at her. What could he say, the ball was definitely in her court.
"Just tell me something about what we are, something that will concrete it for me if you can."
He looked down, then back up at her, his eyes filled with emotion. "The line we come from is called Faerian. It's widely believed by other members of our race that the original Faerians were not from this world, but they mated with humans and produced a line of seers. We live to be about 150 years old and are impervious to disease. We can see the supernatural, more so when it's invoked. In fact some people can have these abilities lying dormant their entire lives and never even know it. I would've been like that if it weren't for my dad and brother. I can give you the name and number to a close family friend, he's a seer and a hunter as well. You might want to talk to him before making up your mind about us."
She nodded, a feeling of excitement growing inside of her. Finally answers! Faerian, she was Faerian! She pulled out a pen and paper from her purse.
"Richard. 288-088-0988. Tell him Josh gave you the number and say the words "Dämonischer Jäger."
She furrowed her brow.
"It's demon hunter in Latin," he explained.
She repeated the phrase a couple of times, then looked up at him.
"I'll call him first. But as long as I have no reason to disbelieve what you're telling me, I'm going to get you out of here."
He smiled a little then, a dimple creasing his right cheek. "We'd definitely appreciate it."
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