Night's Master (Children of The Night 3)

“I'm going in alone,” he said.

“What?”

“The best way to find out what's going on is for me to go in there, unseen.”

“How are you going to…oh. Can you really do that? Make yourself invisible?”

He winked at me. “Yes, ma'am.”

“I don't believe it.”

“No?”

Before I could say anything else, Rafe's body shimmered and dissolved into a faint silver mist, kind of like shimmery specks of dust. I stared at him in astonishment, all the while wondering what other Supernatural powers he possessed, and then the mist was gone.

“Be careful,” I murmured, but there was no one there to hear me.

Staring out the window, I listened to the rain beating down on the roof of the car. Lightning flashed in the distance. I was wondering what was going on in Susie's house when the strangest thing happened. One minute I was watching jagged bolts of lightning flash across the skies, and the next it was like I was inside Susie's house. It took me a minute to realize I was seeing things through Rafe's eyes, hearing what he heard.

Susie was sitting up in bed, her hair pulled back into a ponytail. It made her look like she was about fifteen years old. Her husband, Rick, sat in a rocking chair beside the bed. I suppose he was a good-looking man, though it was hard to tell, his expression was so grim. His eyes were gray and as hard as iron; his hair was blond and he wore it cropped close to his head. I couldn't say how tall he was, since he was sitting down, but from his physique, it was obvious that he worked out.

“…don't know what we're going to do about this,” he was saying. “If you think I'm going to leave you here alone with my sons while I'm at work, you really are out of your mind.”

“I'd never hurt them,” Susie said, though her voice lacked conviction. “This isn't easy for me, either, you know.”

Rick dragged a hand over his jaw. “I can't handle this now,” he said, “not on top of everything else. I'm going to call my folks tomorrow and see if they'll take the boys for a while.”

“I'd never hurt my babies,” Susie repeated, her eyes bright with unshed tears.

“You already killed one of them.”

Susie pressed her hands over her womb, her face white with shock. “It wasn't my fault,” she whispered. “How can you blame me for that?”

“I shouldn't have said it,” Rick muttered. “You know I didn't mean it. I know how much you wanted another baby.” He shook his head. “I just don't know what to do.”

“Maybe you're right,” Susie said, her expression bleak. “Maybe it would be best if the boys went and stayed with your mother.” She hesitated a moment, then said, “I think you should go, too.”

There was a long pause. I had the feeling Susie was hoping that Rick would refuse to leave her, that he would take her in his arms and tell her that no matter how bad things seemed at the moment, they would work it out together.

He said nothing of the kind. “What are you going to do while we're gone?”

“I'll ask my mom to come down and stay here with me.”

“Does she know about…about what you've become?”

Susie nodded.

“It's settled, then. I'll call my folks first thing in the morning.” Rising, he gave her a quick kiss on the forehead. “Why don't you try and get some sleep? Everything will look better tomorrow.”

Leaving the bedroom, he closed the door behind him.

Susie stared at the door. “No, it won't,” she murmured, and dissolved into tears.

My own eyes were wet when Rafe materialized in the car beside me. “How did you do that?” I asked. “How could I see what you were seeing, hear what you were hearing?”

“I've tasted you. You've tasted me. We're connected now in a way that I can't explain.”

“Poor Susie,” I said, swiping at my tears. “I wish there was something I could do.”

Rafe blew out a sigh. “It's worse than you think.”

“Worse!” I exclaimed. “How could it possibly get any worse?”

“There's an underground movement among the mortals. As Mara and Clive feared, the humans are starting to worry. That worry has prompted some of them to band together. They're forming groups, hunters, if you will.”

I stared at Rafe. “Hunters?” I thought about Susie and her husband. But surely Rick wouldn't tell anyone, especially a hunter, that Susie was a Werewolf. And yet I couldn't forget the expression on his face when he looked at her. I was very much afraid that his revulsion for what she had become was stronger than whatever love he'd once had for her.

Rafe nodded. “As far as I know, there haven't been any active Vampire hunters in the last twenty-five years, but from what I hear, mortals from all over the world have gone off to some school down in Texas that was supposedly started years ago by a couple of the best hunters in the business. The school hadn't been attracting any interest until recently. Other hunters have gone underground in hopes of finding our lairs. No one knows where these men meet, or how many there are. Right now, all we have are rumors, but when rumors abound, there's usually some truth behind them.”

“But…why? I mean, the Vampires and the Werewolves are only killing each other, aren't they?” But even as I spoke the words, I thought about Mark Littlejohn. How many other people had disappeared that no one knew about? How many innocent people, like Susie, had been transformed into monsters?

“It seems there have been scattered incidents of Vampires and Werewolves attacking humans,” Rafe said. “Until recently, most of the mortals killed have been drifters, you know, people who wouldn't be missed. But late last night there were two attacks that changed all that. In New York, a Werewolf killed the son of a well-known actor, and another Werewolf attacked the daughter of the governor of New Jersey. She's not expected to live.”

A coldness swept through me at his words. It was one thing for the Supernatural creatures to kill each other; quite another when they started openly attacking humans.

“How do you know all this?” I was pretty sure it hadn't been reported on the six o'clock news, or on the front page of the Oak Hollow Clarion.

“Bad news travels fast. Mara and Clive met early this morning. The Werewolves involved in the attacks have been dealt with, but that won't end it.”

Dealt with. A polite way of saying they had been executed.

I looked at Rafe, realizing for the first time that he was also in danger from hunters, and his family with him. I told myself not to worry. His grandfather had existed for hundreds of years. His grandmother and his parents were all strong, able to walk in the sun's light. Surely they could all protect themselves. Couldn't they?