Part 9
Shauna sighed with impatience. There was nothing worse than sitting around and waiting when there was a psychotic killer on the loose.
She sat in the library of the Daybreak house with the rest of the research party, pulling up anything they could on anyone with red eyes or anyone named Lucas.
"Got it!" Senna said suddenly, starting them all. Everyone crowded around her computer terminal as she flipped through a couple of files. Senna opened one of the folders, and pulled out a photo of a boy with blond hair, dark eyes, and a bright, handsome smile.
"My God," Luna whispered. "It's almost uncanny."
"Poor guy," Shauna said sympathetically. She still couldn't believe it. The guy was almost the spitting image of Chase. But there was something different about each of them. They would have been twins. This guy looked like he might be Daybreak, he had a certain charm about him, while Chase, looked like he could be sheathed in darkness.
Chase stood a little apart from the group, scowling at them, clearly not impressed by having someone else who looked like him.
"So what's this got to do with our killer?" Thia asked, tapping delicate pink nails against the desk.
"Look at this," Senna said, holding out another photograph. "Chase, you might want to come see this too."
Chase frowned and walked over from where he was sitting, leaning on Shauna, he looked over his shoulder. She could feel him stiffen. "That's her," he said. He shook his head. "But it's not. There's...I don't know. Something different..."
Shauna studied the second picture. The girl was just average, ordinary face, okay smile, brown hair falling to her shoulders. Her eyes were an ordinary green.
Chase frowned again. "But her eyes were *red*," he said. "Very, very red."
Shauna exchanged glances with the others. Someone who could change their appearance? That meant they would never be able to catch her if she could do that...
"Glamour," Dakota suggested from where she sat sulking in a corner, for once contributing something useful rather than whining about how unfair this was.
Shauna was confused. "Huh?"
"Glamour is a witch spell," Thia explained, pushing her blonde hair out her eyes. "It's a trick to alter perceptions, a visual spell, really easy, even humans can sometimes do glamour. You can, like, cover a zit, or change your hair colour..."
"Eye colour?" Luna asked.
"Well we've got a pissed off witch with red eyes going around slaughtering everyone," Marlon said, seeming amused.
Thia glared at him. "This isn't funny," she snapped.
"Maybe she should kill you and do us all favour," Shauna snapped. This stupid Night Worlders were really starting to bug the hell out of her. She couldn't wait until this was over, then they could go back to hating each other.
"So who are they?" Thia asked Senna.
Senna consulted her files again. "The boy is Lucas Redfern, a Night World vampire. He was being hunted down by both Daybreak and Night World. Despite his innocent good looks he was supposed to be a monster, cold, cruel, and a killer. That's why Daybreak wanted him. Night World wanted him because he'd apparently found a human soulmate, and they weren't happy about it."
"Miss Red-Eyes," Chase supplied unhelpfully.
Senna nodded. "Yeah, she was human, her name is..." She flipped through her files. "Leila Feist."
"Gee, how apt," Luna muttered with heavy sarcasm.
Shauna frowned, looking at her. "Huh?"
"Leila means 'night,' " Luna said simply.
Oh. Made sense. So it seemed that the Night Worlders and the Daybreaks found Lucas and killed him, and the soulmate escaped. And now it looked like she was getting her revenge.
"So even though we know who she is, and if she can do glamour, then we're no closer than we were to finding her when this whole fucking thing started," Luna said with an irritated sigh.
The others exchanged glances. Reluctantly, Shauna realised that she had a point. They had one part of the mystery solved, but there was still another piece of the puzzle missing.
They just had to find it.
* * *
The red-eyed girl could feel distress welling as she stood outside the Daybreak library. She couldn't believe it. They had almost got it figured out. She hurried away, head down so no one could see her face. She would have thought it would be harder to get into the Daybreak House, but, she thought with a smile, glamour could be so handy.
She headed home, stressed out and unhappy, even though a cooling rain was seeping into her skin, soaking her to the bone. She knew even once it was over it would never bring Lucas back to her.
But it didn't matter. She found the rain oddly comforting, washing away all her confusion. Only a few more, then she could end it...for good.
* * *
Part 10
Shauna sighed, heading home the next evening. So far they were no closer to figuring out who Leila Feist was. How could they if the girl had glamour at her disposal? She could be anyone, and they'd never even know it.
The Night People weren't being very helpful except sitting around and making sarcastic comments. Shauna wished Leila would come along and kill them to teach them a lesson for being jerks.
The thought made her lip curl.
She groaned, irritated, as a light pattering of rain started. Ugh. She hated rain. It always out a damper on everything, (pardoning the pun).
She glanced around, surprised to find the street she was walking down eerily empty. Now whenever that happened in the movies, it generally meant someone was doomed.
Shauna could feel a slight spark of nervousness growing in her stomach. She reached under her jacket sleeve, taking hold of her concealed stake, ready to pull it out at a moment's notice, just in case.
She glanced around a second time, hearing the soft sound of footsteps splashing through the puddles on the pavement behind her. She quickly hid her stake, almost blushing as the small, meek looking girl passed by her.
She sighed and shook her head. What the hell was the matter with her? She was *never* nervous. A nervous hunter was a dead hunter. She started walking again, wondering if she should apologise to the girl for acting insane.
But the girl was gone.
Shauna blinked in surprise. How the hell did that happen? What -
Her question was never completed as something hard hit her from behind. Shauna grunted as agony enflamed behind her eyes. She didn't pass out though. She rolled away from her attacker.
Red eyes glared angrily at her. Shit. She ducked out of the way as the girl ran at her. Grunting again Shauna waited until the girl was almost upon her, before delivering a roundhouse kick to her face, sending her flying backwards. Stake in hand, she carefully headed over to where the girl had fallen, temporarily dazed, ready to plunge it into her heart.
The girl sprang forward, taking her by surprise, knocking her backwards. Being human, Shauna was at a disadvantage. Winded, she couldn't move as the girl came close to her.
But before the bitch could polish her off, someone plucked her off and threw her against the wall. The girl shrieked in rage. Shauna blinked dazedly through the rapidly pouring rain, and stared in surprise at Chase Redfern as he and the girl fought.
The girl, realising she was outnumbered, hissed at them both, and took off into the night before anyone could stop her.
Chase glanced over at her, not bothering to offer to help her up. Shauna glared at him. Jerk. What the hell was the matter with him?
Chase sighed with irritation. "How about thanks for saving my miserable life?" he said moodily as he headed towards her.
Shauna scowled. "I could have handled her."
He smirked down at her where she lay in a pile of broken boxes and trash. "She seemed to be doing a pretty good job of handling *you*."
Shauna didn't even bother replying to that. She held out a hand. "Help me up, you arrogant son of a bitch."
"I resent that," he said, pretending to be hurt. He reached down to help her up.
And as his bare hand touched hers...
Her mind exploded from within.
* * *
Shauna sighed with impatience. There was nothing worse than sitting around and waiting when there was a psychotic killer on the loose.
She sat in the library of the Daybreak house with the rest of the research party, pulling up anything they could on anyone with red eyes or anyone named Lucas.
"Got it!" Senna said suddenly, starting them all. Everyone crowded around her computer terminal as she flipped through a couple of files. Senna opened one of the folders, and pulled out a photo of a boy with blond hair, dark eyes, and a bright, handsome smile.
"My God," Luna whispered. "It's almost uncanny."
"Poor guy," Shauna said sympathetically. She still couldn't believe it. The guy was almost the spitting image of Chase. But there was something different about each of them. They would have been twins. This guy looked like he might be Daybreak, he had a certain charm about him, while Chase, looked like he could be sheathed in darkness.
Chase stood a little apart from the group, scowling at them, clearly not impressed by having someone else who looked like him.
"So what's this got to do with our killer?" Thia asked, tapping delicate pink nails against the desk.
"Look at this," Senna said, holding out another photograph. "Chase, you might want to come see this too."
Chase frowned and walked over from where he was sitting, leaning on Shauna, he looked over his shoulder. She could feel him stiffen. "That's her," he said. He shook his head. "But it's not. There's...I don't know. Something different..."
Shauna studied the second picture. The girl was just average, ordinary face, okay smile, brown hair falling to her shoulders. Her eyes were an ordinary green.
Chase frowned again. "But her eyes were *red*," he said. "Very, very red."
Shauna exchanged glances with the others. Someone who could change their appearance? That meant they would never be able to catch her if she could do that...
"Glamour," Dakota suggested from where she sat sulking in a corner, for once contributing something useful rather than whining about how unfair this was.
Shauna was confused. "Huh?"
"Glamour is a witch spell," Thia explained, pushing her blonde hair out her eyes. "It's a trick to alter perceptions, a visual spell, really easy, even humans can sometimes do glamour. You can, like, cover a zit, or change your hair colour..."
"Eye colour?" Luna asked.
"Well we've got a pissed off witch with red eyes going around slaughtering everyone," Marlon said, seeming amused.
Thia glared at him. "This isn't funny," she snapped.
"Maybe she should kill you and do us all favour," Shauna snapped. This stupid Night Worlders were really starting to bug the hell out of her. She couldn't wait until this was over, then they could go back to hating each other.
"So who are they?" Thia asked Senna.
Senna consulted her files again. "The boy is Lucas Redfern, a Night World vampire. He was being hunted down by both Daybreak and Night World. Despite his innocent good looks he was supposed to be a monster, cold, cruel, and a killer. That's why Daybreak wanted him. Night World wanted him because he'd apparently found a human soulmate, and they weren't happy about it."
"Miss Red-Eyes," Chase supplied unhelpfully.
Senna nodded. "Yeah, she was human, her name is..." She flipped through her files. "Leila Feist."
"Gee, how apt," Luna muttered with heavy sarcasm.
Shauna frowned, looking at her. "Huh?"
"Leila means 'night,' " Luna said simply.
Oh. Made sense. So it seemed that the Night Worlders and the Daybreaks found Lucas and killed him, and the soulmate escaped. And now it looked like she was getting her revenge.
"So even though we know who she is, and if she can do glamour, then we're no closer than we were to finding her when this whole fucking thing started," Luna said with an irritated sigh.
The others exchanged glances. Reluctantly, Shauna realised that she had a point. They had one part of the mystery solved, but there was still another piece of the puzzle missing.
They just had to find it.
* * *
The red-eyed girl could feel distress welling as she stood outside the Daybreak library. She couldn't believe it. They had almost got it figured out. She hurried away, head down so no one could see her face. She would have thought it would be harder to get into the Daybreak House, but, she thought with a smile, glamour could be so handy.
She headed home, stressed out and unhappy, even though a cooling rain was seeping into her skin, soaking her to the bone. She knew even once it was over it would never bring Lucas back to her.
But it didn't matter. She found the rain oddly comforting, washing away all her confusion. Only a few more, then she could end it...for good.
* * *
Part 10
Shauna sighed, heading home the next evening. So far they were no closer to figuring out who Leila Feist was. How could they if the girl had glamour at her disposal? She could be anyone, and they'd never even know it.
The Night People weren't being very helpful except sitting around and making sarcastic comments. Shauna wished Leila would come along and kill them to teach them a lesson for being jerks.
The thought made her lip curl.
She groaned, irritated, as a light pattering of rain started. Ugh. She hated rain. It always out a damper on everything, (pardoning the pun).
She glanced around, surprised to find the street she was walking down eerily empty. Now whenever that happened in the movies, it generally meant someone was doomed.
Shauna could feel a slight spark of nervousness growing in her stomach. She reached under her jacket sleeve, taking hold of her concealed stake, ready to pull it out at a moment's notice, just in case.
She glanced around a second time, hearing the soft sound of footsteps splashing through the puddles on the pavement behind her. She quickly hid her stake, almost blushing as the small, meek looking girl passed by her.
She sighed and shook her head. What the hell was the matter with her? She was *never* nervous. A nervous hunter was a dead hunter. She started walking again, wondering if she should apologise to the girl for acting insane.
But the girl was gone.
Shauna blinked in surprise. How the hell did that happen? What -
Her question was never completed as something hard hit her from behind. Shauna grunted as agony enflamed behind her eyes. She didn't pass out though. She rolled away from her attacker.
Red eyes glared angrily at her. Shit. She ducked out of the way as the girl ran at her. Grunting again Shauna waited until the girl was almost upon her, before delivering a roundhouse kick to her face, sending her flying backwards. Stake in hand, she carefully headed over to where the girl had fallen, temporarily dazed, ready to plunge it into her heart.
The girl sprang forward, taking her by surprise, knocking her backwards. Being human, Shauna was at a disadvantage. Winded, she couldn't move as the girl came close to her.
But before the bitch could polish her off, someone plucked her off and threw her against the wall. The girl shrieked in rage. Shauna blinked dazedly through the rapidly pouring rain, and stared in surprise at Chase Redfern as he and the girl fought.
The girl, realising she was outnumbered, hissed at them both, and took off into the night before anyone could stop her.
Chase glanced over at her, not bothering to offer to help her up. Shauna glared at him. Jerk. What the hell was the matter with him?
Chase sighed with irritation. "How about thanks for saving my miserable life?" he said moodily as he headed towards her.
Shauna scowled. "I could have handled her."
He smirked down at her where she lay in a pile of broken boxes and trash. "She seemed to be doing a pretty good job of handling *you*."
Shauna didn't even bother replying to that. She held out a hand. "Help me up, you arrogant son of a bitch."
"I resent that," he said, pretending to be hurt. He reached down to help her up.
And as his bare hand touched hers...
Her mind exploded from within.
* * *