Author's Note: Sorry for not updating this sooner. It has taken a few days to figure out what I wanted to do. Plus I've had a busy and stressful week. Life as a responsible adult is boring. I wish I didn't have to adult anymore. I could sit at home and not worry about money and just write all the time. Maybe I'd be a successful author by now.
Also sorry to Jayjayzek for not getting a chance to read the new chapters. I haven't had time (hence why this is late). I'll get to it soon!
There's this drama that I've been keeping up with on a weekly basis. It's called Moorim School and has Hongbin from Vixx. I'm addicted! I hate that there is only three weeks left of the show! I'm going to have to find a new one. I need a new story option as well, maybe something new and fresh. I like doing supernatural stories so maybe I can do a new one soon.
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Dasha sat in the meeting on edge and ready to leave. She hated meetings. There were so many voices in her head she had to use extra effort to keep them quiet. She tapped her foot in effort to drown out the buzz as she drowned out the voices. Always an aftereffect.
Across the room she saw Creed emerge from the back room. Dae Jin had been sent back to their home base to monitor the meetings from the cameras. Creed Jones had been sent to fill in her spot. Creed was a Guardian who had been trained with Benji and Dasha. They had been paired together at the very beginning since Dasha was intelligent, Benji had brute force, and Creed fast. Throw in Dae Jin and they were the best of the American hunters even though many of them weren't Americans.
Creed flashed a hand sign before she melded into the background. No one questioned the mocha colored woman as she passed. She was a Guardian from Africa. Her mother was black and her father a white Egyptian. She had been taken from her mother during an attack on her village and had been fostered by a Muslim family in Cairo.
She had been part of an exchange in fifth grade where she had come to train as a Hunter. She'd had the choice of returning when it was over but had decided to stay with her group.
Benji shuffled into view then quickly disappeared. She had been tossed out of her pack when her Alpha father had been overthrown and killed. She had been a lone wolf when Dasha had come across her during training. She had been injured and sick, and if the other woman hadn't taken her in, she would have died. After that Benji had been Dasha's best friend and partner.
"Eonni, keep an eye on the southeast corner," Jin's voice sounded in her ear.
Cho Dae Jin had been a college student when they had first met. She had been studying computer design. Dasha had been on campus when the bomb had gone off. As everyone else had run for their lives, she had watched Dae Jin run into danger. Dasha had watcher her from a tree as she had helped eight people from the rubble.
Afterwards she had immediately gotten in touch with the girl and had asked her to help. Jin had been excited yet nervous because of her brother, who was another person close to the Wild Power. Since then she had been an integral part of their hunts on the information end.
Dasha shifted all attention to the southeast corner of the room. That was the area in which the South Korean delegates were sitting. Yi Jeong and Hyuk were actually paying attention but Leo was not. His attention was drawn to the corner. From the angle she was at, she couldn't see what his face was showing.
"Dasha-ssi?" She heard his voice in her head. Soft as a whisper, almost like he was scared to reach out for her.
Gently she wrapped her mind around his, blocking Benji who pressed in a little to see who she was talking to. She flooded his shadows and silence with warmth, finally understanding his gentle yet cold personality.
"What is it, Leo-ssi?" She mirrored his formal speech to make him as comfortable as possible.
"Do you feel that thrumming?"
She released him but stayed connected so she could answer him if she needed to. She felt through the shadows as gently as she could. He was right. There was thrumming, but it wasn't the usual thrumming of the city. This was deep and guttural.
This was old.
Dasha released Leo fully and seized Benji and creed mentally while talking verbally. "Jin, lock down the building. Creed, get to the speaker. Benji, go to the southeast corner. Leo, move."
She was coming out of the balcony when all hell broke loose. Smartly she grabbed three packs she had stashed before jumping from the balcony. She landed on the desk below her and dropped to the floor. Rolling to her feet, she located the Koreans and charged towards the corner. Leo was shoving Yi Jeong and Hyuk away from the corner.
There was a huge current pulling on them. It was a vortex. She had only seen a couple before and nothing good had ever from them. The people who had been sucked into them were never seen again.
"Dash," Benji said, "this is old magic. As in creator magic. We can't stop this."
"We can't let them get sucked in," she argued. "Benji, get to them. Grab Yi Jeong and Hyuk. I'll buy some time then snag Leo. If you can get away, do it."
"Our tracking beacons won't work with all the electromagnetic currenst in that thing. Jin won't be able to track us."
"We'll figure that out later."
Benji got to the trio first and grabbed her two. Leo shoved them into her arms just as the vortex started to suck him in.
Dasha called out a warning to him and he dropped to the ground. A few seconds later a table went flying right through the space he had been. It smacked the wall and dampened the effects of the vortex. Dasha slid beside him and grabbed him under the arm. She grabbed a zip tie from her pocket (because hey! who doesn't keep zip ties on them) and linked their arms together.
Leo looked up into the determined face as she tightened the plastic around their wrists. She gripped his hand and pulled hard. She was doing her best to save him.
They heard a crack and looked back. The table was starting to break apart. Whoever had cast the vortex was either determined to get them or losing power. Either they were going to get sucked in or the vortex was going to close. By the looks of it, they were getting sucked in.
The table splintered and disappeared. Dasha pounced on Leo just as his body was pulled backwards. She wrapped her body around his, holding on with her free arm as her tethered hand held his.
"Hold your breath," she whispered in his ear. "Your lungs won't hurt as much."
He sucked in a breath just as he felt an immense pressure on his body. His last sight was Yi Jeong, Hyuk and Benji being pulled in as well.
They tumbled mercilessly through the unknown. The silence was deafening, even for Leo. He wanted to scream but figured if he did so his lungs would collapse. He buried his face in Dasha's shoulder, bending her linked arm behind her back. She held on tightly without a sound.
The annoying buzz suddenly ended and they were in free fall. Leo felt Dasha release her free arm from around his waist and turn. Before he could figure out what she was doing, they landed hard in the sand. His breath came out in a huff as he landed on top of her. Inhaling painfully, he looked down to see if she was injured. She cut her eyes to him then looked over her shoulder.
Leo looked up over his shoulder to see Benji, Yi Jeong and Hyuk land easily on their feet. They too were connected by zip ties. It must be a normal thing.
Dasha dropped both her free hand and head to the ground. She was exhausted and hurt everywhere. She could feel liquid dripping off her wrist and knew it wasn't water. This was going to be the worst adventure she had ever been on.
Body protesting, she sat up. Leo sat beside her with a look of concern. His stoic mask was replaced during extreme crisis. He had been determined back at the meeting hall and now was concerned. He was very expressive if you knew what to look for.
"Stay still," Benji said as she knelt beside them. She slid a knife under the black plastic and jerked. It came free instantly. "It's not too bad. I was afraid you would be cut to the bone."
"Holding hands lessens the blow," Dasha answered as she rubbed her wrist.
Benji frowned. "I'd feel better if you wrapped it. You don't heal as fast as I do."
Confused Yi Jeong asked, "What does that mean?"
"Because Dasha is half-Guardian and half-Wolf, she doesn't have the accelerated healing full blooded wolves have. She's also not part of a pack so she doesn't have pack bonds to speed up the process either. She's human in this aspect," Benji explained as she cleaned and wrapped her friend's wrist.
Leo frowned when Dasha slung three packs off her shoulders. He wasn't familiar with English writing but he recognized his whole name written on a backpack. Lee Taekwoon. On the others he saw So Yi Jeong and Min Sang Hyuk. They had anticipated something like this may happen and had planned accordingly.
"You need to change clothes," Dasha said as she handed each man a pack. "We're in a desert and though it may seem cool right now, once the sun is at its peak it will be hot. We're out of GPS range so we can't make a call yet but we need shelter first."
"Your packs have three days worth of supplies. If we're not found by then, we'll have to buy more," Benji added as she took two more packs off. "Go change first then we'll head out."
"Wait. Hyuk, come here," Dasha said.
The boy obeyed and stood before her. Somewhere she produced a flashlight. She shined it in Hyuk's eyes. His pupils were blown wide, and she wracked her brain to remember what had happened to him. In the very back of her memory, she saw Leo push him into the tables behind where they had sat. the young man had cracked his head on one of the chairs.
Sighing she looked at Benji. "He has a concussion."
Benji snagged Hyuk's bag and took his arm. "I'll talk to him to keep him awake. Go ahead and change your clothes. This won't take long."
She led the injured kid away from them. The other three rummaged through their packs to find new clothes. They weren't as fashionable as the ones they were currently wearing but they didn't have much of a choice.
Leo looked over just as Dasha pulled her shirt over her head. Emblazoned in black on her right shoulder was her wolf mark. Almost like her Guardian mark it took up the majority of her shoulder blade. It was full moon peeking out of the clouds. The clouds seemed to move on her skin.
She pulled a black tank over the toned muscles of her back and abdomen then reached in her bag again. She stood and pulled the long hair into a ponytail. She was completely at ease even though they were stuck some place they had no idea where. She was in charge here, and that was disconcerting to an extent.
Dasha pulled on a light jacket then shouldered her pack. It hurt just having a little bit of weight on her shoulder. She was going to have bruises on her ribs and shoulders because she had landed that hard. It didn't help that Leo had landed on her when they had fallen.
Benji led Hyuk back over and made sure he was focusing. His eyes didn't look too wide now but concussions could be hard to judge. She was certain he hadn't had one before.
"How are we going to find our way out of here?" Yi Jeong asked.
"We need to figure out which country we're in. There are roughly forty-three countries in the world with a desert within its borders. Once we find out what country we're in, we have a decent chance of finding out who did this and getting home," Dasha said. "We need to find people so I can determine which language they are speaking."
"Is it dangerous to have someone so close when we don't know what's going on?"
"It depends."
"On what?"
"On who did this and whether or not the people of this country know who that person is. Now if you're asking questions, we have to get moving. Pull on your jackets and pull the hoods up."
Leo felt the sting of her words. She wasn't panicking but she didn't know where they were or who was after them. Knowing was half the battle and they were in the dark on all of it.
He walked over to Hyuk and threw his arm around his shoulder then followed the two women. Yi Jeong followed beside him, quietly musing over everything that was going to happen and what had happened. He was silently hoping they found internet soon so they could figure out what was going on. They needed to get home. They needed to get help/ they needed to warn Baye.