A Clan of Novaks
Page 2
We’d also attempted to find a cure for the Bloodless, even going to the extent of bringing a handful of the heinous creatures back to our own island for the witches to test on, but in the end, we’d failed.
Then the IBSI had finished developing their technology and had bred an army of mutants—mutants who were still to this day a mystery. They appeared to be a cocktail of griffin, dragon, werewolf, and I didn’t even know what else. All we knew was that they were killing machines. They could fly, breathe fire, and run with frightening speed. They were also impervious to the Bloodless, whom they tore to shreds in seconds with their razor-like talons.
They had been known to attack humans due to insufficient training, but thankfully, those incidents had gotten fewer and fewer over the years. It was rare to find a human settlement these days that was not surrounded by such creatures guarding the boundaries, keeping out trespassers, while very effectively keeping in residents.
They had not been successful, however, in eradicating other supernaturals on any significant scale. This was something that the hunters were still working tirelessly towards, but truth be told, I doubted they would ever be successful.
Once the IBSI came to prominence, we of The Shadow League had found ourselves being called less and less, until eventually we were relegated to the waters surrounding our island.
We had received one such call at three AM this morning on one of ten special phones charmed by Corrine to accept outside communication, each given to selected members of TSL. We didn’t have the full details yet; we just knew that we needed to take the sub and start heading to the Northern Mariana Islands. Fowler had promised to provide more information along the way.
I entered the kitchen to see Derek already dressed. I took a moment to appreciate how handsome he looked with his dark hair still wet from a shower. He was wearing the sleek black uniform that all of us were afforded, complete with a silver badge inscribed with the letters TSL.
His vivid blue eyes settled on me. “You look tired,” he commented.
“I’ll be fine once I freshen up,” I replied, before kissing his jaw and going to take a shower. After I washed and changed into my own uniform, the two of us gathered our backpacks and descended in the elevator. We made our way briskly through the forest and arrived at the training ground that held the Armory.
I felt a stab of melancholy as I took in the building—so different from the old one that used to stand in its place. The old Armory had held some of my earliest memories with Derek. He had taken me there to learn how to defend myself. Then it had been used for storing medieval weapons. There had been swords, spears, stakes… we barely had room for those kinds of weapons these days. It was all filled with the most cutting-edge combat equipment, supplied directly by the authorities—mostly guns and explosives of various types, designed with specific supernatural species in mind. The building itself was no longer the stone construction it had been; we’d had to rebuild it from the ground up. It was a modern building now, with a steel exterior and a concave glass roof.
I shook away my nostalgia as Derek and I reached the steel door. He pressed his thumb against the screen by its side and the entrance glided open. It was important that we kept high security in this place now; we couldn’t have any of the island’s meddlesome youth wandering in. Only members of the League had the ability to open this door.
We stepped inside to see a group of people already here, milling around the weapons and piling them into five large metal cases.
Nearest to us were my father Aiden and son Ben.
“Mornin’,” Ben said, his voice croaky.
“Good morning,” I said, kissing his cheek, before giving my father’s shoulder a squeeze.
My father wore a golden band around his finger now. He had married Kailyn nearly two decades ago. Both were still incredibly happy, and it was rare to witness an argument between the two. To this day I couldn’t express how much it warmed my heart to finally see him settle down with somebody who deserved him.
Next to my father was Lucas, also looking rather dashing in his uniform. He was floating near the ceiling, fishing for some of the larger guns we kept up there. As he descended, I realized he had cropped his hair short, which gave him the appearance of a military officer. Unlike my father, he had no band of gold around any finger. Although he’d had a number of relationships over the years—first with Adelle, who’d returned to the island soon after Ben and River’s wedding, and then with a slew of others—he still had not found “the one”. He’d been single for the last year, but he seemed content.
I was just thankful every day he hadn’t reverted back to his old self after The Underworld’s influence had worn off of him. He and Derek got on now as brothers should; they had become friends and comrades, even if they did have their moments of disagreement on occasion… but what siblings didn’t?
We worked together to fill up the cases with all the weapons we needed before picking them up and carrying them out of the Armory. We headed for the Port.
“Nervous?” my father asked, as he strode beside me.
We had gone on so many of these missions by now, there was little that could make me nervous anymore. Today, however, was a bit different. Today a batch of five new recruits would be joining the League.
“Just thinking about the young ones,” I muttered.
“But they’ve earned their stripes,” Ben reassured me. “Dad and I made sure of that.”
I nodded. “I don’t doubt that.”
Then the IBSI had finished developing their technology and had bred an army of mutants—mutants who were still to this day a mystery. They appeared to be a cocktail of griffin, dragon, werewolf, and I didn’t even know what else. All we knew was that they were killing machines. They could fly, breathe fire, and run with frightening speed. They were also impervious to the Bloodless, whom they tore to shreds in seconds with their razor-like talons.
They had been known to attack humans due to insufficient training, but thankfully, those incidents had gotten fewer and fewer over the years. It was rare to find a human settlement these days that was not surrounded by such creatures guarding the boundaries, keeping out trespassers, while very effectively keeping in residents.
They had not been successful, however, in eradicating other supernaturals on any significant scale. This was something that the hunters were still working tirelessly towards, but truth be told, I doubted they would ever be successful.
Once the IBSI came to prominence, we of The Shadow League had found ourselves being called less and less, until eventually we were relegated to the waters surrounding our island.
We had received one such call at three AM this morning on one of ten special phones charmed by Corrine to accept outside communication, each given to selected members of TSL. We didn’t have the full details yet; we just knew that we needed to take the sub and start heading to the Northern Mariana Islands. Fowler had promised to provide more information along the way.
I entered the kitchen to see Derek already dressed. I took a moment to appreciate how handsome he looked with his dark hair still wet from a shower. He was wearing the sleek black uniform that all of us were afforded, complete with a silver badge inscribed with the letters TSL.
His vivid blue eyes settled on me. “You look tired,” he commented.
“I’ll be fine once I freshen up,” I replied, before kissing his jaw and going to take a shower. After I washed and changed into my own uniform, the two of us gathered our backpacks and descended in the elevator. We made our way briskly through the forest and arrived at the training ground that held the Armory.
I felt a stab of melancholy as I took in the building—so different from the old one that used to stand in its place. The old Armory had held some of my earliest memories with Derek. He had taken me there to learn how to defend myself. Then it had been used for storing medieval weapons. There had been swords, spears, stakes… we barely had room for those kinds of weapons these days. It was all filled with the most cutting-edge combat equipment, supplied directly by the authorities—mostly guns and explosives of various types, designed with specific supernatural species in mind. The building itself was no longer the stone construction it had been; we’d had to rebuild it from the ground up. It was a modern building now, with a steel exterior and a concave glass roof.
I shook away my nostalgia as Derek and I reached the steel door. He pressed his thumb against the screen by its side and the entrance glided open. It was important that we kept high security in this place now; we couldn’t have any of the island’s meddlesome youth wandering in. Only members of the League had the ability to open this door.
We stepped inside to see a group of people already here, milling around the weapons and piling them into five large metal cases.
Nearest to us were my father Aiden and son Ben.
“Mornin’,” Ben said, his voice croaky.
“Good morning,” I said, kissing his cheek, before giving my father’s shoulder a squeeze.
My father wore a golden band around his finger now. He had married Kailyn nearly two decades ago. Both were still incredibly happy, and it was rare to witness an argument between the two. To this day I couldn’t express how much it warmed my heart to finally see him settle down with somebody who deserved him.
Next to my father was Lucas, also looking rather dashing in his uniform. He was floating near the ceiling, fishing for some of the larger guns we kept up there. As he descended, I realized he had cropped his hair short, which gave him the appearance of a military officer. Unlike my father, he had no band of gold around any finger. Although he’d had a number of relationships over the years—first with Adelle, who’d returned to the island soon after Ben and River’s wedding, and then with a slew of others—he still had not found “the one”. He’d been single for the last year, but he seemed content.
I was just thankful every day he hadn’t reverted back to his old self after The Underworld’s influence had worn off of him. He and Derek got on now as brothers should; they had become friends and comrades, even if they did have their moments of disagreement on occasion… but what siblings didn’t?
We worked together to fill up the cases with all the weapons we needed before picking them up and carrying them out of the Armory. We headed for the Port.
“Nervous?” my father asked, as he strode beside me.
We had gone on so many of these missions by now, there was little that could make me nervous anymore. Today, however, was a bit different. Today a batch of five new recruits would be joining the League.
“Just thinking about the young ones,” I muttered.
“But they’ve earned their stripes,” Ben reassured me. “Dad and I made sure of that.”
I nodded. “I don’t doubt that.”
