“If you’re just tuning in,” the man said in that concerned voice that all reporters must learn at some point, “it’s been confirmed that the Gang of Five has struck again, this time at a hunting preserve outside of Terrell. There are reports of numerous casualties, including five members of local law enforcement.”
The feed on the screen flipped to gurneys being loaded into ambulances lined up near the preserve’smain building like cabs at a taxi stand. Thankfully, the news was respectful enough to not show any of the fatalities. Karissa didn’t know how many there’d been but was sure it was too many.
“While the Gang of Five were able to once again evade capture, the outcome of today’s horrible attack could have been even worse if not for the valiant efforts of local law enforcement and three members of the Dallas SWAT team who raced into the middle of the melee to rescue over twenty people from the woods.”
The video flipped back to the overhead view of the forest, clearly showing Hale down there fighting the two supernaturals. The wind from the helicopter rotors was pushing the treetops around enough to hide some of the more incredible aspects of the battle, but it was clear that Hale was in a fight for his life against two cold-blooded killers. The reporter pointed out that Hale’s weapons had no effect due to the amount of body armor the attackers had been wearing.
Karissa understood why the media had jumped on the body armor angle. How else were they supposed to explain why the bullets Hale had fired had caused so little damage? When all else fails, people will go with the only rational explanation available, even if the visible evidence doesn’t quite support that conclusion.
Cheers rang out through the training roomwhen a picture of Hale popped up on the screen, obviously taken during some kind of DPD award ceremony, the photo showing him in his dress blues getting a metal pinned on his rather broad chest.
“Don’t you look handsome,” Karissa thought, only to realize she’d actually said it out loud.
That drew extra catcalls from nearly everyone in the room—even Carter. The man was actually grinning along with the rest of them.
“But even an officer as dedicated as Hale Delaney needs a little help now and then,” the reporter added in a tone that was almost playful. “As seen when a local cosplay performer showed up in a black duster, swinging a sword. Now we certainly don’t advocate civilians getting involved in dangerous shootouts like this one, but in this case, I’d like to think that Officer Delaney appreciated the assist from the sword-wielding Good Samaritan.”
Karissa watched the video playing in the background behind the reporter, wondering what was making her feel so strange. It took a few moments for her to realize it was simply the fact that she’d never seen herself fight. It was weird. Like she was watching a movie of someone else down there under the trees, twisting, slashing, and fighting for their life.
“You do look pretty kick-ass in that long leather coat,” Hale said softly, nudging her shoulder with his as the pine-tree-forest footage ended and thereporter transitioned seamlessly into a piece on the rising cost of produce at the local markets, the guy’s voice never changing inflection from the previous story of death and destruction. “But at least they couldn’t see your face, so that’s good.”
Karissa agreed with a nod. The last thing she needed was for her face—immediately followed by her name—to get splashed all over the news. It would make doing her job impossible, not to mention the fact that her parents would have lost their collective minds.
Around her, everyone went back to laughing and talking. Karissa was surprised at how seamlessly she slipped into the conversation. It was funny: In some ways, she felt more welcome and relaxed here than she did with her own family—or at least anyone in her family outside of Deven.
After a while, Hale’s teammates finished up eating and left, either to head home or take care of the calls that continued to come in. There were plenty of threats facing Dallas beyond the Gang of Five. Within a few minutes, it was only her and Hale, along with Trey, Mike, and Carter.
Karissa was about to ask Hale if their STAT contact might call soon when another SWAT officer walked in. He headed straight for the front of the room and the remote control that Rachel had left there after turning off the news. Hale had pointed the big man out earlier, saying something aboutthe man being his boss. Gabriel…Gary…or maybe Gage? She should have paid more attention.
“It’s Gage,” Hale said with a soft chuckle. “You just said all of that out loud. And yes, everyone heard.”
She shrugged, not the least bit embarrassed. Maybe because she felt so comfortable around Hale and his friends.
“Davina just called,” Gage said, throwing Karissa an amused look before turning on the overhead projector again, flipping through the input sources until he pulled up the room’s computer and connecting to Zoom. “She said with the information from this latest attack, she’s got an ID on Tamm and the other supernaturals.”
On the screen, the Zoom app popped up, a pretty woman with shoulder-length electric-blue hair displayed larger than life there.
“Hey, everybody,” she said, giving them a wave. “Sorry it took me so long to set up this call, but it’s getting harder and harder to magically encrypt our conversations. Damn online security systems view my magic as a malware attack and keep booting me out.”
Karissa blinked in amazement at the implications that a witch was hexing the internet. Was that even a thing?
“Davina DeMirci,” Hale said, mouth twitching at her look of wonder.Unless she’d thought out loudagain? “This is Karissa Bonifay. I’ve mentioned the two of you to each other already, so assume the basics are out of the way.”
“Nice to meet you, Davina,” Karissa said with a smile. “When Hale told me that you and STAT might be able to help me, I was thrilled.”
“You might not be as thrilled when I tell you my thoughts about this supernatural hit man you’re dealing with,” Davina said. “But before we get to him, let’s talk about this Gang of Five crap. By the way, I saw the video footage of that fight in the woods. Consider me impressed.”
Karissa did a double take. “The video is showing all the way out in California?”
She cringed at the thought of her parents seeing it. They hadn’t given her name, and no one could see her face in the video, but how many women ran around in a duster with a sword? Hopefully, her family was too busy with other cases to watch the news, at least before some other world event caught everyone’s attention.
“Hale, I have to give you credit for helping me track down these five supernaturals,” Davina said. “When you described these guys as hunters, it tripped something in my head and sent me scrambling for my old Romanian references.”
“Romanian?” Trey repeated, sitting up straighter in his chair.
Davina nodded. “Back in the height of theRoman Empire, there was a small population of supernaturals isolated in the Carpathian Mountains of Dacia, a province of what we now call Romania. When they were first discovered, the group possessed very little in the way of supernatural abilities. In fact, they only had slightly above-average strength and some accelerated healing. But the people responsible for finding entertainment for the Coliseum didn’t care. They razed the village to the ground and dragged the survivors back to Rome.”
“Okay, hold on a second,” Mike said with a frown. “Are you trying to tell us that the supernaturals we’ve been fighting are ancient Roman gladiators?”
