Notus rubbed his fingers along her back, pressing his lips to her temple. But he didn’t answer more than to try to soothe away her frustration.
“I don’t know,” Saar said eventually. “I think we’ve all been trying to figure that out.”
“Let’s say that they’ve somehow managed to ‘control’ people—as is loosely being suggested with the aerial monsters in mind,” Nephele said. “I think it’s evident that they don’t understand what storms are or how they operate. Otherwise, they’d have not tried to take us when we were together, but separate.”
“I’d like to believe that means they don’t have any storms working with them,” I said.
Nephele nodded. “I agree. But not the point at the moment. We were obviously mediocre on their list. Yet, they had enough gadgets to really do us some harm, as if they were preparing for a nightmare. So, do they think we’re ordinary and blasé, or are we a threat that they’ve been biding their time on?”
“Maybe the vans are just standard equipped with the goods,” Aratiri said. “In the same way planes and boats are. Life vests. Rafts. Floatation devices. Parachutes. When monster hunting, you carry around equipment that will serve you in the event that the worst monster is looking your way.”
I nodded, appreciating that answer more.
“We can also explain away the massive horde of hybrids attacking with the same idea. They simply tried to overwhelm us with numbers so there’s little resistance. And the nets were backup because, of course, we were going to go monster,” Nephele said.
“You know, this is neither here nor there, but I’m wondering if those nets would work on all species,” Tara said. He turned to look at us. “Could they have forced Ryker back? Or Koa?”
“That would be interesting to find out and I’m sure that someone at The Harem Project is looking into that answer,” Kohara said. “But I would be inclined to believe that it must work on many. How would they specify that it only makes a storm’s monster redundant?”
“They managed to get their hands on a willing unicorn so I suppose anything is possible,” Hadley said.
“Maybe,” Tem said. “We don’t know what happened to the person who took the unicorn’s blood. Nor do we know if it mixed with the magic because it couldn’t help it, holding onto some of its properties, or that was the intent. But I’m leaning towards the idea that whatever it was supposed to do, that wasn’t the full effect.”
“Why do you think that?” Saar asked.
“Because I find it hard to believe that two Nephilim wouldn’t have felt the presence of a unicorn’s touch coursing through my system had it been at full force,” Tem said. “Magic is sneaky if there’s intent behind it to keep it hidden. Unicorn blood is not subtle.”
“So there was just enough of a hint to keep it toxic, while the more powerful witch’s spell keeps it hidden?” Hadley asked.
Tem shrugged. “Maybe? Just a thought. I watched Calix’s expression when the witches said that there was unicorn blood mixed in. He went all dark and shadowy, and I knew he didn’t want to speak in the bigger audience more than he did. But I’m guessing there’s more to it than what he told us.”
“Is there a reason he wouldn’t tell us?” Hadley asked.
“Kids,” Gale answered. “They could repeat things without realizing they’re doing harm.”
For a while, the only sounds in the kitchen were those of cooking. Knives on cutting boards. The contents of pans being moved around. Utensils scraping and stirring. Liquid boiling. The aromas were picking up, too. I wasn’t sure what they were cooking, but my mouth was watering more and more as the minutes passed.
“We’ll head into Headquarters next week,” Kohara said. “I’m sure they have a lot that they’ve found out and maybe speculation that we haven’t thought about yet. Before we fall too deep into this dark hole of thought, let’s see what they have to report.”
“Good idea,” Saar said. “Maybe we’ll get some of the others to tag along. Share the information as widely as we can among our friends.”
Our group of friends kind of broke off into two different camps, though we shared information often and pooled together resources and ideas. There was Camp Fuck Up ORKA where Nash, Darkyn, Agni, and Aves were centered. Wyn had recently joined that fight after Jennings’ incident. And then there was Camp Annihilate Silence where Daemon, Malak, Savage, and our family concentrated. The others flitted between the two, depending on what was going on and where they were needed.
That being said, we were a whole. A collaborative with the intent that we’ll do whatever the bigger steps are together as one. We’re a force that will not be taken down easily when we’re together. And I know we were banking on that.
“I’m leaning towards the idea that they want to control us,” Hadley said. “I mean, everything we know about Silence says that their agenda is to extinguish every species that they deem too dangerous to exist. They didn’t come at us with the intent of killing us. And if they don’t want us dead, they want us on their team. What better way to force those to join you than to take their choice away?”
That made me sick to my stomach. We’re not talking slaves who are beaten and worked to the bone to avoid being tortured. That doesn’t work on a monster. We’d fight to the last breath.
The only way to make a monster obey when they didn’t want to was to take away their volition. To make them a puppet. To remove their will and thought, while still somehow keeping their body alive and operational.
If that’s what they’re doing with the shifting monsters, then the threat that Silence posed just got much bigger. Shifters weren’t complicated as species went. Everyone knows what a shifting monster looks like. But if they can control a storm or a nightmare, a banshee or an oni… the world is going to get a whole lot darker.
Hadley
A few days later,while we were out of bed and taking showers, I returned to the third floor room to find it put back together as if it had never had four mattresses and all twelve of us sleeping there for more than a week.
“Yonbe works quickly,” Kohara said, amused, as he stood next to me. “Was probably getting tired of us all moaning in here, so he’s not so subtly hinting that it's time to get back to normal.”
