“Mostly at night, but we’ve had daytime incidents, too. Just yesterday, one of the counselors swore something flew past her face, but there was nothing there when she looked.”
“Classic bat behavior,” Zane offered with a straight face, and I resisted the urge to elbow him.
“We’ll start with a full perimeter check.” Cas nodded and folded the map. “Standard procedure.”
Ms. Lawson seemed relieved to have professionals handling the situation. Little did she know our expertise had nothing to do with rats, bats, or insects.
We split into pairs, Cas with Seri and Zane with me, to cover more ground quickly. Standard procedure for any containment mission, especially with a rookie. I’d wanted to be paired with Seri, but Cas had invoked Operational Guideline 23.5: “In mixed pair assignments, the eldest and most experienced hunter shall accompany the trainee.”
Sometimes I wondered if Cas laminated the pages of his own brain.
Zane and I took the eastern half of the camp, starting with cabins three through five. Nothing amiss. Just empty bunks, forgotten socks, and the lingering scent of bug spray and adolescent body odor. We found a half-eaten candy bar in cabin four that had attracted ants, but nothing supernatural.
“You’re twitchy today,” Zane said as we exited the last cabin.
“You don’t feel it?” I scanned the tree line, searching for anything out of place.
“Feel what? The crushing weight of Cas’ anxiety? That’s a twenty-four seven special.”
“Something’s off, Z.”
“Bad enough to abort?”
I hesitated. We had nothing concrete, just my intuition and Brumous’ earlier refusal to come along.
“Let’s find Cas and Seri first. See if they found anything.”
We rendezvoused at the arts and crafts building, a large wooden structure with a wraparound porch covered in children’s paintings. Cas and Seri came out, Seri animatedly describing somethingwhile Cas nodded, his shoulders merely stone now instead of the usual steel. He liked listening to her talk, no matter what it was about.
“Any luck?” Zane called out.
“Nothing unusual,” Cas reported.
“That leaves the campfire pit,” I said. “Last stop before we give Ms. Lawson the all-clear.”
And get the hell out of here, I added in my mind.
The campfire area was far enough from the cabins to feel isolated, but close enough for safety. Hewn logs arranged in a circle served as seating, surrounding a stone-lined pit filled with a charred log, endless ashes, and a few burned marshmallows. As we approached, the hair on my arms stood up, and Cas froze mid-step, nostrils flaring.
“Do you smell that?”
Zane and I nodded. Burnt hair and rot. Dark magic. Cas signaled for us to take defensive positions, so Zane and I flanked Seri while he unzipped the front of his coveralls and drew his sword.
“I don’t like this. The?aumakuaare screaming danger.”
“What’s an… That word you said, Koko?”
“The guardian spirits of my ancestors. They say something is very wrong here.”
“Then maybe we should listen,” Seri suggested. “Spirits of any kind are not to be taken lightly.”
“Affirmative.” Cas’ voice was tight as his eyes darted around. “We are neither prepared nor equipped to take on anything Dark. Move out.Now.”
10. At The Edges
Seri
I stayed three steps behind Casimir, exactly where Rule Number One dictated I should be.
