“Let’s get going,” I told my team softly. “We’ve got to get Joseph some medical attention.”
26
Roxy
Why isn’t this day over yet?
My tired eyes were barely staying open. Jessie had hooked me up with some caffeine gum, which some company was apparently manufacturing now. I chewed on it until the spearmint taste faded. It was three in the morning, and we still had time on our shift. Now, I wished I had let Jones take over for me.
It wasn't the mental exhaustion so much as my entire body feeling like one giant bruise. All my aches settled into my bones. It hurt to move as time wore on. I traded the gum for some pain reliever, though it barely made a dent. The cold night air was a cruel companion to my cuts, but at least the winter chill numbed me after a while. I sighed and watched my breath fog the air, remembering how the beast’s breath had done the same.
Kane hadn't spoken since my fight with the monster. I frowned and bit the inside of my cheek as I watched the twins in the distance. Was he okay? I hoped nothing bad had happened to him. On our end, things had been relatively quiet, besides a few three-headed elk creatures who’d decided to ram mailboxes for fun. Since the Bureau already had several of these specimens, we had just shooed them off. Luckily, they lacked any fangs or vicious powers that could hurt us. Still, the constant vigilance was wearing on me. I wondered if Lyra was having better luck with her team. Impatience set in fast. Maybe I should've gone the private company route, since it would’ve allowed me more power to actively hunt the monster rather than do routine patrols and wait around. I loved action.
Where are you, creepy monster? It felt like the Leftovers were taunting us. Occasionally, a shrill caw or growl would float up from the woods, like a ghost haunted the place. I shuddered at the thought of something worse than the invisible monster lurking in the woods. If the Bureau really wanted to study the weird stuff, they were going to have to invest in major resources for PTSD and other therapies for its soldiers and researchers. It was so odd to see creatures like this out here. Hell, if the twins and I weren't in the Bureau, we might have been hiking in this area.
Jordan had thought the three-headed elk were cool.
"It's like the Leftovers poured out radioactivity everywhere," he gushed. "I wonder if that monster formed from a coyote or something." I fought against picturing the monster's teeth, which I had intimate experience with. We hadn't heard a peep from it all night. Maybe we’d scared it off. A woman can dream, can't she? I doubted we had seen the last of it, though… Maybe it wouldn't come tonight, but it would come eventually.
I tapped my feet on the ground, whistling under my breath to stay awake.
Evans shifted beside me. "Oh, Team B is coming."
I turned to see Sylas, Jones, Holt, and Colin approaching. Secretly, I was relieved. They were clearly coming to take the next shift. I had insisted earlier, in my proud posturing, that I could handle it, but I was exhausted and in need of rest. Colin smiled sleepily as he walked up. His sniper rifle was strapped to him, just in case.
"We can take over," Holt offered before Jones could say anything. They all looked relatively refreshed from their naps, and I was very jealous.
"I guess I can fork over the patrol," I said with a casual shrug. "We haven't seen anything besides a few mutant elk trying to take out the mailboxes. They seem to like the color red."
"Noted," Sylas said, and gave me a searching look. "How are your injuries?"
"Fine," I lied. The bitter aftertaste of the aspirin I’d dry-swallowed earlier lingered on my tongue. It wasn't nearly enough to keep me pain-free, but it was a start. The last thing I needed was Sylas phoning Hindley to tattle about my injuries. Calm down, Roxy, he’s a good guy… but he’s worried about you. After a nap, I'd be raring to go again. I could practically hear the siren song of my bedroll from our camp.
I was about to make my way back to the center of operations when a call came over our comms.
"Captain Taylor, we've got something on the scanners," a Bureau soldier reported. "Captain Clinton is requesting you meet us at the town sign. We've picked up multiple vampire signatures on our equipment, about a half mile down the road."
Adrenaline shot through me. My first thought was of Kane. Was it possible I had somehow called him to me? There were multiple signatures, though, and Kane wasn't with any other vampires. He would've mentioned them during our discussion if he were. I hustled with my team, calling for the other Bureau soldiers to take over our patrol in that area. My blood pulsed with excitement. Vampire signatures were a good sign, I hoped. Maybe a few of our allies had found a nearby gate to use.
The twins chatted excitedly as we headed for Captain Clinton, who sat by a collection of high-powered scanners. They ran these scanners for vampire signatures, which I usually didn't have much use for in the Hellraisers, since we were focused on searching for monsters. I hadn’t had the team looking for vampires on our scanning devices. As far as I knew, we weren’t close to a gate here.
"We've got something else," Holt suddenly blurted as we trotted up to the area. "The creature's
