Chandry cringed lightly as Dan broke out into a series of fresh sobs. Being a therapist isn't a vampire's calling, but she's doing a better job than I would.
I had to be delicate with Dan, but he was also going to have to face the consequences of his own actions with the Bureau.
"I don't understand," he muttered sadly. "She just abandoned me for those creeps after they told her they would tell her about her powers… I didn't really believe she had any, to be honest, but I guess they must've thought so. I guess that means we're broken up now, but I'm still worried she might die." He rubbed his eyes again and collected himself.
"I'm sure it's hard," I told him, trying to find the right words. There was no guarantee that Jessica would survive, after all, but I was skeptical of Dan's story after his initial lies. If he had been able to push back against Jessica or stop her, then we might've kept the Ghost alive, but Jessica was her own person who was set on doing what she wanted. It’s not his fault. He loved her… well, still loves her.
Something else was worrying me about Dan's story. If Jessica had begun having symptoms right after the meld and managed to connect it to the Leftovers, what made her think that her symptoms were related to that place? If things were truly affecting normal humans and giving them powers, perhaps the Pocket Space was calling to them, like darkness to a vampire. I sank my teeth into that disturbing idea. We knew how to deal with vampires and creatures from the Immortal Plane, but magical humans? Two of those people we took down back in the Pocket Space were dark vampires. Something weirder than the Leftovers was happening; or rather, it was like the Leftovers were just the tip of the iceberg. Jessica presumably had powers… which was far more frightening than I dared to admit.
"We were together for five years," Dan mumbled. "I can’t believe she just abandoned me.”
"There are other redbills in the sky," Chandry said comfortingly. Cam and I stared at her. "Oh, is that not an expression used around here?"
I shook my head, looking toward Roxy and expecting to see a "get a grip" look on her face. Instead, she was staring intently at Dan with a thoughtful frown. I debated asking her about her thoughts, but they might not be appropriate to share in front of the others. Maybe she was thinking about her intimate psychic connection with Kane.
Sighing, I rallied the team. We couldn't spend all night in the forest talking about Dan's feelings. What he really needed was a therapist and a good lawyer after this mess, not Chandry's amateur pep talk.
Cam detached the scanner from his person and used it to lead us back through the forest. "We're not too far off," he commented in the first ten minutes. I gave a little cheer for that news. I wanted to get Kane medical attention and talk about all of this mess in a long debriefing… after some sleep and a hot shower.
We'll get to camp, and everything will be fine. Once we’ve rested, we can make a plan.
A distant whining sounded from nearby. We came out of the forest to find the nearby highway that was swallowed by the Leftovers. Cam rotated himself in a few different angles before landing on the direction back toward town. It would be a forty-five-minute walk.
We just had to survive the night. I breathed in the cold air, promising myself that tomorrow was a day full of possibilities.
35
Roxy
Camp came into view on the outskirts of town. The cool night air helped me think. Kane is okay. We are okay. The Ghost is dead. In some ways, it was back to square one… except for Kane. God, I was glad he was okay.
I called the Hellraisers on my way. “I'm back,” I told them. All our technology had failed briefly during a flux in the Leftovers, but now the connection was clear enough to call in with no bad static. “Colin and I are safe.” After a resounding cheer from the twins, I told Holt to call everyone together for a meeting. I owed them a talk.
Colin switched places with Dorian to help support Kane. It was better if the Bureau soldiers saw me and a fellow team member bringing in more vampires. Hindley was going to have my butt for sure with this mess of a mission. If she didn't fire me, then she was going to bury me in paperwork for the foreseeable future.
I appreciated Colin's calm presence as we walked. Despite the fact that I used to think he ran too cold where I was too hot back in our earlier Bureau days, his help on this leg of the mission meant a
