“What’s up, man?” Herne said, keeping his eyes on the road as we navigated back to the office. Traffic was heavy. It was noon and everybody was out and about, looking to eat lunch and run errands.
“How soon can you get down to Whitemoor Nursing Home? It’s in the Beacon Hill District, near the White Lodge Cemetery on Orcas Street.” He sounded tense and I could hear shouting behind him.
“What’s going on? We’re probably fifteen minutes out, if we take the backroads,” Herne said, veering off to the left onto a side street.
“Yutani and I are here. We’ve got more vrykos and they’re trying to get into the nursing home. They’ve already killed two nurses and one cop. The cops are here and Yutani and I are trying to help them contain the creatures, but this is bad, Herne. The energy feels bad—like something big is on the way.”
“We need our weapons—” Herne started to say, but Viktor cut him off.
“Already have them. I brought them in case you’d be back in time.” Viktor shouted something and then said, “I have to go. Yutani’s fighting one and it’s getting the upper hand.” He signed off abruptly as I cringed.
“Pull up the news. I know where we’re going so I don’t need you to navigate,” Herne said, a grim look on his face.
I brought up a news station on my phone and turned up the volume of their live stream.
“We’re down in the Beacon Hill District, where another group of vrykos are attacking a nursing home. It’s believed they came out of the White Lodge Cemetery. Police are attempting to contain them, but the creatures have broken through a number of barriers already and some have vanished into the surrounding neighborhoods. Emergency calls are coming in from people who have been attacked. For now, there’s no estimate on the number of victims. We do have verified reports of three deaths so far—two nurses and one police officer were confirmed dead. They were attempting to prevent the vrykos from entering the nursing home.”
The reporter was blond and ditzy looking, but the alarm on her face had replaced the plastic everything-is-just-fine glow that a lot of newscasters wore nowadays, and she looked genuinely frightened. The footage cut to a clip from outside the nursing home.
“Those poor residents—they’ll never be able to get away. Not if they’re bed-bound.” I watched in horror as one of the vrykos reappeared, dragging a screaming woman by her wrist. The woman was elderly, and she struggled but couldn’t free herself. Right in front of the camera, the vrykos bent over and took a big bite out of her cheek, and the fucking camera operator kept filming. The woman barely made a sound, and I prayed she had either died of a heart attack, or had fainted so she wouldn’t have to feel the pain.
“Oh my gods, Herne, step on it. This is bad,” I said, looking over at him. “We need the militias—I know they aren’t ready but—”
“There’s nothing we can do regarding that right now. The time it would take to mobilize them would be too long. But…call Kipa and tell him to get his ass over here, and tell him to bring members of his SuVahta. They can fight.”
I punched in Kipa’s number and he answered on the first ring. I ran down what was happening. “Hurry. We need you.”
“I’m already in the city. I’ll be there with my guard in ten minutes.” He hung up abruptly.
“He’s on his way. He said ten minutes.” I glanced around as Herne pulled into the parking lot of the nursing home. The cemetery was next door, and it occurred to me that it was a grim reminder to the residents of their stage in life.
We tumbled out of the car and I spotted Viktor over by what looked like a higher-ranking officer. “Viktor!” I shouted, and he looked up. Immediately upon spotting me, he spoke to the police officer, then jogged over to our car, where we were waiting.
“What the hell happened?”
“I don’t know, but a call came in about twenty minutes ago. Yutani and I came down to check it out and found all this. Here are your weapons.” He handed me Brighid’s Flame, which I had left at the office, and he handed Herne a double-bladed axe. “They’ve managed to break into the nursing home. I don’t think we’ll find many survivors.”
“I pray you’re wrong. Let’s go.” Herne shouldered his axe and headed toward the