Beyond the Veil - J.C. Kelley (ready to read books TXT) 📗

kill them all. Once we’d lost sight of them, we all relaxed and caught our breath. It took me a few minutes to calm down, but once I did, I became aware of a nagging sore in my hands and mouth. My fingers were in such agony, I could barely move them. But I didn’t care. I was experiencing an unimaginable exhilaration. For the first time in my life, I felt alive

. I’d thought rock climbing was adrenaline-inducing, but this topped it tenfold. And then I realized what I’d just done. I had just killed

people. Never mind that they were ugly monsters who had hurt Tyler, I’d actually killed them

. How could I have done that? That wasn’t me. I’ve always appreciated all forms of life. How could I just let that go? My gaze dropped to the dead Shadows. Pools of blood surrounded them all. The same blood that my hands and teeth were covered in. What the hell was wrong with me? They weren’t the monsters…I was. Everyone else seemed to agree. They all kept their distance from me, as if I might be sent into another frenzy. I didn’t blame them. If I couldn’t trust myself, how could they? Kade seemed to know what I was thinking. His eyes shined with concern and he walked over to me, ripping a bit of his sleeve off and handing it to me. I systematically wiped my face and hands until they practically sparkled. “Thanks,” I said at last. At least now I was a murderer with clean hands. “You may not look the part, but you're definitely what we're looking for,” said Kade as he stepped back again. “What's that supposed to mean?” I said. “Nothing, sorry,” he said. He started walking back toward the others before he made me mad. I sighed heavily, following close behind. I didn't mean to be a hag, but this was kind of a stressful situation, you know? I think I deserved some tantrum time. I tossed the ragged, stained sleeve away, not wanting to look at the mess I'd made. Kade glanced back at me. “You're littering.” “Shut up,” I snapped. “Come, now, we wouldn't want some poor kid finding that thing. Go on and pick it up; Put it in your pocket for later,” he said. “Shut up

,” I repeated, and leaned over to smack him. Kade laughed and walked out of reach. Well. As much as I wanted to hit him, I was actually starting to feel better. Thank gods, 'cause my ankle hurt. I must have landed on it funny when I jumped off the roof. Big freaking shocker there. At least that pain was distracting me from my rising inner-panic. At last, the full shock of the night's events was hitting me. Please, please,

please wait until we get to their place. Please....

“Exactly how close is your place?” I asked. “Not far,” Jade said, “Just under a mile.” Okay, cool. I could hold back my hysteria until then. Just then, a small groan escaped the lips of the Asian boy—Alex. He opened his eyes and stood slowly, hand held up to a nasty purplish bruise on his temple. Nick rushed over. “You okay man?” “Ugh. Yeah, I think so. I think you're worse off than me,” he said, eyeing his twin's bloody face. “So what happened—?” He looked around until he found my face. “Who's she?” he said. “This,” said Michael, “is the girl who kicked ass, more importantly yours. This is the one we were looking for.” He swung his hand in a grand gesture at me. “Hm,” said Alex, and he narrowed his eyes suspiciously. His eyes darted this way and that, taking in the bloody scene before him. His jaw dropped. “Did you—” “Can we please get to your place?” I mumbled. “There could be more of those things....” They all snapped back into, well, military mode, I guess. Within seconds they were on full-alert, guns loaded and knives unsheathed. Michael stooped to grab Tyler, and, throwing him over his shoulder, jogged north (don't ask me how I knew that). 

5

My breath came in gasps by the time we got there. I didn’t know what we were looking for, so I ran right past it at first. When I realized the others weren’t following me and turned around, I didn’t believe we were at the right place. Robyn walked under an arch with a large sign that read, ENTER

. “You live here

?

” I said incredulously. “No time for questions,” said Alex. “The Shadows could come back at any moment.” He grabbed hand—which I tolerated only because I was too shocked to do anything else, at that point—and led me under the arch and through a hidden door on the side of an old shack. “How could you live here?” I asked. “It’s different on the inside,” said Alex. “I should freaking hope so.” I was starting to really doubt them now…. I mean, really? No one lived at the Fort. It was just old and rundown. It wasn’t fit for living in. There was no way they had any electricity in there. It was an old castle, not a mansion. We turned into a dark tunnel. For what seemed like hours, we walked in silence, deeper and deeper into their hidden home. I noticed a gradual decline as the tunnel steadily grew darker. After about ten minutes of total blackness and extreme discomfort on my part, we eased into a stop. I felt someone on my left—I think it was Nick—shuffle forward, reach up, and put his hand on the cold wall of the tunnel. He moved his hand up and down, side to side, forming some unseen symbol. I started to ask what he was doing but then the wall shimmered

—and I mean shimmered—and faded away. I gasped at what lay before me. Beyond huge double doors was a grand hall that literally outsized my house, second story included. A glass chandelier lit up the hall and most of the tunnel, nearly blinding me. Two massive staircases lined the walls. The floor was made up of ashy marble, smooth and cool to the touch. The walls were the same stone that made up the Fort above, minus the roughness and the mold. Mismatched couches, a coffee table and a TV stood in one corner of the room. They filed in, leaving me to continue staring in outright shock. Michael carefully laid Tyler’s limp body on a faded pink couch and joined the others, who were all flopping on a couch of their own with tired sighs. I stood in the doorway awkwardly before stepping inside. The humid air was sucked away immediately, replaced with a constant cool breeze that seemed to come from every direction. The empty space behind me shimmered and faded back into a solid wall. Two things happened: My curiosity tripled and my stomach growled. I took a couple of seconds to debate which one was more important and turned to the others. “You got a kitchen?”“You’re seriously hungry right now?” Kade asked. “I just had the rush of my life, not to mention nearly died several times. You bet your ass I’m hungry.”“Uh, the kitchen’s down the hall on the left,” he said, nodding to the stairways. I headed that way, eager for some food. It was about thirty minutes later when I trudged back into the main room and groaned. “I can’t find it.”Michael tried to hide a smile. “But you made it back here, didn’t you? It shouldn’t be that hard.” I slowly shifted my gaze his way, my irritation increasing with each second. Robyn jumped up to help me, and just in time. One more second and I would have bitten his head off. I followed her into the kitchen—which was deceptively easy to get to—and practically ran at the refrigerator. I thanked the gods that it was full of food. Normal food. I grabbed as much as I could hold, ripping open packages and pretty much inhaling their contents. At some point I looked up to see Robyn looking away in what looked like revulsion. Whatever. I was starving. I had consumed a half-gallon of milk, four slices of bread, two frozen hot dogs, a package of cheese, and a slice of watermelon when someone else entered the room. He was tall, barrel-chested, and his hair looked like it hadn’t been combed in years. For some reason I already liked him. He was wearing a giant t-shirt and ragged jeans with brown combat boots. “Oh, you made it back okay!” he exclaimed, giving Robyn a bear hug. He turned to me. “You’re one of them?” “What?”“Oh, nothing. I just expected you to be…younger. “ He stepped forward, offering his hand. “I’m Jon.”We shook hands. “Sup.”There was an awkward pause. “And you are?” he asked. “Doesn’t matter. Not until you tell me what’s going on. Why were those things—Shadows?—after me? How do I know I can trust you?”“We saved you from the Shadows,” Robyn said. I shook my head, taking another bite out of the watermelon. “I could have gotten away okay. You gave me a hideout.”“What about your friend?”“Who?” Jon asked. Robyn mumbled that she’d tell him later. “Hm. Fine. You helped Tyler. Still not enough for me to trust you with personal information.”“But you’ve already told us your name,” Robyn pointed out. “Ah, I did. But how can you be sure that I wasn’t lying?” I said. She didn’t know what to say to that. Jon was silent for a moment. “Fine,” he said. “We’ll do it evenly. We tell you something, you tell us something. Deal?”I considered his proposal. It seemed fair to me. “Alright, deal.”I reached for another watermelon slice, but Jade ran in at that moment, followed closely by rest of the bunch. “Your back,” she said. “I completely forgot, your back! How is it?” For a few seconds I didn’t have the slightest idea of what she was going on about, but then I remembered the Shadow’s claw raking my back as I jumped off the roof. “I don’t know. It hasn’t hurt in a while—“Jon was already behind me, peering at my back with concern. “Damn.” “What?” I reached back—and felt the shredded remains of the back of my shirt. My hand came away red. I gasped as I realized it was blood. I reached back again and felt soft, solid skin. Jon saw it too. “What the hell?” he muttered. I couldn’t believe it. My back was unharmed. As if my life hadn’t gotten weird enough already. Ten minutes later I sat in a cluttered room wearing a tank top I had borrowed from Jade. The fact that it wasn’t pink was a miracle; I almost died from shock when she showed me her closet. I don’t know what they did with my shirt. Maybe they burned it. Everyone else sat around me in mismatched sofas and recliners. A coffee table covered with cups of tea was in the middle. No one spoke. It was torture. I’m not particularly social but this was getting to be one of those days, you know? Everything was setting me off, making my blood boil. The not-so-subtle Jon cleared his throat. “Are we going to talk?” “You first,” I said. “Or I’m out of here.” “In case you haven’t noticed, we’re not exactly normal.” “That much has been established, yes.”“We hunt… things.” “I’d guessed.” “Monsters.” “Mmhmm.” He looked nervous. He probably thought I was gonna hightail it out of there right then. He obviously couldn’t see how determined I was. “And where do I play into this?”He paled. “We – we’re actually not sure about that. Not a hundred percent,”