Where Lost Things Dwell: Night Creatures Book Two

Chapter Ten - Family Failings

Lunch proved to be a subdued affair. Dunstan didn’t show, Isemay was so busy with an increasingly problematic helicopter that she sent her apologies, and Zhak was away in Tartarus with those members of his platoon who could survive a trip to hell, practising with specialist weapons in such an unforgiving environment. Alad looked uncharacteristically subdued without his boyfriend, and Alauda and Brandr’s best efforts to cheer him up fell flat.

When the dryad and duergar disappeared to return their trays, Kalyna leaned towards the incubus, nudging his arm and asking, “You OK?”

“Sure. Just hoping Zhak’s alright. His family weren’t exactly thrilled with his choice of career. They’re more tempting sinners and causing fires type people. The fact Zhak wanted to work for the defence of many species and many worlds is a source of shame for them, and although he’s not likely to see any of them, just being back in Tartarus tends to upset his equilibrium somewhat. We’ll both be fine once he’s back.” Alad forced a smile. “You doing OK? All recovered from your snowy adventure now? You and Dunstan all back to normal?”

“I believe so,” she agreed with a nod. “I mean, I’m still waiting for the other shoe to drop with his maker and maybe with his wife. Then there’s the fact it seems like the Fraternitas Noctuae might be hunting for me specifically, and everyone else who’s died has just been a mistake on their path to me. I’ll survive. I’m better positioned to do so now than I have been at any other time in my life.”

“That’s still a lot to deal with.” Alad frowned, watching her in concern.

Her shoulders lifted in a slight shrug. “My options are panic or just... not worry because there’s nothing more I could be doing. I’ve been one wrong move away from being killed for all of the last five years. This is just a continuation. It’s fine. Really.”

“Isn’t there a meme of a cartoon dog sat at a table in a burning building just saying ‘this is fine’ when it clearly isn’t?” he retorted, a crease between his brows.

She elbowed him in reproach at that. “Hey, no calling me a dog. It probably breaks some rule considering I apparently have canis persona in me along with the homo mordax, cubo nocte, nymphe slavicum, and everything else.”

“Heinz 57,” Alad teased. “Like, you really need to be a good girl. You do anything illegal and you could face justice from so many different court systems.”

“I guess its a good job I joined the OTF. I’ll just get court martialled. Simplifies things.” She winked, drawing a laugh from him.

When Alauda and Brandr returned, the willowy dryad prompted, “You coming Kallie? We need to get back to the ranges.”

She nodded and pushed herself to her feet, winking at Alad and promising, “Zhak will be fine, but if you need some company later, give me a phone, OK?”

He nodded, forcing another smile. “Thanks, Kallie.”

She nodded too, then followed her other friends back out of the canteen and back towards the ranges. They headed for the pistol range, while she joined the recruits of the third and fourth platoons at the archery range.

The archery field was longer than the twenty-five-meter pistol range, but relied on timber walls and archery netting rather than concrete and sand filled bullet catchers. It also only had one shooting line, rather than having multiple options. Whereas shooters were expected to move closer to the targets on the gun ranges, if necessary, on the archery range, the targets were set up at differing distances from the firing line instead. Sometimes targets were set up as far back as ninety meters, almost back against the earthen bank which had been built up at the rear of the range, but for the purposes of today’s practice, targets had been set up on the thirty-meter and fifty-meter lines, distances which straddled the effective range of most crossbows, at least in human hands.