I knew then what I wanted to do.
One more year in the field. We’d get this bastard, Balthazar, and push this crazy assed pursuit under the rug.
One more year and I’d be ready to ask her to marry me. One year and I’d take her back to Paris, she’d think I was trying to recreate our last time there but really I’d be prepping for our future. One that I couldn’t say was going to be in the unit.
I wanted more too. Prior to joining up I was working hard to be captain in the marines. I wouldn’t lie and say that I joined the SMF for myself. I joined when I was invited to because I knew I could protect her. Maybe it was foolish, but it was what felt like the right thing to me. It felt true to me. Like I was being true to myself by protecting the woman I loved because our little unit had been formed to hunt The Ra.
I might have found myself while being part of the agency and the unit as a whole, but it couldn’t be my forever. It was the same thing as the Marines. There came a time when it was time to change.
Honestly my view on that was my time came around last year. Nothing in particular happened to make me decide it, it was just a feeling. Something that came to me when I realized how much I loved Claire.
As we neared the end of the alley way a strange feeling came over me, it was the place, it was too quiet.
Strangely too quiet.
It was a little village that should have been bustling with more life than this at this hour. Intel showed there was a tavern and a few shops that would have been closing for business for the day. The place was small and one of those cozy villages where everyone seemed to know each other.
It wouldn’t have been this quiet.
It was almost easier to get around when it was busy, but that wasn’t why we chose this time to come. We chose the time because we needed to move fast. Like Claire had said, we did need to kind of grab and go.
It was just…too quiet.
“Guys.” I hissed and they stopped.
Claire looked to me. “What is it Xander?”
“Something’s wrong.” I pointed ahead. “Where is everyone?”
We’d stopped a little way from the end of the alley and I could see I was right, there wasn’t anyone around.
I stepped forward and readied my gun.
Continuing ahead of the crew, I went right up to the wall at the end of the alley and gazed on ahead.
I really wished I hadn’t done that because I wasn’t prepared for the sight before me.
There was a water fountain in the center of the village. It would have been beautiful except that it was covered in dead bodies. Bodies of people who looked like they’d been skinned alive.
The sight…
The horrendous sight made bile rise in my stomach and my soul shriek away.
What was worse was they were all arranged in some sort of display, like a nightmare.
This was the work of Balthazar and his spades.
A tease of spades showing the darker elements of their powers. Teasing us like a calling card left by a professional criminal who couldn’t be caught. Showing they were sick mother fuckers who didn’t care for humanity.
All these people here…
What did they do to deserve this?
It was shit like this I couldn’t deal with. No matter how badass a guy was,this… was fucked up shit you couldn’t prep for.
Fucking hell.
Claire and the others joined me, dashing up to where I stood when they saw my reaction. Paul threw up instantly and John heaved.
