Page 40 of Monsters of Midnight

A thriving mass of blackened, shadow creatures moved behind us every now, and then one would dart out toward us, and we would press back. Every time they darted forward, it moved us closer to the geyser and the steaming water.

“I think they have the advantage of the situation,” Ratchet said.

“Except for one thing,” I said. “The best superpower of all time.” I transformed into my monster self, complete with wings and horns and everything. I flapped my wings, and with one massive swipe, pulling myself into the air and blowing back the monsters’ hair.

“I don’t see Vulcan’s son anywhere,” Ratchet said, hovering next to me in his demon form.

“He’s probably creating these as a distraction,” I mused.

“That would make sense,” Ratchet nodded.

“He’s doing that so the hotspots will get Vina’s attention, like Machu Picchu and Yellowstone, because she won’t want to have any bad press on these magical places. She’s going to push to have them solved immediately,” I explained.

“This one might take more than you and me to solve,” Ratchet said.

“There is no one else,” I said.

I couldn’t agree with Ratchet more than I looked down at this monstrous sea. They were shadow creatures. They were not going to give into the idea we’d had when we battled against the masses in Greenland and convinced them to do as they were told. The shadow creatures would also naturally avoid the heat of the geyser. Without even trying to, they would save themselves. Even now, they were backing up and moving toward the forest and away from us, and away from the geyser.

“Well, if we’re going to find Cade, we’re going to have to play his game,” Ratchet said. I flew higher in the air as Ratchet set the forest on fire. “Let’s see how they like having heat on all sides of them.”

“We can get rid of them faster with light,” I said. “These are shadow creatures. They won’t like the heat, but the light will destroy them.”

“You should’ve just said light them up,” Ratchet said with a grin. The flame on his outer skin exploded into a large realm of flame and light. A high-pitched wheezing sound came up from the shadow creatures before us as the light seared at the essence of the shadow monsters and made them evaporate into the monster homeland.

This time I needed to watch Ratchet for signs of exhaustion. I moved in closer to him and watched him closely, and as I saw the shadow monsters disappearing, I pulled them back. The light had gotten the majority of them, and the dredges that remained could easily be picked up by the heat from the fire or the geyser.

“Not this time, buddy,” I said, reaching out to Ratchet and getting him to stand down on his demonic fire form.

“Did we get them?” Ratchet asked, looking around.

“Got enough of them,” I responded.

“Where the hell did he get shadow monsters from?” Ratchet asked.

“Oh, that’s the $20 million question, isn’t it?” I asked.

“Shadow monsters only exist in two places. Australia, which is locked down by the shifters and Greenland, where we just were and it was locked down by us.” Ratchet mused. “Unless there’s some place we haven’t looked at yet.”

“Where is that going to be?” I asked, my mind still distracted by Caroline.

“If he’s going to attack humans with his monsters, he’s not going to be attacking in these remote places where there aren’t any people. He’s going to try to find a rift in a major city. And if he’s engaging you, it’s probably going to be a major city in fae territory where you can’t go.”

I nodded. “Good points. He’s going to do something a little more daring than that. Maybe someplace in Europe. I don’t have any jurisdiction over there.”

“Exactly,” Ratchet agreed.

“The biggest monster rift in Europe is under the Vatican in Rome,” I commented.

“Technically in the Vatican,” Ratchet said. “I get your point,”

“We’re never going to get jurisdiction. Authority to fight a crime in Europe that hasn’t even taken place yet,” I said.

“We’re going to have to,” Ratchet said. “Because if monsters run loose in the Vatican, and are all around, they’re going to kill a lot of humans.”

I looked at him, but the longer I looked at him and sat in the silence, the more I could hear Caroline’s voice, the voice of humanity. There was no way if she were here I would stand by and take the risk of monsters attacking humans. There was no way I was going to allow it even if she was gone and lost to me.

I had seen her.

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