"Well... If I had known your idea of getting the job done was breaking into the state building, I would have perhaps brought better climbing gear!"
Suna complained bitterly as she held on to another railing and looked down below, it wasn't a pleasant sight.
They were climbing. They were climbing the State building, the tallest building in the city. And even though she wasn't breaking a sweat, she was certainly mad at Hunt for not revealing his plans earlier.
"Like I said, we have to do the job tonight."
Hunt replied and Suna groaned.
The first thing they had done was stop at the Adler family manor, where Hunt had been able to steal the item that gave them access to the City Council's records.
A secret that his father had hidden for years from the council and his children for a king time, until Hunt became an Alpha.
That had also been the period where his father had shared a lot of secrets with him, it was how he knew his father had access to the City Council's records. Access that only one elite member of the City council had access to. And it was far from the usual codes, it was a retina scan. The only thing that could open the door.
How his father came into possession of the eye of one of the dead city council member whose retina scan had fortunately not been erased from the council's system baffled him. It belonged to Frederick Hornet. A late council member who was quite the force and nicknamed one eye Hornet even after he got an artificial eye.
Hunt's father claimed he had been lucky enough to pry it off his face moments before he was buried.
"How's the weather up there?"
Ruhn called out and Suna and Hunt paused so he could catch up with them.
The cold air was biting and chilling and Hunt wished he could have fully transformed to his real form just to get to the up quicker.
But he didn't want to be too hasty in his decisions and as they drew closer to the full moon, their Lycan had a mind of its own, more wolf than human and more wild than ever.
Submitting to his wolf when he couldn't control it on such a delicate mission would be catastrophic.
Few minutes later they reached the City Council floor and they were able to get in through the sliding open glass that gave a spectacular view of the whole city from the floor.
"Disable the security alarms."
Hunt commanded his brother before making another move, being extra careful so as not to trigger any hidden alarm.
"On it."
Ruhn said as he walked to the other end of the lobby. He was a master at messing with security systems. Hunt didn't know how he did it but he always made it look like an electrical malfunction rather than tampering.
"Done."
Ruhn murmured a few moments later as they began to walk freely around the empty lobby.
"Where would the safe be?"
"Right in their meeting room. I've happened to see it a few times."
Hunt answered as he walked towards the giant steel door holding the eye up.
There was a quick scan and the heavy door clicked open.
The Council room was just as he remembered, huge, grim, dark and menacing. He had only recently been able to enter after he became a candidate for mayor. Other than that he had rarely been in it. It didn't matter that he was Hunt Adler, son of Gregory Adler, Council business was always private business.
"There it is! Can we hurry up please."
Suna begged impatiently as Hunt took long strides to open the safe door.
With the retina scan, they were given access to the Safe.
"What section would it be?"
Ruhn asked as the turned on the lights and were confronted with tall and long bookshelves filled with files.
"Oh God!"
Suna murmured.
"There should be a computer somewhere, it'll take hours to find whatever it is we're looking for if we go through the files."
"That's one!"
Suna said as she pointed to a computer at the far end of the room.
The three of them rushed towards it.
"It needs a password."
Ruhn murmured as he sat in front of the computer.
"Can you hack it? Chances are it got pretty weak firewalls."
Ruhn cracked his knuckles and stretched his arms.
"This might take a few minutes. Look around guys."
He said and Suna and Hunt left him to it.
"There should be a filing system with these files..."
Suna walked towards the shelves sighing in frustration. There were too many files for them to go through.
"It's too much to even bother looking for Suna. Let's just hope Ruhn can hack it."
Hunt was confident that his brother would be able to hack it, if there was one thing he knew about Ruhn it was his love for manipulating technology and hacking into computers.
"How did you know about the demons stuff! How did you even piece it together?"
Hunt asked out of the blues and Suna gulped hard.
She looked away slowly while folding her arms. There was a lot of details she had left out, one of which was the fact that she was working on the case with Aidas Vladimir. He would find out soon enough, but she wanted to keep it away from him before he found another reason to fight with Aidas.
"Demons... They suck out their victims souls. And I read somewhere about how there are different levels of demons. The lower levels, they're more concerned with total destruction of the physical body."
"They can literally rip a body into shreds. Actual shreds."
Suna said with mild fascination in her voice and Hunt grimaced.
"But the higher level demons, oh gods... They're much worse, it's said that although their victims may not suffer any harm to the physical body, they relieve horrors that steal their souls in the process. Anyone who manages to survive would be haunted for eternity."
There was a short silence and Hunt scoffed.
"Well... I see why they had to go."
He couldn't even imagine fighting with a demon. No, he could not. Of all the creepy crawlies and Supernaturals in the world.
"Guys! I found something!"
They walked back to Ruhn who looked very excited.
Ruhn had managed to get the locations they wanted.
"We're in luck! Not only did we get the location, there are also reports showing that a particular location has been flagged severally for high amounts of unusual activity."
"Unusual activity?"
Suna repeated and Ruhn nodded as he pointed at the computer.
"Can you see? I think there's some sort of technology used to measure the energy around it. The energy charts are off the roof. Trees around that area dying and everything is getting decayed. I don't think the council took this seriously though."
"Obviously, they didn't. When was this report?"
Hunt asked.
"That's the weirdest part!"
"There's a report on it eight years ago. And also another one around a year ago. And one very recently. "
"Do you know what that means?"
Hunt asked the both of them as he started preparing to leave.
"No. What does it mean?"
Suna asked as she watched him roll up his sleeves.
'This demon has been around for a long time. And whoever's controlling it is a very powerful person."
"We need to go."
He added.
Ruhn and Suna printed out the reports. They were going to need it. For future purposes alongside the locations.
Meanwhile, Hunt was deep in thoughts, whatever was going on was bigger than they had imagined. And no, for some reason it didn't just start with them, it started a long time ago, for a reason that was still unknown to them.
They certainly had their work cut out for them.
"What now?"
Ruhn asked the minute they stepped outside the State building. It was very early in the morning, around three am yet the streets of the city was still bustling with people. The city never slept and it's lights were rarely out.
"I'm going to be working with Suna on the case. We'll solve it faster. In the meantime, I'm cancelling the pack meeting."
"Wait! You can't work with me on the case!"
She argued loudly and Hunt looked baffled.
"Why not?"
"Why not?"
She repeated and scoffed at him.
"Ugh!! Because you're a target as well! What I should be doing now is figuring out safer ways to protect you it this demon is coming for you."
Hunt chuckled.
"Suna, I'm an Alpha. I don't need your help."
Suna rolled her eyes.
"Yes, you do. And as your Beta, it is my responsibility to keep you safe even though it means endangering my life. Ortu Lunae still needs it's Alpha."
Hunt sighed in frustration.
"What would you have me do then? I can't just sit back and watch you do all the work."
"You'd have to. But I do need help with one thing."
"What's that?"
Hunt asked in bewilderment.
"I need a witch."
She was slipping in and out of consciousness. She could barely feel a thing anymore, she couldn't feel the pain, it seemed far away, like a forgotten door in an empty abandoned house that she had locked and threw away the key.
She knew she was awake but she couldn't move her body. Sometimes she would feel as if she was standing up or trying to, but she knew she was still on the floor. Sleep paralysis. except the problem was that she wasn't sleeping, nor should she even be paralysed.
"Hold on to something."
A voice whispered in her mind and she asked herself what?
It felt like she had been on the floor for hours, slipping in and out of consciousness like she was high on drugs.
Hold on to what?
She asked herself as she reached into herself, searching in the forgotten corners of her mind for an anchor.
Suddenly she felt as if she was being lifted up, someone was carrying her gently and she struggled to open her eyes, but they would not listen to her.
It was as if her brain was failing to send commands to her body.
"Leave me alone!!!"
She was screaming inside, but her lips, they weren't moving!
She realised in horror as she shrunk back into herself, pushing herself far and far into the darkness until she couldn't feel anything. Or see anything.
Except the darkness.