**CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE.**
I looked back again at Karina’s body and a part of me wanted to fall apart, to let the grief and anger swallow me whole, but I couldn’t. Not yet. Not when Tyler was still out there, still walking free. My hands balled into fists, and I stood up slowly.
“What's the plan?” Links asked, his voice tense as he shot a glance at Draken. He was seething, too—every muscle in his body seemed coiled, ready to spring at the slightest provocation. His hands were still tightly clenched.
Draken’s gaze hardened as he placed a hand on my shoulder. “First, we get Karina out of here. We’ll have to take her somewhere safe, until we're sure of our next step. Then we find Tyler. He’s not going to slip away from us. Maybe getting to Tyler could get us more information about the current generation of hunters.”
“How do we find him? He’s probably long gone by now.” Betty said, matter-of-fact.
Drake brushed the spec of blood from his hands. His eyes flicked toward me, then the rest of the group. “He’s not far. I can feel it. He’s left a trail.”
“Are you sure?” I knew it was a stupid question for me to ask, considering it'd been revealed that he was a medium with numerous powers.
He nodded, his expression unreadable as he spoke. “Tyler's a hunter, but I can tell that he's also arrogant. He didn’t bother hiding his tracks. He’s close, and if we move quickly, we can catch him before he disappears for good.”
I exchanged a look with Draken. There was no hesitation in his eyes.
“Let’s move, then,” Draken said, his voice sharp. “We don’t have much time. But first, Betty, can you patch Karina's body up?”
“Sure,” she replied, quickly moving to Karina's body.
I watched as her body began to shift gradually, until it looked like it was Karina. She shifted into Karina…it shocked me, but I said nothing as I watched her slowly peel the skin off her body. Once she successfully peeled the skin, she began to wear it over Karina's body.
“I am done,” Betty said as she stood up.
Karina's body looked like she was merely asleep. It warmed me to know her parents wouldn't get to see her in the state she was before.
As we prepared to leave, Links and Hannah moved toward Karina's body, lifting her carefully. They were gentle, but seeing her like that—lifeless, cradled in their arms—made it all too real that she was dead. The reality of what had happened, of what we were up against, weighed us all.
“Where do we take her?” Betty asked, her voice unusually quiet.
Draken paused for a moment, his eyes narrowing as he thought. “We’ll take her to Topper's apartment for the meantime. It’s off the grid. No one will find her there, and we can figure out the next steps.”
Hannah, who had been silent until now, spoke up, his voice laced with worry. “And what about Karina’s family? Are we just going to leave them in the dark?”
A lump formed in my throat at the thought of Karina’s parents—how would they ever understand what had happened to their daughter? How could I even begin to explain?
“We’ll deal with that later,” Draken said firmly. “Right now, we focus on finding Tyler.”
We moved quickly, exiting the warehouse under the cover of night. Topper and the rest of the gang said nothing as we brought out Karina's lifeless body. Their eyes were enough reflection of their sympathy. The darkness of the night sky felt thicker now, more oppressive. I kept close to Draken, my heart pounding in my chest as Karina’s body was loaded into the backseat of the Toppers car.
Once she was secured, we split up into two groups again—one to take Karina to Topper's apartment, and the other to track down Tyler. Draken, Drake, Betty, Topper, and I were to go after Tyler, while Kelvin, Links, Hannah, and Brianna were in charge of taking care of Karina's body.
“Be careful,” I whispered to Hannah as she climbed into the car since she was in charge of holding on to Karina's body. She nodded firmly.
“You too,” she replied, glancing nervously at the darkened forest. “And... I'll be praying to Cessi that you actually get your revenge.”
With that, the car rumbled to life, and they disappeared down the narrow dirt road, leaving the rest of us standing in the stillness of the forest. I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself.
“We have to be smart about this,” Draken said, turning to face us. “We’ve seen what Tyler did with Karina. He's dangerous, and we don’t know if he’s working alone or not.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Betty said, her voice low and cold. “He’s not walking away from this.”
Drake motioned for us to follow, his eyes scanning the trees ahead of the abandoned warehouse. “We head south. His scent is faint, but it’s there.”
I clenched my fists, the anger boiling inside me once again. Tyler had taken Karina from this world, and now it was my turn to take everything from him. This kind of rage I felt at that moment was one I'd never felt before.
As we moved through the forest, the tension between us grew. The silence was punctuated only by the crunch of leaves under our feet and a bird could be heard chirping from afar.
After what felt like hours of walking through the forest, Drake came to an abrupt halt. “He's close,” he whispered, his eyes narrowing. Drake crouched low and everyone of us followed as we continued to move slowly through the thick bush until we reached a clearing.
There, standing near the edge of a cliff by the forest, was Tyler.
He was whistling loudly, arms crossed as he locked his gaze on us. He didn't look surprised or panicked to see us. If anything, he seemed to be waiting for us. A cruel smirk made his lips twist as he clapped his hands and stopped whistling.
“I've been waiting for you guys,” he said, his voice oozing with arrogance. “Took you guys long enough. Expected better from shifters.”