I stepped over gnarled roots that erupted from the soil like fingers, arching up in a crooked, repetitive pattern. Every tree around Abel’s place grew that way, but not the entire area: twisted, ancient, as though there was something just a little bit different around his house. Like it knew the man living inside the small ramshackle home was different.

  I arrived again at the old man’s house. The more I came here, the less he felt like an old man at all. Something about him lay just beyond comprehension, like a word I couldn’t quite remember but knew was important. He carried a weight to his human existence that no other I had met in this second life carried.

  As always, Abel sat on his porch, awake, waiting, rocking in the same old chair. The wood groaned under him, a tired rhythm swallowed by the dark. A cigarette burned in the ashtray on the porch rail, its thin trail of smoke rising like a signal flare. His brown eyes were focused on me from his place on the porch.

  When I stepped from the tree line across the road, he rose slowly and gripped the porch rail. The movement was effortless, rehearsed, like he knew exactly when I’d arrive. I crossed the empty asphalt, my eyes on him as he took a long drag, then leaned back against the post with an exhale that seemed to blend into the night itself.

  “Busy night for you, huh, son?” Abel asked with no hesitation or curiosity. He already knew what I had done… and who I had killed.

  I said nothing. He watched me approach as though he were studying a solar eclipse… dangerous to look at directly… but impossible to ignore. He could feel the aura of Annihilation rolling off me, even in this calm and cold state.

  “Come on up here, Sam.” He gestured to the other rocking chair. “Sit. Ask the questions you’ve been carrying around like stones in your pockets.” He understood he had kept things from me before… just like I had as well… but now was the time.

  I climbed the porch steps. The boards groaned beneath my weight. I passed behind him, close enough to touch him, close enough to kill him. He didn’t so much as flinch. Either he trusted me entirely… or he knew I wasn’t a threat to him.

  I took the seat beside him, creaking against the porch as my rocking chair shifted over the crooked boards even louder than Abel’s chair.

  “How do you know so much? What is a ‘Shepard’ really?” I asked, staring deeply into his dark brown eyes.

  Abel’s smile was faint, resigned. “Guess the jig’s up. And you… You did exactly what I asked. The pits are hollow now… silent. Anything still down there is hiding from you… or long dead.”

  “I didn’t do it for you…”

  “Oh, I know,” he said sharply, cutting across me. “I know. You’re walking a path few see, and fewer survive a scrape with,” he said with raised eyes, speaking of Death. “A path lined with things humans were never meant to brush shoulders with. The world’s been bent wrong since before it settled into shape. And you…” He tapped his thumb on the arm of the rocking chair, “You’re part of bending it back… to what it was supposed to be. We both are… in a way.”

  He stared out over his yard, jaw ticking like he was debating how much to reveal. Then, with a sigh:

  “I told you once that I was a Shepherd. That wasn’t the right name. I’m a Watcher. Been in St. Louis longer than St. Louis has been St. Louis,” he chuckled to himself weakly. “Watching, waiting, studying the times as they come and go… shifts in the fabric of this world. Changes in the essence around this place… in Hunger. I’m also here to… guide,” he found the right word, “certain things. To make sure that when the shots aligned…” Abel lined his hands up about two feet apart, and he slapped them together with a loud clap, right as he said, “It’s fired!” His voice lowered, almost reverent.

  Abel reached out and took the cigarette back out of the ashtray and took another long pull from it. “And now we’re here, after another event… another milestone for the progress. It’s been a while since so much has changed, but here we are.”

  “What’s ‘here’ supposed to mean?”

  “You… the world you’ve ushered in,” he said simply. “The world turns differently around you. No more Hunger… no more Unseen… no more pits or elders. Their grip snapped the moment you breathed Death’s power into that desiccated heart, and unleashed annihilation…”

  My pulse stilled for a moment. He said the words too casually… Death’s power… annihilation. Like he knew exactly what lived inside me. Like he was right there the moment I broke through into Hunger’s heart chamber… and killed that ancient creature.

  “There’s going to be a purge now,” he went on. “A thick, merciless culling of the creatures left in St. Louis… and beyond. Monsters killing monsters as their hunger and thirst for power grow,” Abel waved his free hand around to add emphasis to his words, smoking with the other hand between words. “Tearing each other apart like rabid dogs until only the strong remain. But even they will hide like never before. Without Hunger and the elders, the old protections aren’t in place, and the laws that shackled the young won't be enforced. The older, stronger creatures will kill the young, and less tempered in their hunger. The monsters will drop in number, and only the strongest will remain.” Abel cocked his head to the side as he analyzed his own words. “A fortunate side effect of the shift in this world, as the essence of Hunger spreads across the earth.”

  “Spread over the earth?” I asked. “What exactly do you mean?”

  “It’s part of what was meant to happen before. When Hunger was supposed to die by Annihilation, her essence would have spread out across all of this realm, giving life, in all its forms, the aspect of Hunger. Not just the act of physical consumption either… but the drive for more in a way you wouldn’t believe. It was meant to be a thing unlike anything you could imagine, Sam. The human race feeding, mentally, physically, spiritually… we were meant to be so much more.” Abel shook his head at such a loss that never got a chance to be. “But… we’re on the path now. Still much to do… other pieces to fall before Hunger’s true purpose can take root. It will spread… it has already begun. I’m sure you know about your more… fanged friends having a slight uptick in their feeding urges?”

  I nodded… slowly thinking on what he was saying as well as remembering everything I had learned about the changes since I got back. He was answering many things I had rolling around in my mind.

  “They’ll be a new order here… your friends. The new rule of law, in St. Louis at least. Martin himself is already one of the oldest and strongest vampires left in the city, but now we got Autumn,” Abel slowly clapped his hands all theatrically. He whistled in a way that expressed surprise and admiration. “Never thought I’d see the birth of another new creation. She’s got that Primeval spark to her… but she’s not one… not an elder, neither. She’s her own thing… even got ties to the Unseen’s power, but she don’t know that yet. It will be a true pleasure to watch her,” Abel spoke openly and honestly about his admiration.

  I had to be honest with myself… I was glad Autumn would be strong… but I never wanted her whole life to be stolen. It was a hard thing to figure out in my head. Sorry that she had been turned into something like me, but glad she was so powerful… so special… and so monstrous. I didn’t fear for her as much after Abel’s words.

  “Autumn and Martin. They’ll be the most powerful here in the city. They’re going to make laws here that will shape things to come. Keep the supernatural world in check. Your friends are going to change to… them Chasse hunters. All of em’, Talbots, and Wickslows too. Over a few years, they’ll join in ways they never have with the remnant that’s left. Jane’s pack and the Chasse family will become one unit… a new Pack. They’re going to get real strong… they’ll have to. They’ll have an ace in the hole to protect them as they grow…”

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Autumn,” I acknowledge, almost visualizing the things he was talking about. “You’re talking like you can see the future,” I muttered.

  “I don’t see the future. I see… projections, patterns, and paths taken.” He pushed up his glasses. He turned to me fully for the first time. “I see you leaving, Sam.”

  I stared at him hard.

  “No. I’m not going anywhere until I…”

  “You’re going home,” he interrupted, voice unshakably calm. “Back to Dallas. You’ve been due there longer than you realize. You’ve been waiting a long time… scared to face em’, but now is the time. Now… before you get swept up again with your next big wave of dealing out death.”

  A coldness spread through my ribs.

  “How? Who?” My voice cracked despite me. “How do you know all this? Tell me!”

  Abel was silent for a moment, but then he spoke after only a few seconds of staring. “I’m not tied to a Primeval. I’m tied to something older… like you.” He lifted his chin, eyes reflecting moonlight like glass. “I walk with something else… something that empowers me to watch… to see… to memorize and observe as things unfold. I step in where allowed, and assist in ushering in the new age… like you… only differently. I am also here to… help you. Not the monster… not Death… but you, Sam. To help the person walking around as a man of Death and Annihilation… so when the times get tough… You keep going.”

  For a heartbeat, the night held its breath. Finally, I understood just a little bit more about this guy. He was supernatural in his own way. He was… beyond anything else I had met before. But most strangely… were some kind of… friends. Was he here to help me?

  It was weird… honestly, at one point, I was like ninety percent sure he was the bad guy. I thought he was bound to some kind of ancient entity or creature that was just fucking around in the shadows. Shit, he still could be. Maybe this was some kind of trap…

  “This is no trap, Sam.” Then Abel smiled. “And no, I can’t read your mind either.”

  I cocked my head back a little, wary of him now. Telling me he couldn’t read my mind when that’s exactly what I was thinking is not a good way to convince me otherwise.

  “I’ve had this kind of conversation before… many times,” Abel smirked, but then got serious again. “You’ve helped shape this city… this world,” Abel said softly, looking over between puffs of his cigarette. “But now you have to tend to what’s yours… while you can. Alex… Autumn… Vicky and Caydee… Seth… the people who ground you.” He looked almost mournful. “Because the day’s coming, Sam… When none of them will be at your side. You need them now… because their memory will help you later… when you’re alone again… and the hunt continues. Things will be required of you… and Death… Death won’t wait for you to be ready. When he’s ready for you… You’ll have no choice. The show must go on!”

  My stomach twisted. “What are you talking about? Are you saying I’m going to lose someone soon?”

  “You never know for sure how these things play out,” his voice was barely above a whisper. “Not exactly. But… I think you’ve known for a long while that someone had their eyes on the end.” Abel refocused his gaze on me, knowing I knew who he spoke of. “Go to her and face it. Do it soon… because Death has more for you. He’ll speak to you again soon… about the next steps, about what needs to be done.”

  His cigarette ember flared one last time before he exhaled a plume of smoke into the night sky.

  “You have time before your life is consumed by Death and his machinations,” he added quietly, almost kindly. “Hold onto whatever humanity you’ve got left in the space between visions… with the people you’ve got.”

  He leaned back in his chair, letting the silence swallow the rest.

  I wanted more… but he didn’t give it. I wasn't sure what exactly to ask if I was honest. He had just dumped so much on me that I didn’t know how to process it anyway. I stared down into my lap, thinking about those here… Autumn, Alex, Carter, and Eleanor, Frank and Jane… all of them. Then I thought about my family back home… Vicky, Seth, and little Caydee. If what he said was true… I needed to go to them.

  I didn’t necessarily believe everything he said, but I knew that I already wanted to go back to them. That was a certainty. Everything he said was only heightening the things I knew I needed to do.

  “What about the last two elders? The ones I feel are on the other side of the world. Their signature is faint, but I feel them,” I assured Abel.

  “They’ll be a concern for another time. They’re not your problem currently, and they won't become one while you are away.”

  Abel's words were so sure, and I wanted to just believe him.

  “They feel the death of the other elders, and the disconnect from Hunger. They won't come looking for what killed everything they knew. For all intents and purposes… St. Louis just became the safest place in the world for your friends.”

  I thought inwardly, trying to parse my thoughts and feelings together and figure out if I really could go back to Texas, and leave my friends alone again… at least for a little while.

  When I looked back up… Abel was not in his rocking chair. He was gone. His body was nowhere to be seen. There wasn't even a hint of his existence in that porch… just like that one time he had disappeared into the house.

  I guess he was done talking. That old man really didn’t waste any time.

  I didn’t waste any time either. I moved back across the river to seek out and find a place to think. At the same time… I shot out a pulse of sensory perception across the city, zeroing in on Alex’s location. She appeared in my mind, right beside Autumn, still at the Chasse house.

  Whatever Abel was trying to tell me about her hadn’t happened yet. I was thankful for that, because I didn’t want her to do anything rash. I knew how much she craved death… she yearned for it when she first followed me down into the pits. She was hoping to throw herself up against something so strong down in those depths that she would finally meet her match. But instead… she got more monstrous power.

  I hated to even admit what it could be… but I knew… deep in the back of my mind. Alex was like me… a monster. She never wanted to be, but she was forced to become this thing. She couldn’t be like the rest, though. She was her own entity; she made her own rules… so much so that she mutated the very vampirism in her blood to hunger and feed on vampires themselves. It made her so much stronger than any other common leech. But she never wanted any of it.

  The look on her face when the bone elder’s relic moved toward her… it was heart-wrenching… and it told me enough. She was terrified of it. Terrified beyond words at adding more power to the monster she kept locked inside. There was a pleading look in her eyes, not to me… nor to anyone other than the universe itself.

  I knew what I had seen, that’s why I destroyed it. Sure, I also didn’t want her to become an inadvertent target that Death would send me for, but I also saw her pain in that moment. I knew what Abel had just said, but I didn’t want to believe any of it.

  Did Alex want that death she had craved so much before we got to know each other? The truth of the matter was that I had grown very close with Alex… so much so that I didn’t want to give her up. It was selfish… I know, but I didn’t care. There was no scenario I would allow to exist where I couldn’t have her with me. She was too important to me now.

  I felt a chill inside myself as the worst-case scenario, something I didn’t even want to think about, filled my mind. The thought of finding Alex… dead somehow. Or getting back to the Chasse house and being told that she was no more… nothing left of her for me to grieve over.

  I kept a close watch on Alex’s position through my projected senses. I needed to get to her, but I didn’t want to deal with everyone else. Just wanted to get her alone.

  I kept a close watch on Alex’s position through my projected senses. I needed to get to her, but I didn’t want to deal with everyone else. Just wanted to get her alone. I needed that time with her, as we had in her apartment. I needed to be close to her again… and hold her as tight to me as possible.

  With that in mind, I headed to the one place I knew she was most likely to end up here soon. I erupted from the ground with speed like a runaway freight train, tearing my way across the muddied riverbanks and shadowed tree lines. I moved like a wraith in and out of buildings, alleys, and into a few convenience stores. I was looking for something specific.

  It only took me two tries of breaking and entering before I had two small bags of sour gummy worms. It was small… but something we shared. Really salty, and really sweet… a little hidden secret shared by two monsters of monsters… killers of killers.

  With the candy in hand, I made my way downtown to her apartment and hid myself away inside the shadows of her home. I waited, scanning my pulse senses out toward West County as I watched her intently within the Chasse family home.

  I couldn’t explain how I knew, but she was coming here. I could feel it as clear as the breath in my lungs. Once they finished handling the bodies and the family calmed, Alex would leave. I figured Autumn would stay with her family, knowing she couldn’t leave their side after everything, wanting to protect them. I knew Martin would feel the same, plus the sun would keep him there. But I was willing to bet it all that as soon as the sun came up, and Autumn was engaged with more Chasse family matters concerning her new existence as a supernatural creature, Alex would depart for a little while to give them all some space.

  After all… as far as anyone else was concerned, everything was over. The threats were gone… for the foreseeable future anyway.

  So, I focused my senses, trailing my mind over Alex as she moved, watching and waiting for the moment she would start heading my way.