Unborn by Amber Lynn Natusch Page B

minute. “This is going to be so awesome, Khara. Hunting is such a rush . . . well, it is when you actually find someone up to no good, but that happens readily enough to keep my spirits up.”
    His mischievous grin exposed nearly every tooth his mouth contained. It was clear that he loved his calling, though I still did not fully understand what that entailed. Finding evil and eliminating it did not excite me as it did him. Surely I was missing something.
    Once we stepped out onto the sidewalk, he looked around until he located the colossal black vehicle I had just ridden into town in and made his way over to it.
    “Can we not walk?” I asked, not wanting to admit that being inside that oversized contraption made me uneasy. There was something unnatural about it that did not sit well with me.
    He shrugged ambivalently and conceded, redirecting us down a narrow passage between the towering buildings to a less traveled road. He explained along the way that bad things rarely happened in crowded areas. That concept made little sense to me—they happened everywhere in the densely populated Underworld.
    “So what do you use to find scenarios that require the attention of the PC?” I asked while we made our way down the dark and rather malodorous street. Refuse was strewn about without concern, and people lay sleeping in the middle of the sidewalk. I stepped carefully over one that appeared to be lying in a puddle of his own bodily fluids. “Certainly you don’t just wander aimlessly all night long in hopes of finding some nefarious creatures engaged in unsavory acts. This city is too large for that plan to be statistically advantageous, if one could call such a course of action a plan at all.”
    “Drew specifically told me not to go into too much detail about things, if you chose to go with me—at least not for now. He knows I can get a little carried away when I’m excited, and he doesn’t want to overwhelm you. You’ve had quite a shock to your system as it is. We don’t wanna blow a circuit, you know?” I thought I understood what he was saying and nodded. “But,” he said with a shrug, “what Drew doesn’t know won’t hurt him, right?” Again, I nodded. “The truth is that, for the most part, each member of the PC can sense all types of supernatural, with very few exceptions. Unfortunately for us, most of those exceptions reside in Detroit. That’s forced us to adapt over time,” he explained, taking my arm as we crossed the street.
    “Have you adapted as a whole or individually?”
    “Both. We were each chosen to police this city and what roams its streets for a reason,” he continued, his expression darkening momentarily. “Those of us still left were best suited for the task, I guess.”
    “Still left? There were more . . . are more? I have other brothers?” I prodded as we continued down the increasingly desolate street. Even those who had apparently taken to in Sy ter habiting them disappeared as I looked off into the distance.
    “You have many brothers, Khara— hundreds , though those numbers dwindle over time as they fall. Our job is not without danger, nor are we immune to its consequences.”
    The immensity of his statement weighed heavily on me, forcing me to stop in my tracks and fully acknowledge it. I had more family than I could comprehend, and likely had lost even more than that which still existed. I wondered if I had passed them in the Underworld, not knowing who and what they were. They would not have known me either. The dead do not feel as the living do. They are consumed only by terror and pain—that was my experience with them.
    That unwanted feeling in my chest was returning at the thought of my brothers facing an eternity of torment for their actions above. I needed to quash this feeling immediately.
    “Are you okay?” Kierson asked, assessing me curiously.
    “I am fine,” I replied dismissively, continuing in the direction we had been headed. “So you have