Not human Part 2 (Casey POV)

"Sotarineo," I heard softly, and the blade that appeared this time landed at my neck. I lifted my head a little and watched the figure who stepped into my field of vision next to Nathan.

"Obviously, he knew less than we thought," he said, and I noticed that his hair had changed from blonde to pitch black. His expression, however, was still as scowling and cold as it had been in the picture I'd seen in the office, which made it easy for me to identify him as Lukas Jefferson.

"Seems so," Nathan Walker remarked as he eyed me. "The mystery of how he could draw what he couldn't possibly know remains, however." With those words, he began to rub his chin thoughtfully, and I felt like I was caught in an utterly surreal situation.

I tried to join in their conversation, but apparently along with their human appearance they had also discarded their ability to hear, for they ignored me completely.

"We should take him with us. Whatever this phenomenon means, if we don't get to the bottom of it, nasty surprises could jeopardize our plans." With these words, Nathan sought eye contact with Lukas Jefferson again.  

The look the latter gave me was so hateful that I wondered if he had a personal problem with me or if he found people in general repulsive.

"Agreed. And from the looks of it, he didn't know about our true identity, which means his little trap has become useless."

I didn't suspect anything good at those words.

"What I don't know, I can't reveal under torture," I interjected.

 "Quiet," Lukas hissed in response, and the pressure of the blade on my neck intensified. Now I could also see that the blade was the tip of a spear. Upon closer inspection, I found that it was a double blade, long, with curved blades on both ends. The tang was black, seemed to be streaked with bloodred veins. The blades shimmered either black or dark reddish, depending on the angle of the light. I had never seen a weapon like this anywhere, although the spear points on either side bore distant resemblances to glaives.

At that moment, the other two joined our conversation, and one of the Pierce brothers seemed exceptionally pleased with the evening's developments. "Krewood will be pleased!"

I had completely forgotten about the man. I didn’t bother to explain to the gentlemen that he did not know me and therefore wouldn’t know what to make of me. With the blade at my neck, I was in a position where thinking and silence were wiser than babbling.

Flanking me, however, the four then escorted me to their car, which stood completely intact at the front of the street. I could not say the same for my house. It had been destroyed and was burning fiercely. In the distance, I could already hear the fire department sirens, which made me think how they were going to hide the bodies of the monsters. However, when I looked around, there was no sign of the critters. 

The entity with which I had had the unequal fight had also disappeared. If I didn’t feel pain all over my body, and if I hadn’t seen the four strange creatures right next to me, I could have believed that I had only imagined the whole thing. However, this was how the situation turned out to be a bitter reality.  

Also fitting the strange atmosphere was the comment, that one brother gave to the other, delivered with a broad grin and strange enthusiasm.

"Did you see how fast I got his skull, Ju?"

In response, this 'Ju' patted him on the shoulder, nodding. The two seemed extremely familiar with each other, despite the emphatically distant reaction. The familiar stab went through my heart as I watched the brotherly interaction before averting my eyes. Some wounds never healed.

The next moment, however, I had other concerns as the car door opened, and I took a seat between the Pierce brothers.

The car with Nathan Walker at the wheel started and shortly thereafter, he began talking on the phone.

"What do you mean you lost them?" Involuntarily, I relaxed a little and looked more calmly into what awaited me. If Judith and the others were not in the hands of these beings, they could not use anyone as leverage against me.  Once again, it was proven that meticulous planning and preparation made sense.

"I see. No, it's all good. We got what we wanted. Still, keep your eyes and ears open."

With that, he hung up and silence fell in the car. It smelled unpleasant of the critters, and I noted in passing that all four looked 'human' again. Apparently, the transformation was so quick that you didn't notice it when you weren't looking.

Slowly, the adrenaline stopped heating up my body and I noticed exhaustion and pain flowing through my limbs. The two brothers didn't take their eyes off me, and even the looks Nathan gave me through the rearview mirror were icy cold. Still, I crossed my arms and leaned my head against the support behind me.

From the way Lukas had sounded, I'd have some work ahead of me soon. It was better to be as rested as possible, even though I had no intention of sleeping in this car.

The drive went by faster than I expected, and a little later the car stopped in front of an apartment complex in suburban New York. Already standing below was an ordinary-looking blond man, whose unimpressed reaction to our completely torn clothes and our bodies stained with green blood revealed that he was no more human than my four companions. Even the forest green eyes in his face seemed too bright for a normal human.

Wordlessly, I was taken inside and locked in a living room that had only a large sofa and a TV cabinet with a TV. Apparently, no one feared that I might succeed in escaping from here. For an hour, I heard them taking turns to take a shower, while they were talking animatedly in front of the door. I could not understand the words, it was not English or any other language I had ever heard.

While they were washing, I took the opportunity to clean myself with a wool blanket that was lying on the sofa. After my face, arms and hands were cleaned of the green blood, I took off my shirt and threw it on the sofa with the blanket. Under the shirt, I wore a simple black t-shirt, which also hid the green blood stains well. Shortly after I finished, the door opened, and I was again wordlessly escorted to the car. I preferred it that way. There was nothing I needed to discuss with these men.