The Reunion

My original thought was to just leave the bodies to the animals and shifters of the forest. But knowing that they were part demon and part vampire made me wary of that plan now.

The last thing I needed was to create more hybrids from something consuming their flesh and blood.

"We need to burn them," I said, looking around. I wanted to set the whole 'village' on fire, but I didn't know if that would affect the forest around us. It was kind of pointless to harm the environment if my whole reason for burning the bodies was to prevent further harm.

"They should have something in the huts that we could use," murmured Greyson, sounding a bit more confident now that his body was fully back together and his threads had weaved themselves into his clothes.

"I'll help," grunted Levi as he got off of the ground gingerly, cracking his neck back and forth. "I don't know how you did it," he continued, looking me up and down. "I mean, getting shot in the head is a different way to die, but how are you not insane from remembering all the ways you were killed?"

"Compartmentalizing," I shrugged, being completely honest. "It might not be healthy, but it is what it is. After all this time, I maybe remember one in twenty ways that I have died. But I try not to focus on them. Instead, I think about why I should be happy I continued to live."

"Understood," nodded Levi as he walked off with Greyson toward one of the huts. Their feet continued to squish in the mud. We would need to burn the bodies out in the open so that the blood in the ground could be burned, too.

*Sigh* It was such a pain in my ass to have to clean up a crime scene. It gave me a better appreciation for the serial killers I had gone after before. It couldn't have been easy for them to wipe away so much forensic evidence. I would have to compliment the next serial killer I dealt with. They really work hard.

Shaking my head, I started piling up the bodies in the center of the village. Nicholas, Michael, Sasha, and Dom quickly joined me as Greyson and Levi brought out brick after brink of a white substance. "Might as well burn this while we are at it," suggested Greyson as he threw the drugs on top of the dead bodies.

"Is it safe?" I asked, my eyebrows raised. I mean, I had seen it done in movies, but I really didn't know how to safely destroy drugs in real life.

"It is," assured Levi. "But I don't suggest that we stick around and breathe in the fumes."

"Got it," I nodded with a smile.

Teamwork made the dream work, and soon enough, we were watching a brilliant bonfire at the center of the village. Greyson even managed to find some gasoline and create rivers of liquid from the fire to the surrounding huts.

It took no time at all before the entire clearing was ablaze, and we were forced to retreat into the forest for cover against the heat.

"And you are sure that it's not going to create a forest fire?" I murmured, looking at Dom.

"The trees around here are too saturated with water for there to be any major damage," came a voice through the trees.

The men and I spun around to see a man and a woman walking toward us. They looked like one of the traditional indigenous tribes that I saw on the covers of magazines. The man wore a leather loin cloth while the woman had on what looked like a skirt and a bralette. Both had markings in black and white over their faces and down the rest of their body, and the man had a bow and arrow in his hand.

Dom stepped in front of us and bowed to the man and woman. "Elder," he said softly. The rest of us copied his posture but not the words. We would let Dom speak for us.

"Thank you," grunted the man, the wooden piercing through his lip moving with every word he spoke. "They have caused much destruction."

"I am sorry about the fire," admitted Dom. "But their blood and flesh could not be allowed to be spread."

The woman nodded her head. "It's not a problem," she said, looking around the clearing where the fire was becoming bigger and bigger. There were a few small explosions as the fire devoured more and more. "Fire destroys, but it also heals. It will help cleanse this place of evil and restore everything to the way it should be."

"Thank you, Priestess," replied Dom, his head still bowed.

"But you need to leave. The humans you brought with you have all made it to the plane safely. You should all leave now," grunted the man, clearly more than happy to get rid of us.

Not that I blamed him. This was his home, and I would be pretty pissed, too, if someone started burning random parts of my home, no matter what the reason.

Okay, so I might be okay with it if my home had a spider infestation or something… or someone saw a single spider… or thought that they had seen a spider.

Shuddering, I smiled at the two shifters and slowly bowed my head to them.

As quickly as we could, the seven of us left the burning village and headed toward where the plane was waiting.

"Time for home," I sighed as I saw the group of humans starting to get their gear on, ready to go back into the forest to try and save us.

At the sound of my voice, they spun around, their guns raised and ready.

"Boss," sighed the guy from the hospital as he quickly lowered his gun. "You're safe. We were just about to go back and help."

Levi shook his head and chuckled, striding forward to clasp the man on the shoulder. "No point now. We've killed the bad guys, burned the drugs, and saved the day."

"But…" murmured one of the men looking around. "What happened?"

"The cartel released a huge cloud of drugs into the air as soon as we entered the village. I think there might have been some hallucinogens in with the cocaine," replied Dom, shaking his head. "The shit I thought I saw…"

The other men grunted before fully relaxing.