CHAPTER SIX
PATROL

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Having to hunt under a blood moon had never been one of Josie's favourite situations. While they were relatively rare, she still always dreaded the nights where the sunset turned blood red. It was hard enough to have an advantage against the undead in normal circumstances, but they would be stronger tonight. And not only that, but she had people to protect with her, and a whole town's worth of people who didn't know what was coming for them.

It was a lot of pressure to say the least.

Walking the strange streets of the combined Nightmoor and Storybrooke, Josie kept her grip tight on her crossbow and her eyes alert, always scanning for any kind of movement around them. It was mostly silent as they walked, only the occasional gust of wind that carried a screeching cry from the direction of the woods.

The first time that wind had whistled by them carrying that bloodcurdling scream, Regina, Henry and Robin had believed that they should follow the sound of the cry, believing that someone was in distress. That was, of course, when Josie, Oliver and Eugene were forced to explain that it was not a person making that sound and following it would not lead to them aiding anyone, but more than likely ending up in more danger themselves.

She had told them that vampires weren't the only thing they'd encounter, after all.

"So, what was that before?" Henry asked.

"Shh," Josie instructed.

"What was that before?" Henry repeated in a whisper.

Josie sighed. "We really must keep talking to a minimum. We do not need anything out there to hear us."

"We can't talk at all?" Regina asked.

"Not unless it is strictly necessary," Josie snapped. "We must do everything we can not to be overheard by those we hunt."

"But shouldn't we know what's out there?" Robin asked.

Clenching her jaw, Josie stopped and turned to face the others. Her patience was beginning to wear thin with all of these questions on top of the tense hunt and everything else that was going on around them. But she also knew that they didn't know of the dangers of her world. Them not knowing could end up being just as dangerous as anything they came across.

"What you heard was what we call a banshee," she said.

"A banshee?"

"A wailing woman," Oliver provided.

"They herald death." Josie paused. "Someone will die tonight. At least one life will be lost."

"We're not going to let that happen," Regina said.

"It is inevitable," Josie argued. "The wailing woman is never wrong. And this was inevitable anyways, the residents of Storybrooke do not know how to protect themselves from the blood moon. I told you already that their homes will be targets."

"Well, we don't accept that," Regina said.

Josie scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Denial will not change the facts. We are a finite group, we cannot be everywhere all at once. The residents of Nightmoor not only know to protect themselves on a blood moon, but their homes are equipped to do so. Tell me, does your home have steel coverings that come down over the windows to prevent ingress and stores of salt to line outer walls so that the undead cannot cross?"

"No, obviously we don't—"

"Then those homes that are not protected will be targets, as I have continuously told you. How many times are you going to make me to repeat myself?"

"Mom, Mom," Henry said, getting between the two. "Josie knows about these things, she's probably right."

"Henry, stay out of this," Regina said, turning back to Josie. "I have put too much time and effort into winning over this town's trust and becoming good, I'm not going to let any of them die!"

"Mom..." Henry said.

Josie sighed. "That is admirable, I understand. It is also my duty to protect my world's people, but the foe that you are currently facing, the one I face every day, exists in death. I would not have a job if I could protect everyone under my care every single night. Death happens and we cannot always prevent it."

"Sometimes we can."

"Yes, and in my experience, that never ends well. We do what we can, but we do it knowing we are not omnipotent."

"Uh... Josie?" Eugene said, hitting her lightly on the arm.

She turned to look at him and saw him looking away from her and further down the street. Josie followed his gaze and saw two vampires stumbling down the street. They were not covered in dirt, which told her that they were not freshly risen and thus were stronger. But they were covered in blood already, which told her that, just as she had predicted, at least two people had already been attacked and most likely killed.

"Prepare yourselves," Josie warned. "Remember what we taught you."

As they all turned towards the two vampires, they finally smelled the group of humans and looked up, eyes flashing red as they snarled at them and began to run towards them. Josie raised her crossbow at the same time that Robin raised his bow and they fired at the sime time. Neither of their shots felled their targets, the crossbow bolt landing just above the collarbone of one and the arrow landing in the shoulder of the other.

By the time both archers had reloaded their weapons, the vampires had reached them. Josie swung her crossbow out at the vampire that was coming for her, knocking it in the side of the head and causing it to stumble away. She turned and saw the other vampire going for Regina as Robin pulled another arrow from his quiver.

Pulling one of the stakes from her boot, Josie turned to kill one of the vampires and saw Regina gathering a fireball in her hand to throw at it. The vampire, seeing it coming, dodged out of the way, causing it to now be coming in Josie's direction. She quickly ducked out of the way, losing her opportunity to stake the vampire.

Behind her, she saw that Henry was struggling with the other vampire while Oliver pulled another stake out of his sleeve, one already sticking out of its back. She hurried over to assist, but just as she got there, the vampire suddenly went limp and Eugene pulled the vampire away from Henry. The boy was panting and staring at the body with wide eyes, his hand still positioned like he was holding the stake that was currently sticking out of the dead vampire's chest.

"Good job," she told him.

"Uh... thanks," he said, finally turning his gaze to her.

Josie turned back to where the other vampire was and lifted her crossbow, firing at it from the back. The bolt lodged in it's heart and the vampire started to drop, falling in a way that revealed an arrow sticking out of its chest right where its heart would be and Robin, holding his bow out but with no arrow on the string.

The two vampires were dead and they had all survived the encounter. For the first dangerous creature that they encountered, that was a monumental victory.

"Good job, everyone," Josie said. "Very good job, indeed."

"What do we do with the bodies?" Robin asked.

"For now, we can leave them. When the sun has risen we will contact the crematorium and they will collect the bodies and dispose of them," Josie informed them.

"They'll just collect the bodies?" Henry questioned.

"In a world plagued with vampires, it is just a part of their job," Josie answered, looking for street signs. "They will go around searching on their own after a blood moon, but Arthur always appreciates it when we can tell him where they are."

"You're on a first name business with the man who runs a crematorium?" Regina asked.

"I hunt the undead for a living, of course I am."

"Good point. Now what?"

"Well, we continue—"

Josie cut herself off as a ringing sound reached her ears and her brow furrowed, not understanding where it could have been coming from. Instead of being confused, Regina simply reached into one of the pockets of her blazer and pulled out something small that seemed to be the source of the sound. She brought the item up to her ear and began speaking into it.

"Emma, what is it?" she said.

"How are you speaking to Emma?" Josie questioned.

"That's a cellphone," Henry told her. "It's like a really tiny telephone."

"Is it some kind of sorcery?" Oliver asked, looking equally as confused as Josie felt.

"No, it's technology," Henry said. "Just, really advanced."

"What happened?" Regina said suddenly, looking extremely concerned.

Everyone exchanged confused glances as they waited for Regina to finish up her conversation. After a few moments and an assurance that they would look for someone which only worried them all even further, Regina finally tucked the cellphone back into her pocket and looked up at everyone.

"Killian was kidnapped," she said.

"What?"

"How did this happen?"

"They ran into two witches—"

"The ones that Frank mentioned?"

"That's what they believe. They had a bit of a fight with these witches before one of them and Killian seemed to recognize each other. Then they both disappeared in a puff of smoke and then so did the other witch," Regina explained.

"Did they try calling him?" Henry asked.

"He's not answering."

"Well, that's not good," Robin said.

Josie ran a hand over her face. "Do they have any ideas on who this witch may be or where they might have gone? What about the other witch? Could she have followed them or did she go elsewhere?"

"All they know is that they're gone."

"Blast it!" Josie exclaimed, kicking the curb. "These witches are truly beginning to get on my nerves."

"You aren't the only one," Regina said.

Josie sighed and looked down at the bodies of the two vampires they had killed. This whole ordeal was becoming more and more complicated by the moment. She just wanted to find her father and now it had spiralled into so much more. It was beginning to become hard to fathom how her father did this kind of thing all of the time. It was always on him to figure out the problems people came to them with.

"We will begin searching for Killian," Josie said, looking up. "If we so happen to come across any of the undead on our search, we will dispatch of them and then reorient ourselves to searching."

"Brilliant idea," Eugene said.

"It definitely sounds like a good strategy," Robin agreed.

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For the following hour after they learned that Killian had gone missing, they searched the town for where he could have gone. Given that he had been magically whisked away, it was of no surprise that they found no traces of where he could have been taken. And while she had expected as such, it still continued to aggravate her. The last thing she needed was a fourth person that had gone missing that she needed to find. One — her father — had been enough.

After they were creeping up on the hour-and-a-half mark of their search, Josie's group came to a kind of park and spotted two figures standing in a gazebo that she recognized next to a large pond that she did not. As they crept closer to it, a glint of light off of one of the streetlamps hit the hook that was in place of one of Killian's hands, they knew that they had finally found him. As Regina pulled out her cellphone to let the others know that they had located him, Josie, Henry, Robin and Oliver hurried forward while Eugene remained behind with Regina so that nothing could sneak up on her while she was on the phone.

"Killian!" Henry called out.

The man turned at the sound of his name, spotting the four people running towards him and quickly turned back to the witch, raising his hands up towards her as if to hold her back. Josie raised her crossbow and aimed it at the witch, firing at her as she ran. The witch waved a hand, but when nothing happened, she quickly dodged out of the way.

As they got closer, they heard Killian speaking. And what he was saying was not what they expected him to be.

"Don't, don't, it's fine, Kate, they're just worried about me," Killian was saying quickly.

"Back away, witch!" Josie shouted as they reached the gazebo.

"Killian, are you alright?" Henry asked.

"I'm fine, kid," Killian said.

"Step away slowly, if the witch tries anything, I have a bolt that would love to lodge itself in her heart," Josie said.

"And an arrow that would like to beat it," Robin said angrily.

As anger darkened the witch's eyes, Killain moved to stand in front of her instead of moving away like she had instructed, effectively blocking her shot.

"What are you doing?"

"Don't shoot her," Killian said.

"Didn't she kidnap you?" Henry questioned.

"It's not like that," Killian started. "I know her— Or, I used to. She's not going to hurt me and she won't hurt you as long as you don't shoot her."

Josie lowered her crossbow. "I don't understand."

"I didn't mean to kidnap him," the witch said, peaking out from behind Killian. "When he recognized me I... I just kind of panicked and teleported us both away."

"Her name is Kate. She was my— I knew her before I met Milah," Killian explained.

"Milah?" Josie asked.

"She was..." Henry faltered, looking confused as he tried to think of how to finish that sentence. "The last woman that he loved. She was also technically my grandmother."

Nodding, Josie turned back to Killian. "But she was with the other witch. The one that your friends believed to be the madwoman that kidnapped my father."

"And my daughter," Robin said.

"It's complicated," Kate said.

"Kate is on our side now," Killian said insistently. "She was the one I thought I saw watching me earlier, when we first went out. But it was too quick a glance, I couldn't be sure."

"And it had been many, many long years before that when we last saw each other," Kate continued. "I was... in a bad place."

"That is irrelevant information," Josie said. "Why did you kidnap Killian?"

"I said she didn't—"

"I was not talking to you," she snapped. "I was asking the witch."

Kate sighed. "Look, I'm not proud of my actions since I last saw Killian, but I might be able to help you."

"Help us how?" Henry asked.

"I know what you're up against."

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an. oooo little cliffhanger for you there! sorry if this chapter is noticeably shorter than previous chapters, I don't like dragging them on when I have nothing else to add and like where I'm leaving them. hope you enjoyed it!