Veneficus

God he wished he could stop sneezing all the damn time whenever there was magic. Heath grumbled to himself as he arranged himself with a huff. The silence was welcomed since he had run out of things to say, and since they weren’t talking.. He craned around towards the backseat to grab a box of donuts before turning around and opening it. Now he could enjoy what he had gone to the store in the first place.

The truck came to a slow and steady stop at a red light, giving Garrett time to think over the words. He has no problem putting his trust in the other as long as there is a mutual understanding there. He doesn’t want it to come down to it, but if it does and he finds out Heath does his werewolf things for sport, Garrett won’t see it any other way and put the man down himself.

Alright he wasn’t dumb. He knew something slipped when he was talking to the cashier. If it wasn’t by the way Garrett was looking around like a spooked and suspicious chihuahua it was the smell of magic that hit his nose. Thankfully he didn’t sneeze this time and made it into the car. “Oh yeah.” Heath put his stuff in the backseat first before he opened the passenger door and looked around. 

There was a creepy looking dude that exited the store, but Garrett ignore him as he passed the truck, figuring it was just his paranoia about exposure getting the best of him. A sneeze and a bang drew his attention back inside the vehicle to Heath. “You good?” He asked, reaching for the sunglasses. A gasp escaped passed his lips upon fingers brushing against the other man’s hand. Anger unlike anything he had felt before washed over him, the urge to kill greater than ever. He couldn’t begin to process what it was like to be a werewolf.

Noah noticed immediately how the man’s frame tensed. He couldn’t blame the other for being weary of someone like himself. While Noah didn’t want to rest on the comfortable side and be cocky of the fact that he could both just kill the man before him if it comes to that, or just escape instead. Noah never really let his ego get that big. So he waited patiently until the other finally identified him. The vampire kept quite, his face calm until he heard the other mention the stakes. A hunter as well… huh, Noah thought to himself. So there is a plot twist. “I just thought it to be smarter on both our ends if we were to be,” he trails off, trying to search for the correct word, “allies. There’s a vampire pack in town and I’m the second in command. Our leader wishes nothing but peace and implements morals and rules on our pack in order to reach a level of tranquility within the supernatural and mortal community. We don’t consider anybody enemies unless they’re a threat to us. Which brings me to this beneficial trade of being allies with a hunter who is far more civilized than any I’ve met.”

Garrett knows good and well that he hasn’t a chance to fight against a vampire with strength alone. They are by far more superior than he ever will be. No spell that he knows of could even enhance his physical strength. If the vampire were to attack now, which would be stupid on his part with civilians walking about, but if he does, the only thing protecting Garrett is his ability to cause aneurysm.

“Touche. I just always pictured it as a profession where you actually get to settle down. Guess I was just wrong.” Ava shrugged, lightly, and crossed her arms as well. “I’ve just been traveling a lot myself. After my boyfriend’s death, figured to take a trip around the country, so I could move on. Needed time for myself.” She wasn’t exactly lying. It was the truth, she needed time for herself and a closure, she simply didn’t tell the real reason why. “I can swear I just saw it in there, that’s all. Maybe somewhere else before, as well. Just made me think of him.” While she was playing the dead-boyfriend’s card to get the man off her case, she wasn’t lying, again, either.

He gave a shake of his head, dismissing what she pictured of the job all together. Settling down; that has never, or ever will be something that crosses his mind. Garrett, being a warlock and also a hunter, his life revolves around the supernatural, it’s who he is. Leaving this kind of life behind can only come back to bite you in the ass. The mention of her boyfriend’s death catches his attention enough to draw him away from those thoughts. “I’m sorry.” He managed to say. Garret hasn’t the first clue what it is like to lose a loved one, but if it’s anything like someone he was protecting dying, then he knows that pain all too well.

Garrett stood tall, not backing down, not even an inch. He’s come across his fair share of vampires, not hesitating to kill the ones who need put down. Being supernatural and all, Garrett always gives some leeway when it comes to hunting, but the minute they betray his trust, they better watch out. “If any bodies turn up, you will be the one I come looking for. I’ll shove so much vervain down your fuckin’ throat you’ll be begging for mercy.”

Marion hid her expression when Garrett mentioned that his mother was a hunter. She did not share the best relationship possible with them, and tried to avoid them as much as possible, because sometimes.. well sometimes bad things happen. 

Turning onto the road where the bar was located, Garrett bit down on his tongue, not wanting to start a conversation about his parents. The relationship with his mother and father were split, always leading to conflict among the three of them. None of them pretty.

He stands completely still for a moment, focusing. He notices it then: the smell of blood, faint. Dried. An hour ago, perhaps? No need to mention it to the hunter. The smell isn’t strong enough to for someone to have died here, and there’s no need to alarm the man. He’d prefer a calm hunter to a righteous one.

The vampire asking if Garrett were scared had the warlock curving his lips into a smile. Scared? Hell no. He’s anything but. “Can’t afford to be.” He said, drawing the machete from its sheath. He had learned the hard way quite a few years back when he and his father went after a werewolf terrorizing a small town in Illinois. 

He scanned the front of the store with narrowed eyes, on the lookout for anyone out of the ordinary looking that may have seen the Mojo Bag. Someone slashed one of the truck’s tire the other night, and if he had to guess, that someone doesn’t want him poking around. All the more reason to keep putting his nose where it doesn’t belong. Whoever it was, Garrett will figure that out another night.

“I can imagine. The less stress around, in a place like this, the better.” Ava shrugged lightly, keeping her eyes strictly focused on him. She shrugged, casually taking a step closer to him. “That requires actual traveling? I always kind of imagined that that sort of thing required you to be a little more…settled down.” She said. Unless, of course, he meant the same kind of burning, chopping and crafting that she was doing.

He agreed that the less stress there was the better, it made practicing magic and hunting ten times easier. Except it’s never that easy. “Depend where the work is needed. Could be in a small town in Kentucky and then one in Michigan the next.” If the woman was trying to be sly about watching him, she was failing miserably since her eyes never left Garret every time he’d shift his weight. “What was in Poughkeepsie?” He started to ask, arms crossed as he rested a hip against the truck. “You never mentioned why you thought my truck looked familiar.”

Rather boney and delicate looking hands are extending outwards and she’s conducting supination and pronation, as a means to show that there is truly nothing behind her words, and no gas canister further demonstrates she was only lightly joking with the man to stand parallel to her physique.               “—Not really.” 

The lack of a gas canister eases the suspicion he had toward the woman actually siphoning the gas from his truck. Though, he were still wary because the woman was foreign to him, her intentions of being there unclear. The next words that followed were mind boggling until his eyes landed to where he finger pointed on the tire.

Noah watched the man’s reaction carefully. He could hear a heart beat so he knew the man was not a vampire, and he fortunately did not smell like a wet dog – which ruled out the wolf option. A hunter or a warlock. Maybe even both. Now that would be a twist. Nevertheless, judging by his second choice of words, Noah was convinced he already knew what this man is. Warlock. “I have a feeling I might know what you are,” he responds before extending his hands for the other to take. “I mean you no harm,” he added sincerely. Not particularly feeling like getting himself in trouble much like the previous night with Henry.

He held a breath in, sizing up the man as he claimed to know what Garrett is. When a hand is offered, at first he was hesitant to take it, but he needed to know what the man before really is. The second he takes the man’s hand, he is immediately overcome with a hunger unlike anything he has ever felt. A hunger for blood. A vampire. “I hope you mean that,” Taking back his hand, Garrett turned and pointed where his truck was parked. “Because I’ll have you know, I have a trunk full of stakes. I don’t stab unless needed. Was there something you wanted?”

Tucking a strand of loose hair behind one ear, Juliet felt the corners of her lips jerk skywards. “I can relate. I rammed into my fair share of fences and destroyed a number of flowerbeds,” she laughed. Her words didn’t necessarily tell the whole truth about Juliet’s driving experience, but what damage could a few lies do when she’d only concocted them to make him feel at ease? Finding a topic you could both relate to was a socialization strategy — one she’d come to master. Nodding her head in his direction as Juliet committed his name to memory, the girl shook his hand. “Juliet,” she retorted, eyes glittering. “It’s nice to meet you, Garrett.” And before she could stop her own curiosity, the question that’d lingered in the back of her mind slipped out of her mouth. “Are you new to town?”

“Trash cans were my second mortal enemy. I swear the neighbors intentionally set them out like bowling pins.” He laughed at himself, giving her hand a firm shake. Garrett couldn’t get a read off of her with his warlock senses, meaning he shouldn’t be alarmed. She is only human. A human that seems too nosy for her own good. He made a mental not to keep an eye on the girl in case there was something else going on here. “I’m Garrett. And I am new, yes. Been here a few days.”

She took a breath, biting her lip, then finally speaking. “Okay, this is gonna sound really stupid, but your truck looks exactly like the one my dad had when I was younger.” Her eyes went to the ground, something of a melancholy smile on her face. “I got kind of caught up in my own thoughts - sorry.”

“Yeah?” He tilted his head as she recalled how the truck similar to her father’s. Garrett knows for a fact it’s not the one her father owned. His grandfather had bought it, passed it down to his father, then his father passed it on to him. Though, something said she wasn’t hinted that the truck was his. “It’s all good. Don’t worry about it.”

Stepping in line, he placed the basket up on the conveyor, and walked along with it up to the cashier. While the worker rang up the items, Garrett turned to address the other man. “If I had a camera, that picture would be all over the place.” The cashier interrupted the conversation with the total amount owed. Digging through his wallet for the exact amount, it occurs to him that since he now has Heath heading back to the motel room there will be no time to craft the protection charm. Waiting another day shouldn’t hurt.

It was odd how quickly he was connecting with this man- no, warlock he was pretty sure if his nose was anything to judge by. Sadly his nose was never wrong, and with the amount of magic he was smelling around Gerrett he knew what the man really was. Just because he knew didn’t mean he was going to pry or stick his nose in where it shouldn’t be- even though he kind of already did that. At the mention of donuts and a nude session he looked down at the boxes. Before he could answer the warlock was gone but back again with candles. Now it took a no brainer to pinpoint Gerrett being a warlock.

Looking over the items in the basket, Garrett went over the mental list he had written in his head for what the spell called for. Everything was there besides one item, which was back in a box with other magical items under the bed in his motel room. The striking of a pose caught him off guard and the only reaction he could muster was a look of pure disbelief. A chuckle managed to work it’s way out, “Please don’t ever do that again. It’s very irresistible.” He said with utter seriousness behind the words, only to break out in a laugh a few moments later.

How many damn pieces of nails did he have to hammer in? There had to have been at least a hundred he had gone through by now and there were still more planks to nail up. Why did he take up this job of doing carpenter work again? Oh, right. He needed the job. Heath continued to grumble and chide himself over the stupid agreement. 

It was an unpleasant surprise finding out that the town is home to an amount of supernatural beings that one might not want to know. Tenebrous Eden is definitely one for the books and he’ll make sure to remember it for when the time comes to move on to the next town. Clearly, he cannot slay every last creature in town, it’d take to much time and end up being a hassle. Plus, he’s met a few good beings that are on his good side for now.