#tehmana

He awoke to a slow pain throbbing, and lifted his head. He saw trees, and the sky above them was still black. An orange light, however, danced and illuminated the undersides of the treetops, and he vaguely wondered what a fire was doing burning in the forest. Then, the events from earlier hit his fuddled mind like the light that had blinded him, and he sat up. His reward was a severe ache from his abdomen, and he groaned.

                “Hey, they’re awake!” He heard someone say, and looked up. Before him, about 3 yards away, a camp had been set up, and the fire that burned in the center gave off the most natural of the light. A cyan glow hung in the air, also illuminating what it could, and he recognized it as the same familiar flash that had blinded him before he blacked out. Said flash had given him a splitting headache, though that was fading now, the soreness emanating from his chest and the throb in his arm waking up his brain quickly and chasing away the drowsiness’ sobs.

                Dawn tilted up beside him, hair askew and jacket gone and crumpled beside her.

                “What the… Where are we?” Her voice was thick, and he was reminded of the time she fell asleep in his lap, after collapsing there crying while undergoing one of her strange alpha lycan rituals. “Hunter?”

                “Yeah, yeah…” Leonard replied, and started to stand up. His head hit something hard and he fell back down. “What the-“

                “You might wanna be careful,” It was the same voice from earlier, and now Leonard was concerned with finding its owner. He found him to be crouching right in front of them, and even with the shadows cast by the fire’s glow, Leonard recognized him at once by his tanned skin and chopped gray hair. He was wearing a slight smile of mild concern, as if looking at a child.

                “You!” Leonard surged forward again, and was bounced back by the same repulsive force. This time he noted a small ripple around them, like water falling into a lake. “What is this? Where are we?!” He slammed his fist against the field, making it waver a bit more as the vampire before them sighed.

                “Oh dear, I figured this would happen,” He sighed under his breath and stood up. Turning towards the camp he called, “Keren? They’re awake.”

                Leonard followed his gaze, now sharply taking in every inch of the camp he could, trying to pinpoint where they were for later. But it was late and the shadows where deep, and best he could tell was that they were very deep and very far in the forest, farther than he’d ever been. Looking around more sharply, he now saw that there were three more tenants to the camp, one the bat-girl in the black dress, fluttering on her wings, legs trailing behind her as she hovered by the other, the large and black obvious leader, Kerensha Tracer himself. He crossed with obvious purpose, passing that shadow that was the final member of the group, someone that Leonard couldn’t make out from the obscuring shadows. He placed one, scarred hand on the other’s shoulder as he reached him.

                “Thank you, Gin,” His voice was low, but sweet, and had Leonard not been filled with a glaring hatred for this target, and had Kerensha’s face not conflicted his tone so completely, Leonard might have thought him to be a cool guy. Gin gave a two fingered salute and another half smile and joined the bat-girl with a look thrown over his shoulder at the two lycans kept prisoner. Tracer knelt down, sitting on his heels with his hands on his knees, staring at them.

                “You’re Kerensha Tracer? Leader of Vampiric Clan? The deserter?” Leonard questioned, glaring, and Tracer stayed quiet, taking them both in. Dawn was sitting sideways at Leonard’s side, glowing eye on Tracer as keenly as his were on her. Leonard wondered why she wasn’t pouncing, snarling, demanding to be let go, because from everything he’d seen from her, that certainly seemed like it would be her reaction. Whatever, though. He was hot-headed enough for the two of them, and right now, Tracer’s maddening silence was pissing him off more than ever. “Damn you, ANSWER ME!!”

                Kerensha blinked. “How’s your shoulder?”

                “How’s my shoul- What the hell kind of question is that?! What did you do to me, you-“

                “Hunter, shut up.” Dawn’s sudden command was quiet, but it rang clear, and, as if a spring was suddenly in his jaw, Leonard’s mouth snapped shut and he was unable to speak. Tracer stroked his jaw, tiny smile cracking as he turned his attention to Dawn.

                “So you’re the beta.”

                “Who knows? Maybe I’m an alpha, ready to kick your ass,” She was speaking with calculated danger, and this, Leonard thought, was more terrifying than he’d ever seen her. With every word her teeth clicked. Kerensha wasn’t intimidated in the slightest, though and shook his head as he gave a dry chuckle.

                “Because if you were an alpha you would have smelled through my little trick,” He was referring to the trash dummy she’d destroyed, in the meantime destroying his coat. Leonard noticed he was wearing a sleeveless shirt now, and he could easily see his bulging arm muscles and wide, ugly scars. His neck was exposed too, framed by countless, healed bite marks. Dawn’s smile grew wider.

                “The same thing that happened to that little rouse is what’s going to happen to you, when my pack comes.”

                “I certainly hope not, then I’ll be out of clothes.”

                “You can’t hide forever.”

                “Hm.” Kerensha turned his head to the side, still half smiling as he thought. “I just realized I never got your names. I’m Kerensha Tracer, and you are, Miss…?”

                Dawn cast him a look askance, but answered him nonetheless. “Dawn Lunas. And this here’s my omega, Leonard.”

                “It’s a pleasure to meet you then,” Kerensha bowed his head politely and Leonard sneered. What was with this guy? If he was just toying them, why bother? Why not just kill them now, he obviously had them caught and caught good. Leonard still couldn’t figure out the force field encircling them.

                “Dawn and Leonard,” Kerensha continued. “You know, you two have caused me quite a bit of trouble.”

                “Oh yeah?”

                “Oh yes. I’ve never met either of you before, and I certainly have no quarrel with your pack, so why come after me?”

                “If you have no quarrel with my pack, then why’re you here in the first place?!” Dawn suddenly released a feral growl, and Leonard could see that she was scared. Her neck was drawn in as she swallowed and he suddenly realized that this was probably the first time ever she’d been captured, and she was scared for her life.

                “There are things more dangerous than your pack, Dawn. That’s what I’m here to get rid of. I didn’t want  either of you to get involved,” Kerensha’s response was cool and clear, like a father talking down to a daughter, and Dawn snarled a little wider.

                “Then let. Us. Go.” She was just as even, but Leonard saw her eye waver.

                “I would. But, I can’t, even if I want to,” He knocked on the field, and it gave a clank as if he were tapping thick metal. “I’m not the one who cast this, see.”

                “So what, you’re travelling with a Witch?” Leonard’s jaw relaxed and he could speak again, and he looked to bat-girl immediately, eyes wide. She was humming and repairing Kerensha’s coat best she could manage, porcelain legs crossed in front of her.

                “No,” Tracer chuckled again. “There are many types of magic in the world, Leonard. Not just those you know of.”

                Leonard sniffed.

                “Dawn, if you can order your omega under control, I can see about getting you two out. Can you do that for me?”

                Dawn glared a bit suspiciously at him, but then turned her gaze to Leonard.

                “Behave.”

                “Hm, good enough.” Kerensha rose and stretched, and Dawn scrambled against the field.

                “Hey, wait! I thought you were gonna let us out!”

It was dark before Dawn returned for him, at a time when normally he would have gone to bed. But the whistle outside his front door eliminated every possibility of that happening, and he slipped out silently into the calm to meet her. She was wearing the red coat she’d had on when they had first met, and smirked as Leonard adjusted his hat and joined her.

                “Did you tell anyone about our date?” Her eye was glowing in the gloom.

                “Like there was anyone to tell,” He had been home alone the entire afternoon, and hadn’t seen hide nor tail of Cyran or Michelle. Though it looked like Cyran had left some case notes or something out, Leonard couldn’t read them, so he just let them be. It had just been him and Sam, the latter of which spending his time purring and dozing, pointedly ignoring his master.

                “Good, that lessens the risk of… complications.” She started heading off into the night. “Come on, hunter, we’ve got a party to get to.”

                As Leonard jogged after her to catch up, she turned and led them down another dark street, deliberately avoiding the sidewalks that led to the seedier parts of town, where monsters were more likely to be spotted, especially at night. It befuddled him, but he had no choice but to trust Dawn’s tracking and reconnaissance, and let himself be led back to familiar territory that was now silent as a grave and drawn up tight.

                “What are we doing in the business district?” His voice echoed off the buildings and into the dark alleys like a sin, and he dropped it to a whisper. Dawn grabbed his arm and ducked behind cover, obscuring them from view.

                “Something’s going down here. I don’t know what, but I do know who…” She looked up to the sky, and Leonard followed her gaze, and they both saw it at the same time. A figure, silhouetted and bulky yet lithe, was moving across the rooftops at alarming speed before suddenly disappearing as it dropped into a black alley between roofs. They both instinctively shrank back, hiding in their shadows as the figure moved with such calculated danger that neither of them wanted to risk being caught. Quiet, muted footfalls echoed and quieted and then were gone.

                “Gotcha,” Dawn smiled, Cheshire wide and glowing in the light of her eye as she started to move on in the direction their shadow had gone. Leonard grabbed her arm a bit too quickly, not wanting to show his anxiousness, but also not wanting to be left alone.

                “What are you doing, you’ll get killed!” Like he cared, but if Dawn died, well, so did he. It was part of being her omega.

                “What, hunter? Scared? Baby,” She left the sanctuary of their corner and crept along across the road, following into the alley, and Leonard steeled his nerves and kept after her, following closely. They both paused, and found themselves staring at a storefront across the way, their target nowhere in sight.

                “Dammit, where did he…?” Dawn growled and started to sniff, raising her nose into the air and drawing shallow quick breaths. Leonard pressed his back against the wall, and reached into the hidden holster to pull out his gun, keeping it at the ready by his side as Dawn tracked the scent of their prey. The whole encounter was mind boggling, and he hadn’t felt this nervous for a long time. Blood pounded in his ears and he fought to keep them sharp, and the dim street lights did little to help his eyes as they dilated in the dark. He didn’t like it. He always did his best to keep his kills out of the city, because while they were great for setting traps, well… Cities were great for setting traps. It was too easy to walk right over a trip wire, or fall right into a pit, and add the extra danger of innocents getting in the way and you had the worst possible setting for a successful hunt. And right now, Leonard felt like they were sitting on a landmine that Dawn was about to detonate.

                “Dawn, maybe this isn’t such a good idea, I mean, there are three guys, two of which could be vampires. We’re out numbered and I-“ Her hand was suddenly on his lips, buttoning them closed as she sniffed deeply and nodded.

                “That’s it! There it is, hunter, we got him!”

                “But Dawn!” Leonard’s voice was a harsh whisper. “What if we’re walking right into a trap?”

                “Please. Hunter, can you shoot that thing?” She nodded to the pistol in his hand.

                “Of course.”

                “Then we’re fine. You’ve got a lycanthrope, hunter. Whatever these jerks throw at us, they’ll be going down,” And she would make them rue the day they ever targeted her pack. They left the shadows of the alley, Dawn leading, and Leonard felt the pit in his stomach grow heavier as they exposed themselves. The sidewalks offered no cover, and he felt watched, as if hawks were circling over head and he was the field mouse to be their lunch. Dawn suddenly pressed against the side of a wall, Leonard doing the same, and a block away he could see the place where he’d met Ruffin.

                “He’s through there, Hunter,” Dawn’s grin was wide and sharp, loving the thrill of the hunt. They were positioned right beside another alley, and that’s where she pointed. “Rogue, prepare to go down.”

                With a deft leap and little to no warning at all, Dawn was suddenly inside the alley as flashes of silver and black swirled around her, her body small as it landed on the back of the deserter. She had turned into her lycanthrope form, and she tore with her claws at Kerensha’s back, and bit at his coat with her jaws. Leonard backed her up, barreling into the black alley after her, and aiming his gun. He was about to squeeze the trigger when suddenly Dawn had leapt by his side, transforming again with a flash. Bits of black fabric hung from her jaw and she was wide eyed.

                “What the- He’s gone!” It was true; she had attacked a shoddily thrown together dummy of trash bags covered in Kerensha’s signature overcoat, which now laid shredded on the ground. They had no time to mull over this new occurrence, however, as right as Dawn was turning to get to her feet; a bright, bright blue light hit their eyes and made Leonard cry out in surprise. He fell to his knees rubbing his eye sockets and blinking frantically. Shit! They had fallen right into a trap, he knew it!

                “Dawn?” He heard her yelp, and looked around wildly. Everything was still white, as if the all encompassing light refused to leave him and he snarled. “Dawn!”

“Leonard, I didn’t know you had a boyfriend,” She draped her short legs over the fallen log that served as their meeting place, perching like a pixie and looking just as evil as one. “You guys going through a rough patch?”

                At the best of times, Leonard simply wanted to cut her throat, but right now, powerless to do anything to stop her, as he took her banter, he was thinking of a myriad of evil and painful ways to make her suffer. Oh, once he was free from this curse, once his life was back-!

                He bit his tongue and turned away. Dawn chuckled.

                “Aw don’t gimme that. Sit down.” She nodded her head at the ground by her feet, raising her eyebrows. Her long yellow bangs swayed a bit and he sank like a stone by her side, huffing and wrapping his arms around his knees.

                “What are you doing here?” He asked her and she leaned on her palms, staring up at the sky.

                “Could ask you the same thing, but I don’t have to. How long have you two been together?”

                “He’s not my boyfriend! I don’t even know who the hell he is!!” Leonard suddenly snapped, whipping his head back at her, baring his teeth. Today was just too much for him to manage, an extra assignment meant to make his entire Unit fail, a strange guy accosting him, and now Dawn lording her disgusting wolf powers over him to make him be a puppet to her will. He hated her, especially when she got like this, so full of herself, and right now her teasing was not something he needed. Dawn looked down on him from her perch and he hid his face, looking very much like a child in her eyes as she prodded him with her foot.

                “What’s wrong, hunter.”

                “Nothing.”

                “I order you to tell me what’s wrong.” And he snarled.

                “Fine, you really want to know? My Unit’s been assigned to take out these rogue hunters, and if we don’t, we’re out. Cut. KILLED.” He was snarling at her as if it was all her fault, and she took the ranting with a blank face. From his vantage, he could see under her hair at the hidden, furry eye: her marking as a one eyed lycan, a rare and dangerous beast. “Today was already just going wonderfully, but then that stranger had to attack me, and then I run into you!” He threw his arms up in disgust, unable to look at her anymore. “It’s just absofuckinglutely perfect, Dawn. My life is peachy!”

                “See, that’s the problem with you hunters. It’s always me, me, me,” She sighed. Her boot brushed by his arm as she stood up. “Why are you even hunting these rogue hunters anyway? I thought you guys were all on the same side.”

                “Because we’re getting paid to. It’s a commission, Dawn. And, no. We’re not on the ‘same side’ as deserters.” Every word he said was dripping with poison, and Dawn just watched him blank faced. She started picking at her teeth with her pinky.

                “Deserter, huh.” She made a rolling gesture with her hand, abandoning her teeth and Leonard started to explain.

                “Target was once a hunter, but he went AWOL. Best we know, he’s been travelling around with a couple vampires killing as he pleases. Now he’s in Creston and someone’s paying us to knock him off, but we have no idea what he’s doing here or where to look.” Leonard was about to go on when suddenly, like a light bulb going off in his head, he was looking at Dawn in a completely different light. The lycan was still staring at him, but now her gaze seemed vapid and bored, as if what he was saying didn’t interest her in the slightest. The wheels in Leonard’s mind started turning and he bit his teeth again, but this time in a smirk.

                Dawn seemed to startle out of her gaze a minute after he stopped talking, yawning at his words. “Sorry, hunter, you were whining?”

                “I was just saying, normally these deserters go AWOL because they’re tired of sticking with the regime. You know, they get hot under the collar.”

                “Hm?”

                “They don’t get enough kills. So, they split off and just start massacring any monster they can get their hands on. Jeez, and you think I’m bad. Now, what could a rogue hunter like that be doing here? I mean, there certainly aren’t any good targets or anything.”

                His words had the exact effect he wanted, her single green eye widening and pupil going small. Her forehead wrinkled as her face drew in, cast over in shadows.

                “Hunter, what are you saying?”

                “Oh, that’s right! Your pack! Maybe he heard that there was a lycan trying to go alpha, someone as bloodthirsty as him certainly couldn’t let that happen. Jeez, Dawn. You could be in danger.”

                She was biting her tongue, mulling things over and suddenly snapped, “Hunter, what do you know!?”

                “Well, that would be not much. I already told you we don’t know where he is, and that’s the important thing. If only we could find him,” He was baiting her hard, and he knew it. Dawn was smart, and with every word he feared she might see through his rouse. But damn, if he could get her involved…  A lycan’s nose would definitely come in handy. She was growling now in fierce concentration, looking away as she mulled over her thoughts. Finally she commanded, “Go home, hunter.” And Leonard gave an inward jump for joy.

                “Alright, whatever you say,” He said and started to walk away, thinking he’d won.

                “Wait, hold on there, I wasn’t finished with you.” Shit. He stopped.

                “Go straight home, and stay there. Be ready to go at a moment’s notice, because as soon as I find them, I’m coming to get you.”

                “Wait, what?”

                “Please, you didn’t think I’d do this alone? Oh no. You’re coming with me, and you’re going to help me kick these freaks into next week. Get ready to protect your pack, hunter, because it’s going to be a wild ride.” She leaned into him, her pointed nose in his face as she stood on her tiptoes to threaten him. Then she smartly turned and started to walk away, leaving Leonard flabbergasted for the second time that day.

                “So, you’re going to track them down?” He asked, feeling a bit left out. Sure, he was still going to get his kill, but normally she made him go along with him when she did these crazy schemes. He was actually kind of expecting it, and this threw a curveball in his little plot.

Leonard had immediately set out to canvas the town. He had a couple sources he could go to for information on the underground, where monsters were likely to be lurking, but as this was a relatively new case, all of his leads turned up dry. It was only about noon when he began the lengthy and arduous process of physically canvassing the town on patrol to hunt for leads by hand. He’d tracked a vampire before, heck he had just killed one a few weeks ago, but that was with plenty of information about previous sightings and he’d known exactly where to find her. Now, there was no record of victims, or even why this Clan was in Creston to begin with. And, all of the photographs and records the hunters had on Kerensha were a bit outdated. He couldn’t read his file, but the pictures he’d dug up seemed too old to be of use, there was snow falling in a few of them, and it was currently 80 degrees out right now. Michelle told him that he’d been rogue for about 5 years, and in that time he’d killed vampires and humans, but nothing as of late. Only the word of their commissioner, who preferred to remain anonymous, was what he had to go on, and as the sun climbed higher in the sky, Leonard was starting to feel as if this was a fool’s errand, a wild goose chase, an impossible task, and that it was really was set in front of them as a surefire failure.

                He swallowed the lump in his throat and refused to let himself think about that. He couldn’t lose his job: That was something he could not do. He crossed over to the business district, and continued his search. Though their commissioner may have been anonymous, he still knew more about them than he did his target. For one thing, they must have been local, as they had alerted and supplied Unit IV with all the information they knew about the Clan’s current movements. For another, they must have been rich, because commissioned killed didn’t come in very often, and when they did they cost a pretty penny. So, they must either be a thriving business, threatened by the appearance of these rogues, or one of Creston’s few aristocratic families. Leonard had chosen to take the “thriving-business” angle because, while the companies and firms may have plentiful, they were a bit easier to narrow down. All you had to do was ask the right questions in the right places, and notice the right things, and you could easily tell whether or not business was a lead. Aristocrats, not so much. They were entitled, and secretive, and you couldn’t get inside to poke around too easily, and more often than not they were a waste of time. Besides, the office babes in the business district were pretty cute, and some of them were just getting out for lunch, making the foot traffic as he walked along the roads very pleasant indeed.

                One thing he hadn’t expected was to be confused for one of those office babes himself, and he nearly swung his fist clean into the jaw of his assailant as he heard someone whistle at him.

                “Hey, red-head, feeling lonely?” Leonard turned with a glare rivaling Michelle’s to the cat-caller, his gloved hands balling into fists. The guy had a smarmy, self assured smirk on his face, his teeth showing  and eyebrows raised, one hand on his hip. His hair was stark white mussed and messy; his eyes were dull and brown, a bit saggy as if he hadn’t slept in weeks. Long sleeves hid his arms, and a cloak draped over his shoulders, both garments looking dusty, as if they’d seen better days. A small empty vial on a chain hung under his v-neck.

                 Leonard’s eyebrows rose a fraction as he noticed the other’s teeth. They were of normal size, but the canines seemed inhumanly sharp, and the hunter almost drew his knife. It would have been lucky to run into one of his targets in the broad street, but his hopes were dashed as he realized this couldn’t be one of the Clansmen, odd fangs or no. This kid, jeez he was a kid, probably barely older than Michelle, was too pale, and too young; the odd may-or-may-not-be-a-vampire target was at least 30.

                Leonard turned away, still snarling with frustration. The shadow from his hat hid his humiliated blush; damn it was embarrassing to be mistaken for a girl. Figuring he wasn’t worth his time, Leonard spun on his heel to storm off, growling as he went. However, when a hand grabbed his shoulder to stop him, he lost it.

                “Aw, come on, babe, don’t walk away fro-“ A swift jab in the nose was the jerk’s reward as he leaned into Leonard’s face to get a look at him from under his hat. He grunt out in pain and squeezed his eyes shut, rubbing the bridge of his nose as blood started to pour from his nostrils.

                “I am not a girl!” Leonard yelled, drawing the attention of those passing by. He was causing a scene, but he didn’t care. The red clouding his vision was too much to handle right now.

                “Whoa, you aren’t. Sorry, bro, I didn’t know!” He straightened up, and held up his bloody hands in a gesture of surrender, returning them to his nose as more blood started to dribble down his face. This time, Leonard really did storm off, gritting his teeth, and had almost reached the end of the sidewalk when he heard the same voice.

                “Hey!”

                He turned at a building with a cypress tree emblem, trying to avoid his pursuer. What the hell? What could this idiot possibly want now? Leonard was certainly too angry to deal with him, and quickened his pace, keeping his head bowed. He turned corner after corner, trying to lose him, but continued to hear his footsteps dog his own. Finally, when he could stand it no longer, he whirled around and screamed, “What do you want?!”

                He found that his pursuer was now framed against the outer wall of the city, and that, subconsciously, his feet had led him to the exact spot where he met Dawn every morning. Leonard recoiled and looked around, cursing his foolishness for leading a complete stranger to the worst possible place he could be in. He was brought back by a laugh, and saw the kid’s tired eyes sparkling.

                “Wow, you must really have wanted to get away from me. Had a hard time keeping up with you. Hey, now that there are no witnesses around, are you gonna kill me?” His nosebleed had stopped, and by the dark patch on his sleeve Leonard presumed he had wiped his blood there, but the bridge of his nose still looked sore and swollen. Served him right.

                “No, I’m not going to kill you. I’m not a savage,” Leonard grunted. Was this guy an idiot? Obviously, he hadn’t gotten the previous, painful hint, so…

                “Nah, you’re just a hunter,” The other said, and Leonard snapped his head back to him.

                “How did you-“

                “The fuck-you attitude. And your hat. Dude, only hunters wear hats that cool.” He laughed and Leonard stared at him incredulously. Who was this guy? Without another word, Leonard had drawn his sidearm and pointed it, instantly silencing the raucous laugh.

                “Who the hell are you, and what do you want,” He asked evenly, finger steady on the trigger. The other paused, and his hands were slowly raised to the sky.

                “Hey, man, there’s no need for that, ok?” He was still smiling, though this time with a bit less surety. “Name’s Ruffin and I just thought maybe we had something in common.” What was he talking about? Leonard’s hands trembled a little, as if he was unsure of how to go on.  He watched warily as Ruffin, sensing danger had passed, shrugged his shoulders and shook his head.

                “Obviously, you aren’t interested in making friends though, are you, hunter? Too bad,” He looked toward the sky then turned with a sweep of his cape to head back in the city. “I’ll get out of your hair then. Nice meeting you, though.”

Michelle Grand had a commanding sway to her walk and an edge to her words even on the best of her days. She was young and pretty and accomplished, and tended to be taken lightly, resulting in a very painful experience for her adversaries. She was ruthless and steely, as if the blades she used were a part of her instead of just a dead piece of metal to be manipulated as an instrument of death.  She commanded her Unit with a wide pink smile, and batting of her blue eyes, disguising the dexterous bloodlust beneath her with adorable mannerisms that made Leonard Derrin fall in love. Michelle, it seemed, was a master of two sides of her life that she had seamlessly blended together to feed from each other, yet never touch.

                But, damn, if she didn’t let her crazy show through once in a while.

                When she slammed the door to their Unit’s base, treating it with as much ferocity as one of her kills, Leonard was overcome with the instinct to hide and pray to the Lord that she would never find him. His instincts really weren’t without reason, though, even if he and Michelle were technically on the same side. They were both hunters, members of the Fourth Unit, and their mission was to track down and destroy anything inhuman that posed a threat to their way of life, be that Witch, vampire or lycan. The problem, however, was that Leonard had recently become a lycan himself, stupidly falling right into the trap of the dangerous one-eyed lycan Dawn Lunas, who he was now forced to serve until he could find a cure.

                In a way, Leonard was a lot like Michelle, with a double life, though his was infinitely more dangerous and much more shoddily sewn together. For Michelle, hunter life was a day job, something she eased into every day she lived. For Leonard, the curse was a tax with the greatest toll that could be collected at any time, every day he lived could be his last. He was the prey living right under the predator’s nose, and as he started looking around anxiously for some place to disappear to, he caught the attention of his one ally, Cyran Antinous, who was seated across the room. A single look from the stoic man’s one healthy eye conveyed a very clear message, and Leonard felt his heart beat slow as Michelle entered the room and Cyran slipped off his monocle.

                Leonard was safe for now, as long as he acted normally and didn’t say anything stupid. Cyran was in this curse as deeply as he was, hiding a lycan was a treacherous crime, and he wasn’t about to let either of them get caught. Leonard just needed to have faith, and did his best to disguise his shaking legs by leaning back in his chair and crossing them, arms behind his crop of red hair as a smile played on his face.

                “Hey, Michelle. ‘Sup?” In an instant he was sorry he’d asked, as Michelle turned her icy glare on him. He felt as if she could see right through, burn a hole like x-rays, and he thanked whatever higher power that his smile didn’t falter. He raised an eyebrow.

                “Is everything okay?” It took a lot to make Cyran show any kind of concern for anyone and Michelle’s temper was something both of them had never seen directed at them in such a fashion. Both men watched her closely as she dragged the closest chair and sank down into it, leaning forward with her elbows at her knees, hands twined in front of her face.

                “We’ve been given a new assignment.”

                “What? What about the lycans?” Leonard asked. It wasn’t uncommon to be reassigned in the middle of a mission, but that hadn’t happened to their Unit before, at least not in his experience. Then again, he hadn’t been a hunter very long.

                “What’s our target this time, then?” Cyran seemed unfazed, so maybe that was a good sign. Or maybe that was just Cyran being Cyran. 

                “Well, let me rephrase that,” Michelle was still glaring, but now it had been toned down from certain death to intense frustration. She crossed her arms and legs as she leaned back. “We’re being given an added task. The lycans are still our kill, but-“ She snarled, “My father thinks that since we’re taking our sweet time eliminating the pack, we can take on an added responsibility.”

                Leonard breathed a sigh of relief. OK, well that didn’t sound too bad, if anything it meant that their Unit was looked at in high regard, right? Yeah, the boss thought they could handle another mission, even if they were taking care of a dangerous one right now. It was a good thing.

                “Well, that isn’t good,” Cyran obviously thought differently, and his face was grave. “He’s trying to make us fail.”

                “Exactly.” Michelle scowled.

                “Wait, hold up. Added responsibility means he thinks we can handle it, right?” Both Cyran and Michelle looked to Leonard, and the latter face-palmed.

                “No, Leonard you stupid-“ She had to stop and collect herself, rubbing her temples. “It means that he is expecting us to fail, after making no headway whatsoever on the lycans. This is job is meant to be the straw to break the camel’s back, and the fact that it’s a commission makes it even more dangerous if we mess up. We’re in trouble,” Michelle turned her face up in a wry smirk, as if Leonard’s naïveté both sickened and amused her. “Ya dingbat.”

                Leonard blushed at being called a dingbat, and looked away, finding his gaze rested towards Cyran. “Yeah, no headway...”

                Cyran made no move to return his gaze, and with the bandages covering half of his face, Leonard couldn’t tell if his expression was betraying their predicament as much as his was. This was Cyran though, the man to stare down a howling tornado with nary a blink, and Leonard’s own anxious lip-biting could easily be attributed to learning that his job, and by extension his life, was on the line.

                “So what’s the job?” Cyran finally asked, and Michelle started to explain.

                “We’ve received intelligence that a group of rogue hunters have come into our territory, the leader of which is one from our very own division,” She placed down photographs, pictures that seemed to be taken hastily, with the blur of a camera. They showed a young man, best Leonard could make out, with dark hair longer than his, and a long nose and permanent scowl etched in his lips and shiny black eyes. The rest of the photos seemed to show him in action, the long coat with the high collar he wore blowing in the wind as he brandished knives and guns, fighting monsters, some shot as if from above, lie up in a tree, or in the distance, as if from far away. Leonard blushed with a twinge of jealousy; he just looked so cool, and he was pulling off the long hair way better than Leonard. He also looked tough, could they really take him down?

                “His name is Kerensha Tracer, and he’s a deserter. He’s confirmed to have at least two companions, both of which are monsters of the highest degree,” Two more photographs, one of a girl, a tiny girl, a little girl, with bat wings and fangs in a black dress, the other a man with gray hair and taut tan skin, also with fangs. Vampires, they must have been vampires, but Leonard puzzled over the second one. He’d never seen a vampire with a tan before. “They call themselves Vampiric Clan.”

                “Wait, if they’re rogue hunters, why are they vampires?” Leonard wanted to know. It was all very confusing. If Kerensha had once been a hunter under Michelle’s father, like Unit IV was now, and was now rogue, acting on his own rules, why would he be travelling with vampires? Normally, hunters deserted when they weren’t getting enough kills and wanted to slaughter as many demons as they could without the boss dragging them down. Surely Kerensha was the same?

                “Only the girl is confirmed to be a vampire, but the other one is a curious case. He was bitten, but there’s no confirmation that he was turned, and we haven’t been able to get any more on him. He’s currently slated to be killed on sight, no questions asked,” If he was a monster, there was no forgiveness. “Same with the girl.”

                “So we get the pleasure of killing them? Alright!” It was a bit too confusing for Leonard to understand anyway. Besides, as long as he got to rid the world of some monsters, he wasn’t complaining. If they were stupid enough to wander right into his Unit’s hands, then he’d slaughter ‘em, vampire or not. “I’ll take down this Clan myself and prove to your dad that we’re the best damn Unit he’s got!”

                “I recall you said something along very similar lines at the start of the lycanthrope case, and have failed to yield any results,” Ooh, Leonard felt as if he needed ice after that burn from Cyran’s calm, cool voice.