by Martha Woods
“Did you think this was possible? All of us working towards a common goal?”
“Absolutely not,” She laughed, I appreciated the honesty. “The whole time I was working with you I was just waiting for the moment where it all fell apart, all it would have taken was one person who wanted to screw things over enough to make us all feel it and that would have been that. But it didn’t happen, you kept us together long enough to get attached to each other, and by the time Tristian attacked us we were already too tight to break apart. What a shame for him.”
“Yeah, what a shame…” Looking down at the crowd, the hunters were starting to order their drinks, just normal beers for most of them but a few of them were already ordering shots. That by itself didn’t mean anything, it could be that they were just celebrating being able to spend some time together after everything, but it could potentially be something to keep an eye on.
The leader, Julian, was ordering a round for everyone, though given he was the one that Damon trusted the most out of all of them I was willing to believe that it was to loosen everyone else up and get their inhibitions just a little more free. “Come on you idiots,” He barked at all of them, baring his teeth, “Drink up! This is a great night!”
I’d been to enough parties in college to recognize a chronic drinking habit when I saw it, and everyone there was exhibiting all of the signs that I’d come to know well. Most of them didn’t even register the burn of the tequila it seemed, just returning to their own drinks and shout-talking above what they were hearing as near-deafening music. Opinions on asses, what the shifters could be up to, taunts about the particular brand of drink that they were partaking in, the typical conversations that I’d been privy to in my time working with them over the last few months.
That was how it continued for the next half hour, me sitting with my cheek resting firmly in my palm and listening in like the world’s most bored NSA techie. Tabitha and Alexis were just the same, all the luster of what we were doing having long leached out of the reality. Now we were just sitting here waiting for someone to say something interesting, halfway debating whether we should start reading the ingredients on our soda cans when someone finally spoke up.
“You’re really putting those away man,” Julian said, clapping one of his fellow hunters on the back, “You two celebrating something big?”
The two hunters, both of them familiar to me for some reason, nodded in a drunken haze, slamming down another handful of bills on the counter and ordering everyone another round of shots. Julian narrowed his eyes for the briefest of moments, that same grin returning to him like he’d spotted prey. “You gotta fill me in boys, I’d feel bad drinking if I didn’t know what the reason was!”
The taller one, who I recognized as Pete, the sentry who had been watching out for shifters the night that I’d been taken, shrugged his shoulders. “Just celebrating, you know how it is. Been a while!”
“Well, yeah,” Julian said, tilting his head back and downing his shot smoothly, “But you guys are dropping bills like they’re burning a hole in your pocket, you got me feeling like I should be more generous even when I’m dead broke.”
“Well…” The shorter one, who I narrowed my eyes at once I realized he was George, the hunter who had disappeared right before I’d had my nose broken, rubbed the back of his neck and drunkenly stammered an excuse, “Y-you always take care of us, we wanna spread things around a bit tonight, that’s all!”
“And you guys are sure about that? I know that the two of you’ve been having some trouble with the sharks lately, I mean we all gamble but you… you’re not exactly good at it. I just want to make sure that I’m not going to open the door one day to see your kneecaps nailed to the wall.”
“It’s no problem anymore Julian, don’t worry about it!” Pete seemed to be getting agitated, his knuckles white against the wood of the bar. “We don’t have any sharks after us anymore, so just drop it.”
“Ok, ok, touchy subject…” Taking a sip of his beer, Julian took a moment to examine them over the rim of his bottle. “You’ll have to tell me who it was that you managed to scam though, because no way did you get that much money to pay off all those debts by gambling. I’ve seen you play cards, my dead grandmother would lose less hands than you.”
“We had some good luck,” George started, before clamping his mouth shut. Evidently he had a realization that maybe some things weren’t right to say out loud. “Actually uh… never mind, let’s just forget about it.”
“Well, now you’ve got me real interested,” Julian said, ordering them more shots and leaning in, “Now… this good luck, it wouldn’t happen to be able to spread my way a little, would it?”
“He’s really going in on this,” Tabitha said, watching closely, “He’s totally calm too.”
Alexis nodded. “Just keep watching them closely, I don’t want to risk them hurting anyone.”
Pete drank his shot, swaying on his feet before he straightened himself up, placing the glass down on the counter and nodding as drunks do. “It was… more an exclusive kind of good luck, one time offer. We were told not to talk about it to anyone.”
“Oh come on…” Julian scoffed, “I’m your boy, you know you can trust me with anything. Tell you what, I trust you two more than I trust these other bloodsuckers and flea-ridden dogs, I don’t have to worry about you pulling my spine out the second I turn my back on you.”
“Well, that’s… thanks Julian,” George said, “H-hold on, me and Pete need to talk about something.”
“Oh by all means, don’t let me distract you. I’ll be waiting here once you’re done!” He smiled as they turned their backs, his face going neutral as soon as they stopped looking at him and his head flicking at a nearby dancer. Every witch here tonight had been told what was happening, that one flick of the head was all she needed to know to follow, just because we were able to hear them yelling didn’t mean we would be able to hear them whisper to each other.
She followed them closely, smoothly taking drink orders as she passed by the other patrons, keeping an ear open for the moment that they decided to open their mouths the moment they decided they were far enough away. Flicking her fingers and forming symbols under her tray, the voices of George and Pete were clear in our ears and only for us, so clear that we could hear them breathing before they spoke.
“Do you think he knows?”
George shook his head. “Nah I… I don’t think so, he’s just being friendly!”
“Just being friendly doesn’t normally get so… close,” Pete said, rubbing at his temple, “Ugh, I think I drank too much...”
“Or maybe you just haven’t drunk enough, you’re too on edge!” George held back a burp, taking a second to settle his throat before continuing, “I think… maybe he would be on board with it.”
“Yeah? And what if he’s not?”
“Come on, he’s been a hunter for years! He was a hunter for most of his life, you think any real hunter is gonna side with these… freaks given the chance? Nah, he’s smart!” But clearly, these two were not. “Trust me, I got a good feeling about Julian, he’s gonna be what we need to really pull in the big bucks.”
“We already gave them what they want, what more could we offer?”
“Well… they want the shifters right?” Bingo. “What if we… I dunno, grabbed a few of them and took them out there, like a home delivery type thing. They’re all knocked out in bed, it’d be so easy to just take a couple when no one’s looking!”
“You’re forgetting the werewolves.”
“With Julian with us they’d be no problem! If we have to kill a couple of them we’ll just say the shifters did it, this is a war right? Someone’s gotta attack someone, that’s how it works.”
Alexis groaned, “I am in awe at how stupid this one is. Forget the fact that we’re listening to them speak, their plans are just… so haphazard.”
“Their plan for capturing me was to walk away and let someone else do it, I wasn’t ex
actly expecting Patton but… Jesus.”
Waving at one of the girls standing outside her office, Alexis gestured for her to come closer. “Please go and inform Mr. Julian down there that he’s being given a drink on the house, as a gesture of good faith.”
She nodded, jogging off to deliver the message as subtly as she could. Julian’s eyes lit up with a fire that hadn’t quite been there before, burning bright as he glanced over at George and Pete and watched them still talking, tightening his knuckles around his beer until the glass was threatening to shatter. For a second I almost expected him to whip out knife and sort them out right then and there, but thankfully he had more self control than that. I suppose you didn’t get to be a good hunter without learning that.
Seemingly coming to an agreement, George and Pete made their way back over to the bar, Pete’s body language so much more open to Julian now that he thought he was one of them. Or at least, now that he thought he could make some money off of him, because in the end that’s what it always came down to wasn’t it?
“Sorry about… about before Julian,” Pete said, swaying on his feet. Even if it wasn’t nefarious you really shouldn’t discuss business when you’re this drunk. “I just didn’t know if you… you know, thought the same way as us...”
“You didn’t know if I thought that we were the only ones that should be doing the protecting and the others should go back to their place on the food chain? Why boys, I’m almost offended, do you really not know me at all?”
George shook his head, ever the people pleaser. “It’s not that, we just want to be careful! We know you Julian you’re… you’re one of the good ones!”
Maybe a little too much ass kissing, but I suppose it was a good sign at least. Julian cracked the briefest of smiles at it, but they seemed to believe that he was doing it to agree with them. “I’ve told you boys before, all of your safety comes before all the rest of this, and if you don’t think that we’re safe working alongside these things? Well, that seems like something that I’m going to have to look into. Just because some of the others trust them doesn’t mean I have to.”
“See?” George said, “I was telling Pete that just before, you’re smart Julian, you know how things are really supposed to run around here! Which is why we wanted to ask you something…”
“Oh yeah?” Julian said, “Am I going to like the sounds of it?”
“That depends, do you like the sound of making money?”
“On occasion, women and drink don’t buy themselves after all.”
“Good answer,” Pete said, leaning closer so they didn’t have to speak so loudly, not that it was doing any good. Every witch in the building looked to be about ready to rend them limb from limb if need be, they were right in the middle of a kill zone and they didn’t even know it. “We were thinking about this job just before, it could be good money for all of us if you’re interested… how do you feel about delivering some things?”
“What kind of things?”
“A few of the shifters that the dogs are taking care of, the sicker ones that won’t be able to fight back. We bag them up, drive them out to the forest, get paid and go home, a good night’s work for a good night’s pay.” Pete drank another shot, very much in a celebratory mood by now. “It’s easy, good money, and we get rid of a few of the shifters, what do you say?”
“I’d say it sounds pretty good,” He replied, drumming his fingers along the counter, “Just depends on who it is that we’re delivering them to, I don’t like to walk into any surprises, you know the way I work by now. Otherwise I don’t feel comfortable sticking my neck out.”
“Yeah, yeah totally,” Pete said, “we got a deal from those other shifters to give them that bitch in charge, don’t know what they wanted with her but it’s not my business. They paid a lot for her, they’ll probably pay the same for a couple of those other shifters that we’ve got stashed away, don’t you think?”
“Probably, yeah,” Julian said, his eye twitching as he turned to the bartender, “Can I get another beer?”
“So what do you say Julian?” Pete asked, holding his glass up when he got his bottle of beer, “Do we have a deal?”
“Hmm… let me think about it,” Julian said, turning away slightly before spinning on the ball of his foot, grip shifting along the bottle and flipping it upside down, his grip around the head of the bottle sending it smashing perfectly into Pete’s temple and shattering on impact, his eyes rolling into the back of his head as he straightened up and collapsed right into the ground.
“What the fu-” George screamed, stopping in place as Julian reached down to his waistband and pulled out his pistol, cocking the hammer and pressing it against his forehead before George could so much as blink.
“Go ahead and squeak rat,” He growled, finger drifting to the trigger, “Give me a fuckin’ excuse.”
“I-I don’t… what…”
“Are you that drunk, or are you really that stupid?” Julian asked, belting him across the face with the grip of his pistol and sending him down to the ground as well, “No deal.”
Suddenly aware of the fact that everyone in the club was staring at him, he holstered his pistol and raised his hands, face the exact picture of apology as he shouted, “Sorry folks, just a little bit of business that needed to be handled! Have another drink on them!”
The rest of the patrons cheered, going back to their own conversations and ignoring the sight of Damon and Vincent dragging the two unconscious hunters into one of the backrooms and shutting the door behind them. The other hunters that hadn’t been in on the plan were looking between the door and Julian very nervously, before he shook his head and told them to just enjoy the rest of the night.
And now, I suppose, is where our night really starts.
Chapter 9
“You already admitted it, just go ahead and say it again.”
Pete grimaced, screwing his eyes shut at the pounding in his temple. “Fuck you.”
Damon sighed, flicking him in the bruise and wincing in sympathy at the hiss of pain he gave in response. “Wow, that looks like it hurts pretty bad. You wouldn’t want me to call Julian in again to give you another on the other side would you?”
“You wouldn’t,” George scoffed, “you don’t have the balls.”
“Buddy you’ve got two vampires standing in front of you who’ve killed people just like you and felt nothing about it.” Damon knelt in front of him, grinning and showing off his fangs. “You have no idea the kinds of things that I’d be willing to do to you for this.”
“Wanting to kill us is something that I can excuse,” Vincent said, dragging over a chair, “Within reason. I wasn’t reborn yesterday, I know that tensions between our groups aren’t just going to disappear overnight. To tell you the truth? I was happy when Tristian took his little fascists in training and tried to kill us, the things I did to those hunters that night… it really helped me get through some of my issues with working alongside them now.”
“But our problem isn’t with what you want to do to us, it’s what you did to her.” By now George and Pete finally realized that I was in the room with them, both of them turning and grimacing at the bruising around my nose. “I’m no stranger to being hurt, that comes with the territory, but hurting Amy? For that there will be consequences.”
“We weren’t the ones that hit her…”
“No, but you let them in through the front door. And since we don’t have them, you’ll have to do for now.”
“Fuck you!” Pete screamed, the reality of his situation finally sinking in as he surged forward in his chair, “You want us to just forget what you freaks have done to us? Do you have any idea what you’ve taken from us?”
“Fuck what was taken from you,” Damon scoffed, “everyone loses things, you grow up and move on. What was it? Wife? Kid? Sibling? What was it that stuck you in the past and kept you thinking like a fucking child?”
“You… you…”
“What? Go ahead, call
me whatever you want. Bloodsucker, freak, traitor? Which colorful insult are you going to fling my way that I haven’t already called myself a thousand times before?” He leaned forward slowly, the creak of his chair the only sound as all humor dropped from his expression and replaced itself with absolute fury. “You lost, you’re on the way out right now. The only choice you’ve got left is if you want to tell us what else it is that you gave up, at least that way you might not die too painfully.”
The tension in the air was so thick you could almost choke on it, the two disgraced hunters shrinking back in their seats as they finally realized that they could very well die here, twenty feet away from their brothers in arms who would only go on drinking and ignoring what was happening. It was a particular brand of terror that would reduce just about anyone to a sniveling child.
“Damon, Vincent, can we speak?” I asked, gesturing them over to me. It was a big room, evidently one of the private dance rooms made for a reasonably good interrogation hall. Knowing Alexis, I have a hard time believing that wasn’t by design.
“What’s going on?” Damon asked, standing at my side, “Too much?”
“Not that, it’s just… I don’t think that they actually gave away anything else, I think letting me be kidnapped was about the only thing that they were a part of, otherwise they probably would have talked about that when they were drunk.”
“You’re probably right, I mean you’re almost definitely right, these two are so stupid that I wouldn’t trust them to do anything for me except step out of the way to let a professional through. But I want to be sure, last thing I want is to get rid of them and then find out that there are more spies that we haven’t uncovered.”
“That makes sense…” I sighed, “Just… don’t rip them apart, ok? I’m not sure Alexis would appreciate the mess.”
“I wouldn’t mind,” She said, shrugging and smiling.
“Fine, I wouldn’t appreciate the mess.”
