Beware The Hunter

by Martha Carr

  “Thank you, Turner,” the queen said, smiling kindly at the former Fixer.

  “It’s our pleasure to have you here. I’m sorry that it’s at the gym. If I’d known that you wanted to see Leira, I could’ve set it up in my home.”

  The queen waved off his apology and wrinkled her nose. “No, no this is fine. I’d like to see where you train anyway. As the queen of the Light Elves, I don’t see people train very often, not like they do here. On Oriceran, the magic is so strong that they don’t need to train like that.”

  Turner smiled. “We only wish it was that easy here on Earth, but our warriors have to keep strong and stay fit. So, I provide them the facility here.”

  The queen looked around for a moment, scanning equipment that was strange to her. Leira remembered that the queen thought humans were strange anyway, and the way she stared at equipment was the icing on the cake. She cleared her throat and nodded at Turner. “As much as I’d like to take a tour and learn all about these things, I did come here for a reason. I came to speak with Leira.”

  Leira nodded and stepped forward, clearing her throat. “It’s good to see you, Your Majesty, though I have to admit that I’m kind of surprised.”

  The queen smirked. “I seem to have that effect on you. How is Correk?”

  “He’s good. Really getting settled into the Fixer position,” Leira replied, glancing at Turner.

  The queen smiled and nodded. “I always thought he would be a good fit for that. And under Turner’s mentorship, I’m sure he will be great. As much as I wish I came here for small talk, I didn’t. Leira, I have another assignment for you.”

  Worry flooded Leira. “Oh, no. Did something happen? Is someone in trouble or hurt?”

  Leira really wanted to ask if somebody had died, like the first time the queen had summoned her, but she didn’t think it would be appropriate.

  The queen shook her head and walked over, linking her arm with Leira’s. “I’ve been sitting back and watching everything that’s occurred over the past couple of years. I have to admit that at first, I didn’t want to acknowledge that we couldn’t just slide right in unnoticed and peacefully. Now, I see what the dark families are trying to accomplish. They are creating fear among the humans that could be detrimental to our escape from Oriceran, once the gates are fully open and the magic is gone. I recognize now that integration is sorely needed.”

  Leira nodded as the two of them walked around the gym. “I can see that. It’s been a tough transition thus far.”

  The queen stopped and looked at Leira. “And I’m afraid it’s only going to get worse. The prophets no longer hold any real power in Oriceran. Magical beings are crossing between Earth and our planet without hesitation or regulation. Trouble is spreading, and not just on Earth, but on Oriceran as well. As many problems as you’ve experienced here, we’ve had them too. I didn’t realize, not when I was thinking about the difficulties of integrating here on Earth, that we would have severe issues too. For some reason, I thought the worst would be losing those who wanted to stay behind and die with our planet. It’s not that way, though.”

  Leira gave her a sad look. “I have to be honest. I was so focused on Earth and the issues we’re having with the dark families here that I didn’t even think about the home planet. I assumed that it was business as usual there, and that most of those who came here were either trying to start a life or members of the dark families. It hadn’t crossed my mind that Oriceran would develop problems of its own because of this transition.”

  The queen nodded sadly. “Not many people thought about it, but now that it’s happening, there’s not a lot that we can do about it. They are kind of like terrorists. The dark market is spilling over into other things. While it used to be a place that you didn’t want others to know you went to, it has become part of everyday life on Oriceran.”

  Leira listened closely. “And what can I do about this?”

  The queen put her arm back in Leira’s as they began to walk again. “Rules must be put into place. I need someone who isn’t beholden to magic. Someone who isn’t beholden to anyone or anything. I need someone like you, Leira. I need a champion.”

  Leira stopped and took a deep breath, looking everywhere except at the queen’s face. The queen waited patiently and smiled as she watched the hesitation flow across Leira’s face. She knew it wasn’t something that Leira could answer immediately. She had a life on Earth, and the queen tried to understand that.

  She gave Leira a moment, then reached out and took her hand. “You don’t have to give me an answer right away. I know you have a life here. Go home. Talk to Correk, and weigh the possibilities. I think it would be a good idea if you came to Oriceran to see if it’s a place you could live, at least for a little while. You could discover the other half of your heritage.”

  Leira nodded, feeling awkward that she couldn’t give the queen an answer right away. She knew the queen wasn’t used to being held off or turned down, but that would be a big move. She’d just gotten settled where she was. She had Correk, Yumfuck, and her friends and family to think about, not to mention that she had a career. At the same time, Oriceran was her home too, and she needed to make sure it was protected during this very sensitive time.

  “I’ll talk it over with them, and I’ll let you know soon. I promise.”

  The queen grasped her hands and smiled. “Good. Think of it as coming home this time.”

  Leira smiled crookedly as the queen walked back toward Turner. He opened a portal back into the kingdom, and the queen held Turner’s hand and paused, looking back at Leira. The queen nodded, and Leira returned the gesture as she disappeared.

  Leira walked toward the elliptical machine. She had thought she was tired, but now her mind was running a million miles an hour. She had a lot more to think about than she had when she’d first walked into the gym.

  3

  “Ouch!” Ava winced as Louie ripped the bandage off her abdomen.

  “I’m sorry. It was going to hurt no matter what I did, and I thought pulling it off quickly would be better than prolonging the pain.”

  Ava lifted an eyebrow. “You mean like ripping off a Band-Aid? I don’t think that applies when you’re talking about a stab wound to the stomach. I’m just saying. It’s not that I don’t appreciate you taking care of me, but let’s try to be a little bit gentler.”

  Louie looked at her and pouted. “I can’t believe you got stabbed at the Los Angeles riot. I just can’t believe it.”

  Ava rolled her eyes and took the ointment from Louie to apply to her skin. “You make it sound so dramatic. It was a shallow stab wound, and it missed every single one of my organs. It could’ve been so much worse.”

  Louie snatched the ointment back. “It could have been much worse, that’s very true. But it was still a stab wound, and it was still to your body. I wish I had been watching. I would’ve killed whoever did that to you.”

  Ava shrugged and leaned back slightly, letting him treat her. “I took care of it. Let’s just say that he’s gonna have to sit down to pee for a really long time.”

  Louie wrinkled his nose. “You could just let me use magic on this. I can heal it in half the time.”

  Ava took the ointment from him and put the cap on, setting it to the side. “I’m human, not a magical being, remember? I really don’t think the answer is applying magic to my body. Sure, it might heal it faster, but do we know the long-term effects of using magic on humans?”

  Louie stared at her for several moments, blinking. “You do realize that we’ve been on Earth for a very long time, right? I’m pretty sure that if there were adverse effects to using magic to heal humans, someone would’ve said something about it by now. There would be some sort of warning label when you crossed from Oriceran to Earth that told people not to use magic on humans. I’ve never heard anything like that.”

  Ava shrugged and pulled her shirt down once the wound was bandaged. “Human bodies are magical in themselves. We may not heal as fast
as you magicals, but we do a pretty good job on our own.”

  Louie rubbed his hands over his face. “Has your dad noticed anything?”

  Ava shook her head. “Not yet. I’ve managed to get out of all the heavy lifting, and only had to reach for something once. I don’t want him to know, because it’ll just be a thing. I don’t need any more things in my life right now.”

  Louie sighed and looked out his apartment window. “It’s my fault. I should never have let you go with me. You weren’t ready.”

  Ava furrowed her brow and her anger immediately rose. “No! That’s not fair. I was ready… I am ready. Look, shit happens even to the most skilled people out there. Leira gets hurt. You get hurt. You can’t expect me to be out there and never get a scratch, Louie.”

  “Right, but the difference is that we pledged our lives to this, and we have magic that helps us heal, makes us stronger, and gives us longer lives.”

  Ava clenched her jaw. “That doesn’t mean I can’t be just as big an asset.”

  Louie tried to hold back a smile. He put his hands on her face. “I care about you immensely, Ava. I don’t want anything to happen to you. When I saw this, I just about died inside.”

  Ava’s face softened. “I care about you too, Louie, and I want both of us to be around for a very long time.”

  Louie looked down shyly, then back up at her with a grin. “Together?”

  Ava grinned. “Maybe. But unless you let me be who I am, it will never work.”

  Louie sat back on his heels and sighed. He opened his mouth to protest, but before he could, there was a knock on the door and the handle began to turn. “It’s me, just checking on you.”

  Ava’s eyes went huge at the sound of her father’s voice. They scrambled, quickly shoving the bloody gauze and pads underneath the couch. Louie stood with his hands behind his back, and Ava—three feet away—tried to wipe the grimace off her face after moving too quickly. Her father opened the door and looked at the two of them pleasantly.

  “I brought the two of you some food. I thought you might be hungry.” He smiled, not noticing their hasty cleanup.

  Ava smiled and gingerly took the food from him. “Thank you, Daddy. We were just talking about how hungry we were.”

  Louie nodded. “Yes, thank you so much, sir.”

  “You two are my family. Now, I need that rent check on the first, Louie. No excuses this time.”

  Louie chuckled. “Yes, of course.”

  Ava’s father smiled and nodded as he closed the door and retreated downstairs. Louie and Ava rolled their eyes and sat down on the couch, letting out deep breaths simultaneously. They sat there silently for a moment, reveling in the fact that they hadn’t given away their feelings for each other or Ava’s injury.

  Ava looked at Louie. “I’m just as much a warrior as you are, and without a singing sword.”

  Louie looked at her lovingly for a moment, then smirked. “She doesn’t sing so much as chat with me.”

  Ava lifted an eyebrow. “So it’s a she?”

  “It’s not doing any good to send them back to a planet where they can just turn around and come back to Earth. I don’t think you guys really understand that Oriceran is dying, and that’s why everyone is flocking here,” one of the senators on the committee for Homeland Security shouted angrily.

  Senator Trumbull crossed hands over his belly and leaned back in his chair, rolling his shoulders. He was listening to the debate among the other senators about what to do with magical thugs who were apprehended for committing crimes. It was a new subject for the committee since it was only recently that Homeland Security had picked up the new subject of humanity as a race. The committee had been at the Capital for hours, and finally had gotten around to the subject.

  “This is true, but the gates won’t be fully open for thousands of years. By then, these thugs will either be dead, just as bad, or will have learned their lesson. No matter what, none of us will have to deal with it. We need to keep the peace now during this very sensitive transition,” another senator said.

  The chairman rolled his eyes and shook his head. “So, what you’re saying is that we should put it off so that our great-grandchildren or our great-great-grandchildren have to deal with these Oriceran thugs who are flooding the planet? Just like so many other subjects we’ve dealt with, you want to push it off so you don’t have to make the hard decision.”

  The senator shook his finger. “What I’m saying is that we don’t have the capacity to deal with this right now. That’s on top of the fact that our prisons are understaffed and overfilled. We just can't deal with the magicals and the powers that they possess. There are many more pressing issues right now. Has anybody stopped to think that while we were focused on the magicals, the terrorists around the world were taking that opportunity to plan something big against our country?”

  The chairman scoffed. “When will be a good time to deal with this problem? There will always be something crazy going on. Waiting it out is not an option. Look, people, we can either ignore the problem and continue to make things harder for ourselves—the human race—or we can start taking charge. Those who don’t follow the rules receive punishment just like humans do. We told them from the get-go that if they’re going to come to our planet, they’re going to follow our rules or they’re going to pay the price. We need to set an example.”

  The senator laughed loudly, shaking his head. “You didn’t even touch on the other terrorist activities we already have to worry about. We are understaffed and underpaid, and we don’t have the manpower to deal with this. We also don’t have magical abilities like these people do. They don’t want to be caught? They open a portal and pop out somewhere across the country. How do we combat that? The answer is we can’t, at least not at this moment.”

  The debate grew even more heated, and the senator from Oklahoma knew exactly what needed to happen. He wasn’t sure how to introduce it, but as it was, nothing would be accomplished if someone didn’t step in. In his eyes, the answer was simple, but to everyone else, it seemed complicated. They already had a team of people equipped to handle magical beings and the powers they possessed. The problem was fear—fear of each other, fear of the unknown, and fear induced by the media.

  The senior statesman from Oklahoma cleared his throat. “What we need to do here is expand upon our bounty hunter system. The more bounty hunters we have, the better off we will be. Even if they’re magical, they’re loyal to us. They’ll bring in the thugs or take care of them altogether.”

  Another senator sighed exhaustedly. “Sure, give more power to the magical beings. Before we know it, they’ll be leading our government. They’re aliens, just like people from any other country who are coming to ours, so they must play by our rules. Can’t you see that if we continue on this path, giving them every inch we can, they will be ruling this country and this world by the end of it? They will be welcomed with open arms because they will own this world. They will take us back to the old times like on Oriceran, and there will be nothing but magic running through the streets. They will drain this world just like they drained their own, and that includes not having a place for the humans.”

  Everyone started to talk at once, and the entire room filled with the echoes of angry congressmen and senators. Fear was running rampant in the Capital building, just like it had during the riot out on the lawn. People didn’t know what to do, so instead of common sense and speaking rationally, they argued amongst themselves.

  The Oklahoma statesman, Senator Porter, scanned the room until his eyes fell on Senator Trumbull. “Senator Trumbull, you’ve been pretty quiet today. That’s not normally your style. You have nothing at all to add?”

  Senator Porter was looking for an ally for the bounty system, and he figured the senator would be a fantastic one. Senator Trumbull looked at him and lifted an eyebrow. “Why don’t you tell me what you have in mind, Senator? I know the situation is dire, but all I’ve heard is arguing. I haven’t heard a solution being
presented. Everyone here knows me, and my team has been working on things that could help us with this, including working alongside the bounty hunters.”

  Porter sat up straighter and shuffled the papers in front of him. “All right. Leira Berens has proven her worth, and the worth of the system. I think that we should train others the way she is trained. We bring her in to help us. We don’t have to limit it to just magical beings, either. We can include a few humans, and give them the tools to fight back against the magical beings.”

  There was a rumble of discontent, and Senator Porter held up a placating hand. “Everyone, calm down and let me finish. Having humans to deal with the situation isn’t a new idea. It may be new to some of you, but it’s not new to the world. They won’t be the first humans to battle the dark families, nor will they be the first humans to stand alongside the magical community. The more magical allies we have, the easier the transition will be, because the magical beings will have confidence that their own people are looking out for them. On top of that, many of them can take care of these thugs before we even have to think about housing them.”

  The chairman shook his head. “I don’t know about this bounty system. It’s like having a bunch of magical vigilantes out on the street. There are no real controls.”

  The Oklahoma statesman put up his hand and shook his head. “We’re not worthless, and we’re certainly not going to stand on the sidelines and just watch like children. If we have to use magical beings to take care of their own, that’s what we need to do.”

  Senator Trumbull sat there for several moments listening to them argue back and forth. Finally, when he had heard enough, he cleared his throat and leaned forward getting their attention. He wanted to appear cautious.

  “I believe Senator Porter may have a good point.” Senator Trumbull was very good friends with Senator Porter, or at least Porter thought so.