Rebels and Realms: A Limited Edition Urban Fantasy Collection
Page 54
"Mornings like this are the best time to hunt. The night's clear and quiet, a few hours before sunrise. The world is quiet and still and the nonpowered world is asleep."
"They know they're safe and secure, but don't know why they sleep so soundly," Anna said.
Anna lowered her finger onto Fish's blue pointer and changed it from "Monroe LaCoure" to "Fish." It instantly changed from the generic avatar to her big sister, with light mocha skin, wavy hair, and a compound bow appearing on her back. The other figure crept into the hunt space, and the map went from a video game render to photo-realism, with birds flying out of the trees and the grass waving in the breeze. There was even a bit of glow from the moon.
"God, I love this map," Anna said. It was a gift from her father and she was using this light hunt to break it in. This was one his favorite comm tools and it was a lot simpler to use than she thought it would be.
"You're making this map look good, Fish."
"As opposed to when? I make everything look good." Fish rolled on her back and blew a kiss to the sky. She was always showing off, but Anna couldn't complain. Her sister was one of the best lancers in the Shaman State of the South—there were few shots she missed inside of a thousand feet, even from her back. She rolled on her stomach and peered through the scope. "I got eyes on Mom."
"Copy that," Anna said and looked at her map for photo-real areas and finally found her. With her dark skin, it was already hard to spot her, but her camo skills made it damn near impossible sometimes.
"Muh-thur, did you turn your tagging off?"
"Nope, set it to 'camo'... give me a minute." The avatar tapped her ear once and the area above her head seemed to shift as if there were heat rising from her head. "What about now?"
"Negative. It looks like you set it to ‘Enviro Affected.’ I think it's flowing in the breeze." Anna zoomed in. "Yep, that's exactly what it's doing."
"Okay." The avatar touched her ear again and the waving stopped and there was nothing.
"Nope!"
One last touch and a bright green tag appeared over her head.
"And we have ourselves a winna!" Anna touched the green tag above the generic figure.
"
Her real name was Mireille LaCoure and she was Anna and Fish's mother. But to the world, "Mama Ray" LaCoure caught a bullet in her head in 2000 and died after three years in a coma. "Lilith Napue" came on the scene in 2006, but her meteoric rise up the Hunting Point charts and her solo hunts meant no one was fooled, least of all their father Thomas Noble, known throughout the Shaman States as "the Judge." But he never said anything, at least to them, and it was better that way. He was the reason why she didn't remember what her mother looked like until she was a teen and called another man her father.
"What do you think about spiders, Mom?" Fish said, snapping Anna back to the present.
"Spiders are fine, but you have to know to listen for them," her mom said. "They're ninjas—dropping from trees, grabbing you from under trapdoors, sticking their asses just above ground so you can step on them and then they get you..."
"You cannot tell me that's natural!" Anna shivered and made a wagging noise with her tongue. Tiny Ray stopped and looked up into the air. Anna loved how they looked like they were talking to her, Goddess of the Map and All Things of Hunt.
"That's how spiders operate: they're trying to eat too." Ray raised her hands above her head while she was talking, no doubt in supplication to She Who Watches all the Radars.
"Skeletons make noise. You can hear them coming, like now."
Ray dropped into a low stance, holding her sword behind her. Fish looked at the sword, followed the edge past her head, and she saw them. Bones seemed to grow out of the ground. But they didn't stop there, floating over them in a mass and then coming together “knee-bone connected to the thigh bone” style. The skelly was about half formed when a white circle about a yard in diameter appeared around the bones.
"I see the hot spot," Anna said as it turned from white to green, "engage when ready."
"Holding for the head," Fish said.
"Roger that," Ray said. "I've got these two, but there'll be more."
The heads lifted off the ground and landed on the animated pile of bones. Ray ran up to them planted her foot and swung backward, taking their heads right back off. She used the momentum, turned the blade in her hand, and cut them in half at the waist. She pulled a glass pipe about a foot long with a silver cap on the top and shoved it into the ground. If filled with blue spectral power and she put a cap on the other end. She pulled out her phone and scanned the bar code that appeared on the tube.
"Two down," Ray said.
"Two down, acknowledged," Anna said. "I see a few more hot spots the closest fifteen feet from you on your five, Momma."
The Fish figure turned to the right and looked through her tiny scope. The Ray figure crept forward with her hand out in front of her. The palm glowed blue that grew into a ball. She lobbed the plasma ball into the closest hot spot. The area lit up and the skeletons formed twice as fast as the first two.
"You know how to give a girl a challenge," Fish said, and there were two shots from the rifle. The skeletons collapsed, and Ray ran to collect their specters. She was scanning the tube when eight hairy legs jumped out from under a pile of rubble.
Ray made a side leap, then sent out a bolt from her palm. She reached across her chest, pulled her stiletto, and cut through the front four legs. It retreated into the hole and Ray sealed it shut.
"What did I tell you? Ninjas!" Ray yelled. "That thing's not coming out until it heals."
Two more circles appeared on the map. "Yeah, the skellys have another idea, Mom,” Anna said. "All the hot spots are heating up."
"Yeah, I see them climbing out already," Fish said. She turned her scope and the outside circle turned blue. Two shots and the circle faded.
Ray jumped over the spider trap and pulled out her Colt, and the skeletons in the green circle crumbled. She ran up to collect the specters from both areas.
"I think we're done—" Ray said. The ground shook underneath her. "Whelp, I got that wrong. Give me an overhead view, Anna."
Anna pressed her hand into the membrane. "Highlight vibration," she said, and the map lit up with everything wiggling and shaking, several tunnels lit brighter than the others. She focused on them.
Shit.
"It's the spiders, Ma," Anna said as ten tiny eight-legged spiders came out of their holes and were heading toward Ray.
"I thought that it was going to come back," Fish said. She aimed for the ones closer and pop. One down.
"It had friends and family; I didn't say about them!" Ray said, pulling out her sword. "Clear me a path, sweetie."
"Working on it, Mo- thur!" Another three shots and three more are down. "You can handle six, can't you?"
Ray slashed through the abdomen of one spider, planted her foot, and slid her blade under a second spider and cut that one in two. She pulled the specters from their bodies into hers and ran to the other spiders.
"Yeah, I think I got this," Ray said.
"Ma, you have to stop pulling specters. And check your six," Anna said.
"Yeah, it's gross and not natural." Fish broke down her rifle. "Just ripping them out like that? You should let them come to you."
"I was just putting the skelly specters in the tube." Ray stabbed another spider through the head, and pulled her sword as fangs sunk into her back.
"Arggghhh! Did that one jump out of a tree?" Ray dropped at her waist and kicked up, knocking the spider off of her and shot it in the head.
"Negative, " Anna said, "it was behind you, on your six? Like your ass? Like the one that's coming
for you now."
Ray turned around and pumped two rounds into the incoming spider. "Sorry, wasn't paying attention." She turned on her spectral sight and located the last of the spiders. They were retreating onto their holes. She holstered the Colt. "The others don't want any of this. You were saying?"
"With the skellys, you're clearing hot spots legally with specter tubes, not ripping and eating their souls. That's just nasty."
"It is when you describe it that way," Ray said. "Let's go before someone records us screwing around."
1
A Girl's Gotta Dream
"Arggghhh! Did that one jump out of a tree?" Ray dropped at her waist and kicked up, knocking the spider off of her and shot it in the head.
"Negative, " Anna said, "it was behind you—"
"Turn it back to where she slashed the skeletons with the sword!"
Paley pressed her finger on the screen and rewound it to the part where the Hunter swung the sword behind her. Paley and Hank both got up and mimicked the swing, then Hank ran out the room and she emerged with a wooden sword.
She lowered into the stance, took a step forward and turned, and let the sword go behind her. She lost her grip and the sword went flying into the shelf, sending books and toys to the floor.
"Okay, girls," Kyla yelled into the hallway "Your fun is too big for the room. Go to the greenbelt."
"Can we take the screen with us, Mrs. Kyla?" Paley asked as Tommie and Hank cleaned up the mess. It took minutes and then Hank was back in the stance with the sword, but her sister Aby took it from her.
"No, leave the screen here." Aby and Hank's mom appeared in the doorway. "You're making too much noise to be watching anything anyway."
"We were watching the monster hunter video my mom told you about," Tommie said, "This is a new one that they recorded on the spy cam and uploaded." She handed the screen to Kyla and rewound it to the back swing again.
"The Monster Hunter Lady is hunting with her daughters and she does this cool back move with a sword," Hank said.
Abby ran up and played it for her. "She hunts with her daughters and there's only two of them."
Kyla looked at her girls. She missed the freedom and the thrill of the Hunt. She stopped when she married and wanted her children to know the life, but Casey was low-powered and thought the Hunt was dangerous and needless, unless they needed a new washer or dental work for the kids. Then he was off to a handler friend of theirs for a quick Hunt.
The argument was always the same:
"I don't want my girls out there after crazy shit alone!" he would say.
"They wouldn't be alone," she would argue. "That's why we Hunt in teams, Casey! That's why there is a comm to have eyes in the sky and make sure they know what they're getting into. That's why we have lancers on a team! To make sure that the Striker is safe!"
"And what if they fail?" Casey crossed his arms and leaned on the door post.
"We know this life. And that is the cost of having the gifts we have. You want to apply for removal?" she asked.
"No need to go that far. I just—"
"You just want it when you need it, when it's convenient for a quick buck."
"A quick buck that takes care of this family!"
"But what happens when they have to take care of themselves?"
Casey scoffed "They can learn then."
Kyla looked at her husband like he grew a third eye. "You really want them to hurt themselves?"
Casey waved his hands and walked down the hall to the garage. Kyla followed.
"How old were you when you learned the Hunt? Six, seven? Why? So you would be ready when you had to go out there yourself. That's all I want for our girls—to be ready."
That time Casey opened the garage door, got in the car, and drove off. But that's how this argument always ended, with him walking away.
The only thing that gave her hope was knowing that she was having a third girl. Having three children of the same gender meant that all three had to hunt, no matter what Casey wanted. Refusing meant that they all lost his power.
Casey was thrilled, until he realized that he was having a girl and family and friends started sending Hunt equipment for the girls.
Tommie and her sisters were hunting—well they were nine, seven, and six, so they were capturing pets, hobs for domestics, and clearing pests on their grandparents' property.
Paley had a sister and two brothers, slipping by the "three same-gender siblings" thing so her parents decided to let them do a few captures and training during camp to get basic skills. Kyla's girls didn't even do that much. Nothing like this video. Casey tried to put his foot down, but when Aby was seven and still didn't have a capture, the handler wouldn't let Casey have work until she brought home the hobgoblin that cleans the house now.
Hank was only four when Baylee was born. She was barely six, the age of the Hunt, by the time Baylee succumbed to whooping cough. She never got to hunt, but Kyla didn't stop the camps when Baylee died until Casey made a fuss, then she would send her to "sleepovers" with Paley and Tommie.
Kyla snapped back into the present and her little girl. She so wanted the Hunt and Kyla wanted to give her a full Hunter life, the lessons and traditions passed from her parents that only came in the field. She knelt down until she was eye-to-eye with her middle—no youngest—child.
"I know she does, Hank, but both their mom and their dad are in the Hunt and they made the decision together." She picked up the sword and scabbard and handed it to Hank. She picked up a smaller sword and gave it to Abby. "You can practice in the greenbelt with the sword and then we'll have lunch."
They nodded, and all the girls ran out the door. She picked up the larger toys off the floor and played the video again. The video only showed the striker, the one they were calling "Mom." She looked like an older Ray LaCoure. But she'd been dead since 2000. And the lancer's tag was "Fish," but everyone wanted to use that or a variant, and it didn't look like the official Fish LaCoure account. It could have been anyone.
But that was a cool sword move. Kyla looked at the video again, then stood up. She planted her foot, turned, and followed through with her arm and stood facing forward again. She could see why Hank would want to practice that.
"Practicing your pirouette?" Casey said and held his hand above his head while he turned. Kyla could feel the smile spread across her face. She always felt that way when she saw him, even when she thought of her sacrifice and loss. He kept her grounded and stable, loved and nurtured. The Hunt was the only thing that was ever a big conflict. And she was happy with that.
"This move that Hank was practicing." She rewound the video and held it up so he could see.
"Wow... that is kinda cool. The CGI is good." Casey laughed as Kyla popped him in the head. He watched the rest. "Skeletons and huge spiders, urgh. They couldn't have done liches or zombie?"
"Revenants are more in Louisiana and the South. We saw them once when—" she started, then let the sentence drop. Casey shook his head then kissed his wife on the forehead. "I know you miss Baylee and the Hunt, but it's better to just leave it at letting them play-act it in the greenbelt, okay? It won't hurt as much that way."
Kyla nodded and kissed Casey on the way out of the room. He held her for a moment, his eyes solemn and sincere. "I promise you will see that it was better like this in the end."
Kyla went into their room and closed the door behind her. She pulled open the top drawer and pulled out a tube with a pink shoe. Baylee's shoe. Kyla could still feel sparks of her life force, her specter in it, and pulled a little from it. It formed a little ball on the tip of her finger before sinking into her flesh.
She could smell Baylee's skin, hear her laugh, and feel her getting older and stronger as her specter consumed smaller ones. She would be almost four now.
"You'll be ready when the time comes, sweetie," she said to her finger and kissed it softly. She put the tube back into place as the girls ran through the yard and rolled down the incline to the greenbe
lt.
The greenbelt was outside the back gate and down the path. All the neighborhood could see it from their back deck. The girls walked up to the edge and let their eyes glow. Once they did that, the greenbelt was more than the greenbelt.
It was full of specters, the souls of old pets, hobs that served in the houses and then passed on. Bucky, someone's first dog from years ago that loved to love, bounded up to them and moved through them. They all shivered as he jumped through their flesh, and a hob ran up on her tiny legs to retrieve the massive dog.
Tommie played with the hobs and the dogs. Abby leaned against a tree with a book. Hank took her sword and explored the perimeter. It was a mild sunny day and the grass wasn't too wet, so she felt brave enough to go down to the creek and still be able to climb back up. Along the bank, she planted her foot, turned and wobbled, and didn't end up facing the front.
She started from the beginning, sword up. She planted her foot and turned and swung the sword behind her and tripped over her foot and landed on the ground, hitting a frog in the process. She stopped and ran after the arc the frog made. She finally found it, twitching, with a cut across its belly.
Hank picked up the frog's body and ran a finger along the cut. The frog twitched more as the cut shimmered and closed, but the frog was still and lifeless. Hank's shoulders slumped. She closed her hand over the frog and thought really hard. After a few moment sthe frog's specter crawled out through the opening and hopped into the water.
A jogger was coming down the path, so Hank scrambled to find a stick, dug a hole, and placed the frog's body in, pushing dirt on top of it and rocks over the dirt in a circle.
"Hey!" the jogger said.
Hank pinched her mouth and went back to her work. She waited until the jogger was a ways away before lowering down to the mound.