Violet idly fiddled with her phone, wondering where her contact was. She didn’t know how long she could sit without getting annoyed looks from the staff. One advantage of conveyor belt sushi was that at least she could grab something when she got hungry. If she got hungry. The longer she waited the more she began to worry this might all just be some dumb prank and the harder it got to consider eating. A fellow hunter wouldn’t do that to her, would they?
She hoped not. From what she’d seen, the hunter in particular was pretty new, likely a rookie. Getting a reputation as someone who couldn’t be depended on was, well… a good way to end up getting a lot of people not offering you jobs when you needed them.
Like here and now. Violet gave another soft sigh before idly flicking through her messages. Sometimes it really did suck being the last hunter people would turn to when they needed assistance. She understood why, but it didn’t feel nice.
Her phone beeped and she quickly glanced at the message. Ah, it seemed her contact was running late. But she’d be here soon. Tani, apparently. Or ‘LateTani’ judging by the name she used on her messages, oddly fitting considering the current situation. Violet idly glanced down at herself. A simple pair of jeans, an old red t-shirt with flames drawn on and a denim jacket. Was she underdressed? She didn’t feel underdressed. Maybe she should have worn more leather. Hunters always wore leather. It was borderline tradition at this point.
Maybe she was just overthinking things like she always did. Why was she so nervous? Ugh. Why had this person demanded to meet her in person rather than just GIVING her the information she’d asked for? Or even charging for it? That would have been fine. But this ‘Okay, but only if you meet me in person and answer some questions of mine’ bullshit was getting on her nerves. Who was this girl to make demands of her like that?
Right, the only one who offered her help when she reached out.
The door to the restaurant opened and she glanced up and… only to feel her stomach sink into her shoes. Damn it.
‘Rookie’ didn’t begin to describe it. The girl all but screamed that she was a hunter, but in the worst possible way. Personally, she called it ‘edgy goth’. Leather overcoat, a dark black shirt, leather pants with way too many buckles, spiked collar. That would have been fine. Except for the makeup. The girl’s face was pale as a sheet, contrasting strongly with her raven black hair. Probably dyed. She even had a sword obviously strapped to her hip. Worst part of all of it?
Violet had done the same thing when she’d first started out. She could almost feel the edgy comments coming off the other girl. ‘My name is Midnight Bloodrose, all I feel is the dark, gaping maw of eternity as we make our inevitable descent into the darkest of realms. Bit by bit having our souls devoured by the great predators of the night. None can understand me. None can love me. I am alone. The darkness incarnate.’
Thankfully her grandmother had ended up washing the makeup off with a wet sponge and told her to knock off that crap if she wanted to go with her. Being a hunter wasn’t easy, nor was it safe. But it was doubly so if you went into it with the mindset that everything out there was darkness and despair. If you only focused on the bleak, eventually you just buckled under the pressure and snapped. Or worse, got a lot of other people hurt.
Hunters fought the things that went bump in the night. But not everything that went bump was bad, in fact a lot of it was actually pretty good. Those who didn’t realize that just caused more problems and made problems where there were none. She gave a small wave to the girl.
Yup, here it came. The girl was walking towards her, a dour look on her face. She wondered if she’d start off talking of the grim hubris of man and how none could be trusted but the edge of the blade, before--
“Err, sorry, are you Violet?” the girl asked. Violet paused before giving a small nod. “Hiiii, I’m Tani. I’m sorry for being late, traffic was killer. It’s so nice to finally meet you.”
Violet just stared for a moment, blinking a few times. Or maybe she was just being a bit too judgmental and should try and knock that shit off. Especially considering how much she hated it when people did it to her. “Uhhh, it’s fine. So you’re a hunter? You know, your sword is showing.”
“I really hope so, otherwise I’ve got a lot of explaining to do,” Tani said before sliding into the stool beside her. “It’s fine, though. They know me here. I took care of an angry spirit for the owner’s grandmother about three months ago, so they let me get away with just about anything. Hi Eri!” she called out before waving to one of the girls behind the counter.
Violet blinked a few times, eyeing the other girl. “I’ll be honest. I expected something a bit more… uhhhh…”
“What?” Tani asked before reaching out and grabbing a small plate from the belt, not that Violet could identify what kind of roll it was. Other than colorful.
“Nothing,” Violet said with a shrug before grabbing something herself. It looked deep fried and had a dark sauce on it, so it was probably tasty. “Aren’t you worried you’re advertising a bit too much what you are?”
“Not really,” Tani said with a shrug. “I’m a hunter. I didn’t spend years training and going through all those tests just so I could hide what I am. Besides, these pants make me look hot and it’s my day off. Perfect day to go a bit wild, you know?”
Violet gave a small nod. “Fair enough. Heh. Maybe I’m a bit underdressed myself.”
“Nah, you look fine. I love the whole casual thing you got going on,” Tani said. “Soooo, is it true? Are you really Ash Maker’s granddaughter?”
“Huh? Grandma? Oh, yeah,” Violet said before pausing. “Wait, is THAT why you wanted to meet me? If you wanted her autograph, you could have just asked.”
“What? No!” Tani said quickly. “Wait, maybe? Does she do that? Do you think she’d sign my sword?”
“With what, an engraver?” Violet asked.
“Oh, right,” Tani said with a light chuckle. “Sorry. That’s not why, though. I actually wanted to talk to you. You asked about the city, I figured this was a good way to get some of my curiosity sated and help one of my fellow hunters out. Not to mention get a free sushi dinner out of it.”
Violet nodded slowly before popping one of the pieces of sushi into her mouth. One advantage of the conveyor belt sushi was that she could at least eat it without using the chopsticks and making too much of a mess. She’d never been able to get the chopsticks to work, she just didn’t have the hands for it. She chewed for a few moments before swallowing. “Well? What do you want to know?”
“Well, I’m a bit new to the whole hunter thing, you know?” Tani said. “Only been one for about six months. It’s a bit hard to break in, most people don’t wanna trust you too much. Especially considering, you know.”
Violet gave a small shrug. “Yeah, I get it.”
“I’ve heard about you a few times, though,” Tani said. “You pop up as a topic sometimes and I’ve been trying to piece together what happened. You survived fighting a hydra, though. That’s badass. But nobody wants to talk about it. I’ve got like a dozen theories, you know?”
Violet paused before giving a soft, exhausted sigh. “Really? That’s it? You know, there’s a whole report on it. It can’t be that hard to figure out.”
“Well, yeah, there’s the official news reports,” Tani said. “But I wanna know what really happened. We both know that’s rarely the whole truth.”
“Fair enough,” Violet said. “And if I tell you, you’ll help me out?”
“Well, I figure I’ll help you out either way,” Tani said with a shrug. “After all, we’re all hunters together, right? And if you’re in town, it’s not a bad idea knowing there’s someone nearby who I can have help me out when I need it.”
Violet went still. Wow. That was a far nicer reaction than she expected. “Well, I guess thanks then. It’s fine, though. It’s nothing major. I really wish my whole claim to fame was a bit more exciting. Honestly, it was mostly just legal problems.”
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Sounds pretty exciting from what I heard,” Tani said before picking up a second, no, fifth dish. Violet blinked a few times. She could barely remember seeing the girl eat them, yet she was devouring them at an almost breakneck speed. She must have been hungry. How did she find time to swallow? Or talk?
“Not really,” Violet said. “So, the Grapeland Swamps incident. It was early on in my career, I was working with a dozen or so other hunters. Pretty run of the mill, track down this hag coven that were messing with spirits and had cursed a few people. Pretty nasty group, all things considered. Every time we tried to go near them, they’d run and disappear into the swamp and we’d lose track of them. Tensions were getting pretty high, though. A few hunters had already been hurt, people were scared it was going to end up a lot worse than it did. Finally, we’d managed to trap them on the edge of the swamps. It was lucky, but we had to move fast. Our big break, you know? Unfortunately…” She felt a small knot in her stomach at this point. She hated telling this part of the story.
“They’d done some weird magic thing. Ended up summoning about five of these big swamp golem things. Still, we had them on the run. They were panicking. The one I was chasing, well…” She took a slow, deep breath. “We were near the roads. This entire thing hadn’t been planned and there was this bus. Not a lot of people, but civilians. If I’d gotten to the hag, I could have ended the spell. But I couldn’t guarantee that, you know? I had to make a choice. Go after her or draw the monster away from the people. I wasn’t sure I could get to her in time. The other hunters yelled at me to leave it, but I ignored them. Said it was my duty, all of that. I felt like a big tough guy, honestly. ‘Screw the rules, there are people in danger’, right? Besides, as a hunter I have enough authority to make that choice. Why we make those oaths to begin with.”
“But oh, I made the wrong choice,” Violet said. “Turns out some help was on the way and things likely would have been fine if I’d gone after her. Instead, I had this swamp thing chasing me all over the swamps. Then, luck of luck? We all but ran straight into the den of a hibernating hydra. Woke it right up and it ended up going on a rampage. Did millions of dollars in damages. Lucky nobody was killed. In the end? Half the coven got away and it took them another two weeks to finish tracking them down. Without me.”
“Of course, it created a media storm,” Violet said before rolling her eyes. “Some people wanted to throw me under the bus, sort of. Strip me of my license. Shatter my vows. Everything. There were a lot of people calling for the disbandment of hunters everywhere. How we were ‘reckless’ and ‘dangers to society’ and all of that. A lot of hunters were torn on it, from what I could tell. Some felt I should have followed orders, others said I had some bad luck, I wasn’t from the area and I couldn’t have possibly been expected to know there was a hibernating hydra there. Luckily there weren’t that many people there at the time, so there weren’t nearly as many injuries as there could have been, no deaths.”
“But it changed some things,” Violet said. “Put a tighter leash on the hunters, as it were. Made us follow more protocols, required us to be more open about what we were doing. Reveal more about our oaths. Some were okay with it, a lot weren’t. Not that I can blame them. More than a few nasty things have gotten away because the hunters going after them were forced to basically broadcast what they were looking for.”
“Some people never forgave me for it,” Violet said with a shrug. “Some people just think I was unlucky and that it was all blown out of proportion. That if it wasn’t me, there would have been someone else they’d have used as an example for why hunters were dangerous. Luckily the latter outnumber the former. But, honestly? Being a hunter with such a huge reputation? It’s not the best thing. Most hunters don’t feel they can trust me to work with them and not do something stupid or reckless. In our line of work, that’s a death sentence.” Why Tani snickered at that, she didn’t know. She didn’t think it was very funny. “So not many people want to trust me to have their backs. Not that I can really blame them.”
“It doesn’t really sound like your fault,” Tani said. “You were just trying to do what you thought was right.”
“I was,” Violet said. “And sometimes it doesn’t go right. That’s how it works. At the time I didn’t know the Security Forces were almost there. If I had? I would have gone after the hag. The bus would have held up long enough. But none of us did. Hell, none of us expected them to be there for another hour. That was probably our bad, though. If we’d kept them a bit more in the loop, well…”
“Nah, I get it,” Tani said with a nod. “They always seem to arrive after the job is done, right? If they arrived on time, the hunters wouldn’t even need to exist.”
“Mmm hm,” Violet said, before eyeing the small stack of plates in front of the other girl. How did she put it away so fast? WHERE did she put it away? She’d barely even finished one plate and the girl was at least on her tenth. “So that’s all there was to it. Miscommunication, bad luck and a hot headed hunter who thought she knew best. All a glorious storm that ended up screwing up everything. How’d it match up to what you expected?”
“Pretty closely,” Tani said. “Not nearly as bad, though. A lot of the news reports on it tend to, well…”
“Paint me as an arrogant hunter who knowingly woke up a hydra and sent it rampaging through town?” Violet asked. “Yeah, trust me. I know. I spent weeks seeing all of the news stories.”
“Well then, since you sated my curiosity, I guess I should keep up my end of the deal. The Security Forces here are kind of a mixed bag,” Tani said. “You mentioned you ran into Duke? He’s pretty cool. Liar, though. Don’t trust him past where you have to, but he’s probably the best of the batch. I try to do most of my work through him. Keep an eye out for Nathan, though. He’s a prick. Part of the ‘old guard’, if you catch my drift. Before they dissolved and the Security Forces took over. Very ‘Humans first, humans only’ mentality. How he hasn’t been fired, I’ll never know. He’s probably got some blackmail on someone. Absolutely loathes hunters, especially ones like me.”
“Like you?” Violet asked.
“You know, undead,” Tani said. “Now, Oliver’s cool, but he’s just--”
“Wait, undead?” Violet asked, her eyes wide. “You’re--” Then it clicked. The girl was paler than a sheet and wearing nothing but black and leather. Yet, despite the heat she wasn’t sweating in the slightest. She’d assumed the girl was pale because of makeup, but was she? Even her hands were so pale. Now that she actually looked at it, the girl wasn’t even breathing. All the food she was eating. “You’re…”
“A ghoul,” Tani said before giving a soft sigh. “Ah. You didn’t know? Shit.”
“You’re a ghoul,” Violet said. “Uhhhh…”
“Yes, I’m a ghoul,” Tani said.
“You’re a hunter and a ghoul,” Violet said.
“Yes,” Tani said. “We have established this.”
“But you’re a hunter.”
“And a ghoul, correct,” Tani said, her voice now sounding annoyed. “I’m also a ghoul and a hunter. You can keep saying it if you like, but it won’t change things.”
“Sorry,” Violet said. “I just, I’ve never met a, well…”
“Most haven’t,” Tani said.
“How did it, err, I mean--”
“Shit went bad,” Tani said. “First job. Like, real bad. Accident. You know. Going after a necromancer. Shit’s illegal for a reason, but well. I died, got brought back like this. I was a hunter beforehand, by the way.”
“You’re still a hunter,” Violet said.
“Oath and all,” Tani said. “Turns out? All those enchantments and stuff they put us under when we become a hunter? They stick around even once you die. Now, there’s some people who want to drop me, some who want to keep me around. After all, I died once, who cares if I die again? And it has its perks.”
“You’re a ghoul,” Violet said.
“We’ve established that,” Tani said.
“I’m so sorry,” Violet said suddenly, her cheeks going bright red. “I didn’t mean, I just, you know, I didn’t realize--”
“It’s fine,” Tani said with a roll of her eyes. “So are you going to be in the city for a while?”
“Yeah,” Violet said sheepishly.
“Do you want my help or not?” Tani asked.
“Right, yes, sorry,” Violet said.
“Then let’s move on.”
Violet nodded, though she couldn’t help feeling pretty shocked and confused. She’d never thought she’d see a hunter who was also a ghoul. She hadn’t even thought it was possible. Even after they talked for what felt like hours, and despite the bill she had to pay, that was still the most disorienting part of the entire encounter. It was all she could think about on the trip back to the manor.
Violet knew plenty of hunters who planned to do the work until the day they died. She hadn’t imagined there’d be those who’d do it even after. At least it seemed she didn’t need to worry too much about Duke, so long as she kept her head down.
So long as she was in town. How long did she plan to be here? She reached into her pocket and felt the condoms in her pocket. Just until she finished helping Scarlet get registered and made sure she wouldn’t get killed by some other hunter, right? It wasn’t like she was planning to stay too long.
Was she? Surely there had to be some other pressing matters for her to deal with. Probably. Maybe?
Violet shook her head. No. She was a hunter. Tough. Dangerous. She wasn’t going to just stay here forever to wear pretty dresses. She could do both things.
Violet finally pushed open the door to the manor and stopped at the foot of the staircase. She could hear Scarlet upstairs, her footsteps going back and forth again. “No, no, she wouldn’t, that’d be dumb. Wouldn’t it? No. Yes. Right, if she grabbed the knife, then she could cut. But what if she-- ugh. No. Nobody would buy that. It’s too obvious. Everybody does that. What would Lily do?”
Violet felt a grin blossoming on her lips. Maybe it was time she had a little fun with her prey, as it were. After all, Scarlet had been having too much fun at her expense lately anyway. Tomorrow she’d probably suffer. But tonight it would be the vampire’s turn.