by Byron Thorne
Morgan followed close behind them, careful not to make a sound nor have his shadow seen. He was compelled to see her face. He had faced hunters before. It was a reality of his life. He had never seen one that moved like her, or shared her body, or vibrated with such energy. He became brazen and used his speed to move in front of the two of them. He hugged the wall and avoided their sight for long enough to receive his prize. It was much more than he was prepared for.
He was lucky to be obscured by shadows, because her eyes stopped him dead in his tracks. They blazed green, the color of an emerald sea. The color of a memory that he thought was long forgotten. He gazed at them and watched them burn with incomparable intensity. The fire was unlike anything Morgan had felt for as long as he could remember, and he wanted it to consume him.
Morgan had anticipated a vampire in his domain, but what he had found was far more dangerous and far more alluring.
7
Priorities
Jules did not want to wake up. She hated the morning, or the afternoon, or whatever time it happened to be when her eyes finally decided to take in the sun. This time it wasn’t the sun in her room. It was the sun on a beach, reflecting off the water and the side of her lover’s face. She felt nothing but pure happiness only seconds ago. She wondered how it could turn to such pain, so quickly. All she did was open her eyes.
That was the worst part about sleeping, especially sober. The fewer the chemicals in your brain, the easier it is to remember your dreams and to live in them. She wished more than anything she could stay in that dream and feel his touch forever. That was impossible. It would be better to never dream again than to deal with this feeling every day.
Sam had been taken from her, but that wasn’t enough. It was torture that her memories had to be taken from her as well. She couldn’t look back with fondness. She couldn’t look back on it at all. That’s why she needed to channel her emotions into something else, anything else, the first thing she could find. In this case, it was whoever happened to be knocking on the other side of the door.
“What?” she called out from the fortress of her bed. There were two more knocks in response. “What do you want?” Jules cried out again. First one knock, a pause, and then the second thud, louder this time. She leapt out of bed and stomped towards the entryway. “Dammit Daniel if that’s you, I’m gonna-“ she howled and swung open the door. The face looking up at her definitely wasn’t Daniel.
Her least favorite human, the landlord, picked a great day to show up at her front door. Truth be told, she hadn’t looked at a calendar in the last few days. Or was it weeks?
“Julia,” he wheezed, his words almost coming out of his nose. He couldn’t even get her name right.
“It’s Julian,” she said, and was suddenly very glad she ended up wearing pants to bed last night.
“What the hell kind of a name is that for a lady? Ha. Lady,” the man snorted, and Jules was glad the height distance between them was so immense solely so she could keep further away from him.
“It’s my grandfather’s name. Thanks for noticing. Anyways, I got stuff to do, so good seeing you,” she said hastily and tried to end the conversation by closing the door. The man shoved a grubby fist in the way to keep it open.
“You know what day this is, Julia?” he said, his tone the worst combination of judgmental and self-righteous.
“Uh, no,” she replied.
“It’s the day that I get my money. From you,” he laughed. “And you know what happens if I don’t?”
“You’re going to write me a strongly worded letter?”
“I get to kick you out of here. Actually, the cops get to do the kicking.”
“Oh, right, let me just grab my checkbook. I’ll be right back,” Jules succeeded in slamming the door about an inch away from her landlord’s face. So she’d fallen a bit behind on the rent. Was that a crime? Apparently, it was. She’d never been the freeloading type. She never looked for a handout from anyone. The problem was she had lost herself in a new purpose. Her newfound dedication to revenge and hunting was all she cared about. She didn’t see how all of these other people could go on living normal lives and doing normal 9 to 5 jobs when this constant threat lurked in the shadows. Unfortunately, her new purpose didn’t pay too well, or at all.
“I’ll be back in two hours,” he yelled, his voice muffled from the door. “Either have my money, or get all of your stuff out of there. Anything left is going on the street.”
“Damn,” Jules muttered under her breath, “I wish he was a vampire.” He was just as much a parasite, right? She picked up her handheld crossbow, cocked it and pointed it at the door. She could kill two birds with one arrow. Get rid of her rent problem, and land her first kill as a hunter. Jules knew she was a crack shot with that thing, at least when it came to hitting moving targets and dummies. She had such a desire to try it on a living, or rather unliving, target.
To her surprise, the handle of the door began to turn. Then, the deadbolt followed suit. She searched her mind for something about California crossbow ownership laws but came up empty. Still, she was pretty sure a property owner couldn’t just waltz into an apartment whenever they wanted. She knew she should have just changed the locks.
The door swung open and Daniel’s eyes went straight to the wooden arrow that was pointed at him. “Whoa!” he shouted and ducked behind the door.
Jules lowered the weapon. “Oh, hey Danny. You can’t knock?”
“Jeez, I didn’t realize I had to be so careful. Unload that thing, will you?”
Jules removed the bolt and placed the bow on the counter. “I wasn’t gonna use it on you. Or, you know, at all.”
“I’ve been texting you all afternoon,” Daniel said as he took a seat on the couch. He had a tendency to make himself comfortable as quickly as possible in her place.
“Oh, I haven’t looked at my phone. Just woke up a little bit ago. As I’m sure you can see by the height of my hair.” Jules could feel her head suffocating from the lack of caffeine. She poured some water into the coffee maker.
“I love what you’ve done with it. Anyways, who was that I saw leaving your place? Little guy seemed to be all fired up.”
“Yeah, that’s just my landlord. He’s a jerk. Always trying to cause a scene, you know?”
“Everything alright?”
“Yeah, everything’s fine, jeez, what is this? I just woke up.”
“You need coffee.”
“That’s what I keep trying to tell you, now if you’d just let me concentrate.”
“I’m just saying, I don’t think you need a crossbow to make coffee.”
“If you don’t shut up, you’ll give me the only reason I’ve been looking for to try it out.”
Daniel turned away, obviously not willing to test the strength of her threat. Satisfied, Jules chugged her coffee in the resulting silence, and then jumped in the shower. Her landlord had made bigger fusses in the past. Was this one any different? The guy was probably just full of hot air. He wasn’t going to call the cops. The question of where she would get the rest of her rent money was one that she could figure out later. In any case, she wasn’t going to be there if the guy came back around.
She threw on some jeans and did a terrible job blow drying her hair. She didn’t care too much. She just wanted to get out of that apartment and to get back on the trail. Besides, she figured it was just going to get messed up anyways.
Jules walked back into the kitchen, and Daniel hadn’t moved. “You ready?” she asked, the crossbow back in her hand.
“That was fast,” he said, but he didn’t get up off the couch.
“Yeah, well the sun’s going down pretty soon. I don’t want to whiff like last night, you know? “
“Whiff?” he asked.
“Yeah, a whiff. Swing and a miss? Whatever, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that I need action. And we got nothing last night. I’m gonna lose it if I don’t get some soon,” Jules swung the bow around and looked d
own the sight before folding it up.
“Take it easy with that thing,” Daniel said, evidently still not in a rush to get off the couch.
“Yeah, yeah, it’s not loaded. So what’s the plan? We swing back to the Den, maybe get some info that’s actually worth something this time?”
“You know, I think maybe we just hit the same part of Hollywood again. We probably won’t get any new detail from the Den,” Daniel finally stood up, and then he stretched and yawned. He might as well have been trying to annoy Jules. Was he just not taking the night seriously?
“What do you mean, like you want to do the same run?” she frowned.
“I’m just saying, maybe we just got unlucky you know? The guys say the vamp’s there, he’s there. Besides, you’re- I mean we’re- working up to it. A little bit at a time, no need to go in both guns blazing.”
“Action, Danny. Maybe you didn’t hear me. I’m dying for it,” Jules pleaded.
“Action isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, you know? It’s not a game,” Daniel started to drone.
“Don’t start,” she interrupted. She’d heard this story from him before. “The only thing I want to hear is how we’re gonna burn some vamps tonight.”
“That’s just it, don’t you realize that you are better off never running into one of those things? It’s not as simple as pull the trigger, get a pile of ashes, that’s it. It’s not like training.”
“It’s got to be similar to training, though, otherwise what was the point of all of it? Of all the work we’ve put in?”
“You feel better, right?”
“Better than what?”
“You know what I mean. Better than you did before.”
“I mean maybe I got one foot out of the grave now if that’s what you mean. But the other one’s still in there. I’m all in on this, whether it gets me killed or I walk away happy.”
“Look Jules. I didn’t agree to train you to get you killed. I did it because I wanted to help you. Sam would have killed me himself if he knew I unwittingly put you in danger. Forget about it if I did it on purpose.”
“I’m not some little girl that just needs cheering up, alright? This isn’t just like, buy me an ice cream cone, tell me it’s all gonna be ok, then all of the sudden everything is better.”
“I know, but maybe there’s another way.”
“I’ve tried moving on. This is moving on.”
Jules was beginning to realize that Daniel was having second thoughts about her whole plan for revenge. He probably figured all the training was just a good excuse for her to get out of bed every day. An excuse that worked even better than hard alcohol. He probably figured that she probably would give up on training after a couple of weeks, and move on to a new hobby altogether. Maybe he thought, worst case scenario, Jules would never go through with the actual hunt, once she snapped out of her depression and got over Sam. Now, he was backpedaling, purposefully leading her on a wild goose chase designed to give her the illusion that she was actually hunting. He might as well have paid somebody to dress up and play dead for her.
Daniel was never the most perceptive, but by now he could feel her mood from across the room. “I’m just saying maybe we should rethink this whole plan. I think maybe it’s not what Sam would have wanted.”
“OK, I think I’m getting the picture now. You don’t think I can handle it. And bringing Sam into this? You think he’d want to just be forgotten? I might not have had a damn conversation with him about what was supposed to happen when he died, but I don’t remember him asking you to be my babysitter, alright?”
“Alright Jules, just calm down, I never said that.”
“I’m not an idiot. You didn’t have to say it out loud. I think maybe you should just leave.”
“Jules, don’t do that. What are you gonna do?”
“What does it matter? I’m not gonna do anything, I just want to be left alone. Seriously, just go.”
Daniel knew there was no use in arguing. As he walked past her, he tried to find the right combination of words to magically repair the situation. If that combination existed, he couldn’t find it, and he knew that he had no choice but to leave.
8
Flying Solo
Jules had put in enough time. Despite that, by Daniel’s logic, she would never be ready. He was clearly treating it as more of a game than she was. According to him, she might as well just go to spin class. What good was a crossbow if she was never going to get to use it? What good was learning to throw a punch? She didn’t need more of a reason to prove herself, but Daniel had given her one more. She was going to prove to him that she could do it and that she didn’t need to be treated like a defenseless child.
As far as she could determine, there were two outcomes of the evening. Get her hands dirty from the ashes of a vamp. That was the purest form of success. Or, go down in a blaze of glory. She didn’t plan on the latter happening. But either option seemed better than the alternative, which was to wait around for nothing to happen, and for nothing to change.
Jules was banking on one major risk, aside from the obvious pointed-toothed variety. She needed Levi to be right. At this point, she had no other leads to go on. The guys at the Den don’t mess around, though. Both Sam and Daniel had mentioned that in their stories to her. Real hunters know this isn’t a game. They don’t have time for that kind of nonsense.
Certain aspects of the plan could stay in place. The location couldn’t change. It was one aspect that she just had to take Daniel’s word for. He had other useful tips, too. She still needed to blend in with the rest of the crowd. She wasn’t going to wear a dress or anything, but she still needed to look good, and not like a crazy person with a crossbow and a few pointed stakes. Jules had learned to sew at an early age but didn’t get much real-world use out of her talent. Fortunately, she was able to put it to good use on her current outfit. Her leather jacket now had a holster located on the inside of it, and though it was noticeable to the touch it was almost invisible to the eye. Her boots went almost to her knee but did a pretty good job concealing her dagger in case things got too close.
Sure, if she went through a metal detector she would be in trouble. But cruising down Hollywood with all the other crazies? She would fit in just fine.
The biggest change of the evening was one that Jules knew there was no coming back from. She stood for a moment in the door of her bedroom, staring at the bed. It’s easy, she told herself. There’s nothing to it. Of course, if it was so easy, why had the shoebox underneath the bed sat there for so long? Why was it covered with dust, as if she ever could have forgotten about it? She was armed to the teeth, ready to lay it all on the line that night. She could handle the box.
Jules realized she hadn’t taken a breath since she’d been standing in the doorway. She took a big one and exhaled. Then she stomped over to the bed, dropped to her knees, and pulled the shoebox out. She wiped the dust with the back of her hand and flipped the lid off to the side. “Nothing to it,” she said, hoping maybe false confidence might be enough to do the trick. Besides, she wasn’t going to reminisce. The pictures of Sam that were gone from her phone were here, but she couldn’t pull them out. She’d never leave, and she’d end up spending the rest of the weekend in the dark, alone with the box.
She needed only one keepsake that Sam had left for her. The vial was currently serving as a paperweight for a pile of ticket stubs. She removed the smooth, stellate flask of black ceramic, then closed the box and shoved it back under the bed again. She ran her fingers across its midnight surface, and the sensation was too much for her mind to ignore.
The memory of Sam giving the vial to her was still so clear. She had only just learned of Sam’s place as a hunter, and as a result, the existence of vampires. In her mind, she could still hear his voice, always sarcastic, even when he was being sincere.
“Jules, I got something for you,” Sam had told her in his special way of commanding her attention even if she didn’t want to give it.
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“Diamonds? Oh, darling, you shouldn’t have,” she clasped her hands to her chest.
He always brought out the sarcasm in her as well. “Babe, this is serious, come on,” he looked deep into her eyes and she couldn’t help but stare back.
“Oh, your serious voice. Hm, well if it’s not earrings, and you’re not down on one knee… well, let me guess. Does it have anything to do with vampires?”
“You’re just so smart, aren’t you?”
“That’s why you love me, right?”
“Well, it’s pretty low on the list, honestly.”
“Hey! Jerk.”
“I’m just kidding, jeez. Will you stop trying to ruin the moment,” Sam pleaded as he reached into his back pocket.
“OK, OK, go ahead, but just so we’re clear, it’s not diamonds?” Jules laughed. Sam brought his hand back around and revealed the pentagonal vial to Jules. He never was one to wrap gifts.
“Go ahead, take it,” he said, and she did, afraid that it might bite her or break in her hand.
“It’s…beautiful,” she said, but she wasn’t much of a liar
“It’s not the vial, silly, it’s what’s inside of it.”
“Perfume, huh? But I thought you always told me that I smelled so good.”
“It's not perfume, either. Although, it's probably got a lot in common.”
“So what is it?” Jules lifted the vial to the light and inspected it from every angle.
“It's blood,” Sam replied in his typical laid back tone.
“What, like your blood? Do I have to give you mine? Didn't Angelina Jolie do this in the 90s?”
“Man, you're on a roll today, aren't you? It's vamp blood.”
“What do you mean, vamp blood? Is this supposed to be romantic? Where did you get this?”
“Well, I got it from a vamp. And yeah, kinda. Just let me explain, OK?”