by Jade White
It was time to face the music, she thought. Pushing the door open, she put on a huge fake smile and greeted her family.
“Rita darling, we were just talking about you!” her mother exclaimed and moved forward to hug her.
“All bad of course,” Greta said, such a jokester.
Her father was loading one of their many weapons at the table and didn’t look up but said, “Rita you’re going out with us tonight. You shouldn't forget how to defend yourself if something happens to us. Go get suited up.” He said it so calmly and directly she almost felt like she didn’t have a choice, but would she allow herself to be sucked in?
Her mother approached her again putting a hand on her shoulder. “Just go tonight, you go and you see. If you hate it, we’ll leave you alone for another six months about it.”
“Fine,” Rita was outnumbered and annoyed.
She stomped up the stairs feeling like a fifteen-year-old being told what to do by her parents. When she got to her extremely plain room, she threw the closet open. She’d put nothing on the walls since moving back in with her parents. It symbolized to her that she wouldn’t be there for long; of course, now that it had been two years, she was starting to realize that had been dumb. Until she paid off her school and credit card debt, she would be there and she might as well put something up on the wall.
Pulling back all her work clothes and workout gear, she stared at her outfit. All black like her mother's, with pockets for weapons and that silver stake she’d had made once she was almost taken out by a werewolf.
Getting dressed, she resented her parents for not just being real people, with normal jobs. Vampire hunting didn’t even pay well. She pulled on the dark tank top and long sleeved shirt. The vest she had was perfect for putting her guns on the inside of her jacket, one for vampires and one for anything else that might take them by surprise in the night. At least the tighter-than-hell pants still fit her, thanks to every morning spent in the gym. She braided her long black hair tightly back from her face and grabbed a gun and some other must have weapons from her small arsenal. Her parents had stopped letting her strap on a sword, even though it made her feel very powerful.
When she’d been younger, she couldn’t wait to go out and get ready for the day when she could go hunting with her parents. They always told her as soon as she turned eighteen, she could go. That little girl disappeared when she had a close call at twenty with a group of vamps. The event had scared her so badly she couldn’t bring herself to go again. Her mother and father had told her they’d had close calls, but she doubted it was as traumatic as the one she’d had. His face haunted her dreams; she still couldn’t go out without looking over her shoulder to make sure somehow he hadn’t found her. The story was, he left town, but there was no way she was going to just accept he’d left.
After a lot of procrastinating, Greta came up to check on her progress. She stood in the doorway and sighed several times as Rita painstakingly checked every pocket of her outfit. Finally, after the twentieth sigh, she whirled around to face her.
“What is it Greta, can I help you?”
“I don’t know why you can’t just enjoy it Rita, it’s our job.”
“It’s not our job, you three make a choice every time you go out there. I have a job.”
“As a secretary, what fun is that?”
“I am a paralegal Greta, that’s not the same.”
“Whatever, mom and dad are waiting, let’s go.”
“You get off on this whole thing don’t you? I don’t know why, but you’ve always gotten off on it,” Rita taunted her sister.
“Listen, I’m good at it, and it’s our job. There’s no reason for you to be mean about it.”
“You love it when mom and dad tell you what a great job you’ve done,” Rita continued.
“Of course I do, who doesn’t want praise, Rita? Quit being a dick and just come downstairs.”
She descended the stairs to find her parents standing there waiting like she was coming down in a prom dress and not the tightest black outfit on the planet. It would have been better to be going to prom, even at her age, and less uncomfortable. Greta rolled her eyes and stood impatiently by the door.
“Oh honey, you look wonderful,” her mother said as she clasped onto her father’s arm and they gazed at one another.
She cringed at the pride in their eyes knowing this was a one bang Sally. She’d go out tonight and that would be it. There was no reason to get their hopes up.
“This is just for this evening,” she said.
“Yes, yes honey we know,” her mother said already not listening as she tightened something on her father’s calf that was loose or not strapped in.
“I’m serious guys, I’m only going tonight because you forced me into it.”
“I know, honey,” her dad said tucking her mom’s hair behind her ear and squeezing her shoulders. He also wasn’t listening to her.
Leaning in, he kissed her mom longer than was comfortable and Greta cleared her throat loudly. Her parents had no problem showing their affection for one another all the time. It had to be the excitement of their profession, but as their daughters, it was always embarrassing.
“Whole family, ready to go.” Her dad threw a fist in the air and turned towards the door, where they all filed outside into the driveway.
They climbed into the large black SUV her father had decked out and customized for their hunting trips and he pulled out of the driveway. To her mother and sister’s delight, their father put on some catchy Elvis song that simply grated on Rita’s nerves. Everyone except for her started to dance as they drove down the road.
“Do we have to always listen to this?” she asked.
“Yes we do!” Her dad grinned at her in the rear view.
So without any more argument, they headed out into Manchester, Wisconsin. It was a town overrun with paranormal creatures and lousy with vampires, but still the most boring place you’d ever visit. Driving out of their little neighborhood, they hit the long road that led to town. There was nothing but woods on either side of them for at least three miles. Once they passed that three-mile marker, there was one lonely gas station with two pumps and the tiniest store. Then there were trees again for another mile and then the small town. Town had one stop sign, a general store, a clothing store, a candy shop for the tourists they never had, a sheriff’s department and city hall.
For decades, the Jones family had been responsible for keeping the vamp population in Manchester down. There was not a real great explanation for why they chose the small and boring town to make their stomping grounds. Mostly, it seemed it was just where they settled and stayed. For the most part, the human residents in the town went unaware that vampires actually existed. There were some who’d had run ins with them but the vampires just hypnotized it out of them. It was the people that were drained because the vamps got too hungry, or just didn’t care, that were the unlucky ones.
One thing that contributed to the vampires being so vast in the area was a huge labyrinth of underground tunnels that they could travel beneath the city and pop out to grab an unsuspecting victim. The tunnels had been built by the first vampires to come into the area and many a hunter had lost their lives in those tunnels. The hunters never went into the tunnels unless they absolutely had to. The one time she’d been there, it had been traumatic and the reason for her exit from hunting.
There were a lot more of them in the beginning; her parents told her there were seven original brothers and sisters in the Jones family, and they all had several children each. This family of hunters was unstoppable for a while, until the vampires banded together and started to take them out. Now it was just them, and the powers that controlled the hunters around the country. Rita wasn’t sure how many families there were in the world like them, she’d never been told. She had a feeling her parents didn’t really know and that’s why they didn’t tell her.
Her mother had been a Harris before she’d married Dad and she wonder
ed how exactly one found a wife who would just be into what you were doing, when it involved hunting vampires. They had to meet at some sort of conference or something. The strange thing was, they’d never tell the girls. They said where they met was their special secret which only made them really want to know. When their mom’s parents had still been alive, they’d asked them, and noticed how they avoided answering as well. In some ways, her parents were just as mysterious as the powers.
Rita had never seen the powers, she just knew that her father was the only one in contact with them and sometimes they gave them very specific assignments. Her close call had been a special assignment and she’d always wondered what the powers thought would happen. She had always pictured them as a group of men sitting at a long table and wearing dark cloaks where you couldn’t see their faces. It was probably way off, but it just seemed appropriate for the leaders of the vampire hunters of America, or whatever you would call them if they had a cool name like that.
“We’re here,” her mother said cheerfully as they got out of the car next to the graveyard gates and prepared to go to war.
Her mother loved the job and took what they did very seriously. At forty-two, she really didn’t look a day over thirty and still could kick any vampire’s ass. Her dad was the same age and didn’t look it either. Rita hoped that meant she had great genes and would look younger when she was old.
The tall spiked gate stood as a warning that no one should go through it into the graveyard. This cemetery had been around as long as the town, with some of the gravestones statues to the founders. It went beyond creepy and there were several crypts the vampires liked to hang out in.
“I live for this shit,” Greta was already getting excited even though she did the same thing every week.
The plan was to get out of the car and move together until they were inside the gates and then split up. Once they made it inside, her dad went towards the left while they went to the right. He’d find a high spot to watch them from and act as a sniper. The point of their trips out to find the vamps wasn’t to kill them, although sometimes it was necessary. What they did was incapacitate them so they couldn’t feed on humans. They were given a large number of bullets and serums to use on the vampires. These bullets were full of a serum that would cause vampires to become sick if they fed on humans, forcing them to hunt for animals instead.
What baffled Rita the most was that vampires still came to the same graveyard every night, even though the hunters always started there. It was like they were attracted to that one spot for some reason, like something was drawing them there. She’d asked her mom once why the vamps continued coming to the same spot they’d been hunting for so long and she’d given a really canned answer.
“They’re stupid honey, like vermin. They don’t know any better.”
Everything in her told her that couldn’t be true; they seemed a lot more intelligent than that. Especially the one who’d held her captive, he was definitely smarter than her mother seemed to think they were, but she let it go. Maybe they were just arrogant and thought they could win against them, she thought.
The vampires they hunted weren’t like the vampires portrayed in the movies. They couldn’t detect the humans just because they were nearby and they didn’t have highly sensitive hearing either. Sure, if someone cut their arm open and stood in the middle of the graveyard they would smell it, but unless they saw them, they had the element of surprise. They didn’t come out in the day because they would burn but not like burst into flames, it was mostly just uncomfortable for them. They didn’t fry at the sight of a cross, or holy water, and a stake through the heart wouldn’t kill them. You had to cut off their head, if it came to that.
The vampires that showed up at the graveyard were always different; once a vampire was tagged, they were off trying to figure out how to fix it. There were several groups out there that really wanted to kill the hunters and there was no doubt in Rita’s mind that they were going to find a way to come after them eventually.
“Alright, there’s three in the crypt and two out back smoking a cigarette, there’s also a group of three behind that tall long headstone over there,” her mother said pointing in each direction as she looked through her heat sensing goggles. Another thing about these vampires was they were still warm; they weren’t dead and they weren’t cold, they were just different.
“I’ll take the two out back, mom you handle the crypt, Rita, you take the three over there.”
“That works.” Rita’s mom signaled to her dad what they were doing and then it was time to move.
Rita didn’t really want to confront three vamps on her own for the first time out in forever, but she wouldn’t let her family see her hesitate.
Slowly, she moved through the grass towards the outer trees so she could see around the large stone. One tall vampire was arguing with two others. She couldn’t hear what they were saying, so she moved a bit closer. Tripping over a branch, she fell hard onto her knees and cursed at the crunch and the sharp pain. The three continued arguing and didn’t look up.
Moving closer, she could see the taller vampire very clearly. She sucked in a huge breath as she took him in; he was beautiful. He had dark brown hair that swirled up from his head in soft curls, his face was strong and he had chiseled cheekbones. They were also strong, and didn’t make him look like a heroin addict some men with sharp cheekbones had going on. He was built and muscular but not huge. She’d always been disgusted by vampires, not really wanting to look at them, just mark and go, but something stirred inside her as she stared at him, and then he looked at her.
Rita froze, she completely froze as he stared. His eyes were captivating and she felt like he was looking right through her. A good rule of thumb was not to look a vampire in the eye because they could hypnotize you, but she couldn’t look away from him. The other two with him were not vampires, as near as she could guess, they were shifters. They scurried off as soon as he started staring at her. She was still frozen in place with her guns inside her vest as he moved across the cemetery and headed straight for her.
Chapter 2
Asher Von Drake thought about the choices that brought him to this point. Here he was, a perpetually handsome vampire out in a cemetery working for shifters. His intimidation service gave him the money he needed to pay his fees to stay in the city and buy a few luxury items, like alcohol, but it was bitch work.
“You aren’t doing what you said you would, vampire.” The shifter wasn’t stupid enough to get in his face, but he was angry.
“Listen I can’t help it that your uncle isn’t intimidated by someone floating outside his window. He knows I can’t come in and he doesn’t ever come out.”
“So how does your service work if you can’t go in someone’s house?” the other shifter asked.
Asher hadn’t figured out what he was, but he got an alligator vibe from him for some reason. He wasn’t sure if there were even alligators in Wisconsin. He knew the one with his finger in his face was some kind of large dog, possibly a hellhound, but he couldn’t prove it. Somehow, he didn’t feel like a hellhound would need him to intimidate his uncle to pay him back ten thousand dollars.
“The people I intimidate come out of the house, your uncle just stays inside and laughs.”
The three of them were distracted by a noise in the woods and they all turned to see someone lurking in the woods.
“Hunter,” alligator guy exclaimed, and the two ran off through the woods back towards the truck they’d parked there.
The hunter stared at him. He could feel her interest peak as he slowly made his way towards her. She was appealing, with dark hair, dark eyes, and leather so tight you couldn’t slide a finger under it. He thought he’d like to try, as he held her gaze and made his way towards her. Her skin was pale, not as pale as his, but close in the moonlight. She could have shot him, but she didn’t. As he moved towards her, she just stared.
“Hi, little girl,” he chastised, grinning wide.
>
“I’ll eat you for dinner, vampire, I’m no little girl,” she said.
He liked that she had a bit of a bite, but she still didn’t make a move to shoot or attack him. “Why do hunters continually come out here? We hardly kill anyone in town anymore, and it seems more of us show up every day.”
“The key word there is hardly, you still kill people and turn them.”
He moved towards her again until he was close enough to touch her. He heard her breathing and heart speed up. She was excited by his closeness, and he in turn, was excited to be close. He leaned forward until their foreheads were almost touching. “Are you all alone out here, little girl?”
“No, I’m with my family. They’re each a much better shot than I am and chances are they have you in their sights right now,” she said but she didn’t sound confident, and a quick scan around told him there wasn’t anyone watching them at that moment. He chanced reaching up and brushing a piece of her hair from her face.
She quickly grabbed his hand and pushed it back towards his chest with a glare. “Don’t touch me vampire, you disgust me.”
That wasn’t true; she was turned on by him. He could tell she was lying and all he wanted to do was push up against her, kiss her until she couldn’t breathe, and then take her in the dirt. She’d look good covered in dirt while he slammed into her.
“Are you sure I disgust you?” She might stab him but he was going to try to kiss her, it would be a challenge. He’d not had a challenge in a long time, and the intimidation business wasn’t exactly a way to get your rocks off unless you counted the occasional grateful housewife.
“Rita,” a female voice called for her. “Where the hell are you? It’s time to go.”
Shit, now he knew her name and she didn’t know his.
“You going to make your move, little girl,” he asked her.