Blaze Monroe and the Broken Heart

by Alex Villavasso

  The Hunter who Lost His Way

  Book: One

  Blaze Monroe

  and the

  Broken Heart

  By

  Alex Villavasso

  Copyright 2019, Alex Villavasso

  All rights reserved

  This novel is a work of fiction and is a product of the author’s imagination.

  All events, places, and characters are either fictitious or portrayed in a fictitious manner. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form except by an authorized retailer or once written permission from the author is received.

  For inquires, contact the author at AlexVillavasso.com

  Please support the author and do not encourage or participate in distributing this work through illegal means.

  Thank you.

  Cover Illustration by Jesse Gerbrandt

  ISBN-13: 978-1793294845

  ISBN-10: 1793294844

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  Chapter 1: I Should Have Tried Harder

  She breaks free from my arms, and there’s little I can do to stop her.

  Once her mind is set on something, she always does her best to follow through—for better or for worse. “Sailor? Sailor! Don’t! Your dad said to stay put. Sailor, c’mon! Don’t do this. Sailor, please!”

  She storms out to her car, defiant as ever, while I continue to plead behind her as she nears her vehicle.

  Unfortunately, she’s been refusing to hear my case.

  “Blaze, leave me alone,” she booms. “I mean it.” I pause for a second but then find it within me to tail her once more despite her demand. It’s not as simple as she’s making it out to be and deep down, I know she understands—she just doesn’t want to hear it.

  Against my better judgement, I grab her by the wrist. She turns to me and rips herself free, her eyes on the verge of crying, yet filled to the brim with fire. I know I overstepped, but her piercing gaze makes it that much more apparent; that much more shameful.

  “Don’t you ever touch me like that again,” she snarls.

  “I’m sorry, I—”

  “He’s my freaking dad, Blaze. My dad. I can’t let him go out there alone, not to something like that! Do you really expect me to just sit back and watch him go while we work another case? I’ve already lost my mother. You…you can’t be serious. I don’t even understand how this is an issue. This isn’t just another hunt for me. This is life or death. You know that.”

  It’s always life or death, Sailor. I want to remind her of that horrible fact, but I decide to keep it to myself. It’ll only make things worse.

  “…He’ll be back,” I force out, dampening my emotions. “There’re other hunters. Good ones. People from all over the country. He told us to stay put…look out for one another.”

  “Yeah? And what does that mean exactly? We’re fine, but he’s not. Do you know where he’s going? What he’s going to be up against?” Sailor lifts a hand up and away from her body, gesturing out towards the sky. “He wasn’t even sure, himself! Grah!” she wails in frustration and resumes her walk.

  “He’s not going to be alone. We’re out of our league with this one, Sailor. We’ll only slow him down. He doesn’t need that.”

  “Like, hell.” Sailor whips around. “It’s not like we don’t know how to hunt. He wants us to find a werewolf for Pete’s sake. You’d rather be slumming it in this shitty town than help them out? We’ve been chasing leads for almost three years, Blaze. Three years! Count ’em out,” she says as she sticks her fingers in my face. Behind her fingers, I can see the pain in her eyes. The anger. The resentment. The rage eating her from the inside, out. “Three years of straight hell, and I’m not ready? Fuck that. I’m going back to their camp and I’m going to tail them.”

  “Sailor…he knows what he’s doing. They have a game plan.”

  “Yeah? Well that doesn’t mean he won’t get himself killed.”

  “Exactly! That’s why he wants us to stay behind!”

  “He’s family, Blaze. Don’t tell me that if you had a shot to fight for your dad, you wouldn’t.”

  There’s a long pause between us. An ocean’s worth. Bringing up my dad…that’s not even fair. It’s not even a valid point. He wasn’t a hunter. No one from my family was.

  They were victims…and I did what I could for him and everyone else.

  I survived.

  I hold my tongue for a while longer before she turns away from me. I could have said something…a lot of things. Things that would damage her, but there’s no point in fueling the fire, even if she did just stab me in the heart.

  “Sailor, please.” I try to step closer but she stops me in my tracks once she pulls a gun on me. “I’m going, Blaze. Don’t try to stop me. And don’t even bother coming along. We’re through.”

  “You can’t—”

  “I mean it. We’re through. Done.” Her Beretta bobs in front of me as she treads backwards towards her car. “I thought you of all people would understand what family meant. I can’t lose mine,” she snarls. “If I get there and I find out that you warned them, I swear I’ll shoot you in the face when I get back. She was my mom… Not just my dad’s wife. I loved her, too, and I’m going to see this through… One way or another.”

  She gets into her car without another word, leaving me to watch her as she pulls off. Things weren’t perfect between us, but I never expected this. She took a dig at my family…an uncalled-for attack that she knows she had no right to use. They were good people. Nice people. They didn’t deserve what happened to them, much like anyone else who finds themselves at the mercy of the supernatural.

  I owe Sailor and her dad a lot for showing me what they did. How to hunt. How to survive, but even her father said it was best for us to sit this one out. I love her and they’re like family, but me and Sailor don’t see eye-to-eye sometimes, and the fact that she’d bring up my family just because she’s hurt says a lot.

  Joel Ray is one of the best hunters I know. He can hold his own and I’m sure the others can, too.

  There’s always a chance that you won’t make it back when you go on a hunt. That’s a given. But even with that reality, he still let us spread our wings. I trust his judgement and Sailor should have, too. Maybe I should have fought harder.

  He’s going to be pissed when she shows up, but she won’t care. She’s stubborn like that.

  Typical Sailor: headstrong, arrogant, and kickass.

  And I’m still smiling even though she just ripped my heart in two. What’s wrong with me?

  Chapter 2: A Lonely Start

  I look at the clock and it’s well past two in the morning. It’s hard to sleep knowing that she’s out there. I can’t even bring myself to lay in bed, not that it would be much better than the chair I’m in. Shanty hotels aren’t really good for anything except for a low-profile stay that isn’t too bad on the wallet. Even the ice machines are broken more often than not.

  I divert my gaze from the digital clock near my bed and shift it to my gun laid out on the coffee table in front of me for the hundredth time. It’s impossible to win a staring contest with a gun, but with my cheek pressed against my knuckles, I’m comfortable, so I have all the time in the world.

  Ever since she left, I’ve wrestled with going after her. It used to be both of us in this position; waiting, but now I’m a miserable party of one.

  Joel left to meet up with his people for the raid while we stayed behind and twiddled our thumbs. She came to m
y room and tried to talk through it, but Sailor was never one to sit on the sidelines. By the time we fought, her dad was already well on his way, meaning when Sailor showed up, she was already late to what’s almost certain to be one for the books. You can’t just walk into the middle of a raid. People are in teams. There’s strategy to it. Science. You run the risk of friendly fire if you go at it any other way.

  Sailor’s smart and well on her way to passing her father, hunting wise, but she’s not invincible. Throwing yourself into the fray hardly makes for good results. The more I think about it, the more I realize that I should have stopped her.

  Time moves on at a snail’s pace…three o’clock…four.

  Four thirty, and nothing on her end. Not even a text…and of course I can’t call or text her in the middle of a warzone. I just hope she has enough sense to let me know that she’s okay when it’s all said and done.

  Knowing her, she’ll probably make me wait and let me suffer. It’s not cool at all, but in her eyes, I more than deserve it.

  It’s a funny feeling; being exhausted but unable to sleep. It brings me back to when I first started hunting. Having your eyes opened to a bunch of terrors has a way of messing with you. The world literally takes on a different meaning, in a way.

  When you get that tingling feeling down your spine or unsettling sensation in your gut that something’s wrong, it isn’t just something you can say that your mind is doing because you saw some good horror flick earlier in the day. Dangerous stuff is out there, and they’re doing work all the time.

  That’s why it’s always best to act with caution. There’s rules to what we do. Rules that help keep us alive—and Sailor just had to break them.

  Time continues to pass and my eyes begin to grow heavy. It isn’t just the wait that’s killing me, but what she said to me, too. It’s a shitty way to leave someone.

  I glance at the clock—it’s a little past five.

  I check my phone again and there’s nothing.

  Wherever they are, they’re probably holed up somewhere till things die off. Sure, the area’s probably hot with ties to the underworld, but still, she could have sent a text the moment she got a chance, just to let me know she made it out okay. A couple of hours is more than enough time to cool off. All things considered, we’re a team, even if she’s pissed at me. We keep each other alive. It’s what we do.

  Letting my anxiety get the best of me, I scroll through my contacts until I land on Joel, her dad.

  I start to type out a message, but scoff and shake my head as I realize just how crazy I’m acting.

  I can see it now…her dad showing her the text and her brushing it off to the side with a scoff and an eyeroll. I know he’d be on my side, but at the same time, he’d lecture me about calling unless it’s a relevant emergency and laugh it out with his daughter…after of course letting her know how much she could have screwed everything up by coming along.

  Right off the bat, if she showed up too late, depending on the hunter, she could have gotten shot if she wasn’t smart about it. She’d have to make contact with Joel’s group, first. Crap…and even then, just having her around would distract him. I mean, he made us stick back for a reason. He knows us. And despite what Sailor may think, he knows a lot. He’s practically a living legend.

  There’s no way he doesn’t know by now. It’s been hours.

  If she made it to Joel, then she’s in good hands. If she bumped into trouble along the way, she would have called me…or handled it by herself…unless she didn’t.

  I rub my hand across my forehead and sigh. Damn it, Sailor. No. She’s too good for that. That’s a rookie mistake.

  Whatever. I almost wish I would have pistol-whipped her in the back of the head and forced her to sit this one out…but then she’d never forgive me, and I’d never forgive myself.

  Right or wrong, it’s her choice. It’s her dad. It’s her life. I just hope she was right on this one so I can have some peace of mind.

  ****

  My eyes snap open and immediately shift over to the digital clock near my bed. It’s a little past nine. I must have dozed off.

  I go for my phone but realize that it’s not on the table in front of me. I twist over to my left, ignoring the stiffness from being stagnate in a chair for the majority of the night and find it on the floor, face down.

  I grab it, flip it over, and unlock it as fast as I can. No new messages from either of them.

  I apathetically toss my phone on the table, my sleepiness well on its way out of my body.

  Maybe they’re sleeping? Long night?

  It’s been over eight hours since she left and not a single thing’s changed.

  I make an effort to sling my body on my bed despite the weight of my emotions. It’s been a long week and last night didn’t help one bit. I barely got four hours of sleep, if that. I sigh deeply into the mothball-smelling spread before adjusting myself so my head rests on my pillow.

  Sleep is the last thing I want to do right now, but I need it. Coming all this way wasn’t just a field trip. We had work to do. A case of our own. A werewolf.

  And regardless of Sailor’s whereabouts, it has to die.

  Chapter 3: Wolf Watch

  “Hey, Rocco?” After getting a few more hours of shuteye, I made my way to a local eatery. Burgers, being their specialty. Nothing special, but food is food, and I was starving.

  “Yeah? What’s up, Blaze? How’s it going?” Just as he finishes asking, the waitress assigned to my table sets my burger down in front of me, outfitted with a side of fries.

  “Thank you,” I mutter to her with a nod and a smile, careful not to say too much while she’s around. It’s hard to tell who’s who. Demons, and the like. “Rocco, you still there?” I watch her until she turns the corner, presumably to service another table.

  “Yeah? You okay?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “How’s your girl doing? She drag you out for brunch or something?” He laughs.

  “No…no it’s just me.”

  “Well, tell her I said hey, will ya?”

  “That’s actually why I’m calling you, Roc.” I sigh and eyes gravitate towards my plate. “Did you hear anything from Sailor or her dad?”

  “No? Should I? Are they okay?”

  “Probably, I’m just worried. Keep an ear to the ground, yeah?”

  “You’re not making any sense, buddy. Throw me a bone here.”

  “My bad, man. Haven’t been getting that much sleep lately,” I say as I do a quick rub at the crust at the corner of my eye. “It’s starting to wear on me… Sailor’s dad went on a hunt and left us behind. We were under the impression that we were going to help, but he benched us. Gave us a motel with rooms to stay at and some info for busy work. Sailor wasn’t having it. She wilded out on me and left last night for their camp and trailed them on their hunt.”

  “Damn, so she pretty much made a U-turn and went for it?”

  “Yeah, man. Essentially so. Haven’t heard from her since. Waited all night, and still nothing on her end. He said to give him a day for an update, but that seems a bit long. Two would be all it takes to wrap it up in a worst-case scenario.”

  “Forty-eight hours?”

  “Yeah. Forty-eight.”

  “And how long has it been?”

  “Less than that,” I answer regrettably. “But, I mean, come on. All it takes is a text. I didn’t even get anything from Joel about how I let his daughter run off.”

  “Nothing from Papa Ray, huh?”

  “Exactly. It’s weird. Doesn’t help that Sailor’s pissed at me.”

  “Shit. Yeah, well I’ll be sure to ask around and see what I can come up with.”

  “Thanks. I’m going to give them a bit more time before I reach out to them. They could be in a spotty place with bad service… I don’t know, man. I’m trying to stay positive.”

  “If you don’t hear back from them by tomorrow night, then you have something to be worried about. Keep me in
the loop, yeah?”

  “Will do, Roc. Be easy.”

  “Yeah, you too.”

  I hang up on him and stare down my meal. Truth be told, that conversation killed my appetite. Sailor and her father are worrying me sick.

  After I slug through my meal, I go back to the motel. I halfway expected to see her car out front, but the lot was filled with the same variety of cars as before. Neither Sailor’s nor her dad’s was anywhere in sight.

  I open the door to my room and immediately make my way back to the chair in front of the coffee table and flip open my laptop. Joel had given me some notes on the task he’d left for us, and I took the liberty to transfer my knowledge onto a device I could easily manage. I’m not old-school like him. He and the other old-heads have a thing for notebooks…almost like a log…as if it’s cool to have an easily accessible paper trail surrounding your actions. Right. Yeah. It’s ridiculous.

  I scroll through my notes to freshen up, but my mind finds itself wandering back to Sailor and her whereabouts.

  Forty-eight hours? That’s way too much time. Anything can happen. I could already be too late.

  I dig out my phone and find her name in the contacts. No way she isn’t up by now…it’s past noon. I start to type out a text but sling my phone onto the table.

  She’s fine. Stop acting crazy… You’ve got work to do. Sailor can take care of herself.

  Joel wasn’t too big on the details. He even kept the majority of it a secret from Sailor. It was better that way, she told me. Less chance for failure. She told me what was going on would be discussed at the camp…once everyone who was going to go, was getting ready to leave. In hindsight, he gave us a timeframe, but not much else. Was it one location, two? Three? Were they splitting up? With the information he knew, he was confident—he was also confident that Sailor and I would be able to handle the case that he assigned to us in the meantime, provided we put in the effort.

  It isn’t like a haunted site or anything. He explained that there was more to it. Of course, with Sailor gone, that only complicates things. I’m not too sure on how to tackle it now, and it might take more than an actual day to do. Things have been quiet around here, to be frank. Especially considering the killings going around. And there’ll only be more the longer this drags out.