1
Kessar walked through the tunnels of the Gallu home area, his attention on a little bit of information one of his demons had brought him. Planning had never been his strong suit, since he usually just acted on any information given, but this time he could see the value in thinking ahead.
Acheron Parthenopaeus had been spotted, along with a woman who had to be a Dark-Hunter. Kessar had the lone Gallu survivor go back and try to track down the Huntress he had escaped from, and see if there would be a way to get to her.
The location of Hunter’s homes was a strongly guarded secret, but not one that was impossible to find out. All it would take was a little time, and since Gallu had the bonus of being able to be out during the daytime, that doubled their efforts and gave them a needed edge. Although, the power over fire that this Hunter seemed to command made her a formidable enemy. It would be easy for her to burn Gallu where they stood, and easier for her to cauterize any bites to remove their poison.
Pausing outside a door halfway down the long tunnel, he changed his looks from his usual demon appearance, complete with the double row of fangs, to that of a good-looking human male. Opening the door, he forced a smile on his face and entered. There, sitting at a table, was a young woman who seemed too scared to even move. Sitting opposite her, Kessar modulated his voice to a sympathetic tone.
“Do you know why you’re here?”
The woman’s eyes flicked to him, but she remained silent.
Having a basic solid knowledge of humans and their line of thinking, Kessar went for the ‘paranoia’ option. “You are here, in a facility, deep underground the Nevada dessert,” he paused for effect, letting her think that he may be some sort of government agent. “You were seen with a man, who is now dead.”
He watched as the woman’s eyes grew wide. It was true, she had been seen with a man, and that man was now dead, courtesy of the Gallu that had brought the woman back to the tunnels for a future snack. But, this woman didn’t need to know that…all she needed to know was that she was in major trouble.
Kessar could smell the fear coming off her, and had to hold back the temptation to lean over the table and sink his fangs into her jugular and eat. He leaned back slightly, and gave her a brief smile. “I have a proposition for you.”
For the first time since he entered, hope showed in her eyes.
“I need you to find a woman for me,” Kessar said, planning on using this female to aid the Gallu. “Shortly, there will be a man here, and I want you to go with him, and help him locate this woman. She’s about thirty, approximately five foot ten, long brown hair with streaks.”
“If…if I find her?” the female asked.
“Then you’re free to go,” Kessar said smoothly, no hint of the lie anywhere in his voice.
~~~~~~~~~~~
She was silent the entire drive back, with no chatter, music or even speeding. The car pulled into the garage a few hours before sunrise, which in itself surprised Ash.
“You’re oddly quiet,” he said.
She looked at him. “Why are the Gallu here?”
“They’re everywhere.”
“No,” she said pointedly. “Until tonight, I never saw one before.”
Hearing what she was thinking, Ash repressed a sigh. “I haven’t been here long enough for them to know or follow.” He opened the car door and stepped out. He looked over the roof of the car as she also got out. “You’re going to have to trust me on that. It was just lousy timing.” He took a step back and closed the car door. “There will be a meeting tonight of the other Hunters and Squires in the city.”
“It wasn’t bad enough that Daimons are running loose out there, but adding these things to the mix makes this city a veritable buffet table.” She looked at him. “And we have what? Three Hunters to combat them?”
Ash returned her stare. “Let’s just cut straight through the trash and get to the point of this little conversation, all right?”
“I always bought into the myth that we were the scary things that go bump in the night.” She shook her head. “You know what? We’re not the scary things that go bump in the night. Those little fuckers are.”
“Tria-“
She held a finger up to silence him. “Just…don’t, okay? I’m fucking tired, and I just want to go to bed and sleep for a couple days.”
“You did a good job tonight.”
“Don’t patronize me,” she said with a small smile, then slammed the door of her car.
“Trust me,” Ash said as she walked past him, “the last thing I would is patronize you.”
She stopped, then slowly turned. “No? Tell me then…if I was Kyrian, Ravyn, or hell, even Zarek, would you be telling me that I did a good job?” Folding her arms over her chest, she waited for his reply. When none came, she arched an eyebrow and shook her head.
“Get some sleep,” Ash said, his voice low. He walked past her and in to the house. He was halfway up the stairs when he heard the stereo in the kitchen start, the noise making him cringe slightly. Compared to this, Simi’s music was a mere whisper.
Sighing, he turned and walked back down the steps, and into the kitchen. Watching as Tria rooted through the cupboards, he motioned, using his powers to lower the volume of the music. Ignoring him, Tria motioned behind her with a small remote, bumping the volume up to past where it had been. Glasses vibrated on the counter before she motioned again and turned the stereo off.
“That song sucks anyways,” she muttered as she crouched to check out another cupboard. “Damn it, Trinity,” she yelled in a completely pissed off tone. “Is it too much to ask that you buy frigging chocolate?!”
Ash watched as the Squire appeared in the doorway, her eyes blurry, and hair a mess. It was obvious that the noise had woken her. “What are you yelling about now?”
Tria turned from the cupboard and fixed the squire with an intense stare. “I don’t demand much,” she said in an arctic tone.
“No,” Trinity admitted, slightly confused as she glanced at Ash, who gave her a small shrug. “You don’t demand.”
“Then why is it so hard for you to keep chocolate in the house?”
“Because you scarf it down like a pig?”
Ash motioned, stopping the fireball that Tria sent towards the squire. It hung in the air for a few seconds until vanishing. He glared at Tria, before facing Trinity. “Go on back to bed,” he said.
Giving her Huntress a dirty look, Trinity walked out of the kitchen. “I thought Dark-Huntresses didn’t have PMS,” she complained, then turned back to Ash. “Might want to check on that.”
Tria ignored them both as her squire walked out of the kitchen. Feeling Ash’s stare on her back, she went to the other side of the kitchen and turned on the coffee maker.
“What’s going on?” Ash asked as she continued to ignore him. He watched her pull a large coffee mug out of the cupboard above her, and then wait while the coffee brewed. “Tria.”
Placing her hands on the counter, she leaned against it. “I can’t do this,” she whispered.
“Do what?” Ash asked as he walked to stand behind her.
“Never mind.” She shut the coffee maker off, turned and walked past him and through the door that led to her bedroom.
Sighing, Ash teleported himself to the bedroom he was using, intent on finding out just what was going on. Usually, he could sense futures, and read minds, but somehow, Tria's were often fuzzy when he tried to look.
Setting his mind to think about it while he slept, he settled in for some much needed rest.2
~~~~~~~~~~~
The melodious sounding of a cell phone brought an annoyed moan from Ash as he rolled over in bed, grabbed it and opened it before his eyes had time to adjust to the light streaming through the curtains.
“Yeah?” he mumbled.
“Did Simi wake you?”
“S’okay.” Blinking a few times, he sat up in bed.
“Good,” Simi’s voice chirped over the phone. “The Simi wants to buy something, and ‘Lexi won’t let me.”
Hiding a sigh, Ash fell back against the pillows. “Can you put Alexion on the phone, please baby?”
“Akri wants to talk to you,” he could hear Simi say, before the voice was replaced by a deep tone. “Akri?” the voice replied using the Atlantean term for Master.
“Alexion,” Ash said, eternally patient with the being that had been his ‘right hand man’ for nearly ten thousand years. Alexion was the spirit of one of the first Dark-Hunters created, and after Ash caused him to become a shade, had served Ash well in Katoteros. “Let Simi buy whatever she wants.”
“She needs to learn control,” Alexion replied, although he was just as bad as Ash in giving in to the demon’s wishes. “Besides, if she gets something, then Xierna wants it, then Simi wants something better and so on.” He paused. “I don’t think you want two jewel encrusted bathtubs sitting in the middle of your throne room.”
Ash had to laugh at the ‘demon thinking’ of Simi and her sister Xierna, who was bonded with Alexion as Simi was with Ash. He closed his eyes for a moment then opened them when he heard excited squealing coming over the phone.
“You’re not helping,” Alexion said dryly as he looked at two jewel-encrusted bathtubs on the floor in front of him.
“I’m going back to sleep,” Ash said. “What’s my e-mail look like?”
“Overflowing, as usual.”
Ash sighed. “Anything beyond the usual whining?”
“Not really.”3
”Good.” Ash closed the phone, disconnecting the call. Although he cared greatly for the Hunters, they tended to complain a bit too much at times about the simplest matters. He closed his eyes, and tried to get back to sleep, hopefully before his phone rang again with some trivial matter.
His eyes popped open when he felt another presence in the house. Sitting up, he slipped out of bed and walked across the floor as clothes manifested on his six foot eight frame. Making his way down the wide staircase, he sent out a mental message of I want to talk with you when you’re done, then walked to one of the large couches in the living room and sat on it.
Grabbing a magazine off a side table, he turned on the light and started to read. The light wasn’t really necessary, but it was just before dawn and the room was still dark. The last thing he wanted was to scare Trinity if she happened to walk through.
He was near the end of the magazine when he felt the presence again, and looked up at the man that stood by the other couch. Black hair framed an incredibly handsome face, complete with the bluest eyes imaginable.
“You wanted to see me?” D'Alerian asked.
Ash smiled at the Dream-Hunter. The son of Morpheus, D’Alerian was a healer and helper to the Dark-Hunters. He was also a close friend of Ash’s. “Just wondering why you’re here.”
“Usually a Dream-Hunter appears when a Dark-Hunter needs them.” D’Alerian gave Ash a blank stare, as it that explained all.
“I like to know if my Hunters are experiencing anything I should know about.”
“Tria has been dreaming about her death again, and she would prefer that she didn’t.” The Dream-Hunter sat on the couch and regarded his friend over the coffee table. “She’s fine now, but I’m wondering about you.”
Giving him a slow blink, Ash titled his head slightly. “I’m fine.”
“If you say so.”
Had it been anyone else, Ash would have been offended at the tone. “My dreams are always freaky, you know that. Nothing overly annoying or upsetting lately, though.”
D’Alerian nodded, and stood. “I should be going. It’s been busy since the Gallu started breaking out of their prison.”
“For you and me both,” Ash replied dryly. “Drop by Katoteros in a couple weeks, and we’ll talk.”
“Definitely.”
Ash watched as his old friend vanished, and then sat back on the couch as he contemplated going back to bed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Later that evening, Tria woke, feeling better than she had in months. She always liked the soothing feeling that came after a Dream-Hunter visited, and lazed in bed for a few minutes, trying to hold on to the calmness.
It was times like this that she wished she had someone to share the incredible feeling with. Then, she remembered her life and death, and her hands would start to shake. After what had happened to her, Tria had remained celibate since her death because she couldn’t stomach anyone touching her for longer than a moment or two. The pain and memories were still too raw and too fresh for her to move on. One day, maybe, but it had already been nearly thirty years, and she didn’t see that changing any time in the near future.
The soothing feeling gone, she rolled out of bed, and headed to the bathroom for a long shower. Turning on the water, she let her nightdress fall to the floor, and then sighed as she stepped under the hot streams. Not looking forward to going out and facing more Gallu, she remained in the shower long after her hair was washed, and the water started to cool.
When it was a cold as she could handle, she turned off the shower with a sigh and stepped out. Drying off, dressing, and braiding her hair took up more time, but eventually she was ready, and slipped out of her room and up the stairs.
“Running a little late?” Trinity commented as she looked up from her spot at the kitchen table.
“You got someplace you have to be?” Tria responded. She opened a cupboard and took a step back as a mountain of chocolate bars fell out and piled at her feet. Suddenly feeling like a complete bitch for her actions earlier, she sighed as she bent down to scoop a few up. “Sorry for shooting a fireball at your head,” she said.
“Okay.” Trinity stood from the table, walked over and bent down to help with the bars. “I figure this should be enough to hold you over for an hour or three.”
Tria snorted in amusement as she shoved the bars into a lower cupboard. “Where’s his Royal Highness?”
“Most likely standing right behind you,” Trinity said.
“Of course he is.” Tria turned and stared at Ash as he stood leaning against the counter. “Well, you did say I could call you highness, or something equally archaic.”
“Ready to go hunt Daimons and Gallu?”
“I’d rather carve my name into my butt-cheek with a rusty razor,” Tria muttered as she walked past him.
Ash sighed. He so didn’t need that mental image at the moment. Not that it was a bad image, he just didn’t need to be thinking of it…ever.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Standing on the street corner beside a man that looked at her like he wanted nothing more than to kill her, the woman’s eyes darted from place to place, searching for an escape. When the man in the cavern had offered her a way out of whatever trouble she had landed in, she had jumped at it. Now, she wasn’t so sure of her decision.
“What’s your name?” she asked the man that had been sent with her. He was silent, and that made her feel extremely uneasy. When he didn’t respond past giving her that creepy hungry look, she bit her lip nervously. “My name’s Beth.”
“Don’t care,” he said, uttering the first words she had heard from him.
“Okay,” Beth said slowly as her eyes drifted back to the street and her search for the mysterious woman.
She kept half an eye on the scene in front of her as she let her mind wander to various scenarios to why this woman was wanted, and why she herself would be asked to search for her. Beth had assumed that the man she had met in a casino in Vegas had been on vacation, but after they were attacked in an alley, she wasn’t so sure.
Knocked unconscious during the attack, she woke sometime later in a small room, where she remained until that man came and talked to her. From the way he spoke, she knew she might be in big trouble, most likely with some branch of the government. Not wanting to vanish off the face of the earth through some mysterious circumstances, Beth agreed to be transported to an undisclosed city, and help locate some woman.
And when the attention was on this other woman, Beth planned to pull her own
vanishing act, and slip away into the night. She couldn’t see that happening, though… not with ‘Leering Larry’ standing beside her.
“Mind if I call you Larry?” she asked.
The man was about to reply with a flash of fangs when he noticed a blood red Roadster parking in a lot down the street. Dark tinted windows prevented him from seeing the occupants, and he took a moment to admire the beauty and lines of the vehicle. His admiration stopped with animalistic hunger while he watched two people step out of the vehicle and turn in the opposite direction.
Beth followed his line of sight, squinting to make out the two individuals that were walking. One looked to be incredibly tall, while the other, a female, was normal height. It wasn’t until they walked under a streetlight, and the glow played across their backs that she recognized them.
Not that it was actually them, but more the description of the female that she recognized. After all, how many women in this city had brown hair with silver and black streaks?
“Shall we follow?” Beth asked, ready to ditch this loser’s ass at the first intersection, and run like hell in the opposite direction.
“We wait,” came the gruff reply.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Standing on a patio, looking out over the downtown area, Tria could almost convince herself that there was nothing wrong with the world. Then, she remembered Ash was with her, and that there were far too many scary things that had to be stopped.
Checking her watch, she resisted the urge to tap her fingers against the railing that she was leaning on as she waited for the other Dark-Hunters and squires to arrive.
Trinity, who had some errands to run, arrived a few minutes previous, and sat patiently reading a book in the large office area behind her. Tria pushed herself back from the railing and entered the Squire Council’s city office.
She knew this would be a quick meeting, since Dark-Hunters tended to lose their powers when they were in close proximity to each other. It was one of the little safeguards Artemis put in to keep them from banding together and trying to take over. As if they actually could pull one over on the Goddess, or even take out Ash.
They looked up as the door opened and the remaining Dark-Hunters and Squires walked in. Ash stood from his perch on the corner of a desk and started to talk.
“Won’t keep you long. I’m assuming that you’ve all read the reports about Gallu, and the threat they represent?” He paused as the others nodded. “Good. Last evening, Tria had the misfortune to come across four Gallu.”
“Well, shit,” one of the Dark-Hunters, a good-looking man with a thick Russian accent, said.
“Understatement, Lyov,” Ash said to him. “You need to be on guard, double time, now. These demons can walk in the light, so your squires are going to have to be vigilant during the day, and report anything unusual immediately.”
Lyov looked at Tria. “And how did you destroy them, little one?”
Holding her hand out, Tria formed a fireball in her palm, then closed her hand, extinguishing it. “Right between the eyes.”
“Between the eyes, or sever the spinal column.” Ash said. “Only way to stop them. Then off with their heads, and burn the bodies.”
“We read the memo,” a squire said. “Who’s battling these things in the daylight?”
“Me, Blood-Rites,” he said, referring to Blood-Rite squires, the ones that hunted anyone that betrayed the Dark-Hunter secret. “And Sin.”
“Sin?” Tria asked. “Sumerian God Sin?” She squinted when Ash nodded.
“Who?” the other squire asked.
“Psycho Sin from Vegas,” Tria replied. “The one that makes Zarek look like a sweetheart.”
Giving her a dry stared, Ash slowly turned away to look at the others. “Meetings over, take a few hours to recharge your strength, then hit the streets and get rid of these bastards.”
The small group stood and walked out the door, grumbling about demons and having to burn wounds. Ash looked at Trinity, who quickly took the hint, and followed the others.
“I’ll wait for you outside,” she told them as the door shut behind her.
Lifting her hands up to smooth her braid, Tria stared at Ash. “Why didn’t you mention that you also ran into the Gallu last night?”
“Didn’t seem important at the time,” Ash said. “Besides, if they get it in their minds that you were able to defeat them only because I was there, they they’re going to get creamed by the first one they meet.”
“Hey, way to have confidence in your team.”
“At least I don’t refer to other Dark-Hunters as psychos.”
Tria refrained from rolling her eyes. Regardless how old Ash was, he still had moments where he acted incredibly young. “Sin is a mean-spirited, callous, obnoxious, sonofabitch, psycho.”
Ash crossed his arms over his chest and regarded her calmly. “Funny. He says the same things about you.”
Gaping in shock, Tria could only stare for a few moments. “I am not obnoxious!” She shook her head. “Doubt Sin’s ever heard of me, so…whatever.”
Ash hid a smile as she walked past him and out the door. She had been right in her assessment of Sin... the god was bitter to the extreme ever since Artemis tricked him and stole his godhood, leaving him with barely enough to survive and fight his way through the past three thousand years. If it hadn’t been for Ash giving him a job as a Dark-Hunter and bestowing certain powers to him, he had no doubt that Sin would be dead, and there would be Gallu everywhere.
Not that there wasn’t, anyway, but so far they had managed to keep it basically localized, more or less, and keep the killings and infections down. Sighing at how impossible it seemed at times, Ash shoved his hands in his pockets, opened the door with his mind and walked out.
~~~~~~~~~~
‘Larry’ kept one hungry eye on the woman with him as they made their way to the area where the blood red Roadster sat. He stopped about a half a block away, slid into the shadows, and waited.
“When they come out,” he hissed. “You see where they go. Do not yell out or approach them.”4
”Why not?” Beth asked, nervous.
“Because I’ll kill you.” He took another step back, trying to put a safe distance between him and the Dark-Hunters so they would be able to sense him. “Just watch, and tell me as soon as they drive away.”
Beth glanced into the shadow, not sure if he was still there or not. Part of her wanted to run and not stop, but another part knew that this man would follow through and kill her. She watched as people started to come out of the building, each one getting into obscenely rich looking cars, and drive away. Tensing as the tall man and the woman walked out, she squinted to make out the third person that was with them.
Not being able to hear what they were saying, she stood there as the two got to the Roadster. Fear worked its way up her back as the tall man look directly at her for a moment, and then got in the car. The woman that had been with them started walking to another car not to far away.
“Well?”
Beth jumped at the sound, involuntarily squeaking in surprise. “They talked to a woman, then left,” she managed to say.
“What woman?”
Beth pointed to a figure that was nearing a car. Before she knew it, the man in the alley ran past her, crossed the street and headed for the car. Not even wanting to give herself the opportunity to reconsider, Beth turned and started running in the opposite direction.
Trinity had just turned off her car’s alarm system with the remote when she heard the sounds of someone running behind her. Squire training and instinct took over, and she pulled her gun out at the same time she turned around.
The man stopped and stared at her.
“Back it the hell up,” Trinity said coldly. “And get your ass as far away from me as you can.”
Looking around him, and seeing that the streets were currently vacant, the Gallu took a step towards Trinity, reveling in the surprised gasp she drew as he displayed a double row of fangs.5
Author notes
it's a little short... but....
In a list
Please tell me what you think
Comments
1 - 6 of 6
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now that i have read some of the books, characters are a little more familiar to me. (Sin as an example) i like knowing more referances.
this section was put together very well with the addition of Beths sections. i like the subtlety of them.
looking forward to reading on.... its about time. -
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The books are just so good! I can't wait until Aug 5 when "Acheron" comes out. I'll probably vanish while I read it all at once.
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Commentary
Sometimes, I feel as though I've read this story before--deja vu
perhaps
But in any case, this story leaves much the the imagination with its many mini elements. Whether short or not, this was really good
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ooohhh... attitude. Tres cool.
Will Alexion be in this more? Besides Savitar and Fury and Vane, he's my next favorite.
"I’d rather carve my name into my butt-cheek with a rusty razor,” HAHAHA! and yeesh. SO, um, is Ash and Tria gonna... ya know ...
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pppssstttt... the autobiography I posted?
it's Savitar's 
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Alexion may be... but not much
Are Ash and Tria gonna....what? Go out drinking? Share a pizza? Get a lil' close? You'll have to read to find out
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