“You’re right, but like you said, we don’t have fun very often. We don’t have time; as soon as we’re done eating, we will be heading out to that nest Sam was telling us about. Then we will be taking the next week off for your birthday.”
“I’m sure you could go out one night while we’re off next week.”
He looked at me with a sadness in his eyes that let me know he still wasn’t ready. I just wanted him to be happy, but I wouldn’t push anymore tonight.
“Here you go,” Tammy drawled as she slid both of us our basket of wings. My dad ordered the spicy ones.
“You’re going to regret that later,” I said, nodding toward the food, changing the subject.
“Your old man can handle it.” Dad waggled his brow, causing me to chuckle as I went for my own wings.
We chatted about our game plan for the night while we finished our wings and beer. I had a feeling it was going to be a long night. For some reason, there had been an uprising in changelings, and their bloodlust was causing problems.
Normally, Vampires didn’t change people; rather, they would get their blood from a hookup at a blood bank or feed on a human, but they wouldn’t kill them, they would just compel the person to forget and move on their merry way. It had always been the rules for their kind to live peacefully among us, and we hadn’t had any problems until recently.
Unfortunately for them, you break the rules and hunters come for you. That’s where we step in.
More and more people had started going missing here in this area, and my dad and I were determined to figure out why. Taking out their breeding houses, ornestsas we called them, was the closest we could get to stopping them until we could figure out the reason they were changing so many people.
Most of the time, we killed them for murdering innocents, but in the past few months, they’ve been changing them too.
Other hunters had noticed an uprising in vampires as well; we had been hearing about their hunts through the grapevine. It was a shitshow, but on the bright side, at least we were close to our yearly vacation spot.
I tried to tell dad that with all the vampire attacks here recently we could always plan to go another time, but he insisted he would never miss my birthday vacation, no matter what monsters were causing a ruckus.
Our family cabin was only a five-hour drive from Lufkin, which was why Dad decided to take this hunt since he knew it was close.
Dad finished his beer, and I followed suit before he tossed cash down on the table and we both scooted ourselves out from the booth to head to the door. Tammy tried to rush over but got called back by her boss.
My dad and I couldn’t stop our chuckle as he opened the door, the little bells chiming at the top as we took our leave.
We walked over to the trunk of his classic, sleek black Impala and he opened it, revealing all of our weapons stashed in the trunk. He handed me my shotgun, and I tossed it over my shoulder and onto my back with its strap before checking that my pistol was still fastened to my hip.
He placed a sash-like leather strap of wooden stakes over his chest before handing me my own, and I situated mine in the same position.
“You ready, sweetheart?”
“Always,” I said, and he gave me a nod as he moved around his car to hop in the driver’s seat while I swung my leg over my motorcycle parked right next to his car.
I always pulled out first while he followed behind me.
Rock, paper, scissors…
My hand made a rock while my dad’s made paper.
“Damn, that’s my third win this month,” he said with a shake of his head. “Best two out of three?” He lifted his hand again, but I pushed it away.
“No, you won, fair and square. I’ll take the front; enjoy the advantage, old man,” I replied, grabbing for my shotgun and making sure my wooden buckshots were ready to go.
It wouldn’t kill the vampires unless the small wooden projectiles went through a heart, which was unlikely, but it would slow them down enough so that I could kill them. I slung the shotgun on my back and threw my jacket on to cover up all my weapons. It looked a little bulky but nothing too out of the ordinary.
My dad cupped my cheek with one of his callused hands and placed a small kiss atop my head.
“Be careful, sweetheart,” he whispered, and I smiled at him.
“I know,” I responded, fighting the urge to give him an eyeroll.
He normally wasn’t so emotional, but our last hunt didn’t go as planned, and I had gotten hurt in the process. Well, more so, I threw out the plan and had to improvise, and things ended in disaster. Ever since then, he’s been a little more mushy on me.
