Urian released his razor wire from his vambrace and caught him around the neck. With one twist and a sidestep, he snapped the Dark-Hunter’s head from his body.
Luckily, they tended to decay almost as fast as a Daimon. They just left a bigger pile of dust that quickly blew away.
“Sorry.” Urian sighed as he knelt down to collect the Hunter’s weapon and ID. He always made sure to notify the Squire’s Council that oversaw Dark-Hunter care whenever they killed one so that they’d know who died.
It was an odd thing to do, but he felt like he owed it to them. While Dark-Hunters didn’t have families per se, they did have Squires and other Hunters who were attached to them.
The worst thing in the world was to not know what happened to someone you loved. To be left waiting for them to come home again.
His stomach grew tight as he thought about Xyn. Even after all these centuries, he still missed her and wondered what had happened. If maybe, by some miracle, one day he’d pass her on the street.
It was stupid, but he couldn’t help it. The not knowing was its own form of hell. And that endless, miserable hope.
Yeah, he couldn’t do that to someone else. So he always made sure to let them know they had a Hunter KIA. As a soldier, he considered it an act of mutual respect for a comrade-in-arms. While they might be enemies, they were both fighting for what they thought was right.
Both protecting what they loved.
Urian looked at the Hunter’s license to see his grim smile. Cuthbert Ruriksen. Yeah, he looked like a Viking bastard from back in the day.
Remembering how they’d been in more primitive times, he slid the license and sword into his pocket and drifted back into the darkness.
By the time he finally found Phoebe’s new apartment, it was late. He’d expected to have to try to find a way to get her attention.
Instead, she was on the street and almost ran into him in her mindless rush to nowhere particular.
“Hey! What’s going on?”
She threw herself against him. “Take me home with you! Now!”
Urian held her against his chest and scowled. “Um, okay. Sure. My father would probably eat you alive, but sure. I could do that for you if suicide is really what you’re going for.”
She hit his chest with her fist. Not hard enough to hurt, but just out of frustration. “I don’t want to stay here, Uri. I’m done!”
Seriously concerned, he cupped her face in his hands. “What’s going on?”
With a ragged sigh, she gestured back toward the apartment building she’d been fleeing. “You don’t know what it’s like to have so many rules and dictates. All the time! I live under a microscope! I can’t change my mind without permission!”
“Yeah, no idea what that’s like. At all.” His voice dripped sarcasm.
She glared at him. “Not the same.”
He arched a smug brow at her.
“Don’t look so gorgeous at me. I’m not in the mood. Be angry on my behalf.”
He bared his fangs.
She laughed and hugged him.
Closing his eyes as he sighed in contentment, Urian cuddled her close and rested his chin against her head. “Is it reallythatbad?”
“Yes. They want me to wear body armor.”
“Iwant you to wear body armor.”
“Not funny.”
“Dead serious.”
