I held up the sack, a few drops of blood staining the bottom and he grinned. “What’s that now, sixty?”
I winked. “Something like that.”
It was actually seventy-three, the most kills for any junior hunter in the society ever, but I was working on being humble, so I kept that to myself.
“Maz is in back, she’ll be happy to hear it.” Finn waved me forward.
I slipped through the dingy entry and into therealentrance of our secret society. Two gigantic marble doors pulled back to reveal an opulent entryway. Rich wood floors, tasteful cream wallpaper and timeless mahogany furniture. Kinsley, the butler, greeted me with a grin.
“Aspen, lovely to see you. Shall I whip you up something to eat? You must be famished after your hunt.”
You never turned down food by Kins and his staff, he was an incredible chef. “Yes please, but just something quick.”
I wanted to shower off; tonight’s mark had been hard and I was battle-weary.
He disappeared into the kitchen as I traversed the well lit halls. I passed the library, nodding in greeting to a few of my fellow hunters, raising the bag to show them my kill. Then I moved onto the dormitory where our hunter apartments all spanned out. The exterior of this building fronted as a non-descript factory but inside it boasted ten floors, fifty apartment buildings, a large dining hall, youth dormitory, training gym, library and much more. The Vampire Hunter Society was Spokane’s best kept secret. We took care of the vampire infestation on the entire inland northwest so that the humans never had to know there was even a problem. Eastern Washington, Northern Idaho and even parts of Montana were well within my territory of hunting.
When I reached the two ornately carved wooden doors to Maz’s office, I straightened my shoulders, brushing my candy apple red hair out of my face and then knocked.
“Enter!” Maz’s singsong voice called out.
I pushed the doors open and she looked up from her desk. “Aspen! Tell me you got him?”
I held up the sack and she thrust her fists in the air, the sleeves of her priestess robe peeling back to showcase toned forearms. Maz was a sixty-five-year-old badass vampire hunter, woman of God, and the leader of the Spokane branch of our society.
She pulled out her iPad and opened up the photo app. “Let me ID him.”
I set the bag down and opened it, peeling the edges back to reveal the head of the dirtbag vampire I’d pulled off of an innocent human.
“He’d been about to drain her,” I told Maz.
She glowered. “That’s him. Got more complaints about this one than any other. You did good. God bless you, dear.” She snapped a photo of the head and then indicated to the incinerator that sat in the corner of her office.
As she typed into her iPad, I walked over to the incinerator and chucked the head into the fire before closing the hatch. The flames flared to life, consuming the demon completely. I used to be affected by seeing them like this, because they lookedsohuman, but then I saw them fight. I saw them kill. I saw what they really were.Monsters.
“That’s number seventy-three for you. Keep this up and I’m going to have to promote you to senior hunter soon.”
I froze... Senior hunter. At nineteen? Maz was in charge of promotions and you didn’t get senior hunter until you’d been hunting foryears. My bestie Liv would flip when I told her later.
“I would be honored.” I finally found my voice.
Maz nodded. “The bounty has been wired to your account.” She tapped something on her iPad.
Only about one percent of the human population knew about or believed in vampires, and the ones that did paid us good money to avenge their fallen or attacked loved ones. It was our job to protect the humans from the bloodsuckers but the money we made from hired hits helped us keep the organization going for over a thousand years now.
My phone buzzed with the incoming wire. Five grand.
Score.
“Thanks, Maz.” I headed for the door, tired, hungry and sore all over.
Her iPad dinged as I was walking out. “Aspen? How tired are you?”
I spun, wearing a smirk. She always had a mark for me. Sometimes they took a few weeks to track down, but she always had more. Most of the other hunters within the society were put on patrol, keeping the humans safe from random vampires. Some of the bloodsuckers had fled Magic City and were trying to make a life out here in the human world, others had been here for years but they get sloppy and we catch them. We were well within our rights to wipe them from the face of the earth the second they crossed the line from their little compound in Northern Idaho. But for me, Liv, Vasquez and some of the other elite junior and senior hunters, we got the paid gigs, the marks that had done something horrible and needed justice to be served, and God willing, I wanted to be the one to bring those families closure.
“I have this other mark…” Maz fiddled with her pen. “I’ve sent some of the newer hunters just to tail him but I just got word that he’s at Bang, planning to drain some pretty little blond no doubt. There’s been chatter of an issue in Vampire City and he’s fled to seek refuge here. I’d like to take him out now, before he can hurt anyone or gets too comfortable and sets up residence here.”
Bang was a night club where a lot of unknowing humans went to die. It was a notorious underground feeder club. The lower level was for ‘VIP’ customers, AKA vampires. It was crawling with bloodsuckers and unwitting feeders.
