Page 38 of Huntress

They pulled into their destination three minutes early, and two men stood patiently on the platform, waiting for Elsie and her team to disembark. They wore officers' uniforms with dark expressions on their worn-out faces. Deep circles lined their eyes, and those uniforms weren’t as sharp as they should have been. These men were stressed out. No surprise, given the rat infestation their nest was dealing with.

Elsie disembarked first, the demon right behind her, and strode forward to greet them, nodding in place of offering a hand, as was customary. One glance at the gold pin on her shoulder and they reciprocated accordingly, respecting her boundaries. If they thought it strange that she was out of uniform, they didn’t say anything.

“Welcome, we’ve been anticipating your arrival,” one of the men said, his voice every bit as tired as his appearance. “My name is Jeshua, and this is Franklin. We’ll show you where to stash your gear and make sure everyone is fed, then we’ll get started.”

Elsie had to admit that she was impressed. Men of their rank rarely bothered themselves with meeting a visiting squad at the tram station. But these two, as exhausted and busy as they were, had offered them both courtesy and respect.

Jeshua observed the demon glued to Elsie’s side with open curiosity. He took a moment to study the casually worn uniform, the unruly mop of curls atop the demon’s head, and the harsh collar around his neck. He shook his head slightly, a disapproving furrow in his brow as he came to his own conclusions.

“We were not prepared for a tenth…person to be here,” he said carefully. Then curiosity won out, and he added, “How do you control it so well?”

The demon tensed, but Elsie was ready. She’d anticipated that she’d get questions about her new companion. She lifted a hand and wiggled her fingers, raising her eyebrows and leaning closer; she gave a slight smile. “Magic.”

Jeshua looked surprised for a moment, then gave a light chuckle. “Fair enough. You don’t have to share your secrets with a prying old man.”

Elsie tilted her head slightly. She’d missed it initially, but Jeshua had a fair amount of fae blood, making him appear younger than he actually was.

“We have four double rooms and a single for Captain Chantraine, which I’m presuming is you? We’ll have another room prepared for your pet,” Franklin’s voice hit surprisingly high for a man of his size. It was disarming and cute, not at all what she’d expected. Elsie gave him a genuine smile, the kind that reached all the way to her eyes.

“That won’t be necessary. He’ll be staying with me, if you’d be willing to supply us with a cot? I need to keep him close,” she said, and neither man attempted to dissuade her. Jeshua actually looked relieved.

“Very well, we can accommodate your wishes.” Franklin clasped his hands together, pleased with the compromise.

“Sounds good,” Elsie said without expressing gratitude.

It was a general, unspoken rule that hunters would not extract favors owed from each other, but it was always best to take precautions with people she didn’t know well. With the concentration of fae blood varying so greatly from person to person, there were bound to be those who felt that urge more acutely than others.

Her squad formed into pairs naturally. Marley and Perrie took a room together, as men and women were forbidden from sharing private rooms. Trenton and Morgan randomly picked a room to share, firmly closing the door behind them. Steve and Trisse took the room next to theirs. An odd pairing of goofy and intensely moody, but it worked. Steve did a great job of leveling out Trisse’s impulsively violent side.

Their geographer, Grady, raised his eyebrows at her and stepped closer, opening his mouth as though he had something to say. He caught her gaze for a lingering moment, then his eyes slid up to the demon lurking behind her shoulder, and his lips formed a thin line before he turned and joined Banks.

Elsie entered the final room at the end of the hall. Slightly separated from her team, it was meant to be used by visiting officers, not a member of a field squad. She whistled softly in appreciation as she glanced around. Nests always provided the best accommodations for visiting hunters, but she’d never been in a paper pusher’s quarters before.

“We do all the work, and they get all the rewards,” she muttered, setting her bag at the foot of the full-sized bed. A cot had been hastily added. There was soft green paint on the walls, and a deeper gray tone in the polished wood floor. The trim was painted white, and a wide window opened into the yard.

A door led into a bathroom larger than her quarters back home, and there was a tub. Tingles went up Elsie’s skin. A bath sounded like heavenly luxury. The closest thing she’d had in ages was a quick scrub in a lake, river, or stream. If she managed to stay awake when they returned, she was definitely taking a long, hot soak in that thing.

The demon took a single sweep of the room and dumped his bag on the cot before sitting on it, glaring up at her. “If you’d gotten me my own room, I’d stay locked inside it for the duration of our time here,” he growled.

“Suggested as though I could ever trust you to stay out of trouble.” She quickly unpacked her bag, leaving half of the drawers for the demon to use.

“Why are you unpacking when we’re leaving in a few days?” he asked. Elsie unfolded a leather corset, smoothing it out before hanging it up.

“We won’t know the duration of our stay until we learn the situation. Even if it’s only a few days, my clothes like to breathe. Leather has to be taken care of, or it will crack.”

He gave her clothes a condescending sneer. “What poor creature did you skin to make those clothes?”

“Don’t look at me all judgy like that. I used the entire carcass and wasted nothing. I ate the flesh and drained its fluids for my drink.” His face soured even further, and she laughed at him. “It’s made from coconut leather. No demons or animals were harmed in the making of my clothes.”

She held up a long pair of bracers that covered her from wrist to elbow and pointed to the corset she’d just hung up. “These were an experiment with mushrooms. It’s tough to work with and more durable than I’d expected, but I haven’t been able to procure enough to make more.”

The demon blinked in surprise, sitting slightly forward as she spoke. “You made your clothes out of plants?”

“Yup. This is from hemp.” She fingered the short sleeve of the top she was wearing. “Your clothes will be the same. Marko keeps an eye out for me when the merchants come through the compound. I don’t wear corpses like some sort of creepy flesh trophy.”

“Others of your kind do. I’ve heard stories since I was young that hunters wear the hides of demons they’ve killed. Exactly like trophies. Sometimes they trap and kill a family’s matriarch, then wear her skin as a sort of ill omen while they strike down the rest of the family.”

Elsie winced. “I hope that nightmare fuel wasn’t a bedtime story growing up, sounds scarier than anything Stolas told me. It’s true, though. Some of the older guys still do it, and maybe a handful of the younger hunters, but they’re in the minority these days. I’ve heard claims that it stemmed from all that fae blood, making them more savage.”