Aurora Saint

paranormal bounty hunter extraordinaire, join the heated battles and adventure the seems to follow aurora everywhere she goes. full of werewolves, magic, and of course love.

           I had often wondered if you could fight a Were with only a small pen knife. Yeah sure it had more than one function, but I somehow didn’t think a fishscaler or a can opener would be at all helpful in that kind of situation. Well now I was about to find out and I sure hoped that the out come was a good one because I had a lot of things I still wanted to do.

             I had been caught off guard, I was home alone after work and getting ready to jump in the shower and had taken off my shielding rings and power holding bracelets and had walked naked back into the bedroom to grab fresh clothes and had been attacked from the window as I walked past.

             I was never completely helpless, I had a tattooed sign of power on my back, it covered the whole of my back and I could take power from it whenever I so choose. But I was surprised and reached for the first thing I could use as a weapon, which happened to be the pen knife. So here I was standing naked, wielding only a pen knife against one of the fiercest predators imaginable. Not exactly what I’d had in mind for this evening. But things like this happened to me more often than you’d think.

             I went into a crouching stance holding the knife out in front of me the small blade glinting in the dim light that stretched into the room from the open bathroom door. I hadn’t bothered to turn on any lights, silly of me, but I have excellent vision during the day and during the night so I hadn’t worried about it.

             The Were gave me a sinister smile, or what I took as a smile, it was hard to tell with all the fur and the teeth and the lines of thick drool.

             “You don’t actually think to beat me with that do you Saint?” his voice was thick and hard to understand, I guess it would be hard to shape words around those teeth and not spear your own tongue at the same time. I smiled back,

             “I thought I would give you a chance, I don’t want this fight to end before it gets good.” The Were snarled and a line of slobber ran from his jaw and hit the floor. I grimaced,

             “Can you please not slobber on the carpet please, I just had it cleaned.” He gave a fierce roar and threw himself at me, I ducked and rolled, letting his momentum take him over me. I lashed out at him as he passed and opened him up across his chest. He gave a howl and stared down at the wound in surprise. I was actually surprised too, I had been more than a bit worried that the little knife wouldn’t cut through the thick haired hide of the Were.

             I could tell by the way the Were held himself that he was trained, I would guess hired muscle, some sort of assassin maybe. Nothing too hard core just the usual underground Were community hired gun.

             I tried to think of who would have sent him here, I had a long line of enemies. Most in my line of work did, but I couldn’t think of a single one that held such a hard grudge for me, not at the moment any way. It may be a new guy, testing me out, wondering how hard I can be pushed, and how hard I push back. Well if that was the case he would be sorely disappointed when his hired fur muscle didn’t come back.

             I flipped the knife in my hand, stepping to the side and rolling as he swiped at me with those long sharp claws. I saw them glint as they passed me, so close I felt the breeze. ‘Don’t get cocky Saint’, I told myself silently and circled the large Were, his golden eyes followed my every move. He moved so fast that I didn’t see him until he hit me, he threw me into the wall so hard I lost my breath and almost lost my knife. He had one large clawed hand around my throat, I could feel the prick of his sharp claws on my skin making my pulse rate jump erratically. I knew if I didn’t do something soon I was dead.

             I tightened my grip on my knife and brought it up in a slice that took him across the jaw. He growled angrily and tightened his grip, my vision started to blur and I felt the tips of his claws puncture my skin. My body reacted and I turned the knife and jabbed it hard up under his haired collarbone. I was aiming for his jugular. I didn’t know if the knife was long enough to reach it but I had to try before I blacked out.

             His body jerked as the knife hit and his eyes widened. He let me go and I dropped to the floor and choked as I struggled to breath, my throat felt raw and I  could feel the warm trickle of blood from the punctures on my neck I watched as he grabbed the knife and pulled it out too stupid to realise he was doing more damage. As the knife came free a steady flow of blood oozed from the small wound. It didn’t seem like such a small wound from such a small knife could bring down such a huge beast of a Were but as I watched his life blood stained my carpet in a steadily growing pool. He collapsed to his knees, his eyes staring at me. I saw hatred and fear in those animal eyes and I stared into them and didn’t falter.

             “You should have known better than to take this job. I thought my reputation preceded me in your community.”

             He looked up at me,

             “Beware Saint; there is a new threat in town. He wont be pleased Saint, he will be coming for you. Beware……” he gave a rasping laugh and then his body shuddered and then was still. I stared at the body that was still leaking blood onto my freshly cleaned carpet and wondered what he meant by that. Whatever it was it couldn’t be good.     

 

              I stood over the body for a moment before padding barefoot down the hall to quickly throw some clothes on before I grabbed my phone and dialed the number for detective inspector Daniel Barkly. I was a bounty hunter by trade but I also worked closely with the preternatural unit of the police. A somewhat secret force of officers who worked the cases that couldn’t be put through the usual channels, The cases that had Magic, Vampires and Weres as their suspects, bodies that were so mutilated and disfigured that no human could have possibly be capable of. I was there vault of information, there one source that when things went bad they could call me in for information and back up when they needed it. I had been working with the preternatural for longer than I could remember.  

              “Barkly, What do you want?” came the gruff voice after a few moments of listening to the ring tone. I gave a quick smile at his bluntness.

              “Well hello to you to,” I said more cheerfully than I really should but I just loved to annoy him.

              “Saint if your ringing about getting access to those files again,” I winced, I had forgotten that he was still angry about that. I had been on a case and I knew that he had files, restricted files, that had information about my target and he wouldn’t let me near them. I had pestered him about it for days.

               “No it’s not about that, I have just had to deal with a rather large furred gentleman caller. I must say he was quite persistent and now he is making a rather nasty stain on my freshly cleaned carpet.” He gave a rough grunt that, if I didn’t know better, was a cover for a laugh.

               “I will be there with the team in a few so don’t go anywhere, and watch yourself Saint there could be more than one.”    

                “Will do, see you soon Radshaw.” I hung up and walked back into my living room and the huge body that was indeed leaking blood all over my clean carpet, I grimaced and made an aggrieved noise. I walked into my kitchen and proceeded to make coffee while I waited. I had picked up my gun from my bedroom when I went for my clothes and my phone, I sat it on the bench as I brewed fresh coffee, trying to mask the smell of freshly spilled blood and death that was filling my house. I hated it when my enemies brought the violence home.

           There was a knock on the door, I stepped around the blood stained carpet, holding my gun loosely in a two handed grip aiming it at the floor as I crept over to the door. I checked the peep hole and then put the gun in the back of my pants and opened the door to let the Detective and the rest of the team in. Detective Barkly was a very large man, I don’t mean that he is fat in anyway. He is just large in every way, he towers above everybody at around 7 foot tall, and his shoulders were so broad he had to squeeze through my doorway, ok maybe I was exaggerating a little. But he was still huge, his hands could palm my face easy, and I think I could use his shoes as canoes.

          He stepped inside and the rest of the gang followed him in,

          “Saint, it’s nice to see you,” Lieutenant James Brody gave me a broad smile as he came in and I gave him one back. He was a flirt; I let him because we both knew it would never get him anywhere and it was just harmless.

           The last person to walk in made me wish I had put something nicer on than an old t-shirt and sweatpants. She was tall almost my height and I was tall for a woman at 5”9’, her hair was a deep dark blood red that was striking against her porcelain white skin. As if she felt me looking her eyes met mine and I was stunned, they were bright piercing green, I had never seen anything like them before. I had never seen anything like her before. She held my eyes and I felt my face flooding with heat, I dropped my eyes and rubbed my hand up my arm. I never blushed, ever, but this woman. I took a deep breath and turned as someone said my name. Barkly was looking at me with a look on his face that made me scowl at him, his mouth twitched into a smile,

             “Saint, I would like you to meet our very own witch, Evelyn Childs.” I turned and look at Evelyn; she was looking at Barkly with a frown.

              “I would really rather you didn’t call me a witch,” her voice had a thick English accent and it made me shiver, I loved girls with accents. She turned and looked at me and I felt my face flush once again and cursed myself, I took a breath and straightened my shoulders. I put my hand out and realised it still kind of had blood on it and started pulling it back. She reached out and placed her hand in mine. As her skin touched mine her power whiplashed into mine, I stumbled and cried out as it crept like napalm over my body searing every point in my body. Somewhere I knew that my own power was doing the exact same to her and tried to pull it back, restrain it, but it wouldn’t listen. Our powers seemed to like each other, they swirled between us circling and rubbing against each other as if they were part of the physical world not the metaphysical.

             I felt arms around my waist and then I was pulled away from Evelyn and finally we broke apart. My heartbeat was in my ears and I was breathing so fast it hurt. My power was surging inside me and I pushed it back forcefully, it had never reacted to anyone like that. It wasn’t as if she was the first person with power I had ever met.

         I turned and saw that Barkly was the one, who had grabbed me,

         “I’m ok,” I told him after a few tries, he looked down at me and scowled but let me go. I stumbled a little but managed to stay standing, I looked over and saw that Evelyn was telling one of the other officers that she could stand by herself. She looked over at me and I could feel her inside me, she was an empath, like me, and a strong one. I could feel her confusion, her attraction to me. I had never met another empath before and this was almost painful. We couldn’t hide from each other,

           “Neither of you looks ok, what the hell just happened?”  Barkly asked and I turned my head to look at him,

           “I don’t exactly know, but I think maybe it has something to do with the fact that we are both empaths but I truly have absolutely no idea.” I said and I heard footsteps, I felt her getting closer and my body and power shuddered with delight and I heard her take a sharp breath, she knew what I was feeling too, that is going to make things very interesting.

            She stopped beside me and took a breath,

            “I believe Saint is correct, I have heard some old stories about empaths and it is said that this, attraction if you will, can happen between two strong empaths if we don’t guard against each other.”

             I turned and looked at her, “I was guarding, weren’t you?” she looked at me and I knew the answer before she nodded,

             “Yes,” 

              We just looked at each other,

              “Well I’m sorry to break up the party between you two, but we were here because of the body on your floor.” Radshaw said and I shook myself and nodded,

               “Yes, right, right.” I walked through to the lounge room, still feeling Evelyn as she followed me. I stopped and let the nice officers go and look at the huge furred body still leaking blood all over my carpet, my nice clean carpet.

                “Don’t worry it will be clean again soon,” a heavily accented voice came from beside me and I turned and let my eyes travel the length of her. She knew I was doing it, and I felt her reaction to it. She liked that I was looking; it made her skin burn and certain other areas as well. I coughed a little and I knew that she was smiling even though I wasn’t looking at her.

                “Yeah, I know. It’s just that I only just had it cleaned, and I hate it when they...”

                “Bring the violence home, I know.” She finished for me; I turned and looked at her. She was staring at the body and the medical examiners and officers taking photos. Her face was blank, careful, but I could feel her emotions writhing inside her.

                 “I have never,” I began and she shook her head,

                 “Nor have I. Our powers seem to have entwined themselves together and us along with them for some reason.” She was still staring at the body and not at me. She wanted to look at me, needed to, her body and her power screamed at her to. So she was staring intently at the body so that she wouldn’t. I understood, she didn’t want to be ruled by her powers.

                   I left her standing there and walked over to stand next to Barkly. I felt her relax as I moved away, she let out a breath in a sigh, and I felt her eyes on my back and fought the urge to look at her. He was looking at the body too, but glanced at Evelyn and then me and grunted.

                   “What happened with you too,” he asked me and I shrugged,

                   “No idea, I wish I knew. It seems as though what Evelyn said is true, our powers have entwined themselves and have us along for the ride.” I said, knowing that it was better to tell him than let him find out for himself. I had learnt from experience about that.

                   “Is that going to become a problem for you or for her?” he asked me, it was a good question. I thought about that, will feeling her inside me all the time affect my work? It might, I looked up and met her eyes. I knew that she was thinking the same thing, this could become a big problem if we were ever in a dangerous situation together. I had a nasty thought, we didn’t know if this was going to happen when we were in close proximity to each other or if it was going to stay there all the time. We needed to find out.

                  “Saint?” I started and looked up at Barkly who was staring at me with a frown. I must have been standing there just seeming to be staring at Evelyn. I shook myself.

                    “Sorry, we were just thinking. We don’t know what sort of range this has, we don’t know if it will be as bad if we aren’t so close. We need to find out before we can know how it’s going to affect us.”

                    “You two were talking to each other?” he asked quizzically. I shook my head,

                    “I don’t know how to explain to someone who is not an empath. It’s not really talking so much at least not with words, more like knowing what the other is thinking and feeling so strongly it was as if they were your thoughts your feelings. Understand?” he just stared at me blankly, I sighed.

                      “I don’t know how to explain it better than that.”

                      “I can try,” the heavy accented voice made me turn. Evelyn had moved over to stand with us while I was trying to explain. She had felt my frustration at not being able to explain properly. She gave me a faint smile and turned to face Barkly.

                      “Saint is able to read my inner thoughts and feelings as if they were her own, she interprets them as if they were. In this way we are able to speak for want of a better term without actually speaking. Is that any help?” Barkly still looked at us blankly and just shook his head.

                       “I’m not even going to try and figure it out. There are just something’s that we vanillas are just not supposed to understand. I am going to trust that you two will figure this out, I need you both at the top of your game.” He moved off to speak to the medical examiners.

                       We both stared at the body still leaking blood onto my carpet, she cleared her throat and I glanced at her sideways.

                       “So you don’t know why he attacked you?” she asked me, I shrugged.

                      “Said there was someone knew in town and I should watch out for him. Guess they wanted to see if I lived up to my reputation.”

                     She turned slightly and dropped her eyes to my neck, I felt my face heat up under her gaze and cursed my body for its sudden weakness and betrayal. She tilted her head and reached out to touch where I’m sure were some lovely coloured bruises beginning to show. The punctures had stopped bleeding but I hadn’t had the chance to clean any of the blood off yet. I’m sure I looked a right mess.

                        “Your injured,” she said her voice soft, her fingertips brushed over my skin and I took a sharp breath as my body reacted to that small touch, I heard her do the same and she reluctantly took her fingers from my skin. Though I knew that was the last thing she wanted to do. This was insane, we had no control over what was happening between us. There had to be some way to prevent this, or at least keep control of it somehow. She took a step back from me and shoved her hands in her pockets, well that was a short term preventative. I let out the breath I hadn’t known I was holding,

                     “I made coffee, want some?” I asked her a and immediately felt like an idiot I had a team of investigative officers in my house checking out a dead were on my lounge room carpet, and here I am asking a girl for coffee. Evelyn just smiled at me gently knowing how stupid I was feeling and nodded.

                      “Sounds great, been a long day.”

                       I groaned, “Tell me about it, just got home and was about to get in the shower when fur face over there jumped me. Not exactly how I wanted to spend the night.” I took a deep breath as I felt her reactions to my words, my ,my aren’t we a dirty thinker, I thought to myself and immediately saw her blush. I cursed myself and gave her a warm smile, she just continued to stare intently at the floor. “Come on I’ll get you some coffee.”   

                    She followed me past the rest of the team as I went to the kitchen I pointed to one of the chairs scattered around the small table and she gratefully dropped into one of them.

                    “So does this happen to you a lot then?” she asked me as I grabbed us both cups and poured them full of the fresh brewed coffee. I looked over my shoulder,    

                   “What part, the getting attacked by weres or the strange power connection?” I asked her she just smiled, “More often than you’d think but it comes with the job I guess. If you live in their world and hunt them down you can expect them to return the favour now and then.”  I explained.

                   “So this is something I can look forward to then is it?” she asked me and I turned to look at her over my shoulder. I could feel that she was slightly scared at the thought of that I gave her a wide grin.

                  “I like to think that this is something special they do just for me. I think you’ll be fine.” I tried to keep it light and not show her how much I hated and feared it every time this happened. Yes I can hide my emotions like the best of them but that doesn’t mean that stuff like this doesn’t touch me, because it does. Each time leaves another mark on me, physically as well as mentally. It’s why not many bounty hunters of the paranormal stay in the industry for long, of course the rest of them die doing the job. It’s not exactly a good rap sheet for the job, but I love it.

                  I brought her coffee to the table and placed it in front of her and she smiled at me,

                “I can tell your trying to make me feel safer and I thank you for that. But I would rather the truth than lies. No matter how well intentioned those lies may be.” I met her eyes and I was flooded with feelings, betrayal, anger, frustration, confusion, something had happened to her something that involved many lies. I dropped my eyes.

                  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to…” I began but she held up her hand.

                   “I know, it’s okay. I know you can’t help it any more than I can. It’s going to be hard to get used to but I don’t see this going away anytime soon. So we may as well start getting used to the idea.” She wasn’t happy with the idea and her anger at the lack of control she had, ran over my skin, but I wasn’t pleased either and she knew that, neither of us had wanted this.

                  “I wish that I had known this kind of thing could happen. They need to have it written somewhere warning other empaths that this can happen.” 

                   “I had read of such a thing but took it as myth not fact. I think it is such a rare thing that most wouldn’t have to worry about it. I mean it has never happened to me and I have met countless other empaths and other magical users. I think we were the exception to the rule.” I nodded,

                  “Lucky us.” I said sarcastically, she met and kept my gaze and I froze under the intensity in her eyes.

                 “We are out here pouring over a dead were on your rug and you two are having coffee and chatting?” the gruff voice of Detective Barkley come from the entrance of the kitchen. I shivered as Evelyn switched her eyes to him and let mine go. Damn that witch had some eyes. I turned to look at Barkley, he stood there with his arms crossed across his broad chest, looking at me with a frown. I smiled,

                   “I’m sorry, did you want some?”

            He gave a rough chuckle,

            “No, but thanks. Now about this body, where did he come from, who’s is he?” I shrugged,

            “All he said was there was someone new in town and I should watch my back.”

             “Didn’t have much time to talk huh?” he said with a grin, I shook my head.

            “Nope,”

            “The guys can’t work out what you used to kill him, they say it’s too small for one of your regular blades.” He said and I laughed.

                “Oh yeah, umm I used a pen knife.” I said and he just stared at me. I shrugged,

                “A pen knife?” he asked,

                “A pen knife?” Evelyn asked and I turned to look back at her and her stunned expression and then back to Barkly who sported the same expression.

                 “Yeah, you know one of the small multi-function utility knives?” I explained and barkly growled at me,

                  “I know what they are. But you seriously used one to kill that brute of a were out there?” I just nodded.

                  “And you just have a few bruises and scratches to show that the fight even happened. Amazing. Next you’ll be telling me you were naked too.” He said with a chuckle. I coughed a little at that,

                 “Well, umm…” he looked at me and shook his head,

                 “You are some kind of amazing Saint, amazing but crazy. Only you could fight a full grown Were naked and armed only with a pen knife and come out with just a few bruises and scratches.” He shook his head again and walked back out.

                 I felt her amazement and wonder before I turned and saw it written on her face. Strong surges of fear and worry amongst the awe and shock washed over me, I struggled against it gasped a little before the feelings receded and I could breathe again. I looked up into her slightly guilty face,

               “Sorry bout that,” she said in a strained voice. I nodded,

               “Don’t worry about it.” I shrugged; this was gonna be something that took time to get used to that was for sure. For the both of us it seemed.

                “I'm not really sure why I am so worried about you seeming I just met you, I just can’t stop myself.” She sounded and felt annoyed and more than slightly disgusted with herself and her lack of control. I was beginning to think she was someone who liked to be in control of every aspect of her life and this was just shitting all over that control.

                  “Well you’d be the first in that.” I was unable to hold back a bout of self-pity and depression that I knew she felt.  I wouldn’t meet her eyes even though I could feel that she wanted me to. And she knew not to ask me about it, that I was thankful for.

                “We’d better go see what they have found out about this Were on my floor.” I took a quick glance at Evelyn before standing and without waiting for her walked out to where the squad was still squatted or standing around the body taking notes and chatting between themselves.

                   “Ah back to join the boys are we?” lieutenant Brody called out and some of the boys smiled, I just waved a hand at him.

                   “So what have we got so far?” I asked and sergeant Barkly walked over to me looking behind me at Evelyn who I could feel standing just behind me and then back at me. I just watched him so he took the hint.

                   “Not much, he doesn’t have any sort of ID on him and you know how hard it is to tell the difference between Weres so it’s gonna be difficult finding out who this was and who hired him to come after you.” He paused and rubbed his jaw with his overly large hand. He looked at me seriously, “I don’t like that he threatened you Saint, maybe you should….” He began and I put up a hand to stop him from going any further.

                     “I'm not backing off from this so don’t start on me. He threatened me, okay, I need to find out why and who this new person in town is.”

                     Barkly sighed and his shoulders dropped just a little, he wasn’t happy about all this and I knew it but I also knew that this was just something I had to do.

                    “Well, we cant leave this guy here, we’ll take him downtown and get the coroner to look him over and see if he can find anything at all to shed light on the situation. I hope you have a quieter rest of your night saint and I’ll be in contact.” The team got the body on a gurney in no time and started wheeling him out the door. I stood there and stared at the large were shaped blood stain on my carpet with a scowl on my face. I felt Evelyn move up beside me and turned slightly so I could see her face, she had a quirky smile on her lips and I felt my own twitch into a smile in reaction.

                 “That’s going to stain; too bad that’s nice carpet.” I could hear that humor as well as feel it as if it were my own. I cracked a smile,

                 “Was nice carpet,” Evelyn laughed and I chuckled a little but then frowned at the carpet. This was not going to be one of my easy hit targets; I didn’t know why whoever it was had it in for me. I was used to being in the line of a fire, but I normally knew why I was there and who was holding the gun. This was new, I turned and saw Evelyn watching me and knew she could feel my anxiety and worry about the situation. I gave her a small smile,

                       “You going to be ok?” she asked me and I shrugged,

                       “Until we find out more then I’ll start worrying. Until then I will just have to be more careful and have something bigger than a pen knife handy.” I gave her a quirky smile knowing that she could feel my doubt but she let me get away with it, she smiled back and placed a hand on my shoulder.

                        I let out a harsh breath at the touch and she drew her hand back and rubbed it on her jeans as if she had been shocked when she touched me.   

                        I stared down at my feet and took a breath before looking back up at her,

                      “This is gonna take some getting used to.”

                      “Yeah, sure is. I think we should find the extent of it as soon as possible.” Evelyn replied and I nodded folding my arms tight over my chest. Keeping my hands to myself and away from her. I walked back over to the kitchen and grabbed a pen and scribbled my name and number on it. I walked back and handed it to her and she took it from my hand carefully, not letting our hands touch. I let out a small breath and crossed my arms again.

                      Evelyn read the note and then shoved it in her pocket and nodded,

                     “I’ll call you, when I fix a time.” She told me and I shook my head slightly,

                    “My days are going to be chaotic from now on, I don’t know how well I’ll be able to get some time off from all this.” She nodded,

                   “I can understand that, but this should be a priority of yours, this could hinder you in your abilities in ways we can’t comprehend. We have no idea how this is going to affect our lives. Let alone our individual powers. We need to know what this means to us, Aurora.” Evelyn stared into my eyes as she spoke and I felt myself getting lost in the piercing green colour and when she stopped talking I had to force myself to move my eyes from hers. I felt her embarrassment, I turned away slightly folding my hands and holding them tight.

                   “I'm sorry, I know its important and I will make the time for you.” I shoved my hands in my pockets feeling like an a*s. This wasn’t easy for either of us and yes I had some unknown entity after my a*s, but Evelyn hadn’t asked for this and I wasn’t making this situation any easier for either of us.    

                            

     

Author's Note

what do you think? should i keep writing?