Chapter 7

 

Alejandro did not know why he had agreed to come back to this place. This country had so many bad memories for his Aria. So why had she wanted to come? It had been safe in Málaga. Peaceful. His sister, lost for so long, had lived not half an hour from their home. More than cousins, there had been aunts and uncles there. Grandparents. Even birth cousins. In Málaga, he could protect his Aria from the horrors of her past.

Not that he could get her to stop hunting. She truly loved it, and he would never want her to stop doing something she loved. She could handle herself quite well, too. He no longer worried about her when she went on a solo hunt. When he had first met her, first fell in love with her, he had worried constantly. Of course, that had also been before she had been called, and given the strength of his kind. Even then she had wanted to hunt. Bought herself a crossbow from somewhere and taught herself to use it. Back then she wasn’t strong enough to confront even a therion face-to-face. That had been when he had first met her, in the alleys of New York Cities.

She was an unlikely girl. A diminutive little redhead who had run away from home at sixteen. He had never met her adoptive parents, but she had few kind things to say about them. To know that such a sweet, introverted girl like her had fled to the streets told him as much as he cared to know about the people. Mortals, of course. He had assumed that she was one as well. It wasn’t until later that they learned of her heritage. Father mortal, mother a hunter. Both had been killed soon after her birth. For a few days she had been Roxanne Ivers, hunterborn.

Now she was Aria Solana, his wife and soul mate. Who, for goodness knew what reason, had decided that she wanted to return to the land of her youth. Her hometown was actually an hour north or so. As far as they knew, her adoptive parents were still alive, and they did not want to risk her being recognized. For all they knew, she had died in the streets all those years ago.

Aria was waiting for him in the kitchen, starting to get worried that he would be late for work. He adjusted his tie and went to join her. She smiled when she saw him.

“It’s about time,” she teased. “I was about to send out a search party.”

“As if you would ever need one,” he joked back. “I will be on time, do not worry. It is not a far drive.”

After a quick breakfast, she sent him off with a reminder to stop at the grocery store on the way home. She had finally found a decent brand of tea, and she was running low. Fortunately it was a Friday—as well as his desk job paid compared to some of the other jobs he’d had, it was rather boring for a man who spent his nights hunting demons.

Aria went back to the dining room table and sighed. She had no idea what to do for dinner that night. Aleda had announced on her way out the door earlier that she would be attending a football game that evening, and a dance the following night. It was the first time Aria had heard of any dance. She had been reassured that there was a dress, a ride, and even a date, but the girl had bolted before she could ask for elaboration.

Well, she had to go get ready for the day herself. Her first student was in two hours, at the school in Wilmington. It was closer to her hometown than she liked to get, but it had been the only job she’d found. Over the years, she had been occasionally forced to find other work in order to pay the bills, but only giving music lessons had been enjoyable. Mostly. She did get the occasional stubborn child, or one that simply had no talent. Sweet little Aleda had been one of the former.

She smiled to herself at the memory and pulled a coat out of the closet.

Alejandro spent an uneventful day at work. A client needed a new internal database. Let others say what they liked, there could very well be uses for advanced education for a hunter. He would have to continue taking classes, of course, or he would quickly become obsolete and be forced to return to the service industry, but he could take those as needed. Thank goodness for community colleges.

He gnawed on his pen. He had been staring at the same spreadsheet for the last three hours. This particular client had been very specific about what features they wanted to include in the database program. He was grateful for the details—there were few things worse than vague requests in this job. On the other hand, one of those worse things was a fussy client with twenty pages of detailed instructions.

Never mind. It was five o’clock. He could go home and have a nice evening with Aria. They would even have the house to themselves for a few hours. He turned off his computer with a certain amount of satisfaction and began to gather his things.

And then, of course, his phone rang. He considered ignoring it, but finally picked up the handset out of sheer curiosity as to who could possibly be calling.

“Alejandro Solana.”

 A booming voice greeted him.

“Alex! How are you, man?”

“Good. I am good, Mike. How are you?”

“Doing great, myself. Doing great. Listen, I hate to do this to you on such short notice, but I just got word of a possible… situation.”

Alejandro sighed. There went his weekend. “A nest of therions?” he asked dejectedly.

“No such luck, my friend. A pack of suckers just moved into a local house. Got word a few minutes ago. Turns out it’s feeder territory.”

Alejandro swore to himself in Spanish. Not this fiasco again. “How many are there?”

“No more than a dozen.”

“Is there nobody else to hunt?”

“You’re the best I’ve got in that area and you know it.”

Damn it all, he was right.

“I’ll be there in an hour,” Mike said, and hung up.

Alejandro rubbed his head for a moment, then picked the phone back up to call his wife. Aria would not be pleased. Well, maybe she could stay while he hunted with Mike. Normally she would insist on coming with him, but under the circumstances, it was not unreasonable for him to hope she would decide to stay.

He drove home as quickly as he could, but it still took him half an hour. Aria, fortunately, had already returned home from giving her music lessons. When Alejandro reached the house she was setting out a quick dinner for the three of them.

“It smells good,” he said. “What did you cook for us?”

“Spaghetti. I didn’t have much time to cook—this was quick. How was your day?”

He threw his coat at the couch and kissed her hard.

“That good, huh?”

“I am beginning to wish for my job in construction work,” he sighed. He pulled her away from setting the table for a moment. “I do not like sitting at a desk all day. It is bad for me, I am sure.”

“We need the money,” she reminded him.

“I had a good job in Málaga. I did not have to sit in a box and stare at the computer screen all day.”

Aria frowned, pulled out of his arms. “Please, Alejandro, we’ve been over this. It was for the best.”

“The best? It was our home! Our family! And you want to move here where there are still–.” He cut himself off, glancing upstairs. He dropped to a whisper. “Still nest wars between the damned demons? Aleda has never even had to face a therion. What if she were to encounter a vampire? I cannot lose her, too!”

Aria turned from him and finished setting out dinner.

“Aria!”

“We have to eat,” she told him tersely. “Mike will be here soon. I’ve already told Aleda what we’re doing tonight. Would you go tell her dinner is ready?”

Alejandro’s jaw clenched, but he turned and went upstairs to fetch his daughter. She did not understand the danger in which they had put their only daughter. He had chosen Málaga specifically, even though it was some distance from the town in which the remains of his family lived. It was safer. He could not bear to lose anyone else. Mother, father, grandmother, uncle, and countless cousins, all in the span of a single year. Was it not enough?

He knew the risks. He had known them since childhood. He had known them when his mother and father gave him his birthright, and he had known them when he gave his own blood so that Aria, with no living parents of her own, could share it. Yes, a hunter would live forever—if he were not killed. And so many were killed. His own parents had not lived past the age of forty. His grandfather, Seth, was one of the lucky ones, having lived more than a century. He had hoped to spare his daughter that fate.

She ate her dinner quickly. After consuming most of her food—and he was not certain that she had chewed—she disappeared upstairs again.

Seeing his baffled look, Aria informed him that the remaining hour would be spent getting dressed and applying makeup. Hopefully she would have enough time to do both. Aria had managed to get a little more information out of her—apparently she would be going to watch an American Football game with friends from her school. Apparently the boy that Aria had mentioned before would be attending. A mortal, unfortunately, but he was not picky. As long as the boy made his little angel happy, he could overlook that detail.

“So,” Aria said while she cleared away their plates. “Where is this nest that Mike told you about?”

“An abandoned house, not far from here. Mike says that there are perhaps a dozen vampires that have just moved in.”

Aria frowned. “A dozen? Shoot, I need to stretch a bit. Would you mind putting these in the dishwasher?”

“Aria…”

“It’s been a while since I faced that many. It’s just going to be the three of us, right?”

“Two of us.”

“What? I thought Mike was coming.”

“He is. You are not.”

Aria straightened abruptly. “I beg your pardon?”

“This is a dangerous hunt. If anything should happen to me… Aleda needs a parent.”

“All the more reason for me to come! What, you really think I’m going to let you take on half a dozen suckers?”

“I can take care of myself, Aria.”

She sighed tiredly. “Yes, I know you can. You could take on a whole dozen if you wanted, couldn’t you? The famous Alejandro, hunter extraordinaire. Heaven forbid he accept any help.”

“I can accept help!” Alejandro protested. “I just don’t want you… I don’t want you in danger. Living here is bad enough! If anything happened to you, it would kill me!”

Aria melted a little at his words. “Oh, querido, I know. But this is our life. My life. I am a hunter, just like you, and just like Aleda will be. You can’t shelter us forever.”

“I just want to keep you safe.”

“What about happy?”

Alejandro fell silent for a moment. He finally nodded. “You are right. I cannot keep you from hunting, even if you want to hunt large groups of territory-violating vampires.”

“And my help?”

Alejandro laughed and raised his hands in supplication. “Peace, woman! Yes, I could use your help. Goodness knows you have always been quicker than me. Now are we going, or not?”

“Just as soon as Mike gets here,” Aria said, grinning triumphantly. She walked past him and fetched her coat from the closet. “Aleda, sweetie!” she called up the stairs. “We’re going out with Mike! Have fun at the game, and remember, home by midnight!”

“Yeah, okay!” came the muffled reply.

Mike arrived a few minutes later. Aria and Alejandro left with one last goodbye to their daughter.

“So, where to?” Aria asked, settling herself into Mike’s somewhat cluttered car. She shared the back seat with a large pile of binders and maps.

“It’s about fifteen minutes away,” Mike said. “The good news is the house has three acres of woods around it. We won’t be bothered.”

“Bad news?”

“We’ve got one night to clear out a dozen suckers. I rechecked the maps—it’s definitely feeder territory. We do this quick, or they’re going to find each other. We might only have a few hours. A pack this big, they’ll smell each other.”

“And to think I considered our nightly hunts too dull,” Aria remarked. Alejandro frowned at her but said nothing.

“We’re here,” Mike said finally. He turned off his headlights and parked behind a cluster of large pine trees. “We’ll have to walk the rest of the way. Don’t want them hearing us before we even get there, after all.”

The walk to the abandoned house was quick but dark. Normally they would have waited until just before dawn to pursue a pack this large. Unfortunately, they did not have the time. Vampires and therions, or suckers and feeders as Mike so eloquently called them, had very definite views about territory. For some reason, competing for the same source of food tended to make them aggressive. Raptors were another story, of course, but it was hard enough just keeping the two other species apart.

Normally, the two species did not infringe on each other’s hunting grounds. Therions favored wooded areas, preferring to live in caves and in the forest. There were always a handful living in the cities, of course, but even then they gravitated toward condemned buildings and junkyards. Besides, there were plenty of humans in cities for all of them. Vampires, on the other hand, remained closer to civilization. Aside from the few wild ones that gravitated to old cemeteries, they normally gathered in large houses and secluded estates that they passed down through the centuries. The more audacious ones would even retain the residences they had held as humans.

And then there was a situation like this. The migrant vampires would have seen only an empty house in close proximity to the town. Unfortunately, the empty house was surrounded by a forest.

A forest inhabited by a nest of therions.

Alejandro winced when he accidentally stepped on a dry leaf, causing it to crackle underfoot. Aria shot him a glance. They were no more than twenty feet from the house now, and their prey would almost certainly hear any sound they made.

A few lights shone from the windows. They were still inside. They would leave soon to find food, but the three hunters had come in time to catch them there. The vampires could not have arrived more than a few hours ago—the blood stench that always revealed a vampire nest had not yet permeated the area. They must have spent those hours settling into their new home. Most vampires sought their meals immediately after sunset, when there were the most humans walking about.

Aria, the quickest and quietest, moved to the nearest window. Five in that room: walking spots of darkness in the otherwise bright room. The others must be elsewhere. One turned to look out the window, and she quickly ducked out of sight. She was close enough now that her claws extended from her fingertips in anticipation. Her hands tingled with the sensation, somewhere between pleasure and pain.

A light went out upstairs, followed by the whisper of near-silent footsteps on the stairs. The demons would be leaving at any moment. When should they attack? If they went inside, they could kill them a few at a time, but one or more might make it outside and away. If they waited for them to leave the house they would have to handle all of them at once, but they could also make sure that none escaped.

Mike waited behind a nearby tree, ready to attack at her word. Alejandro glanced at the upstairs, now dark, then at the one window that remained lit.

There was no more time to decide. Better to confront them out here, where there was no place to hide.

Aria nodded at him. Alejandro moved quickly to press himself beside the door. Mike followed. Aria took the far side of the door. Mike would catch the first few to exit.

Blood stench flooded their noses.

Here they came.

One, two fell to dust at Mike’s hands. The third knocked him aside, sent him flying across the small lawn.

Like a flood of shadow they poured from the house. Now they could smell the sweat, hear the heartbeat of living blood. It called them.

Alejandro inhaled the death before him and felt the fire surge through his own veins. Instinct took hold. It swung his arm into a heavy blow to the nearest demon. Splayed claws skewered the creature and flung it backwards in a wide arc.

The rest turned to face the unexpected assailants. Aria caught one from behind and deftly removed its head, flinging herself to the side just as another grasped the air where she had been. She grinned widely and launched herself at her next chosen prey. She lived for this. The flames burning in her blood, giving her such power. The addicting satisfaction of annihilating this darkness. It was so delicious she could taste it, craved it even when the sun shone overhead. Every night she danced with death and in the end, only she remained.

A lucky strike left her neck torn and bloody. She hissed at the pain and tore herself clear of her current opponent. Another tried to seize her from behind—she crouched and leapt, taking the demon with her only to knock him off in a hard roll when she hit the ground.

It ripped at her side when she returned to her feet. Annoyed, she turned back and impaled him with one hand. She flung out the other to catch a particularly opportunistic sucker in the thigh. The demon shrieked and knocked her to the ground. They grappled for several seconds, hunter and demon, each trying desperately to kill the other.

The demon was very strong. But its instincts led it to attack only her throat, seeking her jugular like an animal. She held it at bay with her hands and kicked it with her foot, sending it flying through the air.

She leapt.

She aimed.

The creature was dust before it hit the ground.

Fire burned in her blood. The flames danced behind her eyes. She could have continued all night. But there was nothing left to kill.

 

 

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Alejandro fussed over his wife while Mike drove them back to Keeney.

“Are you sure you are okay?” he asked.

“I’m fine, I promise!”

Aria batted his hands away, trying not to get blood everywhere. Well, more so than it already was.

“Are you sure? It looked like one bit you very badly,” he insisted, inspecting her blood-soaked shirt. Aria sighed and looked down at the ruined fabric.

“My shirt is worse than I am. Look, see? The skin has already closed up. No problem.”

Alejandro frowned. There were also gashes in the fabric on her side. He traced them with his fingers. “You have lost a lot of blood. I do not like that.”

Aria sighed.

“Can we talk about this later, please? And Mike, I’m sorry if I’m getting stains on your seat.”

“Not a problem, Aria.” He laughed. “That’s what the towels are for. Besides, I got worse than you. Look at me, my trousers are completely shredded. I ought to just take the bloody things off.”

“Please don’t!” Aria exclaimed. “Thank you very much. Nothing dire, I hope?”

“Just a few scratches. A couple more minutes I’ll be good as new. How about you, Alex?”

Alejandro shifted uncomfortably and winced. Aria rolled her eyes.

“One of them got him on his back.”

She leaned forward and pushed at his shoulders.

“Don’t lean back like that, querido, you won’t heal as fast. Here, let’s have a look.”

Alejandro finally gave up and leaned forward far enough for her to get a good look at his back. She pulled at the fabric thoughtfully. There were several crisscrossed tears in the fabric, revealing matched reddish lines in his skin. Relieved of the pressure of the car seat, they diminished rapidly. She pulled the back of his shirt together as well as she could and let him lean back into the seat.

“Honestly,” she said, “I don’t know why we bother getting dressed for a hunt. We always end up with ruined clothes.”

“I think that might make us a bit conspicuous, mi amor.”

“No more than shredded clothing. Anyway, I’m going to need to go to the thrift store soon. I’m nearly out of old clothes.”

There was silence in the car for a few minutes. Mike pulled the car into their neighborhood, and they were soon back home.

Mike stopped them as they were getting out.

“Would you mind if I came in for a couple of minutes? There’s something I want to show you folks.”

“Of course, Mike. What is it?”

“I’ll tell you in a minute.”

He opened the door to the back seat and pulled out one of his binders.

Aleda had not come home yet. Mike set his binder on the dining room table, opening it and pulling out a few photocopied maps. Aria and Alejandro looked them over.

“Okay,” Mike said, “These are neighborhoods in this area, stretching west a bit from here.”

He arranged the pages in approximate geographical order. Keeney could be seen to the far right, and Aria recognized the outskirts of Elkton to the left.

“It’s a big area, as I’m sure you can see. This,” he said, tapping the page still in the binder, “Is a list of our cousins living there.”

“There aren’t more than fifty names on that page,” Aria said. “That’s all?”

“That’s all we really need,” Mike said. “There isn’t a whole lot to hunt in this stretch of the East Coast.”

“And that is why you needed us tonight,” Alejandro said.

“Exactly. Now look at the maps. You know how to read this?”

“Of course. Black, red, and tan. One for each species.”

“Right. Well, look at the pattern when I put these maps together.”

“That’s an awful lot of tan,” Aria commented.

“It’s about average for the area. We don’t get as many suckers on this continent as you’re used to, and there are never many raptors.”

“So what is the problem?” Alejandro asked impatiently.

Mike traced a line from south of Elkton to the east, following a particular trail of circles. Each circle had a date noted beside it.

“The runners tell me there have been more feeder nests found in this area than usual in the past few days. Look at the dates on these.”

Aria finally got it. “They’re moving.”

“Spreading,” Mike corrected her. “The old nests are still there. There’s just more appearing. The kill counts are the same, though. If I had to guess, I’d say the nests are splitting up. It’s hard to say why. They might be trying to grab more territory. They might just hate each other. I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about, but I don’t want it to start causing any problems.”

Alejandro pulled the binder closer and studied the list of names. He noticed a few scribbled into the margins—must have moved in the past month. The only names he recognized were the Kavanagh siblings. Ryan’s name had been added next to Talia’s at the same address. Knowing her, she had probably called Mike the minute he arrived. She had been trying to get that boy back to civilization for years.

Most of the names were marked as mercenaries. Everyone who hunted part-time, like himself and Aria. A handful were runners: hunters with a little more time on their hands who could scout the area and report back with nest locations and other useful information. The binder was full of these lists; Mike had to watch over the entire peninsula.

Alejandro did not envy the organizers responsible for the cities.

“Did you want us to do anything?” he asked, handing back the binder. Mike shook his head.

“Oh, no need. I just want you to keep an eye out. I know you’re not runners, but go ahead and let me know if you notice anything out of the ordinary.”

Alejandro nodded. “Thank you. We will certainly keep you informed of anything we see.”

“Great! Oh, before I forget—I’m having a party at my place this Thanksgiving. Nothing fancy, just an arse-load of food and a few dozen people crowding into my house. Are you interested?”

“We’ll be there.”