All the Devils are Here

Rogue Fake Hunters

I reach the entrance of the path and look out for Asher. He makes his way out of the third path. I can see he dragged the guy with the broken legs out here but he comes out of the third path empty-handed.

“No one there?” I ask him.

“They ran. I let them”, just as he replies, the Nineteen-year-old crawls out into our view. Asher looks at me;

“You didn’t kill him. Shocking”,

“Well, he didn’t try to shoot me in the face so-“.

My phone makes a notification sound and I check it. It’s a new message from Hera.

Coming from you, that sounds like a super pervy offer.

I chuckle at that and reply her back immediately;

Only one way to find out. Go to the White Rabbit. Ask for Trinity and tell her you’re here for the job.

Of Course, there’s no actual opening but I’d make one.

Asher cracks his throat and I look up realising that I’ve been smiling and texting. Which I bet is odd. I put my phone in my pocket and focus my attention on these two hurting men. I hope they take my threats seriously after seeing me basically gushing over my phone. If they don't, I might have to break a few more bones so they get the message.

“Who planted the knife?”I cut right to the chase. The one with the broken leg seems adamant to talk but the Nineteen-year-old looks like he’d say anything to live. But he doesn’t say anything, he just whimpers like he's about to pass out from the pain. It's not even such a deep cut, this kid is acting like he has never been hurt before.

“You’re allowed to say you don’t know, but you’re not allowed to stay quiet. If you choose to stay quiet, then I’d be forced to make sure you stay quiet forever”, I explain patiently to them and then ask again;

“So I’d ask again. Who planted the knife?”,

“It was a mistake, it wasn’t meant for you to find”,

“Who was it meant for?”,

“They started it. A pair of omegas attacked us and killed one of our friends and we followed their trail back to the dungeons. But it was chaotic there. So Leah thought it’d be a good idea to plant the knife to draw them out”, the nineteen year old says.

“Have anything else to add to that story?”, I direct the question to the other guy who looks about my age and has better composure than the kid.

“It’s true. We just wanted to avenge our own”, so much for that.

“You’re saying you didn’t start the riot. You didn’t break any locks on any cages?”, Asher asks;

“No. There was already a mess there when we got there. Please, we didn’t do anything”,

“Well f**k”, I sigh in frustration. Either these guys are choosing to lie to me or they really don’t know anything about the riot and I just wasted half my day. If they didn’t do it, then who did? Was this just another case of a faulty cage or a ridiculously strong wolf but, what are the odds of that happening to more than one cage on the same night? No, this was a deliberate attempt by someone.

“That makes you guys useless to me”, unless they have something relevant to the riot then I don’t see their use anymore. I don’t care about this petty beef between them and some careless werewolves. Infact this incidence makes me realize that an orientation might be due because how f*****g stupid is it that a pair of werewolves led this novice group of hunters to our dungeons. Mature hunters know better than to cross certain lines. That’s the whole reason why we have a city council anyway - to come up with ways to maintain the city without turning it into a warzone. We don’t go to Uptown to cause any trouble and they stay the f**k out of Hayride.

“I would let you go but, clearly, you have a thing for getting vengeance and it would suck if you showed up in the future trying to kill me”, I'm only humoring them of course. These caliber of Hunters couldn't kill me even in my sleep. They're really bad at their job.

“No please. We won’t. We won’t do anything, I promise”, the older one begs and that's the final straw. I just have to ask;

“How long have you been doing this?'' I'm suddenly curious about these people. They seem to be willing to talk, they have mediocre hunting skills and no loyalty to each other. From my interactions with Hunters, they’re…..better than this. I mean I hate them more than anything but, I can't deny that Hunters are a talented bunch and they'd rather die than talk.

The Nineteen year old answers first; “This is my first time out of Uptown. My mother is a hunter but -”, he glances down and I help him complete his sentence;

“You’re not”, I direct the rest of my sentence to the other guy; “ I want to believe this isn’t your first rodeo big guy. Why are you guys so sloppy? If I had to guess I’d say you’re a bunch of wanna be hunters.”

“We are a small group. Not good enough to be among the hunter elite, but we all have connections to hunters. That’s how we secure some weapons and information. There are many others. Small groups like us”. Unbelievable. So not only do we have to look out for Hunters, we have to look out for these pseudo-hunters too.

Who knew talking to your prey before you kill them could be this enlightening. So just as we have rogue wolves, they have…..rogue fake hunters. How many fake hunters have I killed thinking they were part of the hunter's agenda and hating them more for their hypocrisy. Hunters act like they are so high and mighty and they have all these rules they follow but, yet they take out anyone that they see as a threat as if it's nothing.

“I’ve decided I won’t kill you yet”, Asher is quietly observing me. I bet he’d tease me later for not killing them even though I know he’s secretly glad that I didn’t. In many ways he has always been the miniature angle standing on the right side of my shoulder.

“You say your mother is a Hunter?”, I ask the nineteen year old.

“Yes”,

“I’m going to let you go. But know that you owe me for sparing your life and I will come to collect when the time is right”, I crouch down beside him, his eyes watch me curiously as I rip a small piece of the fabric of his shirt, then I allow my nails to grow out into claws and I give him a sizeable cut on his arm. He winces in pain as I use the piece of cloth to soak up the blood. I intend to squeeze it out into an anticoagulant bottle when I’m back to my car. That way I can keep it safe and fresh until when it's needed. It's not something I'm proud of but, I do have a decent sized collected of blood samples I've collected over the years and it makes me pleased with myself just knowing I could find those people whenever I wanted. Many of them end up being useless but, at this point, it's a bit of a hobby.

“Don’t try to hide, don’t try anything funny because I will find you”, I assure him right before I place my hands on his injury and slowly but steadily take away his pain. I’ve never done this before for a Hunter but, then again - he isn’t a Hunter. Just a misguided boy.

When I’m done I get up but he doesn’t stand up yet, although he realises that the pain is gone and he can probably walk again.

“Asher, we’re going to keep this one. He knows more about this space and he’s willing to talk. Don’t heal him”, Asher picks him up and we walk back to my car.