S E E I N G R E D
"Pesky little shit, aren't you," Julia muttered, standing in the wreckage of a vampire feast. She knew who it was, and she'd been tracking him for a while. She glanced over at the local authorities, who were scratching their heads and tossing theories out.
"It had to have been at least four, maybe five?" one of the men said.
Julia snorted. Next to her, another hunter idly scratched his chin with his knife. He threw her a knowing glance, his almost-white-they-were-so-light blue eyes fixing on hers. At least
they were on the same page about this.
"You think it's him?" Uriah asked, his voice quiet, heavy drawl still audible.
"Without a doubt," she confirmed. "Carnage is his style. What I don't get is, why is he so fixated on
women? Ever notice there are rarely any men caught up in this? The last time we only found one, and I
think it's because he walked in during his little feeding frenzy."
"Yeah, his body was right by the door," he agreed. "I think he's still in this town, though. Probably hiding somewhere. He's not done yet," the hunter speculated.
"I think you're right," Julia said. She turned to the men investigating. "Listen, we can take this job for you, but you need to give us space to work. This vampire will get ugly. I mean, you can see for yourself," she said, gesturing to the blood-covered walls. It was like he'd painted them.
"Alright, then," the man who seemed to be in charge agreed. He looked at Julia, but then bypassed her and spoke to Uriah. "We'll concede to you two taking care of this. What's your fare?" he asked.
Uriah raised an eyebrow at him. He'd accompanied her because he was interested in catching this particular vampire, but he certainly wasn't in charge of this situation. He was, and would always, work independently of the guilds. He didn't like rules, and he felt the few they had at the time were still a few too many. "Julia, what's your fare?" he asked, a
tone in his voice suggesting that the man should probably be speaking with her, not him.
"I'll let you know when we're done," she said. Her voice was gruff; she was tired. They'd traveled for two days with very little rest, and this was the first thing they'd seen upon entry of the town. "Let's get settled and I'll come up with a figure."
"I think maybe you might be outmatched," the man said. "We've had these creatures in the past, but never like this."
Julia looked at him, and the man felt like she was looking through him. "It's just a vampire," she said flatly. "If he can bleed, I will bleed him." The way she spoke gave the man the impression that she'd been doing this far longer than he had originally assumed. He wondered what could have happened to her in her life that made her quite so - so stone-like, really, but he thought better of it to ask.
The next night, Uriah had gotten a tip that a man in black had left the tavern near the inn they were staying in, and the description matched the vampire. He got Julia, and they set off in the same direction he'd gone. If he would have known that the vampire was already developing such a unique ability, he might have come more prepared, but as it stood, he'd never met something that could best him.
They heard someone scream, but it was brief - like it had been only their imagination. Julia had been looking down at the ground, noticing the way the path had been disturbed. The scream caused her head to shoot up. "Well, guess we're on the right path," she said, looking at her comrade. "Let's go end this." She drew a wicked-looking knife from its sheath at her thigh, and set her jaw.
When they entered the alleyway, Uriah first as was customary (since he was a fucking
rattlesnake and far more durable than Julia was), they spotted the man they were searching, and at present he was ripping the throat out of a woman - literally. He didn't notice them, which is how Uriah got as close as he did before something
happened. Julia saw the man's head turn, and then Uriah just dropped to the ground, covering his face.
"I can't fucking see!" the hunter shouted.
Well, there went her tank. Julia emerged from the darkness where she'd been hugging the wall just as the vampire dropped the woman and went for Uriah, and threw her knife with a grunt. Her aim had been good, but the vampire shifted, and the thing aimed for his heart instead buried itself hilt-deep in the soft tissue of his shoulder.
"Ah, you little bitch," he spat, his voice more irritated than angry. He ripped the knife out and threw it aside, and Julia lost it in the shadow of the space they occupied. "You, stay right here," Jeremiah said, patting the blind hunter. For safety's sake, he took away the man's sense of touch, and watched as he crumbled to the ground, blinded and now floating in some personal void.
Julia had another knife at the ready, but before she could loose it, her own vision failed. Everything went black. She knew that the vampire would be on the approach, but couldn't guess as to his speed, already getting a sense of his confidence. She guessed that he would walk to her, and she threw the knife about where she figured he'd be. She had guessed correctly, but because Jeremiah was now focused on her, he saw the move coming, and batted the knife away as though he were smacking at a mosquito.
She felt herself being picked up, and the hard contact with the brick of the wall knocked the wind out of her. She sputtered, struggling for air, trying to pull her limbs in to guard herself as a solid crack to her side was felt. Well, there went a few ribs. It was incredibly painful, but she wasn't screaming - more like, angrily grunting and growling, trying to break free of his grasp. She kicked out a few times, and she felt her knee contact something soft, and then had the sensation of falling as she was dropped onto her side. Apparently, a well-aimed knee to the groin worked on vampires.
Julia dug her fingers into the earth below her, trying to crawl as fast as she could in any direction that she didn't hear the vampire swearing. "Uriah!" she called. She heard the hunter moaning, but then she couldn't hear anything at all. God
damnit, how many abilities did this motherfucker have?
"No, no marco polo," Jeremiah hissed, righting himself finally. Now that Julia couldn't see
or hear, he had a moment to pause and take a breath.
Two hunters? Had he really drawn that much attention to himself? Maybe he shouldn't have snuffed out his entire bloodline so quickly. In truth, he'd been searching for his sister, but had only found cousins and the like, and he'd decided perhaps he didn't
want a family after all. Killing them had been a chore, though; they'd all moved away from Salem and he'd had a hell of a time finding the last of them. She'd been the easiest kill, though, he thought, glancing back to the lifeless body with a head nearly fully detached from his fervent biting.
"Well, since neither of you can see, and only one of you can hear, I guess I've taken all the fun out of this," he said glibly, folding his arms to look upon his get. "
Two hunters. Adding you both to my kill count should build me a little credibility, I think. Maybe it'll draw that sister of mine out of whatever woodwork she's gone and thrust herself into."
As he reached down for Julia, saying something about "Ladies first," he only saw a flash of red, and then felt his world go upside down.
"Don't mind if I do," a feminine voice said. It was a stark contrast to Julia's rough sound, and Jeremiah realized a third contender had entered the fight. He held his hands up to strip her of her senses, but a sharp boot to his face stopped him from getting there. "No, no," she said, as though she were correcting a child. "That's quite enough of that."
Despite being unable to see or hear, Julia reached out, grabbing onto Jeremiah's arm with an iron grip. She pulled another knife out of her load and began stabbing feverishly, marking up the left side of his body as his face was being crushed under the heel of the newcomer. With enough of his energy being spent on trying to stay alive, he released Julia and Uriah from his hold.
"Quick, get him before he - " Uriah shouted, but it was too late. He watched as the hunter's boot phased through the man who had just disappeared, and hit the ground, hard.
"
Damn," she hissed. "I wanted to crush his skull."
"Jo," Julia heaved, rolling onto her back. "Glad you could make it." She was worse for wear - Uriah didn't take any damage at all, this time around. It seemed it had been Julia's turn. "I kicked him in the dick," she laughed, blood staining her teeth as she smiled. It hurt to laugh, though, and the smile faded into a wince as she moved her hands down to her side. "He kicked me first."
Josephine knelt down next to Julia, a frown on her usually quite pouted mouth. "I
told you they still had feeling down there," she said softly. She took the girl's hand, and clasped it with a firm grip. "Sorry it took me so long," she said, and the apology was genuine. She looked over her shoulder to where the rattlesnake stood. "Come on, help me get her up. This town's got to have a doctor
somewhere. I'll rip him out of bed if I have to."
"Josephine, always a pleasure," Uriah said, nodding to her as he helped pull Julia to her feet. "Might be easier if I just carry her," he suggested.
"No," Julia snapped. "No. I'm walking away from this fucking fight," she insisted.
"Alright, then," Jo said, tossing her flaming red hair over her other shoulder, the one that didn't have Julia leaned against it. "Walking it is."
S C R E A M
"Yeah, thanks man," Julia said, taking the pack of cigarettes from the dude behind the counter at the corner store. She walked outside and dipped her head, one already in her mouth, preparing to light it with one hand shielding it against the breeze, when
it happened. It felt like her head was about to fucking explode suddenly, and she hit the concrete
hard. If she'd been human she probably would have busted a kneecap on the drop, honestly, but as it stood, the pain was all in her fucking head. She dropped her cigarette and her lighter, hands pressed to her temples as her mouth opened in shock and pain. Through the radiating sound in her head, she realized that it wasn't someone hitting her with some LRAD, it was someone screaming
mentally, and it was just like, loud enough that she picked it up. What bothered her, though, was that she knew the flavor of that scream.
She got up off the ground, pushing past the few people that had stopped to help her up, and bolted down the street, running like Forest fucking Gump as hard as she could, darting in different directions as she felt it get stronger and weaker depending on where she went. When she'd actually zeroed in on it, she looked the building up and down, and grit her teeth. She might have known the flavor of that scream, but she
really knew this MO. She debated on going through the back, but decided this was a front door job, and mangled the glass door on her way in. She used her celerity to get her up the stairs, and was glad for it - kicking open the door from the stairwell into the construction-cluttered room of the building ready for demo, she found her two most favourite people in the entire world leaning over a hunter that she recognized.
That's why she knew the flavor of the scream -it wasn't the hunter they had pinned down, it was
who was doing it.
Jeremiah crouched over the blonde, a wicked-looking knife in his hand, blood already coating the blade. "Well, I got a finger, you wanna go for something more in depth?" He looked from the redhead and down at the hunter, who he'd muted, but done nothing else to. He just didn't want to hear her yelling - which hadn't exactly worked, because she knew how to project her thoughts. Oh well. He'd deal. "Hey, blondie, you thought about having kids?" He looked back at the redhead. "We could go Poughkeepsie and carve her womb out. Hunting's not a life for children, anyways." That's when the door crashed open.
"Why is it that every time there's some fucking trouble, it's you two?" she snarled.
"Because we're
awesome?" Scarlet asked, looking up at her. She rolled her eyes. "Come on, Jules, get with the program." She looked back down at the other vampire. "Kids suck, but I think playtime's over."
"Is that
mine?" she yelled, spotting the knife in Jeremiah's hand. "Oh, you motherfucker." She didn't go for Jeremiah though, she went for
Jo. The former hunter had fully expected that Julia would go after her comrade first, and hadn't jumped away from the hunter's body yet, which was exactly what Julia had banked on. It'd been many years since they'd seen eachother, but in that time, Jo had only gotten crazy, and Julia? Well, Julia got practical.
"Let her the fuck go, you little shitweasel, or I'm gonna blow your girlfriend's fucking brains out all over myself and wear her to dinner," she demanded. She had Jo in an iron grip, the barrel of her gun pressed firmly against her pale temple. "Jo, so nice to see you again, by the way," she said, labor on her words as the vampire struggled in her grip. Julia made a point of keeping her off balance just enough that she couldn't try anything fancy.
"It's
Scarlet, you fucking hag," Scarlet snapped. "And he's not my fucking boyfriend."
"Right,
Scarlet," Julia said, her low voice dripping with sarcasm. "Sure could have fooled me - HEY, fuckface, I said get the fuck away from her. Do you think I'm fucking with you? And
quit trying to use your power on me, you fucking loser. It doesn't work."
"I realize that," Jeremiah said, standing slowly. He stepped back from Aurora a few feet, his hands up to show that he wasn't doing anything. He
had tried to use his abilities on Julia, and it should have worked, because she was younger than he was, but for whatever reason, they didn't. "Don't remember it always being that way, though," he said snidely, smiling. "Give me Scarlet, and we'll just... be out of your hair."
"
Give you her, huh? What are you her fucking maker?"
Jeremiah chuckled. "No, I'm not. But Jericho is, and he's not really one I'd fuck with, so...."
"Yeah?" Julia asked, squeezing Scarlet to get her to stop squirming. She crushed her collar bone in the process, ignoring the vampire's angry cry. Oops. "The way I hear it, your line's been put on notice. Pandora got eaten by a big fuckin' tiger," she teased.
"And didn't Bacchus get himself stabbed? By
this little blonde hunterino, right here, if memory serves?" Jeremiah asked. He put his hands down, and stepped back towards Aurora's mess of a body. "Don't you want some revenge for dear old dad?"
"GET the fuck away from her, Jeremiah," she commanded. "And besides, my daddy's still upright and walking around."
"Not for long," Scarlet hissed.
"What the
fuck is that supposed to mean?" Julia asked, keeping her attention on Jeremiah. He backed away from Aurora again, and had his arms folded, only watching.
"It
means, you idiot, that Bacchus made a lot of enemies. It's not gonna be us, but it's gonna be
someone eventually." She had stopped struggling, and began to laugh. "You guys have
no fuckin' idea what's coming. I saw it. It's
dark and
big," she whispered.
Julia threw her at Jeremiah, Scarlet laughing wildly as she felt the push. She followed immediately with two shots, just in time for Jeremiah to give Aurora her voice back and the screaming to start. She was certain the first one hit, but it only struck that idiot Jeremiah in the arm as he grabbed Scarlet and they vanished. "Fuck," she hissed. She holstered it, but only because she didn't trust tweedle-dumb and tweedle-dumber to come back.
"Hey, you're safe now, you're safe," Julia soothed, dropping next to Aurora's body. Fuck, but had they done a number on her. At least they'd only gotten a pinky, which they'd left thank god. What
else had they done? "I need to see the damage report, kid, sorry," Julia told her. She was already at work ripping her flannel shirt up to use as a make-shift bandage for her hand.
Another one of
her old hunting knives was buried into Aurora's femur.
Shit, she thought.
I'd be fucking screaming too. "Just go ahead and keep screaming," Julia muttered, taking back her soothing words from before. Aurora was mostly done screaming, though, thankfully, but Julia much preferred it aloud than in her goddamn head. "You really hit me with that hail on all frequencies," she said, glancing over at her as she pulled her phone out to notify Victor of an incoming body.
"Yeah," Aurora managed. "Fucker stole my ability to talk, or make
any noise at all, so I just... I don't know, went into my head." She grunted, looking down at the knife. "Fuck
me," she hissed.
"Yeah, well, it's a good thing you did," she said to her, before directing her attention to her phone call. "Hey, Batten, I've got one on the way. Yeah, she
was one of ours - Snow. No, two vampires. Mostly surface, except for a broken femur and a missing finger. I said
mostly. Yeah, I'll be there soon. No, we're jumping, I can't move her. We're a few stories up. Okay, bye." She put her cell phone away, and then looked at Aurora.
"Alright, are you ready to do this? Have you ever done this before?" she asked. She meant phasing, of course.
"No, but I don't really fucking care right now, to be perfectly honest," Aurora grunted. "Just get me the fuck out of here."
"Okidoke," she said. "Give me your hands. Well, not that one, the good one," she added, taking the girl's hand. She held it tightly and then the sensation of the world moving hit them, and they were in the infirmary at Crimson, greeted by Victor.
"The floor, Julia?" he chided. "Now
I have to move her."
"Sorry,
Victor," the vampire snapped. "It's a fucking imprecise science." She stared at him as he made no move to help. "No, don't worry, I got it," she said, waving him off. "Don't want you to throw out your back." She scooped up the injured hunter as carefully as she could, setting her down on the gurney. "Alright Snow, this is where I get off the ride. Do you want me to call anyone?"
Aurora watched with pin-pricked pupils as Victor prepared some shots and began reviewing her medical files. She'd have to be under for them to fix the thing in the femur, and he figured she'd prefer to be for the re-attachment of her finger, as well. She also needed several hundred stitches, judging by how they'd cut her arms and torso up. Why on earth had Julia called those
surface wounds? He'd have to remind vampires that humans had a different definition of surface.
"Hey, Snow!" Julia said, snapping in front of her. "She's going into shock."
"Yeah, I'm working on it," Victor said briskly.
"Call?" Julia prompted her again.
"No," she said, shaking her head. "No, there's nobody."
"Ooookay," Julia said. "Victor, I'm gonna - " and she pointed to the door.
"Yes, good, get out of my way," he said, waving a clipboard at her as the medical team came in. He started barking orders about anesthesia and pre-prep for surgery, and Julia was out the door. She didn't know whether to believe her when she said there was nobody to call, but she knew that the girl had a
reputation for making friends, so she figured she should at least let
someone know.
"Hi, can I talk to Devraj Rashana?"
Who better to call when you'd found a hunter tortured than the torture expert?