Adamayurka's Hunt

Chapter Two

The walk to the client's apartment wasn't as pleasant as I would have liked, but then in this city no walk ever was. The sun was riding high enough in the sky that its light was somewhat visible between the forty-story buildings that comprised every inch of the city except for the Royal Palace, the University grounds, and the Port District. The streets were so crowded that it was impossible to take a step without being jostled by some shadow shrouded stranger, which wasn't doing any favors for my injured thigh or for my temper.

Afterthe third time of nearly being knocked off my feet I decided it wouldbe in my best interest to take the back-alley route to the client'shome instead of the main roads. Too many people were rushing aroundtrying to get as much as possible done in the relative warmth of thesunlight, even if that sunlight only meant an extra degree or two ofwarmth in the city's perpetual winter.

Withinminutes of turning into the nearest alley, the cacophonous noise andpress of bodies diminished to the barest trickle. They were replacedby head high piles of trash, some of which hid sleeping homelesspeople whose jobs paid so little they couldn't even afford afirst-tier apartment. Over it all lay the stench of both fresh andstale urine and feces from the chamber pots that got emptied over thesides of the fire escapes.

Despiteall of this, I was able to limp along at an almost respectable rate.I had just begun to breathe easier when a protracted, pain-filledscream pierced the relative silence.

Iincreased my pace to as close to a run as my injured thigh wouldallow and followed the echoes of the scream to an even smaller alleythat ran at a right angle to the one I was on. At the mouth of thesmaller alley, I came to an abrupt halt as my preternaturallyenhanced sense of smell was assaulted by blood and another scent I'dnever smelled before. Had I not been a Shifter, I would never havepicked out the smell from among those of the rotting garbage,unwashed homeless, and emptied chamber pots.

Thestrange scent shared underlying elements with vampires, but it wasalso quite distinct It was . . . colder, and held stronger hints ofthe grave -- dirt, and mold, and decay.

Whatevermade that scent was bad news.

WhenI first caught sight of them, I didn't see anything wrong. Thescreams had stopped by this time, and at first glance what I sawlooked like a young couple sharing a kiss surrounded by children --perhaps children the girl was babysitting.

Thenit struck me as a very odd place to stop for a kiss -- the stench,the trash, the possibility of people dumping chamber pots on theirheads. That was when I became certain there was more here than metthe eye.

ThenI heard the girl whimper and was sure of it beyond doubt, even as Icaught a stronger whiff of the cold / vampire / decay smell. Iglanced back to see the boy and the children looking at me with blooddripping down their chins.

WhenI glanced at the girl, I saw blood pulsing from two puncture woundsin her neck, and from several bite marks on her legs, where her skirthad been shredded.

Ihad no idea what the boy was, but I knew I had to stop what washappening here.

The boy turned, letting the woman fall to the ground, where she immediately began crawling away. As one, the children surged toward her. That was when I realized that the "children" were, in fact, vampires.

The boy glanced over his shoulder.

"Stop!" he said. They stopped. "Stay, and do not interfere." They moved toward the end of the alley where they could see me better, then stood still, the woman they had been feeding on seemingly forgotten. At least I had accomplished that much. She crawled around the corner of the alley and out of sight.

I dragged my gaze back to the remaining creature. Whatever this boy was, he controlled the vampires. Not a good sign. Then the boy got closer, slipping between the vamps, and I was shocked to realize I recognized him.

"Tomas? Tomas Cobb, is that you?" The boy cocked his head to the side as though he recognized the name. We kept walking toward each other as I called out to him. Then he took a swipe at my face and backpedaled quickly, seemingly unsure of my ability to retaliate. He had moved quickly, with a kind of extra-preternatural speed I'd never seen before. And I'd gotten a good look at those claws. They were like those of a vampire, only longer and sharper.

With my injured thigh, this was not going to be pretty. Still, I was a Hunter, Tomas had been of the first tier. This was my job, so I unsheathed my long sword and waited for him to come at me again.

I didn't have long to wait; Tomas was fast -- faster than even that first test strike of his let on. One second he was standing perfectly still and staring at me, the next, he was in front of me, swiping at me with those insanely long, sharp claws. I wondered what other tricks he had up his sleeves.

I barely managed to raise one vambrace-clad arm in time to deflect the next swipe, immediately quick stepping backward to get the range I needed for my sword to be effective. But the bastard kept pace with me, seemingly without effort.

To my knowledge, there wasn't anything in the world that could match the speed of a Shifter – and as far as I knew, I hadn't done anything to stunt my abilities, just stopped myself from Shifting.

I turned to the side to dodge another swipe of Tomas's claws, simultaneously sheathing the sword with my right hand and using the left to trigger the release on the spring-loaded dagger concealed in the vambrace. I winced and stumbled, nearly losing my balance as both thigh and wrist protested the motions and the slime from rotting refuse tried to help my feet slide out from under me.

As I recovered from the stumble, I released the right-hand dagger from concealment and turned to face Tomas with two weapons more suited to close-range fighting.

Tomas was already coming at me again, arms spread wide as though he intended to grapple with me. Uh-uh. I wasn't about to risk that this guy was as strong as he was fast.

I ducked beneath his outstretched arms and stabbed at his gut, hoping he'd back off. He didn't. He batted my arm aside and I heard bones crunch in my hand as it impacted the fire escape and the dagger went flying to the far side of the alley.

I was in some serious trouble here; my best weapon, the long sword, was completely useless in this kind of close-range fight. And it looked like this creature was a match for me in speed and possibly in strength.

I looked around with an eye to escape and noted the fire stairs that led out from the third level of the building beside me. Trash was piled up nearly that high and the surrounding area was covered in a slime I'd rather not identify. Still, it would be close, given my injured thigh, but I thought I could make the jump.

I began dodging Tomas's attacks in such a way that each movement brought me closer to the fire stairs. After the third such move, Tomas stopped, obviously wanting to follow, but seemingly unable to do so.

I looked around, trying to determine what had changed. Nothing I could see . . . except I was now standing in one of the rare patches of sunlight that had managed to make its way between the forty-story buildings to reach the ground.

The pain from my injuries must have been affecting me more than I realized; otherwise why would it have taken me so long to realize Tomas had spent the entire fight avoiding even the smallest patch of sunlight?

I nodded to myself. I could work with that.