Sinnamon

Hunter and Hunted, Part Three

The Wrangler was nice, Sindra had to admit. It wasn't her first choice but at the same time, she really couldn't be picky. Especially if Koda absolutely enjoyed it.

"Woooo! This thing is so awesome!" And of course she had let him drive. "I'm so glad we went with the Wrangler instead of the Cherokee... I mean really. This thing's got so much power." He was currently going twenty over the speed limit, but luckily they were out in the countryside so they couldn't hit anyone on accident. It was already bad enough that they had to worry about a potential magic-wielder teaming up with a werewolf... Sindra didn't want to worry about killing any people either.

"Yes, just keep your eyes on the road." Sindra kept watching out of the corner of her eye as he kept messing with the center console and every single button around it. "And I'm glad you finally have a sense of urgency to continue this hunt. I thought you were going to talk to that Carl guy for hours, and I'd have to leave you and pick you up later."

"Oh haha, not funny," Koda muttered as he finally stopped messing with all of the buttons. He rested one hand on the wheel and the other hanging out the window. "With this potential sorcery involved, you wouldn't be able to last without me. I may be a hunter, but I'm also very good at my magic."

Sindra sighed, leaning her head back against the seat. "Yes, we've been over this. You've established this when we first met and several other times after that, including last night."

"'Kay smart-ass, I know you already know," he said with a chuckle. "But man, I am excited for this hunt. I feel more pumped than ever to take this thing down."

Sindra laughed. "You don't always say this before every other hunt we've done. What's the big deal about this one?"

"On this one, I might get to go up against some sorcery and practice my magic skills a little more." His hand tightened on the wheel and he moved his arm back inside the car before he closed up the window. "I figured I could take down this sorcerer or sorceress, and you could go after the werewolf. Seems more logical that way, right?"

She shrugged. "Sure, that's fine. But be careful what you wish for, because not all sorcerers and sorceresses are incapable of hurting people like yourself. You'd have to have some serious skill in order to accurately take one out."

Koda just nodded at that, and Sindra was surprised he didn't have anything else to say to her words. But she was glad that he was going to take this seriously and not joke around, because this would be their first hunt with a magic-wielder and werewolf pair. And with that said, she could only imagine what the stakes would be like.

After about fifteen more minutes of driving in silence, Koda pulled over into an abandoned gas station parking lot. He pulled out a map and began scanning it for the farmland that they were currently headed to. Sindra leaned over to do the same.

The second that they had bought the rental Jeep, they had done some heightened research on where the werewolf might be. They had looked up Deschutes County on Google and found results that consisted of an abnormal series of animal killings outside of town, in some land that had been owned by the late Oliver Patterson. He had been an old corn farmer that had peacefully maintained his property for about thirty years until he mysteriously died one night last summer. The property had been neglected since then, since almost no one knew where Patterson's secluded property was located at, and he had had no family on record to take care of it. And now, a certain evil had taken over and made its presence known by slaughtering the remaining animals on the farm and all around the property, unknowingly gathering attention to itself. Sindra had been victoriously certain that it was the werewolf from last night; it would take a real dumbass to not figure that one out.

Back to the present, Sindra and Koda finally got back on track again and pulled out of the abandoned gas station parking lot. They sped along the highway at eighty miles per hour until Koda slowed down to turn into an almost hidden dirt path on the side of the road. The dirt path was surrounded by very tall grass, taller than the Jeep, and after about five minutes of driving through it they could see a house in the distance. It was sitting on a slight hill, overlooking the property all around it, as Sindra could see once they drove up the incline and parked it to the side of the house. It had a wrap-around porch with weathered white rocking chairs situated all around, and the front door still looked welcoming despite having no one enter through it in over a year.

"Alright, showtime at last," Koda muttered, grabbing his charms and shotgun from the backseat. He joined Sindra at the front steps of the house, then they slowly walked up and approached the door. Oddly enough, it was unlocked, and Sindra hoped they would be dealing with an incompetent werewolf that didn't think to lock doors. The smarter ones were often the most vicious.

Inside the house, it was eerily silent and dark. All of the curtains had been pulled to block off all daylight, or it could've been to block moonlight since the full moon had been last night. And so far no signs of life dared to show their faces to the two invading hunters. That was definitely a good sign, since Sindra would much rather scope out the rest of their surroundings first before they would encounter a potential magic-wielder as well as the werewolf.

Sindra raised her handgun and carefully examined the kitchen, and after finding nothing in there, she searched the bathroom a little farther down the hallway. After that she rejoined Koda in the living room and sighed. "Nothing down here. But we've still got the upstairs to check," she whispered

He nodded, and then they silently made their way down the hall and to the stairs that loomed at the end of it. The house seemed to be holding its breath for the two strangers that now crept within it, looking for their werewolf prize. Sindra's hands were tight on the gun as she reached the top landing of the stairs, then slowly made her way down the hall. There was a large window at the end of it with a random table sitting directly below it, and there were two bedrooms on one side of the hall and one on the other with a bathroom next to it. Sindra scoped out the bathroom and the master bedroom next to it, while Koda searched the two bedrooms on the opposite side.

Sindra almost didn't notice the bathroom within the master, and she quickly searched that one too. She cursed to herself as she walked back into the hallway. There was absolutely nothing in this house. Nothing. Where the hell else could the werewolf be hiding?

Koda rejoined her in the hall, slinging his shotgun back over his shoulder. "I've got nothing. Man, this thing is elusive."

Sindra nodded. "I couldn't find anything either, which means we'll either have to double check the entire house again, or we search the rest of the property. It's gotta be hiding around here somewhere, if it isn't in the house..."

"Or maybe its magician friend is really doing an excellent job at concealing it," Koda muttered bitterly as he gripped his charms tighter in one hand. "I don't have any way of tracking its energy... I'm not that experienced in magic yet."

"That's fine, we don't need to track it. We just need to search for it around the property, and if we still can't find them, then we'll just have to accept that neither of them are home for the day. However long it takes, we will stay and wait for this thing to come back so we can put it to rest at last."

Her powerful words hung in the silent air around them. The creepy darkness of the house now began to surround them and threatened to suffocate them as they walked back down the stairs and through the foyer. Sindra was prepared to force patience on herself before they had to search the entirety of the farmland, because that was the last thing she wanted to do in this moment. The anticipation of killing this thing was working her nerves harder than ever.

But as soon as they opened the door, they were met with a female duo standing at the base of the steps on the other side of the porch. One of the women had gold-brown eyes that glared right into Sindra's soul, and the other had icy blue eyes that threatened to shatter anything that moved. There is a magic-wielder... so it's true then.

It looked like they wouldn't have to go searching for the sorceress or werewolf after all.