The Razor

Chapter One

Alone in the gnarled and twisted woods stood an old, static caravan. Moss and fungus littered the walls, and no animals dared enter the forest clearing where it sat stoic and silent, like it had been there always. When the depth of night came accompanied by soft, pattering rain, the light flicked on inside, and whomsoever resided behind the caravan walls made themselves known.
The flimsy glass panelled door flew open and banged the sides; a stocky young man with tattooed arms and dark, shortly cropped hair on his head and face stepped out. His hazel eyes were surrounded by a ring of gold, and looking into them was like staring out at the ocean's horizon at dawn.
He locked the caravan with a set of keys on a ring, then made to leave and stopped dead in his tracks.

"Straker...what the fuck are you doing here?"

He said gruffly, as a woman had appeared in the clearing and stood in front of the man, seemingly out of nowhere. She wore a grey suit, white blouse top and leather heeled boots, her black hair was about shoulder length and she had dark, bold blue eyes.

"How charming."

She said, smiling but without humour.

"I told you I didn't want to be found, Skylar. Clearly you've lost your grip on the English language."

"We need you to come back. Shit has absolutely hit the fan, what with your unnanounced depature from The Guild."

Raven rolled his eyes at this, earning himself a frown.

"I'm not coming back, I told you I'm done."

Raven's words rung with absolute resolution; he turned from the woman and made to start walking into the thick of the forest, but Skylar followed, and fell into step beside him.

"You once told me being a mercenary for The Guild of Mercai was the highest honour a vampire can have."

"Did you ever consider that I might want to drop out before an eternity passes me by, and all I've done before some arsehole stakes me is work for someone else?"

Skylar clucked her tongue in irritation. She put a hand on Raven's arm to stop him, and they both halted on the dirt track.

"We have a new target, worth a lot of fucking money. We think this one might be of interest to you."

"I doubt that. Look, I'm tryna hunt for my evening meal here, either tell me the name of the guy or just fuck off, 'cause I don't wanna deal with this."

Raven and Skylar simply looked at each other, lost in a mental, unspoken battle for dominance. The wind picked up around them and they both came back to their senses.

"His name is David Cox. The Guild agrees with me, this one can only be taken out by The Razor himself."

Raven felt something primal stir inside him, a beast of old rumbled in his belly; fear, humiliation, anger. A terrible anger flared in his eyes, and Skylar could see it.

"Fine, I'll take the damn job, but I promise you now it's the last fucking time."