The Trouble With Slaying

The Trouble with Research

I had finished the kitchen and gotten through half the living room by the time the sun was beginning to set. The slayer team had quickly begun to stir and headed out the door for some exercise. Shaw had dragged me along, saying he wanted to see how much training I was going to need.

We ended up at a park with multiple sport fields and trails to run and claimed a piece of it for ourselves. The three of them went through their own routines independently to start with. The Werewolf was more focused on building muscle. The Dhampire stretched out and seemed to be working on flexibility and speed. Shaw did a balance between the two and shot me a short order to follow his lead.

Then, when he decided we were done, Shaw lit up a cigarette and lounged on the bleachers overlooking the football field and the track running around it. He motioned for me to have a seat next to him and started questioning me on what sort of specialized training I had while the other two went for a run.

I carefully went through it all. Some hand to hand, an extensive knowledge on how to permanently kill, maim and torture Vampires, and I was a decent shot. Shaw hummed as he mulled it all over.

"And you did the spy thing."

I nodded as I watched the Dhampire... I supposed I should get in the habit of using their names if I was going to make this work and mentally corrected myself. Sawamura went sprinting up behind Liam, making no sound evidently, as Liam yelped in surprise when Sawamura smacked his ass and went sprinting away. Liam growled, but I could see the predatory grin as he accepted the invitation for a chase.

"We don't usually use spies. Stealth sure. But we don't typically need the long con deal. I'm sure we could re-purpose that skill set though."

I frowned as I studied Sawamura laughing as he dodged Liam. "Sawamura is his last name?"

"Mmhmm."

"And Shaw is your last name?"

"First."

"Why is he the only one to use his last name?"

Shaw shrugged. "That's the way he introduced himself. And we know enough about his culture to know using his first name without permission is rude."

"But you know his first name?"

Shaw sighed as Liam finally caught Sawamura and they went down in a scuffling heap. "Wish I didn't." And with that cryptic statement, he got to his feet and went striding towards the rough-housing duo, yelling at them to stop acting like toddlers and behave long enough for a briefing. He stood stiffly on the edge of the field until they extricated themselves from each other and came over.

Sawamura bounded over happily and made an impossible leap to land next to me, plopping down and folding lanky arms to rest on his knees. Liam and Shaw followed at a more sedate pace and leaned against the railing that separated the bleachers from the track.

Shaw began in a clipped manner. "We've got calls coming in from all over Virginia. Mainly Vamps that have recently found themselves rogue and aren't taking it well."

Liam glanced at me but the other two continued on without calling attention to the fact that I had had a hand in making those rogues. Shaw didn't look at anyone as he pulled out his phone and started messing around on it.

"We've got one real close to home so we'll start with that one. The rest will be tracked down and dealt with depending on how they scatter. Liam, you take Seth with you and do a little reconnaissance. This woman was the last to see the Vamp. She should be able to fill you in on everything we need since one of her employees has been feeding the rogue."