Careless Encounters

Chapter 23-

Eli pulled his hood over his head, attempting to blend into the crowd, but the men kept at his heels. Following him with persistence, it had been a month and he'd found it strange that no one had come for his head yet. They were here now and their bloodlust hung in the air leaving a distaste in Eli's mouth. To think Eve's father would send these creatures after him was off, he'd always been a man to avoid association with anything below a Hunter. Ghouls weren't friendly, they stood out and they'd eat anything. They were as low as it got in their food chain, eating corpse if they needed. Flesh was all they'd think about, all they did was kill and eat, eat and kill. Sad creatures.

Eli made his way into a parking garage where there would be less witnesses. Less people to get hurt. They began to close in, but Eli bolted into the elevator hitting the close button watching them rush to catch the doors too late. He hit the top button to go all the way up to the eighth floor. He assumed there would be little to no cars there, which meant less chances of people watching what was about to go on.

He walked backwards, facing the elevator and ramps, waiting for them to come up.

“Long time no see, Eli,” murmured a voice that made Eli cringe. When he turned to face him he noted the he hadn't changed much, he still wore that face of entitlement. Red hair cut short, freckles like a boy, but he was obviously taller now and was wearing a suit and tie.

“Finally running daddy's business?” Eli asked with a smirk indicating to the attire.

“Killing people has its perks.” Eve's brother grinned. “You should know about that though, right?”

“I do,” he replied with a shrug. “So why are you here, Thomas?”

“You know why,” Thomas said with a sigh.

“You hated Eve more than anyone,” Eli reminded him absentmindedly. “You would always say you wanted her dead.”

“It's not personal, Eli,” he assured. “I just have orders.”

“He always did prefer to have you get dirty,” Eli agreed. “Eve was the heiress and you're the family goon, aren't you? Born to work under daddy.”

“Don't taunt me, Eli,” he warned. “I've accepted my place, especially now that my place is the heir to the family. I actually owe you a lot.”

“Then how about you tell your undead to let me walk and we call it even?” Eli teased.

“You know I can't,” Thomas said with amusement dancing in his eyes. “My father would remove me of my newly acquired position. Plus, they're hungry.”

He glanced behind Eli to three growling figures, Eli sighed looking behind him at the pale with black bulging veins and black beady eyed faces. Their bared yellow and black teeth made Eli give them a look of disgust. Thomas held a hand up to them and they froze on the spot not making a single move towards them.

“Your father wouldn't approve of ghouls,” Eli practically scolded Thomas. “Not when he's given you title of Hunter.”

“He’s not the only one keeping his hands clean,” he told Eli with a smile. “Especially when dealing with you, killing you would get me executed without so much as a proper trial.”

“Then why risk it?”

“Why did you kill Eve? You had to know this would be coming?” Thomas asked with sincere confusion. “Marrying her could have been tolerable.”

“There is no way that would have ever been tolerable.”

Thomas laughed. “Is it about the violation she reported to the clan? I heard she was upset about something you were doing, unfortunately I wasn’t told what it was about. Not in full detail, anyways...something about your involvement with a human.”