The Sun's Traveller

Chapter 1

"You ARE aware that you look terrifying right now, right?" Lena said with the edges of her mouth turned upwards. Was this her attempt to be friendly?

It was almost as if that psychopathic murderer were actually smiling. But no, that could never be it. The dim moonlight barely illuminated her face. Perhaps it really was his imagination. It had to be. Lena found it tedious to mimic human emotions. She would not ACTUALLY smile at James. She could not. James probably was imagining things.

"Terrifying? I had no idea that you knew any notion of the word. I thought that you were too tough for it," James said, eyeing the two drunken black silhouettes on the horizon. Now he was ignoring Lena.

Still he had to say, 'wow!'

They were so perfect. His attention was pulled away by their vulnerable stagger - their unfocused gaze; their conveniently delayed reflexes. They could not tell the difference between a  pistol and a hand grenade right now. They were so captivating. They seemed to be coming from the direction of the party. That meant that they were very, very drunk. 

That meant that it was very unlikely that they would fight back. 

That party was so bright, compared to the unlit docks out here at night, their bodies and faces were blurred silhouettes. Their bodies also cast a shadow so large it completely shrouded Lena's face in darkness. That was a relief. Her dumb blank expression was starting to nag him. Just because he was tempted to eat Lumines, Lena thought he was a criminal or something.

Quickly, their shadows grew smaller - they were getting closer. The swinging shadow from their drunken stagger flashed on the metal containers like lightning. Little by little, the intervals of light got longer and longer until James could actually see again. Their silhouettes were almost tiny. His eyesight was adjusting. The unsuspecting faces of his prey were almost in sight. Yup; dilated pupils and rapid eye movements. Just as he thought - their eyes were not processing anything right now.

Hopefully goody two-shoes Lena would not have a problem with it. As a perpetually oh-so-smart and morally ethical detective, she would probably object to him taking a quick meal. She really was a pain.

"Lookie here, bonehead. You're salivating. That's why you're terrifying. You are eventually going to be my undoing in the future. I can't help being afraid of you," Lena said, putting her hand on his shoulder. Oh  right. They were talking about how scary he looked. He forgot.

And that was another cryptic sentence in the middle of her dialogue again, folks. It was almost becoming normal. She spoke sometimes as if she knew him and actually knew for certain that he would go berserk and kill her. It did not make any sense. James even protected her dainty little butt sometimes. He had to, she was his employer. Why would he harm her - much less be her undoing?

She hired him as an assistant to hunt down criminals. It was rather strange. She was a detective, at least that was what she told him. Somehow, for some odd reason, she hired James, an actual low-born dirty criminal, to catch and kill even worse murderers. It was strange that she knew exactly where they would show up. It was even weirder that she knew so much about him as if he were one of the criminals on her list.

He had never actually eaten anybody. He was nothing so interesting. He just committed small crimes that other similar orphans that grew up on the streets would do. He was nothing special. He thought about eating people, as 'the gifted' in their population supposedly did - which  was indication to him that he was probably special somehow. But that was the thing. That was how HE knew he was special. He never once told Lena about his powers. Yet she knew about them and even incorporated them in her plans. She herself was terrifying.

She stared at him with these pleadingly feminine eyes that somehow simulated the effect of delicacy. James never would have expected that a privileged little rich girl like her would know how to catch criminals - especially so adeptly and without the slightest aversion to the possibility of killing. Not just any killing; this was the DIY type. She would not allow James to hurt them, yet she sometimes did it herself.

It was ironic really. Usually her kind was afraid of him. Yet somehow, he knew to be afraid of her.

James sighed. James knew not to make eye contact with her. A hunter/detective like her could only feign emotion towards a pleasant like him. What stunt was she trying to pull? James could see through her act. Sun people were on the top of the social hierarchy. They believed his kind to be dumb monsters. She probably would be considered pretty where she came from. Just a few seductive bats of her eyelashes surely had to leave the likes of him defenseless she thought. If Lena believed that this soft-little-lumine-girl act would pacify him, she had another thing coming.

James met her gaze and promptly snarled. That was his way of telling her that her taunts were nothing.

Tightening her grip, she said, "Don't make me have to end you. I couldn't have creatures like you trying to hurt humans. That wouldn't end well."

Tucking her dark and long curly hair behind her ear with one hand, James followed her eyes as she looked down to sigh. That was another reason she was terrifying. Her whole identity was a subversive masterpiece. He did not want to admit it, but she was legitimately pretty ... yet she was an experienced killer.

Somehow her soothing expression almost distracted him from noticing that she pushed him down by putting her weight on that arm.

Interesting. A power move. She pushed him down while she got up.

Her shoulders were tense. Her hand was brushing against her gun holster on her belt. It was not for their perpetrators tonight. It was for him. She was threatening him. She was asserting her position as the one on top. James could not stand for that.

"We don't take orders from your kind down here. I don't care if you're afraid of me. Just don't think you can command me like your servant."

Her eyes widening, actually seeming to portray legitimate surprise, she opened that entitled little mouth of hers to speak. James cut short any crazy words that were about to come out of her mouth and said, "Careful, they're here."

Lena loosened her grip. Finally her attention was off of him.

"James," She said in that serious tone of voice again. She was about to tell him to do something bad. "Firstly, you are so much more powerful than you even know. You'll figure it out eventually."

Great. That flaming hot load of crap about her magically knowing the future like a clairvoyant of something again. She really knew how to get under his nerves.

Handing her gun to him, she said, "One power I know you have that you don't quite know about yet is your ability to harvest kinetic energy. I want you to take the energy of these flying bullets and sink that boat beside us."

"What?" James said, a little more believing of what she said than he was comfortable with. Sure what she said was junk, but she was probably right.

"Why not just use the actual bullet? If that isn't going to work, why would I harvesting its energy work?" James said, still suspending his disbelief.

"Oh. I'm gonna shoot several," Lena said matter-of-factly, as if it had been obvious.

"Wouldn't they hear us?" James said, basically on board with it at this point. Whether he liked it or not, he trusted her. He needed to get the rest of the questions out of the way before he listened to her.

Lena replied, "Our goal isn't to nab the baddies this time. They are going to lead us to the boat with all the loot. We're then going to sink it before anybody else gets their hands on it."

"How do you know this stuff?" James asked once again.

"I'm glad you trust me. Unfortunately, I can entrust you with that bit of information yet," Lena said.