Dragon Witch ✔️

27 - Monster Hunters

August 19, Wednesday

New Moons suck. Kill me now.

***

I awoke to Kyton pounding on my door. Was he seriously waking me up at the crack of dawn? The nearest monster hunter office didn't open for walk-ins until after 1:00pm. Even though it was a decent drive, we could get there in plenty of time--after I slept in a little more.

"I'll get up in half an hour," I said with a groan.

The pounding stopped, and Kyton let out an audible sigh. "That's what you said an hour ago. And an hour before that. It's noon already, and we have an hour's drive. Get up!"

I cracked one eyelid to check the time on my phone. Sure enough, it was 12:00pm. It felt like two in the morning. Stupid New Moon.

It took me another half hour to drag myself through getting ready, and even then, I managed to grab mis-matching tennis shoes and a shirt with a hole near the hem. If Kyton noticed, he didn't say anything as we went downstairs.

"Where are you going?"

I jumped as Dorian's voice slithered from the kitchen's doorway. "Just out. No biggie."

"Is that so?" He crossed his arms over a sweater vest that seemed oddly out of tune with the rest of his appearance. "I heard you two talking about the hunters. Have you heard what they do to monsters?"

Kyton rolled his eyes. "Yeah, that's why we're going to them."

He scoffed. "Be careful, fairy. They have ways of detecting your kind, as well as monsters."

So he did know what Kyton was. I'd suspected he might, seeing as Grandma had hired him--likely from one of her witching circles. It made sense that she would tell him about any Otherworlders living in the house.

Dorian's gaze drifted to me. "The hunters used to kill all Otherworlders, no matter what their species. You'd best be careful they don't find out what you are." It was obvious he had to be talking about Kyton, but his gaze never wandered off me.

Could he know that I wasn't what everyone thought I was? Could he actually know I was a changeling? No, of course not. No idiot would walk around like everything was normal when there was a changeling living in their workplace. Then again, it wouldn't surprise me if he was one of those weird cult people who thought monsters were awesome. If he was, he would have every reason to keep my species a secret.

But that was just speculation. In all likelihood, he just had a freaky crush on me and was checking me out. At least, I hoped that was all it was.

"Don't worry. I'll be perfectly fine." Kyton took my hand and led me out the front door.

***

As we drove down the highway, I thought about what Dorian had said. Even if he hadn't been directing the warning at me, it might still apply. The monster hunters probably had some kind of monster detectors. Scratch that, they definitely had something that could see through glamour. If they didn't there would be no way they could do their jobs. Whatever they used was probably just like a glamour glass, only without magic--because monster hunters weren't witches for the most part.

That was a good thing. I wasn't technically wearing any glamour. I still looked human, and any glamour-glass related object would show as much. The same couldn't be said for Kyton.

"Maybe you should stay in the car," I said.

"Hm?" He gave me a look that made me think he hadn't heard what I'd said.

"When we get to the monster hunters' office, I think if they figure out we want the dragon blood for an Otherworlder, they might not be so friendly about it."

"You're probably right."

I could tell there was something else he might say, but I didn't want to pressure him. This situation was hard enough as it was without me pushing him to divulge his deepest secrets.

Forty minutes later--after a decent nap--we pulled into the monster hunters' parking lot, and Kyton finally spoke his mind.

"I visited my dad this morning." He ran a hand over his face. "The first potion you gave me is working well enough, but it won't last forever. And the doctors aren't sure how well a second potion will work now that Dad's so sick."

"Oh. I'm-"

"Don't say you're sorry. Everyone's sorry, but I don't care about that." He swallowed, and his tone became less agitated. "I want to thank you for what you're doing, but if we can't convince the hunters to come soon enough, I'm getting that dragon blood one way or another, no matter what you say."

"I understand." Though, that didn't mean I agreed it was the right decision. Nor was I about to let him go through with his crazy plan if it came to that. "So I should definitely go in alone, then."

He shook his head. "They'll want to know why you want the dragon blood, and they have ways of tracking it. I looked it up on their website. They have micro-tracker things in their controlled materials, to make sure it doesn't end up on the black market. They'll find out what we want with the blood one way or another, so we might as well tell them now."

"Right." Because there was absolutely no way that could go wrong.

I tried not to let him see my unease as we got out of the car and walked up to the plain, two-story monster hunter building. It was made of brick and glass, with a white sign in green lettering over the door: Monster Hunters and Otherworlder Pest Services.

Kyton stared at my legs. "Did you hurt yourself?"

"No, why?"

"You've been dragging your feet all the way over here, and you keep leaning on me." When I frowned, he hurried to say: "Not that I mind. I'm just worried."

I shrugged. "And I'm just tired." As if to prove my point, a yawn forced its way past my lips.

"If you're sure..."

Trying to look more with-it than I felt, I straightened and led the way into the office building. Past two sets of glass doors was a pretty boring lobby with cream-yellow walls and gray carpet. The only interesting thing was the metal archway just inside. It could've been a metal detector, only it had several rods pointing up from the top and sides that I didn't remember seeing on one before.

Across the lobby, a woman in a green blazer gestured at me. "Come through, dear. It won't hurt a bit."

Okay, this was no big deal. It was just a giant, ugly glamour glass. It couldn't tell if I was a changeling or not. I stepped through, and the secretary peered at a monitor on her desk.

She frowned, then waved at me. "Go through again."

"Why?" I asked as I moved around the archway, trying to sound curious instead of terrified.

"Just go through again," she said in the tired voice of airport security officials.

Crossing my fingers that it was just a computer glitch and not the detector actually seeing my changeling-ness, I went through again.