The One That Came Back (The Bounty Hunter Trilogy)

Chapter one

A/N: Hello and welcome back! You are about to read the first chapter of "The One That Came Back", the second book of my trilogy I have decided to call Bounty Hunters. There is some Spanish in here, for which the translations will be provided at the end of the chapter. I do not speak Spanish, however, so if I have failed with that, feel free to correct me. That's all, I hope you like this book as much as the last one and the updates will be due on the same time as last time - on Tuesdays!

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Magnus had always liked Mexico. Sure, the dry air wasn't doing wonders on his skin or his hair, but the warmth of the country as well as the people he'd encountered, were thrilling. The plains of sand weren't much to look at, though, so he was glad when he pulled into the small town of Malinalco, having driven roughly two hours from Mexico City, or rather around it. Magnus was well aware that Hodge Starkweather would never risk going to such a big city, hence the small town rising from the horizon now, as Magnus rode the rental jeep through the dusted streets.

The car had a roof that was folded at the back, no windows of any kind except for the windshield glass, so the hot air was gushing through the car and ruffling Magnus's hair. They had grown to a considerable length now and his beard was itchy. He shivered, not wanting to look into any mirror at this point. But it was a good disguise and being an experienced conman, he would never neglect that.

The streets were not empty, but not crowded either. The black tarmac was melting in the heat of the sun, Magnus checked his phone and it showed that it was almost 82 degrees outside (A/N: about 27-28 degrees Celsius, I think, correct me if I'm wrong). As he rode past the houses, he observed the people as well as the buildings. The houses were in rough state, at least in this part of the town, the roofs somewhat collapsed on some of them and the brick walls looking worn down. People on the streets looked ragged, a lot of them wearing slightly dirty clothes. He noticed two man arguing at a fruit stand, one of them holding a small girls by her hand. She had dirty blonde hair and looked to be about 3. Her face was smeared with dirt and she was holding a ragged looking doll, with one of it's eyes missing. She stared as Magnus drove past slowly and he smiled at her. The girl smiled back as he drove away.

He searched for the right building - the place where he was hoping to stay at. When a truck was racing past him, he pulled the bandana that was around his neck, to his mouth and nose, not wanting to inhale the cloud of sand and dust that accompanied the huge vehicle as it stormed past his own. He squinted his eyes. Some debris fell onto the asphalt as the result of the wind the truck had carried with it and  he saw a red-bricked building with a sign of a bed on it poking out of it's side. The metal pole was rusted and the sign barely visible, but Magnus recognized it immediately, even though it had been years since he last laid eyes on the 'Villa Margherita' (A/N: Even though the town is a real place, I have made up all of these descriptions as well as the names of any buildings or streets, since I've never actually been there). 

He parked the car on the side of the road, eyeing his surroundings suspiciously. He didn't need someone to steal the car, and from the looks of these people, they might be capable of it. Just as he was contemplating, whether to move the car somewhere more private, the door of the guest house swung open. It was half-dangling from its hinges. Clearly, it hadn't seen many guests over the years. A woman, chubby and short, was standing there, a smile plastered on her face. She was wearing a long red and white dress with a flowerprint, and the fabric flowed in the little breeze they had in this hot weather. The sleeves were short and puffy and she was tan - more so than Magnus himself, and he had seen quite a lot of sun these days, not to mention that his skin was already quite dark due to his inheritance. The woman's hair were assaultingly orange, much more so than Clary's, whose were more red than ginger. The woman's eyes, though, were a soft and sweet brown, much much darker than Magnus's own, almost black in certain lighting.