Hunter

Chapter 37

         Arthur was dressing the table while I was cooking when I told him about Henri's sanction.

"What? Only five months?"

"I know, that's not much. But what did you expect?"

"Well... I expected him to be fired, I don't know!"

I shook my head.

"Sophie is a woman, what is more, she lives alone. If she had been a man, or even married, things would have been different..."

"Yeah, well that's not fair."

Sure it was not fair, but what worried me was what was to come. Henri held me responsible for his downfall and he was not the kind of person to let things go without a revenge.

"And how is Sophie?"

Arthur dropped on a chair near by and awaited my answer.

After I had reported Sophie's agression to Bob, I had advised her to stay with Gaspard for a while, in case Henri would be tempted to go after her again. Both her and Gaspard had flushed, however, they had followed that piece of advice and Sophie had been staying at Gaspard's for about a week. She was fine. She even seemed more blooming, probably reassured by Gaspard's proximity.

"She is okay."

Silence fell and we could only hear my knife resound from time to time. Then, all of a sudden: "Dad, do we have silver anywhere?"

It surprised me. The knife ripped and I cut myself.

"Ouch!"

I shook my hand vividely before bringing my left index to my mouth.

"Sorry." Arthur said.

"Why do you want silver?"

He shrugged.

"I'd like to see if I can touch it without getting burnt."

I turned towards him, examining my finger.

"Since I can control the turn, maybe silver has no effect on me..."

I shook my head and went back to work.

"We don't have any left. I throw it all away when you were little."

When Arthur had started to walk, I had carefully got rid of every object made out of silver, afraid he might hurt himself if he had inherited his mother's lycanthropy. Except for the silver bullets I was compelled to keep for work. Of course, I was not to allow my son to mutilate himself.

"Please! You must have some silver bullets!"

Sigh.

"Oui, but you won't touch them."

"But think! Wouldn't it be better to test it now? What if we go to someone's house and there is silver there? If I don't dare to touch it because of it, they will get suspicious won't they?"

He made a point.

"The answer is no."

"Come on! We need to try and you know it."

I gave up. There was nothing else to do. We went upstairs to my office. I opened the drawer of my desk, took a box out of it and put it on the piece of furniture. I crossed my arms on my chest and encourage Arthur with a nod. He came to the desk and took the box.

"Ah! It's hot, it's hot!" he said making the box jolt from one hand to the other, before catching it back and adding: "Non, I'm kidding. I don't feel anything."

"That's because this box is made out of copper."

"Ah."

I nodded to confirm and pretended to rub my chin to hide a mocking smile stretching uncontrollably on my face.

Arthur opened the box and watched the bullets for a moment. He put the box on the desk, glanced at me, then, after one last moment of hesitation, he took one of them. His palm opened towards the sky, the silver bullet laying on it, I held my breath for a few seconds. Then, Arthur closed his hand. 

"No, I can't feel anything."

I exhaled, relieved, but suddenly, Arthur opened his hand again and cried in pain. The bullet fell to the floor, steaming. I rushed to him as he held his wrist, his hand wide open. His palm was stripped with a red mark the shape of the object, but nothing too bad.

"Rahh! It hurts!" he grumbled.

"You're the one who wanted to try." I said ironically.

Boom, boom, boom!

Three hasty knocks echoed from the front door. Arthur and I looked at each other in the eye. Who was that? It was around 9 pm. I went downstairs in slowmotion. They knocked again twice before I had reached the ground floor. I feared the worse. The knocks were so hasty, what could have happened, who was it? Arthur, must have been wondering the same thing because, although he was not patient, he stayed behind me without protesting. Slowly we reached the door. I opened it and Sophie appeared. Out of breath and clearly worried, she did not give us time to say anything.

"Farax Ronchard escaped!"

"What?!"

Sophie fumbled in her pocket and finally took out a folded sheet of paper with my name written on it. She handed it to me and I took it shaking as I recognised the paper. I unfolded it slowly and a small paragraph written on the portrait, probably the vampire's, appeared.

"You've kept your secret well.

You played me and now, it's my turn to get you into deep shit.

Have fun with that warlock.

Henri."