1
Ilost count by the tenth or eleventh kill as the sun was starting to rise, it had been a long night, longer than it had been in a while. I had hit three different hot spots after my first club closed and it had become quite a difficult night. Exhausted, I threw my keys down on the side table in my apartment hallway and kicked off my boots.
My feet stung as they touched the cold stone floor and I made my way down the hallway, throwing my jacket and blood-stained shirt on the floor and then upholstered my guns and placed them in the cabinet in my dining room.
Turning around quickly, I picked my gun back up, aiming at the person sitting idly in one of the dining chairs, their legs resting on the table as they played with a dagger, spinning it in their hand and then smiling as they looked up at me.
“Long night, I thought you’d be back at least an hour ago.”
“Jackson. What the fuck are you doing here? You’re lucky I didn’t shoot you.”
“Oh honey, you wouldn't have even if you wanted to and yet no bullet holes and even if you did fire, you know they’d be useless on little old me.”
Lowering my weapon, I returned it back to its place in the cabinet and then started to remove my knives and vials of holy water, putting them all back in their rightful places. Ignoring the tapping on the table from Jackson’s nails as he waited patiently for me to finish up.
Locking the cabinet and putting the key back around my neck, I ignored him and headed towards the kitchen as he followed me in tow. If I didn’t already know what he was, I’d be confused by the non-existent sound of his footsteps.
“Can you get right to it then Jack, I am ready for a shower and bed.”
Pouring myself a glass of water, I eyed him closely as he sat down at one of the barstools and then proceeded to place the dagger down on the counter and looked up at me with his intriguing brown eyes.
“Do you know who this belongs to?” He pushed the dagger towards me, and I leaned over a little to look at it, uninterested.
“It’s a dagger, so what?”
“So what? Hayley, this belongs to one of the alpha’s vamps’ minions. It’s pure silver, I thought you’d be more interested than this?”
“Maybe if I wasn’t so desperate to sleep, I’d care a little bit. Can we talk about this when I get a few hours and then you and the clan can have my undivided attention. Clearly, this has got you all riled up if you are showing up here unannounced before sunrise.”
“Hayley, this is serious. The alpha hasn’t been seen in almost a hundred years and his men barely come towards the city limits, they know the peace treaty still exists with the clan and yet bodies have been showing up, humans are going missing. Werewolves are prowling the outskirts of the city and ghouls have been spotted more in and around cemeteries. It’s got everyone a little concerned so the least you can do is act like you give a shit.”
“Jackson, again can we talk about this later?”
“Not a chance, you're Van Helsing and this shit comes first before anything else. So go and take a shower as you stink of death, I will make you a strong coffee, and then we are heading to headquarters. You can have a nap in the car for all I care but I’m to bring you in, as our leader it’s your duty to get to the bottom of this.”
Running my hands through my silver and lilac hair, my hair colour choice of the month, I rolled my eyes and sighed, slamming my glass down onto the counter in frustration and headed towards the bathroom.
One thing I hated the most about my parents, aside from their unexpected deaths, was the job I was given as soon as they died. I wasn’t a leader; I was a fighter and trained killer.
I wasn’t interested in the politics that came with the family and I most certainly didn’t abide by the rules that were set out for me to follow from century old goons who hated women and most certainly would hate the idea of the clan being now ruled by a woman after so many centuries of being ran by a male, my father being the last.
Feeling the heat hit my aching body, I shudder at the intensity and turn the temperature down just a little bit. My eyes felt as though they were on fire from the lack of sleep. I've only had six hours of sleep over the past three days, and I was becoming moody. I didn't want to go to headquarters with my head this far up my ass as I knew I’d only get issues from the council if I didn’t attempt to care about their concerns.
Turning off the shower and wrapping a towel around me, I headed into my bedroom, ignoring Jackson’s calls to hurry up, and threw on a pair of blue skinny jeans, a black t-shirt, a pair of comfortable Converse and my leather jacket.
I threw my damp hair up into a ponytail and quickly checked myself over in the mirror. Yep, bags for days just as I thought and a nice new red scar appearing just across my left cheek from where a lady vamp caught me with her talons earlier this evening.
“Are you done fussing?” Jackson said standing at my front door, the aura around him starting to glow a little red with his inpatient.
“I will be in a minute.”
Opening my weapons cabinet again, I took one of my guns and tucked it down the back of my jeans and covered it with my t-shirt. I knew deep down I didn’t really need to bring a weapon with me, but I never liked to be caught short, just in case something happened on the way to headquarters.
Locking the cabinet back up, I joined Jackson in the hallway as he opened the front door for me and handed me a travel mug filled with nice, freshly brewed coffee.
His car was parked across the way from the apartment block entrance and thankfully he wasn’t being too gentlemanly and didn’t open the passenger door for me. I hated it with a passion, when a man did that, especially when I am perfectly capable of opening a door myself.
The journey would take at least an hour or so depending on traffic and as much as I hated being in a car, I much preferred my motorbike, it was nice to rest for a little while.