Chapter 2 To Be a Monster
TO BE A MONSTER
Jess had said so many things that had me reeling and I just wanted time to process it all.
Unfortunately, time only stood still when Mr. Bounty Hunter cast his voodoo magic.
He must have been all out of the stuff, because he dragged me through the dark streets as if the hounds of hell were on our tails.
All I could do was gulp in breaths of air as we fled through endless alleyways until I was hopelessly lost.
“Will you slow down? No one is following us,” I said through my chattering teeth. The rain had seeped through my thin clothes I normally wore in the stuffy bar and that frostbite feeling was back. I drew heat from where our hands touched, grateful that he didn’t let go of me even as we ran.
If he heard me, then he was doing a good job of ignoring me. Maybe Jess was right. Maybe the hunter was going to take me to my doom or something far worse. Her voice rang clear in my head.
You’re a monster.
You’re supposed to work for us.
Then she’d mentioned the academy... the hunter had come looking for me, but if I was really like Jess, if I was really a monster, then I belonged in a place like Monster Academy.
Not Fortune Academy.
None of this made any sense and I needed some damn answers.
There was nothing fortunate about being a monster.
If I’d really lost my memories because of some horror of what I was, then I had no desire to discover that part of myself, but I had a feeling that a hunter wouldn’t come track me down unless he thought I was special.
Having enough of the hunter’s endless plight—as well as the panic threatening to take over my thoughts—I yanked as hard as I could on his grip, making him falter.
He blinked at me with his mesmerizing orange eyes as if stunned I’d had the strength to stop him.
I grinned. If I really was a monster, then at least there were some perks if it made him look at me like that twice in one night. He wasn’t going to push me around.
“All right,” I began, “you’re going to stop dragging me through the rain and tell me where we are going.” I kept my voice steady in spite of the chill rolling spasms through my jaw.
The hunter rolled his eyes and tried to shake his hand free of mine, but I didn’t dare let go. If I did, I was afraid I’d really freeze to death. He was so warm and it felt like he was my only tether to life.
He glowered at me, but stopped trying to reclaim his hand. “I’m taking you to Fortune Academy, of course,” he said, irritation growling on the edges of his words.
“Yes,” I said, taking a step closer to him, “I got that much, but what are we going to do when we get there? If what Jess said is true—”
He yanked me in close until I flattened against his chest, making me squeak in surprise. His words caressed over me, angry, but I had the feeling his anger wasn’t directed at me. “That demonspawn said a lot of things, but I don’t pay much attention to her kind, and you shouldn’t either.”
I swallowed hard as my once icy cheeks flamed with new heat.
“You make it sound like I’m different.” I ran one hand down his arm, the one where he’d lost a hand saving me from Jess’s blade.
“You protected me...” I drew back the cloth to see how much damage there was.
No matter what kind of supernatural creature he might be, he needed to properly bandage a wound like that.
I gasped when the bloodied cloth fell away and revealed pink fingers. He flexed the appendage and gave me a seductive smirk.
“My gods,” I whispered. “Did your hand... grow back?”
He shrugged as if he regrew lost appendages every day. “Perk of the job, I guess,” he muttered and held his new hand up to the moonlight. A faint red line wrapped around his wrist—a scar that proved he’d protected me... a monster.
I ran my fingers over the raised line. “Will the scar heal, too?”
He flinched away from me and his hand disappeared into the folds of his jacket. “Scars don’t heal.”
Almost the instant he said it I noticed the fine raised lines that etched across his otherwise flawless skin.
He was covered with the soft lines that betrayed how much he’d already been through.
Perhaps it was the magnetizing pull of his metallic orange eyes that kept me fixated enough I hadn’t noticed the groove that ran down his cheek, or the long slice that ran horizontally across his throat. I shivered. “Who did that to you?”
He rolled his eyes as if I’d asked a ridiculous question. “I’m a Monster Hunter, that means I hunt creatures that don’t want to be hunted.”
“Pretty sure no one wants to be hunted,” I grumbled.
He glowered at me, which had an extra dollop of intoxication when his eyes glowed like that. I wasn’t sure, but it seemed like they were brighter. I decided that it either meant I was pissing him off, or his magical reserves were rejuvenating.
Then I realized that we weren’t touching anymore, thanks to that icy feeling at the back of my neck.
I reached out on instinct and took his hand again and the fresh surge of warmth swept through our touch, banishing the growing cold in my chest. “This rain is so damn cold,” I complained. “Why aren’t you cold like me?”
He looked at me as if he wanted to say something, but he pinched his lips together before tugging me closer to him. “I know you have questions and there will be time for answers, but right now I need to get you out of danger.”
“Pretty sure you’re the one in danger,” I pointed out.
Ignoring me, he knelt and drew out his blade.
It’s not like I knew the guy. Any sane person would have backed away from the supernatural with a weapon, but I knelt down with him and leaned in close, making sure to keep one hand on his forearm so that I could steal some of his heat.
The rain got in my eyes and seemed to want to slither under my skin, but the hunter’s warmth kept the cold intrusion at bay.
He took the blade and etched the sharp end along the ground, leaving a glowing line of red as if he could make cement itself bleed. My eyes widened. “Is that a spell?”
He grunted at me. “Yes, I’m making a portal so that we can get into Fortune Academy.”
Portal. We were going to travel to the academy in a.
.. portal. “Is that the only way to get there?” I asked, my voice rising a pitch.
I knew that I belonged in the supernatural world, but I’d already experienced a time freeze, fireballs, and watching a man with glowing eyes regrow a chopped off appendage.
His fascinating eyes narrowed on me. “There’s always a backdoor, even to a place like Fortune Academy. Now be quiet so I can focus.”
The rain around us clattered on rooftops and beat against the alleyway.
I found the storm much more distracting than I could ever be, but I obeyed and watched him as he worked.
A pattern of glowing red marks traced after his blade and he paused at the end of each one, seeming to consider the next line before he started it.
I’d never seen anyone draw lines so carefully.
Almost as if... this wasn’t how he normally ventured to Fortune Academy.
“Is that line supposed to be straight?” I asked, suddenly nervous that perhaps he wasn’t used to this method.
He glared at me. “Are you seriously going to backseat drive my portal spell?”
“Only because you’re using a back door. Why can’t we go in the same way everybody else does?”
I’d read enough on social media to get the gist. Fortune Academy even had a website, although they tended to be cryptic about how one actually joined the academy after getting approved.
They had one single application page with the first question being multiple-choice, “Select Your Supernatural Affinity,” with a long list of supernatural terms. I never knew what to put.
.. and that was for the first question. They didn’t have an “other” selection.
The next row asked for an ID number corresponding to a blood sample.
They had a link to the approved facilities where one could donate a blood sample for application.
Even if I knew what I was, for some reason I wasn’t comfortable with giving a blood sample.
I’d been putting it off until more of my memories came back.
The point was, it was clear that one did not sneak into a place like Fortune Academy. At least, not without some risk.
“Look,” the hunter said, surprising me with a measure of patience that he let slide into his voice. “I’ll explain everything, but you’re going to have to trust me. I can’t take you in the front door, but I can’t leave you here, either. This is the best way to make sure you’re safe.”
I didn’t know why a bounty hunter would care about keeping me safe, unless there was, well, a bounty for him to collect. I pushed my lower lip out and then sucked it between my teeth. “Asking for trust is a bit much right now, don’t you think?”
He opened his mouth to reply, but a crash behind us made us both jump.
I whirled just in time to see a very pissed-off Cindy barreling down the alleyway.
“Ungrateful brat! I take you into my home, put a roof over your head, and you run off with the first recruiter that sniffs you out? I found you first!”
As much fun as Cindy looked like she might be with all the fireballs still launching from her fists and smoke pouring out of her ears, I clung to the hunter and decided if I had to trust someone, it was going to be him.
Even if he was going to turn me into someone for a bounty, it would be at Fortune Academy.
He’d called Cindy the “Mother of Monsters,” and Jess had said that I belonged at “Monster Academy.” It didn’t take a genius to figure out who was the bad guy in this scenario.
.. at least, I hoped so, anyway. Right now I needed answers and a place where my life wasn’t in immediate danger.
If I had to place a bet, my bet would be I’d have better survivability at Fortune Academy with a bounty hunter who wanted to keep me alive rather than Cindy who looked like she’d rather kill me than let anyone else get their hands on me.
Which meant... I wasn’t just a supernatural, I was something that other supernaturals wanted.
Even if I didn’t know what it was, I had power on my side which gave me enough confidence to lean closer to the hunter. “You’re almost done, right?”
“Yep,” he said under his breath and then hurried with a few more scratches, completing the pattern of runes.
The last swipe sent the whole array alight with bright orange and red streaks as if the street itself had been set on fire.
I jumped back with a squeal, but the hunter grabbed my wrist and tugged me onto the blazing platform. “Trust me!” he yelled.
Maybe not for the right reasons, or maybe Cindy’s fire blazing behind me was a lot more frightening than the glowing runes at my feet, but in that moment, I trusted the hunter with my life.