Better to Have Loved #3
A woman’s lifeless body was laid out over the pavement, torn at the waist and chest. Blood pooled underneath her, and it was clear whatever got to her wasn’t human. The long cuts across her chest looked beast-like.
A Shifter?
In unison, we hurried through the crowd over to the body, and the scent of blood infiltrated my nose. I could track whatever it was from here. My guess was it likely fled nearby and took advantage of the chaos.
“Stay close,” Phillip instructed.
We flitted so fast that no human could see us. Our speed took us right to the thing, already onto its next frightened meal. It reacted by tossing the poor dude, already dead, onto the floor. Then it sprung out at Phillip and became a blur in my vision.
The speed wasn’t vampire. It wasn’t even Shifter. This was something else entirely.
Its beaming red eyes, fanged mouth, and tar-black skin were the things of nightmares. Almost like an illusion, not fully solid and made entirely of translucent black mist, it moved between us. Both of us were forced to fight defensively, taking turns to evade its slashing strikes.
When it caught my shoulder with sharp nails, it was pure agony. For as long as it took for my skin to instantly mend, I was tortured by a pain no memory came close to.
“You okay?” my companion asked while fending off another attack. “Its claws are poison to our blood.”
“No kidding,” I remarked breathlessly. “Fucking hurts.”
“It’s not pleasant, no,” he said, laughing in spite of our current situation.
The Austrian’s pale eyes tracked the beast as it crouched low in a corner to prepare for another attack.
Then his response was instantaneous. Without hesitation, Phillip grabbed me around the waist just in time to evade another clawed hand.
Thankfully, the swift action of the other Hunter snapped out of the daze I’d been put into with the pain and unknown enemy.
Now wasn’t the time to get lost to questions.
“Just for future reference, getting decapitated is almost a sure-fire way to end your life. Remember that.” His serious voice tickled my side. “Not even you and I can survive an injury like that. You know, no genes for re-growing heads exist. Well, none to my knowledge.”
“What the actual fuck, Phil?!”
“No time,” he said, pulling his claymore out of its sheathe. “I’ll explain everything later.”
His sword swung out, and the beast effortlessly blocked the blade’s path with a shadow-blade it had somehow manifested out of nothing. But the weapon, though appearing more like mist, acted solid when hit.
It wasn’t like anything I’d ever seen.
But my Hunter training kicked in. I could ask questions later. Assuming first that we survived the encounter.
Getting my head back into the game, I wielded a long dagger in both hands and went after the creature with all my years of practiced training.
Even with the two of us being as strong and as fast as we were, the beast matched our movements and countered each one. Without totally knowing its weaknesses, it was a shot in the dark to do something effective.
“Not many things can kill it aside from decapitation,” the other vampire hunter whispered, so low it wouldn’t register in human ears. “A clean decapitation or it’ll instantly regenerate.”
Nodding, I kept close to his side. “Lop off the head in one go. Got it.”
Phillip’s swings were carefully calculated, leading the beast’s arms away from its neck. The two of us worked together to disarm it. And when I delivered a kick to its side, Phillip was already off the ground, twirling in a full circle and cutting his blade through our foe’s neck.
Blood Slayer lived up to its name.
The creature’s head was hacked off, and it rolled over the ground before everything burst in an explosion of black liquid. I was showered in the stuff, and I couldn’t even collect my thoughts long enough in the minutes afterwards to be disgusted.
What did I just fight?
Phillip turned to me, somehow totally clean. “Oh…” His eyes trailed down my black-coated body. “Yeah, that’s going to take a couple of washes to get off.”
“Phil…” I growled, shutting my eyes to keep from screaming curses at him. “What the fuck was that?”
Phillip ignored me and dialed a number on his phone. “Looks like we’ll need more Hunters in this area. Just decapitated the first Shadow Goblin I’ve seen in a decade. Where there’s one, there’s always more. We’ll need reinforcements to help find the nest.”
Shadow Goblin?
When the other Hunter hung up, he looked over at me again, lips tilted in amusement. “Let’s get you cleaned up. Rose will kill me if she sees you like that, so you’re better off coming to my place first.”
“You’re a real hoot. It’s too bad you survived a goblin just to get murdered by your partner,” I threatened with a hiss and stomped off the direction the car was parked. Carefully, I ducked in and out of back-alley walkways to stay out of the public eye.
Two dead in one night. A text from a man who I hadn’t seen in nearly two weeks. A new creature that moved like a shadow, looking like some Japanese-inspired Yokai.
What a night.
Most of the crowd still hovered where the poor woman had been left dead on the pavement, so I went unnoticed when we reached the car despite being literally covered from head to toe in thick black liquid. Flitting through the streets in the heavy liquid was difficult all on its own.
I’d never felt so damn dirty in all my life, and a shower had never been more necessary or desirable as it was in that moment.
Phillip paused next to his car, humming. “I should’ve brought some towels.”
“Please tell me you’re not actually worried about your car right now when I’m covered in goblin goo,” I hissed, pushing him out of the way and getting into the car.
Phillip complained and wiped away some of the black sludge I’d gotten on him, so I found my smile again.