Chapter 3
The academy was a lot more active at this time of night than almost any other building in the city, except perhaps for the casinos, where people lost track of time. Even those grew more quiet toward this time of night.
It was the way of a vampire hunter’s life. We would all be heading to sleep at dawn and not before. We slept when the vampires did. And it often took a considerable amount of the night to get the targets taken care of, and in our case with this one, two nights to track them down and deal with them.
Most of the vampire hunters in the building glanced our way and then looked back to whatever was in front of them swiftly. A sort of hush followed us that was soon filled with whisperings.
The academy was still talking about my two missions before this team and what the team must be up to now. And whatever else they had to say about the team and me when they gossiped.
I pretended not to notice and looked toward Naomi, who was closest to me of the three. “So, what do you think you’ll do with your money this time?”
She shrugged, not picking up on me wanting to generate some kind of conversation level. “Same old things, I guess. Celebration drink, then bills, and if we continue having a good patch, save plenty for a rainy day.”
Although I had hoped for something else, it was about as sensible as any of us ought to be.
If there weren’t any vampires to take care of, we didn’t have jobs or money coming in.
Given that anyone could join the academy in theory, it meant that fewer jobs on the board impacted everyone, and there had been times in history where vampire hunters had found themselves out of work.
I didn’t know how my parents had managed, nor did I know where the academy gained its funds to even pay us at all. Until recently, I had never even questioned it. This world was a secret so I had assumed that many other elements were also secrets.
Once more, I joined the small queue to hand in our completed mission and the personal item we had taken to have our mission success verified.
While we were standing there, waiting to be called up to one of the four desks with people who could check us off and have us paid, I noticed a team of three handing over their personal item to be paid and finding that it either wasn’t the right personal item and they hadn’t taken something close enough to the vampire, or they’d killed the wrong one.
It was embarrassing if the latter happened.
In many ways, everyone believed that a dead vampire was a dead vampire, but the academy liked to be very specific about whom they killed and didn’t like us deciding for ourselves.
Another reason I suspected my parents had bucked the trend and tried to live another way but still be vampire hunters.
The team tried to protest, even pulling out a few other items, but none of them gave them the positives they needed to get paid. I watched them get turned away, the man on reception entirely heartless. There was no confirmation, so they didn’t get paid.
Thankfully we didn’t have to go up to that desk next, the guy one of the worst for sticking to the rules and making it hard on the teams to claim rewards. Sometimes it was like the guy just hated us for being the ones out there facing the enemy.
Instead, we got to make our way up to one of the processors who was at least impartial enough to do her job well. I had deliberately gone up to her when I had got back from the mission to kill Ludis, and she smiled when she saw me.
“Well, well, if it isn’t our team of the month so far,” she said.
I blinked, almost stepping on my own feet as I tried to process what she’d just said. “Team of the month?” I asked.
“Yup. Your team has delivered several decent-paying jobs, and all of them in quick succession. Because you did the big job solo and not with a different team, it also counts toward the team total for the month. It’s put you in the top 10.
If you’re about to hand me another, I can imagine you climbing. ”
“We are,” Tess replied before I could. She beamed at the processor and even Alan seemed to lift his shoulders up a little more. “And it was a twofer.”
“There was another vamp?” she asked.
Alan handed over a sock from each of them. “Yeah. Not sure if there will be a price on his head, but we got him too. Here’s her mission token. And we got this one from him, just in case it means we completed another mission.”
Although I doubted that we’d be that lucky, it wasn’t entirely unheard of in these situations. I wasn’t expecting it this time. She had more than likely turned her own boyfriend, and unless he had done some killing without her, we wouldn’t have any reason to expect the extra mission credit.
Of course, there was at least one processor who didn’t like to credit hunters for a vampire killed outside the mission taken, no matter whether they were the subject of another mission, especially if another team had already picked up that mission. It was a lot of paperwork.
“Let me process the main vampire.” Our processor smiled as she took the sock and performed the test. Within half a second she had the confirmation that we had killed the right target. Naomi let out a relieved sigh and even Alan grinned.
He pushed the other sock over the counter, smiling even more as if he thought it might help to be friendly and enthusiastic. The processor took it and cleared the previous one from being nearby, so it wouldn’t interfere in the test results.
No matter what this test said, we had the comfort of knowing that one job was done and we would be getting paid tonight.
So far, since I had got back, other than putting a deposit down on an apartment, I hadn’t spent any more of the reward from killing Ludis, and I’d been adding to my savings so fast since that.
This was yet another huge chunk of money that would be saved against future issues.
“Oh, yes. It looks as if we just had this one put on the list and job board. Someone flagged the vamp for his activities last night and we took it on. No one has the job yet, according to the system. If one of you could go and get the job from the board, I will assign it to you and then have it marked as complete as well.” The woman smiled up at us, clearly waiting for someone to go and do as she’d asked.
I backed up a little. “I’ll get it.” I happily walked away and out of the room where so many hunters were staring at us. At this time of night, there would be few people by the job board.
The processor hadn’t mentioned which pay level or difficulty level the job was, so I didn’t know where to begin looking for sure, but I assumed it would be similar to the one we’d already done.
It had been considered an easier job, so I started there and looked for whichever one might match the description.
The jobs left on the boards were still fairly decent, and more than normal for this time of night.
It was clear that they were more than enough for us to deal with right now.
When it got like this and the vampires were both restless and numerous, it was common to see pay increases on some of the posted jobs, especially if they had been up on the board for a while.
I finally found the one that sounded right, posted less than twenty-four hours earlier for a male that matched the description, and unpinned it. As I turned, I almost bumped into two of the people from my previous team.
“Anais!” Laura exclaimed. Almost immediately Monika sidled over and got partially between Laura and me.
Monika was the wealthiest one of us hunters from my previous team and had taken a dislike to me instantly over our last failed mission.
I had gone to Laura to ask her for help on my big mission and she had been pulled away from even considering it by Monika.
Not long after that, I had found the only friend I had not on my team, Emma, dead in her apartment.
“I’m surprised you dare to show your face in here after failing so badly,” Monika said, looking down her nose at me in the most overdramatic fashion. I almost laughed at her.
“Failing? I completed a hard mission for a powerful true-blood with an entourage right after seeing you all last, and my new team is now in the top-ten teams this month.” I shrugged. “I’d hardly call that failing.”
Laura’s eyes widened and for a moment I thought she was going to ask me about it and be friendly for once, but Monika took her arm again and slipped her own through it.
“Come on. Let’s find our next job and get back to our team.
It’s clear Anais thinks she’s better than us, even when she’s teamed up with rejects who’ve just got lucky. ”
I very visibly rolled my eyes and let them have at it as Monika pulled Laura over to the hardest section of the board.
No doubt to try to catch us up. If they wanted to turn this into a competition, they could.
All I cared about was doing my job and keeping my team alive.
Now I didn’t have to worry about bills for a while, I could focus on training and whatever was happening with Leo.
Taking the job listing back to my team, I pushed thoughts of the idiots out of my head. I wasn’t long, but the team couldn’t do anything until I came back and they were clearly growing more impatient with each passing second.
The woman behind the desk was also looking for me, but she smiled as soon as I appeared and held out her hand for the job notice.
It didn’t take her long to assign it to us and then immediately credit us.
To my surprise, it was for even more money and we’d basically made an entire month of bills money in a single night from the two combined.
“Well, that’s all sorted. Well done, team. The money will be paid to you before you’re back here tomorrow, but it’s plenty, so feel free to take a night off if you need to. You’ve done good work and the academy thanks you for your service.”
The last part she said was a standard line from the processors if a mission went okay, but it was still good to hear it and it made my companions lift their heads and beam, Alan especially.
“Take a night off?” Alan asked. “Not when we’ve got a top-ten position to maintain.”
“That’s the spirit,” she replied. Everyone else laughed and I did my best to chuckle politely. The last thing I felt I needed was more attention from the academy. And I doubted this team needed it either.
With that sorted, we made our way back out of the academy. We had to go past the still fairly decent-sized queue of hunter teams waiting to turn in their jobs. By now, the news that we had bagged two jobs in one night and had no doubt climbed in the weekly stats had spread between them all.
If I thought they had all been looking at us and whispering to themselves on our way into the academy building, they were doing it even more now we were on our way out.
This time my team were far less oblivious to it, but they relished in the attention, holding their heads high and talking excitedly about what we should spend some of the money on.
I couldn’t help but smile at their enthusiasm and tried to focus on the team and ignore everyone else around us. Despite that, I saw Monika glaring, her arms folded, as she stood by the jobs board.
“Is there anything you’ve always wanted to have the money for?” Naomi asked me when we were getting close to the door.
“Not really,” I replied, not sure I could think about it. “We’ve got a place to stay and money for food. I might upgrade some of my gear, but the rest will go toward savings and travel if my savings get large enough.”
It was the most detailed answer I would have given anyone despite me not wanting to think about it. Naomi nodded as if she understood. “There’s a reason you’re in charge. You’re clearly the sensible one.”
Alan chuckled and Tess grinned.
“And you have skills no one else does,” Alan added as we finally left the building. He spoke loudly enough I was sure that the entire academy would have heard him, but the door swung shut before I could clarify that I didn’t think so. He’d just made me sound so arrogant.
I tried not to show my annoyance. It wasn’t Alan’s fault that everyone was so judgmental.
When I tried to put it behind me and head home, the others stayed where they were, hesitating.
“We should celebrate our double win tonight and how cool we are for getting into the top ten.” Naomi smiled and looked toward me. I frowned and tried to think of what we could do.
I was about to suggest we could get a takeout when I remembered that they wouldn’t be open at this time of night.
“Anyone want to go to a bar or club?” Tess asked. “There’s one not far from here that’s still open at this time of the morning.”
Everyone else was instantly enthusiastic and I smiled at their desire to go dancing or celebrate. I was about to turn again when all three of them looked at me.
“Are you going to come too?” Naomi asked.
I lifted an eyebrow. I’d assumed that they were going to go do their own thing again.
They had been in the same team before I had become their sort-of-leader and it led to them spending plenty of time together outside of the job or when we were all at the apartment.
It was the first time they had made a point of letting me know I was invited as well.
“Yeah, you should come with us,” Alan added. “You need to have some fun too. Come on. We really wouldn’t be doing this well without you. And we’re all making a great team.”
Tess nodded and almost bounced on the spot with hope.
“Okay,” I said. Why couldn’t I join them and see what it was like? Alan had a point. We were working as a team, and spending more time with them might do even more good for us as a team.
“Yay,” Tess said before letting out a whoop. She took my arm in hers before I could change my mind and before I knew it, we were all walking to the club Tess had in mind.