Chapter One
I spin one of my sai on the tip of my middle finger. Maybe not the best idea, but I know what I’m doing. My training is the best in the world. When I aim for something, I don’t miss. When vampires see me, they tremble at my feet.
I wish.
But they should. I’m one of the best after all. They should be cowering the moment they hear the name Ashryn Barker. Not that they would hear me coming at all.
Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating slightly. But I am still one of the best. Though if any vampires actually know my name, then I’m screwed. And not in the fun way. Even if I’d heard that vampires were good in bed. Must be all the biting.
I’m even more screwed if they know about my other gift. Actually, I’m screwed if anyone knows about my gift. Other than exceptional training, and the uncanny ability of keeping the contents of my stomach when I kill something, I’m supposed to be as human as they come. It’s one of the rules of being a hunter. A stupid one if you ask me. Having a couple of shifters about would definitely make life easier.
I’m supposed to be human. Instead, I have the ability to shatter illusions. Sounds grand. But really it’s just kind of annoying. It means I can’t look anyone in the eyes. At least, not without being able to see past the mask they show the world, and into their soul. Not in a life-flashing vision kind of way. More in a just-knowing-stuff way. Like Geoff, one of the other hunters. I know he likes to chat up women half his age. At least he’s fifty, I guess. Makes it just creepy, rather than inappropriate.
With a flick of my wrist, I throw my sai towards the target that’s handily hanging on the wall. I say handily, almost like I wasn’t the one who put it there. But sometimes, a girl’s got to do what she’s got to do. Including throwing knives at the wall. It helps keep my skills up, so no one bats an eyelash, luckily.
Does nothing to help with stake training though. Yet another thing I find completely ludicrous. It’s like they want to be stereotypical. Nothing says vampire hunter like wearing stake holsters or carrying around holy water. And yes, I have to do that too. Thankfully, they draw the line at garlic. But only because it stopped working a century or so ago.
“Ashryn?” Roland’s voice calls out, and I startle. Great going, Ashryn. My reputation as the best is likely under question most days. Because despite being good at what I do, I’m terrible easy to take off guard when I’m not on a job. At least when I am, there’s no way of catching me out. Or not yet, there hasn’t been.
“Yes?”
“The Commander wants you.” He sounds a little nervous to me. Rightly so, too. Roland isn’t exactly a very good vampire hunter. He’s let at least seven of his last ten targets get away. And that’s a lot. My rate was more like one in a hundred getting away, and that was still considered bad. According to the vampire hunter guild, or whatever we called ourselves - no one really knew for some reason - anything less than a hundred percent success was a failure. If you let too many vampires through the net, then they’d toss you out. A euphemism for kill you, I’m pretty sure. I’m not sure how Roland has managed to stick around for so long, but my money’s on him being related to someone big.
“Of course he does,” I mutter, pushing myself up from my chair and sauntering over to where my knife is sticking out of the wall. I pull it out in one swift movement, smirking to myself as Roland flinches. The idiot. If I even want to do anything to him, I could just do it. He wouldn’t know what hit him.
“Erm...he said he wants to see you now.” The nervousness in his voice is cute. Or it would be, if he was six and not twenty-six. So really, it’s just a bit pathetic. There’s a lot of hunters like him. Problem was, once you were in the hunters, you were in for life. No one really knows how they got here either, though my theory is we were sold by our parents. Or maybe not even them. We’re pretty much the unwanted kids of the world. The vampire hunters whatever claims us and makes us do their bidding.
Kill vamps, basically.
I’m not sure how the vampire situation got so bad, but they were like a plague in our city. Almost every street had a nest or coven, and bodies pile up just about daily. Which is what we’re here to try and sort out. Hunters are on call almost every moment of every day. When we’re sent a call to action, we’re supposed to heed it in the same moment. It’s a bit of a pain in the ass to be honest. The amount of times I’ve been caught out while trying to have a life, had reached new heights recently. This just being one example. Least I’d only been playing with knives and not playing with another hunter.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m going,” I finally reply, waving my hand dismissively. He isn’t worth the words it’d take to dismiss him, so I push past him on my way out of the room.
The corridor is deserted, which is a bit weird. Normally it’s teeming with people, all waiting for their next assignment. There’s probably a big raid on or something. That normally clears the place out. Wonder why I wasn’t sent with them? I really should be there.
It doesn’t take me
long to reach the Commander’s office, and I knock firmly on the large wooden door. It makes a dull thud. This door is so pretentious it’s ridiculous. What use has a vampire hunter got for an ornate wooden door? It’s not like anyone can see it, and even those of us who can really don’t care. We’re bad ass enough on our own not to care about a status symbol like a door.
“Enter,” his voice calls out, and I grimace. I’m not looking forward to whatever he says. I slip through the door, and enter the office that is just as decked out as the door itself. There’s red velvet and dark wood everywhere, and some weird bronze statues that actually gleam in the light.
“You wanted to see me?” I ask, purposefully not using his title. This man doesn’t have my respect yet, so no way is he getting any. He has to earn that.