Banished To Earth Book One (22)

87

    He knew this entire thing had to look like some scene out of an old-fashioned western movie, the climactic scene where the good guy dutifully walks out for the final showdown with the bad guy. Surely this would not be as melodramatic as all that.

    Maybe this new Hunter wasn’t a bad guy after all. Maybe he was just being adolescent about the whole thing.

     It would be quite stupid of him to threaten this new Hunter without cause. A few well-spoken, thoughtfully placed words might well earn him and Pry a much-needed ally.

   While a bunch of senseless testosterone-drenched posturing and tough talk could easily dig their graves.

   He would feel this Hunter out, look for a streak of decency and common sense, which he hoped he would find in abundance and go from there.

  When the blurry black figure looming toward him finally became a man, Chase walked right up to him, smiled, nodded and simply asked, “How you doin?”

   The stranger smiled back, but his eyes were narrow, dark and scrutinizing.

   He was a big brick pile of a man, this new Hunter. His hair, thick and long, black as soot. He wore black corduroy and black combat boots. Clearly, he dressed to intimidate. It became obvious to Chase this guy relished being a Hunter. Not good.   

   He stepped up to Chase, stretched out his right hand and answered Chase’s question. The big man's words were soft and smooth; they eased through his lips like a satin ribbon sliding through a keyhole.

    “I’m not the man I used to be, so I’m doing just great.” He took Chase’s right hand and squeezed it tightly. “You’re a Hunter all right. Kinda wondered about these new powers and all, not really used to all this yet.” He lied.

   This little Hunter seemed friendly and capable, but where were his blacks? No blacks, no gun? He would just beat him to death, yeah, that'd be fun.

     He could sense the Crychee presence diminishing. She was getting away. He was stalling, obviously helping her.  Why else would he be standing here chewing the fat if not to buy her time? He had switched sides, but why? He was determined to find out before he made another move on the Crychee. Besides, he was in no hurry to go toe to toe with an alien vampire. His nerve was slipping. He hoped the Authority wasn’t reading his mind.

 

88

    The ghastly image of her last victims still glowed brightly in his memory. He’d take it slow and easy and make his move on this little Hunter only after he figured out what was going on between the two of them.

    She was a temptress after all. If she could bewitch him, maybe she could turn his head too, turn it ‘till she twisted it clean off!

    “This whole thing really blindsided me, ya know,” still lying. “Still a bit confused. I ah, just made my first kill, some kinda Mexican goat sucker thing, think they call it a chupacabra.

“Really,” Chase nodded and smiled, not believing a word coming out of this guy’s mouth.

  “Yeah, looks like some of these monsters must have squeezed out of the transit realm over the years. Those Mexs seemed to know all about ‘em, didn’t know how to kill one though, but I showed ‘em real good.”

   “Is that right?” He tossed Grant a half-hearted nod of approval, still stalling for time. Funny, the big guy seemed perfectly content to hang around and talk, well, brag. He’d continue to stroke his ego, whatever it took to put distance between this clown and the girls.

  “Yeah, it got mighty messy. I cornered it in a pig pin, slipping and sliding through mud and hog crap. Finally managed to snag its hind leg, slung it around, and gutted it on a rusty nail, man, it squealed so loud, thought it was going to bust my eardrums.”  

   “And you managed to do all that without getting a speck of mud on your nice clean clothes. That is impressive.”  

   Grant stepped back and looked Chase up and down. “Think we’re both spinning tales, aren’t we?”

    Chase figured he was smart enough to know that he was helping his prey escape. He had to come up with something, and he had to do it now. Truth was the only option.

   “Yeah, that was a great story. But I gotta better one. I didn’t kill my prey, of course, you know that.”

   “Oh, I can feel her slipping away right now. Why?” Grant reared back on his heels. His arms were wrapped tight around his chest.

   Chase couldn’t tell if he was judging him, comforting himself, or shielding his vital organs.

   Grant's eyes were burning coals of hatred, that, he could clearly see.

89

   “You know,” said Chase I haven’t even given you my name, it’s Chase Gillette.”

“You can’t give me anything I can’t take. Call me Grant Stayner.”

“She’s not really a monster. Those men she killed. They were going to hurt her.”

“She shredded them. Drained them. I’d call that overkill, or feeding time. Okay, they were nothing but unchanged trash. Still, she could have shifted away, knocked them out. I know she’s strong.”

“She’s stronger now. She’s Hunter now.”

“What! You fool. She’s a vampire!”

“She’s my wife!”

“Your wife. You are a fool.”

“She didn’t want to kill them…”

“Want, not want instinct, animal instinct. So, you saw the whole thing and did nothing.”

“She offered me her throat afterwards. She didn’t kill me. Like I said. She is my wife. She’s been my wife for thousands of years.”

Grant burst out laughing. “She got inside your head, filled it up with lies.”

“The only liar here is you. Chupacabra, give me a break. If she had been an earth girl, she’d be floating dead in that lake right now.”

“So now she’s a vigilante. Batgirl!” He burst out laughing again.  

“Leave her alone.”

“Oh, I will, but just for the length of time it takes me to kill you. I get to do that, you know. In fact, I got to. Can’t move forward without stepping on corpses. This whole world’s a free-for-all now. Whoever is left standing gets to claim it all. And all is what I want!”

“Not all monsters are monsters. Not all Hunters are Hunters. We can be more. We can work together to make a good world for everyone. You don’t want to live in a jungle, do you?”

“You bet I do, been looking forward to this since I was a snot nosed kid.”

“What?”

90

    Grant laughed again. “Whoa, you really missed the bus, didn’t you. You mean to tell me you just woke up? No wonder that little witch tricked you.”

“She’s not a witch, she’s my…”

“Yeah, yeah, your wife, keep telling yourself that, and those will be the last words you hear.”