The rocks in my pockets don’t slow my pace. They scrape against each other as I march along the grassland to a particular spot. The pile of rocks is almost tall enough now to be considered a mini mountain, and I place the stones on top.
I open my mouth to talk to them as I sometimes do, but I can't. I just can't. I want them to know I'll soon avenge them, but the words won't come. Instead, a sob comes out, and I kick the stones over. My toe throbs, and I swallow hard, pushing back my grief and anger, refusing to give in to my emotions. I won't cry. I won't.
I push the stones around with my boot, and finally, I locate the very first stone. In the days after their deaths, I used a dagger to carve “Mason” and “Gracie” onto the bottommost stone. Maybe it should be on top.
Footsteps sound, and I glance over. If Darius is here…
But it’s not him. It’s a woman I’ve never seen before. She’s tall with blond hair, and she walks with purpose right for me. Something in her gait makes me think she’s either a police officer or military.
Slowly, I stand, still holding the carved stone. "Are you lost?"
“No.” She stares down at the scattered stones and smiles sadly.
I furrow my brow. “Why are you here?”
“I knew Mason and Gracie,” she murmurs.
“You did? Who are you?”
“My name is Clarissa Garcia. Did they ever mention me to you?”
I shake my head.
“You’re Tiffany, right?”
I say nothing.
“You don’t trust me.” She laughs. “I get that a lot in my profession.”
I do too in mine, but I don’t say that out loud. “What do you do?”
"I'm a homicide detective. I specialize in supernatural threats."
My eyes grow wide.
“Mason planned on telling you when you were sixteen. I told him not to wait, but… He wanted you to be innocent longer.”
“Do you know they were murdered?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know what killed them?”
“No.”
I do I want to say, but I don’t.
"I learned vamps were real, and werewolves and sirens… A vamp hunter by the name of Blake Damon helped me out several times. He helped save Mason and Gracie from them, but he was bitten in the process. To prevent him from turning, they killed him."
“I had no idea,” I murmur.
“I knew. I just knew when Blake died. Actually, I knew something happened, not that he specifically died, so I called his cell…” Clarissa blinks back tears. “He was a really good friend. They brought his body to Bethlehem for us to bury him. He had lived a wild and adventurous life, killing so many more threats than just vampires, but in the end… I wish he could have retired. I wish he could have found peace, but I think… I so badly wanted him to take a break. That’s how he met Mason and Gracie, actually. He was trying to reconnect with humanity.” She gives a slight laugh and wipes a tear away.
“What are you?” I ask. “People don’t usually just know things.”
“I’m half-demon, half-angel.”
“What?”
“An unlikely pairing, I know.” Clarissa smiles. “Mason and Gracie became Blake’s legacy. He wanted to kill all of the vamps in the world.”
“That’s impossible.”
“You know it. I know it. He knew it. Your brother and his wife knew it. That didn’t stop any of them.”
She smiles at me, and there’s something familiar about the tilting of her head. I’ve seen her before.
“You went to their wedding,” I say. It’s almost an accusation.
Clarissa laughs. “Yes, but I didn’t want to make a scene, so I asked them not to introduce me to anyone.”
“You weren’t alone.” I shake my head. “A guy, tall… He said something, and you laughed. That’s all I remember about you two.”
“I’m surprised you even remember me at all,” she says.
“The next day wasn’t the most fun for me.”
She nods. “I know what happened, and I’m sorry for your loss.”
“The guy?” I would rather not talk about my parents right now.
“My husband. Diego. He’s a cop too.”
“Wow. If you two ever have any kids, they’re either going to be saints or…” I grin recklessly. I want to say rebels but instead say, “Terrors.”
“Well, we’ve been trying. I’m thirty-five now, so I’m advanced maternal age already. Maybe half-demons, half-angels can’t have kids.”
“I’m sorry.”
“There’s always adoption.” She grins at me. “I wanted to reach out to you after…” Her gaze falls to the rocks. “I wrestled with myself whether or not to come forward. I hated myself for not having your brother introduce me after all.”
My eyes widen. “Wait. Blake’s death. That’s what gave them the kick in the pants to get married.”
Clarissa laughs. “Yes. It actually was a ‘kick in the pants’ moment for me too. I didn’t get married right away, but I did propose to Diego.”
“You asked him to marry you?”
“Yes, and it infuriated him. It only took him months and months of asking before I would agree to date him, and then I asked him the big one? Yeah, he so wasn’t pleased, but then he bought me this.”
She holds out her left hand for me to see a large sapphire rock.
“Why a sapphire?”
“I’m no diamond.” She laughs and shakes her head. “A ruby would have been more demonic in my opinion. I needed something else, something more in the middle. Blue fits.”
“Like your eyes.”
“That very well could be why he got me a blue stone and not all of that other stuff. Who knows? We never talked about it.” She has a faraway look in her eyes.
There’s a slight pause, a silence but not an uncomfortable one.
“Did you know I would be here today?” I ask.
“Yes,” she says softly. “I’ve been watching you from afar. I hope that’s okay. I don’t know if now’s the right time to come forward or not, but I thought it might be.”
I nod. “It was. Thank you. I didn’t know anything at all about Blake or you. I figured Mason was going to tell me about vampires considering he gave me a set of iron daggers for my sixteenth birthday.”
“A very practical present for the young woman who grew up to become a bounty hunter.”
I grin. “You know about me!”
She throws up her hands and sighs. “Didn’t I just say I kept tabs on you? I wanted to make sure you were all right. By default, you’re Blake’s legacy now.”
“And Mason’s and Gracie’s.”
“Of course.”
My heart wells with happiness. I haven’t felt like this in a long, long time. “They wanted to make me a ward of the state, but I wasn’t about to have any of that. I petitioned to be emancipated, and once I found a job, I was granted it. Of course, I didn’t keep that job for very long because I became a bounty hunter almost right away. I just knew that was what I was meant to do. I’ve never gotten my GED, never went to college, but I don’t care. I don’t need it. This is my calling. This is… Clarissa, do you believe in destiny?”
“I do.”
“I don’t know why I wasn’t killed in the car crash that killed my parents or why the… why I wasn’t killed with Mason and Gracie, but I was meant to do this. I was meant to become a bounty hunter.”
“You definitely have a very particular set of skills,” she says with a grin.
“Gracie used to talk about wanting to open a business, one that would help homeless people. She wanted to not treat the symptoms but the disease. She wanted to help train them so they could have jobs. I never understood why she didn’t pursue that dream, but I guess she was too busy traveling here and there to kill vampires.” I rub my chin. “Maybe… Maybe I can take that on too. I have money saved up.”
“That would be a lovely way to honor her.”
“Yeah, with Mason being a physicist, there’s nothing I can do there.”
Clarissa grins. “I wouldn’t be able to either.” She hesitates. “Is everything all right?” she asks.
“Everything is just fine.”
She looks down at the rocks I obviously kicked over.
“I can sense things about people,” she says slowly. “You’re at a crossroads. I don’t know what choice you have ahead of you, but whatever you decide is going to change you. Be careful whatever you do.”
I open my mouth, pause, and then shut it.
“You don’t have to confide in me, but maybe talk to someone you trust.”
“I do trust you,” I blurt out.
She grins. “I’m happy to hear that, and if you want to talk to me or tell me anything, I am always willing to listen.”
“Thank you. Thank you for coming, for talking to me, for telling me about my brother… It’s almost as if he’s back again. Just by talking about him with someone who knew him.”
She holds out her arms, and we hug. I’m not normally a hugger at all, but it feels right to.
“Vampire hunting is a dangerous and deadly profession,” she says as she steps back, holding onto my arms near my elbows. “So is bounty hunting. Be careful. If you need anything… bullets, guns, food, money, anything at all, let me know.”
“I’ve been able to hold down the fort just fine, but I appreciate the offer.”
“You aren’t alone, Tiffany. You’ve never been alone.”
I nod, and she starts to walk away.
“Clarissa?” I call.
She turns around to face me.
“It’s Tiffany Rose. Not Tiffany, not Tiff. Tiffany Rose.”
“Goodbye, Tiffany Rose.”
“Goodbye, Clarissa.”
The moment I walk away from the gravesite, roughly ten minutes after Clarissa left, my cell rings.
“Hello?”
“I just want you to have my number,” Clarissa says.
“And you have mine how?”
“I’m a detective, remember?”
“Abusing authority. Nice.”
“As if you should talk. How many have you killed?”
“You aren’t going to arrest me.”
“No, but make sure you stay under the radar. You’ve done a great job so far, so great that there have been stretches when I’m not sure where you are.”
“You’re like a demonic guardian angel.”
She laughs. “Demonic angelic guardian angel.”
“Hmm. You know, it says a lot that you put demon first.”
Clarissa is silent.
“I’m not saying it’s a bad thing! I mean, I don’t know of many demons, but some of the angels I’ve met… Let’s just say they’re a little judgmental.”
She bursts out laughing. “Are you saying demons are more fun?”
“I plead the fifth.”
“Right. Well, let’s just say that it took some time to come to terms with both sides of myself. There had been a lot of bedlam in Bethlehem, and it made my life utterly crazy, but I lived through it and came out stronger. One of the biggest lessons I learned is that it’s important to lean on others. Doing everything alone makes for a lonely, short life. I don’t want that for you. Blake, Mason, Gracie… they all died much younger than they should have. Find love. Find happiness. And most of all, find peace. That’s all I want for you.”
“And there’s the angelic side that all angels should have. Man, do you put them to shame.”
She laughs. “Not many people would call me angelic, even those who do know what I am.”
“They just don’t know you like I do.” I giggle.
“Stay safe, Tiffany Rose, and call if you need anything.”
“Will do. Bye.”
I grin as I make my way to my new car. I can't believe this is my third car in such a short period of time. It's a Honda Civic, 2017. I don't need a brand new car. Besides, the original one I had before this mess hadn't been my first car. I've gone through six, no, seven cars so far. I'd much rather replace a dead car than for me to be the one that ends up dead. Those cars had all been sacrificed so that I could live. Other creatures have attacked my cars to the point of rendering them undrivable. More than anything else, cars have been my largest expense over the years even though I buy cheap, used cars every time. I usually will barter for silver bullets. Easier that way, although it would be nice to have a guy or gal to specifically be my supplier instead of having to rely on someone else.
It’s eight days, not seven, before Amad comes to my place. I take one look at him, and I reach into my pouch for a healing draught.
“It is too late for that.”
“But—”
“It is not your fault, and it is my time.”
“No.” My throat itches, and my stomach is twisted in knots. I don’t know how the genie has come to mean so much to me, but he does.
“You are owed a wish,” he murmurs.
“Nope. I’m not making it.”
“Rebel, you must.”
"It could be the straw that breaks the camel's back and pushes you into the grim reaper's arms!"
“There isn’t a grim reaper here.” He gives me that barely existent smile.
“Wait. Grim reapers are real?”
He nods. “If I were permitted to wish, I would wish for you to not meet one until you have lived a complete and full life. For myself, I have lived long enough. Do not cry for me. It would hardly do for your reputation if you were to cry.”
“Only if word spreads.” I force myself to scowl. “I really didn’t like you once upon a time.”
“Which confused me. I thought you would like a challenge.”
“Not when it’s issued with a side of insults.”
“I did not—”
“You weren’t the nicest.”
“I wanted the vampire killed so he would not kill again. You took much longer to accomplish that than I thought you would.”
“There were so many vampires! You wanted a specific one!”
“The others were not killing humans.”
I harrumph. “See? You can’t give me the wish. You need to conserve your strength and not make a wish. It’s fine. I—”
“Without your wish, you will not learn who killed your brother and his wife.”
“Did I ever tell you that?”
“I know what you want to wish for.”
“A genie thing I take it.”
He nods. “But unless you say it aloud—”
“Nope. Not happening.”
“Rebel.” He grimaces. “You do not understand. A wish is owed, and until you make that wish, I am in pain beyond all of this.”
He’s so very pale he looks gray. His eyes are sunken in their sockets, and his skin looks like it’s stretched over his face too tightly. His shoulders are slumped, and he looks half the size he normally is. Amad just plain looks like he’s at death’s door.
“But the wish will zap the last of your energy, won’t it?”
“It might, but, Rebel… please. You earned your wish. Let me bestow it upon you.”
I swallow hard. “I wish to know what killed Mason and Gracie and how to kill it.”
Black smoke swirls around Amad that slowly turns white before disappearing. “Mason and Gracie were killed by a Cainian by the name of…”
Amad’s eyes roll in the back of his head, and his mouth hangs open, slack. He’s dead.
A few tears leak, and I reach over and close the genie’s eyes.
It doesn’t matter that Amad wasn’t able to completely fulfill my wish. I at least know the creature even if I’ve never heard of it before. A bit of research, some digging, and I’ll finally be able to have my revenge.
My quest is finished. Now, it is time for my revenge.
The story continues with Hunter’s Revenge!
You can read more about Mirella’s adventures in Magical Hunters Academy and Clarissa’s chaos in Bedlam in Bethlehem!
Please consider leaving a review if you enjoyed Hunter’s Quest! I love to read my reviews. It’s not possible for a review to be too short. Even one sentence works. Thank you!
Until next book,
~Nicole