By the time Ducky was done with Father's prayer gauntlet she knew she would never use demon cum as a contract confirmation again.
That was probably Father's goal.
She went home, stripped, and crashed without a second thought on her couch. When she awoke it was afternoon. She luxuriated in a long bath, soaking her soreness, headache and fatigue away before running to her kitchen to grab some food. She had fruit, bacon, and cereal, which she munched on as she towel dried. Her amber colored eyes took in the news irritatedly. Somber lack luster tales of murders, heroes, and villains aired repetitively. Boring, if she wanted heroes and villains...
Changing the channel she found a cartoon of Batman.
Yes! This is what she lived for, those rare moments when things worked out. Half way in to the Batman chasing down the Riddler she heard a ringing. She started to head for her belt when she realized it was in fact her cellphone. Laughing she picked it up off the kitchen table.
"Duck baby. Talk to me."
"Hey babe are you dressed?" a rusty but sweet voice asked.
"Heck no Diamond. It's my day off."
"Well get dressed. You, me and Ezekiel have been summoned by the boss man."
"Aw..."
"Hey, we'll get ice cream after."
"Zeke paying?"
"You bet."
"See you there."
Ducky raised up, sighing as she turned off the TV. "Bye Batman."
Thinking about what she had to do, she realized she had forgotten about Harold.
"Harold? Harold sweetie where are you?"
She sensed the presence behind her before the mass came down to tackle her. Looking up she saw the lean orange colored tabby cat was mid air aimed toward her head. She caught him right before he landed on her face and swung him about.
"So close my
bay-bee
!" she said with gushy baby talk inflections.
The cat meowed happily as she rubbed its head.
"You tried to catch mama didn't you? Didn't you!"
Harold had been a stray with a nasty habit of surprise attacking anyone and anything that had ventured into his alley. At first the attributes seemed too intelligent so paranormal activity had been thought up. People thought he was a changeling. When she had come to investigate, lovable Harold had jumped off the roof towards her. She was about to shoot him on instinct, but his cute amber eyes that reminded her of her own had stopped her. So, she took him purring and docile to St. Modesta's. Later, it was concluded he was just a really strange cat. That being said, unless he was headed to the pound, he was headed home with Ducky.
She carried him into the kitchen where she cut up pieces of chicken and put them on top of his cat food. She filled his water bowl and smiled, washing her hands.
"Mama will be back soon baby. Behave okay?"
Harold meowed at her like he was actually responding and she rushed off to put on some clothes. It was light out so she couldn't wear her usual get up. Instead she wore a plain fitted black shirt and a pair of black skinny jeans. She put on a pair of black shades and threw on her motorcycle jacket. Slipping on her combat boots she gave herself a quick look in the mirror. Her hair was a red brown, very red when the sun's rays fried it enough. She slipped a hand through the unruly bits that stuck up from the collection of bits that consisted of her hair.
She could thank a wind demon for the new style. That cheeky bitch really did not take her capture and deliver contract well. For the time being she tried not to think about her lost luscious locks. Shoot, she wore a hood most of the time anyway.
Her sleek mode of transportation was a black Kawasaki Ninja ZX-14. The sweet ride had been an upgrade from her previous ride to reward herself for a successful slew of bounties. Of course it had a couple of handy modifications like the break on the speedometer so that the bike could actually max out its speed. Oh her tires were bullet proof. She put on her "safety" helmet without laughing, a feat on its own, and headed to St. Modesta's. As she expected there was a bulletin outside indicating that the church's "private
prayer
session" was out back in the garage.
Ducky wheeled her bike into the vast garage that lay behind the formidable building and recognized Diamond's red Ducati. She put the kick stand down and proceeded to walk towards the first set of doors. Passing the metal detector, she raised her hands for her pat down by two Men in Black looking studs, and then went through a retinal and hand print scan. Then she went inside.
The room was dark like night. Pretty much everyone was wearing black. Diamond stood out like a nun in a strip club. Her hair was a rainbow of colors, some Ducky was sure she had made up. It was like the reflective prism of a diamond. Thus the name. She was sitting at what appeared to be a bar, but was actually just a random long table with stools. Diamond spotted her and excitedly waved her over.
Beside her next to her left was a six foot seven man with dark chocolate skin. He wore shades much like Ducky's and his body was a carved masterpiece. Each muscle was lean but defined. You could tell just by the way he sat he could pack a mean punch.
"Duck baby how's it hanging?" Diamond said giving her a very unprofessional hug.
The others around them didn't say a word, knowing that with these two hunters appearances were deceiving. Hunters were naturally suspicious loners, but the others made it a habit to avoid Ducky and Diamond like the plague.
Ducky had the highest success rate in the history of The Church with the exception of Cross and another hunter named Smite that was several years her senior. Diamond had the highest accuracy for long distance kill shots. Most of the time she took out her targets without them ever seeing her face.
"I don't want them to recognize me in hell," she had told Ducky once.
She had laughed.
Diamond prayed more than she did, granted Ducky wasn't bound to a demon. Somehow the two of them had gotten hitched in an open kind of "at the end of the day you're mine," sort of way.
Back to the hanging question.
"Don't know," Ducky responded giving Ezekiel a lecherous gaze. His human form was ever so delicious.
"Why don't we ask Zeke? Zeke, how's it hanging?"
He grinned, betraying his true nature with a row of sharp teeth.
"Wouldn't you like to know Kitten?"
"Yes. That is in fact why I'm asking."
He turned and looked at Diamond. "Ask her, she felt it all last night. How was it hanging?"
Diamond blushed, her pale unmarred skin splotching with red. Ducky was sure she saw a few hunters clench their fists. Oh yes, that was another reason they were disliked, they fraternized with the enemy. With rumors about how far Ducky
fraternized
and Diamond's known bo, they were practically infamous. Lucky for them the big boss didn't care.
Ezekiel gave her another look and pointed to his hair giving her a quizzical look. Ah yes, he could probably see perfectly in here. She shook her head in dismissal. It was just a stupid awful story.
Suddenly the wall in front of them started to illuminated with light. The room began to hum and glow in a particular pattern that checked for any spies, unfamiliar magic, and anyone who had no right to be there. After the room was satisfied a symbol of a cross appeared in front of them.
"Children,"
the voice boomed.
It was the raspy war hardened voice of Cross, the leader of The Church.
"Yes Father," they all answered dutifully.
He seemed to take a count of all the voices he heard before continuing on.
"You have been summoned here solely because your records indicate that you are qualified to be part of the selection process of a life bound contract."
A gasp sounded in the room.
Lifer contracts never expired. Usual contracts had a time frame and if the hunter did not complete it during the allotted time it would be recycled into the network until someone did. The bounty went up with each incomplete until the level of danger rose. For lifers, once they were accepted they were usually never passed on until the hunter died. Sometimes they even passed on to a fellow hunter family member. A whole bloodline could be bound to a contract!
