Hunting for the Right Note

So, yeah, I know it's been a while. Things kinda kicked off for me back at the end of March, I got a big promotion that started near the end of April, and then the hunt for apartments began. Luckily, I found one, and as of the time I'm finishing up this note, I've lived here for about two weeks now. Then I had a week-long vacation in France. Combine all that with my muse deciding to take a long break and give me nothing to work with, and here we are. It annoys me even more because I do like getting you folks these pieces. But I'm finally back home and settling in, and now I have time to actually finish this up and send it off to Lit's editors. Jesus this has been a long time in the coming. I am very sorry I didn't get this out sooner. Either way, it's here now, and I'll quit with my bitching so you can read it.

As always all characters engaged in sex are 18+

Chapter 6

I just kept staring into Kaylee's beautiful eyes, at least, until a cough caught our attention, and we separated. Chloe looked at us with a bit of annoyance, but whether it was directed at Kaylee, or me, was a mystery. At least, until she looked directly at me, clearly not amused.

"How long have you been able to sing?"

It was more of a demand than a question, and I couldn't resist riling her up a bit.

"What, worried that your brother is more talented than you now?"

She glared at me, but before she could say a word, Kaylee put a hand up to her mouth and laughed softly.

"He might be right, guitar

and

singing, you've only got one sound down Chloe, and how come neither of you jumped in?"

Kaitlyn turned the question to her sister with a raised eyebrow. Kaitlynn was leaning in the doorway, looking at the two of us with a slight grin as she shook her head.

"To interrupt what just happened would've been a crime."

Kaylee smiled widely at that, nodding in agreement. Chloe, on the other hand, huffed at my prior jab before stalking over to an instrument I hadn't really noticed, a cherry-red six string bass. She picked it up, slid the strap over her shoulder, and started doing a bass line. She knew what she was doing, but I had to tease her more about it.

"C'mon Chloe, I would've thought you'd pick up the guitar, like me and mom."

She missed a note, and opened her eyes to glare at me with as much heat as she could, a light blush on her cheeks.

"My fingers can't fly like yours or mom's, ok?"

That actually made sense, it was another reason Chloe never became a Hunter, she wasn't the most dexterous. Mom made sure she could handle a sword fairly well, in case of an emergency, but it wasn't the same kind of training you'd need to make it in the Hunters. The kind of training that made you more or less a soldier. Mom and a few others put me through hell to make sure I could punch well above my weight class, and if Chloe had the same inclination towards hunting that I did, she would be even better than I was. I had to work hard to get where I am, and still wasn't really able to use magic, while she had a natural talent for magic and a few other things that would help her. A hand tapping my shoulder brought my attention back to the redheaded beauty I had just sung with. She had a mischievous smile on her face as she leaned into my side.

"Where is that mind wandering to, handsome?"

I shrugged, I couldn't say what I was actually thinking about, so I went with something else that was reasonable.

"Well, all we'd need is a drummer and maybe a rhythm guitar, and we'd have a full metal band."

"I can play drums."

I glanced over to Kaitlyn, who finally spoke up again. She hadn't moved from the doorway, but now she pushed herself off and made her way over to a drum set, her long legs carrying her there in just a few strides. That thing belonged to mom's lover, Aaron, damn wanderer. He maybe showed up once or twice a year, the rest of it he was off gallivanting around the globe, taking on hunting missions and sticking around the places for far longer than was remotely necessary. He annoyed the hell out of me, because he always came back right around when mom would be getting ready to dump his ass, stay for a night or two, then disappear again. So much worse than Alucard, at least he taught me shit!

As I was on a slight mental rant about wanderers and vampires, Kaitlyn sat down and gave the kick drum a few hits. The deep sound brought me back to what was going on in the real world. Once she was satisfied with the sound, she looked over to Kaylee, they nodded at each other, and Kaitlyn did a short, but quick rhythm, one I recognized as an All That Remains beat. It just had recognizable triplets I was familiar with.

Once she was done, the second redhead looked up at me, winking at me before blowing me a kiss. I was about to say something, when Chloe interrupted her with a smirk.

"Wow, didn't think you were being a man whore again, been a while since those days."

I glared back at her now, and gave her the most appropriate response I could think of. I flipped her off, which caused the twins to both laugh softly. The air wasn't nearly as tense as it was when I started playing, if anything, it was fairly comfortable. I felt more relaxed than I had in weeks, if not months. The time leading up to my breakup with Myrlla had been one filled with all sorts of fights, and several missions where I was required to bypass the forced waiting time after the previous one. I was burning out, but here, now, I felt like I was finally regaining some of what I had lost. After a little while, Chloe and Kaitlyn left, they were going to do some shopping, but Kaylee said she'd rather stay with me, and make some more music between us. We did that for hours, swapping song choices as the day passed us by.

At the end of the afternoon, I realized she was right, my sound was much more pleasant than it was before. I felt some sort of spark between myself and the gorgeous redhead, but I just let it be, unsure if I was ready to add any fuel to it yet. Once our siblings returned, Kaylee and Kaitlyn left, but not before the lovely singer gave me a kiss on the cheek, and her phone number. As they left, I decided that I was done moping about Myrlla, she was my past, swimming in the smoke of the bridge we burned. I took that first step into the future, whatever it held.

*************************************

Chapter 7

That was how the next week and a half went, Kaylee was here almost every day, sometimes Kaitlyn came, sometimes she didn't, but the gorgeous singer and I were damn near inseparable. Every day that passed I felt more of an attachment for her. She wasn't exactly subtle with her advances either, but I was still somewhat gun shy about getting into another relationship. Myrlla left scars on my heart, ones that ran deep. Ones that wouldn't let me just try and start something new so easily. The sexy redhead's voice caught my attention as we finished up another song we performed together.

"Hey Jason, why don't you come out with us tonight? I'm sure you could use some time to get out and live."

I knew what she was talking about, she, her sister, and Chloe were going out clubbing tonight, and Kaylee wanted me to come along. It wasn't a bad idea, I did want to go out with her, and having someone like me along would help keep weird guys away. But before I could agree, I got a text from a number I wasn't familiar with. It said,

'Rogue vampire. Minor noble. Ft. Myers. Deal with him. A.'

It was followed by a set of blocks to check, which was fairly normal. The sign off was familiar though, Alucard, a contracted agent for the reapers that dealt with high level vampires, like rogues on their council, The Covenant of the Night. He was the first vampire, and being the oldest, he didn't care a bit about their politics, he was above them, wholly. Even more, he stood roughly on par with mom. That they got along well was a relief, because I was never really sure who would come out on top in a fight between them. I copied the message and sent it to mom, followed by asking for the clearance. A vampire noble, even a minor one, was at least a Gold mission, but after training with Alucard, I could definitely take on this mission.

She gave the approval, which gave me a viscous grin, one I quickly suppressed before I had to answer Kaylee.

"Sorry, got a text from work, I need to go talk to one of the bosses. Maybe next time."

She looked at me with disappointment written all over her face. It

almost

convinced me to tell Alucard I couldn't, almost, but I was a Hunter, I had a job to do. Kaylee came in close, gave me a peck on the cheek, and went home to get ready for the evening. I went to the one room in the house where I could do the same thing. Mom had an armory in an enchanted basement, and it was where we both kept various loadouts for certain fights. I made sure Chloe wasn't in the house before I went down there. Wouldn't do for her to ask why I was in the armory, not that she ever went down there herself.

Once I was down there, I moved over to where I kept my extra things as I summoned my gear by running my hand across the hidden tattoo on my wrist. The weight of them settling on my form was comforting, and luckily, I only really needed to swap out two things in my kit. My knives were swapped for wooden stakes, and the bullets in my speedloaders went from standard lead to silver ones made from melted down crosses, hollow point of course. Everything else was good to go, just had to wait until nightfall, when my target woke up.

*************************************

I rolled into the area just as the sun finished setting. I was sure the vampire would be on the hunt, and I would be too. It made sense that this is where it set up shop. This was in an area with a few different clubs and bars, easy prey and plenty of desperate people willing to sell their soul for a taste of immortality. I was fairly certain this guy would have some newborns, and newborns were some of my favorite things to fight. They hadn't gotten a hold of their thirst yet, and they never had the same cunning that older vampires had. Overall, they fought like beasts, and I liked testing myself against their speed and ferocity against mine.

I stepped into an alley, summoned my gear and started navigating through them as my senses spread across the area. Vampires felt like hunger and death, similar to Piralla, but instead of an all consuming gluttony, it was a refined feeling that was also mixed with lust. They didn't have the same disgusting feeling to them, if anything, it was an enticing sensation. I abused that to draw me to where I found four beings, hunched over a dead body.

Silent as a wraith, I pulled two stakes from my bandoleer and hurled them, impaling two of them through their hearts. They fell and began turning to ash as their buddies jumped back away from the body. I could see their pale faces, blood leaking from their mouths as they hissed at me. Now, I drew my kabar from their sheaths since there was no way I would be able to use my swords in this more confined area. Besides, I wanted this dance to be up close and personal, plenty more fun that way. Thankfully, these newborns obliged and blitzed me, clawed fingers out and ready to rip me to shreds.

My beast powers pumped through my veins as I twisted around them, dodging their attacks as I drew bloody lines across each of them. They weren't fatal blows by any means, but they had to hurt as both vampires made low gasps of pain. They moved back in, but they made the mistake of being cautious. That allowed me to be aggressive, and I drove a blade through the heart of one. It wouldn't be getting up any time soon as the Aetherium steel did its job and partially suppressed their healing. The other hissed, and tried to slash at my throat, but I slashed at the tendons in that arm after leaning back just enough for the swipe to breeze by. My attack disabled that arm for the moment, and I flowed into my next attack. Ducking under another strike from its other arm, I slashed at those tendons as well. Now it had next to no use of its arms, but before it could turn tail and flee, I tossed one knife into its foot, grabbed another wooden stake, and rammed it through the thing's heart. It started falling apart, but I yanked the chunk of wood from the body and turned back to the other newborn. I could see the one I stabbed with my dagger was starting to twitch, and I knew it wasn't dead yet, so I took that same stake and ended the thing before it could recover.

The entire brawl maybe only took a minute or two in total, as we were all moving at superhuman speeds, but without these ones, I now felt the faint sensation that the noble put off. I could actually track down my true prey. With a fluid motion, I grabbed both my knives and sheathed them as I moved towards the feeling. I made my way to the back entrance of a club, and the bouncer back there took one look at me, and let me in. Not before radioing his boss that I was coming in, though. I used the obscuring property of my wrist tattoo to hide my blades, and followed my senses. They were leading me towards private rooms set aside for big time customers. They were mostly made up of privacy glass, but there were small spots on them that security could use to make sure nothing illegal was happening in them.

As I made my way to the proper booth, I glanced in, and my blood became ice. I saw that pale fuck, holding his claws to the throat of a woman with red hair. Her head was tilted down as he said something to her that obviously terrified the woman. This man wasn't my target, but judging on how he was dressed, he was the retainer to my target. As he finished speaking, the woman jerked her head up, stunning emerald eyes wide with fear. Now, my blood was set ablaze as I felt rage burn in my heart. This monster had Kaylee, and my rational brain shut down. It was now time for exceptional amounts of violence.

I pulled my mask up to fully conceal myself before taking a few steps back from the glass. Once I was sure I had enough room, I channeled as much power through my legs as I could, and charged the booth.

The next few moments felt like slow motion, as I felt a burning sensation in my left thigh, I glanced down, and a crossbow bolt was embedded in it. The bolt was small, too small to be from a full sized crossbow. A hand crossbow then, easily concealed and 'civilized', unlike my much more efficient.454. I was already moving too fast to stop, even as pain shot through my leg. My teeth clenched as I drew my pistol, and slammed through the glass in a dolphin dive. As Kaylee and the vampire looked at me in complete surprise, I sent a round through the bastard's skull, blowing his brains across the glass that was still behind him. He started dissolving into ash as the holy metal did its job, putting an end to him. I landed on the table in a roll, a shout drawn from my lips as I broke part of the bolt off on the ground. I was in a mind numbing amount of pain, but before I could pull the bolt out, a shadowy figure dropped down on me with a saber in one hand.

This

was my target, I knew this one, the Hunters kept tabs on flight risks from major factions around the world. This waste of biomass was Maurice von Glickerstein, descendant of Manfred von Glickerstein, Councilman of the Night. This pompous fucker tried to bring the blade down to behead me, but I rolled to the side, the blade only scoring my collarbone instead of cleaving it, like I'm sure he hoped.

In response, I drew Duna with one hand to fend off the blade, my other hand yanked out the remainder of the bolt in my leg. I could still fight, but I needed to end this soon, because once my initial adrenaline and shock wore off, I wouldn't even be able to stand. I tossed the broken bolt at Maurice, which he slashed in half, giving me enough time to draw Vrail.

I knew what I was going to have to do, and I hated the prospect. I had to fight defensively, because even though I could stand, I didn't trust my leg enough to dance around the man like I normally could. I saw him come at me with a two handed overhead blow. I blocked it with one blade, letting it slide down to Duna's cross guard as I lashed out with Vrail, scoring a deep hit into the bastard's side. He leapt back, one hand coming to hold the deep gash now there. He glared at me, but charged again, hacking at me with reckless abandon. I now could figure out why he went rogue, this guy had none of the talent or discipline that was needed to be anything more than a tool, used by his betters, and then disposed of.

I deflected his blows, sparks shooting from the clashes as I started adding wounds to him. A cut here, a shallow stab there, but for every hit I scored, he would give me one back. It became a war of attrition, and I would lose it if I didn't do something unexpected. So, with my adrenaline fading, I dared to hope, and used my injured leg as a spinning point to dodge an attack. I was now behind the stumbling vampire, and I drove both my blades through his chest, impaling his heart and both lungs.

The pain I got from the move was excruciating, and I collapsed onto the ground after a few steps towards a wall, my blades still buried in the man. My breath came in ragged gasps as I laid there, trying to get air through my cloth mask, and suppress the burning in my leg. I felt blood in my mouth, as I was sure that damn bolt had some sort of poison on it. The club was now quiet, mostly empty. I guess they had fled when I blew that one vampire's brain out, but there were two people I could see coming over to see me, and I knew I was fucked. My sister and one of the twins approached me as I struggled to sit up. Before I could, I felt a hand gently help me sit up against that low wall I was trying to reach.

"Let me help you."

It was Kaylee, and I was sure she could hear my struggles to breathe properly, as she started pulling down my mask. I saw her hands trembling, she was still terrified, but trying to push it away by focusing on me. I was just happy she was unharmed.

"Don't!"

My sister barked at her friend, but Kaylee didn't listen. She pulled the mask down, but thankfully, left my cowl up. She tried to move under my shoulder, to move me, but she couldn't quite do it.

"Kaitlyn, help me get him into a booth."

Her sister moved to help her, but Chloe grabbed her shoulder, keeping her away.

"Name and rank, now."

My sister demanded of me, but I smirked as blood dribbled from my lips. I shook my head, and I saw her glare as she started moving towards me. I swallowed, clearing my mouth of my vitea. She didn't get three steps before the main doors to the club burst open, and in walked a familiar figure.

A tall man walked in sporting a stylish, wide brimmed hat that matched his black trench coat. He wore a pair of round glasses on his face, their lenses a deep blood red, concealing the equally blood red eyes I knew laid behind them. His mouth was twisted in a savage, fanged grin, and his footsteps clicked as he approached us. This was Alucard, my unofficial uncle, and he seemed extremely pleased. He spoke to me now, his low tone filled with amusement. The twins shied away from him, Kaylee using my body as a shield, but Chloe merely turned her glare to him, instead of me. Alucard simply laughed her off.

"You did well taking out that little shit, a bit messy, and chaotic, but that's half the fun. He was at least a Gold rank threat, even if he was worthless compared to his sire, and a measly Silver brought him low."

His voice had a low, smooth tone, almost noble, but his wording broke that illusion before it could even take hold. He chuckled deeply as he continued to approach the group. I spoke up now, trying to make myself sound different enough to remain incognito.

"You sent me after a fucking Glickerstein, and didn't think to warn me?"