(3) Dark Hunters: Alex and the Hunter

by Dgray3994

Set in the Dark Hunters Universe: Alex Jones had one goal, even if she never spoke it out loud for the world to hear. That was to "try to have as normal a life as possible", which was working, or at least she thought. One late shift at the hospital, and a hunter, changed all that. At least a little. (Written for Katherine Ramdeen as discussed in Vegas)

Alex and the Hunter.

Her shift was almost done, with almost enough time to catch a bite to eat and maybe a cup of coffee that wasn't ice cold before she headed home to deal with the fall out of having Claire finally being home after months of no contact. Alex was supposed to be the responsible one but there was just that one moment of thought that made her WANT to say screw it and throw caution to the wind.

Caution, right, when was there ever a chance to be cautious in the life that she lived. She wanted to stay out of hunting, to forget there was a universe behind the veil at all but that wasn't the way life had dealt the cards. She was living with a nightmare in her mind, constant dreams of her past that terrified her and the fact that her "mother" took on monsters on a daily basis was almost too much for her so she lived life as normally as she could, which meant night shifts at the hospital, watching for hunters that might come in with "uncommon" or "questionable" wounds, unexplained gunshots or even bites that just couldn't have come from any known animal.

She thought she had this under control, she thought she had life by the horns and she was pretty sure at some point it almost felt... normal.

And then it all went straight to hell.

She was about to hit the parking garage, digging through her pocket book for the keys to the car that she was pretty sure that she had dropped in them at some point in time when she heard the clang of metal, not just any metal but one that she knew quite will, it was the sound of a shotgun hitting the floor.

Alex stopped, huffed to get the stray strands of hair from her eyes and slowly turned, hoping above hope that what she imagined was going on behind her stayed her imagination, but…

NOPE!

The bloodied figure of a young hunter stumbled out from behind one of the pillars, the crimson fluid dripped down his leg from his chest, staining the already dirtied and dark jeans that he wore, but his eyes, light blue in color, blinked slowly up at her as he placed a hand against the concrete hoping to help hold himself up, a battle he was swiftly losing.

Alex rubbed her brow, sighed and looked down at the luck of just having snatched the keys from the bottom of the bag as he slumped forward, knees cracking against the ground. Rolling her eyes, she pulled out the key fob, raise it above her head and pushed the button, unlocking the trunk and setting off the automatic door, which brought the hydraulics of the hatch to life.

This was utter crap!

She tucked the pocketbook into the back of the car, grabbed a few extra rags that she kept for just this purpose, and made her way to the hunter that fought against the bloodloss to stay away.

Kneeling beside him, she watched him shift to a sitting position, his hand going to his side as he put his head back against the cold stone. With a deep breath, she reached out, grabbed the end of shirt, having snatched a pair of gloves from the pocket of her scrubs, and lifted the soaked material up to inspect the wound.

Watching the way his face began to pale, she quickly moved, pressing a few of the tightly rolled rags against the nasty gash that graced his lean muscles and applied pressure. Her eyes flickered from his face to the wound and back as he let his breathing shallow, as if willing his heart to slow so that the blood loss would ease. He hadn't said a word, but he really didn't need to, she knew what this was.

"Werewolf?" Sh questioned softly and he nodded, which made him moan because even that little bit of movement sent his vision spiraling. "Okay, hot stuff, you've lost a lot of blood but you can't stay here, we're going to have to move you to my car. I know a safe place we can go and stitch you up."

"I'm a hunter, you're what?" He tried to sound snarky but was failing epically as she reached around and tied the rags in place. "A nurse?"

"I'm a lot more than you think, pal, but if you wanna nitpick, I could leave you here to bleed out, or you could suck up the macho BS and let me take care of you." He rolled his eyes, and nodded, again giving himself a bout of vertigo. "Yeah I thought so. Come on."

Despite his size, which was about seven inches taller than her, and the solidity of his body, Alex was able to slide his arm around her shoulder and lift him up to his feet… slowly. The guy moaned and again Alex found herself rolling her eyes.

Big baby!

Moving him to the car, she helped him lay back in the trunk, which was large enough for him because she had gotten in the habit of keeping the seats down, as just a precaution. Once he was situated, a blanket tossed over him to keep his bloody appearance hidden, Alex hopped behind the wheel and moved the car towards the exit.

She could hear the man behind her moaning with every bump but being too tired to care, she just turned up the music, just a little and focused on the destination, which was obviously NOT Jody's house.

Turning off the closest road, she made her way, which was unfortunately pretty bumpy, down an old dirt road towards the entrance of the dilapidated salvage yard. The sign had fallen off years ago, the gate would have been rusted shut if it weren't for Jody's dedication to keeping it well oiled, but the way that nature had taken over the old Singer place always gave her the creeps, especially when she drove through to reach the small one-roomed shack that they had erected after an incident involving a ghouls as a safe haven for hunters. The knowledge that it was protected from most things supernatural didn't curve the shivers that went through her spine.

She backed the SUV as close to the door as she could and hit the button for the trunk, before sliding out. She wasn't prepared for his bright blue eyes to be locked on hers, or for the fact that he had managed to scoot down towards tailgate, but he was up and out of the car, as much as someone could be with the amount of damage that Were had done. Alex let out a huff, grabbed the first aid bag and slipped her arm around his waist as the two of them made their way towards the door of the shake.

As soon as the light came on, the heat kicked in and the furnace began to blow moderately warm air into the space. Maneuvering him towards the small couch, Alex deposited him on the plastic-covered cushions before she moved to turn on the lights.

His eyes never left her as she navigated the room but when she turned back to face him, hands on her hips, he finally let his guard down and sank back into the seat.

"Okay, first, we need to get you cleaned up."

And so began the tedious task of removing the shirt from the mystery man.

Once he was completely down to his boxers, Alex set up the medical supplies, numbed the area of the gash and waited for him to get settled. As she prepared the syringe, about to administer the clear liquid to numb the jagged edges, she couldn't help but feel the blush rush up her cheeks. He wasn't letting her out of his sight, even with as pale as he was, he was as aware as ever.

"So, what's your name?" She started. Might as well establish some sort of relationship, you know doctor/patient while she was stitching him up, nothing like keeping the tension in the air.

"Hunter," he replied. Alex unconsciously shivered at the sound of his voice before she could catch the reaction.

"And, you're a hunter?" She couldn't help the smile. "How did you know where to find me?"

"My aunt's journal." his answers were direct and to the point. Alex looked at him as if to say, DUH, but she just went back to numbing the area. "She said that if I was ever in trouble and in the area, that I should seek out Jody Mills, and her wayward girls. She mentioned you by name."

"She did? In a journal?" Alex shook her head, took up the needle and began the tedious process of stitching him up. Hunter did nothing, didn't move, barely breathed but he also didn't take his eyes off her. "What's your aunts name?"

"Ali," he whispered, waiting for some sort of reaction but all Alex could do was blink. She knew the name, she knew the woman and if this was her nephew, she knew why he came. Ali had saved her life. "Ali Porter."

"Well," she tried to act nonchalant, "she certainly sent you in the right direction."

"Mmm," was all he replied as she moved from one spot to the next. All the tension seem to melt from his muscles as his eyes began to slowly slip closed. He was trusting, something that hunters never really did well, but apparently, he assumed that just a nurse wasn't going to try and kill him, at least not after all that hard work.

Sitting back, finally finish, Alex smoothed the tape over his body and grabbed the blanket beside him. With a sigh, she tucked it around his shoulders and moved to load up all the bloodied gauze pieces that she had managed to drop, plus she really needed to wash her hands.

The phone sat on the kitchen counter beside her as she let the warmth of the water clear the blood from her hands. How did a hunter find her, why would Ali even suggest going to her to begin with, it wasn't like they had a tight relationship, just one hunt on which she saved Alex's life, but the cell itself was calling to her, beaconing for her to ask why Ali had sent him in her direction.

That was until it actually rang and Alex jumped a foot.

A wet hand came up to the dirty scrub shirt she wore as if holding in her heart but after a breath or two, Alex managed to grab the cell and put it on speaker.

"Alex!" It was Jody. "Where the hell are you? Your shift ended hours ago."

"I ran into an issue," she shrugged, not that the woman on the other end could see her, but it was whatever, "I'm at Singer Salvage, with a hunter. He met me at the hospital with a slice in his side."

"So you took him there? Why? You should have called."

"I got this Jody, he's out right now, and patched up. As soon as I know he'll be okay here to rest up, I'll be home."

"How?"

"How what?" Alex loved her and loved helping her but she was so tired that everything was just grating on her nerves.

"How did he find you?"

"Ali's journal, I guess, at least that's what he said."

"He knows Porter?"

"From what he said, she's his aunt."

"Huh, there's an new one." Jody didn't seem all that impressed, of course she wasn't fond of Ali either so that didn't help, but Alex was growing more curious about the man in the other room as the moments dragged on. "Stay with him for a little bit, let me do some investigating and send me a picture of his face, I wanna know who this kid is."

"Sure, I'm just cleaning up here. I'm starving though."

"I'll bring you by some food." Jody was quick to jump on that one, apparently wanting to see Hunter in person, even if that wasn't his real name.

"Can you leave it just outside? If he wakes up, I don't want to spook him and rip the stitches again." Why did she say that, especially to Jody? Did she really care about the stitches or was she being protective of the guy? Dammit, life was frustrating. "I mean, if he is a hunter and whatever, he might get violent when he wakes up."

"More reason for me to be there."

"Jody, I got this, and a needle full of sedatives in my pocket, he's not going to hurt me." Please, please, please, don't come to my rescue, her inner voice begged.

"Okay, I'll respect that, but I'm going to call and check in and I'll leave the food by the door."

"Thank you," Alex sighed in relief, before the line went dead. She grabbed a towel, dried off her hands and stuck the phone in her pocket, before realizing that she was still covered in blood. She glanced over at Hunter and then towards the door, all of her clothes were outside in the car. "Figures."

Grabbing her keys, Alex made quick work out of running to grab the necessary items before locking the door to the shack tightly behind her. She managed to change with the door slightly open but realized that Hunter hadn't moved at all.

Once cleaned of the blood from not only her clothes but her skin, Alex slowly sank into one of the old chairs, close enough to the couch to keep an eye on the man and far enough away that she could move if needed. Jody had trained her well, and she was lightning fast on her feet if needed but she had a feeling that Hunter wasn't going to be a problem.

The quiet nature of the shack, the almost silent way the man breathed, and the twelve-hour shift she had just finished took it's told and slowly Alex fell into a light sleep.

It was the shifting on the couch that had her sitting up and alert but when she opened her eyes, pocket knife out and at the ready, she could only focus on the pair of bright eyes that was looking her over.

There was no maliciousness in them, only exhaustion and pain, but he had managed to move, to sit up and was now slouched over, elbow on his knees as he tried to catch his breath from what little exertion he had done.

Alex pocketed the knife because she knew he wasn't going to be brave enough to attack, not when he looked as if he were going to fall over. She stood slowly, moved towards the front door and peeked outside, only to find a bag of groceries there, and a gallon of orange juice, which was perfect.

Moving around without speaking to him, Alex made her way to the kitchen, grabbed a glass and filled it with the orange liquid before stepping up and handing it over.

"You lost a lot of blood, this will help," she sat down across from him on the table, which earlier had been covered in bloody towels. Hunter took it, brought it to his lips and sipped at it gently. "So, Hunter, what happened?"

"Like you said, werewolf," he replied, slowly stretching himself as he sat back, but never took his eyes off her. "I was hunting with a buddy in Watertown, didn't think much of it, thought it was one or two, ya know, just a few, not a pack."

"They always have packs, that's the first thing you learn about them," Alex scolded.

"These two didn't, they were just a rogue pair." He was very straight to the point, even in pain and it seemed to remind her of someone else she knew. "Anyway, we got one trapped, thought the other one was out for the count but it didn't end up that way. The one we had cornered shifted and attacked Glenn, my buddy, he didn't make it before I shot it. The other one came at me, managed to get it's claws in deep before I daggered it through the jaw. I didn't even think when I got in the car, I just drove. I knew I wasn't far away but Ali's journal, the way she talked about you and what you did… Listen, Alex, I'm sorry, I didn't think about what this might bring to you."

"You said it was just the two of them, and that they were dead, what could it possibly bring?" She narrowed her eyes at him and watched as he shifted, not from the stitches but in discomfort of some inner thought.

"Their alpha," he whispered.

"Wait, I thought you just said they were rogue." Alex was definitely confused.

"They were, but that was the reason we were hunting them down, to get to their alpha. This pack has been all over the US," Hunter shook his head. "Look, Alex, I appreciate everything that you've done for me, but I'm dangerous to you. I don't want you hurt."

"I know people that can help with this."

"So do I and I would have gone to them if I thought that it would make a difference, but it will only put more of you in harm's way. I can't do that." He pushed himself to stand, but stopped dead when he saw the shredded shirt that lay on the ground. "I should really go," his eyes traveled to Alex, "my duffle is in my car back in an alley by the hospital. If you could just bring me there, I'll get out of your way."

"Sit!" Alex ordered, standing tall, but nothing like the five-foot-eleven man before her. It was supposed to be commanding enough to make him snap to it, but he seemed to have run out of steam and slowly gave in, inching down towards the couch again. "Okay, so there still seems to be the clothing issue, but I might have that covered."

"You have men's clothing stuffed away in here somewhere? Is this a den of iniquity?" Hunter tried to smile through the pain that the conversation was giving him, and that little bit of laughter went right to his eyes, which made the corners of her mouth twist up in a grin.

"You wish," she mumbled as she moved towards the small closet, "it's a hunters' safe house, which means we get a lot of people leaving their stuff," she searched through the stacks of clothing that were hiding in the small space and pulled out a tee-shirt and a large flannel, one that might swim on him but it would keep him warm. "So, they get taken home and washed before coming back as supplies for the next hunter." She tossed them at him and watched as he inspected the shirt. "Like you."

Alex watched as he fumbled with it for a moment before he sighed in aggravation and looked up at her.

"I can't get it over my head." Why would that one little sentence make her smile. It wasn't like it was funny at all, but maybe it was the fact that this big, badass hunter couldn't dress himself. Alex moved, grabbed the shirt and let him slip his arms through before she tugged it down over his head and pulled it down over his stitches. "Thank you."

"Flannel too?"

"No, I'm actually pretty warm," his voice, though deep was tired and she watched his face as he scanned the room. "What did she bring for groceries?"

"Who?"

"Jody," he whispered and this made her brow crease. How did he know? "I wasn't completely asleep when she called. I recognize her voice." He answered her unasked question but it didn't put her at ease. "She's right through, she probably should at least be here, or check out anything connected to my name."

"Are you saying you're dangerous?"

"No, I'm saying it's smart," he lowered his eyes to his bloodstained hands, "you can't trust anyone in this life, Alex, especially ones that come at you hurt."

"Not making me feel any better." She huffed, stood and made her way towards the kitchen. The supplies were simple. Beans, soup, some ravioli, a bunch of canned stuff and she decided that soup would probably be the best bet. As she stirred the soup, she listened to the silence, an odd silence that made her wonder. She poured two mugs of the soup and headed out to the couch only to see that Hunter had fallen back to sleep. Kicking his foot lightly, his lids fluttered open and he looked at her half-awake. "Here," handing him the mug, "eat this, you still need to get your strength up."

"You can go home, you know," he mumbled as he brought the cup up, nearly falling asleep into it. "I'll be fine, this isn't my first rodeo."

"Sorry, it's code thing." Alex smiled and proceeded to try and concentrate on her own food, but her eyes were constantly going back to him to make sure he finished it. After collecting the empty mugs, she refilled the juice and put it on the table beside him. "I could call Jody and have her come down, move you to the main house and watch over you there."

"No," he said softly, shaking his head. "I'm good right here, and I told you, I'm not getting anyone else involved."

"Should I call your aunt?"

"No, don't want her involved either, she's on this hunt, from what I get and it's pretty intense."

"What is she hunting?"

"Demon, from what I get." Hunter shrugged. "It's pretty personal."

"Yeah, I could see how it could be, we all have our own demons." Alex looked away, scanning over the small room but when she settled her eyes on Hunter again, his head was back and his eyes were closed once more. "Right."

She grabbed the blanket and covered him again, this time she let her fingers trace over his hairline as she memorized his features.

It had taken Hunter three days to start being able to move around without becoming completely exhausted from just a little bit of walking but in that time, Alex had left him only once to cover a shift, head home to grab more supplies and to find out everything she could about him. So it shouldn't really have come as a surprise when she walked in and he was standing, fully dressed, attempting to pull on a coat.

"Where are you going?"

"I told you, this is dangerous." he stepped up to her, looked down with a smile on his face and rubbed his large hands over her shoulders and down her arms. "I have to go, Alex. I don't know when they're going to strike but I have a feeling it's going to be soon and I have to get far enough away from you to make sure it doesn't go down here. I couldn't live seeing you hurt."

"We're here, you know, there are a bunch of us that are more than able to protect ourselves. We can face it together." Alex was confused on why he insisted that he needed to leave, but Hunter just shook his head. "Please, just a few more days."

"I can't," he sighed and kissed her softly on the forehead. "We already brought Patience into it by having her bring my car here. That's one more person."

"Hunter," Alex reached up, placed her hand on his cheek and pulled herself up on her tiptoes as she tugged him down gently, planting a soft kiss on his lips. "You're not alone anymore, you have us."

"I have a lot of family, Alex, just none that I can involve." He rested his forehead against hers and sighed. "I'm sorry, I have to go."

He slipped past her, took a breath and walked out into the fading light. Alex sighed, stood silent for a moment and listened to the engine roar on the old Mustang fastback. She could hear the kick of gravel as it hit the rusted bodies of the salvage yard ghosts and slowly she sank down into the chair, his presence instantly missed.

The full moon shined through the door as Alex cleaned up everything in the shack, making it ready for the next hunter to come through. The weather outside was calm and cool, definitely helping to air it out but she could only think of wanting to keep it closed, to hold onto the scent of Hunter's body wash, his shampoo, that she had to help him with due to the stitches, but she knew how hunters were, here one minute, gone the next.

With a sigh, and the last of the paper towels going into the trash, Alex wiped a hand across her forehead and shook her head. Turning off all the lights, she gathered the trash bag, grabbed her keys and pulled the door closed behind her. She tossed the trash in the back of her SUV and closed the hatch before going through her keys looking for the right one.

That was when she heard it.

A stifled growl in the darkness, one that halted her in her tracks and she looked around. The rusted bodies of cars were like a dark wall of twisted metal, ones that reflected the moonlight in odd places where glass remained, but she reached in, under her seat and pulled out a shotgun.

"Damn!" She knew she should have called Jody, but this was something she had to do herself to erase his memory. Putting her back to the SUV, she looked around trying to pinpoint the noise but before she could narrow it down, the sound of wolves snapping, growling, howling echoed from around her. She dropped her keys and huffed! "Double damn!"

There was no way out, not if she couldn't find those and she knew she was in trouble. The cell in her pocket rang, shattering the sudden silence of the night. Pulling the stupid thing from her pocket, she only took a second to glance at the caller ID. Jody, thank God.

"Alex, we have to talk about Hunter," Jody's voice sang on the line.

"I'm trapped," was her only reply.

"What? How? Where?" The questions were going a mile a minute and then she said: "I'm coming to get you now."

"I'm at Bobby's and I hear wolves."

"Dammit!" Jody would usually go off on another tangent that included more swears then a sailor but this time all she heard was the sound of the pickup's engine.

Alex left the line open but placed the phone on the hood, she was going to need both hands for this. Cocking the gun, she made her way around the SUV before she headed towards the door of the shack, there seemed to be more light there, and she had an unobstructed view of a larger part of the yard.

The wolves started to howl again, to bay at the moon as they moved in closer. And then there was silence again, a calm before the storm. Alex watched five of them move towards her, all at a slow, steady and terrifying pace but as they inched closer, she could hear the low growls that shifted through each of them.

Suddenly, they stopped, their heads low, ready to pounce, but that wasn't what had her attention, it was the larger wolf that moved from the darkness, itself blending in until those bright yellow eyes landed on her.

Alex held still, positioned the gun and fired off a shot towards the alpha of the group. She heard it yelp in pain as it was struck but that sent the others into a frenzy. The five in front of her jumped to attack and she fired off once more, hitting another one as it jumped for her. Quickly reloading the gun, Alex ducked to cover as much of herself as she could, ready to fire once more as soon as one got past her mental this is way too close line.

Two more shots rang out, dropping one more to the ground but three were swiftly closing in. That was when it happened, a seventh wolf, one with dark gray fur and bright eye jumped in and took out one of her attackers. Alex shook as she reloaded, an eye locked on the battle between the gray wolf and one of the ones after her throat.

Unloading more of the shells, Alex's heart skipped as all but two went down, the large alpha and her mysterious helper, but it wasn't that the alpha was now closing in that sent her anxiety skyrocketing, it was the fact that the gray wolf was bleeding, that his coat was now a cloudy black in the night.

The alpha moved, pitch black even in the moonlight and Alex patted her pockets for more shells only to come up empty, she pulled the blade from her boots, thanking everything above that she hadn't come to clean in just her scrubs, but decided it was best to be prepared… some what.

She watched the gray wolf move, hold its own, but as it stepped in front of her, Alex felt a strange sense of familiarity and stared. She could hear her heartbeat in her ears as the gray one growled, the alpha bared its teeth and suddenly, it launched.

All she could see was fur and blood, everything she heard was yelps of pain or snarls of aggression, but the one thing that seemed to cut through the night was the sound of the tires approaching quickly.

Jody launched from the truck, lights pinpointed on the dueling wolves, but Alex rushed at her when she started to fire.

"No!" She snapped as she caught Jody's arm, making the older woman pause and look at her. "Don't shoot the smaller one, he helped save my life."

"There's something you need to know," Jody replied as she took aim with the gun again, trying to target in on the alpha. "It's about Hunter."

"I know," Alex whispered, and she really did, right at that moment, she truly knew and her eyes watched the battle rage on.

"I called Ali about her nephew, he's been missing for years," Jody added, "the last time she saw him was a few weeks ago when he showed up in Massachusetts looking for help with two rogue wolves."

"He told me about them." Alex acknowledged, but that wasn't all, was it? That wasn't the whole story.

"He stole her journal, Alex, that's how he found you, he took it without permission while she was hunting De… a demon." Jody aimed the gun and fired off three rounds, hitting the Alpha directly in the chest. The larger wolf went down but not without taking the gray one with it. Shaking out of it's grip, the smaller of the two managed to step back just once before it turned it's bloody head in Alex's direction, just for a second before lunging in and snapping the alpha's neck. "She told me about him, Alex, the reason he was hunting the rogue ones."

"Jody, I know." She just didn't want to hear it, not while Jody had a gun pointed at the bright eyes of the snarling wolf that had turned in their direction.

"No, I don't think you get it. Hunter was bitten three years ago," Jody snapped, the knowing eyes locked on the sheriff. "He's a werewolf, that werewolf."

Alex moved to stand in front of her, blocking Jody's view, her aim on the wolf gone, and she shook her head.

"I know, okay," she reached out and placed her hand on the gun, "and he saved my life."

Jody lowered the gun, as Alex turned to see the end of that gray tail disappear between the edge of darkness and the boneyard of cars that stretched around her. With a sigh of relief, Alex grabbed the shotgun, her phone from the hood and strangely enough, found her keys right by the tire, but when she turned back to Jody, she just shrugged and moved to get into her car.

She rode in silence home, her thoughts on the man and the wolf she had seen, but she couldn't help but wonder one thing. If he was what they all believed, evil, how come he had never made a move to hurt her?

A week later.

She had just finished her shift, another long day with not enough coffee. The sun was trying to peek through the clouds but the damn things refused to move. It didn't matter anyway, Alex wasn't really paying any attention. She knew now that she didn't really long for a normal life. After Hunter, normal seemed… well, boring.

She placed her bag in the trunk and pulled down the hatch, flipping the keys around her fingers before she looked up at the reflection in the glass. There, not far from the first spot she had seen him, was a five-foot-eleven man with bright eyes that seared into her soul and slowly she turned.

The steps she took should have been cautious, should have taken a lot more thought than they did, but suddenly she was in his arms and he was wrapped around her.

"Where have you been?" Alex nuzzled into his chest as he leaned his head down, cheek to her hair.

"Healing, that alpha did a lot more damaged than you would have thought." He answered, his deep voice sending a shiver through her. "Alex, I can't stay, not now that Jody knows the truth."

"You stole your aunt's journal?" She questioned, suddenly backing away.

"Believe it or not, most of the ramblings Ali has written in there aren't just mindless inner babble, she knows things, things that people shouldn't, especially in this line of work. She makes observations and they are spot on, so yeah, I needed it to find the rogues, but I'm bringing it back." Hunter took a deep breath and stared down into her eyes. "I couldn't leave without saying goodbye to you first."

"Will you come back?" Where did that come from? He was a Were, you didn't invite him back into your life.

"I'm not sure, it's still not safe, not with what I am, Alex, you know that." Hunter pushed back and rested only his fingers against her cheeks. "I can promise this though, you will always be protected." Something in the night, some strange noise that only he could hear made him pick up his head and look into the shadowed corner of the garage. "I have to go, but you're not losing me, I have your number."

"How?" Alex moved back and Hunter smiled.

"You put it in my phone," he smirked and watched her blush. Damn, she was hoping he had been asleep for that. "I'll be in touch."

She watched as he turned and slowly moved, silently like an animal on the hunt.

"Hunter!" Alex called after him and watched as he stopped, only turning his head to peek back. "Be careful."

"I always am," and he grinned at her, to which Alex let out a "pfft" sound and shook her head, before watching the man disappear into the darkness again.

She waited a moment, thinking she might hear his car but there was nothing, nothing but the drip of water against concrete that echoed through the building, and she let out her breath before slipping into her SUV.

It was time to go home, time to slip back into the boring normal, at least for now.