Wolf and Red: Monster Hunters
Chapter Seventeen
Two days later, and the group was getting ready for the meeting.
"You're not telling me all your plans for our safety?" Sophia Gardnier asked Red.
"That's right," Red agreed.
"Good," Sophia nodded. She saw their surprise and smiled, "I know vampires can control minds. The less I know, the less I can reveal."
"We both have some resistance," Wolf told her, "hopefully we won't need it."
Sophia nodded as she watched the two dangerous hunters. No matter what others think, she didn't hate Hunters, despite her son. They served a useful purpose, protecting humanity from the many monsters that hunt them. She just thought they were a bit... narrow.
Sophia's watch chimed, as the sun was setting. "He'll be here soon," she noted.
"Ok, I'll stay beside you," Wolf noted, "and Red will hang back a bit. You know what to do if things go bad?"
"Gesture like this," Sophia made the hand motion.
"That signals Wolf to grab you and we'll try to get you clear," Red agreed.
A few moments later, and the sun had fully set. There was a strange chill in the air, despite the weather being nice.
"Greetings, Doctor," a voice came out of the darkness.
Red quickly aimed with the modified rifle, even as Wolf tensed. Only Sophia seemed to take all of this calmly.
"Sebastian," Sophia greeted him and continued, "thank you for agreeing to come here and meet with me."
"Of course, fair lady," Sebastian bowed slightly. "Fair ladies, may I have your names?" he asked the two Hunters.
"You can't HAVE them," Wolf said, having ran into Fae bargains before. "But I'm Wolf,. She's Red," she added.
"Ah," Sebastian murmured, "I've heard of you. You hunted my kin in Europe."
Sophia visibly tensed.
Sebastian laughed, "Such weak fools. We are better off without them."
Sophia puffed out a sigh of relief that he wasn't pissed. "Did you bring the accounts I requested?" she asked meekly.
"Of course," Sebastian drawled.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"I've got the shot," Mimi murmured, laying on a rise far away from the meeting, peering through her sniper rifle's scope.
Nic was set up nearby, also sighting on the group via a similar rifle. "Damn it, they need to stay out of my line of fire," she muttered.
Gail and Dolores, the other two members of the team, were waiting with a sub machine gun and a heavily modified pump action shotgun. The somewhat dainty Gail looked kind of odd toting the shotgun, amusingly.
'I figure Wolf and Red are making sure not to block Mimi's shots,' Dolores noted mentally. "Do NOT take the shot until Wolf signals."
"Yeah, yeah," Nic sighed.
"No sign of any human thralls or other vamps," Gail noted, sweeping the area with a set of modified binoculars.
"Considering the vampire they're meeting snuck up on us, I'm not counting on spotting them early," Dolores said dryly.
"Hmm," Nic agreed.
"So far, going well," Mimi muttered.
"Here's hoping we're not needed," Dolores said dryly.
"That's TOTALLY jinxing us, boss," Gail noted mildly.
"Yup," Nic agreed.
"Sorry," Dolores chuckled.
Gail kept an eye out, then suddenly barked, "Movement. Vehicles, inbound."
"Oh hell," Dolores took a look, noting it was two Ford trucks heading right for the meeting site. She used a radio to call Red, "Vehicles heading you're way."
"FUCK," Red blurted.
"Ask the Vamp if they're his. Otherwise, things just got hairy," Dolores said flatly.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"They aren't my minions," Sebastian noted.
"I think we need to cut our meeting short," Sophia suggested.
Sebastian raised an eyebrow, "I could simply kill them all."
"We'd feel obligated to stop you, there'd be a fight, cats and dogs, so on," Wolf said dryly.
Sebastian looked at her, then chuckled warmly. "I like you, stalled lycanthrope," he noted mildly.
Wolf blinked, "How do you know about..?"
"Scent," Sebastian shrugged. He bowed slightly to Sophia, "Remember that you and you associates now owe me. And I WILL collect."
Before anyone could do anything else, he was gone.
"Fuck," Red muttered even as the trucks arrived.
"I thought your people owned the property," Wolf asked Sophia, frowning.
"We do," Sophia said, "these aren't my people, either."
"DIE, HELLSPAWN!" the burly guy in the back of the truck yelled, firing a huge rifle.
"Shit!" Wolf shoved Sophia behind her as a bullet whizzed by.
Red hesitated. These were PEOPLE shooting at them... well, probably.
BOOM. The front windscreen exploded as Mimi fired, deliberately not hitting anyone. It was clearly a attempt to scare them off.
"What the...?" one of the attackers jerked back.
Her and nic both fired into the vehicles, and they both sped off.
"Wolf!" Red ran over.
"Fuck, shit," Wolf muttered, her shoulder bloody.
"Thank you, you saved my life," a slightly dazed Sophia managed.
"Let's get out of here before something ELSE happens," Red urged.
"Agreed," Wolf got up, then casually dug into the wound to get the slug out.
"Eeep," Sophia yelped.
"It's a pain if I heal around the bullet," Wolf remarked as the wound started to close.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"They're a anti-monster vigilante group," Flint said flatly, the leader of the Mission team looking somewhat exasperated.
"Seriously?" Delores asked.
"If you had actually TALKED to us before you set up an operation in our area," Weber, the second in command sighed, "we would have told you."
Wolf winced ruefully.
"How did they know to jump us?" Red had to ask.
"Your client has had weird stuff going on out there before," Spoor noted, "they probably paid off a local to tell them if they saw activity."
"Damn," Nic sighed.
"You know these guys reasonably well?" Wolf asked dangerously.
Flint looked a bit nervous, "Somewhat?"
"Let them know if they shoot at us AGAIN we're shooting back," Wolf growled. "And I am not fucking around."
"Right, right," Flint quickly agreed.
'Baen's Brawlers' quickly left, leaving Wolf and Red there with Bishop's Butchers. "So, I assume Dr. Gardnier wants nothing to do with us, now?" Dolores asked Red.
Red shook her head 'no', surprising her.
"Huh?" Gail had to ask.
Wolf drawled, "She's impressed by our ability to keep her alive, even under unexpected circumstances. In fact, she want to put both our groups on retainer for OTHER jobs."
"Well, fuck," Nic blinked.
"Pretty much my reaction too," Red agreed. "Oh, and she's paid us all in full," she added, passing a envelope with the cheque to Dolores.
"Well, that's a relief," Dolores took it. "Are you going to take more jobs with them?"
Red and Wolf exchanged a glance. "We don't know." Wolf admitted.
To be continued...
Notes: 'Baen's Brawlers' are all, of course, Baen authors, past and present. Eric Flint, David Weber and Ryk Spoor.
RIP Eric Flint, who passed away recently.