Part Ten

Early the next morning, Ty was sharpening his arrows and wondering idly about Max. He considered himself something of a connoisseur when it came to arrows. He had an unusual talent when it came to bows. A strangely steady hand and deadly accurate aim. After a little practice, it became obvious he was surpassing his teachers.

Then his taste in arrows grew. Unlike some hunters, Ty had a unique understanding about most types of arrows and insisted on specializing them to the task. Now, no matter how he organized them, the hole where his seventh quarrel should have been was obvious and annoying. The fletching on some of his arrows had worked itself loose, which was slightly irritating in itself.

He decided to head to the warehouse instead of school, today. He could have them repair some of the arrows, and pick up the ones he needed. He could even set up some of their targets and wear himself out a little.

"Hey Hunter!"

Ty turned towards the voice. It was Mark. "Hey Hunter." Ty replied. "How goes it?"

"Good 'n bad. You want another job?" Mark asked.

"I'm always up for a slay." Ty grinned. "Almost as fast for a lay."

"Good. They need some help in 'Vegas. Two weeks from now someone's got a blood feast planned. They're collecting the courses as we speak. Daybreak of all people called us in. Seems they've an ex-hunter who knows where we can be found. We're changing our loc's and numbers as we speak, but this was too important a job to blow it off entirely. Anyway, they wanted a professional for the job. I told them you was the best we got."

"You paying my ticket?" Ty asked. "How many vamps are they trying to feed?"

"Yeah, I'm paying your ticket - they're feeding twenty vamps. Sixty humans." Mark looked at Ty. "Can you do this one?"

Ty nodded, not mentioning that Mark and him both knew that he'd have to go face to face with Daybreak to do it. "I can send those suckers straight to hell." He smiled, wickedly. "But I've got a bag full of weapons here that need to be repaired. . . What do you say, free of charge?"

Mark sighed. "You drive a hard bargain. No prob. You leave tomorrow night. You'll be ready? I'm sending a shuttle."

"I'm always ready. The question is will the weapons be?" Ty smiled. He had faith in Mark, while Mark always played pragmatic, he enjoyed watching Ty take the vamps down. And he was more than willing to finance some petty weaponry to do it. "Now about the vic I brought in here the other night."

Mark raised an eyebrow. "Where did you find that girl? She's amazing. She's joined the junior slayers club. Mace says she's got real potential."

Ty sighed. That was Max alright. Potential coming out the yin-yang. "Has she asked about me?"

"Well, yeah. She won't stop asking about you. Seems to think you're the hottest thing since sliced bread. We haven't said anything, but it's a good thing not too many of us know your name. I take it that you knew her?"

"Yeah. That's why no name, no face."  Ty sniffed. Not too many of us. . . The only one of the lancers who knew his whole name was Mark. The only reason Mark did was because Mark had recruited him. And precious few even knew his first name.

"Well, I'll send the weapons to the airport in standard packing tonight. I'll secure them in a locker. You can pick up some packing from  Ness today. Your ticket will be at the counter. Just call me before you leave tomorrow morning."

Rashel looked around at the group. Thierry and Hannah were there, of course, and so was Ash and Poppy and James. "I managed to convince them to send us a Hunter. The best they got, or say they have. I wouldn't be surprised if he is all that and chocolate sprinkles. They credit him with thirty-one kills in six months."

"Don't you think this is more than a little dangerous?" Ash said, responding to Rashel, but looking at Thierry. "What if he decides that we look like trouble. Do we even have a name on this guy?"

"We need him. Rashel and Quinn are going to be busy. We need a professional, and someone who can afford to be seen as without a conscience. We can't. If we go around murdering vampires, we're not any better than humans or the night-world council." Thierry spoke up.

"Is calling in a vampire hunter any better than doing it ourselves?" Ash asked rhetorically.

Rashel decided to ignore that. "His name is Ty. He works with arrows and an iron blade. That's all they would tell me." Rashel added. "But Quinn looked up some of his old friends and found that twenty-two vampires had been found beheaded, then torched. Quinn couldn't get an accurate count on the shifters. Too many professionals like to use silver arrows on shifters. And Ty takes them out in multiples, twos and threes."

"What if he's a psychopath?" James asked. "Vampires make them that way, and if they don't. . . Well, to even survive, vampire hunters usually become that way. No offense, Rashel."

"None taken." Rashel said kind of bitterly. "I've known some psychopaths myself," She thought of Vicky and her wooden stocks, mutilated victims, only some of which had been actually guilty. "But I don't think so. . . He has preferences, like any hunter. He shoots shifters with silver arrows and beheads vampires. He torches the bodies, vampires with hair spray. But he doesn't do it out of any sort of maliciousness. He seems to kill because he thinks he has to, that vampires are evil. And he torches them so they're not easily recognized, it isn't  personal." 

"You spent a lot of time on this." Poppy stated, shaking out her red curly hair.

"I wanted to be prepared. I use to run with that crowd, and I'm pretty familiar with them and their tactics. If the Lancers see a vampire, they kill it. It's the vampires-are-all-evil mentality. I don't want to risk Daybreak vampires." Rashel took a deep breath. "I'm not saying it's going to be cake and pie here. Ty is resistant to vampires, he fights them alone. That in itself usually speaks of a strong determination."

"But. . . ?" Ash asked. There was always a but.

"If he stops the blood feast, he'll be worth the risk."