Here's another chapter! It's a little short, but I'll update sooner. Thanks to Quillian, Heart of Lies, Raptor-Chick and Aqualung for the reviews!
Chapter 3: Ultimate Prey
The next day, Tarn'se began scouting out the different areas for prey. The humans he had killed last night had been merely a warm up for what he had planned later on.
Through the human day, he scouted different areas for prey; not like the humans he had killed in the alley, but something of more skill.
He felt thoroughly disappointed to find very few he would even consider to be challenging, worthy prey. He found plenty of armed and fighting humans, but never ones with much skill.
Tarn'se left after a few hours of scouting to head back to his ship for a quick rest. The more dangerous humans tended to come out a night anyway.
Ravyn knocked on Jonathan's door after listening for a few seconds to the two voices that were behind it. The one was Jonathan and the other was almost definitely Vanessa. The two voices silenced at the knock and Jonathan called, "Come in!"
The office was rather bland. Random paper clippings were tacked to a bulletin board, most of them either death-warrants for vampires or notes of where ones they were recently tracking had last been spotted.
Ravyn was greeted by expecting looks. After every hunt, the hunter was to report how the mission went. If the hunter didn't return, the result was pretty obvious.
Vanessa was a very tall, about 6' 2", African American with grey eyes and shoulder length, almost silver colored hair. Ravyn always wondered why that was, but she never asked.
Jonathan surpassed even Vanessa's height with 6' 5" and reminded Ravyn a lot of Nathan, though Jonathan was about twenty times more quiet and strict.
"So, how did it go?" Vanessa asked politely.
Ravyn shrugged, "As expected." Vanessa and Jonathan nodded, turning back to their conversation. Small talk wasn't common in the guild. Ravyn continued in a loud voice, "I did get some information you may like to know!" The two leaders paused and looked to her to continue.
"The vamp I brought down had some knowledge of where Nacht was last seen…" Ravyn trailed of. Any knowledge of the whereabouts of that particular vampire was a very precious thing.
Nacht was perhaps one of the most feared vampires. She was very old, believed to be Egyptian, and was a master of cruelty. The main concern with her was that she boasted having a cure for a turning vampire: a person who was bitten and drank a vampire's blood, but had not changed into a full-fledged vampire yet.
Originally, her boasts were ignored; until she abducted a turning vampire hunter, cured them and sent them back to their guild. The cure was never discovered off the hunter, and now, almost every guild was putting in some effort to find her and the cure.
Vanessa and Jonathan exchanged glances. Jonathan gave Ravyn a calculating look and said, "How did you get the information?"
Ravyn quickly recounted the night before, "I figured I had him dead already, why not see if he had anything valuable in his head."
The two nodded, Vanessa began to speak, "Before we go into this claim, we must make sure the vampire did not feed you any lies. We will assign you a new target tonight; one that we are almost sure has had contact with Nacht's group."
Ravyn smiled, gave a small nod, and turned to leave, "Ravyn, wait!" Ravyn turned and saw Vanessa and Jonathan exchange unsure glances. Jonathan looked at Vanessa seriously and muttered, "We should warn her." Vanessa nodded and turned to Ravyn.
"Ravyn, we believe there is something you should know about before you go tonight," Vanessa turned and pushed a button on a small TV screen in the office. The TV turned on showing a reporter that looked oddly pale for the hot summer heat.
Ravyn listen closely as the reporter spoke, "I'm standing here at the scene of some of the most gruesome murders I've ever seen."
Ravyn glanced back a Vanessa who motioned for her to continue listening, "It seems that five gang members were killed last night by an unknown suspect. The bodies were found hanging upside-down, skinned with their heads missing. I will be reporting more on this story as it develops."
Ravyn's glanced as the two leaders confused, "You think that was a vampire?"
Vanessa nodded, but Jonathan looked skeptical, "Vanessa believes it was, but I don't. Vampires don't do that. Even pissed off ones tend to keep a relatively low profile when it comes to the media. Either way, be careful tonight. We don't need to find you hanging anywhere skinned."
Ravyn nodded, and Vanessa asked, "Where did the vampire say Nacht was last located?"
"He said, 'It was deep in Tristel's territory, in an old packing plant near the river,'. Who Tristel is, I have no clue."
The two leaders nodded. Jonathan quickly gave the location of Ravyn's hunt and dismissed her.
-Time Passes-
Later that night, Ravyn walked down the streets heading towards her next location. She once again had her short sword and dagger, along with two small crossbows and two throwing knives one attached to each wrist. Her armor was nothing much: some tough leather pieces tied in various places for protection and she wore all black to assist in hiding in the shadows. She was ready for action.
As she passed by yet another drab alleyway, catcalls and raucous laughter echoed out of it. Ravyn ignored the voices and continued on her way; she had no wish to deal with street punks at this time.
Unfortunately, the group was not easily discouraged. They left their alleyway and began following Ravyn, calling out rude and suggestive phrases.
Ravyn kept on walking and ignoring them until they surrounded her and the leader, a tall burly guy, stepped in front of her and said, "Where do you think you're going honey?"
Ravyn quickly counted them; only four. She rolled her eyes and spoke crisply, "I suggest you get out of my way before I make you."
A chorus of 'Oooos' rang out from the rest of the group. The kid in front of her raised his brows, "Oh really? And what exactly are you going to do?"
Ravyn began to get annoyed; she didn't have time for this, "Get out of my way."
The kid crossed his arms over his chest, "You're not goin' anywhere."
Ravyn sighed, "This is your last warning: Move or else."
The kid smirked, "Or else what?"
Ravyn took a deep breath and attacked.
Tarn'se saw the confrontation take place. It seemed some male humans were harassing a female. He knew most female humans were weak and frail so he almost felt pity for the female. However, the female didn't seem disturbed in the least.
Tarn'se sat on the corner of a rooftop and listened in to the conversation. The female wanted to go and the males weren't letting her. At last the female threatened the male that was in front of her, but he didn't move.
Tarn'se soon learned he should pity the males, not the female.
Ravyn dropped, hooking her leg behind the thug's and pulled out sending him toppling to the ground. While the others were still in shock, Ravyn jumped up delivering the kid to her left a good kick in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him. The other two dove for her, the one behind her had a knife out. Ravyn jumped backward avoiding the kid's dive to her right and pulled out her own, much larger, dagger. She caught the knife wielding kid's wrist, pulling down and in, making the kid do a flip and land hard on his back.
Ravyn quickly glanced at the leader who was picking himself off the ground and delivered a well placed kick in the nose. Blood sprayed and the kid yowled in pain. Ravyn aimed for another kick when she was barreled into by the one kid she had dodged previously. Spinning in the kid's loose grip Ravyn sank her dagger into the meat of his thigh. It wasn't a deadly shot, and it wasn't even very deep, but the kid screamed bloody murder and immediately released her.
As she stood again, the leader was being dragged away by the two others. The kid with the cut thigh looked at her in fright. "Psycho bitch!" he shouted, quickly fleeing after the others. Ravyn smiled; that was actually a nice warm-up.
As Tarn'se watched the female human walk away, he knew he had found his worthy prey. She may be small and a female, but she was armed and she could fight well. From the small demonstration she had just given him, he realized she could fight as well as a Yautja female could.
Tarn'se smiled to himself and followed the female.
Hope you liked it! Please review!