He shuffled over, eyes bright and smiling. Chelsea’s stomach bottomed out. The man had tried to lie about his name and had done so poorly. Like many new hunters did. Yet he had beheaded a fairly big monster in moments. He moved a bit like the older people she hunted with, smooth and precise. But Rick had… an edge. He was so much faster… better than anybody she’d ever seen.
Chelsea fished her glasses out of her coat. When she had secured hers, she reached into her coat again for a pair of shaded goggles. They fit Bentley perfectly, and he didn’t attempt to shake them off to her relief.
Keegan paced in front of her, long, thin legs eating up the distance between the dark headlights. The other monster hunters stood around in shifting groups of denim, flannel, and leather. Nobody talked much, and all the laughter was short and sharp in the ever-blowing prairie wind.
Taku-He turned deeper into the prairie.
Oh no you don’t!
Thought and action came at the same time. She floored her car once more; the wild bouncing briefly bringing on fear for her suspension, and overtook the monster.
The only constant was a sense of belligerent purpose. They were a people who knew that they were lucky to be alive, and they intended to press that luck yet again.
“Oh my God, Keegan… I don’t like this option, but it’s the right one, so it’s what we’re doing. Let me sulk and bitch a little, let me fucking vent.”
He rubbed at his long nose. “Will you learn their names this time?”
“Yes.” She gripped the steering wheel, knuckles white.
Once they were outside the restaurant, she looped the leash around the faux-wood horse hitch and hung his sign around his neck. It read, “I’m waiting for my owner and love pets.” Bentley’s mouth opened in a smile as kids squealed and headed over.
She ran a hand over her ax and glanced at her hunting partner. “I thought you said this was only going to take a few minutes?”
Keegan shrugged his thin shoulders. “That’s what I was told, but…”
But the spindly vampires still hadn’t appeared after nearly an hour
She has halfway across the dirt parking lot when Keegan called out. “Oh, for fuck’s sake, stop.”
Chelsea didn’t stop walking, but she did slow down. “What do you want?”
Keegan jogged up to her. “Nothing.” Then he shrugged. “Maybe a ride to the next town.”
The smoke swirled and moved, circling a body. The creature was hard to see, more impression than presence. Vaguely human and totally translucent, hidden as much by its nature as the dancing water droplets that danced on the wind, between the leaves and wisps of smoke.
Words That Burn Like Fire 