The Partner

The blare of music and smells of sweat and alcohol fill the air, greeting Kenai Faulkner as he enters the club. He has been to a few of these nitty gritty places before, and always hates it. He always did back in high school and college when he went with his friends, but now even more so whenever work drags him into these party scenes.

Most of the patrons have no idea what Kenai is, but he does see some flashes of realization over a few of their faces. The eructa don’t mistake him for what he is as he makes his way through the clutters of people crowding the bar and dancefloor, looking for the suspects. All decked out in his black leather armor, they know he’s from the Shield Guild, an international military with two purposes to serve; to protect all eructa and keep Kenai’s world hidden from the humans. And his world consists of anything and everything having to do with what the Homo sapiens call monsters, Kenai included. His world is what brings him out to the very human city of Jacksonville tonight. Some cities have a majority of one group of eructa, like St. Petersburg which is crawling with vampires or Tampa that’s basically run by demons. And those clever, dirt-smelling eructa are the reason he’s out here tonight.

For the last few nights a group of demons have been on a killing spree, and not just any demons. Guayus, also known as soul-eaters. Now the Guild is here to put an end to their crimes. Suddenly his partner, Raven, comes up beside him. “Have you got anything?” He asks her.

She shakes her head, Raven’s mocha eyes scanning the club as she speaks. “Not yet. I’ll check the dance floor and you wanna take the bar? Finding them will probably go faster that way.”

“The last thing they ate were hayek demons. Finding them won’t be the problem, but finding exactly where they are will. There are tons of places for them to hide in this city.” He points out.

She nods and walks towards the clumps of people grinding and dancing. “Then we better get cracking.”

Kenai goes to the bar, looking over all of the customers drinking, searching for any sign of red or black hair, an identifier for hayeks. He spots a female red head downing a beer. His eyes flash to her open mouth, looking for fangs. Hayeks, unlike vampires, cannot retract their fangs. They are constantly elongated, making it harder for them to conceal them. Thankfully Kenai’s only grow when he’s hungry or in a lot of pain.

The girl has no fangs, so he moves on. Then, there’s a commotion coming from the back of the club near the dance floor. Kenai looks over and sees two dark-haired individuals running out the back from Raven who is in full pursuit. Got them. Go out the front. Raven commands as she dashes from the room. His partner is a fukewe demon and has many special abilities, one of which being able to push her thoughts into other people’s minds. Being her partner and all, Kenai has grown used to her mental voice inside his mind.

Kenai takes off for the front of the club, planning to cut them off around the block. When he hits the crowded sidewalk outside, the familiar salty air and humidity greets him. The humid air almost matches the sweaty atmosphere inside the club. Kenai remembers when he was first assigned to his troop in Florida. The heat and humidity used to kill him since he had only known Missouri’s dry moderate weather. The occasional harsh winter or intense summer was never too much to handle, but the constant heat used to get to him. Now he’s grown accustomed to it and can handle activity outside in the heat with his heavy armor.

He takes off down the street, hoping he’s going the right way. He waits to draw out his weapon, not wanting to freak out any civilians. He runs all the way down the long city block and then turns. This area is less crowded so as he approaches the next turn, Kenai slips out a long, silver blade. This should do the trick. He runs around the second corner, slamming right into something. Kenai falls to the concrete, scrambling to grab his blade. He looks up to find himself staring into the eyes of one of the suspects. He grins, flashing Kenai a sight of his long fangs. Shit. He jumps into action, getting to his feet to tower over the demon. Before the guy can grab him, Kenai slices off his head. His head falls to the ground with a soft, wet sound and the body slides back.

He lets out a sigh of relief, but then Raven appears farther down the block, her eyes widening in panic. “Kenai! Watch out!”

He turns to find the other suspect behind him. She grabs his armor and pulls him to her, preparing to eat his soul. Dammit. She knocks his weapon out of his hand before he can think. Right when she opens her mouth, Kenai hears a slicing sound and a blade hit the ground. The demon’s eyes turn black, its true color, and its mouth drops open. Then the girl’s head plops off her shoulders to the sidewalk and her body falls into Kenai’s. He catches it and rolls it off to the side.

Kenai looks up to see who saved him, and sees no other than his twin sister, Kyra. She stands a few yards away, her hands still in the follow-through from throwing her blade. She threw her blade and sliced the demon’s neck in one, clean sweep. Gods. Raven joins them, looking down at the dead demon, impressed. “Wow, nice throw.”

Kenai scratches his neck, still catching his breath. “Yeah, Kyra. You could have killed me.”

She smirks and walks over casually, her thick, shoulder-length blonde hair that matches his blowing in the wind. “You’re welcome.” She retrieves her blade from the ground and wipes it on the demon’s shirt. Out of nowhere, Deck plops down from the building above them. He slings a body to the ground, adding to the pile of demons they have collected.

“Deck, I hate it when you do that.” Kenai shakes his head. He’s still not used to Deck popping up everywhere. He still catches him off guard.

Deck grins and then eyes the demon his partner killed. Time for trainer Deck. “You had the right idea, but the slice could have been cleaner and you should have run after the blade in case you missed.” He says in a gruff tone.

Kyra used to be hurt by his lack of friendliness and helpful attitude, but not so much anymore. She’s told her brother multiple times that after training with Deck for the last few months, she knows if he ever thinks she is doing well, he’ll never tell her. All the warriors will say they think the banshee has a soft spot for Kyra, but that doesn’t mean he’s nice to her. No, he just tolerates her and trusts her in a way he never will with the others. And that, Kyra has told him, is a victory in her book. Kyra accepts his comment with a nod, keeping her green eyes on her blade.

Raven touches the demon Deck brought with her boot. “The last of them?”

Deck nods. “Yeah, got him in an alley a few blocks away. That’s the last of them. Clean up’s got it. Let’s go home.”

Kenai looks over at Raven. “Did anyone see anything in the club?”

She shakes her head. “No, nothing out of the ordinary. The guayus pretty much saw me and ran. The humans will just think it was a robbery or fight. We’re good.” With that, the four of them teleport back to their compound.

Troop 2113’s Floridian mansion compound is located near Daytona Beach, in a smaller, less touristy beach town called Doveport. It’s home to nine eructa and a human, and they all pretty much consider themselves family. Sure, Kenai still has his biological family back in his hometown, Ristey Hollow. He still loves visiting the small, avori settlement where he grew up and seeing his parents and old friends. He had a lot of trouble with homesickness during his first two years in the Guild and he visited home more often than the others. Kenai remembers how some of his shield brothers teased him for being a babied avori. He is a babied avori, and he has his perfect, loving parents to thank for that, but he loves them. They meant well even if Kenai and his sister were extremely sheltered growing up. He had quite the culture shock when he joined the Guild, and he knows Kyra is still adjusting months later to it.

Kyra…his twin sister was the main reason for his homesick troubles. When he joined the Guild, they left on bad terms. Both of them had applied for the Guild at the same time and up until a few months ago the Guild had a rule that no two members from the same immediate family could be in the Guild. As a result, only Kenai got in. Kyra was furious for two reasons; one, because he got into the Guild and she didn’t. Her second reason was that he applied in the first place when he knew it was her dream, and it was. Kyra had wanted to join the Guild since she was a kid. She was upset he knowingly took her dream from her, and he paid the price. Sure, Kenai denied it at first. He was so surprised that for once in his life, he was better than Kyra at something. She had always been the popular one, the better looking one, and the more outgoing one. For once, someone looked at Kenai and his twin and saw him first. He enjoyed that too much and decided to ignore what he did and how much it hurt his twin, his closest and most trusted friend.

For two years Kenai disregarded everything that happened between them and pretended nothing was wrong. That was a mistake that led to the mess that got Kyra into the Guild a couple months ago. Out of anger at Kenai and the Guild, Kyra impersonated Kenai, broke into the Guild, and became a fugitive. After chasing her down for a week, she turned herself in and after a twist of faith, ended up as a warrior in the Guild. The story is longer and more complicated than that, but that’s the gist of it. He has no idea how she did it, and he’s pretty sure Kyra doesn’t know either. Obviously, they’ve made up since then and have gotten back to the place they were at two years ago. They talk, joke, and hang out. He’d be lying if Kenai said he wasn’t happier and doing better in the Guild with his sister here, but it doesn’t make his ego feel any better. If Kenai needs his sister around to do well, what does that say about himself?

The four warriors arrive in the foyer of the mansion, the light colored tile floors, walls, and high ceiling a familiar sight. They all head to the elevator that leads to the basement and go to the armory to change out of their leather armor. While Kenai is stowing away his uniform, three of his shield brothers, Caul, Elwood, and Gunner enter the room, the demon’s and dhampire’s faces covered in blood. “Somebody had too much fun.” Kyra comments as she removes her weapons from her belt.

Elwood grins at her. “Way too much, hon.”

“Who knew vampires could explode?” Caul asks kiddingly as he goes to his locker.

Kenai shakes his head at the two gruesome guys. His best friend, Gunner, just quietly goes through his post-mission routine. How does such a gentle guy go along with those two blockheads? He’ll never know. Elwood pulls everyone’s attention on him again. “Guys, Caul and I were gonna go watch this movie after this. Who’s in?”

“I’ll pass.” Kyra says casually. Raven nods and Deck just shrugs.

Elwood’s eyes land on him. “How about you, Kenai?”

He doesn’t really feel like watching a movie but what else does he have to do? Nothing, besides sleep or read, his usual Saturday night. Kenai nods. “Sure, but I’m gonna grab a shower first.”

Caul and Elwood grin. “Same, buddy, unless you want to sit next to this all morning.” Kenai shakes his head as they chuckle, then heads out of the armory to head back upstairs to his quarters.