THE HUNTERS

Copyright 2022 MJ NYGHT

Unedited story. Please, if enjoy this story, review, like, and share. Many thanks.

CHAPTER 1

She needed a stiff drink. Her journey had been long and she hadn’t found him yet. Sure she was a bit out of practice. Even if she’d been hunting with her usual backup, she doubted that would make a difference anyway. He was good at this, too damn good. But then he always had been. Her prey eluded her for far too long, which was understandable; after all, he’d a two-year head start.

This, however, surprised her. He laid claim to an area in the middle of nowhere, and the place was so damn small. She wasn’t sure why the population wouldn’t notice; wherever he showed up people tended to vanish. The Intel she had gathered from the local sheriff disclosed no missing people in the area, which left her stumped. Normally, her sources were accurate, but this time she was beginning to think they might be wrong.

The last information she’d received put her quarry here in Eden Lake, New Mexico. This town was completely off the beaten track. In the summer months, the population remained small, but it usually doubled in the winter from what she’d been told. A series of caverns in the nearby foothills attracted cave explorers from all over the country during the cooler months. Apparently, the town came alive with activity during that time. Tourism was its bread and butter, without which the town would have died out a long time ago after the gold rush.

Eden Lake boasted a small annex-style hospital, a police station, and two service stations. As well as a funeral home, several small cafes, three churches, and four bars. A handful of motels and travel lodges around the town outskirts were all but empty in the blistering heat of the summer months. The campground just north of here claimed to be a busy spot all year round, as the lake at the center was the only one around for several hundred miles.

The bar she sat in was called Sidewinders. Being the only place in the township with a mechanical bull made the joint the most popular drinking spot here. The place was well furnished with heavily worn dark round wooden tables and chairs. There was a slightly raised platform on the east wall where bands could play. With a small dance floor surrounding the area just in front of it. Three old well-used pool tables filled an area at the southern end of the room.

The two bouncers were twin brothers, Matt and Joey. Telling the two apart was difficult, to say the least. They worked every night, one on the floor and the other at the door. Both wore black Stetsons and both looked as if they were bottle-fed steroids as babies. A horseshoe-shaped bar at the back wall was very well stocked. She learned the bartender’s name was Tony and he kept a sawed-off shotgun just under the counter. The only waitress working tonight was Aeron and she made sure the drinks kept coming.

Anna scanned the crowd. She’d seen most of these faces every night over the past two weeks that she’d been in town. Several of the visitors here were from out of town; she knew they were Hunters looking for work. To her, the crowd didn’t look like much of a selection to pick and choose from. Like her, they were here to go hunting, but she wasn’t interested in the contract or the money offered by the scout. United Bounty Hunters chose this location just a week ago for a recruitment site and the company rep was already busy weeding out the raw talent.

As U.B.H not only took regular bounties but supernatural ones too, they made a rule of switching up enlistment spots all across the country. Hunters needed to check with their local reps to get the latest location. That lessened the likely possibility of them getting attacked. Sometimes it was a church, other times it could be at a bingo hall or even in bars similar to this one, in the middle of nowhere, but it was never the same place twice.

U.B.H’s rep Mike West stood at the bar talking to the bartender over a glass of what she knew would be whiskey. Anna sized up the older man. He was handsome enough, slightly tanned, clean-shaven, with cool grey eyes, and as always, his slightly greying black hair was well kept. His five foot ten body was well-muscled but he wasn’t dressed to show off his frame, or the pair of nine’s she knew he was carrying. If anything, the jacket, the loosely fitted grey t-shirt, along with his relaxed-fit jeans truly made him look a few sizes smaller. At fifty-seven, he could take down a monster just as fast as she could.

She’d known Mike all her life. Once a very close friend of her parents, back when he was just a hunter. Anna used to call him uncle and he’d been her father’s hunting partner. But all that changed when he turned head hunter for U.B.H. and her Papa assumed he had betrayed him and they never spoke again. Anna had seen him more and moreover the past several years and each time he tried to sign her on, he was persistent if nothing else.

Mike had been in and out of the bar all week recruiting hunters. A table of three guys near the side exit had already signed on with him. They were young, eager, and would probably be dead within this side of a year. People in this line of work don’t have long life expectancies. She had seen a lot of well-seasoned hunters die over her time in the business. Anna’s entire family had been hunting monsters for centuries. The thing that set her apart from this crowd was she didn’t hunt people, just the monsters, and she didn’t mind killing the bastards for free.

Every once in a while Mike glanced at her sitting in the shadowed corner. She had her back to a wall so she could watch the doors and windows. A fire exit was within four steps of where she sat...just in case. Her face was hidden mostly from view because of her black hood and her long black hair that she let hang loosely over the left side of her face. She sat alone and that’s the way she preferred it. Her last shot of tequila sat untouched in front of her. Earlier, she had felt the need to have a few, but now a cold feeling of dread crept up on her, making her lose her desire to drink.

* * * ~~~ * * *

It had been a long drive, but finally, he could get out of the Caddy and stretch his legs a bit. This little town appeared to be like any other he had drifted through over the years. Full of small streets and prying townies watching one’s every move. Eyeing the long dusty street, he noticed it was pretty bare of traffic. The early part of the evenings here did little to cool the area and tonight was no exception. Raising his hand, he wiped a few beads of sweat that began to form on his brow.

He was told to meet Mike at the bar called Sidewinders. Apparently, he had a small job he needed taken care of. The man explained over the phone it would be off the books for a friend of his. There was some nasty Chupacabra infestation near a small town a day’s drive from here. At first, Quinn said no to the offer as he had never hunted the beasties before. Mike said it wouldn’t be a problem, he knew someone who could go along for a cut of the deal that was an expert shot and had killed plenty of them.

That had gotten Quinn’s interest, along with the amount of money involved. Mike knew that he tended to do his hunting alone, and preferred it that way. Now, as he eyed the bar over, he wonder who Mike was referring to. This bar appeared to be popular, based on how full the parking lot was. Casting a look at the vehicles, he also noticed many of them were from out of state. A grin played on Quinn’s lips. Mike was up to something, of that he was positive and Quinn had always had a curious streak in him.

As Quinn stretched out his stiff limbs, a couple of ladies walking out of the bar gave him a once-over and smiled.

“Evening Ladies,” Quinn said, tipping his Stetson hat to them. They were both very pretty girls in their early twenties. Neither of which gave him the impression that they would be able to handle themselves in a fight. Quinn enjoyed girls with some grit, took no bullshit off no one, could stand on their own two feet in a fair fight, and wasn’t scared of their own shadow. Mind you, they also had to need a guy to come to their rescue once in a while too. Needless to say, Quinn didn’t date much, he had lots of one-night stands though, which both these fine-looking ladies would be good for if he hadn’t been here on business.

Walking out of the blistering heat and into the cool air inside the bar felt good. The place reminded him of a dozen other sawdust watering holes he had met Mike at before. As he stepped in a shiver run down his spine. The sense of someone sizing him up gave him goosebumps. A bonus of not being human. Keener senses helped him to know when someone was measuring him up, trying to assess his movements. It was instinct for him when another alpha was in the same area as himself, whether it was male or female, it didn’t matter. He had just set foot in someone else’s territory.

The place, as he had gathered from the parking lot, was very busy. Thankfully, Mike had told him to meet him at the bar counter. So that’s where Quinn headed after he took another fast look around. Stepping up to Mike, an uneasiness washed over him. Mike had that glint in his eye that Quinn knew all too well, it meant trouble.

“Evening Mike, damn busy spot ain’t it,” he said as he stood beside the shorter man.

“Hey, good you’re finally here, I was beginning to wonder if you would show,” Mike stated as he sipped away at a glass of whiskey.

“You thought I would pass it up?” he snorted.

“There was a chance,” he said with a grin.

“I’ll take a beer thanks,” Quinn told the bartender and took a long drink of the ice-cold beer as soon as it was passed to him. It felt damn good after his nine-hour drive to get here.

He hoped the trip was going to be worth it.

“So where’s this guy you claim is an expert on the beasties I’m gonna be hunting?” He asked Mike as he glanced around. The sensation of being watched hadn’t abated and it was making him more on edge.

“Don’t worry they’re here, but it’s going to take a little bribing to get this one to go fishing with you,” the older man answered with a chuckle.

“Oh, why’s that, a real hard-ass is he?” The curiosity was eating away at him, he needed to know who this guy was.

A strange smirk grew on Mikes’s face, which only added to Quinn’s interest.

“Tony, give me a bottle of your best Mexican Tequila,” Mike told the bartender, and he went to a locked cabinet under the counter and took out a bottle of the ‘good’ stuff and slid it over to him.

“Come on then,” Mike said as he got up and walked toward the fire exit at the back.

As they walked, Quinn scanned the crowd over. Most of the men and women here looked like they could handle themselves. Several of them he had seen in one town or another over the years. He figured they were hunters looking to get work. With so many of them in here, he assumed Mike was holding a recruitment drive and had to wonder why he hadn’t offered Quinn a position again. The last time they spoke he had doubled his offer. Maybe the man finally got the hint, he thought. Quinn never partnered up, well, almost never. Lazlo had always been the exception to that rule. But then he really had no choice when it came to him.

The thought of ever joining an organization like U.B.H. was even less likely to happen for Quinn. There were so many rules and guidelines they had to follow. He liked the freedom to take on only the jobs he wanted and he would never be able to do that if he held a contract with U.B.H. The money, he knew for a fact, was good, but still, he loved his freedom too much to get tied down with a contract. Then there was the fact they didn’t hire his kind. Any of his species that lost it to their inner monster were targets, almost always dead ones.

Quinn’s thoughts about U.B.H came to an abrupt halt as a sweet heavenly fragrance drifted in the air as they walked. He could smell the person at the table just before they reached it. A female and one with a certain primal need too. Her scent was wild and musky, it sent another shiver down his spine. They stepped up to the table where a small framed, lone occupant sat in the darker shadows. Quinn’s flesh quivered, the telltale sign of stepping too close to something he shouldn’t. He knew all too well that this was either an alpha-type lady or an alpha-type male’s woman. A grin played on his lips, hoping it was the first and she was unattached.