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It was the whispering of the wind that kept Tierney’s temper at bay that evening as the sun dipped below the horizon. Harper Rock had never been appealing to her, but it had been home for the Savage family to settle again once more in their roots. She was aware of their history there, the way the demifae had taught her ancestors the way of magic, how they had been part of what vampires referred to as a holocaust. To Tierney’s father, it was referred to as a failed extinction event. Even now, she could recall the first time he’d ranted and raved regarding it all - his knuckles had turned white as they grinned the old, worn out leather journal that had been passed down through generation to generation.

Even with her mind, it had been difficult to decipher and translate some of it into her encrypted database.

Her hazel eyes glittered with disinterest as she watched the collective groups at the train station. She had never understood the need for that sort of transportation, although in retrospect, Tierney supposed her vocal opinion paired with her natural distrust of people had always called her strange. Shaking her head as she watched the doors slide open, she continued on her walk and shifted to place her hands in the pockets of her jeans. The motion prompted her to clench her jaw, the sting of the healing marks on her shoulders and upper arms still present. A reminder of betrayal, rather than the power her father had forced upon her.

Dual classed.

A sorcerer capable of performing the strongest of spells - dark theurgy had come in handy against two vampires, but was the cost of her trust worth it? She hoped so. She rounded a corner, the shadow of the University visible ahead of her. Newsborough was a ghost to what it had once been. Instead of college students, there were papers scattered about blowing in the winds. The smell of burning oil lingered in the air with the factories to her right. As she came to a halt in front of the office buildings, she checked her wrist watch, and then a list of names on her wrist while she pulled out a knife. She felt the pull of her chi with her concentration, the power flowing through her veins as she slashed at the air and pushed the attack along. Distance from her target, Tierney had learned, always worked best. Another name, another target.

The bounty list was never used strictly for money.

Tierney had enough of that through her businesses.

Vampires were her problem. They were what she was after. And as she turned on her heel, Tierney could feel the pulling in the pit of her stomach. The twisting that followed the presence. She’d never understood how Sawyer and Ephraim had been able to tolerate it, she doubted she would ever be capable of it. In a firm, clear voice, Tierney called out, “I know you’re out there, fanger.” Fanger. Sheesh, Sawyer had rubbed on her as much as she had the other. It was getting ridiculous. In the back of her mind, Tierney could hear her father’s snarling voice as the recollection of spittle traced her skin. “Vampire, deathdealer. Anything other than that is a pet name. Don’t drop yourself down to it.”

...Fanger? What?
Detaching her fangs from her breakfast, Solene peeked around the corner of the brick building she’d hauled the unsuspecting human behind. She was almost certain that the summons had come from one of the spirits that had recently attached itself to her. It was both aggressive and had a tendency to use terms that she didn’t find very civilised- the only problem was that the spirit was a male with a much more grating voice.
Solene realised too late that not only was the woman who had detected her living, but she was most certainly armed.

Cringing, knowing she exposed herself, she propped her meal up between the building and stock boxes, then in a single leap, jumped to the top of the building. The necromancer was well powered in her own path and had been clever enough to learn other tactics to assist her in times like these. Her fights with the living didn’t typically go to plan- it might have been her softness for them or simply that she devoted more time to dissecting the undead beasts beneath the city than she did on training. It could also have been that despite her bloodline, she just wasn’t made for battle. Unfortunately, that would never stop a hunter.

She walked silently along the ledge of the building, observing the woman in an attempt to understand what she’d been confronted by. It was clear that she wasn’t a simple hunter, but beyond that, the woman was an enigma.


Carelessly, Solene growled and rolled her eyes, spinning around fast to face the spirit, the wind lifting her blonde tresses to glint against the glow of the moonlight.

“Not.now, you poltergeist.” She had whispered, but the heckling spirit smiled like the volume wouldn’t have mattered. Its annoying ghostly expression told her she’d given herself away. It wiggled transparent fingers at her and faded away with a sinister laugh.

Solene knew she’d have to act, but all she could think of doing was to create a diversion. Anxiously rubbing her thumb along her index finger as she scanned the shadow realm, she tried to summon another random vampire. The theory was that it would attack for her, but she’d never had the need to use it; naturally, she tried and failed three times before her frustration gave the command the punch it needed.
She had no idea who the vampire was, but as soon as she saw him lock onto the target and lunge, she ran and jumped to the next rooftop.

A step to the left told her that she was moving in the wrong direction. The fearful paladins, the traitors, would have continued on. She moved to her right, the sensation became more intent. Gone were the days she would have to rely strictly on others to tell her what was what - she had Dark Theurgy to help her identify the undead. The repulsion acted as a locator on its own, to an extent. Her long curly red hair fell down her back as she turned her head, closing her eyes and listening to her surroundings. She was familiar with the powers that some of them presented, hiding within the shadows and blending in with their surroundings.

It was the crunch of a sole on a roof that drew Tierney’s hazel eyes upwards, although it merely registered as a possibility, or was she behind the alleyway? The scurrying of a rat fleeing beneath a parked car had her inclining her head. She contemplated her moves. There was the capability of her jumping, but she wasn’t superwoman. She would need elevation before reaching the structure. Mine shafts were one thing, but buildings? She looked to the base of the building, searching. There was a dumpster not too far away, but from where she stood, Tierney couldn’t see whether it was open or closed. Unlike her best friend who sought no ends to hunt down a vampire, Tierney had her reserves and didn’t feel like tempting fate.

With her luck, Tierney would jump onto the dumpster and the lid would give.

Before she could make up her mind, there was the glimpse of a retreating figure outlined in the moonlight. She hissed, her instincts kicking in as the sensation coiled her stomach inwards as a shadowed figure lunged towards her. Vampire. The fluid motion of a knife being brought up had Tierney throwing an arm up in time to protect her face in tandem with her skin hardening. The cut shallower than it could have been, the smell of sweet blood lifting into the air as the creature vanished from sight. “At least this one isn’t a ******* coward.” She bared her teeth and rushed after the fleeting figure, removing the SIG Sauer from its holster at her thigh.

The sidearm felt familiar, comfortable even in her palm as she rushed forward and looked at the ricochet angles, trajectories. There wouldn’t be any decent shots from where she ran. But… As she slid around a corner, Tierney grasped a street pole to steady herself. She heard a scream as she raised her sidearm and fired three shots, aiming at nothing in particular. Her father would shot her for something careless, but she was already formulating a plan. Even if the plan would make no sense to anyone but herself.

Unfortunately for Solene’s less than masterful escape route, a block of roof tops in Harper Rock was much shorter than her home city. She heard deafening silence moments after she watched the summoned vampire charge and cringed, dread rising.

“****.” The gap between the building she perched on and the next was actually a chasm and was far too wide to clear, and considering the purpose of taking to the heights of the city, it would be a horrible destination. It was uncommonly short- as if it had been made for children. It really wasn’t the time to get distracted, but things that seemed out of place had a tendency to make Solene nervous. She took a mental note to take full stock of said building another time, and then dropped from the roof she was on just as the redhead took hold of that pole.

It was so infrequent that she was chased unprovoked through the streets by a crazed killer that she’d forgotten how much part of her enjoyed it. Life in Harper Rock could get just as dull as anywhere else, so whatever had prompted this at least made the night interesting. The drawbacks to infrequently being pursued did hit home when she willed her ability to move silently about two seconds after her heels hit pavement. The click happened just before the hunter’s bullets took a haphazard rendezvous through the air. What the hell was she doing? Hapless mortal pedestrians were scattering like roaches- one who even looked obnoxiously dramatic, screamed as if she’d actually been shot. She hadn’t. Not even close. Solene had to roll her eyes as she moved around the corner and into the alleyway. If only she’d been faster.

Just before she was fully concealed, the last bullet slammed into her left shoulder. She immediately gripped the wounded area, grimacing, and flattened herself against the brick wall. It hurt- more than most bullets did, but coming from a hunter, that should have been expected. “So many powers, and yet we run and then get shot…” Berating herself in hushed tones and trying to formulate the most sensible plan that didn’t involve just vanishing, the blonde moved with silent footsteps down the alley and tucked herself into a shadowed area.

Look for traces.

Her father had always been insistent that the girls had learned to track.

Marnie had excelled in it.

Tierney tracked down plants.

Some of them bleed red. Those are the easiest to find.

And, some of them bled black.

Tierney thought the inky mess that splattered on the air itself reminded her of death itself. There was no structure, no reason behind it. It just was. There was no rhyme, no fixing it. Their blood coagulated differently, vampires held different thresholds. These were things she had learned from Longslade, they were things she learned from the email fragments that had been downloaded from the scientists. Perhaps one day they would come if practical use, but for now, she didn’t really consider them to have any true purpose beyond information on paper.

Follow the blood trail.

The words embedded in her mind didn’t do her any good as she raced forward. When the humans heard the gunshots, most of them fled. Tierney wasn’t concerned about them hating her, about the fear that she created. She didn’t like most humans, she didn’t like vampires. Plants made her happy. She supposed it came from the blood of the nymph that ran through her veins. With the muzzle of her gun pointed down, she moved closer. “Shut it and get out of my way.” She hissed through clenched teeth to one of the women that continued to scream. As if it moved back into her senses and hurried off, shouting for an officer or a soldier in the distance.

As she approached the shadowy area, Tierney raised her firearm. “Come out, come out.” She taunted, looking over the bloodied trail that moved along the pavement into the shadows. Still, Tierney didn’t see her. The question on whether or not she’d lost the bloodsucker wasn’t lost on her, nor was the irony that she was stepping into the shadows, but the clenching sensation in her stomach hadn’t ceased.

She was there, somewhere.