The Beauty the Hunter and the Hunted

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  Chapter One: Lilith

  “Not a damn vampire in sight,” Lilith sighed, “Hunter's not going to like this. ”

  Lilith and her Yorkshire Terrier, Cinnamon made their way home, the sound of crunching leaves soothed the psychic’s nerves, which were rattled tonight by the lack of potential clients. Autumn had always been her favorite time of year, because the weather was cool enough to enjoy coffee, and the city began to crawl with new faces. The fall semester at the local university was underway, ensuring her a steady stream of income. To succeed in her line of work, networking with new people was a must, but today's walk was a total flop.

  Undercover as a local pet groomer, Lilith had integrated herself into the city and knew many of the locals by name. She often handed out business cards for her cover business, but to her and Cinnamon, their evening walks were much more important than finding animal lovers who wanted their pets pampered. It was about paranormal pest control.

  Lilith had been grooming dogs for a few years, but she had worked for Hunter Lingston for nearly a decade now. She acted as his family’s resident psychic, providing a unique and rare perspective. It was a career that had given her more money than she knew what to do with, but it came with its own unique set of moral scruples: Lilith had to be okay with accepting blood money.

  As a child, she often wondered how those employed in the pest control business slept at night, because after all not everything they killed were creepy crawlies. Customers would call them out for mice, possums, badgers, and even raccoons. Now two decades later Lilith knew how they dealt with it: They didn't. It was that simple. She did her job and didn't allow herself to think much about it anymore.

  Lilith and Cinnamon walked past a teenage girl asking for money.

  “Can you help me?” The girl asked Lilith, “I really want to go to the concert tonight, but I'm eight dollars short. They're my favorite band, and I'd do just about anything to see them. ”

  Lilith smiled at the girl, remembering what it was like to be a poor kid, trying to scheme her way into being able to enjoy life.

  “Sure,” Lilith said winking at her.

  She reached into her purse and handed the girl a folded hundred dollar bill.

  “Are you sure?” The girl asked, wide-eyed.

  “Go enjoy your show,” Lilith smiled, walking away.

  Lilith remembered when she was nothing more than an awkward gothic teenager, who had been cursed with what she considered to be the most boring psychic abilities known to mankind. She possessed a limited ability to communicate with animals, although she fared better with domestics, than wilds. The only other thing Lilith's abilities allowed her to do was spot a non-human a mile away, not that anyone believed her. Her hard-working single mother believed she was lost to the world of the goth sub-culture, and making up her own reality to escape the poverty that surrounded them. Lilith didn't blame her mother for thinking she was delusional; she had pondered her sanity many times, at least until she met Hunter Lingston.

  When Hunter Lingston had first approached her after school, Lilith fled from him. Her mother had taught her to be cautious of strangers, and Hunter looked intimidating in his starched Armani suit and tie. He had invited her to take a ride in his limo and talk about a business opportunity.

  “Yea, not happening!” Lilith said as she backed away.

  Lilith had ran from him, fleeing the two miles to the safety of the cafe where her mother worked on foot, but Hunter had beat her there. She arrived to find him talking animatedly with her mother, who wore an unusual expression of happiness that made her cringe. Lilith felt helpless when her mother told her to make nice and take him to the staff room for a chat. Would her mother sink that low? Even if she would, Lilith had other plans for her future. This want-to-be pimp would just take his 'business opportunities' somewhere else.

  “Lilith, I have a business opportunity that you might be interested in,” Hunter said smiling at her.

  “Uh-huh, I'm sure you do,” Lilith said rolling her eyes, “Listen up, I have no interest in you or your business. I'm not a hooker, a street walker, a prostitute, or whatever they're called these days, so bug off. ”

  Hunter laughed, sending a bolt of anger through Lilith's stomach. He wasn't taking her serious.

  “Not what I had in mind for you, Lilith. Not at all. My family is not in the business of flesh trade, not exactly anyway. You see, I'm really in need of a psychic’s help,” Hunter said.

  “Well, you better look somewhere else, if you want to know the winning lotto numbers or something like that. Because in case you haven't noticed, my powers haven't brought me or my mom any fame or fortune. Hang on a minute! What do you mean exactly?” Lilith asked, “Better yet, how do you know I'm a psychic?”

  “I know you're a psychic, because I've worked with many of your kind during my life time, but I've only ever met one other that had your unique abilities,” Hunter told, “You see, Lilith, my family and I have need of those abilities. There hasn't been another born with your power for one hundred-fifty years. That's a long time, Lilith, and our family has suffered many losses, since that young lady left our employment. ”

  “Left your employment?” she asked arching a brow, “You're not giving me many reasons to trust you are you big guy?”

  “She passed away. It's something humans have a terrible habit of doing,” Hunter said smiling

  “What kind of hole in the wall marketing scheme are you trying to run here? I've been approached by other jackasses before, and I'm not buying it. I'm not going to help you rip anyone off, you're wasting your time,” Lilith said and crossed her arms.

  “It's not like that at all. It's not a marketing scheme or any type of scheme. We're in the business of vampire hunting,” Hunter grinned at her.

  Lilith noticed how nice, straight, and white his teeth were, and decided he must be as well off as he looked, because only rich people could afford to keep their teeth looking that nice. After a few more moments of studying him, Lilith realized why she was weary of Hunter. He wasn't human. Non-humans had always made her nervous. Hunter was a werewolf. Lilith was angry with herself for not noticing when he first approached her, because if she had she would have socked him in the nose. As a hard-nosed rule, Lilith avoided non-humans at all costs, because most of them knew instinctively that she was a psychic. After she had the experience of wasting an afternoon, because a faerie stole her back-pack, she decided nothing good came of mingling with them. She had to resign to the fact they existed, but she didn't have to like it.

  “And why do you hunt vampires? Are you trying to pull me into one of your bullshit territory wars? ” Lilith asked, pursing her lips.

  Growing up she had seen too many wars between different groups of non-humans. They would fight over anything, and nothing at all, but most of the time it was over territory.

  “No, it's not over territory. My family's feud goes back generations, but it has never been over something as silly as territory. Vampires only bring misery to those unfortunate enough to encounter them,” he said, “You may not believe that now, and I hope that you can keep your innocent mind set forever, but if you ever do encounter one you will experience the truth first hand. ”

  Lilith rolled her eyes. In her experience it was contact with any non-human that caused that, not just vampires, but Hunter had stroked her curiosity. What the hell was he wanting her to do?

  “Okay, so what would I be doing for you exactly, Mr. . . ?” Lilith asked, and then realized she hadn't asked his name, and he hadn't offered it.

  “Just call me Hunter, all my friends do, and I think we will be the best of friends in
the future,” he said with a smile, “All I would require you to do would be to keep your eyes open for me. If you come across a vampire, you just have to let me know. The more information that you can gather about them, the higher the pay will be of course. It's easy enough and your hands will remain clean. My family prefers to handle the dirty work ourselves; in fact we take pleasure in it. ”

  His personality made her queasy, but she needed the money. Lilith and her mother lived in the poorest part of town, and most of her meals consisted of school food and leftovers from the cafe. After all she wasn't aligning herself with him; she was just using him to improve her own life. Wasn't she? It wasn't like she cared about the vampires, but she didn't care about the werewolves either. She was a free agent and nothing more.

  “I don't really encounter very many vampires,” Lilith admitted, “I'm a high-school kid, or haven't you noticed?”

  “Yes, but if you were able to go more places: the movies, the mall, maybe vacation at the beach in the next town over. If you were able to do those things I bet you would encounter more vampires than you think,” he said, giving Lilith a smile that looked too predatory for her liking.

  “But I can't,” Lilith said, “I don't have the luxury of any of that rich-kid-crap. ”

  “If you were on my payroll you could,” Hunter said tapping his large beefy fingers on the table.

  “But I'd have to find you a vampire first, right?” She said with a sarcastic smile.

  “No, Lilith, what I'm offering you is five grand a week, just to be on the lookout. Plus another twenty grand for every vampire you find. Thirty if you give me enough information to make their capture easy and of course once you move out on your own we can talk about a raise. I can add in extra money if it's needed to convince your mother. I know how parents can be,” Hunter said trying to act as if he could relate to her situation.

  Hunter's tone of voice reminded Lilith of those people who call you in the middle of dinner trying to sell you time share vacation homes in crappy locations. She studied him hard, and he looked pretty honest, for a werewolf that is. Hunter wasn't trying to sugar coat the situation. He wanted her to find him vampires to kill. It was simple enough.

  “Can't you guys sniff out vampires? Aren't werewolves supposed to have like a super sense of smell or something?” She asked.