Beast Hunters- Part Three Read online

  We got into her car and the change was instantaneous. The heated seats, the warmth inside, the sound of the rain hitting the hood and the windows, without ignoring the sweet camellia perfume. We were comfortable and finally we could take a deep breath without having to be alert and worried about what could come out of a second’s break.

  I sat in the front seat next to her, and Maggie and Kendra in the back seats.

  "Isn't it weird that Ashen and Gordon haven't said anything yet? The comms is already working." Maggie asked, touching hers, putting it deeper into her ear as if she thought it was broken.

  "Let's go to my house. Ashen asked me to take you in today. They're working on something." Elisa said, the engine snoring behind her voice.

  "When were you going to tell us about it?" Kendra asked, "Just secrets and more secrets. You remind me of my sister."

  "Lipa? Good girl. Although sometimes she's very impulsive and annoying."

  "You know my sister?!" Kendra responded by placing her hands on the top of Elisa's seat and leaning forward.

  "We had a common problem to solve. We also spent a few good nights between booze and street fights. I must admit; the girl knows how to fight. “

  "Is there anyone you don't know?" I asked, jokingly, before changing the theme, "Kendra is right. Secrets must end. Tell them why you're not sure you can come with us Friday. And why didn't Ashen tell us that they had something to deal with today? What's going on?"

  "I'll try to sum it up." She said, taking a detour to a narrower street that ended up leading us to the empty highway. We saw nothing all around us except for what lay ahead of us. And we couldn't even see that well. One of the headlights didn't work and Elisa didn't seem to be the kind of person who cared. In fact, from the way she drove, I didn't think she did it very often, "What we saw... The human-robot prompted all the groups to be on alert. I know that the leaders of all the groups were invited to participate in a last-minute meeting. I also know that Gordon's presence was requested due to his knowledge of the new monster and Damien. I didn't want to pressure you, but all eyes are on you. You're the only group that has invitations to Friday's party, and we can't afford to try to put another group inside and get caught, you know? This goes way beyond what we expected, and people are nervous. There's a lot of buzz running around, some have already arrived at headquarters and there is already chattering about groups in the shadows and so on. A handful of the Hunters leadership have already ordered a search of all the groups and taken an anti-secret stance. It's all a cover to find out and eliminate who does the work they avoid. I'm sorry, I'm talking too much." Elisa said, not pausing, but always with her eyes on the road.

  "For the first time..." Maggie said and between her still moist lips she let out a soft laugh that spread all over the car, followed by one of each of us, "We still want to know why you can't come with us Friday. Did you see what happened here today... It didn't go very well."

  "I'm sorry. I was planning...Ah... I want to attack the council. I've already got a few interested people. Some Hunters and a few police officers, all willing to participate. Friday is our only chance. I know you want me present, but I have been planning this for so long. I can't just put everything aside."

  Silence was imposed inside the car. Unlike the taciturnity out there, it was a strange mute, I would even say nervous. Elisa scraped her upper teeth on the underside and clenched her hands around the steering wheel. She drove us off the highway. We entered her city, through an area of poverty, where the streets were filthy with scraps of paper, shards of glass and the walls were nothing more than a canvas for unfinished drawings. Garbage cans burned in the light of the lamps that had not yet fused, the splinters splashing on the floor, and a few people all wrapped around them, rubbing their hands. Others slept outside the buildings or even under the bus stops that seemed to have been abandoned a long time ago. We looked at some people, briefly, at their wrinkled skin and hairy warts, and looked away as soon as some approached the car, begging for alms. We were still in the middle of the long straight street when we heard irons dragging on the asphalt. I looked through the rear-view mirror and saw three men in stained jeans and jeans' jackets over black wool sweaters closing in, with thick iron bats.

  "Step forward, Elisa. I don't think they want to talk, and we can't get into street squabbles." I told her.

  We could finish them off in a few seconds, if that were necessary, but it wasn't to hit passers-by that we had trained to be Hunters. Also, one of the rules in the Hunter manual was exactly that we should, at all costs, avoid fighting civilians. There were rare exceptions, but even those ended with a suspension.

  Elisa accelerated and we left in a few seconds, knocking down two empty trash cans before turning to the left. We all breathed a sigh of relief and only stopped when we reached the car park near the chain of apartments where she lived. The place was as neutral as ever. The empty playground, all the shutters downwards and the doors closed. The only light in the place came from the main entrance where a rusty lamp was left on the desk until the first maid in the morning turned it off. Elisa had told me a week ago that they used to have a security guard, but that he had quit after being attacked by two vandals wearing cat masks. We got out of the car, ran to the entrance of the building and climbed the stairs. The elevator was yet to be fixed and smelled like a cat sandbox.

  Finally, we reached Elisa's door. She put the key in the latch, unlocked it and we entered.

  Chapter III

  "Are you moving?" Maggie asked her, passing her hand through the dusty corner of the crystal table in the center of the room.

  "Not really. All I need is a place to sleep and it's cheap." She replied, taking some Hunters' magazines off the couch and signaling us to sit down, "I have some cakes that I bought yesterday. I'll get them. You must be hungry."

  "Yeah... I could eat something." I said and rubbed my belly which was already growling, "And then you have to tell us why you're so obsessed with the council."

  "It's not a pretty story." She started and slammed the tip of her shoe on the floor, "This can't really leave this place. I’ve never told it to anyone."

  Clumsy, she left us and went to the kitchen. From the room, we could hear her opening the fridge, her sifting through bags and breathing loudly as she murmured. Kendra stirred through the magazines, leafing through them from one end to the other while Maggie looked around.

  "What is it?" I asked her while we waited.

  "Strange. Her house is comfortable but, at the same time, she doesn't seem to live here. She is here to have someplace to go, even if she doesn't want it. Is her room like this too?"

  "Yes, white walls, white ceiling, no photographs or anything that catches the eye. She has some makeup and a lamp and nothing else."

  "Even stranger, don't you think? My room is all decorated. Hunters' posters, pictures from when I was little, all things that give it a sense of personality, that call attention to be my room." Maggie said, "I bet she has also had a bug out bag in case she needs to run away. I have that feeling."

  "I do. It's there in that corner." Elisa said, coming out of nowhere with some muffins in a box on her right hand and orange juice on her left, "I don't like feeling trapped in a place. I don't tend to stay in one for long."

  "Oh, Elisa, I'm sorry! I didn't want to..." Maggie started but Elisa didn't let her finish.

  "It's okay. I understand. That's why I'm not a big fan of bringing people home." She said, paused, and sat on a cushioned chair in front of the couch, placing the food and juice on the crystal table. "Why do I hate the council? They destroyed my family. My adoptive mother, 20 years ago, saw something she shouldn't have seen. She was parking her car in a parking lot when she saw a murder and the worst mistake in her whole life was to report it. They broke into our house when it was just the two of us and dragged her by the hair. I hid under the bed just as she had told me. I heard their frantic steps, the agony in my mother's voice, her desperate screams and their husky voice as the
y told her to shut up. When she didn't, they hit her with the barrel of a gun in the temp. I still have nightmares with the click it made when her skull cracked from the over-strength they used. I need a break." She said and stood up.

  She went to the window and opened it. She took a pack of cigarettes out of her pocket, from where she took a cigarette and asked Maggie to light it.

  She blew a few breaths into the window, fogging it up, blowing out what was ravaging her heart. Her hand trembled as she held the cigarette. I had never seen her like this; so sensitive and vulnerable even though she was secure.

  "You have all the time in the world," I told her and smiled without opening my mouth.

  "It is better if I continue before I repent... My father was never the same after that. He filed a complaint, pressured the police, but most of them were either in the pocket of someone on the council or were too afraid to face them. The case died quickly. At the time I didn't know any of this. It wasn't until I became a Hunter that I started investigating, secretly, until I found out that she had seen a paid assassin hired only by council members for murders. I tried to find him, but it was too late. He died a few years ago in a skirmish with the police. I haven't found out who sent him yet, but I've never been this close. I can't give up. Do you understand now why I can't go with you?" She answered us.

  She extinguished the cigarette with her fingers and threw it out the window. She stood there and watched as it fell.

  "Elisa...We...We didn't know." Maggie said, her voice losing strength as the words came out of her mouth.

  "I'm sorry," Kendra said like she was pulling a Band-Aid.

  They both looked at me. They expected me to say the same as them, to apologize, to say that everything was fine. But no, I couldn't say it. I had seen what pursuing a target could do, what happened when desire and frustration blinded the person. I wasn't going to let her fall over the same precipice.

  "If you know who my father was, you know what happened to him when he left everything behind to focus on a target. It's not healthy, Elisa. You can't walk away from everyone. Not establishing roots in a place. All for something that happened about 20 years ago that I understand hurts and that you want to find the culprits. But what does it matter if when you do it, you're not yourself anymore? I'm going to ask you one more time. Come with us tomorrow. Let others take care of the council attack. You may very well interrogate them later." I told her, hoping she would answer me, but she didn't. She looked intently at me, as if expecting me to add something, "I became a Hunter for fame, so that my surname wouldn't mean disappointment, but being here, working with all of you, has changed my perspective. My father fought for what he believed in and I admire him for it. When I was a child, I hated that he was never there but now I understand why. I have not seen my mother or brother in almost a month. The only problem is that he didn't know how to stop, he didn't surround himself with people who knew how to make him stop overdoing it. You have us. Here, now. Take a step back. Fall back. The world won't run away because you're after it, Elisa."

  "I know all of that. I know that my whole life, since I was 10 years old, has been guided by my thirst for revenge. But it seems too late to stop, don't you think?" Elisa asked me. She then sat once again on the chair in front of us.

  "You can stop whenever you want. I want you to stop now. Tomorrow I hope to see you at the party. If you're not there I'll know that you let revenge win."

  "James..." Maggie said, rubbing her hand on my leg.

  "No, Maggie. She has to understand that we're a group. That we can have different opinions, argue, but when one of us needs the others, we’re there."

  Elisa got up without saying anything and walked into a closet that stood by her knees. She opened it and took out an old bottle of wine and a bottle of whiskey.

  "Well, no matter what happens tomorrow... We might as well enjoy tonight. I don't think we will have time after that."

  The cork leaped to the ground and the drink surplus flowed down the bottle, dripping to the ground. The red mixed with the brown until the area around where the liquid had fell gained a dark red color. She put the bottles on the crystal table and went into the kitchen to get glass cups.

  We ended the night drinking and laughing. Stories were shared, some getting laughs and other silence moments, breaks for thinking and hugs. Maggie told us that her mother had died when she was still very young. A brain aneurysm blew up overnight and left her lying in the bathroom. She fell, hit her head on the toilet and finally lay down on the marble floor from which she only left when the paramedics arrived. Her voice remained monotoned, and her eyes were on the whiskey cup with two ice rocks that she stirred.

  Kendra confessed that she was very close to following the same path as her sister. Apparently, when she was a teenager, she was involved in shoplifting and street fighting. She became attached to a leather whip she used to impose respect and her taste remained unchanged. Her father controlled the empire and Lipa, being the older sister, attended some of his meetings and was in contact with a few tradesmen. Kendra also told us that she was annoyed that she would not be given a chance and that was why she took her frustration out on others.

  "What made you want to be a Hunter?" Maggie asked.

  "One time, when I was with 3 older boys, one of them had the idea of robbing a convenience store. We just wanted gummies, potatoes and alcohol. We were young and stupid." Kendra said, between drinking breaks, "The robbery didn't go well. We had the misfortune of going to a store where a Hunter was doing some shopping. When we realized that it was too late, and instead of running away together, they tripped me up and left me on the floor to buy time. I still tried to escape but the Hunter had already grabbed my leg and from there I didn't leave. I thought he was going to arrest me, that as soon as he knew my name, he would use me as an advantage against my family but, instead, he became thoughtful and asked me what I wanted for my future. No one had ever asked me that before."

  "Are you what you wanted to be?" Elisa asked her, her head already resting on the chair.

  "It's a good question. At the time I told him that I wanted to be a good person, that I didn't want to have to run away from everything and everyone like my family always did. My mother did it. When she realized that my father was not going to stop, she ran away and didn't take us with her. She left a letter behind saying that she could not take us, or we would never have peace. Funny, we never had it anyway. Now I'm a Hunter and I like it. I like to know that I am doing good, that I am compensating for all the harm my family has done and still does. But at the end of the day, they are still family. I still believe Lipa will open her eyes."

  "Your sister is not exactly the most reasonable person in the world, Kendra. I've seen her start a fight just because she wanted to." Elisa replied, "But by the way, what did the Hunter say to you?".

  "He told me that I could be whatever I wanted and that being a Hunter wasn't as bad as I might have been led to think. And, look, here I am. I took the admissions exams, went to the academy, trained and that was it. My father didn't stop me, but I noticed him looking at me with these eyes, as if I wasn't worth it and I wasn't family anymore. Do you understand?"

  "That sucks." Elisa said, for lack of better words, "It seems to me that the three of us had a rough childhood. Maybe that's why we get along so well."

  "Maybe." I said and drank directly from the bottle, "We shouldn't be drinking, should we?" I added, already feeling the head spinning and the colors sparkling. "We may not have many other chances, huh?" I added.

  Elisa said, "Are you afraid of getting a headache too big for tomorrow?" She said, teasing me, and smiling until a dimple appeared on her right cheek.

  "Funny. I can handle my drink." I answered her and sipped another drink.

  Two hours went by before we carried the fun into the room. The memory of how we got there was blurry, but as soon as my back landed on the mattress, the rest stopped mattering. I had no hands for so much places to put them. The right went down
Kendra's butt, the biggest of the three, while the left was busy with Maggie's tits. None of us were dressed anymore, although I didn't even remember getting naked. Kendra sat on my face until her fluid flowed down my lips and soaked my chin. Someone's hands, which I didn't even realize quite from whom, but which were soft, grabbed my length and moved upward and downward, along with the tongue of someone else on my head.

  I couldn't even keep my eyes open anymore. The alcohol had left me with no strength and my eyes became too sensitive to the room's light that was above me. Pleasure raced through my body. I relaxed and let them slurp me in, getting lost in the confines of my body. And, I felt them, their hands touching every corner of my body, their tits swinging in my face and leaning against my belly, someone taking one of my hands and putting it in their dampness. There was nothing beautiful in what we did except for the feelings that they had for me and the appreciation for each other. At that moment I felt like the king of the world, capable of everything, capable of defeating any beast along our path. I would do it with them beside me.

  One of them, probably Kendra, seemed to be her due to her hair, sat on me. Her moans grew until they drowned out the hail that was falling outside. Even with my eyes half closed I could see her silhouette; her tits bouncing, following the movements of her body. Someone behind her slapped her ass while telling her to go faster. I wanted to speak but couldn't. I had a boob in my mouth and my teeth scraped off the nipple and bit the skin. Whoever it was pressured my chest and leaned down until I bit harder. Their moans merged to create a symphony of their own, some more acute, some deeper, all of them expressing pleasure. Kendra scratched my chest before she got up and gave way to the person behind her.

  Despite the alcohol in my blood my shaft did not go down. I grabbed the person's hands and made her lie on top of me. Her chest against mine, panting, warm breath on my neck and ear, and my hands on her ass, until it was bruised with my fingertips. Till I couldn't hold it any longer and finished inside her. It seemed to me to have lasted half an hour but maybe it lasted longer or less. I could only see flashing lights spinning around me and my body still processing what had happened. My diaphragm went up and down and I was still leaking from my dick. Suddenly, someone put it in her mouth and licked it until there was nothing left.