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CHAPTER 5
Piper
"GOOD JOB, PIPER," MIZUKIjerked her head in my direction, wiping her blade off on a cloth she'd pulled from God knew where. Seriously, the woman wore a lot of leather. It couldn't be comfortable.
"Thanks." I turned my back on her so she wouldn't see me grimace.
We'd just disposed of a nest of newbie vamps in downtown Atlanta. The sun hadn't even come up yet, so we were able to get the jump on them. Five of us against a nest of vampires. Which equaled out to about three per hunter. If the others found that troubling, they hadn't protested, so I kept my mouth shut and tried not to die. Thankfully, the vampires hadn't come into their abilities yet and basically ran around like chickens with their heads cut off the moment we busted through the door of the hotel room they were crashing in.
Seriously. A hotel room. Did they really think that was safe? The maid could have come in at any time and pulled the curtains back, killing the lot of them instantly. Of course, that's pretty much what we'd done once the vampires got over the initial shock of us busting into their nest. It was pretty easy to take them out once they were all cowering away from the streams of sunlight. Almost too easy. I'd felt kind of bad for them to be honest. Unfortunately, the fact that they'd been picking off drunken college students and dumping them in broad daylight kind of put a damper on my pity.
One of them had realized that I wasn't like the others and tried to appeal to me. "Why are you helping them? You're someone's servant."
I'd shrugged and said, "It's either them or you. I choose you," before shooting an arrow through his heart. Thankfully, we didn't have to worry about the cleanup. They had a separate team for that.
"Not bad, liar." Tristan bumped my shoulder as he walked by. The massive hunter hadn't been talking to me since he found out that I lied to him about being an actual hunter. I think I hurt the big guy's feelings. Still, he was more on my side than the others were.
The hunters wouldn't flat out say it, but I didn't think any of them agreed with their president's decision to bring me into their little group. They not so subtly had let me know they thought I was an undead whore and deserved to die with the rest of them. Luckily for me, they respected their leader’s decision and had worked with me. Now, as far as watching my back? We were still working on that.
I touched the side of my neck where one of the baby vamps had sunk his teeth into me. My fingers came back bloody. Fuck.
"Here." Mizuki tossed me a plastic package with a white bandage in it. "You'll want to clean that when you get home."
A hunter by the name of Axel snorted. "Why? It's just foreplay to her."
I narrowed my eyes on Axel, the spiky redhead, who'd been nothing but a dick to me. "Getting bitten during sex is different than one trying to rip my throat out." I carefully placed the adhesive patch on my neck.
Axel shrugged. "Same difference to me. If you let those creatures bite you, then you're just as bad. You should have flaunted your neck more at them, making it even easier for us to kill them all."
Not willing to put up with it anymore, I stepped up to the taller hunter. "What did you say to me?"
His hazel eyes peered down at me as he smirked. "You heard me. You're not good for anything other than vampire bait. None of us want you here, so why don't you just go back to your master like a good like bit-" My fist swung out and pelted him across the face, effectively shutting him up.
"What was that, asshole?" I snapped, prepared for him to hit me back.
Axel didn't hit me. He simply spit blood out of his mouth off to the side and grinned. "Bitch."
This time I didn't hold back, I slammed my knee up and into his stomach, before bringing my elbow down on his back at full force. Axel fell to the ground with a groan. Sadly, still conscious.
"Hey, she can't do that." Bishop spoke up, taking a step toward us.
Mizuki stopped him with an arm.
"But she-" Bishop protested, but Mizuki shot him a death glare.
"Axel started it," Mizuki explained, sheathing her sword. When it seemed that Axel wasn't going to say anything else, Mizuki walked over to us. "Normally, fighting a fellow hunter is punishable by a week of extra duty, but seeing as he had it coming, I'll let it slide. This time." She squatted by Axel and flicked his forehead. "Next time you start a fight, you better finish it, or I will finish you."
Axel grunted in response.
Standing, Mizuki gave me one last passing glance before turning her back on me. "Get some rest. We'll be heading out tomorrow for another hunt."
I groaned. "Another one? Don't you guys ever take a break?"
It was Bishop who answered. "A true hunter never rests. They are always ready for the hunt. It's what we were made for. It's who we are." His expression firmly said, and I was not one of them.
Ignoring his provoking words, I waved a hand over my shoulder and headed for the gates of the headquarters where my ride was waiting. Typically I'd have driven my car, but Antoine was feeling a bit nervous about leaving me alone lately. The other Durands, unfortunately, had agreed. So, we compromised. Instead of one of them coming to pick me up every day, I had a car service come pick me up every day. The driver changed every time, and they couldn't be bought off even to stop at McDonald's. They had strict instructions to take me home, and that's it.
Sometimes I wanted to shove one of the hunter's arrows up the Durands' collective asses. I loved them, but they were so anal about some things. My safety for one. Not like that wasn't high up on my priority list either, but still, I'm able to handle myself. I didn't need them to handhold me—for example, Axel's bleeding form.
