1
Tomasa
Tommi took a deep, calming breath.
The streets were more lively than she had expected they would be. She never was a fan of crowded streets nor hordes of people surrounding her. She regularly avoided the civilian world but tonight she had a task at hand. A task that required her to visit an Austin Texas bar street. The locals called it third or fifth or something like that. She called it overwhelming.
The lights, the smoking, the drunk men and women. It was all so loud and the putrid smell of stale liquor nauseated her but she had promised her friend she would search here while she searched the next town over.
She sighed at the lack of luck she was having in finding Jetti's brother but Jetti was her best friend and she didn't want to fail her.
Jaxon had been missing for weeks now and while it wasn't abnormal for Jaxon to be MIA, it was unusual for him to be MIA without a single trace. Especially leaving Jetti in the dark.
And what was worse was that the civilian world, these two neighboring cities ( San Antonio and Austin) specifically, had seen a sudden increase in disappearances. Mostly homeless ,incumbent and prostitute.
Part of her worried that Jaxon had gone off the deep end. He was a wildcard ,always picking fights with members of other guilds, overdoing his kills and losing his temper. He was a hothead with a short fuse, But she never thought he'd kill a civilian. Purposefully or accidently.
She shook her head, she was sure he hadn't.
He had never tried to kill her and she was half demon herself. He may have looked at her a little condescending but he would never harm her. She was still technically a member of the guild and his ally.
Still, the timing of the occurrences had her doubting the man. And as she walked down the crowded street a man who reeked of beer and smokebumped into her, his eyes predatory and his stance threatening.
"Hello pretty little lady," he slurred. "My lucky day to meet such a stunner. How's about you and..."
The man had grabbed her and was about to say something lewd when his hand was pulled off of her with a sickening crunch.
"Hands off."
The man had screamed loud enough to get everyone's eyes on them but before she could diffuse the situation she was being pulled away by none other than Jaxon himself.
He was always strong for a human and even for a hunter but with her demonic heritage,she was usually stronger. Today was not the case. He had dragged her to a secluded alleyway and then roughly pushed her against the wall, anger evident in his eyes.
Something was very amiss.
"What are you doing here Tomasa?" he growled. "This isn't the Guild's territory."
She pulled her arm from his grip, his handprint visible on her skin. With a deep breath she was able to stop the instinctive bubble of her powers from killing the man.
"Last time I checked " she began. "You and I were part of the same guild so why are you here? Don't you know how worried your siblings are?"
Jaxon only rolled his eyes and stepped back.
"I have my reasons so tell them I'm fine and to stop trying to find me," he said.
But there was a sadness and a tinge of anger in what he said. There was more to this story and he was keeping it locked up.
"Why are you hiding from them?" she asked, now feeling a bit suspicious of the man. "Jetti has been worried sick and her anxiety is getting the better of her lately."
His eyes widened but then returned back to that attempt of calm. There was something so off about him and the more she was around him the more evident it was.
He was always a troubled man. From a young age he would pick fights with hunters from other guilds or he would antagonize demons that weren't on their lists just due to a general hatred of the kind.
He wasn't fond of her membership in the guild but her father was a high ranking official ,so he mostly played nice. Anyhow her mother was an even higher ranking demon and tended to assist hunters instead of opposing them. She would have been an ally no matter which side of blood was in question.
But her ranking in either world didn't stop his animosity. And right now he was aiming all it and all his anger at her. She had to tread lightly.
"What's wrong with you Jaxon?" she asked calmly. "I know you don't like me but you can still trust me to help you. Does it have to do with this city's increasing missing cases?"
His brows furrowed for a miniscule moment but she caught it.
"What did you do Jaxon?"
He pulled away with a scowl and turned to leave but now it was more than a search and rescue. From the looks of it ,it seemed like he was the culprit behind these disappearances. She couldn't let him leave him. She wasn't a hunter like he was but she still had to follow the guilds expectations for situations like these.
Her magic would help her. She called upon it, willing the energy she controlled to wrap around Jax. It was easy to do so. Her magic was strong, her focus was strong and although she rarely fought, any fight she did engage in, she won.
So when Jaxon managed to evade her grip and toss her into the wall, breaking the brick, she wasn't able to react in time.
Instead a deep pain radiated from her back to her front and she saw stars. She would be fine ,her demonic heritage gave her extraordinary healing abilities, but that didn't stop the acute pain.
Jaxon had her by her throat and the darkness she had felt had only seemed to worsen.
She snarled a bit as she felt her teeth sharpen and her more demonic attributes came out if hiding and while usually was worried about that, she was more worried about what Jaxon was now.
He was no longer human, that much was evident. What he was ,she had never encountered. They were a very private ,very secretive society.
Even their hunters were very quiet and hidden in the shadows.
She took what bit of oxygen she could breathe in and dug her sharpened nails into his wrist. It didn't make him budge.
He was no longer a human. He was something else. Jaxon had been turned into a vampire.
She had thought humans being turned was just a human myth. An old folktale used to warn children against strangers. But Jaxons brown eyes had turned red, fangs had protruded from his gums and his whole demeanor was ...wrong.
He didn't feel like he had a demonic aura or had been cursed by a witch. She had never met a vampire so by elimination, he just had to be one.
His eyes widened and his nostrils flared, there was another change. Something more sinister. Then she felt a wet sensation as it trickled down her forehead and down to her cheek.
Blood.
Within a nanosecond his teeth had found themselves in her neck. Her blood was drawn out of her arteries. Her head felt a bit faint and dizzy.
She had never really thought about what a vampire's bite would feel like. In retrospect she would have imagined it would have hurt more than it did.
Instead it felt strange.
Her heart had started beating so fast she was sure it would explode and her limbs felt like they were covered in a thousand little prickles, like she was being dusted by little feathers.
He dug his teeth deeper into her neck and she grabbed the front of his shirt, gripping it in her fingers tightly trying to push him away. This was very wrong and when he basically began gnawing on her neck, she couldn't hold back anymore and used her magic to push him off of her and into an unconscious heap on the ground.
...
Chapter End