Hunters Hit List (Fox Brothers Book 1) (5 page)

“Sure, I’ve heard of you.” Scar mumbled. She couldn’t believe she was standing before the King of Vampires. She wasn’t sure if she should be scared or in awe.

“So Scar it seems that you are distracting my boys with your ass- sets.”

“McIlroy leave her alone. Give us a minute. We’ll be back on Drack duty, A.S.A.P.” Ryan warned.

“Pinky swear?”

“McIlroy.” Max huffed.

“Shake a tail feather Fox’s. You owe me a huge favor or a triple tongue kiss. You have work to do.” McIlroy sauntered around the corner from where he came and disappeared.

“So that’s McIlroy, The King of Vampires.” Scar stated more than asked.

“The one and only.” Ryan proclaimed.

“You guys are buddies with the King of Vampires?” Scar’s puzzled look showed exactly how perplexing the meeting was to her.

Max stepped forward. “Buddies no. Frienemies…” He shrugged. “Maybe.”

“Listen Scar, I’m sure you know there are plenty of monsters out there to go around. McIlroy got us out of a tough jam awhile back and we sometimes get a few tips from him about the big fish we’re after.” Max tried to explain their kinship with a man who is supposed to be there natural born enemy.

“So he’s like an informant?”

“Yeah, yeah. He’s like an informant slash oddball.” Max agreed.

“See Scar, we don’t trust him and I’m sure as hell he doesn’t trust us but we have mutual interests.”

“I want to understand but I don’t. He is the epitome of what we hunt.”

“Look, he helped me save my brother from Drack.” Max offered.

“We should get the hell out of here and get some rest. Uncle Donny might call us in the morning.” Ryan said just to change the subject.

“Cool, I saw a motel down the road.” Max offered and off they went.

The Fox brothers and Scar got back into the truck. Max drove a few miles down the road to the Laverne Inn Motel.

They pulled up to the bright neon sign that lit up the night. The motel was nothing special just the run of the mill motel that housed prostitutes, junkies, drifters and wayward travelers. Next to the motel only a few hundred or so feet away was a small combination gas station and convenience mart.

Ryan got out to go check into the motel. He left Max and Scar in the car. Max seized the opportunity to chat with Scar. He didn’t know much about her but for some reason he wanted to know more. Scar wasn’t one of the regular bimbos Max was use to. Scar was like him. She was in the life and he had to admit it. She intrigued him.

Female hunters were rare. One’s of Scar’s caliber and reputation were one in a million. She had made it on this death list. She was number two. He secretly respected that about her. He secretly wanted to wrestle with her in more ways than one. He had never felt nervous or intimidated when talking to any woman but Scar was different. She made him question his thoughts and his words. He decided to turn down his natural charm and approach her like she was a guy.

“How long have you been out on the road?” Max looked back into the backseat.

“Since I was eighteen.” Scar leaned forward.

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why are you doing this, hunting?”

Scar cracked a smile that almost knocked Max out the driver’s seat. “I mean you’re pretty. You could have a regular life. You could be a secretary or something.”

“I could but how do you have a regular life when you know that vampires, demons, werewolves and witches exist?”

Max thought about her words. “That’s a good point. You could always just pretend they don’t exist.”

“Yeah I could but I have always lived in the real world.”

“Me too.” Max agreed.

“And that’s exactly why we are here today.”

“Yeah, I can’t say I would have it any other way.”

“Me neither. My life isn’t a fairytale but it’s mine. I do what I want. I go where I want. It’s what I make of it. I save people’s lives whether they know it or not and I didn’t have to go to medical school to do it.”

This time it was Max who produced a smile. He felt an undeniable chemistry with Scar. Sure there was a burning need to have her physically but there was more, a feeling he couldn’t quite put into words but something he felt a strong desire to explore.

There was a warm calming silence that lingered amongst them. Max watched as Ryan walked across the motel parking lot and back to the truck.

“Hey guys I got us some rooms.” Ryan held the two motel room keys through the open truck passenger window. “We can get a good nights sleep before we hit the road tomorrow.”

Max nodded. Sleep was the last thing on his mind.

* * *

Ryan sat at the small desk in the motel room. He was surfing the Internet. His usual endeavor when he had trouble sleeping. Max entered the room from the adjacent bathroom. Ryan tore his bloodshot eyes away from the laptop to notice Max had showered and changed clothes. Max’s hair was still wet from the shower. Ryan arched an eyebrow before he started his normal brand of interrogation.

“Why are you all fresh and clean?”

“I got a hot date.”

Ryan was confused. He had been with Max all day. They never came across any women. “With who?” He frowned.

“Scar you freak.”

“Scarlet Buckley, does she even know about this date?”

“Well no, not exactly but she likes that whole element of surprise. I was listening when she was talking.” Max smiled all proud of himself.

“First time for everything.” Ryan joked.

Max grabbed his engraved silver-plated Ruger P95 9mm handgun from the nightstand near the bed.

Ryan stopped reading from his laptop screen. He watched as Max collected various things from around the room.

“Hey, I’m going to the mini mart. You want something back?”

“No, I’m cool. What do you need?”

“Huh, protection, it’s better to be safe than burning or worse a father.” Max winks at Ryan. He placed his Ruger in his waistband and concealed it with his shirt. Ryan chuckled. His brother was pretty funny sometimes.

“Night, night John boy. Don’t wait up.” Max quipped.

Ryan cracked a boyish smile. “See you in five minutes, playboy.” Ryan joked.

Max ignored Ryan and walked out of the motel room. Max strolled down the concrete steps and across the motel parking lot.

* * *

At the same time Roy Raymond drives alone down the highway. Country music is blaring from the pickup truck’s speakers.

Roy is a thirty-two year-old man with a mustache, budding beard and small eyes, the typical flannel wearing vampire hunter.

He looked out the window and noticed the state Highway 28 marker sign firmly planted on the side of the road. He glanced through his steering wheel at the gas hand.

Roy pulled off the interstate and directly into the gas station adjacent to the Laverne Inn Motel.

Roy gets out of his pickup after he pulls up to the gas pump. He goes into the convenience mart grabs a pack of cigarettes and prepays for his gas. Roy is tired but he is determined to get back to his hometown. He marched back out the mart’s door to his car. He started pumping regular unleaded gas into his pickup truck.

Max entered the gas station lot. He never noticed Roy Raymond standing outside the gas station pumping gas. Only a few yards away, Max went inside the adjacent convenience mart. Roy and Max never noticed each other although they were in close proximity.

* * *

Ryan was alone in the motel room. Sometimes he needed a break from his big brother. Max was always in good spirits. He was a cheerleader and sometimes Ryan just wanted to be down and miserable. It was his right. He felt things deeper than Max. It had been that way since they were kids.

He hated pretending to be happy just to appease Max. He didn’t want Max to view him as weak. He endured a lot of beatings from Max as a kid just to prove he was tough. He went along with the program just so Max would lay-off and cut him a break.

Ryan was having a hard time concentrating but he stayed in his chair at a desk staring blankly at the laptop screen. He was pretending to intensely read from the screen of his laptop. A pleasant tranquil voice accosted him although he was alone in the motel room.

“Hey there pussycat.”

Ryan’s eyes jetted up from his laptop screen. Sitting next to him was the demon Olivier.

Olivier had tortured Ryan when he was in the dungeon. His demon essence was in the body of a blonde forty something human man. Ryan was all too familiar with Olivier. He was his cellmate in that monster jail, the place where all beasts were held trapped in the worst prison known to man. Drack was the warden of this hellish lair.

Ryan was freaking out. He was seeing things. He couldn’t believe this was happening all over again. He wanted to believe he was cured. He wanted to believe he had left the prison of the dungeon behind him.

“You’re not real.” Ryan jumped to standing.

“Yeah but you didn't think you could kick me to the curb, did you? Ryan it’s you and I, reunited and it feels so good.”

“You’re not here. You’re back in the prison.”

“Well you say prison, I say summer home in the Hamptons.”

“You are not real.”

“Yeah but reality bites. If you think I’m real. I’m real. If you think I’m fake. I’m a set of silicone double D’s.”

Ryan tried to blink Olivier away with his eyes. “Why am I seeing you? I am cured. They fixed me. I woke up.”

“There’s a very simple answer. In times of stress I reappear in your psyche. So Ryan, what’s the source of your anxiety? Could it be you’re afraid the vampires are going to kill your big brother Max? He is numeral uno.”

Ryan hated to admit that might be the source of his anxiety. “Get out of my head!”

“I understand you’reworried, after all how many livesdoes Max get? He died how many times in the last seven years. Seven, eight, I lose count.”

“I’m not talking to you.” Ryan was determined to block the demon out.

“Well actually, when you said I’m not talking to you, you were by all accounts talking to me.”

“Get the hell out of my head you sick motherfucker.”

Olivier shrugged. “Oh well I tried.
Que Sera Sera
. If you need me I’ll be staying at this nice little resort in Riviera Maya. I just love the Ruins.”

Ryan closed his hazel eyes. When he opened them, Olivier had disappeared. Ryan took in a deep breath and slammed the lid down on his laptop. He tried to steady his breathing. Maybe Max leaving him alone wasn’t such a good idea after all.

Max was on a mission, codename Scar. He stood outside the closed door of room 121. He blew in the palm of his right hand to check his breath. Minty fresh he thought.

He knocked on the door as if he was the drummer of Motley Crue. There was a brief pause and then movement on the other side of the closed motel room door. Door 121 unlocked and slowly crept open.

Scar raised an eyebrow, smirked and backed away from the door letting Max follow her into her room. It didn’t take him long to venture her way, she thought. Men are so predictable. She wasn’t sure this was a good idea but she wasn’t the type to overthink things. Her Glock 26 9mm handgun was in her right hand and at her side.

“You always answer the door with your piece?” Max closed the door. He was proud of himself for making it inside Scar’s motel room. There was always a minuscule chance she would turn him away.

He still had his charm and good looks, at least that’s what he thought. He briefly wondered if he had more than that to offer. Maybe if he opened up a little he could offer a woman more than a few laughs and the substantial package he had between his legs. It was just a random thought. Max didn’t feel the need to entertain it much further.

“I always answer the door with my 9. Don’t you?”

“Well yeah.” Max shrugged.

“It’s a hunters habit, I guess.” Scar looked down at her fine piece of firepower, a gift from her father. He had taught her everything he knew about weapons and hunting vamps. She needed to go visit her folks. She hadn’t seen them in about four months.

Scar laid her Glock on the table by the bed. Max had a mildly nervous and awkward feeling come over him. He was good at the art of seduction or as he called it, picking up strays but Scar wasn’t an airhead type. She wasn’t his regular run of the mill bimbo. She was a hunter, a legend much like him and Ryan.

He felt himself stumbling to find words. “I just came over to check on you. Make sure you were safe and sound.” Max smiled and it reached his entire face. That was the smile he used to get into women’s panties.

“That’s rather gentlemanly of you.” Scar was slightly affected by his sexy grin but she quickly recovered. Max wasn’t the first pretty, cocky, sexy hunter she had come across. He was just the most pretty, cocky, sexy hunter.