Chapter 5: Villains, heroes and grey men

Loreann Salvatore sighed; she fumbled for the keys and stumbled through the door of her cramped apartment, flopping instantly on the couch. Most old or experienced mages especially Bishops had money to fund them but weaseling a single penny out of them for the cause took forever. Also, those Hunters were getting closer, much too close for comfort. She watched the fan squeak out rotation after rotation above her, she wondered what life might have been like without her magic, if she'd been a normal child with a regular life, an office job? Maybe a she'd have boyfriend? She shuddered.

"That's so dreadfully dull." She mumbled picking herself off the couch to examine the contents of the fridge. She her eyes brightened at the sight of a pizza box on the top compartment. 'Was pizza meant to have green furry stuff on it?'

She tossed it out the window along with a jar of pickles; a cat gave a surprised meow and shot off into the streets. She ignored it and chucked an aluminum wrapped Mac and Cheese into the microwave oven. 'Oh well, we're bachelorettes baby.'

She paused in front of her mirror, post it notes had turned it in a sea of yellow

She chewed on a pencil," Things to do before I die…number 26"

26. Get a room with a proper view

She stared at a post it at the top corner of the mirror.

7. Have my sister forgive me.

She shook her head, and scribbled on the post it in her hand.

27. Go on a road trip

She would find time, after this was all over. She yawned. "Bath, lots of hot water." she smiled to herself sleepily.' I could really use that.'

Fifty meters on the broken ruins of a house, Will Blakewood lay on his stomach assembling a crossbow mechanism, the final piece clicked and he pulled the bolt into place

The frost had settled in making him feel terribly uncomfortable. He shifted a little to find a warmer part of the stone floor, there was none. "Next time I'm taking the summer missions."

He breathed in the cold air and leveled the crossbow. His finger rested on the trigger, the iron sights set to the apartment across the street, his breathing slowed. Inhale. Exhale. Fire. He watched the bolt embed itself firmly into the brickwork with a solid "crack." A chord ran from his side of the street to the apartment creating a makeshift zip line. He griped the chord

"I need a new pastime" he mumbled and pushed himself off the building.

Salvatore had just walked out of the shower her hair dripping; she dried it with a flick of her palms, blue fire burst from her fingertips evaporating the water from her skin. She pulled on a oversized tee shirt.

That was when her window exploded. Glass cascaded in all directions as a figure dive rolled through the air across her living room missing her by inches and landing on her couch

Will Blakewood stood up apparently looking pleased with himself, "good landing".

He turned his head and caught sight of her "Oh, Hi, and Sorry about the mess. Loreann Salvatore you're under arrest by order of the hunter's guild…"

Loreann Salvatore stood there in a mix of amusement and surprise. "Knocking would have been nice."

Will cleared his throat, "I could try this again after you put on some pants."

"It's okay." Salvatore slipped her hand over a stray butter knife.

Will raised an eyebrow "You plan to face a fully trained ranger and his reinforcements with a butter knife?"

Salvatore smiled, a mouthful of charming pearly whites accompanied by an expression that would have left most men slack jawed and drooling. Will's face remained pleasant and calm

"Oh same old Will, both of us know that you have no backup."

The ranger shrugged. "It was worth a shot. That pretty girl act wasn't much better."

Salvatore vanished behind the couch and reappeared fully dressed on the other side of the room. "Touché" she clicked her fingers, glyphs flowed across the walls and across the floors.

Will looked at the glowing web of spells around him, "Fire marks huh? High grade incendiary I'm guessing? Blast radius around fifty meters?"

"Naturally," Salvatore smirked, "How fast do you think you can run?"

"But you love your apartment."

"Oh I can always buy a new one."

"Are you sure? Landed property in this area these days are insane, you'd have to kill a landlord or something. Plus, the mac and cheese box over there tells me, you're a little tight on funding. I know a guy with great mattress deals, if you don't kill me I can ring him up and have the futon over there replaced, those things are really bad for your back you know."

Salvatore smiled, "Are you serious?"

"I never joke about ergonomic sleeping products."

Salvatore laughed, "Being partially immortal suits you better. I always have such amusing company. Such a pity you die by everything except natural causes."

"That one hurt, no more discounts."

"Have you told them yet? About the less amusing… tendencies?"

Salvatore smiled, "Soul Drinker"

Will lowered his bow for a fraction of a second.

Her smile widened, "That's a nice pendant by the way, turns you all ghost-like and everyone believes that Will is just a harmless ghost."

"How many have you killed already hmmm? Ten, fifteen? More than that?"

"They were on death row already."

"Oh that makes it so much better, I'm sure, in order to hunt monsters, we have to become them, am I right? For the greater good of humanity."

Will's pupils turned completely black, white bones emerged from his spine. He growled, his bow raised with razor bone-tipped arrows.

Salvatore's smile vanished for a few seconds as Will launched himself past her. His bow sang, three shafts shattered where she had been a few seconds ago but the last one bit into her calf.

She stumbled behind the couch and clicked her fingers.

BOOM! The front half of her living room exploded, fire and debris erupted out the nearby window as if exhaled from a dragon's maw.

She peeked cautiously from a mess of twisted springs and cotton. A pair of hands tore through the couch and shoved her into the wall, plaster showered her hair. She found herself reflected in a pair of cold black eyes like marbles, pinned up against the wall.

Her vision blurred, saliva welled up in her throat making a horrible gurgling sound whenever she tried to breathe.

She slammed her fist against the wall, thorns burst from the floor, tearing at the soul drinker's hide. She felt herself able to breathe again. Will was now writhing in pain, his eyes had gone back to normal and his bones were starting to recede.

Salvatore picked herself up, brushing the dust from her face and hair. "That was decidedly rather rude of you, being an uninvited guest and all."

Will lay still, the thorns still wrapped around his legs and arms. Through his hazy vision he could just about make out Salvatore moving towards her kitchen island and picking up a knife. He concentrated as his hands slowly became transparent and they slipped right through the thorny cell.

"That's not going to work." Will tried to flinch as the knife went through his other hand. He screamed at the sickening sound of tearing muscle.

"Athena knows, doesn't she? She accepted you, of all the horrible creatures she chose to enlist you, that is ironic." Will grit his teeth as she removed the blade from his hand, blood leaked across his palms like small red rivers.

Will looked at Salvatore, his vision blurring faster than the blood loss, "What...are you talking about?"

"Athena, she's the apparent last few elves alive. Everyone knows the popular story that elves left the maple world back to their homeland, don't they?"

Will nodded slowly "Yeah, I guess that's not the real story, is it?"

Salvatore shook her head "not even close. There are almost no more elves alive today, the rest of my people are buried six feet under Victoria, some of whom have no proper graves so people won't know the actual number of our dead."

"Wait...what?"

Salvatore kicked an empty carton of microwaved cheese doodles across the floor, "We thought we had the Black mage cornered a long time ago, in his fortress. It went horribly wrong, that night the Black mage sent one last wave of soul drinkers against us. It caught all of us by surprise. A soul drinker needs to fully consume someone's soul otherwise…you become one."

Will groaned "No…."

She shook her head, her face in her palms. "It's gruesome work killing a soul drinker, you have to burn them to ashes, destroy their hearts or seal them away. We couldn't seal that many, and there's virtually no cure for being a soul drinker."

Will's eyes widened, "No…they told me."

"That there was a cure? There isn't, not really, at best they can hide or delay it. That necklace binds your soul and the soul drinker together in your body, sometimes that has the side effects like the phasing through stuff you can do. Make no mistake though, you still must kill and drink souls every so often, I'm sure you know."

Will looked at Salvatore, she sat down on the burnt remains of her couch, her gaze set beyond her broken wall far into the distance.

"At that time, we didn't even have that kind of technology. We did what we had to, I made the final decision, the three class leaders, none of whom are alive today reluctantly agreed. Our people never knew what happened, we told them there was a facility to cure them. Some we covered as the Black mage's war casualties but eventually we fabricated the story you know about the pressure of war becoming too difficult for the elves. The uninfected were slowly shipped away of course, none of them protested."

Will shifted his head towards Salvatore, his face pale and mouth open like a skeleton "You couldn't cure them so …. dear god's above, how could you…."

She laughed, an hollow sound, tinged with bitterness, "You're one to talk, soul drinker."

Will weakly turned his head "I'd have hung myself before carrying those orders out. Those I've killed were sentenced to state death penalty."

"Killing yourself is easy, it doesn't solve anything. What would you have done in my place then?"

Will fell quiet.

"Athena only found out afterwards of course, she was much younger than me. When she found out. She never forgave me, I tried to explain but she didn't want to hear."

Will raised his eyes. Salvatore still had her hands in her palms, her hunched figure much less threatening than how she looked before, "Athena decided you'd gone too far". He could see the gritted teeth and strong jaw through her hands, "what happened afterwards?"

Salvatore paused, "I left, she didn't want to see me again. That's what older sisters do sometimes, we do what's necessary until it falls apart, then we take our responsibility and move on."

She clicked her fingers, the thorns around his wrist loosened. Will struggled to get up cradling his torn hand. "Why, why have you told me this?"

Salvatore remained motionless as a statue, a full minute passed. "I don't know hunter, you people of all actually understand this. Athena is an idealist; she might never understand truly how to fight a war when she looks only through the lens of a strategist. You hunters are different though."

"When you gaze into the abyss…"

Salvatore nodded slowly, "The abyss also gazes back into you". She stood up, thorns sprouted from the walls sealing off Will's attempt to grasp at her.

"Don't try to follow me."

Will shrugged "Wasn't going to."

"You're not about to tell me what you need with a gun maker and several hundred zombies are you?"

His request was met with silence as the thorns receded. Sighing he got up and picked his bow off the floor, he started walking through the burnt-out house. Where the thorns had been, several rose petals had withered as well.