Family Business by Rob Cornell

Author:Rob Cornell [Cornell, Rob]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Broken Trope Press

5

While the Fleischhackers gathered some things to take with them, I put my boots back on, headed out the front door to get my car, and nearly got an arrow punched through my eye. It hit the doorframe instead, but only about a foot to my left. The thwack sound it made sent my heart into my throat. I jerked to the side and glanced out toward the street to see where the hell it had come from.

Twilight had settled in and night wasn't far behind. There weren't any streetlights on this stretch of street so plenty of shadows crawled in under the maples and oaks planted in various front yards.

But I could see the small car that looked like a shoebox with wheels, and the gleam of someone’s eyes in the driver's seat staring out at me.

I also saw a glint of what remained of the daylight on something metallic inside the window.

"Hey," I shouted.

The door popped open and a little waif of a girl stepped out. She was dressed in a pair of white high top sneakers, a frilly black skirt, and torn black nylons underneath. Her shirt looked like a spatter of random colors on a black background, as if Jackson Pollock had collaborated with someone puking paint. She had an Asian cast to her wide face and a sharp pointed chin. A lot of black makeup, too.

But the whole look wouldn't have been complete without the crossbow held at her side.

"Who the fuck are you?" she asked.

I stammered, heartbeat still out of control from the shock of nearly getting my skull skewered. "Who the fuck are you?" I threw back like a grammar school kid on the playground.

She snorted like that was the dumbest question in the whole wide world. Then she crossed the street. I took an instinctive step back. The girl couldn't have been much older than twenty. Maybe she could get into bars, but she sure as heck couldn't rent a car. Yet she had a hell of a presence. Even from halfway across the street, I could feel it press closer as she closed in.

I reached back and absently drew the door shut.

When she stepped up the curb, she jerked her chin at the house. "What were you doing in there?"

It didn't take long for me to figure out who this girl was. Or, rather, what she was. Another hunter. And she had sniffed the trail to the Fleischhackers’ house same as me.

"I was taking care of business," I blurted. Great. I was speaking in cheesy song lyrics. What an interesting stress reaction.

She raised one of her dark eyebrows. "Business, huh?"

“Yep,” I said. "You know. Hunting stuff."

"Stuff?"

I felt my face flush. I was sounding like a total dork. I needed to get rid of this girl, damn it.

"Yes," I said with some force—maybe too much. I swallowed, tried to straighten my expression as much as possible, showing her how serious I was. "Goblins, to be specific. That ring a bell with you?"

"You're really a hunter?"

"Sure am.

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