Authors: Nia Davenport
Aunt Farrah reaches into the round white box and hands be a strip of cloth hidden beneath the velvet pillow. I use it to clean the blood from the knives, leaving them as pristine as they were when I first took them out of the box.
By the time I finish,
blood has stopped trickling out of my palms. I place the knives in the box and hold my hands with their palms facing up. The vertical incisions the knives made have completely knitted closed. The only evidence that remains that they were ever there is the dried blood and the faint pink lines that will soon fade too.
As hunters it is woven into our DNA for us to be stronger, faster, and more resilient than the average human. We evolved to oppose the Phoenix and their unchecked power. We aren’t nearly indestructible like them. Any mortal injury will do us in, but any other scrapes and bruises heal fairly quickly.
******
I watched as my aunt partook in the Initiation Ritual, I watched as each of my cousins partook in it, and now it is my turn.
I kneel on both knees before Patrick Jacobs, my grandfather and the patriarch of the Jacobs family. I am about to swear an oath to take up the duty first performed by the First One Hundred. We hunt and kill the phoenix. With each one we prevent from rising, we are bequeathing humanity one less scourge.
“Ashley Isabella Jacobs, you kneel before me as a daughter of the Jacobs line. You kneel before me knowing the duty taken up by our forefather, Edward Jacobs, and all of our ancestors that followed. You kneel before me accepting that duty and vowing to uphold it. You were born a hunter, and you will die a hunter.”
“I was born a hunter, and I will die a hunter,” I echo my grandfather. “We hunt the phoenix, we kill the phoenix, we prevent the phoenix from rising.”
My grandfather nods his head accepting my vow.
My cousin Sean, the one I refer to as Tweedledee, smirks at me then breaks the half circle consisting of him, Gerard, Dad and Aunt Farrah to prep the needle he will use to tattoo me.
“Where do you want it? Some place painful I hope.” The mischievous gleam in his eyes as I lay on the hard table says he is going to enjoy digging the needle into my flesh then dragging it across it more than he should.
I bare my teeth at him in a sickly sweet smile and raise my shirt a fraction while pulling at the waist of my jeans to bare my hip. I hadn’t decided where I wanted the words that would forever mark me in the flesh as a hunter until this moment. But I won’t back down from his challenge. Directly on top of a bone is supposed to be the most painful place to be tattooed.
Sean digs into my skin, but I bite down against the pain. I remain completely still and utterly silent until it is over. After all, I’ve endured worse.
School has only been out for a month and and I still have the rest of July and all of August to go until my BFF comes back from New York. Her parents divorced when we were twelve. A year later her mom moved back home to the east coast. Both her parents are hunters and they let her choose how she wanted to divide her time between them. She chose to stay in Laurel Springs with her dad and me during the school year and spend the summers with her mom.
Even though Laurel Springs itself is completely absent of phoenix both of our families live in the town because of what goes on in the heavily wooded state park in between Laurel and Highland Village, the city nearest us. Highland Village has a slew of phoenix that blend in to its large population and Red Creek State Park is their favorite playground. The numerous hikers and tourists that visit it year around make for easy prey.
They hunt by night so we do as well. The Initiation Ritual marked the end of my heavy training, but last night was more of a formal ceremony recognizing I was ready to take the vow, than it meant I will actually get to
do
something. Granddad is the Patriarch but my grandmother holds the real power in our family.
She is adamant about me not becoming an active hunter until I graduate. She insisted on the same thing with Dad, Aunt Farrah and my cousins. She says after I am no longer a child, I will never have the chance to be so again. Being a hunter will consume my life and there is no need to rush that.
The lack of heavy training, the ban on me hunting, and the absence of Becca means that I have a lot of time to be bored out of my mind for the rest of the summer on my hands. Which is how I find myself driving down Highway 5 on my way to see a movie by myself.
As I switch from the left lane to the right one to turn at the intersection ahead my Jetta blows a tire.
“Damn it!” I curse out loud. It’s too hot today to be changing a tire on the side of the road.
An unfamiliar black Mustang with darkly tinted windows pulls up behind my car while I am walking to my trunk. I automatically go on alert. A girl was abducted from Highland Village a few weeks ago. It is a distance away from Laurel Springs but it’s not that far.
I am considering grabbing one of my new gleaming knives from my messenger bag in the car when a perky blonde who looks about my age emerges from it.
“Hi!” She calls out over the truck roaring past us. “I saw your tire blow and thought you might need some help. I know flat tires can be a pain.”
“Yeah, they can be.” I pull my spare out of the trunk and wheel it to the front driver side of my car. When I turn back around the too friendly blonde is heaving the hydraulic jack out of my trunk.
“This should make things nice and easy,” she says as she rolls it over.
“Thanks.” I take it from her. “And it does. Every time I have a flat, I go home and thank my dad for getting it for me.”
Something flashes in her green eyes. But it’s there one minute then gone the next before I can guess at what it could be.
I change my tire in less than sixty seconds, exactly how Dad taught me to do. Learning was one of the conditions of being able to drive the car he bought me after I got my license. He said sitting in a car on the side of the highway waiting for roadside assistance was too dangerous. In the time it took them to get there a car or a semi-automatic truck could come barreling down the highway and smash into me.
As I lug the busted tire to the trunk to dispose of later, the blonde pulls the jack alongside me.
“Thanks,” I tell her again.
“I’m Cass,” she says as I close the trunk. “Well actually the name is Cassie but I prefer Cass for short.”
“I’m Ash,” I smile back at her.
“Is that short for Ashley or something else?”
I grimace at the the mention of my full name. “Unfortunately it is.”
“Well Cassie is really short for Cassandra and that makes me sound like an old croon or a tragic greek figure so yeah…I understand about shortening names.”
I laugh. She’s funny. “I’m assuming you’re new in town.”
“Yeah I am. Me and my family just moved here from Utah a few weeks ago.”
“I’ve never been to Utah but it seems…”
“Not too much to get excited about,” Cassie finishes for me.
“Ha! Welcome to Laurel Springs,” I say in a too sweet tone as I wave my hand around. “We have a population of forty thousand and the nearest real mall is fifty miles away.”
“Well I guess I can’t miss what I never really had.”
Her friendliness is kind of infectious. Which is why when she asks where the best place to get lunch is, I tell her about my favorite diner with mouthwatering burgers and creamy milkshakes and when she asks if I want to join her I say yes, offering to lead the way in my car. We get food and end up catching a later showing of the new Avengers movie I was on my way to see. Afterwards, we exchange numbers and I find myself agreeing that we should definitely hang out again.
******
Two days later it is the Fourth of July and I’ve spent the entire day trying to amuse myself in an empty house. Everyone except my grandmother is in Highland Village helping with the massive search for the missing girl that has ensued. Dad has a contact in their sheriff’s department that calls on him from time to time when he comes across a case that seems it might be something that is more Dad’s speed than his.
I wander from my bedroom to the kitchen and pour myself a glass of lemonade. Then I sit down at one of the bar stools around the island with a huff. At the very least I could have gone to Highland Village and helped with the search. I can only stare at my television and laptop screen for so long before my brain turns to goo and there is only so much time I can spend in my home gym or the local one before my body goes from athletically toned to muscled and I start looking like a boy.
I could start on my summer reading but it’s a holiday so the library is closed and the next summer release I want to see doesn’t come out in theaters for another three weeks. I pick up my phone that I left on the kitchen counter hours before not really expecting for there to be anything of interest on the screen. Becca is the only person who would call or text and she’s busy hanging out in the Big Apple and doing what I am supposed to be doing. She keeps in contact about once a week and I just talked to her yesterday. I’m surprised when I see a red one next to the text message icon in the lower left corner of the screen. I click on it and am even more surprised to see that it’s from the new girl, Cassie, inviting me over to her house for the Fourth. They have a pool and her uncle is making burgers on the grill. I put the phone down then after thinking it over for moment pick it back up.
What the hell else do I have to do?
I text her to send me the address and that I’ll be there in twenty minutes. Her address pops up immediately on the message screen followed by a smiley face.
When I arrive at Cassie’s the first thing I notice is that it isn’t surrounded by neighbors on all sides like mine. Instead, it’s on the outskirts of Laurel Springs near the base of the Rockies and the last house I passed driving to it was at least five miles back.
“Cass how hard is it to just use your key. I swear you do it because you know I’m not going to not come to the d—” The boy’s grumbling stops short when he fully swings the door open and sees I am obviously not the person he assumed was on the other side of the door.
Except for the nicely defined arms shown off by the muscle tank that most high school boys don’t have, he looks to be about my age.
I frown. Cassie hadn’t mentioned a brother. When we had lunch at the diner she had only said she moved to Laurel Springs with her mom and uncle. Maybe the boy glowering down at me was a cousin who was visiting for the summer of something.
“Who the fuck are you?” His previously smirking lips flatten into a sneer. I notice how full they are. Along with his thick lashes and high cheekbones they present a pretty face that sits in stark contrast to his words.
“Um…Does Cassie live here?” I bristle at his abruptness but I force my voice to remain calm and polite.
“Depends on who wants to know.”
Which means she does and he is just being a douche. I really, really do not like this guy. My hands clench into fists at my side. I take a calming breath before speaking again because what I really want to say is
Who the hell do you think you are?
Instead I manage to remain on my best behavior. “I’m Ash. We met in town a couple of days ago and Cassie invited me over.”
“Did she now?” His dark gaze roves over me from head to toe, making me feel completely exposed. Then his eyes lock with mine and they hold my gaze as he tells me, “No. She did not.”
“Yes, she did.”
What the hell? Why would I lie? Who just shows up at someone’s house uninvited and pretends like they were?
He is starting to piss me off.
His eyebrows scrunch together as if something has left him perplexed. A sharp, intense look flares on his face then it disappears just as quickly. He continues looking at me for a long, silent moment. “Well, she shouldn’t have,” he finally says.
My temper finally gets the better of me and I can no longer remain on my best behavior. “You’re an ass!” I snap at him.
“She’s right. And Derek Jensen I can’t believe you, I taught you better!” A petite middle-aged woman with the same dark eyes and even darker hair appears in the doorway behind me. She glares daggers at the back of his head. I gather that he’s in trouble and he knows it when his back straightens and his muscles tense after he turns to meet her stare. “There are burgers on the grill that need tending to.”
“I’m on it Mom.” His tone softens when he speaks to her. He no longer sounds like a Grade A jerk. He disappears into the interior of the house but not before pausing to look back and shoot me a caustic look over his shoulder that says
regardless of what she says you are not welcome here.
The woman turns to me with a blinding smile that communicates the exact opposite. From first impressions they seem like night and day. She is bright and sunny and he is Mr. Dark and Moody. I marvel at how she can be his mother then wonder where Cassie’s and Cassie herself is on the tail end of the thought. She grabs me by the arm and pulls me into the house.
“My son will refuse to so I apologize on his behalf. He forgets the manners that I went through great pains to teach him sometimes. You must be Ash. Cassie told me that she invited you over and to keep an eye out for you in case you arrived before she got back. I forgot the eggs when I went to the grocery store this morning so I sent her to the drug store for half a dozen. It’s the price of not contributing to the meal. I love my Cass but she would burn water.” The woman chuckles at her own joke and I smile politely.