General Warning: This story contains a serial killer. He will be killing people in a variety of ways. However it will *never* be sexual and the victims will *never* be children. This warning will be at the top of every post. I will include chapter warnings as appropriate.
Chapter Warning:None
Word Count: 1,948
Total Word Count: 13,088
Chapter 3 part 3
Eleri winced as she finally faded into view at the warehouse where the huntress seemed to have made her base of operations. There was the huntress alright… tending the wounds of two of the hounds. From the amount of blood and gauze on the floor, the wounds were pretty severe if not life threatening. It was times like this Eleri wished she was anything but a reaper. Reapers could not touch the wounded with out reaping them. Granted she had never tried it on a hell hound but she imagined that the principle would be the same. Reapers generally only touched people to free them of their “mortal coils” for lack of a better phrase. The only ones it did not seem to work on were other reapers. She had heard tell that even some of the gods were susceptible to a reapers touch. though usually the gods had to be hit with a god slaying weapon before hand.
Abruptly Eleri noticed that she and the huntress were not alone. She blinked at the sight of Loki and Eris who were having a quiet discussion in a corner no doubt plotting *something*. At that thought Loki looked her way and raised an amused eyebrow. Eleri decided quickly that hs e did not want to know if Loki had managed to read her mind. At that thought Eris looked over a gave a quick grin. Eleri sighed, what the hell ever.
Eleri walked closer to the huntress and looked down at the hound she was working on. Her suspicions were confirmed the stolen weapon had dome this. The wound that the huntress was working on was not healing at the rate a hell hound normal did. In fact it looked like the huntress had had to resort to stitching the wounds to stop the bleeding longer enough for the hounds healing factor to even begin to kick in.
This was bad news. One of the reasons the heel hounds were so feared through out the underworlds was that when wounded they healed almost immediately and never stopped chasing or attacking the ones who had wounded them. That a hound could be so wounded that it took stitching was bad new for the hunt and the huntress. Though once again Eleri mused that she was not sure that the huntress would be wounded the same way as a hell hound.
The huntress never shifted from her task of mending the flesh of the hell hound in front of her , yet Eleri knew that she had been noticed.
“So what are you doing here Eleri?” came the expected query.
Eleri leaned over the huntresses shoulder and observed more closely and was surprised at the deftness and surety at the huntress hands performing healing actions.
“I came to tell you that the weapon that caused these wounds was an anarchy dagger.”
The huntress looked up, seemingly startled, “A what?”
“An anarchy dagger,” this came from Loki as he and Eris looked up from their hushed conversation in the corner.
“The anarchy dagger are supposedly the rulers of the hells last resort of defense against a mass uprising in the underworlds. They can kill anything that has a strong tie to death. They were supposed to only work on the dead but they can also take out reapers and hell hounds. I would be surprised to know that you did not know of them except I’m not. I suppose the hell gods thought you would never encounter one during the hunts as they are all supposed to be kept under lock and key in their palaces.”
Loki and Eris were unsmiling as he explained. “No one knows if they will work on you or any of the god of the underworlds as you are not as tied to death as the hell hounds are. He frowned and looked around the warehouse uneasily. He then looked at Eris and lifted an eyebrow. Eris seemingly understanding the unspoken message faded out.
——-
Desphen and the other young gods were by this point vastly confused. Loki had in one breath seemed to imply that the huntress was a hell hound and the next an underwourld god. Also they were flabbergasted by the idea of the anarchy daggers and were pestering him for information on the daggers that he did not have. After all he had never heard of them before this point. Though he had certainly seen the damage they could do. Like all underworld gods he knew of the hell hounds origins and knew them to be terrifyingly tough. For a weapon to wound them so easily sat very poorly on his mind.
Then N. V. gave a very girly shriek looking off to one side. All the young gods looked to see what had startled him. Eris stood there tapping one expensively shod toe. The entire table scrambled to the their feet and gave deep bows. All them knew well not to piss off the Lady of Discord. She nodded to each of them in turn according to age.
“Blodwyn, N. V., Vivek, desphen, and Ihuicatl, greetings.” She said, her tone indicating disapproval.
“Do the teachings of you parents not keep you busy enough that you do not need to spy on others?” she asked her voice dripping sweet poison.
Kit was the first to gain her tongue.
“Yes they do, milady, but we had never heard of the huntress before. We were trying to educate ourselves about her.”
“Your parents have nothing to say on the subject of the huntress?”
“Oh they said plenty,” retorted Desphen his voice filled with remembered ire. “All of it ‘None of your business.'”
Eris arched an eyebrow. “So they would leave you uneducated on the subject of one of the most important members of the underworlds? How typical.”
“Perhaps you could teach us,” ventured Wynd, rather bravely in Desphen’s opinion.
Eris smirked and waved to the bartender, who immediately brought an extra chair and an Irish Car Bomb. Eris tossed the drink back like a pro, reached out her left hand and received the Atomic Fire Ball and tossed that back as well. She settled more deeply into her chair which had somehow turned into a cushy rocking chair.
“Gather round children and let me tell you a little story about how the huntress came to be.”
——–
Loki watched impassively as the huntress paced back and forth staring at her hands which were stained with the blood of her pack mates. She turned abruptly and did a head count of the hounds in the room. Her brow wrinkled and she very visibly did a recount. She frowned this time obviously coming up short. Loki looked around as well. Only one of the wounded hell hounds was present.
The huntress strode to the other end of the warehouse before stopping in front of a bolted door that looked like it had been once used for refrigeration. She undid the bolt and flung the heavy door wide with all due speed. As light poured into the dark room, Loki’s eyes widened. In the room was a man, his blood covered hands stroking the ears of a hell hound who was giving all the appearance of a very large lap dog.
The huntress’ scowl deepened.
“Tadita!” she snapped. The hound rose gracefully, and with a mournful look at the human she had been snuggling with, ambled over to sit in front of the huntress. Tadita gave a sort of whine and the huntresses face softened and she stroked the brow of the hell hounds.
“All right. You win,” breathed the huntress, surprising Loki.
She looked sharply at the man in the room. “Come on out,” she commanded.
To Loki’s further surprise the man looked like would disobey just to be contrary and muleish expression on his face. However, when the huntress made to close the door he scrambled up and out of the room with all due speed. the huntress shut the door with a heavy clang behind him and then looked him over critically.
Loki nearly growled with irritation as he was surprised by the man yet again his he gave the huntress a once over right back.
“So,” the huntress began, “are you going to tell me why you were in the middle of my hunt again?”
The man looked belligerent, “Are you going to tell me why I was knocked unconscious and left in a pitch black locked room?”
Both of Loki’s eyebrows hit his hairline. Well that was unexpected. He leaned against a nearby pillar and settled down to watch the fur fly, a small smirk playing across his face lighting up his brilliant blue eyes.
The huntress looked briefly put out that her intimidation factor did not seem to work on this man, then her face cleared and she seemed to find his attitude amusing.
“Perhaps because I found you reaching toward a severely wounded member of my pack, your hands stained with their blood.” she answered his question with an air of condescension.
The man looked briefly startled and then comprehension flowed over his face like the annual flooding of the Nile River.
“I see.”
“Good, then may I repeat my earlier question?”
“Which was?”
“Why were you there?”
“I followed a hound there.”
“And pray tell, why did you follow a hound there?”
Loki and Eleri in the mean time were watching the conversation like they were watching a tennis match until Eleri looked down at her watch and swore loudly and she hurriedly prepared to fade out through the wards.
The man looked over at where Eleri was standing; his face became grim and then he turned his face back to the huntress.
“I wanted to know what was going on,” the man explained.
“No one else saw you at the hospital, and now I am in trouble with my bosses because a patient is missing and I was the last person that anyone saw go into his room! I wanted to know where he went and what you and the hounds were doing in his room before he disappeared and I figured that following a hound might lead me to either you or my patient.”
The huntress seemed to think over his words.
“I can see that. I am the huntress. We were tracking a disembodied soul and we found him in that room in the hospital. Or at least we found that he had taken a host in that room. He jumped out the window just as we ran through the door way.”
Jeremy’s voice was caustic, “You are telling me that a person jumped from the ninth story of a building and he landed unharmed? Pull the other one, it’s got bells on.”
The huntress looked confused. “other what?” she asked. at that Loki cracked up.
again the man looked over and frowned.
Loki smiled and waved and the mans frown deepened as he squinted his eyes and cocked his head to one side in a visible effort to see him more clearly.
the huntress watched and then stated, “it’s weird that you seem to be able to see me and the packs clearly yet you cannot see the others. tell me do you have any priests of the underworld lords in your ancestry?”
the man looked back over at her visibly startled. “not that I know of. by the way, what kind of name is ‘the huntress’ don’t you have a personal name rather than a title?”
the huntress looked startled and then grudgingly sais, “my name is Datura Metel.”
The man smiled and held out his hand to be shook, “hello, Datura Metel, my name is Jeremy Salus.
icefallstears 