Day: February 18, 2018

mythsandmonsters:

“Your guess is as good as mine. Jeff just told me to meet him here.”

Zeke had seen photos of Pryce, his older brother who’d allegedly gone missing and been killed while on a hunt several years before the younger Mahlendorf boy had been born. Hell, he’d had the stories drilled into him often enough that wolves had been responsible for the deaths of both of his older siblings, and yet now he was apparently seeing one of them come back from the grave.

“Does someone want to tell me what the fuck is going on?”

“Jeff’s a dick.” 

Despite helping, he wasn’t entirely fond of Jeff. But that could just be because the other wore the scent of blood and death like cologne and it made him think of his past a little too much.

“I’m honestly hurt,” Jeff called out from the other room as he walked into view. “Zeke, this is Andy. But you might know his birth name. What was it, Pryce?”

The name was enough to make him growl, but that was more because he had worked hard to get away from that name. 

mythsandmonsters:

“Maybe you should check it’s okay with Cadi first?” he pointed out, appreciating the kids enthusiasm, but not wanting to invite himself along if he wasn’t actually expected.

“Is she here now? You could go ask her?”

“She home now. Rescue man’s papa picked her up. Eberyone else sleepin’ so I was esploring and found you.” Despite how decent her speech was, bigger words clearly gave her some issue.

“She say yes though. Says we all family and family needs to be together.”

@mythsandmonsters

Andy hadn’t really been expecting another call from Jeff so soon and he didn’t really like not being told what it was about. But, he went, figuring it had something to do with the pups again. The last thing he had been expecting was someone that smelled way too similar to his father to be in the meeting place.

“What the hell is this?”

mythsandmonsters:

Zeke typed in his number and saved it under a fake name that Arcadia would recognise but wouldn’t draw attention if her phone fell into the wrong hands before showing it to her and handing it back.

The number was for a burner cellphone he kept separate from the one his family and other hunters knew the number of, so that he could take calls from Bailey and a few informants he had that required a level of confidentiality where his other phone would be too much of a tracking risk.

Once she had the phone back, Arcadia sent him a simple text, just the letters CD so he would have the number. 

“They took out my implant, so if I’m found, you know I’ll die slow.” The implants weren’t exactly fast, but they were still quicker than being bled out.

mythsandmonsters:

“As far as I know, Sky’s a witch by blood, but that’s all I know about where she came from.”

Zeke took the piece of paper with the details scrawled on it and put it in his wallet for safekeeping.

He was surprising even himself with how readily he was cooperating in all of this. It went against everything he’d ever been trained to do, but that was sort of the problem. Despite how young he’d been when he started, it was the act of forcing him into it that had made him hate it in the first place, and many of the things he’d seen pups being put through, he’d experienced for himself to some degree, inadvertently giving him a sympathetic view that led him to be kinder to his own pups than he’d been conditioned to be.

“We got witches, I get her out and I’ve got people she can stay with. People that’ll be good for her.” 

In truth, he could probably match up anyone rescued to the right people with Eli and Ben’s help, but a witch he would send to Brynn and Tayte. She’d be safe there and get proper training in her abilities.

Jeff studied him for a long moment, almost afraid to ask the next question but he needed to know just how much a risk this kid was going to prove to be. “What clan are you from? I need to know exactly what I’m getting into right now.”

mythsandmonsters:

“Okay, that works. If we set things up for in a couple of days, that means we can both be sure everything is as safe as it can be on either end, okay? Because I’ll need to bring Molly with me too.”

The hunter didn’t trust anyone else with his pups, not other hunters, or even regular babysitters who might not even know that they weren’t human, and he sure as hell wouldn’t leave a four year old unsupervised and alone for several hours.

She nodded before digging out her phone and handing it to him. It was a weird gesture, a small act of trust. He had her brother and she knew she had to put at least some trust in him if she wanted to see him. 

mythsandmonsters:

“Okay.”

He still wasn’t entirely sure it was okay for her to be there, but he didn’t want to upset the kid at all, and Jeff or Eli would probably be along at some point, so they could handle scooting her back to wherever she was supposed to be instead.

“Cadi says we can come stay with her. You come too when better. Me and Salem only here cuz Sable.” They didn’t want to leave her there alone because she had never made them be alone either.

mythsandmonsters:

“So long as Bailey and Molly can stay with me, and all of us are safe, I’ll agree to whatever terms you want,” Zeke answered with a nod.

Sure, it was a risk putting his trust in someone whose name he didn’t even know, but he was acting purely in the interest of Molly and Bailey’s safety, so securing his own alongside that would be additionally beneficial to them.

“If the two babies haven’t been handed off yet, they’ll be with an interim handler upstate. You might find a girl named Sky there too. She’s not a shifter, but she’s not a hunter wither, and she’ll most likely have an implant loaded with an explosive charge, not the ones they fit the pups with.” he warned, knowing that if he didn’t give him a heads up, Sky could end up an innocent victim one way or another.

“You might want to dig around in the illegal fighting circuits too. As far as I know, all of the pups you’re looking for are trackers or bait, but I’ve heard rumours since I was a kid about some being shipped out West as pit dogs. It’s possible you might find one or two of the older ones there, if there’s any of them still alive.”

“I wouldn’t put kids in a dangerous situation if I didn’t intend to protect them. I’ve lost enough of these kids already and I’m not trying to lose anymore.” 

There was obvious pain in his eyes over not being able to save all of the ones he had found. Some were too injured, some had died from the implants before they figured that mess out, and some had been so feral that they had to essentially be euthanized. He wasn’t sure which had hurt him more. 

“Do you know what she is? Not knowing what the girl is could cause other issues due to potential allergies. Like fey burn when touched with iron.” The last thing he wanted to do was hurt some kid more than he had to just have something taken out of her. “I might know someone that can remove explosives. He’s probably better at making them than disarming them, but he’s all I got.” Not that he really wanted to involve his dad, but he figured his mother could control him enough to disarm anything.

“The hospital,” Arcadia finally added, giving Jeff a pointed look. If they were going to be involved, they needed to know the safest places to go.

Jeff nodded before digging out a pen and scrap of paper. “If anything comes up, go to this hospital. Ask for Eli Carter or Korina Arvos. Eli works ER, Kori’s a pediatric nurse. Tell them Jeff said to ask for them specifically and they will get you somewhere safe. My family essentially runs this area. Not often hunters end up around here and anytime something steps out of line, we handle it.”

“If you or the kids are hurt, give a fake name. If you can’t get to Eli or Kori, give the last name Morgan, they look for that name in particular.”

mythsandmonsters:

“Vaughn,” he repeated softly, reminding her that he’d already told her that when she told him hers, but not minding that she’d forgotten in such a short space of time considering how young she was.

She repeated his name to herself a couple of time, but it came out more like von than anything. “I stay with you for now, okay? Being alone is bad.” Salem would be okay with Sable, there were always people checking in on them, so she was content to stay there with him for now.

mythsandmonsters:

“Want me to do that again?” he asked with a smirk, barely pulling away enough to get the words out as he continued to sporadically tease little shivers and twitches from her. If she wanted more, he’d gladly oblige, or he’d move on to more mutual physical intimacy if she preferred.

She swallowed a few times, trying to find her voice. His continued teasing wasn’t helping and all she could manage for a few moments was a series of small whimpers. “Just..want..you,” she finally gasped out, gazing down at him with an all but pleading look.