Page 8 of Hunter

Her chair creaked as she turned to look at him. “I’m assuming he wants to know more about the vampires and werewolves, since we’re the news station that broke that story.”

Kana was worried that was only the tip of the hunter’s plans, but he couldn’t tell Beth exactly why. Still, there was another way to get her interested in asking the question. He also turned his chair so they could talk face-to-face.

“I think there might be a larger story there,” he said. “He could have called to ask us that, but instead, he traveled here and offered himself up for an interview?”

“You think he’s after something else?” Beth asked, her voice rising with excitement. “Maybe the witch that werewolf mentioned when Stephen called?”

Kana hoped not. A wolf who didn’t understand he needed to keep his mouth shut had answered the phone when Stephen, the lead reporter for their station, called, and he told Stephen a witch had helped kill the vampires. Ember immediately removed the wolf from that job, but the damage was done. Stephen happily shared that tidbit on every media source their station used. The hunters could have easily learned a witch was involved, if that was what they were interested in.

“Or maybe he’s looking to set up a hunter compound in the city?” Kana asked, hoping to divert Beth’s attention from the witch issue. Besides, if they kept the question more open-ended, they might get a better answer from the hunter.

Beth nodded. “It would be best to simply ask the hunter what brings him to our city and let him fill in the blanks.”

Kana grabbed a pen and a pad of paper and wrote that first question.

“A follow-up could be how long he thinks he’ll be staying?” Kana asked, hoping Beth would agree, but she started shaking her head before he finished.

“That’s pushing it. Maybe if the conversation naturally goes that way, but I don’t think we should ask that. How about we ask him what he does for a living?”

Kana did like that question. “Phrase it as: tell us about the job of a hunter?”

Beth nodded. “And if he tells us what type of hunter, our follow-up should be something about how he’s able to hunt whatever it is he hunts.”

Kana scribbled both questions before Beth changed her mind. “We could title the article, ‘A Day in the Life of a Hunter.’”

“Yes!” Beth said, and she was back to vibrating happily in her seat. “Stephen’s gonna love this!”

“We could ask how the hunter was recruited into whatever organization he’s part of,” Kana continued, “and what training he went through and such.” The hunter would only provide generalities to answer those questions, but they would help conceal what Kana was really after.

“Oh! We should flip the order around. Start by asking him how he became a hunter and how he was trained, then ask him what brought him here. Build out the full story of his life and how that culminated in his traveling to Albany.”

As long as Kana’s questions were answered, he didn’t care in what order Beth thought they should be asked. He started drawing arrows on his paper to move the questions around.

“If he tells us why he’s here, we should follow up with how he’s going to go about accomplishing his mission,” Kana added. When Beth nodded, Kana wrote that question on the list.

“And we can end with something simple like if there are any tourist attractions or restaurants he’s planning to visit while he’s here,” Beth finished. She waited for Kana to write the question, then yanked the pad from underneath Kana’s hand. “I’ll get this into an email. You’ve still got those edits for the bakery competition story to finish, right?”

“Ah, damn. I do! Thanks for reminding me!” Kana turned back to his computer and pulled up the document in question, glad when a few seconds later he heard Beth typing on her own keyboard, because it gave him a few private moments to stare, unblinking, down at his hands.

A hunter, here. Kana ought to call in sick or something. He could feign feeling a touch under the weather this afternoon, so no one would be surprised when he claimed to have a fever tomorrow. If he hid, though, there was no telling what he might miss. Yes, he would be safer if he wasn’t around for the hunter to notice, but if the hunter was after the wolves, Kana had to be here in order to pass that information on to Ember in time.

Decided, Kana let out a breath and sat up straight again. Besides, maybe he was overreacting. Maybe the hunter was just passing through, and his job was to remind the world hunters were around and ready to respond. He could be using the local news stations as his method of getting the word out.

No matter how much he wished this was all just a simple coincidence, worry still churned in Kana’s gut. Even as he finally got to work parsing through misplaced commas and sourcing structure, half of Kana’s mind continued to swirl with what-ifs.

Chapter Four

A BLACK SUV waited at the curb by the bus stop when Kana left work that afternoon. As he walked across the street, the wolf sitting in the front passenger seat jumped out and pulled the back door open. Kana slid inside, the door closed, and the car smoothly pulled into traffic. They had done this maneuver multiple times before, but Kana didn’t think it had ever gone so swiftly, as if the wolves sitting in the front seats had been warned not to make any sort of scene today. Given a hunter might be watching their every move, that made sense, although Kana hoped they hadn’t figured out Kana was involved.

Admittedly, it would probably be better if Kana stayed as far away from the wolves as possible right now. If the hunter was after him, his being associated with the wolves wouldn’t be good for Ember or the rest of the pack. Still, any chance to see Ember again had Kana’s heart beating faster in anticipation, and short-circuited more rational thinking.

Regardless of what might be best, Kana had already gotten into the car and was on his way to what looked like the city pack house. It was too late to hide now.

Two wolves were standing guard just inside the massive, black iron gate, which swung open as the car approached. The car continued down the drive, and Kana saw more wolves walking the grounds in pairs, all of them in human form although Kana suspected there were some in wolf form around as well. The car stopped in front of the main doors, which opened a moment later, and Ember walked out.

“Do you think it’s safe for me to be here?” Kana asked as he climbed out of the car. “Shouldn’t we stay apart instead?”

Ember frowned. “It’s better to stay close so we can watch each other’s backs. I’m sorry if I’m being presumptuous, but I think it would be better if you stayed with us until the hunter problem is solved.”

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