Aleksei’s office was the definition of minimalism. Stark white floors, floor-to ceiling glass windows dominating over half of the wall space, everything to my left and dead ahead was glass (even the floor), and a single marble desk in the center of the room. A white bookshelf was built into the right-hand wall right beside a mini bar—classy—and a massive television.
The man himself was the definition of class. After all the monsters I saw on my way in I was almost shocked to see a human running the show. He rose from behind the desk and crossed his arms. He was dressed for business with a tailored white suit. Black shoes, a black shirt, and a gray vest were the only breaks from his chosen aesthetic. His gray hair and beard were effortlessly quaffed and he had golden cufflinks, an expensive watch, and a golden earring in his left lobe. The dude looked like he lived in the gym and only came to visit his office.
On the back of both of his palms he had that same eyeball symbol tattooed. More tattoos decorated his fingers and crawled up his neck, and it would not have surprised me if the rest of him was covered with ink as well.
Dude looked way too badass to be in an office building.
I’m not going to lie, the second I laid eyes on Aleksei I felt like the wind got knocked out of me. There was no way in hell I could compete with a dude this good-looking and this powerful. That knowledge filled me with a spark of rage that quickly morphed into full blown envy and the absolute certainty that I would do whatever I had to in order to become even more badass than this guy. If he was speaking at a self-motivational seminar I needed a ticket.
When he spoke, his European accent was like a slap in the face. I felt several inferiority complexes typing in the group chat that was my brain, all doing their best to be heard.
“Agent Tabitha, what took so long? Report.”
The group chat fell silent as I saw Tabitha’s shoulders droop by a fraction of a centimeter.
“Complications arose. The Feral I was tracking left his feeding grounds unexpectedly and drove into the foothills. I commandeered a police vehicle but he shot my tires out so I had to pursue him on foot. He cast a Temporal Fractal around the gas station and by the time I broke through it he had already struck down one of the mortals inside and was going after this one.”
As she motioned towards me with a thumb, I felt the spotlight of Aleksei’s gaze pan over to me for the briefest of moments. I have no idea why I went with a chin-lift as my non verbal greeting, but he was too far away to try and go in for a handshake and a wave just felt too…wimpy. He acknowledged me with the slightest tightening of the muscles around his eyes and a twitch from his mustache, not quite a wince of disgust but not all that far from one either. Then he turned back to Tabitha and gestured for her to go on.
“I engaged the Feral in combat. He was stronger than I was expecting and,” Tabitha looked down, ashamed, “in truth I would have died if it weren’t for Ryan’s intervention. He bravely stepped in and kept the beast occupied long enough for me to heal from my grievous injury and put it down. He saved me.”
Aleksei and I both blinked in unison and exchanged looks of alarm. Up until that moment I was not aware that was what happened from her perspective.
“You were saved by a mortal? No, by a cripple?” Aleksei restated, flabbergasted.
The word hit me like an electric shock, and cracks appeared in my mental image of Aleksei as this powerhouse of a man. Real alpha males had no need to put down other men, they were strong enough to lift others up without viewing them as a threat.
I straightened myself up and shook off the lingering effects of my brief battle with self-doubt. This guy was no one I needed to look up to and just because he dressed well and took care of himself did not mean he deserved my unconditional respect. He would have to earn it.
Tabitha nodded in confirmation. “Yes. Ryan single-handedly held off a raging Carnisaur without a lick of prior knowledge, training, or even a proper weapon. When I came to they were in the midst of battle, and the Carnisaur seemed to have gained the upper hand, but the fact that he was able to hold the beast off for so long is a testament to his skill.”
Oh shit, she thinks I fought the dino-dude to a standstill. She was going to be super pissed when she found out all I really did was get into an argument with the guy for a minute or two and then get my ass handed to me. I filed that firmly under the category of Top Secret Information and kept my face completely neutral.
Aleksei’s mouth folded into a semi-impressed frown. “Very well, if he can manage to hold back a beast strong enough to defeat even you then he must be very impressive. But that doesn’t answer the bigger problem here. Why were you facing a Carnisaur alone in the first place? What happened to Agent Phillip? He was supposed to be your partner if I recall.”
A combination of words ‘Agent Phillip’ and ‘partner’ acted as the flint and steel from which sprang a spark of jealousy that threatened to ignite in my chest. I smothered it immediately by reminding myself that I had just met Tabitha, and I wasn’t interested in anyone else since Hannah died, remember?
Tabitha’s shoulders tightened and her chin rose a fraction of an inch. Her eyes likewise focused on some point up above Aleksei’s head and her voice lost all of its previous inflection as she reported that, “Agent Phillip was attending to other matters, sir.”
Aleksei’s eyes narrowed. “What other matters?”
A sharp inhale and the blood draining from her lips was all the warning Aleksei and I got before Tabitha spoke again. Once she started, it was like the floodgates had opened and there was no closing them again.
“He was fucking our target’s next door neighbor and her friends. Some college cheerleaders. At least I hope they were in college! This isn’t even the first time he’s pulled something like this! I don’t know why you assigned him to be my partner and I don’t know why all of these incidents keep getting swept under the rug. The man is a pig and I hate working with him! He leaves me out in the open without backup, forced to find and eliminate our targets alone, time and time again. I’ve had it with Phillip! I want him reassigned.”
Aleksei pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance and let out a puff of air. “Agent Phillip is one of my best trackers. We may not agree with his methods, but the man is an incubus, such indiscretions are to be expected. Isn’t one of your friends a succubus? You understand.”
“Yes, one of my friends is a succubus. And yes, she’s a bit of a slut. But Bianca’s never left me alone to face down a Feral hydra before just so she could go get her rocks off with some hottie from the bar we tracked it to. Phillip has!”
I’ll admit, the spark of jealousy had been well and truly smothered. This Phillip guy seemed like a prick with ears and Tabitha was far too dedicated to her job to let a sleazeball like that get anywhere near her. Why the hell I cared, I don’t know, but I couldn't deny that I did.
“Look, Tabitha. You can’t work alone and all the other agents are already pack-bonded, siblings, close friends, or married to one another. We don’t allow singular agents into the field unless they are with another single agent, and Phillip is the only agent left on the roster who’s willing to work with you. I told you when I gave you that badge that it came with the expectation that you would leave all that lone wolf shit behind you. You stick with your partner or it’ll be your second strike. After what happened last year, you won’t get a third. Understood?”
Tabitha shifted angrily, and her eyes darted up toward the ceiling before coming back down to rest on Aleksei. Apparently, she was not quite ready to trust herself with words just yet so she nodded in agreement instead.
“I expect a full report. Dismissed,” Aleksei said, reaching for a white tablet on his desk.
Tabitha, still fuming, turned back towards the door and strode past me.
I stayed right where I was.
“Hold on. Why are you talking to her like that?” I demanded. My voice threatened to break and I had no clue why I was acting this way. Aleksei’s eyebrows raised as he looked up at me, and I felt Tabitha’s hand try to curl around my bicep and pull me along, urging me to move, but I held my ground.
Aleksei set his tablet down and raised a hand to point at Tabitha.
“You have a problem with the way I speak to my employees there, son?”
“I’m not your son, gramps, and yes I do. Tabitha just saved my life, the life of my coworker Derek, and the lives of at least six police officers besides. And apparently, she did it all while her partner was balls-deep in some cheerleader instead of watching her back and doing his damn job. It sounds to me like she deserves a raise or,” I hesitated, “I don’t even know if this job pays, but she deserves a promotion or at least a ‘job well done’ and a handshake for doing alone what your policy dictates requires everyone else does with a partner. This Philip guy sounds like a useless piece of work and he ought to be riding a desk for a while, and Tabitha here deserves more respect rather than a slap on the wrist when what she did was damn impressive.”
Aleksei fell silent, his eyes boring into my skull for a long moment before he finally looked away and addressed Tabitha.
“You know what? He’s not wrong. Good job, Agent Tabitha. It seems you have found yourself a new partner. And he’s a real spitfire by the sounds of it. Why don’t you head on over to the training grounds and get him up to speed? In fact! You can take him with you on your hunt this weekend.”
I grinned, because that sounded fantastic, but when I looked back at Tabitha she had gone completely pale.
“Aleksei, please. He doesn’t know what he’s saying.”
Aleksei sat down behind his desk and reached for his tablet. “He’ll learn or he’ll die, Tabitha. I’m already fast-tracking his assignment orders.”
“No,” Tabitha said, her voice almost a whisper.
“Oh yes. It’s already done. Welcome to the team, Ryan, we’re so glad to have you! Your badge will be waiting for you in the training ground. You have until the end of the week to get acclimated before you accompany Agent Tabitha on her next mission. Consider it…a promotion.”
“Alek-”
“You are dismissed.”
Tabitha swallowed nervously and refused to meet my eyes, then she pulled me along back towards the hallway. We made it five steps.
“Hold,” Aleksei called from his desk. I looked back and just about leapt from my own skin as Aleksei was standing less than a meter away, holding out one of his heavily tattooed hands. His left hand.
Dickhead.
“I just wanted to shake your hand, Agent Ryan. You might just be one of the most interesting specimens to have walked through my door this week. It’s not every day I meet a man stupid enough to stand up to the head of an underground organization that hunts monsters day in and day out. You survived your first encounter with a Feral, and it was a primal at that, so you have my attention. I expect great things from you kid. You better not disappoint me.”
Smiling thinly, I reached for his hand, intent on summoning that giant dino-gorilla hand and pulverizing the man’s fingers. Instead I just awkwardly thrust my stump in his direction, and nothing happened.
Aleksei did not break eye contact as he sucked air through his teeth. “Ooh. That’s an unfortunate injury you have there, son. Sure hope it doesn’t interfere with your monster-hunting duties.” He swiveled his head to regard Tabitha. “I’ll want that report on my desk by morning.”
With that done, he left us both standing and strode calmly back to his desk, whistling the tune to some old western movie as he moved extraordinarily slowly and typing away on his tablet the whole while. It was only when he finally sat back down in his chair and took a sip from his, white, mug that he glanced up.
“Oh, so sorry. You are dismissed,” he said cheerfully, waving at us with his mug.
Tabitha yanked at my good arm and, after a heartbeat’s hesitation of keeping my eyes defiantly locked onto Aleksei’s, I went with her as we speed-walked back down the long hallway.
This time the faces behind the magically linked doorways were all peering at us. Some of them were smirking, and a few were whispering to their assistants or into their cellphones. That one guy was still railing his secretary—or was it a different secretary this time? I tried not to look close enough to find the answer—but took the time out of his thrusting to pluck a phone from his desk and snap a picture of Tabitha and I as we rushed past.
From then until the end of the hallway all the people through the doorways were looking at their phones, or at us, and laughing hysterically.
Tabitha shoved me into the elevator ahead of her and clicked one of the buttons.
Slapping the elevator’s back wall as I recovered from her werewolf-strength-assisted shove, I pivoted in place to tell her to never do that again when I caught sight of the hallway behind us. Heads were peaking out of every doorway as the men and women who worked directly under Aleksei tried to get a view of the two idiots he was sending to their doom.
Tabitha looked up at me, fury burning behind her eyes, then noticed where my attention was. She swiveled in place to look at all of them gawking at us and her wolf ears stood on end. Her tail curled around her thigh and her fist slammed into the elevator’s control panel hard enough to dent the metal.
The elevator doors closed, drowning out their laughter and whispers.
Alone, I started to ask her what just happened, but she growled so deep and so low that she made even the walls of the elevator quiver in fear. An image of how she appeared in her werewolf form with Carnisaur blood dripping from her mouth and claws flashed across my mind and it occurred to me that I probably did not want to see her transform inside of this cramped metal box while she was this pissed at me.
We rode in silence until the doors dinged open and she led the way into the training hall.
This place put every gym I had ever seen to complete shame. It had everything you could possibly want and then some. People were running obstacle courses, getting trained in all sorts of different martial arts and how to use different melee weapons. There was a gun range, simulation chambers, all sorts of stuff; and that was just what I could see on the first level.
She took two steps inside and pointed me toward the showers, which were to the right and left of the entrance. “Go get cleaned up. I’ll meet you here. Try not to do anything stupid for the next ten minutes, think you can manage that?” Without waiting for an answer she moved off toward the ladies’ showers.
I watched her go, admitting to myself that seeing her storm off all angry did not lessen my enjoyment of seeing her cute ass jiggle as she departed. She was a little more muscle-bound and flat-chested than Hannah, but she was still hot as hell.
Stop comparing her to Hannah, I chastised myself. For a moment I was pissed that I was even looking, as it felt a bit too close to cheating for my comfort level. But that feeling passed quickly when I reminded myself of the uncomfortable truth. Hannah was dead, and with her any chance at that happily-ever-after I had been gunning for. My loyalty to her now served no purpose other than to make me even more miserable than I already was.
I recognized that and the need for me to move on with my life if I had any intention of living it. But understanding something logically and implementing it into reality were like speaking two different languages, and I was only fluent in one.
Besides, I had bigger problems right then, I just didn’t know it yet.
Inside the men’s shower, the problem revealed itself. There were no stalls. Just a wall of lockers facing off against a wall of showerheads. A bunch of naked dudes were walking around casually with their dicks out. Most of them weren’t even human. While that might have done it for some guys, it was really not doing it for me, and I was expected to go and shower right beside them? Gross.
Man up, Ryan, this is what it’s going to take for you to become a monster hunter. It’s either this or admit to everyone you’re a loser and go back to being a gas station attendant for the rest of your life. Which will it be?
I kept my face passive as I found an open locker and offloaded my clothing. It was an uncomfortable experience, undressing in front of a bunch of strange guys, made all the more so by the fact that everyone was looking my way and making comments to their buddies about the new guy.
Several variations of a similar conversation played out as I undressed.
“Is that the guy Aleksei fast-tracked to agent status?”
“Yeah, I heard he talked smack to the boss.”
“He’s going off with Tabitha this weekend.”
“Oof, that’s a death sentence.”
Right before I removed my last article of clothing I took a second to stare around the room and zero in on who was talking behind my back. Most of them fell silent or averted their eyes. I took note of the ones who met my gaze. Then I took off my underwear and started walking to the showers.
Nobody had much to say after that, did they?
I may be missing a hand and yeah I may have been a bit of a loser for the past year while I was grieving, living down to my potential instead of chasing what I was capable of, but there were a couple of things about me and my body that I could rely on for a bit of wow factor when I needed it. Namely: I was stronger than I looked, I was coordinated as fuck, and I was well-endowed.
I marched across the shower room like I owned it, drawing upon reserves of confidence I didn’t know that I had, and basked in the silence as I washed the day off of myself. I even noticed this one green-skinned guy comparing himself against me from a distance and looking disappointed. I felt a little bad, but he was one of the ones talking shit before, so not too bad.
As I was toweling off I opened up my locker and found that my uniform had been taken and replaced by some generic gym clothes. I shrugged on the sweats and exited the showers as quickly as I could without appearing rushed. Nobody else needed to know how uncomfortable I was. I kept my chin elevated, my back straight, and walked out of there like I owned the place.
Tabitha was waiting for me in her own pair of generic sweats, tapping her foot impatiently as I walked out. “Come on. Aleksei has set up a fight for you. You’re going up against one of the top-performing recruits.”
I nodded in acceptance. Apparently, Aleksei had it out for me. So be it.
“Lead the way,” I said, still drawing on that confidence I never knew I had before today.
Rolling her eyes and mumbling to herself, Tabitha did as she was bid and led me to a fighting ring. The eyes of everyone we passed tracked us as we walked. A small corner of my mind decided now was the appropriate time to play a funeral dirge.
Waiting for me in the ring was a guy who looked like he ate professional fighters for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, then enjoyed a nice bouquet of bricks for dessert.
Tabitha didn't even look at me as she stepped aside and motioned for me to climb into the ring. After the small gesture she had given me on the way into the garage, the absence of her reassurance left me feeling slightly lost. Before I could succumb to the lure of second-guessing and doubt, I reminded myself that every step I had taken to reach this moment was my own.
That monster attacked me and I stood up to it.
Aleksei was disrespectful to Tabitha and I stood up to him.
Now I was here, and it was time to deal with some consequences. I could either be a wimp, and point the finger elsewhere and complain about how unfair it all was, or I could rise up and face what the day had in store.
I stepped up into the ring and locked eyes with my opponent.
The crowd that had gathered around the ring started clamoring excitedly, and a screen I had not noticed built into the wall suddenly clicked on to reveal Aleksei casually reclining in his desk chair.
Aleksei set his mug down on his desk and began speaking in a kind, almost fatherly manner. “Agent Ryan, meet Agent Blitz. He’s the gold standard for what it means to be a Keeper and is about to graduate from our five-year program. His reward for graduating top of his class was supposed to be accompanying Agents Phillip and Tabitha on their next mission. The mission you will be going on instead. I don’t imagine he feels too great about that, do you, Agent Blitz?”
Agent Blitz jerked his neck to the side, releasing a small symphony of pops and cracks as he brought his fists down into a ready stance and locked his cold beady eyes on me. That was answer enough, apparently, as without saying another word, he went on the offensive.
With a savage yell, Blitz rushed towards me and threw his weight behind a series of high-flying kicks and devastating punches.
Now, I never did get any formal martial arts training growing up. Instead, I got the very informal education of growing up on the nasty side of Eastport. Which meant that although I did not have the muscle-memory to avoid his attacks, I could take a brutal punishment without flinching and just keep on going. In a real fight, that was worth its weight in gold.
I ducked beneath his heavy kicks but instead of even trying to dodge his punches I let his fists bounce off me. Yeah it hurt, but the look of shock on his face when I barely moved?
Worth it.
Unfortunately for me, Agent Blitz knew his shit. He backed up again and came at me with some momentum. He lifted off the platform and his feet flashed out, landing on my legs and pushing off as he ran up me like a set of stairs. He hooked one of his legs around my neck and threw all of his weight over my left shoulder; unseating me in an instant.
I bounced off the platform and rolled to my feet as quickly as I could.
That was a really cool trick, I’ll admit, but Blitz had overplayed his hand. I now had an accurate gauge of his arsenal. His punches were too fast for me to block or dodge, but they were ineffectual. His kicks were deadly, but too slow for him to land a hit on me as long as I kept my wits about me. And it took everything he had just to flip me.
This fight was over before it even began.
I dropped my guard and moved in for the kill.
He tried for a kick again and I caught his leg with my left arm, hugging it close to my flank and taking the awkward moment to introduce myself.
“Nice to meet you Agent Blitz. For what it’s worth, I’m really sorry about this.”
I launched my fist into his gut and swept his remaining leg at the same moment. He went down hard and I followed him with my knee in position. I’m no featherweight, so my knee getting dropped into this guy’s crotch took the fight right out of him. A few follow-up punches to his jaw and he was looking like a bloody mess.
The crowd let out several gasps as my fists rocketed down and came away bloody.
I rose up and turned to Aleksei, who was sitting comfortably at his desk, slow-clapping in my direction while looking down at Blitz with a distasteful expression. A glance down at the man revealed that he was not even looking at me anymore. His anger was spent, and in its place was fear as he looked up at Aleksei. I did not like that. Blitz did his best. He did as he was trained. I just happened to have more experience with street fighting than him.
I decided to shift the boss’s attention over to me.
“Are we done measuring, or is there anyone else you want me to make bleed today?”
The entire gathered crowd looked up at the monitor in shock.
Aleksei’s eyes narrowed to slits. His pupils went from round to fucking cat-eye slits and I got my first impression that maybe this guy was not fully human after all.
“Watch your tongue, boy. Tabitha!” He turned to address my favorite werewolf with a gun. “You are in charge of his training. If he steps out of line it’s another strike, and you know what that means. Everyone else, back to work!”
The monitor clicked off, and the crowd dispersed.
Happy to no longer be the center of attention, I leaned down and offered my hand to Blitz. “Is that guy always this cranky? He needs to lighten the hell up. Sorry about beating the shit out of you, it’s my first day. Prison rules, and all that. Pick the most badass dude in the yard and put him in the dirt to establish dominance. Well, you were the most badass one here. I hope you see the compliment in that and don’t take too much offense to me doing what I had to. Are we good?”
Blitz looked up at my offered hand, then at me, and a snarl crossed his face. He worked his jaw around a bit and spat a spray of blood up at me, shoving away my hand as he got to his feet and hobbled off the ring, heading for the showers.
I let my hand fold closed and wiped my face on the sleeve of my oversized gym shirt.
“I’ll take that as a ‘no.’ Oh well, I tried,” I said to no one in particular as I looked at my dinosaur hand. I wasn’t sure when or how I materialized it, but it seemed like I’d done it unconsciously during the fight.
Tabitha leapt up into the ring with a foul expression on her face.
“Nice going hotshot. Guess what? Your training starts now!”
Her foot rose up in a blur and connected with my face, and my world faded to black.