The Hunter's Den: Dead of Midnight Book 1

  The Hunter’s Den

  By Byron Thorne

  © 2019 Byron Thorne

  Table of Contents

  Preface

  Forget About it, Jules

  Believe It or Not

  Nothing to Eat

  Endless Night

  Leftover

  First One, Then Another

  Priorities

  Flying Solo

  Blood In

  Looking Out For You

  Babysitter

  Like a Dream

  The Hunter’s Den

  Best of Friends

  Unwanted Guest

  Victoria

  Open Season

  Den

  Girl’s Night Out

  Lion’s Den

  Second Date

  Answers

  View From Below

  Funeral

  What Now

  Preface

  If her head being in the clouds wasn’t enough of a sign, then the butterflies that flapped in her stomach every time his name rolled off of her lips was. Sam. He was everything Jules never knew she wanted. Jules was always independent, almost to a fault. Sam was the only one she had ever really let inside and it felt better than she expected.

  Jules had never been one of those girls who measured a relationship by the size of the bouquet she received on Valentine’s Day. Truth be told she didn’t care that much for flowers at all; they had a funny way of always ending up dead. With Sam, though, she practically counted the hours they had been together. She couldn’t help it. It was like she didn’t want to forget a single minute of it.

  And speaking of minutes, Sam was taking his sweet time getting over to her place. That wasn’t unlike him, and by now she had come to expect his utter disregard for punctuality. It was still kind of cute, and Jules hoped that she would think of his personality quirks as cute forever instead of finding them annoying like so many couples that had been together a long time. Sam could have done just about anything and she would have been fine with it. So she wasn’t exactly mad, but she was starting to wonder where he was. Her phone, dark and quiet, was not providing any answers. She checked it again anyways, and was disappointed.

  Jules put her phone back in her purse and realized that she had been sitting by the door for almost half an hour. At first she felt a little bit embarrassed even though there was no one else in her apartment. It wasn’t like her to be the one waiting around for someone. At least, not until Sam began to tame her fierce independence. But that didn’t give him a free pass to just go silent- even if, who was she kidding, she would wait all night for him but she wouldn’t be happy about it.

  If she did anything else to her hair she knew it would end up worse than when she started. Sam was romantic in a subtle kind of a way, and even though she usually hated surprises she didn’t seem to mind them so much when they were his idea. Jules didn’t know exactly where they would be going but she could tell he had big plans and she was getting tired of waiting. How childish of her, she thought. Strange what love can do to a person.

  Jules contemplated whether or not she should look inside the fridge one more time, but was interrupted by the violent rattle of her phone against the zipper of her purse.

  “Finally,” she scoffed, looking to the empty sofa for some validation that she wasn’t crazy.

  She accepted the call without even looking at the screen.

  “Look who it is,” she said with sarcastic annoyance.

  “Jules. It’s Daniel. Are you home?” the voice on the other end was frantic, and it instantly made Jules uneasy.

  “Daniel? Yeah, I’m home. Where’s Sam?”

  “Thank God. Stay home, Jules. Don’t go outside. I’ll be right there.”

  Jules was confused, and so was the heart that began to frantically beat in her chest. She spent the next few minutes calling Sam and getting nothing but his voicemail. The texts weren’t doing much good either. Did something happen to him? Daniel sounded scared, almost hysterical. It wasn’t like him at all and it wasn’t like Sam to fall off the face of the Earth like this. Then, the knock on the door shook her out of her thoughts.

  She swung the door open and Daniel stood there, eyes blood red, panting.

  “What the hell is going on?” Jules demanded.

  “Jules, I’m so sorry,” Daniel cried. “He’s gone. Sam’s gone. They killed him. They…”

  Jules couldn’t hear the voice of the man in the doorway anymore. All the noise in the world was replaced with a ringing in her ears that wouldn’t stop. She felt the ground fall out beneath her and her stomach fell close behind it. She wanted to pull the dagger out of her chest, but when she reached for it there was nothing there. In that moment, she wished there would have been.

  1

  Forget About it, Jules

  Jules wouldn’t let herself drink, now. At least not like before. She still wanted it, there’s no denying that. It was the easy choice. She knew, deep down, it would never make her feel better. It could end the pain, permanently. But Jules was stronger than that. There was a new path in front of her now. Forget sadness. Her body almost shook with anger. The change in emotion wasn’t so bad.

  Jules didn’t love the taste of the stuff, but she did love the numbness that came bundled with alcohol. When the options were feeling like death or feeling nothing at all, it didn’t take much thinking. Easiest choice of her life, in fact.

  “Kid, you alright?” Daniel asked in his usual concerned, weathered tone. Jules didn’t realize how long she had been silent. She was deep in thought about the building in front of her. It was the kind of bar you could smell from the end of the block. In fact, the smell was the only thing that made it apparent the building was open for business at all.

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” Jules murmured. Maybe just missing liquid courage, she thought.

  “I thought this would be good for you. I thought this was what you wanted,” Daniel put his muscular frame between her and the nearby door.

  “I said I was fine. Just thinking, that’s all,” she reassured him. Daniel looked like a man who held strong convictions, but he was always ready to change them for the sake of Jules.

  “Alright, good, because I don’t need my rep ruined in this place. I need you to do me proud,” he placed his arm around her shoulder.

  “Let’s just get this over with, alright?” A touch of anxiety leaked into her voice.

  “This is only the beginning, kid, you know that, right?”

  “Yeah, you’ve made it painfully aware to me. So let’s just get the introduction over with already.”

  “OK, remember what I told you.”

  “Open with a joke to break the ice, got it.”

  “Jules.”

  “C’mon, I remember. You first.”

  Daniel had done his best to prepare her for the motley crew that hung out inside the Rustic Den; or as it was unofficially known on the inside, the Hunter’s Den. Jules had spent the better part of the day inside of her own head, anxious, but ready. She half expected a boxing gym mixed with a gun range, full of dedicated, deadly individuals that looked as rugged as Daniel. She had the rugged part right, but she couldn’t help but feel a little let down by the denizens of the Rustic.

  There were more people staring at the bottoms of bucket glasses than down the barrels of guns.

  “This...is not what I was expecting,” Jules whispered as the door closed behind them.

  “These guys are the best in the city. They’ve just seen some shit,” Daniel looked past the wall, at nothing, “like we all have.” Maybe she didn’t give them enough credit. They were a surly bunch, but clearly not a group of drunks. Each of the patrons
was wracked with scars, either physical or emotional ones so bad they hung like the neon signs outside. Maybe she would be more at home in the place then she thought.

  The two of them maneuvered past the bar and towards a dimly lit table in the back. Jules felt the energy of the place shift towards her, and quite a few gazes with it. Come to think of it, not too many other brown-eyed girls in the place.

  The man at the table looked older than he probably was. His beard and long hair were as faded as his camouflage jacket, but the gray had long since taken over. Jules got the sense he was more veteran the soldier, but of what war he couldn’t be sure.

  The man cleared his throat. “You Julian?” he groaned.

  “That’s right,” she said a little too loud. She was doing her best to project confidence.

  “Daniel told me about you. So did Sam. Goddamn blood-sucking bastards.” He slammed his drink back, and Jules felt the blood run out of her face. Sam was the reason she was in that bar, she knew that from the beginning, but it didn’t make it any easier to hear his name out loud.

  “Sam was a good hunter and a good man. But he should have known better than to get you mixed up in all this. And so should he,” the old man jabbed a thumb towards Daniel.

  She looked at Daniel, and he nodded towards her instead of speaking up. “Listen, Pops,” her words came through gritted teeth. The old man suddenly started paying attention.

  “Pops?” he quipped, genuinely shocked.

  “I can handle myself, alright? I’m not looking to put anyone else in danger. We’re just looking for information. Nothing floats through this place without hitting your ears first, right?”

  “Hrm,” the old man growled as he leaned back in his chair. He raised an eyebrow and looked at Jules, allowing himself to enjoy the compliment. “Look, I’d like to help the both of ya. But it’s not about saving your skin. It’s about ours. You start running out there, waving a stake and a cross around-”

  “I’m not an idiot,” Jules interrupted.

  “I get that. I do. I’m just saying, you start attracting the wrong kind of attention, you’re gonna bring that attention right back here. Then what.”

  She tried one more time, even though she didn’t want to bring it up. It was hard enough to think about, let alone to say out loud. “Pops, I know why you’re in this place. Why all these hunters are here. You’ve all had your world ripped away from you, right? I know the feeling. I’m no different. I want the same thing you do.”

  The old man looked at Daniel, still silent, then back at Jules. “OK, miss, I’ll bite. What are you after?”

  “I want to know who I need to kill,” she said.

  “Yeah, I figured as much. Can’t tell you that, though,” the old man had a smirk on his face. Jules hated being on the outside of a joke, especially when she was putting herself out there. For a moment she thought maybe she should have just kept her date with the bottle.

  “Why can’t you do that? You still think I can’t handle it?”

  The old man took a sip of his drink. “No,” he groaned, “I can’t tell you that because I don’t know.” What the hell, she thought. Everything Daniel told me about this guy was BS. “But, I can tell you this. Your boy was onto something. Not sure what, never did get the chance to ask him. All I know is, he never struck me as the tourist type, but he was pretty convinced something was up around Hollywood and Highland. If I had to guess, maybe he found it was turf for some group of vamps.”

  Daniel finally chimed in. “He tell you anything else?”

  “Like I said, didn’t get much of a chance to chat,” the old man said. He leaned over the table and stared at Jules in the eyes, close enough to make her uncomfortable. “Don’t get too close, and don’t look ‘em in the eyes.”

  “I’m gonna get close, don’t worry,” she declared with all the confidence in the world.

  The two of them stood up, and the rest of the bar had long since stopped paying attention to Jules. She was more than a little annoyed by Daniel, and couldn’t wait to talk to him about it outside.

  “Thanks for the help in there, jerk,” she said and gave him a light shove. “What? What did I do?” he put his hands up. So typical of him to either play dumb or be dumb. She wasn’t sure which was worse.

  “The one time you keep your mouth shut. You made me do all the talking. I felt like an idiot.”

  “He wanted to talk to you. Plus, hey, it worked, didn’t it?”

  “Yeah, but. Still.” It did, but she wanted to play on her own terms. No one else’s. “Plus, why didn’t you just tell me about this before?”

  Daniel opened the passenger door to his 1972 Chevy Nova and Jules hopped inside. He went around and fired up the engine. It was ridiculous that Daniel drove around in that old thing, but he swore it would run forever. At least it sounded cool.

  “About Sam, hunting in the tourist trap?” he asked. This time he wasn’t playing dumb. “Yeah, he didn’t tell you anything about it?”

  “No, he didn’t. Must have been a fresh lead. But goddamn. Why would he go alone?”

  The two of them sat in the thunder of the engine for a few moments. Jules was determined to stay out of her own head- determined to move forward.

  “Let’s find out,” she said.

  2

  Believe It or Not

  “Why would a vamp choose that block? It doesn’t make any sense,” Jules said as she rolled the window of the Nova down. She could feel her nerves rising, and thought the cool air might keep her in check.

  “Think about it, Jules. It’s better than hiding in plain sight. We’re talking about thousands of people walking by, thousands of different people. Every hour.”

  “Yeah, that’s true I guess. Plus, they’re all tourists. If someone goes missing...”

  “No one’s gonna notice, at least not right away.”

  Hollywood proper had never been interesting to Jules. It wasn’t just the tourists. It was the swathes of polo-shirt adorned drunks. The crowds. The people shoving CDs in your face. Two-for-one, every hour is happy hour highlighter green drink specials. OK, maybe that part wasn’t so bad. But now, vampires? Like she needed another reason to stay away from the place. Highland was the worst block, but it was really just a landmark. More than that, it was a gateway, just a launchpad from the hills into the rest of the city, or from the casual luxury of West Hollywood into the actually hip neighborhoods to the east.

  Jules turned from her window and looked at Daniel. His chiseled features made the five o’clock shadow on his face look like it was put there by a makeup artist. He could have been on the side of one of those buildings. No way he could act, but Hugo Boss might as well have designed a line around those shoulders. Maybe if he hadn’t gotten mixed up in all of this. Way too late for that now.

  Too late for Jules, too. Too late for Sam. Can’t think about him, though. Hard not to, seeing as how she’d be following his footsteps. Her nerves crept up with her heart into her throat, and she brought her arm back inside the window and clicked on the radio. Daniel noticed.

  “Hey, it’s gonna be alright, OK? It’s just a lead. We might not even find anything, and remember, all those tourists, all those people. Nothing’s gonna happen to you. I promise,” Daniel said. He took his hand off the steering wheel and it hovered in between them for an awkward second, then he set it back.

  Sure, there was uncertainty ahead. They might be about to enter the lion’s den. It wasn’t so much the potential for danger that she was worried about, though. In fact, Jules was more scared of the possibility that she was looking forward to it. She just wanted to feel something different, something other than empty despair. The line between sadness and anxiety was one she had straddled for months now, and it was time to see what was on the other side.

  “I’m not worried about it,” she told Daniel and herself aloud.

  “Alright, well,” he responded, looked at her, then turned back to the road, “good.”

  It was still early in the ni
ght, but the streets were packed with revelers. A group of girls in identical tiny black dresses stumbled across the sidewalk, past the car. They all had their phones out, no doubt competing to see who could take the better selfie. Jules felt a twinge of jealousy. Was she happy, when her life used to be like that? Maybe not, but it wasn’t much better now. Those were normal friends. Sure, she had Daniel, and he was a good friend. He’d always been there for her. Maybe it wasn’t the friendship, it was that attitude, that complete and utter lack of caring. The kind of place she couldn’t get to, at least, not since… not since…

  “Help me find parking,” Daniel said, and she was shaken from her thoughts.

  “Huh? Oh, yeah. It’s Friday night. It’s gonna be a complete disaster,” she groaned. “We should have just taken the subway. Or an Uber.”

  “I don’t do public transportation, you know that.”

  “I’ve never quite been clear as to why. Shouldn’t I be the one that demands a black car?”

  “Too sealed in, you know? No exits. It’s too dangerous.”

  “More people die on the road, though. Right? Especially all the crazy drivers in this city. What’s wrong with Uber?”

  “Sure, just hop into a stranger’s car; let him take us wherever he wants. Seems legit.”

  “You’re out of control.”

  “No, I’m just safe.”

  “Says the man about to go hunting vamps in the middle of Hollywood. OK.”

  “Can we just find some parking? Jeez.”

  “There’s one! Nope, it’s green. Turn down there.”

  They turned off the main drag, up towards the hills. “There’s a parking garage, through this alley. It’s huge. We should be good to go in there,” Jules said. The Nova rolled into the driveway and Daniel grabbed a ticket.

  “How do you even know about this place? I thought you hated this part of town,” he laughed as he asked her.

  “Maybe I haven’t always been the shining beacon of hip that you see in your passenger seat. Maybe don’t worry about it. Anyways, shouldn’t we have a plan? What are we supposed to do? Just hop out, walk around until we see something suspicious?”