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themarginalthinker · 9 months

Text

Veneur

veneur - noun. Old French - 'hunstman.'

It starts with a call.

"Theo, hey, it's Dan. We...we found something."

The hills of Quarry Mountain Colorado in the late fall wasn't something anyone really wanted much to do with. Too early in the season for snow, and all the boarders and skiiers not having populated the slopes, too late in the season for the summer hikers and campers to want to brave the wet and the cold.

Theo wasn't here for fun, though.

He's met at the given location by the man he spoke to on the phone, and a girl he's not met before.

Theo and Dan shake hands, Dan younger than him, but his hands no less strong and capable, and willing to do what was necessary. If Theo were to think about it for longer than the time it took to share a beer, he might consider Dan someone he'd end up passing his mantel to. But again, that wasn't why he was here.

"Where did you find it?" Theo asks, beginning to move onwards down the wet, misty path. Even this far out, the way was covered with gravel and stones, well-kept and seen to. It crunches loudly in the relative quiet of the woods around them as he walks, a steady pace. Dan keeps up with him, and the girl follows along.

"About a mile ahead, off the trail. One of the locals said they'd found a while engine block pretty well disassembled downstream, and then the rest of the car further upstream. Looked like an accident, probably having gone right over the edge of a turn."

Theo hums.

"No one had come to claim it, so they ran the plates and it belonged to a couple that has been reported missing all the way in Idaho few weeks ago. Family apparently said they were going on a last-hurrah for the season camping venture, and just. Dropped off the face of the planet."

They round the corner, and though the well-marked trail continued on, Dan takes the lead now and starts into the brush. It's clear from the broken twigs and stamped, dead foliage that this divergence was already becoming more used. Theo makes a note to direct them to alternate routes in the near future, for however long they were going to be necessary.

Their work required them to be as concealed as what they hunted.

"Then, yesterday morning, Jackie here," Dan then gestures back to the girl following along, who perks up at the mention of her name, back straightening under the sudden gaze of the two, "says she wanted to go for a walk for her off-shift."

"I usually do sweeps, but we were rearranging some schedules, and my sleep pattern has gotten all bungled up, so since it was broad daylight, I figured why not. I'll get to know the area more at least."

"No partner?" Theo asks.

Immediately, Jackie's shoulders stiffen. He doesn't say it like one, voice perfectly neutral, but the answer itself is more than a confession of wrongdoing.

"Um. No, sir. I went by myself."

Theo then stops their walk, and turns to properly face Jackie. He glances at Dan. He points to Jackie's coat. "What are you carrying."

She jumps to comply, and unzips the coat, pulling it open. Inside, strapped to her chest, is a handgun on the left, to be pulled with the right. A pouch at her side, carrying silver rounds. At her hip, strapped just as securely, is three thick, silver-tipped ash-wood stakes.

Theo nods. "Good. Don't go out alone again. If you had the notion that this is the confirmation that you believe it to be, then you should know better than to tempt fate."

Jackie rezips her coat and nods. "Yes sir."

They resume the walk.

"Continue," Theo prompts after a few moment of silence.

"Uh, well. I went for a walk, and I just. Sort of stumbled on it."

"It."

"The bodies, sir."

At the site, they are joined by the rest of the hunter cell. Three others, aside from Jackie and Dan. Theo doesn't pay them much mind as he lights a smoke and confers with Dan over what his own examination of the findings had come to.

Two bodies - one male, one female. No identifying clothing, no wallets or items with the bodies to give much of a hint without family identification or dental records. Even with the couple weeks of exposure, however, the cold and the high altitude meant slower decomposition, which allowed Theo to notice what he needed.

"The broken necks threw us off, which admittedly is why I did hesitate to call you," Dan says.

Theo shakes his head. "I know. Better to be sure than to alert the police and lose evidence. But it happened after death."

"Yeah?" Dan hedges.

"Mm. They want it live and warm for as long as possible. The minute the body ceases all living functions they're on a time limit and won't get as much from a hunt."

Theo takes another pull of the cigarette. "Hands, too."

"Right. The fingernails."

Filled with old blood, both their own from fighting so hard they almost tore off in the struggle, and from sinking into immortal flesh to try and fight off the beast.

It was always in the details.

Dislocated jaws, punctures just below the temple where the arteries crossed the hinge. Wounds to the scalp where the skin was gripped hard enough to pull away from the flesh. Broken wrists, mauled thighs where the femoral artery ran just under the surface of the skin, but dug into all the way down to make striations on the bone. Little scrapes that were set just about an inch and a half apart.

"So what do you think?" Dan asks, watching his mentor closely.

Theo glances at him, and then around to the hills. It wasn't quite quiet yet. Snow would turn everything into a silent wonderland, alien to itself the rest of the year. For now, there was still birdsong in the trees, the last of the late-stayers. The last of the fall leaves that clung to the branches were limp and had lost their brilliance of autumn some weeks ago. The deer would be starting rut soon.

"I think it's about hunting season," Theo says, grimly.

#the lost boys #tw: descriptions of dead bodies #tw: descriptions of bodily harm #vampire hunters #yccm

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