Knight of the Wolf

10: A Guest Star

Crew didn't get a head start on the hunt for the princess' pelt because she fell asleep and dreamed through the ever present, pungent aroma of Dev's bandaged wound. Just kidding. Crew gaslit us into believing she fell asleep.

She did, in fact, get a head start to avoid staying in the room with Dev one second longer. Upon exit, her nose immediately lured near the infirmary, which was also a terrible idea.

Her nose also took her to the mildewy depths of the barrack's washroom, which she divulged in lest she continue poking around the establishment smelling vaguely like a fish.

She maneuvered around the gathering spaces where a few of the soldiers off duty were drinking and playing games. Upon further inspection, Crew identified the game as grimroid—so Odranic of them.

"Hey," someone said from behind.

Crew startled. She hadn't heard a pulse, much less footsteps. A quick scan confirmed that this soldier was wearing fabric slippers and didn't have a beating heart.

She should have expected to cross more vampires now that they were nearing Inveralwyn—she just didn't expect the barracks to be accepting them. Or rather, socializing with them.

"Do you play?" he asked, gesturing to the room. Talking and given away her position and now the soldiers were whispering about her. Evidently, the entire barrack knew that there was a super smoking hot vampire chick wandering the premises now.

"What, their stupid drinking bet?" she said as she knew he overheard that anyone who saw her out at night needed to take a shot of gin.

The bounty hunter grinned. "No, grimroid. You could join us."

Crew pursed her lips, arms crossing. He was unexpectedly confident for someone dressed like her grandmother shuffling about in a robe and slippers. "Not my cup of blood," she admitted.

"Are you from Inveralwyn?"

At the risk of saying, "What's it to ya?" Crew said, "What's it to ya?"

He shrugged. "Just making conversation. I wasn't expecting to see other bounty hunters before I left."

Crew nudged her boot against one of the stone pillars, scowling down at the ground. He seemed to be prodding her to ask questions about him so he'd have an excuse to ask her, which was not something she was keen to do. The Emperor liked her because she was discrete enough to know when not to give herself away. Dev was smart enough to know just by the look of her, though.

This vampire, however, was not that informed.

"Well, I'm leaving now," she said, and started off. Of course he followed her.

"My name is Scott."

"Weird name."

"Thanks, my parents gave me it."

Crew gave a noncommittal eyebrow-raise. He threaded a hand through the longish ends of his hair. He sighed—which Crew knew from experience was for dramatic effect more than it was for anything else. A habit she herself picked up when she left Inveralwyn.

"Look, I'm just going to come right out and say it."

"Please, by all means. I can't stop you."

"You were the one selected to collect Devesh Cormaic, weren't you?" he said.

The one. Crew could have laughed. In some ways, she was always The One to the Emperor for any mark that mattered dearly to him (usually involving personal vendettas). Granted, she'd only been trusted by him for going on five years now—just a blink in time to her ancestors. Maybe even this alleged "Scott".