We Hunt Monsters

  Book Four

  Aaron Oster

  For my fans. I can’t believe another year has passed. Thank you for your continued support!

  Contents

  Prologue

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  27

  28

  29

  30

  31

  32

  33

  34

  35

  36

  37

  38

  39

  40

  41

  42

  43

  44

  45

  46

  47

  48

  49

  50

  51

  52

  53

  54

  55

  56

  57

  58

  59

  60

  61

  62

  63

  64

  65

  66

  67

  68

  69

  Epilogue

  Afterword

  Prologue

  Cold, stormy air buffeted the shutters of the unassuming, yet large estate perched on the edge of Paloma’s Keep on the continent of Humania. It was located farther north than its owner would have liked, but she had long grown used to the chill. It also helped that lavish furs and exotic monster pelts could be worn and still written off as an expense for business when the one she served came to call.

  Jade swayed down the hall, a swing in her step as she hummed to herself, ignoring the rattling of the shutters and the moaning of the estate walls. She was in a good mood today, and not even the cold and dreary weather could ruin it. She wore a new pelt – recently acquired at no small cost – around her shoulders. A rare, furred variant of a lunger-type monster had been found just two towns over, and she had been lucky enough to hear of it before any of her competitors.

  It had finally arrived by courier last night, and though she’d wanted to try it on then, she had schooled herself and waited until this morning.

  Now, dressed in one of her finest – and most expensive – outfits, Jade headed to her first meeting of the day. One might have said that being the head of a criminal organization as large and vast as hers would mean she needed to dress in all black to be intimidating. After sixteen years as the head of said organization, Jade knew that was the furthest thing from the truth.

  Reputation was what mattered more than anything. She could dress like a clown, wear the most ridiculous clothing, armor, or items and no one would dare to even bat an eye. In fact, they would likely compliment her out of fear of retribution.

  That was what real power was. It was one of the many lessons Jade had been forced to learn in her earlier years as this organization’s head when one of her rivals had tried to stab her in the back. After she’d had the woman skinned alive and made her co-conspirators watch, she’d strung them up by their arms for the ravens to pick clean.

  Jade could still hear their screams, and to this day, it still brought her immense satisfaction.

  “Good morning, miss. The new fur suits you well.”

  “Thank you, Yolanda, I was quite fortunate in its acquisition,” Jade replied, running her fingers through the silky-smooth fur draped around her neck.

  Yolanda was her personal assistant, and unlike what most people thought, she was not even remotely competent at anything else. Sure, the woman gave off an air of strength and mystique, but Jade knew she didn’t have two brain cells to rub together. However, she was loyal and always followed orders to the letter, which was exactly why Jade had taken her on nearly twelve years to the day.

  She also had no qualms about murder or the seedier parts of work that often came up in their trade. The woman’s size also generally drew the eye, keeping any attention squarely off her. Yolanda was a massive woman, standing over six-and-a-half feet. A broad and muscular build showed off her orcish blood, and while she looked almost entirely human, Jade knew that was the furthest thing from the truth.

  Jade, by contrast, was the exact opposite. She had a petit frame topping at what might generously be called five-foot-two, with dark hair and a pale complexion. She wore the tattoo of a symbol of the infinite, the jade ink tracing up her left arm in a twin loop, curling around her shoulder and meeting at the top in the eye of the Glutton.

  One look at that was normally enough to make anyone in the underworld tremble, but Jade normally kept it hidden, the mark of her station only worn openly when meeting with others of her rank. Only three others had a tattoo like her own, though theirs reflected the color of the stone for which they had been named upon joining the Glutton’s inner circle.

  Whatever their names had been before, none remembered. The commanders made sure of that.

  Jade swept into her office, a lavish and ornate room filled with only the finest and most tasteful furniture and trappings money could buy. Each of the six rugs that covered the floor cost a whopping seventeen large gold a piece. The tapestries ranged from some twenty large gold to over two hundred – the latter sitting behind her desk, which was also quite costly. In all, Jade wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d spent over two-thousand large gold bars on the furnishings in here, which was saying a lot, as that didn’t even include all the items she had hidden around, each tastefully hidden to activate at a single mental command.

  “Your first meeting is scheduled in just five minutes,” Yolanda said, as Jade sat in her plush chair, helping herself to her breakfast that had been neatly laid out before her.

  “Yolanda,” Jade said, allowing a dangerous edge to enter her voice. “What did I say about meetings before noon?”

  Yolanda had to suppress a shiver and plodded on.

  “This is quite urgent,” she said. “I assure you that you’re going to want to hear this before the Glutton finds out.”

  Jade frowned. This sounded like bad news. She hated bad news.

  “Fine,” she said, her earlier good cheer souring just a bit. “Let them in.”

  She ate in silence, her mind working the entire time trying to figure out what could possibly have happened to warrant such an early visit. Every one of her informants knew not to disturb her at this time of the morning.

  All of them.

  They also knew of the dire consequences that would befall them if they did. The fact that they were willing to risk her ire despite that had to mean that things were pretty serious. Serious made her nervous.

  By the time the knock came on her door, Jade was happy to place her utensils down, having barely eaten any of her very expensive and specially curated breakfast, and straightened in her chair.

  The man who entered was pale as a ghost, as though someone had leeched all the warmth from his face. Seeing as he was a vampire, however, that was hardly abnormal. What was abnormal was the look of sheer terror in his eyes. Of all her informants, Dirk was the calmest and most rational.

  Jade wanted more than anything to just ask the man what had happened, but there were formalities to be taken care of. After all, she couldn’t seem too eager, especially since she was being disturbed several hours before she normally took the first of her meetings.

  “There better be a good reason for this,” Jade said, steepling her fingers and narrowing her eyes. “You’ve been here long enough to know better, so if I’m not entirely satisfied with what you have to say, there will be…consequences.”

  “Begging your pardon, Lady Jade,” Dirk said, bowing his head. “I apologize for disturbing you in this way, but I felt that it was urgent that I get the news to you before anyone else finds out about it.”

  The vampire paused, swallowing past a lump in his throat, and then continued.

  “There was an…incident at the ore shop in Centerville City. We…lost everything.”

  “What?!” Jade snapped, slamming her hands on the table and shooting to her feet. “What do you mean, ‘lost everything?!’”

  She could feel panic welling up inside of her. The Centerville store had been nearly a third of their current merchandise. That was over a hundred thousand in large gold bars.

  Dirk cringed back at the anger in her voice, though he kept going.

  “We still don’t know the specifics. All we do know is that the city guard raided the ore shop and took everything. Several vampires were found dead at the scene. We found Rinor dead outside the city walls. We’re not sure if he was trying to run and someone got to him or if he killed himself rather than facing you.”

  Jade’s fingers clenched into a white-knuckled grip, her mind racing as she tried to think of who would have the audacity to hit them like that. Normally, they could have paid someone off to release the Shimmerdust back to them, but the Royal Guild had been cracking down on their trade as of late and had rooted all their agents out of positions of power.

  They still didn’t know who the big Boss was, but that didn’t really matter right now. What mattered was that someone had known e xactly where to look and had turned their supply over to the city.

  “Go,” Jade said, waving the man off. “And if you tell anyone about this, I’ll feed you your own intestines!”

  Dirk was out of the room before she could blink, bowing and promising not to say a thing. The door slammed, leaving Jade on her own.

  She began to pace, mind still racing. Who could have done this? The why seemed obvious. A competitor, trying to hurt them so they could take their turf. But who would dare mess with the Glutton’s trade?

  None of the other Shimmerdust traders were large enough to take over in the sort of volume they moved, and only a few were strong enough to pull off such a hit. But all of them paid subservience to the Glutton and he had taken precautions in assuring their cooperation. They wouldn’t have been able to pull this off without severe damage or even death.

  “Yolanda!” Jade snapped, her assistant coming into the room at the shout. “I want people at every small timer in the area, and I want it yesterday!”

  Yolanda spun and left the room, leaving Jade alone with her thoughts.

  Several hours later, Yolanda stood before her giving her report.

  “In short, we found nothing out of place. Suppliers are asking for more. The demand is high, and our customers are already becoming anxious.”

  “Have them pull from my personal stores,” Jade said. “Mark it up accordingly. I don’t care what excuse they use. Just make sure they’re all giving the same one and that it’s believable.”

  As a high-ranking member of the Glutton’s organization, Jade always had a personal store of the highest-quality Shimmerdust at her disposal. This normally went to wealthy clients, dignitaries, and people she wanted to make friends with. Giving this gold out to the filthy masses on the street was like feeding a fine meal to a dog in her eyes, but she needed to keep things running until a new shipment could come in from the east.

  The shortage would be felt sooner or later, but her stores should keep things smooth for a couple of weeks. After that, they might be in real trouble.

  “Cancel all my meetings for the rest of the night and make sure I’m not disturbed,” Jade said, moving back to her desk.

  The look she gave Yolanda told the woman what would happen if she was. No one would disturb her, especially with what she was about to do. The door closed, and Jade triggered the dozen or so items in the room she had for muffling sound and disturbing any listening spells, skills, or items.

  Curtains were drawn, and a series of lamps were lit in their place, as the room had gone completely dark.

  Jade then sat behind her desk, depressing a hidden switch beneath. It wasn’t just a simple switch though, as it pricked her finger when she pressed it, taking a small sample of her blood. Had it proven to be someone else’s, the three-dozen High Lightning potions built into her desk and chair would have ruptured, destroying all the contents of the office and likely killing whoever had been attempting to rob her.

  As it was, Jade didn’t have to worry about that, as a small compartment beneath her desk slid open, revealing a gleaming mithril box.

  Jade pressed her hand to it, the one where the tattoo twined. The mark along her arm glowed green for a moment, an intense heat filling her limb. A series of clicks sounded from within the box before it sprang open, revealing a gleaming sphere of polished glass.

  Jade sat back then and waited, heart pounding. She had initiated contact. Now, she would have to await the only one she answered to. She wasn’t looking forward to how this was going to turn out.

  As she waited, she ran through the only scenario she thought possible. There was a new player in town, and they were trying to send a message. To stay out of their way, or worse would happen. If that was the case, then they clearly knew who the Glutton was and didn’t care, which could only bode ill for her and her kind.

  She didn’t need to wait for long. One of the upsides of even having one of these items was that the Glutton always had the corresponding crystal on him, and when one of them contacted him in this way, he knew to answer quickly.

  The sphere glowed a bright green, then a projection of a shadowy figure appeared, floating above the desk. Even though he wasn’t here in person, nor were his features seen, Jade felt the weight of his presence.

  “What happened?”

  Even the Glutton’s voice was garbled, one of the many precautions the man took when speaking with anyone. After all, it would be difficult to maintain an image of a brilliant and helpful member of society if it became known that he was in fact a criminal mastermind.

  So, despite the fact that Jade had taken every precaution for their conversation not to be overheard, the Glutton still hid.

  “We were hit,” Jade said, her mouth forming a flat line.

  “Where?”

  “Centerville,” Jade said, forcing the words out. “We lost a third of our supply.”

  “What are you doing to fix it?”

  “I’m using my own to cover,” Jade said. “But we’re going to have a severe shortage in a couple of weeks.”

  The Glutton was silent for a moment, the shadowy figure shoving something into his mouth. The sounds of chewing, warped by the voice distorter came through next, followed by a low grunt.

  “Introduce euphorics in the meantime,” the Glutton said. “It will take four months to produce more Shimmerdust to the scale we need.”

  “With all due respect, sir, euphorics won’t sell as well,” Jade said. “The dust is what the masses crave.”

  “It’s a new blend,” the Glutton said. “One that will surely take the edge off at least for now.”

  Jade had to accept what the man said. She had no other alternative.

  “The only working theory I have is that an unknown new player has entered the continent,” Jade said. “I can’t think of anything else.”

  “No,” the Glutton said, stuffing something else into his mouth. “No rival would willingly give up that much in profit. This is the work of a do-gooder. Ones who’ve stumbled upon the quest the system so helpfully spawned.”

  “Who?” Jade asked, feeling her fears somewhat alleviated.

  Then again, who would be so stupid as to try taking that quest on? No one with half a brain, that was sure.

  “A human and vampire,” the Glutton said. “They’ve been quite troublesome. Blowing up my Bloodring manufacturing plant. Killing my minions and commanders, destroying supply lines, and hurting my business.”

  The warped voice took on an ugly tone as he spoke, clearly growing angry.

  “I thought they’d slipped when I got the notification, but they’re clever. They’re hidden from my sight, which means they’re doing this to taunt me. To let me know they’re onto me and there’s nothing I can do about it.”

  The Glutton snorted, stuffing something else into his mouth and chewing noisily.

  “I want them dead, you hear me? Dead! The both of them! Their families, their friends. Everyone dead!”

  “Do you have their names?” Jade asked, feeling the Glutton’s anger coming through the shadowed projection.

  “The human’s name is Keith and the vampire’s Cayla.”

  “They’re as good as dead, sir,” Jade said.

  “They’d better be,” the Glutton said, then the projection vanished, the orb within the mithril case going dark.

  Jade stood, her body trembling ever so slightly as she replayed her conversation with the Glutton.

  Whoever this Keith and Cayla were, they had crossed the wrong man. If she failed, it would be her life that was forfeit, but if she succeeded, she’d be rewarded beyond her wildest dreams. She quickly closed the case, the gears within locking automatically as she shoved it back into the desk and closed the drawer.

  The items were all deactivated with a single thought, and the drapes were open once more. Only once she was seated back behind her desk, did she call for her assistant.

  “Yolanda!”

  The woman entered the room in a hurry, trying not to look worried.

  “I want the word put out,” Jade said, interlacing her fingers. “A vampire named Cayla and a human named Keith. I want them brought to me. Alive.”

  Yolanda nodded, then spun and exited the room once more.

  Jade leaned back in her chair, already thinking of the myriad ways she would torture these two when she got her hands on them.

  Keith and Cayla would rue the day they thought to mess with Guzzlarian the Glutton.

 

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