The Last Dance

  A Sepia Blue Short

  ONE

  I WAS PATROLLING the edge of the park, checking the protective wards when I heard the voices. The bullets ripped through my body as I got closer. I took cover behind a truck, drawing my sword. It was turning into one of those nights. I let my ink flare and deal with the injuries. I was getting pissed.

  “You bastards. You would help the Unholy against us?” I didn’t expect an answer. These were black hunters, hunters who had left the Order to become mercenaries. Calling them scum would be a compliment.

  “Better the Unholy than you and the Order,” said one of the hunters.

  “Whatever they promised you for dropping the wards--”

  “Anything is better than being hunted by you!” yelled another hunter. He couldn’t have been older than twenty judging from the voice. So young, making such poor choices. Tonight, he would die because of it.

  “Listen, there are options. I can put in a good word for you, said you cooperated. The Order does grant leniency.”

  Gunfire erupted, rocking the truck I was sitting behind.

  “Fine, the hard way it is,” I said.

  I leapt over the hood of the truck and ran to their position. I counted five of them hiding behind the walls of the park. Stupid. They didn’t know that whatever promised them power or freedom would end them without a second thought. You never made deals with the Unholy. My sword gave off a green glow. This made hiding difficult, but I was never the hiding type.

  “Come on out. I promise to make it fast.”

  “Don’t do it, her gunman will shoot you!”

  “No gunman tonight, I’m out alone,” I said.

  “You must be crazy or stupid to be out here alone, hunter,” said one of the black hunters as he stepped out from behind cover. This must be the leader. He was tall and muscular. I knew the type, relying on brawn rather than technique.

  “I don’t need a gunman or anyone’s help to deal with you,” I said.

  “Guys, come out it’s just one little hunter with a glow-in-the-dark sword.” He laughed as he said this.

  Reluctantly, the five of them appeared. My black hair hung straight, hiding my face. My black leathers, what I always wore for patrolling, creaked softly. I held my sword to one side as I faced them.

  “Do we shoot her?” one of them asked.

  “No she would heal too fast. I’ll take care of this,” said the leader.

  We were inside the park so I knew time was against us. I would have to be fast before something really nasty showed.

  “Last chance, walk back with me and you keep your lives. Refuse and they end tonight.”

  Laughter erupted around me. They never learned. Maybe it’s my Asian heritage, or maybe it’s because I’m a woman. Most enemies underestimated me, until they felt the bite of my sword. The leader came at me then, sword drawn. He lunged at me, attempting to bury his sword in my midsection. It was good a lunge, just not good enough. I parried his thrust and kicked his knee, shattering it. I’ve heard the pain is excruciating. As he howled on the ground I buried my sword, Perdition, into his chest. The noise stopped. The remaining four stopped moving. I could sense the thought process. The next moment would determine how long, or short their lives would be. One dropped his sword and ran deeper into the park. He would be dead soon enough. The other three turned to face me.

  “You don’t want to do this,” I said.

  “Shut up! Just shut up. You bitch, you killed Luke!” It was the boy, the youngest of the group.

  “I’m going to let the insult slide. Luke made a bad choice and died for it. You don’t have to do the same.”

  “Don’t listen to her,” said one of the other two. I don’t know which. It didn’t matter. I could sense we had company on the way. They were dead. It was only a matter of time before the reality caught up to them.

  A scream echoed through the park then.

  “That was your friend,” I said. I could see the fear in their eyes. Around us padding closer on silent paws were Dreadwolves. They were dangerous and fast. The largest of them drew close and looked at me.

  “Hello, hunter. You brought us food?” it said.

  “Those things can talk?” said the boy.

  “You can come with me or die with them,” I told the boy. He sheathed his sword and came to my side. Smartest move you made tonight, boy.

  “You coward. I’m going to get you, just you wait, Peter,” said the black hunter on the left.

  “No, you aren’t,” I said.

  I looked at the Dreadwolf as I turned with Peter.

  “They’re yours.” I walked out of the park with Peter to the sound of two black hunters dying.

  “What’s going to happen to me?”

  “The Order will grant you leniency. Maybe some time retraining. They will interview you extensively.”

  “Who, what are you? The way your sword glowed…” said Peter. I handed him over to the Order escort that was waiting for him. Warders were working on the wards they had tried to destroy to release the Unholy from the park. I turned to face Peter before I continued my patrol.

  “I’m just a hunter.”

  TWO

  MY NAME IS Emiko. I am a hunter, like my mother and her mother before her. They say I’m special because I’m one of the twenty, the wielder of a named blade. I’ll tell you what ‘special’ means. It means not having friends. It means those closest to you, fear you. It means you are alone. If it weren’t for my daughter, I probably wouldn’t be sane. This job does that to you. We hunters patrol the city to make sure it stays safe. We do this because of the park. There are thousands of us and it’s never enough. We fight a losing battle. In the park live the Unholy. I say live in a loose sense, these beings aren’t human. I don’t know where they came from. I only know we have been fighting them my whole life. They like to kill. It’s my job to stop that. That’s what hunters do, it’s what I do, and I am good at what I do.

  I started my tour early the next day. It was easier to patrol the edge of the park during the day when the Unholy don’t attack. The wards around the park have been failing more often these days and I was tasked with finding out why. Black hunters had been tampering with them, but we were told they couldn’t fail. I was examining the wards around the bottom edge of the park when I heard the call about some strange activity in midtown. Every hunter knew the Unholy didn’t go out in the day, so I figured this was some low-level threat. It seems someone was wrong because I was staring at one of the most dangerous creatures in my career walking down Park Ave and heading to Grand Central Station. We stood on the corner of 40th Street and Park. It was three o’clock in the afternoon. The Unholy only venture out at night and never this far from the park. This wasn’t a typical Unholy, this was a Nightmare.

  “Good afternoon, Hunter,” it said as it turned to face me. “Your Order is so punctual.”

  “Isn’t it a little early for you to be out on a stroll?”

  It looked like any normal businessman headed to the office. It wore a dark pressed suit and looked unassuming, even handsome by some standards. It’s how they caught us off guard the first time. They could blend in so easily. I placed my hand on the hilt of Perdition, drawing it slightly. My sword loved death and destruction, probably had something to do with the name.

  “You need to go back to the park, now,” I said.

  “Aren’t you more concerned with how I got this far at--” he looked down at his watch “--three thirty in the afternoon?”

  “I know how you got out. You’ve been dealing with black hunters to damage the wards. What are you promising them?”

  “Aren’t you the clever one?” he said. “You would be surprised who we deal with. Sometimes we offer money. Occasionally we need to be more forceful.”

  “Emi, stop playing, and kill it,” said the voice in my com. Ian, my gunman, giving me sound advice as usual.

  “If you have a shot take it, if not let me deal. I’d rather not have to fight this thing in the middle of Park Avenue,” I said.

  “Because Grand Central is going to be so much better,” said Ian.

  “Got the point, now shut up and let me see if I can convince the nice Nightmare to die.”

  “Is that your gunman? Where is he?” The Nightmare turned around looking in a circle. “That’s right you hunters are always paired up with a gunman.

  “Not always,” I said. “I don’t need a gunman to erase you.”

  “It must be because it’s so dangerous out here to be on your own. Tell him to feel free and take the shot, that is, if he has one,” said the Nightmare.

  “Bastard, he knows I don’t or he would be dropped already,” said Ian.

  We were beginning to draw attention and the last thing I needed was collateral damage. I left Perdition sheathed and the Nightmare smiled.

  “Emi, what the hell are you doing?” Ian said over my com.

  “The most prudent thing I have seen one of you hunters do. I accept your surrender,” he said with a mock bow.

  “The day that happens will be my last. How did you get out?” I needed to know.

  “I’m going to let you in on a little secret, hunter. The wards are failing and when my Lord is done there won’t be any wards left. That is when the festivities start,” said the Nightmare.

  “I don’t think you’re going to be at that party.”

  “He must be stalling for something, why even have the conversation, Emi,” said Ian.

  He was right and I was done. I dre

w Perdition and felt its energy course through me.

  “Does this mean our little chat is over? Are you going to strike an unarmed man?”

  “Unarmed? You’re at least a T6 if not higher. Your kind is never unarmed,” I said.

  The Nightmare stepped back into a defensive position.

  “If you get a shot you take it,” I said as I closed on it.

  THREE

  THE SCENE WAS carnage. Bodies were everywhere. People ran in every direction, the chaos and madness of fear, pain and the unknown.

  “Ian, call Home, we need back up here,” I said.

  Could this be a diversion? The Unholy are capable of this and worse.

  “Stay on that Nightmare, something doesn’t fit,” I said as I walked amidst the ruined terminal.

  Over one hundred years of architecture blasted to rubble. The façade was gone along with part of the ramp that led to the terminal. I made my way to the ramp to get a better look at the destruction. I could imagine the casualties beneath me, forty feet down on the subway level. I could see the hunters coming in from every direction. Normally we don’t get involved with disasters, leaving it to first responders. This was different. This was caused by the Unholy. We were the only responders when it came to them.

  “How long have you been on site, Emiko?” a voice said behind me.

  It was Ganriel, though no one called him that. He was short and stocky, built like a fireplug. His bald head reflected some of the afternoon sun as he walked toward me. His piercing eyes assessed the damage in a matter of seconds. He was my teacher and friend. I trusted him with my life and the life of my daughter, Sepia. As her guardian, if I fell in the line of duty, I knew he would take care of her.

  “Gan,” I said bowing slightly. “About ten minutes. I was talking to a Nightmare, at least a T6, right before this happened.”

  “A Nightmare, in the middle of the afternoon? Are you sure?” he said.

  I looked at him, it was enough. He knew I didn’t exaggerate.

  “Where’s Blue?” I asked.

  “Sepia is in the keep, I swear she is going to drive Calisto crazy,” said Gan.

  “The keep is the safest place for her right now. Why would they attack here?” I said.

  “Diversion? Bring as many hunters as possible to one location and attack somewhere else. It’s what I would do,” said Gan.

  “I was thinking the same thing except it’s the middle of the afternoon, the Unholy don’t attack during the day,” I said.

  “I’m looking at proof of the opposite.” He raised his hand to me a moment as he spoke to one of the groups of hunters helping the wounded. “Get one of the hunter med teams in here. They need to go down to the subway levels.”

  “Yes, sir,” said the hunter he spoke to.

  “The toll is going to be high.” It was Ian over my com.

  “Did you track that Nightmare?”

  “I lost him at the park, unless you meant I should follow him alone into the park and bring him back out?”

  “Funny, stay there for a while in case it decides to come back,” I told him. Something was off about this whole situation.

  “Is it that they can’t or won’t attack during the day?” I said.

  “Can’t. It has to do with the potency of the wards. They receive their strongest charge at dawn and weaken gradually during the day,” said Gan.

  “So if they figured a way to get out during the day what could stop them?”

  “I’m looking at it, it’s called a hunter,” said Gan.

  “We have trouble, large trouble. That Nightmare and six of the largest creatures I have seen, coming out of the park,” said Ian. “These things look like Brutes, about three times larger and meaner.

  “Shit, this breach is real. Ian just told me we have a Nightmare and six extra-large Brutes coming our way.”

  “Those aren’t Brutes.”

  “What are they?” I said. I could see Gan was concerned.

  Gan cursed under his breath and pulled out a phone. He dialed a number looking at me the whole time.

  “From what direction? Be precise,” he said.

  I told him what Ian had relayed to me.

  “Did you get that? Good, send over two squads and five warders. This breach has to be closed now. Keep me updated,” said Gan.

  “Who was that?” It was his turn to stare at me.

  I raised my hand. “Point made, confidential and official business.”

  “Something like that. Trust me, you wouldn’t want to know even if I could tell you.”

  “You’re Sepia’s guardian. Trust isn’t an issue.”

  “How many class three and above do we have out?” he asked.

  “Not many, you know the class threes and higher get night duty,” I said.

  “We’d better get them here, all of them. This isn’t a diversion this a tactical attack,” said Gan.

  “For six Unholy and a Nightmare, really Gan.” I couldn’t believe he was taking this small force that seriously.

  “That’s the problem with number ones,” he said as he pointed at my chest. “You think you’re indestructible. Your ink isn’t going to help you much when your arms and legs are getting ripped off by these things, is it? If that’s what I think it is, you can’t lone wolf this one.”

  Speaking into his phone he began to mobilize the hunters on the scene. “No, no leave the fives and rogues on the scene. No one else goes to the subway levels until I get back. Everyone else, and I mean everyone, form up at Pershing now. Let’s see if we can stop these things before they get to Grand Central.”

  “How many?” I said

  “About sixty hunters, mostly threes, maybe twenty twos. You’re the only class one.”

  “It’s not enough is it?”

  “I would feel more comfortable if it was one hundred. Sixty means we are working ten to one. Those are bad odds. You are going to have to deal with the Nightmare controlling them.”

  “What the hell are these things?”

  He started getting his gear together as he talked.

  “When the Unholy war started, there were these phalanxes, strange formations reported of six creatures controlled by a seventh. Nothing could stop them, they killed hundreds of hunters.”

  “How did we stop them?”

  “Up until that time we only had four classes of hunters wielding normal blades. So we created a new type of weapon--the named blades. Twenty-one of them. Twenty were twins to each other. They were incredible. The problem was no one could wield them. Those that tried, died. They were too powerful for the hunters, most of them men. So the Order started asking the women, expecting them to refuse. They didn’t. All twenty-one were bonded to female hunters, one of them your great, great grandmother. The twenty-first blade was the most powerful-- it had no twin and they were reluctant to unleash it.”

  “But they had to because of the losses,” I said.

  “They did because what they were facing was unlike anything they had faced before. They destroyed many of the creatures and stopped their advance. The twenty-first blade and hunter were lost in the battle. Some say it’s in the park somewhere. Though I doubt that,” said Gan.

  He finished packing his gear and handed me a small pack.

  “Emi, I would say you have about an hour before I won’t have to describe these things to you,” said Ian in my com.

  “Sixty minutes out,” I told Gan. We started walking to Pershing Square to meet the hunters.

  He nodded. “Other named blades were created after that, lesser blades, so that each hunter possessed a measure of the power of the twenty-one. Over time that too was stopped,” said Gan.

  “Too dangerous?” I said.

  “The threat and potential for civil war in the hunters was there. The lesser named blades were destroyed and a new class of hunter was created. Only those with the original twenty blades were allowed in that class.”

  “We’re here, sir,” said one of the hunters.

  “I see, how many do we have?”

  “Sixty, sir, not counting you two,” said the hunter.

  “What’s your name, hunter?”

  “Thomas, but my friends call me Tom.”

  “Okay, Thomas, break your team into groups of ten, give Emiko three groups and I’ll take the other three,” said Gan.

  At the mention of my name I could hear the whispers in the background. I was used to it. I wasn’t friendly or popular in the Order living in the keep as I did. I was closer to infamous.

 

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