The Soul Collector

Ch. Nineteen

"Don't you ever tame your demons, but always keep them on a leash."

-Hozier

                                                                                ***

She felt off-balance.

And it was his fault.

Galloway sighed as she looked at the bite marks fading slowly but surely on her neck, the punctures silvery against her pale skin. She wondered just how exactly she was supposed to survive treating Sirius like she would any other Hunter.

She didn't even know how she would treat another Hunter. The only Hunters she'd ever truly known were her family. Her brothers, her parents, maybe some family friends. But she'd cut off contact to the Hunter world after she'd made her Deal.

Galloway was a Hunter, but she wasn't part of the brotherhood anymore. She didn't answer calls of help from other Hunters, and she didn't ask for help either. She never worked with other Hunters. Ever.

If she got wind that another Hunter was working the same case as her, she usually just slipped away, letting them take care of the monster. That was safer than getting entangled in what would certainly end up being an awkward conversation when they realized she was more of what they hunted than a Hunter herself.

Galloway wondered how she was supposed to just let Sirius into this part of her life. This was her inner demon—something that dug the spurs in and wouldn't let her go, and she didn't want to share. She'd prefer to keep this peculiar brand of insanity to herself.

It made her feel vulnerable and she was sick of feeling that way.

But she'd promised.

Which was why she'd been avoiding cases.

Galloway sighed and went back out into the main room to find Sirius sitting cross-legged in the middle of his bed, surrounded by newspapers, eyes scanning the computer screen in front of him rapidly.

"Um..." She picked up one of the papers and frowned at the headline. "Seven fall mysteriously ill in Edgewood?" She looked up at him. "New Mexico?"

"Uh-huh. I saw that this morning," he answered absently, the subtle tap of a keyboard now filling the air.

"What's with the sudden interest in New Mexico?" Galloway asked, reading through the story—dread grew in her stomach, unfurling like a dark flower.

"We...have a Debt in...Las Cruces anyway." Sirius frowned at the screen as he spoke, his words stilted as he focused on whatever he was looking at.

"Okay..." She drew the word out, raising an eyebrow as she waited for him to explain.

Sirius sighed and shut the computer with a snap, giving her a dry look. "If we have to head south anyway, I thought we might as well check out Edgewood. A mysterious illness sounds vaguely Hunter-y. Though I can't figure out what in the hell might be causing it."

A smile tugged at the side of her mouth as she looked once more at the newspaper and sat on her bed. "Best guess? Probably a skin-walker. You find a lot of them in the desert and they can cause illness or injury, though usually they're pretty harmless. Mostly they like to mess with people. You know, spook people driving along on some abandoned desert highway. But if one of these things gets pissed they can wreak some impressive havoc."

Sirius blinked slowly, then scowled. "I've been sitting here for like an hour trying to figure that out. You walk in, take what? Maybe half a glance at one freaking newspaper and know immediately what's causing this?"