The Soul Collector

Ch. Thirty-Four

"To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering."

- Friedrich Nietzsche 

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"Why do we have to worry about him anyway?" Sirius asked, making her stop her pacing.

She had been jumpy all day as they waited for darkness to fall. If the Hunter was here on a job, she reasoned, it was likely he'd do some of his work at night. If he was working, he couldn't see her leave to go murder someone.

The shadows were stretching across town and she was beginning to wonder if she could actually do this. It had been a long time since she'd collected solo.

Sirius' head lolled along the edge of the mattress where he had been laying upside down. With a sigh, she looked down at him and said, "Because Hunters track. They become goddamn bloodhounds when they think a monster managed to slip right past them. With any luck he won't stop to consider that the pretty blonde with her asshole boyfriend could possibly have shot some poor girl in cold blood."

Sirius scoffed and she added, "Her collection is tonight and he's already watching you. I've seen him walk by our room twice."

"Maybe he needed ice." He closed his eyes. "Seems to me like he's more interested in watching you."

She rolled her eyes and sat on the edge of her bed. Her leg bounced up and down and she ran a hand through her hair. "He just wanted to help. Because you gave him a weird feeling. Are you really going to make me say I told you so?"

"Didn't you just do it?" Sirius sat up and scooted to the edge of the mattress until he was facing her, his knees touching hers. "So what are we going to do about it?"

Galloway couldn't think and look at him at the same time, so she stood up, which was a mistake. He hooked his fingers through her belt loops and yanked her into him. She tried to arrest her fall, but it was too late and she found herself on top of him.

She tried to  get up, but he wrapped his arms around her. The mint smell she'd become so accustomed to wafted over her, and she couldn't shrug the feeling that she'd just plunged over the side of a cliff.

"Why do we need to worry about him?" Sirius asked again, his voice low, seductive. His lips brushed her jaw with every word.

She turned her head, feeling like a hole was being eaten through her chest. He really was poison. "I don't want a Hunter on my ass. If he suspects what we are, he'll find us."

"You don't even know this guy, yet he seems to have garnered an unreasonable amount of faith," Sirius growled. "Why?"

Now she look at him. "Because I understand someone like Caleb. I know what he would do because it's what I would do."

Sirius shoved her off of him, and she barely managed to get her feet under her before he was at the door. She scrambled across the room and slammed into him. He whirled around, snarling, but she pushed him into the door again. She knew if he really wanted to go, she wouldn't be able to stop him. Not without doing something drastic like shooting him.

He looked to the side and said, "I don't care about your fucking Hunter. Why don't you go keep him busy and I can go fucking collect?"

Her breath whooshed out and she took several quick steps back from him. He stared at her, eyes blank. Stiffly, she said, "I told you no. I'm doing it tonight."

Sirius stalked past her. "Knock yourself out. Have fun."

She grabbed her jacket, satisfied that it was at least dusk and eager to get away before he said something that made her bleed out. She flung the door open and said, "Where can I find her?"