Fang and Claw

Night Hunter

The armored cage rolled up the wheeled track and into the back of the cargo truck. Twin doors swung shut and were quickly secured with multiple locks.

"You're going to wear me out hauling these things in," the truck driver joked while filling out the paperwork on his clipboard.

"Eleven in one night," I answered. "I only need a few more to beat the record of fifteen."

"If you keep this up, there won't be a single werewolf in the city by dawn," the driver of the truck said happily as he finished his paperwork and shook my hand. "Don't you worry about the pack. We'll have them secured so they can't harm anyone again."

"I appreciate the swift service," I told him. "I'll call if there are any more needing collection."

The driver nodded, climbing into the truck and starting up the engine. The extraction team drove away, leaving me and my partner standing in the alley where we'd captured the werewolf.

"So, what do you think about your first hunt?" I asked my partner while leaning back casually against the brick wall of a meat packing plant.

"I never expected to see this much action," she answered. She brushed a lock of her black hair out of her face before reloading her gun. Securing the weapon in a holster concealed within her leather jacket, she turned her blue-eyed gaze in my direction. "What's next?"

"Well," I said thoughtfully while I checked my own ammunition levels. "We've bagged a number of werewolves, but there's been chatter about a possible move by the witches."

"Witches?" she questioned. "I didn't know you went after them as well."

"Usually I don't," I denied. "I'm in capture and containment. Werewolves and some other creatures of the night aren't an intentional threat. Most of the wolves lose control of their mental states during the transformation. They're only killing because they're hungry or unknowingly threatened by those who don't understand them. Witches, vampires, gremlins, and other things that prowl the night are out to cause deliberate harm. We send the extermination hunters after them."

"So what are the witches up to that is making you change your mind?" she prompted.

"We think they've been driving the wolves into the city deliberately," I explained.

"Why?" she questioned.

"It's our theory they're planning a spell of some kind to magically leash them and force the wolves to do their bidding," I told her. "However, you already knew that, didn't you?"

The hammer on my gun clicked into the locked position for firing as I aimed at her.

"What do you care if we take the wolves?" she demanded, her blue eyes shifting to a phosphorescent green.

"Contained, they won't harm anyone," I replied. "Under the power of the witches, they'd be used as a weapon, a slave army."

"You won't halt us!" she snarled. Her fingers moved in a rhythmic pattern as she began to weave a spell.

My gun fired repeatedly and stopped the witch dead.