Still, I ignored them and I went into the job records desk.
“Want to register interest in a mission?” the woman asked, noticing the color of the paper I'd taken. It was also on a red sheet that was meant to indicate its difficulty. Green missions were easy and red harder.
“No. Hand it in as completed.” I pulled out the small token I had taken from Ludis. It was a piece of jewelry I had seen him wearing and it would form as the tracking item the academy needed to check the owner was dead.
It was an interesting way to assure themselves that the enemy was defeated, but they'd hammered into all of us how important it was to get a small personal item off each vampire we killed to prove our job was done.
I handed over the ring as I pushed the paper across the top of the desk. The woman didn't move at first, clearly not sure if she should believe it.
“Let me get this checked for authenticity,” she said after a while.
Although I had seen this part of the process done many times, it was the first time that other hunters and anyone else nearby had leaned in to also see the results. Most of the time it wasn't hugely important, the team leaders who came in almost always taking the easiest missions.
I waited as the woman pulled out what appeared to be a small wand. She waved it over the ring and the ring gained a green aura that confirmed the kill. Her jaw fell open and other people gasped at the confirmation.
Knowing that it was the first of at least two checks to perform, I didn't get too confident yet. I knew I had killed him and torn his head off, but I'd seen people come in here with tokens and found that they'd got the wrong guy or that they had only severely injured them and not killed them.
So far, I had confirmed that Ludis had been the vampire I'd gotten the ring from. Not that he was dead.
Concentrating, the woman in front of me checked that Ludis was dead. This part I had no doubts over and soon neither did anyone else in the room. I had completed the mission.
“Well done. You have taken a powerful, sadistic vampire out of the equation. Many people will live because of your actions.” The woman gave me a smile, but it still didn't appear as if she knew exactly what was going on.
“Thank you,” I replied, trying to be polite and read the room.
Everyone who had come closer to see the results were still standing around the area, many of them now staring at me. I tried to ignore them as my paperwork was processed.
“If you give me the list of your teammates, I'll make sure an equal share of the reward money goes to each person. If you've agreed to any other kind of split, I will need to see it in writing, especially for a reward this large.” She continued flicking through the form that was filled in along with the mission brief to confirm the mission had been completed and didn't look up at me again.
“No team,” I said. “Just me.”
I could have heard a pin drop as I finished speaking. It took a couple of seconds for the woman to catch up and write that down on my paperwork. There wasn't a lot to do after that. I let her know that there was no clean up to worry about and that his body was in the Mediterranean ocean.
Eventually she handed me my payslip, the ring and let me go about my life again. By that point there were even more people gathered, some waiting to hand in their own jobs, but most were there to see how I had succeeded. They were all other hunters, ranging from brand new trainees to some of the more veteran members.
Someone began clapping among the bunch and the applause spread until I was flush with embarrassment and not sure how best to get out of the building.
Several people asked me how I'd done it but I shook my head when pressed. “I followed him to a cruise ship in Europe and took advantage when he argued with another vampire in his clan. That's all.”
I could tell that many of them wanted to press me for details, but I showed some of the wounds I was still sporting. “I need some rest and healing and time to process everything. I'll be back in a couple of days to put together a team and take what I've learned from this mission into others. I'll answer more questions then.”
The crowd backed up, no one wanting to keep an injured hunter from getting better. At my mention of a team they all looked more excited. It seemed that I wasn't going to have any trouble putting together another team, even if I wasn't ready to do it yet.
By the time I was settled back into another taxi and on my way back to the hotel I had already decided that I would need to be careful how much attention I drew to myself. I didn't want to have loads of scrutiny on my story. There was no way I could tell them that I was involved with a true-blood. Not right now.
I pulled open my phone to check my messages, half expecting Laura and Melody to now want to talk to me, but they'd still not replied. I did have an email from a cruise line informing me that my booking on a cruise in a week had been confirmed.
Frowning, I opened the email and studied the details. I hadn't booked myself anything but the hotel I was staying in right now. It was from Europe again and the same cruise line I had just been on. It was also under my name and booked for a whole week this time. I also had a suite and could add people to the booking.
Whatever this was for, it was legitimate. I just didn't know who had booked me onto the cruise for sure. Was it Leo? Was it another mission or was this just a true-blood inviting me to come be his fuck toy for a week or so?
There was no way to know. I'd not gotten Leo's phone number and I didn't know where to reach him. He'd promised me that he'd be around and keep tabs on me so I could get hold of him if I needed, but not explained how.
I looked out of the window of the taxi as it drove me deeper into Vegas and smiled. My life had certainly changed and I had more choices than ever.
~
