Blood Secrets: Tales of the Children of the Moon

Chapter Two: Going Hunting

The sound of a tattoo gun echoed throughout the room as Vixen worked on the client she currently had sitting in her tattoo chair. Yes Vixen was a hunter of the supernatural, but that was by night. By day she was the nineteen year old owner of a tattoo and piercing shop called "The Wolf's Den Tattoo". She had been an aspiring tattoo artist since she was a young child, going from foster home to foater home, constantly drawing on paper, walls even her own skin. It was another reason so many families had brought her back to the orphanage she had lived in most of her life. They hadnt been able to deal with her constant need to draw. That and her constant rebellion, but that was another story.


Her current client, an eighteen year old girl named Taylor Hawthorn, had asked Vixen to tattoo something that was her specialty. A portrait style tattoo of a wolf on the young girls stomach. Vixen had tried to warn Taylor that a stomach tattoo would be pretty damn painful and that she might want to have the tattoo placed somewhere else, especially since this was Taylor's first ever tattoo. But the young teen had been adamant about putting the tattoo across her stomach so that's what Vixen was doing. So far Taylor had been as still as the dead as Vixen worked, but then again, this was only the outline. The shading was going to be a bitch.


"So how does it look so far?" only pure concentration and experience stopped Vixen from jumping at Taylor's words. The girl hadnt said a word since they started the tattoo almost two hours ago and Vixen had gotten used to the silence. "Pretty good so far, but we're only half way through the outline," she replied as she wiped some excess ink away from the design and looked into the deep ocean blue eyes of her client. "You wanna take a bit of a break and then get back to it?"


Taylor sat there in silence for a minute before finally nodding. "Sure. I could use a bit of a stretch." Vixen nodded and shut off her machine, wetting down a paper towel with saline solution and wiping away the smeared ink that covered the finished part of Taylor's tattoo before she let the girl up.


Taylor reached into her purse the was on a table next to her chair and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. She looked at Vixen questioningly. "Is it okay if I-" Vixen cut her off with a nod and pointed to a door just next to the room they were in. "Right through that door. You can light up in there. Its technically a mud room but Ive opened it up into an area where my clients and myself can have a smoke when we need one," Taylor nodded before walking out of the room, Vixen following close behind after grabbing her own pack and her zippo.


Both girls lit their cigarettes and blew out the smoke at the same time, Vixen heaving a huge sigh as she did. She normally didnt think about her night "job" while she was at the shop but she was getting frustrated. It had been almost a week since she had gotten the information out of that Vampire Tony Abbott. Since then she had been playing the waiting game because of her mentor, Faith Wilson.


When Vixen had gotten home from hunting that night almost a week ago and told Faith what she had learned, her mentor had immediately called some contacts she had that were currently in England and asked them to keep their ears to the ground for any information on the subject or if they had heard anything that could validate the vampire's words.


So far Vixen had heard nothing out of her mentor when it came to her informants and she was begining to become restless. She wanted to get out there and hunt those bastards down before they got their hands on the ring. Because as soon as they did...


"Something on your mind Vix?" Vixen almost jumped as Taylor broke through her thoughts. She looked over at the young teen, her long dark brunette hair hiding half of her face. The other half that Vixen could see gave her a concerned and questioning look. Vixen shook her head and put out her cigarette after taking one last drag. "Nah, just thinking about some shit that I was talking to my room mate about a week ago, anyways lets get back inside and knock out the rest of this outline shall we?" Taylor smiled, taking the explaination and putting out her own cigarette before following Vixen back into the other room.


Six hours and three clients later, Vixen finally closed up her shop for the night and hopped into her 1999 silver, two door soft back, Jeep Wrangler and turned the key. Of course at first, as was usual, the damned thing didnt want to start.

Vixen growled at the Jeep. "Behave you!" she hissed at the hunk of metal before she turned the key in the ignition once more and this time it roared to life. Vixen smiled and patted the Jeep's dashboard. "Good boy," she said as she put the stick shift into drive and started to drive home, turning up her raidio to fifty and blasting her current CD, an album called "X" by one of her favourite bands, The 69 Eyes. The song currently playing was called "I Love The Darkness In You". It was a song Vixen loved cause she felt she could relate to the lyrics.


It took her an hour and half, with traffic and stopping by a McDonald's to pick up dinner, to make it to the two story home she shared with Faith on the outskirts of a small town in California called "Modesto". It was a small woodsy, farmland town, and it was perfect for both Faith and Vixen's jobs. It wasnt so small that everyone knew one another and knew everyones business but it wasnt so big that it was like Seattle, where Vixen had been born and spent most of her life.


Faith and Vixen had moved to Modesto shortly after Vixen's eighteenth birthday and had been working there in silence, the locals never knowing that the two women were protecting the local towns people from the evil that prowled the night.


Vixen pulled her jeep up into the second car garage, turning down the radio as she did, and cut the engine. She heaved a sigh of relief, happy to finally be home. It had been a long day and being the only person currently working at the shop well, it could get pretty tiring. She shook her head as she grabbed the two McDonald's bags filled with her and Faith's dinner and hopped out of the jeep, locking the doors and setting its alarm as she did. "I seriously need to look into finding some help over at the shop," she said aloud to herself as she walked up to the garage door, unlocking it.


"Yes you truly do," Vixen this time did jump as she heard the voice of her shadow guardian Midnight, speak from the tattoo upon her back where he was housed. A shiver went down her spine as the black mist was released from the tattoo and floated to the ground next to her, contorting and finally solidifying into the pure black wolf with silver eyes that was her guardian and only family.


"Your running yourself ragged over there at the shop Vixen," Midnight continued as both Guardian and its charge walked into the house's kitchen from the garage.

Vixen glared down at Midnight as she set down the bag of food. "Dont think I dont know that you little wanker," she snapped, her British accent that she had inherrited from one of her parents- which one she had never known- coming through. Midnight gave her a look that showed that, had he been a human, probably would have looked like he was raising a brow at her. Vixen just sighed and shook her head. "Sorry bud, it was just a long day today." she explained, regreting her outburts.


Midnight just nodded in understanding. "I know, I was there remember?" Vixen felt like she could have facepalmed herself right then. Of course he would know and of course he had been there. He had been on her back tattoo as he always was so he'd seen and heard everything that had gone on. "Right...sorry." she mumbled as she pulled out a burger and fries, placing them on a paper plate, and cutting up the burger into quarters before placing said plate with said food on the floor before her Guardian. Hey he may be made if mists and shadows but when he bacame a solid form like he was now, it was like he was a flesh and blood animal, and flesh and blood animals had to eat and drink just like every other living creature.


Midnight licked Vixen's hand greatfully before digging into the food before him with a ravenous hunger that made Vixen roll her eyes before pulling out the other two sets of burgers and fries and leaving the kitchen to find her mentor.

As it turned out Faith was in the attic of the house, or her training area, and after knocking and being granted entrance, Vixen was suprised to see her mentor packing a duffle bag full of weapons. "Uhh, I dont remember you saying you were going hunting tonight," Vixen said slowly as she entered the sacred training space.


Faith didnt look up from her task as she answered her apprentice. "I hadnt originally planned to tonight but I've caught wind of a pack of wolves that are moving into the downtown area. Suit up and get ready. We can eat on the way," Vixen just nodded knowing that to argue would be useless. She set Faith's dinner down on the table next to her duffle bag before slipping out of the attic and heading to her own sacred space in the basement where she packed up her specially created bow and the arrows she created herself to go with it.


She smiled as she looked at the bow. It was a combound bow design, but instead of metal for a frame, Vixen's frame was made from two double edged swords that had leather grips in the area where her hand would hold it. The bows string was sprayed in liquid silver and with the click of a small button on the bow itself, the string would turn into a string of uv ray light. She had designed the bow not only to shoot arrows but to also be able to decapitate both vampires (hence the silver string of uv ray light) and any other supernatural beings (hence the double edged swords).


This bow and the special arrows she had created to go with it were what she considered her babies. She had worked hard on them for the past two years, perfecting every piece, planning to use them on the pack of wolves who murdered her family.


"But it wouldnt hurt to take the babies out for a little...test run..." Vixen thought aloud as she loaded two if each of her special arrows into her quiver. After that was complete she walked over to a solid mahogany bureau and opened the doors to reveal her hunting outfit.

It may not have looked like much to many; a simple band t-shirt that was ripped in places, leather pants, a studded leather belt with loops to hold certain weapons she may want close at hand, arm length fingerless gloves, steel toed boots and a calf length leather trench coat. But each article of clothing was saturated in undetectable magic full of protection spells as well as other helpful spells that could track and catch any supernatural prey she hunted. Faith's own hunters outfit had many of the same spells, thanks to Vixen. That was one of the many reasons of what made the two of them so deadly. Especially Vixen herself. The spells she knew could kill a person instantly, or slowly, depending on if the person had information she needed or if they were completely useless.

It took Vixen less than twenty minutes to gear up and get ready to leave. When she was finished, she left the basement, locking the door behind her like she always did, and headed for the garage where she knew she would find Faith waiting.


True to form, Vixen found her mentor waiting by the sleek black mustang that was Faith's, completely dressed in the midnight blue leather corset top and pants, black leather boots that reached over her knees, full fingered gloves that matched her top and pants in color and material and a set of metal garters on each thigh which held at least ten throwing knives...a piece. Oh and lets not forget the most noticable thing that her mentor wore as far as her outfit went. The pure silver sword strapped to her hip. Vixen still wondered to this day how Faith had gotten away with carrying that thing around all the time and not getting picked up by the cops or any other law enforcement. But she never asked.


"Are you done staring? We have to go," Vixen shook herself mentally and nodded at Faith. "Where to?" she asked. Faith opened the door to the mustang and got into the drivers seat, turning the car on before answering. "According to my sources, the pack has moved in over by a local high school in the downtown area. We find the high school first then start our search from there. Be careful though, i was warned that that place is normally crawling with cops," Vixen nodded, understanding the order and gave a sharp whistle, calling Midnight to her as Faith drove out of the garage and into the night.


Midnight dashed out of the open garage door and jumped into the jeep, who's door Vixen had just opened for him, and scrambled into the passenger seat as Vixen threw her bag of weapons, bow and quiver of arrows into the back. With a quick wave of her hand she sent a small burst of magic to the still open garage door, effectively closing and locking it without having to take the extra time to do so. Some may have called her lazy for doing so but in this instance, with time of the essance for the hunt, every second counted.

The Jeep engine roared to life on the first try this time when Vixen turned the key. She smiled. Even her Jeep knew this was no time for games. "Good boy," she said as she cranked up her radio once more and sped out of the driveway. "Downtown Modesto here we come. You wolves better be prepared."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Notes

Author's Note's:

Alrighty guys here's the second chapter! I hope it was good. I ended up scrapping my original idea when I factory reset my old phone and lost all my data that I had on this chapter there. Honestly I think it was a good idea cause now we get to see a bit more of who Vixen is. Cause she's not just a Hunter after all, she's a nineteen year old girl with no real family, that she knows of anyways, besides Faith and Midnight. So yeah, here's a bit of a better look at our main character. Next chapter delves into Faith and her past and what made her become the most natorious and feared Hunter that she is today. Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Leave me a comment on what ya thought and I'll try and have the next chapter up by tomorrow, Ive been working on it for the past couple days and am almost finished with it so when I am I'll do a quick proof read then post it.

Oh and before I forget, the small town I mentioned in this story where Vixen and Faith have set up shop, is actually where I live. I thought it would be easier for me to write about a place I know really well (seeing as I've lived here my whole life...not including the time I moved to Oklahoma to live with my Dad after I graduated High School...or the time I moved to Texas to live with the guy I had been dating at the time back in 2010-2011...both were terrible ideas and didn't last very long >.<), anyways I thought it would be easier for me to write about a place I knew well instead of a place I knew practically nothing about and so far I've been right! Haha. Anyways I'm going to go and try and finish the third chapter so I can get it up here for you guys! :)

Till next time guys! See ya on the other side and Blessed Be!

-Kyrie Kerr