“I don’t want to worry them.” Amanda got up to find something to help Dunc.
“Pretty sure they’re going to notice that hole is Dunc-sized.” He chuckled, finding that a little humorous.
“I got it. Sword accident. They’ll believe that!” Amanda laughed, and the two exchanged conspiratorial grins.
***
Dunc made a few phone calls to friends to discreetly watch Amanda’s house and his own. They were to pass on a message to everyone else in the neighborhood that a Hunter had been sighted. He gave them Joseph’s description. This was a community-wide concern, and everyone needed to be vigilant. He would talk to his mother in the morning.
He helped Amanda board up the broken window. Then they settled into one of the comfortable couches in the living room to wait for Dew and Sallie to get home. They were too uncomfortable to talk and sat in silence. Eventually, Dunc got tired of the quiet and reached out for Amanda. The moment he touched her, she made a sniffling sound and turned to curl up next to him. She had been waiting for him to invite her closer.
That was how Dew and Sallie found them when they got home hours later. Dunc left soon after they arrived. The couple had stared at Dunc. He had numerous cuts and bandages on his face, along with the bruise. Amanda excused herself to go to bed and headed up the stairs. She didn’t reach the top.
“What happened in here?” Sallie shrieked from the den. “Amanda? What did you and Dunc DO tonight?”
“Interesting relationship you two have!” Dew’s voice joined Sallie’s.
Amanda groaned and turned around. They had forgotten about cleaning up the second living area. She would either have to tell Sallie and Dew the truth or let their imaginations run wild. She wasn’t sure which one was more horrifying.
Chapter 9
“I
am so sorry, Dear.” Dunc’s mother laid a comforting hand on his arm. They were sitting across from each other in the living room, his mother’s domain. He had explained what happened the prior evening in great detail.
“I don’t want to kill that monster even if he deserves it.” Dunc looked to his mother earnestly. “Mom. I do not want to kill anyone.”
“In my day, that was unavoidable, Dunc.” She patted his arm and then sat back, reflecting on the situation. “I have taken out ten hunters, Dunc. It gets a little too easy when you remove any thoughts of them being human.”
“I don’t want to become like them,” Dunc replied in disgust. “That’s what they do to us!”
“We don’t go looking for them, Dunc. They come looking for us.” Hannah frowned. “It’s different. You have to remember hundreds of years separate you and me in how the world has changed. It’s better than it was in many ways and worse in others.”
“I can’t kill him for more reasons than knowing I cannot morally justify it.” Dunc gestured wildly with his hands. “If his body is found, then hunters will descend on wherever he was last seen. He might have friends.” Dunc paused and stared at the ground, unable to consider what his mother had suggested. “He probably has a family that cares about him somewhere. Even monsters have mothers and fathers who love them.”
“We used just to eat them.” His mother shrugged like it was nothing to make that suggestion. “No body. No problem.”
Dunc stared at his mother. For such a sweet little lady, she had a dark side. It cropped up now and then at the most random times. She was a good person, but she had seen more awful things in her long life than could be imagined. “Mother. No.”
“Just a suggestion.” She smiled as though she had been telling him to buy a bouquet of flowers—perfectly normal conversation.
“Do you have any suggestions that do not involve dead bodies?” Dunc sighed.
“Yes, but it’s going to be tricky because we will need to capture your hunter.”
“He walks through walls!” Dunc jumped to his feet and stomped around the room. “Through them!” His frustration was overwhelming. He wanted to punch something.
“No need to yell. That kind of ability requires the whole body to channel energy. It’s like our shifting ability and how we use alchemy in general.” Hannah was smiling at him. Dunc sighed and turned his attention on her. “Which means that all you have to do is get a silver rope around him to disrupt that ability.”
“Amanda will completely freak out if my hands start smoking and burning from handling silver, Mom.” He sighed again and sank back into the chair across from his mother. “And that stuff hurts!”
“Amanda is going to have to be the one handling it. You will have to be very careful when you give it to her.” Dunc’s mother gave him a stern look. “Go into town and buy the longest silver necklace you can find. Oh, why don’t you invite Amanda to go with you? You should take her on a real date.”
Dunc stared at his mother. He needed to deal with a life or death problem, and she was suggesting that he take time to go on a date?
“Take her shopping. Buy her something nice. Treat her like you don’t ever want her to leave.” His mother began talking fast, a broad smile fixed on her wrinkled face. “Tell her you love her.”
“I can’t.” Dunc fidgeted with his hands and stared at the floor. “I don’t know what she would say. She likes me. I am happy with that as it is. I don’t want to ruin it by saying that right now. She has to say it first.”
“Since she moved in.” His mother chuckled. “She has had you since she moved in. You can’t hide
