Chapter Twenty-Four

Hints and Revelations

“I can’t believe you!” Milly exploded once we got in the car.

I shot her a look. “What?”

“Manipulating that lonely old woman like that.” She made an angry gesture toward the building as I started the car.

“Milly,” I began impatiently. “I am on a case. What you saw in there was not Regan the person with an old woman. It was Regan the hunter with a mark, and a mark serves no purpose but information.”

She stared at me, face a little horrified. “I can’t believe you would say that.”

I shrugged. “It’s true.”

Milly folded her arms and looked away.

Sighing, I said, “Milly, you know what Zo is capable of. She’s already tried to kill me twice, let’s not forget. She isn’t human, she’s a monster.”

“So, what, just because she a monster her grandma’s fair game?” Milly demanded.

“Pretty much,” I said. “Zo has strength and speed and stamina that I simply don’t. In order to beat her I have to seize whatever opportunity I have. That means gathering every scrap of intel I can, no matter the method or source. I have to be ready. She’ll fight strong, so I have to fight smart. And I will. I’m good at what I do, Mills. If I wasn’t I’d be dead by now. I’ll do what I have to survive, and I won’t apologize for that.”

After that little speech silence reigned in the car as I got as back on the road.

“I understand all that,” Milly finally said. “But still. You’re just gonna plumb her past like that?”

“If I have to, absolutely,” I said. “Without a second thought.”

“I’m surprised that you, of all people, would just prey on her parental tragedy like it didn’t matter.” She shook her head.

“When I am in the mission the only thing that matters is the target.” I kept my eyes fixed on the road. “All other considerations are secondary. Even my own personal feelings regarding parental tragedy. The mission is what matters,” I finished softly.

“It’s not all that matters,” she pressed. “There has to be a line that even you won’t cross.”

“Death,” I said bluntly. “Anything and everything that preserves my own life is fair game.”

“Anything, Regan?” Milly tried one last time.

“Anything.” I captured her eyes just long enough to say it. “The average vampire will beat the average human in a fight every time. So we do what we have to, fight dirty, ambush them, strike from the shadows.”

“But you’re not an average human,” she pointed out.

“No, I’m not not,” I agreed. “I’m a hunter, and this is what I do. My training is designed to make the absolute best use of human strengths and vampire weaknesses. If it wasn’t, you would have died the day we met.”

“I never thought of it like that,” Milly mumbled.

“I tried to make sure you never had to,” I told her. “I did my best to shield you from the nitty-gritty of my life. It’s not something anyone outside of it wants to know.”

She was silent for a long time. Then she said, “When we met you saved my life. That was my first brush with the hunter lifestyle. But it’s about more than just saving people, isn’t it?”

“Milly,” I said gently, “It’s not about that at all. I’m not trained to save lives, I am trained to take them.”

“But you saved mine,” she said. “Without you and Richard I would have died.”

“Sometimes that happens, and I’m thrilled when it does, but that’s not our objective,” I stressed. “It’s just a bonus.”

“You…” she stopped, cleared her throat, and tried again. “The day you saved me…you didn’t come to rescue me, did you?”

I almost lied, I really did. But she was my best friend. She deserved this much. “No,” I said slowly. “When we found you down in that hole we were surprised you were still alive.”

The fight went out of her. She closed her eyes for just a moment, and nodded her head. We were almost all the back to town before she spoke again. “There’s something I don’t understand.”

“Hmm?”

“You already knew about Zo’s parents before we talked to Edie, from your intel, didn’t you?

“Yeah.”

“Then why talk to her at all?” she asked. “What did you hope to learn?”

“I learned quite a bit, actually.”

“Like what?”

“Well,” I started. “I learned that, because of her parents’ death, Zo’s done everything in her power to make herself as strong as possible. Every move in her life has been designed to give her more power, up to and including becoming a vampire.”

“Right,” Milly said. “That pretty much goes without saying. But what does that actually tell you?”

“It means I underestimated her.”

“…Is that it?”

“No,” I murmured. “It also means I underestimated Ira.”