Kaine climbed the stairs to his apartnt building, every step reminding him that vampire blood was a bitch to get out of fabric. His shirt was stiff with dried gore, his jacket had holes from crystalline spears, and he was pretty sure sothing important had happened to his left shoulder blade that his supernatural healing was still working on.
Three-fifteen AM. The perfect ti to sneak into his apartnt, shower off the evidence, and pretend he was a normal person who spent his evenings doing normal things like watching television or reading books instead of preventing teenage massacres.
It made the neighbors less comfortable to know there was soone living with them that slayed things that terrorized their nights. Because at any point, hunters also ran the risk of getting turned.
He was fishing for his keys when he heard footsteps in the hallway.
"Oh, thank God. There you are."
Kaine turned to find Rebecca erging from the stairwell, wearing flannel pajama pants and an oversized sweater that suggested she’d either been sleeping or preparing to sleep. Her hair was pulled back in a ssy ponytail, and she was clutching a ceramic mug that slled like chamomile tea.
"Rebecca." He tried to position himself so the worst of the blood stains weren’t imdiately visible. "What are you doing up?"
"Looking for you, actually." She approached with the casual confidence of soone who’d already decided they were going to have a conversation whether he wanted one or not. "I heard you co ho earlier, then leave again around midnight. Figured you were probably—"
She stopped mid-sentence, her eyes widening as she took in his appearance. The ergency lighting in the hallway wasn’t doing him any favors, but it was sufficient to highlight the dark stains across his clothes and the general appearance of soone who’d recently been in a fight.
"Jesus Christ, Kaine. Are you hurt?"
"It’s not my blood."
The words ca out automatically, which was probably not the most reassuring thing he could have said. Rebecca’s expression shifted from concern to sothing that looked like dawning realization.
"Not your blood," she repeated slowly. "aning it’s soone else’s blood. On your clothes. At three in the morning."
Kaine sighed, abandoning any pretense that he could explain this away as a minor accident. "Look, it’s complicated—"
"You’re a hunter."
It wasn’t a question. Rebecca’s voice carried the kind of certainty that ca from connecting dots she’d probably been unconsciously collecting since they’d t. Her earlier comnts about the Shadowguard, her interest in eting soone who fought supernatural threats, the way she’d sized up his apartnt as belonging to soone with no employnt.
"Yeah," he said, because denial seed pointless at this stage. "I’m a hunter."
"Holy shit." She broke into a grin that was entirely too enthusiastic for soone who’d just discovered her neighbor killed monsters for a living. "That’s... wow. That explains so much."
"Does it?"
"The weird hours, the minimalist apartnt, the general air of soone who’s seen too much horrible stuff to care about matching furniture." She gestured at his blood-stained clothes with obvious excitent. "And here I was earlier, going on about how attractive hunters are, and you’re just standing there letting make an ass of myself."
"You weren’t making an ass of yourself."
"I was totally making an ass of myself." She took a sip of her tea, studying him with renewed interest. "But you know what? I don’t care. This is actually kind of exciting."
Kaine unlocked his apartnt door, gesturing for her to follow him inside. "Exciting isn’t the word I’d use."
"What word would you use?"
"ssy. Dangerous. Usually involves a lot of cleanup."
Marcus was waiting in the living room, standing motionless near the window with his pale eyes fixed on the door. The Ghoul’s supernatural stillness was particularly unsettling in the dim apartnt lighting, and Rebecca stopped walking the mont she saw him.
"Is he... always like that?"
"Marcus needs to sleep," Kaine said quickly, giving the Ghoul a aningful look. "Long night."
Marcus tilted his head slightly, then moved toward the bedroom with his characteristic silence. The door closed behind him with a soft click, leaving Kaine alone with Rebecca and the growing realization that his carefully maintained privacy was dissolving rapidly.
"He’s really the serious type, isn’t he?" Rebecca settled onto the couch without waiting for an invitation. "Did he get dumped recently or sothing? Because he’s got that whole ’dead inside’ thing going on."
"Marcus doesn’t date much."
"Ah, one of those guys." She curled her legs under herself, making it clear she wasn’t planning to leave anyti soon. "So what happened tonight? Big supernatural showdown? Vampire nest? Demon possession?"
"Why were you looking for ?" Kaine asked, deflecting the question while he tried to decide how much truth he was willing to share. Most people wanted to know until they did and can’t handle the truth.
"Right, that." Rebecca looked suddenly embarrassed, which was the first ti he’d seen her confidence waver. "This is going to sound completely insane, but I locked myself out of my apartnt. You see, I had them replace the old lock with one of those automatic locks, and I went to check if my gas was working and..."
She trailed off, apparently realizing how unlikely her story sounded.
"And you knocked on my door at three AM because...?"
"Because you were the only person I’d t in the building, and I was kind of hoping you might know how to pick a lock or sothing." She took another sip of tea, avoiding his eyes. "I an, hunters probably learn that stuff, right? For work?"
It was a reasonable assumption, though completely wrong in his case. Most of his supernatural encounters involved more straightforward solutions than lockpicking.
"I don’t know how to pick locks," he admitted.
"Damn." Rebecca looked genuinely disappointed. "What kind of hunter doesn’t know basic B&E skills?"
"The kind who usually kicks doors down."
"That would probably wake up the neighbors."
"Usually, yeah."
Kaine disappeared into his bedroom, erging a few minutes later in clean clothes and slling significantly less like a cri scene. Rebecca had made herself comfortable on his couch, her mug balanced on her knees as she examined his sparse living space with unconcealed curiosity.
"Better," she said, approving of his wardrobe change. "Though you still look like soone who hasn’t slept in about thirty-six hours."
"Occupational hazard."
"Must be exhausting, saving the city every night."
"I don’t save the city every night."
"Just the important nights?"
Kaine settled into the chair across from her, suddenly aware that this was the first ti in months he’d had a normal conversation with soone who wasn’t either trying to kill him or paying him to kill sothing else.
"Tell about Portland," he said, changing the subject again.
"What’s to tell? Rain, coffee shops, and an ex-husband who thought vintage Camaros were more important than mortgage paynts." Rebecca shrugged, but he caught sothing in her expression that suggested the divorce had been more complicated than she was letting on. "I figured a change of scenery might be good for ."
"And you picked this city?"
"Cheap rent, interesting nightlife, and apparently neighbors who fight monsters for a living." She grinned at him over her tea. "Seed like the kind of place where a person could start over."
They talked for another hour, the conversation andering through topics that had nothing to do with supernatural threats or professional violence. Rebecca had a talent for drawing him into discussions about mundane things—movies, food, the weird acoustics in the building that made it impossible to tell where sounds were coming from.
It was the kind of conversation Kaine had forgotten he could have.
"I have to ask," Rebecca said eventually, leaning forward with obvious curiosity. "What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever fought?"
"Weirdest how?"
"I don’t know. Most unusual? Most unexpected? Most ’what the hell is that thing’ mont?"
Kaine considered the question, running through a ntal catalog of supernatural encounters that ranged from mundane to utterly bizarre.
"Blood construct," he said finally. "Tonight, actually. Vampire sorcerer used blood magic to create sothing that looked like it was made out of liquid tal. Eight feet tall, glowing red eyes, punched holes in concrete."
"That sounds terrifying."
"It was mostly annoying. Blood magic is flashy, but it’s not very efficient against people who know how to take and avoid damageTakes a lot of power to maintain sothing that big."
"How did you kill it?"
"Killed the vampire controlling it. The construct fell apart on its own."
Rebecca nodded thoughtfully, as if she was filing away information for future reference. "So tell , what’s the most honest thing you’ve ever told soone?"
’What is this? 20 questions?’ Kaine thought for a brief second.
In truth, the question caught him off guard, partly because of how personal it was and partly because he wasn’t sure he had a good answer.
"That’s a weird question."
"Is it? I an, you spend your life keeping secrets, right? Professional necessity. But there must be tis when you just want to tell soone the truth about who you are and what you do."
"Like right now?"
"Like right now." She smiled, and Kaine realized she was right. This was probably the most honest conversation he’d had in months.
"That I’m tired," he said finally. "Not just physically tired. Tired of pretending to be sothing I’m not, tired of keeping everyone at arm’s length, tired of acting like none of this affects ."
Rebecca’s expression softened. "That’s honest."
"Your turn," he said. "Most honest thing you’ve ever told soone."
"That I moved here because I was running away from everything I used to be." The words ca out without hesitation, as if she’d been waiting for soone to ask. "Not just the divorce. The whole life. I used to be the kind of person who planned everything, who had five-year goals and retirent accounts and opinions about thread counts."
"What’s wrong with that?"
"Nothing, if it’s actually what you want. But I realized I was just going through the motions because it was what I was supposed to want. Safe job, safe husband, safe little life in a safe little house."
She paused, staring into her tea.
"When I found out about the affairs, it wasn’t even the betrayal that hurt the most. It was realizing that I’d spent five years building a life I didn’t actually care about."
"So you left."
"So I left. Sold everything that wouldn’t fit in my car, drove until I found a city that felt like sowhere I could be soone different."
Kaine understood that feeling better than he wanted to admit.
"Truth or dare," Rebecca said suddenly.
"What?"
"Co on, you know the ga. Truth or dare. You pick one, I ask a question or give you a challenge."
"We’re adults."
"Adults can play gas." She set her mug on the coffee table, fixing him with an expectant look. "Besides, you’ve been picking truth for the last hour anyway. Might as well make it official."
"Fine. Truth."
"What’s the one thing about being a hunter that you wish people understood?"
Another question that required more thought than he’d expected. Kaine leaned back in his chair, considering the various ways he could answer without revealing more than he was comfortable sharing.
"That it’s not heroic," he said finally. "People think it’s like the movies—good guys fighting evil, saving innocent lives, making the world a better place. But mostly it’s just violence. Necessary violence, maybe, but still violence."
Rebecca nodded slowly. "Your turn."
"Truth or dare?" Kaine asked.
"Truth." She said imdiately.
"Why aren’t you scared of ?"
"Should I be?" she asked gaggling tea in her mouth.
"Most people would be. Finding out their neighbor kills things for a living."
"You kill things that want to kill people," Rebecca said. "That makes you one of the good guys in my book." She paused, then added with a mischievous smile, "Besides, you’re way too tired to be dangerous right now."
"Truth or dare," Kaine said.
"Truth...but it’s supposed to be my turn, nevermind, still going with truth,"
"What’s the real reason you knocked on my door tonight?"
Rebecca’s cheeks flushed slightly, and she looked down at her hands. "I heard you leave, and I... I was curious. About where you went, what you did. I’ve been wondering about you since we t."
"And the locked door?"
"Is actually locked. But I probably could have called the super in the morning instead of wandering around the hallway at three AM looking for excuses to talk to you."
It was Kaine’s turn to choose, and Rebecca was watching him with obvious anticipation.
"Truth," he said, which earned him a disappointed look.
"You’re playing this ga like soone who’s afraid of commitnt," she said. "What’s the worst thing that could happen if you said dare?"
"I don’t know. That’s why I don’t say dare."
"Co on, live a little. What’s the worst I could ask you to do? Dance? Sing? Call your mother?" Rebecca asked with a shrug.
"I don’t have a mother to call."
"See? You’re overthinking this." Rebecca leaned forward, her eyes sparkling with mischief. "Truth or dare, Kaine. And if you say truth again, I’m going to assu you’re scared."
The challenge was obvious, and Kaine realized he was being manipulated by soone who was probably very good at getting what she wanted. But there was sothing appealing about the idea of letting soone else make decisions for him, even small ones.
"Dare," he said.
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