"So, what are you going to do with the footage?" Lee picked at his fries.
It had been nagging at him for a while now. Rowan had recorded a lot, and he was always on the hunt. Where was he going to find the ti to process all that footage?
"I know a guy." Rowan wiped his hands and picked up his phone to make a call.
Lee raised an eyebrow.
The receiver picked up almost imdiately with an excited voice. "Yo!"
Dan was ecstatic that his friend had called so soon.
"You disappear for two days. Two days! I was starting to think you were dead." There was a distinct pout in his voice. Rowan could hear it clearly. But if he recalled correctly, Dan had a passion he had only told a few people about.
He had wanted to be a strear. A long lost dream after his mother got cancer.
"Can you edit a video for ?" Rowan said directly.
"Damn, you call in for a favor and not beer. You’ve changed." Dan let out a dramatic sob. "You know after you left I had to pick up your share of the work. I don’t think I can just drop everything and—"
"Two hundred a video." Rowan was not the type to ask for work for free. He always paid his dues.
Dan went quiet, then imdiately reversed course. "At your service, my lord."
"Are you free tonight? I have soone I’d like you to et." Rowan asked.
"Oh, you change jobs for two days and now you’ve got a girlfriend?" Dan asked with anticipation.
Rowan sighed. "No. I found a good guy and we’re going to start a channel for beginner hunters. I want you to et your future co-worker."
Rowan turned to look at Lee, who was still working through his lunch.
"Okay boss, anything for two hundred." Dan’s voice was full of delight.
Rowan hung up and turned to Lee, who had just finished eating. "Ready?"
"Huh? Hey, we already cleared three gates today!" Lee went pale.
"Rookie numbers. We need to pump those up." Rowan did not entertain the complaint and pulled Lee along with him.
"But we are rookies!" That was the last protest Lee managed before Rowan dragged him through six more raids until the ti he had set with Dan arrived.
Back at the sa booth, Lee sat in the sa chair he had occupied at lunch, looking like a hollowed out version of himself.
Even though he had not been fighting anything, just following Rowan in and out and observing was enough to lt his brain.
He could not see himself keeping up with Rowan at all.
"Lee." Dan looked him over. After seeing such a young and innocent face he paused.
"You’re going to be a star. Not only are you good looking, you’re a healer, and you’re smart. Man, I envy you." He turned to Rowan.
"Where did you find this kid?" Half joking, half genuinely impressed.
After just a brief look and a few words with Lee, he already understood why Rowan had taken a liking to him.
"I just t him on my first raid. He seed interesting so I decided to give him so pointers, but now I want to help other people get good too." Rowan explained his reasoning to bring his friend on board.
"And you know as well as I do how bad it looks behind the screen."
They had both worked in the human resources departnt of the Hunter Association.
No other job gave you a clearer view of the ugly truth that the governnt hid from the public about just how bad the situation really was.
Lee laughed nervously. "Hehe..."
"Dan." Rowan cut in. "This is Lee. He’s your partner from now on."
Dan straightened up. "Oh. Okay." He turned to Lee and adjusted his tie.
"Hi. I’m Dan. I’ll be your content manager from now on." He carried himself like a responsible adult now, but he had once been a small ti strear in a sandbox ga years ago and had picked up editing experience as a part ti job through university.
Lee bowed politely. "Nice to et you, Mister Dan. My na is Lee."
"We’re going to do great things!" Dan had already been briefed on the type of content they wanted to make and it had lit sothing up in him.
"You really are built different, my friend. Just two days in and you’re already thinking this far ahead."
Dan knew his friend was one of those too good to be true types. Good with animals, good with kids, did charity work in his free ti.
He had never thought a job that revolved around killing would suit Rowan, but here they were.
"It’s nothing. Good to have you on board."
They discussed plans for a while before going their separate ways, but by the end they already had a channel na.
{Gate Crashers}
Walking ho through the cooling evening, Rowan turned things over in his head.
He had not planned any of this.
His first instinct had been to solo level, but his nature had taken over.
Deep down he did not want to carry it alone anymore. He wanted to help other people climb too.
Seeing Lee, soone with more passion than skill, had reminded him of himself in the past.
He could not walk away from that kind of determination.
And every extra hunter who climbed the ladder was one less gate soone else would have to worry about.
’In the long run it would be good. Probably.’
He turned the corner onto his street.
Then he found sothing strange.
A motorcycle was parked in front of his house.
Rowan slowed to a stop at the edge of his own lawn.
He recognized that bike imdiately. It was Cordelia’s. No mistaking it.
But why was it in his driveway?
Then he felt it.
A life signature sitting inside his house.
One was familiar, his mom. The other was soone dangerous.
Soone strong was in his kitchen. Stronger than him at his current level.
What would a hunter of that caliber be doing in his house?
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