Monster Hunter Bloodlines - eARC by Larry Correia (read a book .txt) 📕

would take precious time. Sonya was a little dirty but looked relatively unthreatening, even with the heavy metal vibe going on. “I’ll stand guard out here and watch for the fog. Call that bottom number.” I handed her one of my business cards. The second number on it was to MHI headquarters, and with a Hunter currently MIA it would certainly be manned. They would be able to vector my team and all of Boone’s guys right to us. “Try not to freak that poor lady out.”

“Will do.” Sonya handed me the sawed-off. Then she brushed the leaves out of her hair, and poof, just like that, she was a totally different person. One second, she was the nose-pierced rocker, the next she was a cherubic little blonde girl with rosy cheeks and a pixie cut. Even the intricate tats on her arm had vanished, leaving just pink skin. “I used to use this face to sell Girl Scout cookies. I totally killed it.”

“I bet.” Though come to think of it, I really could go for a box of Samoas right then. “Hurry up.”

Sonya went inside. I went to a shadowy corner and watched for sign of the Drekavac. So far, each time I’d run into the monster, I’d been warned by the temperature swing. Hopefully, that wasn’t an effect that he could just turn off at will or I was screwed.

I had to remind myself this was worth it. All I had to do was keep this obstinate little thief alive despite the best efforts of a spectral bounty hunter, then we could get the Ward from her, use it to destroy Asag once and for all, and then my family would be able to live without constantly watching over our shoulders for assassins every second for the rest of our lives.

I’d given away my good med kit, but I still had my little emergency blow-out pouch on my armor. After I secured the sawed-off through some of the straps and slung Abomination, I did a quick wrap around the dog bite to control the bleeding. It still needed a good cleaning, but hopefully hell hounds didn’t carry rabies . . . hell rabies? Wow. That would be bad. While I worked I told myself it looked worse than it probably was.

What was taking her so long? I started walking back toward the window so I could look inside, but then I saw headlights approaching. Thankfully they were regular, normal headlights, and not blue fire beams coming from a horse skull. They were pulling into the gas station, so I moved back around the corner to stay out of sight until I could figure out who this was. Hopefully, it was one of my coworkers, but then I saw that it was a battered old minivan, which certainly wasn’t one of MHI’s fleet vehicles.

But it turned out that it was a Hunter after all.

Gutterres winced as he stepped out of the minivan’s driver seat. The Vatican Hunter’s clothing was charred and burnt in spots. There was a bright red burn mark crawling up his neck and ashes on his face. Battered, covered in dust and blood, it looked like he’d had a much worse time than I had. Gutterres started limping toward the front door, but then he paused, as if he sensed something, and then spun and aimed a handgun my way. “Show yourself.”

I moved slowly out from the corner. “Rough night?”

Gutterres lowered his pistol when he recognized me. “You can say that. It’s not often I get knocked across a forest and then have to carjack a vehicle to go for help. Pitt, right?”

“Yep . . . Gutterres?”

“The one and only. Is the girl safe?”

“She’s safe.”

He glanced at the store. “Is she inside there?”

“She’s in there supposedly calling my people for help. Did she call you instead?”

“I wouldn’t know if she had. My coms are down.”

“So are mine.” The two of us stood there beneath the hum of the fluorescent lights. This was where it got sticky, because my track record for diplomacy with other groups of Hunters was decidedly mixed. “Here’s the thing though. That deal you had with her? MHI really needs that Ward Stone.”

“That’s unfortunate. So do we.”

“I figured. Only we need it to save the world.”

“Isn’t that a coincidence.” Gutterres didn’t budge. “Perhaps you can petition my superiors to borrow the Ward, after we’re done using it to save the world.”

“We could compare notes over which one of us has the bigger problem and prioritize from there.”

“A reasonable proposition. Or I could just claim the property my organization has already paid for and go on my way.”

“You could try . . . ” I let that threat hang, like he’d have to go through me first. Except that only seemed to amuse him, which I’ll admit was kind of annoying and also a little worrying. Earl warned me not to pick a fight with this particular dude. “Look, man, I need that rock to kill Asag. I’m sure by this point you’ve heard of him.”

Gutterres nodded slowly. “Disorder. The chaos demon who was leaving his mark at massacres around the world, who has been oddly silent since your siege of the City of Monsters.”

“He’s not just any old demon. He’s a world-ender. But yeah, you guys should have come to that party. You really missed out.”

“We like to do our own thing. But okay, Pitt. Killing Asag is a worthy goal. I’ll give you that. Except that attempt would require destroying the stone, and do you have any evidence it would actually work?”

“I killed a Great Old One that way.”

“From my understanding you’re the only man alive to ever do so.”

I shrugged. “I guess that makes me kind of the expert.”

“Too bad the Old Ones hail from an entirely different reality, working on an entirely different set of rules than Asag’s species—”

“There’s more of them?”

Gutterres openly scoffed at my ignorance. “I’d assume so. How could there not be?”

I’ll admit, I hadn’t really thought about that much. One of them was bad enough. “So what does