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

a feeling it was going to be a long night. I paid for my snacks just as another car pulled into the parking lot and honked. That had to be my ride. I passed Bonnie one of my cards. “Thanks for your help and call me if you think of anything else.”

“Sure will. And tell that cute South African fella to stop by when he’s back in town. I do love his accent.”

* * *

While Holly Newcastle drove, I sat in the back seat with Doc Sherlock so she could fix up my arm. If you’ve never gotten five stitches put in you while riding in a moving Suburban in order to close a gash from a hell hound fang, you aren’t really living. Or so I told myself while Sherlock ran the needle through my arm. She missed a few times because Holly kept hitting potholes. Luckily, that hurt way less than pouring vodka on it.

When I said that out loud, the doc scoffed at me. “There are so many things that work better and hurt less.”

“I know, but I left my med kit at the bar and I lost my go bag in the forest.”

“We found it. Your gear is in the back,” Holly said. “You’re probably going to want to armor up.”

“Why? Where are we going?”

“Long story short, the gnomes told Trip and the gnolls told Milo basically the same thing, that there’s something crazy evil holed up in an old farm west of here. When word got out that the Ward was up for grabs, that thing started putting out feelers to all the supernatural creatures saying it would pay them a reward for information about the stone’s whereabouts.”

“What kind of evil are we talking about? Because if it’s something that can do magical scrying, somebody found us and called Sonya out of the blue to make her an offer she couldn’t refuse.”

“The city gnolls said the country gnolls said it smelled dead but not, and they were scared of it, which doesn’t narrow it down much because they’re scared of everything. And the gnomes, those greedy little shits, didn’t know what it was either, they only cared that it was offering to pay a reward.” Holly was distracted, mostly focused on the road, because we were going way too fast in the dark. “The rest of the guys are on their way there now.”

I was kind of surprised. That was more fly by the seat of the pants than was normal for MHI. Usually, if there weren’t any lives in immediate danger, we’d at least try to find out what kind of creature we were dealing with. Blundering into the unknown was a great way to get killed. “That’s not a lot to go on.”

“I know, and Albert’s doing a rush job on the research right now, but fifteen minutes ago a state trooper buddy of Boone’s who was at one of the fog wrecks said that he let through a young woman in a car that matches the description you gave us, going in that same direction.”

Considering how long it had been since Sonya had ditched me, that meant she’d probably had time to retrieve the stone from wherever she’d hidden it—and it made sense that her stash would be somewhere near Perdition’s Abyss—and now she was on the way to meet her new buyer.

“And don’t forget the other complication,” Sherlock said, as she wrapped my arm in medical tape. “That’s the best part.”

“Oh, yeah. The stupid-ass gnomes told the lizard cult the same thing they told us. So the reptoids are more than likely on the way too. I wish Trip would’ve clocked the little thug who told him that but Trip’s too merciful. I would’ve kicked him right in the beard.”

Holly really didn’t like gnomes.

“Friggin’ gnomes.” I reached over the seat and grabbed my bag so I could get my armor on. This night just kept getting better.

Chapter 12

Thirty minutes later we reached the location. The property was in the middle of nowhere and consisted of a couple hundred acres in its own little valley stuck between some heavily wooded hills. It was almost MHI compound-level hidden. Easily secluded enough to be a home for some kind of secretive monster, assuming the gnomes weren’t lying to us and this was just their attempt to have us take out a rival meth cook or something.

The other Hunters were parked in a field off the main road half a mile from the farm. We were the last to arrive. The other vehicles were out of sight and hopefully we weren’t close enough yet to tip off whatever it was that owned the property.

The other Hunters were already gearing up. Mags were being checked, rounds were chambered, and night vision tested. A couple of Hunters had already gone up the hillside to set up sniper positions. Earl—who was by far the stealthiest one among us—had gone ahead to reconnoiter the farm. That left Boone in charge. The Atlanta team lead had a laptop out and was using Google Earth to map the property and give assignments to everybody else. It appeared there was a two-story farmhouse and a big barn, as well as a bunch of smaller sheds and outbuildings.

After an evening being chased by a horrific evil without much in the way of help, it felt really good to be with my team again.

Boone saw me get out of the truck. “I heard you had a rough night, Z. You up to fight?”

“Hell, yeah. This is just a scratch.”

He looked to Doc Sherlock, who wasn’t about to lie to her boss, and raised an eyebrow. Luckily, she covered for me. “It looks like a regular dog bite. He’ll be fine.”

“You sure?” Boone asked.

“How many Vicodin have you taken for your bad back today, Boss?” Sherlock responded.

“Point taken.” Hunters working while messed up wasn’t exactly an oddity. We spent a lot of money on painkillers and energy drinks. “Jump in.”

Holly checked her phone.