Episode 2: A Bite, a Death, and New Friends: Part 8

Does Oliver have rainbow powers or doesn't she? These are the questions that keep no one up at night, not even Quill.

"I'm telling you," Oliver said, strolling beside Quill as they walked through the woods. Quill tried his best to track the vampire, but Oliver, for some odd reason, couldn't stop talking, even when he asked her. "The rainbow-burning stuff just came right out of my hands. Right into dude man's face. It was great."

"Uh, sure," Quill said for the thousandth time. Oliver had been mumbling about her 'rainbow powers,' and he was starting to care even less. He didn't believe her. He hadn't heard of anyone using or having 'rainbow powers' before; he would be in the know. He had studied all kinds of classes in the Night, which they used to wage their war against all of life. Rainbow powers were not among any of those classes. He was sure she was making it up and nothing more.

"I mean it," Oliver said, holding her hands out, trying to will the light to come out again. Nothing happened, and she frowned. "It happened."

"Right," Quill said, kneeling to find some sticks broken in the dark, leading them toward his foe. He had been trained by some of the best hunters and trackers in the world, and a vampire was nothing more than another animal to be hunted. He spent six months in Congo hunting mutant monkeys. Three summers ago, it was a wild time. After his time in the Congo, he was sent to the Great White North to hunt wolves with another master.

He trained to hunt and kill, and he was good at it.

Oliver, on the other hand, was not good at it. She stared down at him, studying the broken stick, and asked, "Couldn't someone else have done that?"

"No."

"Are you sure?" She asked. "I'm sure tons of people use these woods all the time."

"They do," Quill said.

"Right, so someone else could've broken the stick. How do you know it is our man?" Oliver asked, smiling over at him. He sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"Why don't you go home and leave this up to me?" Quill asked.

"Then walk me home," Oliver said.

"I don't have time to," Quill said, and he couldn't call any other officers to help him. He was the only one who knew the truth about the Night. It was his mission to keep people safe from these monsters. He glanced over at her, shaking his head, thinking it might be best to walk her back to her room. "Where do you live?"

"Kerrigan Hall," Oliver said.

Quill groaned, "That's on the other side of campus."

"Yeah, I know," she said. "Are you sure you are good at hunting?"

"Come on," Quill said, taking a step forward. If he walked her home, it would almost take an hour from where they were now, and there would be no point in his going back to find the bloodsucker. It would be long gone by then.

"So, what is up with the guy with the fangs?" Oliver asked. "Like, what's his deal?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Quill said, noting he couldn't tell her. Part of his duty was to make sure everyone believed that the monsters of the world were only found in books and movies. They were not real, and the people who hunted them weren't real either.

"At this point, I might believe anything," Oliver said.

"I'm still not going to -" he stopped hearing something move between the trees. He glanced around, trying to find the footstep, but he couldn't see a thing. And then he heard someone scream a few yards ahead of them. "Stay here."

He took off for the scream, not running, not wanting to fill the air with his heavy boots, and almost hoping it wasn't the bloodsucker. He might have been itching for a fight, but he didn't need it with Oliver so close. He wouldn't forgive himself if she got hurt in the fighting.

He had to deal with people being in the way before, even seeing them get hurt for it; sometimes it was his fault, but mostly it was the person's fault. It still went against what he was meant to do: protect them and the world.

Before him, he saw a long man holding a girl by the back of her head. They almost looked to be kissing, but Quill saw the bloodlines racing down her neck. He pulled free his sidearm, feeling the radiance from the Halo on his wrist, reaching out to bless his weapon.

The gun lifted, aiming the bloodsucker, and Quill was happy to get the jump o ---

Oliver screamed from his side. She had moved up with him, and Quill, keeping his eyes on the enemy, had forgotten about her in the rush. Damn, she was quiet. The vampire let go of his meal, dropping the girl to the sidewalk, snarling at Quill, and then over to Oliver.

Half of the face of the vampire was black, like someone had left it in the oven too long. He turned back to Quill, his red eyes glowing even more. "A Hunter from the Twelve," he said. "I didn't know you were here."

"I came just for you," Quill mocked, coming out of the woods, his pistol aiming at the monster's heart, but noticed something odd hanging around the vampire's neck. A necklace with a purple and blue stone with golden light in the middle of the rock. A soul stone, but vampires don't use souls for any kind of magic.

A Soul Binder would use people's souls to cast spells, but bloodsuckers couldn't use their magic. It was odd and rare, if not impossible, for vampires to use most of the Dark Magics for some reason. But Quill had read files about powerful vampires' magic users before; at least from what Quill knew, they had been called Bloodlocks. Sometimes what the Sons of the Sun knew about the Night was wrong.

"Oh, it's you," Oliver pointed at the vampire's face. "Tell him I did that to you with my rainbow." The monsters hissed at her, and she backed away.

"I will make you pay for this, girly," the vampire said, touching his face.

"You are going to be dead," Quill said.

"Do you think I would face one of the Twelve alone?" the monster said, nodding behind Quill as a female vampire stepped out from behind a tree.