After getting bitten by an animal, Ryder finds himself developing strange new abilities. What's more, two guys at his university begin trying to convince him to move to their respective towns. It's not until his run-in with the local rogues that he...
Ryder wondered if that might have been one of the things that had kicked off their initial relationship. Adan wanted to look as kind as possible, and punching one of his own school mates would have ruined that image.
"If something like that happened, then I wonder why they still have so many bad rumors about him?"
"It's just stupid rivalry. That or they're scared by his tattoos. I've overheard a few people claim he was in a gang just because he had them."
"Yeah, they are pretty badass looking."
"You think so?"
Ryder nodded, and the man frowned. "I guess some people like that stuff."
Ryder couldn't help eyeing the sleeve of the man's jacket. It was covering up his tattoo, and he grew curious. "What about you? Why do you hide yours?"
Adan's hand unconsciously covered the arm where the tattoos were located. "You noticed?"
"I thought they looked cool. Do you hide them because you don't want to scare people off?"
"... Something like that..."
*buzz*
Oh? Interesting.
He hated how his power kept chiming in at random moments, but that was a pretty juicy detail. And now that he knew it was active, he could ask more important questions.
"By the way, I was watching a uh...A vampire movie last night. It had that Van Helsing guy in it. He was some sort of monster hunter and I was thinking, that'd be a pretty cool job. Right?" Ryder was sweating bullets over the abrupt change in topic. He knew the guy would look at him weirdly if he was wrong, but when he didn't receive a reply, he looked back over at the perplexed man.
"Monster hunter huh?"
"Yeah. Like, you hunt down ghosts and demons and stuff."
"Isn't that a paranormal investigator?"
"Well, he also killed things like witches, vampires and...Werewolves."
The man's expression changed for a split second, but that was the only indicator that something about this topic bothered him.
"Something wrong?" Ryder asked. "You don't like those sorts of things?"
"This was a movie?"
Okay, way to dance around the answer.
"Yeah. Just a movie. But I was wondering, do you think hunters are real?"
"That's an odd question. I think it'd be better to ask if I thought monsters were real."
"Do you?"
The man grew quiet. Ryder waited for an answer, but when none came, he clicked his tongue. "Okay, I guess that was a weird question."
"Do you think they're real?" Adan then asked. To which, Ryder considered his options.
If he said yes, and the man was a hunter, he'd have reason to suspect him. If he said no, he'd still need to ask the man for help if it turned out he was a hunter.
Ugh.
"Not since I was a little kid." He chickened out. But the man continued to drive in silence.
"What's wrong?" Ryder eventually asked.
The man sucked in a breath, then let it out slowly. "There's been something I've wanted to tell you. I actually wanted to tell you for a while, but...I don't think I can yet."
"What? What is it?" Ryder perked up, wondering if the man was about to admit to being a hunter anyway. Instead, they turned in to the house driveway.
"Are you free after class next week? I know you have a club on Monday, but what about the rest of the week?"
"Yeah, why?"
"I want to talk to you about it then."
"Why not talk about it now?"
"It's complicated. But I think by then, I should be able to discuss everything in full."
Ryder's curiosity was killing him, but he didn't want to push his luck. "Okay, yeah, how about Tuesday after class?"
"Okay, great. It's a date."
---
A/N: I just realized this is the farthest I've gotten into a book without adding smut yet. :V
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
