23.

  Tav broke away from the pack of students making their way through the basement. Thanks to her talks with the Demon at the bottom of these halls, Tav was more than familiar with the lay out of every inch of these basement caverns. She knew the halls people seemed not to roam, and she knew how to make her way through them alone. She held her Trident up and closed her eyes, trying to use her Demonic talents to sense one of, for now, her kind.

  The Bralgan was close, but she sensed something else.

  “Hello, beauty,” an ethereal voice whispered in her ear, “Why do you seek to lose your beauty,” it asked.

  “Shut up,” Tav said. She had encountered this kind of demon many times growing up, a specter. It wasn’t a demon so much as the ghost of a demon. They were mostly harmless, save if you weren’t a real estate agent trying to sell a so-called haunted house to a suburb-seeking couple with a new baby on the way.

  “The Ichor is using you,” it said.

  “That’s what he thinks,” Tav said, trying to focus and find the Bralgan, “I know what I’m doing,” she said.

  “Do you know what you’re willing to give up, your power, your skill, your…beauty,” it said.

  “Stop calling me beautiful,” Tav said, “My whole life, because I’m one of you, has just been a reminder about how ugly I am, I’m going to kill this monster, get this claw, and then I’ll have what I need,” Tav said.

  “Very well, but you must know, the words of the Ichor are-”

  “Shut up!” Tav yelled, her voice echoing through the basement cavern. She looked around, and the specter was gone. She took a deep breath, focused, put her hand on the wall, and tried to sense the Bralgan. She saw a vision of the creature, she nodded, and held true to her weapon, heading deeper into the dungeon.

  Meanwhile, Benny, Gregor, and Cole were stalking the halls together, “Remember, it’s a strong breed, but they’re not that smart, they’re going to go all out on the first swing,” Cole said, “Just focus on dodging, then find an opening,” he said.

  The three turned a corner and found Tav, standing on top of a giant Bralgan, her trident buried into its neck. She stood over the demon and looked over her shoulder when she sensed someone walking in on her.

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  “Tav? You?” Cole was stunned, he knew this girl had skill but did she really just take down a demon that size single-handedly, “You took it on alone, god, you’re amazing,” he smiled.

  “Back off, this one’s mine,” Tav said, “If you want a claw you’re going to have to find one yourself,” she said as she got down and pulled out the iron dagger from her belt. She lifted the great arm of the creature and began to hack at its wrist. Sawing through flesh and vein and bone, she bashed the hilt of her dagger against it to shatter the bone and wrestle the great claw free from the creature, putting it into her bag.

  “Man, I’m coming with you on the next hunt,” Cole approached the creature, looking over it, “You took him down, and clean too, what happened? Did you get the drop on it?” he asked.

  “I saw it, and I killed it, not much more to the story than that,” she said, folding her bag closed. “If you want to get a kill, you best keep looking, there’s only so many down here, don’t want to get shown up by Angelica, do you?” she asked.

  “Yeah, you’re right, but we would love to have you as back up. If you can take down one of these single-handedly, you’d be great to have in a hunt,” he said, “What did you lure it with, how did you find it so fast?” he asked, genuinely curious as to what talents the pretty girl he fancied had.

  “Look, I just found it okay,” she said.

  “We’ll, we should get back to our hunt, right guys,” Cole looked to Benny and Gregor, “But after the hunt, I really we should cash in on that club, we got to celebrate this,” Cole smiled.

  “Maybe, ask me again at the end of the year,” Tav said, thinking about the fact that she had all the ingredients now, that soon she wouldn’t be nervous about dancing with or even dating Cole. Soon she would have what she was after, soon all the prejudice and fear and self-loathing would be over. No one, not a professor, not a student, not Angelica, or even her kindergarten teacher would be able to call her ugly, not after she did what she was about to do.

  “I’m going to hold you to that,” Cole smiled, then turned to his friends, “You heard the lady, we got some ground to make up,” he turned back to Tav, “Don’t think you’re going to scoop star hunter out from under me, I got your number,” he grinned.

  Tav rolled her eyes. Why did he treat her like this? Cole of all people was the only person in the academy who knew her horrible secret, yet he treated her better than anyone she had met since she got here. What was wrong with him? He’s supposed to be the greatest hunter in the world? Here she was, a demon right under his nose, and he acted all bashful and flirty with her. Was this some kind of sick game he was playing? Pretending not to be a threat so he could get closer to her, find out the assuredly evil schemes she was here to do so he could stop her? Did he learn this trick from Professor Malsauve, seduce a demon to get in close just so you can jam a knife in their gut. She shook her head, there would be time to find out Cole’s real intentions once she didn’t have to worry about her demonic blood anymore.

  “Good luck,” Tav said, leaving the corpse and walking away from the boys.

  “I’m going to find one bigger than yours,” Cole said.

  “I said good luck,” Tav said, marching away.

  Benny came up to Cole, “Did you two just have a fight? She seemed a little edgy,” he said.

  “I don’t know, she’s hard to read, kind of makes me like her more,” Cole shrugged his shoulders, “Take a good look,” he turned to the demon corpse, “We got to find one bigger than this,” he said, leading his friends deeper into the basement caverns.