First chapter here we go! Enjoy!

'There is no way out of this,' Jocelyn realized clutching her knife tighter in her right hand. The creature she was fighting was currently picking itself off the concrete floor. Its menacing animalistic eyes bore into her very soul. For a moment, Jocelyn found herself between a rock and a hard place; her thoughts swirling for a solution out of this. Her chances of survival, already in single digits, were even lower if her partner didn't show up soon. The creature snarled as it began to lunge toward Jocelyn. Suddenly, a gunshot rang deafening Jocelyn's ears; she witnessed the hound crumple to the floor, blood seeping from the left side of the creature's head.

Looking away from the hound's semi-human corpse, the sound of Jocelyn's partner's combat boots clicking against the cement. The copper-haired woman relaxed seeing her partner, Eliza now standing near the body. Eliza's golden brown eyes glistened with relief when she saw that Jocelyn was still in one piece minus the scrapes and bruises the two had both received.

"Thanks," Jocelyn gratefully said while looking around the area. The warehouse was not the first empty warehouse Jocelyn had been in. Oh no, there had been plenty more, but this one seemed different to her. There was the lingering feeling of dread in the vacant building, one that was troubling Jocelyn since she and her partner had entered.

"Your welcome kid," the older blonde-haired woman replied with endearment, lowering the gun to her side.

"Name's still not 'kid'," Jocelyn added while managing to stifle a quiet laugh as she went to the shifter's corpse. Looking down, she added, gesturing to the body with a light flick of her right hand: "I really hate these things."

With a disgusted expression of agreement, Eliza helped Jocelyn take the body and move it to a proper place to bury and burn the thing. It was close to sunset, the sky was covered in pinks and oranges blended with the natural sky blue in a surprisingly calming way. To Jocelyn, this was ironic. People never realize how lucky they have it and they no longer have to deal with another threat to peace for another day. Eliza had mentioned when she and Jocelyn first met, that society will never know the truth and if they did, well let's just say that there would be a panic. Many of those people wouldn't know what to do with themselves, cowering in fear in the supposed safety of their homes. It was the police's job to maintain and enforce the law, but a Parahunter was supposed to make sure that the creatures of nightmares were at bay. Someone had to do it. It might as well be the people who know the pain of the hunt all too well rather than the innocent unassuming bystander.

As the body of the shifter was set ablaze, Jocelyn stood there quietly watching the sparks and ashes of the fire flicker. Somewhere in her mind, the memories of her life before hunting replayed while the world around her stood still; even if it was for a moment. Naturally, the smell of roasting flesh wasn't appealing to either woman. By the time the body was burned, the sun was no longer in the sky and the moon had taken its place. The embers of the fire soon became the only remnants of the two parahunters' presence as they walked to Eliza's 1980 Sierra GMC pickup truck.

Instead of getting in the truck right away, the duo seemed distracted by the unwanted presence that lingered. Jocelyn stared at the constellations, connecting the dots of each individual star to form various shapes. Eliza, who was trying to find the source of that presence, knew better than to disturb the copper-haired woman's train of thought.

After spending the past two and a half years hunting together, Eliza knew that Jocelyn wasn't one for small talk and was currently in her own thoughts. In fact, Jocelyn didn't start to show her true personality until about eight months after they started working together. However, as time went on, Eliza grew concerned about Jocelyn's inner demons coming to haunt her; though Jocelyn never said it aloud, she was clearly carrying the weight of her past on her shoulders. Over a month before the two met, Jocelyn's mother had been killed in a car accident on the way home from work. As far as Eliza knew, Jocelyn didn't start hunting until after her mother's death.

Both snapped out of their trance as stomping alerted the two of another's presence quickly advancing toward them; a second shifter, who's mint-green eyes glowed ever so slightly. Jocelyn was the first to react and pulled out her gun from its holster, but realized as she prepared to fire that she hadn't replaced the empty magazine.

'Idiot!'

In the corner of the copper-haired Parahunter's vision, a blurry human-like figure caught up to the shifter, and attack the shifter while it was in mid-stride. The creature yelped as the figure maneuvered around, effectively distracting the beast so the figure was now behind the shifter. The shifter grunted in pain, going limp before it could even attack and fell forward collapsing to the dirt and gravel ground. As it fell, the corpse revealed a young man in his mid-twenties holding a blood-stained silver knife in his right hand.

Behind Jocelyn, Eliza reacted discreetly grateful for the man's rescue. Though Jocelyn didn't know who he was, Eliza couldn't forget her nephew's face.
"Mark," Eliza stepped forward after acknowledging him with a curt nod. "Let's finish this thing off."
The three of them managed to quickly dispose of the body and drove back to the hotel. At that time, very little was discussed to disturb silence's unwanted presence. Jocelyn wasn't sure who the man was, but Eliza appeared to trust him, however; Jocelyn couldn't help the pit of distrust in her stomach grow the more she was around Mark. Then again, in this line of business, you couldn't trust anyone. Now sitting on the edge of the motel's bedside untying her shoes, Jocelyn glared at the sandy brown-haired man with suspicion as he took off his dark brown hooded jacket and sat on the couch in a manner that stated 'I am so done with today'.

"Do you plan on explaining who you are or are you planning on sitting on your thumbs instead?" Jocelyn sat up, tossing her shoes to the side. She faced Mark expressing her suspicion to the male Parahunter. Meanwhile, Eliza watched as she got herself a beer and opened it.

"Who me?" Mark inquired. "Name's Mark O'Brien and like you and Aunt Eliza, I'm a Parahunter."

"That explains the silvered knife-" she paused and replayed the second half of Mark's explanation in her head. "Wait... AUNT!?"

Mark nodded slowly but said nothing. A cough from Eliza broke the pregnant pause that was about to form.

"Is this really that surprising Featherhead? I've mentioned Mark before," Eliza commented as she took a sip of her beer.

Jocelyn cringed internally from the embarrassing nickname. Though she wouldn't admit it that the hunt was a failure, Jocelyn recalled that month and a half well. One minute you're hunting a witch, next thing you know, you've been turned into a sparrow. Even after a week of lifting the curse (since it took Eliza that long to kill that crazy woman), there were feathers in Jocelyn's hair for a month, earning her the occasional nickname, Featherhead.
Mark sniggered. "So you're Featherhead, eh? "
Scoffing, Jocelyn's suspicion transformed into annoyance. Her ocean-blue eyes bore into Mark's dark gray ones; her face now stiff with frustration. 'That son of a gun...'

Eliza sighed realizing there was no need for her to worry. All that mattered was that her nephew was in capable hands. The older woman finished the last of her beer before saying: "I swear, you two act like four-year-olds rather than a twenty-one woman and twenty-four-year-old man. Get some rest you two. We'll discuss this in the morning. And try not to strangle each other while I get my beauty sleep."
Jocelyn got up and went to the bathroom to clean her scrapes and change clothes. Fifteen minutes later, she emerged from the bathroom with red and black plaid pajama pants and a dark gray long-sleeved shirt. With one last glance at the new guy, Jocelyn jumped into her bed tucking her silvered knife under her pillow and started falling into a dreamless sleep.

Please leave some comments and tell us what you think, okay well until next time Jelly Beans bye! 💕