Hunter Session 18

Previous: Hunter Session 17

As Arie took a nap in the bushes across from the house where Haji was partying, blissfully oblivious to the danger he was in, Charlotte and Charlie were sitting next to the Mississippi River, having their most in-depth conversation yet. As they talked, it became obvious that the differing natures and experiences between a vampire and Visionary were not going to be easy to overcome - but it was also apparent that their feelings for each other were growing so quickly that these barriers might soon become irrelevant. However, their discussion was interrupted by the sudden appearance of a large black bird who seemed to talk to Charlie for a minute, then flew away. Charlie looked at Charlotte and explained that the bird had brought a message from his friend Simon, who said that one of Charlie's friends was in trouble and that he might want to help. Though he wasn't sure it would be anyone Charlotte knew, he said she could come along if she wanted. She agreed, and they both got in Charlotte's car and followed Simon's directions to the place where the trouble was.

Of course, the directions took them to the same street where Arie had begun his stakeout. Three men were clustered around a clump of bushes, poking at something unseen inside them. Charlotte drove by slowly, peering into the bushes, and saw that the men were surrounding Arie. Another glance with second sight soon revealed that all three men were supernaturals.

Charlotte and Charlie parked at the end of the street and nonchalantly walked up to the bushes. Pretending she'd just noticed the activity there, Charlotte asked the men what they were doing. They explained that the guy in the bushes was their friend, and that he'd got plastered at a party that had just broken up, gone out to the bushes to throw up, and passed out. They were picking him up so they could take him home to sleep it off. Knowing that would spell doom for Arie, Charlotte pointed out that their friend looked like he had a pretty serious case of alcohol poisoning, and that they didn't look too sober themselves. In the interest of safety, she offered to drive their "friend" to a hospital. The ringleader said he hadn't been drinking and that they could take care of him, wrapping his words in a none-too-subtle suggestion to get lost. Realizing this approach wouldn't get her anywhere, Charlotte decided to back off and walked to the end of the block with Charlie.

Charlotte and Charlie watched from behind a fence while the three men loaded Arie and his backpack into the backseat of their car, then stood around in the house's driveway as if discussing what to do next. Charlotte was at a loss and said as much to Charlie. He replied, "I'm going to take care of something. Stay here, but call for me if you need help. I'll be back." She started to ask him for more information, but when she turned to look at him he'd completely disappeared. Charlotte stood behind the fence for a few minutes, completely confused. Eventually, she heard the sound of a car door opening nearby, though the three vampires near the car didn’t seem to notice anything. This freaked her out a little, and she started calling softly for Charlie as she backed away toward her car.

Suddenly, Charlotte saw Charlie near the vampires' car with the unconscious Arie slung over one shoulder. It appeared he’d been using some sort of vampire invisibility power, and Charlotte had inadvertently blown his cover. The three vampires by the car noticed him immediately and began chasing after him. Charlotte jumped up from behind the fence and started yelling, trying to draw enough attention to herself for Charlie to make his escape. However, only one of the vampires took the bait. The other two were closing the distance to Charlie. Realizing she needed a faster method of escape, Charlotte noticed Arie's car parked nearby and looped around toward it. The vampire chasing her tried to cut her off, but she Cleaved him across the knees with a stick she'd picked up, which slowed him down enough for her to get to Arie's car. Fortunately, the keys were in the ignition. Charlotte started the car just as the vampire was beginning to get up, peeled out to the end of the street, screeched to a halt, and motioned for Charlie - who was now running at a truly superhuman speed, though not fast enough to fully outpace the others, and holding Arie above his head - to get in. He slid across the hood just in time and jumped into the passenger seat with Arie in his lap. Charlotte floored it and left the three vampires in the dust.

Once out of immediate danger, Charlotte started heading for the hospital, but she didn't get far before Charlie started acting nervous. He demanded to be let out of the car - it didn't matter where, just as soon as possible. Charlotte immediately pulled over. As Charlie opened the door, he said hurriedly, "Thank you for a lovely evening, and I'm sorry to make such a sudden exit," and took off through somebody's backyard. (He would later attribute this behavior to "self-control issues.") Utterly confused but knowing better than to investigate at a time like this, Charlotte drove Arie to the emergency room claiming not to know what had happened to him, and called the rest of the group in the morning to fill them in. The others immediately came to the hospital to hear the story, with Randy frustrated because Arie's injury interfered with his plans to buy a new car.

After reassuring themselves that Arie would make a full recovery, the group continued to go about their business as usual, meeting the members of the network one by one and slowly acquainting themselves with the rest of the hunters in the city. To celebrate the strong growth of the network, they threw a dinner party in Melba’s apartment without her approval, leading to her somewhat disgusted surprise when she returned from work to find that her home had been commandeered by approximately twelve people.

The next morning, Arie awoke in the hospital, feeling much better thanks to Saria having stopped by to heal him. While trying to escape from the hospital, he discovered that (among other things) he had a catheter in, and decided that his nurse had a crush on him after he asked her to remove it. Realizing he wouldn't be able to escape on his own, he called Randy to come pick him up, which he did. Afterwards, Arie agreed to accompany Randy on his search for a car. Randy, thanks to his incredibly luck, found the exact car he wanted in the exact color he wanted (lime green) at the first lot they visited. Always one to give in to peer pressure, Arie bought a car as well (an Explorer, for use specifically on the hunt). The salesman was somewhat taken aback when both of them paid in cash.

When Arie and Randy finally wandered back to the apartment building, Melba called for a meeting and freaked out all over Arie. She thought his unauthorized surveillance mission had been the epitome of stupid, and that it had also been very disrespectful of him to do it after he'd expressly promised he wouldn't. Arie, on the other hand, didn't think it was a big deal - after all, he'd survived. Plus, he'd found one of Haji's hideouts. But what had already been a heated discussion was made even worse when Arie suddenly realized that his backpack - which contained his Uzi, a pound of shrooms, and one of Will's tracking device - had not made the trip with him and was apparently still with the vampires Charlotte and Charlie had fought. Immediately Arie announced he was going to follow the signal from the tracking device and go back to get it. Melba completely flipped her lid and told Arie that a backpack wasn't worth putting himself in that kind of danger. When the rest of the group agreed with her, Arie grudgingly promised not to go. However, he began planning how to do it on his own, while the rest of the group began pondering the kind of damage they could do with a tracking device most likely pointing them directly to Haji's haven.

Next: Hunter Session 19