NOVEL WEB Chapter 28: Truth or dare
Kaine climbed the stairs to his apartment building, every step reminding him that vampire blood was a bitch to get out of fabric. His shirt was stiff with dried gore, his jacket had holes from crystalline spears, and he was pretty sure something important had happened to his left shoulder blade that his supernatural healing was still working on.
Three-fifteen AM. The perfect time to sneak into his apartment, shower off the evidence, and pretend he was a normal person who spent his evenings doing normal things like watching television or reading books instead of preventing teenage massacres.
It made the neighbors less comfortable to know there was someone living with them that slayed things that terrorized their nights. Because at any point, hunters also ran the risk of getting turned.
He was fishing for his keys when he heard footsteps in the hallway.
"Oh, thank God. There you are."
Kaine turned to find Rebecca emerging from the stairwell, wearing flannel pajama pants and an oversized sweater that suggested she'd either been sleeping or preparing to sleep. Her hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail, and she was clutching a ceramic mug that smelled like chamomile tea.
"Rebecca." He tried to position himself so the worst of the blood stains weren't immediately visible. "What are you doing up?"
"Looking for you, actually." She approached with the casual confidence of someone who'd already decided they were going to have a conversation whether he wanted one or not. "I heard you come home earlier, then leave again around midnight. Figured you were probably—"
She stopped mid-sentence, her eyes widening as she took in his appearance. The emergency lighting in the hallway wasn't doing him any favors, but it was sufficient to highlight the dark stains across his clothes and the general appearance of someone who'd recently been in a fight.
"Jesus Christ, Kaine. Are you hurt?"
"It's not my blood."
The words came out automatically, which was probably not the most reassuring thing he could have said. Rebecca's expression shifted from concern to something that looked like dawning realization.
"Not your blood," she repeated slowly. "Meaning it's someone else's blood. On your clothes. At three in the morning."
Kaine sighed, abandoning any pretense that he could explain this away as a minor accident. "Look, it's complicated—"
"You're a hunter."
It wasn't a question. Rebecca's voice carried the kind of certainty that came from connecting dots she'd probably been unconsciously collecting since they'd met. Her earlier comments about the Shadowguard, her interest in meeting someone who fought supernatural threats, the way she'd sized up his apartment as belonging to someone with no employment.
"Yeah," he said, because denial seemed pointless at this stage. "I'm a hunter."
"Holy shit." She broke into a grin that was entirely too enthusiastic for someone who'd just discovered her neighbor killed monsters for a living. "That's... wow. That explains so much."
"Does it?"
"The weird hours, the minimalist apartment, the general air of someone who's seen too much horrible stuff to care about matching furniture." She gestured at his blood-stained clothes with obvious excitement. "And here I was earlier, going on about how attractive hunters are, and you're just standing there letting me make an ass of myself."
"You weren't making an ass of yourself."
"I was totally making an ass of myself." She took a sip of her tea, studying him with renewed interest. "But you know what? I don't care. This is actually kind of exciting."
Kaine unlocked his apartment door, gesturing for her to follow him inside. "Exciting isn't the word I'd use."
"What word would you use?"
"Messy. Dangerous. Usually involves a lot of cleanup."
Marcus was waiting in the living room, standing motionless near the window with his pale eyes fixed on the door. The Ghoul's supernatural stillness was particularly unsettling in the dim apartment lighting, and Rebecca stopped walking the moment she saw him.
"Is he... always like that?"
"Marcus needs to sleep," Kaine said quickly, giving the Ghoul a meaningful look. "Long night."
Marcus tilted his head slightly, then moved toward the bedroom with his characteristic silence. The door closed behind him with a soft click, leaving Kaine alone with Rebecca and the growing realization that his carefully maintained privacy was dissolving rapidly.
"He's really the serious type, isn't he?" Rebecca settled onto the couch without waiting for an invitation. "Did he get dumped recently or something? Because he's got that whole 'dead inside' thing going on."
"Marcus doesn't date much."
"Ah, one of those guys." She curled her legs under herself, making it clear she wasn't planning to leave anytime soon. "So what happened tonight? Big supernatural showdown? Vampire nest? Demon possession?"
"Why were you looking for me?" Kaine asked, deflecting the question while he tried to decide how much truth he was willing to share. Most people wanted to know until they did and can't handle the truth.
"Right, that." Rebecca looked suddenly embarrassed, which was the first time he'd seen her confidence waver. "This is going to sound completely insane, but I locked myself out of my apartment. You see, I had them replace the old lock with one of those automatic locks, and I went to check if my gas was working and..."
She trailed off, apparently realizing how unlikely her story sounded.
"And you knocked on my door at three AM because...?"
"Because you were the only person I'd met in the building, and I was kind of hoping you might know how to pick a lock or something." She took another sip of tea, avoiding his eyes. "I mean, hunters probably learn that stuff, right? For work?"
It was a reasonable assumption, though completely wrong in his case. Most of his supernatural encounters involved more straightforward solutions than lockpicking.
"I don't know how to pick locks," he admitted.
"Damn." Rebecca looked genuinely disappointed. "What kind of hunter doesn't know basic B&E skills?"
"The kind who usually kicks doors down."
"That would probably wake up the neighbors."
"Usually, yeah."
Kaine disappeared into his bedroom, emerging a few minutes later in clean clothes and smelling significantly less like a crime scene. Rebecca had made herself comfortable on his couch, her mug balanced on her knees as she examined his sparse living space with unconcealed curiosity.
"Better," she said, approving of his wardrobe change. "Though you still look like someone who hasn't slept in about thirty-six hours."
"Occupational hazard."
"Must be exhausting, saving the city every night."
"I don't save the city every night."
"Just the important nights?"
Kaine settled into the chair across from her, suddenly aware that this was the first time in months he'd had a normal conversation with someone who wasn't either trying to kill him or paying him to kill something else.
"Tell me about Portland," he said, changing the subject again.
"What's to tell? Rain, coffee shops, and an ex-husband who thought vintage Camaros were more important than mortgage payments." Rebecca shrugged, but he caught something in her expression that suggested the divorce had been more complicated than she was letting on. "I figured a change of scenery might be good for me."
"And you picked this city?"
"Cheap rent, interesting nightlife, and apparently neighbors who fight monsters for a living." She grinned at him over her tea. "Seemed like the kind of place where a person could start over."
They talked for another hour, the conversation meandering through topics that had nothing to do with supernatural threats or professional violence. Rebecca had a talent for drawing him into discussions about mundane things—movies, food, the weird acoustics in the building that made it impossible to tell where sounds were coming from.
It was the kind of conversation Kaine had forgotten he could have.
"I have to ask," Rebecca said eventually, leaning forward with obvious curiosity. "What's the weirdest thing you've ever fought?"
"Weirdest how?"
"I don't know. Most unusual? Most unexpected? Most 'what the hell is that thing' moment?"
Kaine considered the question, running through a mental catalog of supernatural encounters that ranged from mundane to utterly bizarre.
"Blood construct," he said finally. "Tonight, actually. Vampire sorcerer used blood magic to create something that looked like it was made out of liquid metal. Eight feet tall, glowing red eyes, punched holes in concrete."
"That sounds terrifying."
"It was mostly annoying. Blood magic is flashy, but it's not very efficient against people who know how to take and avoid damageTakes a lot of power to maintain something that big."
"How did you kill it?"
"Killed the vampire controlling it. The construct fell apart on its own."
Rebecca nodded thoughtfully, as if she was filing away information for future reference. "So tell me, what's the most honest thing you've ever told someone?"
'What is this? 20 questions?' Kaine thought for a brief second.
In truth, the question caught him off guard, partly because of how personal it was and partly because he wasn't sure he had a good answer.
"That's a weird question."
"Is it? I mean, you spend your life keeping secrets, right? Professional necessity. But there must be times when you just want to tell someone the truth about who you are and what you do."
"Like right now?"
"Like right now." She smiled, and Kaine realized she was right. This was probably the most honest conversation he'd had in months.
"That I'm tired," he said finally. "Not just physically tired. Tired of pretending to be something I'm not, tired of keeping everyone at arm's length, tired of acting like none of this affects me."
Rebecca's expression softened. "That's honest."
"Your turn," he said. "Most honest thing you've ever told someone."
"That I moved here because I was running away from everything I used to be." The words came out without hesitation, as if she'd been waiting for someone to ask. "Not just the divorce. The whole life. I used to be the kind of person who planned everything, who had five-year goals and retirement accounts and opinions about thread counts."
"What's wrong with that?"
"Nothing, if it's actually what you want. But I realized I was just going through the motions because it was what I was supposed to want. Safe job, safe husband, safe little life in a safe little house."
She paused, staring into her tea.
"When I found out about the affairs, it wasn't even the betrayal that hurt the most. It was realizing that I'd spent five years building a life I didn't actually care about."
"So you left."
"So I left. Sold everything that wouldn't fit in my car, drove until I found a city that felt like somewhere I could be someone different."
Kaine understood that feeling better than he wanted to admit.
"Truth or dare," Rebecca said suddenly.
"What?"
"Come on, you know the game. Truth or dare. You pick one, I ask a question or give you a challenge."
"We're adults."
"Adults can play games." She set her mug on the coffee table, fixing him with an expectant look. "Besides, you've been picking truth for the last hour anyway. Might as well make it official."
"Fine. Truth."
"What's the one thing about being a hunter that you wish people understood?"
Another question that required more thought than he'd expected. Kaine leaned back in his chair, considering the various ways he could answer without revealing more than he was comfortable sharing.
"That it's not heroic," he said finally. "People think it's like the movies—good guys fighting evil, saving innocent lives, making the world a better place. But mostly it's just violence. Necessary violence, maybe, but still violence."
Rebecca nodded slowly. "Your turn."
"Truth or dare?" Kaine asked.
"Truth." She said immediately.
"Why aren't you scared of me?"
"Should I be?" she asked gaggling tea in her mouth.
"Most people would be. Finding out their neighbor kills things for a living."
"You kill things that want to kill people," Rebecca said. "That makes you one of the good guys in my book." She paused, then added with a mischievous smile, "Besides, you're way too tired to be dangerous right now."
"Truth or dare," Kaine said.
"Truth...but it's supposed to be my turn, nevermind, still going with truth,"
"What's the real reason you knocked on my door tonight?"
Rebecca's cheeks flushed slightly, and she looked down at her hands. "I heard you leave, and I... I was curious. About where you went, what you did. I've been wondering about you since we met."
"And the locked door?"
"Is actually locked. But I probably could have called the super in the morning instead of wandering around the hallway at three AM looking for excuses to talk to you."
It was Kaine's turn to choose, and Rebecca was watching him with obvious anticipation.
"Truth," he said, which earned him a disappointed look.
"You're playing this game like someone who's afraid of commitment," she said. "What's the worst thing that could happen if you said dare?"
"I don't know. That's why I don't say dare."
"Come on, live a little. What's the worst I could ask you to do? Dance? Sing? Call your mother?" Rebecca asked with a shrug.
"I don't have a mother to call."
"See? You're overthinking this." Rebecca leaned forward, her eyes sparkling with mischief. "Truth or dare, Kaine. And if you say truth again, I'm going to assume you're scared."
The challenge was obvious, and Kaine realized he was being manipulated by someone who was probably very good at getting what she wanted. But there was something appealing about the idea of letting someone else make decisions for him, even small ones.
"Dare," he said.