[hider=Part 2]
Jamie dived to the side at the last moment, only narrow avoiding the spray of acidic vomit which had been launched in his direction, the liquid quickly beginning to erode the ground where moments ago he had been stood. "You'll have to do better than that!" he yelled, mocking the colossal beast before him. 

"Gaahrgh! Fuck you!!" Screeched Robathor the foul, it's spiked tail shaking in rage at the repeated mockery that was being launched at him. He lunged forwards swiping with his razor sharp claws at the slayer's face, missing as he dodged backwards quickly, slapping the creature’s wrist with the flat of his sword in the process. 

The creature hissed before it withdrew its claw and nursed it slightly, glaring at Jamie with its strange eyes. Robathor the foul was an immense beast that had lived for hundreds of years, if not more. As well as being physically daunting the beast also had a sharp and cruel mind, which it used to influence the world around it to cause pain and suffering where it could. It’s most dangerous ability is that it can possess those whose blood it has consumed, often then using those people to collect the blood of others and thus add them to its list of helpless slaves. Currently Jamie was sure that they had killed or defeated most of those under its control, but when they had first learnt of the beast it was well on it’s way to controlling a great many people. There had been times in the past where the creature was responsible for entire wars, its lust for domination knowing no end. But as always the order of day stood ready and watching and had always managed to defeat it one way or another. Robathor inhaled once more, preparing to launch another spray of acidic vomit at the slayer but this time he was ready and waiting. 

At that moment Jamie leapt from his position on the rocky cliff-face landing on the creature's large back, plunging his sword down to its hilt through the beasts scaled hide as he did so. The creature screeched in pain, its voice cracking into a gurgle which soon became its death throws as Jamie continued to aggressively wiggle his blade around damaging several of its major arteries as he did so. 

Robathor inhaled its last breath before collapsing, Jamie riding the beast's corpse to the ground before standing triumphantly on the kill and performing several hip thrusts of victory for his own amusement. The battle had been a lengthy one, Jamie managing to convince the deadly creature to engage him in a riddle battle before the combat so he would be much closer and easier to strike at. 

Hopping from the creature’s large body he moved around to its head before pulling out his trusty dragon-bone knife given to him by his one true love, Lady Carver, in order to best harvest the trophies and ingredients that could be used from the various creatures they killed. It had been a very long time since anyone he knew of had slain a Robathor, and so the ingredients in question would be immensely valuable and in high demand. He removed the beast's razor sharp teeth - as they had properties similar to dragon teeth, it's eyes - as they were beyond worth when sold in the right places, and then finally he harvested its heart which had since its death solidified into a precious gem - again worth a fortune because of its many uses in potions or as a magical component. 

Wiping the blood from both the dagger and his silver blade on the creatures rough beardy stubble, he crammed everything up securely in his pack before moving back down the mountain trail that he had come from, a final glance back at the corpse of Robathor, the long journey back ahead of him. He shrugged internally at the thought of the lengthy trip, comforted by the though that he was returning to his beloved Holly – and to a lesser extent, his precious smoking herbs. 

***

Holly grinned smugly as the laptop returned the result of her analysis on the silver cartridge. It carried the same kind of molecular imprint that their own rounds also did – an imprint which was generally left through the method of production, often intentionally done as almost a kind of molecular branding. This particular imprint indicated to her that they had probably been produced and sold by the exact same supplier that she and Jamie frequented. 

Quickly looking through each of the pages of in depth analysis that the scanning machine had produced she saw nothing out of the ordinary or of further interest, and so closed her laptop before turning her mind towards the next task of finding out who had purchased and used the round. 

Obviously she'd be able to convince their supplier to disclose the identity of his other customers, as she was extremely skilled in the arts of persuasion and failing that she could simply bribe or beat the shit out of him until he told her. It may not be the best back up plan, but with the stakes so high there was no way that she’d let anything get between her and recovering the crown. 

Grabbing her jacket she moved through the main room passing the open door to their bedroom, a slight twinge going through her at the thought of having to spend another night without Jamie. Hopefully he would be on his journey back providing all had gone well with his mission, and so she scrawled a quick note that would catch him up if he returned whilst she was gone. “Crown taken, traced culprit to the Barker suppliers and will track them from there. Love and Kisses Holly xxxxxx”.

With that she left the house and climbing into her trusty Land Rover Defender she began the short drive across town to their shop, and hopefully to the identity of the mystery thief. The drive was quick and uneventful, Holly smoking a cigarette as she drove her eyes concentrating on her surroundings as they always did – alert and prepared at any moment. She let her mind wander slightly, herself still slightly amazed at her own general abilities and commitments. It had been several years since she and Jamie met, and back then they had both been very different people who did very different things. But together they had become so much more than either of them would have imagined, Holly becoming an incredibly successful slayer and overcoming her own personal demons and Jamie simply gaining someone worth fighting for, someone who he cared about more than any other person or thing and giving him once more a reason to continue his eternal battle against the forces of darkness. 

After a little while longer Holly reached her destination and with a skilful turn of the wheel she neatly swung the land rover around and reversed into the usual alleyway losing little momentum as she did so, the vehicle coming to a perfect stop.

***

"So it's a deal?" She asked finally glancing back at the Barker brothers as they whispered to each other quietly, discussing the offer she had presented. 

The eldest of the two, Barlow Barker nodded in agreement before holding out his cybernetic hand to shake hers. As they did Holly resisted the urge to laugh - she'd agreed that she would make sure all loot and goods they recovered were sold exclusively through them. Not a bad deal all in all if they didn't already do that - Holly had long ago created a fictitious ‘rival buyer’ who always seemed to offer that little more for whatever product they brought back – in an clever ploy to get the Barkers to rise their prices. 

With that the youngest of the pair, Madoug Barker, went quickly into a room at the back of the shop before returning with a file filled with all of the information they had on the rival hunters. Once their business was concluded Holly turned to leave, turning down their usual offer to stay and blaze. “Another time boys” she said waving as the door closed behind her. Sitting back in the car Holly lit another cigarette before opening the file and beginning to read the contents within, pausing at the pictures and names of the other’s, who were also a pair. Eddardwardo and Abigayus – a pair of hunters that they had heard of on a few occasions previously, but never encountered directly. Going through the rest of the file it soon became clear that they were generally more interested in hunting werewolves over vampires – the wolfmen generally being easier to track and dispose of (obviously as long as they didn’t savage you first). They had purchased and sold several supplies recently, but this time it looked as if it was a different kind of supplies they’d purchased – including many ingredients and components for the exact kind of dark magic that vampires liked to practise. As she read Holly swore and leafed through to find an invoice address and after finding it she quickly floored it and began driving directly to where their base of operations would be.

After skilfully tearing through the town Holly pulled up outside what looked like an old abandoned warehouse, before waiting and watching for a few minutes to see if there was any activity. After seeing nothing Holly removed her revolver from its holster and exited the car, heading directly for the nearest doorway into the warehouse. The door was locked but it only took a moment for her to quickly pick the lock with her kit, another gift from Jamie, before slowly pushing the door open and glancing in. Seeing no-one or anything of interest she pushed the door fully open before heading in, gun held up in front of her as she did so, watching for even the slightest of movements. 

Once inside it became very clear that something had happened here, the place being trashed with silver bullet casings and a few piles of ash here and there. After a little more searching Holly soon discovered what she'd been looking for, a trapdoor entrance into what must be the main base below the warehouse. Again being extremely cautious Holly made her way down, away from the rays of sunlight that were coming through the windows and down into the darkness. Even with the years of experience it still took her eyes a few moments to adjust to the gloom, her natural night vision finally kicking in as two figures stepped out before her and a (more or less) masculine voice called out "Alright! It's us, you got us, calm down and stop pointing that thing around" followed by the light flicking on and illuminating the room with its artificial glow, revealing the man to have spoken as Eddardwardo, with Abigayus behind him slightly. The only concerning thing, was that they were both now clearly vampires. 

In the blink of an eye Holly pointed her gun directly at the pair, who remained perfectly still. "Stay cool fool!" barked Ed, who proceeded to hold up his arms "just because we got turned into bloodsucking soulless creatures doesn't mean we stop being hunters. There are bad dudes and pig blood to drink a plenty – so it isn’t like we are just gonna kill innocents or anything like that." 

Holly hesitated for a moment before lowering her gun. She didn't know why exactly, but she thought that she could trust them. Despite their vampiric nature, they were still hunters at heart and would do whatever it took to being down the forces of evil - no matter their own fate – or at least she knew that was exactly what she would do in their situation, so just maybe it made sense. 

***

Jamie took another swig from the bottle as he sat in the rickety train car, the scenes of the gentle countryside flying past through the window as the steam-train thundered down the tracks. It had been almost an hour since the strange but well dressed Italian had entered his car and foolishly tried to grope him in the darkness of a tunnel. As Jamie rolled a smoke from the herbs he had found in the man’s pockets he remembered fondly how he had stabbed him in the second tunnel when plunged into darkness, the train emerging and light returning he had said “Mi scuzi” to him as the Italian man stared down at the blade that was now through his chest before falling to the ground. 

The man had had an entire bag filled with goodies it turned out, one such being a bottle of an Italian spirit called Cynar, which seemed pleasant enough – especially when combined with the smoking herbs that had also been in his pocket. As Jamie blew several smoke rings the door into his carriage opened again and a small goblin waiter who was pushing a trolley poked his head in saying “Goooood afternoon sir, your grilled Unicorn steak baguette is ready. Would you care fo…” his voice trailing away as he noticed the dead man sat opposite him. Raising his eyebrow and holding out his hand the goblin looked at the body and then back at Jamie a few times before clearing his throat suggestively. Sighing Jamie reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his wallet before taking a small wad of notes out and placing them in the Goblins hand, aware that without the bribe the goblin would most likely make some kind of scene and ruin his relaxing journey. Stuffing the notes into his pocket in the flash of an eye the Goblin returned to his previous professional manner and said “Would you care for some cockatrice mayonnaise with that?” before passing over the food, bowing before leaving and closing the door behind him. Shaking his head Jamie quickly finished the smoke before digging into the delicious food, glad for the feeling of a nice prepared meal for a change. 

Several hours later Jamie was laid spread out over the large seat, snoring and grinding his teeth slightly as the train reached the Overtonia stop. As the train prepared to leave the whistle sounded, rousing him from his slumber and he sat up suddenly and looked out of the window, realising that the train was now pulling away. “Fuck fuck fuck!” he shouted as he jumped up and left the carriage, running down the corridor and opening the door that lead to the next train cart before vaulting over the little side railing and landing on the ground and sliding down the slope leading up to the track and then climbing up onto the nearby platform all in the flash of an eye. He watched the train pull away before shivering slightly as the cold wind whistled around him, before he pulled his jacket closed and buttoned it up. Turning and walking away from the station he started the final leg of his journey (or so he thought).
[/hider]