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Phillip: Tears for Fears

I’D GOTTEN COMPLACENT. My head was full of the ginger-haired minx, and I’d all but forgotten to take the reverse serum with us. I’d forgotten she was still a target. I’d been wrapped up in my complex, conflicted feelings for her, and it led to mistakes on the job not even an amateur would make. And I’d likely do it again, if my time with her taught me anything.

Eros, a longtime mercenary, was someone who’d kill anyone for the right price—and a massive pain in my ass. Mostly because Eros was a descendent of the first Fae. I hadn’t been given an age, but it was speculated he was among the first creatures to cross over into this realm. So he could very easily be thousands upon thousands of years old.

Humans might refer to his kind as warlocks or elves. Maybe even fairies, but we called his particular type Dark Fae. They employed dark magic to bring death and destruction. Their magic was tainted by the countless lives they’d stolen, and over time, Dark Fae were physically marked by it.

Eros stayed covered by several layers of fabric, and I’d only seen his true face a handful of times, but it was marked by countless black lines of ancient runes. They marred his pale flesh and couldn’t be concealed with magic.

The Organization had long hunted the renegade Fae. He’d killed more Hunters than any other person in the history of our kind. Often, some of the top Hunters the Organization ever employed.

Eros’s magic was nearly impossible to evade, and his spell of invisibility rendered his victims helpless to fight him. Very few ever escaped him. Seeing through his invisibility wasn’t impossible, but not many people I knew ever managed it, so their lives were claimed before they even knew they were a target.

It was a difficult skill to teach.

Eros despised me the most because I could beat his magic, so he never got the jump on me. My abilities tore through his spells, and my propensity for clever thinking put me one step ahead. I created counter-weapons that disrupted his spells, and most of his spells were too slow to match my speed. I cataloged every single spell he cast and how it could be overcome; information privy to a select few because the Organization would use it to better themselves and not protect anyone.

But Eros couldn’t win against me. He attempted to countless times, but he always failed. That was when he started to go after those close to me—Hunters, friends, my master.

Giselle.

Anyone of value, Eros targeted. In every case, he was successful. Getting close to someone always proved my greatest mistake. It put a target on their back and directly in the Dark Fae’s sights. Eros was determined to spend his life punishing me, and I vowed never to get close to anyone again. Not after I barely picked myself back up after Giselle’s death. Not when I knew what sort of torture awaited those close to me if he ever made them his target—and he would.

Twenty years ago, I broke off my partnership with Kris. She was a strong and immensely talented Hunter, but she’d be no match for Eros. So, I suggested Sloan, who was like me—immortal, strong, and a product of the same gene mutation. Kris was the only one I managed to save, and I very quickly dropped off the radar afterwards.

Long ago, I met Sloan by total accident. And when his speed matched mine, his skill set hauntingly similar, I questioned if the Organization had done it again. I’d never met anyone capable of countering my moves like Sloan could. After a little digging, I discovered his age and connected the dots. He was one of two other Hunters I found with the gene mutation V and I had.

Sloan was a century younger, a prodigal genius, and he’d made top Hunter within the first twenty years of life. He wasn’t as fast as I was, but he was stronger. Even though we shared the same gene mutation, our abilities were in no way identical. In a few years after meeting, that fact was clear.

The blue-eyed Hunter was assigned to do the highest-level covert missions, so very few Hunters knew he existed. Not even Rose was aware the UK-born Hunter lived. Only after he became Kris’s partner did people really start to see him more.

The secret of our gene mutation wasn’t much of a kept secret anymore. Sadly, it was difficult to conceal immortality after a time, but many Hunters accepted it as a long-dormant trait of our Hunter genetic line, and not something mutated out of a lab. People would believe practically anything to keep the status quo.

And after over two hundred years, I was well-acquainted with the ugly side of humans and their kin. No matter where you hailed from or what powers you had, ultimately, very few cared about anyone outside of themselves. Greed bred more greed, and it always came down to personal gain.

But I wasn’t any different.

Incidentally, with Sloan’s help, the reverse serum was created. He was the only other person who knew how to make it. There were very few I trusted, but Sloan and Kris were among them.

With Eros after me, as much as I could, I kept my distance from them. I didn’t call for their help unless I didn’t have a choice, and I rarely talked to them. Otherwise, sending Kris away was pointless.