Page 1 of Nexus

Chapter One

IT WAS GOING TO BE a big night for me, I could just feel it. I was about to start a brand-new job and nerves fluttered in my stomach. They felt more like a flock of deranged birds than delicate butterflies. My hands were sweaty, so I wiped them on my black leather pants, then winced when I realized what I’d done. They’d cost me a fortune and deserved better treatment.

“Are you ready yet, Saige?” mom shouted from upstairs.

“Almost!” I called back, then took a final look at myself in my mirror. My sheer, sleeveless black shirt had thin gold chains holding it up rather than fabric straps. It showed off my abundance of colorful tattoos on my shoulders, arms and torso. The leather cups that acted as a bra weren’t quite big enough to contain my boobs. As a curvy woman, it wasn’t easy to find clothes to fit me. Especially since I was just under six-feet-tall. My black boots had a three-inch heel, which would make me tower over most people.

While my tatts drew a lot of stares, my purple hair and eyes tended to stand out just as much. Everyone thought they were fake, but I’d been born with them. My mom’s hair and eyes were a mixture of bright yellow and pale green. Neither of us could exactly blend into a crowd with our height and general stature.

I looked the part for the new career I was about to embark on tonight, but something was missing. Crossing to the scuffed brown trunk at the foot of my bed, I opened it and grabbed a few items. I stuffed them into my big black leather purse and slung it over my shoulder.

I’d moved my bedroom down to the basement several years ago, so I’d have more space. I’d hung a sheet up to hide my makeshift bedroom from view and to give me some privacy when mom did our washing. I had a ratty old armchair, a TV, coffee table, gaming console and my all-important collection of videogames. Not to mention my trunk full of goodies, of course. Everything inside it was designed to aid me in my job.

My heels clicked on the bare concrete floor as I walked over to the stairs. Mom was waiting for me in the hallway with her phone in her hand. She took a bunch of photos of me in my full regalia and I posed for her. “How do I look?” I asked, nerves increasing as I waited for her response.

“You look gorgeous,” she said with tears of pride glinting in her eyes. A couple of inches shorter than me, she’d stacked on a bit of extra weight after she’d fallen pregnant with me and had retired from her job. “I’ve been training you for this night for the past decade. I know you’re ready to carry on the Sterling family tradition. Happy twenty-first birthday, Lil Bish.”

We snickered at the nickname she’d given me back when she’d first started my training. I’d been difficult to work with to say the least. That had been years before my growth spurt and when I’d been a lot shorter. “Thanks, Big Momma,” I replied. “Will you be gaming tonight while I’m out walking the streets?”

“Of course,” she replied with an eyeroll. Addicted to gaming, she’d taught me how to play videogames while homeschooling me. We used the nicknames we’d given each other as our gamer handles. “If you run into any trouble, call me and I’ll talk you through it,” she added, following me to the door. She was trying to hide her concern, but I saw straight through her.

“I’ll be fine,” I said to reassure us both as she escorted me down the hall to the front door of our small bungalow.

“Make sure you park your car a couple of blocks away from your work zone,” she reminded me. “You don’t want any weirdos following you home from work.”

My car was a bright orange hatchback that was covered in small dents from a hailstorm. I’d gotten it cheap due to how hideous it was and the fact that no one else had wanted to buy it. “I’ll keep an eye out to make sure no one tries to tail me,” I promised. She took one final photo of me, then I sauntered down the path to my car. We only had a single car garage, so I always had to park it on the street.

A car drove past me and the driver whistled loudly. I smirked at the compliment as I climbed into my car. My purse went onto the passenger seat, then I waved at my mother and drove off to meet my destiny.

Nexus was a large city and we lived on the fringes of the burbs. It took me twenty minutes to reach the heart of the city. I drove to the area mom had suggested and started looking for a parking space. It was a Saturday night and the streets were crowded. I ended up driving around the block a few times before I nabbed an empty spot.

Further away from my target area than I liked, I locked my car, hefted my purse over my shoulder and strutted down the sidewalk.

A pair of young dudes not much older than me were leaning against a building up ahead. Their jeans were so big they were practically falling off their asses. They’d torn the sleeves off their t-shirts to make them look tough. Their conversation came to a halt and they stared at me in awe. I knew I looked good and their reaction wasn’t unexpected.

“Hey, hot mamma,” one of them said. “How much do you charge?”

“For what?” I asked with a frown.

“I’m kind of broke, so I can probably only afford a handy,” he replied.

“What will you give me for twenty bucks?” his friend asked, reaching for his wallet. “How much does a blow job cost?”

“I’m not a ho!” I said, face going red with embarrassment and anger.

“You’re dressed like a ho,” the first guy pointed out.

“Do you want twenty bucks or not?” his friend asked, holding up a tattered note. “I don’t care if you’re a trannie. A blow job is a blow job.”

“I’m not a trannie and you couldn’t pay me enough to have any kind of sex with you two creeps!” I exclaimed and kept walking. This wasn’t the first time I’d been mistaken for being a transgender woman. My mom had dealt with misconceptions all her life just because she wasn’t a dainty little female who was acceptable to society’s standards. Now it was my turn to shoulder the same burden. Actual transgender men and women must go through hell.

“It’s your loss!” the first guy shouted angrily. “You could have made forty bucks tonight!”

I snorted out a laugh at his pathetic jab. Thanks to my frugal nature, I’d saved up a small nest egg from my previous parttime jobs. I didn’t need to sell my body and I wasn’t strolling around trolling for clients to have sex with. My task was far more important than that. My job was to keep creeps like them safe from the monsters that infested Nexus.

“If they only knew,” I muttered, keeping my senses alert for danger. All kinds of supernatural creatures lived in this city. How did I know? Because I was one of them. I came from a long line of monster hunters and my mother had taught me everything she knew. It was a Sterling family tradition to go on our first hunt alone on our twenty-first birthdays. Now that mom had completed my training, it was up to me to land a job.

Not all supernatural beings were bad, of course. Plenty of them easily blended in with the clueless humans. I was supposed to eradicate the ones who’d gone rogue and had murdered humans. They needed to be put down before they could expose our kind.