Chapter 81. Night Hunter

… 3 years later…

… Three Broomsticks Inn, Hogsmeade…

She sat at a corner table with a glass mug of red currant rum in front of her. She wore a hooded cloak with the hood down, her satiny long hair fell over her bare shoulders as she leaned forward to take a dainty sip of her drink.

When she sat up, she flipped her long, straight black hair over her milky white shoulder to reveal a gorgeous face. She was dressed in a fitted black dress that left her shoulders bare, the cinched hood around her neck doing very little to hide the sultry dress.

Her mug of red rum highlighted the poisonous red of her full lips, her dewy dark eyes scanning the smoky interior of the Inn for her next victim.

She made eye contact with a young Wizard a few tables away, he looked away immediately she caught him staring and she smiled.

She could see how red his face had gotten even though the Inn was dimly lit and it was already dusk, this kill would be easy.

She sashayed over to the counter and ordered another drink, a cherry syrup soda this time, asking for two straws.

There was a new barmaid at the Inn, a young bright-eyed Witch who lived in Hogsmeade. Her name was Maurelle.

She winked at the young barmaid. "Share one with me after your shift?" She teased.

Maurelle ducked her head to hide her fiery cheeks, tucking wispy auburn locks behind her ears. "I-It's against my working policy." She answered in a soft voice.

"Too bad, I can be a lot of fun." She winked again before sashaying away.

"Hey! Elle! We need more mugs from the back!" Madam Rosemerta's voice dragged her eyes from the strange, alluring woman.

"Oh, yes ma'am, I'm sorry." Maurelle curtseyed an apology hurrying off.

She looked behind her shoulders, a predatory look in her eyes as she watched the young girl run off. She would get another chance.

Instead, she continued to the table where the young Wizard who had caught her gaze was seated.

"Want to share a drink?" She smiled seductively, sitting right beside me, so close that her body was pressed against his.

The young Wizard hadn't been expecting this and was too stunned to form a full sentence, not to talk of making a rebuttal. She could see him gulp nervously but he made to move to shift away.

Bingo.

"I'm called Laela, what's your name?" She asked coyly, playing with the sleeve of his jacket.

"Perrell." He choked out, his eyes still wide like he couldn't believe his luck.

Laela scanned him over, he didn't look a day over twenty but he didn't look like he lived well. He had work boots on, his dark hair had a greasy quality and there was dirt under his short fingernails.

Compared to Maurelle, it was like choosing a day-old crusty bread over fine cuisine but he would have to do. She didn't have much time left.

It was easy to wrap the bumbling young adult around her slender finger, Laela didn't even need to drug him to get him to go up to a room with her.

After they shared the mug of cherry soda, he knocked several glasses of firewhisky, maybe trying to fill up on liquid courage. Unfortunately, he wouldn't even need it.

To Laela's relief, Maurelle wasn't the one behind the counter when she rented out a room in the Inn. She still had an eye on the bubbly girl, she was too full of life to pass up on.

Madam Rosmerta didn't bat an eye at the gorgeous sober woman renting out a room for the night with a very drunk young Wizard all over her. They were both adults, she had no plans to play mom to the customers that frequented her pub.

"Destruction of property will be taken off your tab." Rosmerta eyed them up.

Laela gave her a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Of course."

Rosmerta watched them go up the stairs, a furrow in her brows. She was accustomed to women selling themselves out for money and that was fine with her, a business was a business after all.

But something struck her from the couple and it wasn't because the Wizard was a young man that looked like he still lived with his parents and the Witch looked like she had an entire decade on him but it was because she had paid for the room.

The Witches never did that but she shrugged, it could be that the Wizard was too drunk to pay for the room and she would reimburse herself after the night was over.

A group of rowdy customers stepped into the Inn then and she immediately forgot about the odd couple that had just rented a room.

Not till the next day while they were cleaning up the pub and Inn in preparation for the day, not till Maurelle's horrified scream brought her head around when she was wiping down the counter.

Most of the patrons left when the sun came up, even those that rented a room for the night. The pub itself didn't get a lot of customers till late afternoon so there was enough time to clean up before the new day kicked off properly.

"Madam Rosmerta!" Maurelle's horrified voice tumbled from somewhere up the stairs, she had been cleaning out the rooms used last night so Rosmerta was really surprised to hear her make a ruckus.

Maurelle was a young Witch but she had a solid head on her shoulders, she wouldn't make such a fuss unless the situation was truly dire.

Rosmerta threw down the rag she had been using to wipe down the counter and hurried up the stairs, her dress swirling around her stockinged ankles.

"Maurelle? Maurelle?" She called out for her worker who was still screaming. "Why in Merlin's beard are you screaming so loud?" She scolded, walking up to the room where Maurelle's voice was coming from.

"Maurel…" Rosemerta's voice died in her throat when she got a faceful of what had frightened her barmaid so much.

There was a dead Wizard lying down on the bed, his chest was slashed open, forming an X mark right at the center of his chest. He was long dead, his pale skin a testament to the blood-soaked bed.

Rosmerta couldn't even scream, the sight was so gruesome. The poor Wizard had been cut so deeply that his rib cage had been cut open as well, revealing his insides.

Maurelle resumed screaming again, tears punctuating her sounds of horror as she loudly sobbed, trying to hide from the sickening sight in front of her. But no matter how tightly she shut her eyes or how hard she pressed her fingers into her eyes, she couldn't erase the image of the dead Wizard from her head.

Rosmerta took a step forward, the Wizard looked familiar, she took another step forward and then started to weave on her feet. Her vision was starting to darken as well, she started hearing Maurelle's sobs come from a distance away.

Rosmerta took one look at the dead Wizard through her narrowing vision and the next thing she could see was the blood splatters on the floor, her eyes slipped shut. She had keeled over in a dead faint from the shock.

Maurelle's screams only got louder but she at least had the presence of mind to run and get help.

Left behind in the room after Maurelle left was an unconscious Rosmerta on the ground, her dirty blonde hair splayed on the ground behind her. A few meters from her were blood splatters and a couple more some distance away.

A bare foot hung over the side of the bed, leading up to unzipped trousers and higher up the eerie remnants of dark magic. Beside the cooling, stiffening dead body, the widow was wide open, the pearly silk curtains whipping in the morning breeze.

Snow was visible on the rooftops of other buildings but the sun was shining brightly, reflecting aesthetically off the snow. A stark contrast to the blood and gloom in the little room in the Three Broomsticks Inn.

Maurelle returned later with a handle of people who took charge of the situation, they moved Rosmerta to a different room to recover from the shock that the sight of the dead Wizard had given her.

They didn't touch anything else though, the Ministry would have to be called in, this was quite an unusual occurrence. Not to mention that the Dark magic present in the room was suffocating.

Hogsmeade was an all-magical town, the person behind this had to be a Maj. A Maj that was willing to sell their humanity to get what they wanted.