Perp

"Hunter? What are you thinking about?" asked Lexa.

The Metropolitan School of Mysticism student turned to face the yellow-eyed girl who was next to him on the bed.

"Just wondering what the figure earlier could be," he replied.

"It could be a vampire," said Lexa.

"Why would you think so?"

"I mean ... It doesn't try to get inside - because it needs an invite and it only shows up in the night - because of the sunlight!"

"That's -- Vampires actually don't care about sunlight," said Hunter.

"Of course they do, everybody knows that."

"Everybody except vampires apparently."

"Pfft, what do you know?"

"About vampires? A lot more than you I guess."

"There's no way, I've seen like ALL the vampire movies," said Lexa.

"Okay, maybe next time I see one in the morning, you could remind them about how the sun should affect them," Hunter said.

"Maybe I will."

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"A very good morning to all the veteran guardians, new guardians, and intern guardians," said Richard Lewis, the leader of the Sprite Guardians. "Yesterday we did some investigating and thanks to all of your hard work, we've finally made a breakthrough in our case about the disappearances in River Pot."

Richard clicks on a device in his hand and the screen on the television lights up with the picture of a man. "This is Pepi, the man we believe is responsible for the disappearing in River Pot," said Richard.

"Pepi is a pure demon?" Hunter asks.

"No, he's not. There is no way a pure demon could be responsible, we talked about this," said the blue-eyed man.

Hunter sighs and sits back in silence listening to the rest of Richard's speech.

"Pepi has been arrested twice by Ingleland police and once by the Sprite Guardians led by myself. This isn't the first time he's tried something like this," said Richard. "Pepi has been moving his men all around town recently and we suspect he's planning to move the missing people too. However, we have no idea where or when this movement would take place so the plan is to sneak into his super yacht and see what we can find," he explained.

"Why super yacht and not his house?" Petra asked.

"Because the super yacht is his house," Richard answered. "As exciting as sneaking onto a super yacht sounds, only two members of the Sprite Guardians would be needed for that since Pepi is throwing an invite-only party and we were only able to secure two invites," he stated.

Alice rises to her feet. "Those two members would be Hunter and me," she said.

"Wait, what?!" Joe said surprised.

"Seconded. Why me and not ... literally anyone else?" Hunter asked.

"Because," Richard started. "When we arrested Pepi, only Alice and the Metropolitan school students were not present when he was brought in. He might recognize the Guardians which is why the two people that go to his super yacht party have to be Alice and one of the rookies. We agreed that rookie would be Hunter," he explained.

"Makes sense," said Joe before he turned to the teal green-eyed boy. "Pay attention when you're with the deputy, even a numbskulled fool like you has to pick up a thing being on a mission with someone as great as her," he stated.

Hunter frowned but before he could respond, Alice beat him to it. "Joe! Apologize now!" Alice demanded.

Joe's face falls, like a little boy who had just had his favorite toy taken. He turned to the dark-haired boy and apologized. "I'm sorry," he said.

"Alright!" Richard clapped his hands drawing everyone's attention from the reality TV show content happening just meters away from them. "Just because Alice and Hunter are the ones who would be getting on the yacht doesn't mean there's nothing else for the rest of us!"

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Hunter got on to the super yacht which was already crowded with partygoers. The teal green-eyed sprite scanned his surroundings until he found a spot where there were fewer people and headed towards the location with Alice following closely behind.

"Would you like a drink, sir?" A server asked, pushing forward his tray of wine for the sprite to pick. "I'm good, thanks," Hunter waved. The server nodded before moving to other guests.

The dark-haired boy turned to see Alice had already found herself a seat with a plate of strawberry-frosted donuts in front of her. "Um ..."

"What? They were calling my name," she said defensively.

Hunter snorts. "I'm sure they were." The dark-haired sprite pulled up a chair next to the older sprite. "Congratulations by the way. Alex tells me you were given an A Grade," she said.

"Thanks."

"..."

"..."

"You look uncomfortable, is it because this is the first we are alone?"

"We're surrounded by at least a hundred people."

"I meant away from your friends."

"I'm not uncomfortable."

"Okay. I tried convincing Richard to consider your suspicion but he didn't budge. If it were up to me we'd be searching for a pure demon right now."

Hunter stared into the blonde's gray eyes. "Why?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Why would we be searching for a pure demon?"

"No. Why did you try to convince Richard?"

"Because I believe you're special." Hunter's eyes widened and he rose to his feet.

"Are you okay?" She asked.

"Excuse me." He said before making his way off the deck, towards the bow, and into a washroom. The sprite loosened his tie as he tried and settle his pacy and rough breathing.

'I think I'm going to throw up.' He turned on the tap and splashed some water on his face.

The sprite looked into the mirror to see his reflection with a sad face.

[Hunter ...]

"I'm fine," he said.

[Are you sure? You were not just having a panic attack?]

"I promise you I'm okay."

The sprite turned off the tap and made his way out of the washroom and noticed several framed photos of Pepi and a woman. He picked up one of the photos and there's a quote at the bottom: 'Love can turn rock into sand, ice into water, boy to man.'

"What the hell?" He set the framed picture back where he took it from and made his way to the main deck to find that the partygoers had gathered listening to Pepi giving a speech. "I want to thank every one of you for being here to celebrate this joyous occasion with me ..."

"Hunter!" The sprite turned to see Alice standing just beyond the hatch and calling him. He made his way towards her glancing at the crowd once more as Pepi's voice fades away. "What's going on over there?" He asked.

"Not sure. I think I found Pepi's lounge. I need you to stay on guard while I go through his things to see if I can find anything," she said.

"Sure," he nodded.

The two of them walked towards the upper deck and into the owner's lounge, Alice going through Pepi's stuff while Hunter stood by the slightly opened door, watching for any incomings.

Some time passed and Hunter looked over his shoulder at Alice. "Pepi's coming," he said.

"Please tell me you're joking," she said.

"Wish I could."

Alice looked around the room looking for a place they both could hide but found none.

The doorknob turns downward and the door swings open.

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