2017-11-21 Copyright is claimed and legally enforced by
Barbie Lee
Elk City, Oklahoma

editor: Monique

Reproductions or copying in electronic or paper form is strictly forbidden without express approval of the author. Now the legals are out of the way, enjoy.

this story is completed from beginning to end word count approx 115,000
NOT a LifeShift (TG) story.

THE
HUNTRESS

This was NOT a part of this town I especially liked. It had turned into one of the slowly developing slum districts with businesses and people leaving the area to the lesser classes of the human race. I was a body model for many different photographers. If you picked up a magazine advertising rings and bracelets, odds were my hand was in the picture. Ads of fashion shoes may have been my feet. The bathing suit ads where the girl’s face wasn’t part of the picture? Yep that could be me. Same with clothing. Necklaces on a fine eloquent neck or draped suggestively over or between firm abundant breasts? Yep, and yep. In a small way I was taunting and rubbing noses in the dirt of those who wanted me dead. They could be looking at a small part of me every day in some picture and never know.

I parked my dirty older Mercury Marquis in front of one of the vast empty parking places along the sidewalk, half a block from where COS has his business set up. His name was actually Chance Octavius Sovenkia which I and everyone else figured his parents must have really hated the kid when he was born. As a kid he quickly figured out COS was a damn fine name and ran with it. He soon developed a reputation as a photographer even in grade school. He had an uncanny ability to capture the unbelievable and oh my god pictures everyone else wish they had taken. He morphed that talent into an advertiser’s dream photographer as he grew older and graduated college with an art degree.

How I came to be a body model for COS was kind of odd. I stopped in at JoDan’s Jewelers to look over some rings. As it happened they were busy and a very well dressed lady came up from the back offices to help. She focused on me as she closed to the counter and asked if she could help or if I was looking for something in particular?

Pointing to the white gold ring with the tiniest blue diamond I tapped the top of the glass counter with my fingernail. “I’d like to see the blue diamond ring please.”

She placed a black velvet cloth on top the counter and then retrieved the ring box. “You have a good eye. Most don’t see the beauty of the contrast between the white gold and the blue diamond which makes it an exquisite ring able to hold it’s own against two and four carrot diamond rings.”

She removed the ring from the box and held it on top the black velvet cloth moving it around to show all the ultra fine filigree work engraved in the band. “Would you like to try it for size?”

“If you don’t mind.” I removed a single gold band off my ring finger before I laid my left hand on the black velvet.

“He’s a lucky man.” She glanced at the gold ring.

I almost giggled as I shook my head. “There’s no he. That is to slow down the traffic.”

“With your looks I can imagine it doesn’t slow them.” She took a second look at my hand. “Such smooth skin and delicate hands. Those long fingers and the long sharp fingernails are your own aren’t they?”

She leaned across the counter and took a closer look at my face. “I must say I have never seen any other with as much natural beauty as yourself. You are using the very minimal of makeup and you’re prettier than anyone I’ve ever met. Your parents are very rich or you are a princess.”

That did get me to chuckle as I shook my head. “Sorry, none of the above. I’m a working girl like everyone else. My golden chariot is a five year old dirty gray Mercury. And pumping up my ego won’t make me forget the price of the ring when you show it to me.”

She handed me the ring. It easily slid up on my ring finger. “Looks like it was made for you.” She reached out and held my hand turning it over before releasing it.

I don’t think she noticed my reflex action as my left hand moved back out of her strike zone and then back again before she took hold of my hand. Rolling my hand over and looking at it from both sides I admired its simple beauty. I also knew a large part of the glamour of the ring was from the lights in the store and time spent in the polishing vibrator. “What is the price?”

She turned the ring box over and looked at the bottom. “Only seventeen ninety six.”

Another sales trick. Instead of saying one thousand, seven hundred, and ninety six dollars they condense it down to lessen the impact on the mind. Taking four dollars off the top also made it cheaper than saying one thousand eight hundred dollars. “That is a little more than my budget can handle this week.” I started to slide the ring off.

She reached across the counter and stopped me. Moving my hand so it was over the black velvet, she moved over to one side and then the other. She looked up into my eyes. “Please, would you indulge me? I have several more rings I would like for you to do as you are doing now. Slip them on and then put your hand over the pad.”

I gave it some thought and then shrugged, I didn’t have a schedule I had to meet for the rest of the day. “I really am not interested in any more rings.”

She gave me a smile. “And I’m not going to try and sell you these rings. I want to see how they look on your hand. You really do have beautiful hands and fingers.”

“I guess.” I slipped the ring off and laid it on the pad.

She put it in the box and set it aside. She brought up another set of rings from the case. It was a simple engagement ring and wedding ring.

After I slid the rings onto my finger I laid my hand on the black velvet pad.

She examined it from side to side and called one of the men over. “John, I want you to look at this.” She looked up at me. “I’m sorry I don’t even know your name.”

“It is hard to say it right in English. I go by Nova.”

She looked at me kind of funny. “That isn’t hard to say.”

I couldn’t stop the hint of a smile as it touched my lips. “No it isn’t. That is a nickname and what most call me.”

“Okay” She set another set of wedding rings up on the counter. The wedding ring had small diamonds sprinkled into the band.

I slid them on after removing the other set and laid my hand down on the pad. John and the woman carefully studied it from different angles.

As the time wore on I realized we were getting into the more expensive rings. I wasn’t sure a hundred thousand would touch that last set she had me try. I thought we were through when she didn’t bring out another set. She started bringing out bracelets with enough diamonds I figured would pay off a nice starter home in trade.

“Do you mind if I take pictures?” She held up a high end digital camera.

“As long as you don’t take pictures of my face. I know I’m on your store security cameras. Please indulge me.” I was waiting for her to tell me to remove the jewelry.

Her face held doubt but she nodded in agreement. “As you wish. I know I have taken an hour of your time. I appreciate what you have done. Would I insult you if I offered to pay you a hundred dollars as a gift and not as payment for your work?”

“That would be most kind. I didn’t ask for a gratuity.”

Nadine, as I had learned her name, took a lot of pictures before she was through.

After I had removed all the jewelry and laid it back on the pad, she handed me an envelope. “Thank you for sharing some time with us. If you come back in nine days I have a feeling the ring you looked at might have a reduced price.”

If she was wanting more hand jewelry shots I could handle that. Putting the envelope in my purse I nodded in agreement. “I will have to check it out although I might not be able to get away from my job that day.”

Nadine sent the pictures to COS for re editing to place in the store's advertising pictures. After looking at the pictures Chance wanted to know who the model was as he could use her hands in other advertisements. As it would happen when I stopped back in JoDan's to look at that one ring Nadine talked me into meeting with Chance. The meeting led to more than hand shots as I posed for more and more pictures. All with the caveat there were no facial pictures.

As I left JoDan’s I figured I was coping pretty well with life. Neither Nadine or any of the others realized I was…, It was something I tried real hard to play down and push to the background. Minimum makeup wasn’t because I wanted to emphasize my face and features, just the opposite. I used makeup the best I knew how to hide my high cheekbones and doe shaped eyes. The soft brown cotton shift dress I was wearing didn’t include a belt. The ankle boots had a one inch heel. At six one, I had more than ample height. The last thing I needed was heels making me taller.

All that happened two and a half years and a couple dozen different jobs back.

Checking my watch, I didn’t have time to make it back to my room for a change before I clocked in for work. Didn’t make a whole lot of difference. I kept a uniform in my car. I could change in one of the restrooms before I started my shift. Hopefully I wouldn’t get dragged into someone’s room again because some idiot thought I was part of the “room service”. That last job didn’t turn out that well. I didn’t stick around for my paycheck afterwards. I really needed to find a better class of jobs. The problem was an age old one for a lot of people. I had no real papers for a history or education. Those like me ghosted in the system on someone else’s identity. If we weren’t good enough to steal an identity one could always be bought from the right sellers.

That last time didn’t turn out well there either. The two guys wanted more than the money they initially agreed on for a new ID. Not only no but hell no and threats of serious bodily harm if they persisted didn’t stop them. My tee shirt was torn and bloody, my jeans had rips in them where a knife had made several slashes. Basically I was a bloody mess as I left the alley and the van behind pushing a half filled shopping cart. Very little of that blood was mine.

I leaned over the cart and took slow shuffling steps down the sidewalk, looking like what I hoped was an old homeless person. It wasn’t the better part of town. The few who saw me never even looked twice as they avoided me. I really needed to learn how to fight other than killing everyone who wanted to pull me into a knock down drag out brawl as they tried to take my life. Not that I didn’t know how to fight but inside a van?

The two guys I left in the alley had learned their last lesson in life. Whether they deserved it after one pulled a knife and the other a gun wasn’t up for debate. The times I met other predators I never gave it a second thought when I left pieces scattered all over. I guess those guys could be considered predators? They preyed on those weaker than them. I knew eventually I would meet the same fate I dealt out to others. No matter how good one is, there are always those stronger, better at hunting, and killing.