The Huntress: Becoming a Huntress (7 page)

I pick up my head sudden, heading towards the direction of her voice.

„What? Did you think that I shouldn’t figure out what kind of creature you are?”

I imagine again a grimace on her face.

„At first, indeed, I found it difficult to figure out what you are. Your smell was different from everything I’ve smelled until then. Like a human, like a vampire, and still, like something less pleasant. So I was on the verge of declaring yourself an atypical vampire, until you drooled venom in my plates, and I saw your fangs.”

The idea that she would have thought me being a vampire makes me growl. The disgust I feel makes my hair stand on its end.

„Perhaps, if I am still alive so far, is because you are not yet fully rebuilt.”

Again, the idea of harming my benefactor, humiliates me. And what humbles me even more, is that she's right.

„Don’t you wanna know what I am?” she asks me after a second of silence.

Her question makes my blood boil, again. I shoot my head in all directions, as  denials. No, not yet.

„No!” I almost scream at her. „I don't want to know! You shut up!”

Her silence confirms me that I have offended her. And what do I care about that, after all? I sink in the silence, and I sit impassive.

I have the same rigid attitude, silent, when she checks my wound, which equally burns me like hell. That's why I feel my pulse rate in my wound.

Time passes again, hard, distressful. What horripilates me most is the thought that I became so dependent on this woman, that I no longer talk to at all, although she continues to speak to me, always cheerfully, always urging me as to laugh. Can’t she see that I don’t care about the friendship she is showing me? Can’t she see that Ido not want it?

I eat mechanically, wondering for the umpteenth time, what crap I feed with. As I already said, it keeps me satiated, but for a very short time. It's not like I’d eat a heart of a vampire, for example. A wave of venom sprinkles my teeth. I shake my head, and I swallow. I was starving before, I know that. It's not necessary for me to give up now. I was just about to burn alive, consumed by the lust for this cursed flesh. Maybe it will come time to burn again, but certainly not now. The problem is that no meat, except that of a vampire one, can restore my diminished senses as fully and as fast.

„ I’ve already told you that it takes some time to get used to the taste.” her voice says, starting to irritate me with her cheerful tone.

As usual, I pretend I do not hear her.

„I saw that you grimaced. Your mouth is filled with venom, but at least you didn’t put out your fangs at me.”

Her giggle makes me gnash my teeth.

„Well,” she continues, „if one of my brothers was here, we would become friends easier...”

I'm too less interested in what she has to say, so I pay no attention to her.

„Lastly, as to clear you about what we eat, because I didn’t get to answer your question that you last time asked, I must tell you that it's a mixture of raw meat from different animals, but enriched with the shark’s, because let me tell you that, without the shark meat, the food would definitely be uneatable.”

I feel her shuddering slightly, with disgust.

„Without shark, the food is... yuck... Anyway, this mixture is in its own sauce, as you have realized so far. Of course, it is less nutritious than other kind of... blood... let’s say... But it’s surely more preferable.”

I am guessing in her the embarrassment when her voice remembers the word "blood", a fact that perplexes me, and that makes her grow in my eyes, at the same time. To dare to think that she’s not what I assume she is?

„Very rarely, I do hold some wild animal meat, which is clearly superior. That's truly a feast. But the last time I was looking for something like this, I've found you. I'm not sorry that I did not get any wild animal meat. I found something infinitely more valuable.” she says then slowly. „I found a friend.”

„You don't want to understand that we are not friends?"

I scream at her again. However, this time I am ashamed of myself. The burning in my neck pulsates, and unwillingly, I put one of my hands on the bandage.

„See what you’ve done?” as if she chides me. „If you yell... I think you could win a prize in the contest ‚Who yells louder and more often’. But try to win it later, okay? Now, you won’t do anything other than to reopen your wound. Wait, stop fretting your gizzard, and let me look...”

Her voice is soft, just like her touch. The icy coldness of her skin, soothes the burning I feel in my wound. Involuntarily, I press myself against her hand. Then, angry with myself, I withdraw. But her hand does not want to depart from me.

„I know you already guessed about me what I am. But whatever I am, I assure you that I am a very lonely person. I didn't and I don’t have any friend. I haven't had anyone besides my family members. When I mentioned my love life, although I joked, it was a sad joke. I don't have anyone to love me. Any woman, regardless of race, wants to settle down. I know that I will never do that. When I found you, you were dead. And I don’t say that to burden you with gratitude. Away from me this thought! I didn’t truly believe that I can make the miracle of saving you. But I tried. I really did! I have done the impossible to keep you alive. Do you know why I do not want you to be grateful? Because I didn’t do it for you! I did it for myself! Out of selfishness! I did it because I imagined that, if I manage to keep you alive, I'll manage to make you my friend, and I'll be able to have someone to hold and which to keep to myself, someone else apart from my family. For me, you were like a doll, or like a child. You choose... I'm sorry that you hate me, though it is natural, giving our breeds. Just that I’d want... I’d want you to realize by now that I am not quite as you think I am...”

Her voice becomes easily quelled. As if she would weep. She has no right to burden me with her goodness! She has no right to put on my shoulders the burden of her inner nobility! But even when I revolt against these thoughts, I realize that this is she: good and noble. What's impossible, given the fact what I am convinced about what she is. And yet, maybe she is not a...

My neck keeps burning when she takes her hand off me. I can hear the noise of cutlery and utensils, a sign that she started to eat.

„Anyway, remember when I told you about the story of my love life? Well, let me tell you that it's not quite a euphemism, you know. I'm  surgeon at the hospital in the city, and a new physician came to our Hospital. He's really nice, dear him, and apparently he does not believe others who say that I am literally made of ice.”

Under the amusement she inserts, I can still feel the bitterness of her loneliness. Surgeon??? No, she certainly cannot be... I ended up eating in silence, trying very hard to ignore her annoying chat.

At first, I saw shadows and lights. Then, I knew that it's only a matter of time until the rest of the senses will be restored.

Which is why there it hasn’t been such a shock. First, I've seen her fine legs in red varnished leather flats. Then, her nice calves, covered by black, mesh collar, and a red blouse with large holes, under which I can see a black leather top. Her black hair, arranged with mousse, fit a perfect oval of her face, very pale, with very red lips, with eyes... Yellow-orange...

Slim did not even flinch when I studied her, and when she realized that my sight came back as well.

I would have thought I would be shocked at the sight of her. But somehow, I was not. Somehow, I was more surprised to see that her eyes are not red, but rather yellow. Somehow, I would have been more shocked if I had found that Slim is not a vampire.

But is she really?

I breath deep in my chest the air that surrounds her, but carefully. The smell is not what I expected, queasy and burning. She has a very vague scent of classic flair of the vampire, but for the most part is a slightly scented flavor, like vanilla.

And yet, I cannot control my instincts. My mouth is invaded by venom, my canines stick me in my lower lip, and the deadly knives of my nails shoot with the same metallic sound. Frankly, it's rather the idea of the certainty that Slim is really a vampire, than as a reaction to her scent.

She jumps quickly after an armchair, which she holds as a shield. Her gesture makes me smile, and I relax enough so that my fangs to withdraw, and my nails to become normal. Like a poor armchair could have saved her from me! So I realize that I wouldn't be able to do her any harm, as I could never take my own life. I realize that I wouldn't be able to kill the one that took care for me to remain alive. Eventually, Slim barely remains faithful to the concept of vampire.

„It’s... everything okay?”

Her quivering voice makes me smile again.

Actually, no, nothing's alright. It's not okay that I want to be friends with a vampire. It’s not okay that I don't want to kill a vampire. I shake my head of thoughts, and slightly get dizzy. With a jump, Slim's near me, supporting me. Gently, she lays me down on the bed.

Now, I glance through the room, my eyes confirming what my ears just heard before. It's decorated in bright and cheerful colors, and around it smells like... nature. Everything looks too... normal, too... too humane... too Slim.

„Explain to me!” I say it in a quite woolly tone.

Slim gives shrug with embarrassment.

„What's to explain? I'm a vampire...”

Her tone is of a creature that has no way to change a fact, a fact that makes her unhappy, but a fact that she learned to live with.

„But you do not consume human blood.” I say.

She looks at me so horripilate, that I realize that the idea itself, she finds totally disgusting and repulsive.

„God forbid!” she says. „Look, I won’t lie to you now, to say that the temptation was so great in the beginning, so really great, that I almost thought I was going to succumb to the temptation, you know how it is...” she adds then in a tone of excuse. „But I grew up with my parents and my brothers who had renounced to do these things centuries ago. Hardly, but they gave up in consuming human blood. I was way a happier case than them, because I have never tasted anything like human blood, and time fixes all. I overcame the temptation. Then, it becomes a habit, so that the human blood doesn't affect me in any way. You realize what I would be: I, a surgeon, to go into the operating room and, instead saving the patient, to stick my teeth into his throat... Just imagine how the

entire Hospital would scream!You realize that I’d have no chance with this new doctor I was telling you about...”

I sketch out a smile. I guess embarrassment in her voice, fact that strengthens even more my belief that she is a human soul trapped in the body of a vampire, is a young cat soul trapped in the body of a menacing lion. How to kill a little cat, no matter how she looks like

„So, we are... okay?” she asks her original question.

„You are very close to me, and you still breathe. I think this will answer your question, right?”

Her turbulent hug takes me by surprise, and I hit her hard in her chest, throwing her into the opposite wall.

„My God!” I say. „I'm so sorry! Are you okay? I swear that I never wanted to do that, just that...”

„That’s alright.” she says, standing and whisking herself.”I'm not a classic vampire, but I'm still a vampire.”

I would really have preferred her not to say that.

„I want to say that you did not hurt me at all.”

Behind the wall, there was a crack. As she looks back at it, she sketches a crooked little smile.

„Well, maybe just a little. But now I'm not feeling any pain at all.”

I go to her, and I take her by her hands, carefully studying her., only now noticing that her paleness is very pale, even for a vampire. As if she would be sick. But who has ever heard about a vampire to be sick? She no longer breathes.

„You may blink.” I say with a variety of fun. „The danger has passed. Just don't make very sudden movements when you're near me, okay?”

„Sure thing.: she blows very slowly.

For a moment, we have only looked at one to another. I, with wonder, she - with-hope. I - with the wonder of having confronted a vampire without actually having her killed, she-with the hope of becoming my friend. Unfortunately, what she wants, she won't be able to never have.

„Now, let's look at your wound.” She says.

„Does it take long to heal?” I ask, slightly annoyed by my weakness.

„No need to be angry.” She chills me. „No one would have survived in your state. I am telling you honestly. At first, I thought that you won’t be able to make it. But, apparently, it seems that you still have something to fulfill on this earth before rising among the righteous.”

Yes, I still have a mission to end on this earth. In fact, more. A first mission would be to take care of Cassiopia. Because now I know that she was the one for which I got this way. I perfectly remembered her bracelet, when she took it back of my hand, thrilled that she could destroy me. As perfect, I remember her words. I know now that the jewel that she seemed so thrilled to give away, so happy to bestow it to me, it was nothing but a tracking device. I know now that she made a deal with a group of vampires to destroy me, because she had not had any opportunity, nor guts. And frankly, if it hadn't been for this geranium vampire, so she would have managed. But when something is meant to happen... it certainly happens. Yet, her alliance with the vampires surprised me. It's very strange, because hunters do not make alliances with vampires, and hunters