Read The Huntress: Becoming a Huntress Online
Authors: Mihaela Gheorghe
The Huntress: Becoming a Huntress (8 page)
I slightly tighten when she bends around my neck to check the wound. However, it's not the best thing to have enough confidence in a vampire, be it she one who flirts, rather than to fight.
„Anyway, I am of the opinion that nothing happens in the world without no reason. The wound seems to heal well. However, it's going to last some time until you will be completely restored, you can be sure of that. What you had, it wasn’t just any wound. You had your head almost snatched from your neck, to be more accurate.”
Only the negligence with which she talks about such things makes you understand that Slim still has something of a vampire in her. My working is observed.
„You know, I wouldn't say it, but if I wanted to hurt you, I'd have already done it when your heart barely bit. If I wanted to kill you, I would’ve just let you die in the forest, where I found you, not now, when you could kill me with the same ease with which you can break a flower.”
„You're right,” I agree with her, „old habits die hard. When to kill vampires becomes something so common as breathing, even to sit near one without pouncing on it becomes a hard task for me.”
Finally, I see her smiling.
„I guess you're right. And yet, I have to bring into the discussion an objectionable topic.”
I tighten myself again.
„What is it?”
„How long can you last without... without having to feed yourself?”
I smile a little mischievously.
„Long enough. But be still. When my instincts will take control over me, I don't think you will be good enough for me to subside my hunger.”
Her gaze darkens slightly, then it brightens again.
„I think that was really a compliment on your part, thank you!” she says radiant. „I've told you that we were meant to become friends!”
She doesn’t jump to hug me this time, but she grabs me happy by my shoulder. I wish I had the strength to say up front that this - the two of us to become buddies - will never happen.
Even after such a long time, my senses are still weakened. The wound from my neck, though now closed, it's not fully healed. However, I cannot stop myself of wanting to take my revenge against Cassiopia. Because I know for sure that, if she will ever get the chance to eliminate me again, she will no longer make any mistake on this. So it's not just a matter of revenge, but of survival.
I swallow a peal of laughter when I see the astounded expression that appears on her face when she sees me in her living room, sitting in one of her armchairs. I was tempted to pour myself a glass of some red liqueur from the crystal bottles, aligned on the ultra-modern bar. My lust for this liquid fills my mouth with venom when I felt the smell of the fine vampire blood, but I refrained myself. I note with surprise, that I feel even stronger when I manage to control my lust for this blood, for this meat, because, first of all, it’s foremost a victory over my own nature. So I resist this impulse.
“What...”
My lips stretch in a thin, satisfied smile. I can read the fear on her face.
“But please,” I say cajoling “don’t be shy. Feel like you’re in your own home.”
Cassiopia tries to conceal her panic, but her movements are too rigid, her relaxation too forced.
“What a surprise!” she says. “I’ve heard that you’ve disappeared… Nobody knows anything of you...”
“Yap, I can v\believe that…”
Then, she pours for herself a glass of dark red liquid.
“Can I offer you one?”
I shake my hand of refusal.
“Thank you, but don't bother. I hope that's not going to surprise you, if any willingness on your part toward me would seem at least suspicious.”
I grin implicitly, looking at her the silver bracelet on her wrist that I once wear. She put her hand quickly on the bracelet. Now she knows that I know.
“So... You came to kill me?”
Her voice slightly trembles.
“I came to do only what you did to me. The only difference between us is that I am not going to fail, of course.”
She stares at me, slowly sipping from her glass.
“If you do this, you will become Hunters Order’s enemy, you know that. There will be no place in this world where you can hide by hunters.”
My smile just becomes larger.
“It seems to me that you just said that everyone thinks I have gone, or that I'm dead.”
“Not Nikos.”
I look at her pretty amazed, waiting for an explanation.
“Nikos never believed that you have simply disappeared. He is convinced that something happened to you have, but he can’t believe that you're dead.”
“Probably.” I say. “But just as well no one will know what will happen here, today.”
But in my soul I know that by killing her, I sign my own sentence. I know that killing her means that I will no longer have peace until I have got rid of my pursuers, hunters and vampires. But without doing what I came to do, it would be to live equally, staring over my shoulder, wondering who would want to kill me, and who will succeed in the end. So it would be the same thing. Because my signature scent it will show clearly to the hunters who was here today, and who it will be Cassiopia’s killer. She reads in my eyes the lack of hesitation. She doesn’t even sigh.
“Will you ever say to Nikos that I loved him, and how much? Will you tell Nikos why you did what you are now about to do?”
“I don't have to apologize to anybody for my acts.”
“Perhaps I should thank you that you’re not going to say anything to him, how I tried to kill you. But I won’t do it. I won’t do it, because I hate you and I despise you too much for that.”
“Don't you worry.” I say sarcastically “I don't need your thanks.”
I get up from the armchair, adopting a fighting position.
“It won’t be the case for that,” she says. “I don’t want to fight you. I want them to find me as beautiful when my hunters will come.”
“I know you’re not going to fight me. If you had it in mind, perhaps, you haven’t behaved so unworthy for a huntress to make deals with the enemies of the Order, with the vampires.”
I see that my words a touch her heavily. Her dark skin becomes pale. She put the glass down, with a sudden gesture. She starts coughing. She tries to clear her throat. She leads a hand to her throat, as if she can no longer breathe. Then, she starts to wheeze. The moment she falls, I unintentionally catch her.
“What have you done?” I ask her softly.
She grimaces, while white foam gathers around her red lips. I can clearly see now the despise on her features, this time a contempt towards her own person.
“What I know best. To choose the simplest path, the path of the cowards.”
I lay her carefully on the couch.
“You were right. I couldn't fight you. Because you're better. You are better than all of us. And now, if we have fought, it would have been just as useless. I knew I don’t stand a chance in front of you. In a fight, or for Nikos’s love.”
Another spasm and cough cut her words.
“But what really does thrill me, is that you don't even want him. What makes me hate you with all my fiber is that you hurt him, that he unstoppably suffers because of you.”
“Stop talking.” I say to her. “Maybe there is still a way to...”
“No,” she wheezes, “there is no way for me to escape. This vampire blood is nothing but a poison…”
I sardonically grin.
“I understand now why you were so generous with it.”
Once again, I'm glad I resisted the call from inside me, and I never poured that stuff in one glass as she was absent. She clears her throat once again.
“You know something? I am glad that even though I gave you not the satisfaction of killing me with your own hands, you'll still be tracked like the one that killed me. Your scent... it's steeped in my bracelet, in my house, on myself. Nobody is going to believe that I committed suicide. And even if someone would think, you won't have time to explain it. Hunters are simple and strict: betray is executed without trial, without explanation... Whatever you do, my revenge will still get you...”
Her head suddenly falls in one hand, with eyes wide open. She remains motionless, lifeless. I take the cup from which she drank, and I disappear. I move quickly, but not quickly enough. Not as quickly as I could before. I am still weak, and I can't refrain myself from cursing. I will not make now the mistake that I made many, many years ago, with Dom and Kyrya. Now, I will hasten. Now, I will go ahead of time. Now, no one will die because of me. Now, I won’t feel guilty. I get at the door of Slim’s house, door that I almost break down.
“Hey... even though I don't mind the wind from outside, however I need some privacy.”
Slim’s cheerful voice stops abruptly when she sees me.
“What’s the matter? Something happened to you?”
How typical of her to worry for me!
“We must go!”
“But...”
“Now!”
“But... I didn’t even announce at the hospital...
“Now, Slim!”
My tone is softer, slightly tired. Only now I convinced her.
“Let's go then.” She says without any further hesitation.
We leave the house exactly as it is. We do not take anything with us. My betrayal will be considered to be complete now. Once they will follow me, and they will arrive here, they will know that I'm with a vampire. Not with the vampire to chase me; not me chasing the vampire; but together with a vampire. And even if, in the end, my existence no longer serves any purpose, Slim must live. Because I know now that she cannot be judged only after her coating, which she is not guilty of. I know now that she is more human than many humans. She is nobler, more compassionate, more kind-hearted, more loving. For me, she is really a human, regardless of how she looks, and my duty is to save her, as she saved me once. My duty is to protect her, as she did with me. I will take her safely, then I will go back to end up with all this tracking, even though it will mean the end of my existence. I have nothing to live for.
Our luck is that it's night and that we run according to our powers, without being seen by humans. I see clearly that she's not trained to run away, but I'm not in the fullness of my powers, even though much stronger than her. She doesn’t ever get tired, but she's slower and I'm quicker, but I do get tired.
“Do you have a safe place where to go?” I ask her heavily.
“Home.” She answers. “They can’t find us there. It's beyond the ocean.”
“Let's go then!” I say short.
“Through… the ocean?”
Her breath is cut and I look intrigued at her. Again, it strikes me that even for her, her pallor is too pale.
“Slim, are you okay?”
Slightly gasping, she nods in approval.
I hurry too much now to talk.
“You know, we first cross England, and then we pass the Ocean on the other side, okay? I hope to induce them in error and to delay them.”
Slim gives again a nod.
Once we’ve crossed the water, we stop a little. I feel the need to get some rest, how I didn’t feel for a very long time. The wound from my neck started to pulsate painfully. It annoys me. I know that if I’d eat even a little of vampire meat, I would restore much faster. But now I don't have time to chase.
What? You didn’t think that just because I now have a debt to pay toward a vampire that I hardly consider her so, it means that I have any restraint in hunting others? The wound hurts me, my senses are weakened, and I really am in great haste. Very bad.
“I need to look at your neck.” Slim says. “And I will do that even they would have to catch us... anybody who track us.”
There is a question mark in her voice.
“My kind .Hunters are those who come after us.” I recognize abruptly. “In fact, they come only after me. Just that they took your smell too, and now they will hunt you as you would be just an ordinary other vampire. I don't know what chances do we have, but I'm afraid that you wouldn’t have had a single one if you were alone.”
I feel my regret in my voice
“You are kinda dumb, sometimes.” She says in an equal tone.
I look at her questioning, while I stop for a second just to catch my breath, and then we start do run again.
“Even if I had any chance, do you really think that I would have left you by yourself to deal with them?”
Again and again, she takes me by surprise with this nobility of her soul. I know, you could laugh at me when you see that I use the word "soul" referring to a vampire. But the truth is that Slim is like that, a vampire with a soul, a creature that hardly remains faithful to the concept of "Vampire".
“I really should look at your wound.” Slims draws my attention some time later, staring at my neck.
I knew that my wound started bleeding again. But we kept running, without giving attention to my increasing weaknesses.
“Let’s reach the ocean, first.” I say.
“No!” she opposes. “I’m going to look now!”
She stretches out a hand to stop me, but I unexpectedly growl and stop her hand in an iron grip. She gaps, surprised by the pain and shock.
“I said at the ocean.” I say through my teeth, pulling her little ceremoniously after me.
Only when I spotted the endless expanse of the ocean. I let her hand. On her arm, there are whitish trail of my fingers.
“Sorry, I'm tired. I didn't mean to hurt you. But you have to understand that we do stand a chance only if we run faster than they do. We have a considerable lead, that's right, but I want to keep it that way.”
“Let's not mention that.” she says, seeming just as tired, what surprises me again.
“I have never heard until now of vampires to get tired. Why do you get tired?”
Her eyes avoid my gaze, but I take her chin, facing her at me, inquisitorially.
“What is it, Slim?”
“Look, now it's not the time o talk about it, okay? When we will get home. Now let me fucking look at that hole in your neck!”
She's troubled by my question, and much more worried about my condition. Her cold hands touch my neck, calming my pain. Suddenly, I realize that since I met Slim, the memories about Dom and Kyrya are just as strong, but less painful, more tolerable. My grief has now a note of unexpected sweetness, when I think about our happy moments. I looked at her.
“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
O mess her already rumpled hair, like she was a little girl. So I feel Slim actually, like a little girl, and, in fact, like a little naïve innocent.
“Nothing.” I say.
Then, she does something at my neck with a patch that she breaks from her jumper.
“Ah!” she says, being a little upset. “Better yet I would bring to you some vampire steak! You will heal almost instantly!...”
I look very surprised at her. I would never have expected to hear such words from her mouth. I no longer have any doubt now. Just because Slim looks like one, it sure doesn't mean that she is a vampire. I catch her back of her head with one hand more vigorous than I intended, and I glue my lips to her forehead. Not even her smell, bearing vampire’s odor, isn't bothering me now. I can see that she is very surprised, but delighted.