Chapter 8: First Encounter

I lay in my bed wondering what came next. We only had a month to exterminate the vampire that was causing such an annoyance to the werewolf pack. It can't be done, I thought. How can we do it? We would need to beat him at his own game, we would have to be stronger, better, faster than him, and how could we do it? We would have to trap him someway, but how? We could sneak into his resting place and wait for him to wake one day, but that would be too dangerous. They hear everything, and even though they are deep sleepers, they can wake up on you, and kill you in no time flat. We could lay a trap in a city, but we would have to find him first.


I started to think about how we could lay that trap, and a memory jolted me from my thoughts. A picture of my mom and I walking home from the factories. No, I thought and shoved it aside. I couldn't think of that day. Not now, I needed to focus. The memories of my past kept slipping through the cracks in my mind. I tried my hardest to keep them back, to put up a wall between me and my mind, but it just didn't work. Finally, I laid back and just let the misery wash over me. I deserved it anyway. For letting her die.





***


It was a cold, lonley, night. The sky was clear, the moon was full, the stars were shining, and the day was over. Momma and I walked under the starry sky, hand in hand. We were all that was left of our family.


My papa had died the drinking death. Somebody found his body in the slums and brought it to our door. Mamma had cried for days, we had no food after that. The boards on the wall had to come off one day. We were so cold that day, we almost caught the fever. The landlord was very mad about it, we were still paying him for the wood we burned.


We were always together ever since mom got that job spinning cloth at the factory. I walked to work with her every day, and helped get some money for us too. We were always tired too. Sometimes, we didn't even get to eat dinner, we couldn't even make it when we got home. Today, we had a very hard day at the factory.


I begged her to let us take the short way home, I was just so tired I could barely walk. She picked me up and said Sure. I could tell she just wanted to get home too and lay down on the cot we shared in the main room. She turned down the small alley that led to a road that was nearer t0 our apartment.


Everything was really quiet there. There were two bums sleeping on the dirty sidewalk. I was glad we didn't have to sleep on the sidewalk, even though we were close to it. She put me down and said I'm sorry Annie, but I'm just too tired to carry you. I understood. I couldn't carry her if I tried, even back when there was extra food. My eight year old body couldn't carry mommy.


I went along before her, kinda happy that we were almost home. The bums looked at me and smiled. They probably missed their momma and wished that they still had her to take care of them. Well, they couldn't have my momma. No siree. She was mine.


I heard her scream. I turned around and saw one of the bums holding onto her waist. He jumped up really high onto one of the buildings. I watched as my mommy was bit in the neck, then after a few seconds, her body dropped into the alley, hitting the ground hard.


I turned around and ran home, I didn't look back at the man who killed mommy. Just ran away. Like the baby I was.


***


I cried softly into my pillow. It was my fault, my fault she was gone. My fault I'm still here, 158 years later.

Chapter 7: Time

I entered the enormous house, wishing that I was back at home, asleep. A strange man was at the door, holding it open for me. He was taller than me, with bulging muscles, and shades on his face, even though he was inside. He sported a black t-shirt, and tight jeans that showed off a nice butt. He closed the door behind me quietly and walked ahead of me. He didn't say anything, so I figured that I should follow him. He walked out onto a patio outside in the backyard, and sat down in one of the white lounge chairs.

Abhay was sitting at a glass table, sipping tea. There was a slight breeze, brushing against my skin, cooling off some of the hot, summer weather. "Please, sit down." he said. I sat down, warily. He seemed different that day, something seemed wrong. "I'm sure you are still irritated at what happened with the sleeping arrangements." I nodded, not quite sure where this was going. "Is the vampire O.K.?"

"Yes," I managed to say. "Valdor, is fine."

"And I'm sure that you found him a place to stay as well."

"Yes, I did." Abhar's fine gray hair fluttered in the wind. He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath.

"Hmm. Well, let's get down to business," he changed the subject abruptly. "Do you have any idea as to whom the vampire is? Or where he is, for that matter?

"No I do not," I said through gritted teeth. "We have not been able to take any steps toward finding your vampire because my colleauge has been sick recently." He looked at me curisouly.

"And how sick is your vampire?" he asked me.

"Sick enough." I said, not wanting to pursue the conversation any longer. "Did you call me here on acatual business, or do you want to pry any more into my personal life?" He looked taken aback. I figured no one had spoken to him like that in years. The man that was sitting in the lounge chair had jumped up, ready to fight.

"Now, now, Jamar, there is no need for violence. Is there?" I wasn't liking this man as much as I did the first day that he came to get our help. He had seemed like he was up to something as the days wore on. Like he really didn't need our help.

"If you do not wish to discuss anything of importance, then I must be leaving." I started to stand up and leave but Abhar stopped me.

"I'm sorry if I seemed too intrusive a minute ago. I was just wondering about if Valdor was better or not. I asked you here because we need to go over how to kill this unknown vampire. I do not want a scene." I looked at him apprensively. There was never any scene, it was almost always easy after you had done it a few times. "I do not want the people in the towns to know, we want the body when you are done so we can dispose of it properly, and we need this done within the next four days." I gaped at him. It usually, at the least, took two months to track down a vampire and kill him. This one would be harder since their territory was so large.

"That's impossible. No one has ever hunted down and killed a vampire in less than a week. Give us a month, and we can take care of him."

"No, I will not give you a month. I will give you," he trailed off, thinking about how much time we had. "one month. I will double the payment if you can take care of it within two weeks time."

"But, no hunter has ever, killed a vampire within a month. You must understand, if we were able to do that we would be risking our lives!" A hunter usually has a lot of information gathering before they can kill a vampire. Where he sleeps, eats, how well he fights, his weaknesses, etc. If we were just given a month, we could only find where he sleeps, and how he hunts. That would not be enough information to kill one. It would require pure skill.

"I do not care what any other hunter has done. I want you to get rid of him in a month, or we will not pay you." I couldn't believe what I was hearing. A month! That man must be crazy. I stood up out of my chair, and walked around the house to my truck, then left.

A month!

Chapter 6: Hello

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, I DIDN'T KNOW HE WAS COMING?" I screamed into the little cellphone that I owned.

"I just didn't think about it." said Rafe, the wolf that prepared the house for us. "It won't happen again."

"You better hope to Satan it doesn't." I threatened him. The stupidity of some people! I went back to the door of the closet that Valdor was sleeping in right now, and stared at it. After the incident happened that day, I put up some thick curtains in the bedroom that I slept in to keep the sunlight out even more, so the darkness in there was more to his liking. He was sick for 3 days afterward, which had delayed our progress. I hoped that Rafe was getting a serious ass-kicking from Abhar right now.

I snapped out of my vicious thoughts, and put on some clothes. I was to meet with Abhar about how we needed to handle this vampire situation. I walked into the kitchen and wrote Valdor out a note telling him where I was and if he needed me to call him. I grabbed my keys off of the living room table, and walked out of the house.

The scenery flew by me as I started thinking about what had happened the other day. What if he had really died there? What if he didn't wake up after I shoved him in that closet? After the door was closed, I completley broke down. Sobbing about the vampire. For god's sake he was a vampire, he shouldn't be here, he was a damned creature. Forsaken by god, he shouldn't be cried over, and yet there was this sinking feeling that I got every time we killed a vampire. That's one less, I would think. One less keeping us together.

I snapped out of my thoughts and turned on the raido to where it blared. I turned it down so I could concentrate on where I was going. I had never been at the packs resting place. So I didn't know what to expect.

I turned down a dirt road that seemingly led to nowhere, but the farther I went down the road, the more it seemed like it was a driveway. The thick trees on either side thinned out a little and turned into one row of trees to either side of me. Then the house came into view. No, it wasn't a house, it was a mansion. It was four stories tall, with pillars in the front of the house. It had gothic archeticture written all over it. It was the most beautiful house I had ever seen.

I pulled up beside some really expensive looking cars, and got out. I walked up to the porch and looked back at my old rusted truck among the perfect cars and trucks there. I felt bad for the poor old thing, it was being shown up. I turned back around and knocked on the front door.

Almost immediatly, it opened.

Chapter 5: Oops

They did not know the name of the vampire, but it had been terrorizing them for years. They had tried to hunt it, but vampires have no scent, not to a werewolf. A werewolf can sense a vampire, but it can not smell them. There's something about a their aroma that messes up their noses. It was the same for all animals as it turns out. The only thing that could sniff out a vampire was another vampire.



It had eluded their traps, and killed one of their own. And as it turns out, all of the wolves were practically family. They either knew each other from childhood, or they were family.



There was an alpha male, who was Abhay. He had led the pack through some rough times and was highly respected from what we could tell. He had a cool temper, and never let anyone know the true intention of his actions unless it was necessary. Which was one of the more annoying qualities to him.



I wished to study the werewolves more, as I had never heard of them before. But my job had to be done as soon as possible, like Abhay said to do.



The pack informed us of a guest house that Abhay owned in their territory, and asked us to stay there. So we packed up our stuff and got some supplies that we needed in town, and headed up there.

As soon as we walked in the front door the smell exploded. Dog. It smelt like wet dog in there. The stink was everywhere, it wouldn't go away even when we opened the windows. Great I thought, we were on a mission to kill a vampire, tired, and staying in a dog house.

I went off to do my own thing, knowing Valdor would find his room by himself. I quickly found the bathroom and took a shower. After I had toweled off and dressed, I went exploring. It was 4:30 in the morning, we had to get here by night, since Valdor was coming with me. I could see perfectly in this dark. Another perk of having vampire blood run through my system.

I walked through the house for awhile, and found nothing out of the ordinary. Then I heard the soft footsteps of the vampire that I lived with. He burst into the room in a mess. He was panting and sweating all over.

"Why aren't you asleep?" I started to panic. It was dawn, and he wasn't in bed.

"I can't sleep. There IS nowhere for me to sleep."

"What? How can there be nowhere for you to be? They knew you were coming!" I yelled as I ran out the door.

"I don't know!" he yelled.

The sun was rising quickly. I had to find somewhere to stash him. I ran around the house looking for a place that he could stay.

"Anabell," I heard him whisper, as he collapsed onto the floor. I turned around to see what it was that he wanted, and saw his crumpled body on the ground.

"No." I muttered. I ran beside his lifeless body and cried silently. I grabbed him and held him close to myself, sobbing. I looked up, and saw the answer, the closet! I don't know why I didn't think of it before. Probably because I was so panic stricken, I dragged him into the closet and laid him down on the floor.

I closed the door behind me, and was enveloped by darkness.

Chapter 4: Please

They rushed in waves! Each one bigger than the next, and they were snarling and gnashing teeth at Valdor and I. I unsheathed my knife and turned to a gray and brown wolf, then attacked him. I heard Valdor hiss and start wrestling with one of the wolves as well.

They were quickly overwhelming us. Claws were scraped across my skin leaving deep cuts on my arm that oozed blood. I ducked my head just as a furry body came leaping at it from behind me. It landed with a thud on the floor, bleeding onto the white carpet. I ignored it and turned around to cut the paw off of a wolf coming down on me. I heard the skin sizzle and fry, and the wolf dropped to the ground, twitching. I could hear Valdor getting tired in the background. I lunged again at the nearest wolf barley slicing him in the chest. He as well fell to the floor and started howling.

At the sound of the howling wolf, all of the werewolves stopped dead in their tracks, and stared at the source of the noise. Then, one saw the knife I still held in my hand and growled at me. All eyes turned onto me, including Valdor. Everyone in the room was stock still. I stood there ready for them to all attack me at once, but they didn't. Then there one lone wolf started to turn into some kind of oozy, metallic, gray liquid. It lost its shape and then regained it, only as a man. The same man that let the wolves into my home.

I raised my knife at him, ready to attack if anything happened. Big mistake though, all throughout the house, growls and snapping erupted from the wolves standing in my living room.

The man walked towards me, confident that I wouldn't try anything. I knew that if I did I was in deep trouble. These wolves seemed to value this man highly.

"You did a good job injuring my brothers." I looked at the two wolves that I had wounded. The one without a paw was surrounded by 3 wolves, comforting him. I didn't see the second one, then I looked back at the man, only to notice that he had a scratch on his chest. "That wound will take time to heal. More time than necessary." He pointed at the pawless wolf on the floor. "We do not wish to fight you, Anabell."

I snorted, "What is your excuse for attacking us just now?"

"You must calm down, we want you to help us."

I started to get curious. "With what?" I looked around the room, wondering where Valdor was. He was in the middle of some wolves, staring at him with their fangs bared. He hissed at them and bared his teeth. The wolves yelped and stepped back. One of them came up to the man in front of me, and nudged his leg.

"What is it Jade." The wolf called Jade whimpered and looked at Valdor. The man saw the vampire standing alone. "I see you have an ally." he said. "Nevertheless, we need your help, we have a common enemy, Anabell."

Valdor spat on the nearest wolf. "What kind of enemy would have that you could possibly ask our help for?" he said.

"Do not disrespect my pack, or you will regret it." The man said sharply to Valdor. "My name is Abhay, I am the leader of this pack, and they will tear you to shreds if need be." Valdor's face drained of what little color there was.

"What enemy?" I asked Abhay, ignoring Valdor.

"Vampires," he said with a far away look on his face. "There has been a vampire running around our territory. Killing people, raising suspicions in the towns, that kind of thing. You are the best hunters in the world, and we want him stopped."

"Well, why can't you take care of it yourselves? It is on your territory." I asked.

"They are too elusive for us. We are not vampire hunters, we are animal hunters. We have tried, but every time we get close, they get away. We need your help. No animal likes to have their territory invaded, and werewolves are the same. I will pay you in whatever you need, but I want this done as quickly as possible."

"Well, we could use some extra money around here." I looked around at my old rinky-dink house. "Valdor, what do you think?"

He looked up at me with curiosity in his eyes. Then gave Abhay a once over. "I will need a fresh supply of your recipe, we are almost out of ingredients" he said to me.

"Was that a yes?" Abhay asked me.

"It's as close as you can ever hope to get."

He nodded his head. "You will have my packs full cooperation in your investigation, we will be at your disposal, and you may enter our territory at any time you need." After he said this, the wolves surrounding the hurt wolf, started to shimmer. He pulled out a map with a large amount of area circled. "This is the territory," was all he said before looking at all of the wolves and mentioning them to the door. The newly formed men picked up the injured wolf and carried him out of the door. Jade picked up his paw in her mouth, growled at Valdor, and left.

I laughed at the wolf that Valdor spit on snapped at his ankles as he left.

I counted them as they left, there were only 8 of them, such a small number. But they fight well.

Chapter 3: Knock, Knock

We lived in peace with each other, surprisingly. Although it kind of freaked me out that he could figure out what I was thinking at times. Since day one, I had wondered if he could read my mind. Anything I was questioning in my mind, he would answer almost instantly, like he knew what I was thinking. In all of my years, I had never heard of a vampire being able to read minds before. I was probably imagining it though, he was probably could guess by my facial features.

I had killed 8 more vampires since he joined me, adding onto the 5 that I had already killed before. He was a tremendous help in aiding me with my hunts. His own powers were greater than mine, even with the vampire blood running through my system. When I ran out of my own supply of blood, he would donate some of his, since vampire blood is the only thing keeping me alive. Hunters can live as long as they want, the blood keeps them from dying, and if they are past the time that they would die, then a short supply would mean trouble. The blood keeps our body young as we grow old.

We established a bond as we worked on killing and picking off vampires one by one. We also had no idea how many were left in the world, all we knew was that they must keep their species very small so that they can not be noticed.

I had created a concoction for Valdor that would keep him full, and his hunger sated for human blood. He seems to be doing quite well on it, but I hope the effectiveness of it doesn't wear off. The first week we were living together was strained. He was around every corner, staring at me. Having an internal battle between his instinctive desire for human blood, and his hate for the act of killing a human. Wishing the entire time, that he didn't have to have this struggle with himself.

***

"Wake up!" hissed Valdor.

I drowsily looked around, it was the dead of night. "What do you want?"

"I hear something,"

I heard nothing, but asked him anyway, "What do you hear?"

He hushed me and closed his eyes.

"I'm too tired to play your game, what in the hell is it?"

His eyes opened in a flash, "Werewolves. They're close."

I gasped, it had been 5 years since I had dealt with werewolves, and that was only through a truck with Valdor driving. The only thing we knew about them was that silver hurt them. I jumped up and grabbed my knife out of its hiding spot. I rushed Valdor out of my room and put on some decent clothes. Could this be the same group that attacked us that one night?

I came barreling out of my room, only to find that they were already at my screen door. A naked man opened it and my entire house was filled with nasty, hungry wolves.

Chapter 2: Need Some Help?

He looked up abruptly and sniffed the air with me still pinned down under him. His eyes widened with fear, he turned to me and said, "Fine, we must go right now. They're coming." he whispered.

"For what? Who's coming?" I was liking this situation less and less, I kinda just wished I killed him at the beginning. I wondered how the notion of asking him that entered into my mind.

He didn't answer, only picked me off of the ground, and threw me over his back. He asked me where the my vehicle was, and ran in that direction. This wasn't no ordinary running though, he took off at super human speed that only vampires could achieve, probably as fast as my truck could go at top speed. I protested when he put me in the passenger seat and climbed into the driver's side.

He cranked the engine and took off, his foot punching the gas.

"What the hell do you think you're doing? Who's coming?" I asked him. He shouldn't even be driving, he was too weak, too young.

"We have to leave, look behind you."

I quickly did as I was told and saw three dogs running after us. Only these dogs were twice as big as normal dogs, and they ran faster than normal dogs too.

I turned to look at him skeptically, "We're running from dogs, why?"

"They're not dogs, there werewolves."

I gasped. Never had I thought they were real, they were only myths, only legends, I mean I had heard the stories and all, but I didn't really believe them. Stories were just that, stories. You can only believe what you see. They can't be real. I watched on as they gained on us. The little truck was too old and too slow to shake them off just by speed. One of them came running up on my side of the old Ford, I watched with sick fascination as his muscles rippled underneath his shaggy coat of fur. His eyes were a eerie yellow. He snarled at me, showing off his long, yellow teeth. Then the truck swerved onto him and over him. I could hear the yelping of the hurt wolf behind us, but they didn't stop chasing us to tend to the hurt wolf behind us.

I heard a loud thud in the bed of the truck. I turned around and there was a werewolf there. I couldn't take it any longer, I snapped, and screamed. He turned to look at me, and lunged into, and through the back window, snapping at everything, and growling at the vampire in the seat next to me. I took out my knife that I had brought to kill the vampire with, and tried to stab him with it through his head, but only scratched him under the eye. Smoke started to rise out of the wound and he bit at me, barley missing. I tried again, but only succeeded in scratching his muzzle, deeper than the first cut, and more painful. The vampire quickly turned the truck down another road, and the wolf flew out of the back window, and onto the ground. I watched him roll around and get back on his feet. Then I heard a lonely howl, probably sending off the message that they lost us.

My heart was pounding in my chest, and I looked over to the vampire. He was tired I could see that, and he was just barley alive. I offered to give him some of my blood, out of stupidity, but he said no. I asked him if he had ever tried animal blood to keep him going.

"Animal blood can substitute for human blood, you have to drink more, but it will work." Most vampired do not choose to do that because it left them still hungry, but able to keep on. The vampire was silent. Then he said,

"I didn't know that would work."

After awhile of driving, he pulled over, and got out. He told me to wait in the truck, and he went off into a nearby pasture. I sat there wondering what would happen next. I trusted this vampire for some reason. He had VERY good control over his instincts, which scared me on some level, but I still trusted him. He was... different.

After about 5 minutes, I heard the scream of a cow in distress, and figured out why we were there.

When he got back into the truck, I wondered if that was enough to sate his hunger. I had never heard of a vampire drinking animal blood, but I knew it could happen. I hoped he felt better now because he had kept sneaking glances at me the entire time we were in the truck.

"Now, human, we must discuss something. What is your name? I cannot be helping a hunter to which I do not know their name. My name is Valdor."

"Annabel. We must get back to my home, I think I have a place where you can sleep."

"That sounds wonderful."

We looked at the digital clock on the radio, it was 4:00 in the morning, we had to hurry. He drove us to my home as I gave him directions there. I unlocked the door and stepped in while he waited at the back. Unable to enter on account of me not inviting him.

"Come in, you can sleep in the basement."

I quickly showed him the door to the basement, wondering if that was all that he needed.

"I need nothing else. Goodnight."

It's like he was reading my mind. I went to my own room, changed and laid down. I had invited a vampire into my home, I was a vampire hunter, I wondered what kind of mistake I had made.