Huntress Rescued Read online

A wet squelch echoed over the connection and my vision started to swim. Throwing all caution to the wind, I started to run in the direction of Marcus’s last known coordinates. “Marcus, is it?” the stranger asked. “Do you have any last words for your little friend?”

  “Don’t come here, Genny,” Marcus croaked out. “Run. All of you, run. It’s— ”

  The creature who’d captured him didn’t let him finish his sentence. “How rude,” he cut Marcus off. “Here I am, welcoming you myself, and you’re showing me such disrespect. Perhaps I should teach you a little lesson.”

  Marcus screamed, and the horrible sound raked over every inch of me, as sharp as the blades we wielded in battle, as lethal as the claws and fangs of vampires and werewolves. Even so, I welcomed it, because it was better than silence. As long as he was screaming, he was still alive, and that meant that I could still save him.

  “What about you, huntress?” Marcus’s captor sing-songed into the coms. “Do you want to participate in the lesson? I can wait, if you’re interested.”

  Alarm bells started to ring at the back of my mind. He was taunting me. He was so sure of himself. He wasn’t alone. If I went after Marcus, chances were that I’d get captured too.

  I mentally revised the position of my potential reinforcements. Out of our unit, I’d been the closest to the front gate of the compound. Marcus and Raymond had been watching the west flank. Raymond might have decided to join us after Marcus had left his position, but I didn’t have time to check.

  Pauline, Victor, and the rest of our unit were toward the east and couldn’t help us.

  Did I dare to risk it? If I went after Marcus, would I just be making things worse for my team?

  “Well, huntress?” the vampire asked. “What are you going to do? Choose now. I don’t have time to wait around if you’re not coming. I’m getting hungry here. Your friend might not be in an ideal condition—I prefer my feeding sources young—but blood is blood. I’ll take it wherever I can get it.”

  I waited for my brother to say something, anything at all. When no one else spoke over the coms, I realized the undead must have done something to hijack the signal.

  That alone should have made me turn back. It was a trap. I could see it so clearly.

  But even so, I didn’t have it in me to abandon Marcus. I knew for a fact that he was still alive, as his tracker hadn’t been deactivated. That meant I still had a chance, and if I wasted that and I didn’t at least try to save him, I would always blame myself for his demise and ask myself ‘what if.’

  “I’m coming, you parasite. Don’t get your fangs in a twist.”

  The vampire laughed. “You’re an interesting one, aren’t you? I look forward to tasting you.”

  I ignored him, focusing on making my way through the undergrowth at a more cautious pace. The radar was only registering Marcus’s tracker and life signs. It displayed no other heat signatures nearby. I activated the secondary module, connecting it to my goggles. Without my rifle, I wouldn’t be able to distinguish vampires so easily in the dark, but the undead detection filter in the radar would help me with that.

  Contrary to popular belief, undead bodies weren’t cold. Their temperatures just fluctuated according to their feeding sessions and tended to center on certain specific organs or blood vessels. Logically, regular filters should have still detected those spots and sometimes, in the case of younger vampires, it did happen. Older undead, however, possessed abilities that confused most equipment. The filter on my radar was among the few exceptions, but even that would provide me with only a small amount of help.

  Hunters were guerilla units. Every battle we’d ever won had been a surprise attack. Going to face Marcus’s captor was the exact opposite of what I was supposed to be doing—of what I’d been trained to do. But what other choice did I have?

  Hopefully, I’d at least be able to stall long enough to get reinforcements from… somewhere.

  As it turned out, I didn’t need any complicated skill or detection mechanism to find my foe. When I reached Marcus’s location, I found his captor leaning against a tree, filing his claws. My breath caught when I realized that the vampire who’d caught my friend was none other than our priority target.

  If Vladimir Popovic was here, I was in far more trouble than I’d originally thought. Had I known he was the one who’d captured Marcus, I might have reassessed my plan. Too late now.

  I couldn’t see Marcus, which was alarming, especially since I could spot slight traces of red underneath the vampire’s sharp nails.

  “Where is Marcus? What did you do to him?”

  “He’s up there,” the vampire answered, pointing to the tree branches above him. “I thought it would be more convenient to stash him someplace out of the way.”

  I looked up, half-expecting the words to be a lie and a distraction tactic. They weren’t. Marcus was indeed on one of the larger branches and the vampire made no move to attack me while my attention was supposedly on my injured friend.

  I glanced back at the vampire and removed my goggles. “Why are you doing this? What do you want with me?”

  “I told you over the coms, didn’t I? I don’t much care for old blood. It does the job, but after a while, it gets tasteless. And I don’t particularly enjoy drinking the blood of idiots, either. I can feel my IQ lowering just at being in your friend’s presence.” He smirked, and his sharp fangs glinted in the light of the full moon. “You, on the other hand… Your blood would be a feast. I didn’t even have to see you to know that. Having you in front of me both confirms and surpasses my hopes.”

  “I’m flattered,” I answered, “but I expect my boyfriends to treat me to dinner, not turn me into one.”

  The vampire laughed. “Perhaps that could be arranged, eventually.”

  I would have liked to stall him a little more with conversation, but he wasn’t willing to chat any longer. His eyes flashed crimson and massive, bat-like wings erupted from his back. He lunged at me, his claws extended, his fangs dripping with vampiric venom.

  The transformation from polite man to rabid beast had long ago stopped surprising me. The undead were all like this, creatures of contrasts, and it was part of the reason why they were so dangerous and unpredictable. I didn’t let it scare me. Instead, I pulled out my twin pistols and targeted his wings.

  At the back of my mind, I could hear my sister’s instructions, from the first time she had ever given me a lesson on vampire hunting.

  “Whenever you fight a vamp, the first thing you need to do is to hinder its mobility. Slow it down. For regular vamps, aim for the knees. High bleed regions are also a good option, although hemorrhaging takes time to affect a vampire, time that we usually don’t have at our disposal.

  “If you run into a flier, it’s pretty straightforward. Go for the wings. Once he’s grounded, apply the same strategy as for regulars.”

  It was an excellent idea, in theory, but in practice, it wasn’t so easy to accomplish. I actually had to hit the vampire’s wings to ground him, and the damn creature was very fast. My sole advantage was that we were in a forest, and the low hanging branches made it impossible for him to lunge at me from above. But that was where the good news stopped. In every other way, I was out of luck. I was inferior to him from a physical standpoint and while my weaponry could take him out, I had to do enough damage for that to happen. In close combat, against an opponent of Popovic’s age and experience, I didn’t have much chance of accomplishing that.

  But I’d never been a quitter, so even when Popovic easily dodged my first attempts, I didn’t lose my calm. His evasive maneuver was an advantage for me, because it had temporarily stopped his momentum and forced him to fly back. A powerful vampire he might be, but he wasn’t any different from younger ones in terms of flight patterns, and I could capitalize on that.

  Since I had two pistols, I used the bullets in one of them to subtly corral him in the right direction. He didn’t realize what I was doing until I shot the bullets in the other
gun and he flew straight into their path.

  He went down like a rock, the silver slicing through muscle and sinew with ease. I didn’t wait for him to recover and instead used this opening to try to blow his head off.

  I missed, as the vampire ducked to the side at the last moment. Cursing to myself, I remembered what Eliza had told me about the mobility of flying vamps. Grounding them was just the first step. They still had their legs. Until I managed to hit that region in Popovic’s body, I would not be able to strike a decisive blow.

  Unfortunately for me, shooting him down had made him mad. When he turned toward me again, he was frothing at the mouth. His fangs had lengthened even further, making him look a little like the undead version of a saber-toothed tiger. And here I’d thought the covens in this region of the world were a little more civilized.

  He didn’t say anything, nor did he make any threats that would’ve been futile at this point. He just attacked, coming straight at me. I emptied the barrel of my last gun into his body, but much to my dismay, it barely made him flinch. My successful attempt to ground him had resulted in me running out of bullets and I didn’t have time to reload. Before I could reach for another clip, he was on me.

  We fell to the ground in a pile of limbs, with his larger body on top of my smaller one. When he tried to rip my throat out, I headbutted him in the face and then hit him with my otherwise useless gun. It wasn’t my best plan, as the impact between my skull and his made pain erupt over my body. However, it did buy me a few seconds, which I used to reach for my daggers and attack him that way.

  Several things happened at the same time. My left dagger slipped past his guard and into his body. My other knife went flying out of my hand as Popovic pinned me to the ground. And he buried his fangs into my throat, moving so quickly I didn’t even have time to process what was going on.

  Within seconds, the vampiric venom had done its job, and I’d gone limp in his hold. The last thought that went through my mind was that all my efforts had been for naught. My blood would heal all the damage I’d done to Popovic and probably empower him even more after that.

  I had failed my family and my friends. It was a terrible knowledge to carry to my grave.

  Chapter Two

  The history of paranormal hunters dates back from before the PHP ever became an issue. The first real chronicles we have of their existence range from the Early Middle Ages, although earlier records indicate that such groups might have existed way before that, perhaps even in ancient times.

  Of particular interest are Julius Caesar’s comments on peculiar incidents that occurred during the war with Gaul, incidents he feared might be of supernatural origin. An unpublished journal entry even suggests that fears of the supernatural became so high during that time that he considered retreating to Rome.

  “And it is with much dismay that I have noticed anomalous occurrences surrounding the camp. Three days back, I saw with my own eyes the sight of a savage turning into a wolf and mauling one of my men. My soldiers whisper around the campfire and fear this expedition might be cursed. But I have not lost hope. Mankind has never bowed down to the power of such beings and Rome has more than one weapon at its disposal. The Julii have always known how to deal with such things.”

  It is now believed that several influential Roman families, including the gens Julia, possessed branches that specialized in hunting paranormal beings, and that the strength they amassed to achieve this goal helped them later in the political arena. However, as hunter families are very secretive, it is unknown if any of those lines survived into modernity.

  - Ian Smythe, “The History of the Resistance. Fighting against the Paranormal Threat, Second Edition (Oxford University Press, 1967) -

  * * *

  Imogen

  “Are you sure about this? Do you really think she’ll make a good candidate for the transformation?”

  “I wouldn’t be having this conversation with you if I had doubts. She’s perfect for the process.”

  “She’s a huntress, Vladimir. It will never work.”

  “Of course it will. She won’t be a huntress once we’re done with her.”

  I lay on the cot in the cold room and kept my eyes closed, all the while struggling not to panic. When I’d lost the battle in the forest, I’d thought Popovic would drain me dry and that would be the end of me. I’d been a fool to believe the vampire didn’t have something up his sleeve.

  His decision to wait for me had never been about him wanting to feed on new blood. He had some kind of plan that involved turning me into one of them. I wouldn’t transform from a simple vampire bite, but it was the first step. If Popovic or one of his cronies forced me to drink his blood, I’d become one of the undead, the same type of monster I’d been fighting all my life.

  I’d have chosen death over that fate any day of the week, but I didn’t think I had a say in this.

  But I was not a vampire yet, and until that happened, I had no intention of giving up. As far as I could tell, my captors weren’t in the room with me and so far, they didn’t seem to have realized I was awake. I tested the bindings around my wrists and legs, being extra careful to not rattle them or draw too much attention to my motions. Unsurprisingly, I found the cuffs impossible to move. In fact, when I rubbed my fingers over the edge of the shackle, I noticed some ridges that didn’t appear on regular bindings. Runes, perhaps, although I couldn’t distinguish the exact type without looking at them. Either way, it was easy to conclude that the cuffs were designed for creatures far stronger than a human. There was no way I could break them through force.

  Where did that leave me then? Could I find a key? It would not be here. Vampires were many things, but they were not idiots. Then again, if they were underestimating me, they might have left something nearby that I could use. Perhaps not the key, but some kind of lock pick.

  I opened my eyes and looked around the room. Much to my dismay, I noticed that there were indeed plenty of things that could have helped me unlock the cuffs. All of them were out of my reach, and very close to a massive man who looked more like a statue than a person. The pasty white of his skin identified him as an undead, especially when coupled with his apparent inability to breathe.

  He also didn’t blink, or do much of anything that would have suggested any kind of connection to the human race. This meant the creature was less evolved, which was bad news for me. The less intelligent species of undead were always the most volatile and unstable. The sight of the torture instruments next to him wasn’t encouraging either.

  On the other hand, facing a stupid opponent was always better than fighting a smart one. I could still use all those scalpels and sharp implements to escape.

  This particular undead looked like a revenant, although he possessed more brain capacity than most creatures of his type. He met my gaze, and the glint of savage satisfaction in his eye made my skin crawl. “I see you’ve finally decided to stop pretending you’re unconscious. Wonderful. I was getting bored.”

  “What a coincidence,” I answered. “I’m pretty bored myself. I don’t suppose you could let me out of here. I’m sure I can find a way to relieve both of us of our tedium.”

  The words came out more flirtatious than I’d have liked, but I only realized it when the revenant’s gaze traveled over my body, assessing my form with undisguised lust. “Tempting. Very tempting. Perhaps I’ll take you up on that offer. But not just yet. You’re not meant for me. The boss has far greater plans.”

  Lucky, lucky me.

  “I don’t suppose you’d tell me what those plans are, then? I wouldn’t want to disappoint your boss.”

  I didn’t expect him to offer me any information I could use, but stranger things had happened. He was attracted to me, and as much as that thought made my skin crawl, I could use it. Hell, I wouldn’t even mind blowing him if it got me out of this mess.

  Obviously, I’d make sure to kill him after that, but in the meantime, he could be helpful.

  I bit my lowe
r lip hard enough to draw blood, all the while giving him a shy, but inviting look. “Not that I really want to go to your boss. I hope this isn’t too much for me to say, but I must admit, I’d much rather stay with you than with him.”

  I mentally cringed at the words that were coming out of my mouth. They should’ve never worked. I was good at many things, but flirting was not one of them. But my earlier gamble paid off and the undead creature next to me didn’t need much subtlety. The scent of my blood alone distracted him from my obvious trick.

  “Really?” he asked. He got up and leaned closer to me, sweeping his hand over my body. “You’d give yourself to me, little huntress?”

  I couldn’t help a small shiver of disgust when his fingers brushed over the inside of my thigh and headed upwards, toward my groin. At the last moment, I managed to disguise it and pretend I was enjoying his caress. Revenants didn’t have a sharp sense of smell so he wouldn’t be able to see through my very transparent lie.

  He didn’t, but in the end, his foolishness didn’t matter. Our exchange was interrupted when my target walked into the room, smiling at me and not looking in the least bit surprised at what I’d attempted to do. “Nice try, my dear huntress, but we won’t make it so easy for you.”

  He snapped his fingers and my undead guard pulled away, displaying no sign that he was disappointed at having been robbed of his chance to fuck me. Popovic waved him off and the guard left the room without looking back.

  “You intrigue me, little huntress,” Popovic said once his underling was gone. “You’re obviously disgusted by us, and yet, you’re willing to humiliate yourself and flirt with a revenant if it means you will escape. I wonder what your proud ancestors would say if they saw you now.”

  I knew I shouldn’t allow him to bait me, but I still replied, “I’m sure they’d say that when it comes to hunting undead, everything goes.”

  “You’re probably right.” He rubbed his thumb over my upper lip, exposing my still human teeth. “I bet they’d be more worried about the possibility of you turning into one of us. Isn’t that right, Imogen Lee? Or should I say, Imogen Julius?”