Immortal Hunters

“Is she okay?”
I could hear voices outside my subconscious.
“I don’t know. She was shot by a hunter pellet.”
“Here, let me check it out.”
“My full intentions.”
I could feel someone touching my arm softly.
“Well, the pellet’s gone right through, fortunately. She should be happy she’s so skinny.”
Hunter pellets, or the bullets that hunters use have a certain poison that only affects the Shadow Dwellers, aka me and the guy who carried me off. If the pellet had lodged in my arm, the poison would have leeched into my blood stream.
“Anything you need to do?”
“Disinfect the wound.”
Oh, no.
Not disinfectant.
I felt the familiar fiery sensation tear through my arm.
I screamed.
“Shit! She’s awake!”
My eyes snapped open.
“Yes, I’m awake.” I stammered.
My eyes were having trouble adjusting to the low level lighting in human form.
“Well, you should have said something.” Said an irritated voice from somewhere in the shadows.
“Look, I hate to ask, but who are you people?”
Silence. Finally, my kidnapper stepped into the moonlight pouring through a window. He was in human form, or as human as a half-vampire gets. His eyes still glowed red, and his fangs still jutted out just over his bottom lip, but the beautiful black wings had dissolved back into his spine. His hair had been dried, and I could see a deep red rippling throughout. He had ditched the singlet from earlier, revealing a very well muscled, pale body, with tattoos here and there. He was, however, wearing baggy black jeans and superbly thick soled boots. Just as sexy as before. Yum.
“I, am Yu.”
“No, you’re not me…”
“No, as in, short for Yuki. Yu.”
“Oh…”
I am such an idiot.
The next person to step into the light was slightly shorter than Yu. His eyes were glowing purple, and he too had fangs sitting just on his bottom lip, peeking out from under his top lip. A lip ring glinted in the dim light. He had slightly more dandy clothing. A pair of black skinny jeans, a black dress shirt with the sleeves pushed up to his elbows, a hot pink tie hanging loosely around his neck, A plain chrome chain hung around his wrist. He also had black sneakers. His hair was carefully straightened, with the fringe dyed blonde. I must admit, he was pretty attractive, but then, all vampires are.
“I’m Strify.” He nodded.
“Cool name.” I smiled.
The one who drew up next to them had dark circles around his eyes, and his eyes were a bottomless black with red flecks throughout and two red rings, one around the edge of the iris, and one around the edge of the pupil. His hair was straight and black, and he too had a lip ring. He wore a white shirt and black jeans, a thick, black trench coat and thick soled boots. I’m guessing that were he provoked, he would be extremely dangerous. A demon. Yay.
“The name’s Romeo.” He smiled.
“Nice name.”
Too bad he wouldn’t have a heart to go along with it.
Another person revealed themself. Extremely short…? I bet everything that I was taller than him. His hair was dye blonde with brown re-growth, and also brown growing out from underneath. It reached just above his shoulders and was spiked up here and there. His skin was deathly pale, and glowed, causing a slight illumination on everything close to him. His eyes were a stunning emerald green, and he wore a black dress shirt with the sleeves also pushed up to the elbows, a cream-coloured tie, black skinny jeans and… Cowboy boots?! Interesting dress sense… Most unusual was that he was using several pairs of handcuffs linked together at various intervals as a makeshift belt. I wasn’t quite sure what his Shadow Dweller makeup was.
“The name’s Kiro.”
“Hey. I hope you don’t mind me asking, but, umm… What are you, exactly?”
“Please don’t ask how it comes about. I’m half vampire and half angel.”
“WHAT?! How does that work?”
“Please, I told you not to ask…”
“Oh, sorry, my bad.”
I grimaced.
Angels and Shadow Dwellers are sworn enemies, so how he managed to become half of each was unknown and almost practically a taboo. There would be a high price on his head, if he were seen by Immortal Hunters.
The last person to bring themselves into the steady stream of moonlight was by far the tallest. He had a glazed over look in his eyes, and a pronounced slouch, which I recognised as the signs of a new werewolf. He was a lycanthrope, like me. He wore faded blue denim jeans with holes in the knees, and a white short sleeved shirt. Not as precious clothing, and I could imagine why. As a newborn lycanthrope, you can’t really control your transformations, so wearing new or expensive clothes was pretty much a waste. His fixed his far away gaze on me, trying to force his eyes to focus. They did for a second, but then glazed over again. I knew what that was like. I could also imagine that he might have been in some pain, from transformations.
“Shin.” He muttered quietly.
“I empathise.” I nodded at him.
I had been a lycanthrope for at least three years now, so I had regained control over my body and senses. I could imagine what stress and frustration he felt.
He forced a smile onto his face.
The only thing I could think at this point was; what a mismatch of Shadow Dwellers.
A half-demon, half-vampire, a vampire, a demon, a half-vampire, half-angel and a lycanthrope.
“Yeah, you’ll have to excuse Shin. He’s been a werewolf for about a month.” Kiro explained.
“Fun.” I nodded, trying to use telepathy to show Shin I understood.
Yeah, awesome thing about werewolves; all werewolves have a telepathical connection.
“I hate to sound rude, but could you please provide us with a name?” Strify asked.
“Oh? Sure. I’m Raven, or Raven for short.” I grinned.
“Nice name.”
“Thanks.”
“You’re lucky, you know. That bullet went right through your arm.”
“Yeah… I heard. Well, thanks for saving me or whatnot. I thought Yu was going to eat me.”
Dear God, I talk too much.
“I already told you, I’m not going to eat you!”
“But you’re… How come you didn’t?”
“We actually try to eat human food. It isn’t very often that one of us goes after blood, but we own a cupboard of remedies and antidotes for each other’s bites.” Romeo explained.
“Oh. So, who is the most frequent to go rogue?” I looked at them all.
I expected the answer to be Shin, but it wasn’t.
“Kiro.”
“What?” I looked at his perfect features.
He honestly had all the beauty of an angel and a vampire combined. Was he the most beautiful/most attractive thing in existence?
He looked kind of embarrassed by this revelation.
“Yeah, he gets uncannily bad cravings for blood. It’s a sight to see.”
Everyone except Kiro held their forearms out, and Romeo even pushed up his sleeves.
I could see pearl-white teeth marks littering their arms. The scars actually glowed to some extent.
“How do you survive?” I asked, incredulous.
It’s well known that Angel venom is lethal to all Shadow Dwellers. Because it is pure, it begins to burn us from the inside out.
“Like I said earlier, we have a cupboard full of remedies and antidotes. Yu is our resident chemist or scientist, and is always mixing things to make the required potions.” Romeo replied.
“The only real problem is cleaning up after one of his attacks.” Yu stated.
Kiro just looked down, and the illumination coming off his face was tinged slightly pink. Aww, he was blushing with embarrassment.
“Why?” I was full of curiosity.
“The blood makes him sick because he’s half –angel. Because he’s also half-vampire, when he vomits after an attack, it’s always a mix of his blood, and whoever’s he just drank.”
“Oh joy.” I looked at Kiro, feeling quite sorry for him.
“Anyway… We try not to think of this too much. When it happens, it happens, and we deal with it at the time it needs to be dealt with. Strify, our resident doctor, is still trying to figure out why Kiro gets these uncannily bad cravings for blood. We believe that he should crave blood the least, as he’s half-angel.” Romeo continued on.
“Shouldn’t Shin crave blood the most? Or more to the point, flesh?” I suddenly remembered how bad I was when I had been a newborn.
“Well, we feed him raw meat every time he transforms. That usually keeps him happy.”
I stood for the first time since Yu had flown off with me.
“So… Random change of subject… You guys all live here?”
“Yeah. Manor Bizarre, we like to call it. It’s a rather spacious mansion. We’ll have to show you around.”
“Indeed. Any neighbouring rival Shadow Dweller clans?”
“Yeah. There’s another group of Shadow Dwellers living in a run-down Hotel not far from here. You’ll meet them sooner or later.”
“Nice.” I nodded slowly.
“So anyway… We’ll take you out tomorrow.” Strify grinned.
“Hey, no, look, I hate to impose. I won’t hang around long. I’ll just gather my bearings and leave.”
And get disowned by my pack for dating an Immortal Hunter, and putting myself and everyone else in danger.
“No, please don’t go.” Came the soft voice of Shin.
Although his eyes were glazed and relative expressionless, he managed to fix a look on me for a few seconds, and I could instantly feel his pain and sadness flowing into my head. He obviously liked the idea of another lycanthrope being around, probably especially the fact that I’m a more mature wolf, and can probably teach him how to control himself and so on and so forth.
“Okay, I’ll stay for a little while. I’m not saying that this will be permanent.” I noted.
“Thank you.” And for the first time since he had stepped into the moonlight, I saw a genuine smile spread across his fine featured face.
I began to register with the room. My eyes were finally adapting to the low-level lighting, and I could see that the walls were made of dark stones, the floor was made of a dark timber, and the ceiling was bare with support beams running the length. The furniture in here, however, was more modern. Suede couches, a 62 inch plasma TV, a higher platform with a desk and chair, a cupboard behind that full of vials containing different coloured liquids. There was also a staircase in the far corner. I guessed that this was a basement of some sort. The window was set high in the wall, which just made my suspicions of this being a basement stronger. Then I saw the moon slowly moving into the view of the window.
“SHIN! Get OUT of the moonlight!” I screeched, but due to his numbed senses, he was too slow.
As soon as the moon came into full view of the window, he let out a piercing scream and hunched forward. His clothes began to tear as his muscles thickened, and he dropped to his knees, placing the palms of his hands on the floor in front of him. His back began to curve more, and then he took the form of a wolf. His coat was white as snow, with black undergrowth. I guessed that was because he dyed his hair blonde. He was alert now, ears pricked to any noise, eyes an ice blue, with dark black rims (because of eyeliner, I guessed), also bright, and focusing easily on everything.
“Damn it.” I heard his voice in my head.
Of course. He’d be talking to me telepathically now.
“Don’t blame yourself.” I walked over to him, carefully staying out of the moonlight.
The others backed away, watching what I did intently.
“I should have moved. Why am I so unresponsive?”
“Because you’re only a newborn wolf.”
“How do I change back? I’ve forgotten.”
“Well, because you don’t really have any control over transformations at the moment, you’re going to have to wait until sunrise.”
“I hate this.”
“You’ll get used to it.” I nodded, stroking him between the ears.
“Is… Is he talking to you?” Yu watched me, transfixed.
“Well yeah. It’s a werewolf thing.” I informed him.
“Whoa. A way to actually communicate with Shin!”
“A way for Shin to communicate with us!”
Shin howled, and they went quiet, staring at him.
“Haha! I love doing that!”
I laughed.
“Why was he howling?” Kiro asked quickly.
“Because it scares you.” I continued to laugh.
“Oh what? It so does not!”
“Does too. Shoulda seen the looks on your faces.”
I just laughed harder.
“What did he say?”
“That you should have seen the expressions on your faces.”
“Yeah… That probably would change our story…” Yu looked sheepish.
I could hear Shin laughing inside my head.
“Hey, now that I think about it, would you like to see the rest of the house? We don’t exactly live here.” Romeo smiled.
“Sure.” I agreed.
They lead me over to the staircase at the edge of the room, and we ascended, Shin bringing up the rear. The rest of the house was as gothic as the basement, with yet again, the modern furniture making a nice contrast against the oldness. The room that the stairs lead to was the lounge room. More suede couches, another plasma, a computer desk over in the corner. There were more recreational devices as well, like a Wii, and X-Box 360 and a Playstation 3. They looked a bit out of place. The room was also large and square, and very open. Behind the recreational things, I saw a raised platform with a kitchen built into it, and opposite that, a large dining table with eight chairs and a chandelier hanging above the centre. Behind that was a wide staircase with about ten stairs, which lead onto what appeared to be a long corridor, lined with doors. I guessed that this was the entire house. It certainly didn’t have a million rooms like your normal every-day house would.
“Whoa.” I breathed.
“Yeah, welcome to our house, Manor Bizarre. It’s not like your typical mansion, but hey, we like it. That place up there, where all the doors are? Those doors are bedrooms, except for the two down either end of the hall. The door at each end is a bathroom, though sometimes we actually need less bedrooms and more bathrooms…” Strify explained.
“Nice.”
Strify then looked at me and disappeared back down the stairs, brushing past me at an inhumane speed. We he reappeared, he took my arm in his hands delicately, and wrapped a bandage around the bullet wound, fastening it with a chrome safety pin. Yeah, notice how everything’s chrome? That’s because us Shadow Dwellers can’t touch silver. It’s thought to be a pure substance, and burns us much like angel venom would.
“Here. I’ll show you to your bedroom, now that Strify is finally done with your arm.” Kiro offered.
“Thanks.” I smiled.
He beckoned for me to follow, and everyone dispersed, doing what they felt like behind us. Out the corner of my eye, I saw Strify go to the fridge, get out a raw steak and throw it to Shin, who leapt high and caught it firmly in his powerful jaws. We went up the stairs, and I saw that all illumination in the corridor that wasn’t coming off Kiro, was coming from torches. You know, the wall mounted kind, lit on fire. I breathed a word of amazement.
“Actually, I’ll give you a tour. Eh, keep following me.” Kiro’s voice broke through my trance.
He walked us to the end of the corridor. A white door.
“This is bathroom number one.”
Next door was black with red spatters.
“Yu’s room.”
He opened the door, and I glimpsed inside. The walls were black, the cover on his bed was red and black. In the corner, he had a Hello Kitty doll hanging from a noose, and he had a shelf with multiple Skelanimals and Hello Kitty dolls. There was also a large vanity table covered in makeup and hair products. Kiro closed the door and we moved on. A white door with black spatters. Spatters are really popular, it seems.
“My room.”
He opened this door. The colour scheme of the room was black and white. His room was spotlessly neat, and he too had a vanity table overflowing with stuff. We stepped back, closed the door and moved on yet again. The next door was purple.
“Strify’s room.”
He opened the door. The room reeked of perfume, and had clothes scattered everywhere, draped over everything. The vanity table thing seemed to be a consistent trend. He closed the door, and we moved again. The next door we drew up to was just a plain, wooden door.
“This is going to be your room.”
Upon opening the door, the room looked bare. It was plainly coloured, spotlessly neat, the bed was made, the vanity table bare. He left this door open as we moved down the hall. Next door was plain black.
“Romeo’s room.”
It was pretty dark in there. Everything was some shade of black, clothes strewn about, Skelanimals littered the bed, the vanity table overflowing, and a stereo in the corner. The most surprising about this room was the cross hanging on the far wall. Being Shadow Dwellers, that cross would burn him.
“What’s with...”
“The cross? He was catholic before he was turned. Still is. Prays every night, touches the cross lightly. Look at the tips of his fingers carefully. The skin is usually always pink or red, and sometimes blistered.”
Well, someone who took his religion seriously.
“So how did he handle being turned into a demon, then?”
“Not well. He spent a year in depression, then finally took to this routine.”
“Okay.”
Kiro closed the door, ending the conversation, then took me to the second last door in the corridor. It was silver and an aqua-like blue.
“Shin’s room.”
When he opened the door, it looked like all the others rooms, except he had the odd Spongebob Squarepants poster here and there… And a dog basket.
“A dog basket?” I looked at Kiro in disdain.
“Well, wolves are dogs…” he tried to amend this.
I sighed, “Yes, but we don’t sleep in fricken baskets.”
“How are we meant to know that? None of us are lycanthropes. Not mature lycanthropes, anyway.”
He closed the door and stepped back.
“That last door there? It’s another bathroom. Feel free to decorate your room how you want. No one else is going to use it.”
“Thanks.” I smiled, then he turned and went back to the other room.
I walked to my bedroom, then closed my door behind me. The room still looked bare, but I would fix that. Just at the moment though, I was tired, and when I flopped down on the bed, it was only minutes before I had fallen asleep.