Undisclosed Desires

I clicked the gun into action, picking up a reload as I did so.
“We need to get to the coven. They’ve got the place surrounded, and it’s built to their advantage. Dark, dingy, and wooden to echo any sound. Not that they need the help” I recited, as I strapped a utility belt around my waist. I pulled on a pair of black, leather gloves and threw on my heavy duty jacket. Inside I had stashed several stakes and other devices used for slaying vampires.
“What if this doesn’t work, Juliet? There are 12 of them. Just one is as strong as 3 humans put together” Rowena chimed.
“It’s going to work” I hissed fiercely. “Gather your equipment. We leave at sundown” I ordered, before checking that everything was in order. As leader, I felt responsible for my warriors. That was what they were to me: warriors – strong, smart, and agile.
“The coven has a leader. Odysseus. If we capture him-” another warrior started.
“If we capture him it will give the others a reason to hunt us” I interjected.
“Not if we don’t leave any alive” Muriel mumbled. I turned to deliver a steely glare, my eyes narrowed as they locked in on hers.
“If we capture him, and one happens to get away, then regardless of whether we kill Odysseus or not – the one that got away will tell other leeches about what happened, and will rally them all to come and retrieve Odysseus; because they don’t know if we killed him or not. You are too young and too stupid to understand that, which is why you are not the leader” I explained venomously, before taking my stance at the narrow slot in between the wooden planks we had nailed to the window. The slot was at eye level, and just enough to see who – or what – was outside. I was guarding tonight, to stay in control of what happened. Any minor error could be catastrophic.

The others were all young adults, just like me. I was one of the youngest – only 17. But I was more than capable of doing what some of the 21 year olds here could only dream of doing. I had drive – more drive than any of them did. Because this was all I had. They had lives outside of hunting – they had families to go back to, schools to attend. I lived in the back of my car, with nothing and no-one. So I had all the time in the world to perfect my hunting skills. And the drive – that came from my family’s death.

I was 16, and I was in bed at the time. My parents were in the room next to me, and my brother was in the room down the corridor. We were all sleeping, when I heard a soft clicking noise. Even back then, I was still alert. It was in my blood to be stealthy. I wasn’t a warrior though, back then, and I didn’t know how to fight. I made my way quietly to my brother’s room, where I heard the clicking noise. As I got closer, I heard the sliding of fabric against a wall. Then I heard a squelch. Something about that sounded oh-so wrong. It made my stomach coil. That’s when I heard a gasp, and a scream that made my blood turn to ice even to this day. It was my brother’s voice, and it was as a clear as anything. He was in trouble. My parents suddenly tumbled out of bed and shot towards my brother’s room, and I followed closely behind. What we walked into was something that none of us could ever fathom. There on the bed lay my brother, his head lolled at an unnatural angle to one side – exposing two small holes in his neck. Next to him stood a hooded figure, cloaked in black, with blood dripping slowly off his shiny, white fangs. My mother ran towards my brother protectively, although I could see he wasn’t breathing, and my father headed towards the figure with a baseball bat. It moved with incredible speed, dealing with my father first before moving onto my mother. Within a matter of seconds, my whole family was dead – and the world as I knew it was shattered. An adrenaline rush kicked in as a hoard of thoughts piled into my mind, before it shut off and my survival instincts kicked in. All I heard inside my head was one word.
Run
And that is what I did. I knew I wouldn’t be able to outrun him, and instead headed straight towards the window. If I could make the jump towards the ground outside, I would be able to get away. I got to the window and threw one leg over it, before I felt a tugging on the other leg. Most of my body was out of the window by now, but my leg was still held captive by the creature’s iron grip. I desperately looked around me, feeling him dragging my body back in. My eye was caught by the porch light, and without thinking about it, I punched the window and watched the shards cascade around my bloody hand. I picked up a piece and held it towards the creature’s face, angling it upwards. My fingers trembled as I managed to get the lighting right, and aimed the reflection of the porch light at the creature’s face. It wasn’t enough to disarm him, but it confused him enough to allow me to free my leg and freefall to the ground. I heard a crunching noise and felt a panging pain in my ankle, but I managed to drag myself up and ran towards the nearest store. I needed to be near people.

Several hours later, I was wrapped in a blanket as I sat on a chair in the middle of the convenience store. The policeman stared at me as if I had serious issues, as I retold him the story of the fanged murderer. He referred me to a psychiatrist, before the rest of the squad went to collect my parents. They couldn’t find my brother, which was ironic since the holes in his neck were the only evidence I had to prove my sanity. But my parents were found and buried respectively.

Even remembering that scene now – 1 year later – gave me chills. I didn’t know which vampire had done it, but that didn’t stop me from killing any that I found. I was secretly in hope that one day I would find my brother, because I wouldn’t… couldn’t… believe he was dead. This was my biggest job yet: a whole coven. Usually I dealt with single vampires – and with a 100% success rate each time.

We waited until it was dusk, before picking up our weapons
“Remember – if I call to fall back, you all follow. You follow my orders, or you are left behind. We can’t afford to have rogue hunters. We work as a team – a pack – and we defend each other. And if I tell you to leave someone behind – you will. Collateral damage is nothing compared to all of us being captured. I’m responsible for you, so you will listen to my orders, understood?” I asked, swiftly glancing around the room at the ten pairs of eyes that looked back at me “There are 12 of them. That means one each for all of us, and one left over. The boss. Odysseus. I’ll take him out. Stick to the plan, and don’t try to get brave. That’s what got Toby killed” I reminded them. He was still a sore subject to talk about. Toby was good – very good – and he’d known that. He’d taken on 3 vampires at a time, when there had been enough hunters to take on one vampire each. He’d started laughing as they approached him, and lazily deflected all of them. That was when one came up behind him, and took him out. He hadn’t been on his guard, because he was too cocky.

My pack all held up their hands, palms facing outwards – our sign of respect to commemorate those that we’d lost.
“This is for Toby. For Marshall. For Esther. Tonight’s hunt is for those that we’ve lost” I called, before picking up my gun to leave.