Hunter

by Joanna White

  None.

  Set my people free.

  Giving myself up would be her only chance. The only chance any of them had. She wrapped her arms around me and her head against my chest, closing her eyes. Tears leaked out of her lashes. My chest ached at the thought that she had finally allowed herself to lose her composure—to just cry. With a bitter ache in my chest, I simply held her. There was nothing more I could do. It wasn’t long before she and I were both asleep.

  My dreams were filled with death. I saw the prisoner I had killed the first day Averella had arrived here. I was watching myself slice his throat open. I wanted to move, to yell, to tackle myself and make myself stop—I didn’t want to watch myself killing another innocent life. But I couldn’t stop.

  A voice whispered in my mind, dark and threatening and it seemed to take over my whole mind, all my thoughts and everything I could see. You killed her brother…. The voice whispered to me. I was forced to watch the blood spurt from his neck as the prisoner writhed on the ground. He made a gurgling sound as he slowly bled out.

  You murdered her brother, the voice whispered. The phrase repeated itself over and over again in my mind. Averella’s brother is dead because of you!

  Averella’s brother died by your hand!

  Averella’s brother….

  Averella…

  She crouched over me, shaking me awake. I blinked. It must have been a dream, but… it felt real. Then, the voice whispered again in my thoughts.

  Ask her what his name was… it whispered.

  “Averella… What was your brother’s name?” I blurted, almost before I could think about what I was asking. I swallowed deeply.

  “Gabriel.” She looked pale. “Why? Did something happen?” she asked frantically. “Have you found him? Can you see him?”

  “No,” I whispered. I wasn’t sure what I was saying it to. I thought back, replaying the scene over and over in my mind.

  Hindah, standing over the prisoner, demanding to know what his name was.

  The prisoner, on the ground, panting, answering him.

  “Gabriel,” the prisoner snapped at him.

  Gabriel.

  I felt like I was going to be sick.

  “Jared, what happened?” Averella demanded.

  “Nothing, I…”

  “Jared…” she started.

  Gently pushing her off me, I walked over to a wall across from where we had been sitting. Resting my hand on it to steady myself, I bent over as my knees wobbled, wanting to vomit, to do anything.

  She came over to me and slid her arms around my waist. “Are you okay?”

  Her touch caused my skin to burn—I just couldn’t bear the thought of her touching me. Yanking myself out of her grasp, I collapsed against the wall, pulling my knees up to my chest, shaking.

  “Are you cold?” She grabbed the fur around her shoulders and shared half of it with me. Her hand brushed against my knee slightly.

  I winced.

  She looked at me with hurt eyes and a confused expression.

  “I just… need some time. Space. Okay?” I couldn’t look at her.

  “Okay, Jared. I trust you. Whatever is wrong, you can tell me, and we will get through it… together.” She kissed me lightly on the lips, walked over to her pack, and grabbed some fruit out of it. I forced myself to stand and walked around where she couldn’t hear me and even though there was no food in my stomach I retched until I was leaning against the wall, unable to move, or feel, or think.

  It was only a few minutes later when Averella found me.

  “Lehlax says we should get going. Um… are you—?” She paused and cleared her throat as if trying to give herself strength. “Are you going to leave or come with us?”

  I didn’t know how to speak to her or look at her. In response, I stood and joined the others.

  She stayed there, and flashes of hurt from her reached me, but I shut off my power and my mind, refusing to think. Whatever emotions I was feeling no longer mattered. I forced myself to take one step after another and move forward.

  “Are you coming with us for a little while?” Quinn asked.

  “Yeah, I think it would be possible for you to go ahead and come with us, Jared. We’re almost out and by the time they check the caves, we can all be long gone.” Sine glanced at me.

  I looked down. “I need to turn myself in. It’s…what I deserve.” My voice was a monotone. I had to shut down my emotions and thoughts or I wouldn’t have been able to move.

  “Jared, no. Everyone deserves a second chance if they truly want one. And I—well, we all can see that you want a second chance.” Averella started toward me, but I backed away from her.

  “I don’t.” My tone was as final and as unemotional as I felt.

  “You do,” Axe said, starting forward, but stopped when Lehlax stood in front of him, glaring at me.

  “No, he doesn’t,” Lehlax snapped. “Let him go to the Hunters and I hope they kill him.” With those words, he turned around and walked the other direction, toward the exit of the caves.

  Averella glanced at Lehlax and then met my eyes, starting toward me. “Jared, no—"

  I backed up. “My mind is made up.” I turned around and darted the opposite direction.

  Averella caught up with me and snatched my hand. “I’m going with you part way.”

  I yanked my hand out of hers.

  “I don’t know what’s wrong with you, but I want you to know I’m still here for you. I always will be. Whatever is going on, whatever you’re going through, you’re not alone and you’re not stopping me. I’m walking with you part of the way, and then I’ll catch up with the others later. I already told them where to meet me.”

  I nodded slightly, knowing that I had already hurt her enough, and I didn’t want to take anything else from her. I would let her go some of the way, but that was it, and I would make sure she was far away when the Hunters came.

  They came a lot sooner than I thought. We had only been walking about an hour when I could sense them just a few hundred yards down the corridor ahead of us. “Averella, you need to hide, now!” I snatched her arms and guided her to a crevice in the ice just big enough for her to hide in.

  “Let me say goodbye,” she said, touching me. I didn’t pull away from her this time, but I numbed myself so that I didn’t feel her, physically or emotionally as I let her kiss me.

  The pull toward her in my heart that I knew was love remained, but I felt a pang in my chest and my stomach knotted up. I had promised her I wouldn’t lie to her anymore. I had to tell her, knowing I would never see her again; she deserved to know the truth.

  “Averella, I can’t lie to you,” I whispered.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “O—one of the…someone helped me remember something that happened only a couple hours before you arrived here. I—We were hunting a new prisoner that had just arrived the day before you did and…we caught him. After Hindah asked his name and age he ordered me to kill him…And—I did. I—" I choked and my voice broke. A hard lump in my throat prevented me from saying anything further.

  “What—what was his name?” she asked with despair on her eyes and sorrow written all over her expression. She seemed to already know the answer.

  “Gabriel,” I whispered, and tears slid down my face instead of hers. I had never felt tears before and I didn’t know what they felt like, but it wasn’t the tears that hurt… No, it was the agony inside when the tears fell that caused the pain. I couldn’t breathe, my stomach and chest twisted, and I felt like vomiting again.

  “I—I didn’t know, Averella. And you have to know I would take it all back if I could—” I cut myself off short.

  The Hunters were close.

  Tears fell down her eyes and she held her face in her hands with a silent sob. I turned away from her, dried the tears, and walked forward.

  I stood there, knowing Hindah was following behind Becx and Gurnarch, who was cutting a new tunnel through the ice cave
s to get through it quickly. They slammed through a wall and then saw me standing there.

  “I’m guessing this means that you’re turning yourself in?” Hindah asked me.

  I nodded, once. I felt another presence here, one Hunter I didn’t know, one whose mind I couldn’t see into. Another felt familiar and I knew who it was, who they had changed.

  “Remember me?” a voice asked, stepping forward.

  Wes marched forward, his eyes dark as night, just like the rest of the Hunters. Like the other Hunters, he wasn’t wearing a shirt, just a belt, and strap over his chest that held a sheath on our backs to hold Inquiri blades or a bow and quiver. He had a mark over his heart; it was a strange symbol, one I didn’t recognize. I realized that was his trait. I felt a brief feeling of surprise from Averella, but it was quickly replaced by grief.

  “Wes.” I kept my eyes on him.

  “I’ve been waiting to get my hands on you,” he snapped and suddenly I felt a sorrow so deep it threw me to my knees. Grabbing my head, I tried sensing him, but I couldn’t concentrate through the feelings I felt swarming around inside me.

  “That’s enough, Wes. You see Wes here can control emotions. He takes the emotions that are being felt around him, and he can amplify them. I wonder what he was making you feel, Jared?” Hindah asked.

  The sorrow and grief overcame me again and I retched. Lying on the ground, I gasped, and I couldn’t move. I grabbed my chest and groaned. “No…more...” The words were meant as a growl, but they came out a groan.

  “Share with us, Jared? What is it you are feeling?” Hindah asked. The other Hunters laughed.

  I felt sick to my stomach and the guilt was weighing me down so much it kept me from moving. “Guilt. I feel guilt,” I said through clenched teeth.

  “Wes,” Hindah said, and then the weight was gone, and the guilt was dulled.

  “He was telling the truth,” Wes said. “I felt it too. No wonder it knocked ‘em flat on his back.” He laughed loudly.

  “Curious.” Hindah leaned against the wall, crossing his arms.

  “I can’t tell what he was feeling it about though,” Wes muttered irritatingly.

  “Stand up, Jared,” Hindah ordered.

  Forcing myself to my feet, I kept my face impassive and stared at Hindah, straight ahead.

  “What were you feeling guilty about, hmmm?”

  I didn’t answer.

  “Could it be… Perhaps because of a certain brother whose throat you sliced only a month ago?” Hindah asked.

  I couldn’t keep the surprise off my face. “How… how did you know that—"

  He interrupted me. “I received orders from high up that you were supposed to be the Hunter that killed the new prisoner that came in that day. Only you. I didn’t understand why at the time, but now I do. You see, he knew. All along, he knew that Gabriel’s sister would come for him. He was also going to make sure that you two got close so that your betrayal to her would hurt that much worse when she found out that you were the Hunter who killed her brother. We just didn’t expect you two to fall in love. But that only made things way more interesting. He made sure you were the one to kill her brother so that, when you got close to her, it would break her little heart. It was perfect, though, because now the love you once had will make that betrayal…. A hundred times worse.” He was smiling as I felt his enjoyment of all of it.

  “You set it up,” I growled at him.

  “We just set the path in motion, Jared. You and Averella were the ones that completed it for us. And I appreciate the credit, but it wasn’t me who saw it all happening… “

  “Then who did? And saw?”

  “Zagerah…. The one whom this prison was named after… The first Hunter,” Hindah said.

  And then the other presence I knew was there but couldn’t sense stepped forward. He had purple skin and silver veins. And then he spoke, and he was the voice from my nightmare.

  “Hello, Jared. Good to see you again.” His face twisted into a smile.

  “You…you were the voice in—in my dream,” I said.

  “Indeed, I was. Only it wasn’t a dream. That was me inside your mind, showing you something I thought you would love to remember and see again.”

  “Forcing me to watch myself… do something you know that I regret more than anything?” I clenched my fists.

  He smiled. “Now, you’re getting it.”

  “How did you know?” I glared at him as my lips curled into a snarl.

  “A being with even more power than any of you can imagine predicted that it would happen. He planted the thought in my ear, and I commanded Hindah to ensure you were the one who killed Gabriel.” Zagerah sighed as if the conversation was a bore.

  “Who?” I briefly thought of the man I had seen in the fire, but that warmth couldn’t come from someone who would do this… right?

  “A man of darkness… of Corruption.”

  “Corruption?” Nothing he said made any sense.

  “Enough of this.” He waved his hand, cutting the conversation off. “It’s time to take you to the place where we will keep you, where you will stay, and where you will watch your friends be killed off, one by one. It is where you will watch, waiting, knowing you can do nothing as I turn your girlfriend into one of us. Watching as she forgets everything about her previous life before the prison…. Where she will forget you… And her brother,” he said, smiling.

  “No!” Anger gripped me, and I charged at him, and then I could feel him in my thoughts, in my mind. Images flashed by, digging, prying into my mind…Gabriel bleeding out, Lehlax watching as Luke died… Prisoner after prisoner that I had killed… It was never-ending. Stop. I can’t… I don’t want to see this.

  I squeezed my hands around my head as if trying to physically stop the images he was showing me.

  “You see, Jared, since I am the first Hunter, it is my mind the rest of you are connected to. Any thoughts you Hunters share telepathically, I can hear. I can get into any of your minds and make you see whatever I want you to. It’s not part of my power, no… It’s simply because I… was… the… first,” Zagerah said and the pain in my head intensified.

  Finally, it disappeared, and I opened my eyes. There were chains on my wrists and they were being held by Novarch. “Ready for a good run, Jared?” he asked.

  I stared at the ground and said nothing. There were chains on my feet too, each one separated and held by a different Hunter. Malik and Vinmir.

  I stretched out with my senses, closing off my mind to all the other Hunters and when I made sure Zagerah couldn’t feel me, I sensed for Averella to make sure she was safe. Sine and Lehlax were there with her. They had heard and seen everything that happened. Lehlax planned to take her back to the others.

  Novarch yanked the chains and took off running. I was forced to run at full speed to follow him. Once we were out of the ice caves, I sensed for what had happened with Averella.

  She had insisted they follow because she wanted to make sure they didn’t change their minds and kill me. Sine told her that he would track us and try to find out what was going on. Lehlax told him where to meet them at and then he and Averella left one way, while Sine took off after us.

  Vinmir would pull on one chain, yanking my left leg out from under me so I would fall, but Novarch would still be pulling on the chains around my wrists. It pulled my muscles and I growled and forced myself to stand back up. Then, Malik would pull his chain and I would trip again. It went like that the entire way to the Hunters’ camp.

  We were only about thirty miles from the ice-caves and the camp was spread out. There was a cage hanging on the branch of a tall tree, made of the metal that Hunters couldn’t break out of.

  “There’s where your room is gonna be, Jared,” Hindah said. “Because of his betrayal to you, I grant each of you the right to use your power against him, one time and one time only as punishment. Choose wisely and make him suffer.”

  He chained my feet together to one chain, rather than
have them on separate ones.

  Novarch went first. He pulled the right chain so hard that it cracked my wrist out of place. I grunted and felt pain course through my wrist but showed other signs that I had felt it. Malik grabbed a chain that wasn’t connected to anything and wrapped it around my neck. He grabbed the end of it and flew up in the air, pulling me with him. When I wasn’t touching the ground anymore, the chain sinched around my throat so that I couldn’t breathe. All I could do was gasp for air that wouldn’t come. He left me there until black spots danced in my vision and I was sure I was going to pass out. Finally, he released the chain and I fell, hitting the ground hard. For a long moment, my vision blackened.

  Becx took a piece of earth and slammed it on top of my ribs as hard as he could. I grunted in pain as several of them cracked.

  Kehlarch drew heat away from me until I couldn’t feel any warmth at all.

  Gurnarch shot a wave of fire at my chest.

  Ysogi, who could shape shift or control animals, turned his hands into claws and cut me on my chest and neck.

  None of the physical agony they placed my body in compared to the pain in my chest, knowing I would never see Averella again, that I had killed her brother, that I had lost her forever, that I didn’t deserve her.

  An image of killing Gabriel flashed in my mind and I could see Averella’s teary-eyed face as she learned it was me who killed her brother. You deserve this, Zagerah’s voice whispered in my mind.

  Hindah’s tattoos came alive and attached to me and I felt pain throughout my whole body. Minutes went by and, finally, he released them. I was on the verge of passing out, but I didn’t.

  Malik grabbed the chains around my wrists and pulled me up to the cage, throwing me inside. It was about ten feet above the ground. He chained my arms behind me to the bars, so that it pulled on my shoulders just enough to be uncomfortable and then shut and locked the cage door.

  “Do you need your power-up, Jared? Does your body hurt?” Malik asked in a teasing tone. “Well, sorry, but you can’t have it,” he said, flying back down to the ground.