The Huntress: Becoming a Huntress

by Mihaela Gheorghe

  I feel her shuddering slightly, with disgust.

  „Without shark, the food is... yuck... Anyway, this mixture is in its own sauce, as you have realized so far. Of course, it is less nutritious than other kind of... blood... let’s say... But it’s surely more preferable.”

  I am guessing in her the embarrassment when her voice remembers the word "blood", a fact that perplexes me, and that makes her grow in my eyes, at the same time. To dare to think that she’s not what I assume she is?

  „Very rarely, I do hold some wild animal meat, which is clearly superior. That's truly a feast. But the last time I was looking for something like this, I've found you. I'm not sorry that I did not get any wild animal meat. I found something infinitely more valuable.” she says then slowly. „I found a friend.”

  „You don't want to understand that we are not friends?"

  I scream at her again. However, this time I am ashamed of myself. The burning in my neck pulsates, and unwillingly, I put one of my hands on the bandage.

  „See what you’ve done?” as if she chides me. „If you yell... I think you could win a prize in the contest ‚Who yells louder and more often’. But try to win it later, okay? Now, you won’t do anything other than to reopen your wound. Wait, stop fretting your gizzard, and let me look...”

  Her voice is soft, just like her touch. The icy coldness of her skin, soothes the burning I feel in my wound. Involuntarily, I press myself against her hand. Then, angry with myself, I withdraw. But her hand does not want to depart from me.

  „I know you already guessed about me what I am. But whatever I am, I assure you that I am a very lonely person. I didn't and I don’t have any friend. I haven't had anyone besides my family members. When I mentioned my love life, although I joked, it was a sad joke. I don't have anyone to love me. Any woman, regardless of race, wants to settle down. I know that I will never do that. When I found you, you were dead. And I don’t say that to burden you with gratitude. Away from me this thought! I didn’t truly believe that I can make the miracle of saving you. But I tried. I really did! I have done the impossible to keep you alive. Do you know why I do not want you to be grateful? Because I didn’t do it for you! I did it for myself! Out of selfishness! I did it because I imagined that, if I manage to keep you alive, I'll manage to make you my friend, and I'll be able to have someone to hold and which to keep to myself, someone else apart from my family. For me, you were like a doll, or like a child. You choose... I'm sorry that you hate me, though it is natural, giving our breeds. Just that I’d want... I’d want you to realize by now that I am not quite as you think I am...”

  Her voice becomes easily quelled. As if she would weep. She has no right to burden me with her goodness! She has no right to put on my shoulders the burden of her inner nobility! But even when I revolt against these thoughts, I realize that this is she: good and noble. What's impossible, given the fact what I am convinced about what she is. And yet, maybe she is not a...

  My neck keeps burning when she takes her hand off me. I can hear the noise of cutlery and utensils, a sign that she started to eat.

  „Anyway, remember when I told you about the story of my love life? Well, let me tell you that it's not quite a euphemism, you know. I'm surgeon at the hospital in the city, and a new physician came to our Hospital. He's really nice, dear him, and apparently he does not believe others who say that I am literally made of ice.”

  Under the amusement she inserts, I can still feel the bitterness of her loneliness. Surgeon??? No, she certainly cannot be... I ended up eating in silence, trying very hard to ignore her annoying chat.

  At first, I saw shadows and lights. Then, I knew that it's only a matter of time until the rest of the senses will be restored.

  Which is why there it hasn’t been such a shock. First, I've seen her fine legs in red varnished leather flats. Then, her nice calves, covered by black, mesh collar, and a red blouse with large holes, under which I can see a black leather top. Her black hair, arranged with mousse, fit a perfect oval of her face, very pale, with very red lips, with eyes... Yellow-orange...

  Slim did not even flinch when I studied her, and when she realized that my sight came back as well.

  I would have thought I would be shocked at the sight of her. But somehow, I was not. Somehow, I was more surprised to see that her eyes are not red, but rather yellow. Somehow, I would have been more shocked if I had found that Slim is not a vampire.

  But is she really?

  I breath deep in my chest the air that surrounds her, but carefully. The smell is not what I expected, queasy and burning. She has a very vague scent of classic flair of the vampire, but for the most part is a slightly scented flavor, like vanilla.

  And yet, I cannot control my instincts. My mouth is invaded by venom, my canines stick me in my lower lip, and the deadly knives of my nails shoot with the same metallic sound. Frankly, it's rather the idea of the certainty that Slim is really a vampire, than as a reaction to her scent.

  She jumps quickly after an armchair, which she holds as a shield. Her gesture makes me smile, and I relax enough so that my fangs to withdraw, and my nails to become normal. Like a poor armchair could have saved her from me! So I realize that I wouldn't be able to do her any harm, as I could never take my own life. I realize that I wouldn't be able to kill the one that took care for me to remain alive. Eventually, Slim barely remains faithful to the concept of vampire.

  „It’s... everything okay?”

  Her quivering voice makes me smile again.

  Actually, no, nothing's alright. It's not okay that I want to be friends with a vampire. It’s not okay that I don't want to kill a vampire. I shake my head of thoughts, and slightly get dizzy. With a jump, Slim's near me, supporting me. Gently, she lays me down on the bed.

  Now, I glance through the room, my eyes confirming what my ears just heard before. It's decorated in bright and cheerful colors, and around it smells like... nature. Everything looks too... normal, too... too humane... too Slim.

  „Explain to me!” I say it in a quite woolly tone.

  Slim gives shrug with embarrassment.

  „What's to explain? I'm a vampire...”

  Her tone is of a creature that has no way to change a fact, a fact that makes her unhappy, but a fact that she learned to live with.

  „But you do not consume human blood.” I say.

  She looks at me so horripilate, that I realize that the idea itself, she finds totally disgusting and repulsive.

  „God forbid!” she says. „Look, I won’t lie to you now, to say that the temptation was so great in the beginning, so really great, that I almost thought I was going to succumb to the temptation, you know how it is...” she adds then in a tone of excuse. „But I grew up with my parents and my brothers who had renounced to do these things centuries ago. Hardly, but they gave up in consuming human blood. I was way a happier case than them, because I have never tasted anything like human blood, and time fixes all. I overcame the temptation. Then, it becomes a habit, so that the human blood doesn't affect me in any way. You realize what I would be: I, a surgeon, to go into the operating room and, instead saving the patient, to stick my teeth into his throat... Just imagine how the

  entire Hospital would scream!You realize that I’d have no chance with this new doctor I was telling you about...”

  I sketch out a smile. I guess embarrassment in her voice, fact that strengthens even more my belief that she is a human soul trapped in the body of a vampire, is a young cat soul trapped in the body of a menacing lion. How to kill a little cat, no matter how she looks like

  „So, we are... okay?” she asks her original question.

  „You are very close to me, and you still breathe. I think this will answer your question, right?”

  Her turbulent hug takes me by surprise, and I hit her hard in her chest, throwing her into the opposite wall.

  „My God!” I say. „I'm so sorry! Are you okay? I swear that I never wanted to do that, just that...”
/>   „That’s alright.” she says, standing and whisking herself.”I'm not a classic vampire, but I'm still a vampire.”

  I would really have preferred her not to say that.

  „I want to say that you did not hurt me at all.”

  Behind the wall, there was a crack. As she looks back at it, she sketches a crooked little smile.

  „Well, maybe just a little. But now I'm not feeling any pain at all.”

  I go to her, and I take her by her hands, carefully studying her., only now noticing that her paleness is very pale, even for a vampire. As if she would be sick. But who has ever heard about a vampire to be sick? She no longer breathes.

  „You may blink.” I say with a variety of fun. „The danger has passed. Just don't make very sudden movements when you're near me, okay?”

  „Sure thing.: she blows very slowly.

  For a moment, we have only looked at one to another. I, with wonder, she - with-hope. I - with the wonder of having confronted a vampire without actually having her killed, she-with the hope of becoming my friend. Unfortunately, what she wants, she won't be able to never have.

  „Now, let's look at your wound.” She says.

  „Does it take long to heal?” I ask, slightly annoyed by my weakness.

  „No need to be angry.” She chills me. „No one would have survived in your state. I am telling you honestly. At first, I thought that you won’t be able to make it. But, apparently, it seems that you still have something to fulfill on this earth before rising among the righteous.”

  Yes, I still have a mission to end on this earth. In fact, more. A first mission would be to take care of Cassiopia. Because now I know that she was the one for which I got this way. I perfectly remembered her bracelet, when she took it back of my hand, thrilled that she could destroy me. As perfect, I remember her words. I know now that the jewel that she seemed so thrilled to give away, so happy to bestow it to me, it was nothing but a tracking device. I know now that she made a deal with a group of vampires to destroy me, because she had not had any opportunity, nor guts. And frankly, if it hadn't been for this geranium vampire, so she would have managed. But when something is meant to happen... it certainly happens. Yet, her alliance with the vampires surprised me. It's very strange, because hunters do not make alliances with vampires, and hunters

  especially don’t betray each other. But for real, I'm not quite a Hunter for her, am I? Which is for the better. Because this way I more easily can deal with her and with whosoever tries to kill me. And then, there's my ultimate mission, my crusade to exterminate the vampiric disease as a race, to avenge the destruction of my creators, my parents. Of course, that does not include Slim. Even a child may realize that she's incapable of suppressing a life, especially two lives of hunters, perfect warriors, as Dom and Kyrya were. Slim is not a vampire that drinks human blood; She is not a vampire who knows how to fight. It seems that all that Slim know to do better, is to take care of humans, of vampires, of hunters. She just simply takes care.

  I slightly tighten when she bends around my neck to check the wound. However, it's not the best thing to have enough confidence in a vampire, be it she one who flirts, rather than to fight.

  „Anyway, I am of the opinion that nothing happens in the world without no reason. The wound seems to heal well. However, it's going to last some time until you will be completely restored, you can be sure of that. What you had, it wasn’t just any wound. You had your head almost snatched from your neck, to be more accurate.”

  Only the negligence with which she talks about such things makes you understand that Slim still has something of a vampire in her. My working is observed.

  „You know, I wouldn't say it, but if I wanted to hurt you, I'd have already done it when your heart barely bit. If I wanted to kill you, I would’ve just let you die in the forest, where I found you, not now, when you could kill me with the same ease with which you can break a flower.”

  „You're right,” I agree with her, „old habits die hard. When to kill vampires becomes something so common as breathing, even to sit near one without pouncing on it becomes a hard task for me.”

  Finally, I see her smiling.

  „I guess you're right. And yet, I have to bring into the discussion an objectionable topic.”

  I tighten myself again.

  „What is it?”

  „How long can you last without... without having to feed yourself?”

  I smile a little mischievously.

  „Long enough. But be still. When my instincts will take control over me, I don't think you will be good enough for me to subside my hunger.”

  Her gaze darkens slightly, then it brightens again.

  „I think that was really a compliment on your part, thank you!” she says radiant. „I've told you that we were meant to become friends!”

  She doesn’t jump to hug me this time, but she grabs me happy by my shoulder. I wish I had the strength to say up front that this - the two of us to become buddies - will never happen.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Even after such a long time, my senses are still weakened. The wound from my neck, though now closed, it's not fully healed. However, I cannot stop myself of wanting to take my revenge against Cassiopia. Because I know for sure that, if she will ever get the chance to eliminate me again, she will no longer make any mistake on this. So it's not just a matter of revenge, but of survival.

  I swallow a peal of laughter when I see the astounded expression that appears on her face when she sees me in her living room, sitting in one of her armchairs. I was tempted to pour myself a glass of some red liqueur from the crystal bottles, aligned on the ultra-modern bar. My lust for this liquid fills my mouth with venom when I felt the smell of the fine vampire blood, but I refrained myself. I note with surprise, that I feel even stronger when I manage to control my lust for this blood, for this meat, because, first of all, it’s foremost a victory over my own nature. So I resist this impulse.

  “What...”

  My lips stretch in a thin, satisfied smile. I can read the fear on her face.

  “But please,” I say cajoling “don’t be shy. Feel like you’re in your own home.”

  Cassiopia tries to conceal her panic, but her movements are too rigid, her relaxation too forced.

  “What a surprise!” she says. “I’ve heard that you’ve disappeared… Nobody knows anything of you...”

  “Yap, I can vbelieve that…”

  Then, she pours for herself a glass of dark red liquid.

  “Can I offer you one?”

  I shake my hand of refusal.

  “Thank you, but don't bother. I hope that's not going to surprise you, if any willingness on your part toward me would seem at least suspicious.”

  I grin implicitly, looking at her the silver bracelet on her wrist that I once wear. She put her hand quickly on the bracelet. Now she knows that I know.

  “So... You came to kill me?”

  Her voice slightly trembles.

  “I came to do only what you did to me. The only difference between us is that I am not going to fail, of course.”

  She stares at me, slowly sipping from her glass.

  “If you do this, you will become Hunters Order’s enemy, you know that. There will be no place in this world where you can hide by hunters.”

  My smile just becomes larger.

  “It seems to me that you just said that everyone thinks I have gone, or that I'm dead.”

  “Not Nikos.”

  I look at her pretty amazed, waiting for an explanation.

  “Nikos never believed that you have simply disappeared. He is convinced that something happened to you have, but he can’t believe that you're dead.”

  “Probably.” I say. “But just as well no one will know what will happen here, today.”

  But in my soul I know that by killing her, I sign my own sentence. I know that killing her means that I will no longer have peace until I have got rid of my pursuers, hunters and vampires. But without
doing what I came to do, it would be to live equally, staring over my shoulder, wondering who would want to kill me, and who will succeed in the end. So it would be the same thing. Because my signature scent it will show clearly to the hunters who was here today, and who it will be Cassiopia’s killer. She reads in my eyes the lack of hesitation. She doesn’t even sigh.

  “Will you ever say to Nikos that I loved him, and how much? Will you tell Nikos why you did what you are now about to do?”

  “I don't have to apologize to anybody for my acts.”

  “Perhaps I should thank you that you’re not going to say anything to him, how I tried to kill you. But I won’t do it. I won’t do it, because I hate you and I despise you too much for that.”

  “Don't you worry.” I say sarcastically “I don't need your thanks.”

  I get up from the armchair, adopting a fighting position.

  “It won’t be the case for that,” she says. “I don’t want to fight you. I want them to find me as beautiful when my hunters will come.”

  “I know you’re not going to fight me. If you had it in mind, perhaps, you haven’t behaved so unworthy for a huntress to make deals with the enemies of the Order, with the vampires.”

  I see that my words a touch her heavily. Her dark skin becomes pale. She put the glass down, with a sudden gesture. She starts coughing. She tries to clear her throat. She leads a hand to her throat, as if she can no longer breathe. Then, she starts to wheeze. The moment she falls, I unintentionally catch her.

  “What have you done?” I ask her softly.

  She grimaces, while white foam gathers around her red lips. I can clearly see now the despise on her features, this time a contempt towards her own person.

  “What I know best. To choose the simplest path, the path of the cowards.”

  I lay her carefully on the couch.

  “You were right. I couldn't fight you. Because you're better. You are better than all of us. And now, if we have fought, it would have been just as useless. I knew I don’t stand a chance in front of you. In a fight, or for Nikos’s love.”