The Hunter's Curse (Ravana Moon #2.6)

by S. L. Perrine

  Massimo

  The word nocturnal came to mind. As well as dark. Cruel. Stark-raving-mad. I’d never met another woman like her. I probably never will. She stood taller than most women I meet. That alone made me think twice about her. I’m a shallow guy. I like having the height advantage. So, a woman taller than my six-feet was something I wasn’t keen on. Until I looked down at the six-inch, patent-leather, stiletto, knee-high boots she was wearing. Take those off her small feet and she’d be short enough to stare into her gorgeous green eyes. Not that I ever got a chance to take them off her. I remember because I have the scar along my ribs where they grazed me in my fevered rush to get her feet above her head. I also have the scar on my shoulder from the impact of one of those heels. She used it to push away from me, and the dam thing slid right through my flesh. Like butter. Damn hunter.

  The heels of those boots were laced with silver. Too bad for her, that instead of running from her, I only wanted to get closer. I guess you could say I have a death wish. If I weren’t a creature of the night it wouldn’t be so bad, but the fact the she had a few items on her person laced with silver and iron, well...that made her someone I should be steering clear of. The fact that I can’t only speaks volumes about my own character.

  I can still taste her on my lips and smell her between my fingers. She smelt like nightmares and peppermint. A nasty combination for sure.

  Walking through Belltown, Seattle I caught myself scanning the crowd for her face. Hunger filled me, but I ignored it. I needed to find her again. I needed more.

  “Massimo.”

  Hearing my name, I spun around. A male voice echoed through the street. Seeing my old friend, I paused just a moment, then continued my trek through the city. He removed the ball cap from his blonde hair, rolled it and stuffed in the back pocket of his jeans, once he’d caught up to me. “Hey, wait up. Where’s the fire?”

  I cringed, and he laughed. “Going to the club.”

  “Again? You didn’t get your fill in last night?” He pulled at my arm making me stop and look at him.

  “Nunzio, let me go.”

  “Mo, you haven’t fed. You can’t go into the club like that. It won’t end well. You know it.”

  “I’ll grab someone on the way.”

  “What’s your hurry.”

  I ruffled my black hair, running my fingers through it. Keeping it spiked allowed my usually blue eyes to charm my way to an easy dinner. In the eighteenth century I kept it long, but much prefer the new style.

  “Do you remember the woman from last night?”

  “The short blonde?”

  “No.” I laughed again. “I’m not partial to children. No, I’m talking about the tall redhead.”

  “The one you snuck away with? I thought that was dinner.”

  “No way. She was an appetizer and an entrée. A seven-course meal.”

  “A what… Oh. Is that why you’re in such a hurry? Didn’t bother to exchange numbers afterwards?”

  “She took off. Knocked me out, actually. Left me bloody and bruised.”

  “So? You’re looking for revenge.”

  If only that could be true. She left me laying in the alley. Torn between slitting my throat and taking me inside her again. She left me so dazed I hardly recognized the fact that she could have slit my throat. That was until those silver heels slid through my flesh.

  We walked to the front of the club. It was relatively quiet. A few couples swarmed the front door, smoking and stumbling on their feet. A slender little thing sidled up to me and Nunzio.

  “One of you fellas got a light?” She slurred her words, swayed a bit, and giggled mercilessly.

  Nunzio took one look at her and pointed her in my direction. “Go ahead, my friend. She seems delicious.” He smiled at me and headed to the front door, passing two men who were too busy gazing into each other’s eyes to realize he hissed at the gold cross one of them wore around his throat. A sure sign that my dear friend was taking stock of the man. A cross always gave him pause at first. Once the initial shock wore off, it became a challenge he took on. Blessed blood is always sweet.

  “So, honey. You got that light?” The eager girl asked.

  I looked down into her bright face. She was so far gone, she wouldn’t even remember it. I draped an arm around her and led her to the side of the brick building.

  “How about we go for a walk? Maybe find a quiet spot to talk.”

  “Yeah, I’d like that.” The girl smiled from ear to ear.

  The night took over the alley. It was clear except for the other vile rodents in the city which scurried along the pavement. My new friend probably couldn’t hear the pitter patter of their feet, but not only could I hear them, I could smell and see them.

  “So, what did you wanna talk about gorgeous?”

  Pleasantries wouldn’t do. I tightened my hold around her shoulders and pulled her to the wall so if anyone were to walk into the alley they’d think we were in a lover’s embrace. I whispered the magic words.

  “Sleep.” Her body slumped, but I held her firm. My teeth melted into her flesh, and I drank.

  The taste of her was sweeter than I would have imagined. Young blood, thick and purified with the blessing. Nunzio would be jealous, that was for sure. Her little heart beat slower beneath her chest, and I withdrew, licking the flesh and sealing the punctures. The girl’s body slid to the ground, and I guided her down. She would be fairly weakened, but she would recover with no memory and a slight headache. One that could be attributed to the copious amounts of alcohol she consumed.

  “You didn’t kill her?”

  I spun on my heals wiping red from the corners of my mouth, and before me stood the woman from the night before. Her hair hung in curls to her waist, as crimson as the blood that coated my lips.

  “I save that fate for those who wrong me. Why? Should I have?”

  “I don’t know. Has she wronged you?”

  “No. She’s actually helped me, not that she’ll ever remember.”

  “Why are you different?”

  “Different than what?”

  “Different than those I hunt to kill. For some reason, I can’t bring myself to do it. To slit your throat and walk away.”

  “Maybe you should listen to that instinct.”

  “Why?” She drew closer.

  Each step clicked against the pavement. Her heels weren’t nearly as tall as the ones she wore the night before, and I could see the red undersides of thin black heels. They showed the tops of her feet, where she had tattoos of the Order inked in black. Her legs were long and thin, as identified by the shine of her black leggings, which showed off the lean muscle of her thighs. Her mid-drift exposed, the skin I’d had my mouth on in plain view, and her short white shirt cupped the breasts I longed to hold again. She seemed to have read my mind and took a step back into the light. Then split the thickness of her hair and drew it over the front of herself on either side. My eyes were drawn to hers. Small green marbles set in rounded sockets. I took in all her features, as if I’d need to remember her, for fear of never finding her again. Her slender nose and high cheekbones I recalled from our previous encounter. Her hair was soft as linen and smelled of peppermint. This woman was dangerous to my kind, but I could not stay away.

  “Why can’t you?”

  “Kill you? My instincts are telling me to, and I always trust them. Perhaps when I’m done with you, I will.”

  “And what would you do with me?”

  “I’m not sure of that either.” She turned. Her hair flowing out behind her as she spun.

  “Wait. How can I find you again?”

  “You know what I am?”

  “Yes.”
/>
  “So, why would you want to? You should want to run far away from me.”

  “I don’t think I can do that. What is your name?”

  “You shouldn’t have acquaintances that can end you.” She took off at a run, and I had no chance of catching up.

  Ravana

  A hunter. That is what I am. I am neither alive, nor dead. I cannot age. I cannot bleed for very long. I can die by another of my kind, but why would I allow such a thing? Bred to hunt things that walk amongst the humans. Things that terrify and annihilate the most fragile beings in the world. Why? I could not tell you. I only know that is how it must be. More so, because my human self was killed, but when I woke, this is what I was.

  I can sense them. The vile creatures. Those that walk in the night. Some look like man, others roam the night as beasts. Feral animals crazed in the moonlight. They don’t just eat their prey, they destroy it, piece by insatiable bite. Always hunting in the night. Seldom, but happens randomly enough that I’ve heard of such things in the day. I don’t work in the day. I prefer the dark of night. It’s when I feel most connected, and less vulnerable to the magic these creatures wield. Except for one.

  Only looking for him that second night to learn of his identity, I felt the pull. I lusted for him. Even after giving myself to him one night before. How? How could I have been that caught off guard? I didn’t even know what he was until the blade of my heels sliced his flesh. Though I let him take me to the heights of which I’d never been, I scolded myself for it afterwards. That man…no that creature of the night made me feel things I’d thought I was too damned to experience. Why the pull to a being such as him? I haven’t a clue.

  Stalking the night and thinking about Massimo, I almost didn’t hear the scuffle of feet behind me. I slowed my walk to a saunter, using the wiles my Keeper instructed, I honed another of my own abilities. A hand came around my neck from behind, with it the long, thick pointed nails.

  “Hunter? What do I owe the pleasure of catching you unawares?” A gruff voice spoke close to my ear. His hot breath caressed the side of my face and wormed its way to my nostrils. His stench made me recoil under his touch.

  “I need information.” I swooned on the surface and gagged on the inside.

  “Same deal as the past?” His voices shot up an octave, though he feigned interest. I could picture the corners of his mouth rising with approval.

  “Yes. You give me what I want, and I’ll let you go. Though, I will be free to kill you the next time we meet. If I choose.”

  “Seems like it’s been a very long time, since you’ve wanted such a thing.” He squeezed my throat and turned my head with his other hand by way of my chin. Then the hot stickiness wiped across my jaw, and he released me. “We have a bargain, sealed with a kisssss.” His exaggeration of the word hissed like a snake.

  I turned and took him in. His appearance hadn’t change in the year I’d seen him last. Though it were the middle of summer her wore a long purple trench coat over top a pristine three-piece suit. Or it would have been if moths did not feast on his clothes and flesh from time to time. His long hair swept past his shoulders, stringy and grease laden. A large wart covered his right cheek sprouting a bushel of hair. He spoke once more, but not to me as he instructed his guards in the distance to bid us privacy. The stench from his mouth made me ill. I turned my head taking in a fresh gulp of air before asking for what it was I’d wanted.

  “Massimo.” I said in a whisper so the ears behind him couldn’t hear. Chances were, they heard me anyway. Unnatural hearing and sight was just a few of the reasons their kind were more successful at night.

  “Ah. A hunter with demon’s blood. Much like yourself. Only when you were killed, it changed you in a different way. He became like one of us.” The smugness in his voice was hard to miss. He loved it when a hunter fell at the hands of those they hunted. I wouldn’t put it past him to change them all, instead of killing them off.

  “And his friend, Nunzio?” I recalled the interaction between the two. The blonde male made me want to slash his throat on sight, if it weren’t for his proximity to what I was really there for, I probably would have.

  “A walker of the night, same as the rest. Nothing special in his blood except the contempt he feels for those blessed by God.”

  “How so?”

  “He only eats from the blessed. Believes it will liberate him from his reality.” When I didn’t talk he added. “Thinks they can cure him of his immortality.”

  “How long has he been trying?”

  “Centuries.”

  “And the ex-hunter?”

  “Oh, he still hunts. He maintains his job even as a creature of the night. Such a hard existence, really. To be feared by humans and hated by what he is. No, I have no sympathy for him. Do you intend to release him from his misery?”

  “That was not part of our bargain.”

  A pivot on one heel and a flick of my wrist and I caught my would-be assailant by the throat, much like his boss had done to me. The old man sighed, knowing I would not spare any of his men. I moved quick when he held up a hand to the rest, and punched the creature in the face, stunning him for a moment. He stumbled back two steps and I backhanded him, across his throat. Red flew from his flesh and I sidestepped him in time to avoid the spray.

  I sauntered over to the man with the top hat. “Now, Kyron. We’ve danced this dance. Just because I bargain with you does not mean I won’t take them out willingly.”

  “Agreed, my dear. I have no idea what came over that wretch.” He waved a hand dismissively at his dead guard. “He was new, anyway. Hardly remember his name.”

  “Until next time.” I stepped up to him and wiped the blood from the ring I wore on my middle finger; a large silver blade from one knuckle to the other. Doing so also served as a warning to him. The blood having turned black smeared amongst the other stains on his coat. His cane tapped the ground at his feet and his men assembled. He didn’t speak again but turned and left. Not even bothering to wipe at the blood smeared on his chest.

  I felt the eyes of his men rest upon me and the dead vampire at my feet. I pulled a vial from my cleavage and let a drop from it land on the body. It melted before my eyes. The smell as foul as Kyron’s wretched breath.

  Instead of hunting the night away, I headed for home. The information provided only sated my curiosity so much. If I remained out in the streets I’d pursue him again. I couldn’t do that until I knew more. Speaking to my Keeper would be the only way I could get it.

  I clapped my heels on the pavement on purpose. I could keep quiet if I wanted to. Just because I wasn’t hunting, didn’t mean my lust for blood was quelled. I need the kill. Just as humans need air to breathe.

  I thought about the day I died. My human self, corrupted by something other than human. I was attacked. My life draining from me as I gazed off into the distance, unable to respond, unable to move. My hunter’s instincts were diluted into nothing. I had been told being born a hunter meant we were able to best those we sought to end. However, there was one stronger. I still haven’t found him. I don’t know if I would thank him or kill him.

  My thanks, for giving me immortality. I can roam and hunt until something like I am were to hunt me. Something, I suspected, like my creator. I’d been dealt killing blows since my change. None were effective. Upon meeting Kyron, I found out why. I was something that couldn’t be killed. Only by someone equally as strong as I. I wonder if Massimo would be like I am. Would we share strength being as he too, was a hunter before he was given immortality? Or, would he be like all the rest? Human made vampire. They only lived to kill. Though I witnessed him first hand, letting that child keep her life.

  The smell always comes first. Then the sounds of something creeping by. The rustle of leaves in the wind. Twigs snapping underfoot. Stones displaced with the movement. Vampires had heightened senses, but they had no sense. Surely, they knew my senses were amplified just as theirs were. Unless, I’d happened to run into a ba
by vamp. Good. I needed a workout.

  I let him get close, by slowing my walk to a stroll. He moved out of the trees. He smelt of fresh earth. So new, he just crawled from his grave. I couldn’t turn around, or he’d see my face. My eyes always gave away the hunter in me. Even to the new ones. A primal instinct must kick in when they look deep into my eyes. I wish I could turn it off. It would make the game so much more fun to play. He came at me at a jog. The street light overhead cast his shadow along the ground. The sidewalk stopped at the corner just ahead and there was a small alley behind a few shops. I decided to take a right and then stopped, turned, and waited for him to follow.

  I stood leaning against the wall. My ankles crossed, and I studied my nails as I waited. Blood still clung to the undersides. I left it alone, knowing I was about to add to it. When he rounded the corner, he stopped and gawked. The corners of my mouth turned up, but I didn’t look at him. My eyes found something more interesting to look at. I’d unwittingly stepped into an occupied alley. More of his kind were coming at me from the other end of the darkness. My smile widened.

  “Ravana.” One of them yelled my name. “As I live and breathe.” He laughed. “Or don’t breathe.”

  “Sébastien. Is that really you?” I stood away from the wall, feet spread apart welcoming the newborn to attack me. My back facing him as he continued his pursuit.

  “Oh, mate. If you’re thinking this morsel is going to be your first meal, you’ll be dead before you truly live. You may want to scamper off.” Sébastien said to the male.

  I turned and flashed my eyes at the newborn, and he bolted back out of the alley. “That wasn’t fair of you. I was going to let him have the upper hand, for a moment or two.”

  “Ravana. You injure me. I would have thought you’d rather a more prestigious fight. With someone more to your high standard.”

  “Such as yourself? Sébastien, your hardly my type.”

  “I was finally willing to give myself to you.” He waved his hand at me as if he couldn’t be bothered any longer. “Now I’m no longer amused.” He turned his pointed nose at the dozen or so crowded around him. One of the females actually growled at me.