A Hunter Within

by Anna Applegate

  With my eyes closed, I was forced to focus on other things aside from what I could see. My mouth was a little parched, like when you’ve been given too much medicine. I was sure whatever Marissa had stuck in me hadn’t been anything good. Nothing about this situation would be good for me. I tried to move but the metal retrains around my wrists prevented all of it. I opened my left eye and looked down.

  I was lying strapped to a lab table. Marissa’s next experiment. I knew she wanted to study me, but I wasn’t sure how far she was willing to go with me.

  I didn’t think I had any injuries. Nothing hurt except the pinch on my arm, a needle of some kind. I turned my head to the other side and opened my right eye only to glance down at my arm. Sure enough there was a line taped there in place, ready for an injection of some kind, unless she had already given me something else.

  Great, she was either planning to pump more into me or take something out of me.

  I straightened my head back up, breathing heavily in through my nose. I opened my eyes more slowly this time, taking stock of the harsh lighting. When they adjusted enough, I took in my surroundings. The room looked exactly like the one Gabriel had been held in. The door to the left was shut, and I was alone. I sighed. I was definitely being held where he had been.

  I thought back to right before Marissa had stuck me with the needle. I’d successfully initiated the lock-down. But, a lockdown in the atrium where we had been would have meant Henry’s father would have had to come and unlock the doors from the outside. I frowned, realizing he may be working with her after all.

  My thoughts were quickly interrupted by the sound of a handle being turned and the heavy door being pushed open. The irritating voice of none other than Marissa herself made me flinch within my cuffed position on the metal research table.

  “Good, you’re awake,” she said, shutting the door securely behind her.

  I jerked at my restraints, knowing there wasn’t any chance of breaking out of them. I didn’t want Marissa to think she had me sedated and compliant in any way, though. A part of me demanded I show some sort of strength in her presence.

  “You know that’s useless, dear,” she commented, unimpressed at my display of force.

  Marissa moved over to a table and ran her hands lovingly across whatever was on it. While I could see the table, the rest was a mystery.

  “That was quite a show you put on back there.” She smiled at me with an evil glow coming from her eyes. “Who would have thought, the hunter in love with a vampire king?” She laughed rashly.

  I jerked again, trying not to wince as the cold, hard steel on my wrists and ankles hit hard at places that were starting to bruise.

  “I must say, I was surprised to learn you had Henry in on your little gallivanting last night,” she continued when I still refused to speak. “He always seemed smarter than to cross me.” She winked at me. “I will say, though, he has always intrigued me. He was so quick to pick things up while training to become a hunter. I had of course wanted to study him specifically, but his father stopped that immediately. Besides, I lost interest when a more interesting project fell into my lap.” She grinned wickedly at me.

  I wasn’t sure what she was talking about, both with why she would want to study Henry and what other project, although I could only assume the vampire study.

  “Why don’t you just get on with your testing, since you know who I am,” I snarled. She had me where she wanted me, the tirade didn’t need to continue.

  She watched me and quirked her eyebrow. “Did you know who you were when you came to me?”

  I stayed silent. I wasn’t going to give her any satisfaction.

  She walked to the table, noting my stubbornness. “There was a time I’d admire your strength, but I don’t know how long it’ll be before your little gang decides to try to disrupt me again. So time is of the essence.”

  I stared, not blinking, into her cold eyes. “If you’re going to kill me, just do it already,” I demanded.

  Marissa laughed, throwing her head back dramatically. “If I wanted you dead, then I would have simply disposed of you. You know better than that. There’s so much more to learn from you.”

  I had known that. I knew her motives were studying and researching, and now she had me to study as she pleased. The only true hunter left in the territory.

  I heard clanking on the table as she fiddled with things, and I instinctively flinched. She pulled out a long needle and brought it over to the IV that had been set up in my arm. She started pulling blood out at a drastic pace, and nausea overwhelmed me.

  I sucked in sharply through my nose, trying to calm myself as little tiny black specks started to dance in my eyes.

  “I’m going to…” I couldn’t finish the sentence.

  Marissa looked up and watched my face with a blank expression on her own. “Not so great with this I see?” She smirked and continued filling her vials. “I’m only taking a bit more. I don’t really care if you pass out or not,” she said, harshly.

  I tried to hold on. I didn’t want anything happening I wasn’t aware of, but the fluttering in my stomach and the lightheadedness was too much. My head jerked to the side and was lost to the present again.

  ***

  I inhaled slowly as I came to, for the second time in this dingy test room. At least I knew I wasn’t in a nightmare. It was all too real.

  “Perfect.” I heard her voice and rolled my eyes.

  Wonderful, I thought to myself. More commentary from Marissa. Maybe I could get her to start talking about things of actual importance.

  She sat in a chair next to me, her arms folded across her chest, and I realized the mask she so often wore to the outside world was nowhere to be found. She looked dead on the inside. Uncaring and cruel.

  I lifted my head up, trying to make sure she could see my smug look when I asked my question. “I know you’re trying to learn as much about me as possible, but do you really think you can cross breed hunters and vampires?” I asked, trying to catch her off guard.

  “Well I certainly wasn’t wrong about your smarts, child,” she said quietly as she turned in her chair back toward that dreaded table. She measured out a few different things into a vial in front of her face. She dropped it into a vortex mixer, and it hummed to life as she turned back toward me. “You’re right. I’d like to see how you react to some venom I’ve extracted from some of our vampires.”

  That smug looked vanished as I realized she was going to start testing things on me now, with little to no preparation. The thought was sobering, because as of now, I was the first and only hunter nearby. If she did something to me that couldn’t be undone, that was it.

  I tried to hide my fear and set a stony look to my face, one I hoped portrayed courage to show I wouldn’t let her get to me.

  The vortex mixer she had been using came to a stop, and she prepped her materials before walking over to me. She titled her head and smiled her wide, fake smile. Only this time, I could see real glee on her face. She was going to enjoy whatever was going to happen to me.

  “Hold very still. This will sting.” She pushed the liquid into my arm, and I held my breath, closing my eyes and trying to relax my body.

  I had to stay in control, although not knowing what was going to happen and most likely not having any power over it, was going to make that very hard.

  A slow burn started where she had injected the mixed solution, and I let out a hissing noise. This only seemed to excite Marissa as she came closer, watching my facial features and picking up a notebook.

  “Do try to tell me everything you’re experiencing. I’ll be making my own observations as well,” she said.

  “Keep dreaming,” I forced out through my gritted teeth.

  The burning sensation was spreading, traveling up my arm and through my chest. I screamed as it made its way across my entire body and traveled down. I thrashed against my restraints again, this time I swear the steel dented. I thought perhaps I’d taken on some o
f the strength from the vampire blood, even if my insides were burning, and kept jerking around in my restraints, seeing if I could break through the steel. The pain on my wrists began to slow me down after a few more hard slams into the metal.

  I screamed as the burning intensified. My eyes opened and were swimming with tears.

  If the pain hadn’t been so intense as it ripped through my body, I would have thought my new vision was truly astounding. I could see details in the room that amazed me. There were dust particles everywhere, which for a temperature-controlled research room seemed strange. I turned, looking at details on the walls, which were now easily discernable to my eyes, that I never would have seen, or even had cause to notice before. The lights were brighter, but it was as if my eyes knew how to adjust to make it so that I wouldn’t be negatively impacted by them.

  I felt my legs and arms twitch, and my body began convulsing. I heard a screaming coming from somewhere. It was awful and sounded like someone was being murdered. It was only after a few moments when my throat was raw, that I realized the sound was coming from me. I felt another pinch at the IV in my arm again, praying it wasn’t more of the same. I didn’t think I’d last much longer if it was. I whimpered, trying to stop the screams tearing through me.

  The burning began to fade in the same way that it started. It left my arm and then chest as the cooling sensation this new liquid brought through my body allowed me to have control back.

  I shivered as the last remnants of the injection left my system. My clothes were drenched, and beads of sweat were running down my neck, even though I was lying down.

  “Fascinating,” Marissa murmured. “Clearly your body reacts poorly to the vampire venom, which doesn’t happen in most humans. At least not like that. Most humans get a little sick without the bite behind it to turn them.” She laughed. “Well before me that is. But you, you have an actual negative experience and reaction. Truly incredible,” she continued, scribbling notes.

  I looked straight up at the ceiling. I wasn’t sure if making a snide comment or not saying anything at all would piss her off more. I wanted to frustrate her, but at this point, I didn’t know how, and I was trying to figure out how I was going to save my strength to endure continuous tests like this.

  “If I take it down to fifty-fifty, I wonder if your body would naturally root it out without as painful or violent of a reaction, or if the hunter blood would need to dominate forcefully,” she muttered to herself as she continued jotting notes and then walked back over to the table.

  There was another buzzing, and she picked up her own phone this time.

  “Hello, dearest,” she said sweetly. “Oh my, yes. I’m so sorry I must have lost track of time. Tell them I’ll be there momentarily. I’m just finishing the presentation.” She set her phone calmly on the table and stood, smoothing her skirt out as I lie there, shivering uncontrollably now.

  She walked out of the door without a word, as I shook violently. Marissa came back in seconds later with a change of clothes and a woman I hadn’t seen before.

  “Don’t even think about trying anything. I have ways to make you suffer more, and there’s absolutely no way you’ll get very far even if you do attempt to wrangle your way out of this room.” She looked at me sternly. “Rest up. I’ll be back within the hour.”

  And with that she was gone. The woman in the room with me barely spoke as she unlatched my wrists and ankles. I thought about fighting her off, but my energy had been zapped, and Marissa was right. I was in the middle of Falcone, in one of the most secure rooms in the facility. The chances of me getting out alone were zero at the moment. I could only hope the others would put something together. Although that worried me too. I didn’t want Marissa hurting any of them, or getting her hands on more test subjects.

  The nameless woman handed me fresh clothes. They were patient clothes. I’d seen our test subjects in them before. They looked like scrubs but were a bit warmer.

  I sat up and changed, while she politely turned her back. After getting dressed, I placed my hands on my knees and tried to take a few calming breaths. I needed to keep my head on straight. I needed to be smarter and get Marissa talking. I needed to learn more about her end game. The more I learned here, the more information we could use against her if I was rescued. When, I corrected myself. When I was rescued.

  I was left out of the shackles for longer than I thought I’d be. But it was sooner than I’d have liked before the woman with me started strapping me back in. Marissa must be coming back soon.

  The woman was silent the entire time with me. She looked plain, non-descript, and I had never seen her around before. It concerned me. There weren’t many who had access to this area, at least not that I’d known of. Perhaps Marissa kept a lot more secret than I thought. Especially from lowly interns like me.

  I was left alone, strapped down waiting for more torture.

  When the door opened again, I turned my head to acknowledge Marissa’s entrance. She glided in gracefully, smiling. “Sorry for the delay. Duty calls.”

  I thought for a moment before speaking to her. Seeley had never told me how to turn. So I truly had no idea how anything relating to the vampires worked, and I realized in that aspect, Marissa was right. Knowledge was power, and right now I was utterly powerless.

  “Are you trying to turn me into a vampire?” I asked her, trying to keep my voice even and get her talking.

  She scoffed. “Why on earth would I sacrifice the only hunter I have to feebly do that?”

  I frowned, running through other ideas. Perhaps the best method was direct. She did like to talk about herself. “What are you going to accomplish with me then? Unhinge me like you do with the vampires?”

  She laughed but then looked at me for a moment, curiously, before speaking. “What would the point of that be? I have plenty of vampires I can control at my disposal. No, I want to see if there’s a way back.”

  “A way back from what?”

  “Vampirism.” She grinned.

  I gasped. “What?”

  “I can turn people now, without a bite. That particular serum was just perfected and took such a long time. I can control the anger and rage inside of a vampire, as well. But, I want to know if I can turn them back. Hunters were created to be the anti-vampire. Perhaps there is something in your gene that would help me with that. A vaccine so to speak.” She smirked. “After all, you’ll be unable to turn.”

  I couldn’t hide the surprise in my eyes then. Seeley really hadn’t told me anything, not that there had been time to discuss the ins and outs of vampirism in our short and chaotic time together. And he had mentioned some physical boundaries to any relationship once he’d found out what I was, but there hadn’t been time for details there either.

  She chuckled under her breath wickedly. “You look surprised. Perhaps your vampire was keeping secrets? Hunters can’t turn. You can be poisoned and die from a bite, if it’s done correctly.” She watched me a moment longer and then shook her head. “But you can’t turn. Which is why I’m extremely curious to see where our time together leads,” she added.

  “It did work out well that I was able to get you after completing the rest of the research that was asked of me,” she said as she moved back to her torture table. She was focusing more on mixing things together than on what she was saying to me, at least it seemed that way because suddenly she was open and spouting out information freely.

  I tried to do the meditative breathing, in through my nose out through my mouth, to soothe my rapidly increasing heartbeat. I didn’t want Marissa to get the better of me in anyway, but the fear and adrenaline from what happened the last time was starting to weigh on me as I watched her start pouring different mixtures together.

  “So that’s what this is about, simply creating an antidote to your already created vampire serum?” I asked, praying she’d keep gloating.

  “Mmmm. I did what was asked of me and performed impeccably, like I always do.” She was gloating.

/>   There she was acting like it wasn’t her initial idea again. The comments were strange. “I thought you were in charge.”

  Marissa put the vials down and slowly turned toward me, narrowing her eyes at me. “There is so much you will never understand. But it doesn’t matter now. I have what I dreamed of. You, in my grasp and able to be studied until it’s time to dispose of you. Luckily, I wasn’t alone, or else this may not have all gone as perfectly,” she cackled.

  I frowned as she revealed more and more. Who could be helping her along? And who was she working for? I was struggling to find ways to come up with getting her to talk. This was too new to me, and I wished I knew more to better play this chess game I was trying to master.

  She approached me again. “This is something you’re familiar with. I believe you caught us injecting a man at the beginning of your time here. I just wanted to see how the serum would make you react here with me.” She beamed as she loaded everything ready to inject me.

  “I still don’t understand why you’d be working for anyone. You’re Marissa Malcovey, and you disposed of my parents to run Falcone,” I hissed.

  She looked at me as I tried to think and she smirked. “Not all hunters are content being watchdogs. Not all vampires want peace.” She slammed the liquid from the needle quickly into the IV she had created.

  A surge of anger flooded through me, and I reared my head back, letting out a blood-curdling sound. It wasn’t a scream, and it wasn’t a roar. It was somewhere in between. I was something in between hunter and monster, and I prayed whatever the hunter in me had was strong enough to bring me back.

  CHAPTER 17

  A darkness had clouded my vision. It hadn’t rendered me unconscious, but it made everything seem dull, full of shadows, and fueled the rage I had been holding inside.