Hunted (Hybrid Book 2)

by Nick Stead

  Once I’d eaten my fill I went back to the man lying broken and bloody at the base of the tree he’d collided with. The pain had proven too much for him and he’d slipped into unconsciousness, but the new pain of my fangs sliding into the exposed muscle of his fractured arm brought him back with a cry of agony. I ripped the meat from his broken bones until he took his last laboured breath, rising from him as death claimed him.

  I stood there panting, feeling the anger drain away now my dark needs had finally been satisfied, my eyes turning human again and the sharp predatory points of my teeth and nails receding into bluntness once more. With the retreat of my rage, only emptiness remained in its place, despite the moon rise being only a few hours away. Beads of red liquid rolled down my body as if I’d just bathed, but rather than cleansing, the blood only dried and added to the layer of filth which already caked my bare skin. A chill breeze passed through the woods, ruffling my hair and stirring the bodies littered around me in some poor imitation of life.

  I’d ripped the cheek off one of the men I’d savaged, the bloody tatters of torn flesh waving in the wind across bare jaw bones grinning morbidly. The breeze was strong enough to cause ripples across the pools of blood surrounding the remains, as if there was still some life in the liquid, despite the dead hearts that it had come from, which would pump it no more. Then the wind died down again and all was still. No scavengers descended on the grisly feast I’d left for them, no living thing daring to come close to the unnatural predator in their midst. All was still, save for the one human I’d left alive.

  The man whose stomach I’d ripped open sat propped against another tree, grunting and shivering in pain, his hands still pressed to his belly to hold his guts in place. My hunger for killing now satiated for the time being, I decided I should keep him alive long enough for the vampire to wake and have her fill of the human prey she too must surely be craving. But his ripped shirt was soaked with blood and I knew he’d never last that long if I left his wounds open.

  “Don’t die on me,” I growled. “I need you to hold on till dusk.”

  The Slayer was conscious enough to fix his eyes on me, making his hatred for my race plain to see, but he didn’t answer.

  I turned away from him to search the bodies of his comrades. The smell of smoke was heavy on two of the men and sure enough in one of their pockets I found cigarettes and a lighter. Taking the lighter, I then retrieved one of their knives and held the blade to the small flame. Then I stalked back over to the Slayer, roughly pulling his hands away from his wounds and pinning him down. He realised what I was about to do and tried to struggle, his eyes wide, but I was too strong for him.

  Before I could tend to the gashes my claws had made, there came the crackle of a walkie-talkie and the voice on the other end asked “What’s your status? Report.”

  “Tell them it’s all clear,” I said.

  “You’re going to kill me anyway, so why should I obey you?”

  “Tell them it’s all clear,” I repeated, digging my fingers into his wounds. “Or I’ll make your last hours agony.”

  Whatever training the Slayers put their forces through evidently didn’t include withstanding torture, because my captive couldn’t take the pressure on the damaged nerves already sparking and throbbing with pain for more than a few seconds. Once I withdrew my fingers he did as instructed, grunting “All clear, targets had already moved on some time before dawn.”

  “Roger that, return to base,” came the reply.

  “Tell them you’ve picked up our trail and you’re in pursuit.”

  The man co-operated a second time.

  “Roger that,” the voice on the other end responded. “If you don’t find them before dusk, abort the mission till we send back up.”

  “Good,” I said, satisfied that would buy us enough time before they sent any more hunting parties out to try and take us unawares.

  With that taken care of, I went back to delaying the man’s death long enough for the vampire to make a meal of him. I reheated the knife before pushing the guts slipping through his wounds back into his abdomen and pressing the blade to the torn flesh, cauterising each one like I’d seen in some of the movies I’d watched as a human. The woodland rang with the man’s screams until he passed out from the pain. The world was still and quiet once more, but again my thoughts threatened to turn to the emotional pain my family were likely still going through, so I heated the knife a third time and pressed it to his cheek. He awoke with another scream.

  “Since I need you alive you might as well keep me company for the rest of the day,” I told him.

  “I have nothing to say to you, monster. You might as well kill me now; I won’t be your chew toy.”

  “Maybe you should have thought of that before you came here.”

  “I won’t deal with monsters,” he said stubbornly.

  “Monsters? I suppose that’s what I am now, but only because your kind turned me into one.”

  “Your curse did that.”

  “Oh the curse changed me, sure, it made me a killer. But humans pushed me over the edge. All that violence and aggression that came from the curse only grew at the hands of your kind. The bullies at school, you Slayers, even my own father, you all had your part to play in making me the monster I am today. You all fed my rage until it took over.”

  “You could have fought the curse. You didn’t have to give in to your hunger or your rage. Look at what you’ve done, look at all this carnage you’ve caused, and tell me you deserve life. They were good men; they didn’t deserve to die like this, savaged by some mindless beast.”

  “So you think I should fight my nature, rather than embracing it? Maybe I would have kept on fighting, but you people calling yourselves Demon Slayers didn’t exactly give me much choice. You’ve made it a game of kill or be killed, so here we are. And if you really think fighting the hunger is so easy, if you think you could do better, maybe you should become one of us. You might not have the wolf blood for me to make you a werewolf, but I could let the vampire turn you.”

  “I’d rather die than be one of you.”

  “So noble. So righteous. And yet you people are just as monstrous as we are. How many innocent lives have you taken in your quest to wipe us out? How many fellow humans have died simply because they got in the way, while you wage this war with us in the shadows? Perhaps not you personally, but one of my closest friends was taken by your people purely to get at me. She would have died at the hands of you Slayers if I hadn’t got to her when I did. My friend, a human who knows nothing of this war. Why should you people be allowed to murder and go unpunished, and we undead be killed for the lives we take to survive?”

  He had no answer to that.

  “I wonder how you found us so quick,” I said, changing the subject. “It’s only been days since I left my home and I didn’t think we’d left any of you alive in the area to follow us. But a group of you tried to catch us unawares the other night, and then today, even though I’m pretty sure we weren’t seen entering this old campsite, your group attacked. Can your pet spellcasters track us, I wonder? But surely if it was through their magic then there would be another witch or warlock with your group, and I sense no other humans nearby. So how did you find us?”

  “I have nothing to say to you,” he repeated.

  I stayed by him for the rest of the day, though I could get nothing more out of him without resorting to more torture, which I didn’t want to do in case it proved too much of a strain on his body and killed him before the vampire could feed. Clouds began to amass in the sky overhead, obscuring the sun and making it difficult to judge the time, but eventually I sensed the onset of dusk after what felt like several long hours. As the sun set those clouds turned red, as if there’d been so much bloodshed that afternoon, it had been absorbed and the sky was now heavy with it.

  The moon wasn’t visible behind such thick cloud cover, but I could sense it up there and I felt the wolf’s yearning to run free. As much as I want
ed to obey the moon’s call and let the transformation take hold, I knew I should wait for the vampire to appear. She’d have no trouble finding me and the human with her superior senses so I remained standing guard by my captive. I didn’t have to wait long.

  “Good, you’re still human,” Lady Sarah said as she stalked over. “And you’ve been busy, I see.”

  At first she sounded relieved she’d reached me in time, no doubt believing she’d been too late to find me before the transformation when she’d awoken and I’d not been in the building with her. But there was disapproval and a hint of anger in her second observation, and defensively I replied “They attacked first. If I hadn’t engaged them they’d have found and killed you, so what was I supposed to do?”

  “You were lucky there was no spellcaster with this group. We can’t afford to move from here until after your full moon, but as soon as it’s passed we will have to flee this place.”

  “I took care of it,” I growled, giving her a quick run through of what had happened while she slept. “And I left this one alive for you to feed on. You could show me some gratitude.”

  “Forgive me, Nick, I just worry you underestimate our enemies. When the time comes we will make a stand again, but until then we can’t afford for you to throw yourself into every little skirmish they send our way. You did make the right move today though, and I do thank you for thinking of me.”

  My anger threatened to engulf me once more, despite her apology, so I merely nodded. But while we’d argued the Slayer had also been busy. Blood spilled from his mouth where he’d bitten through his own tongue, fearing we would question him some more. He might have been able to refuse me, but he’d known he would be at the vampire’s mercy if she used her hypnotic powers to place him under her spell. It was a drastic move and one I’d not expected after he’d been unable to deal with the pain I’d inflicted on him earlier. Short of getting him to write in the dirt, we weren’t getting any answers out of him. And he knew as well as we did that there wasn’t time for that when the full moon could break through the clouds at any minute, which would bring on the transformation whether I was ready for it or not.

  “Clever human,” Lady Sarah hissed, but since he was no longer useful as anything other than prey she wasted no more time, feeding so long and deeply that he was nothing but a dried husk when she’d finished. Even though the vampire was so wary of taking human prey and engaging our enemies in combat, the pleasure and satisfaction the human blood gave her was plain to see. “I must thank you again, Nick. Now, if you can just hold on to your human form for as long as the moon remains hidden behind the clouds, it will be safer for both of us.”

  But my attention was already turned to the sky where there was a brighter patch amidst the blackness where the moon hung overhead. No sooner had she spoken than the pale orb slid into view, bathing us in its ghostly light. My eyes became lupine once more, my voice already growing wolfish as I growled “Too late.”

  Chapter Three – Lost in the Rage

  The moon called and I obeyed. I felt the usual pain in my stomach and the feverish symptoms of my flesh burning, my blood boiling, a primal fire blazing through me in response to my lunar master. And to think I had once fought this, not so long ago. Yet now I embraced my true nature, revelling in the power of the transformation itself, so much more potent for the full moon overhead.

  My skin itched as fur sprouted. A deep ache ran through my entire skeleton and muscles throbbed as bone and flesh stretched out or shortened as necessary to take on the anatomical shape of the wolf. I welcomed that pain, crouched on all fours and giving myself fully to the transformation, no longer struggling to retain my humanity. As intense as the pain was, I could feel my body growing stronger for the changes it endured and it gave rise to a savage joy once more.

  The change completed, all physical traces of my humanity lost to my lupine side, and with an excited howl I answered the moon and the call to the hunt as the wolf seized control.

  “Nick?”

  My howl tailed off and I was about to bound off into the night, but I paused on hearing my name.

  “Remember what’s at stake,” Lady Sarah growled at me in the wolven tongue. “It’s too dangerous to run wild with the Slayers on our trail. Fight it, Nick. Fight it if you want to live to see the morning.”

  I boldly locked gazes with the vampire. Though I didn’t share the human’s recklessness, the need to hunt awoken by the moon and the hunger from the transformation were overwhelmingly strong. And the human part of my mind was much stronger than it used to be and remained closer to the surface than in the early days of the curse, when it had been forced deep into our subconscious whenever I took control. The human now shared in my predatory desires and my bloodlust had only grown stronger as a result. That, coupled with the human’s rage, made my hunting instincts that much harder to resist. My survival instinct had always been much greater than my human half’s, but it was lost in the chaos of my mind that night, as were the vampire’s words. I’d once considered her my alpha, but the moon was my true alpha, and its call was greater than any leadership the vampire could offer. I snarled in response to her.

  Lady Sarah must have realised she wasn’t going to get through to me because her form shifted and a she wolf stood before me, snarling in return. The next thing I knew she was on me, trying to wrestle me into submission. But in my current state of madness brought on by the full moon and the human’s rage and eagerness for the kill, I was so desperate for the thrill of the hunt and to spill fresh blood that I fought against her with everything I had. We grappled with each other, twisting and snapping until finally she succeeded in clamping her jaws round my snout, muzzling me like natural wolves. Still I writhed in her grip, desperately trying to break free, her fangs carving deep gouges into my muzzle the more I struggled against her. The pain only drove me into more of a frenzy and blood was running freely down my snout, but the vampire held me firm until I was eventually forced to submit.

  Lady Sarah didn’t release the pressure on my muzzle immediately after I ceased fighting her, but as the moments dragged on and I remained still and seemingly docile she finally let me go. I lay panting, readying myself for a renewed assault, but when I looked up she was stood over me in human form once more. One of the Slayers the human had killed earlier had carried a sword, which the vampire had retrieved from the corpse.

  “I’m sorry, Nick,” she said, and before I could make any move to stop her she drove the long blade through the muscle of my upper left hind leg, stabbing clean through my flesh and deep into the soil until it was buried to the hilt, pinning me to the ground.

  I yelped with the pain but after the initial shock it only served to drive me into even more of a frenzy. I twisted to try and pull the sword out but I couldn’t get a grip on the hilt with my jaws, so instead I started to scrabble at the ground with my front paws, trying to pull myself free. But the more I thrashed around, the more fresh blood leaked from the wound and the greater the pain became. Even in my crazed state the pain became too much, and eventually it forced me into submission once more. I gazed up at the moon, whining pitifully.

  “Eat,” Lady Sarah said, placing one of the human corpses in front of me. “I suppose we were lucky they attacked you earlier, since now it means you can still feed and keep up your energy for the duration of the full moon.”

  I snarled at her but I was too ravenous to refuse the meat, as unappealing as it was now rigor mortis had set in. So I attacked the corpse and devoured chunks of cold, stiff flesh until it was reduced to little more than a bloody skeleton. I continued to gnaw the bones, the hunger for flesh satiated at least, but still the desire to hunt tormented me. Since I was unable to satisfy that desire, I was left with little choice but to settle down for the remainder of the night and rest. With sunrise the transformation would heal the wound in my leg, but until then I was stuck, and I could only dream of my freedom.

  Lady Sarah watched over me while I slept but the Slayers weren’t
foolish enough to send another hunting party after us that night. With the coming of dawn she fled back to the darkness of the old store cupboard, leaving me to transform back whilst still pinned down by the sword. As my limbs shifted the flesh tried to knit back together where the blade had pierced it, but with the sword still in my leg the tissue was forced to fuse around the metal, which only buried it more securely in the muscle. I retreated into our subconscious, leaving the human to deal with removing it and the intense pain that would no doubt cause…

  Even though the wound in my leg had tried to close around the sword, I was acutely aware of it as I regained control. The full moon had always been a blackout period for me in the past, as had the other occasions where the wolf had taken over, but since I’d started to embrace my lupine side I’d learnt to lurk near the surface of our consciousness as the wolf had always been able to do. And that had granted me some awareness of what the wolf had been up to, even if it was only a few snatches of memory of the night’s events. But it was clear enough who had stabbed the blade through my thigh.

  With human hands I was able to grip the hilt of the sword and pull it out, a roar that was equal parts pain and rage tearing through me as the blade slid free. Removing it caused fresh damage to the tissue and my blood flowed freely from the hole it left in my leg, until I used the cell regenerative power of the transformation to heal it.

  The wound closed up as if it had never been, my flesh unmarked and as flawless as ever. The drying blood on my skin was the only proof of it that remained, that and the anger blazing through me, which was currently directed solely at she who was responsible for causing me such pain. The vampire; not only had she dared deny me the hunt on the night that belonged to me, to my kind, but she’d also caused me torment and pain. It was her fault I’d had to endure the agony of the blade through my flesh. It didn’t matter that she’d felt she was acting in my best interests, she’d caused me pain and the pain had fed my rage, giving it rise once more. And as always my anger brought with it my bloodlust, and the only clear thought burning through my fevered mind was the need for revenge on the one who’d hurt me.