by Jade Farhill
“Can you carry it?” Abby asked. Unarmed or exhausted hunters wouldn’t help her escape.
“Yeah,” Scotty said, “we’ll manage.” He heaved a chain whip over his shoulder.
Abby took their cure dispersal units and put them in her bag, which was full to bursting with cure dispersal canisters.
She noticed that there were still weapons on the ground, each of them silver and deadly to her. “Is it worth it to take them with us?”
The little hunter thought for a moment. “Will it affect your ability to get us out of here if you carry them?”
Abby didn’t want to have anything to do with those menacing, despicable weapons—her weapon of choice was the cure.
“It might,” she admitted.
“Then we leave them here. Take only what we can carry,” said the little hunter.
Paddy and Scotty looked at their leftover weapons as if they were leaving friends behind, but accepted the little hunter’s decision.
“You’ll need to follow me,” Abby instructed. “Stay close, and, if we’re lucky, we’ll get out of here alive.”
The only heartbeat to quicken as they all left the room and went into the corridor was Irena’s. Abby hoped she would hear the vampires come to her before they actually arrived.
The hunters formed a protective circle around Irena, with Abby at the head of the pack and the little hunter bringing up the rear.
They moved through the tunnels, not finding any vampires. Each time they turned a corner and found nothing, the hunters grew more and more nervous.
“There aren’t any vampires on this level,” said Irena.
“You were here,” Scotty replied.
“To guard you. I’m not insane enough to do anything else. No one is.” She flicked her eyes at Abby. “Until her.”
“I’d rather not hear how feared your queen is,” Abby muttered. “We still need to get out of here.”
“It’s easy to be courageous when ignorant,” Irena replied.
“And it’s easy to die when talking in a vampire den,” the little hunter countered.
That shut the former vampire up.
Finally, they reached the upper level, and Abby cast a look over her shoulder at the hunters.
They set their jaws and drew their weapons.
Abby heard the sound of footsteps running rapidly towards them. She stiffened and prepared a spray cannister.
Then her vision went red. This vampire must be in blood rage.
She couldn’t lose control now. She closed her eyes and thought of Sharon, Trent and colours.
When Abby opened her eyes, she knew she’d escaped the blood rage. The vampire came charging around the corner and Abby leapt onto her, knocking her down and spraying the cure into her mouth. The vampire convulsed beneath Abby, and she covered the creature’s mouth to muffle her screams of agony.
Suddenly, there was a human under Abby. She stood quickly and compelled the former vampire to take her hand. Then she lifted her off the ground and the hunters encircled her, their expressions wary.
“What …?” the new human asked, wide eyes on the hunters and, especially Irena. “Aren’t you one of the queen’s favoured?”
That didn’t sound good. Abby met the hunters’ alarmed gazes.
“I was,” came the dark reply. “Then I did something she didn’t like and my punishment was to guard the hunters. Just to torment me. She dangled food in front of me, food I couldn’t reach. And even if I did, she’d do something even worse to me.”
“We’re escaping,” Abby said hastily, trying to change the subject. “You’re coming with us, unless you want to be a meal.”
The newest human paled. “I’m coming with.”
As they continued along the hallway, Abby found herself curing numerous vampires. They’d soon gathered quite a collection of new humans—and the more humans they gathered, the more vampires came.
By the time they were near the exit, Abby was glad she had packed an arsenal of cures. She now had about eighty humans to look after, and each oral spray canister held about thirty-five doses. She had discarded two cans already and was glad that the hunters were being held in the superficial layers of the den, rather than down in the depths with the queen. It would have been a whole lot more complicated to extract the hunters in that situation.
They came to a fork in the cave. Four hundred metres beyond the left path was the door to the outside world.
And from the sound of it, there were about a hundred vampires in that tunnel.
The boulder blocking the entrance stopped the airflow here, which meant Abby could see vampires at the entrance, but not smell them. And unless those vampires looked directly at her as she peeked around the corner, they wouldn’t know she or the humans were there. But that didn’t mean they were safe for long—the scent of human sweat and blood would reach those vampires eventually.
Abby ducked back around the corner and hid from sight beside the hunters. She’d have to use one of her aerial dispersal units to get them out of here. She’d tinkered with her units over the years and now they were the same size as hand grenades, as opposed to the bulky bucket-sized ones she’d created at Hunter HQ. But, unlike the bucket-sized units which were designed for large-scale curing, her new ones were designed for curing a few dangerous individuals at a time. Which meant she needed her targets to get closer to the unit.
“I need blood,” Abby announced.
The humans around her shrank back. Abby was about to explain when the little hunter held out his exposed arm, face grim.
“Not from you, Little Hunter. You’re already too weak.”
“You said you need blood. Take mine.”
Abby sighed and explained her plan.
He nodded. “If it’ll get us out of here, do it.”
Abby shook her head and was about to ask for another volunteer when he pulled out a dagger and cut his left palm with ease. It was exactly the place he’d once cut himself to taunt her.
Abby acted quickly, knowing the vampires would soon be attracted by the smell of blood. Gently, she grabbed his hand, rubbed the blood all over the unit and pegged it as hard as she could towards the door.
The vampires in the left tunnel all dove towards the unit, wanting the blood.
Abby pressed the remote release button—all the vampires froze, then convulsed. The moment they were cured, they look down at themselves, clearly panicking.
“Let’s go!” Abby said, and set a fast pace.
“Vampire, are you going to let go of my hand?”
Abby looked down at her left hand. It was still holding onto the little hunter’s. She dropped it and hustled the group forward.
When they were at the door, she mass compelled everyone to remain calm. Surprisingly, it worked on the whole one hundred and ten humans. Abby smiled to herself, trying not to enjoy this rather handy technique of keeping the humans from becoming a raging, panicky mess.
“Just to clarify, because I think I already know,” Abby said to Irena, “but how do we open the door?”
“You need three vampires to open it. It pushes out, then rolls to the side.”
“Just like the other dens,” Abby muttered, nodding. “But that still presents a problem—how do we open it?” She wondered about the three vampires. She knew she didn’t have the strength, and even one hundred and ten humans couldn’t really match it, especially in such small quarters.
“Blood rage makes vampires stronger,” said the little hunter.
Abby looked at him for a long moment. “I’ve never gone into one of my own volition.”
He shrugged. “It’s worth a shot.”
Abby looked down at her shoes. Could she activate the blood rage? Would she be able to control herself? She had in the past, but that was usually to break herself out of it.
She pushed that thought aside. Now wasn’t the time.
“Is anyone carrying something colourful?” she asked.
A multicoloured scarf was passed to her
. She held it out to the little hunter. “If it looks like I’m out of control, show this to me.”
The hunters regarded the vibrant cloth.
“Why?” asked Paddy.
“I like colours—they help me stay in control.”
Scotty looked questioningly at Irena. “Does that apply to all vampires?”
Irena shook her head. “Nope. Blood rages are uncontrollable. They’re the reason I was being punished by the queen.”
While this was going on, Abby was focusing on how to get into a blood rage. Anger and hunger were intimately connected for vampires. Both should theoretically trigger a blood rage.
With that thought, she imagined vampires attacking the women around her.
But no red filter appeared at the edges of her eyesight, perhaps it was because they’d all attacked Abby and the hunters. Perhaps she needed something that would truly enrage her.
An image of a vampire trying to kill her sister flashed in her mind, and a red haze gathered at the edges of her vision. It was working.
Before the haze could progress any further, she levelled a stare at the hunters. “Don’t kill me—use the scarf.”
They agreed, jaws set.
Abby closed her eyes and focused on imagining Sharon being set upon by the crazy lady. Her blood began to boil; her senses sharpened. Her entire body felt like a weapon.
This was new. Blood rages didn’t normally make her feel this powerful. Was that the difference between a vicarious blood rage and a true blood rage?
Abby looked around and saw, actually saw, the heartbeats and pulses in the humans around her, lit up as if she was seeing in infra-red. She saw their blood running through their bodies, the cold sweat that ran down their skin as they watched her eyes.
She smelled their different body odours, their last meals.
She heard their breath coming shorter in their lungs, heard their swallows, how they shifted their weight uncomfortably from foot to foot, heard how their clothes moved against their bodies.
She heard how the hunters readied themselves to fight her, their atrophied muscles straining, the creaking of their leather belts.
She smelled the shaving cream on the hunters’ faces and knew that a female vampire came into their cells every day to shave them.
Who was this vampire who’d violated their space? Hunters would never allow a vampire near them, let alone shave them, performing tasks as personal as that. She bared her teeth, tempted to demand of them who had done this!
But the hunters stiffened.
If they weren’t comfortable with a vampire violating their space, then they wouldn’t be comfortable discussing it with a partial vampire in a blood rage.
And besides, now was not the time to deal with that.
Abby turned and launched herself at the door. It shifted and moved, grating on the floor. Rays of sunlight streaked in through the cracks around the edges. Abby continued pushing with all her rage-filled might. Slowly, the door shifted open.
Once the door was as back as far as it could go, Abby changed her grip and started to roll it to the side. After a monumental effort, she’d cleared a space.
Sunlight flooded into the underground cave and screams came from further inside the den. I hope I haven’t just turned Sharon to ash, Abby thought.
“Out, now,” ordered the little hunter.
The new humans rushed out around Abby, and the hunters waited until everyone was safely beyond the den before they too left the cave.
“Wait, how are you able to be in the sunlight?” asked Irena.
“I’m not a full vampire.” Abby noted the colours around her: the khakis, the yellows, the blues, the oranges and pink, the colourful scarf the little hunter was holding. The red haze subsided.
“You could have told us that earlier,” Irena replied grouchily, “I seriously thought you were sacrificing yourself to get us out.”
“It’s not like I can say to everyone I meet, ‘Hi, I’m a day-walking vampire. Nice to meet you’,” Abby pointed out.
“Especially when we’re in the middle of escaping,” the little hunter added.
“Where to now?” asked one of the former vampires, wide-eyed in the sunshine.
“Follow me. I have somewhere near here.” She’d scouted the area before entering the den and had dumped most of her supplies in a cave about twenty kilometres away, just in case something went awry. Abby led the humans there now. Judging by the position of the sun, it was about nine in the morning. It took about four-and-a-half hours for the group to reach the cave. When Abby had travelled the same path last night, it had only taken her fifteen minutes.
The cave was situated about a third of the way up a sheer cliff with a ramp leading up to it. Abby had explored this area extensively before entering the den, and even she hadn’t been able to get to the top of the cliffs. It was as if this part of the earth broke away from the rest to rise up, never to come back together again. There had to be a path to the clifftop, but unless Abby had a map, a compass, a GPS and a whole lot of time, she’d never find it.
The humans entered the cave. Inside, a long, narrow tunnel led to a huge, dome-like space surrounded by entrances to tunnels that went further into the cliffs.
Once the humans were settled, Abby left the cave, followed—or escorted out—by the hunters.
Outside, Abby took in the view of the valley below. It had rained recently, and the bush was brimming with colours.
The little hunter approached her.
“Do you have a phone on you?” she asked.
He shook his head and Abby sighed, pulling out her own phone. She really didn’t want to give the hunters this number—she would need to use one of her other identities if she did. Even so, their only chance of survival right now was the Vampire Hunters’ Organisation. She asked the little hunter for their number.
“Are you sure you want them to know where you are?”
Abby sighed and handed him the phone. “Just ring them.”
He punched in the number, and Abby heard a tinny voice on the other end of the line. “Hello, you’ve reached the VHO. How may I direct your call?”
“It’s Taylor Huxley, identification number 4122357. Myself and two other hunters, Patrick Umaga and Scott Kotonui, and about a hundred humans have been rescued from a vampire den by the vampire scientist, Abigail Rormton. We need assistance and an evac.”
“Oh my god, Tay! What the hell happened to you? Are you all right? You’ve been missing for three months!”
“Ah, well, it’s a long story,” said Tay, shifting on his feet. “Anyway, we need an evac. The hunters and I are … unhealthy, and we’ll need a medic.”
Abby made a mental note to give them more blood when she could—maybe before she went hunting, so that she would be fresh for tonight.
“All right, hang on. I’ll transfer you to your commanding officer,” said the voice.
Hold music started emanating from the phone. Abby took advantage of this pause and told the little hunter their location.
The classical music ended abruptly and a new voice appeared on the other end of the line. “Tay, is that really you?”
“Yes, ma’am, it’s me.” He gave their location. “We’re in a vulnerable position here, is there any chance you can get to us soon? Before tonight?”
Tonight. He was apparently thinking the same thing she was. If a queen was so vindictive as to starve humans to death for choosing a profession that killed or cured vampires, she wasn’t about to let them just walk out of her den with no repercussions.
Abby didn’t even want to think about how the queen would treat her for helping them escape.
But the hunters were her priority—she could look after herself, but they couldn’t.
Abby thanked her past self for being overprepared and bringing an arsenal of cures. She had been willing to cure every vampire she came across to get to her sister—even the queen. She’d been willing to do a lot of things to get to her sister, but now, it seemed, she
was willing to cure every vampire within a twenty-kilometre radius to save the lives of former vampires and her former tormentors.
She looked out over the canyon and thought about the best positioning for her units. There were ten-metre radius motion sensors on her units. If she set them up at intervals and had some spare at the entrance, the humans might survive the night. She’d need to test how far she could jump in and out of blood rage and set up bombs in the areas where the vampires were more likely to land.
The little hunter hung up and handed the phone back. “Um … considering we’re in Woop Woop, it’ll take them four days to get here,” he said grimly. ‘Woop Woop’ in Australian slang meant the middle of nowhere.
Abby almost dropped her phone. Four days?
“They’re going to come after us tonight,” he added, unnecessarily.
“I know. You’ll need food and water. I can get you some meat, maybe some root vegetables. There’s a creek nearby. You’ll have to go there yourselves if you want water.” Abby levelled her gaze at the little hunter. “You shouldn’t eat anything too heavy. After months of starvation, a hearty meal may kill you.”
“That’s the least of my worries right now—what about tonight?”
“Don’t worry, Little Hunter. I knew my sister was here. I’ve got some cure dispersal units that I can place strategically to make sure the only ones who come near us are humans. These units are rigged to only go off when they detect vampiric DNA.”
The little hunter’s eyes focused intently on hers. “Your sister is in that den?”
Abby nodded.
“You left her to save us?”
She nodded again, staring at a point just above his head, not able to maintain eye contact with the one who had tormented her so much for so long.
He took the hint and left her alone. Abby let out a breath she hadn’t realised she’d been holding. She had a lot of work to do if the hunters’ organisation couldn’t get here for four days.
She could abandon them now and go in search of her sister, or she could stay and fight beside them.
“You can go, you know,” came the little hunter’s voice. When had he returned? “There’s no need for you to die as well, especially not when you’re so close to finding your sister.”
