by Jade Farhill
But before he could say anything, the little hunter interrupted. “He’s only saying that to get a reaction out of you.”
“Spoil all my fun,” grumbled Arthur.
Paddy and Scotty gave Arthur suspicious looks, but didn’t say anything.
“You know,” Abby told Arthur, “You’re the first human I’ve ever actually bitten.”
Arthur was surprised. “Wait, really? And weren’t you Turned in a hospital? Surely you would have been hungry when you woke up!”
“Well, yeah, I was hungry, but I didn’t attack anyone.” As Abby told her story, the hunters paid very close attention. “Technically you could say I bit Trent—a friend from hunter HQ—but I’m not sure if that counts, because he pushed his forearm onto my fangs.”
“And why did your friend need to do that?” Arthur sounded disgusted.
Abby dropped her eyes.
“Someone contaminated her meal with silver,” the little hunter said.
“Only a hunter could be that cruel!” Arthur shouted, turning menacingly on Paddy, Scotty and the little hunter. “Did you have anything to do with that?”
Abby quickly placed herself between Arthur and the hunters. She had to trust them. “Arthur, no, they had nothing to do—well, okay, the little hunter pointed out that I needed human blood—but otherwise, they had nothing to do with it.” She had almost said that the little hunter saved her, but stopped herself just in time.
Arthur let out a breath. “I’m glad you’re out of there, Abby. Sister and I won’t let you go back.”
“Thanks, Arthur.” She glanced at the puncture wounds in his arm. “I hope you don’t get an infection from that bite.”
“You really haven’t bitten a human before. You know vampiric teeth don’t give infections? There’s an antiseptic in our saliva that prevents it.”
Abby blanched. “Wait, seriously?”
Arthur smiled at her as if she had made a joke. “It’s an adaptation, to make sure that when we take—or took, in my case—humans, they live longer so they can keep providing food for us.”
Abby felt sick. She thought about the experience the hunters must have had in the den. She remembered that someone had shaved them.
“Little Hunter,” she began slowly.
He waited.
“Someone shaved you and your friends …”
The hunters frowned. Abby had evidently raised a sensitive subject.
“Ah, yes,” said Arthur. “That would be the queen. She enjoys doing things like that. Shaving her captives, saying they should be presentable when they die.”
Abby was horrified.
“She also likes to play games. She probably tried to seduce them.”
“She said it was a punishment for taking the vaccine,” said Paddy. “That now we deserved to die slowly.”
Scotty chimed in. “And she said that because of the vaccine, she no longer had the fun of Turning humans and releasing them into the wild without even a bit of training.”
“Did it sound like she did that sort of thing regularly?” Arthur asked. “Turning humans and letting them go rabid?” Abby had been thinking the same thing.
The little hunter nodded. “Yeah, it sounded as if she had a long history of that.”
“Little Hunter, when your father picked me up in the van four years ago,” Abby said, speaking carefully, “he … he seemed very interested in how my sister was Turned. He even asked if I had a description of the woman who attacked us. When I told him, he and his unit got very excited and said they’d finally found The Horror.”
The little hunter’s eyes flashed. “The one who killed both my parents.”
Paddy covered his mouth and Scotty swore.
“Can you describe The Horror?” Paddy asked.
“I don’t need to. We all saw her last night—she’s the queen.”
A hard gleam came into their eyes.
“She would have killed two generations of the same family if it weren’t for the vaccine,” Scotty said.
“More than that,” the little hunter replied.
Abby dreaded facing the queen again. But if it meant curing Sharon, she’d face her a thousand times.
“I can’t believe we’ve been under the command of the one who Turned Sister,” Arthur grumbled. “She never once let slip that she recognised my wife. But she’s devious like that. She might have done all this to get information out of her.” He glared at the leafy ground for a moment, then looked at the hunters. “Are you going after her?”
“Absolutely,” Scotty replied.
“Well, if that’s the case, maybe I can work with you hunters,” Arthur said.
A look of deadly determination passed between the four of them.
Arthur was just as menacing as any hunter, Abby thought. What had he been like as a vampire? I’m glad they’re on my side.
“Abby, I assume you’ll be joining us?” Arthur asked.
“Do you even need to ask?” she replied.
***
Arthur had some news for Abby that afternoon. “You know, when we discovered that vampires were being cured, Sister and I often spoken about children.”
Abby’s jaw dropped. “That’s fantastic!”
“Yeah,” Arthur chuckled. “It is. She wants to start trying for children the moment we become human.”
“I could be an aunt soon?” Abby could hardly contain her joy. “This is the best news I’ve ev—”
But Abby couldn’t finish her sentence: in the distance, the sound of all-terrain trucks roared towards the cave.
“Abby?” Arthur asked, concerned. In the background, the hunters went tense, as if awaiting the news of another threat.
“The hunters are here.”
As Paddy, Scotty and the little hunter gave whoops of joy, former vampires emerged from the cave looking less certain that this was good news.
Arthur put his hand on Abby’s shoulder. “You’re not alone, Abster.”
If she hadn’t been so unnerved by the hunters’ arrival, she would have told him off for calling her ‘Abster’.
The hunters had deployed an army—twenty trucks were pulling up near the cave.
Just in case, Abby donned her gas mask—she wasn’t going to let her guard down, not when she was so close to curing Sharon.
The little hunter watched her, presumably so he could report her every action to his commanding officer.
“There’s our CO!” exclaimed Scotty, and all three emaciated hunters rushed over to a heavily armed group of humans and hugged them.
Despite wanting to hide behind Arthur, Abby stood her ground as some hunters approached her with Paddy, Scotty and the little hunter.
When she saw Harriet, she felt calmer, although her senses—registering the thousands of slow and fast heartbeats and a mixture of human sweat and blood—were being overwhelmed.
When the group was about two metres away, they stopped. The little hunter split off from them and stood near Abby, blocking off her escape route. On instinct, she checked for other ways out. The cave wasn’t an option—there was only one entrance and exit and they were through the same opening. She could jump over the top of them, but then she’d leave Arthur vulnerable. And the little hunter was blocking her from running back down the ramp leading to the cave.
Arthur moved closer to Abby, now standing in solidarity with her.
Harriet nodded to Abby and Abby inclined her head. But before either of them could talk, a powerful-looking woman stepped forward and began to speak.
“My name is Squadron Captain Joan Nguyen. I’m these hunters’ commanding officer. Thank you, Vampire Scientist, for rescuing them.” She was short, but muscular, with brown eyes and straight black hair tied into a severe bun. “We were … concerned. Given how you were treated while you were with us, this shows an incredible kindness of heart that none of us really deserves.”
“I expected as much,” Harriet said, giving Joan a dirty look. “Unlike you, and the rest of your unit, I recognised he
r for her worth before she even created the cure.”
There were pale scars on Joan’s left hand: irrefutable proof that she had also participated in the harassment campaign. All the hunters in her unit had the scars on their palms.
The hunters in Harriet’s unit bore no such scars.
Joan warily eyed Harriet and her unit. “Right, so some of us recognised what you gave to us and treated you accordingly, but the majority of us didn’t. Therefore, I’d like to make a formal apology from the hunters’ organisation for how you were treated while under our care. You gave us a means for protecting ourselves against being Turned and revolutionised how we see and fight vampires. And we treated you unforgivably.”
Abby wasn’t sure how she felt about this apology.
“My hunters inform me that you’ve improved the aerial dispersion units and that you’ve even created an oral spray. We’d like to buy these improvements off you. Of course, you’d still be able to use them yourself. We don’t want sole ownership—we just want to be able to use your more efficient systems.”
“How much are you willing to pay for them?” Abby asked.
“Generously. I imagine you’ve sunk a lot of money into creating such things, so we’d like to compensate you for that.”
“This is the first I’ve heard of this,” Harriet commented to Joan.
“That’s because we all know you favour her, and the new president thought it best to leave you out of this discussion,” Joan replied bitterly.
“What? So that only those who hate her got to attend?” asked Harriet, looking disgusted. “Oh, I’m sure that was an even and balanced discussion.”
Joan sniffed. “If I’d had a choice in the matter, everyone of my rank would have attended, including you.”
“Do I sense division among the ranks of hunters?” Arthur asked.
“No,” Joan and Harriet retorted together.
Arthur leaned over and whispered—loud enough for the hunters to hear—into Abby’s ear, “Methinks the ladies doth protest too much.”
Harriet and Joan glared at him.
Now wasn’t really the time for Arthur to troll the hunters—Abby tried to steer the conversation back on course. “And will you compensate me for all the harassment I suffered while working for you?”
The little hunter started brushing his right thumb over the scars of his left hand. He was looking at them with a frown on his face.
“It’s only fair,” Joan agreed, sending Harriet a look that said she understood how valuable Abby was. Harriet just crossed her arms, saying nothing.
“Shall I negotiate on your behalf?” Arthur asked, sending Abby a mischievous grin. Before she could respond, he said, “We demand one billion, two hundred and forty-five million, eight hundred and twenty thousand, six hundred and seventy-two dollars and forty-two cents.”
“What are you doing?” Abby whispered.
He snickered. “Think they can remember that number?”
The little hunter repeated it for Arthur.
The new human glared at him. “Again with the ruining of my fun.”
The little hunter smirked.
“That’s a completely unreasonable figure,” Joan said.
“Then what is reasonable?” Arthur demanded. “Because in my books, anything below a billion is unacceptable.”
After several minutes of negotiations, the hunters eventually talked Arthur down to agree to a six-digit figure. “Are you sure that’s enough?” he asked Abby. The look in his eyes dared—asked—almost pleaded—with her to disagree.
“Honestly, that sounds fine.”
“Fine,” Arthur grumbled, sounding disappointed. “We’re happy with that number.”
CHAPTER 31
Abby moved the conversation on. “We’re pretty sure that the queen of this particular den is The Horror.”
Fierce interest sparked in hunters’ eyes.
Arthur explained what she looked like, and the little hunter explained how she’d kept him chained in a cage for months with Scotty and Paddy. “They captured us after we’d been cut off from our unit. Isolated. One of us got picked up by a vampire and two of us went back for him. When we went back, she caught us. It was a trap.”
“Your father never told me, but how long have hunters been searching for her?” Abby asked. “I mean, if she’s the one who turns hunters and leaves them to go rabid.”
His eyes went cold. “About five hundred and fifty years.”
Abby dropped her jaw. “That’s a long time to hunt a vampire.”
“She emigrated from Europe in the 1890s—we think—and those who’d dedicated generations to killing her followed and joined up with the hunters already here. It took us a decade to confirm that she was even here.”
Abby shook her head—it was easy to forget how long the hunters’ history stretched back. And all this time, they’d been working under the radar … generations had suffered at the teeth of The Horror, including at least two in the little hunters’ family.
She touched his arm. “I’m glad I got you out of there, Little Hunter. And that you had the vaccine.”
Abby realised that the hunters were eyeing her with what seemed to be respect.
“Compassion even for your enemies and tormentors,” Arthur said melodramatically. “My poor sweet Abster! Oh, what a life you’ve lived!”
Abby rolled her eyes.
Arthur winked at her. “I’d like to suggest that she liaises with the hunters she rescued,” he told Joan. “It’s clear to me that they’ll work well together.”
“We made a good team last night,” Paddy said.
“We trust her,” added Scotty.
Abby couldn’t believe what she was hearing. The hunters really trusted her?
“All right then, it’s agreed.” Joan glanced at Abby. “I understand you have trust issues with our organisation, and given our history, I can’t blame you for that.” She rubbed the scars over the palm of her left hand as she said this. “But we have a mutual goal of routing out and curing the queen of this den. Will you help us?”
“You can even choose the commanding officer you’d like to work with,” Harriet added. “We’ve got over two hundred units now, which means over two hundred commanders to choose from.”
“I’d like to work with you, Harriet, and your unit,” Abby said. “If that’s okay?”
Harriet and Joan exchanged a look, and then Joan nodded. “If my hunters are happy to work with Harriet?”
“Yes, ma’am,” the little hunter said, and Paddy and Scotty nodded.
Harriet stepped forward. “Now that we’ve settled that, let’s talk about what happens afterwards. Once the queen is human, Abby, you can leave with your sister and brother-in-law. We won’t try to turn you human, because I remember the terms of your contract were that you have two doses of the cure. One for your sister and one for yourself.”
“Given your history,” added Joan, “I believe you’re safe enough to go unwatched and let loose on the populace.”
“Let loose? You make it sound like she’s a dog,” spat Arthur.
Joan shook her head. “She’s a far more sophisticated predator. She’s the most sophisticated species when it comes to hunting. You must realise why we’re wary of vampires—you just need to think about how many animals she provided to feed all these humans. If she hunted humans the way she hunted animals, it would be a different story.”
“I think you’ll find that most of the humans you rescued today hunted humans the way she hunted animals,” snapped Arthur. “Are you going to keep them under observation too?”
“They’re humans now, and not our business,” replied Joan.
“Oh, how wonderful it is that you turn vampires into humans without even supporting their transition,” sneered Arthur.
Joan nodded. “We’ll look into supporting their transition. It’s never been something we had to address before now.”
“Of course you haven’t,” he retorted. “You were always too focused o
n killing and torturi—”
“Enough,” Harriet snapped. “What my colleague here was saying was that she supports my decision to let the vampire scientist go without curing her. For that decision to be confirmed, we need to have two concurring commanding officers.”
“Oh,” Arthur said, sounding deflated. “Well, you could have at least said it nicely.”
A muscle jumped in Joan’s jaw.
“Can we please focus?” Abby said. “How will we cure the queen?”
“These raids always work better when the vampires can’t escape the den,” Harriet replied. “So we’ll have to do it during daylight. We’ve got seven hours left before the sun goes down. If we flood the place with hunters and the gaseous cure, we should be able to work our way down to the lower levels, where the queen lives.”
“You’ve got enough of the cure to do that?” Abby asked, thinking about how she’d used up all of her cures last night.
Joan smirked. “Yes. We’ve done this a number of times before.”
Abby thought fast. “If I stay ahead of the hunters, I might be able to lead you to the queen.”
“I’ll go with my little Abster,” Arthur said.
Abby sent him a mild glare.
“Very well,” Joan nodded. “We’ll get you suited up with protective gear.”
Arthur turned to Abby. “I may have to wear a hunter uniform,” he said apologetically, “but I assure you, I’ll never be like them.”
Abby smiled. “I know. And thank you.”
“Once you’re geared up, we’ll head in. Time is of the essence,” said Harriet.
Could the emaciated hunters survive this next battle? Abby wondered if she needed to offer her blood again. She looked at the dagger on the little hunter’s belt.
He covered his dagger with his hand, and she realised he was watching her.
“You can take off the gas mask, Vampire. We’ve already agreed that we won’t try to cure you. And I’m not about to let you use my blade to open another wound in your arm. Your fangs will do the trick.”
How the hell did he know what she was thinking—again?
“I admire your dedication to stay a vampire until my wife is cured,” Arthur added, “but I’m going to have to agree with the little hunter on this one. No point causing yourself extreme pain just so they are strong enough to fight.”
