Hybrid (Book 2): Hunted

by Stead, Nick

  I stormed through the woods, my rage so powerful that I barely even noticed the hunger from the transformation back to human. It wasn’t long before I found myself stood in front of the cupboard she was using as shelter, and I stood there seething. I wanted to throw the doors open and drag her into the sun’s deadly rays, where she would burn for what she’d done to me. I reached for the door handles, my hands shaking with fury. Then came the voice.

  “Are you really so lost that you would kill the only friend you have left?”

  There was something familiar about that female voice but I couldn’t place it. Out of the corner of my eye I could see a humanoid figure, but when I spun round, my anger now directed at this person who would dare interfere with my vengeance, there was no one there. With another roar I charged back out of the building, now intent on hunting whoever had just interrupted me. The vampire would wait – after all, she was confined to the darkness through the day so it wasn’t like she could escape me.

  I crashed through the woods trying to find the girl, but there was no sight or sound of her anywhere and I could detect no fresh scents, human or otherwise, amidst the woodlands smell of trees and vegetation. Had there been room in my head for rational thought I might have considered the possibility I was hallucinating again, but I was too lost in the rage.

  My hunt took me to the edge of the woodland where a narrow road twisted through the countryside, a capillary connecting the extremities of man’s territory to the main cities that formed the heart of their world. I came to a stop at the treeline, listening intently. If my ears had still been lupine they would have been cocked in the direction of the distant sounds of civilisation carried to me on the wind. I was so tempted to carry on to the freedom that awaited me outside of those woods, away from the vampire and the restraints she insisted on placing on me. The anger pulsing through my veins still screamed for blood, but the blood of the humans I could hear in the distance would just as easily satisfy as the mystery girl I’d been hunting for. I just needed to kill someone.

  “Nick, you’re talking about murder,” came a new voice, shocked and fearful, but one I instantly recognised.

  “Fuck off, Amy,” I growled, turning to face this latest hallucination.

  “Oh well that’s nice when we’ve not seen each other all week, dickhead!” she replied with her usual teenage attitude, but before I could respond she calmed again and sadness crept into her voice. “Why did you leave us, Nick?”

  “Well what else was I supposed to do? Stay and risk you getting hurt whenever I lose control?”

  “You broke my heart, you know,” said another voice, the image of Mum appearing beside my sister, her eyes red from crying.

  “What more do you want from me?” I roared. “I left to protect you all. Do you think I want to be stuck out here in the middle of nowhere, cold and hungry and alone all day, with nothing to do?”

  “You abandoned us, Nick,” Amy said. “You left us in a town taken over by monsters. How can you think we’re any safer without you?”

  The images began to change, my treacherous mind showing me Mum’s corpse, dried and bearing the two fang wounds in her neck that marked it as an unmistakeable vampire kill, while Amy grew paler and her canines lengthened. The thought of either fate befalling my family was too much, the existence as an undead the last thing I wanted for either of them after it had brought me so much misery. It set my rage bubbling up to new heights, fury coursing through my veins and making my blood boil. Or maybe that was just the onset of the transformation again, my eyes turning amber and blazing with such anger that I imagined they looked like flames burning in my skull. I struggled to hold my form, a part of me all too eager to give into the change and run towards the human world I could hear in the distance, but some small part of me knew it would be a mistake to change again so early in the day. I needed my energy for later under the full moon, and even if I ran towards civilisation there was still no guarantee I’d successfully make a kill. Not with the threat the Slayers posed. Plus I still needed to eat after the change back to human that morning, and another transformation before I fed would only weaken me.

  I was still struggling when the hunger chose to make itself heard again as if to reinforce what little rationality was holding me back, and it ravaged my insides with renewed force. It freed me of the hallucinations conjured by my tormented mind, for the time being at least, powerful enough as it always was during the full moon. The hunger wouldn’t wait any longer, and the remaining corpses of the Slayers were beckoning.

  Reluctantly I turned away from the road, back into the gloom of the woods, returning to the scene of the skirmish with the Slayers the previous day. Only one of the decaying bodies was still whole. The man whose skull I’d bashed in remained otherwise untouched, wide, dim eyes staring sightlessly as I crouched over him. With teeth that I allowed to grow into fangs once more, I bit into what should have been the soft flesh of his belly, but still in the grip of rigor mortis the muscles were cold and hard, and far from appetising. I was hungry enough to force down my fill, the anger slowly draining away while I ate, until I felt that emptiness inside me once again.

  In the aftermath of my rage there came another wave of weariness. The long days and nights spent raging and fighting had finally taken their toll, and I gave into the exhaustion, falling into a deep sleep which not even the nightmares could disturb me from. Only with the rise of the full moon did I stir, to answer its call again.

  That night passed much like the previous one, though Lady Sarah didn’t even give me chance to try and fight the moon’s call as she had before. She drove the sword through my leg before the transformation had even had chance to fully complete, pinning me down again before I could run off and find fresh meat. There was still plenty of rotting meat left on the corpses of the Slayers and I was forced to make do, though I hungered for the warm flesh of a fresh kill.

  I changed back the next morning to find the blade piercing my thigh a second time. Overcome with rage again, I spent more long hours chasing phantoms in the woods, until the hunger grew too strong and I was forced to strip the dead of yet more of the decaying flesh still clinging to their bones. But I was unable to sleep for long that afternoon, feeling more restless as the night of the third and final full moon that month approached. The wolf had been denied the thrill of the hunt for two nights running, and I could feel him pacing restlessly inside my skull. Lady Sarah might have found a way to restrain me, but I would be all the more frenzied after the rage she’d already caused which had gone unsatisfied. She would have her work cut out for her if she wanted to keep me from killing a third night running.

  As if she’d read my mind, the vampire appeared beside me that evening with sword in hand. I snarled at her defiantly as I felt the change begin, but my attention turned to the sound of a car on the road that bordered the woods. There hadn’t been many cars passing by while we’d been in the area, but this one was of interest because I could hear it slowing, and then come to a complete stop.

  “I’m sorry Nick, but if you won’t listen to reason there’s not much else I can do,” Lady Sarah was saying.

  “No,” I growled, and stumbled away in the direction of the car I’d heard. When there came the sounds of a car door opening and closing and a human walking towards the treeline, I recognised the person’s presence for the opportunity it presented.

  The vampire stalked after me, watching me closely and waiting for the right moment to tether me in place once more. As I fell to all fours she raised the blade that would form a makeshift restraint for the third night running, but there came the snap of twigs as the human ventured into the woods, and she paused to listen, trying to determine if it was a threat. While she was distracted I struggled back upright and continued to stagger away, driven by my determination to reach the human we could hear at the edge of the woods. Moving was agony as the full moon overhead drove the transformation onwards but I forced myself to keep going, before the vampire had another chance t
o pin me down.

  My femurs were shortening as my limbs changed to become more suited to running on all fours, and I was forced to my hands and knees. Still I pushed myself to keep crawling, until the pain became too much and I lay defeated, waiting for the transformation to finish. The wolf fought for control of our mind in answer to the moon, and reluctantly I surrendered it to him, beaten into submission by the ghostly light of our tormentor.

  The scent of the human male in the woods came to me like a summons and I prowled closer, mouth watering in anticipation of the feast I would soon make of him. Whether he was a Slayer or a civilian didn’t matter: he was a human and they served but one purpose, as prey to my unnatural hunger.

  I crouched between the trees, readying myself for the hunt. Hungry as I was, I wanted to enjoy the thrill of the chase after being denied for the last two nights, but one crazed thought spilled from the human half of my mind with a sense of urgency. The scent of prey had caused me to briefly forget the vampire, and as I became aware of her drawing closer the need to escape took over. The chase I desired would have to wait; this human offered a chance to get away from Lady Sarah, and I couldn’t afford to lose myself in either the hunger or the bloodlust if I was going to take advantage of that.

  It seemed the man wasn’t another Slayer who’d come hunting us after all; he’d stopped on that quiet stretch of road to urinate and merely happened to be caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. He looked around nervously while he went about his business, as if he could sense my presence nearby. But to his eyes there would only have been shadows between the trees, cast by the brightness of the full moon. He couldn’t have guessed what lurked in those shadows, and when seconds later I was upon him it was already too late – his fate was sealed.

  I pounced on the human, knocking him to the ground, and shredded through clothes and skin with my fangs until his blood gushed from mortal wounds. But I didn’t kill him, nor did I begin to feed. The vampire stalked towards me and I rose from the human triumphant, knowing the fresh blood would also be a temptation for her, and one I felt certain she wouldn’t be able to resist. She’d not fed since the first night of the full moon, and her hunger must surely have grown powerful enough to rival my own in that time.

  I didn’t wait to see what Lady Sarah would do, turning and bounding off into the night, in search of more prey. But when the man’s screams came to an abrupt halt, I knew the vampire had given in to her own lust for blood, just as I’d hoped, and that left me free to hunt as I’d been longing to do for the last two nights.

  Once free of the woods, I loped across the road and over a stretch of open fields. Some of those fields were occupied by livestock, the animals going wild with panic as I passed through. But as ever it was human prey I hungered for, and though the terrified sheep and cattle called to my predatory instincts, I fought the urge to slaughter them in favour of the human meat I craved.

  My patience was rewarded when I eventually came upon a large farmhouse, on the grounds of what humans would probably call a petting zoo. There were more livestock in fields like those I’d already crossed, but I also sensed barns full of smaller animals like rabbits and guinea pigs. Yet the house held the most interesting prey and I padded over to it, looking for a way in. It was an old building which had already stood the test of time, still standing as strong as ever in the present. With my supernatural strength I could probably break through the door or a window to get at the fresh meat locked within, but I had another idea. Luring my prey out would be easier and more satisfying for my bloodlust, which was only growing more powerful the longer I went without a kill. So I turned back to the barns where the prey animals cowered, finally giving in to the internal chaos raging in my skull.

  If I’d been rational I would have wanted no part in such slaughter as the human longed for, not when it was such a waste of so much precious life. But the human’s fury was too powerful and the moon’s call too strong, and the bloodlust crashed over me like a tsunami, flooding my mind with the overwhelming need to spill fresh blood. I sent up a crazed howl to the lunar master calling to this madness within me, before throwing myself at the door to the nearest barn. It was padlocked but the humans obviously never really expected any trouble in so sparsely a populated area, as there was little else in the way of security. The wooden door splintered under the force of my body crashing against it, and I was able to rip my way through to the massacre awaiting within.

  The mesh of hutches offered little resistance to my powerful jaws, and I tore my way through cage after cage until each and every one of the little bodies lay in bloody ruins. Next I raided a barn housing several goats and sheep, and a third containing rare breeds of pig, leaving none alive. It wasn’t until I started on the carnage of the donkeys in the fourth building that finally I heard one of the humans coming to investigate, roused from sleep by the animal screams of pain and terror.

  “For fuck’s sake, that fox better not have got into the chickens again,” I heard a man’s voice say. I hadn’t yet touched the nearby chicken coop, but the panic had spread to the birds nevertheless and they added their clucking to the chorus of terrified prey.

  “Don’t go,” came a female voice. “It sounds bad out there; what if it’s not just a fox? Please Jack, just call the police and let’s wait for them.”

  “I’m not waiting for that bunch of incompetent local fools to show up. All the animals will be dead by the time they get here! Whatever’s out there, I’ll take care of it myself.”

  Moments later the man emerged from the safety and comfort of his home. I listened to him approaching, crouched between scattered donkey limbs and entrails, in a pool of blood. I could see the light from a torch sweeping across the grisly scene I had left for him, and I heard him breathe the words “Oh my God.”

  Whatever he’d been expecting to find, it clearly hadn’t prepared him for the evidence of the brutal, savage end I’d brought to his animals. He seemed to be in a state of shock as he stumbled through the bloodbath I’d left him, until finally his torch shone through the wreckage of the door to the barn where I waited, illuminating my bloodied form. I must have looked all the more fearsome for the gore matting my fur, revealing me for the monster my human half had made me.

  The torch was blindingly bright, but I could just make out the man’s form silhouetted in the doorway. It angered me beyond all reason to see he had a gun, stoking the fires of my hate for human hunters, even though he had every right to defend his family from the predator that had attacked them. The man recovered enough from the sight of me to raise his rifle, and I snarled in response, eyes blazing with fury. I could sense his panic as he hurried to squeeze off a shot, the bullet thudding harmlessly into a lump of donkey meat, and then I was on him before he could fire again. But I didn’t kill him immediately, instead ripping off chunks of his flesh and eating him alive. The night rang with his screams, bringing his wife out to investigate as I knew they would. Only when I heard her running towards us did I silence the man forever, the torch he’d dropped acting like a beacon.

  “Jack?” she shouted, her voice high with alarm and the fear digging its claws deeper into her heart, evolving into terror. “Jack!”

  I continued to feed on the earthly remains of the man the woman had called Jack, until his wife drew close enough to see us clearly.

  “No,” she whispered in shock, trying to deny what her own eyes were telling her. But then I rose from the corpse, growling threateningly, and her fear took over once more. Primal instincts kicked in, instincts dulled over the years by mankind distancing themselves from nature, but they were there, deep in the human psyche, and they only had one response to the threat of a predator. She ran, and with an excited howl I gave chase, as I’d been longing to do.

  Where my prey was clumsy and stumbled in the dark, my body might as well have been one with the land, my paws gripping the earth with more surety than any human footwear, my limbs moving with an effortless grace. I felt more alive than I had in month
s, full of energy in the moon’s light, and powered by all the lives I’d taken over the last hour. My prey’s only hope would have been to hide, but I raced ahead of her as she ran for the house and barred the open doorway, forcing her to seek cover elsewhere.

  The woman soon realised there was nowhere for her to hide on the farm, so she fled down the dirt track leading up to it, no doubt praying that if she could just reach the road, there might be help there. I didn’t let her get that far, closing the distance between us and snapping at her heels, bringing her crashing down. She screamed and tried to rise, but I heard a car in the distance and knew I had to end this game, or risk losing the kill.

  Grabbing her ankle in my jaws, I dragged her back towards the barns I’d already turned into slaughterhouses, where I was free to ravage her flesh without being disturbed. Blood welled up as my fangs raked her skin, bloody rivulets becoming gushing streams and spraying fountains, muscle exposed, wet and glistening in the moonlight. Her bones showed through in some of the deeper wounds, and I soon tore my way through to the rich organs that provided the greatest sustenance. She died screaming alongside the carcass of her husband, and surrounded by pieces of the animals that had been her life, before I’d snatched it so cruelly from her in my bloody jaws. If it hadn’t been for the curse and the human in me I would never have killed so many, instead taking only what I needed to survive. With the hunger and the bloodlust satisfied I felt a sense of regret for wasting so many lives unnecessarily, but it was too late to take back the blood I’d spilled. I felt a fresh wave of anger and hatred towards the human part of my mind, and I spent the remainder of the night curled up in the driest of the four barns, wishing I could be free of my own humanity as well as the taint their wretched kind had brought on the land, until finally I drifted off to sleep.