Once Blaze was sure Zee Zee had gone, she approached the building. It was a large, industrial style house and while it looked deserted from the outside, Blaze could tell that the hunnters had been living there for at least a few months. She took a deep breath, it smelt similar to the other hunnter nests she had come across in her lifetime, but the smell of blood was much stronger.
She scowled. Why did hunnters always have to make life so difficult? Blaze didn’t have anything personal against, or she hadn’t until now. But she held the same disdain toward them as the other vampires, for putting their secrets at such great risk.
Hunnters were similar to vampires in many ways, but unlike vamps who fed on blood, hunnters fed on flesh and that involved the death of the victim. Blaze was indifferent to this, she knew that people had to do what they had to do to survive and hunnters were usually pretty good at only attacking criminals and people who wouldn’t be missed. No what annoyed her was that they weren’t very good at cleaning up after themselves and were more liable than vamps to lose control in public. This meant they posed a constant threat of revealing not only themselves, but the rest of the preternatural community.
It was obvious that they had been taking more prey than was necessary and that made Blaze angry. She could smell the blood of at least forty humans and the scent of only seven hunnters. One human could usually feed five hunnters for a week. These hunnters obviously hadn’t been following the rules well.
Blaze stepped forward and considered simply setting the building on fire but she knew she had to find out more information before she did that. Making sure her spell was still in place, she crept forward and until she was standing underneath one of the small, barred windows that were imbedded high in the brick walls. With a small amount of effort, she pushed herself off the ground and jumped until she was holding onto the bars and peered inside.
The window was nearly completely blacked out with dirt but with a whispered spell, Blaze was able to clear an area big enough to see through. The inside of the building was one massive room, and at least half of it was filled with stacked crates. Blaze guessed that it must have been used as storage prier to the hunnters moving in.
The hunnters in question were sitting on a number of mismatched couches that had been arranged in one of the corners. There was seven of them, three adult females, three adult males and a boy who appeared to be about ten. She took another deep breath, telling her that they were all born hunnters, not turned. That made her all the more curious as to the reasoning behind their actions, born hunnters were usually much more careful.
She was also intrigued as to how they were sitting. Hunnters usually lived in small groups and were generally close, but here everyone seemed to be apart, especially the boy. She shook her head, it didn’t really matter and she had to focus on gathering information.
Using the tip of her nail, she scratched a small hole through the glass, allowing her to hear better. The hunnters were nervous, but that was to be expected after what they’d just done.
“They should be here soon.” One of the male hunnters said, fiddling with something hidden beneath his jacket. “They can’t ignore such a blatant attack.” Silence followed the statement and all the hunnters seemed lost in there own nervous thoughts.
After a few minutes one of the women piped asked, “Are you sure we should have done this? We’ll probably all get killed.”
“It’s not like we had a choice Susan. If we want our nest and territory back, then we have to do what Dranden said.” One of the men answered.
“And anyway.” One of the other women said. “Taking on one coven master is much easier than taking on Dranden.”
“We’re just lucky that the old mistress left. We wouldn’t have stood a chance against her.”
“Are you sure she’s gone?” Susan asked.
“I’m sure, last I saw she was following Clo on the other side of the country. Though she wasn’t able to stop me from killing Clo’s parents, so I not sure she’s all she’s cracked up to be.” The hunnter laughed.
Blaze frowned at the comment, it wasn’t her fault that Clo’s parents had died, she hadn’t been aware that they were in danger. But this short snippet of conversation had given her valuable information. She now knew that they were under the orders of someone named Dranden and that they didn’t know she was in the city. It was more than she’d hoped for but it still wasn’t all she needed to know. Figuring now was as good a time as any she felt for the temporary bond she had formed with one of the hunnters and attempted to read their thoughts.
Using a bond like this was usually difficult, especially with someone who hadn’t consented to it, but she found that she was use this bond with surprising ease. Actually, it was almost easier than using her bond with Cole and that had been in place for years. With a small amount of effort she was able to enter the hunnter’s head and read their thoughts.
“I don’t want to do this, I don’t want to do this.” Was all Blaze could hear, as if on constant repeat. She knew instantly that it was the boy’s mind she had bonded with, she also knew that he was one of the hunnter’s that were unable to accept themselves, the one’s who constantly felt guilty for being alive. She felt sorry for him and decided that while she was planning on killing all the others, this boy she would let live. However he wasn’t much use for getting information. Sighing she decided that her best shot would be a direct approach.
Pressing her hand against each bar in turn, she used her pyrokinetic power to melt them all. She then did the same to the glass and jumped through the hole in the wall. Her spell was still in place when she landed so no-one should have seen her, but when she hit the ground she saw the boys head turn in her direction and his eyes widen. Pressing a finger to her lips she motioned him to be quiet and was surprised when he did what she said.
Walking behind the hunnter who seemed to be in charge, she grabbed him by the shoulders and bit into his neck. Blaze usually detested bitting people and hunnter blood was especially disgusting to her, but one of the gifts of her bloodline was to be able to read someone’s thoughts and memories when she bit them and she figured that it would be the easiest way to get the information she needed.
The hunnter struggled under her grip, but it only took a few seconds to get what she needed. They had been hired/blackmailed into attacking the coven by a hunter named Dranden, who had ordered them to draw Cole out and kill him, however they didn’t know why he wanted Cole dead, so that bit of info wasn’t of that much use. Blaze was about to let go when another thought occurred to her.
She made her way deeper into the hunnters memories and found that he was the one who had killed Clo’s parent’s four years earlier and that Dranden was also behind that attack, though Clo was the intended target. She also found out that Dranden had ordered Clo’s death because he thought that she would be a threat to the hunnters.
‘What the…?’ Blaze thought. She had watched Clo for three years and she didn’t seem more dangerous than any other teenage girl. With one last push, Blaze learnt that they hadn’t succeeded in killing Clo yet, as she still had a number of strong protectors, and that she had recently moved to Rewer city.
The last bit of information confused Blaze. The hunnter had brushed off the others fears of Blaze’s presence by saying that she was watching Clo on the other side of the country. But it was obvious that he knew Clo was here and that Blaze had stopped following her. ‘Why did he lie?’ Blaze thought, but shook the question out of her head, it didn’t really mater at the moment.
Letting go of the hunnter, she withdrew her fangs and stepped back, spitting out the blood that was still I her mouth. She had only fed for a few seconds, but it had been more than enough time for the hunnter’s struggling to draw everyone’s attention and have them all worried. All the hunnter’s were on their feet in a circle around the leader, all except for the boy, who was still sitting, watching Blaze with a confused look on his face. She smiled and waved at him before turning her attention back to the other hunnters.
“Are you ok Garteith?” Susan asked, but she didn’t move to see if he was.
Garteith held a hand to his neck, which was still bleeding. “I’m fine.”
“What happened?” The other’s asked.
“I don’t know.” He replied. Which Blaze knew was an outright lie, she had done nothing to conceal what she had done.
Dropping the rest of her spell, Blaze coughed to draw the hunnters attention to her. Everyone except Garteith and the boy gasped and Blaze smiled coldly. “So you guys are the one’s who attacked the coven house.” She said.
“Y…your Blaze.” Susan stuttered, then turned to Garteith . “I thought you said she was gone?” She looked scared and deceived, but Blaze refused to fall for it. She might not have wanted to attack the coven, but she had anyway. And Garteith’s memories had revealed that much of the kills they had made in this city were her doing.
All of the hunnters were guilty of crimes, even the boy. But Blaze couldn’t blame him, he was only a child, who had no choice but to stay with his clan and had no real control over his hunger or powers yet.
Blaze knew she had all the information she was going to get and didn’t see any point in drawing out their deaths. Focusing on Garteith first, she used her mind to throw him across the room and into the opposite wall. She smiled when he fell to a crumpled heap at the bottom, he was still alive, but she knew he wouldn’t be able to move any time soon. The others started to run and Blaze took pity on them, knocking them out with a silent spell.
The only one left was the boy, who was still sitting on one of the couches, he was trying not to look scared, but Blaze saw him flinch when she walked toward him.
“Don’t worry.” She said. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
“Why not?” The boy asked. “I deserve it as much as they do.” There were tears in his voice and Blaze smiled sadly at him.
“You may have done the same stuff as they did, but everyone’s entitled to live, and a doubt you’ve had much of a choice in anything bad you’ve had to do.”
The boy started to cry and Blaze crouched down to talk to him. “What’s your name?” She asked.
“Ceado.”
“Right Ceado, your going to come with me now. Or you’ll burn in the fire.” She offered her hand and he tentatively took it. “Now where going to go and find someone for you to stay with, and I promise you’ll never have to live like this again.”
Slowly Ceado’s crying stopped and he nodded. “Ok.”
She pulled him lightly to his feet and they started walking toward the door. When they reached it, Blaze turned back and with a thought, she set all the crates alight. Ceado tensed at her side and she turned to smile at him. “You’ll be safe now.” And the two of them walked out side.
Blaze stayed to make sure that no-one escaped and Ceado stayed by her side for the entire time. After a few minutes a crowd had gathered and she could hear the sound of fire trucks, but she still didn’t leave. She was too busy worrying about what she was going to do with Ceado. Rescuing him had been a kind of spur of the moment thing and now she had to deal with the consequences. She couldn’t bring him back to the coven, they wouldn’t tolerate a hunnter child, and she knew he wouldn’t be able to live by himself, or with a human, not when his control wasn’t fully developed.
It was then that she felt a semi preternatural presence enter the crowd. She turned and saw a young women standing on the far side of the group, watching the flames with angry satisfaction. Blaze looked at her closely, she was short and had, long brown hair and from the looks of her cloths, was one of the travellers that sometimes visited the city for supplies. Blaze breathed in and caught her scent, she smelled mainly of human but there was the faint smell of shifter, though Blaze couldn’t decipher what kind.
She walked toward the girl without thinking, pulling Ceado along by the hand. When she reached her, she stood in front of the girl and looked at her. She could tell that the girl felt defensive and wasn’t used to the city.
“What do you want?” The girl asked aggressively.
“You’re going to look after this boy.” Blaze said and pushed Ceado into the girls arms, before turning and walking away, back into the crowd. She didn’t know why she had handed Ceado to the girl, but she felt that it was the right thing to do and she had learned to trust her feelings.
She took one last look at the burning building and buildings that surrounded it, before she started to walk away. She had stayed in the city for four years, but now it was time to leave again. She’d go back to the coven house to get Zee Zee and say goodbye to Cole and then she’d leave. It was obvious that this Dranden guy was someone who had to be stopped and now that he had attacked the coven, it was personal.
Well there it is i hope you liked it. Sorry for the long wait ^-^
