The Vampiress and the Hunter

Her dark eyes stared at the rain-drenched window, as her thoughts wandered back to the days before her change. Blood dripped from her lips and she felt a rising surge of disgust at what she had done. Another human life was lost because of her loss of control.
She had only meant to take a little but, once the warm blood had passed her cold lips, the demon within had taken over. The poor man was drained of both is blood and his life.                                                                         Tears ran down her porcelain cheeks, imitating the rain on the windows. She wished that she could go back into the past, somehow and someway, to change everything. To save all the lives she had stolen. To save the life that was stolen from her. Her razor sharp nails scratched the window as her frustration grew. Why couldn’t she control it? Why?
A young man, dressed in a stylish yet foreboding suit of black silently entered the room she was standing in. Instead of reacting to his presence, the girl continues to weep, remorse etched into her flawlessly beautiful face.
The young man looked at her with pity. Then he noticed her pale gown, which was smeared in blood. He sighed, knowing that she was the one he had been sent to kill.
He walked over to her and pushed a small, black handgun onto her back right where her dead heart was. The vampiress remained motionless and he realized that she was willingly going to let him end her life.
As he pulled the trigger, a shadow ran into the young man, knocking him to the ground. The vampiress stared at the shadow, another vampire, who had saved her life.
“You pathetic girl! Get a hold of yourself. I will not let one of my own be killed by a waste of life like this hunter,” the vampire roared, anger dripping from each word that left his mouth.
“But don’t you see how useless it is?” the vampiress cried, desperate to escape the world of bloodlust and night. “We’re nothing but monsters Mikhail!”
“Yes, we are monsters, but we are not useless. We are here to thin out the humans like they thin out deer. You need to stop this nonsense. You are not one of them, so you need to stop acting like it troubles you. They are meals, nothing more.”
“You bastard! You changed me into this beast against my will. And now you expect me to accept this lifestyle. You torture my soul by forcing me to stay alive, for the sole purpose of destructing what I once was! Why can't you just let me die?” She began to scream hysterically while beating on Mikhail with her frail looking fists, which were strong enough to push the larger vampire back quite a few feet.
It was obvious to the hunter that they had had this discussion, or at least one like it before. However, the look on Mikhail’s face said that this was not her usual reaction. Something had changed in the vampiress and it had the vampire worried.
“You need to calm down Victoria. Before someone gets hurt.” As he spoke, Mikhail punched the hunter, who was aiming his gun. The hunter flew across the room, into a wall and dropped to the ground.
“Why should I care? I want to be hurt, and I could care less what happens to you.” Victoria hit Mikhail harder and with more fury. “In fact, maybe I should just kill you. Then, I can finally be free from this nightmare.”
“You don’t have it in you to kill me,” Mikhail said with a shake of his head. “You kill humans only when the demon within needs nourishment in order for survival. You are too weak to kill someone in cold-blood, especially someone…”
Mikhail stopped talking and again hit the hunter, who landed at Victoria’s feet. Victoria bent over and picked up the hunter’s gun in one fluid motion. “Would you bet your life on that foolish notion?” she asked, aiming the deadly weapon at Mikhail.
The sadness and regret in Victoria’s eyes had been replaced by anger and a desire to kill. “Why do you hate me so?” Mikhail asked, fear flickering in his black eyes.
“Because you Sired me. I can…I will never forgive you for that.”
“I do not know where you got that ridiculous idea Victoria, but I assure you; it was not I who created you.”
“You lie,” Victoria hissed. “Who else could it have been, if not you? Sire’s typically stay with their ‘children’, do they not? Teaching them and guiding them in the ways of the beast. You are one of the only vampires I have ever met, and you are the first one I met after my Siring.”
“Yes, love, I have been with you since the beginning, two hundred years now. Tell me, why did it take so long for these suicidal, and now homicidal, feelings to arise?”
“If not you, then who?” Victoria asked, ignoring Mikhail’s question. When Mikhail did not answer, Victoria shot a warning shot above his head, and through the window, letting in both the rain and a cool gust of wind. “Who, Mikhail, who?”
Mikhail wiped sweat from his brow, and offered the unstable vampiress an uneasy smile. “I am not sure, but it may have been Cassandra. Or maybe Johann. You met him, the albino with the hunger for young exotics. I heard that they were both in the area around the time of your Siring.” Mikhail smiled again, this time more comfortable with the situation. “Now, let’s take our leave of this place and search for my dinner. I am quite famished, seeing as I had to hunt for you for the past couple weeks.”
“I think not Mikhail,” Victoria said, her eyes turning silver. They always turned that color before she killed, a sign of the demon within. “Burn in hell, you bastard.”
“Victoria…” Mikhail’s voice was cut off by four gunshots, all directed at his cold, dead heart.
Victoria watched the body of her mentor and tormentor burst into flames without shedding a solitary tear.
“You killed him,” the hunter said in shock, eying the gun in her hands warily. “Why?”
“Because of the horrible things he has done to countless innocents. I wanted to make sure that no one had to ever suffer at his hands again.” She tilted her head slightly, reminding the hunter of a cat. “Do you still have to kill me?”
“Yes. You may have an unheard of hatred of your kind, but you are still one of them and therefore a danger to the human race. If I do not kill you then I will be held accountable for the path of destruction you will create after I let you leave. As a result, the council will kill me. So, I am sorry, but I must exterminate you,” the hunter winced, regretting his choice of words.
“So, you are going to exterminate me, in order to stay alive.” It was a statement, not a question, and the hunter did not reply. “What if I told you that I am an anomaly of my race, and I wish to help you with the elimination of my kind.”
“I…it would make no difference. My job is to kill vampires, and you are one. Different, yes, but you are still a killer.” The hunter indicated the blood on Victoria’s gown.
“Yes, I have a thirst for blood, but I resent it and I chose animals as prey rather than humans as much as I can. I have no stomach for human blood, even if the demon within me does. I am getting stronger, and better at fighting the demon, but I still have accidents. Anyway, none of that matters because I am afraid I cannot yet allow you to kill me. There is one more thing I wish to do. Afterwards, if you still feel the need to kill me, I promise that I will not stop you.”
“How would that even work?” asked the hunter. “How would I find you again? How do I know that you’re not going to disappear once you walk out of here?”
“Because you’re coming with me.” The hunter’s eyes widened. “I am going to need the help of someone who hunts my kind, and knows how to find them.”
“And if I refuse? What if I decide to kill you here and now?” The hunter said this even though he no longer wanted to kill her. She was much too unique, and he felt that she was telling him the truth.
Victoria smiled, showing off her much too white teeth. “You silly hunter. How will you kill me when I’m twice as fast as you are, twice as strong, and when I happen to still be holding your gun? I am not partial to the murder of humans, but I cannot allow you to kill me when I have unfinished business with my Sire, whomever he or she may be.”
“What do want with your Sire?” He did not mention the weapons still hidden on his person. He knew that it would be wise to be prepared in case Victoria decided she didn’t need him. She said she didn’t enjoy killing humans, but years of training had taught him not to trust bloodsuckers.
“I want to know who I was, before I was turned. I can't stand the blackness of my past. I only remember bits and pieces of myself, but I know nothing of my family or friends, if I had any. After my Sire tells me all he or she knows, I am going to kill them, for the hell they have put me through. Do you know what its like to hate yourself for existing?”
“Yeah, I know exactly what its like,” the hunter said in hushed tones. He was thinking about his kid sister, who had to take care of herself sometimes for days at a time while he was out hunting and killing the creatures that had stolen the lives of his parents.
He didn’t hate himself for existing, per say, but more so for what he did. He knew he shouldn’t make Teresa pay for the sins of the soulless creatures, but the thought of others suffering the way he had forced him to continue his futile extermination of the undead.
“So, will you help me?” The job of finding her Sire would be so much easier with the help of a hunter.
The hunter sat quietly for a moment, then nodded. “I suppose if the council doesn’t find out, and vampires are killed, I will assist you. But, I have three rules and one request.”
Victoria nodded, then gestured for him to continue. “The first rule is that you are not, under any circumstances, to feed on any humans. The second rule is that I am in charge. There will be no killing without my say so; this includes both vampires and humans. The last rule is that you are to be in my sight at all times. I will not have you running off to God knows where.”
“Does that rule include bathroom trips?” Victoria asked coyly.
“Vampires don’t need bathroom trips. You know as well as I do that the body stops operating humanly a week after it has been turned.”
“I wasn’t talking about my trips to the bathroom, hunter,” Victoria grinned.
The hunter blushed crimson as he interpreted what that grin meant. “I don’t…we…you…lets cross that bridge when we come to it.”
“If you wish.” Victoria put the gun the ground and helped the hunter to his feet. “Now, I believe that you also had a request.”
“Oh, yes. I am sure that you wish to leave as soon as possible, but I would like to stop at my place and check up on my kid sister. Could we possibly leave in the morning instead? Well, late afternoon actually, so the sun is not as bright.”
“I thought that one of your rules was that you are in charge.”
“Yes, that was one of the rules, but I do not see how that is relevant to…”
“…If you are in charge, you shouldn’t have to ask permission for anything.” She looked down at her bloodied garment. “I, however, am going to ask for your permission to find and change into clothing that will not draw so much attention to me.”
“I’m pretty sure you are the same size as my sister. We can find you something of hers to wear when we get to my house. Unless you have place of your own, then we can go there to get you some clothes.”
“I have been on the run, for a while now. I haven’t been in one place long enough to secure a place to stay. I could steal something from the store where I got this dress though.”
“No stealing!”
Victoria gave him a sulky look. “As you wish, hunter. Your sister’s clothing will have to do.”
The hunter grinned. “I’m glad you see it my way.” He walked to the door, opened it, and gestured outside with a wave of his arm. “After you.”
Victoria looked out into the night, where the rain had turned into a light mist. The smell of spring hung in the air and the promise of an adventure beckoned her forward. It seemed that she had finally found a reason to live, even if for only a short while.