Hunter Gene

“Hunter Gene”

A young woman struggles with the choices that have led her to take up her destined calling: Hunting. Part witch and part werewolf, she preferred to portray herself as a normal human. As fate would have it, she would activate her hunter’s genes.

***

Some say vampires are beautiful. Others see them as merely grotesque. Some say they are both. I know they are both. I have seen them as the beautiful creatures of the night in all their power and I have seen them as the disgusting, decrepit monsters that lurk beneath.

Most people are now aware that we co-exist with vampires.

Some, of course, refuse to believe it.

Others, those that have had encounters with them; they’ve accepted this co-existence, but they try to steer clear.

Then there are those that are “interested”, if you know what I mean.

And then there’s me.

I guess you can say that I am a different type of breed altogether.

***

She watched him from the shadows.

He went about his nightly business, unaware of her presence. He watched as unsuspecting humans walked by. Watched. Waited. Looked for his next target.

Sometimes he liked to play a game and choose the most unlikely person. Sometimes he went for the most challenging.

Most often, he just snatched the easiest victim and would delightedly drink their warm delicious blood in haste. Then he’d quickly disappear in the night. Taking flight above the city and dropping the fresh corpse over the nearest body of water.

It had worked for him so far.

Why change a good thing?

He was bored tonight. None of these people looked tasty.

He watched some teen girls too long, and the area had mostly cleared out.

Just as he was about to snatch a young girl who had wandered away from her friends, a bunch of birds flew down between him and the girl. The girl screamed. Anyone in the vicinity looked over.

He had no choice but to disappear.

She watched the scene unfold.

Her, the most unlikely hunter.

She had arranged a bit of cloaking spell.

This was the highest paying job listed in the special skills section. Odd jobs that pay well. Jobs that require many skillsets, but most importantly, the special skill in seeking out the job itself.

She found her way to it.

It was almost written just for her.

He was her new mark.

She didn’t have any other choice.

She had reached the crossroads and didn’t know which way to go.

After a series of impossible choices, she had found herself here, again. Here at this stupid crossroads again and again. She always made the same choice. Well seemingly the same choice. She always chose the “right” path. She followed all the arrows down the designated “right” path and somehow, she’d always wound up here. Here with the impossible choices. Only this time it was labeled different. Or maybe this is the way it had always been and maybe she just remembered it wrong.

She liked to tell herself that. At first it comforted her mind. Other times, it helped her to see the way here, much clearer. All to get to this point.

A point which she mostly dreaded.

This is the point where it all began to change.

And what had changed all that?

Well, she had.

By taking all the “right” turns and finding herself here, she had found a hidden way. So, the once dreaded moment; now it was something to look forward to.

Let me tell you: you can change destiny.

***

There must be another way.

I looked down at my scribbled notes and saw only lots of impossible choices. How?

What?

Wait, WTF?!

How had I even wound up here?

I did all the right things. I made all the appointed choices.

Picture Perfect American Sweetheart cast as the villain.

That’s when I knew something was wrong. Somehow, I was on the wrong path. How was I the villain in this twisted horror story?

I wasn’t.

And when I had a chance to prove my innocence, I did.

But that’s not why I did it.

No, that reason is far far more complicated. More important even. Clearing my name was a valid reason, but the other part. That part is what made it worth it.

Impossible choices.

No other way out.

Decisions at the crossroads.

“Here goes nothing”, I said aloud.

I picked up my things at the crossroads. I paused before I stepped forward. Then, I went in an alternate direction. I won’t tell you where I’m headed or why I picked this direction, but I will detail my journey.

It was here that I met her.

It was here that I became the person I was meant to be. It was here that set fate on a different trajectory.

I had no choice, I had to alter my destiny.

In doing so. I would alter all others.

Enter: the witch.

I’ll tell you more about it later.

Someone has been watching me.

***

She had a way with words.

She moved them as if her hands so gently moved through water. Like a dance. A beautiful way that only she could bring the words to life. Give them meaning. Give them a reason to exist as they did.

***

The other side of the crossroads was paved and had a particular path about it.

Being on this side of the crossroads, where she had never traveled before, well there was no obvious path. It was very much beautiful, but there were no roads or walkways. There was no place to begin.

She cautiously looked around her, to make sure she had not been followed.

Then quickly she reached into her leather vest to pull out the antique compass. This had also been a difficult decision, to bring this item along. It was said to be cursed. Wherever it led its master, was sure to be somewhere they never dreamed of going. It was a gift in the family, but no one gifted it ever dared touch it.

Now, it was hers.

She had heard the stories. She knew the costs.

She knew it was risky to trust it down to the metaphorical math she’d mentally done. She also knew that if she was right; then this was every bit as much, also a “gift”.

The sun was getting lower on the horizon.

It would soon be dark.

She took out the compass and let itself point her in the direction she needed to go. It pointed straight ahead; in the direction she was already facing.

“I guess It’s this way”, she said aloud.

At this moment, she realized she was not alone. No, not at all. There was a man standing in front of her on what now appeared to be a path.

“Hello Miss”, he greeted her with a cold but charming smile.

“Hello, " she said simply, remembering there were rules in foreign lands. Especially when magic and the crossroads are involved.

“You were to meet a witch”, he said next, “but I am here instead.”

For the first time since deciding on this path, she felt maybe there was something she had not yet considered. The man inspired a feeling of fear, but somehow, she was not afraid. She knew he was feared, or wanted her to feel afraid of him, but she wasn’t. Instead, she knew this was the moment she needed to make her move.

He thought she was to meet a witch. That was kind of true. She had already met a witch, and so had he. He was sent to her, though he didn’t know it. And she was sent to kill him.

Why?

Well, because he was a vampire.

Not just any vampire. He was the vampire that had broken all the rules. Both the human and the vampire ones.

He had disrupted the entire order.

They all wanted him dead.

Humans that knew the truth.

Other vampires.

The mythical Council of Magic.

All the realms as she knew it wanted this particular vampire dead.

So, she took the job.

It had to be her.

And to alter her own course, it had to be this choice.

She stood before him, before anything else was said, thinking about the day she’d signed the contract.

She remembered the events leading up to the meeting. She remembered the day’s events in the creepy way they’d woven themselves together. She remembered signing the contract in a shade of red that reminded her of blood. She remembered the words it had said.

This moment came to her quicker than she’d expected. And it would all be over soon.

***

It was a slightly chilly night at the beginning of the autumn season. The trees had mostly turned their beautiful trio of colors. There were fall leaves all over the ground.

That was when she decided to use her gift.

No one else would be harmed by a supernatural, off their rocker vampire, ever again. Not this one anyways.

She had taken the deal, and this was the moment she first clocked him.

He didn’t know she was there. He couldn’t sense her the way he could sense prey. He did not sense her energy or a scent of any kind. Yet there he was, in plain view. She made several mental notes.

She watched him for a few more moments before she walked away.

She saw all that she needed to.

And he didn’t even know of her existence.

He was a marked man and after crossing her path, he was a Deadman walking.

***

After she made her choice, she went to the place where she would talk to the witch.

She told her story. Told of her plan. Told of what she was requesting for this to work. Then she requested her items be made available for travel.

The witch gave her the items.

She knew this was the moment that everything, everyone on her journey had led her to.

It was time to read the “recipe”.

The one that activated the compass.

As long as the compass was active, she held the strength of a vampire army and she was protected from all supernatural beings. It only protected the reader of the recipe and beholder of the compass.

Then there was the bit that she dreaded.

It would activate the “curse”. It would activate the gene that made her a natural hunter. It would activate her werewolf gene.

***

The vampire was charming, as most vampires are.

They use the power of mind control, or glimmer magic, or compulsion. It’s basically the same thing, but in fact, the origins of the different types of mind control vary; therefore, the amount of power or the hold it takes, also varies.

Having the bloodline of both witch and werewolf, in essence, made her a natural hunter. A calling she’d avoided most of her life, all while still trying to follow the path set out for her. How ironic, it was like either way she would have ended up here.

Here with him.

Smiling under the full moon light, thinking she was his next prey.

He reached his hand out towards hers.

Suddenly there was music playing overhead.

He licked his lips as he saw her take a step towards him.

She wore the compass on a long chain under her black cloak.

The words repeated in her head:

“Thunder and lightning,

Magical potion,

Blood of a hunter,

Curse is in motion

Heart of a witch,

Destined devotion,

Power of gods,

Entire oceans”

The rest of the verses were specific to the recipe that protected her only. She silently saw the words dance around her in gold.

She walked towards him.

He closed his eyes, anticipating the first drop of blood.

She gently placed her hand in his.

She let him pull her close and as he did, she released the witch’s dagger straight into his vampire heart.

He fell quickly to the ground.

She left the dagger and walked away as the fire ignited, leaving him as a dusty pile of ash. Her eyes changed color and lit up an ember light.

She howled as the moon stood full above her.