The Beast Within

by S. C. Stephens

  Suddenly, Halina snarled and took off to a back corner of the room. I had to squeeze under a fallen beam to follow her, but once I did, I understood her reaction. Beside a half-fallen wall of stone was a pile of freshly upturned earth; even with a floor covered in litter, the disturbance stood out amongst the hard-packed dirt. My heart thudded in my chest. A grave meant Hunter had at least attempted to hide himself from the sun.

  The two of us immediately reached into the soil, elbow deep, desperate to find a body. “Hunter?” I called as I scooped out the pungent earth. He didn’t answer me, and no bulk the size of a person blocked the path of my fingers. Halina cursed as she dug through the ground. We were both on the verge of losing it.

  When we had dislodged a hole large enough to hide three Hunters, it was clear that our search was a futile one. I grabbed my grandmother’s arm to stop her frenzied search. “He’s not here, Grandma.”

  She clenched a clump of dirt in her hand, turning it to silt. “Then where is he?” she muttered, looking up at the moonless sky above us.

  I swallowed the painful worry crawling up my throat. That was exactly what I wanted to know.

  AS I STOOD at the top of the stairs, hazy, indirect sunlight scorched me like I was only a few inches from the sun. Every muscle in my body hurt. No, it went deeper than the muscle. It felt like tiny shards of glass had been imbedded into my bones over every square inch of my body, and each movement I made ground the glass deeper. I wanted to lie still, I wanted to rest, but Nika wasn’t safe yet.

  The hunters clearly weren’t expecting me to leave my sanctuary. I’d been classified a non-threat, dulled into submission by the sunlight. Stupid assumption. The door to the cellar opened into a hallway that was just dark enough for me to step into it. A hunter had his back to me, his long arms outstretched toward the front door Nika was escaping through. My body screamed with pain, but I contained the agony as long as I could.

  Grabbing the hunter, I slammed him into the wall; the plaster cracked around his body with the force. The gun stopped going off, and, hazy-eyed, the man retrained his weapon on me. I recognized him at once. Collin. We’d done a job together a couple of summers ago. His eyes widened as he took in the sight of me, fangs exposed, ready to strike. His finger squeezed the trigger, but it didn’t matter, I had already dodged. Letting out the growling cry of pain I could no longer contain, I lunged forward and snapped his neck. Guilt mixed with my pain, but what choice did I have?

  He slumped to the ground with sickening finality. Others in the home shouted his name, but stopped when he didn’t respond. I heard the whoosh of flames roaring to life as the sting of gasoline overwhelmed my senses. I risked a glance at the door, to see if Julian and Nika had made it, but the sunlight in that direction was too bright. It seared holes into my brain and obliterated my vision. Through the excruciating agony of my bones feeling like they were turning to ash inside of me, I could feel the heat of the flames upon my chilly skin. Time was running out.

  Still blinded by the sunlight, I hastily stepped back into the relative safety of the cellar. I slammed the door shut, but hazy light still shone through the hole where Julian had busted the doorknob. Raw with pain, I stumbled backward and fell down the stairs. It hurt, but I was already so far gone with agony that adding more didn’t bother me. When I hit the hard dirt floor, I still couldn’t see; it was like my eyes had been burned away. I wanted to curl into the fetal position and scream for hours, but I didn’t have time. The home above me was hissing and crackling with hungry flames. As soon as they ate a hole through the walls, I would be fully exposed to the sun. That pain would make my current torture feel like I was back at the ranch, soothing my worries in the family hot tub. At the moment, nothing sounded more wonderful than returning to the ranch, returning home.

  Running to a corner of the room that I thought might survive the destructive blaze without too much debris falling on top of it, I shoved my fingers into the ground and started digging. The dirt was so hard it was almost clay. My fingertips were sore and bleeding in no time at all. I healed instantly, but it didn’t take long for new injuries to appear, as I continually tore open my skin. Blind, scared, and roiling with pain, I used every supernatural gift I had to open the earth as quickly as possible. I needed Mother Nature’s embrace, now more than ever.

  When there was a deep enough space that no light would touch me, I crawled inside. Using my hands, I covered the hole as well as I could, then I rolled and burrowed deeper into the earth to completely hide myself. It was difficult in this type of unforgiving soil, and I found myself continually working my way lower and lower, digging, squirming, adjusting. I just wanted away from the sun, away from the pain. It was all I could think about. I squeezed my useless eyes shut tight as I inched my way to safety. Please, let the dirt hide me. Let Nika be safe. Let this pain go away. Please.

  I wasn’t sure when I stopped digging and let sleep overtake me, but when I finally reopened my eyes, they no longer hurt. The soft, glowing light that emanated from them showed me clumps of soil, rocks, the underside of roots. My chest was too heavy to make the movement, but mentally, I let out an exhale of relief. My vision was restored. A definite plus to vampirism was the ability to heal instantly. Although, the effects of the sun had taken a while. The memory of that pain was still with me as I stretched tight limbs as much as I could under the crushing confines of the thick soil.

  The natural alarm clock in my body told me that the sun had set, that it was safe for me to reemerge. I was lying on my side, arms still stretched into the earth, trying to dig deeper. I pulled them through the muck back to my chest. Reaching up, I began to push against the wall of soil above me. Freeing myself was easier than burying myself, but the dirt was still uncooperative and difficult to work through. Using my legs as well as my arms, I eventually broke through the surface.

  The air was warmer to me than the harsh ground I’d been sleeping in, but it was colder than the basement had been before the fire. As my head emerged from the ground, the clumps of dirt covering me gave way much easier. Sitting up in my hole, I took in the destruction around me. Where a solid wooden floor once was, I could see stars piercing the night sky. Ruined remnants of the old man’s life were strewn around me—tarnished metal frames, bubbled, misshapen plastic jugs, loose sheets of paper that had shriveled into fragile, black roses. The cots Nika and I had slept on were buried under rubble, the backpack with Gabriel’s shot inside it was smashed, my jacket burned and in tatters, my sister’s box in the pocket most likely destroyed. Charred logs above me rested against each other at perilous angles. One shift in the wrong direction would bring the rest of the cabin’s skeleton crashing to the ground. Guilt tore at my soul. Without meaning to, I had inadvertently led my father here and destroyed this innocent man’s life.

  Forcefully tearing my body the rest of the way from the dirt, I crouched in the darkness. It was quiet, only the peaceful serenade of the night’s smallest creatures met my ear. I brushed off as much of the filth from me as I could while I waited for an attack that I was positive was coming. Surely those hunters wouldn’t leave my death to chance. They would want to see my end with their own eyes, so they could report back to my father that they’d been successful. Then what would he do? Go after my maker? Go after Nika, and the rest of her family? Yes. That was what I would have done, once upon a time.

  I wouldn’t let him hurt my nest. My family. So long as my undead heart still had life in it, I would use it to protect them. They were all that mattered now.

  Staring at the moonless sky above me, I determined my best path to exit this hell. As I lightly placed my weight on a fallen log, I vowed to make it up to the old man who’d had his home torched. When I found him, I’d find out what he wanted most in the world, and make it happen. This gift of compulsion was good for so much more than subduing prey and covering up our existence.

  When I finally squeezed my way free of the wreckage and placed my foot on solid ground, I immediately looked around f
or Nika. I still didn’t hear anything out of the ordinary as I stood crouched low before the cabin’s charred corpse. No odd movement, no unexplainable sound, no errant heartbeats. Nothing. I didn’t want to risk calling her name, though. And besides, if she wasn’t here waiting for me, then she must be safe at home. She had to be; the alternative wasn’t something I cared to think about.

  Feeling anxious about her absence, I turned and prepared myself to run. That was when my sharp ears caught a familiar twang of a bow releasing its missile. Not knowing exactly where the arrow would strike, I froze in place. When I sensed it passing through the air in front of me, I quickly stepped back. It lodged into the ground at my feet; its shaft gleamed bright silver in the starlight.

  My head snapped in the direction of the arrow’s trajectory. I still couldn’t hear anything unusual, but I knew someone was out there. I waited for the telltale sound of another arrow loosing into the night, but it didn’t come. “Show yourself!”

  Just when I thought I should run while I still could, a low voice drifted across the breeze. “Hello, son.”

  A shuffling sound followed the voice, and a thump, like a body dropping to the Earth. Every part of me tensed at hearing my father’s voice. It was the first time I’d heard it with my enhanced ears. Dad had fled from me soon after I’d awoken from my conversion. He’d abandoned me without even giving me a chance.

  I straightened as I heard his footsteps approaching. Now that I was listening for it, I could sense his slow and steady heartbeat. I’d been listening for an anxious heart, fast and pulsing. He was so calm that I’d missed him. Foolish mistake.

  The groupings of trees surrounding the cabin were widely spaced, with plenty of room between each trunk. I easily spotted my father’s lean form as he casually walked my way at an unhurried pace. His crossbow was still in hand, but was dangling at his side. His other hand looked free of weapons. He acted like I wasn’t a threat to him. As if he could lift his weapon and end me at any moment. As if I couldn’t blur over to him and rip out his throat in the span of one, slow heartbeat.

  It took him a couple of minutes to fully emerge from the trees. When he did, I nodded my head at him. “Dad,” I stated, my tone businesslike. Seeing that he wasn’t wearing any form of mind control protection surprised me. Was he testing me? Or did he believe I was so weak and pathetic, I wouldn’t fight him. He should know better than that. I’d eliminated his assassins after all. I could end this madness with just a few words, right now. But seeing him after all this time…the memories of who he used to be to me overwhelmed me, sapped my desire for revenge. He was my father. My last remaining true blood family. That wasn’t something I could erase on a whim, no matter how much I’d wanted to for the last few months. I needed answers more than I needed vengeance.

  “You tracked me here? Sent hunters after me?” I asked, knowing full well what the answer was. My throat was tight as the pain of his betrayal stabbed me yet again.

  Dad sighed and ran a hand through his hair as he stepped without fear right in front of me. His hair seemed even grayer than before; somehow it seemed fitting that a vampire hunter had silver streaks in his hair. “It was my duty to make sure you were dealt with. My only regret is that it’s taken me this long to be man enough to do it myself. I should have staked you before you could complete the change.” His voice was more gravelly than I remembered it, like stones were grinding together in his throat. “Do you remember what I used to tell you?” he asked.

  I eyed him warily, waiting for some sign of attack. “You told me a lot of things. Some true. Some not true.”

  He’d been avoiding my hypnotic gaze, but at my words, his vision snapped to mine. “I never lied to you.” He seemed caught by my gaze, but after a second, he managed to turn away. Quite a feat, since most humans couldn’t look away once a vampire had them ensnared.

  “You might not have lied, but some things you told me were still untrue.” A smile graced my lips as I thought of all the things Nika and her family had taught me, about who I was and who I could be. Their words were truth.

  Dad exhaled a weary sigh. “I didn’t come here to argue with you.”

  A flare of anger ran up my spine. “Why are you here? To burn an innocent man’s home to the ground?” I indicated the destruction behind me. Destruction created on his behalf, if not his hand.

  Dad frowned as he glanced at the charred wood. “That wasn’t my call. But you know how it is, Hunter. Whatever it takes to get the job done.”

  I clenched my jaw as my hands curled into fists. “We’ll just have to disagree on that. Between this and cutting up that young girl as bait…what’s been done in the name of the greater good has been far more evil than the evil it was meant to end. You can make all the justifications you want, but deep inside you have to know I’m right.”

  My father closed his eyes. I knew he wasn’t a completely cold-hearted man. Like me, he was torn. I could see the conflict so clearly in his worn features. Abruptly, he glared at my chin, still avoiding my eyes. “And you’re so much better than me? Killing our compatriots? Our friends?”

  His heartbeat increased, just fractionally. His cool was fading. Mine was, too, I just didn’t have a pulse to give it away. “Friends? None of them were true friends to our family. And I only killed when I had no other choice. Most of them walked away to continue their lives in peace.” I shook my head in sorrow as I remembered my days as a human, killing countless vampires that I had known nothing about. How many of those had been innocent? Probably most of them. “That’s a mercy we never allowed our victims. How were we any different than what we thought they were?”

  Dad raised his bow to my chest, but didn’t fire. Heat was in his eyes now. “Victims? Don’t pretend that what you are is anything but a monstrosity.” His eyes misted as passion filled his voice. “Don’t pretend you’re still the boy I once knew. That boy died, and I did something so disgraceful to his corpse that I’ll never forgive myself for it. But I’m here to fix that, because, like I told you, we clean up our own messes.” The bow lowered a fraction. I could easily knock it from his hand, could easily command him to give it to me, but still, I hesitated. “I’ve been trying to avoid dealing with you, since the memory of who you once were makes this…so hard.” He completely lowered the bow as he almost looked into my eyes. “Please forgive me for what I did to you, Hunter. I can’t imagine how awful the last few months have been.” Such sadness overcame him then, that I couldn’t help but forgive him for everything. For turning me, for hunting me. What would I have done if it were my son?

  I lifted my hands in a peaceful gesture. “Dad…this can end right here. We can be a family, if you just let me in. I’m happy. I don’t kill, and I won’t ever kill. I’ve learned to control it. I’m not a monster. I’m still me. I’m still your son. Nothing has changed.”

  Dad looked up at me, a small smile on his lips. “Everything has changed. You died. You just don’t know it yet.” With that, he raised the bow…and fired it.

  He was so close to me that I only had a fraction of a second to react. I had just enough time to move my chest so that the arrow didn’t pierce my heart. It still torn through my skin though. The cursed metal made it feel like my insides were spontaneously combusting. It hurt so much, all I could do was cry out in pain as I dropped to my knees.

  Dad stood over me, face forlorn, a stake now replacing the bow in his hand. “I’m sorry. You understand, this isn’t what I want, but it has to be. You must be set free.”

  I struggled to form the words that would command him to stop. I struggled to touch the shaft protruding from my chest. It was like touching acid, though; I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t do anything but cry out in agony. Nika, I’m so sorry I failed you. As the words reverberated through my mind, my father whispered, “I should have cleaned and gutted that nest long ago, but it’s happening now. I’ll set all of them free, son. Have no fear about that.”

  My hazy brain couldn’t entirely comprehend what that meant. G
utted? Set them free? Happening now? Nika… Halina…

  My father’s arm came down, his stake poised for the death blow. Through the pain, I found a well of determination. I wouldn’t let him harm them. In one powerful move of desperation, I lunged at my father. I knocked him to his back and jostled the stake out of his hands, but he wasn’t out of commission, not by a long shot. Reaching up, he grabbed the arrow in my chest and twisted it. Fresh pain burst through my body, and I did the only thing I could think to do. I forced every muscle to move…and I ran.

  I would run all the way home with this arrow in my chest if I had to.

  I LOOKED AROUND the destroyed basement for some sign that Hunter was okay. What I saw didn’t fill me with hope. There were no other patches of churned earth, and the rest of the hard floor was untouched, aside from the rubble on top of it. Across the room were the crushed cots where we’d consummated our relationship. Memories of sharing myself with him pounded through my mind. His cool breath in my ear, the goosebumps across my skin as his hand traveled up my side. The brief sting of pain as he took my virginity. The wash of pleasure as we finished together. Was that moment of connection the only one I’d get with him? It seemed monumentally unfair, but I supposed life was unfair, and this wouldn’t be the first time in history a young life had ended all too soon.

  As my eyes started to water, I noticed something next to the tangled cots. Hunter’s torn and tattered jacket was nearby, but that wasn’t what got my attention. It was a scrap of material buried under a section of the basement’s roof. The shiny black material looked like the shoulder strap of a backpack. Hunter’s backpack.

  I pointed toward the cots, and Halina directed her gaze that way. With more of her light to help me define the item, I could see that I was right—it was his backpack stuck under the rubble. Hope lifted in me. If he’d left the cabin, or had been removed from it, and he hadn’t taken his bag with him, then he’d be traceable as soon as Gabriel’s shot wore off. We could find him.