Knight of the Hunted (NSFW Edition) (Born Vampire Book 1)

by Elizabeth Dunlap

  “No.” He liked single word responses.

  “Maybe we should all go to town before you leave,” I continued. “Do you like movies?”

  “Not really,” he responded.

  I went back to eating my food in silence since my table mates were doing the same. After a long period of quiet, Arthur said, “You’re awfully chatty, Lisbeth.”

  I shrugged. “Am I not allowed to talk to people?” Goddd. He was going to smell this lie on me like perfume. I sucked at everything.

  Instead of answering, he got up and took his dishes to the sink. Olivier waited until he had left the room before she relaxed. She gave me a pursed look.

  “Stop sitting like that. You look uncomfortable.” I slacked my spine a bit. “And stop talking to him. It won’t go well.” She picked at her salad. “He told me you tried flirting with him.”

  “What? I did not. That is outlandish, how dare you!”

  “You use big words when you’re flustered.”

  “You suck, I’m leaving.” I stood up and left the cafeteria as fast as I could. After that, it took effort, but I managed to maintain a normal attitude and continued with the turned training for the next few days. Arthur was never far away. I dreaded when he would show up, seemingly out of nowhere, and then watch me for hours. My only consolation was when I saw him doing the same thing to a few other Born vampires. Sickeningly, the small group of female vampires he was cornering all had the same hair color. My hair color. I looked down at my thick black curls and knew.

  It was as I feared. Arthur was here for me.

  The thought was relaxing and terrifying all at the same time. On the one hand, I knew all along that he was here for me. It also dashed my hopes that I was wrong.

  Olivier had never told me what happened to lawbreaking vampires when the Hunters caught them. She only said it wasn’t pleasant. I assumed it was decapitation or something similar. No trial before the heads of the Orders. Who cared if they were falsely accused or were in the wrong place at the wrong time? I could tell Arthur killed and asked questions never.

  I stood in the shadow of the castle, thinking of what my next move would be when Olivier drove up in her convertible.

  “Get in, loser. We’re going shopping.”

  I jumped in and we sped away. Olivier drove to the nearby town and kept going past the city limits.

  “Arthur was sent here to find you,” she said finally. Of course she knew. I hadn’t even tried to fool her, as if I could. “I’ve known for days.”

  “He recruited you to help him.” Sigh. Such an underhanded move from such a sexy guy.

  “Gods help me, I had no choice, Lisbeth. The heads of the Order commanded it. He told me someone had spared a Lycan that crossed the borders, and he was sent to find out who it was. We’ve been drinking extra blood and interrogating dozens of humans in the town. We eventually found what we needed. The humans that were there that day remembered you. Black curls. Purple eyes.” I shut my eyes and curled my fingers around the bracelet, still strapped to my leg. “Why, Lisbeth?” she demanded, slamming her hand on the steering wheel in frustration. “Fuck. Why would you break the law?”

  I opened my eyes and stared at the road in front of us. “He was a child, Olivier. If there’s only one rule I can live by in my long life, it’s protecting the life of a child.”

  “Shit.” She smashed both palms down on the steering wheel and looked away in frustration. “You’ve risked everything. Everything.”

  Reality slipped into me, like a cold icicle down my throat. Everything with Arthur had distracted me from the real danger, and now I couldn’t avoid it any longer. “I know.”

  “I can’t protect you,” she said. I could hear tears in her voice.

  “I know,” I repeated. I wanted to apologize, but that would mean I regretted it. And I didn’t.

  She casually ran a hand across her face. “Backseat,” she said. I unbuckled myself and leaned over the backseat. There was a huge duffel bag in the floorboard. The duffel bag she’d brought with her when she came to our Order, an ex-Hunter with no sense of our way of life. I sat back down with it in my lap.

  “We going camping?” I asked, half confused. She abruptly pulled the car over into a little roadside park and stopped.

  “You have a choice. Right now. You run. You run like there’s a forest fire licking your ankle. And you never look back. You never stop running.”

  That sounded exhausting. “Or?”

  “I take you back to the Order. And you face Arthur’s justice.”

  We sat there as I weighed both options. I realized that while I didn’t regret what I’d done, I didn’t want to die. I really didn’t. When I’d saved the child, I thought no one would ever know. And now I would be paying for it with my life.

  “I’ll run,” I told her.

  Six

  Olivier left me at the roadside park with very few parting words. Don’t tell her my plans, and follow the list in the duffel bag. She had to get back to the castle and pretend she hadn’t just helped me escape. Fooling Arthur seemed to be part of her skillsets. I wasn’t worried.

  Alone and miles away from the nearest town, I took the list out and started walking down the highway.

  Olivier’s list of survival

  1. Get a car.

  Seemed simple enough.

  2. Pick something in-between what you’d pick for yourself and what you’d never drive.

  So something between ‘car’ and ‘Hummer.’ Got it.

  3. There are sneakers in the bag.

  Thank god. I took my heels off and replaced them with the sneakers. Much better. Running for my life wouldn’t be much fun in heels.

  4. Stop reading the list and follow number 1.

  I rolled my eyes and stuck the list into my pocket.

  It was survival time. I had to rearrange my way of thinking. Whatever the Hunters and Arthur thought I was going to do, I would have to do the opposite. Or was that completely wrong and stupid? Would they expect that of me? Don’t overthink it.

  They probably expected me to steal a car and then leave a trail of stolen cars for them to follow. A trail was not a good idea. After an hour of walking on back roads, I reached a town. I rummaged through the duffle bag and found a plastic baggie with a large amount of cash in it, enough to buy a car. Or maybe two cars.

  After asking around, I found a used car place that looked semi-shady, one that wouldn’t ask questions or require paperwork, and would keep their mouths shut with the proper encouragement. I bought something tiny, expensive, and probably extremely gas efficient. Definitely not me at all. The dealer charged me double and I didn’t break his arm for it, even though I was sorely tempted to. The money baggie was still semi full when I left in my tiny car.

  The day was far from over and I was already exhausted. My feet had blisters from walking so far. I could feel Cameron’s blood working on them, leaving me hungry and cranky. I’d only need a sip or two and it would be fixed. The duffle bag didn’t have clothing in it, meaning I had to purchase all of that myself.

  I drove another hour and then raided a hippy clothing store where the clerk looked so out of it, I bet she didn’t even remember what I looked like. I changed in my car and turned the Alpha’s bracelet over and over in my hands. A simple act had started all this. But no matter what, I refused to feel regret. The bracelet was made for a large arm and I wrapped it around my wrist a few times until it wouldn’t fall off. Once I was a few hours away from the Order, I pulled over and looked at everything in the duffle bag. Besides the money baggie, there was a large container of unmarked lotion, which was addressed in the list.

  5. Use this so you’ll look more human.

  The lotion, as I found out, would tint my white skin so I would appear human. I applied it liberally all over my body. Goodbye, pale skin. Hello, tan.

  6. Dye your hair.

  Fuck. I didn’t want to dye my hair. Call it pride, but I loved my black curls. They were part of me. Who would I be wi
thout them?

  7. No buts.

  Damn you, Olivier! The list had a few tips on other things I’d need to survive, and ended with one line.

  18. I believe in you.

  With a smidge more confidence than I had before, I drove for another hour before going to a beauty parlor. I was already in another state by now, and my route wasn’t a straight line, so I felt safe that I’d lost Arthur for now. The beautician gave me a trim before chemically straightening my hair and dying it dark brown.

  Dressed in earthy, beachy tree hugger clothing with no makeup and my beautiful curls straightened and dyed brown, and my skin a golden orange. The face I saw in the mirror every day was gone. I felt ugly and plain. My reflection in the beauty parlor mirror was a stranger. Would I lose myself in all of this? Would running away erase all I’d become in 400 years? I couldn’t think about that right now.

  Numbly, I left the beauty parlor and bought a pair of sunglasses, a snack, and a map from a sidewalk vendor. My new car was waiting at the end of the block. It needed a name. All good vessels did. This car was going to carry me to safety, away from Arthur and his chiseled jaw.

  I dub thee Excalibur.

  While munching on some churros, I used the map to plot a route to the safest place I could think of. Texas. It was mostly pack territory, and that worked to my advantage. I didn’t know exactly where the packs lived, but I would know when I got there. They mark their territory, and I’m not using an idiom. They literally piss on it. Yuck.

  The smell was overwhelming.

  And even though I was nervous, scared, and self-doubting, I still felt oddly excited. I’d been living in luxury for more than a century, so using my wit to survive wasn’t needed. Even before then, I’d always relied on other vampires to make the decisions for me, except for my sabbatical. That didn’t really count though, because right after leaving my home in England, I’d met Olivier and then followed her around for decades. It’s a good thing she stopped thinking I was annoying.

  Maybe I’d just been waiting for something like this. Something to finally rip me from my mundane life and force me to start living in the moment. Show myself, not just Arthur, that I wasn’t stuffy.

  Being on the run was invigorating. I’d forgotten how good it felt. The danger of it all seeped into my veins and I felt like I was drowning in adrenaline. As much as I was loving it, I still missed my simple life at the Order. I missed spending time with Cameron. It was comforting to know he was safe, though. I tried to put him out of my mind. I tried to picture him living a normal human life. Getting a job. A house. A wife. He’d finally belong. That was all I wanted for him.

  My new car was adorable. Sleeping in it was not. A quick purchase of a down sleeping bag made the small trunk more comfortable, though my long legs didn’t thank me for it. I slept at highway truck stops and applied the tanning lotion every morning.

  That became my schedule. Wake up, drive. Eat food, drive. Eat again, park somewhere hidden, sleep. Repeat.

  The one thing Olivier hadn’t provided for me was blood. I was starving for blood, but I couldn’t feed. Finding a human wouldn’t work because a human’s first vampire bite took days to heal. If I stole disgusting bagged blood from a hospital, the Hunters would find out. Any blip of stolen blood on a hospital record and they’d be on that hospital like a swarm of bees. It was on the list as things to avoid doing, but I needed blood. If I didn’t feed soon, I’d go into a frenzy, and that was a shit storm I’d never escape from. I stopped at a large city that I could blend into and scoured it until I found a blood drive. It was at a large Catholic church in the parking lot. Groups of old people and families stood outside the little trailer, all sipping juice and eating cookies as they talked amongst themselves.

  The lady at the sign-in table was wearing pastel cashmere and a big smile that silently promised it would try to convert me later. Not gonna happen, sister. I signed a fake name and went into the trailer when it was my turn. A nurse stood inside and showed me where to sit. There was an old man next to me who had fallen asleep in his chair. His blood bag was almost full. I tried not to stare at it.

  The nurse tried chatting to me in a friendly way as she gathered some paperwork for me to fill out. I saw an open ice chest of filled blood bags on a tray in front of me and saw my chance.

  I stood up and pretended I was off balance. “Actually, I don’t feel so good. I’m really squeamish, and I was trying to face my fears, but I just-” I dry heaved and put my hand on the side of the ice chest, purposefully knocking it over. “I’m so sorry!” I pretended to try to pick them up, and ‘accidentally’ stepped on a few until they popped. The smell of dead blood shot up my nose. I felt equally sick and hungry.

  I almost felt sorry for the human nurse, having to deal with me standing in a pile of half busted blood bags and heaving like I was about to throw up. I repeatedly told her I was sorry and made sure to look as pathetic as possible. I helped her gather the bags back into the ice chest, and told her I’d throw them away.

  As if.

  I went out the back door of the trailer, where the happy humans couldn’t see me with blood all over my hands and shoes, and ran in the other direction. I hid behind the dumpster and took stock of what I had to work with.

  Out of four bags, three were busted and only had a small amount of blood left in them. The fourth bag was fine. All that effort for one bag of blood. It figured. I left them there, dropped the ice chest back off behind the trailer, and went back for my bounty. I stuck to the shadows on my way back to Excalibur, sucking on the busted bags until they were dry. I found a puddle to wiggle my shoes in to clean them. I saw myself in the reflection, blood all over my arms. As much as it disgusted me, I licked myself clean. Every drop was ecstasy.

  Mission accomplished. Score for Lisbeth.

  Seven

  Bagged blood is fucking revolting.

  It’s like having a mug of tea that smells like tea and looks like tea, but when you sip it, it tastes like dog piss. My brain constantly reminded me that this was not what blood is supposed to taste like. Not to mention it made me feel sick. Never throw up sick, but a headache and general lethargy were the main side effects. I honestly had no idea how the turned could live on this stuff, but they could. Lucky fucks.

  After a week of zigzagging, backtracking, carefully timed slow poking, occasional sitting around for hours, and swearing so loudly I was sure the humans were going to call the cops, I was in Kansas. The bagged blood was making my temples throb. I’d rationed myself to one sip a day, but I was paying the price. Weakness was spreading throughout my body, a paralyzing weakness that sometimes hit me so hard I couldn’t move my arms to get the blood from the cooler in the morning. I was also losing weight, and my eyes were constantly bloodshot like I was drunk.

  After passing the Kansas state sign, I was sitting in Excalibur at a roadside park, carefully forcing myself to sip some blood from the pack after fumbling with it for a few minutes because my fingers refused to work. God, it tasted foul. My mouth scrunched up and I gagged, like a human taking medicine. Nasty gross please leave my stomach medicine.

  “Heat of the Moment” came from the backseat. Why was my car playing music? It started playing again, and I realized it was coming from the duffle bag. Hidden in one of the numerous side pockets was an old-fashioned burner phone and one of those wireless chargers that ran on batteries. Amazingly, the phone still had a percentage on the battery and wasn’t dead even though it had been sitting in my car for a week.

  As the song started a third time, I answered the phone.

  “Hello?” I had no idea who would be on the other end. Arthur? He would. Maybe it was a booty call? Arthur booty calling me. Nah.

  “Bonjour, Lisbeth.” Renard.

  I sighed with relief. I wasn’t in the mood for sexy talk. “Renard! Why are you calling me? I’m on the run!”

  “I know. It was Olivier who was going to call you, but…” He trailed off and his silence was deafening. I immediately th
ought she’d been killed or punished for helping me, but then he wouldn’t be there to call me. “All Hunters have been recruited to find you. Including former Hunters,” he added.

  Oh. Olivier hunting me? I mean, she’d been helping Arthur at the castle, but hunting me in the open was completely different. That was the least amount of comforting information I could’ve ever gotten. My hands shook and I almost dropped the phone. “If she leads them off my trail for too long, they’ll know she’s helping me.”

  “Oui.” He sighed and struggled for words. “I do not wish to compromise your safety by asking this, but please…. protect my lady.” My heart broke for him. To protect her, I would have to use a different tactic, and that meant I could become vulnerable. Fuck it, I was smart. I could figure it out.

  “I’ll do my best,” I promised him.

  “How are you doing without blood?”

  I swallowed and took some time to answer. “Fine,” I lied. Lying was stupid, and I knew it. I could hear him silently calling me out on trying to bullshit him. Renard had been with us for a long time. While he’d never seen for himself the side effects of our hunger, he knew well enough from stories we’d told him. Before I could speak, he had to hang up and get back to the castle.

  So. I had to come up with an entirely new plan, one that would protect both Olivier and myself. I took a break from eating gas station food and went to a country café. They had some maps of Kansas and the nearby states and I bought one of each. While I ate a greasy hamburger with fries and a red soda (it wasn’t blood, but the color was comforting), I plotted out a new route and made new plans. The constant planning and sneaking around was wearing me out, even without the bagged blood sapping all my energy. Olivier probably knew that and would inform Arthur, so continuing with my path was the best option.

  The next night, I was at another rest stop finishing up a few sips of vile blood when I smelled vampires.

  Shit on a stick.