The Hybrid Series | Book 2 | Hunted

by Stead, Nick

  Whether it was due to the training Lady Sarah had been putting me through or something to do with my human half I didn’t know, but the moon called forth fresh fury and I still hadn’t learnt to resist it. Hunger drove me into action and I bounded away, just as a hand broke free of the earth.

  I ran for miles across the open moors, until finally I came to human taint, cutting its way through the countryside in the form of a road. It seemed this area was favoured by walkers, the ground made muddy by the daily tread of boots upon it. And sure enough, I heard the pant of a dog straining against his lead. More importantly, I could hear the steady heartbeat of the woman foolish enough to walk him on this night I’d claimed as my own. It would be the last mistake she ever made.

  The wind blew in my favour as I crept towards my prey. They left the safety of their car and struck out across the moors, utterly oblivious to the danger they were in. I moved within striking distance and prepared to pounce.

  The dog continued to pull against his lead and contempt for my domestic cousins filled me once more. He could have been running wild and free if he hadn’t allowed himself to become enslaved by humanity. I bared my teeth in a silent snarl, almost tempted to attack him first. But it was the woman I truly craved.

  “Okay, boy, here you go,” she said, pressing a button on his collar.

  Fluorescent blue light split the darkness, bright and unnatural. I had to bite back an angry growl at the temporary image burning into my retinas. If sight had been my primary sense it might have cost me the kill, but with my nose and ears to guide me it was no more than a minor irritation. Blinding me would not save the pair.

  A snap of metal and the dog was released from his lead. He bounded away, the blue light becoming more distant as he raced for whatever had caught his attention. Time to make my move.

  With a hungry growl, I lunged for the woman and dragged her to the ground. She raised her arms to try and protect her throat and face, screaming for the help of her pet. The dog gave a startled bark and turned back, but he’d gone too far to reach her in time to intervene. Not that he’d have had any hope of driving me away – he was just too stupid to realise it.

  I grabbed the woman’s arms and tasted her flesh in a state of ecstasy. Bone splintered in my jaws and blood spewed. The flavour had me shaking my head with new ferocity, tearing skin and freeing more of the juices. Her arm was in tatters when it snapped off.

  The dog was growing closer. I gulped down the limb and struck again at the woman’s head, wrapping my fangs around her skull and squeezing until bone and brains exploded in my mouth. Then I rose from her to deal with her pet.

  We clashed in a flash of teeth and the snapping of jaws. I met the dog head on, slamming into him and clamping my fangs around his neck. His fur protected him from the worst of it but my grip was firm enough to wrestle him to the ground.

  He tried to snap at my throat but I was already sinking teeth into his side. Snarls turned to yelps of pain and whines of submission. It only heightened the bloodlust as I tore into his flank, eviscerating him with a single, devastating bite.

  Blood pooled in the mud around us. The dog writhed and tried to get up but the pain was too much. He began to slow as I fed on his organs, his limbs twitching and then growing still. I barely noticed.

  The bloodlust drove me to keep on attacking the two corpses as if they were still alive, and the hunger had me gulping down chunks of flesh and viscera, leaving little behind. Then I heard the call of my lunar master again, and as ever I could only obey. I loped off in search of more victims.

  The rest of the night was another blackout period. Only with the approach of dawn did my mind clear, and I found myself back in the heart of the moorland, where I returned to human form as normal.

  The next two nights passed in much the same way, Lady Sarah unable to rise early enough to keep me from going off alone. What I did during those blackouts I can’t say – I know only that there was more bloodshed. But when my mind cleared after the third night, I willingly retreated with the dawn. Losing control so completely was too dangerous, and I had to hope the vampire could help prevent more blackouts during the next full moon. Until then, or until she tested me during another of her training sessions, I would gladly let the human suffer for us both.

  Despite the complete loss of control again, there wasn’t even the faintest sense of my rage or my bloodlust when I transformed back to human. That third morning I felt as low as ever, and the daylight hours dragged by.

  There was little wildlife worth hunting in such desolate surroundings. I killed what I could, but I was becoming increasingly cold and miserable as the days wore on.

  When darkness fell, I didn’t go straight to find Lady Sarah, too lost in my own despair as I walked across the moors. She was the one to seek me out, running over with a sense of urgency.

  “You could have picked a better night for a stroll,” she said, irritated. “Come, quickly.”

  “Why, what now?” I asked, wondering what could be so pressing. A new format to her survival lessons perhaps?

  “There is no time. Take your wolf form and follow me as fast as you can – they are waiting.”

  I wasn’t sure what to make of this sudden turn of events or who the ‘they’ could be. She refused to say anymore and I knew she’d only force me to go if I didn’t follow willingly. It looked like I’d no choice but to trust she was doing what was right for the both of us.

  CHAPTER NINE

  A New Threat

  After traversing what felt like the entire length of the Pennines, Lady Sarah led us down to lower ground and towards an abandoned warehouse. She approached with caution, and if I didn’t know any better, I’d have said she was nervous. I mirrored her, feeling a tension building in my muscles with every step. Just what was it that she was leading me into?

  She came to a stop a few feet away from the building. “Time to transform back.”

  I gave a hungry growl but did as I was told. Two dead rabbits landed on the ground beside me as I rose to my feet. I grabbed one, tearing into it while she disappeared a second time. Chewing through muscle and offal, fresh juices dribbled down my chin. She had a bundle of garments in her hands when she returned.

  Her eyes were on me while I ate, impatient and anxious. I wasn’t imagining it. Whatever we were about to face, it definitely had her worried.

  “Now dress and try not to look so feral,” she said, holding out the clothes.

  I made no move to take them. “What’s going on?”

  “There is no time. You will find out, soon enough.”

  She pushed the clothes closer to my bare chest. I accepted them with a frustrated growl and started pulling on the shirt and trousers. They felt strange after the three months spent roaming the land completely naked, and I was uncomfortable at the touch of the material on my skin. The artificial layer was also less warm than my own fur coat and neither the shirt or trousers fit particularly well. But if Lady Sarah wanted me dressed for whatever meeting was about to take place, it looked like I was going to have to endure it. She’d only use her hypnotic powers again if I tried to argue.

  “I’m not going in there till you tell me what’s going on,” I said, pulling a hoodie over the shirt. It hung loosely from my skinny frame, several sizes too big.

  Lady Sarah sighed. I got the impression she was debating whether to use her power to make me more co-operative or if it would be just as easy to explain things. But it was only a moment before she answered “We have been summoned here by the Elder vampire, Ulfarr.”

  “What’s an Elder?” She’d spoken the words with such respect and reverence that I immediately got the impression ‘Elder’ was some kind of a title among vampires, like ‘Lady’ had been in her human life. But I also sensed a measure of fear in there, despite her insistence that she feared nothing, and that made me uneasy. I wasn’t sure if she was afraid of the vampire himself or the fact that he’d summoned us. Either way, it was looking like I was in for another rough
night.

  “They are amongst the oldest and most powerful of our race. We vampires might be solitary hunters, yet we do have a society of sorts. And when times force us to unite, it is to our Elders we look. That is all I will say for now. Ulfarr is considered one of our greatest leaders, even amongst the other Elders, and it would be unwise to keep him waiting. He is to be treated with the utmost respect. Understood?”

  “Why? I’m not a vampire. I’m not part of your society so he has no hold over me.”

  “Just do it, Nick,” she snapped. “There is no more time for your questions.”

  I wanted to be angry but it still wouldn’t come. She stalked inside, tall and regal now. I followed, wary and full of doubt.

  Pale faces crowded inside; hundreds of them. Most were talking amongst themselves but a few turned to eye me with distaste and there were several flashes of fangs. Skeletal creatures lurked among them, the ghouls fixing me with hungry stares. There were no wraiths this time, however.

  No light shone inside the old building, as was befitting a gathering of creatures of darkness. If humans had abandoned the warehouse for long enough, there might not be a power supply for the electrical lights, if they still worked, but the vampires hadn’t provided any candlelight either. We didn’t need it. With the moon only just waning from full, we had more than enough natural light to see by.

  I scanned the crowd and thought I recognised a few of them from the battle in my hometown; those that survived the fight against the Slayers. The vampire who’d visited Lady Sarah in the barn was there as well. My curiosity rose a notch. Was I finally going to learn what the conversation between them had been about?

  My gaze moved towards the front. A male vampire stood there, on a dusty workbench. His green eyes glittered with cunning and malice, hard and cold as garnets.

  Everything about him spoke of power and age, from his body language and fierce appearance to the respect he clearly commanded among the other undead. Those eyes were all the more striking for the wolf’s head they looked out from under. He wore the pelt like a sleeveless jacket, the wolf’s forelegs draped over his shoulders and resting on either side of his chest, where they reached down to his waist. The back was cut short so that it also came down no further than his waist. Beneath it, the pale flesh of his upper body was bare, revealing the kind of muscular form I could only dream of, stuck with the skinny frame of my youth as I was.

  Where the other vampires tended to give off an aristocratic air, there was something primal about this vampire. Humans might even have mistaken him for a lycanthrope. The wolf’s head obscured much of the man he’d been, but I could just about make out a length of wild black hair, and a short beard. What little I could see of his features suggested he had the same unnatural beauty to him as the rest of his kind, but this was more of a rugged handsomeness than the sophisticated beauty of the younger vampires.

  Metal glinted at his hip – the hilt of a sword. His grip tightened around the weapon as our gazes met, his eyes shining with unconcealed loathing and his bicep bulging beneath his skin. The pommel was just visible and from what I could tell, it had been fashioned into the likeness of a skull. It was the most ornate thing about him. His lower half was otherwise plain, his black trousers the kind you might find in a museum and his belt a simple strip of leather tied about his waist. I couldn’t see his feet over the heads of the other undead, but I would later observe that his boots looked equally ancient, made of more leather. None of his garments belonged in the modern age.

  There was a sheer presence to this vampire, as if his power were a physical thing. I was forced to look away. He had to be the Elder Lady Sarah had spoken of, and I was starting to sense why she had tried to impress upon me the need to act as respectfully as possible. He would make a formidable enemy, of that I was certain.

  Even Lady Sarah seemed wary of him. She had me stand with her near the doorway at the back, where we could keep an eye on the entire room and make a quick exit if we were forced to flee. And given the nature of the conversation I’d overheard in the barn, that seemed a likely outcome.

  I’d barely had chance to take all this in before Ulfarr called for order. The room fell silent. Given what Lady Sarah had told me before we’d entered and the control he held over the assembly, I had to wonder if he was one of the oldest surviving vampires still in existence.

  “My fellow undead, I have called this gathering to discuss some grave tidings,” he began, his expression grim. “Matters that concern us all and which must be dealt with swiftly. What I am about to reveal to you is most troubling, and requires the co-operation of each of our great races.”

  His attention turned to the workbench he was standing on. I had to rise to the tip of my toes and crane my neck to see over the others. It was only then I realised there was something lying across it, covered by a dirty sheet. I began to dread where this was going. And sure enough, the vampire jumped down and pulled back the material to reveal a humanoid body.

  I couldn’t see much from our position, but it seemed the torso had been ripped open, shards of the broken ribcage poking up like the fingers of two outstretched hands waiting to receive something. And yet this victim had received only death, his killer taking more from him than they’d given. It was hard to tell without getting any closer and without a clearer view, but I got the impression of an empty cavity where the organs should have been, the bloody mess appearing black in the moonlight filtering through the dusty windows.

  “Behold, the corpse of our fallen brother. No bullets felled him, nor any other tool used by man. Savaged as if by an animal, and yet no mortal animal could ever hope to prey on us, we who are the ultimate hunters. That leaves but one explanation – that he was killed not by the Slayers, but by one of our own!”

  Chaos erupted, raised voices sounding in indignation. The gist of which was that the ghouls had better taste than the cold dead flesh of vampires and the vampires had more class than to rip apart their prey with their teeth, let alone to lower themselves to acts of cannibalism. And in the midst of all this, the dark haired vampire stood at the front with a quiet hatred. His gaze settled on me and I felt my blood run cold. I could see now why Lady Sarah had wanted me to present as something more human. To this ancient vampire I was nothing more than a ravening beast.

  Eventually he held his hand up for silence. The others obeyed without question and order was restored.

  “Even more troubling – this is in fact the second body to be found in such a state, both with their hearts missing. But fear not, my friends! I will find whichever one of us is guilty of this crime and he will be brought to justice. We will not tolerate the deaths of our own, for we are better than humanity and we do not slaughter others mindlessly, least of all our fellow brethren. I ask you to be vigilant, and to spread the word to those who are absent from this gathering, so we may hunt the culprit as swiftly as possible, before he can strike again, as I believe he will. I do find it most interesting that both these deaths occurred on nights of the full moon.”

  His eyes were on me once more. The hatred in them rivalled that of the enemies I’d faced – even the loathing I’d encountered in Vince and Aughtie. Several of the other vampires turned to glare at me as well. I was about to say something in my defence but Lady Sarah shot me a warning look. Finally the Elder let his eyes wander over the rest of the gathering as he brought the meeting to a close, and the others turned back round to face him.

  “That is all for tonight. I will send word if there is a need to discuss these matters any further.”

  Suspicious murmuring filled the old warehouse as the undead began to filter out. The vampires were the main culprits, their eyes invariably on me as they passed. Try as I might to look more like my old human self, the attempt to hide the true essence of my bestial nature wasn’t fooling anyone. Especially when my skin was still caked in dried blood. They knew who and what I was and it seemed they’d all seen enough centuries to share in their race’s prejudice towards my kind.
I was suddenly glad of Lady Sarah standing by my side. There might have been more than suspicious looks if I’d been alone.

  Lady Sarah shifted with uncharacteristic restlessness. I sensed she was anxious to return to the isolation of the moors, but she made no move to leave.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “Patience. It would not be wise to turn our backs on them in their current mood.”

  So we were forced to wait for the building to empty. Only once the last few undead began to trickle out did she deem it safe to fall in behind them. But before we could take our leave, Ulfarr strode over to us.

  “Lady Sarah, a word please,” he said.

  “Of course.” She tried to hide her irritation, and was that a brief sense of unease I’d detected in her as well? That was enough to put me on edge. I wondered if Ulfarr would execute me just on the chance that I might be the killer, even though he had no evidence.

  Whether Ulfarr noticed what was going on beneath that queenly exterior was hard to say. If he did, he didn’t react to it. His eyes held a surprising measure of respect as they met hers. Did the two of them have history?

  “We both know the most likely identity of the killer. If I find it to be your pet wolf, I will kill him, regardless of whether he is truly the last or not.”

  “I am stood right here, you know,” I growled. Did he think I was nothing more than an animal, too simple to understand the troubles of its masters? The emptiness still wouldn’t allow for anger, but if I acted like he’d angered me then maybe my rage would return.