The Hybrid Series | Book 2 | Hunted

by Stead, Nick

  His screams rang out as I ripped his shirt apart and bit into the muscle of his lower back with teeth that had lengthened into fangs, piercing the flesh and trapping it in my jaws. I deliberately pulled backwards at a more leisurely pace, so that the stringy meat was slower to tear away from the bone it clung to, drawing out his suffering.

  A random memory came to me of a TV programme on cannibalism. I could hear the expert saying it was the ultimate taboo – the one that fills humans with the most dread and disgust. My face split into a dark smile as I chewed the raw meat. I sure hoped the bully was horrified at being eaten alive by something that looked like a fellow human.

  I took a third bite but I didn’t want to do too much damage round his spine and kill him too quickly. So I rolled him over, onto his back.

  That temporary reprieve seemed to grant him a shred of courage. He resorted to the one last defence that had no doubt saved him from a beating in the past, whenever he’d been prey to bigger bullies than himself. “My dad will find you, you freak. He’ll get his mates to help him kill you slowly, so you better let me go!”

  “Then I’ll kill your dad as well.”

  But it was what I needed from him. The rage latched onto the word ‘freak’ and the old anger that had built over the years fired up. And the rage had no time for slow, painful deaths. It wanted violence and it drove me to greater brutality as I committed this latest bloody murder, and brought what I needed to revel in it.

  I gave voice to that renewed rage in another bestial roar and lashed out with a clawed hand, raking the flesh from the top of one shoulder, right down to his hip on the opposite side of his body. The boy screamed again and returned to pleading, but when I rose from him it wasn’t to grant him mercy.

  Shaking and crying, he curled into the foetal position as I stood over him, his hands pressed to the gashes across his torso in a futile attempt to stop both the pain and the blood flow. There was something extremely gratifying about seeing him in the same position he’d no doubt had many of his playground victims in as he and his mates had beaten them. So I proceeded to smash his fragile mortal body with my fists, shattering bones and splitting skin. I’m not sure at what point he died, but eventually my rage burnt itself out again, and I fell to my knees by his corpse, weariness creeping in.

  “Did I really deserve that, just for being a mouthy little git?”

  I looked up to see the dead bully standing over me and his own broken body.

  “Yes, for all the pain you’ve no doubt caused your classmates,” I growled.

  “And what about the pain you’ve caused my family? Don’t you care about that?”

  “Mortals die and their loved ones move on. Their wounds will heal.”

  “And what about your wounds, son?” Dad said, appearing beside my victim.

  I closed my eyes, tired and hoping they’d go away. But my mind was never going to let me off that easily, so I answered “It’s too late for me. The curse is going to keep on making me kill so why shouldn’t I embrace that? I’m tired of fighting. And even if I choose to let go of the anger, I’m sure my lycanthropy would find some way to resurrect it eventually.”

  “Do you really think that anger is just the curse? My blood runs through your veins, whether you like it or not, and my anger is also a part of you.”

  “I’m nothing like you,” I snarled. “If I’d stayed human I could have been happy.”

  “But you are more human now than ever,” came a third voice, another face I’d never wanted to see again. Aughtie appeared, giving rise to another growl deep in my throat. “This darkness that drives you to kill, that is part of your humanity. If you truly want to be human again, you should continue to embrace it. Murder is what sets us apart from all other living things.”

  Murder, is that what it means to be human? Or was my brain simply trying to justify all the horrific acts I’d committed? I didn’t know what I was trying to tell myself but I felt too drained to play my own mind games. “Just fuck off and let me sleep.”

  “I’ll still be here, son,” Dad said as I closed my eyes. “Awake or asleep, you can’t escape me. We’re bound by blood. Killing me hasn’t freed you from that.”

  I tried to ignore him and let sleep take me, though it didn’t come any easier now I was lying on a floor that was no longer merely cold and hard but also slick and sticky with blood. The scent of the death and carnage filled my nostrils, which would only call to the nightmares when I finally nodded off. But at least there were no more voices troubling me while I lay there, and eventually I drifted into a deep sleep.

  I awoke to find night had already fallen. The vampires hadn’t yet returned but I felt certain I would have to face them again before long, and I was surprised to find that thought had already summoned my anger back into being.

  What meat was left on the three carcasses was cold and stiff. I forced myself to eat it anyway, while I waited for my captors to come back. They didn’t keep me waiting long. Ulfarr appeared in the doorway, stalking towards me as if he meant to kill me that very night. Lady Sarah followed just behind him. I crouched in the pool of gore, my anger smouldering in the depths of what had once been my soul. My head was down, and I didn’t raise it until they came to a stop in front of me. Amber flames met green stones, hard and cold and filled with their usual hate.

  “Was there another murder?” I growled.

  “Unsurprisingly, no there was not. Mark my words, wolf, I will find such undeniable proof of your guilt that no one could possibly find any further reasons for me not to have your filthy head. And you will be revealed for what you are; nothing but a wild beast in need of putting down. Even now you crouch before me naked and bloody, every bit as savage as you were under the full moon. The Slayers did us a service by wiping out your kind, and it shall be my pleasure to finally rid the Earth of you once and for all.”

  “Not if I end you first,” I snarled. “You should kill me now ’cause if you don’t, I swear there’ll come a day when I hunt you down while your corpse lies dormant, and all the power you wield by night is out of your reach. And I will rip your rotten flesh from your bones like the beast you believe me to be.”

  “Don’t tempt me, dog.”

  He dismissed me by turning his back again, gave a nod to Lady Sarah and disappeared into the night. My eyes followed him until he was out of sight. Then I turned my glare on Lady Sarah, but before I could do anything she placed me under her spell. My mind calmed in an instant. How could I be angry at a creature so beautiful as she? I was released from my chains and I obediently fell into step as she led me back to the moors.

  Her spell lifted, and the rage spilled back into every fibre of my being. Ulfarr’s trail was long gone. I couldn’t have tracked him that night, even if I’d wanted to.

  Lady Sarah was looking at me with a sense of regret. “I am sorry for all this, Nick, but I had no choice.”

  “Really? Ulfarr might be so powerful he can control all beings around him, but he didn’t hold your tongue last month when he humiliated me in front of all the others. You had a choice to speak out on my behalf, so why didn’t you? Or this full moon, you could’ve at least tried to persuade Ulfarr to allow me peace while I was imprisoned, even if the chains were deemed necessary. We both know he has the power to calm me but instead you let him trigger my rage. You chose to stand by and let him torment me!”

  Her blank mask slid back into place, her emotions impossible for me to read then. “There is more at work here than you could know.”

  “Know what, I don’t want to know,” I growled. “You’re not my friend and you’re becoming even less of an ally. I don’t know why you’ve helped me at all or what’s suddenly changed, but I’m done with you.”

  “You are free to do as you wish, of course, but I would beg you to reconsider. Whatever your feelings towards me, you must realise you are still not ready to survive on your own.”

  “I’ll take my chances.”

  I stormed off, cursing every last one o
f them. Before Ulfarr, I’d had no reason to hate the vampires. But after the way he kept treating me and the way it felt Lady Sarah had betrayed me, not to mention everything with Vince, I hated them then. I was done with vampire-kind. I was sick of being treated as something beneath them, as if I were a lesser creature. Not all vampires were more powerful than me, and yet even the lower ones would receive better treatment than I had, or so it seemed. If I had truly been responsible for the three deaths I’d been accused of I was glad. Given the attitude of those I’d met, every last one of them deserved it, and I was not going to mourn for the loss of any more.

  Though it hadn’t been a conscious decision, I found myself at the same rocky crevice where I’d hidden the stolen clothes. If there was no world for me among the undead, other than as the outsider in vampire society (such as it was), no place for me in nature and none of my own kind left to seek out, where else could I go but back to the world of man? Even if I couldn’t live among them, they at least had no supernatural power to subdue me with, and I was suddenly confident I could continue to elude the Slayers. It wasn’t like I was planning to go back to my hometown, where they could use my friends from my old life and my family against me. And still I dared to hope being back among humanity would go some way towards easing the loneliness and filling the empty void once I fell back into it, as I had to assume I would. The rage would likely burn out again before the night was through. I needed something to take its place.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  A Wolf in Human’s Clothing

  The glacial lake was no less cold than the last time I’d visited it. My body trembled as I knelt at the water’s edge and washed the thickest of the filth from my skin, focusing on my hands, neck and face. Then I shifted into wolf form, bundled up the clothes and blanket in my jaws, and set out in the opposite direction to the warehouse.

  I wandered towards lower ground, leaving the barrenness of the moors for farmland. Livestock panicked as I passed but I ignored them. Eventually fields gave way to man-made landscapes of concrete and tarmac. The warm glow of pubs and hotels called to me once more. I eyed them with longing. It was so tempting to steal the funds for a room. I could enjoy the best night’s sleep I’d had since leaving home and a warm shower in the morning. But I hadn’t quite grown reckless enough to disregard everything Lady Sarah had impressed upon me over the last few months, so I turned away and went in search of safer shelters.

  An old shed on an empty property looked perfect for my needs. The house was for sale, but whoever had lived there previously had already moved on, and there were no signs of recent human activity. Interest in it must have been low.

  Compared to the harshness of the moorland and the discomfort of my full moon cage, the shed might as well have been a five star hotel. I made a nest out of the clothes and blanket, then curled up in relative comfort and warmth. Sleep was quick to take me.

  Shards of daylight penetrated the dusty, cobweb lined glass, bright and uncomfortable to my tired eyes. I growled and tucked my head under the blanket. My eyelids were closing when the sound of human footsteps came from the path leading round the house. The tiredness drained from me in an instant. My eyes shot open and my head raised, ears cocked and nose to the air.

  “I’m telling you, there’s some kind of wild beast in there,” a woman’s voice said. “I came to unlock the property ready for a viewing this afternoon, and when I stepped out into the garden for a smoke, I could hear growling coming from that shed.”

  “Probably just some stray dog. We’ll take a look,” a man assured her. “You did the right thing calling us – can’t be too careful after all that nasty business with the rogue wolf running loose in Yorkshire last year.”

  I tensed, ready for a fight. The man could have just been some kind of wildlife official sent to investigate the estate agent’s call, but at worst he was a Slayer who knew full well any report of a wild beast could be something more. And there I was, cornered. I was going to have to act fast if I wanted to make it out alive.

  The shed door creaked open and I made a split second decision to kill them both. But first I had the sense to push the clothes and the blanket under some of the junk left by the previous owners, in the hopes they’d be protected from the worst of the blood I was about to spill.

  A head appeared, peering round the door with caution. I lunged, grabbing the man by the throat and silencing the scream before he had chance to form it. He fell to the floor, clutching at torn flesh flapping about in ragged strips and panicking as he gasped for the breath he couldn’t make. Even as he fell I was on the woman, ripping the life from her in a similar fashion. Blood and gore showered the inside of the shed and spattered my body with a fresh layer of filth, warm and thick. It fell into the void, failing to reawaken the bloodlust. I felt nothing at their deaths.

  Hunger stirred. I checked the pile of clothes and was able to rescue them before any blood soaked through. An industrial quality plastic bag had kept off the worst of the arterial spray. My skin was another matter and I was going to have to find somewhere else to wash in before I could pass for human.

  I made sure to push the clothes just outside, then gorged on the bodies. It was messier than usual because I was rushing, trying to chew off bigger chunks than I could manage and dribbling bits of flesh and blood as a result.

  I was able to finish without being disturbed and did my best to lick the worst of the blood and gore from my lips and fangs. Then I turned my attention back to the clothes, bundling them so the blanket was on the outside and hoping it would protect them from any suspicious looking stains.

  There was no evidence either of the humans had been Slayers but I knew I would be better leaving the area and moving on to another town or city. I’d find somewhere to wash along the way and dress, then I could return to the human world for a time, as I was suddenly so desperate to do.

  I was forced to remain in wolf form until nightfall, when I was able to wash under the cover of darkness. Ribbons of blood twisted and danced out from my body, contaminating the otherwise pure water. I was right in the middle of more farmland, the stream cutting through the surrounding countryside and rushing on towards the coast. During the day I would surely have been seen and driven off or worse, but hidden in the shadows I was relatively safe. The main cause for me to hurry my bath was the bite of the cold.

  My skin wasn’t perfect without proper soap to scrub away the blood. Again I focused on my hands, face and neck, then I shook myself off and pulled on the stolen clothes. I took a moment to study my reflection. My short hair was a mess and there was a wild look to my hazel eyes. Were the clothes really enough to pass me off as human? I tried to make my expression look less feral and failed. They were going to have to be. What more could I do?

  I rose from the stream and headed back towards civilisation. Dawn was beginning to creep into the sky when I set foot in my latest chosen haunt. The street I started on was the same as any other modern housing estate I’d visited, but as I drew closer to the town centre an air of history began to creep in. I looked on with interest, taking in the sights and sounds as if I were a traveller from some strange lands.

  A part of me liked exploring this new place I’d found myself in. It wasn’t that I’d ever had any particular passion for history or anything. I just liked the atmosphere of the place that was lacking from newer settlements, and those that had changed so much over the years as to be barely recognisable to what they once were. Maybe it was the fantasy fan in me. There was something magical about walking down cobbled side streets, as though I’d stepped back in time. I found the sense of the ages fascinating.

  At first the streets were quiet and mostly deserted, only the occasional early riser passing me by. They didn’t even spare me a sideways glance. Like a ghost I roamed among them, quiet and unseen. But the town soon started to come to life as various businesses opened their doors to customers, and for the first time in months I found myself in a throng of people. The lupine part of me hungered for t
hem, but it was the fast food and other eating places dotted around that made my mouth water. As much as my lycanthropy caused me to crave raw meat, it seemed some part of me still desired the cooked food I’d been accustomed to as a human.

  Other scents permeated the air, overpowering and alien after the months spent in the natural world. There was a certain novelty to it all, and I spent most of the day trying to immerse myself in that world and blend in with the crowd.

  I allowed myself to step inside some of the more interesting shops. Looking round them meant I could escape the cold and it helped pass the time.

  The latest DVDs and games beckoned from the shelves. I was careful to keep my head down while I checked them out, mindful of the security cameras. But it didn’t really help the depression that was creeping back in, knowing I would most likely never get to watch or play them. I kept to wandering between the three bookstores after that unhappy thought, killing time by reading different sections of the same book in each store, chapter by chapter. Luckily it seemed to be a weekend. No one challenged my presence like they might have done on a school day.

  Luke appeared again. I wasn’t even surprised to see him this time. Whatever it was that allowed him to just happen to be in the same places I turned up in, I felt sure I’d find out eventually. Until then he at least made for better company than the vampires.

  “Hey, bro,” he said. “There’s something surreal about seeing you in here.”

  “I wasn’t always a monster, remember. I used to have a normal human life, like everyone else.”

  “Yeah, but knowing who you really are and after seeing you at your wildest, I never expected to see you clothed and browsing bookstores,” he laughed.

  I shrugged. “Even monsters get bored.”

  His eyes fell to the book I was reading. “I see you had good taste in your human life. I’ve always been a big horror fan as well.”