The Jaded Hunter

by Michelle M. Pillow

  “I killed him,” she whispered. It was the first time she’d admitted it out loud. She’d spent months trying to forget. Her heart broke into a thousand pieces. She always regretted the night she’d sent her father away. She’d always prayed he’d come back for her, take her away with him. Her dreams had been answered—only she botched them.

  Tyr’s face snapped sharply to hers, seeing the pale line of her ashen features. Tears welled up in her gaze, dripping softly over the edge. She swayed, sinking to the floor.

  “That’s my crime, isn’t it?” She had known all along, had waited for someone to come and punish her and here he was. Her secret was out.

  Staring blankly at the floor, she felt a pull on the thin thread of her sanity. The punishment was a grand one, more so than Tyr knew. He made her live to face it. He refused to kill her for it. She could no longer live with what happened. The memory haunted her dreams. She saw her father’s face, disappearing into ash, blowing over her skin. It covered her flesh until she was made to scrub it from every crevice of her body and hack it out of her lungs. It had taken weeks of showers until she was satisfied the ash was gone and even then she could still see it on her skin if she looked hard enough.

  “You were supposed to kill me,” she said to herself more than him. She rubbed at her arm, trying to erase the tactile memory of death ash. “I went to you so you could kill me. You were supposed to be young. I made sure of it. The young ones can’t sense who I am. That’s what Mack and my experience in the field says. It was all planned. He’ll kill me and then it will be over. A young one won’t report it. He won’t know to. No one will ever know. I’ll die undisturbed, buried in an unmarked body dump. No one will ever know.”

  Tyr felt her reason slipping. It was the curse of the dhampir. One small thing and they could snap. Only what she confessed to was no small thing. She had murdered her own father—a father who had changed his undead life around because of her existence, a father who refused to kill even the smallest of insects as he waited for his daughter to grow. Setting his mouth in a tight line, Tyr went to her. He couldn’t stand to feel her pain, her deeply wounding shame. He wasn’t meant to comfort the guilty. He was meant to watch her and discover the truth, and when he had her confession, once he knew the truth, he was to take her to be punished.

  Glancing at him, she said accusatorily, “But you’re old.”

  “Jaden!” Tyr took her by the shoulders and roughly shook. Her head snapped back. Emotion and duty clashed inside of him. She wasn’t responding. His voice was low, harsh, as he yelled at her. “Damn it, Jaden, come back.”

  Tyr raised his hand as if to backhand her. He hesitated, frowned. His hand turned into a clenched fist. He couldn’t strike her. Easing his grip on her shoulders, he pulled her into his embrace. Stroking her hair, he cradled her into his arms. He ignored her repeated rambling about their first meeting in the alleyway.

  Jaden settled into his comforting embrace, her words drifting to an incoherent mumble before stopping. Tyr lifted her jaw, forcing her blank eyes to look at him. She stared past him, through him. Seeing her lips so close to his, he leaned down to gently kiss her.

  “It’s all right, Jaden,” he whispered against her mouth. His mind delved into hers, leading her back to him, tugging her from the stupor she’d fallen into. His thumb worked over her face, brushing aside her tears.

  Jaden’s fingers twitched, clinging to his chest. Her mind jolted to awareness. Her eyes clear and her mind once more her own, she recoiled from him.

  Tyr had no choice but to release his hold. It tore at him to see her so broken. Hot tears poured down her face anew, staining her cheeks. He didn’t want to believe Jaden could kill her own father, even if he was a vampire and her technical enemy. Despite his facts, he wanted to believe the best in her.

  “Dispense your justice, Tyr,” she demanded. “Kill the murderer. It is what your people believed, is it not—an eye for an eye, a life for a life? Do what you were sent to do, Tyr. Finish me. I plead guilty.”

  Chapter Ten

  Time rolled by slowly in the cave home. Jaden slept throughout the day in Tyr’s bed, keeping with his vampiric schedule. Tyr rested on his couch, leaving her alone in his room. During the long nights, they didn’t speak. Silence was marred only by the subtle shuffle of Jaden’s feet, the crinkling page from some old book Tyr read, and most predominately by the popping wood burning in the fireplace.

  After Jaden’s plea for death was again denied, Tyr carried her protesting to the bed. Her anger at his refusal lasted only a moment before he waved his hand before her face and forced her into a deep sleep. He had then sat across from her, watching her in her slumber. He examined the soft glow of orange on her skin as it faded to becoming shades of darkness. And when she finally awoke, he was still there watching. She’d hardly spoken since. The part of her soul that glistened normally in her expressive eyes was dead.

  Jaden suppressed a yawn, staring blankly at the licking flames. Nothing seemed to catch her attention, but in truth, she felt herself most inclined to stare at the little arrangements of history nestled into Tyr’s walls. Her mind reeled with her past, her uncertain future, her confusion over her captor and his motives. He had seen her in her weakest moment, the point where her fragile sanity broke into a thousand shards. No one had ever seen her brought low. She was mortified that it had been him. He now knew her weakness. The question was, would he exploit it? Sighing again, deep and long, she closed her eyes.

  Tyr had watched her silently from his chair for most of the night, leaving to disappear out of the side entrance of the cave when he could take no more of her stillness. The questions he needed answered swam in his head, trying to find their way out from his brain. He suppressed them, as he suppressed any tenderness for her. He couldn’t allow himself to be weakened by her. She was his assignment. Somehow things had gotten messy, but she was still a duty he must perform. He wouldn’t risk his very existence for a mere slip of a human, no matter how alluring the package.

  Occasionally over the long silence, Tyr coerced her into eating. A few times Jaden got up to relieve herself, or to take a quick bath out of a chilled water basin he retrieved at her request, or to change her clothing. For the most part, he let her be, knowing she had a lot on her mind. And what were a few days to a creature that had lived so many? Even with the thought swimming in his head, Tyr was impatient.

  He sorted the facts slowly in his mind. If she collapsed when confronted with the result of her actions, then surely she was not in league with her uncle. Though an angry woman by nature, she didn’t have a heart for pure cruelty—and Tyr had seen the numerous faces of pure cruelty.

  On the other hand, maybe it was only the result of her crimes having been discovered. Any mortal who knew the existence of the tribal council would break under the prospect of being brought before them. If the mortal was guilty, then it was only a matter of time before they cracked.

  “You don’t eat. How do you resist the hunger?”

  Tyr’s head snapped up, turning from his chair to her clear jade eyes. Her face was calm, under complete control. Her voice was coherent. The fog around her had suddenly and unexplainably lifted.

  “I eat,” he answered quietly. His eyes narrowed in suspicion. “I have a storage of blood in this cave. It sustains me.”

  “Oh,” she mumbled. “Then you don’t kill?”

  “Only for duty.” He leaned forward, easing his elbows onto his knees. His tapered fingers tapped lightly in thought.

  Jaden’s eyes roamed over his masculine form. A chill swept over her. She’d spent many hours contemplating her deeds, but even more time under the spell his touch had wrought in her. He didn’t touch her, didn’t try to kiss her again, and she didn’t go to him. But she wanted to.

  “The night I met you in the alley,” she said, trying to focus her thoughts outside herself. “That was duty?”

  “Yes,” he answered. His eyes were blank, carefully taking her in. “He was a vampire I
was sent to deal with.”

  “I thought you were sent to deal with me.” Her guarded laugh followed.

  “You are one of my duties,” he said.

  Only a duty? she thought before adding aloud, “Oh.”

  “I had several others to contend with in New York.”

  “That is why I thought you were young. I was reading him, not you.”

  “Yes,” he admitted. “And then I blocked my age from you to confuse you.”

  “And what did this vampire do? What constitutes a crime to the council?”

  “He tried to frighten a woman into labor, and when he succeeded, he tried to make a vampire mother and baby.” The assertion was dispassionate. His eyes cold as he recalled.

  “Duncan,” Jaden said with a shake of her dark auburn hair. She ran her fingers through the locks, pulling them absently back from her face. She stared into the flames.

  “You knew him?”

  “I killed the mother and child after he left them in the alley.” The task still made her gag to think about it. She saw the baby’s purple face, still squirming and wet from its birth, its skin paling from its sudden rebirth. “I thought I was hunting him in New Orleans. It’s where...”

  “Your uncle sent you to look,” Tyr concluded, “I predicted as much.”

  “And Duncan? Did he get away?”

  “No,” Tyr said. “I found him again. He is dead.”

  “Well, that is one thing solved, isn’t it? I’m glad to hear it.”

  “The woman and child were not your fault. You did what you had to do. I was sent to do the same thing, if they were still alive,” he said. “A baby can’t take care of itself. That is why the sacred laws forbid the changing of children and helpless ones. The mother would’ve gone mad at such a loss and she would’ve been a wild vampiress, unable to show control.”

  Jaden nodded, not answering. She looked at her hands, hands that had held so much ash and death in them. A moment of silence passed, marked by the crackling of fire. “You know you should have some music or something in here. It’s too quiet.”

  “Mmm.”

  “I’m tired of these games,” she admitted at last. She thought of the file. Her decision made, she knew she would show it to him. She had to know the truth of what Mack had done and what she had been involved with. “You already know the worst of what I have done. So let us come clean and be honest. Then maybe both our lives can get past this disruption. You can go back to your council and I’ll go back to doing whatever it is I do.”

  “Honest,” he repeated softly. “An idea worthy in its simplicity.” The steady tips of his fingers brushed lightly over his bottom lip in thought. The ice seemed to melt a bit from the blue of his eyes.

  “Yes, I’ll tell you what you want to know, if you tell me what you’ll do with me.”

  “I have been ordered to study you and, in a few days, I’ll bring you to the council with what I have learned. They wish to meet you.” He watched her face to see how she would take the news.

  “What?” Jaden asked in surprise. She was to meet the council? Be brought before them? Suddenly all the stories she’d read about what was done to captured bloodstalkers entered her mind—the countless years of pain, being brought to near death only to be saved and tortured again and again until the vampires grew bored with your screams. An involuntary shiver racked her body. With years of learning patience, it could be a very long time until a vampire grew bored.

  “If you are innocent enough, they won’t harm you,” he said.

  But Jaden wasn’t innocent. Not really. She’d been there. Now she couldn’t show him the file. What if they thought she was involved? She didn’t know what the files said, but she was sure it would be incriminating.

  Even after all she learned of her uncle, she wasn’t sure she wanted him harmed. He was her only family. He deserved a chance to explain himself to her before she turned him over to the tribal leaders.

  “Now, it is your turn.” His dark eyes swam with dangerous emotions, daring her to defy his claim. “First, what happened in New Orleans?

  Jaden’s gaze focused on his old claymore. She told him the whole story in a monotone voice, not leaving out one detail. When she’d finished, she added, “He could’ve fought me. He didn’t even try to defend himself and I delivered him into death. I stalked him and captured him so that the others could take him.”

  “But you didn’t know the others were there.”

  “Thinking back, I had sensed them. I should have been more cautious. It was my carelessness that did it. Now my father is dead and I—I’ll never be able to beg his forgiveness. He was my father, my blood, and I destroyed him.” Jaden took a deep breath, letting it escape her slowly. She hoped some of her pain would go out with it.

  Tyr watched her, knowing she needed to talk of something else. “What do you know of your uncle’s dealings?”

  Jaden wavered, thinking again of the file hidden in her bag. Clearing it from her mind, she couldn’t meet his eyes. “He tracks vampires,” she said softly, staring at her lap. “He tracks those who commit atrocities against humans. Sometimes families who have lost a loved one donate money to the cause and then Mack tracks the vampire who killed their loved one. He sends the guys out after them.”

  “And what does he do with them once he captures them,” Tyr asked, already suspecting the truth.

  Jaden looked at him in confusion. “They are killed. We never capture them.”

  “What about the one in the park?” he probed. “She wasn’t killed. In fact, she had never killed herself. She was newly turned.”

  “I—I,” Jaden scratched her brow thoughtfully. “I don’t know. I have never taken a prisoner. There would be no reason to. Your disease can’t be cured.”

  “And what about the ones you track?”

  “They are like Duncan.” Her gaze bore piercingly into her thigh. The bruise was all but faded from it.

  “Are they?”

  “Yes,” Jaden said.

  “And you’ve witnessed all of their crimes? You know for certain?” Tyr probed.

  “No, I…” she paused to look helplessly at him.

  “You what? You said you wanted honesty.”

  “I took Mack’s word for it,” she whispered. “Most of them I could sense once I had them down. But, occasionally, Mack showed me their file and I went off of that.”

  “So you don’t know all the ones you killed deserved it?”

  “Yes— no—I did when it happened. I felt the death on them. I could smell it. Sometimes I could even taste it. And vampires are evil, were evil. You kill to live. I really thought I was doing the right thing. This is a war against species and I have my side.”

  “Thought?” he questioned sharply. “You said you thought you were doing the right thing.”

  “I don’t know anymore. I don’t know anything anymore,” she allowed. Tyr was confusing her. When she looked at him, it wasn’t the passionate lover of a few days ago. It wasn’t even a friend. It was her interrogator, her punisher. She was a fool for ever daring to hope in the briefest moment of weakness that he could be anything else to her. He didn’t feel, just faked it really well by mimicking the emotion he had seen in his victims. All vampires learned the trick. Stiffening her resolve, she determined she would never be a fool again. If she was attracted to Tyr, she was only attracted to an illusion.

  “So you don’t know what Mack does with the women he captures? You’ve never heard talk, seen pictures, heard a rumor?” Tyr knew she was going to lie before she even spoke. He wanted desperately for there to be honesty between them. It was so much simpler than the deceit they had been practicing. He felt the lie and still he waited in anticipation, hoping for the first time in centuries that he would be wrong. He wasn’t.

  “No.”

  “You’re sure?” he asked, giving her another chance. He knew what was coming, but part of him wanted to deny it.

  “Yes, I’m sure.” She lifted her chin, turning her eyes cold
ly to his. “I don’t even know if Mack is aware of the captured woman. You took me away before I had a chance to ask him. The capture was Tom’s doing. Maybe you should ask him. Mack would never be involved in anything remotely unseemly.”

  “I think I’ve learned all I need to know,” he said after a long moment of studying her. He didn’t like what he found. The disappointment strangled him. The tale of her father’s death, though horrible, could’ve been forgiven. But for her to cover and lie about her uncle’s crimes made her just a big a part of them as Mack was.

  “And what about me? What are you going to do with me?”

  “I’ve already told you. In a few days, you’ll meet with the council.” Tyr stood, moving away from her, out the side of the cave. His movements were stiff.

  When Jaden was all alone, emptiness surrounded her. It went against her instincts to lie to Tyr. But she couldn’t trust her instincts anymore. She had to trust her brain. Emotion only got in the way and she couldn’t be sure her innermost feelings were not of Tyr’s evoking. The Dark Knight was a powerful being. She had felt it in him many times.

  But even as she was certain of it, she prayed she’d done the right thing in keeping the file from Tyr and thus protecting her uncle. She considered burning its contents, but it would be a risky endeavor to do so without getting caught. Tyr would be able to smell the burning paper almost immediately and with his ability to control fire at will, he could smother the flames before they did their work. Or, if he chose, he could reach into the fire and pluck the paper from its heat. Either way, the potential for him to discover their contents was great.

  Defending Mack wasn’t a hard call, logically. She was more a human than a vampire’s daughter and she would have to pick the side of her people. She easily rationalized she had no way of telling what was inside the mysterious folder. Jaden tried to convince herself the pictures only told a half-truth that would make complete and perfect sense once explained.