Angel Hunter

Chapter 1: Dreaming

AISLINN

She struggled to make it through the marshy field, strange for her considering that normally she had no trouble. She'd always been better at everything, fighting, running, seeing... Now everything seemed to be moving slower. The fellow hunters around her moved even slower than she did. They were trekking through some kind of forest, one protected by enchantments. She knew the target, it was a school of some sort. They'd given her the information. It was a boarding school for the supernatural, vampire, faerie, werewolf, demon, mages, witches...none of them were ever good, at least not in Aislinn's experience. There were tales, myths about how once angels had roamed the earth. They were considered to be the only good kind of supernatural creature until the fall. When Lucifer was cast from heaven and into hell by the archangel Michael, humans couldn't trust them anymore. There was no way to tell if they were angels of God or fallen angels. Any earthbound angels were immediately hunted down and murdered. Their hair, the wings, their blood was all imbued with the energy to heal. At first they only hunted down those they knew to be fallen angels, then the hunters became greedy. They killed any angel they found. God had destroyed any heavenly ability a dead angels's body held. Only when angels were hunted into extinction did they stop.

 She moved forward and reached the edge of the treeline. She stepped onto an empty field before a large, old looking boarding school. It looked several centuries old, but seemed to be in good repair. From where she stood, it didn't look like a school for the supernatural. A dark blur in front of her obscured her vision. When she could see again, a battle was being waged. She could see them all, faeries, vampires, werewolves, even demons and witches. The battle was fought on the ground, no creature took to the air. None of them could, not anymore.

the blur came again and she found herself in the middle of the battlefield. She looked at the faerie girl she was supposed to be killing. This girl was unarmed, an innocent. This was wrong. She dropped her sword, a splitting headache hitting her. The blur threatened to take over again. A mage appeared next to the faerie girl. He was young, maybe fifteen, the same age as the faerie girl and Aislinn herself. 

"Amerlee, are you alright?" Aislinn was on her knees, clutching her head.

"I'm fine. She just stopped, it's like the bloodlust had cleared. She dropped her sword and then I saw it start to come back and she dropped."

"She stopped?" The mage crouched in front of her. He waved a hand and the pain in Aislinn's head dissapated. His eyes widened in shock. "Oh god, they've been possesing her."

Aislinn woke out of a dead sleep, unable to stand it. She didn't understand what was going on, only that something was wrong in her head. She turned on her light and opened her nightstand drawer, reaching for the bottom, she pulled it up, revealing the sketchbook she kept there. She turned it to a clean page and began to sketch the landscape, the school and even the faerie girl and the mage. It was starting to turn light out when she finished the last sketch. She replaced the sketchbook and reached for her everyday sketchbook. She opened it and began to sketch a feather. She had just finished, when someone knocked. Brad, the man who trained her, opened the door. He smiled at her.

"Morning Linn, sleep well?" She nodded and his smile widened. "Breakfast in half an hour, training is canceled for the next few days, the council is here." She nodded and got ready. Not having training was fine. It wasn't like she was the one training, it was her doing the training of others.

She was a hunter, a hunter of the supernatural, or naturals. She hunted the monsters, the demons, the witches, the vampires, wolves and faeries of the world. The hunters were given a mission by God. They were there to protect the humans, and so they were given gifts, speed, strength, enhanced senses. The fallen angels were killing without mercy, and they couldn't be stopped. And so the hunters were sent to stop them. They did, killing fallen angels by the hundreds, and then turning on the naturals, sending them into hiding, but the hunters grew greedy, they began hunting all angels, even those they'd fought the fallen with. Angels on earth were hunted to the point of extinction. Hunters wanted power, and angels could give them that. Anything angel held power, hair, feathers, any of it could heal or create an unbeatable weapon.

* * *

She'd gone on a run, showered and eaten before returning to her room with a mug of tea. While everyone else who lived there wore long sleeves and coats in the winter, even inside, Aislinn could always get by in jeans and a tank top. It suited her just fine. She logged onto her computer and dug for her sketchbook. She scanned in the sketches, looking for location matches. She'd done it before and had gotten results, this time, it was different. Instantly, she had the location. She stared in shock. She had somehow landed on this supernatural school's website. There was a list of students on the right.

59 vampires

73 werewolves

67 faeries

13 shade walkers

24 demons

18 witches

26 mages

9 sirens

1 angel

She stared at the last result in shock. There was an angel in this school. That did not bode well for the hunters. And then the page changed into an ad for a girl's prep school. She pushed away from her desk, rubbing her eyes. She returned the sketchbook, and climbed back in bed with a book. A snow storm blew in that night, blanketing everything in at least two feet of snow. Aislinn sighed and got ready for bed. She was reluctant to go to sleep, but in the end, it didn't matter. 

The dark blur cleared and she saw the mage, concentrating on her. He had a grip on one of her hands, the other hand was pressed to her temple. He blinked and looked at her.

"Welcome back." Aislinn slumped against the wall, exhaustion creeping in on her. The faerie girl looked concerned, but the mage boy held her back. "It's alright, she's fine, just tired. She's been fighting for control of herself, that takes a lot of energy. Being possessed all your life tends to do that."

She jerked awake again and sighed, running a hand through her hair in frustration. The dreams weren't clear and she couldn't figure out why. It seemed real, but it wasn't possible. She remembered the raid, it had been two years ago, this hadn't happened, she knew what happened.