Cursed

Chapter 3: A day like any other ... except not

"So why are you here again?"

My voice broke the silence that had been present since we left Helfarch early this morning. Not that I had minded, I preferred silence above typical Hunter arrogance. Yet it wasn't entirely clear why they sent me out into the forest with back-up.

"It's my job," the middle-aged man stated, as if it was the most logical thing in the world.

"Right," I sighed at the none-response. "It's a really simple job, though. One household in the forest, and probably a single vampire that passed by. It's not like I can't handle it."

In all honesty, I preferred to do this kind of job alone, without a babysit.

"You're our strongest weapon," he stated, his voice still as professional as before. He was a man on the job -probably never left the job either.

"So I've heard," I murmured. "Which makes me come back to the question, why are you here with me if you know I'm perfectly capable of doing it myself?"

"Because the council gave me the job," still no emotion came to the surface. I wondered if I could break that hard shell he, and every other Hunter, wore. It made my people quite boring if you asked me.

"So you've said," I was starting to get annoyed at his plain answers. "Is my loyalty being questioned? Or are you just my babysit?"

"I'm here to guarantee your safety," his voice didn't change, there was no irritation nor excitement, just simple facts. At least on his side. I, on the other hand, smiled brightly at this new found information.

"They do understand," I gasped dramatically, "that killing vampires every single day for the past two weeks attracts the attention of the vampire court."

The man turned to me, a normal human would have pressed his eyebrows together in a frown now, but Marx was a Hunter, so his face was stoic as always. Though that didn't make it less clear that I was walking on eggshells. I was after all mocking our village council, and maybe even the Hunter High Council. And those were serious crimes in our community.

"It is a fact that recent vampire activity has been rather," his gray eyes moved to the right corner of his eyes for a second, before he spoke again, "interesting. Certain appearances could be seen as questionable."

"They're sending scouts?"

Somehow that surprised me, were they really willing to let their people die for information about me?

"That's what we think, yes," he turned forward again and picked up his pace, leaving me one step behind.

"What's the evidence?"

In my eagerness, my feet got stuck behind a root and I almost tripped. With my arms extended so I could break my fall, I stumbled forward right into his arms. He looked down at me with a disapproving look. He probably rolled his eyes as well on the inside.

"Certain areas," he let go of me when I had regained my balance and continued walking, "have certain patterns of vampire activity. The northwest is usually very strict, with lots of trained vampires."

"Right, that's where the higher ranked vampires live," I remembered my teacher talking about that in geography.

"Yes, but the east, around the region of Holt and closer to the mountains, the activity has always been more chaotic. There isn't really any kind of pattern, until two weeks ago when the activity increased, yet the killings didn't."

"They don't want us to know they're there."

"That's what it looks like," he agreed.

We walked in silence for some time. I was thinking about everything he said, somehow I was more worried about the vampires than I was about myself. I stifled a laugh, until I realized Marx was looking at me.