HUNT
Turns out, Rhys knew how give great incentives.
After dark, all four of us left the house in Aaron's Ford fiesta. They were taking me to my flat. I would get to take some things to stay at the house with the others, and I hoped, God I hoped, that Hettie would be there. The possibility made me want to jump for joy. Maybe if I did, I'd end up on the ceiling. Who knew what was possible with this new, strange body?
All the way over I was silently buzzing in the car and during the walk up into the building even with Rhys's hand holding mine. He'd told me it was just in case. His grip was firm and warm. My stomach twisted a little seeing the building, it was like a concrete giant. It almost seemed to... speak.
You are not welcome anymore, you the undead walking.
Now that my mortal curtain had been dropped, everything felt different. Everything.
"Why did we have to come for this?" Isak complained quietly as we got into the lift.
"You know why," Rhys said calmly as we all squeezed in, thumb brushing over the back of mine once. "You should've stayed in the car if you wanted to complain."
Isak opened his mouth to argue back but Aaron grabbed him around the neck, messing up his short hair. "This guy. Always with a stick up his ass. You're lucky we love you, man."
Isak pushed Aaron off of him and grumbled.
I was trying to hold it together next to them but my mind was racing. Would Hettie be able to tell I'd changed? She always knew me the best out of anyone. What would she say when she saw the three attractive guys tailing me like some kind of security detail or when I told her that I was suddenly staying with them?
God, I didn't even want to think about the theories she'd have about that.
My hand shook as I tried to get the key in the familiar front door.
It didn't matter though. I knew she wasn't there without even setting a foot through the threshold. The door swung open and the flat was undeniably void of life.
"She's not here," I said, not sure how I really knew since there had been times where I'd assumed she wasn't home then she'd come out of nowhere scaring the shit out of me.
But I just knew this time, for certain.
"Yeah," Rhys said from beside me. He dropped my hand and I felt a cold shiver slip through me. "You'll be able to notice things like that now, if you couldn't before. How many people are in the space around you, things like that."
I sighed and pushed my way in, going for her room just in case. The shuffling of shoes came from behind me as the boys piled into the hallway. A part of me hoped she would be there snuggled up in her duvet watching Greys Anatomy on her laptop. No such luck. Her bed was messily made, remnants of last night evident from her makeup lined up on her dresser to the outfit she hadn't chosen over her favoured one, lying abandoned over her desk chair.
I frowned as I stroked the crocheted blanket her Mum had made for her when we'd moved in. Where was she?
Rhys poked his head around her door, obviously wondering what was taking me so long.
His eyes went over her ribbons on the wall from her dressage competitions. The cork board she'd haphazardly put up with thumb tacks and all the pictures on it. He gently poked a string of beads she'd hung up on her curtain rail. "I'm sorry, I know you wanted to see if she was okay."
My stomach sank, shaking my head. "Maybe... maybe she stayed at someone's house." It wasn't rare for her to get lost in a night or a few days of passion with someone and come back when she was ready with a giddy smile.
"I won't go into sordid details, Ly, but let's just say I am a happy, happy woman."
I couldn't even call since I'd lost my phone.
"I'm sorry, Snow," Rhys said. I didn't react to him using my second name. "We can come back tomorrow, if you want?"
I breathed out, fixing her messy duvet. "Yeah, I'd like that." My eyes went to the door. "I should pack some things." Then left without letting him reply.
Being in my room felt a little surreal. It was still a mess from last nights getting ready phase of throwing multiple outfits onto my bed until I found the perfect one and so many pairs of shoes strewn about on the floor.
I almost tripped on one of the bastards and kicked it into the wall to get it away from my footing. It whipped across the room, the almost stiletto heel of the shoe stabbing through the drywall. The shoe hung there limply, impaling the air.
Oh fuck. I reflexively stepped back, glancing at my hands and then the rest of my body. Note to self, small movements.
"Well, there goes our security deposit," I mutter to myself, and grab my duffel bag from under my bed.
My laptop was the first thing to go in with its charger. Then my toiletry bag. Then clothes. Every item I shoved into the bag, it felt as though a piece of me was splintering off. My old life cracking under the pressure of this new chapter, the mark of my suffering.
I stepped out of my room just under an hour later. "I'm done."
Aaron drove us away to a place called Fairlop waters country park. I watched everything outside of the car not really paying any attention. It was just to have something to concentrate on, to not think about my body or what I'd become or Hettie.
Tree. Car. Tree. Tree. Sign. Bush. Car.
"We're here." Rhys nudged me out of my stupor and I blinked.
We got out and I looked around. There weren't any other cars aside from ours parked in the parking spaces. Something that made me pause was that I could see pretty clearly for how dark it was. I squinted and rubbed my eyes but the fields seemed the same, clear as day. The wind swirled past and I gripped my coat tighter around myself.
"You'll want to tighten your laces. Tripping when you're running at vampire speed isn't fun," Aaron let me know, casting a smirk over at Rhys.
I caught it and bent down to tighten my shoelaces, a sick feeling bubbling in my stomach. I hadn't eaten meat since 2018. "I don't know if I can do this," I admitted when I finished and stood up.
Aaron nudged me lightly with his shoulder, his dreadlocks swinging. "It's unnatural to the humane part of you, but your primal instincts have been heightened with your change."
"Can't you feel any urges or feelings buried deep in your subconscious?" Rhys asked.
I frowned but closed my eyes, squeezing them shut. Somewhere deep inside of me, there was a thirst. A will stronger than I knew. A lust.
Hunt. Thirsty!
"It's telling me to hunt."
"Well, let's go then," Isak said from the other side of the car. "If we wait around here and talk all night, the prey will be scared off."
I glared at him, his attitude was driving me nuts. I would've retorted something snarky but then I watched as he stiffened. His whole body seemed to turn to stone, only a slight twitching in his nose. Then, empty air replaced where his body once was. I gaped, looking around for the bad-tempered boy.
Aaron chuckled, shaking his head. "He's a right show off when he wants to be." He nodded at us. "Good hunting."
The huge man stalked off into the trees, in search of his own food. Rhys guided me to an open, empty field of long and short grass.
"Alright, there's a badger in that corner of the field, can you focus on it?" Rhys asked, his eyes trained on the west point of the field.
I looked in the same general direction, trying to tap in to whatever new senses I'd gotten. There were twitters and tweets from settling birds, rustles of grass from either the animals or the wind, breaking twigs. It was like a discordant symphony in my head. I couldn't concentrate on one thing when it was all screaming at me.
I rubbed my eyes, looking away. The noises slowly faded into the background. "It's too much. How am I supposed to focus on just one thing?"
"Feeling things as a vampire for the first time is like cataloging sensations and sounds all over again. Things like the wind on your skin or water on your face will all feel different if ever so slightly, then your hearing is like tuning in to a radio station."
I tried to make sense of it but didn't see a clear answer. "I don't get it."
Rhys hummed to himself and scanned the field again. He pointed with his finger toward a small gaggled of trees. "There's a pigeon in the trees over there, try and focus on that area. Clear your ears and watch it. The sounds will come."
I blinked harshly, horrified I was even in this position. With my body half shaking, I watched the crowd of trees trying to tune in my hearing. Watching it for a moment yielded no results, but then my mind seemed to zoom into the image of my eyes and I spotted the bird. It cooed and it was like it was happening right in my ears.
A gasp left my mouth, the unfamiliar sensation scary but beautiful at the same time. My eyes moved and caught a squirrel dancing across the field floor and hearing the scrape if it's tiny claws digging into the mud and grass. The beat of it's heart.
Rhys spoke in a hushed voice. "Why don't you choose your meal?"
My mind zoomed back out quickly, the words registering like death bells. "I'd rather not do this at all," I muttered.
Rhys gave me a grim look. His hair rustled in the slight breeze, eyes unyielding. "Trust me on this, Snow. A vampire who refuses to eat becomes a dangerous one very quickly."
I shivered. "Can't you do it?" I hated the idea of having to... to kill.
"You have to learn to do it yourself," he said softly, though there was pity in his eyes.
"Why, if Aaron brings blood from his job?"
Rhys shook his head. "Sometimes we don't have the luxury of things like that. You'll need to be able to hunt."
I huffed, feeling my eyes sting at the unfairness of it all.
Scanning the field again, there was something snuffing around in the grass. A wild hare. I could hear the wind ruffle it's fur and smell the scent it carried over. The rapid heartbeat calling out to me like dooming drums ascending into an opera.
"There are things you need to know about choosing prey. Ecosystems can be very delicate. We can't just kill whatever we want here nor there. We have to be selective."
"Selective?" I heard myself ask, eyes trained on the animal as if hopped a few feet over to another patch of grass. It stuck it's neck out to observe for predators, then continued to forage for it's meal. Oh, how I envied it.
"We don't kill pregnant animals, or ones with young infants."
"How can I know if it's pregnant or has babies?" I asked.
"You listen for multiple heartbeats," Rhys explained. "And we don't kill young males in mating season either but I'll teach you about mating seasons later." I felt a twitch in my eyes, and the sharp sensation of my elongated canines poking into my lower gums. Watching the hare, God, I was getting hungry...
My stomach recoiled at the thought but my stomach urged me to stir where I crouched. It cried out for sustenance.
"Have you spotted anything?"
"A hare. I think it's older, there's grey fur on the face and on it's back." My voice came out distorted, almost slurring and with a lisp.
Rhys took a moment to focus on the direction of my target. "That should be good."
I swallowed, my body pushing me toward this but my mind was holding me back. I knew deep down this was the only way, humans was out of the question and I needed to eat.
A tear dribbled down my cheek as I grasped the grass in my hands and pulled forward, my body shooting forward. Everything around me was harsh whipping air and I suddenly became confused as I lost where the hare went. I looked around wildly, my body not really my own anymore. I stiffened, catching the scent like a hunting lion and locked eyes with the hare. It's eyes were wide and tense. Tiny heart beating rapidly. A snarl left my mouth and with a final leap, I became more animal than human.
I was shaking as I lost to my baser instincts. I felt the hare dying in my hands, sucking the life out of it until there was nothing left. My urge to feed ceased after a while and I put the animal down softly in the grass, two puncture wounds in it's small neck. My eyes went to my hands, covered in blood, then felt the wetness of it around my mouth and on my face. A garbled cry left me. I'd done it. There was no turning back from this.
And I hated how good I felt. My body was singing just like it had this morning when Rhys had first fed me.
"Snow." Rhys' voice startled me, and I turned to snarl at him out of instinct. It took a moment for me to register who he was.
Then I looked away, shame filling me.
The man walked around until he was in front of me and knelt before me with a bottle of water in his hands. "Here, for the blood."
I gratefully washed my hands and face as he poured the water out for me, but I avoided his piercing stare. I couldn't believe it had happened. I didn't want to believe it.
"I know this is overwhelming and scary, Snow. Try and stay calm for me, new blood in your system especially as a new-born can throw you into a primal state at the merest elevation of your heart."
Hearing that just made me want to panic but I tried to keep my body steady and present even if all I wanted was to curl up in a ball and forget what I'd done. The ignorant truly were blessed.
"Look at me, Snow," he said softly.
I slowly lifted my head, tears welling in my eyes and falling onto the grass and the corpse of my prey.
"You did well, you did better than me for my first time."
I frowned, sniffing. "What happened?"
Rhys gave an embarrassed chuckle, scratching the back of his head. "Let's just say, I didn't tighten my laces before I went hunting."
A small part of me laughed, my mouth twisted into a sad sort of laughing smile as I imagined Rhys flying forward at 50 miles an hour after tripping on his own laces.
Aaron and Isak soon emerged from the trees. Isak was wiping his mouth and I had to look away. I was still kneeling beside my kill when they'd approached, seeing what I'd done. Aaron knelt down a little.
"Try not to be scared, Lyla. It's the natural cycle of things."
His words weren't comforting. I wished I could expel all of the blood I'd drunk, feeling that curdling feeling in my stomach.
"We should make a move, then we can check your flat again tomorrow for your friend, what do you say, Snow?" Rhys asked, extending a hand for me.
I sniffed, looking down at my prey again, then took his hand and stood on unsteady legs. "Okay."
Isak scoffed, scuffing his shoe on some grass. "Don't be idiots. If she was with you that night, she's probably dead already."
I stiffened, snapping my head in his direction. "What?" Something deep inside of me purred. It had claws of shimmering adamant that stroked my mind and turned me over to it at the slightest touch. I felt myself slipping.
"Don't," Aaron warned his friend.
Isak ignored him, his glare hardening, digging himself further into what he'd started. "You haven't seen or heard from her since that night, come on, don't tell me you're really that naïve?"
Aaron elbowed Isak sharply in the ribs as Rhys blocked my view of Isak.
"Hey, Snow?" Rhys said quietly, close to my ear.
But I was already slipping too far back in my mind. I was not in control anymore.
"Snow, breathe. Calm down. Isak doesn't know what he's saying."
My heart. God, it hurt! It hurt so bad. It was like all the life was being sucked out of me.
Then, I couldn't hear him. His words muted over the pulsing in my ears.
Panic spiked through my veins, electrifying my body. Unable to do anything but watch, my head whipped up, mouth snarling and ready to attack.
Attack the man who dare suggest Hettie was dead.
"Stop her!" Rhys yelled, trying to grab me but I shot out of his reach.
Aaron came running at me but I swiftly dodged him so he went behind me and kicked him over.
My body aimed for Isak, snarling and growling at him like a feral cat, totally taken over by the primal side of me.
He snarled back, preparing for a fight. At the ends of his fingers were huge black talons that clicked with every movement.
I raced forward, jumping up to cling to his upper body, slashing at him with my hands that felt like axes. He grabbed my hair and yanked me back, trying to force me down. I wasn't having it. I twisted out of his grip and grabbed him with both hands, flinging him into Aaron who was fast approaching. Both of them went flying over.
This vampire strength was no joke.
Just catching my breath, my head turned toward the inner city and I knew the want... the need going through my mind.
Find Hettie! Find. Find. Find.
"Don't, Lyla! You could be spotted!" Rhys yelled at me but I was already going, racing off into the night to find my missing friend.