The Hunter's Alpha

23 Visit

Amber

Over the next few weeks, I continued to work, and in my spare time I hung out with Sarah or Dan. Ever since she accepted that he probably wasn't going to murder me, they got along marginally better.

Dan had been exactly what I needed, a neutral party who I could talk to without constantly avoiding the truth of the world around me. The other humans around me were nice enough, of course, but I could never be forthcoming about who I really was and what I had experienced. Dan had his own loyalties, of course, but he seemed to enjoy being around me more than he cared to use me to gain favour with his queen.

I was happy—or maybe, I could have been happy—if only I could have gotten Alpha Devon out of my head. Unfortunately I seemed incapable of that little feat, so I quietly continued with a feeling of negativity like an anchor dragging me down.

One evening, Dan was sitting in our kitchen. Sarah was home and lazing around, so the two were snarking at each other as per usual when they were in speaking range. I was on the internet on my phone and mostly trying to ignore them.

"You know, Puppy, "Bloodsucker' isn't even a particularly creative insult. All the werewolves call us that when they're being all high and mighty. Shouldn't you try a little harder?"

"Okay, Parasite, anything for you."

"You're such a cute little pup."

"Don't look at me."

"Aw, why not? Are you starting to like me, Puppy?"

"Not in a million years."

"Well, of course not. You werewolves don't live much longer than humans. In a million years you'll be dust. But don't worry, I'll remember you fondly."

"I'll show you who's going to be dust."

I glared at both of them in turn. "Seriously, how old are you two?"

"Nineteen."

"Ninety-one."

"Then you're both old enough to be less annoying."

Sarah glared at the vampire across the counter from her with folded arms. "He's old enough to know better. I'm still pretty much a kid."

He shrugged. "I'm like a baby in vampire years."

"I think being a parasite stunted your mental growth." Sarah cast him a contemptuous glare.

"You know, I think you're right. I'll have to ask my sire if I've changed at all."

"Your family connections are frankly creepy. Someone gives you a bit of blood and suddenly they're family? Like, how do vampires pick their fledglings anyways?"

"Well, contrary to popular opinion, law-abiding vampires usually put a lot of time and effort into choosing who they're going to turn, except in emergency situations. Obviously we don't want to make too many because at a certain point overpopulation would make it too hard to hide our existence from the humans. Plus, it's never a good idea to hunt prey to extinction. So anyway, when a vampire finds a good candidate, they submit a request, and then there are a number of trials to ensure the vampire is a good fit, and..."

I always found Dan's explanations about vampirism to be interesting, because it was so much different than what I'd learned from the hunters. They way they told it, all vampires ran around constantly murdering victims and occasionally turning a favoured plaything with reckless abandon. And the only reason vampires weren't overrunning the human population was because of the dedication of the hunters.

"So, what about rebel vampires, then?" Sarah was curious in spite of herself.

"Well, I'm sure they do what they want, but if they get caught by the queen's forces, it's death at noon."