Hunters

Chapter 8

"Where's this library?" Rachel asked, scratching her itchy shoulder. A greenish band on the horizon indicated that dawn was almost upon them. She shuddered. She still associated it with Daniel's execution.

"Unfortunately, not too far away. We don't have as much time as I would have liked." Daniel stopped at a traffic light and took off his leather jacket. He winced and peeled the bloody sleeve of his t-shirt off his shoulder.

Rachel's eyes widened. "What happened to you?"

"Nothing serious. I'm just confused that this hasn't healed already. They did it hours ago."

Rachel rolled his sleeve back and gasped. Bloody gashes and a violent rash covered his entire shoulder. His wolf head tattoo was gone. "What did they do?"

He smiled bitterly. "They kicked me out of the order, didn't they? The tat had to go. I wish I knew what they had in those needles. It hurt like hell."

"Why didn't they let you keep the tattoo? They were gonna kill you anyway." Rachel sunk back in her seat and continued to scratch.

"Oh, boy." Daniel reached over and lifted her sleeve. "They branded you."

"What? What are you talking—" She yelped as her eyes fell on her shoulder. She had a sharp-sword-with-its-tip-down-in-a-circle tattoo, identical to Daniel's. When had they done this? And how come she hadn't bothered to check why she was itchy? "Branded me?"

"Yeah. That's the sign of the vampire Hunter." Daniel drove off as the light turned green. "You should have a necklace just like mine."

Rachel peered down inside her t-shirt and indeed found the small charm hanging around her neck. "That's what that sword thing means? I thought it was your personal thing."

"I thought it was Max's thing; that and the wolf. Until Gabriel told me that it's the sign of the Hunter. Another sign of recognition. As if sensing each other wasn't enough."

"You don't know much about Hunters, do you?" she whispered.

"Oh, I do know a lot about Hunters. I just didn't know the vital pieces." Daniel frowned and his hands tightened around the wheel. "I had no idea about the tattoos and necklace, I didn't know Max was an official renegade, and I honestly had no freaking idea we'd be hunted down and trialed. That seems to be pretty important information Max conveniently forgot to tell me."

"But you said you knew you had to report..."

"Yeah, but I thought it was like useless paperwork. Max told me everything except the crucial part about getting sentenced to death if I didn't report.. I just did what he did, never knowing there was another way, never questioning our lifestyle." He heaved a sigh.

"Why didn't you tell me anything about other Hunters?"

"Because I never used the information. So I forgot I ever had it." The shadow of a smile lit his features. "You know me. If it's not useful, it's not worth mentioning."

Rachel rubbed her new tattoo. Ignoring the way she'd gotten it, she kinda liked it. "Tell me about the Hunters. Everything you know."

Daniel slid her a sideways glance. "You feel like a history lesson now?"

She shrugged. "It's not like we have anything better to do until we get to the library."

"Alright, then. It all starts with the original Hunter. For some reason, this one man, though poisoned with vampire venom, didn't transform. Instead, he got the vampire's powers, except his human nature allowed him to develop some extra abilities. And from this one, lone Hunter, more spawned. I don't know if he turned others or what, but soon, the Hunter population grew. Until a fully fledged war broke out between them and the vampires."