Her cold, beating heart

Chapter 1: Captured

*****A/N*****

Hello! I am your author, AJ. A little about me.

I'm a gay female. My real name isn't AJ, not even close, but this will be my publishing name for Wattpad.

This is a bit of a short chapter to get us started. 

Happy reading.

Until next time, your (female) author, AJ

****CHAPTER****

Arguing with the elders is one of my favourite things to do.

“Eden, we know you don't like her, and you don't think that Sara has the skills required for hunting, but she's passed the test. You must take her out with you tomorrow.” Elder Shane states.

“Normally, Shane, I'd laugh and say ‘you've got me’, but honestly, I have a bad feeling about this. Can we just hold off until our section is due to hunt again? I'm not saying never, just not this time.” I plead.

Shane has known me since I was twelve, and the group had found me. He's like a dad to me and knows things about me that not one else does. For instance, my bad feelings are never just that.

He looks up to me, and I can see the apology written on his face.

“Our decision has been made, huntress. We wish you and your section good hunting for tomorrow.” Elder David says. I've never liked him, smarmy twat.

Hunting day:

We leave camp at 4am, the sun has yet to rise, we are good to utilise the solar powered torch for the start of the journey, until we leave the safety of the dense forest and venture into the lighter woodland areas. By then the sun would have risen, negating the need for torches.

We need to make good ground today, there's an opening about a day from here, with the weather and the season, we should be able to get some deer to bring back.

Once we leave the gates of our home, I turn to address the team.
“Alright Delta section. Today, we officially welcome Sara into our group, as she's new, I expect everyone to look out for her. Sara, you're fully trained, so I expect you to pull your weight, but mostly, for now, you'll be watching and learning. I don't want to see you any further than 5 feet away from me, do you understand?” I ask.

“Seriously? I'm fully trained, I'm here to hunt and track, you can't just put me back into training!” She all but shouts at me.

I sigh, taking a deep breath and rubbing the bridge of my nose, this woman is already a pain in my ass. I don't want to argue with her, so decide to leave her pride and ego intact by explaining why this has to be done. I could easily make it out to be because i don't trust her, and feel she doesn't have the skills necessary. But, in all honesty, no matter how skilled a hunter you are, you are a rookie until you've integrated into the section and learnt how we operate.

“Sara, this is my section, we’ve worked together for years, I know that when we pick up tracks, Steve will take our flank, if we've found tracks, you can bet your ass that vampires have found them too. I know that Ash will take the lead as she’s our best tracker. I know that Tommy, Mary and Kai will split one way whilst we split the other. I know that in my group, depending on the animal, either Steve or I will take the shot. You have been here all of 5 seconds, you need to learn how we move, how we communicate and work out your role in this section, until then, until you know how we move inside out, you will remain under our watch”

Sara snorts and goes off to pick up her bag. This girl will be the death of me, she's so full of herself, I just know she's going to be trouble.

We're half a day into our trek, when I decide we should break for water. “Alright guys, I think we should stop for a break here.”

“Finally” Sara huffs as she drops her stuff and plonks her ass on the floor. The others just stand there looking at her.

“You passed the hunting course? You're what we would consider competent?” Tommy asks in disbelief.

“What? What's the problem? She said break time didn't she?” Sara replies, pointing her thimb in my direction.

“Sara, we don't just drop our stuff on the floor, that shit is heavy and makes a loud noise. Also, we check the area to ensure it's safe. You do know that vampires are a thing right?” I ask, incredulously.

“Yeah yeah, whatever. You guys can do that, I'm supposed to watch only, remember?” She smarts off.

“Unbelievable, bratty little shit, if daddy wasn't on the council, I swear.” I mutter, as the rest of us do our jobs.

Once we're happy, we return to ‘camp’, which at this point is just where Sara is laying asleep.

“I will kill her myself, what the hell is she doing? She's supposed to be 29 years of age, she acts like a bratty teenager. Why the hell are we lumped with her?” I rage. . . .

“Can you hear that?” Ash asks.

“Hear what?” I say, listening for any sounds as we all stay still.

“Exactly, I can't hear anything, no birds, no animals, nothing.” She whispers.

“Shit, you're right, we need to move, now.” I urge.

“Get up, Sara, get up now.” I urgently whisper, shaking her up. “We need to move, and we need to move now.” I say.

“How funny, try and scare the newbie whilst she naps. You must think I was born yesterday.”

“Sara, get the fuck up, I'm not kidding, this is not a drill, everything is too quiet, we need to move.” I whisper shout at her as I grab her arm, dragging her up.

Her face goes from the standard teenager ‘whatever’ face, to one of fear as we quickly but quietly run from the area to a more dense patch of forest. Just praying they're not coming from the direction we're headed, we have no way of knowing either way.

Just as we make it to the denser area, I'm still dragging Sara in the general direction when suddenly, something starts rustling in the bushes. I freeze, head snapping over to it, to see a deer grazing. . . . A fucking deer, that's just typical, I think.

Before I can start moving again, Sara had obviously picked up on the movement from the bush as she yanks her arm out of my grip with a shriek and starts running away from the dense forest.

“Fuck.” I mutter. “Stupid, stupid, stupid.” I continue. I glance towards the rest of my section, motioning for them to get to safety with my eyes, as I turn around and take off after Sara.

“I better not die because of this stupid girl, I swear, I will haunt her ass if I do.” Finally I catch up with Sara as we both come to a stop.

“what the fuck? Are you trying to get us killed? Fully trained my ass, you do NOT run away like that!” I admonish, doing my best to keep my voice low and steady.

I stand up straight, squinting my eyes at Sara, she's said nothing, she hasn't moved…did I break her?

‘Hello, Sara.” I say, waving my hand in her face. . . .still  nothing. “What are you staring at?” Swiftly turning around to follow her eye line. My shoulders slump as my eyes widen “Fuuuuccckkk” I let out breathily.

In front of us stand 2 vampires, smirking at us as if amused by our little show. 2, just 2, they're at least 30 feet away. If I can distract them both, Sara could make a run for it, she might be able to make it. Maybe. Fuuucckk, why do I have to do the stupid shit, being leader sucks. I could always say I couldn't find her? Just make a break for it myself? But then they'd likely split and capture us both. Hero shit it is I guess?

I look Sara in the eyes, trying to convey that she needs to run on my signal. She nods her head, I think she gets it.

Just as I'm about to start running towards certain death, I hear a voice from behind us.

“I wouldn't do that if I was you sweetheart, probably best If you both come quietly now.” I pivet so fast I almost fall over “Careful sweetheart, wouldn't want you to waste any of your precious blood now would we?” I stare right at him, 6ft 2, built like a brick shit house vampire with a smarmy smirk on his face that gives me the creeps.

“Well fuck me sideways and call me Sally.”