Amor Caecus

Chapter One

All the men were dead. Bodies and limbs strewn across the cave floor, dimly lit by the light of the torches glowing on the walls. Blood stained the ground, turning the hard-packed earth into a rich shade of burgundy. It was a horrific scene. It would have been burned into her memory, branded into her mind and imprinted into subconscious; it would have haunted her dreams for as long as she lived.

If she could see it.

Instead, all she knew was the same silver haze that had permeated her entire life. All she could hear was the crackling of the fire from the eternally burning torches, and the distinct absence of breathing from the 12 men she followed into the cave. Now, though, her primary focus was on keeping her own breathing silent. She was a complete fool for thinking she could do this. Trailing a pack of trained, experienced Hunters while they hunted a monster.

How trained and experienced could they have been if they let themselves be followed by a blind girl?

She shook the thought out of her head. Honestly, she had much more important things to think about right now. Like the fact that she had no idea where she was or how to get home. Or how she was going to get out of this place without being murdered. Or how to explain to anyone where her father had gone and why she was living alone at 18 and how the hell was she going to support herself because she couldn't exactly get a normal job and this was never something she and her father had discussed and oh my god I'm going to die I'm going to die I'm going to di-

She froze.

The sound of slithering was drawing closer and the air pricked with tension, every particle and atom around her humming and causing her muscles to tighten even further. She pressed her back harder against the wall behind her by the caves entrance where she had stopped, not daring to enter any further. She was brave, but the sounds of men screaming were enough to kill any heroic notions she may have had. God, she really should have just listened to her father. He told her she wasn't ready to become a Hunter. He told her to just go to school. He told that under no circumstances should she ever go out alone.

She had reasoned that she wasn't alone while following the Hunters. Now, they're dead. Her father among them.

She's definitely alone now.

She inched herself backward and almost cried in relief when she felt the warmth from the sun's rays. She backpedaled faster until she heard leaves crunching beneath her feet and knew she was back outside the cave, standing just outside the opening. This monster, just like most others today, wouldn't follow her out into the sunlight. It made them all vulnerable, whatever plane they lived on, or magick involved in their curse, was not strong enough to handle the sun's UV rays. Some were more sensitive than others, of course, Vamps and Lycans chief among them. But both of those were a dying breed, having been hunted throughout the centuries. Now, all anyone had to worry about were the smaller myths and legends that were always either ignored or used as a minor tool in big blockbuster films. Or twisted into something good and light. Not that she'd ever tell a child this, but Tinkerbell was a bitch. She still had the scar from where the little faerie bit her, and she had shed no tears when her father killed the damn thing.

She wasn't facing a faerie now though. A faerie would have been easier. No, she had decided to follow her father on one of the most ill-fated hunts in history. No one had ever survived this monster, and everyone knew it. But her father's generation of Hunters had been the most arrogant in history, and he had always been particularly reckless. His successes had only made him more confident that a hunt led by him would not fail.

She distantly wondered if he'd been granted the mercy of being turned to stone.

The energy in the air shifted as slithering morphed into the soft padding of feet against a dirt floor. So, it was true, then. They had heard rumors of Medusa being able to change from half woman- half snake, to a full woman. Nothing was ever confirmed, of course, because no one had lived to tell the tale of meeting her; but there were very old texts, ancients stories telling of her being a Changeling before Athena had cursed her. No one knew what Medusa was able to change to before, but everyone knew what she was only able to turn into after.