The Huntress

Chapter 22

I had just finished my homework and was about to get something to eat when I heard the door open. I stopped dead in my tracks and wrapped my hand around the hilt of my dagger. I kept perfectly still not making a sound.

Had my father or I been too careless with our hunts? Had someone realized who we were and found out where we lived? If we were able to find them, surely they would be able to find us as well. I hoped that whatever it was could be killed with silver though, because that was all I had on me.

"Electra, are you home?"

I sighed and my shoulders slumped. It was only my dad.

My dad? He wasn't supposed to be back until tomorrow. I put my dagger back and walked into the kitchen.

"Yeah, in here."

I sat at the island, hopping up on the stool and waited for him to come in.

My dad walked in, going right past me and to the kitchen table, setting down his hunting bag.

"Did you get those bullets done?" He asked me.

"They're in the basement. They're all cast; the hollow ones just need to be filled with the powder. How do those work anyway?"

He grabbed a glass and filled it with water. "At the body temperature of a werewolf, and the combination of the speed of impact, the bullet's tip should break and release the powder into their blood stream. That mixed with how their blood reacts to silver, well it should be all you need to kill them. Won't even have to hit them in the heart, the powder will travel through the blood stream."

I was glad that his back was to me at the moment because I wouldn't have been able to hide my reaction. All I could think about was Jared getting shot with one of those bullets and there being nothing I could do to save him. Just another reason I wouldn't want him jumping in the line of fire for me.

"So, why are you back? Is the conference over already?" Getting to the question I'd originally wanted to ask, and the one I needed now to get my mind off thoughts of Jared dying from wolfsbane running through his blood.

"Yes and no. I came back because there was an interesting proposition that had been brought up by a small group of members."

"Oh really? And what would this proposition be?"

"Training."

I raised my brows. Training? That was their proposition? We already had training. I mean I already had training, I didn't know what other hunters did to learn the ways, but I'd already been there and done that.

"Really?"

"It's been brought up to have a more universal way of handling our hunts and to have the same training for every incoming hunter. There's talk about setting new hunters up with an education program. They would learn everything they need to about the monsters we hunt and how to follow through while out on a job. The procedures that need to be taken and how to gather information on your own if you come across one of them.

"The program would include that as well as some combat training. There would be different levels that each person would go through until they graduate the program. Once it's completed the person would be a 'licensed hunter' so to speak."

A program that taught everyone the same stuff, one that taught everyone how to fight. That seemed interesting.

"Well I don't think it's a bad idea. It could be pretty useful in fact. If everyone knows the same stuff and if everyone has the same protocols, then everything would run smoothly."

"I'm glad that's what you think, because I signed you up for it."

"What?" I asked trying not to yell.