The Devils Daughter

Aria

The early days of summer flow through the air in the barren New Mexican landscape. As nighttime falls the air cools down from its normal humid nature. The windows are rolled down slightly, the wind from outside circulating and cooling the inside of the car. Along the side of the roads, there are mixtures of the color green and a bruised yellow, signifying the dried plant life and desert area of the state. Tumbleweeds whisk past the car, sometimes rolling past the front every now and again. Farther from the roads stood the tall mountains, looming over the flat scenery. An ombre of pink, orange and yellow paints the mountains, reflecting the color palette of the setting sky, the clouds moving along with the colors, traveling to go back home and wait for the next day to come out again. Bobcats stalk across the open area, searching for their last piece of food before they retreat back home.

The area is peaceful.

"This hunt was pretty decent," Theo comments, while cleaning his blade. The cloth catching the fresh blood from off of the silver blade. The faint metallic smell of blood floats through the car and out through the window. It wasn't the worst. A ripped piece of clothing was used to wrap my upper arm, which stung from all the bleeding. My stomach, face and legs were in excruciating pain, but I've had worse days.

"You're right, way to go out gracefully, tripping over that wire," Theos face goes red and he shoots me glare, causing me to laugh. He has a bruise on his left cheek and forehead, one from a fist and the other from the fall.

"It's not funny! My glasses broke, again," he moans, pointing to his face where black and blue glasses sat on his nose. Black electrical tape wrapped over the bridge, one side of the frames bending downwards, while the other side was as normal as can be, both sides adorned with cracked glass.
"It's a bit funny," I softly protest, keeping my eyes on the road in front of me, noticing that the sky has lost its ombre and has dimmed to a dark blue.

"Wait till you get glasses, won't be funny then," Theo mumbles under his breath.

"20/20 vision baby, don't count on it," I retorted. Theo rolled his eyes and decided that his sword was clean enough and started to put it away in its case and reached in the back to put it on the seats. The moon takes the place of the setting sun providing dimed light. Stars popping up here and there aiding the moon in lighting up the roads. I turned on my headlights, as night fell upon the land, the peaceful air left with the day.

The hunt wasn't as bad as expected. Random vampire's terrorizing people, the usual. Nothing crazy about them, they also seemed to have just been turned. Just causing a scene to do so. They looked around my age or a bit older, really annoying. They reminded me of some kids that went to my school, coincidentally they were underclassmen. Some of them even looked like the kids in question, hopefully they weren't. But something in the back of my head told me otherwise, and a wave of guilt flew over me. I understand my job, I understand that I have to kill vampires so they don't terrorize or hurt others but I feel that you can only kill for so long. These vampires were pretty young too, they're life didn't even fully begin. By how they talked they couldn't even get their permits.

School ended just a few days ago and honestly I wish I was back. I hate the work that comes from it but it gives me an excuse not to go on hunts, and just to be normal. Hanging out with friends, going to dances, and surprisingly sleeping in. All there is now is to wait for senior year to come to finally rescue me from this summer. Maybe in my little freetime I could focus on college applications. Especially scholarships, Kiana wouldn't even think about paying any sort of tuition. I'm thinking of most definitely moving out of state, there's absolutely nothing in New Mexico. Yeah, there are colleges here and there, but why would I want to live here any longer? The dust and high winds get everywhere, in clothes, and hair, the heat is borderline unbearable. There are the winters but they only last for so long. I don't think I could take another year of it.