Scorching

A/N from here on I'll be switching to Hunter's POV and some other characters as well as the story progresses, thanks for reading :)

Hunter

Peter began to explain everything once I calmed down a little. "To explain everything I'll have to talk about your dad, I don't know how much Gwynn told you." I tensed up. My dad? My mom had only told me stories of their brief fun together. He was a charming, funny, charismatic and easy-going guy. She gave me the name Hunter because of him. She used to tell me I reminded her of him. I guess I got more of his looks than my mom. She was a beautiful, petite blonde with golden brown eyes. Besides my height, being 5'2, I apparently got my brown wavy hair and green eyes from my father.

"Your dad is Lucas Hunt. He is a Diviner, they channel powers that come from stars. The creatures, yes they're actually called creatures, you hit it spot on, fitting right? They feed on human hearts, only coming out at night and they don't like the light. Up in the sky the stars are too far to hurt them, but the diviners are each connected to a star, and with that power they can conjure up weapons to kill these creatures." Magic powers? Are you serious. But mom, that... creature. I guess I can't be too surprised, I've never seen one before last night so there must be something or someone diffusing the situation. "So they don't come out during the day because of the sun then?" I ask, "And why have I never seen one?" "You're just as smart as your mom, yes the sun, a star itself, is so big that it kills them. That's why they don't come out during the day," Peter says, "I'm surprised you've never seen one, normal people can't see them, not unless they've witness someone killed by one, but you're not normal. Your father is the most powerful diviner on earth." Peter said that as if the words stung his tongue on the way out, "The star he was connected from since birth, is the sun."

As excited as I was to hear my dad was so powerful, it was just as quickly diminished by the fact that he still left me, mom, us. Left her to die, me to be alone. Why the fuck did it matter if he was so strong if he couldn't, no, wouldn't do anything about mom being sick, or taken over by the creature. Apparently the repulsion was written all over my face because Peter interrupted my thoughts, "Lucas left your mom without ever knowing she was pregnant, and they didn't keep in contact. His world was too different, and although your mom didn't know details, she could tell. It was a forbidden love of the sorts. They were together for a week when he was here on a mission." "A mission to kill one of the creatures?" I asked. "Yes. He and his teammates were here to kill a particularly grueling creature that was reported to have consumed a large amount of human hearts. Since your dad was sent the creature was killed within the hour they arrived. They decided to stay longer since they had been put up in a hotel for a week. Teens wanting a break from school and missions. He met your mom when she was—" "Waitressing at Shirley Temple, yeah I heard that much from her," I cut him off. They spent every second mom wasn't working together. And apparently during her shifts he would drag his friends there to sit through the whole thing continuing to order all day so they weren't kicked out. How ironic, my parents meet at the restaurant that ends up being the place my mom's life ended.

"Yes," he continued, "Your dad eventually had to go back and a few weeks later your mom found out she was pregnant, at 16. Your dad didn't hear from or about your mom again until yesterday, they got alerted that a creature was spotted in that same neighborhood," Mom. I tried to keep the tears at bay, but hearing felt like living it again. Peter kept going, "He was out on a mission so he sent someone in his place. Kaien Otake, an orphaned boy he welcomed as his own after he defeated the creature that killed the boy's parents. That boy killed your mother. Right after you passed out, he conjured a sword out of his star and stabbed it through the creature."

I couldn't take it anymore, the tears broke through again, accompanied by anger, so much anger, I started yelling, "So my own dad sent my replacement to kill my mom because he was too fucking busy. Are you fucking kidding me, there was no cure for her, no way to turn her back, no other options, and why was she turned into one anyways, you never mentioned that, you said the eat people's hearts not turn us into them is this the fucking walking dead. Was it cuz' I watched that at night when mom told me to go to sleep, am I being pranked, is this my punishment, someone please bring the cameras out I learned my lesson," the anger turned to more tears, and the tears turned into a manic laugh, and then slowly back to tears, "please, please bring the cameras, this all has to be a prank right, mom come out we can laugh now, I'll never watch something you tell me not to watch again, just please, please bring them out," Peter held me again. I cried and cried until nothing came out, and I dozed off.

That day was 5 years ago, it's feels like it was yesterday. Peter explained the rest once I woke up again, and I decided to stay with him. I didn't have much of a choice, not like daddy dearest was coming to pick me up. The past 5 years I've been training to channel the sun, just like Lucas. I don't ever call him dad because he's not. All he is to me, is the ballsack that contributed to my creation, mom did all the work anyways. And of course I had to look just like him. The only thing I doubt we have in common is curves, unless he has an ass like this too, good for him.

My training is rough, but not as bad as it was at first. I couldn't channel the sun for the first 2 years. I just learned the basics from Peter channeling a random star to conjure my weapons. I tried out a lot, Peter told me to try everything to see what was my best fit. Ended up being a scythe. May or may not have been influenced by watching Soul Eater with Kayce. Kayce is Peter's sister's kid, he started living with us about 6 months after Peter took me in. His sister is a deadbeat mom so Peter welcomed him too. I sometimes wonder what he really thinks about becoming a foster home of his own, and why he did it. He feeds us and puts a roof over our head sure, but he never seems to say what he's really thinking, and he rarely shows emotions.

Peter and Kayce are also diviners, though neither went to the school. Peter told us all about it though, the Diviners have schools and bases all over the world. The diviners who choose to be teachers watch over a group of students and train and take them on missions. I never really asked Peter why he didn't go to the school, or why he had so much knowledge about the school and the world of diviners if he never went. I didn't ask Peter much, he wasn't the type to divulge info about himself voluntarily, or to talk about his family, besides Kayce. Peter was strange, I loved him and he protected and sheltered me, but even in 5 years I didn't know much about him. He wasn't the lovey-dovey sort of father figure. He put me through harsh training and we didn't speak much besides about missions and things relating to my powers and Lucas. The first day I lived with him I woke up to him holding a knife he had fashioned from his star over my throat. He told me the quickest was to manifest my powers would be to "throw me into the fire." That was what the past 5 years had been like. The first 6 months I could barely sleep. Never knowing how he was gonna wake me up or what hell of a training session I would be put through. Until Kayce came. Then I could sleep. He didn't go against his uncle much but we shared a room and he would always do something to wake me up if he sensed Peter coming to do it himself, in a much more aggressive manner. Kayce always had a great talent for sensing people and creatures, something I struggle with. He would nudge me awake then we would both pretend to be sleeping, ready for whatever Peter had in store.

About 3 years ago Peter woke me up in the middle of the night with a creature in my room. Kayce and I only shared a room for about a year, so I was on my own at this point, but I was ready for him now. I knew Peter better and although I couldn't sense him like Kayce, I could predict him, I was extremely observant. I had been pretending to be asleep but smelled the dark, thick smoke of a creature, it filled my lungs, reminding me of my mom. I don't know if it was the nostalgia, but that same scorching feeling build up inside me, only heavier. The first time that feeling returned since the night my mom died. I formed a scythe out of the sun and I killed the creature. Peter acted proud, but I could feel a different emotion hiding behind that, I couldn't pin point it though.

"Took ya long enough," Kayce came in behind Peter and ruffled my hair. I swatted his hand away but smiled at him, as much as he tried to be nonchalant I knew he was happy for me. "So I can start training for real now right?" I asked Peter. Up until that point I had used a random star to form my scythe, but I could finally conjure the sun, just like my... Lucas. "If you thought the training before was rough, prepare yourself," was all Peter said. Kayce took me to the 24 hour diner in town since I couldn't sleep, and to celebrate.

I had been waiting for this moment for 2 years, so why did I feel so conflicted? Anger at myself for not being able to do this sooner and have protected my mother, from whatever psycho, defected diviner had been poisoning civilians to turn them into creatures. Anger at Lucas for sending Kaien to kill my mother because he was too busy and a coward. Disgust at myself for having the same power as my father, the same one that couldn't save my mom, or even notice anything was wrong, not that he was around to notice. Anger at Kaien for living MY life, and for killing mom. I shouldn't be this mad at him, but I am. He came to kill my mom without even trying to find another way. They could have waited. Waited for a cure or something, anything. Maybe that makes me a horrible person, but I'm gonna kill Lucas Hunt and take away Kai's dad the way he did with my mom, and after I do it, I'll go into hiding with Peter and Kayce and we'll continue killing creatures and looking for whoever turned my mom into one.