The Hunter Chronicles

Chapter 9

     Fall was in full swing now. The leaves of the trees had turned to beautiful shades of orange, red, and yellow. It may seem funny, but Darius loved to come over and rake leaves with me. It definitely was not something that I expected a vampire to enjoy. One day when we were making a huge pile of leaves I asked, “Why do you love raking so much?” Darius laughed at my confused expression, “Well, I guess I have never had anyone to do something fun with. Being a vampire you kind of get the rep of being the scary bad guy, but when you stop and think about it, most of us didn’t choose to be a vampire. In my case I had just been walking down the street when someone jumped me. When he saw how strong I was and how much I was fighting back he turned me into a vampire instead of killing me.”

     He took the rake from me and idly pulled a clump of leaves towards the main pile, “I never thought you were a bad guy.” I murmured quietly. He stopped and looked up at me. One of those smiles that made butterflies well up in my stomach lit his face, “I know, that’s why I like being with you so much.” He playfully poked me in the side and I responded by throwing a handful of leaves at him. Even after he brushed them away, there were still golden flecks in his dark hair. It was in moments like these that I could tell there was something different about Darius. He looked other worldly, as if he didn’t belong here. At least in the fall and winter months his icy pale skin looked as if it belonged. But his charcoal eyes would never belong here. They always looked like pools of dark smoke, swirling in a contained space.

     Darius had told me that all vampires had eyes like these. They helped ensnare their poor victims, even if they were animals, which Darius promise was mostly what he hunted. Although in the back of my mind I knew that Darius would have to leave some day. Soon people would realize that he wasn’t getting older, so he would have to disappear before then, “Julie? Are you ok?” I looked up, startled. Darius was gazing at me in concern, his smokey eyes much darker than normal. He needed to hunt, “Darius you can’t go this long without a meal, you need to go, that’s ok.” He sighed and looked into the woods that lay on the other side of my backyard.

     “I’ll be back in a few minutes, ok Julie?” I nodded and smiled up at him. He drew me close and planted a frosty kiss on my forehead. For some reason Darius was afraid of actually kissing me, he said I was too fragile, and he would lose control to quickly. I knew that Darius had a dark past, one that he hardly ever talked about with me. He was afraid that I would leave him alone, what he didn’t understand was that I was attached to him now. He probably didn’t remember what happened, but I clearly did. After the attack at the therapist’s office Darius had walked me home. On my front porch, he had taken my hand that had held his bloody one and brought it up to his lips to kiss it. A tiny trace of my blood came away on his lips and he licked it away subconsciously. Then he was gone.

     However tiny that trace of blood had been, it was now a part of him, and because of that, I too was a part of him. When he disappeared into the trees I sagged onto a tree to watch him go. I didn’t know why that single taste of my blood had made me rely so heavily on Darius, maybe there were some other reasons that I didn’t quite understand yet, but every minute I spent away from him was pure agony. Something came to mind then. I didn’t have to be attached to Darius by some blood bond. I was in love with him. And it was far stronger than the love I had ever felt for James.

     As if on cue, the voice I despised most in the world sounded behind me, “Where’s Darius, Julie?” I spun around to look at James. Of course he had some other girlfriend now, but he was bitter about losing his best friend to his ex girlfriend, “Why do you care James, it’s not like he is going to want to hang out with you now.” James regarded me with such loathing, I was sure that I was mirroring his expression, but I didn’t care, I just wanted to get James out of my yard. Suddenly James grinned, it wasn’t a pleasant grin. I knew what occasions he saved this look for. The last time he smiled like that he had humiliated a teacher so much that she had quit her job the next day, so I knew that James was going to do something very stupid.

     He approached me, still grinning wildly, “I’ve missed you so much Julie.” He cued. There was a time that I would have collapsed into his arms and taken everything he gave me, but that was before I had met Darius and grown to hate James, “You’ve got to be kidding me.” I said in disbelief. James sidled through our carefully made pile of leaves, scattering them across the yard. I backed up, forgetting that the tree was behind me. Until I realized that James was not a vampire, my hands blindly groped for something sharp and wooden to defend myself with. But even if I did find something I didn’t hate James enough to slam a stake through his heart.

     James pressed himself against me and smiled, “Well aren’t you beautiful today.” He leaned in and kissed me hard. I tried to shove him off, but he only gripped me tighter, “Get, OFF!” I screamed, struggling and kicking as his hands started to travel across me. When he tried to push me to the ground I finally struck him with one of my fists. My force surprised him and he pushed me back. I tripped over the rake and toppled to the ground. James approached me again, fury in his eyes, “You worthless—“ A blurry figure barrowed into him. I pushed down my shock when I recognized Darius’s dark hair and grey coat. James was laughing at Darius, “Hey pal.”

     I knew before James that he was in a potentially life threatening situation. Darius was serious about protecting me, if anyone crossed the line, they would pay. But I didn’t really realize that Darius had not fed until I heard an inhuman snarl come from his drawn back lips. Fear drained all the color from James’s face as he stared into the eyes of a monster. This was probably the first time he had ever seen a vampire, or a freak as James probably was thinking right now. But Darius slammed James up against the house like he weighed nothing and he took a hold of his somewhat long hair, pulling his head to one side to get better access at his throat, “Stop!” I screamed. Darius looked over in my direction and bared his teeth. I shrunk back. Obviously this was not my Darius.

     He turned back to the now whimpering James and sunk his teeth into his neck. A tiny cry of pain escaped his lips, and then his eyes closed to slits. I could see Darius swallowing and biting deeper into his neck. I couldn’t let this happen. I flung myself forward and started pounding on Darius’s back, “Darius! Please stop! You can’t do this!” I cried. He let go of James and tossed me to the side. I heard a hollow thump as James hit the ground, and then Darius was flipping me over so that I was looking up at him. His eyes were still black as soot and his mouth was stained with blood; he was still in hunting mode. He crouched on top of me, pressing all of his body weight into me, and he pushed my head to the side, “Please, stop Darius.” I whimpered. He carefully encircled me with his arms and lifted me up slightly so that my hair dangled away from my neck.

     I closed my eyes, silent tears slipping down my cheeks. But the pain never came. When I opened my eyes slightly I looked up into Darius’s familiar charcoal eyes. He was staring at me in horror, “I was going to kill you.” He whispered, “James!” I shouted and tried to pull away from Darius, but he wouldn’t let go, “Don’t go over there Julie.” Darius demanded. The hard edge that had been in his voice when I first met him was back. He gently cupped my face in his hands and whispered, “I’m so sorry.” My head flew back towards the ground faster than I knew was safe. Pain briefly lit up my skull, then everything went dark.

** WOOHOO! Second chapter in a row! You know when you have ideas practically flooding your brain? Well that’s how I feel right now, J. Any thoughts on Darius? If you comment I will give you a shout out! Thanks for reading! Comment?? Vote?? Fan??