The Hunt

Chapter 19

Alesco:

The humans are surrounded. There's five of them outside and one in the machine. The machine that is blasting out their artificial sunlight. I feel it weaken me, seeping into my bones, even after standing only moments in its rays. We'll need to make this quick.

I lock eyes with the human at the front. It's him. The same one that let us go. I knew it was when I heard his voice. He's standing there, gripping his shining, black weapon, staring at me. There's sweat on his brow, but the bright lights make it difficult for me to see him properly.

"My lady?" Fabian asks again. "What are your wishes?"

I just told him to stop, changing the plan on a whim, making myself visible to the humans. I was supposed to stay out of sight at first while they took down the hunters. Not that I'm afraid to fight, but they insisted, all of them. For my own safety they said. I tried arguing it, but it was futile. What difference did it make? Here I am anyway.

I feel torn. We're supposed to bring them in and yet here stands a human without whom I would have been caught, trapped and who knows what else. He recognises me too, I can see it in his face.

If we take the rest of them, we can leave him out. Let him run, take the others. But what am I thinking? These are hunters, they are trained to capture and hurt my kind. All of them. That is their life. And yet he let us go. I cannot explain why he let us go. Something made him act with kindness, or some other inexplicable human emotion.

"Take them all, but let him go." I say, pointing at him.

"We can take them all, my lady. Why leave one?" Fabian says, looking at me, a doubtful look on his face.

"He is the one who let us walk free from the hunters." I say. "My brother and mother and I are walking free because of him."

"Alesco, what's going on?" Wynn says before Fabian can reply. He is coming over to me, moving around the perimeter of light.

"Brother. We take them all, but let him go." I say, pointing at the soldier. Darren they called him. I see recognition register on Wynn's features.

"You?" He calls over to Darren. "Why did you let us go back then?" I see the human shift from foot to foot, clearly uncomfortable. Wynn's voice carries clearly despite the loud noises emanating from their vehicle. The sounds of the forest.

"Turn the damn sound off" A human next to Darren calls. A moment later, the vehicle is silent bar the purring of its internal mechanisms. The lights still blare.

Another of the humans speaks. "Come on Darren, tell the vamps why you let 'em go..."

Darren's eyes flick from Wynn to me. He looks around, as though checking whether they are still surrounded.

"I don't know." He says. Now that the sound is off I can hear better. His heart is beating quickly. Most of them are, pattering against their chests like running feet, exposing the weakness of their flesh. I feel a thirst and a hunger at the thought of their blood, the sweet taste, the warm flow of power it would give. Do the others feel it? Does Wynn feel it?

"You don't know." Wynn repeats the words, as though sizing them up for truth. He turns to me. "He doesn't know, Alesco. I believe it. Let him go. We'll take the others."

"Take us will you?" Says one of the humans, the one next to Darren. There's something odd about this one, I detect no fear, no increase in heart rate. Somehow he is at ease, despite their darts failing them and being surrounded by vampires. I look closely at him, his gray eyes are cold, his body relaxed. He's not reacting as he should.