HAVEN BLACK - complete

THE HUNT

Chapter 24 – THE HUNT

I hadn't fed for a week and my strength was slowly diminishing; my last prey feed me for almost half a month but soon yielded to my relentless appetite. While I relished the security of this source of enrichment, I detested the bitter taste. My first ever feed had been delectable, but nothing seemed to satisfy me since. Feeding to survive is what the burden had become.

I was too weak to hunt on my own this clear night, so I had taken my trusty old hunting rifle with me and it was loaded with just a single round; one shot was all I needed - I hadn't missed a target yet.

The full moon managed to pierce glaring beams of reflected sunlight into the forest through the tree canopy, but my heavy hooded cloak would protect me from these searing columns that struck the forest floor so beautifully. Hunting during a full moon in dense forest while enervated was a treacherous concoction for my kind.

Although I was in a weakened state, my ability to see through the thick darkness was hindered to some degree, but it was still much more than what it used to be. Bright orange heat signatures of insects around me and the sleeping birds in their high up nests above me flickered out against the tree trunks and the sodden forest floor. Fainter glowing shapes of larger animals miles away, were difficult to spot against the grayness, and if I wasn't so weak, they would be just as bright as the surrounding heat from the closer life forces and much easier to prey upon. And then there was the smell. I wished this forest was scented like fresh wood, it'd remind me of home. But the Jackson Valley forest always seemed to stink of shit and sodden soil.

It was a larger animals that I craved, a stag maybe, their volume of blood was crucial as I wasn't sure when I'd be able to feed again. But only one animal each hunt was all that I feared I could get away with, otherwise the Forest Rangers might observe a spike in slain creatures found in their territory as unusual activity and would investigate further. So I only had one bullet loaded into the bolt action rifle – to take the temptation away. I had frenzied once before in a different forest in a different country and it didn't go unnoticed. I became the hunted and my hunters all died because of it. Such a waste of life.

My kind was scarce and locked into secrecy; this world wasn't ready for us yet. I had to be kept a secret.

The next encounter was approaching and I needed to get my strength back up for it. I can't let them down, too much was potentially at stake. We didn't have all the information but we couldn't miss the next chance that came up. The timing had to be impeccable and we had to be seen as the good guys.

A deafening screech, followed by a deep growl pricked my ears up and vibrated through my night vision, breaking my thoughts about the assignment ahead. I gazed into the direction of animal calls and noticed that two of the distant glowing shapes had converged and seemed to be attacking each other. I quickly and stealthily closed in on them covering the mile gap within a minute, multiple times faster than even the fastest human runner; it would have been so much faster had I not been in such a frail state. And as I approached the two animals silently under their resonating snarls, their shapes became clear – a large bear and a lone wolf.

This was a rare opening – I would be able to injure the bear, feed on it, and then leave the corpse for the wolf to clean up. The Park Rangers, when they came across the carcass, would assume a pack of wolves killed the bear. Every feed was calculated but rarely as easy as this one. Raising the rifle to my shoulder and turning the safety off, I aimed the iron sights through the inch wide gaps between the crossing tree branches and at the fighting pair of apex predators.

My arms were dead still and my breaths were non-existent; the sights never wavered from their target. While I aimed the half-century old rifle at the bear that currently stood tall a couple of feet from the smaller wolf, readying to pounce another attack, I squeezed my finger on the rifle's trigger and watched the bullet exit the end of the barrel in a perfect sphere of smoke. My eyes traced the bullet as it cracked through the night air, between the trees, and into the side of the bear's skull with a sickening crack. The bear immediately fell limp and slumped to the ground, and the wolf, startled by the bear's sudden fall, shunted and dashed off, stopping about a hundred meters away before turning back pacing at the distance hungrily.

The bear's large furry body, hunched over in a contorted position, lay nearly still within a white column of intense moonlight; its chest wheezed up and down and I knew there wasn't much time before my prey became rotten. I strapped the rifle over my shoulder and held my hood downwards before sprinting to the dead animal. Arriving at the shot bear a second later, I quickly checked that my gloves, where they intersected with my cloak sleeves, showed absolutely no skin in the gap before slowly leaning forward cautiously into the beam of moonlight. My hands gripped the bears neck and I pulled the dying animal just out of the moonlit's reach. Kneeling on my knee beside the bear's blood stained head, the fresh blood beckoned me, but before I divulged into the bear, I took a fleeting glance around, just in case, then, after confirming no human signatures were around the area, I ripped into the bears neck savagely. Striking an artery, the overly metallic-tasting blood absorbed into my veins quickly, and the sensation of my weakened state that had impeded my abilities, slowly withered away, replacing it with a renewed sensation of elevating strength – but the harsh taste was nauseating, as was such with animal blood. The warmth from the fresh blood that now surged through my otherwise stone cold body was the only immediate, but short lived comfort from this kill.

A sickening minute later, the blood stream from the bear's neck dissipated, and I shakily disengaged before the bear's heart stopped. I'd never quite gotten used to letting my latch go; the blood always seemed to become sweeter the thinner the supply became, but if I didn't unlatch before the heart stopped its hypnotic pulsing, I'd be good as dead.

I dragged the lifeless bear back into the beam of moonlight before slipping back into the forgiving darkness. Leaning against a tree trunk, I needed a moment to recover while the fresh blood slowly regenerated throughout the rest of my cold body. Animal blood was no substitute for human blood – it was akin to eating rotten fruit. I felt sick, yet my stomach refused to let go.

An abrupt, almost unbearable sound of a car horn from up the forest covered hill, rippled through my ears and shook my night vision snapping me out of the blood-induced nausea.

The lone wolf had stalked over to the carcass and stared at me obediently with large hungry eyes – he was waiting for me to give him permission to finish off the bear. I nodded slightly from under my hood and the wolf then lowered his thick jaws to the carcass but maintained a cautionary stare at me as he began to tear at the bear's flesh in short bursts of frenzy. Between bites, the black wolf prudently glanced up at me with its big yellow eyes in preparation to scamper off again, if I ordered it to.

But the car's horn signaled that I needed to head back, and quickly, and so I turned my back to the feeding wolf and sprinted through the trees and up the hill at great velocity, covering the miles back to the road much quicker than before.

Stopping at the shadow's edge of the forest, I surveyed the open surroundings before stepping out into the moonlit street. The long black unmarked car sat idling close by as it waited for me to step inside. I glanced down the long hill towards the end of the street, a mile or so away, and spotted a heat signature of a person stepping out of a utility vehicle.

"Ranger Hadley, reporting: I have arrived at one of the streets outside the edge of the forest, err... Casey Avenue, I think..., and can confirm that the street lights are out... Moving to handheld radio now and I am going to check if any animals have damaged the power lines... I will report back in ten." I had heard a male voice on the CB radio inside the truck replying and realized this was the reason why I had been called back to the car – it was a warning that someone was coming and that someone was a overly curious Forest Ranger.

Opening the car door quickly and jumping into the empty backseat, I then closed the door and sighed from relief that I was now under the protection of the black tinted windows. The car's V8 engine burbled as we then drove down the hill and past the Ranger who stared at the car with a mystified look on his face.