The Hunter

Prey

After absentmindedly pulling on her clothes, Mira led the way back to the gas station. Collin holding Bridgett shouldn’t have bothered her. He was only doing it because Bridgett couldn’t walk, so why did it bother her?

The scent of humans flooded her and Mira stiffened. Hopefully, they hadn’t searched the truck yet. She couldn’t risk them finding the Hunter in the backseat and confiscating everything. It’d taken too much work to get all those supplies for them to take it all now. At least she didn’t smell any Hunters besides the one in the backseat, which meant the others hadn’t found them yet.

“I’m telling you.” The voice of the convenience store owner reached her. “This really scary half-dressed man came out and threatened the owners of the truck. If one of them hadn’t distracted him, he would have eaten me.”

“Half-dressed, in this weather?” The official sounding female voice probably belonged to a police officer and dripped with sarcasm. “And why do you think he would eat you? Did say he would?”

“No, but the look in his eyes was feral.” The man’s tone had changed from slightly panicked to angry. “That’s part of the issue. No human could be half-dressed in this weather.”

Mira glanced down at her shorts and tank top before pausing. He was right. No human would be caught dead in anything that they were wearing. How could they go out there like this? Collin had on pants at least, but lacked a shirt other than the scraps tied around his chest.

“So what do you think they are?” The officer sounded bored at this point. “Vampires?”

“Why did you stop?” Mira jumped as Collin whispered into her ear.

“Our clothes.” Mira twisted to look at him. “How can we face the police dressed like this?”

“You two can hang back and wait for me.” Collin kissed the side of Mira’s head. “I can stick with our wolf attack theory. Say that the guys led us into wolf territory and the wolves attacked. Explains my injuries and my torn up shirt. That okay with you?”

Mira nodded and fidgeted on her feet. She hated messing with cops. Mixing the supernatural world with the human justice system never worked well. They didn’t coincide. Most supernatural creatures believed in “kill or be killed,” which never held up in the human court system. Plus, shifters went crazy locked behind bars and generally not from rabies.

“No, not vampires!” The man sounded exacerbated at this point. The words sounded silly to Mira, though. As far as she knew, vampires didn’t exist and had never existed for that matter. “Something, though. I don’t know what. Maybe they were wild men from the hills or something. I’m not sure!”

“This is the United States in the 21st century.” The cop had slowed down her speech, which even insulted Mira and it wasn’t directed at her. “Wild men in the hills don’t actually exist. Sure we have some psychopaths, but all of them feel cold. Trust me. I’ve dated enough to know.”

“Hey, Collin.” Mira inched forward with Collin sticking close to her back.

“Yes, sweetheart?”

“Do vampires exist?” Surely if vampires did exist, Hunters would track them, too, right?

“No, love.” Collin chuckled. “As far as I know, they don’t.”

“Didn’t think so.” Mira nodded as she continued to sneak up to the edge of the woods surrounding the gas station.

“Well, whatever these were.” The sales clerk sounded pissed off. “They didn’t feel the cold. All I know is that the one man saved my life, okay? Shouldn’t you be out there trying to help him instead of asking me all these stupid questions? Look I even have the keys to his truck! Some of his friends moved it and left his keys with me for when he came back.”