Off With His Head

10. I was meant to be a Hunter

I see him from across the room.

The sea of people parts just long enough for his electric blue eyes to meet mine. I look away, embarrassed that he had caught me staring, a blush crawling up my cheeks. When I look up again, he is right in front of me, appearing quickly despite the crowd.

"I saw you from the other side of the room and I just had to introduce myself," he says, projecting his voice over the swell of music. "I'm Henry."

It takes a moment for me to realise that he is addressing me. I glance around at the writhing mass of party-goers, but when I look up; his eyes are boring into mine, waiting for a response.

"Peyton," I mumble, hardly able to get the words out.

"Peyton, you look very uncomfortable," he observes. "Why do I get the feeling you don't come to these types of things very often?" He gestures towards the hordes of thriving bodies, moving along to the rhythm of the music, the party in full swing.

"Because I don't," I answer, truthfully. Naomi had forced be to come, but it seemed like my night might be finally taking a turn for the better. All thanks to the handsome stranger that was talking to me. "My roommate dragged me out."

"Neither do I. But I'm glad I came tonight or I would never have met you." He takes my hand and leads me to the open doorway, away from the mass of people. The moon is full and bright, stars shining across the sky like scattered gems. "Peyton, do you believe in fate?"

"No, I believe we can choose our own fate." I shiver from his proximity, but hope that he thinks it's from the cool breeze that plays with my hair. His eyes never leave mine, cerulean blue meeting chocolate brown.

"Well I believe that I was meant to meet you."

And with that he lowers his head down, his lips meeting mine softly in a chaste kiss. I'm taken aback by his forwardness, this kind of thing has never happened to me before. For a moment, everything feels perfect.

But when he pulls away, his eyes glow crimson red. His teeth elongate into fangs, stretching past his bottom lip. I don't recognise this demon in front of me. The scream gets caught in my throat; the oblivious crowd seems just out of reach.

He scowls and lunges towards me again, this time going for my neck. I brace myself for the impact, but suddenly he bursts into flames right in front of me and crumbles to ash.

I wake up sweating and panting, on my couch at home.

"What the hell happened?" I'm still in my black dress that I had worn to dinner with Henry, but my shoes have been removed and placed under the lounge table. Caleb is sitting with my head on his lap and Zach is occupying the other couch.

"You fainted." I can't help but see the smug smile that crosses Zach's face as he says this.

"Fainted?" I try to piece it together in my mind, but the last thing I remember is the sight of Caleb and Zach standing with their swords.

"Yeah, one minute you were standing against the car the next you went down like a lead balloon," Caleb says helpfully. "Zach managed to catch you just before your head hit the tar, otherwise you would be in some serious pain right now."

"Henry-," I close my eyes and shake my head, trying to get the image of Henry being decapitated out of it. I shudder, remembering the way his body had burst into flames, and then turned into ash. His grey remains being picked up by the wind and carried down the road.

"He's dead. Thank you. You did alright." I feel like this is extremely high praise from Zach.

"Alright? She did very well!" Caleb insists. "Up until she fainted that is. The plan worked perfectly, even though she came out a little earlier than expected. We did it!"