An Eye For An Eye

Quatre

Now in nice, new and clean clothes, I headed out of the bedroom and found Deucalion sitting on the sofa again. It seemed his talk with the Beta didn’t take too long. Thankfully, the Beta, Becca, had also gotten underwear and pajamas which I was thankful for. I was mildly worried they’d just be ignored.
“Um, when I leave at the end of this,” I started as I walked over to him, “how do I explain this?”
“I'm not sure.”

“Sorry, Chris, I know I said I'd be back in an hour but I was actually planning on letting Deucalion and his pack take revenge on me for what Dad's done but you don't actually know what he's done so to annoy him I stayed for a few days?” I hummed and shook my head. “Somehow I don't think that's going to be the explanation I use.”
“It might not be the best one, no,” he said, laughing a little. “You'll have to think of another reason to have disappeared for 3 days.”

“Me? You suggested this… thing.” I sat down on the sofa next to him.
“You agreed to it.” Sighing, I had to relent. I did agree to whatever this was so I supposed I had to at least partly be responsible for whatever explanation I would give Dad and Chris.
“I suppose I did, yeah,” I said.

“Are…” I trailed off. My curiosity could come off as rude and the last person I wanted to offend was Deucalion.
“Are… what?” he asked.
“It doesn’t matter,” I said dismissively, shaking my head.
“Well, now I’m intrigued, what is it?”

“Are you always blind? Even when you shift?” I asked, watching him with curiosity. His eyes glowed red and he reached out and gently took my hand. His hand was warm and I stared at him. “You can see me, can’t you?”
“Yes, though I can’t make out much in the peripherals and it’s all various shades of red.”

“You’re partially sighted when you shift, like Kara,” you murmured. “Except Kara isn’t a werewolf.
“Kara?”
“My friend, she has sort of not peripheral vision too. She’s losing it but I don’t know what she has,” I told him. “She uses the clock method to eat and the little pinky trick when she pours herself a drink.”
“I have never heard of that before,” he admitted. His glowing eyes faded and his normal eyes blankly stared ahead. Looking down at his hand, an overwhelming sadness flooded my chest.

“My Dad, he… he called you a visionary man. He was mocking you, I think,” I said quietly. “So far, you have been kinder to me than some of my family. All of the hunter training, I hated it. As much as I want to fight close combat sometimes, I can’t.”
“You’re their sniper, aren’t you? I only saw you once or twice,” he said.
I nodded. “Yeah,” I said. “But, looking back, I just…”

Why was I even telling him this?

“Why am I telling you this?”
“I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head slightly. “While I can smell your emotions, I can’t read your thoughts.”
“I don’t know why I’m telling you,” I said honestly. All of my life I had been told he was the enemy and yet here he was, treating me nicely and buying me clothes to irritate my father. “But I’m going to tell you anyway. The first thing they do when you’re being trained as a hunter is they tie you to a chair and time how long it takes you to get out.”
“That’s…” he trailed off, it seemed like he didn’t know what to say.

“It took me over three hours. My Dad was so disappointed in me, told me he expected better from an Argent. It was forgotten for a few years until Chris managed to get out by breaking the chair and did it in seconds.” He gave my hand a reassuring squeeze. “I felt horrible. Even Kara had managed to do better than me and it only carried on like that. That Chris was better and then both Chris and Kate were better. I’m more useful than when I’m not there by the sounds of it.”

“It sounds more like Gerard keeps you away from his executions when he says that.”
“Executions?” I asked, furrowing my brow.
“When he catches a werewolf, do you know what he does to them?” he asked. His voice was lower and part of me felt a little spark of terror.
“No, I don’t, I’ve never known the details.”
“He hangs them by their wrists, rips out their claws and cuts them in half with a broadsword,” I’ve lost a few members of my pack to this over the years.” He spoke quietly and it was hard not to believe him.
“I…”

Part of me felt like I was choking as images of various werewolves were hung from trees by their wrists followed by Dad cutting them in half at the waist with a sword. Blood sprayed across bark and fallen leaves as the bottom half of their body drops to the ground and the upper half is just left to hang there.

“Have you ever killed anyone?” he asked softly. I shook my head, not quite managing to form words.
“No, I can’t bring myself to,” I said, forcing the words out since he couldn’t see me shaking my head. “Even when I was left to, I couldn’t do it. I never asked to be a hunter, my parents decided I was going to be one.”
“You know what hunters do now,” he said.
“It’s barbaric.”

Thinking back to Uncle Alexander, I could remember being told he ended his own life until you were trained to be a hunter. Then it was because he had been bitten. The Code meant he had to kill himself and because of that, I never got to meet him.
“I need some time to myself.” Letting go on his hand, I stood up and headed back to the bedroom, the only place I could think of to get some privacy. Deucalion said nothing.

Shutting the bedroom door behind me, I stared at the lavish room. I wanted to scream, this was all too much. I hadn’t been fond of the hunter lifestyle but I couldn’t just leave, that wasn’t really possible with Dad.

Even so, I couldn’t deny the dislike I’d harboured and let fester until now. Maybe Dad’s trap for Deucalion was just the thing that pushed me over the edge. Or maybe the new information about Dad cutting people in half with a broadsword was what had done it.

The only good thing about hunting had been Kara. I only knew her because my dad and her dad were both hunters. Otherwise we would have never known each other.

Sliding down the door, I ended up sitting on the floor with my head in my hands.

It was medieval. Barbaric. Barbaric was the only word I could think of to describe it.

I wasn’t sure how long I had sat there for but a knock on the door made me flinch.
“I’m cooking, is there anything you want in particular and would you like to help?” He spoke softly. Figuring I couldn’t hide in here and debate my conflict over being a hunter, I stood and wiped my eyes before opening the door.
“Yeah, I’ll help you.”