Chapter Four

I walked down the street briskly as I listened for sounds that would confirm danger. The atmosphere felt too strange, it was as if something was about to jump out at me. I closed my eyes and concentrated on feeling.

I shouldn't have been having so much trouble. I was a huntress and a powerful one at that. My family was renowned for having the fiercest vampire hunters in history, but I rarely ever lived up to those standards.

I turned my head quickly as I heard the noise, footsteps to quiet for a human to even barely notice. He turned up behind me. Logan. I had been hunting him for two weeks now and he kept escaping me.

Not this time, I thought as I looked at his eyes. Oops, bad move, I was entranced. Vampires had the luck of having eyes that could hypnotize anyone. Not that they really needed it, their looks were enough. They were gorgeous, there was something about the change from human to vampire that could make you look perfect, some always looked better than others of course, but you would be hard pressed to find an ugly vampire.

Logan moved in closer to me. I knew exactly what he was going to do of course, he was planning to bite me, either he would suck me dry and kill me, or he would allow me to drink some of his own blood and turn into a vampire like him. I don't know which fate would be worse. It was funny how the idea of living forever was as scary as the possibility of death. I realized both possibilities but I did not move.

I tried to take a deep breath, Logan was holding me now, I struggled to gain focus, and my control was coming back now. His lips were almost at my throat now, I tried to move and then before I knew it Logan was wrenched away from me and his hypnotic spell was completely broken.

"Ethan," I said noticing that my savior was also my best friend.

He didn't waste time talking instead he took out a knife and in one swift movement he plunged it into Logan's heart. Logan let out a pitiful scream and then his whole body disintegrated into dust.

"Evy," Ethan said using my childhood nickname, "why did you go after him?"

"I've been trying to get him for days," I explained, Ethan was overprotective. Ever since we were little he always took it upon himself to take care of me. He'd gotten me out of trouble a good few times too, so I couldn't really complain. Things always ended up going like this, I would be in some kind of big trouble, but somehow he would always be there. Ethan was great; I could talk to him about anything, except for recently since he decided he had a crush on me.

"Let's just go home," I said not in the mood to go into why I had lost control to a vampire again.

Ethan came and wrapped his arms around me to teleport back to my house. I instantly felt uncomfortable, we had done this hundreds of times before, but now whenever Ethan hugged me I could sense something different. A smoky mist surrounded us and we disappeared. Ten seconds later we reappeared at my house.

"You know he could have killed you Evy," Ethan chastised.

"I know Ethan, relax okay? I'm fine, it's late, and we have school tomorrow, I'll talk to you later okay?" My ego was bruised and it really was late. I decided to avoid my mom and my sisters and go straight to my room.

In my room I stared at myself in the mirror. My mahogany brown hair was all over the place, and my olive green eyes had a tired look to them. I had always been told that I was pretty, but I didn't know what attracted Ethan all of a sudden. The worst part though, was that everyone noticed his crush. I sighed and imagined trying to talk to him about it.

I eventually gave up trying to think up a scenario that wouldn't be awkward. No doubt, tomorrow my mom would be appalled at my lack of hunting skills and no one was going to be surprised that I had to Ethan save me again. I contemplated skipping school tomorrow, but then decided against it, Mom was going to be angry enough. I realized I would have to go downstairs to get my backpack to do my homework, and so still with the desire to remain unnoticed I used my power of invisibility to walk past everyone unnoticed.

That was of course the best part about being a hunter. The powers, all hunters could teleport and we could hear, see, and smell better than any human. We also were stronger, but we had to be to fight the vamps. Those abilities were all fun and whatnot but the most amazing part was our individual powers. I could become invisible, it was one of the most useful powers one could have, and yet despite my amazing advantage I could never compete with my older sisters.

I woke up the next morning feeling surprisingly refreshed. Last night I had managed to successfully avoid my family and the questions and accusations that were (and probably still are) running through their heads. I knew Ethan had to have told my mom about last night. He never intended to get me in trouble, but the minute I did something really stupid, like going after a powerful vampire and getting hypnotized, he made sure to tell my mom or one of my older sisters so that they'd able to stop me the next time.

I groaned internally the instant I realized I had to go to school. I looked at the alarm clock next to my bed and saw that I had a half hour again before the alarm would go off. Instead of trying to go back to sleep like a normal person, I rolled off the bed and went to my closet to pick an outfit to wear to school. Yes, I am one of those very rare and special morning people.

After staring at my closet for two minutes, I gave up and decided that since I had no one to impress I would settle for a pair of old jeans and a plain black t-shirt. I brushed my teeth, took a shower, and pulled my hair back into a pony tail. After I decided that there was no way I would be able to stall any longer, I went downstairs to see my family.

I heard the hustle and bustle of everyone getting ready for the day' activities when I went down stairs.

"Evelyn? Are you finished getting ready for school?" I flinched as I heard my mother's voice calling me.

"Yes," I called back to her.

"Come in here for a minute, I want to talk to you," she ordered.

I walked into the kitchen reluctantly and saw my mother, Ava Sinclair, sitting at the table, sipping coffee, and flipping through the newspaper. Sitting next to her was my oldest sister, Cheryl. My mom was your traditional blond hair blue eyed beauty and my three older sisters looked just like her. I was the only one with my dad's brown hair and green eyes. When I stood next to the rest of my family, I didn't look like I belonged. Often times, I didn't feel like I belonged either.

"Evelyn, how could you let yourself be hypnotized by a vampire?" Mom asked in a stern voice.

Here it comes, I thought, these lectures were getting really old. I never had any sympathy for the kids in school who complained that their moms yelled at them because their grades were slipping because my mom bothered me about not only my grades, but also my inability to fight vampires properly. I tried listened to my mom go through the same basic lecture she always gave about being careful and avoiding staring the vamps in the eyes, but for the most part I zoned out.

As usual, when she finished her standard five minute lecture she mentioned my dad. "Your father used to be reckless too you know?" she said making me feel guilty.

My father died three years ago. He was killed by a vampire name Lucas. Various hunters both weak and strong had taken a shot at hunting Lucas. All had failed and only few had survived the task. My mother herself had tried four times to avenge my father, but it never worked. Lucas was one of the nastiest and most evil vampires there was, killing him proved to be impossible.

Lucas had killed one of father's best friends. When my dad found out, he made a priority to hunt Lucas down. My father ended up with more than he had bargained for and Lucas won the fight.

My mother's description of my father as reckless was a little harsh, my dad was brave. He would risk anything and everything to get his prey. He used to be considered one of the greatest hunters in the world, and he was still remembered as such. It was too bad that none of his talent had rubbed off on me. I think it was because my older sisters got all of it; it really sucks to be the youngest sometimes.

"I'll be more careful next time," I promised my mom.

"Of course you will be," she said, "but just in case I'm revoking your right to hunt by yourself. From now on when you go to hunt I want you to be with one of your sisters or Ethan. Do you understand?"

"What?!" I exclaimed angrily. Hunters were only allowed to hunt by themselves when they turned sixteen. My sixteenth birthday had been two months ago, having my mom not let me go out by myself was embarrassing.

"Don't be difficult Evelyn, I have to make sure that nothing happens to you," my mom said calmly.

"It's not like they'd want to go hunting with me," I said looking at Cheryl praying that she'd back me up. But of course she didn't.

"It's no problem, if you want I can go out with you tonight," she offered. As annoying as Cheryl's goody two shoes ways were, it was hard to be mad at her for it simply because she was really nice.

"You can't do this," I said to my mom.

She raised her eyebrows at me, but she didn't say anything. She didn't have to. Of course she could do that. Usually if a parent wanted to take away one of their children's hunting rights, they'd have to speak to one of the ten leaders, but when my father had died, Mom had taken his spot as a leader, so I had no one to appeal to.

My other two sisters, Olivia and Nicole, walked in the kitchen.

"Are you ready to go to school?" Nicole asked me. She was a senior and she always drove me to school. She was also the easiest to get along with out of all of my sisters.

Olivia on the other hand was the most difficult, we were always fighting. She was the second oldest. She walked in grabbed a breakfast bar and announced that she was leaving.

"Wait," my mom stopped her. She then proceeded to tell my sisters the news about my new hunting restrictions.

Olivia's brow furrowed, "I don't want to go hunting with her," she said, "I like to go with my friends."

My mom shot a disapproving glare at her, and then she turned to Nicole, "what about you Nicole? Will you go with your sister?"

"Yeah sure, whenever she wants, but why can't she go by herself? She is sixteen," Nicole wondered.

"She was hypnotized by a vampire last night, I don't want to risk that happening again," my mom explained.

"But that could happen to anyone," Nicole fought for me.

"Yes, but it happens to her very often. Once she brushes up on her skills, she'll get to go by herself again," Mom said with that end of subject look in her eye.

"Fine," I said curtly. I turned around and walked out of the room.

Nicole followed me as I walked outside. "Are you ready to go?" she asked.

I nodded and got in the car. For most of the ride I sat fuming. I was pissed off at my mom and at Ethan; this wouldn't have happened if he hadn't told her.

Nicole must have guessed my thoughts because she said, "Don't be too mad at Ethan, he was just worried about you."

I grunted in response and as soon as she pulled into the parking lot I got out of the car and headed straight for my locker.