SEVEN | THE HUNT

The humans were staying in a small cabin, close to the Clan house. We often had a lot of return guests, and many of them preferred to stay in the luxurious guest rooms in the house itself. These humans, however, were first-time donors, and as such they had felt more comfortable staying in a cabin, which they could have to themselves.

I wondered if they felt unsafe in a building teeming with vampires, and then shook my head at myself. They had volunteered to come, after all, and had even seemed to revel in the idea of donating.

They’d arrived a couple of nights ago; their scent dark and heady as they’d followed Aradia around. They’d both been wearing long, black cloaks, and the man had taken the woman’s hand as they’d gazed in awe at her gleaming purple eyes.

Most of the guests that we entertained found pleasure in the act of blood giving. Many of them believed in magick, to some extent, in one way or another. A few had even believed themselves to be of vampiric heritage, which we chose not to disprove. They were eager, and they found a thrill in providing for us; there was no sense in destroying their sense of self, and potentially losing a donor who got almost as much from the relationship as we did.

I picked my way quietly out of the Clan house. The dusk was settling as I slunk out of the kitchen door. I’d not heard Falmer go upstairs, but he didn’t seem to be downstairs, either. Perhaps he’d crept out to go to a bar, or he too could be feeding.

I hoped not, for two reasons. I didn’t want to overwhelm the donors, and I didn’t want him to ask me questions that meant I had to lie in order to answer them.

The gravel crunched beneath my feet as I traipsed across the wide driveway. To the right it petered off, winding its way into the pine trees, which kept us sheltered from the road that it eventually met. Just past the clusters of trees in front of me, however, were a few sparse log cabins, and one of those hosted the humans.

The night was cloudy, and I felt shrouded in its fog as my feet skipped from the stones to the grass. It was damp with dew beneath my sneakers, and by the time I reached the humans’ cabin I could feel the water soaking into the toes of my socks.

I knocked lightly on the door, and they opened up immediately. The door swung back with such violent force that I was worried they’d yanked it off its hinges.

“Everything okay?” I asked, peering through the cavernous doorway.

It was dark inside, with only one flickering candle lighting the room. They stood together, hand in hand, their eyes wide as they looked down at me. They were both wearing deep, purple robes, and dark makeup that contrasted with their surprisingly plain looking eyes and hair.

The man had slicked eyeliner onto his bottom water line, which had smudged down onto his cheeks. For her part, the woman had a dark-toned red lipstick on, and that too was smeared. It looked as though she’d dragged the pigment up and across her face by putting her hands up to her cheeks in shock. They were far taller than I was, but even as they loomed over me I still felt like the more powerful party in this interaction.

“I – I don’t remember their name,” the woman muttered, her blue eyes flashing between her husband and I. “One member of your – your Clan was just here,” she stammered. “They didn’t stop, not even when we asked.”

“Oh,” I frowned, looking up at them worriedly. “Are you both okay?”

“F-fine now,” stuttered the man, his hand coming up to scratch nervously at his stubble. “But I think we’d best be taking our leave. I am sorry,” he added.

“Oh – don’t apologise,” I blurted. “It’s not your fault. I’m sorry that happened to you. Do you know who it was?”

He shook his head. “I’m afraid not. It was dark, and they snuck in, and then crept up behind us.”

“That doesn’t sound like anyone in the Clan,” I said, my frown pulling my eyebrows together, taut in the centre of my forehead. “I’ll speak to Aradia about it now. Do you want to come with me?”

“I – I think we’d rather not,” said the woman. She pushed her fine, mousey brown hair back behind her ears. “There’s nothing more to tell. I’m sure you can pass on the message just fine, dear.”

In that moment, the fact that Dark Vampires saw eternal youth as a blessing made total sense. These humans had just been attacked, but she still called me dear – even though I was one of the very same monsters that had only moments ago hurt her and her husband.

I nodded. “I truly am sorry,” I said gravely.

“We know,” said the man, and he timidly placed his hand on my shoulder.

I tensed up as his hand made contact. I felt bad about it – he was only trying to show me a display of kindness, after all – but I did not seem able to help it. Ezrand had quickly learnt to refrain from physical contact around me, and I was grateful for that. The loving touch from a mother or father figure always set me back; it sent me into a nightmarish spiral, which I struggled to claw my way out of again.

I swallowed heavily. I was still hungry, but to take blood from these humans would begin to cast me into the Darkness without their consent. It was that very fact that confused me about the break in, too – none of the vampires in our Clan were Dark Vampires. For any one of us to have taken blood in that way, it would mean that they would begin to show signs of the Darkness changing them.

I could think of no-one who would go against their morals in that way, either. Aradia’s Clan were made up of those of us who wished to minimise our vampiric nature as much as possible, and that meant staying in the Light; which, in turn, meant taking blood only from those who willingly offered it, or animals, in a pinch, though we never drained them. Though we rarely hunted animals, in such an occassion we found the biggest ones we could manage, usually bison, or elk, and we would take a small amount from multiple animals, rather than kill one.

I shrugged his hand away gently, but offered him a small, rueful smile instead. “Have a safe journey home. I really do hope that you’re okay.”

“Thank you,” said the man, though his smile did not reach his pale eyes.

I stumbled my way back to the Clan house, thoroughly confused and, though I was loathe to admit it, more than a little fearful. There were two possibilities: either a Dark Vampire had found our territory, and had fed on our donors; or, and far scarier, in my opinion, was the possibility that one of our own had turned, and was living a lie among us.

The same feeling that I’d felt at school was itching at the back of my neck again. A shudder ran across my skin as I crossed the gravel between the densely packed pine trees and the Clan house, tingling down my spine and making my lithe muscles clench.

I turned to look behind me, and saw nothing. I turned back, and again there was nothing there. Yet I could still not shake the feeling that someone – or something – was watching me.

Aradia and Ezrand lived at the very top of the Clan house, and they had the entire top floor to themselves. There was a large office to the back of the house, and their bedroom opened out onto a small balcony that overlooked the driveway and log cabins to the front.

The staircase wound up the centre of the house, and as such I came out in the middle of their floor. Thankfully, there was noise coming from the office, rather than the bedroom, so I made my way to the back of the house, following the sound of Aradia and Ezrand’s chatter.

Much like the rest of the building’s interior, the uppermost floor was bright and airy. The flooring was made of a light toned wood, and with every step I felt my toes squelch inside of my wet socks. I scrunched my nose up at the sensation.

Their office door, too, was made of light coloured wood. It was propped open, so I poked my head in as I rapped the back of my knuckles against the door.

“Ellis!” Beamed Ezrand, and I imagined him with a wagging tail and floppy ears.

“Do come in,” smiled Aradia. Her purple eyes were kind, but they crinkled at the edges, as though she was confused by my sudden appearance upstairs.

“I’m sorry to interrupt,” I began uneasily. I shifted my weight from foot to foot, feeling the damp fabric of my socks press down, releasing water, as I did so.

“Don’t be silly,” said Ezrand. His smile caught on his lips, looking as though his mouth was being held open, rather than staying there by choice. “Is something the matter?”

I took a reticent step into the office. It was apparent which side Aradia used, and which Ezrand did – one half had a neat desk, with stacks of colour-coded and labelled binders tucked into its drawers. The other, however, was similar only in that it, too, had a desk. The contents of the desk were strewn across its surface, with a mess of loose papers scattered right to its edges, with some half hanging off.

“Um – sort of,” I mumbled. “I – it’s the humans. The donors. They’ve left.”

“Why, Ellis?” Aradia asked, her purple eyes blazing with barely concealed fury.

“They were attacked,” I murmured. I felt uncomfortable being the bearer of bad news; I usually preferred to keep to myself, and being so involved in Clan business was an uneasy position for me to find myself in.

“Come in, El. Sit down,” Ezrand suggested.

I moved slowly across the cream coloured rug, wary of leaving sodden footprints in my wake. Ezrand pulled out a chair for me, and I sat down carefully, my weight settled at its very edge.

“I – I’m not sure what happened,” I said, wanting to start from the beginning. “I went over to feed, and when they opened the door they looked terrified. They said that a member of the Clan had just left, and that they’d snuck in behind them and fed without permission. They apologised, but said they needed to leave. I just – I don’t know who from our Clan would do something like that?”

I left my sentence open-ended, letting the inflection leave my statement up in the air, framing it as more of a question. I no longer wanted the entire weight of tonight’s events to be resting on my shoulders, and I hoped that Aradia or Ezrand would have some sort of answer for me.

Aradia, however, shook her head. “That’s awful. Those poor people. I’ll let them rest for a few days, and then send an apology card over with some flowers. But I do agree with you, Ellis. I do not think any member of our Clan would have acted in such a way.”

“Who do you think did it, then?” I asked, leaning forwards in my seat.

“I cannot say for sure,” she frowned. “I do think it was not one of us. I think our territory is being watched, and that, perhaps, a Dark Vampire has discovered our donors.”