LOGINShare
SEVENTY-FIVE | BLADE
Last Updated:
2024-10-29 19:42:56The darkness abated slowly, the light streaking across my eyes like the first quivering rays of a sunrise. I forced myself to blink, my body unwilling to face the misery I knew, even in the abyss, would be present when I awoke.
I wasn’t dead, at least. That was something.
As harsh as it was to my eyes, the light in the room was dim. I wasn’t even sure that it was a room – it was cavernous, the walls cut into to make hollow spaces, within which gas lanterns burned. I couldn’t make out any windows, but it was dark outside, so they would be harder to see through blurry eyes, in any case.
I was surprised by my steady, rational thoughts, and then surprised by my surprise. I was a hunter, not born or bred but as good as. Rational thoughts in times of crises were par for the course; my recent over-emotional state had clouded my judgement, and was to blame for my being in this situation in the first place
Related chapters
The Hunter and the Vampire SEVENTY-SIX | CLAWS
The one-two click-clack of the mysterious footsteps drew closer. I held back a shudder, desperately trying to keep up my pretend display of unconsciousness. I longed to crack an eye open, but I held still and took another deep breath.The footsteps came to a halt beside me. I exhaled, as steadily as I could. Something piercing and cold touched the bare skin of my knee, digging in to the graze there. Hot blood pooled around the point of contact. I winced.“I know you’re awake,” a nasal, woman’s voice drawled. “I can hear your heart beat. It’s quicker, now.” Slowly, she dragged the pointed object away from my knee.With a sigh, I opened my eyes. She was pulling off her heel to wipe it clean – red soled, I noted: a Louboutin. I only recognised it because Rebecca had spent more hours staring at them online than studying when we were at college, and I had never been so glad for
The Hunter and the Vampire SEVENTY-SEVEN | IVY
My vision swam, but I held myself steady. I kept my thoughts strictly focused on the most simplistic element of my plan: fight to the door. I couldn’t allow myself the weakness of worry, and I definitely could not think about Cyrus. Bile rose in my throat, but I swallowed it back down, ignoring the ringing in my ears and the black dots hovering across my pupils.The vampires behind Alice swarmed around us, flashing their teeth and pushing us back against the wall. My bonds had fallen free, but none of them seemed shocked or even surprised that I’d been cut loose the entire time. I steeled myself, and I dodged Alice’s lunge, barely missing her teeth by a fraction of an inch.Those behind her were drenched in shadow, but I could make out an array of dark faces, each with their own set of blinding teeth. The bodies attached to the mouths did not matter, just as the stories and emotions behind each creature di
The Hunter and the Vampire SEVENTY-EIGHT | AWOKEN
At first, I did not wish to cling to the light. My eyes tried to open, tried to stare blearily up at the stars, and I yanked them shut. The dark was simple: no pain, no morality, no consciousness. I ached to return, but then I realised that the presence of pain meant something incredible.I was alive. Somehow, I had survived.I worked my jaw. My mouth was dry, my tongue pressed to the back of my front teeth. I licked my lips. My head burned, my temples throbbing, one far worse than the other. I shifted, rocking to one side, and my neck soared with pain. Then came a stab in my side, and a flame licking my wrist. Everything was agony, and life did not seem worth the hurt.As I let myself sink back into the darkness, my woozy head lolling against something warm and firm, I heard a voice. It rocked, waves crashing in the night, and then I realised that the sounds were not one and the same, but two separate noises. T
The Hunter and the Vampire SEVENTY-NINE | LAPIS LAZULI
“I was considered to be something of an eligible bachelor at the time,” he said lightly, teasingly. Despite myself, I snorted.“I’m hurt, Callie,” he gasped, adjusting his weight and mine so that he could hold a dramatic hand over his heart. I rolled my eyes at him, and he grinned down at me, holding my gaze with a power I wasn’t sure he knew he held. After a long moment, he continued.“I was born to a wealthy family – thank goodness. I’m not sure how much you know about that time, but the city streets and the work houses stank.” He wrinkled his nose, and I raised my eyebrows at him. “Though my parents wanted little to do with me, I was glad of them. Fortune had favoured me, though I’d done nothing to earn it. I felt badly for the poor, but I was too caught up in my own dramas to pay them much heed.“My time was spent in our country es
The Hunter and the Vampire EIGHTY | SEA OF STARS
“Callie?” My name, sleep-worn and grumbled, sounded like a lifeline. My heart thudded loudly in my chest.“Dad. I – God, they’re there.” I turned to Cyrus and mouthed, “Where did you find me?”He squinted at me, deciphering my words, before mouthing back: “Below.” He added a jaunty point to the ground, and I shook my head at him, hoping I understood.There was nothing sleepy about my Dad’s voice. “It’s almost four in the morning. We thought you’d got carried away dining with your vampire beau. What happened?”Thank God they hadn’t come for me; thank God Cyrus had. But my lips stilled. Four in the morning? I squinted into the night, searching for a glimmer or peach or tangerine to mark the first rays of the rising sun. The midwinter sky was still dark, with not even the merest shade of pale blue to suggest
The Hunter and the Vampire EIGHTY-ONE | FORGOTTEN
He was silent for a long time, as if weighing up a hundred different answers – all of them circling around the ugly truth. His fingers were still against mine, and he gazed with a blank expression out across the sea. The colours warped and fragmented as they deepened, pastel pinks and oranges blooming into resplendent, bright beams of rose and tangerine. Rather than watch Cyrus holding the muscles in his face taut – too taut, controlled – I too looked out at the shimmering water.Eventually, through tight lips, he spoke. “Yes.” It was as though the dam had burst with that single word. “Yes, I made you forget. It was a mistake – a mistake to take you on that date, knowing how desperately I wanted to be honest with you, and knowing the consequences of my honesty. I – Callie, I wanted to learn where you stood, without having to face the repercussions of my curiosity. I… apologise.” He swallowed any furthe
The Hunter and the Vampire EIGHTY-TWO | SUNRISE
We lay back on the grass together, his arm slipping beneath my head and keeping me close. Idly, as I felt the gushing wave of life return to me, I traced the veins in his wrist, using the barest touch to follow them along his forearm and into the crook of his elbow, making up the path where they dipped from view.Then I traced the stars with that same pointed fingertip, watching as clouds as blue as his veins puffed across the sunrise, startlingly different to the hues of red and gold simmering atop the sea, but fitting all the same. They blurred together seamlessly, night and day, dark and sun.“Do you remember what I told you about Esther?” He asked quietly, his words a whispering breeze against the dawn.I did, now; now that he’d returned my memory to me. “Yes. The witch – right?”“That’s her.” He mused over his thoughts for a moment before con
The Hunter and the Vampire EIGHTY-THREE | SALT AND ASH
My heart thrummed and pulsed with sheer joy at our closeness as we walked along the cliff’s edge. Mist shrouded the sea, but the red orb hanging low in the sky would burn it away as it rose. I would juggle the new, darker morality singing within me later.It had been childish to latch onto my Dads’ words as gospel, to readily believe their tales and their lore. It had nearly cost me my life. And, though my nerves jumped with every sweeping brush of Cyrus’s fingers across the back of my hand, which clutched his like a lifeline, I was still uneasy about telling them.I could now remember exactly how poorly I’d reacted to the truth. I knew that they would react similarly – after all, it had been their influence that had guided me to such hatred.I shoved the thought aside, and instead revelled in the touch of his skin against mine. His palms were smoother than mine – no callouses drummed
Latest chapter
The Hunter and the Vampire 116 | EPILOGUE
I braced myself, lifting a bandolier weighted down with silver bullets and resting it across my chest. My knife was strapped to my ankle, a gun was slung low across my hips, and a silver dagger rested at my thigh.I’d laced my boots with resolve, each knot a promise. I was doing this for the right reasons. I was a protector, not a monster. The sword down my back was double-edged, both killer and saviour, but I wielded it with the power to choose. I would not allow myself to be what I had been, and what many of the others still were.Cyrus caught my wrist, pulling me close. Our lips met in a heated kiss, his tongue and teeth searing my core. Hands tugged the plait from my hair, and fingers tangled in the dark waves. My skin tingled with his touch, and bolts of lightning fractured down my spine.The bond between us swelled, crackling with glossy sunlight and soaring blue waves. The heat of Cyrus’s affection bec
The Hunter and the Vampire 115 | SWORD
Gaudy lights flashed above, drenching Cyrus’s face in bright reds and blues. With alcohol humming in my veins and his arms holding me close, I moved past the flashing, burning image of blood that overlaid the reality of the coloured, moving lights. Even as my mind whispered that it was blood, blood and pulsing blue veins, Cyrus swept me into a spin that threw aside my fears.I grinned at him before he pulled me in again. His joy brushed mine, intertwined within my chest. It didn’t lessen the ache that I dragged with me, but it smothered it, forcing the pain to submit.“As much as I like it when you curse and tease and fight,” he murmured, his lips ghosting across my ear, “you are truly beautiful when you smile, Callie.”Before I could respond, Cyrus tugged me around so that my back was pressed to his front, and his hands cradled my hips. We swung from side to side together, my steps cl
The Hunter and the Vampire 114 | LIGHTNING
I had to move on. At least, I had to try. And, though understanding and enacting were two different things, it was easier to try if I kept myself focused on the present – rather than my jarring, pain-distorted past, or the murky and indistinct waters of my future. Looking back brought forth only blood and terror, and I couldn’t see through the thick, cloying mist shimmering softly ahead. It coated my crumbling relationships, Cyrus’s vampiric nature, and my comparatively short lifespan. Behind, my Dad’s words had carved themselves into my bones and tattooed themselves onto my skin. I could taste Veronica’s fear with every swallow. The walls closed in around me whenever I was alone, and the neat, sharp clicks of Alice’s footsteps followed me around every corner. Even in Wiley Manor, a hotel so detached from my old life in Seafall, monsters found me in my sleep. Sleepy, soft kisses to my forehead, my temples,
The Hunter and the Vampire 113 | SANDBAR
“Get out,” Dad hissed, his face contorting. Shadows crept across his cheeks and nose, distending it into something twisted and evil. Fear filled my gut, and I stepped backwards. My hands trembled as I reached for the door.My fingers turned to claws as I scrabbled behind me. Dismay rose in my throat as I flattened my palms, feeling desperately for the door. I turned slowly, knowing before I saw it that the door was gone.I was trapped. The windows shuttered, and my Dad loomed before me. Paps cowered at his side, shrunken and rat-like with front teeth that slipped from beneath his lips. As I watched, they sharpened into points and became fangs.My feet skidded under me, slipping on something wet streaking across the floorboards. I looked down to get my bearings, to get my balance, and bile clung to the back of my mouth. It wasn’t just something wet. It was blood.Flames shuddered acr
The Hunter and the Vampire 112 | RIFT
The drive to the hotel was quiet, but comfortably so. Perhaps because there were no words that could have made the situation any easier, Cyrus and I allowed the silence to swallow us whole. He rested his hand on my thigh, a steady pressure that kept me grounded enough that thoughts of shoving myself out of the car and rolling across the road – just so that the physical pain overshadowed the emotional for even a moment – seemed nonsensical.Without him there, I wasn’t entirely sure what I would have done. I heard my Dad’s last words to me on every inhale, and I saw the dull look in my Paps’s eyes with every exhale. I breathed, but it didn’t make me feel any better.Get out. Get out. Get out.The sun was just starting to break through the clouds as we pulled in to a car park, nestled alongside a shaggy stretch of woodland. I turned to Cyrus, confusion drawing my eyebrows down. H
The Hunter and the Vampire 111 | BLOOD MOON
My back stiffened. Any attempts at lounging went out the window the second my Dad entered the room. I curled my hands into fists, digging my nails into the soft, broken skin of my palms.His face was shadowed. I ached to go to him, to bridge the gap between us. He’d placed a blanket on me as I’d slept mere weeks ago, and now he was staring at me as if I was a stranger. My breath latched in my throat as I tried to speak.“What is your decision?” I asked. My voice did not sound like my own.“This has not been easy for me, Callie. For us. You have made it incredibly difficult.”I stood on shaking legs. There was a softness to him beneath the hard shell that forced his mouth into a downward tilt. It spilled out rarely, but it was there.“I am sorry for what I have done,” I said. “But I do not regret it, nor do I wish to t
The Hunter and the Vampire 110 | FAMILY
The world collapsed in on itself as I waited for the door to open. My right hand remained curled in a loose fist, raised against the wood, knuckles bared. I flexed my fingers and, slowly, lowered my hand.I focused on my breathing, caught in that everlasting moment. With every rise and fall of my chest, I could feel the passage of time. It had to be moving. I was not trapped here.I turned halfway back towards Cyrus, needing to see him, to reassure myself that he was still here with me, when the door finally opened. I caught a flash of hair so dark it shone blue even in the dim light, and then hard arms were pulling me inside.“Callie,” Paps breathed, his body warm and unyielding as he held me close. “Oh, thank God.”I stilled against him, my arms at stiff angles by my sides. My heart leapt – he seemed glad to see me – even as it twisted and tangled, knotting itsel
The Hunter and the Vampire 109 | NOSTALGIA
“You know,” Cyrus said, his tone carefully casual, “I could do the same for your Dads – and the other hunters, too.”He set down the photograph he’d been holding, the wooden frame knocking against the hard surface of the kitchen counter. I didn’t have to look to know which photo in particular he’d been about to pack into my old, worn suitcase, scraped from years of overuse.The day had dawned slowly, the sun hiding behind blank white clouds that had grown grey as they had settled into the sky. The kitchen was dim, though Cyrus’s eyes still somehow glittered like stars on a calm sea as they met mine.I sighed, shoving the last of my cutlery into the same wicker basket I’d used to move my utensils to and from university for the last three years. It smelt faintly of fruity cider, and my nose crinkled slightly at the faded red stain down its side.
The Hunter and the Vampire 108 | HARPER
“Harp?” I called out. It was the first time I’d spoken to him since our argument. I’d heeded his wishes; as such, I had no idea if he’d even still be at home. I hoped he was. Whether for me or for him, I longed to offer him this chance to move past this. I had ruined myself. I didn’t want to destroy Harper, too.“Callie?” Harper thundered into the hall, eyes wide, chest heaving. “I – I went to find you, and you were gone.” He pulled me into a crushing hug, pressing me tightly against his chest. “Fuck. I was so worried, Cals.”My heart ached. “I’m sorry.” My voice sounded tiny.“I – I thought–“ he spoke wildly, the words spilling out between panted breaths. “I thought you were – oh, shit,” he swore, and then pushed me away, holding me at arm’s length to appraise me. &ldqu
