Token Huntress

  We waited for many hours until finally I felt Dillian’s mind fold over into an unconscious level. Finally he was asleep. It was tiring focusing on him for so long, maybe because I was new to this gift and only learning.

  Chase nodded in response, confirming with me that was the reason. It gets easier over time. I will help you ease into this. I will be there with you. Think of any place manifesting around you. When you call upon him in a dream state you must actively create a physical place surrounding you within your mind. When in someone’s mind, it is just darkness; you need such a physical place to ground both you and them into one location. If you were to have a conversation with him in darkness, you may not come back. You always need to make a connection with something on this earth to do so. So just think of our surrounding trees. And think of Dillian as with us.”

  I focused on what Chase told me to do, closing my eyes and imagining myself to be connected with Dillian, bringing him to this exact same place. Minutes flickered by and it annoyed me as still I had no response. I felt as if I wasn’t getting anywhere. Suddenly I felt Chase’s hand on my back and I opened my eyes. There in front of me was Dillian, looking at me just as amazed.

  “Is this a dream?” he asked. He would recognize this area and know we were close.

  “No, well it is. But it is me, Dillian,” I said, slightly desperate. I tried to get up quickly, but wobbled at the sudden movement. I felt very lightheaded by the amount of concentration it took me to hold our conversation. Chase held my leather jacket to help me keep my balance.

  “You seem different,” Dillian said, and narrowed his expression on Chase. “The Esmore I know would not desperately speak; she talks in a monotone.” He was very sceptical and didn’t believe it for a moment. I had to convince him. I thought of something only both he and I would know.

  “When you were thirteen and sparring against me, I got caught in the moment and bit your ear!” I clicked my fingers as if finally finding it. “Julia and you didn’t have your first kiss until your five-month anniversary where you spotted a flower. But when you gave it to her, it had a deadly spider in it and it almost…”

  “Esmore,” he whispered, and searched around him wide-eyed. “No, you cannot be here, if Campture listens into this, then you have doomed us both.”

  “She cannot interject and I will block this conversation from her,” Chase said dismissively. Dillian still looked at him sceptically but accepted it.

  “You must get away Esmore and don’t return,” Dillian said, walking over to me and leaning in front of me.

  “No, I need to know that you are okay first,” I said worriedly. He seemed different, almost timid.

  “I am okay, now you must go,” he said crouching with a slight wince.

  “He is lying,” Chase said quickly. Dillian looked at him angrily. “His physical state in reality is not faring well. It is easy to cover your appearance in the mind and make yourself look like something else. If he willed it, he could appear as any other animal. It is like a separate attachment to our reality and physical presence. He is hiding his real physical condition. But others’ mind manipulation even in the dream land is something I can easily remove.”

  “No, don’t,” Dillian pleaded, but it was too late, whatever cover-up Dillian had used now vanished as Chase willed it away. This was, after all, his created world, even if in dream state. Dillian’s clothes were ripped to shreds. It looked as if someone had taken a whip to him and lashed at his skin. There were bleeding marks. His eyes were battered and black. Both were swollen and the pink of his eyes could hardly be seen. His breathing was uneasy as he gasped for breath. There were marks around his neck that indicated someone had choked him. His black hair was damp and plastered to his neck with dirt. By the looks of it someone had been drowning him.

  I tried to hide my anger as I felt the fury of fire in my gums. My fangs wanted to come out fiercely. I wanted to protect Dillian. They slipped out, but Chase was able to hide them as if it had never happened. It was only in the physical world that they were present. When my fangs slid out both happiness and anger excited my inner dark self. My vampire self.

  “Who did this to you,” I asked. He looked to the ground, embarrassed by his state. But I knew he would not avoid my questions if I already had seen him like this.

  “Mostly James,” he admitted quietly. “Ever since we returned, he has convinced Campture that you are a traitor, but only because your mind has been manipulated by this vampire.” He gestured at Chase. “He has gone crazy, obsessing over you even more, claiming when they find you he will nurse you back to health, but keep you within his home as you are a threat to everyone else, that you are unstable. They thought I was involved with it someway. And when Campture detected that my mind had certain blank spaces, it didn’t go down too smoothly,” he said with a small smile.

  “What do they plan to do to you?” I asked. I was so angry with James. His obsession was far worse than what I had originally thought. I never knew how far he could go. Possessive, yes, but this was a sickness.

  “They plan on killing him,” Chase revealed slowly. Dillian said nothing, but his eyes confirmed the truth in Chase’s words.

  “I’m coming for you,” I said to Dillian. I cut off our connection before Dillian could argue.

  A sort of screeching noise echoed in my mind and dropped me to my elbows on the ground. When I came back to my own reality, I was sweating. Suddenly I vomited into the dirt, unsteady and uneasy. Chase patted my back cautiously, looking around.

  “You came out of it too quickly,” he said. I wiped the vomit away from my mouth, trying to gather my wits and balance quickly. “We are not alone.”

  I gathered my sword and Barnett bow, preparing myself for a fight. Did the Guild already know of our presence? But I was sure that their lookout did not reach this far. No matter what, I had to get Dillian out of there. If he had been accused of conspiracy then it would not be long until they sentenced him to his death.

  Aiming for where I sensed the presence sneaking up on us, I shot a arrow. Quickly jumping to my feet and hiding behind a nearby tree, I dodged a dagger that was thrown at me. Chase took the other side, quickly circling the trees to close in on them.

  I sensed someone next to me, running beside the tree. I struck my sword at them but it was counteracted by their own long knife. My sword’s handle was punched out of my hand. I dropped it, punching for the woman’s face before registering the familiar scent and long golden-blonde hair. My mother stood tall in front of me, as beautiful as she always had been. Her exotic orange eyes stared at me.

  “Mom,” I choked in shock. There was no mistaking her.

  “Esmore,” she gasped, suddenly desperate as she hugged me. Her thick golden hair smothered my face as I nestled into her neck. I embraced my mother dearly, clutching onto her in case it was a dream. She had aged slightly with a few wrinkles and gray hairs since I had last seen her. But she was still as beautiful as ever. When she touched me I began to sob. For the first time since I had been told she died, I cried. So many emotions overwhelmed me. When she did look at me again she gasped, almost frightened. I realized I was staring at her neck with my fangs out, ready to take a taste.

  “I’m sorry,” I took a few steps back, tripping over a log.

  “What do you want me to do with this one?” a rough voice interjected. I was startled and appalled to know that in my moment of reunion with my mother, I had forgotten that Chase had charged on elsewhere. There was another person with us. He threw Chase in the center of a few trees, presenting him as if he were some meal.

  “Chase,” I said, scrambling toward him. He was badly beat up. I hissed at the unfamiliar male, hunching over Chase protectively. The male with rough red hair looked between my mother and me. His gray eyes studied me seriously. He was a large vampire; his fangs were even older than Tythian’s. No wonder Chase had been overpowered so quickly.

  “No Esmore,” Chase said, gathering me behind him. I held my Barnett bow, sh
ooting at the man. I ran for him, picking up the dagger that had been previously thrown at me. With speed he was beside me, putting his foot out to trip me. I skidded hard on my face. I quickly collected myself, zipping through the trees to chase him. I would not let him harm Chase again. I lost my sense of direction and retreated to Chase, where already the male was standing beside my mother. His speed was the fastest I had ever witnessed, even faster than that of the fallen hunter, Pac. Still he stared at me, a smile pinching at his lips.

  “So, this is my golden treasure,” the man’s deep voice spoke.

  “Esmore,” my mother’s soft and fragile voice interjected before I again chased after the vampire that threatened Chase. “This is your father.”

  I stared at the vampire, baffled. But my father died when I was ten… he had taught me to count and to breath and to concentrate. Now that I thought of that, it made sense to me. Perhaps my father knew all along that I was part vampire so he taught me to ease my rage. But he was my father, not this vampire.

  A light breeze swept around us. Chase’s wounds had already begun to heal and he was now sitting upright. “But he is vampire,” Chase said, rubbing his jaw tightly. Although everything had healed, it was his way of trying to cool such tension off.

  “And is she not part vampire?” the man who claimed to be my father said. My mother shot him a look which made him retreat from his arrogant status very quickly.

  “Well, that is something we have only just discovered as of late,” Chase snapped on my behalf.

  “My darling Esmore, I have missed you so much.” My mother took a few steps toward me. Her leather attire was dirty, as if her clothes had not been cleaned for weeks. Yet her hair still glowed with its mesmerizing blonde. She was the one who taught me how to plait mine.

  “Campture told me you were dead! And my father is dead! This isn’t my dad, my dad is dead.” I exploded with sudden rage. Chase was now standing, offering his hand to me, so I too could stand. I was in shock. I struggled to comprehend anything.

  “Shall we sit for a moment, Esmore?” My mother indicated to me to sit on a nearby fallen log. “Please, my dear, there is much I need to tell you.”

  “And who is this boy to you?” The man who claimed to be my father asked in an arrogant way.

  “I’m her familiar!” Chase said sharply through a growl.

  The other vampire gave out a monstrous laugh. “You will never be good enough to be my daughter’s familiar. You are tiny, nothing but a pretty boy flashing his bare chest.”

  I held Chase back, my head swirling. Instead of accepting the challenge, he slowly walked me over to the log. I was feeling nauseous. So strange considering I had never been ill before.

  “Cesar, stop!” my mother snapped at him, and quickly the large vampire ceased his antagonizing.

  “But my father is dead,” I whispered, trying to understand.

  Finally we sat down and my mother knelt in front of me, shaking her head. “Let me explain to you from the start, my Esmore,” she said, patting her hand on my knee. “Cesar here is your biological father. We first met one another in a raid. His group of vampires were much older than our hunters, most of us were killed. But Cesar took me to safety so I would not be harmed. If this young man claims to be your familiar…”

  “I am four hundred years older than you, easily. I was turned in my twenties. I would be careful as to who you call young,” Chase said, showing his fangs.

  “I’ll rip those fangs out of your pretty mouth, boy,” Cesar roared, already his hand placed protectively on my mother’s shoulder. Yet neither of them stepped forward as my mother and I gave them harsh glares to stand down.

  “Cesar and I are familiars, so obviously the pull was far too great to deny, as I imagine you would only know. Miraculously you were conceived. Because of my ability, it was something that was pushed through to the very end. By then Tyler, whom you thought your dad to be, saw us together. He was my best friend, but he could have reported it. I would have been beheaded instantly. But instead, he gave us a chance. His condition was that Cesar and I could no longer see one another. And although Cesar offered us protection, I feared leaving the Guild, it was all I knew. So we parted ways. Even though I wanted to be with Cesar, you were my child and your protection was my absolute concern.

  So much relief swept over me on the night of your birth because you had huntress eyes. I thought maybe you would have come out of this unscathed and live a normal hunter life. However, Tyler was sceptical, and because you always had a temper, he tried his hardest to train you to calm yourself, just in case that rage was something else entirely.

  When Tyler died, I felt awfully alone. Although we were only friends, and he was good at keeping such a long-time secret away from Campture, it was so hard to not think of the treachery we played around her. We avoided her at all costs, and kept our minds busy with other trivial thoughts if we crossed paths with her. But she had her suspicions and we were closely watched. When you excelled at everything, they thought you a prodigy. But I had my suspicions of it being something else.”

  I was breathing in slowly, staring at the ground as I practiced that exact same thing my father had taught me, which was supressing my urges and darkness. It made a lot of sense now that my father trained me so thoroughly. And it was only until I was within the Council and Chase was threatened that I broke that seal.

  “It seemed you were living a very normal life, you and James were…” She fell silent, looking at Chase as his lips tightened angrily around his fangs. “You had made it onto a raid team.”

  “I am now Token Huntress,” I interjected. She smiled proudly at that.

  “No doubt Miss. Campture named you as a Token Huntress. The closer you came to your eighteenth birthday the further you excelled. Your superiority was hard not to notice, which had many hunters snooping around our home and things. A few days before your eighteenth, you were mumbling in your sleep. And the words you spoke were ones no mother wants to hear. I always told you I wouldn’t assert myself into your body without your permission, but I then realized what your gift was, and I only had days to think of what to do.

  I went out in search of word on where Cesar might have been. I didn’t know what to do or who to ask for. But with no luck could I find him. So I had to make the decision myself. Your gift was like a ticking time bomb. You are the weapon against both vampire and hunter. Within your very heart was a disease and I felt it growing within you. All hunter’s gifts are derived from their heart. It is the very source of us and passion for our fighting. Yours was exceeding at such an incredible rate. I feared that upon the very hour of your eighteenth, you would infect us all to death. And even if you didn’t, once you displayed it in front of everyone, you would be chased by both hunter and vampire.”

  Chase stared at me from the side, trying to read my blank expression. I had no words to say. I felt like I could neither talk nor breathe.

  “So I had to make a decision. I took your heart from your chest; without it your gift was useless. Of course I replaced your heart with my own energy so you would not die, but your eyes instantly lowered in their purple glow and went to a gray. I knew there would be consequences for having violated you in such a way and having taken that away from you. I wanted to come back to you, I truly did. But I had to flee with your heart. I could not destroy it or it would destroy you. So I had to hide it.” My mother almost began crying as her expression tore at the memory. “Campture had hunters following me, they tried to kill me so I faked my death. In truth, I hardly made it out with my life. I did try to return to you, that I promise. But first I had to hide your heart and in that I found your father.”

  Cesar then spoke. “We had to find a hunter who had the gift of concealment, to hide your heart. It is a lot harder than it sounds, especially when the man we needed could conceal his very presence,” he said, rolling his eyes. “But eventually we found him and I drained him to acquire his gift, so I had full control of concealment. We have hidden it
.”

  I placed my hand on my chest, suddenly feeling so empty. But then it made so much sense as to why I felt very little emotion and could not deal with such things. I literally had no heart. It was only when I was with Chase or that he touched me that I actually felt. The rest of me was heightened by my vampirism.

  Chase wrapped his own hand over mine, watching me warily. Are you okay? he asked me internally. My mother and Cesar exchanged a look, as if knowing that we could communicate internally. Perhaps Chase’s worried look completely gave that away.

  “I know I do not deserve your love and trust anymore Esmore, but please know that I did everything I could to protect you. And you cannot return to the Guild, they will kill you,” my mother said. “I came here now to retrieve you, but it seems you have already found an escape.”

  “I am not fleeing,” I said defiantly. I was so angry with my mother, but when I looked into her beautiful florescent orange eyes I could not hate her for what she had done. I only hated myself for not figuring it out sooner. “They have Dillian. I am going back to save him. They have pushed a death sentence on him for being in alliance with the vampire Council and me.”

  “Dillian,” my mother winced at his name. She knew who Dillian was. She had always been fond of him and thought for a long time that we would end up in marriage. “Campture ordered this?”

  “James is not who we once thought he was. He has gone ill in the mind and from what I can gather, he wants me dead or to keep me hidden for himself. He has grown obsessive and I fear leaving Dillian in the current state James is in. He has already hurt him so much, I cannot leave him.”

  “No hunter is worth risking my daughter’s life,” Cesar objected.

  “You have only been involved in your daughter’s life for two minutes, you do not get to make such declarations,” I snapped just as quickly. My fangs slid out in anger and I again covered them from my mother, ashamed of my lack of control. After a moment of Cesar staring me down he let out a monstrous laugh.