The Hunter

Chapter 2

10 YEARS LATER

I sat in a booth, patiently waiting for the food I had ordered to come. I looked around the dining area for the tenth time since I got here, checking if anything has changed since the last time I checked, which was only a minute ago. There were only a few other people seated in this diner. A couple deep in conversation, their feet playing under the table as they giggled to themselves. Yuck. An old man who was reading the newspaper, sipping on his coffee, rather loudly I’ll admit. A few bikers were at the bar talking about their next destination. And lastly, a truck driver who was seated with his plate empty and looking like he was taking a nap. How can he sit there so absent-minded to the area around him? Then again, he’s not in my life and living like they always had a target on their backs, which is quite a few, if I may add. I sighed and turned back around to my own cup of coffee. I had driven all night and I could feel the exhaustion in my muscles, but my mind was alert to every sound and smell. Perks of being supernatural. I heard the door to the kitchen open and my ear twitched. The waitress who had taken my order, came into view with two large plates. My mouth began to water at the sight.

“Here you go, honey.” She said, the smile wrinkling her eyes. A sign that she smiled a lot. Good, at least she was happy. Although she was up there in age, her eyes had a sort of youth to them. I gave her a small polite smile and thanked her. I looked at the sight before me, a large stack of pancakes, eggs, bacon and hashbrown. I got my utensils and took a bite of my hashbrown, which I had had soaked with the yolk of the egg. I was ¾ of the way done with my food when I heard the bell over the entrance door ring. Footsteps padded towards me and a body slid in front of me with ease.

“I don’t know how you can eat that stuff, smells dead.” A woman said, annoyance lacing her words. I looked up at her. Her brown hair came barely past her shoulders and framed her face wonderfully. Her brown almond shaped eyes, which tilted up slightly, looked at me, her nose scrunched up at the sight and smell of my food. I rolled my eyes and continued to finish my food.

“I'm not the one who drinks blood to survive.” I spoke, venom in my own voice. I sipped the rest of my coffee to wash down the sweetness of the syrup I had dumped on my pancakes. She scoffed at me, as if I offended her. I was merely speaking the truth.

“So, why are we meeting in this seedy diner?” the vampire before me spoke.

“First of all, Luna, this is a quaint little place with good food and respectful staff. Secondly, we’re here to talk.” I spoke, leaning back into the plush booth.

“What you consider quaint and what I consider quaint are two different things.” She sighed. I mean, she wasn’t wrong. She was the King's daughter, so that only meant that she was always staying in lavish hotels and eating at 5-start restaurants. And by eating, I mean sucking the blood of blood whores. Vampires were always finding ways to live comfortably in human society without being hunted. Her dad, King Daniel, achieved that perfectly and ran their species with decorum. The vampires respected him, but feared him as well. As did I.

“Yeah, whatever. Listen, those vampires your dad sent me to take care of, I finished the job. I chose this place because I was starving, and no way in hell was I going to pay a large sum of money for a small ass plate.” I told her, taking my cellphone out of the pocket of my bomber jacket I had laid beside me. She chuckled.

“You're pretty well off, why not spend the money?” she said shaking her head slightly. I heard the kitchen door open again and the waitress who served me came over to the table with a fresh pot of coffee in her hand.

“More coffee, sweetie?” she asked cheerfully. I looked up at her and smiled. This woman made me feel very comfortable.

“Oh, yes please. That would be wonderful.” I said holding up my cup. She pours my coffee, and when she was done, she looked over at Luna.

“Can I get you anything?” she asked, taking out her note pad and pen. Luna's eyes slid up and down the waitress. I saw her tongue come out slightly.

“She doesn’t want anything, thanks!” I interjected before Luna could say anything. The waitress gave me a confused look before she walked off. “Control yourself, vampire.”

“She asked!” Luna exclaimed. I groaned inwardly as I unlocked my phone and went to the gallery on my phone.

“She’s a nice woman, do not eat her.” I whispered harshly. I flipped my phone and pushed it towards her. She grabbed it and scrolled through the pictures I had taken. My proof that I had finished my job that was tasked to me. I saw her nose scrunch up again in displeasure of the sight before her. King Daniel wouldn’t have ordered me to off those vamps unless they committed a crime. Which they did, very loudly I might add. The media had gotten a hold of a story about mangled bodies in an abandoned building in Seattle. They had said it could have been an animal attack, but we all knew what it truly was. Mangled bodies with little to no blood left in their bodies was the work of vampires. Vicious little s**t heads. Their Maker never showed them how to hunt properly and cover up their tracks so humans wouldn’t discover them, and most importantly, a hunter. That’s where I come in.

King Daniel had ways to deal with rouges like that, very well ways to handle things. He always contracted hunters, like myself to do his dirty work. Pays well enough, so I take a lot of his tasks he gives me, and he pays very handsomely. The only difference between me and the other hunters, well, I’m supernatural while they are humans. There are factions of humans who know of our existence, trained to be killing machines. They are what keeps us supes from acting out too much. Hunters mainly focus on vamps, because wolves like to stay the f**k away from humans and form their own packs. Like one I had come from. But, every once in a while, a wolf would go rouge and gain the attention of hunters. Other wolves like to handle the situation on their own, so it was rare for one of us to handle them.

“Dad would like to speak with you, in person.” Luna said, snapping me out of my thoughts. She had somehow gotten on a call with Daniel while I was in my own head. I sighed; I knew it was useless to say no to him when he made a request. So, there I was, placing forty dollars on the table, grabbing my jacket and following the very elegant vampire in front of me. She had no car; vampires tend not to drive as they are pretty fast on their own. But I drove because of the load I had in my car. I walked up to my rigged up Toyota 4 Runner and unlocked it. Luna groaned, she hated being in cars, but I would only be able to set foot in her territory if I was accompanied by her. That’s how it has been for the last 6 years of my life. The guards knew me, but they were stuck up assholes and liked to make my life difficult. There in par making the princesses like difficult. I set off on the road to northern Washington state where I knew King Daniel was awaiting my presence.

Yay. I groaned inwardly.