The Hunters

Chapter Seventeen: The Hunter

River and I stepped outside the Cafe with our arms linked. The second we stepped outside, we were yanked into the ally way. We never even made it to our car. We were pulled with a silver chain that burned our skin. We struggled to stifle our screams. There were humans nearby.

"I normally don't kill out in the streets. We usually take you into a car and drive off to kill you, but since there are two of you together, this seems easier," he explained pulling us deeper into the ally shadows. I bit my lip so hard it began to bleed. The werewolf hunter began laughing at us, laughing at our struggle.

This seemed to be the end of the road for us. I didn't know how to break out of silver chains. All I knew how to do was submit to save my life. I tried to get down on my knees, but River refused. She remained standing and we were chained together.

"We can escape this," Vesper said to me. "But we may have to kill him."

"No, I won't kill anyone," I said to her in my mind.

"It may be him or us and we have a special purpose. Believe me, Alana," my wolf urged, but I ignored her. We couldn't be anything special after everything that had happened. Now we were captured rats. River stood strong in place and glared at him with her icy gaze.

He kept holding onto the chain and pulled out a gun. It was coated in silver and glistened in the dim sunlight that still shone into the darkened ally.

River had managed to weasel her arm free and unbind us, but it wasn't fast enough before he fired. The sound was almost completely muffled. How, I wasn't sure. I didn't know anything about weapons. Only a small air sound was heard, not really sounding like a gun. I felt fear take over my body and mind. I felt so light headed I thought that I was going to faint again. My heart drummed wildly in my chest and my skin had a strange tingling sensation. I squeezed my fingers and watched the short barrel of the shotgun in the hunter's hands. The tips of my fingers felt cold and the world around me seemed to be moving in slow motion, if only for a few seconds. I then heard the bullet hit the chains as River struggled to unwind us.

"How is that possible? I have never missed?" The hunter was distracted for a moment by his bad aim or maybe it was our luck.

"I told you we are special," I heard Vesper in my mind, but I ignored her. We had to run. I turned to flee, but River charged the hunter. She lunged at him and punched him in the face. The two of them struggled on the ground and I stood there frozen in my fear.

"Move!" Vesper shouted at me and within moments I went to aide my friend. I don't know what came over me. He was struggling to pull something out of his trench coat. River wasn't strong enough to stop him before I could get there. He revealed a long whip which he used to lash her with. It sliced River's arm and she jumped back with a cry. I had never seen her act like that from an injury. This was a werewolf hunter so I had to assume it was no ordinary whip. Everything he had so far was unique.

It was my turn to attack him while his attention was on River. I attacked with every bit of force I had. I managed to tackle him back onto the ground. I was hitting him repeatedly, but he wasn't moving for some reason. His face wasn't even reacting to my blows. His eyes were fixed open and his mouth was slightly agape.

"Alana!" I heard River gasp. Her hand grabbed my shoulder and yanked me off of him. When I was standing back on my feet, I realized he was dead. His shirt was stained with blood and a silver knife was impaling him. Its brown, leather handle was the only thing sticking out of his body.

I quickly turned to River, astonished by what I saw.

"How the f**k did that happen?!" I asked her.

"It looked like maybe he was holding it when you attacked him and your attack made him impale himself," she said staring at the dead werewolf hunter on the ground. "It was hard to see under that huge trench coat he was wearing and it all happened so fast," she shook her head seeming confused. "But I saw the knife go in, it just doesn't make sense."

We were baffled by the scene. Regardless of how it happened, I had killed this man. He was dead and I was alive. I had never killed anyone before. I couldn't even kill Alpha Remus after everything he did to us. We had merely ran without harming anyone. River was the fighter between us, not me! This wasn't me!

My face suddenly felt wet and I realized I was crying. I didn't mean to kill him. I only wanted to run home. We only wanted to be left alone and here we were with a dead body. I was a murderer.

"We can't just leave him here," I told River.

"Then what should we do? Carry him out to the busy street so everyone can see? We will either go to the human jail or the hunters will definitely come for us. Or we could end up in a dungeon," she said. "We have to leave him here and hope no one figures out what happened," she said.

"But what are the odds he was alone?" I asked.

"I don't know," River shrugged. "But for right now we don't have to worry about this guy." None of this felt right. It all felt so wrong and the guilt was already eating me up inside.

"I'm gonna go to jail or be killed," I started sobbing until I felt River aggressively grab both my hands and pull them towards her.

"Alana, snap out of it. We have to get out of here and pretend this never happened," she said angrily to me. She was clearly annoyed by my emotions while she appeared cold and heartless. I wasn't sure if this was the real River or the broken one. I merely nodded to her still sniffling.

She took me by my hand and quickly led me to the Cafe parking lot where she parked the car.