Hunter Wars

I never did give it much thought, the night that I was turned. It just all of a sudden became my new normal. Ten years ago I became a vampire. Yep, you read that right, a vampire. I bet you thought that we were just completely make-believe, didn’t you? Well, surprise. We’re not. My name is Victoria Blake, and I am forever stuck at the age of 20. Never made it to the legal drinking age. When I got turned I found that there was a lot that I had to learn about that I didn’t think I would ever have to learn. But we will get to that later. The night I was turned had to be the worst night of my life. And contrary to what you read in books about us, we do burn in the sun. I’m talking about turning into flames in the sun. Those Twilight vampires got it easy, they just glittered. I now have to live forever at night and I don’t mind that so much other than the fact that I have not seen or felt the sun in 10 very long years. “Victoria!! It is time to train.” called my instructor and guardian Phillip, from outside my door. Phillip found me right after I started my transition and took me under his wing. He has olive-toned skin with ice blue eyes and thick black hair that has a slight wave to it. Phillip has told me that he is 120 years old, but he doesn’t look a day older than 26. I honestly don’t know where I would be without him. “Is it already midnight?” I call back to him trying to stall having to go down to the training area. Five years ago, he started training me how to handle myself if I ever got caught by a Hunter. Vampires have been in a war with Hunters ever since the beginning of the Vampire race. I have been selected to be a soldier in the war. I’m actually not that bad of a fighter. “Yes, it is midnight so I expect you to be dressed and in the training area in 15 minutes or it will be 100 laps without vamp speed.” He shouted behind the door. I groan and push up from the bed to go change into my training gear, which consists of a blue sports bra and black yoga pants. I brushed my waist-length chocolate brown hair and pulled it up into a ponytail. While I was lacing up my running shoes, Phillip called from downstairs. “Tick tock, Victoria.” I rolled my eyes and jogged down the stairs to the training area. Once I got to the training area, Phillip was standing in the middle with two fighting staffs waiting for me. “Let’s see what you have learned so far,” he says as he tosses one of them to me. As soon as I catch it he starts coming at me. I use my vampire reflexes to jump over his head and land behind him, and hit him on the shoulder with my staff. “Good,” he calls as he turns to strike at me again. This time I am a little too slow and he hits me on the top of my head. “Too slow, Victoria.” “That wasn’t a fair hit,” I tell him as I take my staff and go to sweep his feet out from under him. He dodges my attack and does a backflip to move away from me. “In a real fight, there are no fair or unfair hits. You know this. Now….defend!” He comes running at me and hits me in the ribs before I can dodge. Then he strikes on my shoulder and then he sweeps my feet out from under me. He sits on my stomach with the staff aimed for my throat. I look up into his face as he gives me a smirk. “You know you could get off of me now right?” I ask him. “Yeah, I know I could but if this was a normal situation how would you get me off?” He retorted. I grab onto his staff and try to use it to flip him off of me, he doesn’t budge. His smirk grows with each attempt I do to remove him from my stomach. “This just goes to show that I have a lot more work to do with you.” He gets off of my stomach and reaches out a hand to help me up. I take his hand and he easily pulls me to my feet. I use my staff and sweep his feet out from under him. “Ha! Got you!” I call as I run to put my stuff back on the rack. I am placing my staff back on the wall when Phillip comes up behind me and pins me against the wall with my cheek pressed against the wall he whispers in my ear. “Did you really think I would let you get away with that?” “No, but I did get one in on you though," I say, turning my head to smirk at him. "Yes, you did," he replies and I feel his breath on the back of my neck, sending a shiver down my spine. I turn my body to face him and he places both hands on either side of my head. I look up into his ice blue eyes, and if my heart still beat it would be racing. I licked my lips as my mouth had suddenly gone dry. "You know Phil, you can let me go now," I say a little more breathy than I would like to. "Yes of course." he slowly lowered his arms that were caging me in. Phillip clears his throat as he takes a step back. “Um, good work tonight. I think that will be all for the night. Go take a shower and get some food.” He turns and walks out of the training center. I stand there with my back still pressed against the wall trying to figure out what in the world just happened. In the whole five years that I have been with him, I had never had that feeling of, well, I’m not sure what that was. Phillip has been a good friend and a mentor to me over these years. I shake off the feeling and head back upstairs to my room to take a shower. While in the shower I start to wonder what went on in the training center. I wash my hair and body then get out of the shower. Wrapping a towel around my body I head to my closet to pick out my outfit for the night. I am planning on going to Batmania Yes, I know a crazy name for a club, but the owner, Jacob, is a vampire and thinks that the name is hilarious. I pull out a pair of black jeans with a tear in the right knee and a red tank top, which if I am being honest about shows a little too much cleavage. I slide my feet into a pair of combat boots and slide my dagger into my right boot. I let my hair finish air drying and let the natural waves fall down my back. Once I’ve applied a little makeup, I head to the kitchen for a little snack before heading out. In the kitchen I see Phillip drinking out of a blood bag. “Going out tonight?” He asks as I pull a bag of O negative from the fridge. I stick it in the microwave to heat it up. Cold blood is just disgusting. “Yeah, figured I might meet up with Kelly at the club and have a little fun before the sun comes up,” I tell him as I get my food out of the microwave and stab a straw into it and take a big drink. As soon as the blood touches my tongue I feel my fangs descend from my gums. “Just make sure to take your phone with you this time, and try to stay out of trouble.” “Yes Dad,” I reply stick my tongue out at him and grab my cell from the counter where it had been charging while we were in the training center. I put my phone and my keys in my back pocket and head for the door. Once outside, I was hit in the face with Alabama summer night air. I start down the street to head to downtown Birmingham, where the club is located. I get to the end of the block that the club is on and see that the line to get in is reaching around the block. Good thing Jacob lets the ‘bats’ in right away and we don’t have to wait in line with the humans. I walk up to the rope in front of the door that is holding people back. When the bouncer looks at me I flash him a bit of fang and he removes the rope and lets me in. Once inside the club I make my way up to the bar, the club is dark and has flashing lights everywhere and the music is so loud you can’t hear yourself think. Bodies are pressed up against each other on the dance floor. I watch as one couple is practically having s*x, the only thing stopping them from being completely joined into one is their clothing. I take a seat on a barstool and motion for the bartender who is a human boy who has shaggy blonde hair. He comes over and gives me a once-over with his brown eyes and asks me what I’ll be drinking. I ask for a bloody mary and turn to look for Kelly. I spot her on the floor with her face in the crook of some guy's neck. Clearly feeding off of him. Most of us don’t feed directly from the vein due to fear of losing control and risking the hunters finding us. Kelly says that she can’t stomach the bagged blood and much prefers getting her meals on the go. I met Kelly two years ago on my first visit to Batmania. She was doing as she is now snacking and I literally ran into her while dancing. I walk up to her and her “dance” partner and tap her on the shoulder. “Hey Kel, try not to drain him” I whisper in her ear. She snaps her head up and looks at me and smiles with blood-stained teeth. “Oh, you know how careful I am.” After she says goodbye to her new friend and makes sure in his mind he just believes that he has a bad hickey from a girl in the club she goes with me to sit down at the bar and when we get there the bartender brings over the drink I ordered. Jacob has a few humans working here that know the secret that we hide. “So, what have you been up to this week other than snacking on cute guys?” I ask her. “Oh, you know, working and trying to find new recruits that would be worth my time training.” Kelly is a recruiter for the army and is in charge of finding freshly transitioned vampires and testing them to see if they are a good fit for the army or if they need to have different jobs in the vampire community. Sometimes when a fledgling isn’t found soon enough after transitioning they can become very feral. They don’t learn how to control their blood lust. Once we have finished our drinks, Kelly pulls me onto the dance floor and we start dancing together drawing the attention of the men in the room. Kelly with her slim figure, bright red hair and emerald green eyes, twirling and doing a provocative dance. Me, I’m about five foot two with curves in the right places, I do alright on my own grabbing a guy’s attention. As we are dancing and laughing, we hear a commotion coming from the entrance. The commotion is so loud we can hear it over the music. We look to the front of the club and see a group of men coming in with their hands glowing a light orange. “Hunters!” I scream at Kelly as I reach down into my boot to grab out the dagger that I had stashed there. Kelly reaches down and lifts the skirt of her tight blue dress and releases the dagger that is in a holster on the inside of her thigh. We start toward the commotion while urging others to get back and let us through. The last thing we need is humans witnessing the Hunters using their magic and exposing us all. “Take the left side!” Kelly commanded as we got closer. I obey and skirt my way around the bodies that are trying to flee from the scene. I hear another explosion coming from the right side and send up a silent plea that Kelly will be okay. As I am pushing a petite blonde human behind me I come face to face with a hunter. His hands are glowing a bright red, which is normally a good indication that they are ready to strike. He is a tall man at least six feet tall and has violet eyes and he is staring straight at me. His jet black hair is pulled back in a ponytail and takes a step toward me. I hold my dagger in my hand and let my fangs elongate ready to use every skill Phillip has taught me. The man in front of me lifts his hand and aims the glow right at me. I jump up and over his head and land on his back. I sink my fangs into his neck and the blood explodes over my tongue in the most delicious taste ever. The man cries out and the next thing I know I feel a white-hot pain on the back of my neck and then everything goes black.