Huntress and The Alpha King

Out of the Depths of Hell

Caleb

Blistering agony ripped through my very soul. It raged day and night; there was no rest for me. Red hot it burned through every muscle and cell in my body. Flames licked at me. I stared endlessly at the ridged walls of the drain and wondered if this would be my tomb.

The blaze seemed never-ending, hotter than blue blazes. With every tiny movement, a wave of agony ripped through me. Day followed night and the tunnel turned into a deep endless blackness that stretched on like the torture. Rain came, followed by heat that caused the stagnant water to smell worse than before. Nothing changed for me. I was aflame with no one to put me out.

I laid on the cold hard concrete. It offered me no relief from the internal fire. As if to show the frigid surface who was in charge, the fire flamed hotter where my skin met the ground.

After an eternity or maybe just a few days, the burning reduced. Enough for me to form thoughts in my mind. One thing I knew was that I wasn’t worm fodder just yet. Someone was, but not me. Despite the fact I’d wished for death at times over the past few days.

When I finally opened my eyes, the blurred image of a dead rat swam into view. It was laid next to my face. The fur on its back was matted and bald in places and the smell that came off it turned my parched stomach. My internal organs felt like they had been reduced to dust. I felt like a husk.

I inched back. The rat was dead because it had tried to nibble on what it had assumed was my corpse. Like its fellows I’d felt bite me while I burned, it learned the vampire venom that broiled my insides was not compatible with rat digestion.

I closed my eyes again and dragged my back against the curved concreate away from the stiff rat corpses and their smell.

Luckily, the storm drain had filled only once since I crawled into it. I’d been gully washed into this section of the drain by that flash flood of water. The black silt laden tunnel I’d crawled into was long gone. No doubt I was still covered in that rotten smelling blackness. I’d been washed onto the junction between two larger drain tunnels. Mercifully, I’d been left out of the putrid smelling water as it receded. With no energy or will to move, I’d laid still even when my rodent buddies had come for a nibble.

I sat slumped against the tunnel wall as my mind gradually returned. I’d had plenty of time to think while I’d been ‘hotter than a burning stump’ as my Pa would have said.

Pa. He was part of the reason I found myself here as unpalatable rat food covered in the city’s grime. I wasn’t going there. I’d suffered through my second vampire-hybrid change. That was enough torture without dredging up the past.

I thought of Demetri, that bastard! I knew I couldn’t trust him as far as I could throw him. Evidently, he was now dead. How did I know? The contorted screaming of the vampire-hybrid I brought with me to drop off Alecto’s body gave it away. Whatever had come over him mirrored my internal agony as the magic left my body, pulled from every cell. We were too vital to Demetri’s plans, even as foot soldiers, for him to sacrifice us. No, he was dead. I reckon I knew just the little vixen who’d done it.

I sat forward and tested my stiff muscles. I was weak as a kitten. I’d used my energy when I’d staggered from Alecto’s home and into the deserted street. I’d ripped open the storm drain and crawled inside like a wounded animal. All these drains led to the Los Angeles River, so I only needed to follow them to find my way out.

My throat burned. I felt parched and it wasn’t for soda. I wanted blood. It flooded through my mind, image after image of redness flowed. I swallowed. My first change hadn’t affected my diet at all but this time I felt ravenous. Fangs popped out of my gums as my thoughts became drenched in crimson. Then a smell hit me as it rose above the dank sewer and rat corpses. A thick warm and heady smell that made my dry mouth water and my fangs ache. Human.

Shuffling met my ears; it came from farther up the left-hand drainage tunnel. Propelled forward by a force stronger than my bone-deep fatigue, I stumbled across the murky ankle-deep water to the opposite bank. Slowly and ungracefully, I slunk toward the smell as it got stronger. I was ravenous and lightheaded at the smell.

Up ahead a figure paused in its shuffling and organising of cardboard and blankets. The grimy man took me in from his hunched over position and his eyes widened.

“I-I didn’t know this part was taken, mister.” He staggered back.

The smell of his blood was tainted with alcohol and his movements were jerky and uncoordinated. My sharp vision took in his vagrant state. His pulse beat strongly in his dirty neck as adrenaline surged into his blood stream.

I took a deep breath; the hormone made the blood smell more tantalising. In a blink I was on him.

“Argh!” he cried as I descended upon him.

My fangs found his carotid artery. His struggles were no match for my strength even weakened as I was. The blood flooded into my mouth, warm and rich. I gulped it down, intoxicated by it taste. After a few seconds, or it could have been minutes, his struggle ceased, and the beats of his heart slowed. I pulled the last of his life blood and discarded his body into the shallow water. The splash and thud resounded around the empty tunnel.

Power coursed through me. I wonder why Demetri never had me drink some blood. It felt great to steal another’s life force. Even a smelly homeless man.

I poured through his meagre belongings and found a few useful items. I turned over a small, cracked mirror and caught my reflection. I looked like swamp monster. Black silt covered my face and hair, blood now smeared across my chin. My eyes blazed with intensity and my hair stuck up at all angles. I looked like I’d emerged from the depths of hell.

I walked for a while till I saw an outlet ahead. I passed through a damaged grate up to an overpass. I smelt them before I saw them. Four men were huddled around a shopping cart all of them wore more layers than was needed in this weather. Gaunt faces and quiet murmurings passed between them as I crept up on them. They smelt of dirt and sweat but underneath that their blood called to me.

It was vagrant buffet night.

My fangs burned and pressed against my lower lip. In a flash I descend on the two with their backs to me and knocked their heads together. They slumped forward over the shopping cart and took it over with them. The other two sprang back with sluggish reflexes. One got his leg caught underneath the cart and he yelled.

The fourth was frozen, eyes alight with fear. His heart pounded in his chest, standing like a deer in headlights. I grabbed him around the neck and sank in my fangs. Greedily I gulped his blood that flowed over my tongue. The trapped man began to swear and scream as he struggled to get the heavy cart and his friends bodies off him. I pulled long and hard I emptied my first victim and grabbed for the next before he twisted free. The acrid smell of urine met my nostrils, but it wasn’t enough to throw me off the scent of his adrenaline laced blood. I descended on his carotid and drank him down too. Power and energy swirled through me as I took his life. I slumped back against the wall to catch my breath. What a rush!

Was I still hungry?

My belly sloshed like the time I’d won the drinking contest at the pack. Full of fluid. Difference was my father was no longer here to beat the ale out of me. I sat for a while as my mind raced a million miles per minute. I felt alive and juiced up better than fighting rogues.

The plan I’d formed over the last few days solidified in my brain as I connected the dots. It was time to build my own legacy. The puppet master was gone, but I still had the keys to the kingdom.

How long I sat sated and frenziedly planning I didn’t know but the sun was peeking up over the horizon when my two unconscious friends began to stir. I decided to take advantage of the rest of the buffet. Sated, I left their bodies in plain sight. There was no one left at the hunter council capable of taking me on.

I squinted out into the dawn light. I needed to get to the lab and see what was left. I would take up Demetri’s legacy and rebuild the army. I knew just the witch to help me do it. No longer would I have to march to another’s tune, I was top of the tree now. If the death of Demetri’s magic couldn’t kill me, nothing would. My spot at the top of the supernatural order was only a matter of time and planning. And at the top with me would be my sugar.

My pack and my family had thought me weak and stupid, but they were wrong. They paid with their lives, just like anyone who dares to challenge me now. No one would ever take advantage of me again.