Chapter Two
Alex froze when she heard her own name being yelled through the air. But a second later she pushed herself off the bar and burst through the front doors.
Standing the middle of the loose gravel parking lot was Caleb McKinnon, the man Alex had been hunting for last two months. This was the first time they came face to face since she started hunting him.
"Did you really think you could sneak up on me?" Caleb asked. "You parked in front," Caleb yelled as he gestured to Alex's SUV.
"Tell me where he is!" Alex demanded.
"Never," Caleb replied causing Alex to get even angrier.
She then moved across the parking lot as fast she could. Once she reached Caleb she gripped onto his neck and pushed him up against the side of his pickup truck which caused the truck to jolt sideways.
"Tell me where he is!" Alex yelled. "Where is he?" she demanded. "You will tell me now."
"I will not," Caleb said causing Alex to tighten her grip on his neck.
"You will," Alex compelled.
Caleb laughed.
"Did you think I was that stupid?" Caleb asked. "I've been drinking vervain ever since you compelled my wife to jump off that building," he added. "Your little minds tricks won't work on me," Caleb said with a grin.
Alex tightened her grip on Caleb's neck and throat. It appeared as if she had the upper hand until Caleb punched her in the chest. Alex flew backwards across the parking lot and landed square on her back. She quickly sat up and stared at Caleb. He wasn't a vampire so he shouldn't have the strength to hurt her but he did.
"I was just going to keep running until I realise that running away was for cowards and I am not a coward. You killed the love of my life so I'm going to kill you!" Caleb yelled before his knees snapped backwards causing him to fall to the ground.
Alex stared at Caleb as several other bones started to break in an unnatural manner. It suddenly dawned on Alex when Caleb growled. She quickly looked up into the night's sky and found the moon was full.
"Shit," Alex cursed.
She should have realised Caleb was a werewolf long before now. She had been hunting the man for two months. Alex shook her head and rose to her feet as Caleb finished his transformation into a wolf. Alex quickly pulled her hunting knife out of her leather jacket. She removed the scabbard and dropped it to the ground as Caleb locked his eyes on her.
The wolf quickly rushed towards her, and although at first Alex was prepared to stand her ground she sidestepped the wolf at the last second. She realised how unprepared she was to fight a werewolf.
It had been a long while since she fought a werewolf, or rather it had been four months since she fought and killed a werewolf. Her last target was a werewolf – in fact her last five targets were all werewolves.
Alex shook her head and focused on her current target. She gripped onto the hunting knife harder, and when the wolf turned to face her she stood her ground and waited for the wolf to attack. The wolf once again rushed towards her and this time it jumped in an attempt to stop her from sidestepping its attack, but she had no intention of running away.
So when the wolf jumped into the air she fell it her knees to thrust her hunting knife up into the air and straight into the wolf's underside. Alex pushed the wolf away from her so it did not fall on top of her. As she pushed the wolf away she let go of the hunting knife and hoped it caused more pain if she left it deep inside the wolf.
She was given a few moments to regain her breath and plan a new strategy. Her mind raced with ideas until she heard a slow clap. Alex turned to face her small audience and found the man who called himself The Hybrid leaning against her SUV. He grinned at her, which made Alex want to punch him but before she could move towards the annoying vampire, the wolf recovered.
Alex's hunting knife fell to the ground, which caused blood to pour from the wound the wolf sustained. But the wolf didn't care it was only focused on her. It charged towards Alex and without a weapon she had little choice but to run.
As a vampire Alex understood the danger a werewolf possessed. If the wolf were to bite her than she was dead, so running was the only thing that felt right and as she ran Alex decided to trap the wolf. She planned to question Caleb once he had returned to a human form.
At least that was her plan until she tripped on some soft gravel as soon as she stepped off the compacted gravel. Alex landed face down in the gravel but she turned over just in time to stop the wolf from biting into her back.
Alex gripped onto the wolf's neck and held its mouth as far away from her body as possible. But it quickly became a challenge when the wolf started to thrush around making it hard to keep a hold on the wolf. Alex knew it wouldn't take for the wolf to free himself, so she decided to take a risk. She removed one of her hands from the wolf's throat and quickly punched the wolf in the ribs as hard as she could.
The wolf flew up into the air before harshly landing back in the ground on the other side of the parking lot. Alex quickly rose to her feet as the wolf whimpered. It tried to rise to its feet but it was having a tough time since her punch had broken several ribs. Alex smiled, she had easily defeated the wolf with her bare hands, but she no longer wanted to capture him anymore. Alex was pissed off and she had enough of these werewolves.
She approached her hunting knife, which lied on the ground covered in blood. Alex picked up the knife and approached the wolf that tried to flee but was incapable of doing so. Alex reached down and gripped on the back of the wolf's neck before she lifted it up off the ground. Then with the hunting knife in her hand she cut the wolf in two separating its head from its body.
The wolf's body fell to the ground and a few moments later its head joined it. Both parts remained in wolf form and although hunting a werewolf on a full moon was a challenge Alex was glad they didn't transform back into a human once dead. It made disposing of the body so much easily but in this case she didn't care to dispose of the body.
Once again the sound of applause found Alex's ears. She quickly turned and stared at 'The Hybrid' who was still leaning against the side of her SUV.
"For a moment then I didn't think you were going to win," he said as she made her way towards him.
Alex wasn't at all pleased that he did nothing. She could have easily been bitten. He had no reason to help her but that didn't mean he had the right to stand there and watch.
"So I assume this means you get another tally mark," The Hybrid pointed out.
"Would you like to make it two?" Alex asked as she pointed her hunting knife at him, as she continued forward.
"You can't kill me," he replied.
"I've heard that before," Alex said before she threw her hunting knife at The Hybrid.
The Hybrid easily caught the knife but that was the point. While he was distracted with the knife Alex quickly closed the gap between them. The moment she stood before the self-proclaimed powerful hybrid she punched him in the face surprising him.
He dropped her hunting knife and slowly turned to face her. Alex wasn't in the mood for games so the moment she saw the smile on his face she gripped onto shirt and threw him across the parking lot. Alex retrieved her hunting knife from the ground and turned to face The Hybrid, who sat on the ground. It was more than obvious he wasn't taking this fight seriously, which only angered Alex more.
She quickly rushed across the parking lot and once she reached him she gripped onto his shirt again, but this time she held her hunting knife against his throat.
"Don't make me kill you," Alex said.
Although he angered her she didn't have a reason to kill him and there was someone in particular she wanted to kill next. But once again he didn't take her seriously and only smiled.
"I am serious," Alex warned as her human façade involuntarily fell revealing her vampire eyes.
Alex felt her fangs grow in length as they pierced her lower gums, causing her mouth to fill with blood. This only reminded her how long it had been since she had fed which only added to her current level of anger.
The Hybrid's smile faded and confusion started to fill his eyes but Alex ignored all this. She just wanted him to surrender, but instead of opening his mouth and surrendering he asked a question she never expected.
"Have your eyes always been that colour?" he asked.
"What?" Alex asked suddenly confused.
Alex's human eyes had always been a mixture of grey and blue, sometimes they changed from light grey-blue to a dark grey-blue but the change was never that noticeable. She didn't understand what he meant by her eye colour, there was nothing special about her eyes.
"This colour," he said before his human façade fell.
Alex watched as the whites of his human façade changed into the familiar dark red of a vampire. But it was his irises that confused her. His normal hazel coloured irises faded away to reveal golden irises that glowed.
At first Alex didn't understand what he was getting at until she caught her reflection on the blade of her hunting knife. Alex quickly noticed that her eyes were indeed the same colour as his but she didn't think anything of it. So what if her eyes were gold, it meant nothing.
"So what if my eyes are the same colour as yours," Alex said as she stepped back and left The Hybrid on the ground.
"When were you turned," he demanded.
"Why should I tell you?" Alex asked as she moved to collect her hunting knife's scabbard.
"I could easily kill you..." he started.
"And how are you going to get your answer if I am dead," Alex pointed out. "And you can torture me all you want, it won't work," Alex added as she roughly cleaned her hunting knife and returned it to its scabbard.
Alex returned to her SUV, where she opened the backseat door and tossed her hunting knife onto the rear seat. A moment later she climbed up into the SUV and sat down, but when she moved to close the door The Hybrid appeared and held the door open.
"Who are you looking for?" he asked taking her by surprise.
Alex quickly realised that he was asking so she would open up to him and tell him what he wanted to know. At first Alex considered ignoring him but she then realised that this could be a good thing. Alex figured if he was so cocky to think that he couldn't be killed that he must have powerful allies or contacts such as witches and since she had hit a dead end she decided to exploit these contacts since her contacts had failed her.
"My brother," Alex eventually said as she turned to face The Hybrid. "William Collins."
"Am I correct to say that your brother is a werewolf?" he said.
"He was the last time I saw him," Alex replied. "But he disappeared about eighty-three years ago..."
"Eighty-three..."
"I know he's probably dead by now. I just want to know happened, where he went, where he died," Alex explained. "I need to know," she added as The Hybrid slowly nodded.
"Was your father a werewolf?" he asked to her confusion.
She didn't understand what her father had to do with finding her brother but if it helped him find her brother she didn't care what he knew.
"Most likely, but I am unsure. He died before I even knew about werewolves so I was unable to ask," Alex replied.
"Interesting," The Hybrid said.
"Look, this is cool and all but I have places to go and people to kill," Alex said.
"Well then, I should probably let you go," he said. "I am certain whoever you are hunting won't kill themselves," he added as he stepped away from her SUV.
"They will wish they had when I'm finished with them," Alex confidently said.
"Then I'll be seeing you around another time," he replied.
"I hope not," she lied.
Although it would probably be for the best if they never met ever again Alex was placing a lot of faith in his contacts. She was hoping he could find her brother. He was her last chance at finding out what happened to her brother all those years ago.
Alex watched as The Hybrid returned to the bar and once he was gone she closed the door and moved towards the middle of the car so she could lean forward into the front.
"Jason," Alex said.
But she didn't receive a reply. Alex sighed and shook her head. She really hated it when vampires compelled Jason since it was a nightmare restoring him to what he had been. Alex reached over and forced Jason to turn towards her. She stared into his eyes and after a couple of minutes she compelled him to forget the fact he had ever entered the bar.
"Ah, Alexandra," Jason said as if he didn't even notice her get into the SUV, which was technically true. "Did you find the answers you were looking for?" he asked.
"Unfortunately not," Alex replied. "Caleb was unwilling to speak so I was forced to kill him," she added.
Jason sighed and shook his head.
"I am sorry," Jason said. "We spent all that time trying to find him..."
"Yeah," Alex sighed.
"Where to now," Jason asked.
"Charleston, West Virginia," Alex replied as she sat back.
"Ah, are we going to see Gordon again?" Jason asked.
"You could say that," she answered.
Gordon Everdeen was the person responsible for her current list of failures. He was the person that told her to hunt down Caleb and the list of people before him. Each person she had hunted down and each person was a dead end. Alex had had enough of all these dead ends so it was time for Gordon to face some sort punishment for his failures. So Alex was on her way to Charleston to hunt down her informant.
