Note: I really wanted this out last week but I ended up being too busy to write. Sorries.
As I have mentioned before, I was considering drawing a picture of Hunter and well I actually did.
So here's the link: http: // i996 .photobucket .com/ albums/ af87/ Emi667/ Random/ HSCHunter .jpg
Just copy and paste into your browser, remove all the spaces and it should come up!
I know I said that my extent of drawing humans was only stick figures but I didn't want to disappoint you guys so I ended up studying volumes of manga with busty girls and going through HUNDREDS of tutorials on how to draw manga/anime and this is the result.
She's not exactly anatomically correct, I messed up on her hair and she's missing her hands since I couldn't draw the hands and the lower part of her body, lol.
If anyone wants to draw Hunter please go for it!
I think it'd be interesting to see the different interpretations of her.
Replies to reviews at the end of the chapter like last time.
ENJOY!
[Handguns and Second Chances]
-26: O Juliet, Where Art Thou?-
"Bright cold silver moon,
Tonight alone in my room,
You were here just yesterday,
Slight turn of the head,
Eyes down when you said,
I guess I need my life to change,
Seems like something's just aren't the same,
What could I say?"
-Tongue Tied by Faber Drive
Silence hung heavily in the air after Yagari explained what he had heard at the bar. Zero felt even more restless now that he found out what happened to Hunter and what the men were planning to do with her. He had to find her before it would be too late. The idea of her being skinned for her fur was incomprehensible though. He had a hard time wrapping his mind around it.
"Huh, if it's not one thing it's another..." Lycian sighed exasperatedly on the other end. "Anyway, you guys ought to get your asses in gear and start looking for Hunter. She's being injected, so you got less than a week to find her," he added as a matter-of-factly. He really wanted to help them find Hunter but he was already in Italy and had to find his brother and best friend first. The situation depressed him.
Zero, being currently the middle-man, passed on the message.
"What do you mean she's being injected?" Cross asked unfamiliar with what seemed to be werewolf jargon.
"What I meant is that the poachers are injecting her with this weird shit that forces her to fully transform into her wolf-self and one of the main things about it is that if a werewolf is repeatedly injected over a certain period of time without being allowed to transform back into a human they eventually become wolves permanently," Lycian explained in the simplest of terms he could think of.
He then went on to explain that the injection was originally developed by the hunters in order to improve their own hunting abilities. That to them, it was like taking steroids without the side effects. Eventually, somewhere down the road they discovered that the injections, when given to werewolves, would forcefully transform them. The injection itself was made of wolf blood and other ingredients, some of them common herbs, and virtually harmless. Its effects on werewolves often wore off after twenty-four or less hours and that's all there was to it.
However, the concoction somehow leaked into the hands of the poachers and at first they used it to break werewolves into dog fighting. It was a lucrative business for them as no dog could ever take on a werewolf and win. What they learned later was that if a werewolf was repeatedly injected without being allowed to transform back into a human, over time its wolf form would become permanent.
"With werewolves it's like this - if you kill one whether it's transformed or not - it will return to its human form. Unless the form is permanent, that is," Lycian said, unloading what he had learned over years from being a werewolf himself.
"But why would they want to kill werewolves for their fur?" Yagari asked, his brows furrowed as he tried to comprehend the dementia of skinning werewolves.
"Because their fur is of the highest quality ever known to man and can sell for millions," Lycian replied flatly. "The rarer the breed the higher the cost of the fur," he added as he thought about how much Hunter's fur could possibly be worth.
"Judging by the fact that Hunter is a Hati wolf, these guys could probably sell her fur for over a billion if not more," he finally said, feeling as if his estimate was close enough.
Zero cringed inwardly. That was just sick. He couldn't imagine Hunter being a wolf to begin with, let alone being skinned.
"Ah...but what bothers me is how these men found out about werewolves being in this area?" Cross asked as his mind became muddled over what could have possibly gone wrong for this to happen.
"These bastards will hunt anything that can profit them - even vampires. My guess is they were here either looking for vampires and ran into Hunter or someone leaked that there were werewolves here," Lycian said as he raked his mind for answers.
If this goes public she might be killed, the words rang in Zero's mind from months ago when Hunter first arrived.
"Who could have leaked it though?" Yagari asked as the idea made him search his mental profiles of everyone he knew that could be a potential suspect.
"Uh...well...we were having that turned werewolf problem...so I'd say it was either a word-of-mouth thing about a huge wolf stealing sheep or...one of your vampires leaked it. No one else knew about us," Lycian said as he made a mental list of all the vampires that knew of him and Hunter.
Zero's thoughts instantly focused in on Kaname. He was the only one who hated Hunter enough to have gone this far. But was it really him? He questioned the bastard already and he denied everything. Then again Kaname did kill that pureblooded bitch and blamed it all on him. Oh, how he hated that guy...
"How do we find her?" Zero suddenly asked as he felt an obstinate knot of anger develop in the pit of his stomach. A part of him knew that Kaname had to have had something to do with this. Or maybe he simply wanted the bastard to be the one behind it just so he could have a reason to kill him.
Lycian felt the anger behind Zero's voice. "Yagari said that they were going to fight her, right?" He asked changing the subject, knowing very well what Zero was thinking about.
"Yeah," Zero replied as he thought of killing Kaname.
"That's a clue right there as to where you guys should look for her. I don't know why they'd want to fight her though," Lycian said.
"What do you mean?" Zero asked perplexed. All this talk about werewolves was not only alien to him but ridiculous as well.
"Dude, she's a fucking Hati. If she fully transformed she's as big as a god damn war horse - and not any war horse at that. I'm talking like a draft war horse, like one of those shires...we're talking twenty hands high, two-thousand pounds heavy," Lycian explained trying to give Zero a visual. "I don't know how they intend to fight something that big or even move it around," he added in an afterthought.
When Zero said nothing the werewolf continued.
"Also you mentioned a guy named Julio - he's the shit bag who's got my brother. So for what it's worth I suggest scouting the woods too," Lycian said as he began to feel his own anger rise within him.
"What for? I already searched the woods. The snow storm covered all the tracks," Zero countered finding it pointless to search the woods again.
"Zero, when a werewolf gets in a fight no snow storm can cover the damage and I highly doubt she went down without a struggle," Lycian replied as he recalled his own battles.
"What if I don't find anything?" Zero challenged wanting to avoid any unnecessary work that would delay him.
"When you were searching the woods you were looking for Hunter - a human. This time don't look for Hunter, look for a werewolf. You know her blood don't you?" Lycian asked, his words like a punch in the gut. "I mean, you've treated her wounds before and shit so you should know what her blood smells like, right?" He elaborated when Zero didn't say anything.
"Yes..." the vampire said uneasily. For a second he thought that Lycian was referring to him drinking her blood.
"Then search the woods first, if these guys are associated with Julio then they're probably renting a cabin out in the woods. Meaning, if Hunter was wounded then there should be a blood trail leading you right to where she is," Lycian expanded further on his reasoning.
"What if she wasn't wounded?" Zero asked still not entirely convinced by the current plan of action.
"Oh for fucks sake Zero! Why can't you just listen to me for once?!" Lycian exploded with frustration.
To that, Zero had nothing to say. The idea of searching the woods seemed pointless to him and he would much rather get a faster and more concrete way of finding Hunter as soon as possible. He didn't know why but he had to find her and it wasn't just because it was the right thing to do.
"Give me Yagari," Lycian said sharply when he didn't receive a reply.
Zero handed the phone over to the hunter.
"Yes?" Yagari asked, secretly itching for a cigarette.
"Here's what you guys need to do," Lycian began his tone now more authoritative. "I want you to search all organized underground dog fights in the area within a fifty-mile radius of the academy. I also want that stubborn-ass named Zero to search the woods tomorrow since he won't find shit at night, no ifs, no buts, he has to do it," He instructed, his commands rolling off his tongue as if he was already the alpha-male of his pack.
"I also want Cross to start doing a little investigative work on who's behind this. Any bit of information that he can get might bring us closer to finding Hunter. Keep it all on the down low though, no one else needs to know about this. Now give me that idiot and give us some privacy," Lycian added with impatience.
Touga Yagari handed Zero the phone and told Kaien to come out with him as Lycian requested some privacy and to pass on what the Benandanti ordered.
"What?" Zero asked a little peeved once he was alone in the office. He wanted to start looking for Hunter and not chat on the phone like an old gossip lady.
"Listen, I'd seriously love to be the knight in shining armor that finds and rescues Hunter but I can't. I have to save my little brother and best friend first," Lycian began almost dejected.
"I didn't even know you had a little brother," Zero said in a non-descriptive tone.
"Yeah, well, I have a little brother and a sister, and a psychotic self-proclaimed fiancé, and I know the monkey's uncle," Lycian replied sarcastically.
"What?" Zero asked now utterly confused. Since when did Lycian have a fiancé?
"Never mind," Lycian snapped. "The point is that I told you all this before, but you only listened to me when I talked about Hunter - and nothing else," he said almost accusingly.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Zero asked suddenly feeling defensive.
"Are you really that thickheaded?" Lycian asked with disbelief. "Zero, I may be a little perverted –"
"A little?" Zero challenged.
"Okay - I may be extremely perverted - but I'm not stupid. You're completely and utterly in love with Hunter!" Lycian declared with utmost confidence.
Zero froze. Was he in love with Hunter? Unlikely, it didn't seem possible. "As if," he responded defiantly. The only one he was in love with was Yuuki.
"And you're in denial..." Lycian countered.
"How can I possibly be in love with her?" Zero's tone dared him to explain his reasoning. He did undeniably feel attracted towards her but that was because he drank her blood, not because he was in love with her.
"Oh please, you two were already married when I got to the academy, you fucking mule..." Lycian countered dismissively. "Anyway, this isn't the time to fight, you need to find her," he quickly added to change the subject.
Did he just call me a fucking mule? Zero's face contorted in confusion as he wondered if he really heard what he thought he did.
"We're friends so I trust you and I know you can and will find her, alright?" The werewolf said his tone now more affable.
The words struck Zero. Did Lycian really think of him as a friend? He never really considered anyone to be his friend before, maybe besides Yuuki. It was a really strange feeling to be called a friend. What was Lycian to him then? What was Hunter to him? Were they both friends? Was it because they were friends that he wanted to find her? Or was it something deeper like Lycian said?
"Just do it before it's too late, I don't know the pet policy at Cross Academy," he said with a light chuckle.
"What if I really don't find anything in the woods?" Zero asked, still skeptical and unsure of the plan while trying to cover his earlier thoughts.
"Then howl," Lycian replied shortly.
"What?" Zero didn't know what that was supposed to mean.
"Howl, she's a wolf, she'll respond," Lycian said and hung up.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Lycian hung up the phone and groaned, burying his face in his hands. Out of all times Hunter had to get caught when he wasn't there. Seriously...he thought with slight aggravation as now he had to count on the vampire to rescue her. He knew that Zero would find her no matter what. The guy was obviously into her regardless of how much he denied it.
A light chuckle came from the door catching his attention. Looking up, saw his sister standing in the doorway. As much as they fought and bickered he was glad to see her. "Hey, sis..." he greeted, his brown eyes meeting her sea-green ones.
He always teased her that she was swapped at the clinic since they didn't look like they'd be siblings. On other occasions he told her that she was a ding-dong-ditch baby or that their mother found her in the woods. Even Gabriel joined in on the teasing once he was old enough to understand what was going on.
"Heh, this was the first time I heard you admit to defeat," his sister, Rozabella, said with a small teasing smile.
Yet despite all the teasing, she was still his little sister. She may not look much like him or Gabriel but everyone in the pack said that she looked just like their great-grandmother who was said to be one of the most beautiful Benandanti werewolves. Not like he cared. Rozabella would always be his little sister no matter what. The only thing he was glad about now was that he didn't have to marry her to keep their blood pure like the vampires did. He found it disturbing.
Lycian grinned. "Yeah...and to a vampire..." he said in a mock sour voice."Hey, Rozie, how's dad doing?" He asked her in an afterthought, his tone soft.
"He's doing fine. Give him a few more days and he'll be going around yelling at everyone again," Rozabella laughed.
"I didn't mean it like that..." Lycian said hinting at their father's mental well being rather than physical.
"Eh, he'll get over it. They were ambushed and he was loaded with silver bullets - there was nothing he could have done to save them. He should feel lucky to be still alive," she replied with a shrug.
"No shit," Lycian said knowing very well that his father would be blaming himself for what had happened.
"So you ready?" He asked, flashing her a mischievous grin.
"Of course," she replied with a smirk.
It was time to get their brother and friend back.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Zero slammed the phone down on the cradle. "Howl?! He's gotta be kidding me!" He growled and stormed out of the Chairman's Office, earning himself strange looks from both Yagari and Cross.
"Zero-kun, you know what you're supposed to do, right?" Yagari asked carefully.
"Yeah," Zero barked in reply and made his way upstairs.
He unconsciously made his way to Hunter's room and froze when he realized where he was.
Without Hunter the room felt unusually cold and empty. Had he taken her for granted and expected her to always be there? A strange feeling loneliness mixed with heartache and yearning penetrated him to the very core.
You're completely and utterly in love with Hunter! Lycian's words echoed in his mind.
Am not! He thought and dropped down on her bed without thinking. Rolling over, he buried his face in one of her pillows and inhaled deeply. Her trademark honeysuckle scent still lingered on the sheets, triggering nostalgia.
"Zeerrooo....I'm huuunngrrryy!!!" Hunter whined with a small pout while she sat on her bed. Her long hair was a mess and her wrinkled uniform blouse unbuttoned halfway revealing her ample cleavage.
"Fix your shirt," he ordered finding it inappropriate.
"Huh?" She cocked her head slightly as she looked at him in surprise. "Don't change the subject damn it!" She snapped and tried to stand up on her bed but got tangled in her bed sheets and fell to the floor with a dull thud.
The corners of his mouth twitched into the barest of smiles at the memory. Hunter was always like this. Blunt, sharp-tongued, lazy, endlessly hungry, quite vulgar and always a mess. Of course he was one of the rare few who knew this side of her since she always cleaned up when she had to attend classes. If the guys in Day Class knew of just her real personality they wouldn't even consider having the fantasies they've been cultivating since she arrived.
A sigh escaped him. Without Hunter around to be the usual racket making culprit everything felt eerily quiet. Was it always this quiet? Or had he gotten so used to her being around that he had forgotten how it used to be?
He pondered on the thought as he tried to recall the academy before Hunter's arrival. At first she was quiet, still and obedient - like a doll. Over time she began opening up and causing trouble. Then she partially turned into a wolf...caused more trouble...and then she kissed him.
His hand subconsciously traveled up to his mouth and he touched his lips with the pads of his fingers. Every time he thought about her kisses he could still feel and taste her lips against his. Not only did she always smell like honeysuckle she also tasted just as sweet.
You're completely and utterly in love...
Was he? In truth, he didn't know. Why? Because whenever he thought about it he always realized that he really knew nothing about Hunter except what he was told or what he had noticed. So how can you be in love with someone you don't know? One thing for sure that he did know was that he didn't hate her. Yes, she annoyed him and was a little bratty but he didn't hate her.
Was it possible for him to be in love with her?
Maybe.
Every time he thought about the way her lips felt against his, his heart skipped a beat.
Was it lust then?
An infatuation?
Most likely.
Did her blood have anything to do with it?
No.
It didn't taste like blood to begin with and he didn't find himself lusting after it. Her blood made everything else taste weird too.
So what did that make Hunter to him? Was she a mere pet? A chore? A friend?
The thoughts made his head ache. He didn't know what Hunter was to him. He wasn't even sure of how he exactly felt about her. The only way for him to find out was to find her first.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Hunter awoke with another splitting headache and felt her body being jerked around. Sitting up she looked around her surroundings and noticed she was no longer in the shed, or whatever it was, but in the back of what looked like a truck. The wheels hit another pothole causing her to lose balance and fall onto the cage floor with a dull thud of fur and muscle against metal.
The chains around her thick mane clanked reminding her of the inward spiked collar that uncomfortably dug into her skin. Stupid thing...she grumbled mentally as she scratched her neck with her hind paw making the heavy chains attached at both sides of the collar rattle loudly.
She heaved a sigh and stretched. Her ears perked up when she heard the men talking in the front.
"Looks like wolfie's up," one of them said. It was Mikey, the guy with the gruff voice.
"You guys really think she a Hati?" Jesse, the youngest one of the group, asked doubtfully.
"Yeah, she got that mark behind her ear 'n shit," the smoker voice, whose name as Hunter learned, was Ronnie.
Considering that both smoker and gruff voice were built like brick shithouses, their names, in Hunter's opinion, didn't suit them at all. If it were up to her, she would have named the two Bubba I and Bubba II, since they looked like trailer park truck drivers on steroids. Jesse, on the other hand, was this tall but scrawny guy with too much gel in his hair. It made her wonder how he ended up with the two giants.
"But ain't she a little small to be a Hati man?" Jesse said as he glanced back at Hunter, who in turn was scratching herself as if she had fleas.
"No shit, but what the hell we gonna do? She obviously ain't a pureblooded bitch. Shit, we lucky that we even caught a mixed Hati mutt like 'er," Ronnie said, his thick accent slurring his words a little.
"Jess, the mark's there, she's a Hati," Mikey reassured his younger comrade.
"Ah well, fuck it, a werewolf's a werewolf. There aint't that many of 'em around anyway," Ronnie added pleased with what they had caught.
"So you call'd Julio yet?" Mikey asked mischievously.
"Hell ya, bastard's meetin' us up at Krasnoyarovo, he said he wants to see what we caught," Ronnie replied with a laugh that turned into a hack due to the tar congestion in his lungs.
Disgusting, Hunter thought tuning out their conversation as they talked about some Julio guy and what his reaction was going to be when he saw her.
The bumpy ride continued for hours. Out of boredom Hunter ended up counting all the potholes the truck hit and was currently at the total of seven-hundred-and-twenty-three potholes. Judging by that number it occurred to her that they must have been traveling through all the dirt roads in the country side, far away from towns and villages. Inhaling through her nose, she could smell pine trees, which meant that they were driving through a forested area.
She opened her jaws wide as another yawn of boredom escaped her. Sitting locked in a cage with no decent food for at least three days now was worse than being under Zero's surveillance twenty-four-seven and having Lycian peek at her in the bathroom combined.
Her stomach growled loudly. Oh how she'd kill for a steak...These bastards kept on only giving her leftovers as if she'd actually eat them. At one point they even gave her a rabbit's guts. What the hell was wrong with these people?
The truck suddenly came to a stop and Hunter flew forward, hitting her head against the iron bars. Ow, what the fuck? Don't you know how to drive?! She cussed mentally as she threw a glare at the front of the truck.
The cab door opened and slammed as the three men piled out and made their way to the back. They opened the back of the truck, the sudden light temporarily blinding Hunter.
"C'mon, I'ma get 'er on this side, and you get 'er on the other. Jesse, you gonna open the cage," Ronnie ordered and the three climbed in the back.
Ronnie grabbed the chain on Hunter's left side and Mikey grabbed the second chain on her right, while Jesse climbed on the top of the cage to open the gate. She briefly growled at them as they tugged on the chains.
"Got 'er, open up," Ronnie said when his hold on the chain was solid.
Jesse opened the cage and Hunter darted forward in hopes of ripping the chains out of their hands and taking off.
But no such luck. The two men yanked on her chains roughly, pulling her back and causing the inward spikes to dig into her neck. She began to thrash and jump around violently, snarling and growling at the men, but to no avail. At some point she nearly managed to lunge at Mikey but Jesse hit her over the head with a large crowbar before she could clamp her jaws down on the man's arm.
Hunter yelped in pain and redirected her attack towards Jesse, who hit her with the crowbar once more, this time striking her shoulder blade. She yelped but didn't stop and lunged at him once more.
"What? Think your threats gonna work on us?" Jesse mocked poking at her with the crowbar while laughing.
"Quit it, Jess, we gotta tie 'er up before she rips our hands off!" Ronnie barked at him, perspiration running down his face as he struggled to maintain his hold on the heavy chain.
Jesse obeyed with disappointment written on his face that he didn't bother to hide. Mikey and Ronnie then dragged the thrashing wolf to two thick trees that they intended to tie her to.
Mikey went up to one of the trees with his chain and tied it around the trunk, locking it in place with a heavy padlock, while Ronnie pulled on the other end to keep her from attacking either of them.
When one end of the chain was locked in, Ronnie did the same on his end, leaving Hunter barely enough room to pace around.
"We're gonna go to town to meet up with Julio, you keep an eye on her," Mikey said to Jesse as he wiped the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand.
"Why me???" Jesse whined as he wanted to be the one to boast of their catch.
"Cos someone's gotta keep an eye on 'er," Ronnie said before wiping his face in his shirt.
Jesse grumbled some sort of agreement and watched the two men hop into the truck and take off. When the truck left, Hunter noticed that there was a decent sized cabin, the kind that one would rent out for a vacation off in the woods to go hiking or to simply get away from the general population. It looked expensive too.
Just as Hunter was criticizing the building's architecture and lack of originality, Jesse came up to her with the crowbar in his right hand, his gaze derogatory.
Hunter instinctively growled at him. For a naïve greenhorn he sure as hell was crueler than the pros. She figured he was probably some loser who used to get bullied for his scrawny chicken legs and bad hair and now that he was a poacher with two gorillas as friends he thought he was tough shit.
Her ears flattened against her head and her fur bristled. Releasing a deep threatening growl she lowered her head and eyed him suspiciously, ready to strike any second.
"What are you lookin' at, huh?" Jesse harassed as he jabbed at her with the crowbar.
Hunter snapped her jaws at the crowbar but he pulled it away before she could bite down on it.
"Ha! Stupid wolf!" Jesse exclaimed as he continued to jab at her.
"Huh?! You think you can get this?! Huh?! Huh?!" He said repeatedly jabbing at her, occasionally catching her sides painfully.
She lunged at Jesse once more, the spikes digging into her neck deeper and choking her in the process.
"Stupid bitch!" He exclaimed aiming for her head.
This time Hunter caught the crowbar between her powerful jaws, her carnassials deeply denting the steel.
"Shit!" Jesse exclaimed jumping away from the wolf. He muttered some incoherent curses afterwards and walked away towards the cabin, leaving her with the crowbar.
Run away you fucking pussy! Hunter thought dropping the piece of steel. With Jesse out of sight she walked backwards as far as she could and relieved herself, covering it all up with snow afterwards like a cat.
What a relief…she sighed once her bladder felt at ease. Having to hold it all in for the entire ride was really painful but she was a firm believer of 'don't shit where you sleep.'
Hunter sat down on the snow as far away from her pee as possible and took in her surroundings. It wasn't as if she had anything better to do since she was hungry and tied up to two trees. How many days has it been? She wondered since she couldn't remember. They knocked her out for most of the part. It could have been three days…or a week. Hunter honestly didn't know.
She knew she spent some time on a train and had been moved from one truck to another. But that was all she knew.
Another sigh came out of her and she continued to ponder on anything that came to her mind. She figured that Zero already figured out that she was missing and that he had already informed the Chairman. They were all probably looking for about now. If she was right, Lycian would have found the dead werewolf by now in the woods and they'd all be trying to trail her via blood. Though how far would they get doing that?
Not very far.
Would they ever find her? Probably not. She did run away after all. Then got caught by these idiots and now she had no idea where she was. It wasn't as if she had a plan to begin with. At the time her priority was getting away rather than having a strategy of what to do once she was out of the academy. It was stupid and based on how things turned out, it seemed as if her stupidity came around and bit her in the ass. Then again, common sense was never her forte.
I'm so bored...she grumbled mentally. Being this werewolf thing sucked. In her opinion at least. She couldn't talk, she had no superpowers like the vampires did, and all she could do is act like a wolf. Demigod my ass, she thought bitterly.
Hunter scratched herself behind the ear once more and looked around. Her silver eyes fell upon the dented crowbar. Boredom getting the best of her, she got up and picked up the piece of steel with her canines, then lay down and began gnawing on it.
I mean, like seriously...she ranted mentally while chewing on the steel, her incisors digging into it. It's so fucking lame, I just wanted to get away from that, blah, fucking nun, and this had to happen...this tastes gross! She thought but continued to gnaw on the crowbar as a strange sort of frustration began bubbling within her.
All I want right now is a steak! These bastards will STARVE ME to DEATH before they even manage to skin me like they said they would...she ranted, now annihilating the piece of steel.
The crowbar snapped in half when she bit down hard on it. Great, now I got nothing to chew on, she thought dismayed as she looked at the mangled steel.
Oh! An idea just struck her.
Walking the furthest distance the left chain permitted to her right, she snapped her jaws around the right chain and bit down on it as hard as she could, hoping it would break like the crowbar.
But instead it was her teeth that felt as if they were going to be broken.
"Ahh!! Ow! Ow! OW!!!! Fuck! Blah! That fucking hurt! Gaaah!!" Hunter screamed out in pain but it only came out as a bunch of whimpers, yelps, squeaks, whines and any other noise that her current vocal chords could make.
"What the fuck is this made of, silver?!" She barked while trying to massage her muzzle with her front paws to ease the pain.
"Ahh, this huuurts!!!! I think I broke my teeth!!! I need to see a dentist!" She whined, her words nothing more but an assortment of noises.
While trying to ease her pain, Hunter didn't notice the truck return followed by another one. It wasn't until the men piled out and slammed the doors that she heard them.
"That your werewolf?" A burly man with a thick Italian accent asked.
"Yeah," Ronnie smirked. He hadn't told Julio that Hunter was a Hati.
"Damn small, what's wrong with it?" Julio asked looking slightly confused at the whining wolf as it tried to rub its muzzle with its front paws.
"Probably bit the chain," Mikey said and they burst out laughing.
Hunter stopped her whining and looked at the men. She recognized Ronnie and Mikey, but there were three others that she hadn't seen before. Though she assumed that by the way they were acting, the Italian in a fancy leather jacket was more than likely the Julio guy they were talking about. The other two were probably just his subordinates.
Julio then whistled and a large German Shepherd jumped out of the second truck, wagging his tail happily to see his master. "C'mon boy," he said affectionately to the dog.
"The pit's in the basement. I wanna see what that werewolf of yours can do since you called me all the way out here," Julio said almost dispassionately as he was obviously disappointed with Hunter's size.
Mikey and Ronnie exchanged mischievous glances and made their way to Hunter, unlocking the heavy padlocks one at a time and hauled Hunter towards the cabin.
This time she didn't bother to struggle as she found no point in doing so. Her teeth were still on fire.
They dragged her into the cabin, then down a flight of stairs, with Mikey going down first, Hunter in the middle and Ronnie at the back in case she would decide to lunge at either. At some point Jesse joined them, excitement written all over his face.
Once in the basement, Hunter noticed that it was quite roomy and that there was a deep pit in the middle with a ceiling-high chain link fence surrounding it. There were also two gates of access with metal ladders going down into the pit.
Ronnie and Mikey dragged Hunter to one of the gates. Julio opened the gate for them and they quickly undid the inwardly spiked collar around her neck before roughly shoving her into the pit.
Hunter landed with a thud on the concrete and cringed as her nose was assaulted with the stench of old dried blood.
Looking around, she saw that the concrete pit walls were six foot tall and stained with blood. Were they finally going to butcher her? No, they wanted to see what she could do. Did that mean they were going to make her fight against a dog or something?
She paced nervously around the pit, the bright lights that hung above were blinding, preventing her from looking up at the men.
"Her fur's really nice, you sure you want to fight her?" Julio asked maliciously as he doubted Hunter's fighting abilities.
Ronnie scoffed. "Throw your best one in," he said.
"Not yet, I don't wanna waste my time if she ain't worth it," Julio replied as his eyes followed Hunter's nervous pacing.
He then looked at his dog. "Kill," he ordered opening the gate and the dog jumped in, ready to execute his master's orders.
I'llxBexUrxEngima2010 - first - THANK YOU for rewriting your long ass review because I loved it! Lol... I didn't reply to your review in the last chapter because I got it right after I posted the new chapter...so I'm replying in this one. Now, the Tony thing - all I have to say is that I'm not offended because I didn't make him the sharpest tool in the shed and it wouldn't be funny if all of my characters were politically correct all the time. It's not like bats can fly out of someone's crotch either so....
And if he's back again I'll make sure he says more stupid stuff.
As far as it goes for Yuuki - I wish I could get rid of her but since the story is centered around Zero and she's a big part of his life and who he is and yadda yadda - I can't. But there IS a surprise awaiting Yuuki later in this story...
Okay, onto the general question I asked last time about research ruining a story.
See, what happened was that I was playing Assassin's Creed a few months ago and I heard one of the informers ask Altair (the assassin) if he's heard from this "Adha" or whatever her name was and he replied "no." So this idea sparked in my head that this Adha was some woman Altair was more than likely in love with and that it would make a great story about Altair having woman troubles. Since I didn't know anything about this Adha woman at the time I was like "what if she's a woman he's madly in love with but because he's this arrogant asshole and she left him? And then they randomly run into each other and he tries to win her back and blah, blah..."
Anyway, I kinda just noted that and threw it in my random research pile (I actually have piles of random research) and let it be until recently.
I know this story is going to end eventually so I kinda wanted to start compiling research for my next story and I was going to write that Assassin's Creed fanfic but then I researched "Adha" and it lead me to Altair Chronicles (prequel to Assassin's Creed) and well I learned who Adha was and how HORRIBLE the storyline of Altair Chronicles was and I ended up hating her and thus my hate for the real Adha ruined my potential story....
*Sigh...* Okay, moving on!
DarkValkyrie89 - your idea on why the VK vampires lick their victims is definitely my favorite one. I haven't even thought of that!
And now my reply to "Anonymous?"....
I must agree with you on the fact that Hunter seems like a semi Mary-Sue in the earlier chapters but that was because she didn't have much of a personality. If you're not sick of her Mary-Sueness yet, I suggest that you might want to keep reading the story as Hunter's character develops throughout the whole story.
I'm not offended and I don't think you're being mean so it's fine. I'm aware I can't please everyone as we all have different tastes. Some people like vanilla ice cream and some like chocolate - that's all there's to it.
Anyway, if anyone is confused, as I do tend to write vaguely, I'll clarify some Hunter + VK things here.
For one, this story sprouted from a simple idea of "what if there was a werewolf in VK?" and then that werewolf became female but I didn't want her to be just any werewolf.
Originally Hunter was going to be a Chetvorok, which in I think Macedonian mythology (correct me if I'm wrong) is a dog with a whorl over each eye making it look like it has four eyes and it was used to fight against vampires. Basically an anti-vampire doggie from ancient times. But at the time, during my research, when I Googled Chetvorok I got no hits and now if I Google it I only get two lousy links with barely any decent information and I didn't want to give you guys something you can't research on your own without having to go to your public library and dig through tons of books on mythology.
So that was out and then I searched through all the mythological dogs and wolves because I wanted to give this female werewolf a background. Eventually I settled on the Fenrir bloodline (as I liked the myth) and thus I had a demigod descendant of Hati (one of Fenrir's son) and it was a she.
Because she was a descendant of a demigod I decided to make her beautiful. I mean, why not? I only gave her large boobs because the VK girls seem to lack them.
Then when I had her looks I decided to name her Hunter. Why? Because the name suited her. I tried dozens of names but they didn't suit her as well as Hunter.
When I started writing the story I used the tabula rasa concept for her personality, meaning blank slate. Anyone familiar with Sigmund Freud knows what it is, but anyway, I basically gave her no personality and developed it over time based on nature and nurture.
Hunter's personality was developed in a way to compensate for her looks to keep her from being a Mary-Sue and to suit Zero. In other words, Hunter was made for Zero, and only him.
The fact that she is this all-powerful-demigod-wolf-that-can-kill-vampires is up for interpretation. I haven't said she IS all that. It's what the VK characters interpreted her as based on her bloodline. This whole thing with what she is was based on the proverb that says "fear makes the wolf bigger than he is."
As far as it goes for her relationships and interactions with others, I can assure everyone that not every VK character likes her. Zero currently has a crush on her (it's not love yet, too early) and as far as it goes for Kain and Hanabusa they're only friends. Kain was initially only interested in Hunter because the fake grandmother I gave him told him stories about werewolves when he was a kid. Hanabusa only tagged along because he found her lively and he likes blood from lively girls. Eventually they got to know Hunter and they became friends.
Lycian is an OC of mine because I didn't want Hunter to be the only werewolf. He's not in love with Hunter but because I made him a pervert he would love to score her. Meaning, he's only lusting after her.
The other VK characters could really care less for Hunter and she even has her own hate club with Kaname as the president, Ruka the vice-president, and Tony as the current public relations advocate to promote hatred towards Hunter because she stole Zero from him.
Hunter's personality isn't fully developed yet and there are a lot of other mysteries about her to be answered. I'll get to them as the story continues.
I also must clarify that she isn't based on me and I don't have a particular affection towards the name Hunter. If Hunter was based on me, her name wouldn't be Hunter, but Emily Rose and everyone would call her Emi, and she'd be a secretly nerdy human juggling three part-time jobs and would meet Zero while working at one of her jobs when he comes to the store she works at to get provisions and the only exchange that would occur between them would be "hi, how may I help you?" and "your total is...." then "thank you, have a nice day." As she would take no initiative or even bother to get to know him and there would be no romance whatsoever.
So! Sorry if I sound like I'm ranting, but I'm really not and I'm sorry I wrote so much at the end of this delayed chapter but I'm used to writing a lot since I'm always forced to elaborate my points in my papers....I'm a history major after all, lmao! I also hope that this painfully long note explained and clarified everything.