Ziri lay curled in a bed of leaves. The boy lay next to her. He was alive, just knocked out… He was worth half the bounty to her, but it wasn't the half she'd hoped for. It wasn't the half she'd risked her life for. She'd wanted to destroy Ophelia with her own hands…instead that other Dunpeal had done it, and at the same time given her an even heavier debt to owe him, added to him saving her life once before. She was cold, tired, upset, and ravenously hungry. It didn't help having the boy laying there, his breathing soft, and his blood pumping so loud it pounded in her ears like a drum. She could smell it… It was so close. She felt her fangs longing for a kill. The bounty was for the boy's return. Dead or alive. She gritted her teeth but her will bent to the hunger inside her for blood that was so strong. She looked at his face. That fool boy had nearly lost his life, because he'd been tempted by Ophelia. What did it matter if he lived or died? Why was it her concern? She needed his blood to be strong…Dead or alive the bounty would be hers. She grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him over to her. With her long nails she pushed his fair hair back from his neck, and caressed the pulsing vein. She lifted him up in her arms, and dropped her face down to his neck, her fangs ready to plunge into him and drink.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," D said, looking down at Ziri from the entrance to the little leafy hollow. Ziri pulled her head up, and then pushed the boy off her lap, shocked and ashamed at what she'd almost done. She hung her head.
"It doesn't make it any better." D said, moving down into the sheltered cave, to where Ziri lay. "Drinking the blood. You think it will be this last one, and it will satisfy you for the rest of the times, and that the next time it won't be so bad when you want it, because you had some already…But it's not true. It only makes you want it more. I've seen it before Ziri." He said, pushing the hair off her face.
Tears fell from her eyes, and she turned away at his touch, trying to hide.
"It's so hard," she finally sobs.
"I know." He said. "But we can't let the urges take us over…We can't let it rule who we are. We are hunters. We have to be strong. We have to be strong for them." He motioned a pale hand to James, still lying asleep in the leaves. "We're the only ones who have the power to defend them. The power to live without drinking their blood. If we lose that power than we just become vampires. We become the enemy…and…yes... It's hard….But….It's the only life we get to live."
Ziri looked up.
"I wanted to kill her. I wanted her to die for making me live this life. I tried to tell myself it was for my father…for all the people she'd killed. But it was for me. It was for what she did to me. What she made me. For making me live this life and come into this world. When you killed her and saved me…I was almost mad that you did it…Death felt like it might be a release…it might be sweeter than the life I have now."
"Death will come, Ziri," D sighed, "In time all things fade away. But…Until then…We must help humans to survive. And we must hope for the day when they no longer need protection."
"What happens then?" Ziri asks.
"Then we'll be done…and…earth's need for us will be through…When that day comes…we can finally rest." D said, taking Ziri's chin in his hand and lifting it up. D stood and began to leave.
"Take him," she said. D didn't turn. "Take him away. I don't deserve any of that bounty."
D pauses.
"I trust you." He said, and then left the hollow, going out into the morning light.