this is the last chapter of Hunting the Hunted.
i hope you enjoyed this story until now, but i have a question:
do you guys want a sequel or just an epilogue?
Where we left off:
"Three…" I looked behind me to Spiridron, who had had his doubts about this whole thing from the moment I started with it.
"Two…" He smiled sadly at me, but I didn't return it. instead, I turned back to the 6 guys in front of me, who would kick in the front door.
"One." And all hell broke lose.
The door was kicked in and the sound of glass falling and shattering on the ground echoed through the night. Me and my team stormed inside right after the others and the fight began. The guardians did not hesitate a second before grabbing the guns that they always carried around and engaged in the fight. I, however, didn't fight. I was looking around me.
Who would've thought, that one day, the daughter of the guardian's boss would lead a strigoi attack on her own blood? Well, I didn't. And yet still, here I am. It was quite amazing to see these men fight, hand to hand. I knew that only one would win and that it would be a close call. While looking around the room, I quickly found the familiar people whose blood I would have on my hands by the end of the night. I made my way over to my first target of the night, Mason. Simply because he was closest to me. He would've been my first victim of the night, if not for a certain platinum haired, green eyed girl to block my way with a punch directed at my face.
"I see you've escaped." She sneered as I blocked the punch and kicked her against her ribs. She evaded it and threw another punch which did connect with my jaw.
"Yep, and now I'm back here to put an end to you." I faked a left hook, and caught her legs with a swipe of my right leg, causing her to fall on the ground. In an instant, she reached for her gun and shot at me. I easily evaded it and jumped on her. The gun fell out of her hands, and out of her reach. She flipped us over and held me down, while trying to reach for the gun.
Like that's going to happen.
I kneed her in the ribs, successfully knocking the air right out of her. This, somehow triggered something inside of her, because suddenly, her stare turned even more cold and she looked like she was about to kill me.
Which, by the way, she was.
She looked me dead in the eye before she started punching me in the face. Hard, over and over again. I started to feel the taste of blood in my mouth and I felt blood run down my face. When did she get this strong? With all my power, I brought up my waist and turned us around so that I was once again on top of her. But what I failed to notice, was that with me making this movement, I brought her closer to her gun, in fact it was within hand reach. But I didn't notice, so I just punched the shit out of her. Until, I was hauled off of her by a pair of familiar strong arms.
"Nice of you to join the party Dimitri." I spit out the amount of blood in my mouth and turned in his hold. Without more thought, I head budded him, causing him to lose his hold on me. I looked behind me again and saw Lissa had disappeared. But not before I caught sight of her platinum hair just as she turned outside.
Oh no, she was not getting away that easy. I started to run after her, but a hand grabbed my ankle, making me fall flat on my face.
"Really?" I was met by an apologizing smirk as me and Dimitri both stood up at the exact same moment. Never leaving the others gaze, we circled each other, waiting for somebody to make the first move. And seeing as I wanted to take my revenge on Lissa, I made it. I faked a left kick, and hit him with a right hook, catching him square on the jaw. He didn't back down though, no he did the opposite actually. He attacked me. He lunged for me and we collided with the cold, hard ground. Rolling around, we tried to take the upper hand, but no one of us could do it. So I became inpatient and in an eye blink, I took my gun from my waistband and fired at him. Not at the heart or anything like that, no, just the shoulder. I wasn't planning on making him suffer with a bullet in his shoulder, but he left me no other choice. Luckily, it distracted him. So I threw him from me, jumped up and ran in the direction I last saw Lissa going.
I ended up outside on a path leading away from the mansion. Narrowing my eyes at the blackness surrounding me, I kept looking around me.
"I'm outside, don't fire or do anything at the movements out here. Understood?" I hissed into the earpiece and started walking farther and farther away from the building.
"Lissa, oh Lissa." I yelled out into the darkness, but I got no answer.
"Come out, come out wherever you are!" A branch snapped to my left, making me walk in that direction. I ended up somewhere in an open field, not that far from the estate. And if I wasn't mistaking, you could actually see it from here.
"Hello Rose." I rolled my eyes at the woman in front of me. She way playing around with the gun in her hands. Looking intensely at it and not at me. Really, I could do anything right now and she wouldn't see it. Maybe she's regretting everything she's done to me? Probably not, but a girl is allowed to dream right?
"What do you want Lissa? If you don't mind, I'd just like to put a bullet through your skull. No offence though." She chuckled darkly.
"None taken, but I'm afraid that's not going to happen any time soon."
"And may I ask why not? " Now I was mocking her and she knew it because she sighed annoyed and for the first time since I got here, she looked up at me and met my gaze.
"Because I don't believe you have the guts to kill your best friend." She stated simply. Suddenly, the cold metal of my gun that I was still holding, burned in my hand. Like it was begging me to use it.
"What makes you think that? I've killed before, and if I have to, I'll gladly do it again." I sneered at her, she just shook her head and tilted it to the side.
"Tell me Rose, who was the first person you killed?"
"why do you even care?"
"Just curious, but please, do tell." I sighed, closed my eyes for a micro second and gave in.
"I'm a Strigoi Lissa, the first person I killed was myself, the person who I used to be." Our eyes were locked, like we were in a staring competition.
"You are so dramatic!" She groaned.
"Well, you asked for it. My turn, why don't you just shoot me? You want to kill me right? So, why not shoot me the first chance you get? You know why? Because you don't have the heart for it. That's why you think you want do it, don't you? You care to much and you think that this way, you won't have to care. That you'll grow cold, but truth is you, you will never change Lissa. Yeah, I have, but I have been through way more that you have. No offence but this isn't you Lissa. Drop the gun and go. Go home and never think of me or any of this again and you won't believe how much people would be happy that you're out of the way."
For a moment there, she looked hurt by my words – which just proves my point further- but she quickly masked the hurt with anger. She pointed her gun at me and put the safety off. I could see her hand trembling slightly and in that moment, I knew she didn't want to do it, that she simply couldn't. And even though I might look like I have no heart, I would never make her do something she couldn't or wouldn't. I knew right then and there that I'd find a loophole for her. I'd make sure she'd be safe somewhere without Viktor and anybody else knowing, except for Christian maybe. So, I took a major risk.
I dropped my gun.
I threw it to her and it landed in front of her feet. She looked questionably at me, but I just shrugged.
"Shoot me." I could see her swallow and take a deep breath, her hands trembling more and more as she aimed at me. I knew it…
"You don't have to do this Lissa. I'm their boss now, I can make you disappear and let you start over. Don't you want that? To start a family with Christian and live in a big house where nobody would even suspect anything?" By the sound of my voice, I knew she knew that I meant everything I had just said. She was about to answer when we heard screaming.
Both our heads turned to the source of the sound and we found one of my men, being chased by Christian with a torch. The man ran past me and Lissa as Christian threw the torch at him, making him catch fire. Me and Lissa burst out laughing -despite the tension- when the man had disappeared and Christian stood next to Lissa. He frowned when he saw my gun laying in front of Lissa and she still having one in her hand. I was about to answer his unspoken question when another voice spoke up.
"And I thought she'd shoot you, guess you really know how to manipulate somebody." Mine, Lissa's and pyro – that's how I'm going to call Christian from now on- turned to the voice.
"You've got to be kidding me." I groaned when Viktor walked out of the shadows with 6 of his little bitches behind him. I have no idea what came into me, but I took a defensive stand in front of Lissa and pyro, even though I knew they could take care of their selves. Viktor looked smug that he had caught us by surprise.
"Manners Rose." He scolded, which made me roll my eyes.
"Now, Lissa. We had a deal. And seeing as Rose is still alive, you didn't keep your end of it. Do you know what that means? That means that I don't have to keep my end to you." He motioned with his fingers towards us and the 6 men charged for us. Lissa shrieked as I lunged for them head on. Pyro soon joined me in the fight, helping me to not get killed. Soon, the men where dead and I have to admit, we made a pretty good team. The men weren't really hard to fight, which lead me to expect there were more to come.
"Is that the best you got Viktor? And to think I would have to lead these weaklings." Really though, those men would be dead by the time I'd be finished with them. But knowing Viktor, I knew he still had a trick or two up his sleeve. He was about to reply but was cut off by two male voices that I knew oh so well.
"Rose!"
"Roza!" Dimitri and Spiridron shouted at the same time when they caught sight of me still standing protectively in front of Lissa and Christian. Everybody was watching them as they ran closer to us. I rolled my eyes, of course they'd have to follow me here. Why can't they just stay away and let me handle this. Everything is under control.
Then, I was punched in the nose, making me lose my footing. I fell backwards as blood flew down my face.
Maybe I don't have everything under control.
I looked up and saw Tasha and Seth beside Viktor. I groaned, of course they would be in on this.
"Who the fuck punched me?" I growled, but judging by the awful smirk on Tasha's face, I didn't really need an answer. Without any warning, I grabbed my knife from my boot and threw it at her cheek, the one with no scar.
"Now they match." I sneered while she touched her cheek and saw the blood on her fingers. That drove her over the edge. She lunged for me, but I was just fast enough to roll over to the side so that she lunged for the ground. I quickly stood up and kicked her in the ribs. I looked up at Dimitri and Spiridron, who had now arrived at the scene and where standing besides Lissa and Christian, all watching the show.
"Really, I have to do all the work here?" I asked them as Tasha stood back up and tried to punch me in the face again. Keyword, tried. I could block it and gave her another kick in the stomach. She caught my ankle and pulled it up, making me fall flat on my ass. She didn't waste a second before jumping on top of me. I took hold of her wrists and threw her to the side, making us roll over. Once I had secured her, I looked up, about to snap at everybody why they weren't helping, but then I saw Viktor and Seth had them all under gunshot. Even their own ally, Spiridron. I looked back down at Scarface and I knew I had to come up with a plan, fast.
Think, rose, think! What would Dimitri do?
"Never hesitate Roza." I looked up at Dimitri, who's eyes where trained on the gun that's pointed towards him. Can he read my thoughts?
Dammit, I'm hesitating!
With the speed of light, my hand struck down on that one tiny muscle in between Tasha's neck and shoulder blade and it was goodnight Tasha! I stood up slowly and faced Viktor and Seth.
"Wow, I wonder… if we never had that fight, would you still be standing right there, pointing a gun at the people I loved?" I growled at Seth, who seemed unfazed by me.
"Yeah, that's what loyalty means. Something you don't seem to understand Rosie." Oh, he did not just call me Rosie.
"I warned you, about my name." I growled, I slowly walked closer to him, until my chest touched his gun.
"Would you shoot your own sister? Are you more loyal to people who claim to be like you, than to your own flesh and blood?" Seth didn't answer, but he looked right over my shoulder, to Dimitri.
"Really, you really want to kill him just because of that stupid mission you had a couple of years back? You know what? Since you're the expert of loyalty, choose." Everybody looked at me like I'd gone crazy, so explained.
"You either shoot Viktor, so everybody can be on their merry way again, or you shoot Dimitri. But, if you shoot him, you'll have to go through me first. So, chose!" I screamed the last words in his face, causing to flinch.
That's tells you how damn scary I can be when I get angry and am about to explode. Because let me tell you, this is nothing. This is like the calm before the storm. Seth's silence, only made me more angry and I knew the others could tell I was about to explode.
Suddenly, I felt like o was being watched, and not by the people surrounding me. I eyes darted around, but I didn't move my head. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my mom. Now, I did turn my head so that I was facing her. I could feel the others their gaze following mine, but they wouldn't see anything. Janine's face looked sad, but what mother wouldn't look sad in this situation? I knew, she knew that one of us would die tonight, Me or Seth. But there was something in her eyes that told me there was something that she wanted to say.
Suddenly, Seth spoke:
"I'm not going to kill Viktor, neither am I going to kill that Russian. But I am going to take my revenge on him." Just as my head turned to him, to ask what the fuck he was talking about, everything seemed to go in slow motion.
Janine's eyes widened, I heard gasps behind me and the safety of a gun being turned off.
I finally faced Seth and then, I heard the gunshot. Pain cursed through me, but I didn't have enough time to scream before I was surrounded by darkness.
review, review, review! and tell me if you want a sequel or just an epilogue!
till next time !