Chapter 3: The Hunt
A few nights later, Elsa found herself on top of a rooftop looking down at the streets of Burgess. She was dressed in her Death Dealer outfit; a long black leather coat, leather black pants with black leather shoes. She was poised on the rooftop. She rested her weight on her leg that was pressed against the roof while her other leg was in the crouching position. Her arm rested on top of that leg. She was quite close to the edge of the building. Her blood red eyes scanned the area. They once were a shining blue colour. Her vampirism changed that.
Elsa had been out for the last few nights looking for The Guardians. They seemed to be in hiding. They didn't want to come out to play. Ragnar called them cowards, Anton thought they were scared, Elsa though they were smart. If you head in the direction of death, then you're an idiot. They probably were waiting for them to come. Elsa felt some vibrations in the air. Elsa knew that there was someone behind her. Elsa stayed where she was, in the same position.
"Any luck?" Anton's voice came from behind her.
"No," Elsa said. She got to her feet but her eyes remained on the city. Vampires possessed extraordinary vison. She could see for miles all around her. "They're hiding. They're playing the defensive card." Elsa turned around to look at Anton. "Any luck on your side?"
"Ragnar and I have looked around the city," Anton said. "There have been no signs at all. Not even a shiver in the air."
"It will be a full moon in a week," Elsa stared up at the moon. It was nearly full and it beamed down on them all. She knew what it meant when it became full. "They will strike then. We have to get to them before that happens. I don't know if we can take down a pack of ravaging wolves."
"We can," Anton said firmly, "and we have done so. The past has proven this."
Elsa stared down at the city. Anton was right. They could do this. Suddenly, Elsa realised what she was seeing. Below them was movement. Elsa counted three people moving through the streets. They moved differently to the others moving around them. Elsa stared down at them, she focused on them. There were two men and a woman. Elsa couldn't work out who the second man was; he had a hood pulled over his head and Elsa's vision doesn't exactly extend to seeing through clothes. However, Elsa did indeed recognise the other two people. She had a grin extend over her face. They were those annoying werewolves that Elsa had to deal with. Elsa had done some research over the members of The Guardians by looking over Pitch Black's notes. She hadn't been surprised to find out that they were the werewolves she was after. Pitch's notes only showed information about four out of the five members of their little group. Elsa only knew two of the five members of The Guardians, personally. Well she would soon be acquainted with the other three soon enough.
"Well, well, well," Elsa said. "Looks like they have decided to come out and play after all."
Anton moved closer to Elsa and assumed the crouching position that Elsa had been in minutes earlier. He used his own red eyes to scan the area below them. His eyes found what Elsa's eyes had found. Anton's face mimicked Elsa's.
"I do believe it's time to play," Anton said.
They leapt off the roof together. They landed on the ground in a very catlike way. They made no sound when they landed. Blending with the crowd, Elsa and Anton moved onwards. Elsa's eyes flickered to her right and she saw Ragnar moving through the crowd. Their eyes met and they nodded. Ragnar knew that their targets were within their reach. They moved together. Their targets started to quicken. Elsa knew that they had sensed them. Vampires and Werewolves could sense each other. Their smell disgusted the other race.
Suddenly Elsa saw the third member of the group set off at a run and the others followed suit. Elsa set off at a run while Anton went after Bunnymund and Ragnar took after Tooth. Elsa followed the third man up and down many different streets. Elsa was running at full speed and yet this guy had several metres on her. He could run fast. Suddenly Elsa was tackled out of nowhere and she slammed against the wall behind him. She saw the third man running off and out of sight.
Elsa turned to who was slamming her against the wall. It was Edmund Bunnymund. He had shaken off Anton and come after her. Maybe he had seen her chasing his buddy and wanted to interfere. Elsa felt like a truck was crushing her against the wall. He was pressing her against the wall and she couldn't move. She couldn't breathe. She was slowly getting crushed to death.
Elsa tried everything she could to push him off but he was building more and more strength. How could Elsa not push him off? Then again, werewolves can have extraordinary strength that can overrun even the strongest of vampires. That was when Elsa got a break. Anton pulled Bunnymund off her and threw him off Elsa.
"Go," Anton yelled at Elsa. "Get the last one. I'll deal with this one."
Elsa nodded and without a second glance at the scene she tore off. She looked down street after street but the third man had gone. She didn't even know who he was or what he looked like. She tried to follow his sense but he had gone. Elsa swore loudly. She could have caught him but she had let him go. She kicked a trashcan in her anger. The trashcan flew several metres and smashed into the wall of an abandoned carpark.
Elsa decided to go back and help Anton. Bunnymund was one of the bigger werewolves. Elsa had hoped to get him alone with Anton and Ragnar. Together they would have been able to take him. Elsa raced back to where Anton was. She found him alone – bleeding slightly. Bunnymund was nowhere to be seen. Elsa didn't have to be genius – although she had accomplished many acts over the years and her intelligence was always high – to figure out what had happened. Anton could have taken Bunnymund. He had been too strong for him to manage on his own. Elsa should have stayed and not raced off after someone who Elsa knew was long gone. Maybe with her help, they could have taken Bunnymund together. Maybe at least they could have knocked one of The Guardians off their list.
Elsa helped Anton to his feet and she examined him. His wounds were pretty minor. He would be fine in a few minutes. Bunnymund must have known that Elsa would have come back and he didn't exactly want to deal with two powerful Death Dealers. A quick blow to Anton which would have distracted him and then he would have raced off to join up with Tooth and this mysterious third man. Elsa headed back to find Ragnar and they soon found him looking confused.
"What happened?" Anton asked.
"She led me on some wild goose chase," Ragnar said. "She was faster – faster than any other werewolf I have ever encountered. It was so frustrating."
"Well that wasn't the only frustrating event of the night," Anton said. "Elsa lost her guy and I got beat up by mine."
"Well I guess we should go back," Elsa said. "They're clearly gone and we could be running around for hours looking for them. Besides, sun's coming up soon. I've already been burnt once this week and I don't want to make that a second time."
"Girl's got a point," Ragnar said.
Together they walked back to the convent. Doctor Frasier met them at the door.
"Well?" he asked. He had asked that question for the last two nights and both nights he had received the same answer; that nothing happened. Tonight, however, was going to be a little different.
"We found three," Anton said.
"Excellent," Doctor Frasier said. "Does that mean that the five Guardians can be widdled down to two?"
"No," Elsa said. "They were fast. They got away."
"Hmm," Doctor Frasier said. "No matter. This will just be a good learning tool for the future."
"Agreed," Anton said. "We might go and sleep on it."
"Good idea," Doctor Frasier said.
Jack stopped running after running for what seemed hours. That blasted Death Dealer had come chasing after him and there was no way he was going to take on this powerful Death Dealer by himself. Jack looked behind him. He found that Death Dealer was no longer following him which made him feel better. He took a deep breath in. Bunnymund had wanted to chase after these Death Dealers and Jack and Tooth had been idiots and abandoned North's wisdom to pull them into a trap. Instead, they wanted to chase them and it could have cost all three of them their lives.
Jack headed back to the tunnels. He figured that Tooth and Bunnymund would meet him there sooner or later. Jack was proven right. He found Tooth already down there. She was leaning against the wall near the entrance – which was through a manhole in an abandoned part of town. Jack had jumped down and found Tooth waiting.
"Waiting for Bunnymund?" Jack asked her.
"Yeah," she said. "God – what an idiot."
"We're the idiots for following him," Jack said.
Jack followed Tooth's suit and took up a stance next to her. Bunnymund soon came down the manhole where he got a scowl from Tooth.
"What?" Bunnymund said but Tooth ignored him. "What?" he said again.
Tooth just walked by him. Jack knew that she was angry because Bunnymund had defied orders and could have gotten them all killed. Bunnymund looked angry at Tooth's reaction to what had happened. He knew why she was angry. He tried to shout Tooth's name a couple of times but she had walked off.
"Why is she so pissed?" he asked. "They were after us! I wanted to teach those blood-drinkers a lesson or two."
"The way you did it," Jack said, "could have gotten us all killed."
"I didn't ask you two to come!"
"Tooth loves you so she followed and I consider you a friend and I don't want you to get your block knocked off so I followed as well."
Bunnymund sighed. "I didn't want you to follow."
"Bunny, we're a team," Jack said. "We stick together. Next time you decide to run off, make sure you tell us so that we can come up with a plan."
Bunnymund laughed. "Alright, you got it."
"You may want to go make it up to Tooth," suggested Jack.
"That may be a good idea."
Bunnymund gave him a whack on his shoulder before running off to find Tooth. Jack walked off and soon ran into North. He did not look happy.
"I believe I told you all to stay back," he said.
"Bunnymund ran off," Jack explained.
North sighed. "I suppose that is understandable. Bunnymund has always been a hothead. I haven't known that since the day I met him. He has never been able to stay back and allow the Undead to just walk around. He has great prejudice towards them."
"I've never understood why," Jack said.
North sighed again. Jack knew that he was raking up some unwanted feelings. North shuffled his feet around. He looked as if he wanted to tell Jack what was going through his mind but his loyalty to Bunnymund was holding his tongue back.
"Something happened to Bunnymund's family that concerns the Undead," North said. "I don't know all the details but I know that the incident is something in Bunnymund's past that he doesn't talk about. You could always talk to Bunnymund I suppose."
"He's my friend," Jack said. "I don't like invading privacy."
"You basically have by asking," North shrugged. Jack supposed he had a point. "For now, maybe just get him to stop trying to get himself killed."
"Agreed," Jack laughed.
North grabbed his shoulder. "You're a good man Jack and an even better friend."
"Thanks," Jack said.
North gave Jack a smile before he walked off. Jack decided to go see if Tooth and Bunnymund had made up. He headed through the tunnels to see if he could find them somewhere. He soon found them in Tooth's room – which wasn't a very big room, it just had a bed and some dressers for changes in clothes. Vampires like to live in their fancy places but Werewolves like to live more simply. They didn't wear fancy clothes like they did or have fancy things. It had always been like this. Jack didn't mind. When he had been human, it had been like that as well.
When Jack walked into Tooth's room, he found Bunnymund and Tooth in a make out session. It hadn't been the first time this had happened.
"Well," Jack said which caused them to suddenly break apart, "I guess you guys made up really fast."
"I can never stay mad at him for too long," Tooth said.
Jack laughed and then walked off. He walked back to his bedroom where he started to throw a tennis ball around. North walked into his room some hours later.
"What can I do for you North?" he asked.
"I need you to do some recon," North said. "Find out who is after us. You said that a female vampire was chasing after you. I need you find out who else is with her. Head out and draw them out. If you can, discover any other weakness they may have."
Jack nodded.
Elsa decided that before she went out again to hunt – she didn't like using the word as it reminded her of hunting humans for blood when she first became a vampire – for the enemy, she would do some research on The Guardians. She was sitting in the library (which housed books from over a thousand years ago) and was behind a desk. In front of her, were a number of papers that had all the information about The Guardians. The leader was Nickolas North – one of the first werewolves as Pitch told her. She couldn't get much further than that. She knew that he was born in Russian in about the 1100s. There wasn't much further information than that. His second in command was a man called Sandman or Sandy. According to Elsa's information, he was a soldier in the Hundred Years War before becoming a werewolf. He had been involved in some nasty battle when North had Turned him. It had been to save his life. Bunnymund, well Elsa had some experience with him, had lived during the Golden Age of Piracy – the 1700s. He had been a sailor in navy but a pirate ship had blown up his ship and crew. North had saved him and Turned him in order to save his life.
Tooth was the only woman of the group. Elsa still didn't know why she was called that but she did know she had been a victim of the Black Plague. Her entire family had been killed by the plague but North had prevented her in becoming another person to be taken by the plague. Elsa was starting to sense a pattern here. North had Turned every one of his group in order to save them. Elsa thought that was quite noble. However, that was the fifth member that had escaped her research. She only knew roughly his height and weight (and the fact that the fifth member was a male). Who was this guy? There was nothing on him. Not even in Pitch's notes that were very extensive and written in a very fancy and curvy handwriting. They had gone on for pages and pages and pages. Despite all that, there was nothing about this mysterious fifth member.
Elsa got really frustrated and threw all the papers in random directions.
"I think you're frustrated," said a voice behind her, "but maybe the random paper throwing is a sign of something else?"
The voice belonged to Ragnar. He placed his hands on her chair and his head gently on the top of hers.
"The guy I chased the other night," Elsa said, "there is no information on him. It's like he's a ghost. There is nothing on him. Not even Black's notes could tell me anything."
"Well Black's notes are not completed," Ragnar said. "The fifth member, well maybe there isn't anything to know?"
"There is something about him," Elsa leaned back in her chair. "I'm sure of it."
"Do you want to go out and look for him?" Ragnar suggested. "I'm up for it."
Elsa looked out of the window that was near her. It was getting pretty dark. She looked around at him.
"I'm in," she grinned.
Half an hour later, they were dressed in regular clothes and were walking around the streets of Burgess. Anton had decided to join them. He didn't want to miss out on all the fun they would be having. There weren't many people on the street which was good for Elsa. It allowed her to run around and even race up a wall. These made both Anton and Ragnar laugh.
The fresh air was quite pleasant on Elsa's face. She breathed it in and allowed it to consume her. A girl walked by and Elsa got a good look at her. She had strawberry blonde hair and a kind face. Elsa could see her sister within her. It made her sad. She hadn't seen her sister in such a long time. She missed her so very much.
"What are you thinking?" Anton asked as they walked down the streets.
"Nothing," Elsa shrugged.
"Come on," Anton stopped and folded his arms. "I know that look."
"Just thinking about my sister," Elsa sighed. "That girl, just reminded me of her."
"You miss her," Anton said. "That's perfectly natural. I miss my family too."
"I miss her so very much," Elsa said. "I wish I could see her again."
"If you did," Anton said, "what would you say to her?"
"The truth," Elsa said. "I lied to her about everything. I wish I hadn't."
"What did you lie about?"
"Things," shrugged Elsa. "They were just about what I got up to."
"Ah," Anton said, "a boy?"
"Not just a boy," Elsa said. "There is more than one night activity I got up to back then."
"I see," Anton laughed. He knew where she was going with this. "So why didn't you tell her the truth?"
"Did you tell your sister that you were a blood sucker demon who went around hunting people for their blood?"
"Good point," Anton said. "So what did you say to your sister when she found out the truth?"
"I-" Elsa stopped talking. She had heard something. Her eyes scanned left and right, up and down. She was searching for anything that was abnormal.
"You're sensing the same thing I am?" Ragnar asked.
Elsa nodded. "They're here. I can't tell if there is more than one though."
"There's one," Ragnar said. "I can just tell."
Suddenly a figure raced out of the trees that were nearby.
"I'll follow him," Elsa yelled. "Anton you go around and cut him off, Ragnar you take the rooftops, see if you can get ahead of him."
Anton and Ragnar shouted their agreement and headed in the directions that Elsa told them to. Elsa raced up the street. The boy was wearing a scruffy jacket with a hood over a scruffy pair of jeans and sneakers. The hood was over his head so Elsa couldn't see the face. He scowled. She just wanted to know who she was dealing with here. He zipped left and right. Elsa followed. He was clearly trying to lose her but Elsa wasn't going to let that happen again. She wasn't going to let him get away this time. She was still kicking herself about what had happened before.
Elsa could see Ragnar leaping across rooftops. She didn't know where Anton was. Maybe he couldn't get around the buildings. The boy suddenly took a random turn down an alley where a large metal railing gate was preventing them from going any further. Elsa would normally have thought that she had him right where she wanted him but he was a Werewolf. He simply scaled the gate while Elsa scaled the wall. She headed up the roof and down the other side. She would cut him off. Ragnar had gone down the wrong way when they suddenly took the turn. Anton was somewhere. Maybe he went down the wrong way as well.
Elsa landed on the ground on building and started to run up the street. They appeared in a street with a series of shops. Elsa could see through the gaps in the streets the Werewolf she was chasing. She had caught up to him. She was finally going to get him after all this time. She would save her celebration dance until after she had caught him. She quickened her pace even more and then went sideways. She tackled the boy to the ground and they both fell down. That was when Elsa saw his face for the first time.
"Jack?" she said in a scared voice.
"Elsa?" he said in the same scared voice.
A/N: What? Jack and Elsa...know each other? Find out more in the next chapter! Cliff hanger much! I hope that everyone enjoyed this chapter. Please review =)
Reviews:
Kat-IlluminatedPurity: Glad to see that the second chapter hooked you even further! Maybe this one will do the same! Hmm, Pitch isn't really curious about Elsa. He is interested in her though as she is a member of the group that is taking down some of his arch enemies that he has been chasing for a very long time. He may be curious, just not sure about that yet. Got questions? Feel free to ask away! I promise I won't give away too many spoilers! Hopefully this chapter answered some of them though and if not, maybe you may just have to wait and see!
Guest: Your wait is over! Here is the next chapter! Hope it is enjoyable for you. Glad to see that you are finding it interesting so far. I hope it continues to do so.
ElsaTheSnowQueen2: Thanks! Quick question, have you been reading my other story in progress Starstruck? I think you may like it if you haven't been.
Happy shipper 225: Here is the next update! Hope you liked it. Since you asked when I next update, I usually try and update every few days, so regular updates from me.
Bellymuffin99: Thanks so much! I will try and keep up the good work.
archbaldmatthe1: Well this story has a war factor in it - Vampires versus Werewolves in a massive bloody war that has been going on for centuries. But I'll probably not write another war story like The Winter Solider - but that doesn't mean I will never not write another war story. The next stories on my list are not though.