The Hunter
“We pumped quite a bit of blood out of your stomach. We’re not sure where it came from.”
She heard the words but was the noise in her head was still loud…
“Your heart had stopped beating. You weren’t breathing. You were cold.”
A hospital bed. She was in a bed hooked up to equipment. Her throat hurt.
“We still can’t get your body temperature up to normal and your heart beat is extremely slow.”
She’d been found in a room of an abandoned house wearing nothing but a black silk cocktail dress and black high heeled sandals. The nails on her hands and feet were painted silver. Aside from that there was no jewelry, no purse, no identification. The man she’d been with had received minor injuries and would be in soon to see her. He said he was her boyfriend. Panic started to set in but she didn’t show it.
“Do you remember anything?”
“Not a lot.” She lied. She had remembered almost everything, despite the headache. The man called Austin had wanted to show her a house he was remodeling. He specialized in renovating Victorians and older historic homes. It was charming. It was haunted. “Is Austin alright?”
“He had a few stitches in his forehead, but yes, he is doing fine.”
“We left the club where we met. I mean, it wasn’t a hook up, we’d been seeing each other for a while. We’re friends. He told me about his work restoring old homes. I own some property I was thinking of having restored…He took me to a house he owns. It’s old, nobody lives there. A Queen Ann style Victorian. Beautiful. He showed me around and we ended up in an upstairs room.” She didn’t tell him of the phantoms and the screams that nearly burst her ear drums. She paused, and glanced at the needle in her arm. “Alright, we did fool around some. But we both started to feel really sick. He passed out first. I tried to wake him. I think we were drugged at the bar. Is he ok?”
“I’m fine sweetheart.” In the door stood a man with a bandage on his forehead. His brown eyes met her blue with almost a spark of both passion and hate. He smiled at the doctor.
“She’s a vampire and I’m a vampire hunter. I had no idea the house was haunted when I took her there. Sorry, it’s along running joke between us. Isn’t it Elizabeth?”
Her eyes met his again. A hunter hunting the huntress. “Is that all I am to you?”
He sat next on the edge of the bed and took her cold hand. “You need to warm up dear or they’ll never let you out of here. I know, it takes a lot of effort to keep your heart beating for those machines. You don’t want them thinking you’re dead.”
To think she was starting to fall in love with this man.
“I thought you were going to kill me last night but you saved my life. Why’d you do that Elizabeth?
Doctor Davis spoke up. “What is going on here?”
Austin smiled and spoke in a quiet calming voice. “I’m sorry for the confusion. We have our own language. We had a fight. She wasn’t going to kill me. Just an expression. She was angry. You know, I’m a typical guy. I did typical stupid guy stuff. We went to the house and like she said, we were both feeling sick. Then someone came in and mugged us. She saved me. I don’t know how, but she defended me. It was too dark to tell what was going on. We had a tumultuous relationship but we’re not violent, just a little dramatic.”
“He’d never touch me.” Elizabeth looked back at Austin. “The ones who attacked us… I had no idea. I’ve never experienced anything like that.”
“I thought you’d know.”
“I don’t.”
“Huh. Interesting.”
They both talked to the police about what had happened. Their story was the same. They’d gone to a house he owned, it was unoccupied, they were attacked. They both had traces of an airborne toxin in their systems.
Elizabeth was released into Austin’s care. She’d told him she’d call a taxi but he insisted on bringing her home.
On the way he talked. She sat still, feeling sick, trying to regain her energy. The morning sun burned her eyes even through the fog.
“So my building, the house we were in last night is haunted. Those were ghosts.”
Elizabeth glanced over at him, then looked away. “Yes, they were ghosts. I know someone who can get rid of them for you. He’s good and his prices are reasonable.”
“You know Elizabeth, I’ve found at least a dozen of your kind, vampires, in the basements of abandoned old buildings I’ve purchased for restoration. They weren’t like you. They were like rats.”
“I’m not like them. I don’t live in the shadows or in a crypt. I don’t sleep in a coffin. Most of us aren’t like your rats. We live normal lives.”
“When were you born?”
“1834. I’ve been a vampire since 1853. How did you know?”
He gave her a mean smile. “Call it a 6th sense. My grandfather hunted vampires. It’s in my blood, no pun intended.”
They arrived at her house. He was impressed. A beautiful craftsman style, maybe 2,500 square feet, nice old neighborhood. Inside the woodwork was beautiful. Her decorating was a combination of period and modern. Nice.
“You can go,” she told him.
“Show me around. This place is great.”
“I’m the original owner. 1905.”
As she showed him around Austin noticed a diploma in her office. “You didn’t tell me you were an attorney. Go figure.”
“I told you I consulted for the Justice Department. There is no shame in what I do.”
The house was impressive as was the vampire who lived in it. “Was that my blood they pumped out of your stomach?”
“Most of it. Don’t worry, you won’t turn into a Vampire. I just took maybe a pint.”
Austin noticed a mirror on the wall. He took Elizabeth by the shoulders and turned her around to face it. He could see his own reflection but hers was just a dim shadow.
“Look at my eyes, in the mirror. Look at my eyes,” she told him.
Their eyes locked in the glass. Her image became clear. He laughed. It wasn’t the sarcastic bitter laugh she’d heard all morning. This was joy.
“Elizabeth, will you be alright if I leave you?”
“You aren’t going to kill me?”
“Not today.”
“Then when? When will you be back to cut out my heart and cut off my head.”
“Do you want to go out sometime on a real date?”
“You’re scaring me Austin.”
“I know. I’ll pick you up tomorrow around 8:00. It should be dark by then. Wear something nice.”
She watched through the window as he drove away. Her heart had stopped beating. She wasn’t breathing. In the refrigerator was a bottle of blood. She was starving. Her head was light but that was because of him.
Austin drove away with a smile on his face. What a rush. He wasn’t sure what tomorrow would bring. Either he’d kill her or he’d marry her. That is, if she didn’t kill him first.
