"So why are you here again?"

My voice broke the silence that had been present since we left Helfarch early this morning. Not that I had minded, I preferred silence above typical Hunter arrogance. Yet it wasn't entirely clear why they sent me out into the forest with back-up.

"It's my job," the middle-aged man stated, as if it was the most logical thing in the world.

"Right," I sighed at the none-response. "It's a really simple job, though. One household in the forest, and probably a single vampire that passed by. It's not like I can't handle it."

In all honesty, I preferred to do this kind of job alone, without a babysit.

"You're our strongest weapon," he stated, his voice still as professional as before. He was a man on the job -probably never left the job either.

"So I've heard," I murmured. "Which makes me come back to the question, why are you here with me if you know I'm perfectly capable of doing it myself?"

"Because the council gave me the job," still no emotion came to the surface. I wondered if I could break that hard shell he, and every other Hunter, wore. It made my people quite boring if you asked me.

"So you've said," I was starting to get annoyed at his plain answers. "Is my loyalty being questioned? Or are you just my babysit?"

"I'm here to guarantee your safety," his voice didn't change, there was no irritation nor excitement, just simple facts. At least on his side. I, on the other hand, smiled brightly at this new found information.

"They do understand," I gasped dramatically, "that killing vampires every single day for the past two weeks attracts the attention of the vampire court."

The man turned to me, a normal human would have pressed his eyebrows together in a frown now, but Marx was a Hunter, so his face was stoic as always. Though that didn't make it less clear that I was walking on eggshells. I was after all mocking our village council, and maybe even the Hunter High Council. And those were serious crimes in our community.

"It is a fact that recent vampire activity has been rather," his gray eyes moved to the right corner of his eyes for a second, before he spoke again, "interesting. Certain appearances could be seen as questionable."

"They're sending scouts?"

Somehow that surprised me, were they really willing to let their people die for information about me?

"That's what we think, yes," he turned forward again and picked up his pace, leaving me one step behind.

"What's the evidence?"

In my eagerness, my feet got stuck behind a root and I almost tripped. With my arms extended so I could break my fall, I stumbled forward right into his arms. He looked down at me with a disapproving look. He probably rolled his eyes as well on the inside.

"Certain areas," he let go of me when I had regained my balance and continued walking, "have certain patterns of vampire activity. The northwest is usually very strict, with lots of trained vampires."

"Right, that's where the higher ranked vampires live," I remembered my teacher talking about that in geography.

"Yes, but the east, around the region of Holt and closer to the mountains, the activity has always been more chaotic. There isn't really any kind of pattern, until two weeks ago when the activity increased, yet the killings didn't."

"They don't want us to know they're there."

"That's what it looks like," he agreed.

We walked in silence for some time. I was thinking about everything he said, somehow I was more worried about the vampires than I was about myself. I stifled a laugh, until I realized Marx was looking at me.

"So, you're what? My guard?" I asked, averting his attention from my inside laugh.

"I'm here to ensure our strongest weapon stays safe," he said.

"And what are you going to do when there is a vampire? Just watch from the sidelines while I, an eighteen-year old girl, cut off a man's head?"

"It's a vampire, not a man," his voice rose that tiny bit in volume. I grinned, the only emotion you ever got out of a Hunter is when you talk about killing a vampire.

"What are your credentials anyway? Have you ever killed a vampire?" I squinted my eyes at him.

"I'm here because the council gave me this job. Are you questioning the council's judgment again?" I swallowed. The most dangerous thing in our community was questioning your authority. The fact that Marx's voice got louder and more stern wasn't a good sign.

My pace slowed down so I was looking at his broad back again. His arrow case was tightly strapped against his leather armor and moved along with his rhythm.

My hands drifted to my belt and traced over the contours of my weapons. Feeling the cold metal of the blade and the polished wood of the handle calmed me down. Unfortunately, it didn't make me forget that not too long from now, I was going to kill a vampire. The fourth one this week, my twenty-second since the ritual.

The ritual that changed my life forever, that made me this unstoppable killing machine. Every one of my people would see it as this big honor, but me? I saw it as a lifelong prison that I would never be able to escape. As if I didn't already feel displaced in the Hunter community, they experimented on me and made me an even bigger outsider.

The smell of burning wood pulled me from my inner thoughts. Through the pine and oak trees, the walls of a wooden house came into view. The little smoke cloud that rose from the clay chimney told us Mr. Poltry was home.

Relief that we didn't have to sit in front of the house until he came home, made my muscles relax. I hated when the people that asked for our help weren't even home, as if we don't have anything else to do but sit around and wait for them?

"Stay here, I'll do the talking," Marx said, his hand held up in the air blocking my path to the house.

"Are you serious? I have to do the killing, but I can't even talk to the humans I'm helping? Maybe they want to thank me or meet their savior," my voice rose in frustration.

"They don't," he stated coldly.

My eyes met his and even with the little amount of emotions on his face, I could see the truth behind those words. These people didn't want to meet me, they probably even told them as much.

My face fell and I turned around so Marx wouldn't see the heartbreak on my face. With soft thuds, I heard him distance himself from me.

The knock on the wooden door seemed to echo against the treeline. I had noticed people distancing themselves from me as well, just like my fellow Hunters. I couldn't really blame them, I was after all the number one killer in the kingdom. My reputation had become a legend, not that I particularly liked that. I didn't need fame to feel good, and evoking fear in everyone's heart was the worst.

The only thing that made all of this killing worthwhile, was knowing I saved these humans their life. It might be selfish, but I lived for the thankful smile or the grateful words. They didn't need to give me food or money, just a simple thank you would suffice. But apparently I had lost that too.

Killing these vampires for the simple reason that they were a race living on a different diet seemed even more wrong than it had ever before. They might have killed humans, but what made them different from us, Hunters? What made them different from me? We all had the same ancestors after all.

My hand clenched around the wooden handle of my dagger and a single tear escaped my eye when I pressed them closed. Never had I felt more of a tool than right now. With my free hand, I wiped away the tear strain on my cheek. I was not going to show any weakness.

With a deep breath in, I tensed all my muscles to then relax them all at once the moment I breathed out until there was no air left in my lungs. When I breathed in again, it was as if a new energy filled my very being. Whatever these people thought of me, I was going to show them they had nothing to fear.

My eyes scanned the perimeters, but there was nothing in sight, not even animals. Strange. Usually these parts of the forest were crawling with deer and wild boar. Something must've scared them away, and it wasn't me. Animals didn't seem to care about my changes, which was one of the reasons I liked them.

Something told me it wasn't a vampire either. Animals only hid from them when they felt threatened, and it wasn't in a vampire's nature to threaten first before killing.

Above that, I would've known when there was a vampire this close. My vampire radar, the instinct to kill once a vampire was close enough, would've told me. It always reminded me of the bloodthirst vampires themselves experienced. It was like vampires themselves were the blood I needed to survive, or at least once they were in a close vicinity.

Something was wrong.

If this was a vampire, I would've known by now. Yet all nature seemed to do was hide and retreat. On instinct I grabbed for my bow and arrow that were strapped on my back. I started walking backwards towards the house, while I kept my eyes on my surroundings.

My heartrate picked up pace, but my breathing slowed. It was a trick we learned as children. You couldn't cut out fear, fear was a survival instinct. It was the most mandatory emotion we had, but for it to be useful, you needed to be in perfect control over it. So when your heart started racing, breathing was the one way to stay in control.

"Marx," my voice was calm, but the urgency and seriousness was clear as day. "Something's off. We need to go."

"And leave us?" His voice was too sharp for it to be pleasant, and I couldn't believe someone would be able to listen to it for more than a few sentences.

"What's going on? I thought the council said you had no control over the killing," Marx's voice was still perfectly calm and emotionless.

"When there is a vampire, yes." I was getting nervous. Every instinct in my body was blaring alarms, yet here they were, questioning me.

"Wolves?" Marx asked, there was definite surprise in his voice.

"I don't know, I didn't see anything, but all the animals are gone and my instinct is definitely telling me to get out of here," I said restless.

Why did they keep standing around? Marx stayed quiet for a minute before he spoke again.

"Alright, Mr. and Mrs. Poltry, you need to get back inside. Hunter Sky, you too," he said.

"Seriously? I really think we should leave this place," I argued.

"And do what? We don't know what is out there, but nature has gone quiet. So whatever it is, it is scary enough for all the animals to flee. You want to walk into a forest with two civilians, not knowing what it is and where it is?"

I didn't like it, but he had a point, maybe it wasn't such a great plan after all.

"Fine, we'll stay inside, protect the house, wait it out," I said, more annoyed that I had to stay in close quarters with these people than the fact that Marx was right.

"No, you stay with the civilians, I'll go check it out," he stated.

He was out of the door before I had a chance to go against this obvious stupid plan.

"Okay, fine," I mumbled, even more annoyed than before. "People, I know you don't like me, but listen up, whatever is out there isn't pretty and it is my job to protect you, so if you could please put aside your feelings towards me and just let me do my job, that'd be really nice!"

Giving them no time to respond, I walked to the door and barricaded it with a chair standing on the side. Next, I moved to the window, looking around, the only thing I could find was a wooden closet not broad enough to barricade it all. Must do.

"Mr. Poltry, I could use your help moving this wardrobe in front of your window," I asked as friendly as I could.

"Why would you move our closet, are you crazy, no, just leave it," he barked impolitely.

He threw his arm around his wife protectively as if I would attack him or his wife now that he said that. I rolled my eyes and bit my lower lip to prevent myself from speaking.

I guess we weren't going to move the wardrobe then.

We waited for what felt like hours, but what probably was more like a decent few minutes, before loud knocking interrupted the silence. My heart made a hop in surprise, before it quickly settled down when I realized a monster wouldn't knock on the door. The Poltry's on the other hand were screaming in fear, holding onto each other as if that would protect them against the monsters.

"Shush!"

The couple bit their tongue, trying their hardest to stay quiet.

The metal of my blade passing by the leather of its shed tore through the yet again silent room.

"Who's there?" I asked. There wasn't anything wrong with asking the identity of your foe.

"Hunter Sky, open the damn door before I have to break it in," Marx's voice echoed from behind the closed door.

Slowly I made my way to the window, double checking. The beardy man simply looked at me with his stoic face. Yup, just the same old Marx. To make sure that he saw it, I put away my weapon and opened the door. Leaving the chair behind in the middle of the room.

"Nothing to find, not a vampire or anything else," Marx said expressionless. Yet his breathing was labored and he flinched when he walked inside.

The Poltry's sandwiched him in between them and thanked him for his courage. I would've probably laughed if it wasn't for the fact that I didn't believe a word he just said.

Mud stains were covering his previously fresh clothes. It was wiped off as good as someone could, but we were also trained to notice the smallest of details. Of course he was out in the forest, so mud could have come onto his clothes quite easily. That didn't explain the heavy breathing and the sweat droplets still glistening on his forehead.

That sweat definitely couldn't have come from the extreme temperature -I was currently wearing two layers of clothes to keep myself warm from the cooling fall. So, he must've done at least some type of exercise, which for a Hunter already had to be quite a bit to make him sweat.

"No thanks needed," he said politely.

His eyes passed by mine, before his hand nudged me out of the door. The moment the outside air reached my nostrils, they flared up. It smelled strange outside of the Poltry's house.

"Do you smell that?" I asked.

My nose lifted in the air sniffing around as I tried to figure out where it came from. It was a thick warm odor that made my nose crinkle in disgust. The smell reminded me of the meat and fish market, except it was more tangy and old. Whatever it was, it couldn't have been healthy.

"No, I don't," Marx replied, not seeming to care what I was on about.

With another shove, he pushed me forward in the direction we had come from.

Again, we traveled in silence. My senses were focused on my surroundings, trying to get a glimpse of what Marx was so obviously hiding from me.

Why was he hiding a potential danger?

Unfortunately, after a while there weren't any more clues to be found. The further we got from the Poltry's, the more the scent faded and so did any other possible lead to this mystery.

"There really wasn't anything out there?" I asked as friendly as possible, trying once more.

"Nothing," he walked past me, not meeting my eyes. His steps got bigger and his pace quickened.

"Mmm," I hummed in thought, but kept my mouth shut the rest of the way home, even though my curiosity was challenging me immensely.