The Life and Death of Isabell, Hannah Lyles [ebook offline .txt] 📗

I stalked forward as quiet as the night itself. The wind wrapped itself around me, chilling me to the bone, as if it were warning me that there were monsters ahead. As if I didn’t already know that. It calmed my nerves to know that they were stupid enough to have their base this close to a hunter’s village. I studied the gloomy wooden house for a moment, there was only one candle lit in the front room and the rest of the house was dark. I crept forward keeping out of the light I circled the house. I located my quarries in the back bedroom, preparing to sleep for dawn was almost upon us. It was a man and a woman, who’d gone on a killing spree, the bodies we did find were torn apart and drained of all blood. All the victims were innocents, so killing the vampires would mean nothing to me. The only door was in front and I didn’t want to make any noise to alert them. I carefully opened the door making sure it made no noise. I took three steps in and froze. There was another vampire in the house. Her dark brown hair curled creating almost a halo around her. Her skin was darker than anyone’s I’ve ever seen. She was the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen. She looked shocked and scared, but she made no sound and didn’t move. Her gaze slid to the door leading to the back bedroom, losing the weight of her gaze allowed me to move, and I headed towards the door once more. I placed my hand on the knob and the candle went out.

I whirled around squinting in the dark looking for the other monster, but she sat in the same spot, looking at me curiously instead of the scared face she wore before. She gave me a slight nod as if she were edging me on. I was reluctant to turn my back towards her, but I had to act quickly, or the others would find out I was there. I placed my hand on the hilt of my dagger and slipped silently through the door.

The woman was standing over a large wooden box made for burying the dead. It was large enough for two. Upon realizing this I determined the man was already in the box awaiting dawn. I pulled the stake attached to my hip out of it sheath and threw it with unparalleled accuracy. It landed directly in the woman’s chest. She wasn’t dead yet, but she was immobilized. The man shot out of the box with inhuman speed. His mistake was going for the woman first. Rushing towards them and while he clutched the body of his lover, I cleanly removed his head from his body with my silver dagger. Taking another stake out I pushed it up under the mans rib cage and into his heart. I the cut off the woman’s head and made sure the stake pierced her heart. Leaving the bodies where they laid and put the heads in a large sack. I carried the sack back into the front room.

She was still there curiously waiting. Her eyes glowed with anticipation. She glanced down to the sack in my hands and cocked her head.

“I next?” she asked her voice was soft and heavy with an accent as if English wasn’t her first language. She looked strangely innocent. I had a sudden strong desire to protect her, in that moment I knew I couldn’t kill her, even if I wanted too.

“You should leave soon, others are coming,” I warned her, ignoring her question.

“You hunter? You kill me,” she told me her eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

“You aren’t on my list,” I replied digging out the wanted poster to show her. She glanced at it, then back to my face. In a quick movement she titled her head as if she were listening to something. I breathed once, and she was in front of me. She reached her cold hand to my face and carefully caressed it. I could feel my face heat with a blush under her hand, and my heart speed up. She smiled at me with all the warmth of a sun.

“Strange,” she said. I let out a breath and she was gone, vanishing before my eyes.

I heard the noise now, a large cart coming towards the house, I heard the voices of men chattering, voices I recognized. My group was here for clean-up. I walked out of the house to meet them.

“Isa!” my twin Ike called, we were nearly identical with golden hair from our mother and blue eyes from our father. I raised the bag of heads in greeting and in proof that I was ready for them. Ike ran over to me, and we watched as the older Norn brothers carried the barrels in a circle around the house, releasing the water as they went. To create a moisture barrier that would stop the fire from burning down the forest. Ike and I gathered dry brush, to get the fire started. The Norn brothers joined us and we had a contest to see who could build fire the quickest. It went on for a while, we struck the rocks in a repetitive motion. The first flame came at first light.

We watched as the house burned in the morning light. It took a while for the fire to go out. While we waited we threw daggers at targets we carved into the trees. The one with the least points had to walk home and the others would get to ride in the cart. I teased Ike the entire way home as I sat in the back of the cart. The Norns would throw in a couple of insults when I was running low.

Our group made it back to the village late-afternoon. Luckily for me. I didn’t have night duties until the next day. I presented the elders with the heads of the bloodsuckers; they were placed on stakes in the middle of the village square. Everyone gathered to watch them burn, our group was surrounded, with praise and thanks. They even allowed us to start the fire, vampires are never truly dead until they are taken by the flames of the earth and turned back into the dust from which they were first made.

As the final flames died the village dispersed back into their daily routines. Ike and I made our way up to the hidden cave, where we kept track of our kills. We painted two more lines on the wall. Making it a total of twenty-six, between the two of us. Not bad, considering we’ve only hunted in the surrounding villages. There’s a rumor that there is a leader of the bloodsuckers that is creating more of their kind without any thought. Most of the elders in the village were focusing all their efforts on finding the leader, so our team had taken over the daily hunting trips. It’s more responsibility, but also more experience for the future.

“Isa?” Ike interrupted my thoughts. I realized that he had been talking to me for a couple minutes.

“Sorry, what were you saying?” I apologized looking at him. He paused to stare at me with concern.

“What were you thinking about?” he asked me.

“About the future and what we have to do,” I replied sullenly. He nodded as he considered my words.

“Speaking of the future, what do you think of Ann?” he questioned leaning back trying to adopt an air of casualness, trying to show that it didn’t matter what I said, that he was just merely curious.

“The girl from the mountain village?” he nodded, and I thought for a moment. We had met her two moons ago, saving her from a bloodsucker. She had seemed kind and definitely had eyes for my brother.

“She’s nice I suppose. Why?” I answered.

“I was thinking of taking her as my wife,” Ike replied turning his face.

“She’s not of our village, so the elders won’t approve,” I warned him.

“I know, but Isa I can’t imagine my life without her. I haven’t felt this way for anyone,” he told . His eyes were filled with an emotion I’d never seen before.

“When have you had time to get to know her? What about Lana?” I saw the hurt pass his face as I mentioned his promised one. From the day he was born he was promised to her. I however was unexpected and not fate bound by the village.

“I’ve been taking supplies to her village on our free days and Lana will be fine. She doesn’t even care for me,” he said with determination in his eyes. I knew he was right. She believed our jobs to be barbaric and wouldn’t even celebrate when we made kills, like the rest of our village does.

“Do you...” I paused it wasn’t a word we used much “Love her?” He considered it for a moment then nodded.

“More than anyone else, even Killer,” he told me, gathering his things. Killer was our wolf. We found him when we were children, the runt of the litter and abandoned by his mother. We became his only life source. We both loved him dearly, I knew he was serious at that moment.

“I’ll have your back. The elders can’t banish both of us can they?” I replied standing up on the rock ledge.

“Isa!” Ike proclaimed, gathering me up in a hug. “Thank you!” I patted his back, unaccustomed to this much contact from anybody. He released me and we climbed down to where Killer was waiting for us.

“What are you going to do if they won’t allow you to marry her?” I asked after we had walked for a while

“Then I’ll move to her village and live with her family. Until we’ve built a home for ourselves,” he said with an unwavering gaze towards the horizon. “You can come with us,” he added as an afterthought. This was the first time that ‘us’ didn’t include me, it made me feel a bit lonely.

“Maybe, I might go off on my own and be a solo hunter. Just me; me and Killer. How’s that sound Killer?” I asked the wolf, he barked in reply. Reacting more to the tone of my voice rather than the words. I reached down and patted his head.

“Mother and Father won’t like that,” Ike warned me, I scoffed at his remark.

“You were just saying that if they didn’t approve you were going to run away. What’s wrong with me doing that?” I said irritated at his refusal.

“You know why, and its not safe by yourself!” he snapped I stopped and faced him.

“I am more than capable of taking care of myself,” I said angrily, turning from him and sprinting away, with Killer by my side. He called after me, but I kept running. He didn’t even give chase.

I ran until I was breathless and panting. I sat under a large tree that shaded me from the afternoon sun. Killer laid beside me resting his head on my thigh. The heat from his body, the air, and my lack of sleep made it easy for me to fall into sleep.

I awoke to something vibrating under my head and a beautiful ringing laugh. I stiffened realizing that I was leaning on someone. I slowly sat up and looked at the person, her yellow eyes captured mine and I was unable to look away. It was the vampire from the night before. The moon, high in the sky, illuminated her skin giving her a glowing appearance. Her eyes lit with laughter.

“Hello,” she said in her sweet voice. My eyes moved to her mouth, and I saw her lips were quirked upwards into a smile, which made her even more stunning.

“Hunter?” she said as if it were a