To Hunt the Hunters

Gina stretched her long lean body in the bed, and quickly looked about. Her long auburn hair fell thickly down her back as she bolted upright in the bed. When she looked around the room, she remembered bits and pieces of the night before.

She padded quickly to the bathroom; her necklace glimmered in the reflection as the light shinned off the bright silver bullet that hung there. She glanced at the clock in the next room it was only eight, she should have time before she was due to checkout of the place. As she showered, more of the night came back to her. Her father’s people had contacted her with a new ID and a Credit card. She was able to go about undetected for a little while longer hopefully long enough to shut down the latest group of Hunters.

Gina smiled into the mirror, remembering the last Werewolf hunters she had took out. The only time anyone in her family could actually harm anyone was when they were taking out a hunter or in her case a group of hunters. She calmed herself with the druid ritual that her mother had taught her. The words spilling out of her like a dam bursting. She quickly packed all her belongings and put them into a small bag. Gina put on the maid uniform and placed her bag underneath the dirty sheets in the laundry hamper. She walked as quickly as she could down the hall pushing the cart to the employee elevator. Within ten minutes, she was out of the building and into the street on her way.

She waked quickly to where the meeting was to be held. The building was a catholic church a real church with Priests, alter-boys and everything. The lab was under the church. Her father had owned the land that the church had been built on and they didn’t mind the lab, since they were able to have all the utilities paid for.

She went into the confessional that was the doorway to the lab. She hated the security checkpoint, though she knew the necessity. She morphed a hand to a paw and pressed it against the scanner as the thin prick of the needle double-checked her DNA. Then the retina scans. As soon as the door opened, she let her hand go back to her human form.

Walking quickly through the lab she headed straight for briefing. She was surprised when she arrived, both of her parents sat at the table as did the elders and two others she did not recognize, and they did not smell human nor did they smell at all Lycan.

The head elder cleared his throat. The mumbling in the room stopped and he stood.
"Now that everyone is here we will begin. I have invited our guests to tell us what we are dealing with. I would like you to please suspend your disbelief till the end of this meeting, either that or leave now."

Gina, knew that she was about to hear something that was difficult to swallow, even for someone who had a 'not so normal life.' She sat straight in her chair and kept her hands as still as she could, even though she really would have rather have drummed her fingers on the table.

The elder gave everyone a minute and then continued speaking. “I will let our two guests tell you about themselves.” Then the elder turned and bowed to the two strangers.

Gina’s eyes widened in surprise, the elders never bowed to anyone unless, they were highly regarded and had a higher title than the Elders. That meant that these guests were royalty. Though royal what was the question that kept dancing around in her head.

The male stood and pushed his chair in. “I am what you would call an Elf, Fea or Adhene. I am sure you don’t believe me and quite frankly I would not blame you. However, you should consider your status as creatures of nightmares and dreams before you totally disbelieve mine. We are not here to discuss who I am. However, knowing us will be advantageous. I know who your hunters are. They are not your normal hunters they are the Griss. These are not human, nor are they like any species that you have ever seen. They were once elf. They now, more closely resemble your ‘Vampires’ of legend. They cannot come out during the day, though only because they are adapted to the dark and not because they burst into flames. They are pale skinned and prey on humans most of the time. Their new leader is a mixed-bread; he is part of them and part of you. We became involved when we witnessed this Griss morph into a wolf, in one of our villages. We caught one as they were fleeing. Of course, Their leader has now convinced them that they are enemies with every Lycan alive that is why they hunt you. I will now open this up to questions."

“Why do you need us? Can’t you stop them?”Gina asked somewhat amazed that no one else had thought of this.

“Normally we do. However this new leader is a bit more than we are used to.”

“What is it that makes these Griss more dangerous than humans?”

“They are elfin. That means they live longer, they have the potential for magical control of the natural elements. They are determined once they set their sights on something it will be utterly destroyed before they quit.”

“What is their weakness?”

The female stood. “Their weakness and ours are the same we cannot bear the touch of silver.”

Gina stood and leaned on the table. The bullet chose that time to swing free from her neck and a collective gasp sounded throughout the room. She decided to use the attention to her advantage as she cleared her throat. “I’ll not murder an entire race.”

The Elder slowly rose from his chair and spread his arms motioning for everyone to take their seat. “That is not what we are asking of you, only the hunters…” His eyes showed his unease as he looked at her charm. “I must ask you how long you have worn that charm around your neck.”

“When the doctor, over there” she pointed to the doctor; “removed it from my body eight years ago. Why?”

“How is it that you wear that around your neck?”

“Silver does not harm me; in fact it makes me stronger. All of my hunters wear a similar charm.”

“I doubt that any but you wear a silver bullet… Gina, I believe you will have to hunt the Griss alone. You’re the only hope for us to survive this.”

The Elvin female stood, “Why should she stand alone? There are twenty in the group that must be dispatched.”

“She is truly, the only Lycan that can bear the touch of silver.”

“I will stand with her. ”

Gina stomped away from the room. There was no way she was only going with a group of two. Herself and one other against a team of twenty hunters, this was insanity. The other thing that steamed her was the comments on her necklace. She wasn’t special couldn’t any of them touch silver? She didn’t know if the elf’s could or not. If others Lycans could not touch silver then what was she? She stopped that thought before it got started, Ah well that was a question for another time. Now at least she knew what type of weapon she needed, a silver blade and more silver bullets. A whispering sound made her spin around.

“Why are you following me?”

“I plan on going with you. Didn’t you pay attention in the meeting?”

“No way! You’ll be dead in ten minutes in a fight.”

“You want to bet?”

“Whatever, it’s your death sentence… Just tell me what happens if you touch silver?”

“I will show you once we are setup and away from prying eyes.”

**Four hours later they were settled in a cabin. They both sat down in chairs not far from the fireplace.

“Ok, so what does happen if you touch sliver.”

“Normally the same thing that happens when any Lycan’s touch it.”

“Ok, let’s not start that. Ok? By the way what should I call you? ‘Hey you’ sounds kind of rude.”

“Fine, if you will touch just the tip of your bullet to my finger, only for a moment and make sure it is just a second, longer and you will have no help fighting the Griss. I am called Mya.”

Gina pulled her charm out and barely touched it to the tip of Mya’s little finger. She yanked it away when Mya fell and her skin had started to turn blue from barely touching the silver. Just as quickly as she fell she began to recover.“I thought you were joking. Are you alright?”

“Fine, just give me a minute, ok?”

“So what will you fight them with if you can’t touch silver?”

“This,” she pulled a dark gun out and put her gloves on and showed her the silver bullets. She pulled a sword with a golden handle and a silver blade.

“Cool, I had hoped you had upgraded from bows and arrows.”

“Oh I still have those they are always a good thing to use. They are stealth weapons.”

“So why are we in this cabin in the middle of nowhere?”

“Your parents spotted the Griss around here. I take it you didn’t know about this cabin.”

“No, mother always said she had her own little escape, but I didn’t know it was quite so primitive. Then that would probably suite my mother. She was a druid priestess for a while. I am surprised that Dad would come up here with her.”

“You don’t know your parents very well.”

“I thought I did. There must be more that I don’t know if I can touch sliver and the rest of my species can’t. Right?”

“We all keep secretes… We should get some sleep... I’ll stand first watch.”

“That’s fine with me.”

Gina fell into an uneasy sleep. Her dreams were odd, and she felt herself start several times. Finally, something felt wrong. The charm felt like it weighed a hundred pounds and she opened her eyes slightly just enough to catch a shadow moving across the room. She pretended sleep for a little bit longer watching to make sure it wasn’t Mya flitting around. The shape was wrong, not petite enough for her. If it wasn’t her then she had been incapacitated in some manner. She moaned and rolled over in the bed, enough to flop her arm over to the bedside table, continuing the ruse of sleep. She felt the room go still, someone was watching to make sure she was asleep. She heard the quite sigh as the movements resumed. Whoever this was did not intend to kill her or she would be dead. She rolled again, opening her eyes slightly.
This was the man from the meeting. The question was why he was there and sneaking around? Unless he wanted to keep an eye on Mya. She just wished she knew the extent of their pairing. She would have to find out if Mya knew. More than likely she did. If he was here did he intend on helping them or would he be a hindrance not allowing Mya to put herself in danger? They defiantly didn’t need the later, the hunters would be enough of a problem.

Gina decided that she was not going to sleep anymore tonight and might as well get up and find out what was going on. When she stood something silently whizzed by her embedding itself into the wall. She hit the floor, in less than a heartbeat. She looke towards the arrow in amazement. The tip was deep within the wall, but she would have bet the tip was silver. She crawled out of the room staying low. Mya was shielded in the corner of the living room with her gun and her sword lying across her lap. This would be a long night.
She made her way over to Mya checking to see if she was ok. She got within a foot and hit an invisible wall. Mya peecked over her shield and then she waved Gina forward. After Gina reached Mya’s side, she felt a tingle up and down her spine while her charm turned ice cold.

“Mya, are you magically shielding us?”

“Yes”

“Can they get through your shields?”

“I don’t know?”

“Then I guess if it’s not draining your energy we should keep it up. So where is your friend?”

“My brother left. He was angry with me.”

Three came running into the room, and dropped into nothing a minute after coming through the door. Mya’s brother stepped in behind them and spun his sword out behind him catching two more. He sidestepped the trap and the two he had just dispatched disappeared in the same spot as the three before them.

A howl outside sent Gina’s heart racing, she wanted to shift and join in. She knew if she did it would be the last thing she ever did. Then she really listened to the sound, it was a recording she could hear the crackle of the speakers. She slowed her breathing and concentrated on the other sounds. There were at least fifteen left if they had the numbers correct.

Outside a burst of light and several screams cut off suddenly. Mya’s brother turned and grinned. Gina knew that they had to split up. The rest would not come in a group, not if they were smart. Using sign language she motioned to Mya and her brother.

As they quickly took positions near the edges of the windows, the windows exploded inward and someone else entered through the door hitting the trap and disappeared. Each of them were busy with their own opponents. Mya got in a quick cut with her sword and another appeared to take his place. As they stopped the last one an explosion shook the room, and the door burst inward and disappeared in the trap. The beast sidestepped the trap, his blood red eyes landed on Gina. She was momentarily immobilized it couldn’t be, this beast was so like her. Then the bullet, charm around her neck began to vibrate and rise up away from her chest breaking the spell. Gina quickly lifted her silver knife and threw it with all her strength as the beast jumped towards her. The knife hit him and it and he both dissolved. What came next was not quite, what anyone expected. Mya’s brother jumped, kicking as he went and somehow he connected with something Gina could not see just inches from where she stood. Then he grabbed her and threw her to the floor, seconds before another arrow embedded itself into the wall. Mya ran from the room arrow at ready. A moment later, she sauntered back in.

“That’s it… Ty we should remove the one in the middle. Don’t you think? Oh and Gina, this is my brother, Ty. Ty this is Gina.”

“Are you sure we got them all?” Gina asked as she picked herself up off the floor.

Gina looked at Ty strange, he had touched her charm and it did nothing to him. “How is it you can touch my charm and your sister can’t?”

“That is a very long story and one that you will not be allowed to repeat.”

“Seems that I have some time,” Gina smiled as she walked over to Ty. Her report to the Elders could wait. This she had to hear.