The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

There are a list of rules for a hunter that you have to follow. One, you don’t get involved with vampires unless it is absolutely necessary. Two, you don’t become friend’s with vampires. Three, you don’t fall in love with vampires. These rules had been ground into my bones since I was a little girl. I lived in a tribe of vampire hunters, youngest daughter of the order. I was proud to be apart of this holy order, although I still felt that some of this didn’t seem right. Yet, my tribe no longer “existed” it had been disbanded by a vicious group of vampires; killing everyone in my family, but me and my twin sister.

I haven’t seen my sister in three years, but I know she’s still alive. The world is a big cruel place, that has no room for a lover like me. I am what most call an oxymoron. I hate what I love, and love what I hate. My sister is straight forward on everything, and at 22 I would expect both of us to have some sort of foundation. I thought that we would start up another tribe together, instead she disappeared.

There was a name whispered amongst the vampires in fear, but I didn’t know who the person was. The person’s name was Vega, but I couldn’t tell if maybe my sister had changed her name. My sister had been named Soyala, which meant winter solstice in Native American. I had been named Natsu, which meant Born in Summer in Japanese. Which was strange because my sister and I had been born in Fall. Like our name meanings, my sister and I where winter to summer, as day is to night. We might of looked exactly the same on the outside, but our personalities where so very different.

We had been brought up the same, our techniques in fighting were similar only mine where more precise. My sister had been competing to win the favor of the tribe, but as the less efficient twin in fighting, ‘she paled to my comparison.’ My father had told me this once, before he had died. Now, that I think about it my sister was just as good at fighting as I was. There was only a couple differences, I was slightly faster, and I kept my defense slightly tighter. You wouldn’t think it’d make a difference, yet it does. On our first hunt, the vampires learned my name faster than hers. The band that had come to retaliate on our tribe, where the same ones we had been trying to exterminate.

That all seemed so long ago now that I think about it, I’d stayed in Oklahoma where my family had been moving through. Where ever Soyala was, she was obviously doing some sort of good. All this flashed by, as I sat in a bar in downtown Oklahoma city. I looked around the bar, and everyone seemed to be clearing out, it was a small bar. There was a slab in the back that ran like an ‘L’ around. There was an aisle and around the dance floor in the middle there was more bar area, a DJ area was uplifted on the other side of the dance floor. I could hear the loud technological music bouncing off the brick walls, and it was a wonder that I could zone out in such a place. Cigarette smoke filled the air, with the ruminates of cheap liquor and beer. There where women and men staggering all over the place, easy target for anything that chose to hunt.

I could feel someone eyeing me, I turned my head the colors of black and purple strands hiding my pale face. I could see through the strands, but whatever had been starring at me, had moved it’s position. I stood, paying for my drink that I had barely sipped out of. I headed for the door, careful to avoid the drunks. Once outside, I took a deep breath of the cold air, it was late October not yet Halloween, but it was around the corner. The walk way was uplifted off of the lower area, where the canal was, people could take boat rides around the downtown. I preferred to walk myself, and it was faster, at least to me. Moving the furred coat around my body, I felt something watching me, waiting for me to move.

I moved my hands over in my pockets, where my weapons could be easily felt and reached. I turned to the right, and made my way over the walkway, just ahead a stadium that people used to watch the baseball game, but summer was over. The wind whisked around me, and I moved against it, no twitching to the slightest chill that went down my spinal cord. This person was following me, and at a distance too, it had to know what I was. I slowed my pace, just to throw it off guard I wasn’t afraid of anything, at least no vampire. When I moved around the corner to a semi crowded street, I felt as if I had lost whom ever was following me. Another night, with little to no action, the Midwest wasn’t famous for vampires. That’s why there was so many hiding in the outskirts of Oklahoma city, or the small towns. The big “hunters” wouldn’t ever think to come to this place.

My family had ended up here by accident, and look at where it had taken them all. I closed my eyes against the chill of the wind, and let myself visibly shudder. I didn’t care anymore, I was lonely. I knew that even Soyala couldn’t of taken the isolation of not knowing. I would of loved to hope so, but I knew that mentally she was stronger than I. She wouldn’t break under the pressure of torture, where as I would after months of it going on.

There was one reason why I had stayed in this city, it was to track down the vampire prince called Nickolas. He was a pain in my ass to find, and a damn good hunter himself. I have been going after him since my 15th birthday. I remember the first time I had come head to head with him. It was mid-December, snow was lightly falling and I had been fighting with him for a good hour. My body ached from the cuts, bruises, and abuse it had taken, but I wouldn’t yield. “Come now little Natsu, you don’t think you can beat me?” I had lunged at him then, breaking my dagger against his midsection, but he had moved too, only I had made a bit of a cut. He hissed blood coming from his side. “You’ll pay for that one, but another day!” He had then disappeared in the mist, leaving me in the alley way we had been fighting in.

I was obsessed with finding his circle, I had been to party after party, posing as some free blood for vampires. The months had turned to years, and I hadn’t seen prince Nickolas since after my 15th birthday, but I know he’s out there. I had been thinking to myself that I hadn’t even notice the figure standing in the distance. I focused on the figure, my hands resting instinctively on my weapons. I was just about upon the figure, when a laugh came out from behind me. “Natsu, we meet again, only you’ve grown into more of a woman.” I turned to see the vampire prince standing there. He was more beautiful than I remember. Nickolas was 6ft tall in frame, with gray eyes and black hair that touched his shoulders. He was one of the most handsome vampires I had ever met. I glared at him under my coat. “So…you’ve decided to come out of hiding.” He smiled at me, his fangs gleamed in the light.

I turned to look at the figure, but it had disappeared I didn’t waste my time on trying to figure it out. This vampire prince could not be trusted. I threw off my coat, I do not brag about my looks, but I am somewhat desirable to men. My stature at 5ft 8”, my body is toned from the vigorous work out schedule that I keep up with. I have naturally black hair, but I put purple streaks into it because I wanted something different. My eyes are a crystal blue, and had always been like icicles since I was born. I had delicate Irish features, but I was not Irish myself. Nickolas’s eyes drank me in like a prize, if I hadn’t been trained to suppress all signs of weakness, I would of shivered.

Nickolas bent forward as if to bow to me, mocking my stance knowing that I would take his bow as an insult. “Well, well princess hunter, you’ve changed a lot from the little thing you used to be. I would expect so, you look so much like your mother. Then again, what would I know about your mother? My tribe made sure to kill her before she ever spoke a word to us.” I bit the inside of my mouth, suppressing a growl that had caught in my throat. “Enough! I don’t want to speak with you Nickolas, I want to kill you. Point, blank. I don’t care what you have to say.” He nodded his head, his hair coming to hide his features. “very well Natsu, very well.” Then all of a sudden he was on top of me, without any sign of movement, he had knocked me to the ground. I looked into his eyes, and saw sad amusement, rather than the hatred that I would of rather of saw.

I pressed my wrists up against him, and two daggers shot from the springs to my hands. He looked surprised when, I kicked him off of me and slashed my blade against his chest. Growling, he stood up moving away to regain another formulation of an attack. I got to my feet before he could take advantage of me being down. My daggers in my hands I held onto them, and I was ready for him to lunge at me; only to hear him laughing. I cocked my head to the side in curiosity. “What’s so funny?” Nickolas looked over at me, and I could feel someone’s hands come around my head. A towel went over my face, before I could react slashing around, the world growing darker. My muscles not complying to my fight to stay awake. The cloth held firm to my face, the last thing I remember was my daggers slipping out of my hands, and Nickolas wrapping me in his arms.

I awoke hours, days, I don’t know how much later it was, I was leaned up against a wall, my waist chained to it. My head ached with the toxin they had used to knock me out. I groaned forgetting that could be bad, but I was in too much pain to care. Nickolas was not to far away, “oh, so the princess has awoken.” He laughed softly, but it sounded to me like he was yelling. Walking over he kneeled down, taking my face in his hands. My skin burned against his touch, and my stomach felt as if it was going to burst. I could barely keep my eyes open, I shook to try and grasp Nickolas’s hands. He looked surprised that I wasn’t fighting him, but something in that toxin had gotten me incredibly sick. What was strange is that he seemed alarmed at my body’s reaction to the toxin. I could feel myself growing weaker, and I uttered softly “it hurts…”

I didn’t know if it was day or night, but I burned my body racking violently with the shakes. I went in and out of consciousness for god who knows how long. I remember once, sobbing because it hurt so much and some one had been holding me. Running their cool fingers through my sweat covered hair, cooing softly. For much of my sickness, someone was holding me, but I never looked up to see who it was.

When I did finally come out of my sickness, I was laying in Nickolas’s arms. I shuddered to be so close to him. Moving away from him, my arms shook from being so weak. Nickolas shifted holding me firmly to him, I tilted my head back to look into his eyes. “Let me go” I managed to say in a strong voice. He pulled me up from his chest so that I was face level with him I struggled against the movement, but my body was so drained from being ill that I couldn’t pull away. “Prove to me that you can sit up on your own, and I’ll let go of you.” I glared, and moved to push off of him and sit up. I fell flat on my face, and I realized just how weak this sickness had made me. Nickolas put his arm around me, and helped me up. “You’re not strong enough to fight, and as tempting as it is to kill you, I don’t think the victory would be as sweet.” I laughed despite the fear that was sitting in the pit of my stomach like a knot. “Vampires don’t live by honor, they kill when they can. I should know, they took my family.” He shook his head, laying me down gently in the bed, and when I looked around I noticed that this had to be his own private quarters. “We live by honor, just not your sort of honor.” He got off the bed, leaving me there to think about what he had to say.

The next couple of weeks where painful, and sometimes I couldn’t help crying into Nickolas’s chest. I didn’t understand why he was helping me rehabilitate, or comforting me. All I knew is that slowly, my mind set was shifting from the black and white I once used to see. Nickolas was always there when I awoke, and he sat by me until I went to sleep. I grew comfortable in his presence, and even learned to trust him. Once I could start moving from the bed, he’d follow me.

“Why did you do all of this Nickolas? Why didn’t you let me die?” He cocked his head at me, setting down next to me on the bed. “I did it, because you asked me too, and you cried on my shoulder. I’d never thought that a hunter could be….a normal human…” I was puzzled by this, “I don’t remember asking you anything like that, I remember crying, but that doesn’t make any sense.” He smiled softly, placing an arm on my shoulder, “While you where burning up, shaking, and withering with pain. I took a certain pleasure in it, but when I looked in your eyes, and saw you so far out of it. I knew that I couldn’t let even my most hated enemy die in such a way. I asked you if you wanted to live, and you screamed out yes.”

I was disgusted with the story, “So you purposely put a toxin in there so that I would die.” He shook his head, waving his hand at me. “No, you had a bad reaction to the toxin we chose. I just thought it was a plus to the equation….but I was wrong.” I was unable to fathom what he meant, until he leaned his forehead against mine. “Natsu, you’re an incredible, strong, and beautiful woman.” I shuddered looking into his eyes, and I felt a warmth spread out in my stomach. I had had other men say this to me and not phase me, but hearing it from Nickolas, took my breath away. I bent my head forward without knowing it, and my lips brushed the vampires. In that moment, I realized something, over the last couple of weeks. I didn’t know when it happened, I had fallen in love with the one man I hated.

Nickolas pressed me closer, and I knew I had broken one of the main rules that all of the hunters before me had followed. ‘ Three, never fall in love with a vampire.’ My blood seemed to scream at me, and I felt a fear creep over me like no other. ‘I hope that Vega or Soyala whatever she’s calling herself never finds me.’