Night Hunt Ch. 12

Lara flinched.

Anya watched the exchange, stunned. She could hardly believe that she was watching Tyrus and Lara fight over her. She was starting to feel like a piece of meet dangling between two starving lions. Both glared at each other with predatory alertness, neither willing to back down. They looked ready to tear out each others' throats. Her presence seemed to be the only reason they were holding themselves at bay.

She felt torn. She wanted to go with Lara. She desperately wanted to get the answers that she'd been looking for, and she had to know what secrets Lara had been keeping all those years they'd spent together. However, she couldn't bear the thought of leaving Tyrus behind. A reason floated to mind, but she didn't feel ready to accept it yet. She pushed it away, mentally shaking her head.

"I'll go with you, Lara," Anya said quietly, "but Tyrus should come with us too."

Lara turned to Anya. Although her face remained a mask, Anya caught the flicker of surprise in her eyes. "You trust him?"

Anya looked at Tyrus and nodded. Lara paused. Tyrus' face remained impassive.

"Okay," she said finally with a cant of her head, "That's good enough for me."

Tyrus looked from Lara, then to Anya, and back to Lara again. He relaxed his stance. "Alright then, now that we've exchanged our pleasantries, where to?"

Just like that, the tension in the air dissipated. As if the starving lions had decided they were better off sharing the meat, and retracted their claws. Anya had the feeling that Tyrus and Lara saw things simply. Threat, or no threat. Evidently, they didn't waste their energy once they'd evaluated that the threat was no longer a problem. She wondered if it was a vampire thing, or a Governance agent thing.

"Back to the Bed and Breakfast," Lara answered evenly. "I'm staying there too. I just got here yesterday myself, and came straight to this place to check it out, just like you. When I got back last night, I hadn't realised you had checked in. I only knew about Anya when I saw the two of you leaving this morning. Naturally, I followed you here."

"Found any leads?"

"None. The trail goes cold in the forest. It's as if they just vanished into thin air. All of them. It doesn't make any sense. I thought it better to wait for you to get here before I went any further."

"Where in the forest?"

"About two kilometres north of here. Close to where one of the animal attacks had been."

Tyrus deliberated for a moment. Anya figured that he'd want to check out Lara's story and investigate the forest. She fidgeted, waiting for his response. Although they were here for the mission, she was more impatient to head back and talk to Lara. She needed answers.

"I have friends headed there," Tyrus said finally. "They'll report back if they find anything. Let's leave this place."

It seemed he wanted to know what Lara had to say too.

There was a strained moment when Lara went to retrieve her gun, but she merely raised her hands in plain sight of Tyrus, clicked the safety back on, then slowly brought the gun to her hip to tuck it into its holster. Anya and Tyrus rode back the way they had come, with Lara trailing behind them on a silver and red Ducati. Anya had smiled to herself when she'd seen the bike. It had Lara written all over it.

Once they were alone in the car, Tyrus had been unable to stop asking questions.

"How long have you known Lara?"

"Since I was fifteen years old, all the way up until the day she... died." Anya counted the years in her head.

"She's the best friend you told me about, isn't she?"

Anya nodded.

"How did you meet her?"

"She appeared one day, at the group home I was in at the time. I was between foster homes," Anya began. She never spoke to anyone about her days under foster care. She tried her best to put them behind her.

"She arrived a couple of days after I did. She told me she was seventeen, and I believed her."

An image of Lara at seventeen entered her head. Lara had dressed younger then, worn less makeup. She'd looked every bit the teenager she'd claimed she was. From the first time she'd walked in, she'd turned the heads of everyone in the building, including Anya. When the cool new kid had dropped herself down in the chair next to her, kicked her legs up on the table and introduced herself, Anya thought she'd made a mistake. Most people overlooked her, treated her like a nobody.

"We clicked instantly. She was like an older sister to me. We continued to keep in touch when a new foster home took me in. Whenever I moved, she never seemed to be too far away. She made sure I stayed in school. Taught me how to navigate through life. It was because of her that things were... bearable." Anya knew she might have grown up a very different person if Lara had not come into her life. She owed her a lot more than just her friendship.

"Anya..." Tyrus started, then hesitated. He threw her a cautious glance.

"Lara has kept you in the dark for a long time. Is there any chance that she's not all that she seems to be?" He asked gently.

Anya rubbed her temple in contemplation. The thought had crossed her mind briefly, but every bone in her body had rejected it.

"No, not a chance. If you knew the things we've been through together... the things she's done for me. I may not have the whole story, but I can't believe that she could possibly mean me any harm. Nobody could fake a friendship like that for so long. It had to be real. I've always felt safe with her, and I trust my instincts."

"Very well. If that's what you feel, Anya, then I shall believe it too. From what I know, she's fiercely loyal to King Primakov. His clan, as with any vampire clan, may not be the most upright, but his loyalties lie with the Governance. In times of conflict, he fights for the common good. I don't know what secrets she keeps, but her association with him likely puts her on our side."

It was strange to think of Lara having a clan, a place where she belonged. She'd always thought it had been the two of them against the world. Anya couldn't help but feel a spike of jealousy.

"Do you belong to a... clan too?"

A wry smile crossed Tyrus' handsome features. "Ah love, I belong to no one. That's the way I prefer it."

He parked the car smoothly in the parking lot at the Bed and Breakfast. They had arrived.

Lara hopped off her bike and approached just as Tyrus opened the car door for Anya. Both of them watched her as she stepped out of the car. As one, they moved to stand on either side of her. It seemed she had gained two personal bodyguards.

Anya sighed. Whilst she was relieved that Tyrus and Lara were no longer trying to kill each other, she didn't like the way this new collaboration was turning out. Tyrus had been pretty much glued to her side for the past few days. If she had to admit it, she hadn't minded it at all. But this felt weird. She was the center of attention now.

Lara spoke first. "Come on, we'll talk in my room."

She led them to the floor above theirs, to a small room near the front of the building. The room felt too crowded with Tyrus and Lara both in it. They settled down, Lara and Anya perched at the edge of the newly made bed, Tyrus at the desk next to the window.

"I was hoping it would never come to this, Anya. You being amongst us was never our plan."

"Plan? So you know what I am? You know where I come from?"

"Yes. And now it's time that you know."

Anya's heart was thudding so hard, she felt it would burst out of her chest. She forced herself to take deep breaths. Lara took her hand, grasping it in both of hers. She licked her lips, as if choosing her words.

"Anya, you are the daughter of a human woman, Josephine Anne MacKenzie. Your father is..." Lara took a deep breath, "King Volodimir Primakov."

What?

Tyrus was on his feet in an instant. "That's impossible! Vampires can't breed."

"It's a very rare occurrence. An anomaly that happens about once in every three thousand years. Nobody knows why it happens. Perhaps some imbalance of supernatural forces. It is so rare that only those who live long enough even remember it."

"Why hide her? Why did King Primakov not choose to keep her close to him?" Tyrus demanded.

"Anya is half human and half vampire. Right now, she possesses some vampire traits, though she is not as strong or as fast as any of us. However, if she is turned... she would become a force that none of us can match.

"Think about it. All vampires begin as human beings. The magic that created us drew from our life forces as humans, and the unnatural forces from our sires. Anya is something more. She already carries the supernatural force of a vampire, one imparted to her through birth. If a vampire turned her... she would be deadly.

"A merging of forces at this level will also threaten her sanity. The last vampire like her went quite mad. In the end, he had to be killed. It was not easy at all to do so. Before it was done, he had caused much destruction."

"I've never heard of such a thing. How do you know all this?"

"I was there," Lara said quietly.

Anya's hand flew to her mouth. That would mean that Lara was at least three thousand years old.

"Those who remembered the devastation that the last vampire caused would either want her dead, or want her as a weapon of their own. We knew we needed to hide Anya. We could never explain a child growing up in our vampire clan," Lara continued. "On top of that, even as a baby, her scent gave her away immediately. We had to cloak her with powerful magic."

Lara gave Anya's shoulder a squeeze. "Anya, it pained your father very much to have to let you go. There has never been a day where he didn't think of you. But he had to do it, for your safety. You've always had us watching over you. When he saw that you were growing up alone, without a friend or mentor, he couldn't bear it. He sent me to you."

"Then why did you leave me?" Anya asked. She couldn't hide the tremor in her voice.

"Some of your father's enemies had begun to notice my absence. We were worried they would look for me, and I would lead them to you. You were already grown up by then. We decided that it would be best for me to leave. I faked my own death so that you would not come searching for me. However, I came back, from time to time, to check on you. I have never been more proud of the woman you've become, my dear Anya."

Anya's mind was spinning now. She took a deep breath, trying to force her thoughts into order. So her powers were actually vampire powers, but they were diluted because she was only half vampire. She didn't need to drink blood, thankfully. If a vampire tried to turn her, she would go insane. And she wasn't an orphan. She had a father. Who was also a vampire king. That would mean that she was a...

Tyrus murmured softly, "if what you're saying is true, then Anya is-"

"Princess Anya Primakov, heiress to the throne of the Primakov clan," Lara finished. Her sentence hung in the air, seemingly weighing the room down.

Tyrus swallowed, but didn't say another word.

"Please Tyrus, give us some time alone. As you can see, I have much to discuss with Anya."

Anya was half expecting Tyrus to refuse, but he simply gave her a hard stare, then turned towards the door.

"Call me if you need anything," he said simply, then left.

As soon as the door closed, Lara's face broke into a grin. She leaned forward, eyes gleaming.

"So, first things first. You and Tyrus. I'd never have pinned you for the bad boy type. What is going on between you two?"

"Nothing's going on!" Anya exclaimed. If she told the truth, she knew Lara would dig up every sordid detail.

"You're not together?" Lara asked, arching her brow.

"No, we're not," Anya shook her head firmly, trying not to give anything away. Four years may have lapsed, but Lara had always read her like a book.

"Are you sure?"

Anya nodded. "We're just... friends. Nothing's going on."

"I suppose I must have assumed. He seemed quite protective of you..." Lara tapped her finger on her chin pensively. "Is he single? He's much hotter than what I imagined. The stories I heard did not do him justice. Maybe I should find out for myself what all the hype is about."

Anya read the intent on Lara's face. She had never seen a man turn Lara down before, and what Lara wanted, Lara got. She bit her lip, frowning before she could stop herself.

"I knew it! You've fallen for him," Lara crowed triumphantly.

Anya realised what Lara had done. She felt a deep blush creeping across her face.

"I... It doesn't matter anyway," she mumbled, "I think he's changed his mind."

Lara just stared at her in astonishment.

"Seriously."

"What?"

"You really don't know?" Lara asked, studying her.

Anya sighed. "Don't know what, Lara?"

"Oh, this will be interesting." The glee in Lara's voice was unmistakable.

Anya shook her head, confused. "I still have no idea what you're talking about, Lara."

Lara held Anya gently by her shoulders and looked her straight in the eyes. She sighed.

"My dear, sweet Anya... He's in love with you."

****

Connor loped to a stop in the middle of a clearing, sniffing the air. The forest was quiet, except for the occasional birdsong. No sign of Sam. He gave himself a satisfied inward chuckle. So much for the tough girl act. The little princess was more bark than her bite.

He could feel his mood lifting. He loved being in animal form, and his wolf had enjoyed the run after being cooped up for the two-day drive. He allowed his heightened senses to absorb the smells and sounds of the forest. There was the enticing scent of a rabbit only half a mile away, but he kept his wolf in check.

Then he stilled. Sam shouldn't be too far behind, but he realised he had not heard her behind him at all. He sniffed the air, but couldn't detect her maddening scent. Was she lost?

Above him, he heard someone clearing their throat. His head swung upward, to the trees.

No, not possible.

Sam stood perched between two thick branches, her elbow resting on one bent knee. The corner of her mouth lifted smugly. She'd positioned herself upwind of him. Her form-fitting dark green outfit blended her in with the environment. She leapt into the air, did a weightless summersault, and landed soundlessly on the ground in front of him.

"About time you showed up."

He could only let out a surprised chuff. She'd had to be perfectly silent for him to not have heard her. His werewolf senses did not miss much.

Not bad, princess. He inclined his head begrudgingly. He could accept when he'd been bested.

She blinked, as if she'd been expecting a retort. Then she scowled. "Will you stop calling me that?"

He rolled his eyes in response.

Sam stuck out her tongue at him. The elf turned in a small circle, surveying the area. "So, this is the place, huh? You pick up on anything?"

He placed his nose to the ground, taking in as much as he could. He let his wolf instincts take over.

Yes. Over there. I scent a trail, two days old.

Her expression grew serious. She reached behind her and gripped the handle of her blade, testing its weight, but not removing it from its sheath.

"Let's check it out. Lead on, wolf."

They padded on silently, melding into the forest. They had only gone a few yards when Connor stopped and lifted his head off the ground. He scented vampires, here, now. But something was off. It was as if one moment they weren't there, and suddenly they'd appeared.

Sam? We've got company. Vampires.

Sam didn't look surprised. She merely grinned and released her sword from its sheath.

"Four of them. I'm liking our odds."

He didn't even want to know how she knew that. He'd scented four males, but he knew Sam did not have his sense of smell.

Sam's blade gleamed as it caught the sunlight. She took on a fighting stance, the sword in her hand like a natural extension of her. A light breeze played with the soft tendrils of blonde hair that had come loose from her braids. He raked his gaze across her slender body, shown off by the tight fit of her clothes. He couldn't help dropping a quick glance to where the little v in her wrap top hinted at her cleavage. She looked like any hot blooded male's fantasy.

Focus, he chided himself. Really, they were about to be attacked and he couldn't stop ogling Sam. What was wrong with him?

A twig snapped. And then another, from the opposite direction. The vampires stepped out from their hiding places. They were surrounded.

As one, Sam and Conner turned so they were back to back, facing their attackers. Sam's sword swished in the air in warning. After what he'd seen today, he had a feeling the little elf was more deadly than she looked. Anticipation bristled through Connor's body. He bared his canines as he felt his claws extend. It was about time for some action.

Four vampires to the two of them. Oh yeah, he did like those odds.