The Hunt Pt. 03 - Finale

"You're not an ice queen, you're just fucked up and you don't want to bother doing anything to fix it."

I glared at her, but right before I could respond, she went on. "I'm not done—you sometimes shake in your sleep; you've done terrible things to good people and people who deserve it alike. Sure, you're all fucked up, but you're not unfeeling. If you were unfeeling, you wouldn't have been acting as you have, you wouldn't long for company."

I rolled my eyes at her.

"Kaelin, I used to read your mind, and I still can sometimes when you're sleeping. So why don't you just stop hiding your real self from me?"

"I'm scared,"

"Of what?" Jemma reached across the table offering her hand, I took it.

"The possibility of more emotional pain. It's easier to just not subject myself to it."

"Interesting. It might be easier not to feel it if you treated your emotions like they were important enough to be known," Jemma countered. I knew she was trying to goad me into either apologizing or telling her my feelings, or maybe even both. That was the only reason I'd been resisting saying either of those things to begin with.

I sighed and pushed my plate to the side.

"Whatever. I'm not hungry anymore. Have you seen my burner phone?"

"Nope, not at all," she responded too fast, but at that point, I didn't care, I went up the stairs and put on a black dress. It was 2pm on a Saturday, I wasn't sure if Weslin would be home, but it was worth going to speak with her since I lost my phone and promised not to ghost her.

As soon as I made my way down the stairs, Jemma shook her head.

"Where are you going dressed like that this early?"

I paused at the door and turned around.

"Out." I didn't feel like getting caught in a lie, but I also didn't want to deal with the drama of the truth.

I opened the door and standing there... was drama.

She stood there stoic. She was just a bit shorter than I am without heels, and she had fluffy blonde waves that fell to her chin, her green eyes took me in with skepticism written all over them. She was dressed casually, but not at all with enough clothing for the winter, an easy sign that due to her lack of physical response to the cold, that she wasn't human.

"Riley... what are you doing here?" Jemma questioned from behind me, then I stepped aside, and the woman strode in like she owned the place without a word to me.

"I came to collect you. Now let's go. It's ridiculous you thought you could just leave. You look well though, I see you've finally fed." Riley assessed, confirming my suspicions.

"Great, well. I'll see you when I see you, Jemma, bye." I spoke callously, but really I was just annoyed. I didn't know anything about Riley, but I knew she had to be the one that turned Jemma, I remembered her comments about gratitude, and I really just didn't want to be anywhere near her at all, let alone have her in my home.

"Kaelin," Riley called out to me, I turned around.

"I believe that Jemma is quite fond of you, if you ever get bored in New York, you can come visit us in LA, we'd love the company."

"I'm not going, Riley." Jemma growled.

Riley chuckled waving the comment off. "Oh dear, I think you've misunderstood, it's not negotiable. You're coming back to LA," she grabbed Jemma and handled her like a ragdoll, either Jemma wasn't trying to resist, or Riley was stronger than both of us.

I wasn't sure why, but it put a knot in my stomach and my hands clenched.

"Hey, listen, I don't care what you do Riley, but you won't touch her like that in my home."

"My apologies," Riley began when then she tossed Jemma into me, I was shocked, but as I caught her, I took a bracing step back. It was then that Riley shoved past me and pulled Jemma out of the house.

"Wouldn't want to break your rules," Riley roughly escorted Jemma down the stairs, who did her best not to cause a dramatic scene while still expressing her discontentment with Riley's actions.

I sighed. "You can't take her Riley."

"You gonna' stop me?"

Jemma grinned. "Yeah, she will."

My brows shot up in shock.

"Kill her, Kaelin." My body was reacting before I could break the spell. I couldn't believe that our connection was still strong enough that Jemma had control over me. It pissed me off, but it also drove me forward. I did want to kill Riley. She didn't have this type of connection with Jemma, and she couldn't take it away from me. In her moment of shock, Riley's defenses were flawed, and Jemma pushed her toward the house, that was enough for me to drag her in, Jemma closing the door and now inside.

Riley tried to get her balance, but I'd managed to get into the position of power, still despite my best efforts, she was stronger than me and beginning to gain control.

"How sad it is that a vampire of your caliber is at the whim of a silly girl," she taunted.

"How sad it is that an old bitch like you is about to die for that silly girl," I snapped back. At this point, I had her hair in a vice like grip, and I held her close to me so there was only so much she could do without hurting herself. Still, she'd knocked us both onto my floor and was kneeing the living hell out of me. I feared letting go of her hair would be an automatic loss. Instead, I bit her cheek—not an ideal place to feed from, but it would do since this was a fight. Tasting her blood drove my want to kill her even further. I just knew I would be that much more powerful if I could drain her, she seemed to have around the same amount of power as Ferdinand.

Despite what I was fighting for, I'd nearly forgotten about Jemma until she shot from a silencer right into the back of Riley's head, the same bullet grazing my cheek and got lodged into my floorboard.

"Sorry, I know you probably want to drain her, but I've earned this one," Jemma kneeled down and began to drink from Riley.

"Jemma... you made me attack her, how do you still have, I—" she raised a finger up at me, so I stayed silent and watched her. She fed ravenously, and I feared that the way her appetite had been going so far was setting her up for serious disappointment in the future. After all, her first feed was me, and her second was a vampire more powerful... human blood wasn't going to hit the same way, but it was going to have to do. I guess I could compare it to eating at a 3 michelin star restaurant vs a well-prepared meal you cooked yourself. It didn't take her long to drain her victim.

"Oh," she grinned. "Kaelin, that was wonderful. You did a very good job, thank you."

"Why do you look so happy?"

She grabbed my hand.

You can hear this, right?

I could hear her.

Great and can you see this?

A horse came running into the gates of my imagination and I nodded at Jemma, thinking of how nice it would be to go horseback riding.

Awesome! I've gained full telepathy. I've always been flirting with the ability, but it was hard for me to master since it's not my forte, let's see if it works when I—

She let me go and the connection ceased. I was left in complete awe. When I'd fed from Ferdinand, I had gained a wild amount of speed and strength—I wondered then if the abilities we gained from feeding from another vampire were dependent on what we desired most. I had wished I'd been strong enough to stop Ferdinand from turning me for a long time after the change. I was sure that it was just a coincidence, but it was an interesting one.

"I guess it doesn't work when I'm not holding on to you," she frowned.

"Still more than I can do," I laughed.

"Well you know, I can't do that weird thing you do of getting people to just go with what you say. I can only do that with you because of my mark on you. I was shocked you were able to get those guys not to shoot you long enough for me to save you... I was so scared I wouldn't be fast enough."

I noted the emotion in her voice and tensed.

"Jemma, I'm sorry... about everything." I fidgeted, nervous that I was setting myself up for failure.

She smirked at me, and I crossed my arms, uncomfortable.

"Okay then, tell me why I can't read your mind."

I frowned at her. "Jemma... I don't want to tell you that."

"I know you don't," she chuckled, "otherwise you would've answered me already. Anyway, that's why you need to tell me. If you want me to trust you."

I sighed. Did I deserve her trust? Did she even deserve mine? Jemma had manipulated me and hidden the truth multiple times from me. I wasn't sure if I wanted to open these floodgates. The way she killed Riley who'd turned her into a vampire... how could I trust that she didn't have the same disregard for me?

I didn't notice that I was fidgeting uncomfortably and chewing on my lip until I caught Jemma's gaze.

"I'll give you time to think about it while I clean up here. How's that? I'll tell you what though, if you tell me why I can't read your mind anymore, I promise to tell you a story you want to know. I'll tell you how and what I saved Riley from in order to get her to turn me."

That was all it took to convince me, but I wasn't going to let her know that. Instead I nodded my assent and started to head upstairs.

"Hey wait!" Jemma called out to me, and I turned.

"What?"

"Come here,"

I went to her, slightly annoyed at how a nonexistent mark was still working.

She grabbed my chin and pulled me down, for a moment I thought she was going to kiss me, so I closed my eyes, and then I heard her giggle.

"You're so cute," she whispered into my ear after dodging my lips.

I frowned. "What the fuck Jemma?"

"You've got something on your cheek," she laughed and kissed me right on the bullet wound I'd almost forgotten about. I felt her soft wet tongue poke out licking the length of the gash- which immediately closed up.

"There, all better," Jemma smiled.

"It would've healed on its own," I whispered.

"I know, but it was faster this way. Besides... I think you liked it, your cheeks are red," Jemma winked at me and I rolled my eyes.

My body was hot, but I refused to believe her.

"Alright whatever. Hurry up and clean this. You owe me for my floor and this dress, that bullet better not stay in my floor either."

"Okayyyyyyyyyyyy, anything else your highness?" Jemma remarked laughing at me.

"Yes. A jester, because you're not funny."

"You're full of shit. Anyway, give me your dress so I can toss it out."

If I wasn't blushing before, I was blushing then. I stripped out of the dress and Jemma smiled at me before plucking it out of my hands.

"Now get out of here, shoo. Your body is very distracting, and I'll never be able to get anything done if all I can think about is sitting on your face."

I winked at her and turned to leave. "Revisit that thought later."

**

I was able to get cleaned up in the few hours that Jemma was getting things done, so by the time she came to my door, I was under all of my blankets and doing some research on Riley. Riley was an award-winning Hematologist, she didn't seem to come from good money, but her late husband was an older rich talent manager. He'd had no family so when he was presumed died, everything was left to her. I was almost sure Riley had offed the man. Despite what the record would show, I knew Riley was centuries old. That meant that like Ferdinand, she had to have been hoarding plenty of money in unknown assets. I wanted to figure out what they were. I had not been married to Ferdinand, so after killing him, I made sure to rummage through all of his things, taking all the valuables. It certainly did have a good hand in my ability to afford my New York properties. I wondered Riley would have been in danger. Was it possible she was getting blood from her job and had gotten caught? Even then, she could just run.

The more time I had to question what was happening with the dead vampires' earnings, the more I wanted to know Jemma's story.

So, when she opened my door, I waved.

"Let me inspect how you've done," I got out of my bed and headed toward the door, she went downstairs ahead of me and gestured to where Riley's body had been. No one would've ever known a woman had been shot in that spot.

"You fixed the floor... I didn't expect you to be handy," I smiled with approval.

"You don't know a lot about me Kaelin," She said, matter of factly. For some reason, the thought deeply disturbed me. It was something I was already beginning to know but hearing her confirm it shook me.

"Okay. Well. This all looks good but—" then I noticed there were bags at the door.

I looked in them and saw that Jemma had gotten several red dresses for me. I furrowed my brows.

"You know, it's not really replacing my dress if you bought it on my card," I rolled my eyes.

She laughed at me immediately. "Kaelin, I did not use your card. As a matter of fact, I think I can spoil you as much as you spoil me now."

"What?" I frowned at her. "You can't use Riley's money for long after you killed her. It'll be suspicious."

"Riley Grant won't be dead for long, don't worry about it. The money's mine though."

"What...? What do you mean?"

"Well dear, how willing are you to help me expand our estate?"

I frowned at her. "Jemma. What kind of sneaky shit are you going on about now?"

She grabbed my hand and my vision blurred out.

See that? This is like a prototype of the reality I intend to create. Listen. You're going to convince a homeless woman to take Riley's place. It shouldn't be too hard. You can bend people's will, you'll enthrall her. In fact, you're going to convince her that she is Riley. She's going to get plastic surgery to look the part. She probably won't make a great Hematologist, so you'll encourage her to quit her job, that she will be a traveler. Riley's identity is a fake one anyway, and she doesn't have too many people that are going to miss her. So, this is a pretty safe plan. We will take a large sum of what Riley owes. Riley will sign over her home in LA to me. Riley will be left well off enough to hopefully get her life together and be comfortable. But that really isn't our concern. If you help me, I won't need you to take care of me anymore.

She let me go and I frowned at her disapprovingly after the vivid vision. Her narration did not serve to make me approve any more of it either. It wasn't the actual plan that upset me, in fact, it wasn't full proof, but it was a good plan as far as money went. As far as we went...

"So, you intend to spoil me afterward, huh? Not just up and leave after you get what you want from me, the very same way you did to Riley?"

Jemma sighed. "No, Kaelin. Sometimes I think you're fucking stupid. I had no reason to come here if I didn't want to be here."

"How about I'm the only person you know that could effectively help you both kill and take over Riley's assets?"

Jemma laughed a bit. "Okay, touché. But that's not what's happening. Anyway, have you made your decision on if you'll tell me why I can't read your mind?"

I sighed at her. She surely did not have great timing, but I was still certain that I wanted to know the story she'd tell me enough to tell her my secret.

"I've been thinking in French," I smiled triumphantly.

"Seriously?"

"Yes."

"I didn't know you're French."

"There's a lot you don't know about me, Jemma," I felt pleased to return her own line to her.

"Hm... we should get to know each other better."

I nodded. "Sure, but one thing at a time, you owe me."

"Alright, but this is a long one, so let's go make ourselves comfortable."

We went upstairs and Jemma changed into clean clothes before laying in the bed with me.

Alright, so first things first and something that will make this story a lot easier to tell, I used to be a vampire hunter. Ha. Stop shaking, it's making it hard for me to focus. Anyway... emphasis on USED to be. I still have a lot of contacts, and that's what helped me out with dear Riley. I wanted someone that was high level. Believe it or not Kaelin, I already knew about you long before you met me, honestly even before I was in a relationship with um... shit... what was his name again? Whatever, who cares. Anyway, you're considered a high-level target. Lord knows why, you're easy as hell. But us vampire hunters answer to a hierarchy, I was at the bottom of the bunch despite having abilities unlike a majority of the others. So, it was pretty easy for me to get exasperated. I wanted to hunt you, but I would've needed the assistance of two other hunters to be allowed to do so. You haven't been hunted because I claimed you. I was supposed to be climbing ranks so that I could get to you... but you know the opportunity to get to you kind of fell into my lap when you broke into my home. When you did that, and I read your mind, it was very different from what I expected of a high-level target. I thought you must've been a few centuries old at least, but you weren't. I thought there'd be all kinds of evil running through your mind, and sure, there were some dark thoughts but honestly Kaelin... sorry to disappoint you, you're pretty normal. I think. I don't know, I can't really judge normal considering I might be considered a little crazy. Anyway, I do think that if all kinds of people were confronted with the sort of power you have, that a lot of them would act the way that you do. You can't compare yourself to mortals to decide whether or not you're good. So, back to the vampire hunters. THEY didn't know that I no longer considered myself vampire hunter, they thought I still was. By now they may know that I'm a vampire, but when I went to LA, no one thought anything of it when I asked to join a mission for a high-level target. Riley was considered a more dangerous target than you, so she was assigned four hunters, me being one of them. Honestly, we would've killed her if I didn't sabotage the mission. Sabotaging the mission was quite easy in all honesty. One of our hunters, Jesse, was new. Jesse had been extremely scared that her first mission involved a high-level centuries old target. I taunted Jesse, knowing that if I said just the right thing, she'd go in rattled. I continued to tell her it wasn't too late to turn back, I told her I would be scared if this was my first mission too and it wasn't fair, they assigned it to her. The straw that broke the camels back though was when I started asking Jesse if she had all her affairs in order. It wasn't often that we lost a hunter, but it did happen, and almost always on level three and four targets, never on a level one, and rarely on a level two that was often a mis-categorized level three. I did tell Jesse a bit of a lie though, when a mission was started, there was no turning back. We had been stalking Riley around her workplace and were set to attack a couple of miles from it, the plan was dangerous, but it always was. We were supposed to rear end her vehicle, and when she came to the window, shoot her, switch vehicles. Simple enough, right? Not when Jesse was the one in the driver's seat. She began to panic the closer we got to our destination, smartly tailing Riley. She tried to explain to our collogues that she couldn't do it, that it was too dangerous, and she didn't know what her mother would do if something happened to her, but they weren't having it, still, she'd slowed down the vehicle just enough for me to roll out without too much damage. My colleges were shocked, and I could hear them screaming in the car. I could also still see Riley ahead, she wasn't a centuries old vampire for no reason, she knew something was up and she went to pull over. That's when I made my move. I took out my silencer and shot the tires of the car I'd rolled out of. They began to lose control and ended up off road, crashing into a tree. I ran over to the car to see the damage. Jesse was dead. Michael was knocked out and bleeding, and Henry was shocked, he had a lot of glass on him. He begged for me to help him, and I just laughed. Riley was approaching the wreckage, she was cautious, aware of me and what I'd done. She was also savvy on vampire hunters, so she didn't need to ask me what or who I was, instead she questioned why I would betray my people. The answer was simple, I wanted to be a vampire. I told her so, and she was happy to oblige, but not there. Instead, after draining everyone in the car, she asked if I was still sure. Reading her mind, I knew a few things about her. Riley liked prizes, and to her, I was a prize. She knew that I was a witch from reading my energy, she also was somehow aware that I'd spent a lot of time with another vampire. Riley was lonely, and she wanted to begin a Vampire Coven. She took me to her LA home and tried to sweet talk me, so I told her I wasn't interested in women. That's when she asked why I desired to be a vampire, as well as why I had been a vampire hunter. I explained both to her honestly. I was born into a family of vampire hunters and witches, so getting into the line of work was only natural. As for why I wanted to be a vampire... I told her about my terminal illness. That had always been my reason for wanting to become a vampire. She changed me the next day insisting that I sleep on it, that night she went out I assume to clean up the mess we'd made. She tried to get me to feed, but I didn't want to. It wasn't that I was squeamish about blood or anything, I honestly just thought it was kind of gross. Riley spent a lot of time at the hospital, and I spent a lot of time bored in her home, but I did study it, study her. I didn't come back immediately for a couple of reasons, one of them is that I wanted to want something other than you. I wasn't sure when my feelings about you changed from mere curiosity to downright lust and adoration, but I didn't like it. It's not like I was unfamiliar with the feeling or anything, but it was so clear to me that you were emotionally unavailable and that I'd fucked up, that I wanted to desire Riley. Riley was beautiful, intelligent, witty, even kind, but I didn't want anything to do with her, I could only think about coming home to you.