Destined to Kill: A Destined Novel (Destined Novels Book 1) (7 page)

Hours - and countless Cursed Ones - later, I finally arrive home, certain that no one saw me. It is almost dawn, but I still have the darkness to shadow my movements. I return the steed to his pasture, and lifting the staked Cursed One over my shoulder, I amble home.

Papa is waiting for me. He pretends he is sleeping, but I hear his breath, his heartbeat - which begin to return to normal when I walk in. He was afraid for me.

"Anala!" He rises, then stops abruptly when he sees what I carry. "You were able to secure one?"

I choose not to be insulted by his amazement. "Of course. You said it would help you."

"I take it you did well on your first night?"

He sounds almost envious. I cannot blame him. He is a Hunter, and that need to be out there never goes away. It is my fault he is stuck here, and I am sure I will feel guilty about that forever.

"Yes, sir." I want to tell him all about it! How incredible it felt to fight, to hunt. How strong I felt, and how the Cursed Ones did not stand a chance with me. Mum said the ones in transition were called Hybrids. But, I felt like the perfect Hybrid. Part Hunter, part Cursed - all intimidating. "The swords were amazing!"

"They worked, then?" The excitement in his voice is exactly what I am looking for.

"Oh, yes! They are magnificent! You should think about making many of them for the others."

"Well, that will come in time, daughter. My schedule is a bit full." He smiles at me, then realizes I am still holding the Cursed One. "Oh! Here, let me..."

"No, I have it. Just tell me where you want me to put it."

It must be extraordinarily bizarre to see your eighteen year old daughter, thin and not overtly muscular, holding a grown man twice her size as though he were a sack of flour. With a slight shake of his head, he leads me to the back of his lab and pushes the wall. It opens with the abrasive sound of stone on stone.

"I have lived in this house my entire life. How do I not know about this?" I ask.

"I am allowed to have secrets, am I not?" Papa teases. "Put it here in this chair. We will chain him to the wall."

"Papa, do you really think this will hold him?"

"Would you like to try it out? The chair and chains are made of pure silver. The chains go beyond the wall into the ground more than six feet deep and wrapped around a silver pole. From what we have learned, silver weakens the strength of Cursed Ones."

"Silver?" I set the Cursed One down in the chair, propping his slumped body up carefully. Picking up the chain, I instantly feel a change in my strength. "Such a normal feeling chain for such an extraordinary feat."

I pull the chain with all the strength I can muster. The links stretch slightly, but do not break. I am convinced that if I cannot break it, my prisoner cannot, either. I help papa chain the Cursed One to the silver chair, making sure it is completely secure. I do not want to take chances with the lives of my parents.

"I want to be here, papa, when you take the stake out."

"I am a Hunter, child, I am sure I can take care of myself." He sounds almost annoyed by my request.

"I do not think you are not capable, papa. I just want to make sure the chains are strong enough."

He looks as though he is going to argue, but he just nods instead. "Very well. Get cleaned up and we will then see what this one has to offer us."

Our prisoner offers us nothing for a long while. Even with Bernard's help, papa came up empty when it came to a 'cure'. The closest he came was formulating a potion that curbed the hunger and need for blood, and one that helped mask the eerie color this curse made the eyes. The latter is still too unpredictable for me to come out of hiding as it can wear off without warning.

I have been in hiding for so long that word is beginning to spread that I have died. Mum and papa can no longer dispute it because they cannot show anyone that I am, indeed, alive. I even have to hide myself from Bernard, which is, I admit, increasingly difficult since he is constantly in my house. I begin to notice that his interest in the Cursed One I had captured becomes greater every day. I would hear him trying to engage it in conversation - to no avail. His pressing question is always 'who captured you?'. I have yet to figure out why that would matter to him.

When Bernard found out that my blood - though he does not know it is mine - could heal, he and papa began arguing frequently. Bernard wants to sell the cure to the highest bidder. Papa forbade it. He does not know what the blood will do to humans in larger doses. Would it create more of me? More monsters? It is not something papa wishes to find out.

I start hunting longer and longer, pushing the limits of sunlight as far as they would go. Being in the house while Bernard is there makes me uncomfortable, and hunting keeps me occupied with more than the thought that this is how I am going to be for the rest of my life - however long that will be.

I have not run into Thomas again since my first night out hunting. Secretly, I wish I would, even if just to make sure he is doing well. I can hear Hunters telling stories during their patrol of how the Lagan boy went into a depression when he heard of my death. I prefer not to believe it. Thomas is strong in mind and body. I am sure I could not be the cause of such a depression. Maybe I just do not want that responsibility hanging over me.

I think of Thomas as I ride home. Tonight has been a quiet night, hunting wise. If I allowed myself to think carefully about that, I would find it odd, but my mind is on Thomas. I wish I could kiss him again. I laugh quietly at that. My entire life has been about hunting and being the best Hunter I can be. Never did I think that a boy would be as important to me as that. This is certainly not something I can talk to papa about. Mum would understand, I am sure.

After returning my horse, I make my way home, staying in the darkest shadows I could find in the dawning day. It is about time for mum and papa to be up and cooking breakfast. Oh, how I missed mum's biscuits! Perhaps I shall try to eat one this morning.

"Mum? Papa?" It is eerily quiet in the house. I did not hear or smell Bernard, so it should be safe for me. I take a step towards the lab and stop abruptly. I begin to feel the change that occurs in me now as a Cursed One. The ache, the burning. That unmistakable, enticing smell of blood fills my nostrils. So much blood, I think as I take a deep breath.

"Papa?" Is he using more blood from the Cursed One I brought him? No. That smell. It is familiar. Too familiar. But, too muddled for me to define the origin. "Mum? Are you awake?" I call out as I continue on to the lab. The odor gets stronger as I get closer. Silence still fills the air, and a dread fills up inside of me. Hurrying now, I push through to the lab - and see them.

"No!" I run to mum, lying so still, surrounded by blood that I have no desire for. "Mummy? Please wake up!" I shake her gently, but she does not respond. "You have to wake up!"

Crawling over to papa, I check for a pulse, listen for a heartbeat - any kind of sign that he was alive. There is none. "Papa! Mummy is hurt, you have to get up and help her!" He did not move. My mind knows there is nothing I can do for them now, but I do not want to believe they are gone. I sit with them, holding their hands in my bloody hands. Soaked in their blood, I let out a wail filled with agony and guilt. I want to lay down with them, join them wherever they may be now. Unfortunately for me, I cannot die now, but, oh, how I want to. How am I supposed to go on without my parents? What am I to do?

"
You know what you must do, Anala,"
papa's voice fills my head and I hope against hope that it is really he who is talking. Yet, when I look at him, he still lay lifeless and pale, his cold hand in mine. I see the bites now. Bites that I missed, or perhaps refused to see before. They were attacked! They are so skilled, how could they let this happen? The irony of my question is not lost on me. I check mum, seeing the bites on her as well. The Cursed One! I scramble to my feet and run to the back wall, pushing it open.

It is gone. The silver chair, empty, the chains limp. Is this my fault? Am I to blame for my parents death by leaving them with this - thing?

"Focus, Anala. Think only of this moment and what you need to do."
Papa's voice invades my mind again.

"Yes, papa," I whisper, and study my surroundings. Things were a mess in here. There was obviously a struggle.

"Look deeper, Anala."

I shake my head. If I thought the silence was eerie, having papa's voice in my head as he lay dead before me was scary. I take a deep breath and 'look deeper'.

"Things are missing," I say aloud. The vials of my blood, potions, notes - all missing. Why would a Cursed One steal papa's work? Could it really have had the mental capacity to have done this? I run to papa's secret compartment. This is where he kept most of my blood along with the elixirs and notes that provided any kind of change in me. I crush the lock with my bare hand and open it.

They are still here. Obviously the Cursed One - or someone else, as I am not convinced it was the prisoner - did not know about this. I gather everything I possibly can out of papa's lab, my room and from around the house, packing them into a sack I can carry with me. After washing up, I go back to where my parents lay slain.

"Forgive me," I ask them silently. "I love you, both."

With that, I say my last goodbye and set my childhood home, along with my parents, on fire. I watch long enough to make sure no one would show up to stop the blaze, and then run towards the pasture where I steal the stallion. Of course, I feel bad about that, but it is a necessity. I do not know where I am going, but I cannot stay here and watch my life go up in flames.

I spent the next several years killing every Cursed One I came across, wondering if I had killed the ones that murdered my family. Would I ever know for sure what happened or would I spend the rest of my immortal life questioning if I could have done anything, anything at all, to save my family's lives?