His memory haunts me like spirits haunt a Stephen King novel.
​
I tried for years to forget about him, about the great love I had lost, but nothing I had done had worked. None of the other lovers I took managed to erase the feeling of his skin against mine. There was a hollowness in my bones that I couldn’t escape from. Every time I closed my eyes, he was there, holding me close, whispering sweet I love yous in my ear.
But, he had been taken from me. Taken by the very creatures I was sworn to rule over—the vampires. They had broken the accords and taken an innocent human who knew nothing of this world. No matter how much I loved him, I was forbidden to tell him of the shadow world. I literally could not tell him. It was like being under a compulsion spell. I had tried to get around the rules, but nothing I had tried worked. Then one night while I was on patrol, when he was supposed to be asleep in my bed, he had followed me.
Not knowing he was there was my first mistake. My second was even bigger—not realizing we were being surrounded by rogue vampires. I had snapped at him, asking him what the hell he was doing, but then I saw it in his eyes. Fear. I spun around. It was too late. The vampires were on us and I was stuck, hard, in the head, but just before the blackness took over, I watched in horror as one of them bit Stefan.
And then dragged his lifeless body away in the darkness…
Hunted by You
Part I
Hunted by You
Part II
I woke with the sun high in the sky and a blasting headache.
​
I sprinted back to headquarters and reported what had happened to my commander. I volunteered to lead the hunt to find these vampires and he agreed. And, although I found the vampires that had taken Stefan from me, and slain them, I never found where they had taken Stefan. Which might have been a good thing because I had been ordered to kill him if he had completed the transition. And, if he hadn’t completed the transition, he was already dead.
It had been two years and I had never seen him again. He had to be dead. I should have grieved, but the pain was too much to live with so I threw myself into the hunt, into taking lovers, anything to forget, even it was temporary. I killed dozens of rogue vampires over the past two years. But, sometimes in the middle of the night I swore I heard his voice in my ear. I would come to and the fact that he was gone would flood my brain. I was lost again. I would curl under my blankets and sob until I crashed and fell asleep from pure painful exhaustion.
One night was different though. I was semi awake, just in the phase of dream state and being fully awake, when I heard his voice again. I bolted upright in bed, pulling the dagger out from under my pillow at the same time and aiming it at where the voice was coming from. I struck down and hit my bed, pulverizing a hole into it. But, at the end of my dagger was a piece of black cloth. I pulled my dagger out of the bed, jumped up and searched the room. There was movement from behind a curtain to the balcony. Slowly I stalked over to the curtain and there was a slight movement again. It could have been the breeze, but I didn’t think about that as I drove my dagger into curtain.
There was a groan as something hit the ground.
My breathing was coming hard as I flung open the curtain and looked down at whatever I had it. The creature raised a hand up to me as if begging me not to strike again before flipping over. I looked down at the creature and my breath stopped completely.
“Stefan?”
Hunted by You
Part III
I dropped to my knees beside him.
​
I couldn’t believe it was him. I reached out and touched his pained face and his features were all too familiar to me. It was really him. Then the realization that I had stuck him my dagger hit me hard. I helped him to a sitting position and looked him over. Thank God I thought. I had only hit him in the shoulder and the wound was already healing.
Stefan reached for me and without hesitation I threw myself into his arms, the tears flowing down my face. He stroked my hair and quietly hummed a tune that was so familiar to me. He had often sang to me to help me sleep when I was so stressed by living two lives. I pulled back and looked at him. It really was him. He looked just like the Stefan I used to know, except his features seemed sharper and then there were the blood red eyes. I shivered looking into them, but I couldn’t look away. Although they were slightly terrifying, there was love written all over them.
“What are you doing here? How many times have you been here?”
He smiled at me. “I’ve been coming to your room for almost every night for the last two years. I couldn’t stay away from you. I still crazy in love with you.”
“I thought you were dead,” I whispered as the tears formed in my eyes once again.
“I know,” he said, his voice hardening. “I could tell from all the men you had in your bed.”
I looked down away from him. “They didn’t mean anything. I’ve been in so much pain that I had to do something to numb it, even if it was just for a few moments.” I looked back up at him and his features had soften again.
“I know my love,” he said as he stroked my cheek.
A streak of pink came through my open balcony. “Oh my God, the sun, Stefan you have to go.”
He glanced out into the slowly rising sun. “Come with me,” he said, more like pleaded.
There was a banging at my locked door. “Kennedy, is everything okay?” It was my commander, but I didn’t even think about responding to him. I looked at Stefan and took his hand.
“Yes.”
Hunted by You
Part IV
…Stefan carried me in his arms and ran for I don’t know how long before we entered an abandoned warehouse.
​
He gently put me on my feet and held me by the arms as I regained my footing. Moving that fast was unnerving. I looked around the warehouse. It was empty. There were no other vampires, there was no sign that this is where he had been living.
“Where are we?”
“The closest place I could get before the sun came up.”
“But where have you been living the past two years?”
“With a coven outside of town.”
I swallowed. “How have you survived?”
He laughed. “Are you asking me if I’ve been draining humans?” It was his laugh, but I hadn’t said anything funny. He turned serious again. “No, I haven’t been. We live off the blood of animals. We know the accords and unlike the vampires that turned me, we follow them. We don’t need the wrath of you hunters coming down on us.”
I swallowed hard again. “I would never hurt you. I couldn’t.”
He took my face into his hands. “I know.” And then he did what I had been so desperately missing for the past couple of years. He kissed me and kissed me hard. I leaned into him, deepening the kiss.
We both jerked away at the sound of metal being drawn against metal, followed by nefarious laughter. I knew that sound. “Vampires,” I said, reaching for my dagger, but there was nothing on my hip as I had dropped it when I had discovered Stefan in my room. Stefan grabbed me and pulled me to the far side of the warehouse, away from the sound that was getting eerily closer and closer.
“They will kill you. I should never have brought you here.”
He was right. They would kill me. They wouldn’t turn a hunter for fear of us becoming an immortal vampire slayer. I took a deep breath and turned to Stefan, knowing what I had to do. “Bite me,” I told him.
He looked stunned for a moment and then as if he realized what I had realized, that we wouldn’t be able to be together if he didn’t, he took me in his arms and sunk his fangs into my neck…
Hunted by You
Part V
…The pain was almost unbearable at first, then there was a flood of pleasure, then disappointment as he pulled away from me.
​
I was dizzy as he offered me his wrist. I knew I had to drink to complete the transformation. I took his wrist and drank. At first it was awful. The taste of copper and salt filling my mouth, but the more I drank, the more I started to love what I was tasting and it tasted like what I imagined sunshine would taste like. I struggled as Stefan pulled his wrist from my mouth.
I could feel my body change, I could feel my senses heighten and I heard what Stefan must have been listening to—footsteps getting closer and closer. I spun away from Stefan, blooding running down my face as the rogue vampires came into sight. They took one look at me and screamed bloody murder. “Hunter!” and they turned to run but I was faster as a newborn and a hunter then they were.
I grabbed the first and snapped his neck as easy as if he was made of a straw and not stone. I looked over and saw Stefan taking care of the second one. I saw the last one coming at me, fangs bared. I growled at him and he took several steps back, but he wasn’t getting out of this and he knew it. I grabbed a metal pole from the ground of the warehouse and jumped on him, slamming the rod through his chest.
I felt someone touch my shoulder and I spun, pulling the rod from the chest of the dead vampire, ready to strike. “Hey, easy now,” Stefan said, putting his hands in the air. All it took was one look at him and I instantly calmed down and dropped the rod. Stefan reached his hand out to me. I took it and he pulled me close and pressed his lips against mine. “Let’s go home,” he said as he pulled away.
Home.
Where was home now? As if reading my mind, Stefan squeezed my hand reassuringly, and I realized that home was anywhere he was.
I stood on my toes and kissed him.
“You are my home.”