Night Hunter (BL)

I tried to push the guilt aside, my focus shifting back to the present.

"But anyway, tell me about your friend," he said, his voice kinder as he forced a smile. His weak grin never quite reached his eyes.

"She's not my friend," I started, my words trailing off. Something tightened in my chest. "She just…"

But before I could finish, there was a frantic knock at the door. My heart skipped a beat, and before I could even process the sharp, familiar scent that filled the air, I swung the door open.

"Hey, sis," I greeted Amanda.

She swatted the back of my head, and I yelped, knowing exactly why. No pleasantries, no small talk. She marched right past me, heading straight for Jake without saying a word.

Jake, I told you to wait for me. You can't go on missions like this by yourself," Amanda scolded. "This could've been much worse!"

"Worse than this rotting wound? Why is it like that, anyway?" I hated that I didn't understand what was going on. Night Hunters healed almost as fast as werewolves did.

"Someone is creating feral vampires," Amanda emphasized, jabbing her finger near the claw marks on Jake's chest. "Their claws and teeth carry a deadly sting—even for us."

"Meaning the city is infested with ferals?" I exclaimed, shocked by the revelation. I had been oblivious to this growing threat.

"Not yet," she confirmed. "But it will be." She paused, her brow furrowing in thought.

"But... I don't understand. Why would you send Jake on such a dangerous mission?" I was even more confused now. They knew Jake wasn't suited for missions like this.

"Are you out of your mind?" I continued when neither of them answered. "What do Mom and Dad think about this?" Night Hunters were always fighting to take the most perilous missions—often for bragging rights or family pride. But the Abners, my family, had always prided ourselves on being different. We were driven by logic, not the pursuit of recognition.

I waited for Amanda's response, but she stayed silent, her focus on treating Jake's wounds with an intensity that matched the anger in her eyes. My own fury simmered and I could feel the beast inside me growing restless.

"Answer me, damn it!" I hissed, my patience wearing thin. Their silence only fueled my rage, a searing heat rising in my chest.

"He could've been killed!" I growled, my words slipping into an animalistic tone. All three of them stared at me, wide-eyed and silent.

"Calm down, Beasty. He'll be fine," Ginevra said with a smirk, his voice was mocking, but I sensed the flirtations behind it.

"Calm down? And who the hell are you calling 'Beasty'?" I snapped, baring my teeth in a threatening gesture.

I could feel the wolf inside me stirring, the transformation just beneath the surface. I snapped my teeth at Ginevra, the instinct to shift overtaking me, but I fought it back, forcing myself to stay human.

I turned my attention back to Jake's wounds. They weren't worsening, but they weren't healing either.

"Well, they're healing," Jake admitted sheepishly. "But it's a painfully slow process compared to normal wounds."

"Why were you alone on this mission, Jake?" I asked, pacing the living room. My heart pounded in my chest, torn between the worry for my brother and the anger at nearly losing him.

"You're going to get angrier and do something reckless if I tell you," Jake stammered.

"I promise I won't do the latter. The former... well, that depends," No matter how composed I tried to sound, my tone sounded like I would indeed do something reckless.

"Blake!" Amanda warned me to calm down.

"For the love of—just tell me," I insisted. I could sense it. They were hiding something from me. 

"Mom created it," Jake finally revealed.

"Created what?" My voice trembled, a part of me already knew the answer to that.

"A feral vampire. A monster," Jake whispered, his words making the hairs on the back of my neck stand.

"I don't understand. Why isn't Mom dealing with her own mess?" My eyebrows pinched together thoughtfully.

"She... because..." Amanda hesitated, her anger faltering for just a moment. "She was trying to find a cure for..." she paused

"A cure for what?" my skin buzzed as I waited for an answer, an answer I felt like I somehow knew.

"For you, to rid you of the monster," Amanda reluctantly admitted, the word monster hanging between us like a death grip.

"The monster?" My voice caught in my throat, a sharp, painful twist pulling at my chest.

These past few months, I'd tried to come to terms with the wolf inside me, to accept it as part of who I was. But to my family, it would always be a monster.

"I think I should leave," Ginevra suggested awkwardly, standing as though he were unsure of his place.

"No, don't go," I said, my voice breaking before I could stop it.

A heavy silence fell over the room, the tension thick enough to cut through. After a long moment, I spoke again. "Tell me more."

Amanda sighed, rubbing her face in exhaustion. "Well, here's the story. Mom found a human who had been bitten by a werewolf. Instead of killing him, she used him as a guinea pig, trying to reverse the transformation. It didn't go so well." She paused, her voice strained. "The first few hours, he looked fine, but after that, he turned feral and escaped. A Hunter found out about what happened, and the news spread quickly. We caught the feral two days later, but he had done a lot of damage by then."

"Oh God," I muttered, my hands clenched into fists. "Why do you guys keep trying to be outcasts like me? You have a life, a community…"

Anger and hurt bubbled up inside me, sharp enough to sting my eyes. Night Hunters always stuck together, but they wouldn't hesitate to turn their backs on you if you did something like this.

Amanda's face softened, but there was an edge of sadness in her eyes. "Mom and Dad are broken without you, Blake. They're always afraid to wake up and hear that you're gone. That someone out there killed you… or worse, that a Hunter did."

I swallowed the lump in my throat, but it didn't stop the bitterness from spilling out. "Well, it doesn't exactly help that you're chasing after death yourself now, does it?" I snapped. "I didn't ask for this, and you're not going to use me as an excuse for your stupid decisions. When did all this even start, anyway?"

"Four months ago."

Great. Just great! I guess I didn't deserve to know any of this until now.

"Anyway," I said, my tone forced as I tried to sound calm, "if Mom found the cure, then she can just cure every feral you come across?" I tried to convince myself it was as simple as that, but deep down, I knew it wasn't.

Jake's voice dropped. "She did find a cure, but Ginevra's brother stole it."

I turned to look at Ginevra, who was watching the exchange with a detached calm. "It's really unlike him," he said, his tone surprisingly level. "I suspect someone else is pulling the strings."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "Is he really defending his brother right now?" My voice was tight with disbelief. "You know what, I don't want to hear anymore. It's a Hunter thing. Let them deal with it."

But Jake's voice cut through the tension, louder this time, filled with raw anger. "The Council took Dad as a prisoner, blaming him for a murder he didn't commit. Mom's been kidnapped—by God knows who—and no one has any idea what they're doing to her. Amanda and I are being forced to find her Blake, or they'll kill her if they find her first."

My heart dropped into my stomach. All this had been happening and I didn't know.

The silence that followed was deafening, and for a moment, I couldn't find the words to respond. My family's lives, like mine, were falling apart.