I Sacrifice Myself (3 page)
Read I Sacrifice Myself Online
Authors: Christina Worrell
Tags: #romance, #vampire, #erotica, #love, #horror, #life, #death, #paranormal, #supernatural, #werewolf, #sacrifice, #sexual, #free, #cheap, #spine tingler
I know this sounds like a refugee camp, and
it sort of is, but it is also life. One we all have to adapt to and
survive.
No one leaves the compound unless they are a
hunter. In order to get supplies we have to make monthly, or
bi-monthly, trips to larger compounds or nearby cities.
These compounds were more like whole cities,
with twenty foot manned walls, like castles. Barricades and gates
enclosed us and kept us safe. We depended on these and our
hunters.
My aunts and I, had lived in one since the
day my parents had died and I had changed. They had their own
little cottage in the woods, but within the sanctuary of the
walls.
Their city was over sixty square miles wide.
Eight hundred people lived in this society. The city was deemed too
large to be a compound and therefore it’s a city, one we call
Phoenix now, and yes after not just the city but the mystical
creature that rises from ash.
There are four others nearly this large all
around the United States. Oddly enough they make the shape of an
inverted pentagram.
I wondered if it had anything to do with the
supernatural creatures that haunted us. These cities were almost
like our state capitol. We looked to them for support.
Since we all went on lockdown, twenty years
ago, things have changed. We no longer have a president or cabinet
of other stuck up and know it all government officials. Before any
of the public had become aware, our officials had made changes that
would soon destroy us and send us into a spiraling economic
disaster. It was only recently that the damage done had become what
I call beneficial. Our current advisors had found genius ways to
overcome our doom.
We’re all under martial law. Hunters,
soldiers, and these cities were the things that lead us now,
hopefully out of this Dark Age. Our rules are merely to survive,
which was actually much harder than one might think.
The monsters we fight are slaughtering our
kind. We’re only defending ourselves and trying to take back our
world, at the least just exist. Of course, it will never be the
same. That was a hopeless and lost dream I’d given up a very long
time ago. The night I’d died and been reborn. I was never the same
cuddly and cherubic angel that people adored. I was a quiet and
lethal learning machine that was ripe with much needed
vengeance.
We’ve yet to find one good creature among
any of them. The shifters are neutral though, for some odd reason.
In this war, they refuse to choose a side, and we don’t understand
their reasoning. They keep to their kind, and something that was
even stranger, they stay within their species. Meaning they don’t
interbreed with other types of shifters, that humans know of.
Carnivores, like wolves and cats, tend to be
feral and rogues. At least until they are several centuries old and
then they start or join a small and close-knit pack. The more
docile shifters formed much larger ones.
Both of these types of packs made us
nervous, with good reason. They grew within weeks from a population
of one or two, to over fifty or a hundred. It was like they sensed
one another and sought others out that were ready to settle
down.
Herbivores are not like them, and are even
fearful of humans, so they avoid us. We dodge them if they are not
causing trouble. But we will kill them if they come into our
territories or seem aggressive.
The hunters, besides me, were now coming to
a decision. Finally, I thought. It was an enforced one by Ian, but
still a mutual one nonetheless.
We’d go out tomorrow. Even with it being a
full moon, which seemed to agitate and pump up the shifters, along
with some others.
It would be a handpicked, elite, team of our
very best. That team would separate into a two manned team once we
were out there and on our own.
Dimitri and I would not be together as we
were the best hunters in the compound. I hated that but at least we
would see each other. I totally understood the need for this,
unlike some decisions that were made.
The hunt would begin at twilight, and last
until dawn. Being in the light of the blue moon would be odd and
even difficult for the humans. For me, it increased everything,
making me a better hunter.
If you noticed, I don’t consider myself
mortal. I’m not immortal, that I know of, but with my paranormal
abilities I’m not exactly human either.
The hunters all took flak jackets with
special tools. Such as lock picks, heavy duty halogen lights, and a
digital compass with built in computer system that tracks how many
miles you’ve gone and can direct you back the exact same way you
came and could send that info digitally to our computers. Good for
many things including leading us to or away from a particularly
nasty fight.
Also, we’ll have cell phones with two way
radios. All of this keeps us in touch and one step ahead of the
animals we were hunting. Each species varied in their life styles.
The vamps were not the televised and romantic version that every
nubile and sex crazed female envisions or adores.
As for weapons we now carry fully automatic
machine guns built smaller and lighter to keep the humans from
slowing down. The guns also have laser lights that only light up
when there is movement. It tracks it as long as it’s within the
radius of its vision.
The fore grips and other attachments made
handling the deadly machines much easier. Making new trainees waste
less time in learning how to not kill off one another.
The nearly micro sized camera on the gun
also records everything in its path, transmits it via satellite
back to the compound, that way we know who and why they went down
or are in danger.
Also it helps us learn from them. The
supernaturals we were trying to take out.
Vampires are shadow creatures of the night.
Unless moving they are undetectable to normal humans. They make no
sounds and do not leave a trail to the naked eye. They’re very
skilled and super strong. They could take me one on one, quite
easily. And I’m the best the hunters have. Our numbers, in hunter
ranks, dwindles daily, but as a whole our numbers grow.
It’s for this reason we sacrifice ourselves.
Without us it would only be a matter of time before the human race
went extinct. We sacrifice our very lives for the continuation of
our species. I mean that literally.
As I stood up, I noticed the hesitation in
the others. Dimitri was ready as always to defend and protect. He
was a warrior, a hunter, like me at heart. If we were allowed to do
our own missions we’d be a much better asset than we were now. As
it was, we could barely protect our partners.
We’re always partnered based on our
strengths and weaknesses. I had only one weakness and that was
other females. I was too dominating for most men. Women were so
weak or slow, that I constantly had to slow down, and make sure
they kept up. I was more focused on keeping them alive rather than
us as a team.
A woman though, as a hunter, was a rare
thing. We’re the breeders, and as such, were left at home to do
other jobs that were just as necessary. For example, we needed them
for things such as the child rearing and teaching, whether the
woman had kids of their own or not. Also we needed them for
housekeeping, cooking, clothes, and other odd jobs. They’re the
receptionists and nurses. They tended the battle wounds and kept us
alive.
I followed Dimitri to our rooms. Hunters had
their own rooms and all of them were on one hall.
We’d set up schedules, where always one
third of our base was awake, and we rotated. It was set up so that
every shift there was a fresh set of hunters halfway through. We
would not be caught unaware, like other camps, bases, and
cities.
Half the shifts were guards, manning the
four walls and towers. The other half patrolled the alleys, halls,
bathrooms, feeding area, and the women’s and children’s dorms.
Some families had a whole building. There’re
five in our compound. Those families were protected with single
interchanging guards every six hours. Their buildings were located
at the very center of the base, and each one had built in escape
doors through their basements. They led to a hidden garage two
miles away.
Once there they’d each get in a reinforced
Hummer and drive to the next closest base without stopping. There
was a small box of extra supplies in the very back of each vehicle,
such as water and non-perishables, and a can of gas.
The hunters also had vehicles within the
base. I had a two thousand and ten mustang. I never got to drive it
though. It was considered an extra and unnecessary desire.
That vehicle was not the one I meant though.
We all had our own trucks. They’re fully armored, and the outside
of the trucks were charged and electrified. So if we’re under
attack we could flip a switch and haul ass. The tires were also
impenetrable.
Aside from all of that, and our normal
weapons, we had flak jackets that we only carried while hunting. We
each also had a sword, especially made, using certain metals so
that they stayed sharp. They were unbreakable and toxic to the
vamps and demons.
We used some kind of mixture of silver, and
radioactive and nuclear based elements. These swords and knives
were toxic to humans as well, so the handles were coated in several
layers of titanium, and then covered on the grip with a material
that absorbs liquids such as sweat. It made it easier to grip and
keep our knives.
We’re all about some business. We didn’t
play when it came to keeping our people safe.
We also carried a set of ten smaller
throwing knives, which were made with the same metals and elements,
but only the blades were toxic. The handles were all metal and flat
so they could be easily thrown. I was a pro at this. I had taken
down over forty or fifty creatures with the throwing knives
alone.
I could hit a fly from thirty yards or more.
A vamp in the heart was nothing. Usually though, I depended on my
gun. The special bullets were made like the blades. They could
instantly take down a normal vamp, shifter, demon, zombie, or any
other supernatural creature, especially if they were hit in vital
areas.
There were very few creatures of the night
that could take an entire clip and not fall.
I’d battled one of these. It had given me a
gift as well. A six inch long and half an inch wide scar, that ran
across my ribs. Had I been totally human, I’d have died. Something
inside me, something not normal, had saved me.
I’d also learned that my blood was toxic to
vamps and demons. I was a genetic mutation, even before I was
attacked, and made into a hybrid.
I should explain here that zombies are flesh
eating demons of a sort. Vampires are a type of demon, but the
zombies are a rather unusual side effect of being bitten by a
vampire that has not been purposely turned. It seemed that certain
humans that were fatally bitten became mindless, hungry, and
decomposing versions of the vampire minus the extra abilities. So
it was what I think of as a lose, lose situation. Should you be
attacked and not immediately treated you could over-time become
infected as well.
These zombies could also infect others by
biting or scratching them. The good thing about zombies were they
eventually decayed to the point of dead undead and finished the
rotting phase. Zombies rot at a slower rate than most corpses and
if they feed enough they rot even more slowly, which means that one
zombie could possibly exist in its undead state from as little as
forty-eight hours to several weeks.
I’d killed one that I’d hunted for over six
weeks once. That bastard was hideous as it was but each time I
encountered the tricky beast, it was missing more chunks of flesh
or smelled worse than before. If you have a weak stomach or heart I
advise you to avoid them at all costs.
Rotting corpses are one thing, but undead
rotting corpses, are a whole new ball game. Pray you don’t find
yourself helpless and in their path. At first they are still in
pretty decent shape, the same as before death, which means if the
human had been able to run fairly fast then so could the
zombie.
The more they decayed the less mobile and
dangerous they were. Not exactly safe but more of a controllable
danger. Having a crawling, legless or not, zombie after you is
still quite heart jolting. Take my word for it.
Wow, once again I had derailed like a mental
patient off the original subject.
When the vamp that had murdered my parents
figured out that my blood was lethal to them, the hard way, he
tried to destroy me. Fortunately he had consumed so much of my
blood that he was dead before he could go through with his
threats.
I’m a little harder to take out than they
think, even as a meek and precious five year old.
I did die though technically, and because I
was almost completely drained, I almost turned. My aunts arrived
just in time. I had used the last of my strength to summon them. It
was a difficult spell, since it instantly told them I was in
immediate danger, leaving no room for doubt. I had been unconscious
again when they’d arrived.
When they saw the horror, what the outcome
had been, how one five year old girl had lived through it… they
nearly lost it. One aunt had run to me and scooped me up, hell-bent
on making sure I survived. My wounds were in almost every single
case fatal. My other two aunts mourned their sister and
brother-in-law.
Later, much later, they said they didn’t
understand how I had a snowball’s chance in hell at taking down an
elder vamp, one my mother stood no chance with. Yet somehow,
someway, I had and not in the most expected way.
Apparently Selene had a distinct purpose for
me. She gave me a second chance, one I was only beginning to
understand and accept.
it sort of is, but it is also life. One we all have to adapt to and
survive.
No one leaves the compound unless they are a
hunter. In order to get supplies we have to make monthly, or
bi-monthly, trips to larger compounds or nearby cities.
These compounds were more like whole cities,
with twenty foot manned walls, like castles. Barricades and gates
enclosed us and kept us safe. We depended on these and our
hunters.
My aunts and I, had lived in one since the
day my parents had died and I had changed. They had their own
little cottage in the woods, but within the sanctuary of the
walls.
Their city was over sixty square miles wide.
Eight hundred people lived in this society. The city was deemed too
large to be a compound and therefore it’s a city, one we call
Phoenix now, and yes after not just the city but the mystical
creature that rises from ash.
There are four others nearly this large all
around the United States. Oddly enough they make the shape of an
inverted pentagram.
I wondered if it had anything to do with the
supernatural creatures that haunted us. These cities were almost
like our state capitol. We looked to them for support.
Since we all went on lockdown, twenty years
ago, things have changed. We no longer have a president or cabinet
of other stuck up and know it all government officials. Before any
of the public had become aware, our officials had made changes that
would soon destroy us and send us into a spiraling economic
disaster. It was only recently that the damage done had become what
I call beneficial. Our current advisors had found genius ways to
overcome our doom.
We’re all under martial law. Hunters,
soldiers, and these cities were the things that lead us now,
hopefully out of this Dark Age. Our rules are merely to survive,
which was actually much harder than one might think.
The monsters we fight are slaughtering our
kind. We’re only defending ourselves and trying to take back our
world, at the least just exist. Of course, it will never be the
same. That was a hopeless and lost dream I’d given up a very long
time ago. The night I’d died and been reborn. I was never the same
cuddly and cherubic angel that people adored. I was a quiet and
lethal learning machine that was ripe with much needed
vengeance.
We’ve yet to find one good creature among
any of them. The shifters are neutral though, for some odd reason.
In this war, they refuse to choose a side, and we don’t understand
their reasoning. They keep to their kind, and something that was
even stranger, they stay within their species. Meaning they don’t
interbreed with other types of shifters, that humans know of.
Carnivores, like wolves and cats, tend to be
feral and rogues. At least until they are several centuries old and
then they start or join a small and close-knit pack. The more
docile shifters formed much larger ones.
Both of these types of packs made us
nervous, with good reason. They grew within weeks from a population
of one or two, to over fifty or a hundred. It was like they sensed
one another and sought others out that were ready to settle
down.
Herbivores are not like them, and are even
fearful of humans, so they avoid us. We dodge them if they are not
causing trouble. But we will kill them if they come into our
territories or seem aggressive.
The hunters, besides me, were now coming to
a decision. Finally, I thought. It was an enforced one by Ian, but
still a mutual one nonetheless.
We’d go out tomorrow. Even with it being a
full moon, which seemed to agitate and pump up the shifters, along
with some others.
It would be a handpicked, elite, team of our
very best. That team would separate into a two manned team once we
were out there and on our own.
Dimitri and I would not be together as we
were the best hunters in the compound. I hated that but at least we
would see each other. I totally understood the need for this,
unlike some decisions that were made.
The hunt would begin at twilight, and last
until dawn. Being in the light of the blue moon would be odd and
even difficult for the humans. For me, it increased everything,
making me a better hunter.
If you noticed, I don’t consider myself
mortal. I’m not immortal, that I know of, but with my paranormal
abilities I’m not exactly human either.
The hunters all took flak jackets with
special tools. Such as lock picks, heavy duty halogen lights, and a
digital compass with built in computer system that tracks how many
miles you’ve gone and can direct you back the exact same way you
came and could send that info digitally to our computers. Good for
many things including leading us to or away from a particularly
nasty fight.
Also, we’ll have cell phones with two way
radios. All of this keeps us in touch and one step ahead of the
animals we were hunting. Each species varied in their life styles.
The vamps were not the televised and romantic version that every
nubile and sex crazed female envisions or adores.
As for weapons we now carry fully automatic
machine guns built smaller and lighter to keep the humans from
slowing down. The guns also have laser lights that only light up
when there is movement. It tracks it as long as it’s within the
radius of its vision.
The fore grips and other attachments made
handling the deadly machines much easier. Making new trainees waste
less time in learning how to not kill off one another.
The nearly micro sized camera on the gun
also records everything in its path, transmits it via satellite
back to the compound, that way we know who and why they went down
or are in danger.
Also it helps us learn from them. The
supernaturals we were trying to take out.
Vampires are shadow creatures of the night.
Unless moving they are undetectable to normal humans. They make no
sounds and do not leave a trail to the naked eye. They’re very
skilled and super strong. They could take me one on one, quite
easily. And I’m the best the hunters have. Our numbers, in hunter
ranks, dwindles daily, but as a whole our numbers grow.
It’s for this reason we sacrifice ourselves.
Without us it would only be a matter of time before the human race
went extinct. We sacrifice our very lives for the continuation of
our species. I mean that literally.
As I stood up, I noticed the hesitation in
the others. Dimitri was ready as always to defend and protect. He
was a warrior, a hunter, like me at heart. If we were allowed to do
our own missions we’d be a much better asset than we were now. As
it was, we could barely protect our partners.
We’re always partnered based on our
strengths and weaknesses. I had only one weakness and that was
other females. I was too dominating for most men. Women were so
weak or slow, that I constantly had to slow down, and make sure
they kept up. I was more focused on keeping them alive rather than
us as a team.
A woman though, as a hunter, was a rare
thing. We’re the breeders, and as such, were left at home to do
other jobs that were just as necessary. For example, we needed them
for things such as the child rearing and teaching, whether the
woman had kids of their own or not. Also we needed them for
housekeeping, cooking, clothes, and other odd jobs. They’re the
receptionists and nurses. They tended the battle wounds and kept us
alive.
I followed Dimitri to our rooms. Hunters had
their own rooms and all of them were on one hall.
We’d set up schedules, where always one
third of our base was awake, and we rotated. It was set up so that
every shift there was a fresh set of hunters halfway through. We
would not be caught unaware, like other camps, bases, and
cities.
Half the shifts were guards, manning the
four walls and towers. The other half patrolled the alleys, halls,
bathrooms, feeding area, and the women’s and children’s dorms.
Some families had a whole building. There’re
five in our compound. Those families were protected with single
interchanging guards every six hours. Their buildings were located
at the very center of the base, and each one had built in escape
doors through their basements. They led to a hidden garage two
miles away.
Once there they’d each get in a reinforced
Hummer and drive to the next closest base without stopping. There
was a small box of extra supplies in the very back of each vehicle,
such as water and non-perishables, and a can of gas.
The hunters also had vehicles within the
base. I had a two thousand and ten mustang. I never got to drive it
though. It was considered an extra and unnecessary desire.
That vehicle was not the one I meant though.
We all had our own trucks. They’re fully armored, and the outside
of the trucks were charged and electrified. So if we’re under
attack we could flip a switch and haul ass. The tires were also
impenetrable.
Aside from all of that, and our normal
weapons, we had flak jackets that we only carried while hunting. We
each also had a sword, especially made, using certain metals so
that they stayed sharp. They were unbreakable and toxic to the
vamps and demons.
We used some kind of mixture of silver, and
radioactive and nuclear based elements. These swords and knives
were toxic to humans as well, so the handles were coated in several
layers of titanium, and then covered on the grip with a material
that absorbs liquids such as sweat. It made it easier to grip and
keep our knives.
We’re all about some business. We didn’t
play when it came to keeping our people safe.
We also carried a set of ten smaller
throwing knives, which were made with the same metals and elements,
but only the blades were toxic. The handles were all metal and flat
so they could be easily thrown. I was a pro at this. I had taken
down over forty or fifty creatures with the throwing knives
alone.
I could hit a fly from thirty yards or more.
A vamp in the heart was nothing. Usually though, I depended on my
gun. The special bullets were made like the blades. They could
instantly take down a normal vamp, shifter, demon, zombie, or any
other supernatural creature, especially if they were hit in vital
areas.
There were very few creatures of the night
that could take an entire clip and not fall.
I’d battled one of these. It had given me a
gift as well. A six inch long and half an inch wide scar, that ran
across my ribs. Had I been totally human, I’d have died. Something
inside me, something not normal, had saved me.
I’d also learned that my blood was toxic to
vamps and demons. I was a genetic mutation, even before I was
attacked, and made into a hybrid.
I should explain here that zombies are flesh
eating demons of a sort. Vampires are a type of demon, but the
zombies are a rather unusual side effect of being bitten by a
vampire that has not been purposely turned. It seemed that certain
humans that were fatally bitten became mindless, hungry, and
decomposing versions of the vampire minus the extra abilities. So
it was what I think of as a lose, lose situation. Should you be
attacked and not immediately treated you could over-time become
infected as well.
These zombies could also infect others by
biting or scratching them. The good thing about zombies were they
eventually decayed to the point of dead undead and finished the
rotting phase. Zombies rot at a slower rate than most corpses and
if they feed enough they rot even more slowly, which means that one
zombie could possibly exist in its undead state from as little as
forty-eight hours to several weeks.
I’d killed one that I’d hunted for over six
weeks once. That bastard was hideous as it was but each time I
encountered the tricky beast, it was missing more chunks of flesh
or smelled worse than before. If you have a weak stomach or heart I
advise you to avoid them at all costs.
Rotting corpses are one thing, but undead
rotting corpses, are a whole new ball game. Pray you don’t find
yourself helpless and in their path. At first they are still in
pretty decent shape, the same as before death, which means if the
human had been able to run fairly fast then so could the
zombie.
The more they decayed the less mobile and
dangerous they were. Not exactly safe but more of a controllable
danger. Having a crawling, legless or not, zombie after you is
still quite heart jolting. Take my word for it.
Wow, once again I had derailed like a mental
patient off the original subject.
When the vamp that had murdered my parents
figured out that my blood was lethal to them, the hard way, he
tried to destroy me. Fortunately he had consumed so much of my
blood that he was dead before he could go through with his
threats.
I’m a little harder to take out than they
think, even as a meek and precious five year old.
I did die though technically, and because I
was almost completely drained, I almost turned. My aunts arrived
just in time. I had used the last of my strength to summon them. It
was a difficult spell, since it instantly told them I was in
immediate danger, leaving no room for doubt. I had been unconscious
again when they’d arrived.
When they saw the horror, what the outcome
had been, how one five year old girl had lived through it… they
nearly lost it. One aunt had run to me and scooped me up, hell-bent
on making sure I survived. My wounds were in almost every single
case fatal. My other two aunts mourned their sister and
brother-in-law.
Later, much later, they said they didn’t
understand how I had a snowball’s chance in hell at taking down an
elder vamp, one my mother stood no chance with. Yet somehow,
someway, I had and not in the most expected way.
Apparently Selene had a distinct purpose for
me. She gave me a second chance, one I was only beginning to
understand and accept.
Other books
Sovereign by Celia Aaron
Shaman's Blood by Anne C. Petty
The Friends We Keep by Holly Chamberlin
Fire and Flame by Breton, Anya
All That Is by James Salter
Ryker (The Ride #4) by Megan O'Brien
Revenge by Gabrielle Lord
The Blue Bedspread by Raj Kamal Jha
Target: Tinos by Jeffrey Siger
To Kill For by Phillip Hunter
