My heart thrashed against my rib cage, or at least it felt like it. In all the years of hunting, I had never been this unfocused. Usually hunting was the thing that made me focus the best. It made me focus on the sounds of the forest; the breaking of twigs, the cobbling water or the sounds of the communicating animals, even the silence of it all gave me information about what was going on around me.

Now, my attention wavered every time the brunette girl hovered a little too closely behind me. My body was hyper aware of every move she made, and it sighed in contentment every time she acted accordingly.

Kate was a hunter, like she said. Her steps were perfectly coordinated and as gentle as the little breeze - she never made a sound louder than a whisper.

Fingers touched my biceps, making me look over my shoulder. Kate was looking to our right, her hand slowly directing me towards the sounds of a little stream. Did she hear that too?

Slowly we crawled closer, Kate never seemed to make any kind of noise while she skipped forward and for once I sounded very loud in comparison, a strange feeling considering I took pride in my silence. With a gentle hand on her shoulder, I held her back and directed her to the ground. The green of the bramble would cover us and the fallen trunk would be a great help in positioning my hand. Kate listened to me, just like I had listened to her. It was strange to work in a team where both partners were equally in control. I had to admit that I enjoyed it.

Now all there was left to do was wait. Wait until the deer, still hidden behind the tree on the other side of the stream, would come for a drink. It would give me the clearest shot and keep the pain to a minimum.

With careful movements, I pulled off my holster and laid it down on the ground next to me. My bow was carefully positioned on the trunk, ready to use when necessary.

My eyes drifted to my right, where the smaller girl lay in absolute silence. Her eyes were stuck on the animal we were hunting. It made me smile that she enjoyed this too. For a minute too long, I kept my eyes fixed on her and let all the questions that I wanted to ask her run wild in my head. It was only when she shifted that I forced my attention back to the animal before me.

More time passed, until eventually the deer, with her four long thin legs, walked up to the water side. Without any notion of our presence, the female licked carefree from the stream. My hand tightened around the cord of my bow, and slowly I pulled it half way backwards. With carefully controlled breaths, I held on for the perfect moment.

TSJAK!

The arrow sizzled through the air with a velocity even a vampire couldn't outrun. The arrowhead disappeared inside the female's chest. She dropped down onto her knees, before falling to her side, all while I had jumped up and crossed the distance.

With my knife in the ready I jumped onto the animal and cut open her neck in one swift move - making her suffering short. I placed my hands onto her eyelids, closing them for her and repeating the actions of the human huntsman that taught me the ritual of the crossing souls.

'Accept this soul with carefulness, as she has suffered by my hands, and cannot suffer by Yours. Bring her peace in the Otherworld, as she could not find it here.'

Say it with meaning, say it in whisper to the animal and Khael, the god of the animals. The man's instructions echoed on.

When I was done and an inner peace had settled over me again, I opened my eyes. The colors of the forest seemed brighter again, and I felt my heart squeeze in delight. It worked, I was sure. The female had crossed over.

Now that her soul had safely left, it was time to prepare the body. With my knife back in my hand, I cut open its stomach and started to pull out all the intestines.

Now fully aware about the other girl once more, I found myself needing to explain myself.

"Eating the heart brings a warrior many great powers in the next battle," I looked up at her and smiled. "That's why I put it back in."

Only now coming out of her quiet observing, Kate walked up from behind the dead branch.

"Do you believe that to be true?" She wondered aloud. Her gaze fixed on me.

My eyebrows pulled up at her question, and for a moment I thought about it. Did I belief? Yes, I did. I believed that there was power in your prey.

I nodded. "I believe I do, yes."

Her strangely colored eyes remained fixed on my hands, she seemed so calm now. Nothing like the nervous girl I met a few hours ago. While I worked, she observed. A comfortable silence settled.

"Do all Hunters believe in the gods?"

I looked up, my eyes scanned hers, trying to figure out where the question came from. The power of an animal had nothing to do with the gods - or at least not to most. A frown grew at the center of my forehead.

"Hunters aren't very religious. They believe our council knows all," I pulled my hands out from the carcass and put down the blood-covered knife.

Kate's tension seemed to return all of a sudden. Was she scared of blood? Or perhaps it made her stomach act up. My human friend, Io, once laughed at me for finding it normal to have blood stuck under my fingernails. Apparently it wasn't for humans.

"But you don't?"

Her question brought me back to the conversation. I grimaced. Did I believe the council knew all? I should. And yet, every cell in me had always been too much of a rebel to go with it. I didn't answer right away, and when I did, my voice sounded careful. As if I was wary of ears listening in on this conversation.

"I believe that protecting humans from vampires is an amazing cause, but I'm not a fan of certain ways of thinking inside my community."

With my betrayal said out loud, I reached out to the knife again, and let my thumb rub circles on the smooth ridges of the Hunter logo carved in the wooden handle.

When Kate stayed silent, and my heart had settled a bit, I went on.

"One day I came across a human man in the woods, a bit like you," I gave Kate a quick smile before I went on. "He caught a rabbit, nothing much. But he was so respectful for the life he'd taken. Hunters kill and don't care about the lives they take, so the gentleness that that man showed that rabbit ...," I fell silent, my eyes watching the circular movements of my fingers. "It felt right, ... it felt like me."

When I looked up, our eyes met and an electric spark shot down my spine. It made my previous movements halt and my heart skip in an unnaturally fast rhythm before it settled again. Kate relaxed, the tense frown disappeared, her lips curled up into a soft smile and her hands hung next to her, doing nothing. She walked forwards. The sun danced on her auburn hair, giving it a royal look.

"That's amazing." She said with a soft, husky voice that almost made me shiver.

"I've never really liked the strict rules, they never felt right. Throwing a big party because we killed someone." I shook my head, a little too extreme, but in my defense, I was trying really hard to focus on the conversation and not on my attraction to the other girl. "Maybe there is something wrong with me."

With deliberate steps, Kate crossed the remaining distance between us. Her hand landed on my shoulder in a firm grip that made my body light on fire. The simple touch felt earthshaking.

"There is nothing wrong with you." She searched for my eyes, the truth in those hypnotic eyes was clear as day. It made my heart swell and my eyes burn. "Not if you ask me at least."

A genuine smile spread over my face. No one - except my mother - had ever looked at me like that, spoken to me like that and made me feel like that. A warmth was growing from deep inside my bones.

My arms wrapped around her neck before I noticed what I was doing. Huksta! The word echoed loudly in my head and came down on me like a bucket of ice cold water. As quickly as I had wrapped her small but firm body in my arms, I pushed her off me and took a step back.

"Sorry," I mumbled, ashamed of my actions. "But, I'm not sure that your opinion matters for the Hunters. Thanks anyway."

I couldn't look her in the eyes. Instead I focused on my knife. Don't get carried away!

"I should focus on the deer."

Without looking in Kate's direction, I turned back to the task at hand.

"R-right," she said confused.

Kate moved uncomfortably in her place and eventually took a few steps backwards as well. The movement made my heart quench in pain. Why did I have to do that? Huksta! The voices of the other Hunter kids echoed through my head again. The pat on my head was still sensible. My eyes squeezed shut at the humiliating nickname.

"Sorry." My eyes shifted away from the activity, while my hands continued their routine. "I should be more careful with what I say or do."

Kate's nervous tension calmed down again. Her hands now only pressed against her legs, instead of the constant rubbing, and the corner of her lip pulled up into a half smile.

"Like I said before, I'm not the person to rat someone out. Your secret is safe with me."

Our gazes met and that same comfortableness from before fell between us. That was until a sharp pain pierced through my index finger.

"Awtsh!"

Before my eyes, I saw Kate change into the one thing I was born to hate. Her eyes turned bigger, more black and less of that warm brown. Her teeth clenched onto each other with an audible smack. Her gaze was fixed on the little cut in my finger and her whole body had turned rigid.

Just like mine.

My heart dropped and my blood felt like mercury - cold and heavy.

"Y-you're...," my words didn't seem to find a way out.

In the past four weeks, I had always instinctually known what to do. How to kill a vampire. But now, with Kate, a girl I had admired on multiple occasions in the past few hours, I seemed to have forgotten every training or instinct I possessed. Instead all my mind seemed to be capable of doing, was going through every human emotion. There was no energy in my body left to maintain them in the small little boxes I usually put them in.

"How did I not know?" My voice came out with force. "Why haven't I killed you yet?"

With three quick strides, I was standing face to face with the vampire. My blade pressed against her throat. My eyes ran over her, inspecting every detail. How did I not see it?

"Who are you?"

Instead of answering, Kate took a step back. Her jaw was still clenched and the muscle spasmed under her skin. I shook my head, turned around and walked towards the stream.

"You need to go."

"Sorry, what?" She asked surprised.

"You need to go," I repeated, my words slow and clear. "If you don't want me to kill you, you need to leave."

Instead of taking that as her clue to go, Kate remained in the exact spot she had been standing. I felt her eyes burn against the back of my head.

"Why?" She asked. "Why do you let me go?"

I shook my head, not willing to think too much about it. My thumb was rubbing the ridges of the wooden handle again, while my other hand was clenched into a fist.

"It's not because you were nice that I won't attack you," I said through clenched teeth.

"I'm sorry I lied to you, I was just being cautious. And curious."

"Please, go," I pleaded.

A sigh. Then, everything was quiet and the pleasant warmth of her presence got replaced with the chilly autumn wind. My legs gave out and I dropped to the moist ground, finding my hands running along my two side braids. I sat there until my knees were soaked in a mixture of blood and dirt.