Undesired Knowledge and Consequences

John dropped her and ran as far as he could and as fast as he could. He was out the door moments later, crushed by

the knowledge he just gained. While they were kissing he felt fangs within her mouth. She was one of the monsters and he

now had to hunt her down despite the fact that all he wanted to do was to go back in there and kiss her more. He wanted to

take her home, to being her into his life even though he vowed never to allow that to happen. He had never believed in love at

first sight but he knew what he felt. Even with that knowledge he made the decision to hunt her and kill her. He’d had to do it

with his parents after the monster turned them so he could do it again.

*******

Erica was shocked by his sudden departure. As she got up and started to move towards the bar she went to run her

tongue along her lips, hoping for a hint of his taste on them. As her tongue moved from her lower lip to trace along the top she

felt her fang press into it and she tensed. The smell she couldn’t identify from him when she first approached clicked into

memory, oiled metal. It was the smell of guns and knives, the smell of a cop but more so to her kind, the scent long associated

with Hunters. Her heart collapsed in on her and stopped beating, her skin grew cold and she felt raw; she had fallen for a

Hunter. Erica knew she was in danger, needing to get out of there and not return with a hunter knowing who and what she

was.

*******

John’s thoughts were in turmoil as he sped away from the night club. I should have kept my cool, not reacted. I could

have let her take me out of there where it would be easier for me to kill her. That last though bothered him in ways it shouldn’t

have. He didn’t want to kill her; he really didn’t want her dead. What he wanted with her he was unable to admit. His

thoughts continued to run away on their own. It doesn’t matter what I want. What matters is what I must do; she is one of the

monsters and it is my job to stop her. It wasn’t lost on him that he couldn’t even contemplate killing her in his own thoughts.

He didn’t understand how such strong feelings could come upon him that suddenly and wanted to blame it upon the powers

that vampire have. The issue was that he had been immune to the mind control abilities of vampires all of his life. That one gift

is what made him a more effective hunter as it allowed him to act as bait and kill them up close. He continued to drive with the

gas pedal on the floor; needing to get out of the city, away from Erica and away from thoughts of her. No matter how fast he

drove he couldn’t outrun the memories of their dancing and the kiss.

*******

Erica rushed from the club, taking a back way through the kitchen as not to run into the hunter outside. She knew

hunters were a danger and had been trained on how to defend herself from them. She knew that if it came to fight the odds

were even on whom would walk away for it and Erica didn’t want either of them to die. Knowing he was a hunter and likely to

want her dead wasn’t enough to make her hate him or wish for his. She had decided not to tell any others of him as well for

they would go after John with the intent of his ****. Having the unique ability to feed from strong emotions, Erica knew what

they were both feeling. She didn’t feed because it would have violated the purity of what was passing between them.

She knew what she was thinking was dangerous, not only to her personally but to all of her kind. By withholding the

knowledge of a hunter operating in the area she could be condemning others to **** at his hands, but that was better to her

than allowing John’s life to be ended. Erica watched over her shoulder all the way back to her home, wary of every shadow and

blind turn as she went. She didn’t like the feeling of being prey as she was an apex predator by the very nature of being a

vampire.

Once she safely arrived at home Erica began to look more closely at her feelings. The more she thought about them it

unsettled her. She was beginning to hate her gift with emotions because she was able to know what they were instantly and

couldn’t lie to herself. Erica wanted to say that what she was feeling was simply lust and attraction but the truth of her

emotions and his assaulted her. This situation was even worse that Romeo and Juliet as they weren’t nearly as likely to kill each

other. The thought **** its way deep into her mind and practically shouted at her; I’m in love with a Hunter. Her head and

heart both fell as she realized the truly **** nature of her feelings. She had **** but to try and find him as life would

be unbearable with him gone.

*******

John was outside of the city within twenty minutes and heading for his family’s cabin in the mountains. That cabin is where he

was told about the monsters and trained to hunt them. He focused on the drive and when it no longer held enough of his

attention he turned the radio on and listened to the music. He did everything he could to distract his mind from thoughts

about Erica. No, don’t think of her as Erica. She is an it, a monster like the rest. She must be ki…stopped. Why?!?! Where did

that thought come from? All monsters had to be stopped. Why? What made her a worse monster than the humans who hunt

and kill for sport and not survival? She was a vampire; she eats humans to continue her existence. So, do prey animal hate the

predator or just fear them? What do you know about the so called monsters other than the fact they exist? Have you ever

taken the time to understand them or were you just determined to end them? They are a threat to all humanity and have to be

destroyed!! Were your parents a threat? Did they attack you after they were turned? They had years of hunter experience and

trained you; how did you manage to kill them with their skills and the advantages of being vampires? Did they really try to stop

you? Did you listen to anything they said or just attack and keep attacking once you saw what had happened to them? All of

these thoughts were jumbled in his mind, pressing him to think, forcing him to argue in his own mind. John continued to drive

on a form of auto-pilot. When the sun rose over the mountains as he headed for them he stopped at the first truck stop for a

shower and food. He had more to think about than ever before, and now he was prey as much as predator because she must

have figured out why he ran out.

********

When Erica managed to calm herself down and clear the traitorous thoughts running around in her head she started

to plan the next move she’d need to make. It was unbelievable to Erica that fate would pair her up with a Hunter. Erica was an

empath even before she had been turned and the change from mortal to vampire altered that gift as well. The ability to feels

other emotions while difficult at first became useful once she had learned control over it. The change granted her the ability to

feed off of the energy created by strong emotions and thereby reduced the amount of blood she needed to consume. There

were other advantages of what the change did to her gift.

All vampires were apex predators, the top of the food chain as far as mortals were concerned. Erica could track prey

by scent and sight even in a dark forest on a new moon as easily as she had detected John, the Hunter she corrected her

wayward thoughts, as he walked in under the bright lights of the dance club. She had a greater advantage in her hunting in that

she could sense what her targets were feeling; letting her avoid those that were wary or dangerous to her. At least that’s how

it had worked until she met him, Erica thought. How could a gift she’d trusted for the last century fail so miserably that she had

kissed a hunter?

Erica wanted to deny her feelings about the handsome young man even though she’d never had cause to doubt

herself. The bigger issue she had with the situation as a whole was the fact that she knew what John was feeling for her right

up until the moment he dropped her on her ass and ran for the hills. She had felt lust for sure, but that she got from the men

and women on whom she fed from. Underlying the lust was a strong surge of emotion she wanted to deny having felt; even

with all her desire to forget the feeling, love was an emotion she so rarely felt that she couldn’t help but to luxuriate in on the

few occasions she felt it. This had been the first time in Erica’s long life she had felt it directed towards her.