Chapter 116-Hunter and the hunted

Chapter 116: 116-Hunter and the hunted

By the time Maisa reached her aunt’s neighborhood, the sun had already begun sinking toward the horizon.

She slowed as the familiar landscape unfolded before her. The road curved between tall trees, their branches forming a canopy over the quiet residential district.

Behind the greenery stood large compounds separated by high walls and iron gates, most of them belonging to families who had lived there for generations. To anyone else, it might have looked peaceful.

To Maisa, it looked painfully familiar. She had spent the hours of her turning in this part of the human territory.

She knew these roads, the bends and which houses belonged to her aunt. Her aunt’s compound appeared ahead.

Maisa stopped, she felt something was wrong. Her vampire senses caught it before her eyes did. A faint vibration moved through the air.

It was defensive blessed magic. She narrowed her eyes. "Aunt doesn’t hunt. What the hell is going on here?"

A transparent barrier surrounded the entire property, almost invisible against the afternoon light. Tiny ripples traveled across its surface every few seconds, revealing an intricate detection system woven into the protective enchantments.

Maisa’s heart sank. She took another careful step forward and stopped again. "Hunter barrier?" She was stunned. "Why are they here?"

Her enhanced eyesight immediately revealed what ordinary human eyes wouldn’t have noticed, the vehicles in the distance, several of them.

Armored vehicles were positioned around the compound, partially hidden beneath trees and behind nearby structures. Their dark bodies bore the unmistakable crest of the Everheart family.

Maisa’s stomach dropped. "Everheart hunters? Why would they come to aunt’s place?" She paced back and forth at that spot. "The family hasn’t had contact with Aunt Evelyn since she turned her back on hunting. So, why are they suddenly here?"

The way the vehicles were positioned told her everything she needed to know. They weren’t visiting, they were guarding the place and ready for war and break out at any moment.

"What could have triggered such a reaction from them? What is mother thinking bringing the family here?"

Maisa had more questions than answers. She looked toward the compound. More hunters were stationed around the perimeter.

Some stood near the gate, others watched from rooftops and a few were hidden among the trees. There were too many to count. The entire property was under surveillance.

Maisa’s fingers tightened around the strap of her bag. "Why are they here?" The same question continued to plague her mind.

Her first instinct was to run forward, to reach the gate, knock and to call for Evelyn but then she remembered what she was, a vampire.

Her eyes lowered. "If I go in now, all their weapons will be pointed at me and I’ll end up dead without a burial ground or a plaque to be remembered by."

The defensive barrier wasn’t merely designed to keep enemies away. It was designed to detect vampires. If she crossed it, every alarm in the compound could activate.

If one of those hunters discovered what she had become, she wouldn’t be welcomed home. She would become a target and these weren’t random hunters. They were Everhearts, elite vampire hunters and her own family but they would turn against her faster than she can spell her own name.

"They wouldn’t even spare my bones," she said.

Maisa slowly stepped backward. The realization hurt more than she wanted to admit. She had imagined this moment so differently; knocking on Evelyn’s door, her aunt opening it and the shock and tears that would come before her embrace. It was the warmth she yearned for.

Instead, she was standing outside the compound like a stranger, afraid to take another step.

Her throat tightened. Her eyes moistened as the pain of not getting to see the one member of the family who had never judged her for anything settled in. "I guess it wasn’t meant to be," she resigned.

She looked at the gate one last time. She turned, ready to leave. She had to leave, there was no other choice but before she could move, the compound gate opened.

Maisa froze in her steps and looked back over her shoulder with hopeful eyes. "Aunt..." she whispered with longing in her eyes.

A woman stepped through. Her heart stopped for the umpteenth time. She knew that face, even after all the time that passed or from a distance, she would have known her anywhere.

Laralene Everheart, her mother and the matriarch of the Everheart family. "Mommy?"

Maisa’s breath caught painfully in her throat. For several seconds, she couldn’t move or think, she could only stare.

Laralene stood just outside the compound, a communication device pressed against her ear. She was dressed in the dark practical clothing of an experienced hunter, her posture straight and controlled.

Her movements carried the confidence of someone who had spent most of her life surrounded by danger and had learned never to give it an opportunity.

Her hair moved gently in the evening breeze. Her expression was serious as she spoke into the device.

Maisa couldn’t hear every word from that distance but it was mostly because of the chaos in her head over seeing her mother again.

She didn’t need to hear everything her mother said, she knew her mother and she was either confirming a target or ordering for new batch of weapons or just keeping tabs on vampire movements.

Maisa remembered watching it from doorways when she was younger. She eemembered sitting nearby while Laralene cleaned weapons and the rare moments when her mother would allow Maisa to remain in the same room while discussing hunting strategies.

The Everhearts had never been a family that expressed affection easily. There had been no constant hugs, no sentimental declarations, no easy conversations about feelings as love had existed differently in that house.

It had existed in preparations, lessons, protection, expectations and in making sure every child knew how to survive and how to kill a vampire.

Maisa had sometimes wondered whether her mother loved her.

"I want all units searching again. Maisa Everheart must be found and brought to me. The search will only end when she is infront of me, dead or alive!" Her mother’s voice reached her.

"She... she’s looking for me?"

She knew the answer now, perhaps her had always loved her and Laralene simply hadn’t known how to show it.

And now, after everything that had happened, Maisa finally understood how much she had missed her. Because she had never heard her mother use that tone before. A tone laced with worry, panic and fear but wrapped together in a mask of control of composure.

Maisa’s eyes burned. She quickly moved behind a large tree. The trunk was thick enough to hide her completely. She pressed her back against it.

Her hands trembled. "Mommy... mommy..."

Mother, the word formed silently in her mind. For a moment, Maisa considered stepping out.

She could simply call her name, just once and maybe, just maybe, she wouldn’t drive a stake through her heart.

"Mother," she practised but didn’t have the courage to raise her voice.

What would happen? Would Laralene recognize her? Would she know her own daughter immediately? Would she run toward her? Or would she reach for a weapon?

That last thought made Maisa’s heart ache. She knew the answer, her mother was a hunter and the role came before all else. And she was a vampire, those two truths could not exist peacefully in the same room.

"We’re not mother and daughter anymore... we’re predator and prey... hunter and the hunted... protector and monster..." she cried.