The Huntress: Prologue

Hiera was about to leave the subway station when she sensed that she was being observed. Showing no sign she was aware of the observing, the huntress used her mind powers to explore the surroundings and find the observer. She got a feedback and went deeper into the being she detected so as to scan it thoroughly and see if it was the prey she was waiting for. It eventually turned out it was a mere human male who thought her looks were good. Disappointed and upset, she sent him a compulsion to go commit suicide by throwing himself under a subway car. Well, in fact she tried to send this compulsion but to no avail. She exasperatedly looked down on the ring on her left hand. Shit! Still working, she said to herself.

Getting out of the subway station, she saw the sun had just begun to rise above the buildings of New York. Hunt over, she thought with relief which did not last as she remembered she had to report to them. To think she was due to report after every hunt whether it was successful or not and that every time she went there she was welcomed by the same woman who always looked at her with desire made her interiors boil with rage and she almost decided not to go. She nevertheless took the direction of their HQs in New York.

***

As she walked through the city and past the few New-Yorkers already up, she thought for the umpteenth time about how to get rid of the ring. The Ring of Powerlessness, she called it in the secret of her mind with a wry humour. Because of that thing she was obliged to serve as a hunter for a secret order whose mission - as they had put it bluntly to her - was to slaughter vampires by making them horribly suffer till death came. Or, at least, it was so in the past. Now, the real vampires had all vanished. But it had soon appeared some had survived in a strange, twisted way. In fact they had lost their physical bodies while not losing their thirst for human energy. To satisfy this thirst they needed to parasite a person which they did not feed on. Instead, they use him or her to steal the energy of other people. I could've been one of them, she thought darkly but she did not go on with this thought in case a certain psychic was around.

Damn ring!, she thought angrily. “Le sceau vampirique”, as they called the thing back at the order. Killing vampires did not bother her but being bound to kill for others was something she could not bear. Thinking about killing, she put her hand on the hilt of the sword hanging at her left side. She had the ability to prevent normal humans from seeing it thanks to her influence on the perception they had of her. She had been provided with this sword by the order. They had told her it had once belonged to a vampire clan lord. Pretty ironical, she thought, for a vampire's sword to be used to slay vampires. But maybe its former wielder was used to eliminate vampires who had displeased him. Aah, no matter. Now the weapon was hers to use for hunting though she'd rather turn it against... Again she did not go on with this thought because again she had been dangerously day-dreaming, taking the risk of having her thoughts been read by the psychic she knew the order had put to watch her. Hell! She had even been introduced to him. This was the first and only time she had ever met him, but on seeing him this one time she had felt how powerful he was. Only, spiritually powerful, she thought smiling, physically speaking he looked quite weak, une larve*. And that was a thought she let as conspicuous as a firefly in a dark room, knowing well he would see it and understand it as it was meant: contemptuous mockery.

Continuing on with her walk towards HQs, she began strengthening her mind shields (just in case...) while at the same time expanding the range of the “no-sword illusion” as around her the city was more and more bustling with activity.