Sapphire A Huntress no more (Sapphire Book 1)
Chapter 2

The October weather as unpredictable as it showed no remorse on us. The winds and the rain hit our ship The Marauder harder than expected, and sleep was the last of our concern when running from the main land and into the blue land. Our ship was old and used; it was one of the rarest left as now all ships were made of steel or other such metals. It was convenient, it made us invisible to some, unimportant really and that gave the four of us an advantage when it came to Cole. He wouldn’t expect me to run away in this old ship. The design was part English part French, the previous owner had the opportunity to buy it from a retired merchant who no longer needed it and he had used it as a trophy more than for its actual purpose. He gladly accepted the money given to him, he got more than he paid for it, not that it mattered as I had to have this ship no matter the cost.

The weather changed when we reached the Norwegian Sea, it was calmer and smooth like the calm before the storm and I knew well enough that a thunderstorm was on its way, more reason for us to reach the shore faster. And we did just as the first thunder broke on the night sky and the lightning illuminated our way to a safe spot between the rocks, were we stopped.

‘Take everything you can from the ship and go into the cave over there by the cliff.’ I said jumping off onto dry land.

‘Aren’t you going to help?’ Matt said, as I was about to leave.

‘I am I will be checking to see if there is someone around.’

The place was deserted; no human or supernatural had been there in a long time. There was no sent, then again with all the rain and winds she could be mistaken. After a while I went back, no point in staying here. As I reached the shelter I saw my three companions one near the other eating. They did listen and took all the things from the ship, which were not much and brought them in there.

‘I see you are eating without me.’

‘Why wouldn’t we?’

‘The only reason we are here with you is because we want to survive, nothing more.’ Joshua said. And he was right, the only reason they were with me was to survive. I could see in their eyes the hatred and resentment they had. And I knew the reason too well, I’ve seen it countless of times in the past, and I hope never to see it again. The only one who had a somewhat warmth in their eyes was Lucy.

We went through the night with no incident and the morning, which we would have missed if we did not check the time, it was cold and windy. I was ignored all morning, none looked my way and it was starting to annoy me more than I thought it will. The landscape took my mind of off them for a time. There was not too much light but what could be seen was wonderful. The cliffs were high and from where we were. At some point we had to stop because of the rain. We took shelter under an abandoned hut, it was not much but at last we were no longer into the cold rain. I took out the books from by backpack and choose the one about werewolf history.

‘Why are you reading about werewolves?’

‘Aren’t you a hunter? Shouldn’t you know about us already?’ The siblings asked. I looked at them and saw they were only curious as to why I did such an unusual thing.

‘Well, I do know about them, at last what I was thought, that you are ruthless, killers with no control, beasts, those were Cole’s words, not mine.’ I said as their growled upon hearing my words.

It was infuriating. After reading the book I stole from Cole, all the knowledge I gathered over the years were complete lies. What we did in our thirst for revenge was not the right thing, as no supernatural was always evil. They too had feelings, just as we did, well humans did. Another thing that I realised was that Cole probably killed my parents and not the werewolves as he made it sound. He probably did not know what I was; otherwise, I would have been dead by now.

Our journey took us up north. Lucy had said at some point that some of their family members lived there. For some reason I felt unsettled, my instinct telling me there was something I missed. Thinking about it as we got further and further away from the shore, I remembered a thing Cole said one time about making sure where everyone was.

‘I need to know something.’

‘What now?’ Said an angry Matt as we all stopped.

‘Are we near the pack house or do we have more until we reach it?’

‘Why do you want to know?’ Lucy said. She was a little suspicious, they all were. I could not blame them.

‘I need to know. You have to trust me on this.’

‘Why should we?’ This time it was Joshua who spoke.

‘Because I have to know, that is in order to protect you.’

‘Protect us from what exactly?’

‘Hunters, now tell me, are we far or near the pack?’

‘We are far away, the pack house, the one we are headed too is on an island up north.’ Lucy said.

‘Ok now I want you to trust me and do as I say please. Have faith in me just this once if never at all.’

The hunter headquarters were located deep into the woods of the German territory, secluded from the rest of the human world, like another secret that should never come out. And it was indeed a secret as long past was there the need of hunters, or so humanity believed, what they did not know was the fact hunters were more dangerous than supernatural beings. The most dangerous of all was Cole Hedrick, the current head of the hunters, a man never to be crossed with a short temper and no patience at all.

‘Where is that woman? She knows very well what today is and dares run off?’

‘Sir, the patrol returned. They have news.’ One of the men under Cole’s command said disturbing his rambling.

‘What kind of news?’ He said in a cold voice. The man backed off, more to the door before he spoke again.

‘Robin and Francis completed the rounds and found something. They made it seem like Alice is involved.’

Alice was Cole’s first in command. She was the one he appointed as heir to his position. Found when she was a baby, untouched by words as she could not understand any, he took her under his wing and trained her to be just like him. She was also the one he was now waiting to show up.

‘Where are they?’

‘In the back yard, they are still discussing what they had found.’

Upon stepping outside Cole clearly saw the two men were still in a heated argument over something that he could not hear. He had a strange feeling, more like a prediction that something was out of hand; he was usually right about those kinds of feelings.

‘ So…tell me what do you have to report?’

‘Sir, we found three bodies into the woods.’

‘And what is unusual about that? It had happened before did it not?’

‘Yes well those were our own kills.’

‘Those were different.’ Robin said trying to even his voice. He was a brave man when it came to the supernatural but not when it came to Cole.

‘What is different this time? And what is this I hear that Alice might be involved.’ Calm as usual Cole looked them over reading their movements like it was his second nature to do so.

‘Well…she was the one who killed them those werewolves.’

‘So then what might be the problem? I don’t have all day Francis.’

‘The problem is we had found three bodies but there were more than three wolves in that area at the same time.’

‘Yes there were three more footprints plus one other that might have belonged to Alice.’

They did not have to say more as he realised what had happened and turning around gave the orders to search for Alice.

‘Find her track her down and if you do manage to catch her I want her alive. GO’