Hunter Maximus

What do you know? She lives.

Jennifer survived, reawakened, and promptly put on the dress I crafted for her and directly after, Maximus leads me from the room.

The wedding would begin and I wasn’t allowed to attend. I had accomplished my job that I was meant to do here. After this bastard walking beside me kidnapped me, of course. I wouldn’t have come here willingly to make a dress for a stupid human girl who actually wanted to marry into a crazy royal underground palace of vampires.

“Why do you look so tense, darling?” Maximus asks beside me, “Your jobs done. Now you get to relax.”

“Will you let me go?” I ask dryly as we approach his room and he opens the door for me to enter.

“I’m not done with you yet,” Maximus says casually, shrugging, with a cheeky smile on his face. I step into his room and I turn around to see him eyeing my neck.

“Enjoy the wedding,” I say as sarcastically as possible.

“Later, I’m going to get a taste, beautiful. I’m going to enjoy that a whole lot more than the wedding,” I glare at him and cross my arms over my chest.

“Go to hell,” I snarl angrily. He chuckles to himself and then swings around as another vampire suddenly appears behind him. A woman.

“You’re needed to scout the boundaries,” She snaps at Maximus, “Hurry up,” her eyes flick to mine and she scowls, “You don’t have time to talk to your human whores,” She snarls this, glaring at me as she reaches around him to shut the door in my face and to block me out from their conversation.

“Leah, she is not a whore. She made Jennifer’s dress –” Maximus growls back protectively. A small smile comes to my lips as I hear him say this but I quickly shake it off with a scowl. I put my ear closer to the door to hear more of the conversation.

“I don’t care, Maximus, let’s go. We have work to do,” Leah sounds irritated and impatient.

Suddenly there is silence.

They must have left.

And they left the door unlocked.

“Thank you, bastard,” I mutter to myself happily as I bound over to the coffee table where I had made a stake from one of the ripped off legs. The vampire body of the uncle who wanted to kill Jennifer was removed, thank god, it was starting to smell before.

I find the stake tossed on one of the black leather couches. I grasp it tightly and make my way back to the door.

I open it slowly and peak out into the hallway.

It’s eerily quiet. Empty. I was free to go. Everyone else would be at the wedding which would take place in some larger room I was assuming.

When I’m out in the hallway I calmly search the ceilings for a concealed entrance to a vent. I had heard Luke and Jennifer’s parents talk about the secrets of this underground palace. One of the best ways to enter was through these massive vents above the ceilings which helped with air flow to the underground palace.

I look for the intricate patterns of roses and thorns with signalled a secret entrance and when I spot one not far from Maximus’ door to his bedroom, I realise now all I need is something to boost me up but I’m lost at what to do about that.

It’s not much of a problem though when the rectangular section of the ceiling covered by the roses with thorns, lifts up, inwards, silently and quickly. I tense and see a familiar face up above in the vents.

“Luke?” I whisper, “Is that you?”

“Izzy!” He sticks his hand down and hisses at me, “Hurry, grab my hand, I’ll hoist you up!” Without hesitation I jump and he grabs my arm, and with a grunt, pulls me up into the vent. I look around me to see how big the vent is. Much bigger than any normal building above ground, but small enough to get my claustrophobia kicking into full gear.

I clench my fists and try to control my breathing.

“H-How did you find me?” I ask, “How did you know I was here?” I face an old friend. Luke was in his mid-twenties and had the blondest hair I’d ever seen. Similar to mine.

“You went missing from your work,” He said, “Security cameras showed everything that happened. I know that Maximus took you. It’s no wonder you aren’t dead yet.” I open my mouth to explain that Maximus wouldn’t have killed me. But I quickly shut it. I was not going to defend that bastard.

“Thank you for finding me,” I say.

“Let’s go, we don’t have much time,” Luke grabs my arm and leans in closer to me. His brown eyes seem almost black in the dark vent, “You follow me and don’t think about the walls on either side of you. Just think about the fresh air you’ll breathe when I get you out of here.” I nod, smiling.

Luke was always very protective of me.

We start crawling through the vent, and I follow closely behind him.

“Did he hurt you?” Luke asks me from in front.

“Maximus?” I ask.

“Yes, he is notorious for being the best hunter of vampire hunters. You were lucky if he showed you mercy of any kind.”

“He wanted me to make a dress for Jennifer, he didn’t hurt me though. But he is an annoying prick. I don’t want to talk about it.” Mainly because I didn’t understand what my heart was doing inside my chest. It… hurt.

Stupid heart.

I focus on the walls, the fear of enclosed spaces. Maybe my chest just felt tight because I was scared, not because I was silently wondering what it would have been like to stay…

“I’m glad you’re okay, Izzy,” Luke looks over his shoulder at me as we crawl.

“Thank you. Let’s just get out of here. Quickly,” I snap it quickly, it comes out quite rude. I can’t help it.

I wouldn’t like to know what that handsome and arrogant bastard would do when he found out I was gone.