Chapter 6: The First Hunt
The basement door swung open on silent hinges, and the cool night air rolled in like a blessing over Nancy's skin. She stepped out first, her bare feet soundless on the dew-damp grass, and she felt the change in the air around her. Moonlight filtered through the oaks above, dappling her pale gray skin in silver patches. Behind her, Carol followed with a hunger in her step that was still new enough to be giddy. And behind her, the clerk.
The woman's breathing was still shot through with the grogginess of her turning, her body stiff and uncertain in its new form. Nancy turned to face her, letting the moon catch her crimson eyes, and the clerk flinched. Good. Fear had its place, at first. But Nancy wanted devotion.
"What do we call you?" Nancy asked, her voice a low purr against the drone of the bass-heavy music bleeding from a house down the street.
The clerk blinked, her new slitted pupils dilating. She seemed to have to search for her own name, as though the turning had scraped some plaque from her memory. "Jenna," she finally said, the word tasting foreign on her fanged tongue. "My name is Jenna."
"Jenna." Carol rolled the name around, and a wicked grin split her lips, revealing the long points of her canines. "I like it. Fits you. Street-rat girl who works the late shift and dreams of something better."
Jenna's cheeks flushed a faint rose beneath the gray. "I don't know. It feels like someone else's name now. Like I outgrew it."
Nancy stepped closer, close enough that her breath ghosted across Jenna's parted lips. "You did outgrow it," she said softly. "But you'll keep it until you choose a new one. Names are anchors. They remind you of the human you were. And when you're ready to let her go, you'll pick your own, and it'll taste like power."
Jenna stared at her, and something in that stare shifted. The fear bled out, replaced by a reverence that made Nancy's stomach flutter. This was what she lived for now. Not the feeding alone, though God knew that was ecstasy. But this. The moment a woman understood what she'd become.
"I'm ready," Jenna said, her voice steadier now. "I want to hunt."
Nancy smiled, slow and delighted. She turned and gestured out into the dark, toward the end of the street where the sidewalk curved out of sight. "Then let's go, girls. Tonight, you learn to chase."
They moved through the shadows like water through cracks, three pale forms that the moon couldn't quite catch. They left the lawns behind and slipped between the overhanging oaks, their bare feet finding the soft earth of the drainage ditch beside the road. Nancy led, her senses spread wide, tasting the night air with every breath. The astringent tang of cut grass. The musk of damp soil. The faint, acrid bite of a car's hot engine, cooling in a driveway. And then, far off, the sweet metallic thrum of a heartbeat.
She stopped. Raised a hand.
Carol and Jenna halted behind her, and Nancy heard the click of Jenna's fangs as they descended without her even realizing it. The girl was already keying in. Good instincts.
A lone jogger came into sight at the far end of the block, her white sneakers flashing rhythmically under the streetlight. She was a woman, mid-twenties, with dark skin and a thick ponytail that swung with each stride. She wore black leggings and a neon yellow tank top, and her earbuds were in, her head bobbing to music only she could hear. She couldn't have looked more oblivious if she'd tried.
"There she is," Nancy breathed. "Our dinner bell."
Carol's hand found Nancy's shoulder, squeezing. "She's lovely. Can I have her first?"
Nancy shook her head, thrilling at the jealousy that flickered in Carol's eyes. "Not tonight. Tonight, Jenna feeds first. You back her up."
Carol pouted for a beat, then shrugged, a feral grin spreading. "Fine. Then I get seconds."
"You get whatever she leaves," Nancy said, and she felt the heat of Carol's glare even through the dark.
Jenna was trembling beside her, not with fear but with the sheer force of her new hunger. The jogger's heartbeat was a drum in the night air, and Nancy saw the way Jenna's eyes fixed on it, how her lips parted. She hadn't yet learned the elegance of the hunt, the patience. She was a starved animal teetering on the edge of the kill.
"Easy, Jen," Nancy whispered, her hand finding the small of Jenna's back. "Let's give her a chance to get closer. Let her come to her death on her own two feet. That's the art of it."
Jenna made a sound low in her throat, not quite a whine, not quite a growl. Her fangs glistened.
The jogger was a hundred yards out now, her footfalls steady on the asphalt. She rounded the curve, and her head turned toward the ditch where they crouched, and Nancy held her breath. But the woman only glanced at the dark shapes, then looked away, her music still pumping. She had no idea of the predators watching her.
"Go," Nancy said.
Jenna went.
She was a blur, a streak of gray and shadow, barely human in her movement. She crossed the road in a single, liquid bound, and her hand shot out, catching the jogger's wrist. The woman yelped, yanking one earbud free, and began to turn, her mouth opening in surprise.
Jenna didn't give her the chance to scream. Her fangs sank into the side of the woman's neck, deep and fast, and the sound the jogger made was a wet, gurgling gasp. Her body stiffened, her hands scrabbling at Jenna's shoulders for a moment, and then they went slack. Her knees buckled, and Jenna caught her, lowering her gently to the grass beside the road.
Carol let out a low whistle from the ditch. "Look at her go. She's a natural."
Nancy didn't answer. She watched, transfixed, as Jenna drank. The girl's throat worked with each swallow, her hands gripping the jogger's hips, pulling the woman closer as though she were a lover. The jogger's body arched once, twice, a final, shivering reflex, and then went still. Jenna pulled back with a gasp, blood painting her lips in a dark, wet sheen.
She turned to face them, her crimson eyes blazing with triumph.
"Fuck," she breathed. "That was... that was everything."
Nancy stepped out of the shadows, her smile wide and approving. She wiped a smear of blood from Jenna's chin with her thumb, then licked it clean.
"That's how it's done, love. Now, wipe her memory and leave her somewhere she'll wake up confused, not dead."
Jenna nodded, her tongue darting out to catch the last drops on her own lips. She crouched over the jogger, her eyes meeting the woman's vacant, glassy stare, and began to murmur in a low, hypnotic rhythm.
Nancy watched her new sister work, and her heart swelled in her chest. The coven was growing. Three women now, bound by blood and hunger, sharing in the dark, glorious freedom of the night.
Carol sidled up beside her, pressing her body warm and eager against Nancy's side. "She's a quick study, isn't she?"
Nancy turned, cupping Carol's face in her hands and kissing her, tasting the faint, coppery ghost of her earlier feed. "She is. And soon," she murmured against Carol's lips, "there will be more. So many more."
The night opened wide around them, and the hunt was just beginning.