they were never meant to. And they do it at the expense of us. They prey upon humans and we evolved to prey upon them. We are the balance. We are humanity’s shield against it’s only predator. We are born as hunters and we die as hunters. It is a vow you will one day take. You will live by it, you will die by it, and this is why.”
A muscle ticks in Derek’s jaw. “Not all of us are like that. Most of us aren’t. But the hunters have made sure that all of us phoenix have paid for the sins of the minority. We just want to live the lives we were born with, with the families we were born to.”
I don’t believe that for a minute. I spit at him that he’s lying, but then I think about Cassie and I can’t picture her doing something so despicable. I can’t picture his mom doing it either.
“Why are you telling me this Derek? What is the point of this conversation? We could have never had it and I would have been none the wiser.”
“Cassie doesn’t know you’re a hunter. My mother doesn’t either. But I knew what you were two seconds after my compulsion attempt didn’t work on you and my mom stopped me from slamming the door in your face. Neither of them need to know about you just like none of your family needs to know about us. That is the point of this discussion.”
Derek’s hand has tightened around my elbow again. This time he grips it hard enough to leave a bruise. Gold rings his dark pupils and I see my agonizing death played out in the fire raging within them.
His attempt to intimidate me doesn’t work. There is nothing he could do to me that Patrick Jacobs hasn’t already done in the training sessions he purposely barred my dad from to make sure I became a hunter that “ remains strong in the face of any tribulation .” I still have the scar from the six inches of steel he used to carve into my side with during one of our closed sessions. He didn’t go deep enough to do any serious damage, only deep enough to make me want to scream out in pain and tell me not to disappoint him by doing so. Three years have made it faint. I can barely see it now, but it’s there.
I narrow my eyes at Derek, letting him see his own demise in mine. “Your fancy headlights don’t scare me and if you do not let go of my arm the next time I see you I will have those silver knives on me and you will end up without the hand you keep grabbing me with.”
He isn’t in the least fazed by my threat. “Does Cassie’s death scare you? And before you rationalize it as a no because she is a phoenix, she’s not. My brother’s wife was born a hunter. When they had Cassie whatever it is that makes us what we are, she wasn’t born with it. If you tell your family about us, about what we are, then when they come after us they will come after Cassie too. They won’t care that she isn’t a phoenix. They will only care that she grew up and lives among us.”
Derek is right. They won’t care. I shouldn’t care either. But I think of my mother. Who got caught up in a war and died because of her connection to one of the sides in it.
It’s not the same thing. The part of me that was trained to think like a hunter, to be a hunter, says.
That part is right, but the six year old girl who found her innocent mom dead in their backyard doesn’t care. It’s the same thing to her. Cassie is innocent too and both of us know that no hunter would let her survive.
“Why are you telling me this?” I demand to know from Derek. I hate the position it is putting me in. “Wouldn’t it have been better and safer to let me go on believing your family was normal? ”
“ We are normal.” If I didn’t know any better I would say he almost sounded a bit wounded. “But although Cass is human, she has unique abilities that are definitely not. She insists on being friends with you, against my better judgement, and Mom insists on allowing it, again against my better judgement. They think you won’t notice them
A muscle ticks in Derek’s jaw. “Not all of us are like that. Most of us aren’t. But the hunters have made sure that all of us phoenix have paid for the sins of the minority. We just want to live the lives we were born with, with the families we were born to.”
I don’t believe that for a minute. I spit at him that he’s lying, but then I think about Cassie and I can’t picture her doing something so despicable. I can’t picture his mom doing it either.
“Why are you telling me this Derek? What is the point of this conversation? We could have never had it and I would have been none the wiser.”
“Cassie doesn’t know you’re a hunter. My mother doesn’t either. But I knew what you were two seconds after my compulsion attempt didn’t work on you and my mom stopped me from slamming the door in your face. Neither of them need to know about you just like none of your family needs to know about us. That is the point of this discussion.”
Derek’s hand has tightened around my elbow again. This time he grips it hard enough to leave a bruise. Gold rings his dark pupils and I see my agonizing death played out in the fire raging within them.
His attempt to intimidate me doesn’t work. There is nothing he could do to me that Patrick Jacobs hasn’t already done in the training sessions he purposely barred my dad from to make sure I became a hunter that “ remains strong in the face of any tribulation .” I still have the scar from the six inches of steel he used to carve into my side with during one of our closed sessions. He didn’t go deep enough to do any serious damage, only deep enough to make me want to scream out in pain and tell me not to disappoint him by doing so. Three years have made it faint. I can barely see it now, but it’s there.
I narrow my eyes at Derek, letting him see his own demise in mine. “Your fancy headlights don’t scare me and if you do not let go of my arm the next time I see you I will have those silver knives on me and you will end up without the hand you keep grabbing me with.”
He isn’t in the least fazed by my threat. “Does Cassie’s death scare you? And before you rationalize it as a no because she is a phoenix, she’s not. My brother’s wife was born a hunter. When they had Cassie whatever it is that makes us what we are, she wasn’t born with it. If you tell your family about us, about what we are, then when they come after us they will come after Cassie too. They won’t care that she isn’t a phoenix. They will only care that she grew up and lives among us.”
Derek is right. They won’t care. I shouldn’t care either. But I think of my mother. Who got caught up in a war and died because of her connection to one of the sides in it.
It’s not the same thing. The part of me that was trained to think like a hunter, to be a hunter, says.
That part is right, but the six year old girl who found her innocent mom dead in their backyard doesn’t care. It’s the same thing to her. Cassie is innocent too and both of us know that no hunter would let her survive.
“Why are you telling me this?” I demand to know from Derek. I hate the position it is putting me in. “Wouldn’t it have been better and safer to let me go on believing your family was normal? ”
“ We are normal.” If I didn’t know any better I would say he almost sounded a bit wounded. “But although Cass is human, she has unique abilities that are definitely not. She insists on being friends with you, against my better judgement, and Mom insists on allowing it, again against my better judgement. They think you won’t notice them
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