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I trap them in the middle of the nearly empty garage. Their eyes widen in surprise as they push against the energy shield. I chuckle as they squirm. Feeble commoners are no match for me. Leaning against the hood of the green vehicle, arms over my chest, I say with finality, “It’s pointless. You’re trapped.”
The man in the energy bubble fumbles with something in his pocket. In my vision I see the other two halt their steps and turn around, running towards us as fast as their commoner legs will carry them. Forgetting your weapons, I think. “Suddenly you’re speechless. I don’t plan on harming you.” I will if I have to. “I want to understand why you’re murdering hybrids.”
The woman jeers, her eyes flashing in anger. “Is that what you call them?”
“No, it’s what they are. You’re the ones that have found your own names for them. Why do you want them dead? What have they done to you?” I stay calm, unfolding my arms and resting my hands against the hood.
“We aren’t murderers. They aren’t human. We kill them before they can kill us,” she says, spite and hate hanging on every syllable.
They are playing offense. The footfalls of the others are nearly at the garage. “Tell me more.”
“You think we’re amateurs,” the woman sneers while balling her fists. “We are professionals. This,” she raises her eyes and searches the invisible bubble around her, “energy field you’ve trapped us in can’t hold us.”
Now that is funny. I roll forward in laughter as a piercing wail overloads my ears. Clutching my head, I rise up. Now I’m pissed. The ringing in my ears shifts my attention but doesn’t weaken my shield or the energy bubble around them. It doesn’t affect them either. They don’t have sensitive hearing and use a pitch inaudible to their ears. “That isn’t nice,” I scold, bending the sound waves and pitching them back at a lower frequency their ears will absorb.
They crumple to the floor, hands over their ears. “We can play this game all day.” The other two don’t follow the road down but find a stairway to my left. My mind traces the wall to where it ends and finds the doorway. “Tell me what I want to know.”
The two in my bubble think their companions will save them. I stop the noise radiating from the energy field around them and they rise to their feet, scorn written on their faces. “We will tell you nothing,” the man says. His face twists in anger and spit explodes from his lips with each word.
A crack detonates in the air as a tiny metal bullet rushes towards me. Is that all they can do? I raise my hand and grip my fingers tightly. The bullet halts and drops to the ground with a clatter. Now I’m angry. Pulling the other two into my energy web I thrust them into the middle of the room with the others.
“I am not like any hybrid you’ve ever met. There’s nothing you can do to harm me,” I say, keeping my tone even.
The blonde man wiggles his hand in his pocket again. The last time he did that he nearly made my brain hemorrhage. A small device shines in his hands and I drive energy at them and squeeze. Tears of pain flood his eyes. I crush until the device is bent and cracked then drops to the ground, leaving his hand a twisted bloody mess. He holds it with the other hand. His cheeks flush with heat.
I have their attention. “Drop the rest of your toys or your hands are next and we’ll talk nicely.” Electronic devices and small hand weapons clink on the floor as they pull them out of pockets, boots, under pant legs, and the inside pockets of their coats. I melt the collection, steam rising in the bubble as the objects cool.
The fourth man, a bit older than the others judging by his salt and pepper hair and the small lines ebbing from his eyes, speaks: “We are hunters. Recently, supernaturals have taken over London. It’s our job to keep the city clean of them.”
Supernaturals. That’s a new word. “Have they harmed com...humans?” I catch myself, almost calling them commoners. They call themselves humans.
The older man doesn’t flinch. “Not yet, but they will.”
I’ve never had any sympathy for hybrids or vampires – the second born – but I don’t like this. “Are there more of you?” I slide off the hood of the car and saunter towards the energy bubble that holds them.
Their eye glances tell me there are more, plenty more.
“Not in London,” the older man says. I appreciate his honesty, maybe we are getting somewhere.
They’re taking preventative measures to wipe out, as they called them, supernaturals so commoners, or using their term, humans, can live in peace. Commoners aren’t peaceful even among themselves. As the harvester realm walker I know of their wars and murders. The wasteful deaths. I can’t trust them and realize I am no different than the hybrids they are killing. They, like purebloods, are fearful of what they can’t control or someone with more power. I think of Marilisa’s words as she said my plight will end in death.
Letting them go isn’t an option. They’ll continue their murderous quest and more hybrids will die. I don’t have the time or the concern to hunt hunters across Lols. These hunters are the ones killing. What to do with them?
Option A: I bring down the garage on top of them. It is an older building, surely its bones aren’t as stable from the wearing of time. Option B: I can squeeze the energy around them, crushing every bone in their bodies. Option C: I can send the hybrids and vampires after them. Too many kinks in that one. The hybrids and vampires might not play so friendly together. There is also option D. As much as I want to, and think they deserve it, I’m not going low like them.
I study their faces. No remorse in their eyes. They are monsters who will never harm a single commoner hybrid of any kind again. I push my voice out, mesmerizing them with the energy in the sound waves. “You will never harm or kill another human or supernatural as long as you live.”
Collectively they blink several times and the female coughs. Holding her throat, she sputters until catching her breath. I open a portal behind them, teal energy moves in waves and I push them into it. The soles of their shoes rub against the floor, arms out as if trying to catch their fall. When the portal closes I command it to split into four directions.