Chapter 3: The Hunter's Network The camping lantern cast uneven shadows across the warehouse floor. Alexia looked at the message on her phone again, then at the stranger who'd been watching her read it. "You sent that." Alexia kept her voice flat. The figure nodded. "I needed you to understand that things are more complicated than your mother let on. My name is Elena. I've been monitoring you since the attack on Maple Street." Monitoring sounded like stalking with extra steps. Alexia shifted her weight toward the door. Running had worked once today. She could do it again if necessary. "Why?" The word came out sharper than she intended. Elena moved to the folding chairs but didn't sit. She looked around mid-twenties, dressed in dark clothes that made her hard to see against the warehouse shadows. Nothing about her posture suggested immediate threat, though that meant approximately nothing given how the day had been going. "Because there are surviving hunter families who actually give a damn about keeping our bloodlines alive." Elena pulled out her own phone and tapped the screen a few times. "The covens didn't wipe us all out. They got close, but a few families survived by going underground. We've been waiting for your abilities to activate." Alexia's thumb hovered over her mom's contact. One call and her mother would come running with whatever backup she'd arranged. Except her mother had spent twelve years planning to deliver her to vampires, which made trusting her somewhat problematic. "What do you want from me?" Alexia stayed near the exit. Elena turned her phone around, showing a list of names and locations. "This is the hunter network. Twelve families scattered across North America. We train the young ones, teach them combat techniques that have been passed down for generations, provide safe houses. Your father knew about us before he left." The mention of her dad made Alexia's chest tighten. She'd spent most of her life not thinking about him because it hurt less than acknowledging the hole his absence left. Now he was everywhere in this conversation, his legacy bleeding into her present whether she wanted it or not. "My mom said he wanted nothing to do with hunting." Alexia looked at the list on Elena's phone but couldn't read the details from this distance. Elena lowered the phone. "Your father wanted out of the violence. Can't blame him for that. But he knew the network existed if things went wrong. He probably hoped you'd never need us." The warehouse creaked somewhere above them. Old buildings made noise constantly as temperature changed and materials contracted. Alexia's newly awakened instincts still flagged every sound as potential danger. "How did you find me?" Alexia glanced at her phone again. Another missed call from her mom. "We've been watching your family for years." Elena said it casually, like admitting to long-term surveillance was normal conversation. "Your mother made the deal with the coven twelve years ago. We knew about it within a week. But we couldn't extract you without triggering your hunter abilities first, and your mother kept you wrapped in bubble wrap to prevent exactly that." Alexia thought about her childhood. Her mom had always been cautious, keeping her away from anything remotely dangerous. No contact sports. No hiking in isolated areas. Nothing that might create the kind of stress or physical threat that would wake up dormant DNA. "So you just watched." Alexia couldn't keep the accusation out of her voice. "For twelve years you knew vampires were planning to kill me and you did nothing." Elena's expression hardened. "We did plenty. We tracked the coven's movements, identified which vampires were part of the deal, gathered intelligence. But showing up at your door would have accomplished nothing except getting you killed faster. Your abilities had to activate naturally." The logic made sense in a horrible way. Alexia hated it anyway. Twelve years of people knowing she was marked for death while she went to school and worried about grades and college applications. "My mom tried to back out." Alexia remembered the text message's hint. "Two years ago." Elena nodded. "She called the coven's representative and said she couldn't go through with it. Wanted to find another solution. The vampires reminded her what happens when humans break deals with them. They sent someone to your school. Do you remember anything unusual happening around sophomore year?" Alexia searched her memory. Sophomore year had been mostly unremarkable. Classes, homework, a brief attempt at joining the debate team that hadn't worked out. Nothing stood out as supernatural interference. "There was a substitute teacher." The memory surfaced slowly. "Mrs. Carlson got sick for two weeks. The replacement was strange. She kept staring at me during class." "That was a vampire." Elena sat down in one of the folding chairs. "She was there to remind your mother that they could reach you anytime they wanted. Your mom got the message and stopped trying to back out." Alexia's legs stopped supporting her properly. She leaned against the wall, trying to process the idea that a vampire had been teaching her English class. She'd sat in that room every day for two weeks, completely unaware. "Why attack me today?" Alexia pushed away from the wall. "If they had a deal with my mom, why send someone to jump me on Maple Street?" Elena's face did something complicated. "Your eighteenth birthday was three days ago." Alexia had turned eighteen on Monday. Small celebration at home with cake her mom had made. Nothing elaborate. Her mom had been quiet during dinner, but Alexia had assumed she was tired from work. "The deal stipulated delivery within a week of your eighteenth birthday." Elena stood up again. "Your mother was supposed to bring you to them. When she kept stalling, they sent someone to collect you directly. That's what triggered your abilities. The immediate physical threat activated your hunter DNA." Everything clicked into a horrible pattern. Her mom hadn't been planning some elaborate drugged handoff. She'd been trying to delay the inevitable until it became impossible. The vampire on Maple Street had forced the issue. "So now what?" Alexia checked her phone. Five missed calls. "The deal is broken. My abilities are active. Where does that leave me?" Elena picked up a backpack that had been sitting near the camping lantern. She pulled out a folder and held it toward Alexia. "You come with me to a safe house. There are three other young hunters there right now, all training. You'll learn combat techniques, weapon handling, vampire physiology. Everything you need to survive." Alexia took the folder but didn't open it. "For how long?" "As long as it takes." Elena zipped the backpack closed. "Usually six months for basic proficiency. A year to really master the fundamentals." Six months. A year. Alexia's senior year would be completely gone. Graduation, prom, college applications that were already submitted. Her entire normal life would just evaporate. "No." Alexia handed the folder back. "I'm finishing school." Elena's expression shifted to something between frustration and disbelief. "You're being hunted by a vampire coven that's held a grudge for centuries. School isn't exactly a priority right now." "It's my priority." Alexia crossed her arms. "I've spent eighteen years building toward graduation and college. I'm not throwing that away because some ancient vampires can't let go of the past." The argument sounded stubborn even to her own ears. Attending calculus class while being marked for death was objectively stupid. But the alternative meant abandoning every piece of her normal life, and she'd already lost enough today. "This isn't negotiable." Elena stepped closer. "The safe house is the only place you'll survive long enough to worry about college. You can't just go back to your regular routine and hope the vampires forget about you." Alexia's phone buzzed again. She glanced at it, expecting another call from her mom. Instead, it was a text from Jenna asking about the study group they'd planned for tomorrow afternoon. Normal life continuing forward without any awareness of the supernatural nightmare happening around it. "I'll train." Alexia looked up from the phone. "But I'm not abandoning everything. You said there are twelve families in the network. Find me someone local who can teach me while I finish senior year." Elena laughed, but nothing about it sounded amused. "Local training doesn't work. You need intensive immersion, constant practice, controlled environments. Weekend sessions with some retired hunter aren't going to prepare you for what's coming." "Then I'll train harder." Alexia's jaw tightened. "Before school, after school, weekends. Whatever it takes. But I'm not disappearing for six months." The warehouse went quiet except for the distant sound of traffic outside. Elena stared at her like she was trying to determine if Alexia was brave or just incredibly stupid. Probably both. "You don't understand what you're up against." Elena's voice dropped lower. "The coven that's hunting you doesn't just send one vampire and call it done. They'll send enforcers, assassins, entire teams if necessary. Your school will become a battleground." Alexia thought about Jenna and Marcus and all the other students who had no idea monsters existed. Bringing vampire conflict into that environment would get innocent people killed. But running away wouldn't protect them either. The vampires knew where she lived and went to school. Leaving would just mean fighting them in different locations. "I'll keep people safe." Alexia said it with more confidence than she actually had. "Whatever training you can give me, I'll use it." Elena pulled out her phone again, typing something rapidly. "You're making a mistake. But I can't force you to come with me. The network doesn't work that way." Relief mixed with new anxiety. Alexia had expected more argument, maybe physical coercion. Elena giving up so easily suggested either respect for personal choice or the belief that Alexia would be dead soon anyway. "What now?" Alexia looked around the warehouse. "Do I just go home and wait for your local contact?" "Going home is the worst possible option." Elena finished typing and looked up. "Your mother made a deal with vampires. Even if she regrets it now, they'll use her to get to you. You need somewhere safe to spend the night while I make arrangements." The camping lantern flickered. Alexia's enhanced hearing picked up a new sound outside. Car engine cutting off, doors opening, footsteps approaching. More than one person. Elena's expression changed instantly. She grabbed the backpack and moved toward the rear of the warehouse. "We need to leave. Now." Alexia started to follow, then stopped as her phone buzzed again. Her mom calling. The timing was too precise to be coincidence. "She tracked my phone." Alexia stared at the screen. "My mom tracked me here." Elena grabbed Alexia's arm, pulling her toward the back exit. "Obviously. And she brought friends." The warehouse's main door swung open wider. Alexia turned, her new instincts screaming danger before her brain caught up. Three figures stepped inside. Her mom in the middle, looking pale and frightened. Two others flanking her, moving with the same unnatural grace as the vampire from Maple Street. "Alexia." Her mom's voice echoed through the space. "Please don't make this harder." Elena let go of Alexia's arm. She pulled something from her backpack. A wooden stake, old and worn but clearly well-maintained. "Stay behind me." The two vampires spread out, circling around opposite sides of the warehouse. They looked different from the one who'd attacked earlier. Older somehow, though age was probably meaningless for immortals. The one on the left was tall and thin. The one on the right had broad shoulders and moved like a professional fighter. "We just want the girl." The thin vampire spoke with an accent Alexia couldn't place. "Give her to us and walk away. This doesn't concern you." Elena raised the stake. "Everything concerning the hunter bloodlines concerns me. And you're not taking her anywhere." Alexia's mom took a step forward. "Alexia, listen to me. These are enforcers from the coven. If I don't deliver you tonight, they'll kill us both. At least this way I can negotiate for a quick death. Painless. You won't suffer." The casual way her mom discussed her murder was somehow worse than anything else. Alexia backed up until she hit a metal shelving unit. The choice Elena had described was suddenly very real. Run with the stranger and abandon her mother to face consequences. Or try to fight vampires she had no idea how to kill. "I'm not going with them." Alexia heard her own voice but barely recognized it. "You made a deal without asking me. I'm not dying because you were too scared to fight." Her mom's face crumpled. "I was trying to protect you. You were six years old. I had no choice." "You had twelve years to find another option." Alexia's hands clenched into fists. "Twelve years to contact these hunter families Elena mentioned. To get weapons, training, something. Instead you just counted down the days." The broad-shouldered vampire moved closer to Elena. "Enough talking. Give us the girl or we take her by force." Elena shifted her stance, putting herself between Alexia and both vampires. "You're welcome to try." Everything happened too fast to track properly. The thin vampire blurred forward, covering the distance in impossible speed. Elena moved to intercept, the stake cutting through air. The broad-shouldered one circled around, going for Alexia directly. Alexia dove sideways, using the shelving unit for cover. The vampire's hand smashed into metal where her head had been a second earlier. The impact crumpled the shelving like aluminum foil. Her mom screamed something Alexia couldn't hear over the sound of Elena fighting the other vampire. Wood struck flesh with a wet thud. The thin vampire hissed in pain or rage. The broad-shouldered vampire turned toward Alexia again. She grabbed a rusted pipe from the floor, the same instinct that had guided her on Maple Street taking over. The vampire lunged. Alexia swung the pipe, catching him across the ribs. The impact jarred her arms. The vampire staggered back but didn't fall. He smiled, fangs visible in the dim light from the camping lantern. "You have some skill." He cracked his neck to one side. "This will be entertaining." Alexia's mom ran toward them. "Stop. Please. Don't hurt her." The vampire ignored her. He moved forward again, slower this time. Testing Alexia's reactions. She backed up, trying to maintain distance while keeping the pipe ready. Behind her, Elena's fight with the thin vampire escalated. Something glass shattered. Someone slammed into a wall hard enough to crack plaster. The broad-shouldered vampire feinted left, then struck right. Alexia barely blocked with the pipe. The force knocked her backward into another shelving unit. Old boxes tumbled down around her. "Alexia, run!" Elena's shout came from across the warehouse. Running meant leaving her mom. Meant abandoning the only parent she'd ever known, even if that parent had betrayed her. The vampire in front of Alexia drew back for another strike. Alexia made her choice. She dropped the pipe and charged forward, ducking under the vampire's swing. Her shoulder hit his midsection. They crashed to the ground together. She rolled away, scrambling for the stake Elena had dropped when she'd pulled out a second one. Her fingers closed around the worn wood. The vampire grabbed her ankle, pulling her back. Alexia kicked at his face with her free foot. Connected. His grip loosened enough for her to wrench free. She got to her feet, stake raised. The vampire stood up more slowly, wiping blood from his mouth. He looked at her with something that might have been respect. "Perhaps you'll provide a real challenge after all."