Page 34 of Orion: Galaxy Huntress

“Not that it’s any of your business,” I said. “But I was working for him. Hunting to earn wages to travel.” I held back on the detail of my sisters when they were in as much jeopardy as me. Discussing them might lead to their capture too.

“Where were you going?” Reznor didn’t know when to cease with the questions, and I really didn’t want to talk to him.

“None of your business.”

“I want to go to Hawaii.”

By the gods.Why wouldn’t he leave? Let me die. Subject me to another visit from vampires, and this time, ensure they killed me. We were one and the same, but I didn’t want to have to pity him when I just wanted to be angry.

“The beach. Sand, swimming, warmth, Hula dancing and leis.” His forlorn voice cut me in two and I screamed at myself for pitying him. “My mother brought me here from England. I’ve never seen the world. Never had a say in where I went or what I did.”

“Neither did I,” I grit out, getting annoyed at his whining when I was the one being held captive. “We’re all captive in some regard. My father sold me to a butcher when I was five, and my master taught me to hunt.”

Hades, why was I blabbering? What was the point when I was dead? Probably nerves or to shut Reznor the hell up.

I kept going because I didn’t care for his sob story. “I caught on quickly, my skills outgrowing my master’s, and after five years of service, I bought my freedom, going out on my own, earning far more killing larger animals. At least I earned my freedom the honest way, unlike you.” My snappiness wouldn’t help the situation, but I was beyond the point of caring, resolved to die unless I could source way out of here.

“I’ve been captive all my life.” The vampire’s forlorn tone made my lungs tighten and withhold air from entering. “Trapped in the orphanage. My heart caged by my love, then dying when I lost her.” No wonder he’d accepted death as a vampire. “Now I’m bound to the coven.”

Hunting wasn’t the profession I would have chosen for myself, and I fell into it as a slave to the butcher. Perceiving my natural talent, the goddess Artemis came for me, teaching me how to hunt monsters, and I felt obligated to please and obey her. After that, it became a matter of principle and pride to prove wrong the boorish, crude bastards I competed against that I wasn’t inferior and unworthy. That I was just as good as, if not better, than them. How I showed them. Emerged on top. Silenced their taunts and earned their respect as Orion, best hunter in Greece.

“I’m sorry it had to be this way, Little Star.” I felt the ice in Reznor’s heart crack. A shelf of it collapsed into the water. The defensive mass melted and revealed more of his human side. “Everything comes at a price.”

As his chest thawed, so did the grip of his glamor on me, letting my starlight bubble back to the surface. I bided my time until I could stake the damn vampire through the heart and get the right spot this time.

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