Author's Note : Next chapter will contain some direct ties to the Sookieverse but I wanted to post this bit first. For those of you reading this as well as 'Undecided', this takes place about seven years prior. The Huntress's training will also be expanded on in the next installment. For now, just keep in mind that the young Huntress is cocky and high-handed. I apologize for the typical "orphan hero/ine" routine, but it was the simpliest explanation of why she would be desperate for a farther-daughter relationship with Philip Kundry that develops later.
"Hello, young lady. My name is Philip Kundry."
My life had become something of a horror story in the past three years. Well, more of a horror story. After all I had been destroying the minions of corruption since I was fifteen.
I didn't answer the man talking to me. I never answered anyone after they put me in here when my family had been killed. My carelessness had led to their brutal deaths and that was something I would always carry with me, but right now I was more interested in my internal musings than whatever this stranger had to say. I wondered if someday soon I might be able to fully resist the beast inside me but until then I had no interest in the outside world. Especially not in the form of men named Philip Kundry.
He looked at me in open disappointment when I didn't reply. "I see you have not accepted your nature."
Okay, that got my attention. I was in a facility for dangerous children or something similar in purpose. They didn't actually tell me the name of this place when they brought me here in the days after my parents' deaths. I only knew that it had been over two years because one of the 'doctors' slipped and wished me a happy 2nd anniversary not long ago. None of the staff fully understood that I could have left easily if I chose to.
I met the man's eyes and saw a brief smile tug on the right corner of his mouth. He controlled it hastily. "Ah, so you are not the deaf and mute creature written of on your chart sheets. How gratifying."
Congratulations, funny man. You have a brain, I thought sarcastically. I didn't allow myself to react to his words either, beyond the intensity of my emerald stare.
"Stubborn aren't you," he said as he leaned forward, only stopping when his face was mere inches from mine. I couldn't resist as a feral smile stretched across my face. The man, Philip Kundry, grinned right back. "Good, maybe you'll decide to trust me sooner than I feared. We need to get you out of here."
My smile froze on my face. I knew what it would take for me to escape and I simply would not do it. I would not transform again. And I also knew that it would take a miracle for the ones in charge of this place to be convinced they could let me go.
Kundry nodded, never taking his eyes from mine. "Yes, stubborn as a mule. We'll see just what it takes to get you to give in." I had actually pulled away from him in the past few moments and he leaned forward further to close the distance between our faces again. "Do you know how long you can resist it? If I bring you a demon, and put it with you in this room, will you really allow it to kill you rather than embrace what you are? Are you ready to die, little girl? Or would you like to actually learn how to control your gift?"
I didn't want to react to his words but I'm sure he saw the hunger in my gaze. Was he lying? Or did he really know how to teach me to control myself? It was safer to believe he was lying. Too much pain waited on the other path if it turned out to be false.
"I see I will have to gain your trust," Kundry said astutely. My estimation of him rose but my willingness to believe him remained entirely skeptical. "But I would like to see how much control you have. Expect a visitor tonight. If you choose to save yourself I will assume you are agreeing to be my apprentice. If you let yourself be destroyed, well, hopefully there will be another one of you soon." He stood and moved towards the door, leaving me to ponder his question.
The orderlies opened the door to let him pass but he hesitated at the threshold. "You are a rare bloom, you know. It would be a shame if you were clipped before you had a chance to blossom."
I heard the click of the locks but I was back in my own little world before the last one snapped into place. The hours passed slowly as I considered what Kundry had said to me. I did have to admit I was bored staying in this tiny room reliving my memories from my so-called normal life. And there had been something exhilarating in those first months of discovery when I began hunting consciously. The rush of battle was not something I could have anticipated before experiencing it and in many ways I missed the thrill. I also missed sunlight, Burger King, and all things chocolate. I missed reading books. I missed looking up at the stars on clear nights. I missed my friends…
Thinking of my friends jarred me out of my inner world. They had moved on by now. Some would have graduated and begun attending college. Others would be working or finishing up high-school. But none of them visited any more. I was lost in the past and it was too much effort for them to remember me as they moved on in their lives. I usually got Christmas cards though, that had to be something.
By the time the sun had set and the guards outside changed shifts I knew what I would do if Kundry came back with a demon. It was time to let go of the past, the hurt, the guilt, and try and find something to do with my life. If I could control this thing inside me I could be normal, or at least as normal as I could ever hope to be. If not, I'll just let one of the damn things kill me one day.
The lights winked out suddenly and I could no longer see the outlines of my room. I assumed this was intentional and not an emergency failure. Soon I would have to execute my choice, if I could. It occurred to me that I hadn't exercised much in the last two years and I might be too weak to fight off what gets throws at me.
I heard breathing. The door hadn't opened so I had to assume that whatever was now in my room had the ability to turn incorporeal or to teleport. Neither would surprise me.
My human instincts were screaming in terror at the darkness but my other instincts were reaching out for the transformations. I let my eyes shift but resisted the other changes. I wanted to see what kind of challenge Kundry had given me.
It was beautiful. I had expected it to be repulsive but instead I found myself staring into the eyes of a creature that held me in raptures. It was humanoid but clearly not human as it floated gently in the air. The wispiness of its form led me to believe it could become incorporeal. A potential problem.
Suddenly I felt the human part of me lurch with a surge of lust. I had not been a 'proper' young lady since I was sixteen and being celibate for two years doesn't make you forget what sex feels like, it just makes you miss it that much more. Now that the creature had my undivided attention I considered letting myself shift more into my other form just to get away from the overwhelming desire.
But that would be too easy and I still hadn't puzzled out what it was. I clamped down on the urge to throw myself at it while I racked my memory. If it was female I would have instantly said succubus but I didn't think succubi worked on same-sex targets. My brain fart finally gave way to a rush of remembrance when the name for the male counter-part to a succubus popped into my head. Incubus.
So, this was an incubus. I gave it another once-over as it came closer to me. I hadn't been sure it noticed me until that point but my intensifying wanting seemed to beckon it closer. Finally it was close enough that if my hands weren't bound in manacles (cloth ones, they weren't excessively cruel here) I would have been able to wrap my arms around it. I wasn't too sure what touching it would do to me so I resisted the urge to lift my hands.
The incubus leaned closer and sniffed. If I hadn't been so busy trying to control my desire for this creature I would have smiled. Instead I focused my remaining concentration on shifting my lungs and one other part of me. I had always wondered at my ability to create something that wasn't there but this wasn't a good time to ponder the question. It worked and for now that was all that mattered.
As the creature leaned forward to touch me I used my new anatomy to secrete a natural form of nerve gas that would paralyze the creature, or so I hoped.
It worked beautifully. I knew the moment the creature inhaled the fumes because its eyes glassed over immediately. Have I mentioned the eyes were the size of half-dollars and iridescent? Yeah, it was kind of hard to miss the reaction.
I smiled as it collapsed at my feet. Now Kundry would have to wonder just what I had done to incapacitate it without even shifting my form. The changes to my eyes might be visible if they were using special cameras, but I doubted it. And I knew the transformation to my lungs and the addition of the pheromone releasing sac were invisible to the naked eye. Hopefully I had given them a set of problems they weren't prepared to deal with.
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"You see what she did?"
"No, I missed it. Her self-control is obviously greater than we anticipated."
"Best guess?"
"Either she hypnotized the damn thing or she did something too fast for us to see."
"Not possible on that second part. We're using as many types of cameras as we can and one was specifically brought here to capture slow motion in high detail. You can re-watch the footage if you want but I didn't see it catch anything."
"So she hypnotized it."
"Maybe. We should have tried to compile a list of her abilities before this."
"We've never had to deal with something like this in a Hunter, remember? How could we have known that she'd already have such an arsenal."
"Common sense I guess, but hindsight is 20-20. How many demons do they think she's killed?"
"At least two dozen."
"So she should theoretically have at least twenty-four unique abilities."
There was a pause in the dialogue as the two men looked at each other, lost in their thoughts.
"I'll be back," said Kundry as he turned to leave the observation room.
"You're going down there?" asked Marcus, a bit incredulously. "What if she's controlling that thing? Do you think she might kill you?"
Kundry thought a moment. "Possibly, but I tend to think she's trying to teach us a lesson."
Marcus looked insulted. "And what in God's name would she be trying to teach us?"
"That she doesn't intend to play by our rules if it doesn't suit her."
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