Chapter One

Prologue

 Lying here trying to get my eyes to focus, I try to remember what happened. The ringing in my ears does not help with my train of thought. Today started out so well. I was going on a well-earned break from the crazy none-stop shit that is my life. But here I am lying in a pool of my own blood, trying to work out how this day turned south so quickly. My partner Jared and I had been given a week of downtime and we were heading for the beach. I actually saw the bright blue of the ocean in the distance before the call came in, fu**ing vampires attacking humans in a mall. Waving tata to the crystal blue dream, Jared pulled an illegal U-turn and headed west with his foot to the floor. We pulled into the mall car park, the overwhelming stench of blood and rogues had made me gag. Following the sound of screaming, we walked into a sh*t storm. Bodies were everywhere, some with heads, some without, fu**ing rippers, they were the worst kind of bloodsuckers. Their minds are completely gone and the only thing they want is blood. The worst part is they barely drink from their victims, just rip them apart. After killing a good twenty of the fu**ers, I lost sight of Jared. I had followed a female through one of the emergency exits and had been kicking the sh*t out of her. Just as I finished her off, an explosion ripped through the building, throwing me against a wall, and then everything went black. And now I am lying here afraid to look at my injuries, there is no pain, so I must be in shock. “PAIGE, PAIGE, WHERE THE FU*K ARE YOU?” Thank God Jared is okay. I tried to roll over, but I was stuck. I look down and see a metal rod coming out of my chest, well that’s just peachy. “JARED, I'M OVER HERE, I NEED HELP!” I hear footsteps to my left and try to look around. “Paige? Oh, fu*k sweetie, don’t move. I’m coming for you. Just give me a minute.” My eyes feel so heavy, I just need to shut my eyes for a minute…..I hear Jared shout something but he sounds so far away…..so tired……. The sound of beeping wakes me. I try to open my eyes, but my head feels like it’s gonna burst. There are whispered voices to my left and I try to turn my head to hear what they are saying, but it’s too hard. I struggle to hear, but the darkness consumes me again……. Waking again, the pain in my head seemed to have lessened, but that fu**ing beeping could definitely bring it back. I slowly open my eyes, only to be blinded by a light so fu**ing bright it burns my irises out. “Holy sh*t, someone turn down the fu**ing sun.” that’s what I tried to say, but my voice comes out as a croak. My mouth is so dry, I can’t form words. “Paige? It’s okay angel, you were injured in a ripper attack, your in the clinic.” I feel a hand on my arm. “Can you open your eyes?” I flinch, “too bright,” I croak out, “sh*t sorry angel, there I have turned off the overheads.” Slowly, I opened my eyes to see Doc Sandy leaning over me. She smiled down at me, “you gave us quite a scared little one. You’ve been out for a week. Even with your fast healing, it was touch and go for a while” A week? Sh*t, I have never been down for that long before. “Well, look who woke up, finally. Thought I was going to have to train a new partner for a minute.” Jared is leaning on the doorjamb. He looks like he hasn’t slept in days. “Hey, I trained you numbskull, not the other way round. Now come fill me in on what I’ve missed.” “Later, you need to rest babe, you took a lot of damage on this one. The vamps set off a fu**ing explosion. I thought we lost you, dude.” “Is my mum here?” his head drops, and I know the truth before he says anything. “She is on a mission. She is trying to get back to you.” “It’s okay Jared, the mission always comes first.” I have been on this earth for nearly eighteen years. In all those years, my mother has only spent a few days at a time in my presence, but that doesn’t stop me from hoping that the product of her reproduction would one day be more important than whatever mission she was on. I hear the Doc say I need to rest, and Jared leans down and kisses my forehead, “don’t scare me like that again, okay?” and they leave me alone. I lie here listening to the damn beeping from the heart monitor. How did I get here? Why is this my life, constantly fighting against the evil in this world? I dream of a normal life, to be a normal seventeen-year-old, go to school, date, go to a fu**ing mall to shop, not kill a**holes. But that is not my destiny. I am Paige Amelia Stevenson. I am a Huntress, born to protect humans and stop Supernatural uprisings. When the gods decided to create their children and infuse them with supernatural powers, The goddess Baset decided to rebalence the power structure by creating the Huntresses. The Order of Baset was created at about the same time. Originally, it was headed by a council of twelve Elder Huntresses, but over the centuries fewer and fewer of my kind lived to become an Elder, so our male counterparts started to take over the roles. The current council has no females in decision-making roles, and I personally think that some of the decisions being made are not in the best interest of its people. Of course, with Baset being a bada** female, she made it so that only females from our bloodline would gain her powers, making our brothers provide a supporting role.This has led to some males seeking to gain power over the stronger females. As you would expect from Baset, our powers are feline in most instances. Being able to jump huge distances, great night vision, squeezing into very tight spaces and twisting our bodies into a pretzel, landing on our feet, (most of the time). You get the idea. We are also distrusting, but to those who manage to gain our trust, we are loyal to a fault. We are highly intelligent, learning at an increased rate, only having to see something once before mastering it, which is great when learning an enemy’s fighting style. We also have a wicked-strong aura, which can make others bend to our will, kind of like an Alpha in a wolf pack. I am slightly different from my brethren. My mother was mated to an Alpha wolf. As soon as she conceived, she left him, and returned to the Order. The mission always comes first. I have never met my dad, and I don’t know if I will have a wolf or if my Huntress genes will overwrite the wolf ones. We won’t know until my eighteenth birthday. Maybe if I get a wolf, I could change my destiny, maybe find my dad. Who knows? God, I am so tired.