320Note: Hey peeps! I'm back with another chapter of Hunted! =) I've been thinking a lot about this fic lately, especially since I've finished writing Alternate and I have to admit that in the beginning, I was a little uncertain on how the feedback would be. I didn't have a plan at first, but now that I've actually sat down to make one, I've realized that this story will most likely get over 30 chapters, if things go as they are supposed to. I have it planned out now, but since my plans usually change depending on what you guys think, I think it's safe to say that nothing is set in stone yet, but that I'll enjoy the ride! ^^
Now, thank you to all of you who have shown support by reviewing! It's always wonderful to know that people read the things I write =)
Now, please enjoy! =)
Hunted
Supernatural hunter Oliver Queen's latest mission's name is Felicity Smoak; a new born hybrid who has gone rogue and left her master. The new hunt brings unexpected twists and turns and when the young hybrid saves his life, Oliver realizes that there might be more to the girl than meets the eye. The hybrid might not be the biggest monster in Starling City and as their unexplainable bond grows stronger, he learns that you can't plan who you fall in love with.
Chapter 3: The Hybrid
Oliver reached back into his quiver and retrieved the last arrow he had left. It was a fairly simple one, with a silver head, that he wasn't even sure would work on a hybrid.
"Felicity Smoak," he said, his voice disoriented by the device he used. "I have been looking for you."
The hybrid looked at him as if she was amused by his actions. "I suggest you save that arrow and take out the ones that you put in those wolves," she told him, pointing at the dead Dark Ones on the ground. "You might need them if we come across more of them and silver isn't very useful on us hybrids."
"In that case, will you please inform me what I have to do to kill you, Ms. Smoak," Oliver retorted, sarcastically polite.
"We should get out of here, Mr. Arrow," Felicity replied, ignoring his quip. "There are more wolves coming and we have to get them off of our scent if we are going to get back to your lair."
"You won't be stepping anywhere near my lair," Oliver snapped.
Felicity tilted her head and watching him with an 'are-you-kidding-me'-expression. His fingers were tingling to release the arrow he still held aimed at her, but something was holding him back. Diggle's words to him before he had stepped out of the Foundry held some truth. He didn't know anything about Felicity Smoak, except for the fact that she was a hybrid from Las Vegas. Someone had gone through a lot to get her name to him and to make him hunt her and he would be lying if he said that he wasn't the least bit curious to know why.
He wanted to know, but he also wanted to kill her.
What a dilemma.
"Oh please," Felicity scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest. "Do you really think you could stop me from following you somehow? You just gave away that you didn't know how to kill a hybrid, and we really need to get out of here," she said, looking around as she inhaled through her nose. "There are at least six more wolves coming our way." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small, round object. Throwing it on the ground, smoke exploded around them and Oliver watched her as she held her nose. "It's wolfs-mist," she explained, still pinching her nose. "Water mixed with wolfsbane and then evaporated before being contained in these thin plastic containers that break easily if thrown. They should hide our smell."
"Where did you get them?" Oliver wanted to know.
"I made them," she told him. "Now get moving!" She ran at him with such speed that he didn't even see her coming. The next thing he knew, she had grabbed a hold of his arm and pulled at him to follow her. Her tiny hands clasped his bicep and he decided that he could kill her later, after they get out of the alley.
So, he allowed her to lead the way and he followed her as she zig-zagged her way through the dark streets. He tried desperately to ignore the burning feeling of her hand wrapped around his own, and truthfully, he decided to blame the burn on his body itching to put his arrow into her...
His mind froze over for a second and he almost shook his head at the internal innuendo that he had never meant to think. She was a hybrid, a monster and he most certainly did not want to put his arrow anywhere near her.
He was treading into dangerous waters with this train of thoughts but luckily, he was brought out of them when she suddenly came to an abrupt stop. He stood behind her, but he could clearly see the three figures that stood in front of them.
"Felicity," a woman said, eyes sparkling blue. "We've been looking for you."
The hybrid squeezed his hand tighter as a response and he realized that he was close enough to feel her tense at the voice.
"Ashley," Felicity replied curtly.
The other woman grinned, showing off glistening fangs.
Vampire, Oliver realized.
"The Master has had all of us looking for you," the vampire- Ashley- said. "He wasn't happy when he found out that one of you had escaped."
"I'm sure I'm not the first one," Felicity retorted and Oliver found himself curious to know what they were talking about.
"Newly turned hybrids are supposed to be more loyal to their Sires," Ashley said. "They aren't supposed to run away the second the opportunity presents itself."
Oliver's eyes flickered to the back of Felicity's head, now understanding a little more than before. She had run away from her Sire... From the little things he had learned about hybrids, he knew that was one of the hardest things that particular type of monster could do.
When hybrids were turned, they usually felt a desperate need to serve the monster that had turned them. Oliver figured it had something to do with a blood bond, but he hadn't exactly had a long talk with a monster so he could get the 101 on these things. Usually, he picked up on things when he overheard them talking to each other, like now, or he was taught by more experienced hunters, such as Yao Fei.
"I don't have a Sire," Felicity hissed, letting go of his hand. She took a stand, readying herself to attack. Ashley stood calmly while the other two monsters- also vampires it seemed- prepared themselves for a fight.
"The Master is our Sire," Ashley calmly replied. "Or at least he is yours. I'm not a dog, so I stay of my own choice."
"Or fear," Felicity snarled. "I can smell it all around you, Ashley. You're afraid of what he's capable of and despite that you have never even met him, you're scared of what he'll do if you left. You're seeing me as an experiment, because you wonder what he'll do to me when he has me in his clutches again!"
Oliver didn't even have time to blink before the hybrid ran forward, grabbing the vampire by the throat. The only thing he knew was that he had felt the anger radiating off of her before she had pounced and he reacted as quickly as he could, nocking arrows, sending them flying at the other two vampires, killing them instantly.
"Of course you're an experiment, Smoak," the vampire mocked. "Just like every other hybrid turned! Problem is that all the others immediately developed the bond while you rejected it. Why is that?"
"It's my life," Felicity growled, holding the vampire up against a brick wall. "It's my choice."
"Except that it isn't," Ashley replied. "You fooled us pretty good at first. We didn't actually suspect anything until you ran away. Then it all made sense..."
"It's a good thing you were easy to trick," Felicity said.
"But of course, you didn't take it into calculation that you left some people behind," Ashley grinned.
Oliver watched as Felicity froze. The vampire remained grinning and then used the loss of focus to its advantage. Felicity was on her back on the cold concrete so fast that Oliver didn't have time to move.
"Yeah," Ashley said, almost as if she was confirming the thoughts that Felicity had been having. Vampires weren't mind readers, but Oliver could tell that Ashley's words had struck a cord with Felicity. "We have leverage over you. So if you kindly help me kill the Hunter, we can ignore that he killed Johnson and Adams to protect you."
At the mention of his moniker, Oliver woke from the daze. "I didn't kill them to protect her," he spat. He glanced down at Felicity who had snapped her head to the side to look at him. She was eying him as if she had completely forgotten that he was there.
"Sure looked like you had her back," Ashley acknowledged before turning back to Felicity. "Come on Smoak. You're used to betraying the people who trust you. Let's kill him."
"It was never about trust," Felicity said. "It was all about obedience." She glanced at Oliver again and then moved. The vampire was thrown off of her and Oliver released an arrow which embedded itself into her chest, just a little to the side of her heart.
Ashley gasped, falling to her knees, clutching the arrow as Oliver stalked up to her slowly. He knelt down in front of her and grabbed a hold of the arrow with the wooden tip that was only nicking her heart. He lowered himself so that he could whisper into her ear.
"You should have thought twice before getting in my way," he said, twisting the arrow, swiftly piercing the heart of the monster.
He leaned back, watching the vampire turn older in front of him before her skin shriveled up and turned gray.
"Lamia," Felicity spoke up behind him. "Ashley was a lamia vampire."
Oliver pulled the arrow out and cleaned it against Ashley's shirt before putting it back in his quiver. He turned to face the hybrid again and met her eyes.
"What am I going to do with you?" he asked her, honestly not sure himself to what the answer to that question was. He knew what it should be, but that didn't change the fact that he just couldn't seem to stop his curiosity of getting the better of him. Some of the things that the vampire who was now laying dead at his feet had said tonight, intrigued him. If Felicity truly had broken free from her Sire-bond, he wanted to know how it was possible for her to do so. The ferocity in her tone when she had told Ashley that it was "her life, her choice" had roused some strange feeling in his chest that he didn't know what to call.
"What are you going to do with me?" Felicity repeated back, a playful smile on her lips. "I am well aware of what you want to do with me... Or rather to me, since I don't think that you want to be doing anything with me," she rambled, but her straight posture remained. Momentarily, his mind once again drifted to the thoughts he had had a little earlier, about putting an arrow into her...
Hybrids weren't mind readers though, were they? Oliver still felt as if Felicity could see right through him for some reason.
She held up one of her hands, still looking playful, "I vote for you taking me back to that secret lair of yours so that we can talk in private."
"You don't get a vote," Oliver told her, but his bow remained lowered. If she had wanted to hurt him, she would have by now. Maybe it was better to earn her trust and then stab her in the back?
"Oh, I think I should," Felicity said. "I saved your life when I didn't have to, after all."
"I saved yours too," Oliver countered. His own statement annoyed the hell out of him.
"No," Felicity drawled. "You merely calculated the risks and decided that it was better to be on my side, at least temporarily. I bet you're already thinking about how you're going to get close enough to stab me in the back."
Damn her.
She must have seen something in his face that gave away the fact that she was right, because a wide grin spread across her face. "Come on, Oliver. What do you take me for?"
It took him a moment to realize what she had said. When it did, his hand flew to his bow immediately, but she was in front of him less than a millisecond before he could even reach for an arrow. Her hands wrapped around his wrists, one on the one that had been raised to retrieve the arrow and the other on his bow that was half raised. Her tight grip and sudden close proximity held him in place. He could feel her breath against his face as he glared down at her, his gaze drilling straight into hers.
The intensity of her baby-blue irises struck him but he held his ground. "I don't know what you're talking about," he began, his voice-modulator still working. What had he done to reveal his identity? How did she know?
"Let's be honest with each other, Mr. Queen," she continued, her tongue darting out to wet her lips. He did not know this purely because he had been staring down at her lips, although, he was thankful for the hood covering the upper half of his face.
He contemplated his options, but knew that he didn't have much of a choice. He slowly relaxed and she smiled at him, removing her hands from him just as slow.
"Now that we've established that I already know who you are," she waved around a bit, "can you please turn off that voice-distorter? It's freaking me out."
Wordlessly, he pressed the button on his belt, but remained glaring at her. "How did you know?" he asked her, not taking a step back just yet. He figured that it was still worth a shot to try and intimidate her, even though she had made it clear that she wasn't scared of him.
"I'm not your typical kind of girl, Mr. Queen," she said.
"No, you're not," Oliver agreed. "You're a monster."
"Ouch," she said, putting her hand over her heart. "You wound me," she sarcastically remarked, but Oliver didn't fail to notice that hurt actually did flash through her eyes. Perhaps she wasn't as good as she thought when it came to playing indifferent.
She shot him another look. "Will you be taking me to the lair then, or do you want me to just go ahead and find it myself? Because I can promise you that it won't be as difficult as you seem to think it will be."
"You're not coming with me," Oliver ground out through gritted teeth. Then, there was static in his ear and Oliver knew that Diggle had been listening in on the conversation over the comms. The fact that his friend only let the silence hang, he knew what he was saying. "No!" Oliver protested.
Diggle didn't reply, but Oliver just knew what he was thinking. "No! She's not coming with me to the lair!"
"Oliver," Diggle finally sighed. "She already knows your identity," he pointed out. "What difference does it make now?"
Oliver took a few steps back from Felicity and turned his back to her, whispering furiously at the older man in his ear. "It makes a difference because I don't trust her! She's one of them and she might be trying to trick us so that she can infiltrate the Foundry!"
"She saved your life, Oliver," Diggle said. "From what I've heard so far, it sounds like she has earned some of our trust... If she turns on us, there will be two of us and one of her. We'll be able to take her down."
Oliver was about to protest again when the clearing of a throat behind him stopped him. He turned to face the blonde again.
"You do know that I can hear you guys, right?" Felicity asked, shifting on her feet, looking uncomfortable for the first time in a while. "Super-hearing?" she reminded them and Oliver mentally slapped himself for being so distracted and stupid. "Yeah, that's totally a thing," she nodded as she saw the realization on his face. "I appreciate the fact that you've decided to give me a chance, Mr. Diggle, no matter how small it is."
"Dig," Oliver groaned. "We've been compromised-"
"Oh please," Felicity scoffed. "I knew about Mr. Diggle before you decided to speak to him over that nifty little communication device."
Oliver shot her a suspicious glare. "Really?" he questioned skeptically. Of course, since he knew that she had known about his own identity, it made sense that she had somehow known about Diggle too. The hybrid seemed to know way too much about their secret operation.
"Of course I did," Felicity rolled her eyes. "How else do you think I knew who to send that message to?"
Once again, silence fell between them.
It made a lot more sense now; the way she had magically appeared when all hope seemed lost, how she had known where to find him... She had been following him because she had been keeping an eye on him while he was looking for her, because she knew that he would be looking for her. She had been the one to send him the message. She had been the one who wanted him to find her.
But why?
Why risk her own life, knowing that he was a hunter, only so that she could meet him?
"Oliver," Diggle spoke up in his ear. "Bring her to the Foundry."
There wasn't a question that Diggle was right. This new revelation that Felicity had wanted him to find her raised a lot of questions that he needed the answer to before he could decide what to do next.
Without another word, he raised his hand and pulled back his hood. He allowed her to see his face for the first time as a sign of his resignation.
The smile that spread across her face, told him that she knew that he had given in.
Note: Ooooooooh! Some of you might have called it, but YES, Felicity is the one who sent the mysterious messages! Why would she do that? Why would she want the Hunter after herself? What do you guys think? ;)
Oh, also, I've forgotten to mention that the first four chapters of this story all take place in the span of 24 hours. Then, we'll be making jumps ahead in time as relationships develop and the plot goes forward! ^^
And I've been debating on which day to post this story, and right now, I'm thinking Fridays would be good... (I know it's Thursday, guys.) What do you think? From now on, I'll either post new chapters on Fridays OR, if you want, I can post them on Wednesdays, like I did with Crumbled Papers (if you read that one)? Tell me what you'd like!
Thank you so much for reading and please don't forget that feedback is always welcome! =)
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