Chapter 4
2015 (present day)
Maya was six years old when the Hale fire happened. She was six years old when Kate, unknowingly, saved her from the Hales. Twice. And she was six years old when she became a wolf.
Chris never wanted his daughter, Allison, to be a part of the supernatural world. But if Allison wasn’t trained, their families legacy would die with them. So when Kate saw a small child, who was alone and hurt because of werewolves, she took her under her wing. But it wasn’t maternal instincts that made her do that, she saw the child as her golden opportunity to continue the family legacy.
All of this happened almost ten years ago. In those years Maya became one of the best hunters. And she hated it. She didn’t hate it because of the killing, well she did, but the real reason for her hatred was the fact that she knew who she was. A Bennett. And not just any Bennett, the last one.
The Argents hated supernaturals, but there was one thing they hated more — traitors. Maya was certain that if Kate ever found out her secret, she would kill her. She also knew that her death wouldn’t be a swift and painless one, but instead a slow, drawn out process filled with pain.
She wasn’t stupid, she knew that Kate didn’t care about her, in fact the only Argent that cared about her was Allison. But that was because Allison was naive, she didn’t know anything about her family and what they do, what she does, all she cared about was that she now had a sister.She only called Kate ‘mom’ when Allison was around or in public events. At home she addressed her as ma’am. She knew that as long as she was an asset, the Argents would provide for her, but the moment she became a liability, they would kill her without thinking twice.
Maya hardly slept. Her nights were plagued with the memories of her mother dying, the fire and any other death she had witnessed or caused. So every night she would got to sleep only to be woken up by a nightmare a couple of hours later and then spend the remaining night training.
Like any newbie, Maya’s training began with hand-to-hand combat. But as the years passed a variety of weapons became familiar to her— daggers, katanas, bows and guns. She trained twice as hard and ended up with twice as many injuries. And as a hunter, she learnt how to take care of her injuries, even stitches, but more importantly she learnt how to get up and continue fighting after getting injured. She never broke down or showed any signs of weakness in front of other hunters. But every night, alone in the training room, she would break down and every morning, before the sun rises, she would build herself up again. She was a great fighter and a loyal soldier.
As an attempt to seem like a normal family, she had to go to school. But she wasn’t allowed to make friends or like someone, or as Kate put it,’ friends and boyfriends are just distractions that we can’t afford’. So Maya went to school every morning, came home directly, finished her homework and went to ‘work’ or trained.
When they went to hunt a single or just a few supernaturals, they had a simple plan— find the target and kill them. But when their target was a coven or a pack, the strategy was a little more complicated.
On one of her earlier hunts, Maya had been captured by a pack of wolves, and when the backup came she freed herself and took them down from the inside, while the others attacked from the outside. Since that day, every time they went after a pack of wolves, they used the same strategy. Maya goes in, gets ‘caught’, gets hurt a little(a lot), other hunters surround the cave, she frees herself from the ropes or chains, and they attack from all sides.
Using Maya as a bait also gave Kate a leeway with the Argent code. She never really liked the code, but Chris followed it religiously. She didn’t want to start a fight with her brother. So every time that he questioned her, she would always have the same reply,’ They held Maya captive. They went after one of us so we went after them’. And Chris could never argue with that.
Today was one of those days. They were in a small town near California, and they had a lead on a pack of wolves. It was supposed to be a simple mission. But it wasn’t.
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Maya was sitting in her room with Allison when Kate and Chris walked in. Maya knew why they were there, they had a job.
Chris told Allison to go to her room to sleep. And she started whining about how she was old enough to not have a ‘bed time’. But she still went to her room and closed the door.
The moment they heard the door close, Kate dropped her mother act, Chris stopped smiling and Maya stood up straight in front of them. They all were no longer a family but hunters.
“Get ready, we leave in ten.” Kate ordered.
“Pack or individual?” Maya knew that she may not get a answer, but tried anyway. And to her surprise Chris answered.
“Pack. And we aren’t going to kill them. They haven’t done anything to us. Don’t forget our code.” And with that he left.
Before Kate could say anything, Maya spoke again. “Same plan?”
“You are a smart kid. Yes, same plan. Now get ready.” And she left too.
Maya got to work quickly. She changed her clothes, tied up her hair, redressed some of her previous injuries and picked up her weapons. Maya preferred her daggers and katana for such jobs because they were easy to hide. She had a magical katana belt and two similar daggers which she wore as bracelets. She knew that these were taken from a kitsune. Kate had gifted them to her after she successfully helped them in one of their hunts. Their handles had Maya’s name engraved in them in Viking. Her katana was technically two katanas stacked on each other, connected at the handle, but it was sharp enough to use it as a single blade. This also meant that she could use them as two separate blades or use it as a double sided blade, keeping the two blades connected at the handle. The katana was forged using tremendous amount of magic.
Chris had told her to name it, apparently all great weapons need to have a name. So she named her katana Fire. One of her daggers was called Mystic and the other Oak. When Chris asked her why she those names, she told him that it was a fire that changed her life, that saved her and the other two just felt right. Neither realising the real connection between the names for her daggers and her old life.
After getting ready, she went down and was greeted with the sight of eight hunters, including Kate and Chris, completely equipped. They all got into two cars and drove towards the forest. Once they reached there all of them split up and went into different directions.
Maya moved closer to the cave the pack was using, hoping to get caught. Within ten minutes of reaching close proximity of the cave, she was knocked out. And when five minutes after that no one heard from her, Kate knew that their plan was in action.
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When Maya regained consciousness she noticed three things, first that she was chained to a fence, second that her weapons were taken from her and third that there were a ridiculous number of wolves in the pack. She knew she was screwed.
The moment the alpha realised that their hostage had woken up, he greeted her with a punch to her stomach, hoping to get some kind of reaction from her, but the only thing he got was a death stare.
Maya used her wolf hearing to locate Kate. But what she heard made her realise just how fucked she was.
“If we go in, we will die.” She heard Kate say.
“We can’t just let her die. She’s a kid. She’s one of us.” Hearing Chris say that gave her a glimmer hope, but she lost it when she heard what Kate said next.
“She’s a hunter, not a child. She knew the risks. We can’t risk all of our lives just to save one person. Besides she was never an Argent, she’s just a stray.We need to leave. Now.”
Chris abandoned everything he was feeling for the girl who was year younger than his daughter and took the role of a heartless hunter again.
“You’re right. We need to go.”
And with one final look at the cave, they left.
Maya heard the sound of their receding footsteps. She closed her eyes and tried to calm down. When she opened her eyes again, she was greeted with the face of a grinning alpha. That’s when she knew that he heard everything. She never stopped glaring at him. She wasn’t going to show any signs of weakness.
“Your family isn’t coming to save you kid.” He and his packed laughed.
Maya didn’t say anything.
The pack stopped laughing just as the alpha spoke again.
“You came to my home, to kill my family with your little weapon.” He picked up Fire and spoke again,”I think its only fair if I give you a taste of your own medicine.” He walked closer to her, till he was right in front of her,”What do you think?”
Before she could say anything, the remaining pack nodded in agreement. She knew there was nothing she could say to change their opinion. There was only one thing she could do. Accept her fate.
“Do your worst.” She spat.
That angered the alpha and he rammed the blade into her stomach, he pulled it out and threw it on the ground. He picked up Mystic and lodged it into her heart.
Slowly Maya drifted into unconsciousness. With a small, peaceful, smile on her face.
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A little while later Maya woke up again, with Mystic still lodged into her heart and Fire and Oak lying next to her feet.
The wolves didn’t realise her new state. She used it as her advantage and pulled on her chains, which broke almost instantly. But she wasn’t quite enough and the entire pack looked at her with shock clearly shown on their faces. She removed Mystic and put it around her wrist, she then picked up both Fire and Oak and took a fighting position. This broke the wolves from their trance and all hell broke loose.
They started attacking Maya and she fought back. With her new strength, speed and hunger for blood, along with her training and anger, she was able to kill all of them with ease. Then there was only the alpha left.
“What are you?” The fear was evident in his voice.
“A legend.” She replied, with new-found courage, before plunging Oak into his heart. She wore both her weapons again.
She knew she had to feed to survive. She went to the body of one of the only few human pack members, and drank their blood.
The moment she finished drinking, she came back to her senses. She looked around the cave in pure horror, she couldn’t believe she did this. She didn’t know what to do, so she ran back home, hoping to find some help.
By the time she went back, the only person awake was Chris. He didn’t understand how she was still alive. No single hunter could fight and win against an entire pack. Realisation struck when he saw that she couldn’t enter the house. Before she could say anything he pulled out his gun and pointed it towards her.
“You need to leave. I don’t want to kill you. But if someone else sees you they won’t hesitate to kill you.” He didn’t know where that came from. He should kill her. But he knows she’s just a child. She didn’t deserve this.
When she made no sign of leaving. He shot the first bullet near her feet. She still didn’t move, so he shot her shoulder. Maya looked at him with hurt in her eyes, turned around and ran. But not before hearing a small ‘I’m sorry’ from him.
She had no idea of where she was going, but she kept running. She stopped when she reached a sign that said ‘Welcome To Beacon Hill’. She didn’t know why she came back here. She couldn’t enter the town covered in blood, so she entered the forest instead.
She walked till she found a beautiful home in the middle of the forest. She was confused when she saw the house, but she was even more confused when she could enter the house. She found clothes that would fit her and took a shower to wash away all the blood. She couldn’t understand why this house felt safe. Or why she could enter it without an invitation. She decided that worrying about the house was tomorrow problem.
She got into a bed and fell asleep.
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Maya was sixteen when she died. She was sixteen when she became a vampire. She was sixteen years old when she became the quadrabryd ( I don’t know what to call it). And She was sixteen years old when her entire life changed.
The only question?
Was the change for better or for worse?