Excerpt: The Hunt Never Ends

Jayde blocked each of her blows seamlessly, grunting slightly as fatigue set in. They'd been fighting like this for hours, neither of them giving in. This fight was life or death, and she could not afford to lose.
They parted for a moment to take a breath. Jayde wiped her cheek where a single blow had made it past.
“Third blood, Jayde, I've almost won,” Scarlet taunted, checking her body for cuts and only finding two.
Jayde launched herself at Scarlet while her guard was down. Her dagger found its mark, cutting deeply into her right shoulder.
They both backed away, Scarlet trying to stop the bleeding and Jayde wiping the blood on her calf-skin pants above a still-bleeding cut.
“Are you so certain?” Jayde taunted.
Scarlet tried the same move, but Jayde quickly dove behind a tree and heard the dagger bury itself in the wood.
Jayde crouched in the moss at the base of the tree, all seven of her senses ready to react. Scarlet's aura was pulsing, hanging onto life as it poured into the air. Each wound she received made her easier to track.
The sudden change from anger to fear made Scarlet prey.
She ran as fast as she could through the clearings between the ancient trees, but her injury hampered her progress. She clutched her final dagger in her left hand, hanging on to it for dear life.
Jayde walked slowly behind her, letting her prey wear herself out. When she finally felt her aura waver, she sprinted to her, her daggers ready and waiting in her belt if she needed them. If she had any choice in the matter, she was going to finish this in hand-to-hand combat.
She tackled Scarlet from behind and they tumbled to the ground. Scarlet still had her dagger, something that Jayde and not planned on.
Scarlet's dagger raked Jayde's forearm, creating a gash to match the one on her own shoulder.
Jayde hissed in pain as she went for her daggers, immediately going for the major killing points. One of her daggers hit her in the right hip and the other skimmed across the left side of her waist.
She dove at her again, knocking away her final dagger. Pinned to the ground, Scarlet could not fight back as Jayde shoved her dagger into her breastplate.
Clearly in pain, Scarlet screamed “Save me!”
She vanished from beneath Jayde who fell onto her knees through the space that Scarlet had been.
Jayde let out an angry yell as she pounded the ground with her fists. She would not live down this loss. Her opponent had been an inch from death and she had not silenced her forever.
She slowly stood up and wiped her daggers off and returned them to the sheaths at her waist. Taking a deep calming breath she returned her well-cultivated reserve she needed to face her brethren.
**********
She looked up to see a an older man comforting a very surprised young girl with eyes the color of newly spilt blood.
“Scarlet,” she crooned, “you've been a very bad girl.”
“Jayde, you've tracked me quicker than I would have thought. You are very skilled, but I've heard of your record. You wouldn't dare kill a child, even if they are your enemy,” she exuded confidence.
Jayde smiled and pulled out the dagger that she had used only hours before, “Not if they stand between me and my goal.”
Scarlet tried to escape quickly, but she was still not used to her new body. Jayde slit her throat with one quick movement.
Scarlet fell dead at her feet and Jayde felt Scarlet's life pouring into her.
Jayde smiled at Scarlet's companion, “She was my target. She had to die.”
The strange shade of his eyes caught her attention. The pinkish-purple irises followed her every movement.
She drew both daggers and prepared to fight. Colors like that did not happen naturally, he was a killer and the killed.
“Who are you?” she asked with a sense of urgency.
“My enemies call me their number one opponent.”
“Are you friend or foe?”
“You just killed one of my most easily tricked enemies.”
“So, are you friend or foe?”
“I don't know. You are a hunter and might be after my head.”
“You're a hunter, too,” she quipped.
They stood there in silence for a moment before he took out a piece of parchment.
“Do you recognize him?” he asked, handing it to her.
She looked at it for a moment, only registering the face of her brother and the ten thousand frets being given for him dead.
She dropped it and held her dagger in a better grasp.
“Where did you get that wanted poster?” she yelled at him, her eyes searching the woods nearby.