I was just glad the guy wasn’t dead. “What was that light?”
“UV bullets,” he replied. “Once you get past the ranges, you will use them.”
“Oh.” I said. I looked out the window first and then raised an eyebrow. “Why didn’t you use them the first time we met, when my mom was killed?”
“Sometimes, it’s just as easy to fight.” He paused and our eyes met. “When you do this your whole life, being able to actually kill something that is supposed to be evil and immortal is something you take pride in. Most of us love the fight too. But this was a newborn vampire. The ones who murdered your mother were very, very old and these UV bullets would have been like a poke in the eye to them.”
“It’s okay. I was just wondering. What about her eyes? The guys who killed my mother didn’t have red eyes.”
“She was recently changed and for a few years after the change their eyes turn red right before they feed and for a while after, like…uhm, the best way to explain it is like a human’s reaction when they are turned on sexually.”
“Oh.” See, I needed to learn this stuff. “They should teach us this in school.”
Drew looked tired. He brushed his hair back with his hand. “They do. When you’re a junior, you’ll start those studies. Let’s go in.”
He grabbed a couple of my bags and exited the truck. Once we were inside, he set down the bags. The house was quiet. Luke was obviously asleep.
“Chloe, will you be okay?” Drew asked quietly.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine. Are you going to get up and run with me in the morning?”
He nodded. “Uh huh, but I need to go to bed. Good night, Chloe.”
He affectionately brushed my bangs back and tucked them behind my ear. I wasn’t used to affection of any kind from him. I backed away.
I choked out a hasty, " 'Night, Drew,”
I grabbed the bags and fled to the stairs as fast as I could. Once in my room, I shut my bedroom door, dropping my bags on the floor. Without warning, I burst into tears. I could not believe I was crying. Completely ridiculous. I really needed to toughen up. Wiping at my wet face and snotty nose, I fell onto my bed and buried myself beneath the comfort of my blankets.
While the tears continued to fall, the only thing I could think of to get tougher was to train harder. My mother must have been a completely different person than the one I knew. I couldn’t imagine what she must have gone through during those years she spent trying to protect me. I had to make it up to her.
My mother had dedicated her life to protecting me from vampires. The least I could do was honor her memory by protecting myself from them. If I didn’t, the last fifteen years of her life would have been a waste.
I reached over and took her picture off the nightstand. Gently, I ran my fingertips over the glass. “I promise to do better, Mom.”
I pulled the picture against my chest and hugged it.
“Please help me, Mom. If you’re up there, watching me fail, then please help me. Help me find the strength to be stronger and better.” More tears poured out of the corners of my eyes and slid down my cheeks. “I need you, Mom.”
There was no sign, no really cool ghost of my mom that came down and gave me this super lecture on how great I could be. There was only silence.
Silence and tears.
THE VAMPIRE HUNTER'S DAUGHTER
PART III
BECOMING
I thought Christmas at Luke’s would be quiet since it would be only him, Drew and me. It turned out that every Christmas, Luke threw a big ol’ shindig for anyone who wanted to come.
Vampire-hunter Christmas really isn’t much different from Christmas anywhere else, except that vampire hunters love to give each other weapons. Drew had given me a gun for my fifteenth birthday, and it wasn’t until the big party that I understood why he gave me a gun. I can’t even begin to count how many of the gifts exchanged were weapons. There was one that was really, really cool though. Charlie, who worked at the video store, gave his brother Joe an awesome gadget he could fit inside his pocket. When a little button on the side was pushed, it turned into a full-sized bow. It was pretty wicked.
Because Drew had given me the gun for my birthday, which I totally adored, I’d decided I needed to give him something really great, too. It took forever, but I finally found some throwing stars. They were real silver and I had them engraved with different sayings like: ‘Vampires Suck’, ‘Stick it’, ‘Bite Me’, ‘Suck on This’ and ‘Got Stake’. Everyone who was there when he opened the stars passed them around laughing at the quirky little sayings.
“Thank you, Chloe.” He leaned over and gave me a side hug.
I shrugged like it was nothing. “No prob.”
The entire day was full of activities I didn’t want to do. Everyone was singing carols by the piano and playing charades in the living room, so I found a comfy spot on the window seat by the Christmas tree.
Even with all the people around, I still felt lonely. The lights on the tree blinked their colored pattern over and over again: red, blue, green, yellow, white, red, blue, green, yellow, white, lighting up the whole tree with their beautiful glow.
“What’s the matter?” Drew asked. He sat beside me.
“I want to see my mom,” I told him without looking away from the tree.
“You know that isn’t possible, Chloe.”
“No, I mean, I want to go to her grave. I haven’t seen her since the night she died. I don’t even know where she is buried.”
“I can take you.”
I looked up at him. His eyes were soft and sympathetic, not his usual intensity. “Do you know where she is?”
Drew nodded and brushed some of his blond hair away from his eyes. “She’s here, in the cemetery.”
“You guys even have your own cemetery?”
“Do you want to go tomorrow?”
“No, I want to go now.”
Drew raised his eyebrows. “Tonight? It’s dark outside.”
I looked over at him and rolled my eyes. “I don’t care if it’s dark. I want my mom.”
He jumped to his feet and held out his hand. “Come on.”
So we bundled up in our winter gear and headed out the door. I expected Luke to spot us and ask where we were going so late, but no one seemed to notice us when we slipped out the door.
The night was partly cloudy, allowing the moon to shine down onto the blanket of snow, giving the world an almost greenish glow.
As we rode through town in Drew’s rumbling old truck, I stared out the window. Twinkling Christmas lights and yard ornaments lit up the streets, and this year, the decorating committee had really gone all out. It reminded me of watching old movies, the whole town covered in holiday cheer. Lamp posts held wreaths and gigantic red bows. Every establishment had painted windows and colorful lights. Everywhere I looked, there was something shiny.
My mom used to climb up on the roof by herself every year and staple the lights onto the perimeter. She also had me lug out an entire nativity scene that was to be placed on the lawn in front of the winter wilted rose bushes.
The cemetery was on the farthest end of the small town. When we arrived, Drew parked the truck in front of the large wrought iron gates. I hopped out of the truck and looked around. The cemetery had florescent street lights scattered among the gravestones. Great big maple trees provided a cover for most of the plots, so minimal snow had accumulated on them.
Even though I said I wasn’t nervous, I suddenly felt chills, and not from the cold.
Drew came around from the driver’s side. He must have sensed my sudden case of nerves because he reached out and took my gloved hand in his. “Ready?”
I nodded. As soon as we passed through the gates, I felt something. The only way I could explain it would be that it felt like a rush of power.
“Over here.” Drew directed me toward a bunch of plots near the gigantic roots of a tree.
There had not been a funeral for my mom. She had left it in he
r last will and testament that she didn’t want one. Knowing my mother, she probably thought it would be easier for me.
It wasn’t.
I saw the gravestone then. It was a simple but large rectangle with a curved top.
Felicia Annabeth Kallistrate
Loving mother and loyal hunter
Gone but never forgotten.
“Mom.” I released Drew’s hand and fell to my knees, brushing away the little bits of snow that had managed to get through the branches of the tree. There were tons of flowers all over her grave, still colorful and vibrant but frozen from the snow and cold.
“Mom, its Christmas today.” I organized some of the flowers over the dirt while I spoke to her. “My first Christmas without you.”
Tears that I had assumed had been all cried out surfaced from the corners of my eyes and slid down my cheeks. Not really knowing what to say to someone I love who would never answer back, I just sat there and cried and cried some more.
Drew didn’t say anything, but I knew he was back there watching me. Normally, I wouldn’t want him to see me blubbering all over the place, but for once, I didn’t care. I just wanted to be near her. It wasn’t because I had a whole speech prepared or wanted to sit and ramble about my days. I needed our souls to touch, like they used to.
And so, for a whole half an hour, I sat on her grave and sobbed.
Drew let me be until snowflakes began to drift down from the sky. “Come on, Chloe. We have to go now.”
With tears still staining my cheeks, I gave my mother’s grave one last caress and then stood. “All right, I’m ready.”
Drew took my hand again and led me between the plots as best as we could manage. The air outside had chilled even more than when we arrived. It was cold. Really cold. When we approached the gates, warmth suddenly filled my stomach and spread through my body.
“Oh, my… what the heck?” I clutched my stomach as the tingling spread all the way into my fingertips.
“Are you okay?” Drew asked. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know.” I shook my head. Tears threatened to surface again. “I don’t know.”
“It’s your senses, Chloe, telling you something is off.”
Drew and I both spun around and Drew whipped his gun out from underneath his jacket.
“Who are you?” Drew yelled.
There, sitting atop one of the gravestones, bathed in the green glow of florescent lights, was a woman. Even though it was freezing, she barely wore anything, and what she did have on looked like leather wrapped around her body and a halter top with crude lacing holding it together. Snowflakes drifted down and passed through her tanned skin, dissolving into nowhere.
“How do you know me?” I shouted. “Who are you?”
My stomach was still flooded with warmth, and it made me feel like I had to pee. I wished I had brought my gun.
She clicked her tongue and tossed a wave of dark brown hair over her shoulder. “You do not need your weapons, my children. I do not come to harm.”
She slid off the gravestone, and I watched her bare feet sink into the snow. They left no footprints.
“Who are you?” Drew demanded again.
She moved forward slowly. “I am your mother, many times over.”
This chick scared me. Was she a ghost? I moved backward a few steps as she approached, using Drew as a shield, since he had the gun.
She smiled, her dark eyes intently focusing on Drew. “Andrew, lower your weapon. You cannot harm me.”
As if under a spell, Drew lowered his arms and his gun came to rest by his side. “What do you want?”
“I am here to help, Chloe.” She nodded at me and smiled. “You need the help of your ancestors. Your mother cannot help you, so I have come to give you guidance.”
The warmth in my stomach turned into fire in my heart. I can’t explain it, but I felt the connection with this apparition. I moved out from behind Drew.
“Who are you?” I whispered.
She lifted her chin arrogantly. “I am Sostrate, the daughter of Artemis, and as I have told you already, your mother, many times over.”
“Why are you here?”
“I have come to give you the guidance your mother cannot give you. It is my duty.”
“Are you a ghost?”
She only shook her head and gave me a crooked grin. “I am a demi-goddess. I gained immortality from my mother. I do not come as an apparition, because I cannot die.”
“Holy shit.” Drew actually dropped his gun in the snow.
I moved forward, not afraid anymore. I knew she was who she said she was. As we approached each other, I stretched out my hand, wanting to touch her. She also extended her hand and as my gloved fingers connected with the solid fingertips of hers, I gasped. “You’re real.”
She nodded. “Of course.”
“Sostrate,” I pulled my hand from hers, “How can you help me?”
“Chloe, it is time that you think with a clear head. Revenge has taken over your heart and your soul, taken over so much of you that you cannot possibly win this battle. It takes more than thinking with your brain. You must fight with love,” she pressed her fist against her heart “not only hatred.”
“I don’t understand,” I told her.
“Wars are not won because of hatred for the enemy; they are won because of love for what is being defended.”
“Told you,” Drew whispered from behind me.
“Shut up!” I hissed back at him.
“Chloe, I am going to give you something tonight, and I want you to remember to use it with love. The vampire is a monstrous creature, and you are created from them as well as angels and gods, so it is easy for you to hate.”
“I don’t think I can ever feel differently about this. He killed my mother.”
She lifted a bow out of thin air from behind her.
“You take this, Chloe,” she extended the bow out to me, “and every time you release an arrow, imagine how much you loved your mother, not how much you hate her murderer.”
She handed me a hard leather quiver full of arrows that she also plucked from thin air. The quiver had ornate carvings of little swirls and shapes along its borders. I examined the bow, which also bore carvings of swirls and shapes. It was very light; I imagined that would make it easy to carry.
“But, Sostrate, we are hunters… how can we not use hate as a weapon? Shouldn’t it drive us harder?”
Sostrate began to back away from us. With a final smile and nod she whispered, “We love to hunt.”
And then, she was gone.
“Oh. My. God.” I breathed.
“What the hell?” Drew whispered.
I had never seen Drew freeze like that before. He was in awe. A mythological demi-goddess had just appeared before us, and I held in my hands gifts from the gods, quite literally. The tingling feeling began to spread again. The more I tried to ignore it, the worse it got. I clutched my fingers around the bow even tighter and slung the quiver on to my shoulder.
“Let’s go home, Drew.”
Drew nodded and continued to stare at the spot where Sostrate had appeared.
“C’mon, Drew! It’s freezing out here.” I trudged through the snow and out the gates. As soon as I passed through the gates, the tingling went away.
I woke the next morning certain our visit from Sostrate had been a dream. My gaze drifted over to the chair where I had propped the bow and quiver. Sure enough, they were still there, looking as normal as if I had bought them at a sporting goods store instead of from our demi-goddess ancestor.
I sighed and rolled over. It was still Christmas vacation. I didn’t have to go to school, but I still had to train every day. I lay there for so long I knew Drew was downstairs pacing the living room, waiting for me. I threw back the covers and let the cold air touch my bare legs for a minute before I forced myself to get up and throw on a pair of black yoga pants with a tank top and hoodie. I pulled my hair into a crude ponytail, put on a windbreaker o
ver the hoodie and headed downstairs.
As I had suspected, Drew was pacing the living room while the news blared in the background. “Turn that down or you’re going to wake up Luke. It’s still early.”
Drew rolled his eyes at me and clicked off the TV. “There were six robberies within a four-block radius last night. All the people in the homes died, their throats slit,” he announced and then continued his pacing.
“Does that mean you’re going on mission?” I called from the kitchen where I had gone for a bottle of water.
“Yeah, but probably not until tonight.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe how bad this is getting, so close together.”
I wandered back into the living room “How do you know it's vampires doing it?”
Drew grabbed his own water bottle and shoved it into his back pack. “Lots of vampires cut the throats of their victims to make it look like a murder. A murder by a human. You ready?”
I nodded, and we took off.
Running through the snow sucks big time. On my list of things I hate most about training, running in the snow was probably in the top three. Apparently it was of the utmost importance to learn to run in the elements, because I might have to chase a vampire through the snow or something.
While we ran, Drew veered off into the trails. The snow was actually not as deep in the forest, so we crunched over the icy layer on top of the soil. We were deep in the forest when I began to really detest the slippery ground.
It had become my habit to push through it when I felt this way. I dug in and ran faster. I breathed in deep with my nose and exhaled long with my mouth, forcing the fatigue out of my body. I could feel my heart thumping in my chest, pounding rapidly as the blood pulsed throughout my body.
I dipped my head down and sped up again, passing Drew who jumped a little bit when I did. I smiled with triumph when I passed him, because the whole time I had been running and training with Drew, I had never, ever passed him.
The Vampire Hunter's Daughter: Complete Collection Page 5