Chapter 24: Chapter 24

PRESENT

CHAPTER 16: DESTINY FULFILLED

DIANA

“Diana, this is Lucas, he will be your trainer for the remainder of your stay.”

“Lucas Hall?” I exclaimed in surprise, as Mae introduced me to my trainer. It was early morning and I barely had time for breakfast before she drove me off to a cabin in the woods where I would have my first official day of training. I don’t know what I expected when she said that she would not be the one personally training me, but I certainly never imagined that I would come to face to face with someone from home, much less Roman’s older brother who had supposedly been away at college for the past two years.

“How’s it going, girl?” he said with a wink, “long time no see.” He stared at my shocked face for a moment. “You look a bit surprised,” he added with amusement.

“That’s because I am. You’re a hunter? I thought you were at college,” I said.

“I’ll leave you two to it,” said Mae. She stepped away, leaving us alone on the cabin porch.

“University of Vampire Hunting,” Lucas responded, with a bright smile. “At least that’s what I like to call my intense training. I was only here one summer to learn how to hunt but I loved it so much I decided to move out here and become a trainer myself. Roman trained with me last year, but he didn’t want to stay. Guess he loved partying with his friends too much…”

His expression saddened when talking about Roman, as would be expected when one is talking about their recently deceased sibling. He shook his head a bit.

“Maybe if he didn’t, he’d still be with us today. Pretty stupid to go drunkenly roaming around the woods at night,” he continued.

“I’m really sorry about what happened to him, Lucas,” I said sincerely. “The animal situation back home is out of control. I don’t know if you heard, but Oliver was attacked too, shortly after Roman.”

Lucas laughed. I stared at him in confusion, not knowing what could possibly be funny about the situation.

“You came all the way to Romania to learn vampire hunting and you still think Roman and Oliver were attacked by an animal?”

It took a moment for me to understand what he was getting at.

“You mean….?”

“They were attacked by a beast, alright, but it wasn’t a fucking bear like the news is saying,” he said with a sneer. “It was a vampire.”

I don’t know why I felt shocked after what Mae had told me about my parents possibly being killed by vampires. If that were true, then it was obvious there were vampires back home. I guess it just felt strange knowing that the place you grew up in and lived in your entire life wasn’t at all what you thought it was.

“Mae said that my parents’ death wasn’t an accident…” I said.

“I would say that she’s right about that,” he replied. “I was sad to hear about what happened to them, by the way. They were good people and fantastic hunters.”

“Thank you,” I said.

“Anyway, we better make use of the day,” he said, checking the time on his watch. “You’ve got a lot to learn.”

He opened the door to the cabin and motioned for me to go inside.

“Welcome to vampire hunting 101.”

---

Over the next half hour, Lucas explained everything there is to know about vampire hunting. I had read about most of it in Iosif’s journal, but it was helpful to listen to everything more in depth, as well as seeing all of the hunting weapons I’d read about – plus some new ones – in the flesh. Lucas didn’t live in the cabin; it was simply his classroom of sorts, and it was fascinating to look at all of the interesting gadgets that were in there.

Shelf upon shelf of books, weapons and vials filled with various concoctions all meant to help hunters do their job. One wall contained rows of long, carved pieces of wood with sharpened tips. Lucas reached out and took one down.

“This is a stake,” he said. “They’re made out of – you guessed it – wood, but not just any kind of wood. The most effective stakes are made from ash, willow, hawthorne, aspen, or juniper. This one is hawthorne.”

He passed it over to me. I felt a rush go through me upon feeling the wood in my grip. It felt so natural as if had been meant to be there all of my life.

“Whoa,” I couldn’t help but say out loud.

“Neat, huh?” he replied.

“I’ll say,” I breathed. “Now I know what Harry Potter felt like when he found the right wand.”

Lucas laughed at the reference and nodded, “Yeah, being born to hunter parents doesn’t mean you have to become a hunter yourself, but most of us can’t turn it down once we are surrounded by all of this stuff. It’s in our history and our blood.”

He was right. I could feel the mere fact that hunting was in my blood just being in that cabin surrounded by all of things I’d read about in Iosif’s journal. This is what he died for and what he had hoped his family would carry on for generations to come. I never imagined I’d ever do anything like this in my life. I mean, until yesterday I didn’t even know that vampires were real, but being here with this stake in my hand, I knew that vampire hunting was my calling.

“What else do you have to show me?” I asked eagerly.

Lucas grinned and turned to another wall that carried several rows of guns, “Our gun collection, which is my personal favorite. Now, the guns themselves are just your average, run of the mill guns,” he said, taking one down and emptying its case. Several silver bullets tumbled out onto his palm. “They aren’t unique to vampire hunting, the bullets, however, are.”

He handed me one so that I could look at it more closely. I held it at eye level and inspected it carefully but didn’t see anything that stood out to me, not that I knew much about bullets or guns anyway.

“What’s unique about them?” I asked.

“In appearance, nothing,” he explained. “It’s what is inside of them that set them apart from other bullets. They’re called kadas and they are laced with vervain.”

“I read about that,” I said. “It’s an herb that weakens the vampires, right?”

“Good job, Aguero,” he said, clapping his hands at my correct answer, “A+.”

“Glad I’m not totally clueless,” I grinned.

“Oh, you’re very well prepared compared to some others I’ve trained, including Roman,” he chuckled at the memory of his brother. “Anyway, as you said, vervain only weakens them, so these bullets don’t kill them, they’ll just make them less strong, so you have a better chance at staking them. Always aim for the heart. The closer you get to it, the better.”

“What happens if you shoot them in the head and turn their brains to mush?” I asked. This was something that was not covered in Iosif’s teachings. Vervain bullets must have been a more modern invention.

“It grows back,” he responded.

“Like a lizard’s tail?” I asked, struggling to picture it.

“Way more disgusting,” he said, wrinkling his nose. “Anyway—”

He started to say something else when my phone made a noise that I knew as an incoming text message. I instinctively took it out of my pocket to look at it and could see that it was from Gualtiero, but before I could read it, Lucas snatched it out of my hands.

“Hey!” I exclaimed. “Give it back.”

“Sure,” he said. “When you’ve completed your training. Trainees are not allowed cellphones, they are too distracting and when it comes to matters of life and death, you need all the focus you can get.”

“You can’t be serious,” I said, narrowing my eyes. “What if it’s an emergency?”

“I’m sure that when your boyfriend says that he’s ‘dying without you’ he doesn’t mean it literally,” he smirked.

“Wait, how do you know about my boyfriend?” I asked, surprised. Gualtiero and I had just started going out when he dropped me off at the airport to come here. It wasn’t exactly common knowledge that we were together.

“You just told me,” he responded with a laugh.

I rolled my eyes. “Come on, give it back. I promise I won’t look at it during training.”

“Sorry, can’t risk you staying up until the wee hours chatting with your man and not getting any sleep. I’m not discriminating, Diana, it’s just one of our rules. Cellphones and vampire hunting do not mix. Theodosia must have been too excited to have her great-great-whatever granddaughter around and forgot to confiscate it herself.”

I sighed, realizing I was a fighting a losing battle. “Fine,” I said, bitterly. I wasn’t happy about this turn of events at all, especially knowing that Gualtiero was trying to reach me. It’s not like I was going home the next day, I was staying in Romania for at least a week. What if he started to think I was ghosting him? The thought that this could bring problems to my relationship before it has barely even begun made me very nervous, but I knew I had to focus. Gualtiero would understand if I told him that I was having some connection issues. I didn’t like having to lie, but it wasn’t like I could tell him the truth, right?

“As I was saying,” Lucas continued, after locking my phone away in a cabinet. “Vervain is a very important herb to us hunters for obvious reasons. We use it in a variety of different ways.”

He led me over to the shelf filled with vials, among other things.

“Tea, soap, perfume, you name it. We even have vervain infused snacks. Here, try one,” he said, tossing me a hard candy. “You’re going to need to start ingesting the stuff and getting it into your system just in case you find yourself in one of those monsters’ grips. You do know how to spot them, don’t you?”

“I think so,” I said, unwrapping the candy and popping it into my mouth. I had sort of expected it to taste gross, but the taste of vervain was surprisingly absent. It just tasted like a regular strawberry hard candy. “They’re pale, they have fangs…”

Lucas made a buzzer sound, interrupting me. “Wrong. Not all vampires are pale. Sure, they can’t tan, and lighter skinned vampires will appear pale, but there are vampires of all skin colors and ethnicities, so don’t rely solely on pale skin. Their fangs are also retractable, so unless one is about to bite you, you likely won’t see them.”

This gave me something to think about. I hadn’t considered that I might not be able to spot a vampire if it were trying to disguise itself to me. The thought gave me an involuntary shudder.

“So, how do you spot them?” I asked.

“Well, they’re devastatingly beautiful or handsome, for one,” he said.

I raised my eyebrow at this, amused that the first thought that came to my head was Gualtiero, although the idea that he could be a vampire was laughable.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Lucas continued, flashing me a brilliant smile, “but don’t worry, despite being devastatingly handsome, I am not a vampire.”

I had to laugh at that. “Oh, you’re right. That’s exactly what I was thinking,” I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes.

“Vampires are extremely cunning, so you have to be careful. They are masters at blending in with the human race because they depend on that skill in order to lure in their prey. The first clue that you’re dealing with a vampire is that they never, ever go out in the sunlight because it kills them. If you find yourself in the company of someone who you only ever see at night, think about if you never see them eat, if they stay away from cameras or mirrors, or if they have ice cold skin.”

I almost choked on my candy at these words because again, they reminded of Gualtiero. But surely, that was ridiculous, wasn’t it? However, I had to admit I’d never seen Gualtiero out during the daytime and I’d never actually seen him eat. I thought back to that time at the coffee shop when he left without even touching his drink. And he was always so cold…

Snap out of it, Diana. Gualtiero is not a vampire. If he was, well, he’s had plenty of times to suck your blood and he hasn’t. You’re being ridiculous to even consider it!

“Are you okay?” Lucas asked, looking concerned. “I’m not describing someone you know, am I?”

“Of course not,” I said, perhaps a little too quickly.

“Are you sure?” he asked, raising his eyebrows as if he didn’t quite believe me. “Because there’s actually a vampire in your area Diana, and not only did it kill my brother, but it probably killed your parents too.”

“Yeah, I’m sure,” I said, trying to sound normal. “So, when are you going to teach me to fight?”

---

I began my training on a Tuesday and by Friday I’d made my first kill. Lucas taught me all kinds of moves I never even imagined I had the physical strength to pull off. It was basic self-defense, but it wasn’t easy to learn. I got the hang of it rather quickly though.

We practiced different moves in which he was the attacker, and I was the victim. I learned how to elbow strike and groin kick, which I may have had a little too much fun with, as he seemed very nervous that I would actually kick him where it hurts, literally. I learned how to get myself out of difficult positions like a headlock.

Being in such close proximity to a man, kept bringing Gualtiero to my head which gave me mixed emotions. I longed for him badly, but at the same time I couldn’t help but think about all of the things that has in common with vampires. After all, something in our town is attacking people and my gut feeling after Roman was killed was that Gualtiero had something to do with it. What if he’d killed my parents too?

I was quickly brought back to earth from my thoughts when I felt a pair of lips come into contact with my neck. Lucas had his arms around my waist in a bear hug position and was nibbling on my neck. I swiftly pulled my elbow back and angled it at his face, not bothering to be careful. He stumbled back in pain, and I grabbed his neck and shoved him up against the nearest tree.

“What do you think you’re doing, Hall?” I furiously asked.

“Taking a bite of my meal,” he said bitterly, shoving my hand away from his neck. “You were unfocused, Aguero.”

“I just got lost in thought,” I said, feeling scolded.

“Well, don’t. You need to have total concentration. This isn’t a joke. You’re only alive right now because I’m not a real vampire, but if I were?” he raised his finger to his neck and made a throat slitting motion.

He was right. I had to focus. Not just for my sake, but for the sake of anyone who might need my help against these disgusting creatures. For the sake of my parents who deserve justice for their death. I decided right then that I wasn’t going to let anything distract me again. I was going to shove whatever thoughts about Gualtiero out of my head for the remainder of my stay and deal with that situation when I got home. I came to Romania to train and that is what I would do.

My first kill was nothing like I imagined it would be. It happened so fast and felt so natural. I thought I would feel terrible killing anything. I mean, I’m the kind of girl who cries over wounded animals and takes bugs back outside of my home instead of killing them. But when Lucas took me on a hunt and we came across a vampire preying on a young girl, I didn’t feel an ounce of sorrow shoving that stake into its heart and ending its miserable life. It actually felt thrilling to see its snarling, beastly face turn into nothing but dust and I knew that I would be content doing this for the rest of my life.

I knew I was meant to be a hunter.