The Vampire Hunter's Daughter The Complete Collection (2 page)

“Ahhh,” I wailed and turned my head. The
rescuers were winning. I felt newfound hope, just when I had wanted
to give in. It suddenly occurred to me what exactly we were dealing
with here: stakes to the heart, cut off heads, slayers… it all
added up. I didn’t want to admit it. The fog continued to build in
my head, and my arms were fully asleep from James’s grip. I
couldn’t move them at all.

After what seemed like an eternity of blood
and battle, Eli and James were the only bad guys left.

The rescuers all stood together before
us.

“Give us the girl,” one of them said. He
stepped forward. He was tall and extremely muscular. His hair was a
dark blond, but it was his flashing green eyes that drew my
attention. I just couldn’t seem to tear my gaze from his eyes.

“Get out of my way,” Eli told them in his
smooth voice, which always sounded calm. “You know I could take all
of you by myself if I wanted to.”

“Well,” the blond-haired guy spread his hands
out, “it looks like that’s what you’re going to have to do.” He
cocked his head to the side. “I’m ready.”

Eli flew forward. Yes, he literally lifted
himself off the ground and flew at the group of rescuers. The
fighting was a blur of bodies, blood and the occasional cry of
pain. I watched while the blond guy took one of those arrows and
stuck it into Eli’s eye for distraction, while another rescuer
slammed his long shining blade into Eli’s heart.

James and I cried out at the same time. Mine
was a cry of triumph, while his sounded painful. He threw me to the
ground and rushed to Eli's side, catching his body as it fell
roughly to the ground.

I watched from my place on the floor. The
fight James put up was nothing compared to what Eli had given them.
He didn’t last long.

I lay there on the floor with my arms and
legs dead. My vision blurred and my eyelids felt heavy. The blond
guy stuck his face in front of mine.

“Come on, Chloe. We need to get you out of
here and take you somewhere safe,” he said. He lifted me into his
arms and carried me into my new life.

When I woke, all I could think about was
water. My mouth felt like sandpaper, and my tongue was so dry I
could barely move it. I didn’t try to sit up right away. I wanted
to take in as much of my surroundings as I could before I let
anyone know I was awake.

Yeah, I remembered everything. I didn’t think
it was all a dream. I knew I was not in my own bed, and the room I
was in was not mine. I turned my head slowly to the right and saw,
with great joy, a large glass of water sitting on the nightstand
beside a couple of pills. I also saw, with not as much joy, an old
man sitting in a chair beside the nightstand. He appeared to be
snoozing while he waited for me to wake.

Trying to be as quiet as I possibly could, I
slowly sat up. My arms protested. When I looked down I could
clearly see dark purple bruises in the shape of fingers where James
had had his hands clamped down on me.

“Ugh,” I muttered and reached out for the
water, clamping my teeth together to keep from crying out.

When I finally got that glass of water to my
lips and was able to drink, it felt like what I imagined water
would taste like in heaven. I guzzled it down so fast that I felt a
little sloshy in my stomach by the time I set the glass back on the
table. I left the pills alone. Exhausted from the simple act of
getting a glass of water and drinking it, I fell back onto the
pillows and shut my eyes again. I passed out within minutes.

I woke again later and the whole place was
dark, so I assumed it was the middle of the night. The glass of
water had been refilled, and the old man was still beside my bed.
This time he was awake and had seen me open my eyes.

“Hello,” I greeted him. “Could you hand me
that glass of water?”

I grimaced and pulled myself into a sitting
position.

“Sure.” He handed me the water with a steady
hand. “It’s nice to finally meet you, Chloe.”

By this time, I figured I could be okay with
weird.

“What do you mean by 'finally'?” I asked
him.

He cracked a grin, and his blue eyes lit up a
little, even in the dark. “Why, child, I’m your grandfather.”

I choked on my water, even spit a little bit
out on him, “You’re my… grandfather? Uh... I… okay.”

He took my water glass and set it on the
nightstand. He took my hand and held it, patting the top.

“Chloe, it is time to explain your heritage
to you. You are old enough now to understand these things.” He
smiled at me. “So are you ready to hear it?”

I shrugged. I really didn’t have a choice. I
really just wanted to lay in bed and be sad that I would never see
my mother again. But his explanation was something I hoped would
explain all that had happened last night. Maybe it would explain
why they had killed my mother. I wanted to find out who I had to
kill to avenge her.

“Sure,” I said.

“Chloe, much of what I am about to tell you
will be hard to believe, but it may also fill in some of the blanks
that you have wondered about at particular times in your life. Have
patience and listen.

“Those people who killed your mother, I’m
sure you noticed something different about them, like their
strength and the way they died. If you guessed they aren’t normal,
you would have guessed correctly.”

He paused.

I opened my mouth to speak, but he quickly
lifted his hand to silence me.

“Yes, as you probably suspected, they are
vampires. And we… we kill them. We are vampire slayers, or hunters,
whatever you prefer. For generations, our family's bloodline has
borne hunters. It is our job to kill the evil to keep humanity
safe.”

My mouth dropped open. I wasn’t really that
surprised about the vampires and stuff. I think it was more the
issue of hearing someone else say there were actually vampires.

“Now a story begins,” the man who called
himself my grandfather announced. “About fifteen years ago a young
woman who had been raised right here in this very community with
our hunters fell in love with a vampire. She was one of the very
best of us.”

The old man’s lips turned up into a smile at
the memory.

“Even as a little girl, she trained
constantly and learned with determination. It was her dream to be
the best of all of us. For her, it was either be first or be
killed.

“This amazing woman was your mother, Felicia.
Felicia could take any of the men here in a fight. When it came to
vampires, there was something about her that could almost mesmerize
them, giving her the perfect opportunity to attack.

“That was until the day she met Trevor. We
found ourselves in the midst of a battle one night in the park. She
had tried to catch Trevor’s gaze and draw him into her grasp,
because he appeared to be the leader. For some reason, her gifts
did not work on Trevor. However, when Trevor saw her, he decided he
wanted her. He kidnapped her.

“Your mother fought him, but he was the only
vampire your mother could not kill. He took her, and they
disappeared for almost a year.

“Your mother told me the time she spent with
Trevor wasn’t so bad. I would like to think he was the most
horrible man in the universe, but apparently he treated her pretty
good. She was the
only
one he treated well."

My so-called grandfather paused to take a sip
from his own water glass, which also sat on the nightstand.

I kept quiet because he asked me to and
because the story was getting good.

He cleared his throat and continued.
“Trevor’s intention was to turn your mother. She told Trevor she
loved him, and she would never leave him. But she didn’t want to be
a vampire. During her stay with Trevor, he treated her like a
queen, gave her everything her heart desired. Unfortunately, he
forgot one tiny detail: Felicia was a vampire hunter. The hatred
for vampires ran deep in her veins and could not be forgotten, even
by loving one of them.

“When one of Trevor's men tried to rape her,
she killed him. Trevor would have killed him himself, had he known
what the man had tried to do. Felicia had been embarrassed and had
no intention of letting Trevor know what had happened. She told him
the man had assaulted her. She announced she was pregnant, with
you, and that she had only acted to defend her unborn child.

“Trevor was ecstatic. You have to realize how
rare this was. Perhaps… once every couple hundred years is a child
conceived with a vampire. But… a vampire child combined with the
blood of a vampire hunter… that is completely unheard of.

“Felicia knew deep in her heart she could not
stay with Trevor. She wanted her child to be safe, and have a good
life, not to live in a world of darkness with a bunch of vampires.
And there was the question of your safety. Children are like candy
to vampires… the blood is sweet.

“So Felicia fled and came home shortly before
you were born. When you were born a healthy little girl, we sent
the two of you into hiding. Your father has been searching for you
for years. That's why you've moved several times. That's why your
mother drenched herself in that god-awful perfume and made you do
the same thing, and that's why your mother was murdered right
before your eyes. Because
you
are a very, very special
child, Chloe Kallistrate.”

He bowed his head and placed his fingertips
on his temples. “Trevor will stop at nothing until he has you.”

I had been laying back on my pillows,
listening to this story. It did explain a lot of the weird behavior
I had noticed in my mom. Sometimes she would get all crazy and just
decide to move. She would start packing all of our stuff and clean
the house with bleach from top to bottom before we left. Really, I
just thought she was nomadic and had sudden urges to move. And the
perfume, she changed her scent once a year and wore a lot of
whatever she chose. She took about three showers a day, too. Yeah,
now I get it, everywhere we went we left a scent.

I did have one question though. Actually, I
had lots of questions, but just one for the time being: “How did
you know that we needed help when Trevor’s men attacked us?”

His eyes met mine. “Chloe, our blood isn’t
regular blood. We have the bloodline of vampire hunters. Our blood
is almost magical. I just knew. Your mother is my daughter, and I
just knew we had to go to her. We were too late to save her. Now we
will honor her life by keeping you safe, because that is what she
dedicated her life to doing.”

I nodded.

“We are going to let you rest here for a
while, because you have been through a trauma. It will take time
for you to feel normal again. Soon, however, you will have to get
up and begin your training.”

“Training?”

He nodded. “Yes, I’m sorry, but one of the
only ways for you to be safe is for you to learn how to defend
yourself. If you had lived here with us since birth you probably
could have helped your mother in fighting them. Sadly, she was out
of practice and hadn’t trained for fifteen years.”