The Vampire Hunter's Daughter The Complete Collection (8 page)

“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 her 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.