The Vampire Hunter's Daughter The Complete Collection (7 page)

“Oh, my gosh!”

“So, when he came after her, she ran for her
life. She ran to the nearest neighbor. It took four other hunters
to subdue him. Turns out he was a cocaine addict, but no one knew
it.”

“How come her mother didn’t fight back?”

“Her mother wasn’t a hunter. Not everyone
here has two hunters for parents. You don’t.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me.”

As much as I really didn’t want to feel sorry
for Christina, I couldn’t help it. We had both seen our mothers
murdered, and in a way, both by our fathers. “That’s still no
reason for her to go around being mean and slutty.”

He turned his eyes away, and I thought for a
minute I saw a bit of sadness in them.

“I know,” he told me.

I saw in his eyes that he had cared about
her. While I should have felt bad for him, or something like that,
I felt something else instead. I’m pretty sure it was jealousy.

Two days after that talk with Drew, he
obtained permission to take me into the city so I could buy new
winter clothes and boots. Oh, how I longed for the busy shops of
the mall!

Before we left, Luke gave me a debit card for
my new checking account. He told me how much had been deposited and
how much would be deposited each month. Luke explained that he was
on the account with me because I was a minor. He told me he would
teach me about balancing my accounts when I returned from my
trip.

I thanked him and tucked the card into my
wallet. If it hadn’t been so icy on the walkway, I would have run
to Drew’s truck.

The mall was totally fun. I was astonished to
learn that Drew had never had an Orange Julius, so I made him drink
one. I also ate two hotdogs and a big thing of chili nachos.

“You’re going to get sick,” Drew told me from
across the table.

“I don’t care.” To show him just how much I
didn’t care, I used a big chip to scoop up some chili and shoved it
in my mouth. He shook his head in disgust and took a bite of his
healthy sub sandwich.

I managed to find two nice pair of snow
boots. One pair would work for indoor and outdoor, the other was
only for outside. I got a new jacket, several hats, and a bunch of
those little gloves that cost a dollar.

Drew seemed to like the Orange Julius because
he was slurping it down fast. “Do you want to go see a movie while
we’re in town?”

“You bet I do!” I was having a hard time
containing my excitement. I hadn’t had a great day since before my
mother died. And to think, getting into a fight at school got me a
shopping trip to town.

Not that I would do that again.

It was dark by the time the movie ended. The
clouds had parted for the almost full moon that lit up the parking
lot with a luminous glow. Snowflakes fell softly on everything.
Instead of causing me worry, like when we were at home, the snow
felt magical.

Halfway to the truck I felt a prickle on the
back of my neck. Drew stopped in his tracks and gazed around at the
other people leaving the theatre for their own cars.

“Let’s get to the truck,” he told me quietly.
I sensed a ‘don’t argue’ tone in his voice.

We continued to the truck and climbed inside.
I didn’t know what was going on, but what I did know was that we
both sensed something. That couldn’t be good.

“What is it?” I whispered as soon as we were
in the truck with the doors shut.

“Vampire,” he whispered back.

Oh, crap
.

I knew having a good day was too much to ask.
I had no idea what to do.

“Should we just go home?” I asked.

“No.” He looked away from the crowded parking
lot long enough to glance at me, his green eyes flashing. “We have
to kill it.”

okay, I was scared. The last time I had a run
in with vampires, they murdered my mother and tried to kidnap me.
It took a whole group of hunters to kill just one of them when they
had come to my rescue. “How do we know there’s only one?”

“We don’t.”

Time passed with complete and utter slowness
while the parking lot emptied. People chatted with each other and
took their sweet time getting in their cars and driving away.
Finally, there were only two people left in the parking lot: a
couple who were making out against the door of an awesome
bronze-colored Chevelle.

“It’s them. He is the victim,” Drew
whispered.

I don’t think he was whispering to me; it was
more like he was thinking out loud.

The woman had the guy pushed up against the
door of the car. When she lifted her leg, he reached around and
boosted her up. He then turned around so she was the one with her
back against the door. Snow fell onto to them and stuck in their
hair and on their clothes, but they were oblivious.

Drew reached behind him and pulled his gun
out.

“You were carrying that around all day? In
the mall!” I hissed. “We could have been arrested.”

“Shut up, Chloe.” He didn’t take his eyes off
the couple, but I saw his hand reach up and turn off the dome light
so it wouldn’t shine when he opened the door. He rested his hand on
the door handle and pulled it up slowly, silently, so the door
wasn't completely shut.

“Stay here,” he whispered, so quietly I could
barely hear him.

I nodded acknowledgement and slid down in the
seat a bit while he crept out of the truck and across the parking
lot. I watched the couple making out and waited for Drew. After
about a minute, clear as day, I saw the woman’s eyes lift and look
at me.

Fear ripped through my body like a wave.
While she looked at me, her eyes suddenly flashed and glowed a
blinding red in the darkness and then she smiled. I saw teeth,
white as the snow. In an instant her fangs appeared. She threw her
head back and laughed, which that guy probably assumed was just a
flirtatious giggle. She continued to stare at me while she snuggled
back into his neck and bit him.

I knew I would be next if we didn’t kill
her.

His scream filled the air. I watched,
horrified while he tried to push her away. He clawed desperately at
her hair and clothes, but soon all he could do was weakly flail his
arms. Oh, where was Drew? I didn’t want to watch anymore. Finally,
the guy's arms dropped down to his side and his stiffened body went
slack.

She dropped his body onto the snow-covered
parking lot and wiped her mouth with her arm. I realized I needed a
weapon and searched the truck for something I could use to defend
myself. I glanced up and couldn’t believe what I saw: She stole
that guy's wallet. Damn it, not one thing in Drew’s truck was even
remotely close to being considered a weapon. Some vampire hunter he
was; he didn’t even carry a wooden stake or two around.

Damn, damn, damn
.

Frantically, I fumbled and sifted through
everything in the truck and found nothing.

And then she was there.

I looked up, and when I saw her, every ounce
of fear I had rushed out in a blood-curdling scream. She stood in
front of the truck, her red eyes boring into me, her arms folded
across her chest. The breeze outside whipped the snow and her long
black hair crazily around her pale face. She wore the stereotypical
long black trench coat and her scarlet lips matched her glowing red
eyes. I back-peddled my feet against the floor of the truck and
screamed.

Drew appeared on top of the Chevelle, where
she had left the body in the blood-laden snow. She must have seen
my gaze shift, because she turned toward him. He had his gun raised
and held it steady with both hands in front of him. I had the
weirdest thought: He looked like one of the gods we were descended
from. His hair whipped around in the wind. His black hoodie was
zipped snug against his body. His eyes flashed a green fire
comparable to emeralds in sunlight. I could not see her face, but I
was sure her confidence turned to fear.

Drew fired.

When the bullet penetrated her body, a
glowing white light erupted and exploded. I had stopped screaming
when I saw Drew, and I watched with awe while the white light
seeped through her and ate away at her body like a spreading
disease. It literally dissolved her away, bit by bit, while she
screamed in agony. Within minutes, she was reduced to a pile of
gray ash that marred the otherwise pure white snow.

I breathed a gigantic sigh of relief, and
Drew hopped down from the Chevelle. He climbed in the truck with
me, and we raced home as fast as the icy roads would allow. Neither
of us said anything until we pulled into the driveway and turned
off the ignition.

I was in shock. The first time I had any
experience with vampires, I had literally not been able to do
anything
. One of them had been holding me so tightly. With
this vampire, I had been able to fight. I had been able to do
something about it, and I didn’t do anything.

It was an eye opener. I knew I needed to
train harder and be more open to learning how to fight.

I finally found my voice through the fear.
“What about that guy’s body? We can’t just leave it out there.”

“He wasn’t dead.” Drew squinted through the
snow flurries obstructing his vision while he drove. “She didn’t
kill him. He will wake up in about half an hour and wonder what the
hell happened. The bite marks will still be there, but will only
look like a couple of mosquito bites. Even if he remembers what
happened to him, we don’t have the ability to make him forget.”

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.