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FIFTY-SEVEN | TRAINING
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2024-10-29 19:42:56I threw the first punch. Dad dodged, his French plait swinging to the side. He grinned at me.
“You’ve lost your edge, Cals.”
I bounced back, re-adjusting my stance. “Just giving you a chance.”
We circled one another, the morning sun glinting off my Dad’s hard-lined face. He dropped his smile, his eyes flicking from my head to my chest to my legs. They hovered for half a second too long on my legs, and I stepped back just as the kick came.
I’d awoken early after my accidental sleep the night before, and I’d felt surprisingly fresh considering that I’d slept at an awkward angle on the sofa. Someone – most likely my Paps – had pulled my boots off and covered me with a throw, which I attributed my good mood and well-rested mind to.
He fell back, watching me closely. He’d given himself away with his eyes; I wasn&r
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The Hunter and the Vampire FIFTY-EIGHT | BURIED
The creaky sign rocked back and forth in the winter wind. Waypavers. I’d not been back here in a while, and never for so long as when I’d brought Cyrus here. It felt oddly fitting, if a little perverse, that I was meeting Harper here for our last coffee together.Of course, there had been more to my suggestion of meeting here than a mere love of cyclicality. It had been Veronica’s workplace, and her family still ran it. If anyone had noticed her going missing, it would have been them.I was glad I’d have a distraction while speaking to Harper. A few good nights of sleep and a busy mind had helped me to lock away the last vestiges of my feelings for him, though I was sure that spending one-on-one time with him would bring them back to the surface. I’d steeled myself as best I could before leaving, but I knew my preparations would be worthless when I met his eyes with mine.I pulled my jacket
The Hunter and the Vampire FIFTY-NINE | WESTCLIFF
I smoothed down the lapels of my blazer before shutting the car door behind me. Gravel crunched underfoot. I dug my heel of my boot down, making a tiny hole in the neat ground.I’d never been to the University of Westcliff before, though it wasn’t any further away from Seafall than Bournehurst was. When I’d been applying to university this had been one of my options, but it wasn’t sat on the coast, so I’d put it low down on my list.I locked the car and hefted my bag up higher on my shoulder. The car park I was in looked fancy, with barren trees secured in iron fencing scattered across its expanse. Cyrus had told me this one was closest to the building his office was in, but I’d driven past a few others on my way here. The campus seemed bigger than Bournehurst’s, but that had been halved, with the humanities clustered together on one side of town and the sciences on the other. Perhaps together they w
The Hunter and the Vampire SIXTY | OBSIDIAN
Giddy with excitement, I clung to Cyrus’s hand as he pushed open the door to his office. He shared it with another lecturer, he’d told me, perhaps worried that I was overestimating what I was about to see in my head.It still felt odd to hold his hand, but not because it was unpleasant. No – it was quite the opposite, in fact. I gave it a tiny squeeze, testing the feel of his palm against mine. A shockwave of pleasure tingled from the point of contact, arching up my arm and to the tips of my fingers. He squeezed back, and smiled at me.“This is it,” he said, lightly, almost teasingly. “Room J two-hundred and eleven.”He held the door open for me. Part of me wanted to close my eyes, to amp up the drama of the reveal, but I didn’t understand that part of myself. It was childish, immature, and it didn’t make any sense. I’d long since lost my attachment to the drama
The Hunter and the Vampire SIXTY-ONE | AFLOAT
I tucked the necklace under my collar before walking inside. The jolt of cold against my skin was fresh and reviving, and I smiled to myself as I unlocked the front door. Everything was falling into place.I’d asked my Dads to organise a trip to The Heath with me sometime soon, and I’d hoped to catch up with them when I got back from Westcliff. Kicking off my boots, I called out to them.“Dad? Paps?”There was no reply. Shrugging to myself, I slipped off my coat and hung it up. It was nice, if a little odd, to have the house to myself. I worked far more than either of them, which meant that, unlike when I’d been living with Harper, someone was almost always in the house when I was home.Though I had a free afternoon, the sense that I should be acting out against the vampires remained prevalent. There wasn’t much I could do – we were out of leads, save for The
The Hunter and the Vampire SIXTY-TWO | EYES
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The Hunter and the Vampire SIXTY-THREE | SHADOWS
“She was dead.” My Dad’s voice was firm, the hazy edge of the rum gone in an instant. “We all saw her body.”“It’s impossible,” Paps said, scrubbing a hand across his short hair.“Improbable,” Dad corrected.“Bethan looked dead, too,” I said slowly, thinking of her blue lips, her waxy skin. “I don’t think we should rule it out. I mean – maybe I was imagining it. I don’t know. But those eyes looked real, and that prickling feeling that someone was there, watching me, stayed with me the whole way home.”“Why would she be watching you, though?” Paps clucked his tongue. “No offence, Cals, I’m sure you’re very interesting. But you weren’t close, not really, were you?”“We always got on,” I said, considering it. “But most of t
The Hunter and the Vampire SIXTY-FOUR | SECOND CHANCE
The hand reached out again, white against the dark, and rapped on the glass. I drew my hands up, covering my face with my left and preparing to strike with my right. This had to be an intimidation tactic – otherwise, they were giving me all the time in the world to prepare for their attack.This time, however, a face followed the hand. It peered curiously in through my bedroom window, blue-grey eyes wide and scared. Rosebud lips drew downwards, pulling into a frown.I stumbled backwards, staring at her as she ran a hand agitatedly through her strawberry-blonde curls. It was Veronica.It had to be a trap – didn’t it? I inched closer, my eyes fixed on hers. She was crouched close to the windowsill, most of her weight supported by the tree that dangled its gnarled, naked branches across the glass.I swallowed, my throat tight and my mouth dry. She looked the same as she had before, and
The Hunter and the Vampire SIXTY-FIVE | STARLIGHT
We sat beneath a shaded grove of trees, leaning our backs against their rough bark. The cold blistered my skin, and I had to grit my teeth to keep from shuddering.“Would you like my coat?” Veronica whispered, turning to face me with wild, petrified eyes.I shook my head, confusion gnawing at my insides. She looked the same and sounded the same. I couldn’t theorise any longer. I had to know.“Are you a vampire?” I whispered back. My eyes searched hers, blue-grey and brimming with tears. I’d never seen a vampire cry before. Her chest heaved, and she nodded.“I – I think so? Oh, God,” she moaned, dropping her chin to her chest. “I don’t know what’s happening to me, Callie. I woke up, covered in blood and mud and soaked through with rain, up at that creepy old castle – Blackwood, I think it’s called, though I don’t
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The Hunter and the Vampire 116 | EPILOGUE
I braced myself, lifting a bandolier weighted down with silver bullets and resting it across my chest. My knife was strapped to my ankle, a gun was slung low across my hips, and a silver dagger rested at my thigh.I’d laced my boots with resolve, each knot a promise. I was doing this for the right reasons. I was a protector, not a monster. The sword down my back was double-edged, both killer and saviour, but I wielded it with the power to choose. I would not allow myself to be what I had been, and what many of the others still were.Cyrus caught my wrist, pulling me close. Our lips met in a heated kiss, his tongue and teeth searing my core. Hands tugged the plait from my hair, and fingers tangled in the dark waves. My skin tingled with his touch, and bolts of lightning fractured down my spine.The bond between us swelled, crackling with glossy sunlight and soaring blue waves. The heat of Cyrus’s affection bec
The Hunter and the Vampire 115 | SWORD
Gaudy lights flashed above, drenching Cyrus’s face in bright reds and blues. With alcohol humming in my veins and his arms holding me close, I moved past the flashing, burning image of blood that overlaid the reality of the coloured, moving lights. Even as my mind whispered that it was blood, blood and pulsing blue veins, Cyrus swept me into a spin that threw aside my fears.I grinned at him before he pulled me in again. His joy brushed mine, intertwined within my chest. It didn’t lessen the ache that I dragged with me, but it smothered it, forcing the pain to submit.“As much as I like it when you curse and tease and fight,” he murmured, his lips ghosting across my ear, “you are truly beautiful when you smile, Callie.”Before I could respond, Cyrus tugged me around so that my back was pressed to his front, and his hands cradled my hips. We swung from side to side together, my steps cl
The Hunter and the Vampire 114 | LIGHTNING
I had to move on. At least, I had to try. And, though understanding and enacting were two different things, it was easier to try if I kept myself focused on the present – rather than my jarring, pain-distorted past, or the murky and indistinct waters of my future. Looking back brought forth only blood and terror, and I couldn’t see through the thick, cloying mist shimmering softly ahead. It coated my crumbling relationships, Cyrus’s vampiric nature, and my comparatively short lifespan. Behind, my Dad’s words had carved themselves into my bones and tattooed themselves onto my skin. I could taste Veronica’s fear with every swallow. The walls closed in around me whenever I was alone, and the neat, sharp clicks of Alice’s footsteps followed me around every corner. Even in Wiley Manor, a hotel so detached from my old life in Seafall, monsters found me in my sleep. Sleepy, soft kisses to my forehead, my temples,
The Hunter and the Vampire 113 | SANDBAR
“Get out,” Dad hissed, his face contorting. Shadows crept across his cheeks and nose, distending it into something twisted and evil. Fear filled my gut, and I stepped backwards. My hands trembled as I reached for the door.My fingers turned to claws as I scrabbled behind me. Dismay rose in my throat as I flattened my palms, feeling desperately for the door. I turned slowly, knowing before I saw it that the door was gone.I was trapped. The windows shuttered, and my Dad loomed before me. Paps cowered at his side, shrunken and rat-like with front teeth that slipped from beneath his lips. As I watched, they sharpened into points and became fangs.My feet skidded under me, slipping on something wet streaking across the floorboards. I looked down to get my bearings, to get my balance, and bile clung to the back of my mouth. It wasn’t just something wet. It was blood.Flames shuddered acr
The Hunter and the Vampire 112 | RIFT
The drive to the hotel was quiet, but comfortably so. Perhaps because there were no words that could have made the situation any easier, Cyrus and I allowed the silence to swallow us whole. He rested his hand on my thigh, a steady pressure that kept me grounded enough that thoughts of shoving myself out of the car and rolling across the road – just so that the physical pain overshadowed the emotional for even a moment – seemed nonsensical.Without him there, I wasn’t entirely sure what I would have done. I heard my Dad’s last words to me on every inhale, and I saw the dull look in my Paps’s eyes with every exhale. I breathed, but it didn’t make me feel any better.Get out. Get out. Get out.The sun was just starting to break through the clouds as we pulled in to a car park, nestled alongside a shaggy stretch of woodland. I turned to Cyrus, confusion drawing my eyebrows down. H
The Hunter and the Vampire 111 | BLOOD MOON
My back stiffened. Any attempts at lounging went out the window the second my Dad entered the room. I curled my hands into fists, digging my nails into the soft, broken skin of my palms.His face was shadowed. I ached to go to him, to bridge the gap between us. He’d placed a blanket on me as I’d slept mere weeks ago, and now he was staring at me as if I was a stranger. My breath latched in my throat as I tried to speak.“What is your decision?” I asked. My voice did not sound like my own.“This has not been easy for me, Callie. For us. You have made it incredibly difficult.”I stood on shaking legs. There was a softness to him beneath the hard shell that forced his mouth into a downward tilt. It spilled out rarely, but it was there.“I am sorry for what I have done,” I said. “But I do not regret it, nor do I wish to t
The Hunter and the Vampire 110 | FAMILY
The world collapsed in on itself as I waited for the door to open. My right hand remained curled in a loose fist, raised against the wood, knuckles bared. I flexed my fingers and, slowly, lowered my hand.I focused on my breathing, caught in that everlasting moment. With every rise and fall of my chest, I could feel the passage of time. It had to be moving. I was not trapped here.I turned halfway back towards Cyrus, needing to see him, to reassure myself that he was still here with me, when the door finally opened. I caught a flash of hair so dark it shone blue even in the dim light, and then hard arms were pulling me inside.“Callie,” Paps breathed, his body warm and unyielding as he held me close. “Oh, thank God.”I stilled against him, my arms at stiff angles by my sides. My heart leapt – he seemed glad to see me – even as it twisted and tangled, knotting itsel
The Hunter and the Vampire 109 | NOSTALGIA
“You know,” Cyrus said, his tone carefully casual, “I could do the same for your Dads – and the other hunters, too.”He set down the photograph he’d been holding, the wooden frame knocking against the hard surface of the kitchen counter. I didn’t have to look to know which photo in particular he’d been about to pack into my old, worn suitcase, scraped from years of overuse.The day had dawned slowly, the sun hiding behind blank white clouds that had grown grey as they had settled into the sky. The kitchen was dim, though Cyrus’s eyes still somehow glittered like stars on a calm sea as they met mine.I sighed, shoving the last of my cutlery into the same wicker basket I’d used to move my utensils to and from university for the last three years. It smelt faintly of fruity cider, and my nose crinkled slightly at the faded red stain down its side.
The Hunter and the Vampire 108 | HARPER
“Harp?” I called out. It was the first time I’d spoken to him since our argument. I’d heeded his wishes; as such, I had no idea if he’d even still be at home. I hoped he was. Whether for me or for him, I longed to offer him this chance to move past this. I had ruined myself. I didn’t want to destroy Harper, too.“Callie?” Harper thundered into the hall, eyes wide, chest heaving. “I – I went to find you, and you were gone.” He pulled me into a crushing hug, pressing me tightly against his chest. “Fuck. I was so worried, Cals.”My heart ached. “I’m sorry.” My voice sounded tiny.“I – I thought–“ he spoke wildly, the words spilling out between panted breaths. “I thought you were – oh, shit,” he swore, and then pushed me away, holding me at arm’s length to appraise me. &ldqu
