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FORTY-THREE | STRAWBERRY BLONDE
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2024-10-29 19:42:56“An ‘accident’?” Paps repeated, his eyebrows raising. His fingers jerked into air quotes around the word accident, and I couldn’t help but smile at him.
I’d driven straight back to my Dads’ house. I needed to speak to Harper as soon as I could, but a mysterious accident just outside of Seafall felt too important to put off investigating. Besides, I told myself, it was safer for Harper if I focused on finding and eliminating the vampires. If the accident at Blackwood Castle was a clue, then telling my Dads about it was a priority. For now, my questions about Cyrus and his sudden upheaval would have to remain unanswered. Regardless of his behaviour, my choice was made. I could find out where it was, exactly, that he stood in due course.
They’d both eyed my bruise with mild suspicion, but neither of them commented on it. They’d also avoided asking why I’d been driving towards
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The Hunter and the Vampire FORTY-FOUR | UNKNOWN
As the car hurtled back towards Seafall, I wanted to bang against the windows, to smash the glass and throw myself out of the vehicle. I wanted to sprint, to feel the pull of my muscles and the stretch of my lungs.I didn’t want to be trapped inside a car, unmoving save for the steady rise and fall of my chest, stuck with questions I had no answers to. The world flashed by outside, and I wished I could blur with it.Not Veronica. This was no accident, and this was final. Veronica, limp and bloodied, her soft, delicately rounded body torn apart, was dead. There were no second chances, and I’d wasted my first.“I don’t see why she’d have gone to the castle,” Paps muttered. He shook his head, and then turned to stare out at the careening trees and verges. Perhaps he wished the same as I did.Veronica worked full time at Waypavers, but it would make sense that she’d fini
The Hunter and the Vampire FORTY-FIVE | STORM
I was filled with a sudden sense of urgency, which did not abate even as I threw back more whiskey and allowed myself to be prodded upstairs to bed. The alcohol dulled it, but my stomach churned as I considered all of the possible ways that Veronica could have died.Could Cyrus have done it? Or was I simply fixating on him as the only possible suspect? Our other leads had gone nowhere, yet I kept circling back to him.I wanted to admonish myself for feeling fear towards him, but this was a new, strange circumstance for me. My life, and morals, had always been black and white: monsters were evil, humanity was good. I fought to protect the good, the innocent, and I fought against the evil.I rolled over in bed, facing the window. I’d left my curtains open, and my body was like lead against the mattress now; they would have to remain open tonight. The sky was moonless, clouded, and even the pinprick stars had disappea
The Hunter and the Vampire FORTY-SIX | TEMPEST
The rain thundered down as I drove to the house I shared with Harper. The familiar roads felt alien to me, shrouded in darkness by the thick grey clouds. Raindrops lashed at my windows, and my wipers struggled to keep up with the onslaught.My Dads had wanted to take me shopping for a Christmas tree this morning, but I’d been insistent that I had to do this first. Then the drizzle, remnants of last night’s storm, turned to a downpour, and they decided that Christmas shopping was best left for another day.To distract myself from what was to come, I imagined running my fingers down the lengths of pine trees, their needles pricking my fingertips. I pictured the three of us struggling to force the tree into my Dads’ car – no matter how big their behemoth car was, somehow we always found a tree that was bigger.The picture morphed as I neared our house. It was no longer my Dads by my side; in their pl
The Hunter and the Vampire FORTY-SEVEN | SUNSET
A coarse wind howled outside, but it was drowned out by Harper’s abrupt, gut-wrenching sobs. I’d expected tears, but this was worse; guttural, world-ending tremors that wracked his body. I held him tight in my arms, fearful that he might splinter across our old, worn sofa.The firelight felt less dangerous, now. It was just firelight, and I was just a girl. The room opened up, warm in its familiarity, and as I tucked Harper’s head beneath my chin I felt wholly at home. Perhaps it was strange, to feel so welcome in the face of such anguish, but it felt as though, at long last, my life was beginning to align. Harper’s, too, though he did not know it yet.I’d had time to process this decision. He had not.His lips quivered as he rose from my embrace, but his eyes held mine with a strength I had not anticipated, but was grateful for. I loved him; crushing his spirit had never been my inten
The Hunter and the Vampire FORTY-EIGHT | BROKEN
Lightening split the sky overhead, and the rain continued to fall. It shone purple for an instant, and then, once more, darkness overcame the world. I gripped the wheel with white-knuckled, trembling hands. My heart clenched, and my lungs shivered with sobs.I sped away from my old home, and I tried not to look back. I knew that, if I did, I would only see heartbreak in its purest form, and Harper’s cries would overwhelm me. I stared forwards, my eyes fixed on the rain-drenched road, and despite my tremors I kept my foot steady on the accelerator. My numb hands began to loosen as I drifted further away from Harper, from my raw past, and my jaw hardened and set. I would not look back.I had to focus if I was going to go through with it. I had to, if I was going to confront Cyrus. I didn’t know what he was for sure; this was the only way to know. I’d taken too many chances, let too many people die.Despit
The Hunter and the Vampire FORTY-NINE | ETHEREAL
The hour between the phone call and the meeting slipped through my fingers, too fast to hold on to. I sped to my Dads’ house, desperate for a hot shower, no matter how quick, and a hot drink to take with me. The endless rain had settled with a chill deep into my bones, and I didn’t want to see Cyrus with bedraggled hair and sodden clothes.I was not, however, desperate to talk to either of my Dads about the breakup, or where I was going in such a rush. I barged through the door, winced as it slammed behind me, and sprinted up the stairs, barely taking a second to kick off my wet boots.“Callie?” My Paps called up after me. “Is that you?”I scrubbed at my sore eyes, certain that, one way or another, I’d come face to face with him before I was ready. I raked my windswept hair back into a straggly ponytail, and ran to the bathroom to splash my face with cold water. I’d already
The Hunter and the Vampire FIFTY | MIST
There was a light, somewhere deep within, shining through the fog and reaching towards me. It was a reminder, though I could not draw myself away from Cyrus’s lips for long enough to register it.But it continued to nag and, eventually, I peeled myself away. Gasping for breath, I placed a hand on his chest to steady myself. Similarly dishevelled, he smiled down at me.“Am I forgiven?” He asked, his voice dark and teasing.I scoffed, but I was grinning, too. The push and pull of duty and (potentially fatal) attraction toyed with me, and I found that touching him was the opposite of grounding. Reluctantly, I slipped my hand away.The water roared behind us, frothing at the mouth as it tumbled into the darkness below. Up here, it was timeless: the sun hadn’t managed to break through the cloud cover, and the constant grey made it impossible to know if it was morning, noon, dusk, o
The Hunter and the Vampire FIFTY-ONE | SEA
My eyebrows shot up. It was a declaration – a big one at that – and the news that Cyrus had found a job here meant that he intended to stay. A swelling tide, my heart fluttered helplessly in my chest. He intended to stay – because of me.I smiled, ducking my head. But Cyrus wasn’t done.“It’s a permanent post, at the University of Westcliff,” he continued. “I’ll be teaching, but I’ll be researching, too. It… it sounds perfect for me, Callie. Which is why I want to make sure nothing will get in the way of the future I’ve begun to envision.”I dug the toe of my boot into the wet earth. My stomach dropped, and my breaths sounded too loud in my ears as I waited for him to say something – anything – else. I could feel my pulse, thrashing wildly against my wrists, my temples, beneath my jaw. I swallowed, and I waited for the sea of blood
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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
