The Vampire Hunter's Daughter: Complete Collection(9)

Her lips turned up in a smile once again. “Oh, I know who you are, honey. Everyone does. In any case, my name is Linda.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Linda.”

“Same goes for me.” She took back her hand. “I’ll leave you to your studying now.”

I watched her walk away and decided I liked her.

Letting out a really big sigh, I scanned some of the titles on the spines of the books. After about five minutes of looking at the titles, I found one that read History and Legends of Vampire Slayers. That one looked like it would have some interesting material. I lifted the gigantic book off the shelf, and then I made my way to one of the tables and began to read. On the very first page was a description:

The spread of vampirism was a relentless disease, so a warrior angel was created and sent to battle the vampires. This warrior angel, Andronikos, found love with a warrior woman, Sostrate. She was uniquely gifted: a demi-god, born of a human and a god.



The union of the angel and the woman produced four children: two boys, Alkaios and Alexio, and two girls, Thekla, Lysistrata. These offspring became a new kind of warrior, gifted with both the blood of an angel and a god. Out of this unique mix, the vampire slayer was born.



I looked up from the text. I came from the blood of angels, gods and in my own special case, a vampire.

Now that's deep.

But… it was hardly believable considering how clumsy and without talent I was.

The book continued on with how the children of the warrior angel and the demi-god woman mated with other people of power or commoners and their children had children and so on.

“Good book, huh?”

Startled, I jerked backward in my chair and almost toppled over. Drew caught the back of my chair and steadied it. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Annoyed at being disturbed, I shut the book and glanced up at him. “Drew, we live in the same house. Is it really necessary to follow me around all the time?”

Drew ignored me and pulled out the chair next to mine so he could sit. Giving in to the fact that he wasn’t going to leave me alone, I opened the book to the pages I had been reading. “How come you never told me any of this stuff?”

“You never asked.” He shrugged.

I sighed. He could be so aggravating. “And it never occurred to you that I might want to know my ancestors were angels and demi-gods?”

“Nah, it never occurred to me. But if you wanted to know it, you should have asked Luke. He has a whole family tree drawn out that dates all the way back to the very beginning. It’s taken several generations to finish it.”

“He does? Why didn’t you tell me?”

This time it was Drew who sighed loudly.

“Because you didn’t ask,” he repeated. “Chloe, you aren’t just descended from angels and demi-gods. You are in the direct line of the original hunters. You could possibly be a very powerful woman.”

I didn’t say anything because I didn’t know what to say. I was a direct descendent from these powerful and good creatures, but yet my blood was tainted with the evil of my vampire father.

Yay.



Breathe in, exhale, hold and ease back the trigger.

I hit the red dot every time. I felt like I could hit it even with my eyes closed. Shooting was calming for me, something that eased pain yet allowed a release of my anger at the same time.

The big earphone things muffled the shots while I fired clip after clip into the targets. When I finally felt I’d had enough, I cleaned up and put my gun back in its case. I was going to have to remember to give Drew a really awesome present for Christmas, since I didn’t know when his birthday was, because I really loved my gun. That also reminded me that I basically had no money and should probably look for a job, but I didn’t have time for a job.

The information I had found at the library was definitely interesting. One of the first things I wanted to do when I got home was to ask Luke about that family tree thing.

While I was leaving the range, I stepped out onto the sidewalk and looked up at the gray clouds that covered the sky. There had been no sunshine for several days, and it was beginning to wear on me. I needed sunshine! Dang, how could I ever be related to a vampire? They died in the sun, and I could bask in it.

Just when I veered into the woods, the first snowflakes of the year floated down and rested on the bare tree branches.

“Oh, just great.” Instead of enjoying the beauty of falling snow, I was concerned about the fact I was going to have to run in that crap every morning. I picked up my pace and jogged the rest of the way home.

When I burst through the door, I found Luke sitting at the kitchen table reading a newspaper.

“Hey, Luke,” I greeted him.

His wrinkled cheeks lifted when he smiled. “When are you going to start calling me grandpa?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. It seems weird because I just met you.”

I opened the fridge and grabbed an apple out of the fruit bin. Man, I missed junk food. Every person in the community was a health food fanatic, so I had to be, too. They didn’t even have regular potato chips in their stores. It was sad.

“Luke, I was wondering if there was some way I could… possibly… uhm, earn some money.”

I took a giant bite of my apple.

Luke looked a bit surprised. “Well, I guess I don’t think of everything. I’m so sorry. Do you need money right now?”