We came back to our flat. Wann went to the bathroom while me and Vince made some food. Actually, Vince made the food – I had no skills of cooking anything other than eggs. He decided to make steak and I didn’t complain when he told me to help prepare the salad. I could cut products just fine, I left seasoning and dressing to him, though.

After we ate the dinner, Vince had to go do some stuff regarding the convention. Everyone else in the flat came back too but did not engage in conversation with me, probably because they knew I was dangerous due to the collar gracing my neck.

Tai still looked like a kicked puppy, but Sylvester took to playing the part of a big brother, so the boy felt somewhat relieved living in the same quarters as Wann. To be honest, Wann didn’t really care about the other boy much. At least he stopped bringing his fornicating buddies to our room.

I was in the kitchen reading a book about traps and how to make them when Vertig came into the flat and sat himself in front of me.

“Coffee,” the man demanded and I just ignored it. I was not his errand boy, if he wanted it, let him do it himself.

“I said, coffee.”

“I heard you. I don’t care.”

“Sometimes I think you do not understand what position you are in, Miss Knights.”

“Sometimes I think you underestimate my ability to not give a shit. I doubt you’d hurt Bloomer just for a damned cup of coffee.”

“You might be correct, but it’s your duty as a host-”

“I’m not your host, kiddo. If you want your coffee, make it yourself. Or ask your guard dog for it. He’d be elated to be of some use.”

“I see, you’re still on excellent terms with Mister Wann.”

His mocking tone brought a nasty smirk out of me. He had no intentions of making friends with me, nor he wanted me to be friends with anyone here. I didn’t really care what he wanted, I just wanted to be left alone.

“Anyways, I heard you had some blood donated by the same guard dog you despise so much. How was it?” The genuine interest he had in the taste of Wann’s blood confused me, but at the same time intrigued.

“It wasn’t half bad. Why? Wanna try it yourself?” The inclination made the man furrow his brows. He folded his arms over his chest and reclined on the chair, leaning on the wall. “Oh right, humans don’t usually drink blood.”

The huff he let out bothered me, but I ignored it for the sake of keeping my cool.

“I am actually more surprised he was the one to do it willingly.”

“Well, he thought for a change.” I mirrored the man’s position on the chair. “Anyways, you’re here not only for this, are you?”

“No. I am here to talk about something more important than you getting the blood we agreed on. I only had the method of intake a bit different in mind, but it works for now. I hope you still remember the hunter convention I have told you about before.”

“I do. What of it?” I was prepared to hear I was off the draft.

“I still want you to participate, but you will have to hide the fact you are not human.”

My eyes went wide, lips barely a line. After a moment I furrowed my brow and stared at the man.

“What? I mean, I get it, but why do you still want me near other hunters?”

“You are an exceptional asset to our team for this year, and with you, we would definitely bring back the trophy of the best institution of nurturing hunters.”

“How many exactly are we talking about?”

He looked at me with suspicion in his eyes and smirked.

“As if I would tell you these things.”

“One way or the other, I will still know the numbers on the actual event, so why hide it now? If you’re afraid I’ll inform other supernaturals about it, you’re so wrong. They like me as much as you do.”

“Every branch can only send three schools per region, so no, you won’t know the numbers. And it’s not about others. It’s about you. Mister Bloomer might not hold you long…”

“Don’t- Leave him out of this. And don’t you dare cancel his supervising instructor thing, he worked his ass off for it.”

“You don’t need to worry about that. He is a great student, he is far more capable than Mister Wann, in respect of studying and passing the theoretical parts of tests. He is, however, a bit slow on the uptake of practical exams, but he is an efficient hunter. Those few blunders could be overlooked.”

“You mean the one where he couldn’t kill his own kin in cold blood? Yeah, you people are so humane, so kind, not like monsters at all.” My sarcasm earned me a slap across the face, but it was worth it.

The look on his face after that… He looked as if he was beating himself over the fact he lost it there. It was funny seeing this stoic man go red in the face and lose that iron-clad composure. It was hard to keep in the mocking laugh. The slap didn’t even sting, it felt like a pat, more like.

“Touched a nerve, huh,” my tone was disrespectful.

I really wanted to make him grovel before me.

Sometimes I really wanted to make them understand they were dealing with a being older than their civilization. But I decided against it, I didn’t really like demonstrating my experience. Also, most of the times I lost my head, I would need to learn things over again. Or the last time I tried to die, I spent quite a long time sleeping under the water so when I emerged I had to get used to the new era and technology and the language manner and other technicalities.

Now that I thought about it, I stopped aging after I hit sixteen. After that my body did not change one bit. I gained more freckles, that’s all.

I was sixteen when I died for the first time. It was his, my ‘father’s’ doing. When I was, well, born, he didn’t come for me right away. The bastard showed up only after a couple of years, if I remember correctly. I was slaughtering villages and settlements as a mindless beast – I had no control over my own actions and strength and the blood-lust was something else.

When he showed up I calmed down immediately. His voice was like a song, and he called my name for the first time. It was the first time that I fell under his authority spell. His voice commanded me to stop behaving like a deranged beast. He was oh so beautiful.

He brought me to the nest – some old Roman ruins, where the other Pure-bloods and Nobles were nesting at that time. Hidden away from the sun. He wanted to welcome me to the family, but others were hesitant.

He wanted me because he made me, but they were reluctant to let me stay with them. I smelled different, the fact alone that I had a smell was unsettling. And then I pricked my arm on a sharp rock sticking out from the wall. They saw blood and realized I wasn’t like them. They attacked me and my defensive instincts kicked in. I killed three Nobles and a Pure-blood then. I escaped in panic, knowing if they found me, they would kill me.

He found me in deeps of a now Russian tundra. He ripped my heart out and ate it before my own eyes, while I was slowly losing life.

When I came to I was buried, the hole in my chest was gone, I had a new heart pumping blood and he was nowhere to be found.

I tried to avoid contact with Cold Walkers as much as I could after that. But wherever I went, everyone would know. They would instinctively know I was wrong, that I was not supposed to be. The word reached him and he stood before me again. This time to only talk. It ended in me trying to fend off the attacks of his Creations.

The one who created me, the one who was supposed to love me, hated me more than anyone else in this world. I was a failed experiment; I was a menace to his existence and he wanted me gone.

After the third time he killed me, he gave up on it. I haven’t seen him since then. It’s been almost two and a half thousand years and I hoped I would never meet him again. I did not want to see him, he made me realize just how much I did not belong in this world. An existence which was not supposed to be couldn’t be extinguished. You could not erase that which was not supposed to be made.

“What do you know about humanity?” Vertig spat as if I was a vermin writhing before him.

“Indeed. What would I know? I just watched humanity unfold for three thousand years. I wouldn’t know a thing.”

“Stop with that tone, or I won’t answer for my actions.”

“Oh really? Is that the only way you know to talk to me now? Threatening me? Just because you have me on a short leash, doesn’t mean I won’t turn around and bite your head off. Look here, kiddo, don’t play with my patience. He wouldn’t be the first one to die because of me, and I won’t be the one getting the short end of the stick. If he dies, there will be nothing holding me back from ending you.” I had stood up, leaning over the table, my face a menace just inches away from the human sitting on the other side.

It was Wann to interrupt our heated conversation with his cough. He cleared his throat and lightly coughed again. He placed a cup of coffee in front of the professor and stepped back, hands behind his back.

“Sir, with all due respect, I advise you not to get involved in her s-schemes. We are still unsure of what she actually came here for. She might as well be a spy, for all we know. Is it really a good idea to let her pa-participate?”

“Yes. This decision is final, Mister Wann.” Vertig took a sip, appreciating the smell and taste, he glanced at Wann, still standing at attention. “I realize, you do not approve of this, but it is how it is going to be. So stop trying to talk me out of it and get properly ready for the convention. I want all of you on your top performance.”

Vertig stood up and left just like that. Wann was probably pissed he was compared to Vince, with him being the less efficient one. I looked at the guy and saw his expression which startled me – he looked crushed, devastated even. It was an odd look on him, it did not suit him one bit, but I wasn’t so ready as to ask him to talk to me about all the demons he was supposed to fight. His matters did not concern me as long as he was still one of the men who threatened the well-being of the one I had no intentions of losing again, not that soon, anyways.

As Vertig instructed, Wann, me and three others chosen for the team to represent Huntig academy were busting our asses at the training hall.

For some reason, Dark was one of the members chosen. But I couldn’t understand why. She was weak and fragile and complete opposite of a hunter. I mean, I got that she was pressured by the family name and the connection to the Wann family, but it didn’t make her eligible to be chosen as someone good enough for this world-class event to show off the prowess of the pupils of Huntig.

I took to watching others instead of actually training – I had nothing better to learn. We were still attending our regular classes and doing homework. Michail still held a baseless grudge against me and tried to make a fool of me during every sparring session, not that it worked. Our training was held right after Michail’s classes, so he usually stayed and looked after us, instructing on how to efficiently make one or another move. To be honest, it was strange being there, watching how they learned to kill.

The most difficult thing to look at was the desperate actions of the one girl who looked like she didn’t belong. She tried so hard, yet none of her efforts bore any fruit. She simply was not suited to fighting or killing.

“Why are you here?” I asked after she failed to tackle her opponent for the nth time.

“Don’t get involved, Freak. Everyone here has their own role. So does Jun.”

“Wann, I didn’t ask you.”

“But I’m answering. Deal with it.”

“So what’s her role then? Bait? Deadweight?”

“Yes,” he was ruthless. “She’s here because she’s good at mending wounds and medicine. You’re here to be our driving force. Castor is a trapping genius. Seb is here because he has exceptional skill for tracking. And I am here to lead this team and make us win.”

“You just made two mistakes,” I stated. “You gave out their names to me, which was a rookie mistake, given it’s you. Second, you mentioned yourself last, which degraded your value as a leader, because a leader leads and only then takes care of others.”

“What’s with the names? Are you sick in the head? Also, yours and my idea of a leader are com-completely different, so don’t tell me how to lead my team.”

“Castor,” I called the boy working on his footwork near a mirror, “break the mirror with your fist, pick up a shard and slice your arm open with it.”

“What are you even-” Wann started, but stopped when he heard glass shatter. “Cass, stop. What are you doing? Hey.”

“Okay, stop it, Castor.”

Wann blanched out of his position, hands shaking, veins on them popping out, he rushed to the boy and took the shard out of his fingers. The boy himself stood there, hands stretched out, frozen, expression blank, but eyes wide, staring at his hands. He only cut his fingers with the shard.

“Seb. No wait, it might not be your full name, right? Hmm, Sebastien?” no reaction, “Sebastian?”

The man in question flinched. I got it right.

“Sebastian, tell me something,-”

“Stop it-” Wann rushed to make me stop.

“-what do you think-”

“Enough!”

“-of Wann?”

Wann got in my face to try and shut me up, but he was too late already. I gave an order, and the man won’t stop until I tell him to. No one could resist the authority of a Cold Walker’s voice.

“He’s stupid but arrogant. He doesn’t get most of the theory classes, he’s bad at languages and his only good trait is his voice and muscle power. He’s so bad at studying, everyone thinks he’s retarded. Also, he’s a slut and most of his peers want nothing to do with him, but they still treat him nicely, because of his father. He’s-”

“Thank you, Sebastian, that’s enough.” I smiled and let go of the spell.

Wann seemed like he was going to punch the man in the face and beat him to oblivion, but he held it in. The man had a lot of pride, after all. Sebastian was fidgeting, probably waiting for retribution, but Wann only shoved past him and left the training room.

“Argent has dyslexia,” Dark’s voice fluttered through. “He’s been dealing with it for quite some time, so he’s not as bad as he was, though.”

I stared at the girl for a while and then it clicked. It would explain his chopped sentences, occasional stuttering, longer than necessary time to complete translation tasks and the fact he’s still only a student and not an instructor, like Vince, or an actual out-on-the-field hunter. It also would explain why he was so adamant of keeping this image of the cool and aloof person, someone who didn’t give a damn and was confident, even though he barely had any self-esteem.

A lot of things made sense now. He was struggling, but he refused to admit to it. He was fighting a losing battle and it drove him up a wall. This would also explain why he tried so hard to please the authorities – he needed to prove to them he was good enough, even with the impaired learning abilities.

I debated whether I should follow the guy and try to appease him, or stay and do what I was doing before it all exploded. I decided to follow him, try to apologize for my childishness, my sick way of proving a point.

When I stepped out of the training room, Wann was long gone, only his smell full of rage was left filling the hall. I walked after it, searching for the source. He went out and I couldn’t follow, because I wasn’t allowed to step outside after eight in the evening, so to say I had a curfew.

“Yo, Fang, done with trainin’?” Sylvester emerged from the underground, with a towel hung around his neck. “Ya alone?”

“Yes. And yes. Wann ran off somewhere after I pulled a little prank on him. He’s outside, so I can’t really follow. What’s good?”

“Nothin’ much. Been training my shooting. I hope ya do good at the con. Professor’s hellbent on gettin’ it, too.”

“Yeah, well, it shouldn’t be that hard. With me there and whatnot,” I smirked.

We walked back to our flat together. He went into his own room, I knocked on Vince’s door. No one answered so I just went in. The room was considerably smaller than mine, given the fact it was a single; it was tidy, only the bare minimum taking up little space. His room smelled like old books, sweet aroma of cologne and oranges, for some reason. His work table was littered with papers and documents, some books on how-to, and textbooks. All in all, it reeked of Vince, anyone could have been able to tell who lived in this small room.

I shoved my shoes off, as it was his policy, and landed myself on his bed. It had the standard mattress, two pillows, and a duvet. I had no intention of sleeping – had trouble sleeping for a while now, but the air in the room was getting cold and his bed was so warm.

I covered myself with the duvet and buried my nose under it, too. It smelled of the boy and it was so relaxing, for some reason. Maybe because all of them who shared this bond with me, like before, made me feel safe, relaxed and content with the situation. I still had to wrap my head around the whole soulmate thing, but I was getting to it.

I hoped after Vince, there wouldn’t be another one. I mean, they all swore to love me forever, but Vince, this guy could only love me in a platonic way, since he’s batting for the other team.

“Fey,” I heard distantly, felt my shoulder being pressed. “Hey, you need to either scoot over or go back to your own room.”

I didn’t notice how I fell asleep, but now that he was back and trying to wake me, I really did not want to get up. I unwrapped myself out of the warm blanket, but instead of leaving, I dragged him in beside me.

“Fey?”

“Shut up,” I mumbled, nuzzling my face closer to his warm body. “I’m cold. Wann stinks.”

He chuckled through the wired jaw, “Oh yeah?”

I was sure he would try to shove me out of the bed, but he wrapped his long, slender arms around me and snuggled closer. Our legs intertwining, bodies so close I felt like in a furnace. Opposite of feeling uncomfortable, I felt so indescribably nice and warm, and content.

The waning moon light filtered in through the window, illuminating his face. He looked so calm and blessedly happy. It brought a smile to my lips and I snuggled even closer, he held me tighter.

*****

It was only a week left for us to prepare for the convention. We attended our classes properly, got some additional training. Wann was being an ass, more so than regular, though, only during the training. During the day he was somewhat pacified.

Other guys from the team were trying to avoid direct contact with either of us, no one wanted to get in a fight or be manipulated to do stupid things. I swore I wouldn’t use my abilities against them again, unless I had no other choice, like in case something went south and they still tried to act cool and help, which could lead to their own demise. After I made them reveal their last names to me, they calmed down, because the ‘authority order’ only worked with the given names, for those were the most closely connected to one’s being and individual self.

Somewhere along the way, the air temperature dropped below zero and I loathed the thought of having to go outside with that one coat I had left and a pair of boots, which were not enough to withstand the winter.

Vince, upon noticing and realizing the situation with my attire, dragged me to a city mall to shop me up. We spent half a day choosing a good quality, warm, but light and easy to move in, coat. The next half was spent on picking out shoes. I wanted something military-style, just like my old pair, but Vince was adamant on getting something lighter and more mobile. In the end, we got teddy fleece boots – the closest to what I wanted, but not exactly those heavy boots, like Vince said – ‘a lot of metalheads wear these, they’re so uncomfortable’. I wanted to argue about it with him, but the shoes he got for me were much more comfortable than the ones I wanted. Also, they had a better fit for my small, child-like feet.

While we were at it, Vince decided I needed a scarf and a hat. So he went and got me those. The scarf was meant for skiing, but it was better than a regular one, considering how those would be uncomfortable to move my head in. It wasn’t too stuffy and it covered my neck and my mouth perfectly, like a mask. I never knew those existed, if I had, I would have probably bought it a lot sooner.

Vince talked me into getting a set of thermal clothes, a pair of pants and a shirt. The material was light and hugged my body close, but did not restrict any wide movements.

We wanted to go and eat out, but Wann showed up and dragged me back to the dorm since it was past my curfew. I offered him to join us, he refused. He was so stubborn about not eating with a ‘freak and a faggot’ at one table he kept repeating the same words over and over. It made an impression, he was confirming this to himself and not to us. So without further arguing, I followed Wann out the shopping mall and into the car. Vince was allowed to ride back with us.

In the end, I had to pick up a fighting weapon, since no hunter would go face off a monster barehanded. Vince advised to take something light, like a saber, but I was against it. Any kind of weapon would just get in the way of movement. But I had to choose something, so I picked up some silver throwing knives. It was a weapon, so they should have been able to deal with it.

I still had no idea what the convention would be like. By the contents of our makeshift team, I supposed there would be some tracking, trapping and hunting to do. Question was – of what. Would it only be animals we would need to hunt, or something else? I had doubts they would bring real deal out, but knowing that the school itself had its own live were-bull had me thinking back on all the possibilities.

Now that I thought about it, I think that were-bull escaped because I haven’t seen her again, not a sign of her. Unless they killed her, which wouldn’t be so nice, considering I basically made fun of her and then hoped she’d be able to take care of the rest…

Anyway, the departing day was approaching and Vince’s brain was moving away from his head due to all the worrying and nerves of all the what-ifs.

It took us almost a month since the Moon Walker attack to get to this point and everyone was giddy with excitement, nerves and the need to punch someone in the face as soon as possible. Vince was also displeased by his condition because the wires on his teeth had to stay in for some time longer.