NA - Vampires
The Beginning
The building loomed at the top of the hill, all gothic spires and turrets. Large, dark, and unseemly, the building imprinted upon the mind of all those who saw it. Who basked in its darkness and lived to tell the tale.
At one point in the past it lived an unsavoury life as an asylum, bodies in every room, shrieks and wails filling the night, but was now empty except for the Darlings.
And even though the building no longer held those in pain, the cries could still be heard into the morning by those occupying the small brick houses located in the village below.
The Darlings were an odd family, or so it was said, and they kept themselves in isolation by their own accord. Ask anybody when they'd seen them last and nobody could answer. It was extremely rare for any of them to grace the village at the bottom of the hill with their presence, and if they did, it was never for long. And always at night.
Of course, the fact they were never seen in the day had led to rumours.
The Darlings drink human blood.
The Darlings sacrifice their staff during the full moon.
The Darlings are demons.
And so on.
But everybody knew vampires weren't real.
That they were merely a figment of the imagination, invented as a way for the ill-informed to explain away porphyria.
So of course the Darlings weren't true vampires, no, but victims of vicious lies and hissed hatred by those living in poverty under the harsh shadow cast by the hideous manor in which they resided.
Those without money never cared much for those who never went without, after all.
Nobody knew how many of them there were, rumours stated there was ten of them minimum, but everybody knew of the main three.
Vincent Darling, the patriarch of the family, of indeterminate age, stood taller than most, with silver hair and a scar on the side of his face that ran from hairline to chin.
Sofia, the matriarch, with dark black hair that flowed to her waist was said to be the most beautiful woman to exist.
And finally, their son, Florin. Seemingly an angelic looking teenager according to the few who'd seen him, he was the most mysterious of the trio.
The Hunters were one of the many families that lived in a small brick house down in the village.
There used to be more of them, but at current there were only five residing in the tiny property.
Dahlia, the youngest, was seventeen and what most people referred to as vivacious. She had a knack for making all those she encountered feel welcome, which was one of the reasons whispers followed her. The girl had no friends, no companions. Odd for such a lively girl of her age.
Then there was her grandmother, Maria. A no-nonsense sort of woman who, unlike her granddaughter, had no time of day for anybody, and as bitter as her name suggested.
Petar, Dahlia's older brother, was deemed handsome by everybody and was never seen without a handful of sycophants following his every move. Unlike his sister, he craved the attention of human interaction like no other. Breathed in its scent, somehow allowing it to make himself whole.
Then there were the twins, Viktoria and Aleksandar. Nineteen years old without a care in the world, the two of them were often seen around the village causing mischief. Taunting the stall owners or creating havoc in one way or another, unable to sit still for even a moment. The gossip mongers said they took after their parents most, rest their souls.
The Hunters had known of the Darlings for a very, very, very long time.
Almost as far back as their family line went, a history existed in which they were tangled up somehow with the Darlings.
At the true beginning, a Hunter had married a Darling, starting off the unfortunate sequence of events that then followed.
The marriage, an unhappy one if you ever saw one, had soured within a fortnight, beginning the rift between the two families.
But the real reason the Hunters could never untangle themselves from the dangerous web the Darlings weaved?
Well, that probably had something to do with the fact that the Hunters hunted, maimed, and attempted to kill those they believed to be vampires.
And the Darlings were number one on their list.
Always had been.
Chapter One
My hands grazed down my body, checking that all weapons were in place and ready to hand if needed. Nothing was out of place and I let out a deep exhale. Nobody would be getting the better of me tonight, or any night for that matter.
Nana Maria had taught me since the beginning to never leave the house at night without my weapons and I'd always heeded that advice. Mainly because Nana Maria was one of the fiercest, and most revered, hunters to have ever graced not just our small village but our entire country. There were shrines erected in her honour throughout hunter homes, but it had never gone to her head. She never acted like her fame mattered to her and I loved her even more for it. You would never know from looking at her small stature that it was she who had slayed the feared Stefan the Slaughterer. She'd spent her entire hunter career infiltrating his inner circle in order to find a way to end him and his reign of terror.
It was rumoured that the true way to end the life of an undead was to stab them through the heart with a wooden stake, but that wasn't the only way to ensure they never roamed again. Nana Maria hadn't ended Stefan the Slaughtered with a stake and expecting that was his undoing.
'Are you sure you've got everything you need?' Nana Maria asked assessing me from head to toe. I nodded in confirmation and opened my lightweight jacket to show her the knives held tight in my chest holster sat atop my corset. It had been her gift to me when I turned sixteen and from the amount of time it had spent on my body, I barely noticed it. It was like a second skin to me. 'If you get caught, they won't go easy on you.'
'I know.' I picked up my last dagger from the dark wood circular kitchen table that took up the majority of space in the small room and gripped its leather hilt in my hand. It was my favourite, a bodice dagger with a black leather handle, six-inch blade, and a smooth black case so it wouldn't pierce my skin when placed down my corset, rested between my breasts. 'I have no intention of getting caught. Not now and not ever.'
'None of us ever have the intention, Parsnip, but that doesn't change the outcome if it were to happen. If they capture you, the Darlings and their guards will take you prisoner.' Nana made sure I was looking at her face before she spoke next. 'They will do anything they can to take a Hunter captive. You know the history of our families.'
'Yes, yes,' I said, cutting her off before she could tell me once again the tale of how the Darlings were our immortal enemies for all eternity. Blah, blah, blah. I'd heard it all before over a thousand times and I could really do without hearing it again. Especially before I left the house to go and spy on said Darlings. 'You'd never let me forget it, Nana.'
My older sister, Viktoria, entered the room, dressed in similar clothes to me, but also somehow managing to make them look a whole lot more sophisticated than I did. Viktoria, with her black as night hair and her pale skin, was really rather beautiful. Every boy had tried to catch her attention, but that was all part of the fun for my sister. Nothing and nobody caught her eye, except for maybe her own visage whenever she passed a reflective surface. 'You ready to leave, Parsnip?'
Parsnip was the name given to me by my grandfather before he passed. Nobody could tell me why he'd called me that, but it was something that had stuck and now I couldn't imagine being called anything else. By my family at least. Anybody outside of the Hunter home was to call me Dahlia, and nothing else.
'More than ready.' I placed my dagger down my corset and took a step towards the door. Nana Maria coughed behind me.
'Aren't you forgetting something?'
My eyes took in the sparse room, a kitchen and living space rolled into one, and shook my head. The stove was placed in the left corner, a sink and counter next to it, a cooling cupboard on the far right. Te circular table took up the space in front of the counter and an armchair was in the other corner. That was all the furniture we owned. Not that there was space for anything more.
'Your bonnet.' Viktoria nudged her head in the direction of our shared bedchamber. 'You left it on the side cabinet.'
Patting my head confirmed her words. 'Seems you were right, Nana Maria.'
'Always am, Parsnip.'
It seemed imprudent to mention all of the occasions where she was wrong.
With no time to waste, I went to my room and grabbed my bonnet, shoving it roughly on my head before flying back into the main room.
'Come on.' Viktoria grabbed my arm and dragged me towards the black door that led to the outside world. 'Alek will be mad if we take any longer.'
'Alek's always mad about something.'
Alek, one of my older brothers, was always in a dark mood ever since his betrothed had mysteriously disappeared a year ago. Or so went the story put about the village. But us Hunters knew the truth. Alina had died after the two of them were caught by Vincent Darling while patrolling one night. Nobody knew exactly what happened to her once she was captured, but it was something Alek had never forgiven himself for.
'Regardless,' - Viktoria flung the door open, exposing us all to the frosty elements beyond - 'Alek won't like being kept waiting.'
If you enjoyed this little snippet, and would want to read more of it, send me an email: katielowrie@klspublishing.com