We walk in silence the rest of the way. I can’t help but wonder if I got under his skin more than he let on. I feel a little bad if that’s the case. He teases me so much, I just wanted to take a chance to get back at him a little. But the last thing I want is for him to treat me like I’m nothing but an annoying girl. How am I ever going to figure out how much he likes me if I spend my time pissing him off? Oh well, if he doesn’t like it when I tease him the way he teases me, that’s his problem, not mine.
He’s still being a little too formal when we reach the cliff. He turns to face me with a polite smile and I can’t help but jibe, “Oh come on, I didn’t mess your suit too bad. You’re already back to looking perfect.”
His face softens a bit and he touches his forehead in a frustrated gesture. “Oh Victoria, if only it were as simple as that.”
Chills shoot down my spine at the way he says my name. He almost never uses my name. It just makes me even more confused. “So if you’re not upset about the suit, what are you upset about?”
For a moment, his dark, unreadable eyes stare hard into mine. “Upset is probably the wrong word. It’s… complicated.” With a sigh, he shakes his head and straightens up again. “Maybe I’ll explain it later. But work first. Get climbing, otherwise I’ll have to tell the old man that you were being difficult.”
“How can one man be so infuriating?” I grumble to myself, but from the way he smiles as I stomp past him, I know he heard me. His hearing is so sharp it’s almost scary. If it wasn’t so annoying.
The Grandmaster insists that training in life-threatening situations is much better for my overall safety, so I don’t use any ropes or fail-safe systems as I begin to climb the sheer cliff. On one hand, I understand where he’s coming from. Knowing that I could fall to my death any second certainly keeps my senses sharp. And I have to admit that I might be a little bit of an adrenaline junkie. The adrenaline rush I get from scaling a mountain with nothing but my years of training always leaves me feeling high when my feet touch safely back down again. But on the other hand, I can’t help but wonder if The Grandmaster is losing it. How the hell am I supposed to fight vampires if I die in my training?
I have to stay focused when I’m climbing, and I soon lose myself in the steady rhythm of moving upwards. Before I realize it, I’m pulling myself onto the “stopping ledge” as we call it. Turning around so I can sit with my legs dangling over the edge, I look out over the amazing view while I catch my breath. The training cliff is near the peak of one of the mountains, and on a clear day like today, you can see all the way to the horizon. Rolling seas of forest as far as the eye can see, chopped up here and there by the wide rivers that cut through the landscape. It’s late summer, and the trees are just starting to lose some of their vibrant green.
I’ve had to scale this cliff in all kinds of weather. Somedays, I have to pass through a bank of clouds before I reach the stopping ledge. And then when I look out, it’s nothing but a bed of white that looks soft enough to sleep on.
It’s moments like these that really make me wonder why anyone would want to live in a city. All I know about them is that they’re crowded and dirty, the exact opposite of this place. The only sound is my breath, my heartbeat, the wind in the trees and the soft murmuring of the animals going about their lives. There’s definitely something magical to it all.
One day, I want to be able to give up monster hunting and just spend every day living in the beauty of nature. Maybe not always here, in these mountains, but I want to see all the wildest places this world has to offer.
The thing is, I know I couldn’t ever give up on my purpose unless I somehow managed to kill every last monster out there. I’m too much like The Grandmaster that way. I’m still here because monster hunting is in my blood. No amount of fear for my quarry could change who I am at heart. But I suppose I could take vacations in the wilderness here and there. The Grandmaster won’t be around forever. And as much as I love him, and the thought of losing him pains me, I know I’ll have more freedom when I don’t have to live under his shadow anymore.
It used to make me dizzy to look down from the ledge, but I don’t fear the height anymore. I know that only I could let myself fall, and I wouldn’t let that happen. Hiro is nothing but a speck by now, his face turned towards me. “Why don’t you join me?” I call out, for once glad for his freaky hearing. At least I know he can hear me.
He calls something back, but I can’t make it out. But I do notice that he doesn’t move any closer to the wall, so whatever he said must not have been positive. “What’s the matter, you scared of heights or something?” I tease, swinging my dangling feet like a little kid despite the huge drop beneath me.
For a moment, he drops his head, and I guess he’s probably grumbling to himself. But then he walks towards the wall, and I feel a little smug. At least his stubbornness can work in my favour sometimes. He hates to do anything that makes him look weak.
I’ve seen him climb a few times before, mostly when I was just starting out myself, but his fluid grace never ceases to amaze me. There’s something almost inhuman about the way that he moves. He moves up at a steady pace, faster than I’ve ever dared to go and never slips or misses a step. Sometimes I wonder how I got so lucky to have him in my life. With his looks and skills, he could do just about anything in the world if he wanted to, and yet he chooses to stay and take care of The Grandmaster and I. Sometimes I can’t help but wonder why. But I’m too much of a coward to ask, just in case my forwardness drives him away. I’d rather have him in my life as nothing more than a friend than lose him because I assumed too much.
He doesn’t even bother keeping his eyes on the cliff as he climbs, and I wonder if he comes out here and practices when I’m not looking. He stares right at me, making me feel a little like a deer caught in the gaze of a mountain lion. I have the strangest instinct to run when he looks at me with such intensity, but at the same time it makes me want to move closer. Sometimes I feel like the curiosity will kill me, not knowing what’s going on behind those beautiful eyes. I grip the edge of the cliff a little tighter to keep myself from leaning towards him. I can’t afford to forget about things like gravity when I’m so high up.
Hiro reaches me in half the time it took me to climb and sighs as he sits down beside me. “You are so irritating, you know that?” he says, only half teasing. His eyes are still just as unreadable as ever, but there’s a smile playing on his lips.
“Well, I learned from the best,” I reply cheekily.
Rolling his eyes, he leans back against the rock behind us. I freeze as his hand brushes mine, doing my best to act like I didn’t notice. But after a moment, I realize that his hand feels as cold as the rocks we’re sitting on, and I can’t help but cover his hand with mine and ask, “Are you okay? Your hands are freezing.”
He smiles, but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes as he pulls his hand away. “Don’t worry about me, My Lady. I’ve always been a little cold blooded. I’ll warm up when we’re inside again.”
“Sorry for dragging you all the way up here,” I mumble, feeling guilty.
“Like I said before, you know I’d follow you anywhere.” The words are quiet and serious when he says them this time, and I look up to see him staring at me, all traces of humour gone from his face. He stares into my eyes again, but this time I get the feeling he’s trying to read something there. He frowns, as if he can’t find what he’s looking for. Then he sighs and looks out over the sea of trees.
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
We sit in silence for a while, and I have to fight the urge to slide closer to him. But then after a moment, his voice breaks the silence. “There’s something I need to talk to you about,” he begins hesitantly, picking a lose bit of stone off the cliff and rolling it around in his fingers. I’m shocked to realize that he looks embarrassed. That’s one emotion I never thought I’d see from fearless, confident Hiro. It only makes me even more curious to know what he’s thinking.
“What’s up?” I ask, unable to wait patiently for him to continue.
He infuriates me further by playing with the stone in silence for a moment before he sighs and continues, “Okay, I need you to have an open mind here. Can you do that for me?”
I’m so confused and caught off guard by this that I don’t know how to respond. His face is still serious as he looks up to meet my eyes again. I mentally shake myself and put on my most serious expression. “You have my full attention,” I say in a dire tone of voice, which causes him to smile a little.
“Good. Because this is super awkward for me, and not a conversation I ever thought I’d have to have.” He has to take a deep breath before he plunges on, “Okay, so I’m pretty sure that you’re going on your first mission soon. I’m not supposed to say anything to you, but I want to make sure you’re as prepared for the world as possible, no matter what. And since your parents aren’t around to tell you about these things, and the old man would never dare talk to you about things like this, it’s left to me.”
I have absolutely no idea where he’s going with all this and I’m sure the utter confusion I feel is clear on my face when he studies me carefully. But I don’t interrupt and wait for him to get to the point.
With a growl of frustration, he throws the pebble off the cliff and uses his hand to ruffle his hair. “Ugh, I’m just going to say what I need to say. I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that you’re a very beautiful young woman.”
He pauses as if waiting for me to respond, or maybe catch on. But all I can say is, “Uh, I guess so? I mean I haven’t met any other women so I don’t really have any standards to go by.”
I have to laugh at his expression as I finish speaking. He looks on the verge of panic. “Just spit it out, Hiro.”
“Well okay, you asked for it. I have met other women before coming to live with you and the old man. And I can honestly say that you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. And this is coming from someone who’s watched you grow up, even through those awkward ages. So you know, that means that I’m not joking about that or biased or whatever. And that’s great and all, but being beautiful can be dangerous, especially if you find yourself out in the world and I can’t be there to protect you.”
I open my mouth to protest, but before I can, he cuts me off. “Not that I think you aren’t capable of taking care of yourself. But I… ugh this is so hard.” He taps his forehead with his fist as if hoping that will knock loose what he wants to say. “Well, there is no other way around it. Please tell me that in your studies about the world you’ve at least read about how babies are made?”
My cheeks go hot as I suddenly catch on to exactly what he wants to talk about. “Oh God, I’m so sorry you had to do this, but yes, I am aware of that whole process.”
“Okay well that makes this a little easier, if not any less awkward,” Hiro sighs, unable to look at me. “Okay well what it probably didn’t mention in those books is that there are really terrible people out there who want nothing more than to use beautiful women like you. If I’m with you, then there’s less chance of that, since we can just pretend to be a married couple or something as our cover. But if you find yourself alone in the world, be prepared for a lot of flirting and never put yourself in a dangerous position, like trusting that someone is a good person just because they’re being nice. All I’m trying to really say is, that humans can be monsters too.”
There’s so much to think about in what he just said that it makes my head spin. At first I can’t get the image of us as a couple out of my head, cover or not. But then something else he said pulls me up short. “What do you mean, ‘if’ you’re with me?”
I’ve never seen him look so frustrated when he meets my eyes. “You know that if it’s up to me, I would never leave your side. But I have a horrible feeling that The Grandmaster is not going to let me go with you.”
“What!?” I exclaim, nearly forgetting that I’m sitting on the edge of a cliff. “Why on Earth would he not let you go with me?”
Sighing heavily, Hiro once again can’t meet my eyes as he says, “Well, partly because he wants you to prove that you can do it yourself. But also partly because of some of the things we’ve just talked about. Look, Victoria, this is the most honesty you are ever going to hear from me. I have more self control than the average guy, but you still drive me crazy. And not in the way that you annoy me. But you’re beautiful through and through. Not just beautiful to look at, but I know you better than anyone, and you’re the most pure soul I’ve seen. I can’t sit here and lie to you and say that I never think about you that way, or that I’m not attracted to you. And I have to agree with the old man that the temptation might be too great, even for me, if it was just the two of us.”
My heart is racing so fast I feel that it might jump right out of my chest. I grit my teeth in determination and pull from my deepest reserves of courage. Even still, my voice is no louder than a whisper when I say, “And what if I feel the same way about you? You have looked in a mirror, haven’t you?”
Hiro flinches slightly at my words, and I’m not sure why, but when he looks at me, his eyes are burning. I can’t help but feel like the deer again, with my back against the wall. “Well that would hardly be fair of me to take you at your word for that. You haven’t met anyone else. Besides, you’re missing the point. You’re not going on a field trip, or a vacation. You’re going to kill a vampire. You need to be focused one hundred percent on that, or you’re going to get yourself killed. I didn’t bring this up to talk about us, I did it to warn you to be careful out there.”
For a moment, we sit in silence, and I have the oddest urge to start crying. But I manage to hold myself together. I can’t deny the truth in what he says.
After a little while, Hiro smiles and glances at me out of the corner of his eye. “But just out of curiosity, did you mean it when you said you find me attractive?”
I would have thought that it would be hard to admit to him, but I find myself smiling back as I reply, “You have no idea.”
He turns to face me again, and I have to stop myself from leaning closer. I find myself staring at his lips, which look so soft and inviting, but then I catch myself and blush as I look away. Hiro laughs, but the sound isn’t quite right. He sounds torn, like part of him had wanted to lean closer and the other part is angry at himself.
“I’m sorry. Like I said, no distractions.” I can’t help but feel like that last part was aimed just as much at himself as at me. “But after you’ve spent some time in the world on this mission, if you still feel the same way about me, maybe we can talk about it again?”
“To be perfectly honest Hiro, I’ve been head over heels in love with you for a while now, and I really don’t think this mission is going to change anything.” I can’t believe my bravery as the words spill from me, and he looks at me in surprise. But his eyes are still as impossible to interpret as ever.
His expression turns pained as he brushes my cheek with his thumb. “I guess I’ll have to wait and see. But I’ll be here waiting for you. So hurry home, okay?”
I sigh, unable to tear my eyes away from his. “Maybe the old man will let you come with me.” I feel my heart start racing again at that idea; me and Hiro, the two of us together against the world. With no Grandmaster breathing down our necks.
He smiles at my choice of words, and shakes his head. “Unfortunately, the chances of that are really low. Besides, I’m clearly a bad influence on you.” He takes a deep breath, and leans in to rest his forehead against mine. I wonder if he can hear my heart racing away from me. “You’re my only weakness, you know that?”
My breath catches in my throat, and feeling braver than I ever have, I tilt my face so that my lips are only a breath away from his. But with a quiet growl, he pulls away. “And now do you see how you’re dangerous?”
“Maybe,” I reply, feeling rebellious. “You can’t blame a girl for trying.”
Hiro sits up straighter, tidying his suit as usual, and I know that the moment of openness is over. His expression is carefully controlled again as he returns to butler mode. “Now, I refuse to talk about this again until you’re home safe and sound. And if you try to bring it up again in any way, I’m going to pretend that we never had this conversation.” He closes his eyes and takes another deep breath. When he opens them again, he says formally, “We have other tasks left on my list, My Lady. Shall we return to the house and finish them?”
I frown at his perfect composure. “I’m warning you now, the cat’s out of the bag and you can’t put it back. So you can try all you want to pretend that this never happened, but I’m going to try my hardest to make sure you remember.”
Hiro raises one eyebrow, “I assure you, I am much more stubborn than you.” And without another word, he spins around and scales back down the cliff dangerously fast.
For a moment, I’m tempted to do the same, just to show him I’m as fearless as he is. But I know how stupid that would be. A vampire hunter never lets their emotions influence their actions in dangerous situations, not unless they want to die.
When I touch back down on solid earth, I smile as I turn to Hiro, but he must have been anticipating some devious plan on my part, because he’s already walking away. “Come along. If we don’t get a move on, we won’t be able to test your latest gadget.