“I wonder, what were the Faye?” asked Miller, absentmindedly.

Everyone from our group looked at him as if he laughed at a funeral, but that was what we all needed, a lighthearted conversation about something that did not concern death.

“Pixies,” I quiped. “I freed them before the shitfest started.”

“Pixies?” Dark was amazed. “I have never seen them before. Were they as pretty as the stories tell?”

“Yes. They looked like mini people bathed in glitter. Their wings were multicolored. And they were red, blue, green, and purple. Quite cute. Differently from the last time I saw them.”

“You’ve seen them before?” asked Rodd.

“Yes. Briefly, before they stuffed me in an iron box and dumped me in the ocean,” I smiled.

Kaya giggled and told me I was funny.

“Oh yeah, it was fun to know I was hated by the most peaceful species on this planet,” I commented and she laughed louder.

“K, don’t be loud. Some are trying to sleep,” her brother told her.

“Sorry,” she said, but then launched into a long tirade about how she thought Pixies were the most beautiful creatures in the world, even though she only had seen them in books.

“What happens now?” asked Miller after a while. “I mean, Vertig’s dead. Michail’s injured, and I doubt he’ll pull out of it alive.”

“I’ll contact the academy, when we get to the city,” Vince said, his face solemn, as if he was dreading the time to come. “I suppose, Sir Franklin will take over the position of Vertig.”

“Who’s Franklin?” I asked. I had at least heard of the previous men prior to coming to Huntig, but I never heard this name.

“Uh, he’s the representative of World Hunter Association in Huntig. In case of emergency, he’s the one to assume the leadership.”

“Is he bad?”

“I don’t really know. I only saw him once,” Vince answered truthfully.

“He’s the reason I’m still in training,” grumbled Wann. “He wouldn’t pass me. Because I can’t answer stupid questions in writing. Goddamn asshole.”

“Is he a hunter?” I asked.

Wann looked at me with such intensity, I thought he’d kill me for the question. But he looked away, through the window. It seemed as if he was counting the trees we passed on our way to the city.

“He- He’s not a real hunter. He’s our uncle,” he glanced at Dark, she was nodding off. “He’s in the position only because he knows a lot of lore. He was the main sc-scholar behind our textbooks.”

“Can he fight?” I interrupted.

“I have not seen him in action,” Wann admitted. “I don’t even know why aunt Ruby would want to be with him.”

“Because she’s too scared to divorce him,” came a light voice, Dark was wide awake. “The bastard is so controlling, my mom doesn’t want to be in one room with the man. I think the only person who can stand their ground against Franklin is Argent’s dad.”

“I just hope he’s not as deranged as Albrecht was,” I said and snuggled closer to Vince. He hugged me tighter.

It took us about three hours to reach the city in which the hunter school of Germany was located – Jeagerstadt. It was much bigger than Huntig, but it was much more concealed; apparently you had to have a permission to enter its territory. Whereas anyone could come to Huntig, even people who had no idea about the creatures crawling in the shadows of the night.

When we passed the checkpoint, a foreboding feeling enveloped me and I felt trapped, contained. I didn’t really want to go there, but Vince convinced me to stay with the group. He withheld the reason for it, but I had a feeling it was something important.

I looked through the window and the feeling of entering a cage intensified – it looked like a war camp. It made an impression of every person in the city area being someway or another connected to the hunting of the monsters. For some reason I felt relieved I chose to go to Huntig instead of here. For one – I met Vince, for the other – Albrecht would have probably tried to dissect me again.

“The moment you contact the academy, we leave. I don’t want to overstay in this place,” I murmured to Vince.

“I know. Believe me I don’t want to be here as much as you.”

Finally, the bus pulled to a stop in front of a huge white marble building with colossal pillars on each side of the huge wooden door at the top of a wide staircase. The city itself looked modern, ignoring those small camps of tents and fires burning, it literally looked like a battle camp. Basically every person I saw wore a military like uniform. If it wasn’t for the modern architecture buildings behind the little campsites, I would have thought we ended up in the era of World War two.

“Why?..”

“It’s German policy for hunters to be a militarized force,” answered Vince. “I only read about it, but given Albrecht was at the top, it’s no wonder.”

“You could have told me that sooner. I can’t be here. What if they recognize me?”

“It’s alright, Fey. Just stick with me, and it’ll be fine. Now, everyone, don’t get separated. You two, also stay close,” he told the siblings who were looking around, expressions same as mine – fearful and panicked.

The bus door opened and everyone started to slowly file out into the cold. There were some armed men standing by the stair, overlooking the marching participants, helping the more injured to move along.

There was a woman standing at the top of the stair, by the large, now open, door and nodding and smiling to every single one of the hunters entering the building. Her face looked kind enough, but I was not ready to trust anyone from this place yet.

We let Wann hobble out of the bus first, followed by Dark, then Miller and Rodd. I, Vince and the kids stepped off last. I shivered from the cold breeze, and Vince put his arm around me. On his other side the two kids were walking warily, holding hands with each other, the little one grabbing onto Vince.

Slowly, we ascended the stairs. The kind faced woman stopped Wann and told him to go to the right, but when she told Dark to head to the left, he stopped and refused to leave.

“You need to see the medics,” the woman said. “You are injured.”

“I’m fine,” Wann protested.

“We will give you treatment, and then you can go where your friends are,” the woman smiled and motioned for one of the armed men to walk Wann away.

He was about to protest, when Dark told him to stop being a baby and just go.

“We’ll come find you, if you can’t find us yourself,” she said. “Sorry, he doesn’t like to leave his team behind,” she said to the woman.

“It is alles gut, we have some of those too,” her kind smile was even wider now.

It would have been fine with me, but the woman saw me and she told me to go to the right side of the hall, too.

“I’m not injured,” I said right away.

“And this blood is not yours?” she asked incredulous.

“Yes. Not mine.”

“But the Cold Walkers do not bleed.”

I faltered for a moment, lost for words at what to say. She was tougher than I expected and I had not prepared a lie to tell.

“It was when she was helping with the dead and injured,” answered Vince for me. “As you see, I’m all bloody, too,” he pushed out a smile.

The lady looked at us both as if inspecting. Then she saw my bootless leg and gasped, calling for someone to get me some new clothes and shoes. She let us all go into the left side of the hall.

The hall was spacious, decorated with murals and frescoes. There were paintings of angels, some clouds and the like, almost like that one chapel.

The hall was formed as a dome so the echo of our steps and the voices of others were reverberating, pushing off the empty walls and surrounding the people inside. I noticed that there was no actual wall, only a white sheet curtain hung on a frame, I saw some beds lined along the curtain. At the opposite side of the door we entered was another, quite similar, door. I still couldn’t pinpoint the exact nature of this building, but for now we all found some cushions to sit on and some blankets to warm ourselves.

After a while there was a commotion when through the other door came women and men with carts with food – some warm pea soup and sandwiches. My stomach gurgled involuntarily, Vince chuckled by my ear. He and Miller stood up to grab us all some food. The siblings, however, still couldn’t relax, so they did not sit nor looked forward to the food. They were restless, eyes darting from one sound to the other.

“Hey, K,” I said, “wanna sit on my lap?”

She looked at her brother, then at me. The boy scrutinized me, but let go of her hand, allowing her to choose. She smiled awkwardly, but slunk her way to me and plopped down on my tights.

“Hey, what’s this all about?” asked Vince when he came back, there was a lull in his voice and a wide smile playing on his lips. “What about me?”

“You can sit here,” the girl pointed to the ground beside us.

Everyone laughed when Vince pulled a puppy-eyed face.

“Let’s eat, and then I’ll go take care of the thing,” he said, after giving everyone’s share of food.

The soup was nearly too hot, but it was too good to wait for it to get cold. I blew on it couple of times and basically downed every bit in a beat. I must have been famished. Vince might have taken care of my thirst, but as for hunger – only actual food could quench that.

After the soup, I grabbed a sandwich with chicken and ate it in two bites. Kaya laughed at me and called me a lion, for some reason.

“Why a lion?” I asked, surprised.

“Because they eat in big bites,” she declared and took another mouthful of her soup.

I heard a clancking noise coming our way and tensed. The lady from the door was walking toward us, a smile on her face, eyes gentle. I was half expecting her to pass us, but she stopped in front of Vince.

“I hope it is to your tastes,” she said. Everyone nodded or otherwise affirmed the statement. “I take it, your headmaster had passed away?” she inquired.

“Yes. Professor Vertig was attacked by five Cold Walkers and was-” Vince looked at the girl in my lap, “fatally wounded. Professor Michail was also hurt, but he was brought here by an ambulance. Might you tell us, what happened to him?”

“Oh, I will have to ask about him. But it is a shame, for Herr Duncan was a great man,” she said and fell into silence.

Vince looked at me and whispered it was Vertig’s name.

“You knew his name?” I wanted to scream at him, but held it in.

“Well, yes...”

“You know how much shit we could have avoided if I knew his name?!”

The lady cleared her throat, just for the sake of grabbing our attention. I still wanted to complain about the whole matter of Vertig’s name, but I realized I shouldn’t be so vocal about that in such an open space.

“In any case, if you need any help, feel free to ask,” she said with almost no accent. “But, might I ask, whom do these lovely kinder belong?”

This time I saw panic rise on Vince’s face. Everyone froze, looking to each other for help, for a decision on what to do.

“They are vith you, are they not?”

“Y-yes,” I stammered out.

“I am very happy. I told Herr Albrecht to leave those kinders alone, but he would not listen. I am glad you are kind people.”

“You know what they are?” asked Rodd.

“It is not what, it is who they are,” she smiled.

Vince froze mid-bite, the others had similar reactions of sputtering and choking on their food. I tensed, but leveled her with a stare. It was obvious, not everyone caught on from the beginning, but I knew what she was talking about the moment she asked about them. She gave off the aura of knowledge, but in contrast to Vertig or Albrecht, she was understanding and she most probably shared Vince’s views and thoughts.

“I’m Kaya,” the little girl said and put out her tiny hand. “This is Terrence. My big brother.”

“Oh, what lovely names,” the lady smiled wider as she took that small hand into hers perfectly manicured one.

The girl launched into giggles, while her brother turned away and muttered about how it was stupid and it wasn’t a lovely name under his nose, thinking no one could hear him. It was hilarious seeing him being bashful.

“Well, when you are done eating, send me your representative and we will contact your school together,” she said whilst looking at Vince. She should have just told him to come with her, but I guess there was a protocol for that. “As for you two, you can come with and we will decide on what to do with you.”

After smiling to each of us once again, she turned and clancked away, stopping by other teams or groups of people on the way to the other side of the curtain.

“Do you know who that is?” I asked Vince.

“I think she’s the director of the Jeagerstadt academy. If I’m not mistaken she’s Anna Zommer, if nothing changed in the last three years.”

“Like Vertig?”

“Yes.”

“But why did you not tell me his name?” I started again.

“Well, I think I better go see if we can contact the academy,” Vince said, avoiding the topic. “Let’s go kids, if you’re finished.”

The siblings put down their dishes and wiped their faces with some napkins. K was eager to go ‘explore’, while the older brother seemed rather unwilling to go walking around in the base of the hunters. Vince was already walking away.

“Don’t run away from me, dammit,” I grumbled.

I wanted to go after them, but Rodd grabbed me by the coat and dragged me back onto the cushions. I gave him an unsatisfied glare, but he ignored it in favor of stuffing half of a sandwich into his mouth and chewing on it loudly. Miller offered me one of his own, but I refused and just fumed on my own.

“If he had told me Vertig’s name, I would have just made him let us both go.”

“Maybe,” Dark started, “he did not want you to do that.”

“Why not? Did he like being used as a collateral to my and the old man’s fight? Did he enjoy being threatened by death at every point I did something slightly not in favor for Vertig? Is he a masochist?”

“I’m sure there was a good reason for that. I didn’t know his name either. I mean, none of the professors introduce themselves by their name, only the last name.”

“Yeah,” agreed Miller. “What’s with that, anyways?”

“Really?” I leveled him with a stare until he realized what was with that, but he didn’t. “I made you break a mirror with your bare hands, there is a scar left, and you don’t understand why?”

Miller looked at his hand where a nasty scar was covering half of his palm, he swiped his thumb across the white lines softly.

“I thought, only you could do that. Can someone else do it too?”

“You really need to update your textbooks… Cold Walkers, Pure-bloods and Nobles, they can command anyone to do anything as long as they know your given name, because it’s the most personal property to a human. So, I suppose, the professors are cautious enough not to use their names.”

“Soooo, why don’t you just call us by our names. Wouldn’t that be easier? You’d get what you want,” insisted Miller.

“I-,” I paused. I had never talked about it with anyone. “It’s because I don’t like it. I could make you do something unintentionally, because I can’t really control it sometimes.”

“Why do you call Bloomer by his name, then?” came Wann’s voice from the side of our group. He was standing supported by a crutch, looking pale, but angrier that usual.

“Because no one else would. It’s either the name he does not want to do anything with, or insults hurled by his own family, and you,” I pointed out. “I sometimes command him to shut up without actually meaning it to. The more the person is accustomed to me, the easier the command works,” I kept explaining. “The same with Cold Walkers. If they had your names, they would be able to order you to kill each other, and you would do it without even realizing it.”

“There you are!” a man in his thirties came striding toward us, shoulders squared as if he was ready to fight. “I told you not to go anywhere!” his voice was loud and vocal, carrying far in the empty space of the dome hall. “Get back to the bed,” he told Wann.

“I can walk just fine, leave me alone,” Wann argued and avoided the man trying to grab him by the neck. “I just hit it, it’s fine.”

“I said it was not fine. Get back to the bed.”

“No,” Wann said and walked further away from the man, the crutch held up like a shield. “I said - I’m fine.”

Wann was acting like a child, refusing the help of the medic, limping backwards, not using the crutch by its actual purpose. The older man was almost able to catch him, but instead of grabbing onto Wann, he got the support and Wann faltered, losing his balance. He would have fallen on his ass, but Vince was already walking back to us, and gently, but with enough power caught the other boy and steadied him.

“You alright there, Argent?” he asked.

Wann froze in place, arms wide open from trying to keep his balance, leg out in front to prevent it from being hit in case he actually fell. Vince was holding him under his arms, supporting his full weight. I noticed how Wann’s ears tinted red slightly, moments later he was struggling out of the taller boy’s arms and steadying himself on his own.

“I am fine,” he squeezed out through his teeth. “Gimme that,” he tore the crutch from the medic’s hands, and turned to face Vince, “Did you call the school?”

“It’s fine, thank you,” Vince talked to the medic who was after Wann. “We can handle him from here,” he smiled.

“Alright. Don’t let him sit for a while. No bending the knee, lad,” he told Wann and walked away, shaking his head.

“I did call them. I informed the administration office about our situation. They assured we will be taken care of as soon as possible. I suppose, they will contact Franklin, and organize another bus or something to pick us up from here. It appears, the whole area was ransacked and every vehicle was destroyed. The recon team reported our stuff destroyed. So I hope you did not leave anything valuable at the site. Also, Michail will pull through, he’s in stable condition, though, he is still unconscious.”

“Where are the kids?” asked Rodd.

“Oh, they’re with Lady Zommer, she said she will take care of them. She promised to try and search for their relatives, but, knowing Albrecht, it is highly unlikely there were anyone left alive.”

“And you just left them to her?” I couldn’t believe he would do that.

“Yes. She is amazing with children. Even Terrence laughed,” he smiled.

“But she’s a hunter,” I insisted.

“For the last time, Fey, I am a hunter, too,” he sounded a bit exasperated.

I wanted to argue on it some more, but he had a point. He was a hunter, and an exceptional one, but it still did not assure me of that Lady Zommer being a good person, too. She might have been pretending to get her hands on a specimen for some twisted experiment, like Albrecht. She could have just pretended to like them to later slaughter them in a horrible way.

“I know what you’re thinking, but believe me, she is not a liar. I can tell, so could they,” he said, as if trying to prove some point, only I was supposed to catch on to. “It just seems like her aura is pure,” he added.

I caught the pointed look he was giving me and it clicked suddenly, Moon Walkers were like dogs, and dogs could tell a bad person from a good one. So if Vince said her aura seemed pure, it could have as well meant she smelled of dandelions and spring, and there was no hint of a cruel thought in her mind whatsoever.

“Are you having eye sex, or are you having a stroke?” Miller asked half as a joke and earned a laugh from Rodd, while Vince was blushing like mad.

“You seem to forget I am not a man,” I said. “As I said, you would be much more to his tastes than I will ever be.”

“Fey!” Vince squealed. “Can you all just stop assuming I want to have sex with her. I don’t. I- I mean-”

He was out of ideas of how to kill it, and we all, even Wann in some way, were laughing our butts off, Miller and Rodd kept teasing him in between the bouts of laughter. Vince seemed to be about to cry, face red and strained, asking us to stop fooling around.

“Alright, alright,” I finally said. “Vince does not want to sex me, neither do I want to sex him,” I said, giggling like a child. “Let’s give him a break before he breaks. Anyway, what do we do until they come pick us up?”

“Jeagerstadt’s staff is working on accommodations right now,” Vince answered after collecting himself. “The injured are staying here, but we all will have some beds at the training hall, if I understood it correctly, my German is a bit rusty.”

“Can I go look around?”

“No,” Wann and Vince answered in tandem.

“Okay, fine. I’ll stay inside.”

Why did no one understand the curiosity of an ancient being was insatiable. While it was true I had no interest in human beings, I was highly concerned with the way they developed into countries, the way they evolved their hunting techniques. I wanted to know everything I could get my hands and eyes on. How did they think I knew so much about the supernatural. It wasn’t in my head as I was born, I went out into the world and researched, read some old scripts, interrogated the creatures themselves, I watched them and I stowed the information into my brain. I somehow managed to keep most of the gathered information in my head, despite having lost it a couple times before.

Some events from my life are foggy, I couldn’t recall them down to the smallest detail, sometimes I’d lose a huge chunk of memory regarding one on another species. Like, for example, the fact Cold Walkers treat their Creations like something precious and would go out of their way to take it back. It happened a lot lately, I had lost some of my concentration, but it wasn’t the only piece of information I had forgotten.

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I sulked at the corner of our group. They were talking about the convention, some of them, and also people from around us, had some regrets and complaints regarding the end of the convention. They all wanted to know who would have won, if it wasn’t for the unexpected attack.

Miller was hell bent on us winning. According to him, we already had the trophy in our grasp, we just needed to take out the four Cold Walkers and we would have been victors. Wann sang the same song, only he used some more colorful words to describe the whole situation.

I wasn’t really listening to them at the point. I was listening around, trying to scope out the moods and emotions of hunters around us. I was cautious, alert in case some of them changed their minds and tried to smite me, after all.

I was getting paranoid, and it was showing, unless Vince also learned how to hear thoughts. He stepped away from the discussion and sat down beside me on the cushion. Without any words he slung his long arm around my small frame, compared to his. He was not talking, just holding me closer and comforting me with his company alone. I couldn’t really complain,- it was helping.

His actions took my mind away from the thoughts of being burned alive again, or, worst possible case, beheaded. It wasn’t that bad, given the fact that after so many times, I could barely feel the pain, I could grow my head back in less than a day since Vince was generous with his blood donation. I was afraid of their well-being. I did not want it to end the same way it ended for Vianey.

This time though, when Vince had his arm around me, no one said a thing. Maybe they realized it was not funny, and maybe they understood we were not in the kind of relationship humans tended to call dating. Our friendship was deep, but it was not on the point of lovers. Though, there was no doubt in my mind, if Vince had been into females, he would have talked me into calling him something corny, like Sunshine or Huggy-bear. Or worse, called me that himself.

Well, to tell the truth, Wann did throw some dirty glares our way at the beginning of our cuddles, but after a while he, most likely, got bored of it, and he then immersed himself completely into the discussion about the possible outcomes of the competition, if the Noble had not showed up.

“Come to think of it, why did he leave?” I asked quietly. “Why did he not kill all of you?”

“I guess, he thought he killed you, and when I grabbed the sword you had, the Noble just looked around and called off the remaining Creations. After that he retreated.”

“Right, the silver red oak blade. What were the chances, huh,” I scoffed at the coincidence, unable to decide if it was a good thing or not.

“Would it have been better if he stayed?” asked the boy and cuddled closer.

“Depends,” I said. “Rhain Viscardi was the last remaining kin from the line of Nobles. He was close to the others, Viscardi was the closest family to the Knights.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“Just, if he runs back home and tells him about what happened, he might want to go look himself. After all, I already killed two Viscardi’s.”

“What are you talking about?” Wann demanded.

“Did the Noble say anything when he left?” I chanced a question, I didn’t really want to know.

“He screamed about something how someone won’t be happy, and that we will all die when ‘that person’ hears about it. There was so-something about a nest too, but he was running already, so we didn’t cha-chase,” explained Wann. “Why?”

My heart started beating faster, eyes became wider in realization. I couldn’t believe I had missed another crucial detail about Cold Walkers – they nested. And from what I could remember after wracking my memory banks a while, Viscardi never separated. I killed Magna Viscardi after he came to Huntig to clean up after me because he thought it was one of his Creations. He was close enough to think it was his responsibility. Which meant only one thing, I had not thought of before, his nest was somewhere close to Huntig. Close enough for him to consider the hunter city a part of his own territory.

“Are there any large forests near Huntig? or caves, with enough shade during the day?” I asked, fearing the worst.

“Yes,” said Vince. “The Mooring Wood, about fifteen kilometers to the south-west of Huntig. It is quite large, almost the same size, maybe bigger, as Huntig itself.”

Clenching my jaw I took a deep breath, “I have two things to tell you. One bad and one good.”

“Stop bullshitting, and just out with it,” grumbled Wann.

“I might know where their nest is,” as I said the words, I realized I didn’t need to add the bad thing to the end of my sentence, as they all understood.

Now everyone of the team fell silent and stared at me, I could feel them drilling holes through me, I wanted to hide behind Vince, but I didn’t move from the spot and just stared at Wann, his expressions and body language.

The man tensed, the hand holding the crutch gripped it tighter, I could see the veins popping out, his knuckles went white. He clenched his jaw so hard, I could hear how he ground his teeth. I also felt the boy next to me tensing his muscles.

“Do you think-” Dark began, but couldn’t find the words to finish.

“I enticed him to make him concentrate on me, so I told him I killed his father.”

“But then, wouldn’t they have attacked us after you killed that Noble?” asked Rodd.

“Good observation, but not quite close,” I stalled for time, I needed to organize my own thoughts. “It could have been the feeling of superiority working in our favor. They might not have thought of the possibility of a Pure-blood being killed. But now they know. And they might want to get to the bottom of it.”

“So they could come to Huntig?”

“It would only be logical to start from the place he was last known to be,” I stated and everyone now were tense as a bowstring.

“We need to get back to the academy,” finally murmured Wann. “Did they say when they would pick us up?” he asked Vince.

“It might take from twelve hours to couple of days, I’m afraid,” the boy was trembling beside me, but it was not fear, it was tension.

Before we could delve further into the discussion at hand, the headmistress of Jeagerstadt academy came out to the hall and loudly announced the beds have been prepared. “Those who are not in beds already, please follow these staff members wearing yellow vests, they will lead you to your temporary accommodations.”

All of us at the hall on the left side stood up and filed into three lines to follow the three men wearing bright colored vests. At first, all three lines were walking in the same direction. We all filed into the corridor behind the door at the other end of the hall. After a while of walking, there were three ways – up the stairs, down the corridor, and down the stairs to the basement. And of course, we were in the line which went to the basement.

I never liked underground places, but this one looked much like tombs than an underground training hall, like at Huntig.

“I don’t like this place. Can we switch?” I asked.

“Let’s not inconvenience our hosts any more, shall we?” asked Vince and pressed on my hand. “I quite like it, to tell the truth.”

I did not want to complain anymore, even though the place was giving me shivers. There were strange smells all around the many paths and rooms. And there was also this strange feeling of eyes staring at me from corners in the dark. I couldn’t really understand why Vince liked it. It was the creepiest place I have ever seen, and I have seen a lot of creepy places in my life.

We walked underground for about three minutes, passing these other passages and many doors reminding me of cells in prison. Though, it was a lot drier than the basement at Huntig, it was still unpleasant. I never believed in ghosts, but this place made me rethink it.

Finally we reached a room, wide enough to house around twelve single-beds. The room was bright enough to see properly, differently from the corridors. The walls of the room looked newly plastered with pale yellow paint. The floor was made from round medium sized stones, thus making the beds stand a bit wobbly. At the furthest wall there stood at least five long racks full of weapons – swords, staffs, spears with funny sharp ends, of which a lot were Japanese naginatas, a variety of bows and crossbows were also lined on those racks.

“Was this a weaponry?” I asked louder so the person in yellow would hear me.

“Yes,” he replied. He also explained that down the corridor there is a shower room and restrooms. He left after telling us he would come back in the morning to get us to where breakfast would be served.

I looked around and decided to pick a bed by the racks with weaponry, just in case someone would like to try and take me out, even though no one complained about me being in the same room as them, yet.

I kept thinking when would they stop ignoring the elephant in the room and start doing something about it. So I walked to the bed in a corner, closest to three out of those five large frames, and sat on it busying myself with taking of the new shoes I had gotten before.

Only then I noticed a flaw in our host’s plan – there were fifteen people in the room, and only twelve single beds. I mean, I could always share a bed with Vince, I had no problem there. From the looks of it, there were no more girls, beside Dark, in the room. So it was hard to imagine some two men sharing a bed given how Vince was treated back at Huntig and by his family. I glanced at Wann and then thought maybe it was possible, but it would be unfair, if only our team had to cram into three beds.

At the entrance to the room someone voiced the same concerns as I did in my head, but it was promptly solved when a couple of men from Canadian team took one of the beds and snuggled on top of it. I looked at Wann pointedly and dared him to say anything when I said, “Vince can sleep with me”.

Wann, surprisingly, left the room with a remark of a ‘shower’ without picking out a bed. Every other bed was filled in a beat after he left.

After the choosing was done and everyone was happy about it, a lot of men grabbed the provided towels, which were left on a small cabinet by the door, and went to shower too.

“Guess, we should go, too,” said Rodd and stood up, taking off his coat and thermal jacket.

Miller was right behind him. Vince lingered, debating if he should go now or wait for after the majority came back.

“What, you wanna shower with the girls?” I teased. He blushed.

“No. It’s just-”

“The two other guys went,” said Dark. “I don’t think they would mind another gay in there.”

“Vince is not just another gay,” I argued lightly, “he’s Vince. And Wann will be there. Imagine, he sees Vince naked and decides he actually likes him.” I laughed, while Vince and Dark both blushed crimson.

“Could you stop joking about that?” the boy was completely embarrassed. “It’s not funny.”

“Yet, I’m laughing.”

“Actually,” quipped Dark, “Fang might be onto something. I mean, there’s no reason for Argent to be so antagonistic towards you. I mean, he sleeps with men, as well as with women. So I really don’t understand why he keeps attacking your sexuality.”

“He keeps attacking me as a hunter, too,” Vince fought back.

“But, lately it’s only been the sexuality part he’s not happy with,” I pointed out. “He rarely calls out on your failures now, maybe because you’re a bad-ass, but you know, just saying.” I shrugged.

“Then just stop ‘just saying’ it,” he pouted. “I don’t think he likes me as a person at all, so let’s just stop this, okay?”

“Okay, fine. But I reserve the right to say ‘I told you so’ when I’m right.”

Vince just shook his head and sat down on the bed beside me. After a while, Wann came back with only a towel slung over his hips. Hair still dripping with water. Upon seeing him enter, Vince stared at his abdominal muscles flexing when Wann grabbed another towel to dry off his head. I jabbed my elbow to his side and he sprang up and scuttled out the room, grabbing a towel of his own.

Me and Dark glanced at each other and after a beat burst out laughing. Wann looked at us as if we had some screws loose, but didn’t say anything, just plopped on Miller’s bed and got under the blanket.

He had brought back some kind of book and started reading it. He was completely unfazed when Miller came back, and stopped short in front of the bed, eyes bulging.

“What?” asked Wann, looking up from his book.

“You’re… in my bed,” he stuttered out.

“Is your name written on it?” Wann was using some underhanded childish methods.

“Well, no… But my clothes are on it.”

Wann looked around, inspected the blanket and once again looked at the other boy, completely unbothered.

“Are they, though?”

True, Miller’s clothes were lying on the floor, kicked under the bed. Wann looked smug about how smart he was acting with his teammate.

Miller was ready to just go and sleep on the floor, as long as he had a place to lie down he’d be content if he could just get a bit of sleep. Wann called him back, when the younger boy looked back, Wann lifted up one corner of the blanket and smirked motioning for the other boy to get into the bed. At first there was confusion on his face, then embarrassment, and then resignation. He was still blushing, but stepped closer to the bed and got in.

After a while, other people started coming back from the shower room. No one paid attention to the two men sharing one bed, the two guys from the Canadian team were joking with their teammates and the other team from USA.

Then I understood the majority of hunters, at least from this generation, did not care about same-sex relationship at all. So the problem was with the occasional odd goose and the older generation. And I was right all along, Wann had no problem with both genders, it was his father who had a problem with a male partner for his son. So it meant, Vince was also right about the whole situation when he said Wann could choose so his father let him do whatever as long as he choses a woman in the end.

Vince came back the last, so me and Dark finally had the chance to go to the showers too. I was feeling reserved showering with someone else in the room, the showers had no stalls, it was a one large space with at least ten shower heads hanging from the ceiling. There were no handles, but Dark figured it out, by pulling on one of the shower heads.

Warm water came running out startling her into an echoing laugh. I followed suit and pulled on another one, a bit away from the other girl. She was extremely confident, or so it seemed to me. She had no qualms of stripping naked and just getting to the showering. I, on the other hand, was reluctant to lose my clothes. It might have been the trauma from Albrecht, but I disliked being completely naked in open spaces, or in places where there were other people.

Dark showered fast and got out the room before I could actually finish removing my clothes. When she passed me, I had removed all my upper clothes before I pulled on the shower head, but I still had my underwear and a tank top on. Even when she left, I did not feel safe enough to remove it all, so I just showered in that state and came out after few more minutes.

Vince was already comfortable in the bed, bantering with Wann about something irrelevant, maybe about the book he was reading.

“I really want to sleep. So could the both of you shut it,” I said, and turned to the door, “and someone please, cut the lights?” I called to the others.

One of the guys closest to the door answered with a thumbs up, asked if everyone was fine with it and turned the lights off. I slipped into the bed and basically laid myself on the boy since he was warm and I felt incredibly cold after the shower.

“What were you doing? Did you go outside?” Vince hugged me closer and tucked me more with the blanket.

“The water ran out.”

He laughed, telling me how I had the worst luck.

In the morning we were all woken up by the same man who lead us to the weaponry, he came to pick us up to walk us to the dining hall.

We had to get up the stairs to the second floor, so Wann was struggling again with his injured knee, though Miller was supporting him the best he could. We came the last ones to an already cramped hall. There were the students from Jeagerstadt too, so we had couple of tables reserved for us to sit at.

The hall looked almost the same as the entrance hall we stayed at in the beginning. Wide tall walls, little light safe for those large windows at the top of the walls. The tables and benches were wooden, with flowery ornaments carved onto the edges of the furniture.

The Jeagerstadt had double the students Huntig did, and all of them looked younger than most from our side. Some of them looked as young as ten years old.

“Feeeeeeeyyy,” Kaya came running down between the rows of tables.

She hugged me from the back and launched into a tirade about something happening, half of the words were not in the language I could understand. Right behind her came her big brother, he was shyly smiling, almost looked happy.

“She’s trying to tell you, we will be able to stay here and study with them. Lady Zommer will take up our care,” he explained.

“She will adopt you?” Dark asked.

“If none of our relatives appear, then yes.”

“Isn’t that great?” she clapped her hands.

“Might be dangerous, though,” I said. “I mean, she knows about you two, but what about other hunters?”

Before anyone could answer, there was a clancking sound coming from behind. The headmistress was coming our way, smiling.

“Since Albrecht is gone,” she started, “we will revert to the system of understanding the nature of our so called enemy. I have a policy of not acting without a reason. And that is the way I will teach my students from now on.”

It was hard to believe, but I saw how Terrence was looking at the woman, and all my doubts cleared away. If he trusted her, then why wouldn’t I.

“Oh, right. There is someone to pick you up,” she said offhandedly. “They asked me to get you. Are you all done?”

We were mostly all done eating, so there was no delay to get up and get outside. We didn’t really have any things with us, except our weapons. We also got new coats from our hosts. I already had new boots and pants.

When we went outside, there was a blizzard. I wanted to go back inside right away, but someone called out to Vince and we went to the mini-bus standing near the stairs. I have seen the person before, but I knew nothing about him. He seemed to be friendly with Vince, so I didn’t really mind him.

“Sorry, they wouldn’t let me get a bigger bus, so bear with this,” said the guy and smiled sheepishly.

“It doesn’t matter,” I squeezed out, “How fast can you get us back?”

“Uhh, if I step on it, we might be back in around five hours,” he said, scratching his head as if it helped him calculate.

“Can you do it faster?” demanded Wann.

“If I go any faster, I’d be breaking the laws.”

“In any case, we need to be back before sundown. We might have a situation going on back in the Mooring Wood,” answered Vince and we all boarded the vehicle.

The siblings came running out to wave us goodbye, the headmistress following after with a bright smile.

“Shouldn’t we maybe ask for their help?” wondered Rodd. “If there’s a nest, we might need some back up.”

“We can deal with it ourselves,” said Wann. “We don’t need help from outsiders.”

“You sure?” I couldn’t really agree with Wann on it. “This one Noble had at least thirty Creations with him, and he probably only took a part of his force. What do you think the whole nest will have? There might not be much Pure-bloods left, but there are still enough Nobles. Their force could be exceeding a hundred of Creations for one Noble. We might be outnumbered.” I finished.

“We’ll just get the others back,” Wann pressed on. “Creations are easy enough to take out. I’ll contact my father. Bloomer’s family should show up, too. We can deal with it on our own.”

“And we have you,” added Vince looking at me. “You’re as good as three of our hunters, so I think we don’t really need to involve anyone else in this,” he was agreeing with Wann.

“Fine. But if it so happens that we get outnumbered, we call for help. Or I will not stay and help in the slaughter it might become,” I was never the one to ask for help, but this time I did not want to risk being overtaken, just because we underestimated the force of the enemy.

Another thing I was highly worried was the fact my creator could be there in that same nest as Viscardi was, since Cold Walkers were community creatures, they lived in nests, and most of the time, the few Pure-bloods tended to stick together in longer periods of time rather than wandering on their own.

The one who created me, however, was an odd one out, and he loved wandering on his own more than staying cooped up in one place, only getting by on what his Creations hauled in.

In more ways than one he was similar to Albrecht – his fascination with humanity, and the desire to experiment and create something new. Thus the ultimate creation and his biggest regret was born – I destroyed part of his ancient, but childlike purity of wonder just by existing in this world.

Since the first time he tried to kill me, he made his policy to finding the way of destroying me. Last time we met, he was going to keep me locked up until he found a way to end my existence, but it didn’t go well with me and I’ve been avoiding him since then. I have not seen him in around two thousand years, and, honestly, I was more than happy to continue this way.

I was not afraid of dying, I was afraid of not being free, so his intentions scared me, but not as much as being bred to produce more of beings like me. That would have certainly brought the world to its end by shifting the balance towards one of the sides, I wasn’t sure which one, but I had no intentions of finding it out, either. Another thing scaring me was the possibility of my creator finding out about my connection to the hunter boy, the whole hunter organization, and to my, however inconsistent, love for humanity.

In the middle of my thoughts, a thump to my head startled me back into reality. It was Vince resting his own head on top of mine. It seemed he was asleep at first, but then I realized he was breathing too heavily to be asleep. I pushed him back straight onto his seat, and pushed the seat back to lie him down. His face was flushed, and he was sweating.

I had felt him run hotter than usual, but I just thought it was a constant by this point, it appeared I was wrong, because right now he was basically burning from inside. After a while he began convulsing, cries of pain escaped his throat.

“What’s got into him now?” grumbled Wann, standing over the boy in the moving vehicle.

“Settle down,” shouted the guy who came to pick us up, I think Vince called him Spencer, “I’m already breaking some laws, I don’t need you to splatter across the windows in case we need to stop suddenly.”

“So then focus on the road,” ordered Wann and turned back to me. “What’s going on?”

“I- I don’t really know,” I admitted, even though I had an idea, which was a far shot given the fact full moon was almost over and it was the middle of the day.

There was a sound of something breaking and Vince screamed. The driver panicked and was going to stop the car, but I told him to keep going.

“Don’t stop until we’re back at the academy.”

“What’s happening?” now Dark was panicking, too.

Not long after everyone were shouting questions at me as if I would know everything. I couldn’t explain, even if I wanted. For one, I didn’t really know what was happening. For other, I did not want to go and expose the secret he was trying to hide for so long. I didn’t want to ruin the life he was trying to live by fighting a losing battle. But it should have lasted longer, why was this happening now.

“Did one of the kids scratch him?” came Wann’s incredulous voice as he heard Vince let out a growl strangled with pain.

“Wait, you mean he’s turning?” concluded Rodd.

“It’s not possible,” argued Miller. “He’d need a full moon, wouldn’t he?”

“No, the i-initial turning does not re-require full moon, not always, anyways,” said Wann. He set himself upon removing Vince’s clothes, while I was trying to tell Vince to calm down.

The boy was far too gone to hear my commands. He was not reacting. The horrible state of his body confirmed Wann’s theory, but it wasn’t because he was scratched by the kids.

The curse finally caught the boy in a vulnerable state of mind. I couldn’t be sure, but he might have thought he had to gain more power to be able to help out in the fight with the nest. He might have thought it would be fine to let the curse consume him, if it meant he had more strength to fight.

But giving in now, at that moment was stupid, and he was supposed to be smarter than that. In any case, I did not deny Wann’s guesses about the circumstances of the situation and just tried to make the boy come back, to get his conscious mind come back.

“Shit, he’s turning. Stop the car,” came Wann’s order and we skidded to as top.

Vince bounced from his seat and landed in the gap between the seats. There were more breaking and growling. I pushed everyone to the back of the small space of the mini-bus. Wann wanted to go after him with his sword, but I stopped him. I forced him down and ordered him to stay.

The driver was screaming, scrambling for his pistol.

“Don’t,” I commanded. “Your shots will only entice him to attack. Do not scream.”

After a couple of long torturing moments, instead of a tall scrawny boy there stood a large bulky wolf, with long dark fur and steely blue eyes piercing through me. Someone behind let out a shout and he startled. Within an instant he crashed into one of the windows and ran into the woods, jumping over the forest fence.

I shouted after him, but he disregarded my call and disappeared in the thickness of the forest.

Wann regained his own will and punched me. I did not resist. Everyone were talking over each other, telling me how I should have killed him when I had the chance, how I should have let Wann kill him.

“NO,” I screamed on top of my lungs. “No one is killing him.”

Before I jumped out the same window, I searched through his tattered clothes for the remote for the device in his heart, and then followed his changed scent.

He did give off a stench of wet dog, however there was a certain scent I could pick out from the unpleasant smell too. There was a smell of sandalwood. I remember the smell so well, because the three before Vince had a strong scent of sandalwood around them.

I thought it was a coincidence, but now I saw, Vince was hiding his true scent by hiding his true nature. He was supposed to turn, he was supposed to embrace the curse, so I could find him again.

I found him without it, but now I had been convinced he was my kind Vianey, he was the courageous Victor, he was the daring and fierce Victoria, and he was the wild and strong Vince.

I had to run slower so I wouldn’t pass him and miss him in the thickets of the old forest. It was messy with branches and dead trees littering the ground, there were bushes and other rubble which was in the way, despite my light footed steps.

There came a howl from in front of me – Vince was calling for others. I did not think he was in his right mind. I knew for a fact when a new Moon Walker is born, they have no sense of their own, they rely on instinct, which is why they call for their pack. The pack is there to guide the newborns, to lead them and to stop them from committing murders. Hence right now Vince was calling for a pack to show him the way, to let them know he’s here and he’s ready to go hunting.

“We can’t let him get to humans,” Wann shouted at me from my right. The crutch discarded. “We need to surround him.”

“If you kill him, I swear I will-”

“I know. No killing, unless he kills first.”

Wann surprised me, but it brought a smile to my face, even in this dire situation. Wann howled back at Vince, and the other answered.

“What’d you tell him?”

“I can’t talk wolf. It’s just a howl.”

“Right,” I was kind of disappointed.

We somehow managed to lure Vince out of his hiding spot using Wann’s howling. We got him surrounded, but the moment he saw us, he started growling, he stood in an attacking position towards Dark.

“Vince,” I called out in an attempt to distract him, and maybe call him back. For now his mind was clouded by the curse, but in time he would learn to control the shifting, he would manage to keep his own mind in control, to control the body of a beast.

“Why is he so big?” asked Rodd.

“I thought African tribes were smallest of them all,” continued Miller.

“Concentrate,” barked Wann and stepped closer. Vince growled louder.

I tried calling him once again, but he did not react. He was alarmed, scared and he was ready to fight for his life.

“Bloomer, I don’t want to kill you,” said Wann and stepped closer. “Can you order him to heel?” he asked me.

“I can’t. It’s not working. I was doing that in the car before.”

Now, though, Vince was interested in Wann. The moment he heard his family name being called, he turned and listened. Cold eyes concentrated on the other man, curious.

“Call him again,” I said.

“What?”

“Call his name again. And lose the sword.”

“Are you crazy?” he was outraged.

Vince stepped back and growled once again when Wann raised his voice. He looked around him and pointed his gaze at me for a short moment, then directed his eyes back to Wann.

“Just do what I say. All of you, let down your weapons. He’s scared, and he can feel your intentions. He is a wolf after all.”

Dark was the first one to throw her staff away behind her. Miller and Rodd hesitated, but did the same a few moments later, though they kept the weapons close by their feet. Wann was the most stubborn one, holding his katana firmly, pointed at the wolf.

“If he does attack, I will be a shield, I am still faster than he is,” I assured the man. “Just put down the sword and call his name again.”

Finally, the man put down his weapon and stepped away from it, toward the beast. He had his arms in front as a sign of them being empty. Vince was still growling, but this time it was just as a warning, not a threat.

“Bloomer,” Wann uttered lightly, so only the wolf would pick it up. I could hear him, too, but the others didn’t. “Calm down, okay? We need to go home, remember? To clean up a nest of Cold Walkers.”

The large head moved, ears flicking, picking up every word. He looked genuinely interested in what the man had to say. He stopped growling some time before, and now was trying to sniff at the air around Wann, to feel out his intentions.

Wann continued to talk about how we needed to go back home, how they needed to get back and fight some bloodsuckers. He even tried to apologize for being a literal dick about everything.

While he was talking, the wolf moved toward him, halting the man in his words. I could hear his heart going into overdrive. Wann kept glancing at me as if trying to make sure I was ready to jump in, if it turned for the worst. But the boy in the beast’s hide did not show any more signs of hostility. He padded closer and closer to the talking man, until he pressed his snout to the man’s outstretched palm.

To say the least, I was surprised he didn’t come to me, and I was a bit hurt, too. But I guessed, it was something more powerful than my voice command could fight with.

The most astounded was probably Wann himself. He was touching a beast he was supposed to be hunting. The only time he was so close to this kind of being was after a kill, when they lay motionless and without life in their eyes. Right now, the large creature was nuzzling his nose to the other man’s hand. Like a dog trying to get some more pets from its owner.

After a moment, the wolf froze in his place and looked at the man holding his hand out. Then he looked at me, and then at the others standing behind. He turned back to the other man and whined.

I could hear bones breaking, and skin ripping. His whines were getting louder and he began shifting back into his human self.

Upon changing back completely, he fell right into Wann’s arms, but instead of being hurled off, he was being held up by the other man. Vince faltered to his knees, while Wann was taking his coat off and cowering the other boy with it.

“Vince?” I asked tentatively.

He was crying. He was bent over himself, cowering his naked body with the coat, as if ashamed of himself. Wann stood there looking down on him. For a moment I thought, he was going to beat him up, but he just ducked down to look at the crying boy.

“Hey, look at me,” he asked. “Bloomer.”

Vince lifted his head to look at the other. I motioned to the others to get back to the car. They picked up their discarded weapons and walked past us. When I turned to look at the two men, I saw something strangely satisfying, but at the same time outrageous. Wann had Vince in his arms, in the princess-style hold, while the younger boy had his slender arms wrapped around the other’s neck. He was hiding his face in the crook of Wann’s neck.

My eyes met Wann’s in silent question, which was answered with a nod, confirming the other was fine. He just asked me to pick up his katana.

We walked back to the car. The driver was pale from worry, but did not say anything when we boarded the car and got back to our seats.

Truth be told, Vince did not get back to his seat, neither did Wann. The hunter carried the other to the backseats of the car and sat there holding Vince in his lap. It was strange to see the one who was connected to me by fate belong to someone else, but I had no problems as long as he was happy.

“Let’s go,” I told the guy driving us and we moved once again towards the city of Huntig.