It was almost midnight by the time I arrived at the Grotto tourist attraction and it was creepy without all the lights and people, so I stayed in my car until another car parked in the spot next to me. A teenage looking girl jumped out of the backseat, dressed in an honest to God gown with a corset, looking like a fairy tail princess. I got out of my car as well, staring at the pretty teenager.

"Oh dear beloved Sasha, how have I missed you!" She came toward me, arms stretched for a hug. I hugged her tightly so I could whisper in her ears:

"No blood tonight Esther, we are hunting." She giggled, licked my neck and made disappointing noises, but eventually she let me go and walked toward the rear of her car. Esther was made a vampire when she was just a teenager and she told me that there used to be a lot more vampires who looked like her, but apparently the modern age doesn’t agree with them and most teenage vampires are underground or decided to meet the sun. It doesn’t help that a disturbing amount of vampires who are made as children or young teenagers go mad and have to be put down like a rabid animal. I wonder if it had anything to do with the fact that a disturbing amount of vampires are made to be someone's toy.

She was maybe 15 years old when she was turned, but she was actually very old. I knew she was older than 300 years, but she never actually told me her age. I try not to ask too much, because I like her in a good mood and asking questions like how old you are, will get you killed. However, looking at her, you can almost feel bad for her. Yes, she is a beautiful 15 year old, but she would have been absolutely gorgeous if she would have been given a chance to grow up and develop as she was meant to.

She was five feet tall or maybe an inch smaller, with black hair, so long and silky that all you want to do is run your fingers through it and she was as pale as Snow White. She had a perfectly round face with a sweetheart dimple, full perfectly bowed lips and eyes so green it was almost as if she had stolen cats eyes. Her body had just started to develop properly when she was turned, so she had small breasts and just a little curve to her shape. When she smiled she looked innocent and perfect and when she didn't, she was as a porcelain doll, magnificent in her stillness. She liked dressing up in gowns and would often have a porcelain doll in her hands, making herself look younger, prepubescent. Most of the time she acts as a child, and it was quite unnerving and creepy. I am pretty sure that she was made by a pedophile, who turned her to be his eternal toy, but I also know she killed him. There is a craziness in vampires who kill their own maker before they reach their full power, and she was batshit crazy.

When we first came to America, we met her in New York at a gala event that we accidentally stumbled upon. Neither she or us were supposed to be there, but Mia saw her and felt bad for her. Seeing a teenage vampire is heartbreaking, because in this day and age they are stuck as perpetual children, and can do nothing for themselves. Esther took a liking to her, which was cute and endearing at first but it progressed to stalking and Esther went absolutely crazy, trying to get Mia for her own family. She stalked Mia, sending her flowers, chocolates and blood. I finally tracked her down and confronted her. Her handlers didn't know just how bad she has been behaving but they did say that ever since she met us, she has been behaving better and she hadn’t had any accidental kills. They offered a mutually beneficial proposal. We would occasionally host Esther, play to her delusions and they would pay us a lot of money. It was a good deal and we took it but once we decided to move elsewhere, Esther ditched her handlers and escaped. During her free years she has actually become a lot more self-sufficient and better adjusted to the modern world. So much so, that I didn't mind calling her up to spend some quality time, if Mia wasn't around. She was still too hung up on Mia and she was a danger to her, so I just didn't let them hang out. But I liked Esther and we had an outing every couple of months. I would also occasionally supply her with my blood, which helped her a lot since shifters blood is more potent than humans, and it seemed to make her more grounded.

In the past five years she had changed quite a lot, just not enough to be around Mia.

She took off her gown and stood there stark naked, rummaging in the back of the car. Eventually she found some flimsy shirts and pants and got dressed, then called me over, wanting to be acknowledged as a good kid.

“Do I look good?” She batted her eyes, expecting praise.

“You look good Esther, but we are hunting a wendigo, so be prepared to get your clothes torn.” She thought about it for a while and opened a whole new bag from her trunk. With a big toothy grin she pulled out several guns and offered one of them to me.

"Have you ever fought a wendigo?" She asked and I shook my head.

"No, and also I don't know how to shoot a gun." She stared at me and smiled.

"Want a sword or a knife?"

"I don't really know what to do with those either." I admitted. She was thinking for a moment and finally gave me a belt with two knives.

"Just in case you need it, but I guess your strength is sufficient enough. If you manage to catch it, just crush its skull." I smiled, since that was my plan already.

"That is not a problem for me." She got some guns and holsters for herself. That was a surprise, I’ve never seen a vampire use guns.

"Since when do you know how to shoot a gun?" She pointed toward the car and said:

"My new boy loves to shoot. We go hunting often and before you go hunting, you need to learn how to properly shoot, or so he says." I peaked at the boy, who was clearly a man, sitting in the front seat. He was talking on the phone with someone and finally came out. He was tall, I would say at least six feet five, with muscles the size of Esther. I really didn’t want to think about how their relationship was, but if I knew Esther at all, she would soon share all the dirty details. Esther loved to talk about her partners, especially when you are uncomfortable talking about it. I knew she was older than dirt, but thinking about her with this mountain of a man, made me cringe inside.

"Hello, I'm Sasha." I said, He nodded to me, glanced at me once and immediately went straight to Esther.

"Are you sure you don't want me to help? I can hunt as well as any of you." He had a very thick Slavic accent and even hearing him talk made me a bit homesick. It was too dark for me to make out his features, but in the shadows he seemed handsome enough. Esther closed the trunk, all dressed up, and stepped up to him.

"Peter, you are a wonderful hunting companion but ultimately you are human. Maybe next time Sasha calls, she will hunt something that doesn't feast on humans and gains their strength by eating them, and for that hunt we will go together. But this hunt is for those who can survive being thrown around or being dragged to a cave to be eaten." He made disgruntled noises and went back to the car, not giving me a second glance. She waved happily as he drove away.

"Now," she turned to me:

"How did you manage to find a wendigo?" I sighed. Esther may be crazy but she was a friend. Kind of.

"It found us." I said and started walking toward the forest. Esther grabbed my hand, intertwined our fingers and followed me.

"We were doing a ceremony in the forest when it attacked. It wanted to attack Mia, who was in a protective circle, but the tracking spell that was a part of the defenses got attached to its arm, so it ran away. But after a while it chewed its arm off, I'm guessing because it realized that I was tracking it due to the spell in it." I took a few deep breaths trying to find its scent. Sam said to go south, and that's where I went, hoping to get its scent before we get lost.

"Ceremony huh?" Esther sighed.

"You never invited me for a ceremony." I swear I could hear her pout. I tapped her hand with mine and whispered:

"I was only invited as security, so don't worry, you aren't the only one excluded." She giggled.

Walking through the forest with a teenage yet old vampire was thrilling. She would chat about her adventures and her life, sex life in particular was her favorite topic and I would listen, ask a question or two or just make agreeable noises. Finally we caught the scent of Tim's party.

"Hey Esther, do you have any experience hunting these creatures?" She stopped and looked at me.

"I am so glad you finally asked darling. I have many experiences hunting wendigos. Did you know that when vampires first came to America, natives would deliberately send their creatures after us?" I shook my head in disbelief.

"What do you mean?" Esther came closer.

"They had their shifters and skinwalkers come during the daytime to kill us or at least find our hiding places. They killed our servants, took our heads, it was a true battle that could have gone entirely the other direction, if humans weren't so keen on the extermination of the natives. If the battle would be fair, vampires would have lost… not that they would admit to it now." She smiled and sniffed my neck. I knew she was standing on tippy toes because she was several inches smaller than me, but I let her have a sniff.

"What about wendigos?" I told her. She was getting too excited, so I pushed her away and against the tree. I held her there with my strength and she gave in, not fighting. She moaned in pleasure and I stepped away, sighing.

"Oh yeah, the starving ones." She put her finger in the mouth, biting on her nails.

"I can tell you about my very first starving one." I looked around. It was well past midnight and I worried we would run out of time. Esther has to be back home by dawn otherwise she will catch fire and burn.

"Do we have the time?" She shrugged at my question and asked me back.

"Can you listen and track?" I took a deep breath, making sure the scent was strong

"Yes, I have his trail now. Scent of death and decay is hard to miss." She held my hand again and pushed me.

"Lead, my darling, and listen." I went on ahead, slowly but surely to the creature's lair.

"My master sent me to the colonies because I was bad and killed some… important people. So here I was, mad as hell because they just locked me in a crate and let me starve half of the journey to the colonies, when I was informed Master Jacques was my new master. He was known for his bizarre tastes, but alas, what could a little vampire like me do. After a couple of months, when I was finally let out of the dungeon, because I promised to behave, Master Jacques showed me his work. He has been capturing the natives and savoring their blood. Did you know that they taste quite exquisite?" I tried really hard to not think about it, or ask any questions. This tale is giving me a lot of information about Esther's past.

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"He would hunt them at night, they would hunt us during daylight. Oh, what fun times! Anyway, he caught an entire family and he would play with them for as long as they would last, before he would move on to the next. One time a clan of warriors came and after a long battle we won and the surviving warriors were taken prisoners. I would visit them in the basement, learning their language and secretly savoring their blood. Master wasn't interested in learning about different cultures, but I was very bored and I knew that the only way to defeat your enemy was through information. There was this one warrior, oh he was so tall and muscular…" she started to lick her lips and that was just so wrong. Seeing that beautiful, innocent face marked by lust and blood craving was disturbing to say the least.

"I marked him as mine so he lived for quite a while and survived a lot of abuse. He would tell me stories of his people and how we are demons and such. But you see, my master got so mad once he realized I was giving him my blood, so mad he locked me up and killed the poor man. You can imagine just how upset I was." I didn't say it out loud, but I am pretty sure she wasn't all that upset. Although maybe I'm wrong and she is capable of love?

"I was let out just in time to see him get thrown into the pit. The pit was where we dropped the dead humans, because no one wants a wall of corpses in their house." She giggled at her own joke and I was sick to my stomach.

"We didn't know that we created a perfect scenario to create the starving one. My brave darling warrior wasn't completely dead and when he came too, he was buried alive with the corpses of his family. He had some vampire blood in him, which kept him alive enough to starve, but not enough to make him one of us. And you know what happens when people starve darling." I felt sick. The smell of decay was bad enough, but what she was insinuating was worse.

"He ate his way out of the pit and by the time he got out, he wasn't him anymore. I was there, watching him emerge as a newborn baby. He was tall, nine to ten feet, and so skinny, just bones and skin hanging over him. He cried as he emerged, covered in blood and pieces of human flesh. It was quite arousing…" I stopped. My mouth was dry and I wished I had never asked her anything.

"He ran to the mountains, crying. But he came back darling, oh he did. He would pick up humans from the forest, one by one. We would never find them, but I knew he would take them up to the mountains and feast. I followed him, you see, I wanted to see if he was still my darling warrior. More people he ate, the more coherent he became. He would feast for a few months and fall asleep for years. But every time he would wake, I would be there. See, he was growing fast and strong, even skinny as he was. Oh yes, he was faster than even me. He didn't hurt me, because I did supply him with food, but he would hurt other vampires. We had so much fun together." We arrived at the foot of the mountain. The smell was getting to me, it was potent and so bad and not only did I smell decay, there was a clear trail of fresh blood as well. We were getting closer to the nest.

"He killed those nasty vampires one by one, until the master had enough and went hunting for him. He took all of his strongest vampires, but my warrior was faster. With my help, we killed them until only the master remained. My warrior was badly hurt by then, but he made sure the master was hurt too. I lopped off master Jacques head and it was the best sight ever. I told the warrior that I will have to disappear as well and we said our goodbyes." I saw it. Thank the Gods, I found an entrance to the nest. Maybe I can push her inside and be done with it.

"Did you ever see him again?" I asked quietly.

"No, but I heard that he was hunted down a couple of decades later. Vampires were quite pissed to learn he killed an entire nest." She giggled and whispered into my ears:

"They thought I was dead too. It was quite a surprise once they found me alive and well in Brazil. Oh, you've found it!" She exclaimed once she saw the entrance to the cave. She let go of my hands grabbed a gun with the other and whispered:

"Let's go get crazy!" And inside she went. I stood at the entrance and questioned my life choices. Telling her to come with me seemed such a good idea at the time, but now I really wished I had Mia and her flame magic with me. I was contemplating whether to rush in after her or just sit here until the battle was finished. Few minutes after the decision was made for me. I heard a couple of screams and the wendigo flew by me so fast that it knocked me on my butt. Immediately after it, Esther came running, guns in hand and screaming obscenities. I got up and followed them, even if they were too fast for me to actually do anything.

Even without an arm, wendigo was wicked fast but Esther was catching up to him. They were almost flying from one tree to the other. Esther threw the guns away, realizing they weren't stopping him, and grabbed some knives. The wendigo noticed me and decided I was a better target. It launched itself at me, but I was ready. Since I couldn't really see it, but I knew it was coming, I transformed my hands into claws and just waited. It fell on me from above and impaled itself on my five inch long claws. It screamed in pain and tried to jump off, using its last remaining arm and legs, but it was impaled pretty darn well. When the wendigo realized it can't push itself away from me, it leaned into me and tried to gauge my eyes out with its long bony fingers. I shifted my hands back and kicked it off me. It took two seconds for Esther to jump on its back, stabbing it with her knives and screaming in joy. Wendigo was trying to get her off him by smashing itself on the trees and after a few tries it finally succeeded. The wendigo was badly hurt though and wasn't nearly as fast as before. I quickly took off my shirt and let my pants slide to my ankles trying to kick them away before it was too late, so that I could shift into a bear. It was running away from Esther right in front of me, so I caught him with my claws again and when he tried to pull away, he actually pulled me right on top of him. I fell, flattening him under my big bear ass. I readjusted and realized I was in the perfect position to take his head and that's what I did. I grabbed it, realizing just how small his head actually was and pulled it with all my might. The creature was screaming and fighting but I was well over 600 pounds so he was trapped under me pretty well. Esther came closer and did a couple of incisions on his neck so next time I pulled, I took its head right off.

Esther screamed in joy and I roared. The forest rejoiced as it echoed our victory cries. I let the wendigos' ripped head fall down and I shifted back, feeling a lot more exhausted. Esther was there, picking up the head and looking it up close.

"Look at that, I'm pretty sure it used to be a white man. Couple of decades old too…" She grinned at me, putting his head under her armpit. I was sure she would prefer to hold it by his hair, but he had no hair. I went to search for my shirt and pants, hoping I didn't tear them too much or that they didn't get dirty or wet. I lost the belt with the knives that Esther gave me, but I don't think she will miss them all that much. I didn't expect to shift at all or I would have brought different clothes. I was lucky. My pants were slightly dirty, but the shirt was all nice and warm. I put my clothes on, knowing that I will have to go shoeless. Esther whistled at me to get my attention.

"Hey pretty lady, catch." She threw the head as if it was a football and me, not being sporty, missed it. She laughed at my feeble attempt of catching it and failing.

"I'm pretty sure I saw a survivor in the mountains so let me go get him." I found the head quite easily and waited. I didn't have much hope for survivors seeing how Tim and Sam were treated, but Esther was right. She came carrying a young black man who I didn't know.

"I will help you until we come closer to the car, but I can feel the dawn coming. I will need to be a little faster than you." She said matter of factly and exchanged the head for the man. I cradled him to my chest, looking over his wounds. There was no active bleeding, but I didn't know about internal wounds. He looked well, but unconscious, so we should hurry.

"Lead the way, I will go as fast as I can and once you feel the need to go, you should. I can manage in the forest even if I have to carry him all the way. He isn't all that heavy." I saw Esther nod and off she went. I quickly followed and it was quite a faster pace than when we were searching the nest.

"Thank you Esther, for the help. I will consider our debt repaid."

"There was a debt?" She asked incredulously.

"Yes," I laughed.

"Isn't that why you came to help?"

"No my dear, I missed you. We always had such wonderful adventures. What was the debt for?" She glanced quickly at me, with a weird look, which made me think either she really did forget or she was just acting.

"For all that blood I sent you, when you weren't feeling well." That was only partly true, but I felt like telling her about the time we went to Mardi Gras might not be the best idea. She did get hit by that curse so maybe it scrambled her brains more. You never knew with Esther, if you get the perfect vampire helper or the psycho who killed several of her masters, survived multiple years of being locked and starved, not to talk about all the abuse she suffered. So maybe it is for the best that she forgot about a little curse and voodoo witches. She was the one looking for trouble and I was the one pulling her out of it.

I smiled to myself. My cousin was an amazing witch and a friend, but she also didn't know me as well as she thought. Which made me feel sadder somehow. I knew everything about her. It could have been all my fault, there were things I didn't share with her, for example the whole Esther situation, but she was also very unforgiving. I forgave Esther for all the trouble she gave us and here I am, almost friendly with her. Mia would never be able to understand, and that's just one of the reasons why I keep things from her. The other is, she relied on wild magic way too much and that has unpredictable effects. We have grown apart in the past few years and I admit, some of that has been on me. Maybe it's time we finally sat down and talked it out.

After a few miles Esther stopped and put the severed head on top of the body I was carrying. She did a little bow and said:

"Time for me to go. There are people looking for you and the sun's gonna rise soon. Thank you for the fun!" She blew me a kiss and ran off. I watched her disappear into the woods, as I walked toward the noises. There were several people in the parking lot and they didn’t look like tourists but like a rescue party. I heard them talking about several disappearances, mentioning me among them. That's when I heard Penelope say that Mia has just arrived and she can search using her magic. That was the moment I decided to walk up to the parking lot, body and head in my arms. People started yelling that we have a survivor, but as soon as they saw a severed head of a Wendigo they backed away. I had a clear walk all the way to my car where Penelope stared at me in horror.

"Sasha!" She suddenly yelled and ran toward me, but stopped as she noticed the head.

"So no one wants to help the only survivor I could find in the nest?" I said loudly, wishing that someone would step forward and maybe get the man off me! Penelope answered:

"We can't touch a wendigo. It is tainted and the legend goes that if you are in the proximity of the wendigo there is a higher chance of you becoming one." I rolled my eyes as hard as I could and put the guy on the floor. He groaned in pain, but I carried him all the way from the mountains so I didn't really care all that much now. Once he was laying on the ground I picked up the head and threw it across the clearing as far as I could.

"Happy?" I yelled at all of the people avoiding me.

"There is a nest in the mountain, if you want to go bury the dead but I don't really have any wishes to walk there. Don't worry, you should be safe now so...." I resisted the urge to show them the middle finger and walked toward my car.

Mia saw me and screamed. She dropped some herbs and stones she was holding and ran towards me. I stretched my hands and she ran into my hug and held me tight. She was crying and screaming why, but she was in my arms, ignoring the blood on my clothes and the smell that permeated me. I hugged her back and apologized for not waiting, but time was really of the essence.

We were just about to leave when an older man in full shaman gear walked toward us. Mia made a face, but he was very clearly wanting to talk to me and not her. Just behind him there was a wolf, but it wasn't a normal wolf. It was a big, dark wolf, with a color pattern I haven't seen before. I cocked my head, because something was wrong about it, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Until I realized the wolf was slightly shimmering. The shaman was now in front of me, offering me two hands, palms up. I put my hands to his and he grabbed them and took a look. I relaxed, because he only looked at my hands as a doctor would, very professional. He started talking but not in a language I understand. I looked around to see if there was anyone who could translate, until the wolf stepped right forward and started talking.

"Tomorrow night we shall hold a feast for the fallen, to welcome them in the spirit world. But you can not come, for you are an outsider and tainted." I really wanted to roll my eyes and say some nasty stuff, but I held myself back.

"Spirit walker will come for you, and he will purify your body and your mind, as a thank you for saving us from the most foul of beasts. Walk well with the spirit, child of the bear." He then did some more gestures and I was actually quite happy I held my tongue. I really need to work on my patience. I nodded to the shaman and when he left I made sure I nodded to the wolf. He grinned as only a wolf can and said, in a whisper:

"We will talk one day, little bear. My brother would love to meet you." I just smiled because I was pretty sure no one else could see the spirit wolf walking behind a shaman. Mia was looking at me with an odd expression, and in whispers I told her what I saw and heard.

Mia offered to drive home in my car and just as we were leaving Penelope came to the parking lot.

"Want to say goodbye to her?" Mia grabbed the steering wheel harder, and she bit her lower lip. She seemed more anxious than not.

"Not really. We had a disagreement after we received your call. I am still sorry that I didn't answer myself." I waved my hand in a dismissive gesture.

“We need to talk, Sasha.” She finally said and I knew that I was in trouble.