“Yes, it’s me, Aria.”

  The first thing she thought of was killing the vampire, only to remember that she was just a lamb in a pack of wolves. Alerting the guard would have attracted too much attention, especially since Boris had seemed to her, during the meeting with her father, to be an unbalanced vampire.

  “He could kill me, if he wanted to.” she said to herself.

  Indeed, it was true. A vampire was not a creature to be underestimated, and a nobleman like Boris who had managed to climb the hierarchical ranks was certainly not someone to be taken lightly.

  “Can I come in?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  The vampire entered the house and took his first steps towards the center of the room. Compared to how she had seen him the first time, he did not seem at all like a doggy and unchivalrous creature. Instead, he was dressed in a black tuxedo that showed off his height. His hair was neatly trimmed, and he had a gold earring in his left ear. Even his hands were clean, and the nails didn’t look like claws in the slightest.

  “So, I’m here before you today because I need to talk to you, Aria, because I could use your services.”

  “Services?”

  “I need information.”

  “Information has a price.”

  She knew exactly what he was going to ask her. Boris wanted to know where he could find Liza so he could kill her. She would never tell him, but she didn’t know what to say, so she tried to stall and play along. She began to wonder if they had silver knives in the house, but the more she thought about it, the more she realized that only Madame Doroteya had always taken care of such things.

  “Can we go to a private room? Even the walls have ears.”

  The girl held her breath. She looked down at the vampire and then looked outside: Madame Doroteya was still in the pond picking lotuses, while the guard… was nowhere to be found.

  “Okay.”

  She took him upstairs, to a small room that was used for unofficial meetings. It was very spartan, containing a couple of armchairs with green upholstery, a carpet of the same color and a low wooden table. Some furniture such as sideboards and bedside tables and nothing else. There was some fruit, however, served on a silver plate.

  “I could break the plate and make a weapon out of it,” thought the huntress.

  “Well, first I would like to explain the matter to you, then we will think about your payment.” Boris said, throwing himself into an armchair and taking a grape, which he brought to his mouth and gulped down in one bite.

  “Good.”

  Aria also sat down with her arms folded and her legs crossed. Her gaze was kept fixed on the vampire and her senses were alerted to any possible aggressive movement he might make.

  She felt trapped, though, because even though she was in her own home, Boris was the one holding the knife at the handle. In fact, she had never had the chance to confront a vampire. Her first and last time was that night when she was attacked, but in addition to dodging a couple of blows, Liza took care of the situation. Here, instead, she was even having a conversation with one of them.

  She was breathing hard, but luckily for her, she noticed this, so she tried to calm down and deal with the situation in the most professional way possible. She wasn’t afraid, strangely enough, or at least not that fear that wouldn’t let her move a muscle.

  “Well, I’ll keep it short. I’m heartbroken by what happened to you that night… you know, when a… a vampire showed up and attacked you. Hard to say, right? Vampires… we haven’t seen one in many, many years.”

  “That’s true.” her words held no emotion; they were neutral, gray words, which only served to support Boris's speech.

  “I can't even imagine the fear you must have felt. Oh, what a pure soul, so innocent… to be attacked by… but still, I'm glad a huntress intervened.”

  “How do you know? You weren't at the reception, if I'm not mistaken.”

  “Of course not, that evening I was traveling on business. But you know, your father and I are old friends and I even helped him with one of his projects. We talked for a long time about what happened to you, in fact, it was he who insisted that I come here today to talk to you.”

  The girl was about to answer, then changed and thought.

  “Why is he telling me this? I shouldn't know that my father sent him… because then I would know that he would want to kill Liza…” there were many thoughts that passed on the highway of her mind.

  “Him?” she simply asked.

  “Yes, he said that you needed support because he saw that you were a bit down these days.”

  The vampire took another grape.

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  “Tell me, are you feeling down?”

  “I don’t need someone to tell me that. Instead, Boris, tell me why you’re actually here… and don’t tell me you want to cheer me up.”

  Boris finished eating a third grape, then leaned closer to Aria and rested his elbows on his legs to support his head with the hands crossed.

  “Liza. But you already know that. You know, vampires can smell people around them even if they’re across the street. I knew you were there and that you were eavesdropping on us at the reception, it was so obvious… your scent is unmistakable. But don’t you think it’s more charming to let people think they have a chance?”

  “If you want to know where she is, I’ll never tell you.”

  “Oh, but I know. That’s why you need my help.”

  “Help?”

  “You’ll tell me where she is, of your own free will.”

  Aria raised an eyebrow.

  “If you try one of your tricks, I’ll kill you.”

  “You wouldn’t be able to do it. Tell me, have they told you that a hunter without a sword is worth less than a jug without a handle?” Boris stood up to go to the window, starting to observe the morning life of Korotsk.

  “Plus, I’m old, Aria, very old. Vampirism is a panacea for the skin, you should try it.”

  “Never!” she shouted, tearing her open.

  “I could kill you right here and now, or I could turn you into a vampire… just for fun. But then I wouldn’t know who to play with…”

  Aria took the silver plate, dodging the grapes and breaking it in two when she crashed it against the coffee table. She made a sort of serrated tip that could be used as a knife.

  “That won’t do you much good either. You wouldn’t have the strength to penetrate my skin. Anyway, we were talking about business, weren’t we? You see, Aria, I’ll be honest with you: the hunters are using you, to them you’re nothing more than an object.”

  “That’s not true.”

  “Yes, instead, aren’t you curious to know that up until now you’ve been nothing more than a pawn? Have you ever wondered why the vampire attacked you and not others? How many inhabitants does Korotsk have? Six hundred, seven hundred thousand? Hell, I really don’t know.”

  “I think it was just a coincidence.”

  “And that’s where you’re wrong.”

  Boris laughed in amusement.

  “Ah! How nice it is when I’m right! You see, Aria, Liza only saved you because you were a bridge between her and your father.”

  The girl’s right hand was gripping the blade so hard that blood began to drip from her palm onto the floor.

  “What does my father have to do with it?”

  “Do I really have to tell you everything? Your father is a nobleman and mostly on the King’s council. Hunters can’t access the council’s information but, hey, you’re the daughter of one and mostly a huntress. Do you understand now?”

  “I don’t believe you. And even if I did, what harm would that do? The more information we hunters have, the better.”

  “Yes…”

  Boris approached the girl and Aria could smell his wet leaf scent. The vampire bent down to run his index finger over the fallen blood and lead it to a grape, which he picked up and ate.

  “…but, you see, I wouldn’t feel comfortable if I found out I was just a chess piece and that if I were no longer needed, I could be discarded right away.”

  Boris sat back down, composed and with his back nice and straight. His bearing was regal and, if it weren’t for his nature, he could certainly be mistaken for a member of the royal family.

  “I can’t kill you, that wasn’t the contract, but I need to know where Liza is. And to convince you, I can show you with your own eyes what happened.”

  Boris reached out to Aria, his hand open. He wanted to touch her forehead, but the girl was still half a sword’s length away from his fingers.

  “Forget it.”

  “Come on, be a good girl.”

  Reluctant but curious, the girl sat back down and let him touch her forehead. If he wanted to kill her, he would have done it already.

  She had to close her eyes for a moment against her will, as if there were muscle spasms that moved her eyelids by themselves. Then, she opened them again.

  She found herself in the academy, in the meeting room to be exact, standing in a corner where both Sonia and Liza were sitting at the table. At her side was Boris, sitting on the other side of the table from the huntresses and with the bunch of grapes in his hand.

  “We’re reliving memories, so see for yourself what happened.” he told her.

  Sonia and Liza began to talk.

  “You are to keep an eye on a vampire named Kremer, who lives in the caves to the north and never comes out of there, but we know he has been ordered to attack in the city.” Sonia said.

  “Do we know where?” asked Liza.

  “Yes, apparently at Zotova Manor. The owner must have pissed someone off.”

  “Who is he?”

  The director pulled several sheets of paper from a drawer. They were nothing more than technical sheets to classify the members of the King’s council.

  “Baron Ungern Zotova. He is on the council, so he has direct relations with the king. He has a daughter named Aria Zotova, a housekeeper named Doroteya Beaulieu and a butler named Sergey Lazarev. A guard is posted outside the gate, day and night.”

  “Do you think this could be the opportunity?” the youngest asked, starting to analyze the sheet; her finger had stopped over Aria’s name.

  “Yes, it could be. Defend them from the vampire, and although this Ungern is against hunters, I bet his daughter can become an easy target.”

  “If she’s like the girls these days, she’ll be easily manipulated.”

  “Liza, you’re her age.” Sonia laughed.

  “But I was trained by the best hunters, I’m the daughter of a warrior and I’m not afraid of death. Can this Aria say the same? Anyway, what do you suggest I do?”

  “Killing the vampire will make her feel protected, so you’ll have to invite her to the academy. If she doesn’t show up, you’ll do it a few days later to make sure she’s okay.”

  “And from there…”

  “From there you’ll try to become her friend. If, instead, she agrees to become a huntress, we can get closer to her father.”

  The speech became blurred and Aria could no longer understand a word.

  The memory faded.

  The girl found herself in the same armchair in her house with Boris in front of her, who let his fingers slip from her forehead to go back to eating the last bunches of grapes.

  “Yes, your father may be a source of information, but is it worth the price? Do you really think that Liza, your friend, gives a damn about you?”

  “You manipulated memories!” Aria accused him.

  “I can’t do that. I can only access fragments of you and the people who have been around you lately. That’s how it works.” he winked at her, “Well, then, I think we’re done.”

  The vampire stood up, then left the room to go to the front door of the mansion. Aria followed him again with the piece of plate in her hand, trying to keep up with him and being careful not to fall down the stairs because of the severe headache she had just gotten.

  “In case you change your mind, I’ll give you my card.”

  He handed her a business card with his name and home address written on it.

  “Like I said, you’ll be the one to find me. It’s just a matter of time.”

  Boris walked out of the villa and Aria kept her eyes on him until he disappeared from her sight. He hadn’t said a word yet and she stood there for several minutes watching Madame Doroteya pick the flowers. She didn’t know if what she had seen was true or not, but the meeting with Boris certainly went very differently than she had ever imagined.

  Why would she tell him where Liza was? She knew he would kill her if she did and that was the last thing she wanted to happen.

  So, she turned and walked back into the hall with her head bowed and all those questions that couldn’t be answered.

  The wind closed the door.