“You! Bastard!”

  Aria’s hands began to shake like an earthquake as the sword nearly slipped from her fingers. It took all her willpower not to let her emotions overwhelm her; this was not how a huntress would act.

  “Don’t touch me!” she exclaimed again as Adelphe, after getting close, moved the tip of the blade with his index finger.

  This time she struck instinctively. The blade hit the vampire’s right shoulder, causing a thud on his clothes, but it didn’t seem to faze him in the slightest. There was a second strike, this time towards the direction of his neck. Adelphe blocked the blade with his hand and blood dripped from his palm to drip onto the ground.

  The sword, however, broke.

  “You’re still a beginner, Aria, it’s best if you listen to me and don’t let your emotions control your movements.” Adelphe spoke.

  Aria, however, didn't want to listen to him and took two steps back. Half the blade had ended up further away, but the huntress still had the one still attached to the hilt. It looked more like a knife than a sword now, but it was more than enough for her. All it needed was a well-placed blow to the neck and the vampire would be dead.

  "You don't want to hurt me with those, do you? You still have a long way to go and-"

  The girl started to attack the vampire, but he managed to block the blade without too much difficulty. Then, Aria tried to throw a kick that hit the vampire's side, but this time too it didn't seem to faze him in the slightest.

  "I can't do him any harm!" the girl said to herself, and she stepped back, thinking about her next actions.

  "I don't want to hurt you, Aria, I'm your teacher." Adelphe said, but before he could even make her think about it, the girl lunged at him once again.

  This time Aria threw the knife in his direction, which was blocked with extreme ease. Immediately after, when the huntress jumped, a kick was about to land against the vampire's neck, but the latter decided to end it. Grabbing Aria's ankle, the vampire immobilized the girl and took her arms to bring them behind her back.

  "As I told you before, I promised Liza that I would help you, and so I am. The first rule is that you must learn to recognize a vampire when you are in front of one, and we spent not one but two days together without you noticing."

  "Don't talk to me!" exclaimed the girl, "Kill me if you want, I don't care, I will not stand here and listen to a traitor!"

  "Traitor? Me?"

  "First you want to help me and then you reveal yourself for the being that you are! I disgust you!"

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Aria didn't notice but her moans could be heard far beyond the walls of the factory. She had been betrayed, in her opinion, and for that Adelphe deserved to die.

  “Don’t say that, Aria, I really want to help you. And who better than a vampire to practice against us?”

  “I don’t care! You vampires are just bringers of death and I’m sure you also enjoy killing poor people… why don’t you kill me and we’ll be done with it?”

  At this point, the vampire let go of the girl and headed towards the exit of the factory where he began to catch the last rays of the sun that were still coming in through the door.

  “Because I’m not like the others. I don’t go killing random people just for the fun of it… I’d get my clothes dirty!” Adelphe exclaimed, “You know, I like the sun… not the night. It’s been so many years since I became a vampire that I don’t remember what it’s like to feel the heat of the rays on my skin… we vampires only feel the cold.”

  Aria didn’t know what to think. She had gotten along well with him until now and was so happy to finally be able to train that she had given her full trust to the teacher. Now, however, that she had discovered his true nature, her hatred towards him was so strong that the only thing she wanted was to put him in a coffin forever.

  “You must be wondering if Liza knows or not.”

  “That would be unheard of!” Aria shouted, “You vampires must die every last one and I won’t let you leave this shed without your head attached to your body.”

  “No.” Adelphe answered his own question, ignoring the girl’s complaints, “No one knows, only you.” he smiled, his fangs gone, “It’s a beautiful sunset today, isn’t it?”

  “Why are you a hunter? Damn, that might even be true!”

  “I am, Aria, I’m a hunter just like you or Liza or Sonia. I hunt my own kind, isn’t that funny?” he laughed heartily, then went back to the three sitting on the chair, “You know, I used to be a human like you… I only remember being bitten by a gang member here on the outskirts, back when there were no factories in Korotsk… we were the most respected and powerful vampires in the entire region, even before the war.”

  While Adelphe was in the mood for stories, Aria tried to get closer to a table to pick up an iron bar. It wasn’t a real weapon, being blunt, but with the right power it could prove useful for defense.

  “I was the boss, well not the boss, but I was a guy who knew how to do things. We had parties every night and the blood flowed like rivers! Ah, the good times!” the vampire put a hand to his face to caress his forehead and try to remember all the details, “But then… everything changed with that war. My companions started to make fun of me because of my human side and the clothes I wore… I like these clothes, do you think there’s something wrong with them?”

  “I think it’s your being a vampire that’s wrong!” Aria exclaimed.

  “Oh, again with this story? Are you still not used to it? Should I put a spell on you?”

  The girl skipped a beat. The last thing she wanted was to be manipulated by a vampire.

  “Relax, I’m joking!” and Adelphe laughed, “So, to sum it up briefly and not stay here all night, I also began to hate those who laughed at me and in the end I swore that I would kill them with my own hands… and so I enlisted as a hunter.”

  Adelphe moved closer to the three in the chair and, with a wave of his hand near their heads, purple dust flew from his fingers to enter the ears of the three unfortunates.

  “I erased their memory, they won’t remember anything we said… or even the fact that they were here.”

  After doing this, Adelphe went to collect the remaining pieces of Aria’s sword to put them back in the suitcase, then closed it and went to the exit, this time to leave that place forever.

  “I’ll stop by tomorrow for our next lesson. It’s up to you to decide if you want to continue or not, but I highly recommend it. Anton is a good teacher, but he’s too methodical and too theoretical. You have good potential, Aria, so don’t waste it.”

  The vampire took a step, then said one last sentence: “Don’t worry about them,” and he pointed to the three people, who were now unconscious, “I already called a carriage to take them home.”