Chapter 5

            “So the lady that gave him the sword and helped him, was she really the witch from the mountain?”  I asked Lucas after he finished his story.

“Yep.” Lucas answered.

“What happened to the boy?”

“Well he found the demons, but after they saw that he could kill them, they fled.” He answered. 

“To stop the demons for good and prevent them from attacking other villages, he hunted them down one by one and killed as many as he could.  He asked the strongest and bravest of men whom he'd come across during his journey, to join him. He trained them to hunt and kill demons and that's how Hunters came to be.”                                                                                                                                                                          
“That was a pretty cool story and all, but what does it have to do with my gramps?” I asked him, referring to my original question.

“The young boy in the story, the one blessed by the witch with her magic and was brave enough to stand up against the demons and lead his people to do the same. His name, was Avan Latro.”

“Latro?” I said, my brows furrowing in confusion “Wait. I don't understand.”

“Avan Latro, the first hunter, was your ancestor. Just like Avan, and your grandfather, you're a Blood-born Hunter.” Lucas added cutting me off.

“You had me for about 5 seconds, then you lost me again.” I told him.

“We call the descendants of the Latro bloodline, Blood-born Hunters. It's only through death that Blood-borns truly come into their power.” Lucas tried to explain.

“What do you mean, through death?”  I asked, squeaking out the last word.

 I'm usually not such a coward but this entire situation was scaring the crap out of me. First, the pain that made me collapsed at the airport, and then watching as my house went up in flames, seeing that thing standing in my living room as it burned and now these guys bring me here in the middle of the forest and start telling me all this stuff about my gramps and hunters. 

If I wasn't so shell shocked from information overload, I'd probably be running and screaming at the top of my lungs, bawling like a two year old.

As if he could sense my panic bubbling to the surface, Daniel walked through the front door.  “That's enough, Luc.” Daniel roughly said to Lucas, cutting him off from any further discussion as he stood in front of the open door, looking directly at me. 

Giving me an exasperated look, Lucas stood as he left me on the couch and walked over to Daniel.  Handing over the firewood to Lucas, Daniel said to me over his shoulder “You can sleep in the bedroom.” as he pointed to the door to the right. “Luc and I'll sleep out here.”

I almost sighed in relief at the notion of being left alone with my thoughts, to just take in everything. Lazily getting off the couch, I followed Daniel as he walked through the bedroom door and into the darkness on the other side.  The dim light of fire that spilled in through the bedroom door from the small living area, was barely enough to make out the small room. 

Pulling out a lighter from his back pocket, I watched as Daniel walked into the darkness of the room and began lighting candles. The soft candlelight lit up the room, finally allowing me to see its contents. I was thankful for the sight of a bed as it sat in the right corner, under a small window and an armoire in the other. 

Walking over to the armoire as he finished lighting the candles around the room.  “There are sheets and stuff in here.” He said to me, tapping his knuckles on the old wooden door of the armoire as dark and faded as the cottage walls.

“Thanks.” I said to him as he turned and walked out closing the door behind him, leaving me alone.

I sighed in relief at the silence of being alone, allowing myself to wrap my head around the events of the night gone.

God is any of this even real? What if this is all just some wildly vivid dream? I'm probably asleep on the plane right now, hours away from my European Tour Adventure. 

I thought as I walked to the small window, looking out at the dawn sky. Taking a deep breath I laid down on the single bed, my damp hair falling across the limp pillow. My thoughts on constant loop as my heavy eyelids closed without protest.

It felt like my eyes were closed for only a second before I saw his purple eyes through the thick smoke, his face distorted by the flames, lips curled in a feral smile that sent ripples of fear through me, straight to the bone. As he made his way to me the fire parted, dancing out of his way. I tried to run, to get away but my feet couldn't move, stuck the ground. As he came to stand in front of me, shadows covering the top half of his face leaving me only the sight of his smug grin, his hands wrapped around my neck and began to squeeze. 

I woke with a choked scream stuck in my throat as I bolted upright in bed. Blinking back the tears of fear, forged from a nightmare that felt all too real, I wiped the sleep out of my eyes and cleared my vision. Looking around at the same faded walls, the same old room as the day before, the reality of my situation sunk back in. 

                                          Guess it was all real.

I depressingly thought as I stiffly got out of bed. Walking to the bedroom door I stopped at the sound of muffled voices on the other side. Leaning forward I pressed my ear close and tried to listen.

“This is insane Dani, she's Marcus’ granddaughter and you've been watching her for almost a week, per Marcus’ request. Why are you so suspicious of her?" Lucas asked.

“I don't trust her, because before a week ago…….. no one even knew Marcus had a granddaughter. She didn't exist!” Daniel answered.

“Which is why we both agree that, that little bit of information is gonna stay between us. Marcus, kept her a secret for a reason, and until we figure out why, she stays with us.” “Marcus, trusted you with this secret…….. with her. It's why he asked you to shadow her for those couple of days and keep her safe before she left for her trip.  We can't abandon her, she needs us.” Lucas said to him.

“You only want her to stay because you think you have a chance.” I heard Daniel say to Lucas with a laugh.

“Please, like your any different. I saw the way you looked at us, when you caught us together at the waterfall.” Lucas replied.

“Whatever. You should go check on her, see if she's awake.” Daniel told him.

I felt more than heard, as he got up and walked over to my door. My ass was barely touching the mattress before I heard a light knock. Quickly sitting up on the bed, I heard the door creak and saw a pair of clear grey eyes and a head of dark hair peeking through. Seeing that I was awake, I watched as Lucas closed the door behind him and walked over to me.

Taking a seat on the edge of the bed, I noticed he had a newspaper in his hand. 

“What's that?” I asked him, tipping my chin in the direction of his right hand. Looking down at the newspaper, he looked back at me with hesitation in his eyes.

“What's wrong?” I asked him, drawing a blanket of calmness over me, just as my grandfather taught me.  “It's all over your face, just tell me.”

Sighing in resignation, he handed me today's paper. “Page five.” He instructed.