Hunting Death

Chapter 23

"Isn't that the way all love stories go? So what happened next? Did their parents start feuding?" She asked comically, nearly on the edge of her seat.

"Well, considering Tobias was already more than a century old, I doubt he had any sort of parents, but their clans didn't seem very happy about them being together after what had happened the last time their two kinds had consorted, and when Catalina turned up pregnant, vampires began to hunt her, they wanted the baby dead."

"That's horrible!"

"A sign of the times they lived in, unfortunately, people got scared. So Catalina fled to a distant relative from another pack, and she had the baby in secrecy. Tobias and Catalina have never been seen again, some say they committed suicide, others say they were murdered, and every so often someone will swear they're still alive, that having a baby turned Catalina into a hybrid, and they started a new life together."

"What happened to the baby?"

"They named him Luca Romero, and the pack raised him. He wasn't like other vampires, but able to walk in the daylight without getting sun poisoning, and he not only ate meat, but he survived off of it. He also didn't have a bloodlust as strong as a vampire's, he controlled it more easily, not needing to feed as often."

Madison flipped the folder open once more and looked at some of the other papers, skimming over the exact story Keith had told her, and more. Luca had apparently taken a lycan bride of his own, a name Madison was familiar with.

"Luca married a Mellor?" She asked excitedly.

Keith nodded. "A cousin of the woman that your family is descended from. She was said to be very beautiful, and unfortunately, as was common back then, it's said that she died during childbirth. But she managed to birth a beautiful little girl."

"Adeline." Madison provided, looking from him to the family tree and back again.

"Yes, Adeline, who would later marry a vampire who, like her grandfather Tobias, had been sired by John the Mason."

"Small world."

"Oh," he laughed. "It gets smaller still. Keep reading."

Madison did as he suggested, learning that Adeline would go on to have seven children, one boy, and six girls. She began reading the names and what little information had been written about them out loud.

"They had a son named Godric, who is presumed to be alive, and never had children to anyone's knowledge. A daughter named Beatrix, later slain by a hunter. Wait, does this seriously say hunter?" Madison looked at Keith questioningly. "Are there really such things as hunters? Like, Buffy the Vampire Slayer kind of shit?"

Keith laughed at first, then suddenly had a eureka moment, he snagged the folder from her hands and took a closer peek at Luca's bloodlines.

"Of course." He said aloud, more to himself than anything.

"Am I missing something here?" Madison asked, a little lost.

Keith put the folder back down in front of her and began pacing, his lips moving though no sound came out.

"Keith?"

He stopped and looked at her. "Huh? Oh, sorry."

"You wanna fill me in on this sudden revelation of yours? Or are you going to keep talking to yourself?"

Sliding into the seat next to her, he talked quickly and animatedly. "I'm not sure why I hadn't realized this before, probably because I've never encountered one myself... but.."

"Encountered what before? You're not making any sense Keith."

"A hunter. Damien, I'm fairly sure he's a hunter."