Page 26 of Slayer

I wanted to please her, to tell her everything she wanted to hear. She was so kind and was clearly fighting for me in a world I knew nothing about. But this was also moving really fast.

“I… I’m scheduled to start Spokane Community College. I’m going to be an ultrasound tech in two years and get my own place,” I said, telling her my carefully laid-out plans. “Maybe a dog.”

She took in a deep breath, exhaled, and bit her lip, her fingers curling against the seam of her jacket. “Okay. Just come to my house. We can talk about all that later.”

She guided me to a parking lot that sat at the base of a hill and unlocked a sleek black vintage-looking BMW, the paint catching the afternoon light.

“Whoa, cool car.”

She shot me small smile that held a hint of sadness, eyes going glassy. “Molly gave it to me for my seventeenth birthday.”

I didn’t know how to feel about that because we clearly hadn’t proven Molly was my birth mother. And I was starting to wonder if maybe Celia was so grief-stricken about losing her friend that the first person she stumbled upon who looked remotely like her, she clung to.

I slipped into the car and clipped on my belt, and she reversed out of the lot, tires crunching softly against the gravel.

“You know, I could not be Molly’s daughter. I could just be some random lost-born. Or a human…”

She laughed, shaking her head. “You’re not human. If you were, you would have been enthralled with the rest of the humans at the club, and eating that wafer would have killed you. But you’re right, there’s a small chance Molly isn’t your mother.”

I felt relieved just hearing it, my shoulders easing a fraction. It was too much pressure, and I didn’t even know the woman. I didn’t want Celia to be heartbroken when she found out the truth.

“How big is Veil Haven?” I asked, watching the unfamiliar streets roll past the window.

“Good question. About the size of the UK. You can drive across it in twelve hours.”

Whoa. That was bigger than I thought. “And you have car dealerships here?” I indicated the BMW.

She laughed, and it was a bright sound that filled the space, chasing away some of the tension. Turning right, she took Stake Street, and then we pulled into a cute little neighborhood of modest two-story homes that were relatively close to each other.

“No. We get what we need from the mortal realm and portal it back here. We use money just like the mortals do, and we go in for big shopping trips. Costco for the win.”

I grinned, imagining a bunch of vampire hunters doing a weekly Costco run. She turned right on Moonlight Avenue and pulled into a cute light blue bungalow with a white porch and parked her car out front. It was a five-minute drive from the school.

“Did you buy this house? What’s your job?” Now I was fascinated to see how this new world worked.

“I’m a lead licensed hunter, specifically a slayer, but you’ll get into all that in your studies. It’s kind of like the military. My husband, Derek, and I were assigned this house, and we get to live here for free so long as we’re working. He works for Nightguard Academy, and I work for the Hunters Guild. I get a monthly living stipend for other things, similar to a higher-ranking military member in the mortal world.”

Very cool. And I respected that she was being so forthcoming.

“So the guild is like the military?” I asked.

She nodded. “Kind of. If you want to hunt vampires, you need to be licensed with the guild. They make sure only the best are sent into the field and they have centuries of intel to help know where to send teams.”

Crazy cool.

We stepped out of the car and up to the front door, and Celia held her fingerprint over a small black keypad, the screen lighting up beneath her thumb. It beeped and unlocked with a snapping noise.

“Wait, you keep saying mortal world. You guys are mortal too, right?”

She opened the door and peered back at me with a look I couldn’t quite interpret, something unreadable passing through her eyes. “Let’s talk about all that later. I want you to meet Harper, my daughter.”

My eyes widened. “No, I want to talk about it now.” My voice shook.

Why didn’t she answer me straightforwardly?

She sighed. “We don’t physically age past fifty. We live to about three hundred before we naturally die unless killed.”

My jaw unhinged. “Wait, are you serious?” I wasn’t mentally prepared to live for three hundred years!