Page 98 of Slayer

Hunter marks! I was about to become a full-fledged vampire hunter in training. I mean, I wanted it, but now that it was really happening, I was apprehensive.

“Does it hurt?” I asked Celia.

She gave me a side glance as we stepped inside a tile foyer. “Not in the way you expect. Everyone has a different experience,” was all she said.

Cryptic. Okay.

We went down a hallway and moved toward another set of double doors, also guarded. The level of security here was starting to make me nervous.

“Slayer.” One of the hunters nodded to Celia.

I’d never heard anyone call her that before. I knew that was her role in her hunting unit, but the way he said it, with a reverence, made it sound a lot more like a commander or general.

They opened the doors, and Celia slowed her steps.

We followed her into the room only to find out it was a waiting room of sorts, with over a dozen comfortable chairs. There was a single door on the far side wall and then a full wall of glass that the chairs were facing.

I gasped when I saw the forty-foot iridescent crystal in the center of the courtyard outside the glass.

“The Veil Stone,” Celia said a little breathlessly as she stepped closer to the glass. As she did, her hair stood up on end.

A movement outside, near the crystal, caught my attention, and I recognized Akari as she walked very slowly toward the crystal and began to chisel a small, thin wafer from it. When it broke off in her hand, she delicately placed it into a mortar and pestle and walked away, bowing first before exiting via a doorway at the far courtyard.

“The arcanists grind up the Veil Stone into a powder, then mix it with ink and some of our blood when they tattoo them on. It makes the hunter runes permanent. And the Veil Stone magically grows back what is taken from it overnight. It is never-ending and constantly replenished,” Celia told me.

I swallowed hard. “How do they know what runes you get?” I inspected her arm. There were five runes that I could see.

“They know. That’s their gift,” she said.

“Asher Voss!” a woman suddenly called out, and I spun to see that single door at the far wall had opened and a petite woman in all white had called Asher to her. She wore a serious expression as Asher crossed the space, glancing back at me once.

Something moved between our gaze. And all at once, I was brought back to last night.

‘I’ve never wanted to kiss her as badly as I’ve fantasized about kissing you.’

But I was also brought back to what Emilie had said about my mom and still being alive.

“Hey, Celia?” We were still alone at the window. “I have a sensitive question to ask…”

She cocked her heard to the side. “What is it, Stella?”

I swallowed hard. “Was my mom’s body ever found? I mean, you said you found her dead in Spokane, but you also had to exhume my grandfather so I wasn’t sure…”

Celia swallowed hard. “I was mortal side in Boston at the time on the night watch. Your mom had been missing almost two years. I hadn’t given up hope though. I got a call from a fellow hunter who swore he saw her in Spokane, downtown.”

My heart picked up speed in my chest as I leaned in to hear her better.

“I left my post immediately and portaled to Spokane where he saw her and…” Her bottom lip shook as a look of horror crossed her face. “I found her in an alley…dead. Now that I know your birthday, this would have been a few days later.”

I frowned. “So, do you have her body? I thought when you had to exhume my grandfather that…”

She shook her head. “I saw her body, no pulse, and there was a lot of blood. I ran to get help, and went I got back… Her body was gone.”

Chills raced up my arms. “Gone?”

She frowned. “Sometimes vampires will…take a hunter home as a trophy of their kill. For bragging rights, if you will.”

A trophy. Sick.