The Slave That I Am | 18+✔

Book 1⌇1. Blood Magic

Chapter 1 ∣ Blood Magic

~Year~2022

You're not getting any younger so stop acting like a kid and grow up...take pride in what you are as we are what they created...

Alyssa's words echo hauntingly within my head, taking careful steps through the bedroom as I often wonder what she means by that. She never delves further into detail, telling me that one day I'll learn the truth...more than likely after I turn sixteen.

Reaching for the ebony hair tie on the dresser, I capture the loose strands of my brown hair, drawing them up into a high ponytail as I secure the band in place. My older sister is no longer here, a plan for her to scout out a vampire coven not too far from our grounds was already taking place. Everything is being set in motion, the hunters my parents work with enacting according to our way.

As I step toward the open-door frame, I touch the wooden siding...

...this was the day I was promised since I was just ten years old. Each day, I begged my parents to allow me to come along on one of their hunts. Each time, I was denied, coming to a compromise and a promise that the day I turned thirteen would be the day I could see what it was like as a full-fledged hunter.

However, I can only take my rite of passage when I turn sixteen, but that doesn't mean I can't shadow my parents or Alyssa.

Stepping down the staircase in dark cargo pants, over the knee-high boots, and a short sleeve shirt, I grasp the leather jacket from the coat hanger while I round the bend to the hallway. Talking long strides down the carpeted walkway, my mother stands near the front door to our house, sheathing two blades at the sides of her hips. She kneels, holstering duel pistols with one strapped to the outsides of her lower calves clad in dark blue cargo pants, a black belt around her waist.

Guns are useful, but they don't come close to the satisfaction of decapitating a vampire, especially when you come face to face with a pureblood. Removing their head from their shoulders is the only way to end their undead lives.

I draw her attention not a second longer, a small smile gracing her stern features as she stands tall and proud to her feet.

Her hair is neatly tied up in a bun, her white irises reflecting my own as she parts her lips to speak and states, "You look so mature."

"Thanks," I guess...I'd rather not grow up too fast, but Alyssa was never given that option.

"Here," my mother reaches to the entryway table, lifting from it a silver dagger buckled in a holster, the holster resting on a dark leather belt. As I walk a few steps closer to her, she outstretches her arm to me, offering me the blade before she says, "You won't be fighting, but just in case something happens, I don't want you unarmed."

I scoff and roll my eyes while I say, "Isn't my blood magic enough of a weapon?"

"True...it's deadly in its own right, however," my mother pauses while I reluctantly take the blade from her, looping the belt through my cargo pants. When I lift my gaze to meet with hers, she finishes, "one day you might not have your blood magic, so I suggest you become adept in at least one bladed weapon."