At First Sight of Sunshine ~Chapter 3~

Chapter 3

“Hunters and Hunted”

         Fourth and fifth period, Math and French, were blah-se at best. When I’d be using the square root of ‘a’ to the fifth power was beyond me. And French…well, don’t really care, I lived in France for a good fifty years, I knew the language. . So as the bell rang I bid adieu to my teacher and made my way to my next (and final) class for the day. Room 106, “Deducing the Preternatural. Upon walking in, I had to admit this was my favorite classroom, not a window to be found.

         “Ms. McDonnell, I am guessing?” I turned to my right to see the teacher sitting at his desk, looking at his attendance sheet. He was younger than my other teachers had been that day, not to mention in better shape than most of them, mid thirties, tall I guessed, maybe six two-six three. He had wheat and honey colored hair and storm blue eyes. He wore a wedding band, a red polo type shirt, and casual blue jeans. The latter of which I didn't discover till he stood and started teaching.

         “Uh, yeah.” I glanced at my schedule, “Mr. Reems?” I quoted the name off my list.

         He shook his head softly, “Mr. Reems retired at the beginning of this semester, and I’m just filling in until they can find a full time teacher.” He adjusted the papers on his desk for a moment. “I’m Mr. Hellsing.” I fought back the urge to freeze in place or run. Every self respecting Vampire knew the Hellsing family was the best family of hunters, since before time in memorial. I know what you are thinking... Waaaaay to predictable right? Vampires and Hellsing, when stories are told it’s like peanut butter and jelly. Well, even the worst Vampire legends aren’t totally false. Even Stoker got Hellsing right. And now here I was standing face to face with the newest macho hunter. His family, most of whom I have had the displeasure of meeting over the last two hundred years of my life, operates as a branch of the Hells Gate Corporation, or is, more so, commissioned by Hells Gate to catch and or exterminate the Vampry. Have I not mentioned Hells Gate? Allow me to briefly explain.

         Hells Gate was a secret organization that would capture and ‘study’ preternatural beings. Over recent years they have been given government grants to help with their research, now that the world knows we all exist. To the outside world Hells Gate is little more than a research center, taking willing test subjects and performing ‘humane’ tests on them… for the betterment of the medical and scientific community of course. But truthfully, Hells Gate enlists hunters to find and bring in test subjects, their innocent victims are then put into cages and poked and prodded with all manner of needles and probes, usually up until they die or go mad. Suffice to say, I wasn’t too comfortable being in the same room with Mr. Hellsing, whether he knew I was a Vampry or not.

         What takes a few paragraphs to put onto paper took very little time to run though my head, so I cleared my throat and nodded to him, “Nice to meet you Mr. Hellsing.”

         “Like wise, Lillith.” He said looking at his attendance sheet, and gathering up a pile of papers to hand to me. “Here,” he handed me the syllabus, “this is what we have basically been studying. We just got started so you aren’t too far behind.”

         I thanked him and sat down in a seat as far from him, and as close to the door, as I could get, and began to read though the first page. Sighing internally as I read the objective for this particular course of study. Vampires: how to recognize and protect yourself. I added a mental sarcastic ‘Yippee’ as I read down the page.

Vampires 101



1. There are many different races of Vampry in the world, each separate race originating from a separate country or type of people. The races adapt to their surroundings, and there for, a Vampire you encounter in China would be completely different than those found in Romania. Currently there are over 35 separate races known, of those, five are the predominate classes.



-Vampiracohroman (The Romanian Vampire), typically know for their strength and reflexes, along with unnatural beauty and charm. Most are native Romanian people, characterized by dark hair and dark (or oddly colored) eyes. The Romanian Vampire is the oldest race we have been able to study; it is thought this is the blood line all vampires originated from.



-Vampiracohgres (The Grecian Vampire), Believed to have originated on the continent of Atlantis, they are known to be extremely beautiful and fair, normally having silver hair and pale eyes. They are said to have a love for the sun, though few have been seen out during the day. It has been claimed that many people mistake these Vampires for Angles. Though their apparent divinity should never be taken as a lack of evil



-Vampiracohitalia (The Italian Vampire), unlike most of their story book counterparts these Vampires have an extreme love for garlic and often attend an evening mass at church. They are known for their jovialness and since of humor, often playing tricks on humans. They are said to have a shark like and terrifying grin. Though their apparent cheer and warm attitude do not make them any less dangerous.



-Vampiraconafri (The African Vampire), anti-social as they are towards humans, these Vampires are well known for living in packs and clans. They are said to take on the forms of the predators on the African plane where they live, ie: Lions, Wild dogs, Crocodiles, etc.



-Vampiracohorien (The Orient Vampire), though few of them exist anymore, due to extensive hunting and capturing. These Vampires were once thought to lead the Mongol tribes and Huns. Little is known of them due to their extreme rareness. It is thought that when attacking, these Vampires transform into a beast, much like the werewolf’s of our Dr. Frankenstein era.



Though many more exist, these five are at the head of the Vampire culture and will be focused on more than anything in this course.



2. Through this course we will mention the “Half-Bloods”; these are the offspring of a Vampire male and a human female. Though very rare, there are a few cases of this in the world. In some cases (when the child is not killed by his/her human or vampire family) these people come to have families of their own. Over the generations the Vampry blood thins and is left as just a sub-gene. However, these people normally retain some strength from their Vampire ancestors. Some are stronger than your average person, others have extremely keen scenes. And a rare few are born with natural shields on their mind; these are curiosities for the Vampires, often luring them away from their own tasks, since a Vampire can normally reach any humans mind which it chooses, finding a person to whom they cannot read is extremely fascinating. Also very dangerous to the human, Vampires hate to not be in complete control all the time, often killing the human who defies them.



3. Though we will be studying some basic Vampire defense techniques, I would like to advise my students, should you happen to ever meet a Vampire, please be safe and come to me immediately. These creatures are not to be taken lightly and ignored; a growing problem in our society is how lax we address the Vampire threat. Please, if you feel you may have encountered a Vampire, seek help immediately.

         Oh great… another one of THOSE teachers….. Just what I need, a teacher bent on destroying the vampire race… Wasn’t today just going to end peachy.

         “Hey there grumpy!” The voice snapped me out of my reading… ah yes well shit… I looked up to see Adrik, you remember the cat gone boy, staring down at me.

         “Hmm… Oh look it’s you.” I said dryly, “Run out of catnip already have we?” He just smiled and sat down next to me… and another Yippee…

         “Hey now. That’s not very nice.” He paused, at which point I took the chance to point out that no one had informed me I had to be nice, which he seemed to ignore completely with that stupid grin and continued. “And I didn't run out… It was stolen…” He laughed and I rubbed my temples with my fingertips. Maybe I really was too old for this.

         Over the course of the next few minutes more of my classmates came in, Adrik introduced me to his friends. Adrienne (his sister, I still wasn’t sure if they were Magus or Shift) she looked a lot like her brother, same eyes, skin, and velvet black hair, longer of course, but same color, the only difference between the two was their attitudes. She seemed more reserved than her brother and when introduced she just looked at me uninterestedly and went back to the book she had been reading… “Dead Until Dark”, one of my favorite Vampire novels of all time. I smiled. I liked her already. Next were Scy and Heliyx, both Werewolves, members of the same pack, though not related by blood, being raised together they were pretty much brother and sister.

         Scy was not quite six foot, his hair was straight to his shoulders and a dark chocolate color, and like most wolves he had dark hazel eyes. Like Adrik he had a lip ring, though his was on the right side of his lower lip, and both his ears were gauged. Heliyx, whose name I liked immediately, was about an inch shy of my height, she wasn’t what you would call skinny, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t look gorgeous. Werewolves in general tend to have a slightly robust build, but they pull it off in a very good way. Her hair was about four inches long, and a slightly lighter brown than Scy’s. What interested me about Heliyx the most was that her eyes were a rarity, she had one eye which was the deep hazel, but her right eye was the same milky white color mine would have been on a normal day. The last of the group I was introduced to was a lovely young lady, she stood at about my height, and her hair was a soft corn silk blonde that draped down to her waist. She had beautiful almost familiar storm blue eyes that sat just right in her cream face. I smiled and almost shook her hand, but refrained, I may have looked human at the moment but my skin would be very cold to the touch, which alone would draw more attention than I needed. I knew who she was though, before Adrik even mentioned her name, her coloring, eyes and hair, it had given her away, along with the proud look Mr. Hellsing gave her when she walked in. I was sitting face to face with Victoria Hellsing…our teacher’s lovely young daughter, not to mention the person who would carry on the Hellsing lineage.

         Now this is the spot where all Vampires get stuck. On the one hand, here I am trying to be a decent person and prove to society that the Vampry are not evil fiends bent on killing and destroying everyone else. And on the other hand, here I am, a self respecting Vampry, knowing that if I just broke her pretty little neck and her father’s as well… I could get rid of a big thorn in our proverbial side. What’s a girl to do? I just smiled and told her it was my pleasure to meet her, though neglecting to say just how much more of a pleasure it would have been not to meet her. Today was really going to shit.

         When I thought things were already at their peak in badness, who would stroll through the door as the bell rang but point five demon jock himself. His hand all bandaged up, ego sufficiently bruised. He looked at me with a smirkish glare and paused by my desk for a second.

         “Hey babe, I like a girl who can fight back.” He said, in what I gathered as one last attempt to sooth his tattered pride. His sent screamed CREEP as it hit me, and he brushed my hair back with his good hand.

         I bit back a growl, knowing that would get me more attention than I wanted, so I opted for the lesser of two evils, “Move it or lose it Jackass.” He snorted and went to the front of the class to sit with some cheer leader floozies, and Adrik leaned over towards me, stinking of curiosity.

         “What did you do to him?” he blinked towards the front of the room at the sulking jock.

         I sighed roughly to get out the breath I had been holding as a growl, “None of your damn business.”

         I had to admit… today really was going to hell in a hand basket… but I got to leave after this class, hopefully tomorrow would be better…right?

***

         “You know nothing of hell” The gruff black pirate said angrily as he clutched Jack Sparrow’s shirt with his skeletal hand. I sighed and hit pause as my door bell rang adding in a mumbled “neither do you buddy” as I stood to go answer the door. I had only gotten home about an hour before, so it was still rather day light outside, meaning I didn’t have to worry about it being a vampire, but it also meant I didn’t know who it was. So I pulled open the door, expecting to have to chase off a bible salesman or some girl scouts. What I found instead made the frown disappear from my face. Dr. Brown stood at my front door.

         “Doctor!” I smiled and gave him a friendly hug before inviting him in. As he followed though my darkened house I turned on the lights to allow him to see. I hadn’t had the pleasure to see Dr. Brown since I had volunteered for Sunshine and walked home with the brief case full of needles and liquids. He was tall for old man, about four inches taller than me which put him somewhere up around 5’9”, balding in a Caesar style, he was plump, though not fat by any means, his thin rimmed glasses took up a good portion of his face and his smile pushed his round cheeks up and made his blue grey eyes sparkle in a rather jolly looking countenance.

         “How was your first day of school?” He asked looking at my kitchen table, usually covered in dust, now covered in school books and assorted papers of all different colors. He smiled and motioned towards the table with a thumb, “Glad to see that table is finally getting some use, I’ve been waiting for it to rot and crumble to pieces before you’d touch it.”

         I looked at him and snickered, straitening up some of the mess on the table before plopping down into one of the chairs. “I have to admit it’s a bit harder than I expected.” He raised a shocked looking wiry grey brow, I held up my hands almost in defense, “Not the work, just school itself. I’d forgotten how much society has changed from generation to generation; it seems as though in another two hundred years the world will be void of decent people and filled with only complete morons and rude children.” I ended with a sigh and the doctor gave me a sympathetic smile.

         “Run into some trouble did we?” He took a seat adjacent me.

         “I broke a half demons hand…” I said as nonchalantly as I could manage while stacking up some papers for school and jotting my signature on others.

         The doctor just sighed and rubbed his temples, “You need to work on your anger issues my dear.” He looked around my small little kitchen, “It’s one of the reasons I was so reluctant about this experiment, Lillith; don’t prove an old fool right.”

         I nodded slowly, of any of the Vampry he could have picked for this particular test of Sunshine; he had picked me because he knew me. I am not, however, known for being exactly stable. But I smiled for him and put a hand over his, “Don’t worry Doctor, it will not happen again, I was just feeling a bit stressed today.”

         “And how do you feel now?” He asked sounding a bit concerned; I knew he was wondering if I had experienced the side effects of Sunshine, because he glanced at the black case on my counter top.

         “I am a bit tired, but that’s it.” I reassured him with a smile. He patted the top of my hand and walked to my refrigerator looking back over his shoulder at me.

         “Hungry?” He asked pulling an unmarked carton from the fridge. I wrinkled my nose and shook my head.

         “No thanks, I’m fine.” Which was true, I hadn’t been hungry…er… thirsty, all day. “But you go ahead and knock yourself out!” I said jokingly before his frown caught my eye and threw me off guard. “What?!” I asked as he thrust a glass in my face. The Synthetic Blood industry had made a fortune since Vampires had become part of the tax-paying public, I still didn’t know how, the stuff was terrible. I wrinkled my nose again and sat the glass on the table.

         “Lillith, I am not going to stop you from using Sunshine.” He placed the carton back in the refrigerator and added, “For now.” Then he looked at me sternly and continued, “As long as you have something to drink at least three times a day. The last thing anyone needs is you starving yourself. We all know how that could end…” He let the thought trail off, though we both knew where it lead. I nodded like a brooding child and swigged the fake blood. It tastes something an awful lot like cold, liquid cardboard, but by some miracle I did feel less tired.

         I pushed the glass away from me and looked at the doctor “Thank you mother.” I muttered sarcastically and tipped an invisible hat to him. He just smiled and nodded, sitting back at the table with me and inquired about my day. I went through the humdrum of my classes, and the small hodgepodge of a group that seemed to be determined to adopt me. As I talked I leaned an elbow on the table and smirked at him, “And you’ll never guess who I get to spend an hour with four days out of every week.” He raised a brow giving me a blank look. “None other than Mr. Hellsing and his lovely daughter Victoria.”

         He was silent for a moment or two, before he cleared his throat and gave me a warning look, “Better make that drinking dose four times a day. We need you acting as human as you possible. Try to just stay low key and pass the class. I’d prefer you drop the class, but I can already see you are not going to do that.” He sighed a little, “Just be careful Lillith.”

         I held up a hand as if pledging, “No need to worry Doctor, you know I’ll be careful.  Old Mr. Hellsing won’t have a clue I am anything more than a simple, little human.”

         “With an odd fascination for all things Vampire?” he perked a brow at me and smiled a bit.

         “Yep.” He was about to continue on the tangent, but I cleared my throat and declared in my best mock British accent, “‘The time has come.’ The Walrus said, ‘to talk of better things!’”  We both laughed a bit and let the previous conversation fall forgotten… for now.

         We talked for a while about idle things, like my odd fascination with Pirates of the Caribbean, before the hours grew later and he had to excuse himself to leave for home. With a few good byes spoken, he said he would be back some time in the next two months to check up on me, reminding me, as he put on his coat, to drink four glasses of Syntho. a day. I agreed and he left, so I settled myself back onto my couch and hit play on the movie, in time to hear Capitan Jack Sparrow muse to himself.

         “So there is a curse…”

         I stretched out with a smirk, “You bet your ass there is Jackie boy… you bet your ass.”