Blood Secrets: Tales of the Children of the Moon

Chapter Three: A Glimpse Into Faith's Past

Vixen cut the engine to the Jeep once she had pulled up next to Faith's black mustang that was parked in an empty parking lot across from the ivory coloured stucco covered building that was the High School they had been looking for. A sign saying the schools name was hanging on the front of the building but to the human eye it would be too dark to make out seeing as half the street lamps on the road seemed to be busted or the lamps light bulbs burned out, but with the powers Vixen had inherited from her family, she could make out both the name as well as the black panther that must have been the school's mascot.

Modesto High School.

Vixen stared at the dark school as Midnight jumped out of the car and stood next to Faith, who had come to stand next to her apprentice. "Grab your gear and start at that alley over there," Faith said in a low tone, pointing to the mouth of an alleyway that stood right across from the high school's main building. "I'll take the west perimeter of the school and we'll meet at the end of the alley in twenty minutes. You find something, send a signal. Got it?" Vixen nodded,knowing the drill. She grabbed her quiver, bow, and reached into her duffle bag where she loaded up some throwing knives onto her belt and placed the two guns she owned, one a nine mm. and the other a forty-five glock, into the shoulder holsters that were hidden under her trench coat, before making her way stealthily across the street, Midnight on her heels with his nose to the ground trying to catch a scent of the pack they were hunting.

They were half way into the alley when suddenly Midnight's head snapped up, his ears swiveling back and forth as he listened. Vixen stood dead still, her own hyper sensitive hearing picking up on what had caught Midnight's attention.

About twenty feet ahead of them and to they're left in the alley that connected to the one they were currently in, both Guardian and Hunter could hear the scuffling of feet, then a soft thud and grunt of pain as someone, or something, was shoved up against the brick wall of the alley. Vixen slowly reached behind her for one of her arrows, not even needing to look to know which one of the specially created arrows she had grabbed, knowing just from memory which ones were where and which one she wanted, before notching it in her bow. She looked down at Midnight and jerked her head towards the alleyway junction, indicating for him to follow her, before she slowly and silently began to move to the mouth of the new alleyway.

As Guardian and Hunter reached the mouth of the alley and looked down its long open tunnel, they could make out two silhouettes in the shadows that filled the alley. One was of a tall male from what Vixen could make out and the other,also a male, was slumped on the ground, seemingly unconscious by the looks of it, meaning that must have been the one the two had heard being shoved up against the wall.

Vixen and Midnight moved to the wall opposite their targets, shrouding themselves in the shadows, and walked silently towards the two men. The man who was still standing hadn't seemed to notice the black wolf or the woman with an armed bow moving towards him yet. Either that or he was too busy dealing with the man slumped on the ground to notice anything around him.

Vixen froze in her tracks as she heard an unnatural growl come from the man standing over the unconscious one. She waited a split second before raising her bow, pulling back on its string until it was taught and ready to fire. She knew that type of growl. That was no man. It was a vampire.

Vixen didnt even wait to see what the vampire would do next, she just aimed her arrow at the vampire before her and released the string. The creature grunted in pain as the arrow made impact with its target, the arrow head that Vixen created and made the arrow itself so special in the first place, breaking in the Vampires stomach- where Vixen had aimed and it had struck- and releasing the magic that was encased inside. Tendrils of black misty shadows began to seep from the entry wound in the Vampires stomach and contort around the creature until it formed a sort of cage.

The cage may have looked like you would be able to move your fingers right through the newly created bars or even walk right out of it, seeing as it was after all, made from simple black mist and the shadows around them, but as the vampire himself soon found out...you couldn't.

You see, Vixen had created the "shadow Cage" spell, as she had named it, based off the way Midnight himself was created. He first appeared as mist and shadows when leaving Vixen's body, but soon solidified into a flesh and blood solid being. Same went for her shadow cage. As soon as the arrow head made contact with its intended target, a cage of mist and shadows would form around said target, but while it may not look like it had solidified into actual black steel cage bars, it had. As the vampire now caged before her was a prime example of.

The vampire hissed at Vixen as she walked up to it. She gave the creature a satisfied smirk before turning her attention to the still unconscious man on the ground next to him. She bent down before him, setting her bow upon the ground next to her as she did. She lifted his head up by his chin slowly, careful not to jar him or potentially cause any further damage to his head or brain, that may have already been caused by his impact with the solid brick wall.

She let out a small gasp of surprise as the man's long black hair, that had been hiding his face, fell away and she got a better look at him. He wasn't really a man as she had once assumed, more of a young man truly, most likely somewhere around Vixen's age, if she had to make a guess.

He had very pale skin, and perfectly defined facial features, while well groomed brows as dark as his hair and long, full lashes accented his eyes,which were painted with black liner, while the lids of his eyes had been brushed with black shadow as dark as Midnight's own fur.

And speaking of his eyes, Vixen noticed that said eyes were only half open and she could see that they were rolled into the back if his head so she was only able to see mostly the whites of his eyes, but she did catch a glimpse of the colour of his irises, which happened to be the most beautiful shade of blue she had ever seen, as she lifted his eyelids, pulled out a small pen flashlight out of her back pocket and waved it quickly in front of each eye, looking for some response, kind of like the way a doctor would.

The blue of his eyes seemed to sparkle under the ray of her flashlight, much like the ocean sparkled in the rays of the early morning sun. And that's what his eyes reminded her of, she realized. The ocean. The one place she had wanted to go all her life but had never been able to, even with all the foster families she had lived with over the years.

She shook off her thoughts and returned to the task at hand, remembering why she was flashing a flashlight in this young man's eyes in the first place. She sighed after a minute when She didn't receive any response after flashing the light in his eyes a couple times, confirming her assumption of him being knocked out when the vampire shoved him into the wall.

"How is the boy, Vixen?" Midnight asked, coming to stand next to her and looking at the unconscious boy before his Hunter charge, concern evident in his own eyes. Eyes that were the colour of liquid silver and occasionally swirled as if they were made from such a substance, depending on his emotions, like they were doing now for example. Midnight may have just been a guardian given to her by her ancestors as a form of protection, but the wolf had human emotions and acted more human than many of the humans Vixen met on a daily basis.

Vixen shook her head and gently let the boys head rest back against his chest once more. "Unconscious, probably going to have a concussion when he wakes up," she replied, rocking back on her heels. Midnight nodded. "Bite marks?" Vixen's eyes widened. She hadn't even thought to search to boy for fang marks, as she had been so entranced by his eyes, their colour practically hypnotic to her.

Before she could answer her Guardian though, the vampire answered for her.

"I wouldn't let my fangs near that mutt even if I was starving to death," Vixen's head snapped towards the vampire and she growled before getting up and reaching through the bars, grabbing a hold of the shaft of the arrow that was still embedded in the vampires stomach and wrenching it free.

The vampire hissed in pain and and sent so many curse words in Vixen's direction that, had she not already been the type of person who pretty much said a curse word in every other word of every sentence she'd spoken since she was thirteen, she probably would have been blushing like a damned virgin.

"Well now, don't you have a filthy mouth," Vixen taunted the vampire before her, the satisfied smirk playing upon her lips once more. The vampire snarled at Vixen and went to reach through the bars to grab Vixen, only to pull its hand back as it felt an electric shock pass through its hand. Vixen chuckled as she watched the vampire, happy to know that her spell worked well with the arrow and creature alike.

Suddenly, footsteps could be heard down the other end of the alley and Vixen and Midnight immediately took on a defensive, battle like stance, Vixen quickly pulling out her nine mm. from its holster, seeing as she'd left her bow on the ground when she went to check on the boy. Midnight's ears flattened against his skull and a feral growl ripped from his lips as he bared his teeth, ready to show whoever was running down the alley that he was ready for a fight and would protect his Hunter with his last breath.

It didn't take the Guardian, Hunter, or vampire long to find out who it was that was running down the alley towards them for a sliver of moon light suddenly split through the shadows in the alley and glinted off something that both Vixen, Midnight, and even the vampire itself recognized immediately. Faith's silver sword that was strapped to the belt around her waist. Even so, neither the Guardian nor the Hunter relaxed their battle stances, even when Faith stood right in front of them. The reason being was simple.

In the past Faith, Vixen and Midnight had dealt with many supernaturals, some of those including shape-shifters that could shift into other human beings. Ever since their last encounter with a shape-shifter with the ability to shift into another human, Vixen and Faith had created a protocol of sorts, for when they split up and regrouped during and after hunts and missions. The protocol was simple yet complicated at the same time. They had to prove who they were by telling the other something only that person would know and would never, ever, tell anyone but her master or apprentice (there was only one way to prove Midnight's true identity and that was for him to return to Vixen's tattoo). And they had to do this every time they regrouped, no matter how many times they did during a hunt or mission. And with each regroup, both master and apprentice had to tell the other a new fact that only they would know. It was the only way to prove it was truly them.

Now, of course, was no exception.

Vixen aimed her nine mm. straight between Faith's eyes, an easy kill shot for her seeing as she'd always had perfect aim, as Faith drew her sword and pointed it in Vixen's direction as well as Midnight's, who had moved in front of Vixen in a protective manner. "You first newcomer," Vixen growled, switching the safety off her nine mm. and waiting. Faith nodded and stood there silently, contemplating her answer. Vixen patiently waited and gave her the time to think, just like she knew Faith would do for her when her own turn came. Finally Faith looked at Vixen and began to speak.

"Alright then. Here's something I know no one knows, not even my parents knew and I know you don't for I have never told you. It was something I was originally going to wait to tell you until later in your training, as a sort if story-history lesson, but I guess it will have to be told early," Faith grumbled slightly as she spoke and sighed before she continued, speaking of the one thing only Faith herself knew and had kept to herself for many, many years.

"When I was thirteen years old I killed my first supernatural being-"

"I already know that," Vixen said, cutting Faith off and cocking her gun. "Its also common knowledge. Try again," she growled, ignoring the raised eyebrow and questioning look the vampire, that was still stuck in the shadow cage, was throwing back and forth between her, Faith and Midnight, who had snarled a warning at Faith after Vixen's words. Said vampire also seemed to have forgotten about said cage or just decided to give up on trying to escape, finding what was going on between the two Hunters much more interesting than escape.

Faith glared at her apprentice. "While it may be common knowledge that I made my first supernatural kill at thirteen, what isn't 'common knowledge' is this," Faith took a deep breath and, for just a moment, a pained look crossed her face, temporarily confusing the apprentice, shadow guardian and vampire alike, before the look disappeared and the emotionless mask that the notorious supernatural Hunter Faith Wilson was most known for, returned and her golden brown gaze met with Vixen's own stormy grey-blue one.

"While it is common knowledge that I made my first supernatural kill at the age of thirteen, as I said, what isn't common knowledge is who it was that I murdered," Vixen looked at Faith, confusion written upon her features as Faith said the word murdered. She had never put killing a supernatural being in the same category as murdering a natural human being, or someone such as herself for example.

Vixen lowered her nine mm. just a bit as she looked at Faith questioningly. "What do you mean when you say 'who it was' that you 'murdered'?" she asked her. Faith glared at her. "Do not lower your gun until I am finished and you are satisfied that it is the real me! Have I taught you nothing Vixen Marie?!" Faith snarled and Vixen flinched as she used her middle name, something she absolutely loathed. Vixen returned her gun to its original position and jerked her head. "By all means then, continue."

Faith nodded and spoke once more her gaze emotionless. "When I was thirteen I had gone camping in the local state park near my home town with my two younger siblings, my younger brother Jarreth who was ten years old at the time, and our baby sister Melanie...

"We were to spend a week there, 'reconnecting with nature'," faith snorted in disgust and looked away at this. "My parents were big into the whole nature scene and wanting to be 'one with nature' and they wanted their children to be the same, so our camping trip was more of thing our parents were making us do than a thing we wanted to do," Faith paused here and a small, reminiscent smile crossed her lips for a moment. "Well actually, it was for Jarreth and I. Melanie always seemed to be a nature baby."

Vixen huffed. As much as this whole thing was intriguing her and she wanted to hear the whole thing, she needed Faith to get back on topic so they could get this done. "As much as we'd all love to here this full on story, and I mean this truly i would love to hear the full story, can we do that some other time and get to the main point right now? Please?" she snapped, glaring at Faith, who looked back confused for a moment before her eyes widened and she shook her head as if she were shaking the memory away. "Yes...yes of course. To the point.

"Alright...well then..." Faith cleared her throat and Vixen got the impression that what her mentor was about to tell her was painful for the Hunter to even think of. Faith took one last deep breath, before knowing she couldn't stall anymore, and began her tale once more, this time more shortened. "Melanie, Jarreth, and I had been camping in the park for at least three days out of the week our parents wanted us to spend out there. That night, after the campfire had died down to just embers and Melanie had crawled into the tent she shared with Jarreth and drifted off to sleep, Jarreth came to my own tent and told me he couldn't sleep. He asked me if he would go on a walk with him through the woods around our campsite, do a bit of exploring...

"I should have listened to my instincts that night. They were telling me not to go into the woods, that there was something bad, evil, within those trees that surrounded us, but I couldn't refuse my brother. So I agreed.

"We walked for a couple miles before we had stopped on a fallen log to rest before turning around and heading back to the campsite. It hadn't taken us long to get where we were but we were still pretty far away from the campsite and Melanie, and my uneasiness had being in the woods had gotten worse the farther we had gone in. I wanted to get back and make sure my baby sister was alright. Something in the back of my mind was telling me that she was in danger. That Jarreth and I were in danger.

"Finally, I gave into my instincts and told Jarreth what I had been feeling and that we needed to leave. That we needed to get back to Melanie. As it turns out, Jarreth had been feeling the same. So we hurried back..."

Tears welled in Faith's eyes but she blinked them back before any could fall. She was known for showing no weakness, and she was not going to begin to show any now, not even when it came to her siblings. She took a shaky breath, cursing her emotions as she did, before she continued once more. "We were less than a mile from the camp when we heard her screams," Faith, who hadn't even realized she had been staring at the dark pavement beneath her boots, she had been so lost in her memory, looked up when she heard Vixen gasp and Midnight whine.

She heard another gasp that she knew came from the vampire caged in Vixen's shadow cage spell, something she had to remember to make Vixen release when this was over, but she ignored his. For now. She knew the vampire in the cage, very well in fact. He knew a lot about her, but of course, he knew nothing of who it was that she had killed when she was thirteen. Although she had told said vampire one thing she had never told anyone else, till now that is...that the supernatural she had killed had been a family member. Now said vampire was finding out exactly which family member that was. Just like Vixen...

Faith saw Vixen's eyes were full of sorrow and Midnight's eyes were starting to swirl like they were made if liquid silver, indicating his own sorrow and sympathy. Faith cut a quick glance to the vampire and saw understanding in his eyes. She knew why. He had had to kill a loved one of his own before, someone so dear to him that it wrenched at his undead heart everyday, even when he didn't think on the memory. The vampire gave her a nod so slight that she almost didn't catch it. She knew what it meant. That he understood and would be there for her if needed. She'd have to thank him for that later.

"When we broke through the line of trees we found two men dragging Melanie out of the tent and one of them suddenly bit into her arm while the other held her down. Jarreth and I yelled at them to get there attention before I rushed the one holding Melanie down, knocking him off her. Jarreth had thrown a boot knife I had gotten him for his tenth birthday, which had been two weeks before our trip, at the one who had bit Melanie in the arm. The knife, funny enough had been made if silver, and Jarreth had always been a great shot even when he wasn't trying...

"His knife hit the man, or what we thought was a man at the time, straight in the chest, piercing his heart," a proud smile crossed Faith's lips at this as she remembered what her brother did. "You can figure out what happened to the man, you've killed enough vampires yourself over the years, and the one I had knocked to the ground threw me off of him, throwing me so far I was knocked into a tree all the way at the other end of the campsite, before he took off into the night.

"It took us a while to recover but we did. We bandaged up Melanie's arm with a first aid kit I had insisted on bringing with us, even though my parents didn't believe we'd need it. After that we put her to bed and buried the corpse of the man. But not before Jarreth noticed his fangs. After that we weren't able to sleep, constantly wondering hat the man was and checking in Melanie through the night.

"The very next day we packed up, went up to the ranger station and had them call our uncle and had him pick us up. When he did we told him everything telling him we knew he thought he'd probably think us crazy."

"Did he?" Vixen asked, her curiosity getting the best of her. Faith shook her head. "He believed every word. Turns out he was well versed in the supernatural. He didn't think anything would happen to Melanie seeing as she hadn't turned yet...but he was wrong...

"Now I should say this before I continue. Ever since the attack on Melanie and our Uncle's explanation on what those men had supposedly been, both Jarreth and myself had spent every waking hour pouring over every book our Uncle owned on vampires. Sometimes Melanie would join us, reading up on the species she believed she may, one day, become and if there was any alternative way from drinking from humans or killing them. It destroyed me and my brother to see our baby sister so accepting of what she believed would happen to her, while the two of us refused to believe it and were searching for a way to make sure it never happened, besides doing the obvious choice..."

"Killing her," Vixen said for her knowing it was already pretty hard for Faith to say what she was. Faith just nodded before continuing. "Of course we never found anything and Melanie seemed to just accept that she was destined to become a monster. She even had Jarreth and I promise her, vow to her really, that if she did turn, and she tried to go after one of us, to kill her...and we agreed in the end. She gave us no real choice, but in the end we knew it was the right thing to do...In the end we all made a pact with each other that if any of us were turned and we went after any of the others...that the other, the one, or ones who hadn't been turned, would end them before they could hurt any of their loved ones...

"Now, returning to what I was saying. It took three days for her to turn. Why we didn't know and couldn't explain it, but it did. When she did turn though, it had happened at night. Somewhere around midnight we believed which, coincidentally, just happened to be the time when the day changed to the day of her birthday. I awoke to a commotion that was coming from Jarreth's room. Now ever since we began our research each one of us had kept a silver knife near us, whether it be under our pillows like Melanie and myself did, or on our bedside table like Jarreth had done. All of it was done as a 'just in case' precaution, you could say. And unfortunately that night, I needed mine.

"When I heard the commotion from Jarreth's room I didn't hesitate to grab the knife under my pillow and run to my little brother's room. The door was open but the light was off so it had been hard to see at first. When I flipped on the light though...I had truly wished I hadn't..."

Tears flowed freely down Faith's cheeks now and she didn't even notice Vixen lower her nine mm., or both her and Midnight relax their stances from battle ready to casual standing. Vixen still kept both hands on her gun and her finger on the trigger, even with her stance relaxed, as a "just in case precaution" to use her mentor's own words. If Faith started to come out of memory lane she could quickly return to her previous battle ready stance and have her gun pointed back at Faith and make it look like nothing had changed this whole time. No one but Midnight and maybe the vampire, if he was even paying attention to anything but her mentor right now, would be the wiser.

"When I flipped on the light I saw my brother struggling to get our baby sister off from atop him, and her new fangs had been bared and reaching for his throat," Vixen shook off her own thoughts as she focused back on Faith who had returned to her story once more. "The silver knife Jarreth had kept on his bedside table had been knocked a few feet away from them onto the floor and lay there useless. My brother was screaming at Melanie, trying to get through to her somehow, some way, to remind her of who she was, but it was no use. The vampire part of her had taken over completely and the thirst for fresh blood was too much.

"At one point, as I continued to stand there like an idiot, horrified at the scene before me, my brother's gaze caught my own and he screamed for me to do it. To do what Melanie wanted us to do. When he did, Melanie's attention turned to me and she lunged off my brother and crashed into me..."

Vixen's whole body tensed, as did Midnight's, at these words. Both Guardian and Hunter had a good yet sinking feeling about what was going to be said next and both knew they weren't going to like the outcome. Out of the corner of her eye, Vixen saw the vampire's body language also change, tensing and yet showing signs of knowing this was coming already, and...sympathizing? Once again Vixen caught herself wondering just who this vampire was and why he seemed so calm and collected around a Hunter that was notorious for slaughtering his kind into near extinction. Her thoughts once more returned to the present and her mentor though as Faith took a shaky breath and sniffled softly before clearing her throat and continuing. All three, Hunter Guardian, and Vampire could tell though, that her clearing her throat hadn't helped one bit, for as she spoke, her voice became more and more choked with emotion, something Faith never showed. "As she crashed into me I had raised my arms to defend myself, not even thinking about the silver knife in my hands..." Vixen quickly moved back into her original position as she caught Faith's body language begin to change, her head beginning to raise once more to look at her. She barely got back to position in time and Faith noticed nothing. Her eyes were hard with self loathing as she looked at Vixen. "She landed right on the knife. It went straight into her heart....it was like she....like she did it on PURPOSE," Vixen's eyes widened at this. That she did not expect. "And what's worse...the last words she spoke to me before she died was...'Thank you....for keeping your promise'...

"So, yes, my first supernatural kill was at the age of thirteen, but what no one knew until this very moment was this very thing....at Thirteen years old I had to murder my baby sister who had been turned into a vampire...on the very day she turned five years old..."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Notes

Author's Note:

Oh Damn! That had to have been hard for even the heart hearted, emotionless Faith Wilson to talk about! Man I feel like I'm on a roll when it comes to this story lately! This inspiration bug just keeps on bitin' me, but unfortunately, right now, I gotta get my inspiration bug bitten butt off this computer and off to bed, the boyfriends already fast asleep and I'm going numb from the waist down over here (been sitting in the same position for WAY too long lmao). So, with that said, I will continue my work on Chapter Four tomorrow, where we will learn something about Vixen that only she knows about (and Midnight of course...or will he know what Vixen will Tell Faith? You'll have to wait and see ;])

Till next time guys! See ya on the other side and Blessed Be!

- Kyrie Kerr