A light penetrated my eyelids, inviting me to slowly open my eyes. I realized that a beeping sound filled the room and looked around as if to confirm that I was indeed in a hospital bed.

The door of the room opened, and I saw a tired looking Violet walking in with a cup of coffee. She didn't see I was awake until I greeted her, making her jump and spill coffee on the floor.

"Jeez! Don't do that, you almost gave me a heart attack."

"Shouldn't you be all happy to see me awake?"

"I am happy," she said, walking closer to me to give me a hug. "But to be honest, the doctor said you were fine, so I wasn't worried. Besides, you've only been unconscious for twelve hours, which is not alarming considering your condition."

"How bad is it?"

"You're anemic but you're responding well to the treatment. Since you are awake now, they will probably let you go home.

"That's great. How is everyone?"

"Good. The only one who is still recovering is the mermaid."

"What about Eleonor and her puppets?"

"I don't know much, but Igor told me that they manage to escape. They were able to capture some Weirdos, but they couldn't speak and disintegrated themselves after a few hours."

"How did they find me?"

"Apparently an anonymous tip. Someone saw a man carry what looked like a person into Eleonor's house."

"Wait, we were at her house?"

Violet nodded. "The shed was actually hiding the entrance of an underground Lab and a prison. Apparently, she had been planning this for a long time. They found journals. She's been writing down her ideas, procedures, and complications of her plans since she was in high school."

"Oh God."

As I was thinking about it a sudden realization came to my mind. I had to warn both the Brotherhood and the Order about Eleonor's plans. We needed to stop her before it was too late.

I pressed Violet to call the doctor as I wanted to go home as quickly as possible. After waiting for too long for my taste I was greeted by Adrian. I thought I might never see him again like this and here he was. I couldn't help but smile and feel the joy and excitement controlling my body.

"Hello Sleeping Beauty," he said softly before placing a kiss on my forehead. "Ready to go home?"

"Yes, please!"

We walked to his car and I got in the passenger seat while Violet sat in the back with the bag of clothes she brought to me. Adrian started driving and I opened the window to let the fresh air brush my face.

After a few minutes, I realized something and turned to face Adrian. "This is not the way to my apartment."

"No, it's not. You're staying with me from now on."

"And who decided this?"

"We all did," Violet replied.

"What about my opinion?"

"Come on Lisa, we were already practically living together anyway. The only difference is that we're no longer in your apartment but at my house, where the security is higher, and you would never be left alone."

"I would still have liked to be included in the decision making."

"There, there," Violet said, patting my shoulder.

We arrived at Adrian's little palace and as soon as I walked him I heard noises coming from the living room. I walked there and saw a familiar face cuddling with a blonde.

I arched an eyebrow not understanding the sudden intimate relationship Levy developed nor why was he here.

"Hi," I said almost as a question.

The blonde woman got up squealing and ran to hug me. "I'm so happy to see you."

That voice was too familiar. "Emily?"

"Yes!" She pulled away, so I could see her. "I know I didn't look good back in my cell, but I thought you would recognize me."

"Sorry, but blame it on the darkness of the cells."

"How can you two talk about it so lightly?" Violet asked and Emily and I shrugged.

"So, you two know each other?" I asked, gesturing between Emily and Levy.

Emily beamed, and Levy scratched the back of his neck. "Remember my lost mate?"

My eyes widened, and I looked back and forth between the two of them. "No way."

"Yes way," Emily mimicked my tone.

I smiled. "This is incredible. I'm so happy for you guys. But how come you thought she was dead?"

"To be fair, I wasn't in a good state, but we don't know. Either the wolfsbane in my system broke our link or Eleonor made some kind of spell."

I sat on the armchair in the corner of the room while Emily went back to the arms of Levy. They were so cute together. We kept talking about everything that happened and I couldn't help but feel that I've seen Emily's face before. And no, I'm not talking about when I saw her in the prison, I'm talking about somewhere else.

Adrian came back with a tray of food and I started drooling at the smelling coming from it. To my dismay, he stopped to give a cup of red liquid to Emily and kiss her forehead before walking to me and place the tray on my lap.

"This smell so good. Thank you." I grinned and dug in.

I remembered something and almost choked on my food.

Why did he kiss her?

"What's wrong?" Adrian asked with a concerned look.

"Why did you kiss Emily? Do you know her too?"

"You didn't tell her?!" Emily shouted in disbelief.

"It slipped my mind." He chuckled, and Emily threw him a cushion that he easily caught. "Sorry Lily."

I elbowed him to remind him that I was still ignorant. "Sorry. God you women are crazy when you are together." I elbowed him again. "Alright, alright. Lisa, let me officially introduce you to Emily, my sister."

The one in the picture. That's where I've seen her before.

"Okay, that's a lot of reunions and revelations for one day. But I'm happy you came back to your family Emily." I smiled.

Wait, is this why Levy and Adrian know each other and acted weird around each other? 

And... 

Oh my god! This means that Emily was the one who created the Brotherhood and Levy is a member of the Hunters Order and despises the Brotherhood. It's like Romeo and Juliet.

Does Levy know about it? 

Probably not. He did say that the Brotherhood was only a group of criminals. He wouldn't say that if he knew his mate created it, right?

Levy coughed, bringing me out of my internal examination. They must have seen the puzzled look on my face since they were all looking at me weirdly.

Levy's next words confirmed my thoughts. "There's a lot of explaining to do Lisa. I'm sorry we didn't tell you before, but we were trying to protect you. The less you knew the better."

"What is it?" I asked, impatient.

"I'm also a member of the Brotherhood."

"But-but you said-"

"I know what I said. I was keeping my act and trying to see if you would put at risk the Brotherhood by saying too much."

"But you were mad at me after that..."

"There's no excuse I know, and to be honest, at some point, I was mad, not at you but at Adrian for getting you involved. Anyway, my wolf was going crazy, so I had to step back a bit."

"Olivia is going to kill you if she finds out!"

"And me," a familiar voice shouted from the doorframe. I looked up to see the one and only.

"Igor?! You too?"

He nodded embarrassed. "How are you doing baby girl? We were all worried about you." He came closer and hugged me. I noticed Adrian's body stiffen.

Jealous much?

"Well then, I was planning on telling this to both the Brotherhood and the Order but since I have representatives of both here and there are no secrets between you, I'll say it now. Eleonor is creating an army and an ultimate weapon to annihilate the humans."

"Emily warned us. She didn't know about the full extent of Eleonor's plans though." Levy said.

"Even though I'm out of there she still has a lot of my blood. She might be able to create the army she wants," I continued.

"Besides, if they're going to be like that guy back then we are screwed," Igor said, "He's too strong, I shot him with silver bullets and he didn't flinch."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"There's a way to kill him and any others Eleonor creates." They all looked at me surprised and I continued my explanation, "A sword. I've read about it in one of my ancestor's journals. It is said to be able to kill all Mythical creatures. It was created to defeat an immortal hybrid that was killing tons of people back in the day."

"Great! I guess we're not screwed after all." Igor grinned.

"Actually, we are. I have no idea where the sword is. My ancestor said that he gave it to someone he trusted to hide it as Mythicals and other hunters were trying to get it. He died trying to hide it, so I'm pretty sure it's impossible finding it, but maybe we can try creating another sword?"

I looked around and saw Adrian and Emily sharing a strange look as if they knew something else.

"What do the two of you know?"

"Nothing," Emily said, but Adrian shook his head.

"I was the one who hid it. William trusted the sword to me and made me promise to never show it to anyone. I guess that due to the circumstances it's okay to give it to you."

"Damm right it's okay! It's my heritage. I can't believe you didn't even tell me you knew him."

"I'm sorry. I was just trying to keep my promise. Come with me. I'll tell you everything you want to know."

We walked out of the living room to his study. He closed the door behind us.

"No one will hear us here."

"Not even your sister and her great hearing?"

"This room was made especially for it." He smiled and sat on the old leather couch gesturing me to join him.

I sat next to him and started what would be a race of questions, "How did you meet William? Why hasn't he killed you? And how come he trusted you?"

"Slow down." He chuckled.

"Fine, but tell me everything."

He let out a sigh before starting, "I met William more than once before we became somewhat friends. The first time we met he tried to hunt Emily and me, but we were too fast for him. We attached him to a tree with a rope and left him there unharmed."

"You spared him. That must have been a first for him."

"We were raised to not kill nor harm humans, but respect them as equals. Our parents only bought the blood we needed to be immortal and not once have I seen them drink directly from someone. This has been our family way for many generations."

"Where are they now?" I blurted.

"One day they felt like it was enough for them. They lived centuries, have lived through wars, prosperity, technological advances and explored all the world. They had nothing new to live so they decided to stop drinking blood and let their bodies age naturally. It hurt us a bit. I mean, weren't we enough? Wouldn't they want to meet their grandchildren someday? But we understood they lived the same life every day for so long and grew tired of it."

"Do you think you'll ever get tired of it too?"

"No. And neither did they in the end. A few years after they stopped drinking blood Emily met Levy and got engaged. That must have triggered something in my parents because they started drinking blood again, so they could watch their children get married and eventually hold their grandbabies." He let out a small laugh. "I swear sometimes they don't think things through."

"Oh, I thought they were... Where are they now?"

"Traveling the world. Emily supposed death broke their hearts and for a moment they thought about giving up again, but they remembered they had a son too. However, it was too painful to keep living here, where everything reminded them of their supposedly dead daughter."

"It must have been a shock for them, but they must be thrilled."

Adrian rubbed the back of his neck. "Yes, they are and speaking of which, they're returning home soon."

"I'm going to meet them." Adrian nodded, and I smiled at the idea. "Were they close to William too?"

"No. In reality, none of us were really close to him. At that time it was impossible for us to be seen together. Anyway, after escaping William, we knew it was a question of time before he found us, so we prepared to move. A month or so later I was in the forest running from another group of hunters when I heard someone scream. I ran to the source of the sound and saw a young boy drowning. I saved him and took him into our home. We took care of that boy and the next day I took him back to his house. To my surprise, I was greeted by William and the boy was his son."

"You've met more than one of my ancestors. You probably know more about my family than I do. You're basically a Blake." I let out a small laugh.

"I've met all of William's descendants."

"Seriously?! You are in big trouble for hiding all of this from me before. You better tell me everything about your relationships and connections with my family."

"I will, after I tell you about William and the sword which you could already know if you weren't always interrupting me."

"Which I wouldn't do if you didn't keep so many secrets from me, but carry on with your story."

"Thank you. So, when William saw me he quickly picked up his shotgun, but the boy told him to not hurt me and that I saved him. William looked at me and I could see how confused he was about the whole situation. I was probably the first peaceful vampire he met. He laid the gun on the ground and hugged his son and I left." 

He took a deep breath and continued, "Few days after William came to our house. Just like we thought, he had found us. We thought he was there to finish what he started. but we were wrong. He simply warned us about a group of hunters that would come in the morning to kill us. I think that was the beginning of our friendship or at least of our mutual respect."

"And the sword?"

"I'm getting to it. A year later we were already living in this house and had no contact with William. Our paths crossed again when we were hunting the same man, a psychopathic vampire who was torturing and killing every human he saw just for fun. We attacked the man at the same time and he died. William claimed that he was the one who killed him with a bullet in his head, but I was the one who did it by crushing his heart."

"Less horrific details, please."

Adrian let out a small laugh. "Come on, you've seen worse."

"Doesn't mean I'm okay with it. So that's when you became 'friends'?"

"Yes. We kept arguing while I helped him carry the body and ended up sharing past experiences and stories. After that day we kept in contact then one day he asked my help on a case."

"The hybrid."

"Exactly. He told me about the sword and once he killed the beast, as they called it, he became the most famous hunter in the country if not the world. Unfortunately, fame brought unwanted attention and soon a lot of people were after the sword and its power. He received threats, but never gave up until someone threatened his family. He asked me to hide the sword somewhere safe and so I did. I hid it in a submerged cavern of a lake in Redhill woods and didn't.

"All this time it was that close."

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. I was really just trying to keep my promise to William."

"I understand." I offered him a small smile. "However, tomorrow you'll take me there."

"As you wish."

Hello Hunters!

First of all, I am so sorry for the late update but I have been really busy with other projects. I hope you'll understand.

We are really approaching the end of this story, only three chapters to go (if everything goes as planned).

I really hope you enjoyed the story so far and that you will enjoy its final moments.

Thank you so much for your support!

See you soon  😉