" Hatred eats the soul of the hater, not the hated" unknown.
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"I can imagine how proud you can be. Your grand daughter has graduated and there is no doubt she will succeed you as the Alpha rogue Ripper " Mr Jericho Hills told him old friend Marcus Cyrus.
Marcus did not answer. He just watched his granddaughter from afar with a smile on his face.
His friend did not speak further and just smiled, now looking at the young woman in her graduation robe on the podium with many other students, holding their respective certificates
On the podium, Naila stared at her hunter's certificate blankly and memories of her mother's death flashed in her mind. "Finally. I have finally been a certified huntress and I'm gonna hunt them down to the very last." She muttered to herself in a low tune tightening her grip on her certificate, twisting it a little.
She was full of hatred for that inhumane creature who mercilessly took her mother away.
She could still clearly remember how that creature broke through their house, in the middle of the night. Her mother locked her up in one room in order to prevent the creature from harming her so could not see anything and only heard her mother's agonizing voice, pleading it to stop but he wouldn't listen. At last, she just heard the sound of bones cracking and that was followed by utter silence.
When she stepped out of her room, she was welcomed by the most horrifying scene she could ever imagine. The creature held her mother's lifeless body in the air by holding her broken neck. It violently dropped her mother's body on the ground as if she was a toy.
It then looked at her and she froze. She couldn't move, and knew she was going to accompany her mother in the other world. She couldn't see it's face because it was dark but saw those piercing red eyes of his which proved that it was a vampire and the skull tattoo on its left arm.
Surprisingly, it just turned and left as if nothing happened and left her standing frozen and her mother lying cold on the ground.
Naila was still just nine years old back then and that marked the death of her kind and compassionate self, leaving place to a cold ruthless entity. She was empty and all what made her continue and be were she was actually was her thirst for revenge. She was gonna make it regret to not have killed her on that day.
" Naila, you okay?" Asked a fair haired and green eyed boy. It was no other person than Travis Blake, who she could call her best friend.
" I'm fine" she said simply, her expression blank as she kept staring at her certificate.
Attention everyone. The National Academy of Hunters is proud to present to you our newly graduated hunters. Cheer them up. They deserve it because it's not easy " the headmaster of the academy announced and the assembly clapped, praising the graduates.
Parents climbed on the podium to take pictures with their hunter children . Marcus Cyrus climbed on to take a picture with Naila, his granddaughter.
" I'm proud of you" Marcus told his granddaughter.
"No need to be" she answered coldly. Marcus did not comment and just smiled, being used to how cold and distant his granddaughter became after her mother's death.
After that, they threw up a party at Mr Marcus Cyrus place, who was the president of the Association of Hunters in that State.
All the newly graduated hunters were downstairs in the ballroom with their family members while Naila was in her room, busy cleaning her weapons when she heard a knock on the door.
" Come in" she said and the door opened. It was Travis
" Why don't you go downstairs and celebrate with your grand father?" He asked her.
" I have better things to do"
He sat on her bed and looked at her, worried " Naila, I still think you should let go with all the grudge you have in your heart . That thirst for revenge is slowly killing you. Do you think your mom will be happy to see you like this? Living to kill? We both know that she never wanted you to follow your grandfather's foot steps. And you had also skipped a whole lot of classes to go chase that creature in the whole country. What tells you that it had not yet being killed by another hunter?" He advised her.
" And how does that concern you? You never wanted to become a hunter,then fine. Now let me be. You're not the one who lost your mother ". She was definitely upset by him .
" Fine" he was hurt by her words. Naila, feeling guilty, stopped what she was doing and sat next to him on the bed and patted his shoulder lightly." I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt you. "
Unlike Naila,Travis never wanted to become a hunter but was forced into it by his parents who were in the same association as her grand father . But he made a deal with them; he will attend the huners academy to learn the skills and after that, he will finally have the right to choose whether to continue or not.
" You might be true. I have visited all places in the country. Apart from the Merridew State" she told him
" No foreigner is allowed to enter in that state without a sufficient reason. The hunters have tried for several years but could not make it to Merridew." He told her.
" I have applied for a job in one of the biggest companies in that state and it has been accepted. If I don't find the creature there, this will mean that it had been killed by a hunter since vampires are not allowed to travel from one country to another. " she was determined to make them pay for what they did to her mother.
" And what if you find him and he kills you?"
" I'll be careful don't bother. After that, I will definitely resign from being a hunter . " She assured him.
" Promise?" He asked her.
" I promise." She smiled.
" When are you leaving?" She stood and moved to her wardrobe, where she pulled out to suitcases.
" Tonight" she answered.
**************
Meanwhile, somewhere in Merridew State....
A fiery red haired and blue eyed boy with a skull tattoo on the left arm stepped into a dark room. He looked like a young man between the ages of twenty and twenty five.
" You called for me. What do you want?" He said to a man sitting on an office chair. The man looked exactly like him but seemed a little too older than him and rather looked like his elder brother.
"Oscar has found a new assistant for you. Since you are never available. She's a human so don't take her for your personal blood bag like the previous one." The man told him.
The tattooed boy shuffled his hair with his fingers " Do as you wish but don't blame me if she goes out of blood"
The other one did not reply and just pointed at his tattooed arm" you do better to cover that up. You might frighten her " he said. " You may leave " he added and the tattooed boy did not wait for a reminder and just stepped out.