Chapter 21

Bo pondered for a while, before she asked Tamsin, "have you heard of anything related to my grandparents' death back then? Like...a Huntress who killed a human couple?"

"Yeah, totally, whenever those bitches go kill someone they'd always come to me for permission," Tamsin drawled, and earned a cold glare.

"Is there a way for us to find out who killed them? I mean, I know that it was a long time ago, but..." Bo murmured.

Tamsin didn't answer her. She examined the car crash scene photos and the police reports again. "Well..." she said hesitantly. "The cops ruled this as a terrible accident, because the cause of death was determined as multiple fatal wounds caused by the metal rods that had fallen off from the transfer truck. When they arrived at the site, they had to pull those rods out of them..."

Bo nodded slightly as she sighed at that horrible scene.

"The coroner did not find other wounds. They did not find poison or anything like that in their bodies either."

"I know. But, you said that the gray substance they had found inside the wounds was in fact Vamp soot," Bo reminded her. "So...the Huntress used the rods as her weapon?"

Tamsin shook her head. "No, it would take a lot of dead Vampires to have the Vamp soot build up on your weapon," she explained. "Had she used rods as her weapon, she would have put blood runes on them, but none of these rods had blood rune embedded."

"Then how did the Vamp soot get into the wounds?"

"The most obvious explanation would be that they were first stabbed with a real Huntress blade," Tamsin said. "The Vamp soot was found here and here-" She showed Bo the autopsy pictures and pointed those wound to her. "One through the chest, the other through the head. Maybe she killed them first, and then covered it up by putting rods through those wounds. Of course...it would probably have raised some suspicion, had there only been those two wounds."

"Right, like how unlucky you'd have to be being killed by some fallen rods where one of them happened to go through your chest and the other happened to go through your wife's head..." Bo murmured, nodding.

"So, in order to make it more like an accident, she shoved more rods through their bodies," Tamsin said. "Anyway, the diameter of these rods is about 3/4 inch, or an inch maybe...the diameter of the weapon she used would have to be smaller than that. The weapon would also have to be quite straight."

"So something thin and straight."

"Like a stiletto."

Bo furrowed her eyebrows hard as she glanced at her opened closet in reflex (where all her shoes were organized neatly on the racks). "She killed them with high heels?"

Tamsin rolled her eyes. "No, the stiletto I was referring to was a type of dagger originated in Italy. The blade can be quite long and thin, like a needle."

"Oh," Bo nodded. "Do you know someone who'd use that as a weapon?"

Tamsin gave her a nod. "Giovanna, code name 'Scorpion'," she replied. "She was a dual wielder. A pair of stilettos were her choice of weapon."

"Was? Were?"

"She died. Actually..." Tamsin pondered for a second or two before she continued, "I think she died not too long after your grandparents' accident."

"How did she die?"

"No one knows," Tamsin said. "I mean, maybe someone in the Guild knew but I had been out of the Guild for so long that I didn't really keep up with the news updates there. All I heard was that they lost contact with her for a while, like a couple of months maybe, and then they found her body. She appeared to have died for a while, but they weren't sure how she had died. Her body was highly decomposed and they didn't bother to figure out the cause of death. They just brought her body back to the Guild and buried her."

"Great, now we can't even confront her," Bo murmured with a sigh.

"Even if we could, it wouldn't change anything. A Huntress killed your grandparents. That's something we know now."

"But, why?! My grandparents were good people. They weren't even Vampires. None of my family was. I mean, I am now, but back then...I don't think any of my family has anything to do with Vampires."

"I know, but Huntresses don't just go for Vampires. It could be an order from the Guild, or-"

"Shouldn't the Guild be already gone back then?" Bo asked.

"Yes, the Guild was gone, but it wasn't dead. The Queen was gone-"

"The Queen?"

"The leader of the Guild. Unlike other code names, Queen is a code name passed down from the old leader to the new," Tamsin explained. "That raid, you know, where everyone at the Guild thought I betrayed them and got the team killed...the Queen was leading the raid that time and she didn't make it."

"If she was no longer alive, and if the Guild was dismantled, how could it still be functional?"

Tamsin sighed. "Back in the days, the Guild ran under the guidance of three branches, the Queen, the high council, and the elders," she answered. "The Queen is usually selected by her predecessor. The high council is elected, and the elders are just...a bunch of old bitches who live forever. After the Queen died, the high council and the elders took control over the Guild. Many Huntresses carried out orders that they sent out. A lot of them are still taking orders from them now."

"Really?"

"It's just that it has become a division under the Vampire related crime department," Tamsin said. "You've met one of their minions, Alexa, remember?"

"Wait...the Guild is now under some government branch?" Bo frowned hard.

"It's no longer called the Guild," Tamsin replied. "The elders and the members of the high council have all joined the government branch. Fat paycheck and nice retirement benefits, I guess. Huntresses who were loyal to them followed them, becoming agents. Nutjobs like Mel formed their own cray cray society. People like me, who is too good for any of that crap, stays away from either side while trying to make a living. Anyway..."

"You think that either the high council or the elders sent someone to kill my grandparents?"

Tamsin shook her head slowly. "I don't know," she said honestly. "It's possible, but it's also possible that Giovanna was acting on her own. Either way, your grandparents happened got into her way."

"Maybe it had something to do with my mom..." Bo murmured. "I mean, someone basically gave her to my grandparents. The note said that they should move away immediately or they'd all be in danger including the baby..."

"Giovanna might just be that 'danger'," Tamsin said. "She probably had a hard time finding your grandparents and the baby because they all moved away and traveled around the country. When she found them again, your mother had already grown up and left her hometown. Giovanna probably tracked down your grandparents and pushed for information, but they didn't give her anything. As a punishment, or a way to stop them from warning your mother, she killed them."

"It shouldn't be that hard to find my mom. It wasn't like she disappeared from her hometown and never showed up again," Bo said. "She could have just checked the phone records or something. I mean, my mom would call my grandparents at least once a week."

"She might be on a tight schedule. She might not have access to those data. She might be just like many other Huntresses, old-fashioned, arrogant...And don't forget, she died not long after the accident," Tamsin said, air quoting the word "accident". "Maybe she was already on her way, but she kicked the bucket before she even met your mother."

"This is just...weird," Bo murmured. "Why would she even be after her?"

"That is a million dollar question, sweetheart," Tamsin sighed. "Maybe Giovanna was after the bastard who killed your family as well, and she found out about the connection between your mom and him. Maybe she was after your mother's birth parents. Maybe it's something else. I just...we just don't know, and we may never know."

"I wish I knew what happened to my biological grandparents..." Bo murmured. "I guess there's no way we can find them, is there?"

"We could look into the charm bracelet. It's handmade. If we can find the jeweler, we might to able to find them but...your family died over fifty years ago, and at that time your mother was 38. It will be really, really hard to find someone who made that bracelet almost a century ago."

"Yeah...I know..." Bo grunted.

"But, I think we should go to Somerset. It seems that everything and everyone involved in all this is somehow related to that place. Besides..." Tamsin trailed off a little, as she remembered the first time she had met Bo. They were standing in the darkness, outside the city. The night wind was cold, and Bo's hand was colder, but the blue flickers in her eyes were so warm and intriguing...That seemed so long ago, but at the same time, it felt like yesterday.

"Sounds like a plan. It was our original destination anyway," Bo said, nodding. "Even if we can't find anything else, the least we can do is to get that stake that killed the Vampire Queen."

"Like I said, there's no such thing," Tamsin drawled. "It's nothing but a myth. When we find the corpse of the Queen, you'll see that she was probably killed by a Huntress' sword or something like that."

"We'll see about that, Huntress," Bo taunted.

"Also, Somerset is not Vamp friendly," Tamsin warned.

"Hey, that's why I have you, right?" Bo grinned proudly as she gave Tamsin a quick peck on her cheek, and the Huntress smiled.

Tamsin drove her newly purchased RV along the interstate. The orange reflectors along side of the road seemed dull, and hypnotizing at night. In front of her, far away, above the horizon, a big, pasty moon hung there. Lands on both sides were covered in rocks, pebbles and sand. The low, rolling hills looked like nothing but vague shadows afar.

It was mid Spring, but there wasn't a single thing blooming or growing in the field, not even a crab grass or a dandelion. The only thing that was alive, was some sort of grass sticking out from under and between the rocks. It was short and brittle, with a brownish green color, like dirty, worn-out sink brushes. Tamsin wasn't even sure if they were all alive, since she knew those grass would still look the same even after having died for years.

Beside the road, small, isolated buildings - houses, barns, churches - would appear from time to time. Occupied by feral animals and Ghouls, they looked like something that would only appear in post apocalypse video games.

Bo frowned at a car that they had just passed by. It appeared to have been abandoned on the side of the road for a long time. A dark, highly dehydrated figure leaned against the half rolled down driver side window. A red ribbon - whether it had been something braided into that person's hair, or got entangled with those tousled hair after that person had died - flickered in the night wind like a bright warning sign.

Behind that car, there was a gray van. The door to the passenger side was partially open, and a dead body stuck out. He had been dead for so long that the only thing remained there was the skeleton.

"What happened here?" Bo asked.

"No idea. It's Somerset," Tamsin said. "It's been a chaos for centuries. It's hard to believe that once this is the capital of the Vamp world."

"I know. I've met some very old Vampires who had been to Somerset in its prime time before. The way they talked about it, it sounded like Vegas and Gotham had a baby."

Tamsin laughed at that description. "That's actually pretty accurate," she commented. "Back then it was a Vampire heaven. Vampires ruled the city and had all the legal and illegal funs they could ever dream of."

Slowing down a little as they approached the gate of Somerset, Tamsin scanned the outside vigilantly. Herds of Ghouls growled at her RV cautiously. As their eyes met hers, they lowered their heads and pulled back.

Beside those creatures, there was a big, welcome-to-Somerset sign. A family of four grinning Vampires was painted on there, in 1920s poster style. Under them there was a greeting saying "Welcome to Somerset, Vampires!" However, someone had painted huge, red crossed over the Vampires' faces, and modified the greeting so it now read "Not welcome to Somerset, Blood suckers!" In the corner of the road sign, there was almost a vivid graffiti illustrating a Vampire being killed.

"How did Somerset go from Vampire heaven to Vampire hell?" Bo asked. "Was it because the Vampire Queen died?"

"Actually...it was because Vampire activities were legalized in other places," Tamsin said. "This place was so popular, because it was the only place that a Vampire could live openly and comfortably, and of course, illegally. When other places started to legalize everything, Vamps started to move in. Why live in this hell hole when you can just legally enjoy warm drinks at a much nicer city, right? The sharp decline of the Vampire population here basically left the place empty."

"I thought the old Vampire families stayed and tried to revive the place."

"There wasn't much they can do. They can't just lock people up and force them not to leave," Tamsin said. "They didn't have much of an authority or whatever. They were just a bunch of Vamps who happened to have a fancy last name. The death of the Vamp Queen pretty much put the nail in the coffin."

"I mean, I get it, a lot of people moved away and Somerset lost its shine. It's not popular anymore. It's empty. But, how did it become a Vampire hell?

"That's because when other places legalized Vampire activities, they also took great effort making sure that Vampires wouldn't be hunted down like they had been before," Tamsin explained. "So, blood thirst Huntresses and other moron Vampire hunters would just come here whenever they wanted to have some fun. Legendary Vamp stronghold. Old Vamps who were too stubborn to change and integrate. We must kill them all..."

"But, Vampire huntings are illegal," Bo argued.

"It's illegal on the federal level but not on the regional level for many places," Tamsin told her. "Plus, like calling something illegal would stop any of it. Remember that time I had to drag your cute little ass out of the dungeon? That was at a fairly Vamp friendly place. Now imagine a place like Somerset, where Vamp hunting has never been explicitly banned."

She paused briefly as she squeezed Bo's hand. "Just make sure that you don't do stupid shit, and stay close to me, okay?"

Bo chuckled. She held Tamsin's hand and intertwined their fingers. Those firm fingers and that burning heat gave her flutters. "I can take care of myself," she said.

Tamsin gave her an eye roll while gently rubbing the side of Bo's hand with her thumb.

Having noticed that a group of Vampire hunters was heading into Somerset, Tamsin and Bo decided that instead of dealing with the unknowns inside the city, they'd take a detour through the wasteland outskirt. After parking the RV in a seclude area, they traveled towards the Queen's grave on foot.

The moonlight seemed still and lifeless. The reflection on the rocks was cold and pale. As Bo tread through a narrow opening between two pieces of tall, jagged rocks, a strong gust came to her.

Bo stopped there, as she picked up the the smell of fresh, warm blood in the air. She bared her fangs unintentionally, and sniffed. Her throat clenched at that sweet, sweet smell.

Tamsin noticed the smell as well. She quickly scanned the surroundings and pulled her hunting knife out.

They headed towards the direction of the smell with great caution. A mile later, they discovered a camp site. Two old RVs and a rusty van formed a loose triangle, with a fire pit in the middle. The fire was still burning,

and the large game bird that had been roasted on top it, had fallen into the flames and gotten charred heavily. Under the burning wood, there were several tin foil packets that were being cooked, and they let out a vague smell of onion, potato and a blend of poultry spice.

The campers (3 females and 5 males, including 2 teenage kids), however, had all been slaughtered. Each of them had at least one pair of bite marks on their neck, with blood still dribbling down. Two of them had bite marks on their thighs, and 1 had an open, messy wound on her lower abdomen.

Bo looked at their eyes and then she had to turn away. Those wide open eyes, there were nothing but terror and the cold reflection of the moonlight. Her thirst was back, and she felt disgusted. After taking a few deep breaths, she stepped back a little pretending she was scouting the surroundings.

Tamsin examined the bodies carefully. It appeared to her like an amateur Vampire hunter group, with members dressed in popular Vampire hunting attires: cheap outdoor gears, silver accessories, handmade weapons decorated with homemade charms and trinkets, items that were believed to work as Vampire repellents, and herbs for treating minor Vampire bites. The youngest, a girl, held a silver cross in her hand, and it was coated in her own blood. One of them did have his weapon - a machete - in his hand, but the others seemed to have been taken by total surprise.

Tamsin frowned a little when she noticed a tattoo on that man's wrist, a three feather in a hoop tattoo, something she had seen in the dungeon from where she had rescued Bo. Are they a legion or something? She wondered as she re-examined everyone else, but the man seemed to be the only person who had that.

"Did a Vampire...kill them?" Bo interrupted her.

"Not a Vampire, but a group of them," Tamsin explained after she had checked the bite marks again.

"I thought Somerset was a Vampire hell," Bo commented.

"It's a hell for all living things," Tamsin replied. "No one is really safe here."

Bo nodded, before she glanced at the dead again. "Should we at least...call someone?"

"Yeah, sure..." Tamsin said as she called the local police. Her call was directed to a number that rang over and over without being picked up by anyone. She called again, and this time, it simply didn't get patched through. Oh well, I tried. She told herself.

Taking a glance at Bo and her pale lips, Tamsin rolled her eyes and grabbed the brunette's arm. She pulled Bo, wrapping her arms around her waist. "Someone's thirsty," she teased with a big smirk, rubbing Bo's lips with the tip of her thumb.

Bo looked away and licked her lips with a little embarrassment.

Tamsin chuckled and pulled her collar to the side while giving Bo a wink. Bo swallowed hard at the pulsing vein underneath the blonde's warm skin.

"How long are you gonna stare before you do your Vampire business?" Tamsin raised her eyebrows at Bo.

Bo licked her lips again, and leaned in. She nuzzled the strong pulse gently. She kissed it, before she sank her fangs into Tamsin's warm flesh.

A soft moan was all she could get out as she drew the sweet, heated liquid out. The moon was so cold, and so was the nightwind, but Tamsin was so, so hot...

Letting out a quiet, satisfied sigh, Bo buried her head under Tamsin's chin. Her eyes were still glued to that bite mark made by her. The strong heart beat right beside her ear gave her flutters. "Ummm...Tamsin," she murmured.

"Yes, you can have more, if you ask me nicely," Tamsin teased.

"What are you gonna-I mean, what happens after we find the stake?" Bo asked. Ever since they entered Somerset, she had been asking herself that question. The deal had been that Tamsin would help her find the stake, and that she would pay the Huntress for that service. They had never talked about what would happen next, since both of them, back then, assumed that they'd part ways afterwards.

"I've already told you. The stake is just a legend," Tamsin reminded her. "But, hypothetically, if we find it, I'll pull it out and hand it to you, and then you'll pay me a lot of cash. Then..."

"Then what?" Bo asked as she raised to look at those teasing blue eyes.

Tamsin chuckled and ran the back of her index finger along the side of Bo's cheek. "Then, you'll go back to your little, boring town, while I go take care of my next job," she said softly. She paused on purpose, just so she could enjoy that subtle disappointment in Bo's eyes. "Unless..." she drawled, "...you are gonna need more of my services."

Bo let out a giggle of relief. She stared into those light eyes of Tamsin's for a while, before she asked, "what kind of services do you provide?"

"Oh, I think you know damn well what kind of services I provide, Bo," Tamsin leaned in and whispered into Bo's ear. "Do you not remember the quality services you received yesterday?"

Bo laughed. "I'm serious," she said as she nervously wrapped her fingers around Tamsin's. Fascinated by the burning heat, she murmured, "after-I mean, after we get the stake, whether it's real or not, what are we gonna-"

She stopped abruptly when she noticed that Tamsin's fingers suddenly gotten cold and sweaty. The Huntress was shivering as well, and her heart raced like it was about to explode.

"Whoa...what's going on? Are you okay?" Bo asked, concerned.

"I'm fine," Tamsin said as she pulled her hunting knife out. "This is just the Huntress inside me waking up."

"Huh?" Bo frowned hard. Then, she recalled that Tamsin had told her that when surrounded by Vampires, her Huntress instinct would kick in and cause a mild panic attack-like period. She immediately looked around, but didn't see anything except the Ghouls lurking in the dark - they came for the dead campers, but dared not to get any closer to a Huntress and a Vampire.

Tamsin shivered hard as she loaded her gun. "We've got companies," she said. "A lot of them."

A/N: Hope everyone likes this chapter. A lot of secrets will get out in next few chapters, and I expect this fic to end with another 5-10 chapters or so.