BloodStone: Ice (Book 1)(Completed)

Chapter 14

It took two hours of straight interstate driving to get to the turn off to Catalina's home. Two hours of convincing Phillipe that she really could mask his Jeep from sight in order to get him to push it past the speed limit. She hadn't wanted to go in his Jeep, convinced that her car would be just fine, but when even Quintus commented that riding in the back seat of her little sports car was uncomfortable she gave up and sat in a pouting kind of silence.

Quintus immediately began questioning Phillipe about his family and home back in Sicily. They had only been there once, and it had just been to drop off some unnamed cargo on their way to Africa. Back then it had been nothing more than grain farmers and slaves. They'd never had reason to go back since it was too small of a place to host any kind of vampire infestation.

That was apparently where they had been wrong. A vampire had set up his lair there and for several generations simply lived quietly off the fat of his land. He was cunning enough that no one suspected that father and son were always the same man, when it came time for land and title to pass down. Phillipe's ancestors had been the ones to finally figure it out, and slay the creature. Not without the almost total devastation of his family though. Fortunately, a girl and two small boys, all cousins, were saved and raised by an elderly grandfather. The girl was taught the healing arts and helped to provide for the boys who worked to become hunters of the undead. Then, when she was old enough, she was married off to a fighting man, and her sons were taught the techniques of the hunters. Phillipe was the direct descendant of the youngest of the two boys.

Ella listened with rapt attention as he told stories of his training. His family possessed vast knowledge and kept records of every kill and every hunter they came across. They had held onto the original vampire's horde and owned a good portion of land on the island. They used their money and extra gained from other hordes found to help pay for the expenses of the family's hunters. His family was proliferate enough now that the hunters spent twenty years training and then were expected to spend another five years roaming and looking for their own territory to protect. He had one brother and several cousins who lived here in the states, though no where near as far south as he was. He had gone to Louisiana, drawn by its lush climate.

"But I exiled you to Texas." Ella said quietly from the back seat where she was looking out of the window.

"It's not so bad as that, bella. I quite like it now." He flashed her a boyish grin through the rear view mirror.

"Who trains the hunters in your family, if they all leave at twenty." Quintus was thoroughly entranced by the history of this family of hunters that had grown up so close to their home. Even Titus had remained enthralled listening to the account Phillipe was giving.

"When a hunter reaches fifty he is to go back and trains the new ones. That way you have given twenty five years of your life in service to the people of that area. You send your sons back to be trained once they turn fifteen, so they can have five years of training with a hunter other than their father." He looked out of his window for a moment. Almost pondering whether he should continue with this line of comment. "Of course, I will not go back at fifty. I have been asked not to return as a hunter. Or to send any sons I have back to be trained."

"Why?" Now Titus was intrigued. The hunter was telling them a secret. Making some sort of confession.

"I have broken a family law, and one of our most sacred of hunting rules." They all sat a little more forward, eager to hear. Phillipe's gaze kept flickering back and forth to the rear view mirror, and both Quintus and Titus were starting to suspect that whatever rules he had broken, they had something to do with Ella.