The Hybrid's Assassin

Six

I sat next to Mary on the kitchen bench as Antonia Milania -a petite Italian woman- scolded my dress sense and told me that I needed more meat on my bones.

She ran furiously around the kitchen, throwing an apple and blueberry crostata together as she muttered foreign curse words under her breath, her accent thick.

Mary's boys sat over in the corner, a plate of cannoli between them and a smile on their faces.

"Your boys are getting too skinny, Mary. What I tell you? You need to feed them more! How will they become men?!"

Mary silently laughed to me, shaking her head. "I feed them plenty Mrs. Milania. If I fed them anymore, they would surely explode."

She started tutting and furiously raced over to Mary, covering her mouth with her sugar dusted fingers. "I tell you million time, you call me Antonia. You are my son Piero's wife, you are family. I know you better than my own daughter Nencia. I see you a lot more often indeed."

Mary sighed. "I would have loved to have met Nencia, both you and my husband speak so fondly of her."

Antonia smiled sadly. "She would be long gone by now, we left her in Rome to flee to Venice back in 452 after Attila the Hun ravaged the land. Nencia was not immortal like Piero and I, she was only human when we left with Domitius and Luca. I hope she lived a long and happy life."

She turned to me, wiping a tear from her cheek. "Now, darling, I know that you are new to this world, and that you and Domitius are on bad terms, but although he may seem cruel at times, he is a lovely, lovely man. He saved my son Piero from certain death, if Domitius had not helped him he would have died like my husband, Donato."

Mary smiled. "I guess I have Domitius to thank for the fact that I didn't end up married to Christopher Larkins. We were betrothed after all. If I had not met Piero things would be very different that's for sure." She looked down at her boys and her smile widened.

Antonia smiled. "Domitius Cassius is great man, he very strong and has good heart," she tapped her chest to emphasise her point. "When Piero asked if he could turn me into lycan, he was very nice. Even though I was already fifty years of age and could not serve much purpose with his army. He had very strong, big strong army. But he still saved Piero and I. He showed us kindness. And although he could not also take Nencia, that is okay. I have my son and would rather be alive with him than dead with my daughter."

Antonia went back to cooking and I cleared my throat, I wanted to ask a question, but I didn't want to seem impolite. She appeared to know Domitius quite well, perhaps she knew what the books in the library held, what the creature who held me truly was.

She waved her hand and stirred with the other. "What is it dear, speak up. My right ear is bad."

I paused, thinking about how to phrase it. "I was in the library not that long back. I came across a book that I believe spoke about Domitius, however it was in a foreign language so I couldn't read it. In the book there were nordic words like Vanaheim and Asgard. Can you explain how this all correlates?"

Antonia seemed to freeze. "I don't feel as though it is my place to tell you." She waved her hand. "I will anyway.

"Domitius Cassius is not of this world. He simply brought the curse of vampirism and lycanthropy here. Let me explain for you. So you see, we had Svartelfheim, known as the home of the dark elves. Dark elves are basically normal elves, graceful, beautiful and immortal. But they are cursed to hide from the sun and must drink the blood of humans to survive. Why are they cursed? That is different story."

She cleared her throat.

"So yes, his father was a dark elf, or rather a vampire, as you modern day humans would say. His mother however, Velena was her name, she was from Vanaheim, and she was Vanir. Vanir are like the Aesir, who reside in Asgard, however they're abilities are far more nature sided. They have the ability to shift into animals. It differs per person but the animal they inherit is usually genetic, so if your dad was a fox, you probably can shift into a fox. Now his mother, she was a wolf. Beautiful black coat, just like Domitius. He told me so much about her, she seemed like nice woman."

She put the crostata in the oven and pulled up a bar stool so that she was sitting across from me.

"So, the parents of Domitius were not exactly a match made in heaven, but they were soulmates. All Vanir have soulmates you see. Velena's father wasn't very impressed with the idea of her having a dark elf as a mate so in a blind rage killed him. He was some rich noble or royalty or something like that, and since the blood curse of dark elves is inherited by their children, he didn't want to risk his heir being immune to sunlight and blood thirsty. Turns out he was too late and she was already pregnant with Domitius. Her father went all crazy and was going to rip the fetus out of her torso so she ran away to Midgard. Earth. They lived in Rome happily for fifteen years until her father found her and killed her."

She wiped her hands off on her apron before looking up at me. She seemed somewhat reluctant to tell me the next part of this story.

"He was out hunting at the time and came back to find his mother dead. He lost control and tore across Europe killing multiple people. The blood thirst that he had inherited from his father was released after fifteen years of his mother trying to control it. It wasn't until he was eighteen that his victims started to reappear, it turned out that if he didn't kill a person after he had bitten them they would gain the ability to transform into a wolf, much like him. So, with the people he had turned he created a new family. For a Millenium they were known as umbra hominum, shadow men. Luckily they had not inherited his blood lust but only the shifting abilities of the Vanir.

"Things started to get confusing as the years went by. Through that Millenium other little groups seemed to pop up across Europe some even as far east as Asia. Soon enough it became official that Domitius and his collection of umbra hominum were not the only men that could shift into wolves. Many of the men and women with this ability had been turned away from their village and their loved ones, thought of as beasts. They wanted to seek revenge and had created their own little groups. And it turned out that the first generation of wolves Domitius had directly created could turn others with a bite. They posed as a threat so Domitius hunted them down and killed as many of them as possible. The only two first generations we are aware of are none other than my boy, Piero, and this pack's Beta, Luca Servus.

"Luca was a simple slave boy who would have lived an insignificant life if it wasn't for Domitius. Later on Domitius moved his pack of wolves to the Americas. We travelled with the Spanish but stayed once they had left. We moved our way up north and settled in with the natives who were surprisingly generous. They hailed us as gods." She chuckled and moved to check the oven.

My gaze was locked on the kitchen wall. A million thoughts running through my mind. It amazed me that someone could have lived such an extensive life and yet could be so youthful. It was also somewhat unfortunate to find out what had happened to his parents. Somewhere, deep down, my heart ached for him. "That seems, interesting. How old do you suppose Domitius is?"

Antonia shrugged. "How should I know? He's far older than I am though."

I looked at her, at the age lines on her face and her greying hair. It was hard to believe that she was younger than him. Perhaps by over a thousand years.

She turned to look at me, quickly rushing over. "I'm so sorry, I can't believe that I didn't ask. Darling, what was your name? I did not get it."

I froze, how do I tell her that I don't have a name?

<><><><><>

So I finally got out a chapter. New cover new inspiration.

So here is the story of Domitius. This was kind of a filler chapter but I now know what to actually write about. Yay for inspiration!

So, I'm so very sorry I've took so long to update I feel so bad that I felt like after I finally found inspiration I had to update almost immediately and I wrote this chapter in an hour. Judge me.

Now, as for Antonia's speech, please remember she's European and like my grandfather I picture her to speak with broken English, so if she misses words or her words are muddled up I did it deliberately I know what grammar is. Thank you and good night.

Please don't kill me if this chapter is a disappointment for you. I'll have another chapter out soon, I promise.

Question of the day: who is your favourite character?