Survival of the Fittest

Chapter Seven: Questions

‘So how long have you been in town?’

It was a weird sight, I must admit. Dominic was sat in a chair in the centre of the living room, while Peter, mum and I perched on the edge of the sofas by the sides of the room. Dad, who it seemed had labelled himself interrogator, did not sit at all, instead pacing up and down slowly with his hands clasped behind his back. I suppose he was trying to seem intimidating, but Dominic didn’t seem much affected by it. In fact he appeared totally at ease.

I’d had Peter lend him some clothes before he came downstairs to prevent myself from having to be in the same room as Dominic’s bare chest again, seeing as that experience was not one I would want to go through whilst my father or Peter were there. My mother wouldn’t be so bad – Hell, she’d probably be checking him out with me, but still. I was glad it was not on display anymore for this conversation.

‘Just since Friday afternoon,’ Dominic said with a nod. ‘So about two days.’

‘Why’re you here?’ I sent my dad a reproachful look for his bluntness, but Dominic just laughed.

‘It’ll sound silly, but I was trying to get in touch with some hunters. Not any specifically, just… some.’ He took a deep breath. ‘Er, so basically I’m not a hunter by blood, but my dad was killed by some vamps – or at least, I assume he was – and I kinda got into the whole revenge thing. My mum died when I was little and I have no siblings so there was really nothing keeping me anywhere. For a while I just walked around near deserted alleyways and stuff to find fights, blocking my ears with earplugs to avoid their Call.’ His face morphed into a frown. ‘I’m not sure how my dad or I snapped out of the Call’s effects the first time, it just happened. But anyway, so I was trying to find a fight one night when I heard a fight going on already down a street I was passing by. I ran to see what was happening, and by the time I reached the scene, the vamps were dead and a man and a woman were stood over the bodies. After I explained to them that I knew about vampires, that I wasn’t going to tell anybody and that I fought them, they taught me about hunting. They left me alone after that, and I carried on wandering around.’

At the end of his speech my father nodded, still not stopping his pacing, despite it being obvious that Dominic was not someone he needed to intimidate. ‘So why did you need to get in touch with hunters, then?’ he asked, just as I found myself wondering about the same question.

Dominic sighed. ‘Well, that was because of the increase in numbers of vampires in a team. Clematis said she didn’t know much about that though, do you?’ he asked.

Dad shook his head. ‘No, and neither does the Council.’ It was his turn to sigh. ‘Alright, here’s what I suggest. Seeing as Eleanor here’ he gestured to my mum ‘is not going to let you go so that you can go off wandering and possibly get yourself killed without a fight, I think it’d be best if you stayed with us for a while. We’ll tell the Council about you being here, and hopefully they’ll be able to sort out some kind of residence for you sometime soon. How does that sound?’

Dominic smiled a friendly smile. ‘That sounds great, but I don’t really want to be a bother-’

‘Nonsense!’ Now my mother got involved, beaming at him and throwing her arms up. ‘It’s no trouble. You can sleep in the guest room.’ At this, Dominic’s brow furrowed, and I guessed he was wondering why he didn’t sleep in the guest room last night. However, I doubted anyone was going to tell him the reason – that my dad and I didn’t feel comfortable with it after what we’d witnessed earlier on in the night in that same room.

Dominic quickly removed his frown. ‘If you’re sure then. Thank you very much, Mrs Richards.’

Mum laughed. ‘Call me Eleanor. And my husband’s Daniel. You’ve met Clematis, of course, and this is our son Peter,’ she introduced us all, gesturing towards Peter at the end, who gave a little wave. I think we were all a little bit anxious about what she would say about Jonah; I could feel the tension rolling in waves off Peter and my dad – and I’m sure it was probably the same with me – in the few seconds mum waited before continuing. ‘And Jonah, our other son, you’ll probably meet in a while.’ Everything seemed to pause.