Everything I couldn't tell you

Chapter 1

Sometimes Ksenija wonders what Feliciano would say, if he knew. That she can change the color of his shirt with a snap of her fingers. That she can knock out his brothers with a flick of her wrist. That she can burn down their school by staring at it.

Would he be scared? Would he be disgusted? Or would he tilt his head, study her with those inquisitive eyes and calculate exactly how he'd benefit from it?

She shivers and pulls her coat tighter with frozen fingers. Maybe her mum is right and they're all insane. But they keep telling her - they can't go in the morning. Vampires don't work daylight hours.

Ksenija stands in what would have made an excellent watercolor painting - a forest where dark tree trunks contrast nicely with the shimmering snow. Moonlight filters through branches and throws complicated patterns over the ground. She would have enjoyed the scenery a lot more if her toes weren't about to fall off. Ksenija could warm herself with magic, it's not like it requires a lot of energy, but it gets draining after a few hours.

And they're taking their sweet time, her dad and her uncle. Rod always goes on and on and on about efficient hunting and how he caught a troll under five minutes that one time and yet, here they are. Well, here she is. About to turn into a human popsicle. At this point she doesn't even care about what comes after, just wants them there already.

Maybe she should be proud that they think she can handle herself, even though Ksenija is only a shitty waterdown excuse for a magician. She should be able to put up somewhat of a fight, with all this relentless training.

A branch cracks and Ksenija jumps. She spins around, squints into the depths of darkness. It's all too easy to make out all kinds of weird shapes in there and the longer the night drags on the harder it gets to discern reality from whatever weird shit her brain can come up with. Last week she was sure she saw the tail of a gobi dragon, even if they live in the desert and mostly keeps themselves buried deep beneath the sand.

It's probably just an animal.

It's probably just an animal, but it can also be something else, something with giant claws or razor fangs. It can be, so Ksenija feels the magic buzz through her veins, thrumming together with the adrenaline. She can do this, she can fight her way out of this, at least until they get back -

Her uncle chooses that time to march through the woods. Rod always looks like he's in the middle of filming a whiskey commercial. Maybe it's the five o'clock shadow, maybe it's the relaxed stance, maybe it's because you normally find him at a bar counter. The bright red hunter gear hugs his wide shoulders. It always struck her as arrogant, the official uniform. They might as well be carrying around neon signs, as far as discretion goes.

"Stop playing around, kid and make yourself useful."

Ksenija puts her hackles down.

"So you finally got them?"

He throws a scalpel at her feet.

"Of Course we did. Now off you go."

Ksenija picks up the knife. They started to give her proper tools last year, even if they still won't allow her to hunt. Considering how the scalpel trembles in her hand, it's probably for the best.

She drags herself towards her dad, who bends over a vampire further into the woods. Moonlight falls over his dark hair and red attire, over nimble fingers wielding a knife, carving out a fang. A metallic smell hits her like a punch in the face. She keeps expecting to get used to the stench, but it seems to get worse, instead of more bearable.

"Take the other one," he says. "And put the fangs in the container over there."

Ksenija kneels in the snow, feels it soak into her pants. She still remembers the first vampire she ever saw. It had been a female, with fiery hair and alabaster skin. Ksenija had expected it to look more human, but her features had been sharp, skin stretched taut over jutting bones. No human would have been fooled by it. But then again, any human who's close enough to conduct a study is a dead human.