Twisted Blood
The Hunter Gradus

Ridley moaned before her eyes opened to the brightness of her bedroom. Her curtains were open and there was hardly any shadows from the trees outside her window which meant it was around midday. There was tingling pain in her neck but nothing unbearable. She slid out of her bed and started for the shower. Her wound wasn't covered up and it felt soothing to let the hot water scorch it. Part of novice training was to build mental immunities to pain. A mental immunity was much stronger than a physical one. Mind over matter was a strong hunter's philosophy.

The guardian put on a grey blouse with black jeans and re-strapped her garter around her leg. After briefly combing out her hair, she headed for the kitchen. The house was empty and quiet. Ridley merely poured herself a glass of orange juice before leaving. Along the path, the corpse had been removed and ground staff were scrubbing away the blood with tough brooms.

The main building was abuzz with day students filing in. Their parents too were with them. Ryan was waiting outside expectantly. Her rage and envy were nowhere in sight. Ridley glanced at her sister's right wrist and there were still only three gradus. She hadn't gone for her fourth.

The gradus were little symbols inside circles and there were different gradus for different things. The four Ryan would soon have made up the Nonentity series: the novice was an eye; the learner was three horizontal lines; guardian was a shield; and hunter was an infinity symbol. All in circles that were the same size.

Clarke had three series under his name; the Nonentity series, the Warrior series and the League series - his ranger status. The ranger gradus was an arrow, also in an equilateral circle. The League series was the second highest gradus a hunter could get, the one above that was the Heir series.

There were over a dozen series of gradus a hunter could get. Some not even in order. Clarke was a ranger but he wasn't a paladin before that. Gradus were always tattooed on; it was a sacred practice. Despite the gradus, Clarke was absolutely against his daughters getting tattoos.

Ridley cupped her own wrist, which also still only had three gradus of the first series. She made nothing of her sister boredly outside the main hall; Ryan did it every year. She always waited for Moonbeam and Carson - her friends - and her boyfriend, Alex.

Inside the main building, Esmeralda was sorting out the sun students with Clarke and the rest of the administrative staff. None of the hunters or guardians were around, apart from the Axel twins and their parents. The buzz was heavy with talk of the sun girls' favourite topic, the moon boys. Apparently drinking blood and living off a red meat-based diet is attractive. It supposedly levelled with looks and abs.

Principal Axel was talking with a set of parents when he noticed Ridley floating about. Nobody - students specifically - really cared for Ridley other than gambling the number of fights she'd be involved in or her body count. Her hunter body count.

She leaned into her perch with the table behind her while the welcoming frenzy went on. She opened her book and started reading. The guardian held her book in one hand while the other grazed the bite mark. She had been bitten before and the sensation was nothing new. She just enjoyed the jolt that surged through her from pressing too hard.

"Ohmygod, did you guys hear," one of the girls in the group nearby began after shrieking with her friends. "One of the guardians is a hunter now." The group deflated in reply. "What? That's awesome!"

"Yeah, if it's not Scary Axel," a second girl replied. "Which it probably is."

They all turned to Ridley, who could hear them. She just didn't care. "Deena heard from Oliver that she broke the throwing knives record. The strange thing is, he said she couldn't go higher than she did because she ran out of knives," a third added. S~ᴇaʀᴄh the (ꜰind)ɴʘvel.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

"On the topic of Oliver..." the second girl purred. "Meow."

They swooned over him giving two little girls directions. They bounced back to their father and relaid what he told them. He nodded then ushered his son according when he returned from wherever he went. Oliver turned to the group of girls then made for them.

They got all excited until he walked straight passed them and joined Jason's side. Still Ridley didn't care. The girls still watched him talking to Jason. Shrieks of excitement sped through the office part of the main building and most of the occupants turned to Ryan jumping in the arms of Carson.

Carson Tsai was Taiwanese and she all but leaped into Ryan. The two were talking excitedly over each other with bright grins, growing louder and louder. Most of the sun boys were looking at them hungrily, mostly because Ryan was the most 'bang-able' senior. Her principal/father feared as much and knew only one way to get his bubbly daughter away from bubbling boys.

He cruised over to Ridley with a clipboard in his hands and nudged her in the side. "Feeling better," he asked knowing Ridley wouldn't reply. Even if she wanted to, he still went on, "good. I need you take your sister for her gradus." The Scary Axel lowered her book mutely. "I already called in." Ridley rose her book to continue reading. Clarke smirked then pulled it free from her black nail polished clutches. "That's an order."

Before anything else could happen, the principal left to rejoin the fight against disorganised students and parents. Ridley returned to their house to drag out their bicycles. She came back to literally drag Ryan by the hair of her ponytail away from Carson and Moonbeam - who arrived while she was out. "What the hell is your problem," Ryan snapped loudly, earning an audience.

Her twin merely mounted her bicycle mutely before she stated, "gradus. Now. That's an order." That's usually how Ridley spoke. Short. To the point. No emotion. Ridley hides how she feels to preserve her discipline and the technique of suppressing emotions.

Ryan rolled her eyes before following suit on her bicycle. Whether she believed that the order was Clarke's or Ridley's was unknown. Ridley free rolled down the incline of the hill with Ryan behind her. Dunon was not only the name of their school but also the hill it was built on and the town it was in.

The buildings were once The Hunt's fort during the Red and Black Scourges. The moon and sun dormitories were once the infirmary and civilian safe haven respectively. The main building overviewed the entire town and gave them an advantage should ampyra warlords come knocking.

The town outside their school was small and nicknamed Transient Town. It was busy but there was nothing to do. That's why it was nicknamed Transient Town, it was built for transients by transients and the people who lived there were either reformed transients or descendants of transients.

Main Street was where everything could easily be accessed. If one was lost they need only find Main Street. Along the main road was a general store; the church; the bank, two bakeries, a flower shop, a salon and barber shop, a pub, the clinic, an inn the town square and the bus stop. There were also farms and a few residential areas further away.

There were more restaurants and different sorts of shops around the square. There was also a pavillion that was used as an open air theatre for both movies and stage productions. On the other end of the square was the grade school, a high school and also the cemetery. In an area of the square, was the market. People from the surrounding areas and even the city set up their stalls there.

Ryan sped passed her sister smugly and halted abruptly in front of the outlet that had the words 'Grey Inkorporated' printed on the glass panels on either side of the glass door. Ridley cruised passed her sister and parked her bicycle on the other side of the door. Ryan exhaled shakily and stopped to let Ridley lead the way inside.

Nonchalantly the guardian headed inside with her hunter-sister towing behind her. Morien Grey was a Welsh goldblood. His family was one of the luckier ones to make it out of the Gold Scourge. He lived through the Scourges and had the scars, along with the tattoos, to prove it.

His prolonged youth was starting to fade; his once timeless-touched toned cheeks were filling up. He still looked like he was twenty-five but he was starting to age. Ampyrakind's prolonged youth was always something worth envying. The tattoo artist had a buzz cut of black hair and wore enough eyeliner to make Adam Lambert jealous.

He was smoking a pipe, an indication of his real age that countered the inverted bull ring piercing in his nose. "If it isn't Scary Axel and Bubbly Axel," he stated after a puff of his pipe. "I've been waiting for this day," he stated then led them to the tattooing area. He was wearing leather pants a black mesh shirt that revealed not only his pierced nipples but all the tattoos he had on his torso. "Both of you?"

"Just me," Ryan replied chuffed then sat in the chair.

"Wow," Morien replied and his years of being away from Wales showed in his accent. "Most of my twin clientele become hunters together. A sick sort of threesome but this I have to hear. What happened?"

Ryan merely shrugged. "There's not really much to tell," she said. "Ridley was attacked by a Class F and I shot it."

"Where'd it come from? How did it know where you were? You don't mean to tell me it just walked into your school?"

"I don't really know the just of it," Ryan admitted.

Morien tilted his head then turned to Ridley. "You aren't, by any chance, in a talkative mood today, are you?" Ridley continued to glower at him. "Are you angry that Bubbly Axel killed it and not you or are you jealous?" Still Ridley said nothing. Morien exhaled then ventured over to the scary Axel twin. "What was like being so close yet so far? I bet it stings, doesn't it? You were just that bit too-"

Ridley punched him clean across his workstation with her unchanging expression on her face. She shook out her fist while watching the three hundred year old man take in his bleeding nose. He stood up with a huff and saw Ridley unfazed by her assault.

"Suppose I had that one coming," Morien stated coolly then chuckled, wiping away the bead of gold blood from his nose. "I see those blackblood powers of yours are coming in handy. Mommy would be proud." Ryan's eyes went wide as she looked between her unchanging sister and the tattoo artist. "Oh, that's right. She left before..."

Ridley narrowed her eyes on him with her hand near her garter, threatening him to say it. Ryan huffed then rolled her eyes. "Ignore her," she stated. "She's got the stick of acquiescence so far up her ass, if she spits then it's not hers."

Morien smirked then found the courage to get closer to the twins. "Just pulling your leg," he whispered into Ridley's ear before brushing passed her. "How they grow so fast," he purred while running his fingers under Ryan's chin. "I remember the last time you were here I had to tell you stories to stop you from freaking out."

"I love your stories," Ryan replied with a growing grin. Morien took out a pair of surgical gloves as he matched her grin. "Just not the historical ones."

"Nobody gives two shits about the historical ones," he replied, evidently humoured. "Except the one about the hunt for the Source."

"Don't think I've heard that one."

Morien hummed at his customer then turned on the pen. "As you know, there are many speculations about the origins of ampyra, otherwise known as the Source. Some theories suggest that the Source was either Adam or Eve because we're just as human as non-ampyra. Other theories argue that the Source wasn't a person at all. Newer ideas varied from cellular mutations to a curse by a wicked witch."

"You know we're not five, right?"

"Just listen," Morien jeered to Ryan as he began tattooing her. "In 1280, the Spaniards went on explosions across Europe and the Middle East for the answers. The French, Portuguese, Italians and the Greeks all wanted that knowledge for themselves so they joined the search but selfishly. Then, supposedly, some British cock sucker found stone tablets written in some ancient language while in the Blanche mountains."

Ridley was unimpressed by the story, knowing well that it was Morien's usual thumbsucking fanfiction on historical events. Ryan knew it too but that didn't make the story any less entertaining to hear. She would occasionally look between Morien's progress on her forearm and the pensive scowl on his pale face.

The centuries old man went on, "... so after he was raided on the Silk Road, he found a village not far from the rock formations carved onto the tablets. There, he met a witch doctor or whatever fancy term there was for the Ghoulish. But before the witch doctor could translate the tablets, they were raided by invading Venetians. The tablets were take by Italy with the Brit and the witch doctor. The witch doctor was forced to translate the tablets in exchange for his freedom."

"But he refused?"

"Oh, no he sold out," Morien replied. "He couldn't be bothered with the British man but he wasn't set free, neither was the Englishman. So Italy had the lead to the Source. The inscription led them to a cave that was stocked with endless treasures not far from the Dead Sea. The carvings on the cave walls were a warning for searchers of the Source to stop searching. The treasures in the cave were used as a bribe to get them to stop. Of course, back then ampyras were still unruly and violent so the Italians persisted. At the end of the darkest tunnel of the cave, was what they were searching for: a map."

"Whoever put it there was dumb."

Morien ignored her with the buzz of the tattoo machine still in the air. "The map led to Ain Ghazal, in modern day Amman, Jordan." At least now Morien was getting accurate with his hogwash. "One of the oldest civilisations in history and one of the first to make statues of the human form. The Italians didn't know they were stalked by both Italian ampyra and the British. The British attacked them for the map before the ampyra slaughtered them to keep the knowledge within their own kind. If they did find the Source, it's hard to say what they did after that."

The twins were silent; Ridley because she genuinely didn't have anything to say and Fyan because she was flabbergasted. "That is the shittiest story I've ever heard! You couldn't come up with something original?"

"It sort of links into the next story," the tattoo artist admitted. "The immortal ampyra."

Ryan sank into the chair with a huff. "You're an ass." Morien peered up at her lightly. "There's no such thing as immortality. There's prolonged youth and then there's the Twilight Saga. Pick one."

"I thought Scary Axel was the unimaginative one," Morien replied as he shook his head. "The immortal ampyra was a goldblood. She had lover too. Let's call him... Morien."

Ridley turned out the window at the town's activity while Ryan was losing interest in Morien and his tall tales. "How imaginative," she commented.

Morien wiped away excess ink on Ryan's arm. "Morien was from a respected goldblood family: judicious; diligent; and they served the people on their land, both ampyra and non-ampyra. During the Gold Scourge, the non-ampyras on his family's land protected them against the hunters so peace continued throughout this goldblood family's lands. Then, Morien met a woman. A crazy, seductive, power hungry woman. Interesting, yet?"

"Okay, I'll bite."

"The woman, like him, was a goldblood. Morien fell in love with this woman but she had eyes for his brother. Still, Morien blindly followed her in the hopes of winning her. Everything the woman wanted, Morien did. He slaughtered taverns for her, he massacred whole villages and towns for her and he even killed his own brother when he grew too suspicious. At the woman's request, of course. With his brother out of the way, Morien thought he had won the woman but, alas, the woman carried Morien's nephew in her womb."

"Well, ouch."

"Exactly. Lucky for Morrien the woman was cold and abandoned her baby in the custody of her family, who were soon slaughtered after that. There was something she wanted and a baby would only hold her back. The woman wanted immortality! And she knew how to attain it. With her slave, Morrien, they prepaid for this unholy rite."

Ridley listened haphazardly to the story while watching the world beyond the walls of the tattoo parlour. It wasn't normally busy so late in the day but with schools opening soon, there was a lot to be done. Not to mention there were tourists preparing for long journeys home.

Sadness was awash on the story teller's face. He clearly reminisced about that time. "More than anything I wanted her to be mine. I did everything she asked of me, to the letter, and still she was never mine to have. That ritual was supposed to be a myth. Created to give the power hungry something unattainable to dream about. She..." he exhaled heavily then finished up the gradus "... she tried to kill me to get what she wanted. Thank God that there were hunters there that night. Even if they were set on killing us, they saved my life."

Ryan briefly took in her new gradus then looked up at Morien. "What was her name," she whispered and it freed the Welsh nobleman from his memory snare. He turned to her in faint surprise. "The woman. What was her name?"

Morien cleared his throat then picked out fresh bandage to conceal the inflamed forearm. "I swore to never speak her name again."

"Wow. I want someone to love me like that," Ryan replied dreamily while her reddened skin was being bandaged. "Not the sacrifice-you-for-personal-gain part but... that's a bottomless type of love." Ridley lost interest when Morien gave Ryan instructions on how to care for her gradus while it healed. "Did she do it," Ryan pressed. "Did she become immortal?"

The tattooist shrugged while doing half turns on his stool. "I can only hope that ritual was bogus," was all he said on the topic. "Welcome to the ranks," he concluded before Ryan could dive deeper into the story. The younger twin pouted while she left the studio while Ridley glanced back at him squarely. "You remind me of her. You have the same soullessness in your eyes," Morien began. "Don't become like her. Don't block everyone out," he pleaded and the Scary Axel saw genuine fear in the usually antagonistically care free ampyra. "Please."

Ridley left nonchalantly after that, mounting her bicycle while Ryan was still obsessing over the second story. "That was amazing! How can you love someone so unquestionably much that you literally do psychotic things for them," she asked out loud, knowing that her sister wouldn't reply even if it was directed to her. "I-It's unfathomable!"

Ridley cycled off, leaving Ryan parked outside the tattoo salon. Inside, Morien was wallowing in his memories. He still sat on the black stool, swinging on it. Ryan watched him run his hands over his face and through his hair. He teared up and wiped them away roughly with his fingers, after whipping off the surgical gloves. The scary part was that Morien was shaking.

Bubbly Axel's lips parted when she saw him get up to smash the mirror on his wall in a fit of fluster. His goldblood powers were unleashed and he punched through the mirror and the wall it was on. The ladies in the bakery next door jumped out of their skin from the gaping hole.

"That's the type of love I want," Ryan stated.

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