Gabriel
I had thought it would be different.
Maybe I had hoped Isaac would attack us with swords until we lay bleeding on the ground. Or that he would test us in a fight against vampires.
But this?
This was worse.
Raphael
"You won't fight."
Isaac's words sounded like a death sentence.
Michael frowned. "What?"
Isaac looked at us like we were three foolish children. "No weapons. No training. You won't fight me."
Gabriel clenched his fists. "Then what?"
Isaac leaned against an old wooden crate. "You want to be hunters? Then first, learn not to die."
Michael
We had underestimated him.
We thought it was just some psychological test. But it was much more.
Isaac sent us through hell.
•30 kilometers through the mud, no breaks.
•Two nights without sleep, guarding a ruined warehouse.
•Hours of enduring ice-cold water until our muscles locked up.
Hunters?
No. We weren't hunters.
We were nothing more than three dying dogs.
Gabriel
"Get up."
Isaac's voice was calm, but it wasn't a request. It was an order.
I was kneeling in the dirt, my body burning with exhaustion. Raphael lay on his back, too tired to move. Michael sat against a wall, his hands shaking.
I spat on the ground and forced myself to my feet.
Isaac nodded. "That's the first step."
Raphael
"What does this have to do with hunting?"
My voice was weak, but I needed to know.
Isaac looked at me. "Do you really think being a hunter is just about swinging swords at vampires?"
He stepped closer, his gaze cold.
"Hunters don't die because they can't fight. They die because they're tired. Because they're hungry. Because on a bad day, they aren't fast enough."
He stepped back.
"You want to be hunters? Then prove you can survive."
Michael
We had no choice.
If we gave up now, it meant we would never have the strength to take revenge. That we would never be able to hunt the monsters that killed our parents.
Isaac wasn't just testing us with pain.
He had shown us that we were nothing.
But if we kept going…
Then we would become something.
Something even vampires feared.