Celestial Clans: The vampire prince's origin

The Hunter camp I

October 1989

Moscow, Russia

Normal earthly plane

He was tired now but had managed to stay awake as the train kept speeding towards their final destination. Travelling from New York to London and then to Moscow had been very stressful and time consuming. For some reason there was no direct flight from New York to Moscow so he had to take one from London. He had arrived in Moscow and had gotten a vehicle to Siberia, he was still in shock that the Guild recruitment camp was in Russia and in Siberia specifically, he had heard about how cold the place got at this time of the year and was already thinking this was a part of their training. Looking around in the train now Valerian was sure everyone else on this train was also here for the Guild recruitment, it was a hidden organization recruiting secretly but he could count more than 40 young men and women in the train already. The trans-Siberian rail from Moscow to Siberia was long and he knew that now after spending over 15hours sitting there. No one of them had a means of communicating with the outer world and that made him uncomfortable but he trusted his father and uncle enough to not get worked up about it.

The train stopped at a station in Siberia from where Valentine and the other recruits boarded buses that took them to the base. They were at the base two hours later and it was already 8am now, they had been on the train through the night which meant some people like Valerian had not slept for over 20 hours now. The Guild base was two hours from the main town so as to maintain the private nature of the organizations recruitment activities. All the men and women who were going to be recruits this year stared at the gigantic structure ahead of them that their buses seemed to be heading to. The main building itself was the size of a stadium from where Valerian sat, he was genuinely impressed and getting excited now. The size of the training base was humongous which just made it clear that their training would be worthwhile and very professional at that. The young man smiled as their buses drove through the large gates shutting off the huge building from the rest of the world; they had armed guards patrolling the gate to make sure no unauthorized people got in. Valerian was realizing just how serious and just how large the Guild was now, for them to have something this grand in the middle of nowhere showed how serious they were as an organization. Now there was just the big question that remained in his head, ‘WHAT EXACTLY DID THE HUNTERS GUILD DO?’ from the name and training he had easily deducted that they actually hunted or at least fought against something or someone, but what was it? Who could it be?

They alighted from their buses and were searched thoroughly by guards at the entrance before they were all let into the building. All their duffel bags had been collected from them and stacked outside the building for now as they were arranged in rows and columns at what seemed like a large conference hall within the main building. They were clearly going to be addressed now, but by whom exactly Valentine thought to himself still looking around and making mental notes of every detail he had noticed about the place and its organization so far. He moved to the very front of his line not minding the glares and stares he was currently receiving from the other men and women in the hall, he was the only boy here, obviously the only one under 18 and now everyone else seemed to be noticing just how young he was. He stood in front of his row and looked straight ahead at the podium set up in front of the batch of recruits without turning to look at anyone even as they all kept watching him intently, he was used to getting attention from both gender wherever he went. He waited quietly to see who was going to address them and saw the light shining on the screen behind the podium.

The lights came on now and everyone noticed it was the projector; the face appeared on the screen smiling at them. It was him; they were being addressed by the Director of the Guild himself. It was Michael Callahan smiling at this year’s batch of recruits from the screen.

“Welcome to the Hunters Guild training and recruitment for the year 1989, I hope you are all prepared for tough love because that is all we have brought you to Siberia for. This is how the format for your training will be; you will be divided into teams of 10 and made to compete against each other within your various teams. The top three people from each team will already have passed the first phase of recruitment while those who fall within the range of 8th to last in each group are going back home, no do over’s till next year and no exceptions. This year you are 90 recruits in total, 47 ladies and 43 guys so you will be divided into 9 different groups with 10 recruits in each. The grouping will be random but consideration will be made to ensure both genders are almost evenly distributed in each group.” Director Michael Callahan explained clearly as all the recruits gave total attention to the image talking to them from the wall. “We have two recruitment bases globally and we chose some of the coldest places to make sure your training are uninterrupted and also as difficult as possible. Your first phase of training will be on individual tests of speed, strength, endurance, technique and skill with varieties of weapons. Everyone standing here should already be good with the basics so we will start the training with intensity. From 90 of you we will need just about 40 new members of our organization which means even after the first phase, many of you will still be sent home when you slack off. The rules are simple, you can go all out in training because we have the best health facilities here, and no one will get killed or seriously hurt. You will be sharing living quarters and given new set of clothes that would be suitable for training, ladies and guys will live together but no serious adult stuff are allowed on this base. Eventually you will be made to work in teams because the Guild is all about team work, we believe love strengthens team work but we are against s*x while you are here so you can be focused. You can get lovers here but only get serious when your training here is officially over. I hope I have made everything clear with this short but concise address?” Michael asked and got his reply.

“Yes sir!” was the loud shout from all the recruits that reverberated through the entire hall and got Michael smiling. Their journey was long but he was happy to see they all still had gusto. In his heart he could only think about Valerian right now and wish that the boy could actually surpass everyone else here even though he was the youngest.

“Your living quarters are just behind the large door at the end of the hall, your training starts first thing tomorrow morning and to motivate you I am letting you in on a secret. There will be a ranking of the 10 very best recruits and it will be made public in all our Guild bases and made known to all our members including the Veterans. It is a big honor so work hard if you chose to be among the best. We have no consideration for family name at the moment, pass all the phases first then we can consider knowing who amongst you belong to the great bloodlines within the Guild. One last rule, the basement is off limits to everyone till phase 2 of the recruitment. Anyone caught trying to get there will be sent home immediately. You are dismissed for today, good morning everyone.” Michael said with a wave of his hand.

“Good morning sir!” was the loud response he got followed by a round of applause before the screen went dark. It was obvious they all already knew Michael Callahan and respected the man, Valerian had noticed it instantly.

In few minutes all the recruits had changed to the clothes that had been set out for them on their beds and most of them including Valentine were already on their beds trying to sleep. It was morning but he had not slept all night and needed some shut eye to be totally ready for tomorrow’s training. The beds were bunk beds with a person sleeping on the bed on top while someone else slept on the bed at the bottom bunk. Valerian had dodged the bunk next to his so he wouldn’t have to share a bunk with a lady and had taken the bottom bed of the one next to it with a guy already sound asleep on the bed above his. He lay there staring up at the bed above him but not quite sleepy yet when the lady from the other bed next to his walked up to him.

“Hey, it seems we’ll be neighbors for some time.” She said with a smile. Valentine immediately noticed how pretty she was. She had long wavy hair and large brown eyes that would captivate anyone, but not the 15 year old boy. He was already very much matured for his age but was not ready to lose focus on why he was here because of a lady. He turned away from her and faced the opposite direction totally ignoring her and not even giving her back a proper introduction. She still stood there though; she didn’t seem to get the memo. “My name if Vanessa Fey. I am from USA and I think you are too, the least you can do is be nice to someone from the same place as you.” She said with a laugh that managed to surprise Valerian. He was being rude to her but here she was still being nice and even trying to be funny. He turned to look at her now and sat up on his bed so he could look at her. He was about to speak when someone walked to them with a glare on his face that seemed focused on Valerian. He stood next to Vanessa just glaring at Valerian for almost a minute without speaking. He clearly didn’t like Valerian and the young man had no clue why someone he had never met would not like him.

“I am Luke Van Solt from Netherlands. My family is not one of the largest in the world but is definitely the most important in Netherlands and has been for more than a decade now.” The tall and muscular man said “I am 23 years old and this is the first time I have been allowed to join the recruitment program.” He added still glaring at Valerian who was clearly getting tired of being glared at now.

“Good for you Luke, but I didn’t ask you for any of that. I really don’t need to know anything about you.” Valerian said in that cocky tone he had when someone was beginning to piss him off.

“That’s quite a harsh way to speak to someone way older than you and bigger than you as well. I just really want to know how a kid like you got into the program, what is your name?” Luke asked still looking straight into Valerian’s eyes. “I saw you earlier in the hall and knew you couldn’t possibly be an adult yet. I am quite sure your family has a big hand in why you got here so young, you must be from a very powerful family. Which country are you from?” he asked further.

Valerian was about to speak when someone cut him off. It was the young man who had been sleeping in the bunk above Valerian’s this entire time. He swung from his bed and landing on his feet. He walked straight to Luke who was actually taller and bigger than him and then stopped just meters from the 23 year old man. “I am Alexander Everheart of the Everheart family in USA and I am just 18. That should be enough for you Luke so leave the young man alone and go away so I can get some sleep.” The stranger who just introduced himself as Alexander said in a threatening voice that was cold and filled with a silent rage. Luke raised his hands in a mock surrender and began walking away when Valerian finally spoke.

“Hey Luke” he called out to the bigger man who stopped few feet away from them now. “My name is Valerian, I am just 15 but I am so awesome that I got into the program early. Hopefully we will be pitted in a training exercise against each other soon. After you have faced me in anything at all and I have decimated you at it, then and only then will I tell you my family name.” Valerian said and then turned to lie back on his bed and close his eyes. Luke had no intentions of getting involved in an unsanctioned fight on the first at the training base so he smiled at the kid and walked away, he would teach the younger boy a lesson soon he thought to himself as he walked away. He opened his eyes when he was sure the Dutch had left. He looked up at the young man who had just tried to stand up for him then turned to also look at the lady who had been introducing herself to him earlier. “It seems were all from the states so we will probably get along. We should get to know each other better tomorrow, but for now I would really like to sleep. Mr. Alexander Everheart and Miss Vanessa Fey it has been nice to meet you both. I would really like to sleep right now though so maybe we’ll talk tomorrow” Valerian said in his usually direct and almost rude manner before turning away from both of them and closing his eyes, in few minutes he was already asleep. Alex and Vanessa just stood there looking at each other still shocked at just how confident and slightly arrogant this 15 year old was. They knew he was 15 but just from their first interaction with him they had to agree he was a man already, his age was really just a number.