"Are you sure you're okay?" AJ had grabbed the car door when Nastia went to close it and was now leaning over, giving her a pleasant view of the pulse in his neck. What she would give to taste the heat he radiated...

She instead sucked in her breath and asked in an exhale, "Why does Ethan want you to stay away from this guy?"

He glanced back at where Ethan was loading his trunk. "This is my first time meeting him, too. Did you seriously just avoid my question?"

"Yeah, she does that," Pam said from the backseat where she had already buckled herself in.

"Figures," he said, smirking.

"I'm okay! Can you answer my question, or will I need to ask Ethan?" Nastia asked.

"Ethan is on edge as it is. Don't bother him about it."

"Then you tell me."

"It isn't my place to tell you," he said casting a wary glance towards their trainer as he took his place behind the steering wheel.

"Are you going to ride with us, AJ?" Pam asked hopefully. Nastia glared at her best friend in the rearview mirror through narrowed eyes.

"No... Te veo allí. I will meet you there," he said, closing Nastia's door before walking to his own car.

"You can ride with him if you want," Nastia sighed. The vampire hasn't encouraged Pam's crush on AJ since she found out he was her Affinity, for obvious reasons. So then why do it now? Because she couldn't help the twisting blade of guilt she felt for developing her own feelings for him.

Pam merely shook her head, declining the suggestion without consideration. That is how her unrequited crush has sustained itself all these years. By never acknowledging it, never taking decisive action to explore that infatuation, it sits within digging deep roots. Such trivial matters were not worth pondering though.

Gunther was a dangerous foe and Nastia couldn't afford to be distracted around him, especially by trifling teen romances and useless love triangles. She needed to know who she was dealing with and fast. With those thoughts, Anastasia asked Ethan about Gunther as soon as he started driving.

"Why do I want AJ to stay away from Gunther? The fact he is a child beater isn't enough of a reason?"

"You made it sound like he did that to train a Helsing."

Ethan side-eyed her. "Guess there are those in the order who do believe that, given the circumstances, his actions were justified. Growing up, I justified it to some extent."

"I'm not saying I agree with his training methods or that it was right, but there has to be more to it than that." Her blood boiled at the thought of anyone touching AJ, but she kept her cool to get the full story.

"You're right. Saying he beat us is too simple. It's a long story, but I'd actually like to hear yours first."

Her heart stopped. "Mine?"

"Pam has told me all about her home life. But I have yet to hear anything about your family. Are both your parents still around?"

"Oh, yeah. They're around. There isn't much I can say. They don't really care what I do or where I go most of the time. I am not... worthy of their attention. I have an older brother, but he is out of the house living his own life." She tossed this out with an air of nonchalance, hoping her answers didn't seem too evasive.

"Okay, I figured that was the case. Pam told me you spend a lot of time at her house with her family and AJ has told me you were well off. I just wanted to hear what was going on at home from you... and just so you know, Nastia, you do not need to prove your worth to anyone. Don't go selling yourself short. It's a hard lesson to learn, but I promise you are not just what your parents made you."

The tension left her shoulders and she smiled at the man. He was trying to figure out why she wanted to throw her life away on the order, no matter how just the hunters thought their cause to be. She can handle being thought of as a rich girl who doesn't get enough attention at home. It is a shade of the truth. "Thank you, Ethan."

"Anytime."

"Can you please tell us about AJ's dad, you, and Gunther? I would really like to know."

"Me, too," Pam said.

"Alright... the Helsing manor was under siege when Thaddeus and I were six years old. Hundreds of fanged demons, thralls and creators alike, had attacked all at once... Even though there were trained hunters and Trinities there, it was a bloody massacre. They showed no mercy, not even to the women or children. Anyone suspected of having even a drop of angel blood fell...

My family, Bellamy, served under the Helsings for generations and they all died that night as well. My father died getting us out... he had directed us to a rendezvous point to wait for other survivors, but it was just us.

As I said, Gunther found us. He was on his way to help when there had been no communication for days... but he arrived too late to save anyone. Gunther is a member of the order and a legendary hunter in his own right, but he is a bitter and hateful man. He had experienced painful losses in his life, and it made him that way, but we needed him and his teachings; we had to be tough to survive. I devoted my life to Thad, as my father did for his father. But I couldn't save him from himself in the end. Thad was sinking slowly, a combination of Gunther's influence, the pressure placed on him, and the trauma we had been through. We were both just too young for everything."

"What happened?" Pam asked when Ethan grew quiet, seemingly lost in his memories.

"So much. We found Este, AJ's mother. Rescued her from a slave ring. She had no family to go back to in Ecuador, so she joined us. She worshipped the ground Thad walked on... and he had a soft spot for her, too. We both did. But he learned to speak Spanish for her since she struggled with English. That was when I thought things were going to get better, but then Thaddeus wanted to turn his back on the order. The fight was too much and with Este's help, he finally realized he needed to step away and get help.

Gunther wasn't having it, so Thaddeus cut him off, cut us both off. My loyalties were crossfaded at the time... I believed in the cause and thought Thad was betraying not just the order and his destiny, but me and everything I had sacrificed, and all my father had died for. Gunther used this to further manipulate him. It wasn't until Gunther had kidnapped and threatened to harm Este when she was pregnant with AJ, that I realized I had chosen the wrong side. That is when I literally stabbed him in the back. Luckily, Thad and Este forgave me..."

Her gaze fell to the three stones held around his neck. "Your stones... are they..."

The car suddenly stopped and Nastia realized they were already at the docks. She let go of the question on her mind, feeling certain of the answer. Admittedly, she was engrossed by the story and trying to match up the broken-down man she had met years ago in AJ's trailer to the young man described by Ethan. How he went from hunter prodigy to that... she had a feeling the tale didn't end there.

All was quiet in the remote port as they joined AJ on the shaky wooden dock. Only a handful of boats rested in their slips, dirty rainwater oasis for nature's debris and crawlers upon their tarps. The ebbing murky depths below refused to reflect the clear starry night sky above.

"Hey, you rotting omelets, you gonna leave me standing here all night. Get your hands out of your pants and let's get the ball rollin'!" Gunther bellowed from the deck of a moderate size vessel. He jumped down onto the tilting docks, making Nastia grab onto the loose rope rail to keep her balance as the whole structure bounced. "Best watch your step there. Ethan, you staying to chaperone? Is Baby Helsing not up to the task?"

"AJ can handle himself. And if I thought you would harm the girls, I wouldn't have brought them at all. I can leave if that's what he wants---"

"Holy moly. Don't be making mountains outta ant hills, Bellamy. Stay! I have some important things to discuss with you anyway," Gunther said, clasping a hand to Ethan's shoulder.

Ethan frowned, shaking the hand off and trudging on ahead. Clearly his old master knew just how to get under his skin. Gunther hopped back on the boat telling the teens to come aboard. AJ leaped across the gap, then extended a hand to Nastia, pulling her up by an arm before she could protest before doing the same for Pam.

"Listen up, pups, cause I ain't one for repeating myself. There are three vital steps in viresanimy--" Gunther began saying.

"What's viresanimy?" Pam interrupted.

"Well, Pippy Longstocking, I was just getting to that. Let's raise our hands, hm? Viresanimy is the art of mind control resistance. If one of those fuckers gets a hold of your mind, it's game over. You can understand that, right? Yeah, you can avoid being compelled by avoiding looking directly into their eyes. But considering they are going to be stronger and faster and smarter than you, they are going to realize you know what they are, then they're gonna make you look at them... or just kill you outright. The best thing for you to do in any situation is to avoid looking in their eyes and then get the hell away."

"I thought you were supposed to teach us how to resist the mind control?" Nastia asked the man, who has taken a seat on the side of the boat leaving his guests to stand there awkwardly.

He paused. Unsmiling, he held up a finger. "Everybody gets one. Don't interrupt me again. Now! Strengthening your mind, like with everything else, takes practice. Everyone has a different level of potential. You won't know how well you can resist until the moment comes when you have to. I can set you on the right path, but I can't be holding your hand all the way to Candyland. Got it, cupcake?" His eyes had fallen to Nastia, and she stared back, her expression of unbreakable stoic stone at odds with his impregnable insincere grin, resisting the urge to blow all the air out of her lungs in a huff.

"Get on with it," Ethan gritted.

"How about you tell them the steps? I taught you, didn't I? It becomes second nature after so many years. Let's see what you remember, hero."

Ethan rolled his eyes. "Right. There are three official steps you have to keep in mind: recognition, resilience, and redirection. It is in this order for a reason. It is essential for you to recognize when a vampire is trying to use compulsion on you. Sometimes the weaker ones will try to gain your trust and coax you into a decision. They will make you think it was your choice. Either way, they will try to look directly into your eyes. When they're using compulsion, you will always have a tingling sensation in your head. It is fast acting and barely noticeable if you offer no resistance to the vampire. In those cases, you may not even feel it. But all of you would because it is now in your subconscious that mind control is a possibility."

"They don't want all the science crap," Gunther scoffed.

Before Ethan could respond, Pam said, "I do. I want to know everything about mind control."

Nastia bit her lip, crossing her arms tighter against her chest.

Gunther grunted at this but resigned himself to messing with the ropes on the deck. AJ relaxed against the edge next to Nastia as Ethan continued with a soft smile. "The tingling sensation you would feel is actually your brain trying to send out a signal for a flight or fight response. A vampire is a natural predator. Your brain knows this, even if you do not. But when the compulsion starts, somehow, they can disrupt that channel, sending a micro shockwave from your amygdala up towards your prefrontal cortex. Once it reaches that part of your brain, the demonic power is affecting your ability to make rational judgments. Viresanimy is the conscious act of slowing down this 'shockwave', if you want to think about it like that."

"So, if we feel this tingling, a vampire is trying to take over our mind?" Pam clarified.

Ethan nodded. "It will feel like it originates from the center of your brain and then the tingling will fan out to the front towards your eyes. If you struggle with a vampire for control, they can tighten their grip, causing a pressure increase right behind your eyes. This is where the second step comes in: resilience. This one is a bit harder to explain. The best course of action to take, after you recognize the threat, is for you to just get away as discreetly as you can. Neither of you are ready to go toe to toe with a creator. But if you can't get away, be ready for the backlash."

"Backlash?" AJ asked, his face contorting. Anastasia realized this must be the first time AJ is getting this lesson as well. He didn't need to learn it before, given his natural immunity.

"A person without resilience will be knocked out," Gunther explained. "A hunter with little resilience will stagger back, distracted and dazed long enough for that vampire to tear into the throat. Hmmm, yum."

Nastia's eyes brightened, and she couldn't get her question out fast enough. "And if they have strong resilience?"

"Then the vampire is the one distracted and dazed and they become the ones in trouble. Resisting a vampire's compulsion is a good way to catch one off guard," Gunther laughed.

"Don't get too cocky on one small victory," Ethan warned. "The next step is critical to completely shake off their hold. Redirection. You have to push back against them with convictions of your own. Strong convictions that make you who you are."

"If you push against a vampire like that, you best kill them. They won't let you get away unscathed," Gunther added with a distant melancholy underlining his usual diction. Just as quickly, he regained his jaunty air. "That's when my unofficial final step come into play: recognition, resilience, redirection, then my personal favorite installment, retribution."

"All of this seems theoretical," Nastia mused. Naive assumptions had her believing she would be able to resist her own mother's compulsion after tonight's lesson. There was no way to get a hands-on education on viresanimy without risking, well, everything. She never tried to resist her mother's will before; it always seemed pointless to even try.

"I wouldn't be here if it was all 'theoretical', cupcake," Gunther said. Slipping her lidded gaze to him, she reached out for his mind, just for a feel. Ever since she used compulsion on Austin, she didn't need to make eye contact for such simple mind tricks. She was greeted by a coldness, likening it to touching a steel fortress on snowy Artic dunes. She imagined trying to use compulsion on Gunther would be like running full speed headfirst into that metal wall. In other words, she will never try. If he figures her out, one of them will die.

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