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CHAPTER 50

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Dominick

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Late June 2011 – New Jersey

“So how is it that you know so much about vampires?” Father Dominick’s eager new trainee asked as they aggressively sparred with each other in the church basement. It had been converted into a training facility long before Dominick ever took his vows.

“Concentrate!” He quickly scolded and swept his student’s feet from out from under her. “A mistake like that will cost you your life, and I won’t clear you unless you are 100% ready.”

“I’m sorry Dominick, but I just can’t believe how much you know about vampires, how they move and how they fight,” she replied as she got back up to her feet with a spring kick, narrowly avoiding another strike by Dominick.

“It’s a long story, and not one that I’m particularly proud of,” Dominick lowered his head in obvious inner turmoil, and his student realized that he was reliving something awful. Today’s training session was over.

“I’m sorry father,” she uttered genuinely apologetic. “You know why I’m putting myself through these rigorous training sessions. You have battered and bruised me and even fractured a bone or two, but I’m still here. You know what drives me to keep coming back; I just wanted to know what made you into you.” Dominick sighed, she was right, he had purposely tried to break her, to force her quit, to make her not want to keep at this, but she wouldn’t give up. A human fighting a vampire was almost always certain suicide, unless you had a complete commitment to the kill. She had more than committed, and he knew it, she had passed all his tests.

“You’re in your rights to want to know that,” Dominick replied as he pressed his lips together and then smiled. “You have been no less grieved by vampires than I, maybe even more. You’re without a doubt my finest student, and you have earned the right to know certain things about me. After all, how will you be able to trust that what I’m putting you through will work against those wretched hell spawns.”

“So you are going to tell me?”

“Yes,” Dominick exited the ring and took a seat on a bench and motioned for his student to sit next to him. “I have to start from the beginning.”

“I have time.”

“I was born in the Big Apple in 1954. My father was a professional wrestler, a luchador. He was a great champion and was a hero to both me and his fans.”

“He sounds great, what about your mother?”

“I never knew her, she died during childbirth, but I was told she was very beautiful and very troubled.”

“How was she troubled?”

“She was an addict, a condition I unfortunately also shared.”

“Really, you were a junkie?”

“To my eternal shame, yes, but let me get back to my story.”

“I’m all ears.”