Chapter One -Eyes On the Ground-

Heaven wheels above you, displaying to you her eternal glories, and still your eyes are on the ground.
-Dante Alighieri

Chapter One
-Eyes On the Ground-

"What?" I demanded of Master Jebediah. "How could you let this happen?"
     Master Jebediah was grave. "Salem, the White Truce was only the first part to peace with Dark World creatures."
     "And I understand that. I do. But letting in a Hunter and a vampire live with us? We'll be lucky if the vampire and Hunter don't kill each other! And Hunters have hunted every Dark World creature! They hate us! And now we'll have one living with us, eating with us, sleeping in the same building? Are you mad Master?"
     Master Jebediah was my family; he saved me, raised me, taught me and Iris karate, kung fu, aikido, Brazilian jiu jitsu, taekwondo, kandoshin, jeet kune do and everything in between, but honestly how could he let a potential murderer into our house? I looked over at Iris--my sister basically though we weren't blood related. She was simply sitting there, her hands clasped, staring at the ground.
     "And you have nothing to say Iris?" I asked.
     She shook her head. "It could very well be a good thing Salem. Open up your mind."
     "Oh so you're all mad at me for having a protective instinct? That's how you're going to play it? Okay, I'll have an open mind and shut up until they get here."
     "Which will be in about ten minutes," Master Jebediah put in glancing at the grandfather clock at the other end of the room.
     "That's another thing. Why wait until the day they were arriving to tell us?" I asked.
     "That was because of you Salem," Iris whispered. "I'm sure that if you had found out, say a day or even a week earlier you would've ran away or done something drastic."
     I couldn't argue with that. "Oh. So where will the others be sleeping?"
     "Well the vampire will have the room across from Iris's and the Hunter will have the room next to yours."
     I froze. "I'm sorry but did you just say the Hunter will have the room next to mine?"
     "I did."
     "But there's a door connecting the rooms!"
     "And?"
     "And he could totally sneak in and kill me in my sleep!"
     Master laughed. "Oh Salem. Aren't you thinking? How well have I trained you?"
     "Extremely."
     "Then do you honestly believe one, that someone could sneak up on you and two, that anyone could kill you?"
     I looked at the ground. "No."
     Master clapped his hands together. "Then this discussion is over. Please come along and wait in the hall with me. And change out of your training clothes."
     Iris nodded and made a move to go up the stairs to change.
     I raised my eyebrows. "So we're not continuing morning training after they come? I thought another part of the residential thingy was so that we could become fighting partners."
     "It is. And you'll train tomorrow together. But today I want you girls to relax, become elegant hostesses and show the boys around the house."
     "Boys?" I repeated in a mono-tone. "The Hunter and vampire are both boys?"
     "Whoops," Master said with a small smile. "My bad. I was going to let that be a surprise. Now please go change."
     "Because I sooo want to be super pretty for the hunky vampire and Hunter!" I said sarcastically in a preppy-girl soprano voice, clasping my hands over my heart. "Maybe if I'm lucky eventually he'll hold my hand!"
     Master was amused. "Which he?"
     I rolled my eyes and let my hands drop. "Whichever one I hate more."
     I went upstairs and changed. It wasn't much a difference. My training gear was a black tank top and shorts and my heavy black boots and I changed into black skinny jeans, a gray T shirt and my favorite pair of Converse sneakers.
    
Finally the doorbell rang.
     "Coming!" Iris called from the kitchen to join me where I stood by the door and where Master had his hand on the knob.
     Unlike me, Iris bothered to look good; a pretty floral pink blouse and skirt.
     Master opened up the doors to two boys. I held my breath; I had not expected this.