Every team member has training session at least twice a week.  However, Jane gets five times a week.  She needs it and asks for it.  Alexander is her main trainer.  Her choice of weapon is crossbow.  Today she trains using crossbow.  Alexander takes her to the woods for spacious and safe area to practice. 

“You remember last training right? How to hold the crossbow and shoot?” Alexander takes out a crossbow from his backpack. “Jane!” he throws the crossbow at her to see her reflex. 

She catches it just in time with both hands.  She sets the crossbow ready under her jaw a little above her chest with both hands ready yet in reverse of how others normally bring it since Jane is left handed.  “Of course I remember.  You’re very thorough and wouldn’t let me rest until I got it right.”

“Good.  We need to move on to the next stage, that is, for moving target.” Alexander always takes everything seriously.  He notes everything during the training in his notebook. “For warming up, shoot me the tree on each pole in ten seconds top.”

Jane takes a deep breath and tries to pin down the targets in her sight.  It’s not that far about 3-5 meters of the nearest trees on the fourth poles.  They’re right in the middle of the woods, the spot with most spacious space.  On Alexander mark, she shoots the targets as he ticks his fingers in the air.  Her focus is strengthening with practice.  She marks her target by two seconds before shooting and moves swiftly in 90 degree of turn in reverse of clockwise circle.  Only her right foot moves from one point to the next while her left foot as her anchor.  

“One second late!” Alexander grabs the crossbow once she finishes the target, barely takes a second to breathe. “You can do better than this! There’s no time for slacking.” He touches his own heart. “Use this.  Fighting a battle is more than just using your brain.  It’s in your heart.  Using crossbow and shooting your target needs synchronization from your heart.  When you use this, you can shoot your target without even wasting too many seconds in marking it.  Concentrate and put your heart in it.”

She lets out a sigh. “Sorry.  I’ll try again.  Then we’ll do the moving target.” Alexander takes a few steps back to give her some spaces to do the second try.  She succeeds in the second try.  Alexander lets her take some break to drink water then they continue with the training. 

“I’ll throw some balls.  You tell me what color they are one by one quickly.” He takes position, standing a few meters from where she stands.  Alexander starts to throw a plastic ball at the size that using his one hand is enough to wrap the ball completely.  It is cloudy at late afternoon, not too dark but one would need to pay a really good attention to see some color.  Jane gets every color right for the first five balls.  Her breath is getting heavy just by trying to focus and see fast moving object.  Alexander gives a few seconds pause then throws another set of five balls one by one quickly. 

“Is that rainbow? The last one?” she asks, unsure of what she says.   

Alexander smiles proudly and walks towards her. “You’re ready to take the moving target training.  Now give me the crossbow.  I’ll do some shoot to show you how to move swiftly to catch moving target.”

“Where did you get rainbow colored ball?” she laughs.  She hands the crossbow as he’s close enough to her.

He fills in arrows in the tube that loads ten arrows. “Come with me to do some of my errands if you want to know.  Okay now pay a great deal to what I’m going to do.  This will take more moves and you need to be swift enough.  Go get that hand combat training with Freya soon to help with your moves.”

Jane takes Alexander previous spot to throw some balls.  Alexander demonstrates how to shoot.  Firstly he tells her to throw one ball.  He fixates his crossbow and shoots in a second.  Even without his vampire ability, Alexander has always been a professional crossbow shooter.  Since he was seven years old, there was no day without crossbow training. 

“Throw two in a row now.” He takes position ready to shoot, crossbow in front of his neck and head tilt down so that eyes can get close the back part of the crossbow to mark the target.  He has to demonstrate it like how human does.  As a vampire he can actually shoots without having to do much target marking.  His shot is precise.  He shoots both balls almost at the exact same time. 

Jane pays attention to what he’s doing with amazed look.  She shakes her head in awe. “How am I supposed to do that?”

“You’ve got me.  Jamie is good too.” Alexander throws the crossbow at Jane. “Now try it.”

She nods. “Freya is right.  You are the control guy and such a saint.  From all the time we’ve spent together, I can approve that now.  Are you always that control freak all the time? Always make sure to hold everything together.” she means that as a joke but Alexander expression turns pensive. 

“Every saint has a past just like every sinner has a future.” He says with a forced smile to ease the brooding mood that suddenly hits him.

“I wonder how bad you could be.” She chuckles. “I can’t even picture it.  Your every fiber seems good.”

Alexander doesn’t respond right away and seems like his mind is musing for a while before he changes the subject. “We’ll finish after you can shoot one properly.”  
-----

Venice, January 1533

Since the fall of the Milano, Alessandro moved in to Venice with Chiara.  Their one year and a half marriage had been rough with all that happened.  Moreover, he couldn’t stay in Milan after what happened to his family.  For the first two months, he stayed in Milan to search for Freya.  He ordered his people to help searching every inch of Milan for Freya.  He couldn’t find her.  That broke him even more into the worst breakdown he had ever been in.  He never lost himself completely until he lost Freya. 

Alessandro froze the family assets that were run for charities because he was really devastated and thought that Milan had failed the family.  Vampires ruled over Europe during the absence of the Milano.  Alessandro didn’t allow anyone to go hunting until they found Freya.  That falling was a dark time.  They could barely hold the team together. 

Chiara had to convince him every second of the day to soften his dead inside heart to come back to the way he was, a noble hero.  After a few months, he revived the assets again and left them to his trusted people since he left for Venice.  However, one thing that Chiara had harder time to convince him was for him to continue the family legacy.  He didn’t want to go back being hunter anymore.  He cared about nothing but finding his sister. 

Only after Chiara pursued him to do what was right, he started to go back hunting after seven month absence.  He picked up his crossbow again to hunt while finding his sister.  The Milano had been a team leader and without a Milano, the team fell apart.  The Latterza promised him to help finding Freya too so that he would be convinced to go back in the hunting business. 

“My Alessandro, where are you going? You have never rest since we moved here.  You’ll break yourself and it won’t help Freya.” Chiara caught up on Alessandro who was going to out that night. She clung to his arm tightly.

Alessandro pulled her into a hug and kissed her forehead. “I’m sorry, my Chiara.  I promise I’ll be back before midnight.  I have to use every chance I have to keep trying harder and I haven’t tried hard enough.  My sister is out there on her own, lost and scared.”

She sobbed on his chest.  She knew it would never be easy with Alessandro.  She knew the hardships that might come with bearing the Milano name but those times drove her to the limit.  Only the love they had for each other that kept pushing them hold on to each other.  Her love for him was greater than life itself so she never gave up on him, on what they had. “I love you, Alessandro.” She looked up after managed her breath.

“Please be safe and come home soon.” She withdrew her hands from his back and cupped his face with the right hand and another on the back of his head.  She stood on her toes to reach his lips and kissed him.

He kissed her deeper, pulling her body close to him like they were about to merge into one.  Her tears fell on her cheek and that got on his cheek too as they were kissing.  The kiss went on longer and more passionate till his hands that wrapped around her body unknowingly lifted her dress a few inches up her feet.  He has to pull himself back and placed her down gently to stop. 

“I love you more than words could encompass.” He wiped the tears off her cheek. “You are the strongest person with the purest heart I’ve known and loved.”
-----

Venice, February 1533

Alessandro never yet gave up on his sister.  He really dedicated every second of the day to find her.  He gave order to his people in other cities to find her too.  He made it part of the mission above other missions.  He was so worried of what could have happen to her.  No one could ever imagine what Gabriel was capable of. 

That night was the last day on his schedule to search in Venice.  He had never felt that hopeless and devastated.  If he couldn’t find her, he might have to move again but he didn’t want to burden his wife with moving from one place to another ever few months.  Alessandro didn’t want to come home after a long day that resulted with nothing again.  His emotions were unstable and he didn’t want to come home to Chiara with emotions that could explode any second. 

He took a rest on the woods near their cottage.  He rested with his back against a tree and placed his crossbow set on his side.  When he closed his eyes and managed his breath slowly, he heard a creeping noise.  His reflexes pushed him to take the crossbow and get up.  He walked slowly towards the noise that he believed from behind a tree a few meters from where he rested.  He jolted when a figure suddenly appeared across where he stood.  It’s too dark to see that night.  He took a few steps forward carefully. 

“Frey?” his hold got loose in a sudden and he dropped his crossbow. 

“Al.” Her voice sounded like breaking and she indeed broke in tears once he ran to hug her. 

He hugged her like he never hugged anyone before.  Having her in his arms lifted the most suffocating burden he had carried in his chest.  He felt so overwhelmed he couldn’t hold his tears himself.  In that moment everything felt right again in the world for a few seconds until Freya told him the truth about her.

“Frey, are you okay? I’m so sorry.  I’m really sorry I wasn’t there with you that night.  I lost myself when I lost you.  I can’t be sorry enough but I’m truly sorry.  I won’t ever leave you again.” He looked sincerely concerned while checking on her from the top to bottom.

She held his hands. “Al, listen, I’m fine.  I need to tell you something.  And I don’t think you would like this.  But before that, I’m so sorry.  I won’t force you but know that I love you brother.  It wasn’t your fault.  Stop blaming yourself for everything that goes wrong.  You have enough the weight of the world on your shoulders.”

“Tell me.  You can tell me anything.” He gave all his attention to her. 

She let out a heavy sigh. “I’m not what I am anymore.” He looked confused but didn’t interrupt. “Al, I am-“ she really looked terrified. “I’m a vampire.”

He looked at loss.  His eyes suddenly looked dazed then blank.  His lips were parted open but no words came out and just quivered.  His breath was getting heavy.  He took a step back but instantly fell on the ground like he lost all energy to support himself. 

“Al.” Freya wanted to help him up but she knew that he needed some space. “I’m so sorry.”

He whimpered. “This is all my fault.  He did that to you.  I didn’t protect you. I left you that night.  This is my fault.” He grunted and kept hitting his fist on the ground so hard till it bled.  

Freya got on her knees and stopped him. “Al, stop! No! You couldn’t foresee this.  It’s no one fault.” She held his hands and knelt closer to him.  When he stumbled forward, she caught him on her arms.  He buried his face on her shoulder and stifled a sob.  She wrapped her arms around his back and patted his back gently.   
*****

Do you enjoy Alexander and Jane interactions?
And what about that flashbacks? 😳😭

Thank you for reading loves

😜
Anjaa