The Half-Blood Princess by Mihaela Bogdan (classic books for 10 year olds .TXT) 📕

rabbit?
  -Miranda, let Valentina have some blood from the basement and go to bed. Tomorrow she will be all yours. Meanwhile, I will tell you what we’ve done this entire time.
  -You better have a good reason, you know is April and ...
  -Sorry, Miranda, I know that. Now can I please go get some rest? Cornelius made me do a lot of exhausting physical exercises for one night. I made a perfect eye contact with her, to let her see the truth reflected in my eyes. This worked well with mother and grandpa Daniel, when I was excusing my mistakes in front of them. I hope Miranda, being a mother herself, will fall for it.
  She looked at me with understanding eyes and let me do what ever I wanted. Seeing that I have a dead, bleeding white rabbit in my right hand, made her understood that I managed to make some time to obey her order too.
  -You may do what you want now. Tomorrow, you’ll have to deal with me until the last moment.
  -Understood. Good day! I said noticing that the sunbeams appeared on the sky.
  The rest of the week Miranda thought me how to hunt different animals as wolves, foxes, deer, birds and even bears. The small ones such as foxes or wolves were an easy pray for me. And my mercy began to fade away. The more animals I killed, the less pitiful I was. Still, a part of my soul was crying and pitied the poor creatures, but I kept everything inside of me. Miranda mustn’t know that I have some mercy left inside of my heart.
  Bears were the perfect opponents in battle. Miranda advised me to imagine that Dragomir is the bear I’m fighting and this way I had a motivation to kill it fast. Easier said then done. Being tall and heavy, the bear had an unfair advantage. To be able to break his neck, I had to exhaust him so badly, that he couldn’t move a muscle no more.
  In the end, after endless hours of running around, throwing blocks and rocks at him and even hit him with my fists and feet countless times, the bear was finally defeated. But my fight with him didn’t leave me untouched. I had bleeding claw scratches on my arms and legs, but the bigger and painfully ones were on my back.
  Being so injured, Scarlet and Rose had the duty of washing me before bed time. Unfortunately for me, this time of day was the most painful one, worse than Miranda’s training itself. Every time they tried to wash my injured places, I either screamed with all my power, either hit them hard, with no intention of course.
  My apologies were useless for them, when they saw the purple bruises caused by my hits. And that made me feel bad. I hope they will forgive me eventually.
  The second week, I had to stop hunting animals and start killing people instead. A vampire from the town, which now was the vampires new place to settle, told Miranda that the town’s doctor returned from a journey. When he saw his home invaded by vampires, he run into The Black Forest.
  My guess was that it was doctor Ion, the one aunt Linda mentioned on my date with Amen. It only meant that he departed from town before aunt Linda’s cruel death and now when he returned, he found out that he’s the only human alive in this area. What a wonderful coincidence! Now he will join his dead family. Finding him in the forest wasn’t hard because I sensed his fear and smelled his sweating body. All my five senses increased, so he had no where to hide from me.
  I found him trembling near a tree. When I appeared suddenly in his sight, he asked with fear:
  -What do you want from me?!
  -Nothing. You are part of my training now. I said grabbing him by the neck, before he could run away and throw him to the ground.
  Miranda appeared behind me and told how to suck his blood:
  -You must find the blood vessel on his neck that carries air into his heart. Use your hearing sense to detect its teaming noise.
  -No, please! HAVE MERCY! Doctor Ion shouted, although he was grounded by my vampire strength, he was still able to talk. Talking made the main blood vessel on his neck to increase its pumping speed and my hand felt it. I knew exactly where to stick my sharp fangs.
  -But doctor Ion, I am sending you to your love ones. I answered him with a grin and found the blood vessel in time, because he wanted to make a move. I opened my mouth and poked my fans into the right spot. I felt the blood vessel broke under the pressure of my fangs and sweet warm blood began to flow down into my mouth. As the blood flowing down my trout was getting warmer, the doctor’s body got colder by the second.
  -You learn fast, princess! Next time I want to see how you fight with your own kind.
  My first experience in sucking a human being’s blood while he’s still alive wasn’t too bad. It is true that I felt a little guilty, but at least now doctor Ion is in a better place. To console myself, I thought that if I wouldn’t have killed him, surely another vampire would have done it instead of me. And maybe he/she wouldn’t have been as quick as me, letting him suffer for hours instead of killing him immediately.
  Oh, why do I have such a nagging conscience?! Why it has to always make me feel bad every time I kill someone?!
  On the third week, I spent the nights in the back yard of the castle, fighting with Scarlet and Rose. At first I fought only one of them at a time. Seeing how fast I learn, Miranda told their daughters to fight together against me.
  -You will see that my daughters are stronger when they fight together. Miranda said when I defeated Scarlet alone in the last fight.
  -I will not lose again, if my sister assists me! Scarlet said with a disappointed face, seeking for her revenge.
  At first, the fights were won by them, but soon I learned all their moves and weak points. Scarlet is the temperamental type, which means that she easily loses her concentration and Rose is calm, she doesn’t put much effort into her moves.
I tried to make them fight one another, but it didn’t work, so I tried the element of surprise. I act in front of them as if I was torn out and when they let their guard down, I strike them with all my strength. After I finished giving them the final blow, they were thrown hard into the castle’s wall. I approach them quickly and asked concerned:
  -I hope I didn’t hurt you too bad!
  -By tomorrow, we’ll be as new! Rose answered with a friendly smile. Although she was defeated, from her smile I guessed she was glad that it ended this way.
  Too bad I couldn’t say the same about her twin sister. Scarlet was always whispering curses towards me every time I defeated her. Rose assured me that Scarlet will get over it, eventually. But I didn’t blame her for hating me. I also cursed Scarlet every time she or her sister defeated me, therefore we were even.
  Personally, I liked Rose better. She was cheerful and friendly, while her sister Scarlet was a perfect copy of her mother, except for the hair.
  -I want a rematch! Scarlet said when she stood up.
  -That’s enough for now! Miranda shouted at us. Look at your bruised bodies, girls! Isn’t it enough for you?
  -Not for me! Scarlet smiled.
  -For me it is! Rose replied, she looked at me as if she was begging me to support her.
  -Go and clean yourselves up. Scarlet, Rose, you two finished your part in the training. Tomorrow I will fight Valentina, it is my turn now! Miranda said looking at me with an anxious face and I didn’t like it.
  She was staring at me as a cat stares at a little, defenseless mouse.
  If the twins let big purple bruises on my body, I can’t imagine what harm their mother will do to me. But I didn’t object. If I will survive fighting Miranda, then I will be fully prepared to face Dragomir.
  With this being said, I wish she won’t be soft on me. She must give all she’s got best, if she truly wants to teach me something.
  ”Father God, keep me alive after my fight with Miranda. If her fighting skills are as good and powerful as her sharp words, then I’m going to need all Your blessing to remain alive!” XXIV/24

The fourth and last week of training came at last.
  -Since you finally found a way to defeat my girls, it is time for me to fight with you. Be warned, I am Dragomir’s sister-in-law, which means I know him better than you. Our battle won’t be fair for you because I will use dirty tricks and evil schemes to obtain the victory. I will do so because Dragomir will probably do the same.
  -Father told me once that the vampires have some sort of a code of honor.
  -Yes, he was right. But it doesn’t mean that everyone follows it. Dragomir is one of those who don’t follow the code, but our community does not tolerate them for this. Listen to my advice: If you want to gain respect from your people, you must follow the code as it says, despite what others say or do. If you don’t, then you are no better than Dragomir and others like him.
  -I understand, Miranda. Thank you!
  -Do not thank me yet! Thank me after you will be crowned as queen.
  Without any more to say, we took our positions in the back yard. We were standing in the center of the yard, only one meter between us. We took off our shoes to be more freely in movements and attacks, plus if we destroy them, it will be a pity.
  Miranda took me by surprise and attacked with a move, quicker than a lightning. She threw me into the castle’s wall, making a medium sized hole into the bricked wall, some of the bricks turned into dust. The pain wasn’t big, but my pride was hurt. I got up quick before she could hit me again. I dodged her every strike for almost half an hour, when Miranda said bored:
  -Are you going to fight back or do you want to continue like this until daylight?
  -I can’t, you’re too fast.
  -Thank you for noticing, now attack me or surrender!
  I let her