TESSA'S TALE

It was a dark and stormy night when Tessa Wilma Phineas was born. After that, it seemed that all the key moments of her life were marked by stormy weather.

On a dark and stormy night, Tessa's mother was murdered in their home by a rogue vampire.

"Happy birthday, Tessa." Her mum kissed her forehead just before she crawled under the bed to hide.

"My birthday is tomorrow." Tessa said.

"Shhh...." Her mum said, "Stay here and wait for me."

Tessa stayed. Even as her mother's blood flowed over her tiny bedroom floor and soaked her nightgown crimson, she stayed in her hiding place till morning.

Her birthday cake that she had helped her mother bake was cut the next day, but only to be served at the funeral with the rest of the party food.

It rained all week before Tessa realized that her Mum wasn't coming back, and also that nobody was going to celebrate her birthday again.

It's not like her Dad would remember. Her dad wouldn't even remember he had a family. He was too busy with important scientific work and was always so close to a breakthrough.

"He only loved me because my father funded his research." Her mum had told her, but she would smile and touch Tessa's cheek, "But I don't mind, because I have you."

Tessa worked hard to be loved by her father. She studied hard and assisted him in his work.

"She's my admin angel." Her dad would boast to the very few friends in his circle.

There were only three people her Dad ever spoke to. The first was Jack, who was Dad's student. He was writing his thesis on the genetic mutation of vampires when he found Dad's papers and came to understudy him.

The other two were old friends. One was named Morgan, and another named Garfield - like the big fat orange cat, but he didn't look anything like a Garfield. Both men were rough, dark-haired, and stocky. Vampire hunters. They were the ones who supplied research material to her father's lab.

It's not easy, with all the new laws, to know if the research material was lawfully gained, but Mor and Gar were legit. If they said the vamp was rogue, it would be rogue.

Accidentally, capturing and testing on coven vamps was too risky. A single mindlink, and there would be an entire coven of bloodthirsty suckers crawling over the lab. It had already happened once, and now their family had moved to different colored packlands twice.

In the Blue Packlands, Dad met a remarkable woman and remarried. Rhonda was a magic user and a vampire hunter too. Rhonda was beautiful and only a few years older than Tessa. She became the sister Tessa never had.

Suddenly, Tessa had someone to celebrate her birthdays with again. The two young women shared secrets, hairdressers, and ice cream...

On top of this, her dad's research broke through new possibilities with the first genetically modified vamp that did not require human blood to live.

His project name was Hellsing.

Tessa met him quite by accident at her father's lab. It was like something zinged between them and they were inseparable since. He became the brother she never had. It was like Tessa finally had a family.

And then one dark and stormy night, Tessa snuck out of the house at Hellsing's request. She was home during Summer Break in her last year of college, and Hellsing felt sure she would enjoy the night scene at the Central Covens.

But just as they were creeping out of the backyard, they saw Rhonda doing the same. Tessa wanted to call out to the other woman, but Hellsing stopped her, "That woman, she has secrets."

So they ended up following Rhonda. She was meeting her lover. It's not like Tessa would have told her Dad. By now she knew her Dad well enough. Just as he had married Tessa's mum for research funding, he married Rhonda for her magic - specifically, the magic staff she inherited from her mother.

And Rhonda married Dad because she needed the papers to stay legally in the Blue Packlands.

Tessa pulled Hellsing on the arm to leave, but Hellsing pulled her down just in time - his vampire senses and speed had always been quicker.

Rhonda's lover was being controlled by a rogue vampire. It was a trap! In a blink of an eye, Rhonda's body was fallen onto the cold wet ground, the rain drumming down, mixing the blood into the dirt.

"Noo.... Rhonda..." Tessa pulled out of Hellsing's grip and ran to the only other person in the world who had loved her like her own mother.

The rogue vamp hissed. Tessa grabbed the magic staff to cast a shield.

"So...it was you." Rhonda said on her dying breath, "I would have given...given...it to you..."

And then she died. Without giving Tessa a chance to explain that it was a misunderstanding.

Tess cried. She forgot all about the rogue vamp outside. Luckily, Hellsing was there. He fought the vamp off and took them home.

Her dad didn't even shed a tear. He was concerned at first, "What's the use of the staff without a magic user?"

But his concerns were laid to rest immediately when he learned that Tessa knew the spells, "Rhonda taught me."

Tessa could barely hold back the tears, "She...she had always meant to pass it down to me."

Despite marrying her dad for residency papers, and only being a few years older, Rhonda really treated Tessa as her own daughter - or at least a younger sister.

"That's perfect." Tessa's father concluded, "All's well that ends well."

Tessa didn't finish college. Instead, she quit and started vampire hunting with her new powers... And Hellsing. Hellsing who decided to follow her to hell.

"I will never allow a rogue vampire to hurt another human again." She swore.

"Why do I get the feeling, the one most hurt is you?" He asked.

And then one dark and stormy night... Yes, yet another one, while delivering fresh research material to her dad's lab, she met Mor and Gar. They had a younger man in tow, "Meet Dan."

Dan was Mor's nephew. They were here to deliver research material too.

In total, there were two rogue vampires. Lately, her father's research had been going through more and more of these. It was weird.

"Yeah, but we're just the hunters." Gar shrugged, "And your dad pays upfront."

When her father didn't come out to meet them, Tessa used her thumbprint to let them into the research cells. They deposited and secured their vamps, and headed to the main lab to collect their pay. Her father was probably buried in his research again.

"Good thing you're here today, girl." Mor told her, "If we had to wait longer, it'll cost us another silver bullet."

Life as a hunter was increasingly dangerous and underpaid work. Every bullet counted.

"That's why we keep telling Dan to do something else." Gar said.

"My dad was a hunter, like his dad before him. What else could I do?" Dan shrugged.

They found her father, buried in his research... and quite, quite, dead, with books and papers and broken glass fallen over him.

"Jack!" Tessa shouted at the man with the gun in his hand, "What did you do?"

"What I had to do." Jack answered, "My dear Tessa, you must understand, I had no choice."

Jack then felt it was appropriate to declare his love for her and propose, "With you by my side, my dear, we would be able to change the world."

Instead of modifying vampires so they no longer needed human blood, why not modify humans so they could fight vampires head to head?

"Would they even still be human, Jack?" Mor asked.

Tessa felt her hands shaking. She never loved her father, or at least that was what she had told herself for the longest time. But now, she realized that despite everything, he was still her dad, and the tears fell.

The hunters felt sorry for Tessa, "We watched her grow up. Couldn't just leave her there."

They took Tessa (and Hellsing too) and left. They just walked out of the lab.

Gar did send Jack the bill for the delivery later. And they have been Tessa's family since - Hellsing, Dan, Mor, and Gar.

For the past two years, they've been hunting down the worst rogue vamps in the continent and putting them away in Jack's lab or whoever else was offering bounty.

"And that's my story." Tessa shrugged, her eyes glassy with unshed tears, yet shining with defiance, "What's it to you, princess?"