Blood Descendants (St. Clair Vampires Book 1) (21 page)

I could see that Ethan
was angry but under control. Wyatt, on the other hand, had obviously
thought the match would have ended by then. I could see the
frustration on his faced as his every parry was matched and bettered
by a parry from Ethan. Wyatt was sweating from the temples and his
hair looked like a wet mop atop his head. Ethan, even with the cut on
his cheek, was cool and collected. He even did that little
bring-it-on gesture that Morpheus does in The Matrix. That earned him
big points in my book.

Wyatt, taking the bait,
lunged and lost his balance. Ethan's blade narrowly missed slicing
into his neck, which looked like an act of mercy, and cut Wyatt's
left bicep instead. Without allowing Wyatt to gain his bearings,
Ethan approached almost too fast to follow with the naked-eye,
causing his opponent to drop his sword and crawl awkwardly backwards.
Ethan slowed to a casual walk and picked up Wyatt's fallen weapon,
bowed and extended it toward him, hilt first. The effect that it had
on Wyatt's ego was visible all over his face.

Once on his feet, Wyatt
made an elaborate attempt to save face by swinging his sword in wide
and uncontrolled arcs in Ethan's direction. His desperation reminded
me of the cartoon character Wile E Coyote. He closed the distance
between them with little resistance from Ethan, but that was the
desired outcome. Wyatt was in the process of taking another
exaggerated swing of his sword, leaving his core completely
unprotected, when Ethan scored other hit, right under Wyatt's right
pectus. Two to one.

Crimson liquid dripped
down the front of Wyatt's tunic and began to spread across his chest
and his heavy breathing made the material look like an angry red sea.
He lunged. Ethan side-stepped. Wyatt reversed and took a low swing,
which brought a sound of disappointment from the crowd. He was simply
out of control at that point; flailing around like a child on a
playground. Wyatt, abandoning all fencing form and etiquette, ran at
full speed toward Ethan swinging his sword like a Samurai.

If Ethan was surprised
by this attack, he hid it extremely well. He simply waited for the
right moment and moved out of the way, kicking Wyatt on the butt as
he passed him. Applause erupted from the Fare in attendance, but were
quickly extinguished by a look from the Governor. Ethan stood en
garde and waited for Wyatt to regain composure, which seemed to take
a bit of time. Wyatt was on the other end of the floor, down on one
knee, mumbling to himself.

When he finally stood,
Wyatt's face was red and full of malice. He curtly saluted Ethan and
began his approach. From the little I knew about him, I would have
bet he was going to do something underhanded. I wasn't disappointed.
Wyatt lifted his free arm and threw something into Ethan's eyes and
followed with a lunge to the midsection. Before I could cover my
eyes, Ethan, whose vision was impaired, took one deep breath and
brought his sword down in an arc, catching Wyatt on the right
shoulder. Drawing blood for the third time, even half blind, Ethan
won the event.

The High Caste were
such poor losers that they stomped out of the arena. The Middle and
Lower Caste stayed to offer their congratulations to Ethan and his
family. That just goes to show that good manners had nothing to do
with class standing.

The next few evening
events went just about the same way. All of the High Caste
participants seemed to think they had the win even before the event
began. Many of them were handed crushing defeats, while others had to
struggle just to lose by decision. It had been a long day by the time
the final gong rang out. Both the marathon and fencing had
interesting victors. Chess and Chemistry were obvious predictions as
the Fare who won both wore glasses just to look the part. I knew from
my research and from talking to the Fare at the compound, that they
had perfect vision and had no need for glasses. They had simply used
them as props and I thought it looked good.

Exhaustion pressed down
on my shoulders as Solomon led me and Chloe back to our suites. As we
walked through the corridors, several female Fare Electus stood and
bowed. They were gathered in a quad area; some tending to sword
wounds and others icing the blisters on their feet. Most of them were
around my age, but a few were older. I guessed there was a need to
replace Fare that had passed away, or ran away, which is what I
thought I would have done. I saw a handful of Electus that were
Chloe’s age. Twelve years old had to be too young to leave your
family forever, but these young ones had the look of excitement in
their eyes as if they were in for the adventure of their lives. It
probably would be.

We rounded the last
corner, and relieved to finally be this close to a shower and bed, I
closed my eyes in anticipation. Three steps around the corner and I
ran straight into someone. We must have hit our heads together
because, when I opened my eyes, she was holding her head as well. She
was one of the Fare Electus. At first she looked as if she was going
to scream at me for not watching where I was going. I deserved it;
who was I to walk around with my eyes closed? But she caught herself
and started to bow before I caught her by the elbow. I held her
upright even though she fought to bow. Her nose had started to bleed
and her white uniform had little red spots on it. I started to lead
her toward my suite.

“
Cheyenne,
this is highly inappropriate,” Solomon said, though he did
nothing to stop our progress.

I had her tilt her head
back and handed her a hand towel the second we entered my rooms.
Solomon, Chloe and another unknown female Fare Electus followed us
in. While Solomon went into the bathroom and ran some cold water, the
rest of us sat on my couch. Chloe and the other Fare looked concerned
and I wondered just how hard I had hit her. I hoped that she hadn’t
broken her nose.

Solomon came to the
couch with a cold compress and put in on the Fare’s forehead.
Her face was a little pale so I jumped up and grabbed a piece of
fruit for her to eat. I offered her a piece of the fruit and she
looked horrified, as if I had just offended her. Clueless, I looked
at Solomon who shrugged and repeated his warning about this being
‘highly inappropriate’.

“
I
beg your pardon. We shouldn’t be here.” The Fare sounded
strange speaking with her nose plugged.

“
I
know, I know. It’s highly inappropriate, but I ran into you.
The least I can do is make sure that you aren't hurt.”

“
I’m
fine. Truly.”

She still looked pale
and had not taken the fruit from me. I held it up to her again and
she reached out tentatively. I could see that she was caught between
doing as I asked and doing what she was trained to be appropriate.
Fare were supposed to cater to Vampires, not the other way around.
But I couldn’t let her leave my suite and pass out somewhere.

“
What’s
your name?” I asked.

“
Oh,
no, Cheyenne”, Solomon said, before the girl could answer. “Not
only are you not supposed to socialize privately with the Electus,
but you shouldn’t be on a first name basis. It is…”

“
Highly
inappropriate!” Chloe and I said at the same time.

“
Her
name is Rillae Simms and this one is Nicole Martenson,” Chloe
pointed at the Fare standing next to her.

“
Nice
to meet you, ladies. I am Cheyenne and this is my sister Chloe.”

“
Yeah,
we know,” Rillae said, with sarcasm so thick that I burst out
laughing.

I had nearly forgotten
that everyone on the island knew who we were. Chloe was laughing as
well, but Solomon and the two Fare were in stunned silence and that
just made me laugh harder. I laughed so hard that I started to cry
and then I cried so hard that the tears became real. I looked up and
saw the bloody hand towel of a Fare whose life goal was to feed a
Vampire. Really?

Reality hit me like a
tons of bricks and I ran to the bathroom before I threw up all over
the floor. Chloe followed me and held my hair, like any good sister,
until I had emptied my stomach. A headache coming on and the next few
hours would be a nightmare. Hushed voices followed me from the
doorway as I was lifted off of the floor and placed on my bed. Then
blackness took me like a thief in the night.

The next morning I felt
like I had just been run over by a Mack truck. My head hurt and my
mouth tasted like garbage. It was still dark outside, thank you God,
so I felt my way to the bathroom. What I needed was an extra long
shower and to brush my teeth. The steam helped clear my sinuses and
my headache went from a ten to a four. I could live with a four.
Someone had placed a robe and under garments on the vanity in the
bathroom while I showered and I had them on when I entered the living
room. Chloe, Nicole and Rillae were there, clad in pajamas, setting
out fruits, breads and juice for breakfast. Solomon was nowhere to be
found.

“
He’s
not here, Chey.” Chloe had guessed who I was looking for. “He
left once you had fallen asleep and after he said ‘highly
inappropriate’ about one hundred more times. But we promised
him that we wouldn’t get caught.”

“
How
do you feel?” Rillae and I said at the same time. I wondered if
she had the same killer headache as me, but she looked no worse for
wear.

“
I’m
fine, thank you. Rejuvenating genes and all”, Rillae shrugged.

I nodded in
understanding, remembering that injury recovery time was going to be
a perk once I was Embraced. Hopefully I wouldn’t have to
benefit from it too much.

I sat in the chair next
to Rillae and grabbed a banana. Chloe and Nicole were looking at the
Electus catalog and I knew we were in trouble. Even if we had all
gotten here by mishaps and misfortunes, it was indeed highly
inappropriate for Chloe to be discussing Fare Electus with a Fare
Electus.

“
Chlo,
I think we need to get the girls back to their dorms.”

“
We
can’t. They missed curfew and were thought to have gone home
for the night. We sent Solomon to tell their parents the story so
that they don’t give us away. Their parents are thrilled, by
the way.”

“
Thrilled
about what?” I asked before I thought about it. “No, no,
no! You did not tell them that we had selected our female Fare
already! No, Chloe, you didn’t”

“
No,
I didn’t. Solomon did.” She said, with her twelve year
old hand on her hip. “And you can’t tell me that it isn’t
true. Ask yourself who you are going to pick. A snotty High Caste
Fare who just wants to live in a royal house or a Fare who stayed up
all night to make sure you were okay.”

She had a point. She
always had a point. I kind of hated that about her. I was supposed to
be the big sister but this Vampire business was all her. I sat down
and thought about it. I had fallen asleep thinking that Rillae’s
sarcasm was the coolest thing I had heard since this whole thing
started. She was real, and I needed that right now. I thought of the
High Caste Fare and how I hated the smug looks on their faces. Chloe
was right. Rillae was a perfect match for me. We were even about the
same size and sharing clothes was always something to consider.

I looked at Rillae just
then and caught her staring at me. She looked angry. I was glad she
was angry. I hoped she was angry with the whole system but I knew
that she didn’t know anything else. So, I assumed she was angry
at me for not jumping at the chance to have her for my Fare. But any
type of emotion right now was better than kissing up to me.

“
You
would dedicate your life to me? Just like that? This is what you
want? Honestly?” I was speaking so fast that I almost didn’t
understand myself.

Rillae’s anger
seemed to lessen as she realized that my reluctance had nothing to do
with her personally. I hated the system, but, if I was honest, I
wanted to live and I wanted my Vampire family to live. What would I
rather they do? Starve? Go out and bite an innocent person? Someone
who didn’t consent? I knew the other options and I didn’t
like them. So, they banded together and came up with a solution,
however archaic and barbarian I might think it was. And, it appeared
to be working for everyone but me.

Rillae looked into my
eyes with compassion and understanding. But there was something else
there. Pride and strength.

“
Look,
I know what you must be thinking. I have read a lot of books about
people our age. I know what you think about freedom and independent
thought. And I agree with you to a point. In your human society there
are many children who are homeless and go hungry. The Fare, no matter
which Caste, have never experienced such things. We are well
educated, fed and clothed. We travel and are entertained and cared
for. We become family as well as...well, you know. It's not a bad
life to have. I would be honored to be selected into the house of
someone who cares so much about my people that she didn’t want
to select me at all.”

And with that,
appropriate or not, I knew I had selected my female Fare.

Since we weren’t
completely sure how to get out of my suite without causing a scene,
we called for Solomon who had an ingenious plan. When he came to the
door, the Fare would hurry to stand outside behind him. If anyone
passed by it would look like we had asked to get a closer look. It
worked like a charm, except for the fact that Rillae kept making
faces and Chloe and Nicole kept cracking up. Solomon, on the other
hand, looked as if he was going to have a fit.

I hoped that the girls
had gotten enough sleep because it was track and field day. I was
beyond excited to see which events would be on the program today. We
arrived in our box and were presented with gifts from High Caste
families. It seemed that word of our interest in the Lower Caste Fare
had spread and the real games had begun. We received poems about our
beauty and mp3 recordings with lyrics about our intelligence. We
simply noted who sent them and threw them out. We kept any gift that
involved chocolate, though. We had our priorities straight.