The Scarlet Dagger (The Red Sector Chronicles, #1) (17 page)

I gave her an awkward smile and hastily walked back to my seat before the students had time to notice me. It was weird, wanting to be invisible. While I wasn’t exactly the “queen bee” at my old school, I had kept a steady circle of friends, and I pretty much got along with everybody. But here, I was hated, shunned. It was harder than I expected, no matter how much I told myself I didn’t care what they thought because they were a bunch of vampires.

The rest of the block passed and a single electronic bell chimed, signaling the end of the period. Everyone got up and I all but ran from the room, not wanting to endure another drowning in emotions.

“
Hey, wait up!” Angel called, rushing after me. I walked down the hall, fighting the stream of students and trying to keep my head down. I felt Angel’s eyes on me. “Are you okay? I know it’s probably nerve-racking coming back after what happened.” She shuddered, no doubt thinking about Frost’s methods of persuasion. “But I swear, you have nothing to worry about with Aden watching over you. He’s the best.”

“
Well, you don’t see him exactly watching over me now, do you?” I looked around and sighed. There was still no sign of him.

It’s for the best
.
You need to keep your head on straight. You should be thankful he’s gone. That’ll be one less distraction to deal with.

We were moving at such a quick pace that hardly anyone had time to notice me. I was in such a flurry to run – anywhere – that I almost tripped when Angel grabbed me and swung me around in a different direction.

“
Hold up there,” she said, charging down the hall at an equally brisk pace. “English lit. is this way, which you have with yours truly.”

She winked at me, and some of my tension eased. I could feel her goodness seeping through her aura, and though it was somewhat comforting, it was also a reminder of my new condition. I shook my head, feeling shaky.

Angel suddenly pulled me to a stop. She was shorter than me by a few inches; even on her tiptoes, she wasn’t quite eye level. “Hey,” she said softly, “are you okay?”

I took a deep breath, still queasy from the earlier intake of emotions and slivers of thoughts that weren’t mine. My eyes squeezed together, as if in doing so I could shut out the world. “It’s nothing. I’m fine.”

Angel cocked her head to the side again, chewing on her bottom lip. “Aden told me about the glamour,” she said carefully. “Can’t say I speak from experience or anything – I’m actually pretty bad at it – but in our courses, they teach us to meditate.”

“
Meditate?” I repeated doubtfully. “You mean what we were doing earlier?”

Angel nodded. “Yep. You don’t have to go all Zen, but it’s actually pretty relaxing, if for nothing else, to relieve stress. A really good time to practice is right before you go to bed.”

I thought back to the classroom, how I had managed to subdue the glamour when I focused my mind on something else. Not easy but not undoable, either.

“
Thanks for the advice,” I said.

Angel smiled, and I could tell she was eager to help. “Barriers – or blocking out other people’s thoughts – are a little harder to keep up until you get used to doing it. It’s especially hard when you’re stressed out or nervous.”

I nodded. “Try not to freak out – got it.”

We began walking again, with Angel taking the lead. “By the way,” she said, “I’m sorry about what Dezyre did.” Her sweet blue eyes turned surprisingly steely. “She thinks she’s entitled to special treatment just because she’s the top medical student.” She smirked. “About time she got what she deserved.”

“
What happened to her?” I had wondered why I hadn’t run into her yet, figuring she’d greet me at the doors with a full-blown mob.

Angel smiled. “She was suspended for handling the situation poorly. There’s no reason why things got as crazy as they did, and it was largely her fault.”

Ha. Touché, bitch.

Angel motioned for me to speed up. “Come on, or we’ll be late for class. And believe me, you don’t want to serve detention here.”

The students were thinning out when we turned the corner, and I picked up my pace. A couple of guys in white lab coats approached and my eyes lifted as they passed, meeting with cold glares. One guy locked eyes with me. He was tall and lean, with a sharp-angled face covered in a five ‘o clock shadow. He looked like an average Joe, only his eyes were wicked and sharp, as sly and intelligent as Frost’s were frigid and cruel.

“
Hey guys,” he said in a thick, gravelly voice. “Look who it is. It’s none other than our little hunter superstar.”

Angel dropped her voice. “Just ignore them.” She tried to pull me along, but two of the lab techs blocked our path. She placed her hands on her hips. “Really? What are we, in the third grade? Come on guys.”

She tried to pass, but one shoved her back so hard she nearly stumbled into me. I caught her, my eyes sharpening to slits as I fixed a steely glare on the techs. “Your beef is obviously with me. So let her go, and we can take this up personally.”

“
Oh, now what’s this?” the gravelly-voiced man said, stepping forward. “Do you think I’m dumb enough to believe some hunter whore actually cares about a
vampire
?”

My eyes remained locked on his, my face a hard mask of steel as he leaned down. “You deserve to rot in hell for what your kind have done,” he hissed.

“
What’s going on here?” barked a low, smooth voice. My gaze shifted to find Aden watching us, arms crossed and a frown on his face. “It can’t be what it looks like, because I know better than to think that our base’s finest laboratory technicians would be taunting two of our most promising recruits.”

The lanky man snorted at the word “promising,” covering his mouth with his hand as he muttered something under his breath.

Aden’s sharp gaze snapped to him and he cringed as Aden stalked toward him. Aden loomed over him, and the tech shrank away from us and backed against the wall. “McAllister is under my charge,” Aden said, his voice low and menacing. “When you threaten her, you threaten me. And I don’t think you want to do that.”

The man gulped, then smirked. “Nothing wrong with hittin’ on the ladies, right guys?”

He looked to his comrades, who shrugged and laughed nervously, as if it was all a big joke.

Aden’s eyes narrowed to slits. “Get back to the labs.”

The rest of the techs scrambled down the hall, all too eager to get away, but the lone man lingered against the wall, glaring at me, before finally trailing after his colleagues.

I felt twinges of his resentment and anger toward not only me, but Aden. I was halfway done with shutting him out of my mind when the warning came through, barely readable but there all the same, and chills broke out along my arms.

They won’t be able to protect you forever.

Chapter
12

The man’s last words – or thought, rather – hung in my head for the rest of the day. Aden also never left my side again. I didn’t argue or complain, figuring neither would help my cause (warning Leo). While I was becoming more and more comfortable with the idea of having Aden as a bodyguard, I knew it was only a matter of time before someone tried to attack me again. Judging from the reactions of my fellow recruits, I was about as welcome here as a terrorist.

As Aden and I walked together toward my hand-to-hand combat session, no one spoke or looked at me. It was like being invisible, though I could feel their unease, thick and strong, around me.

We made a pit-stop by a bathroom, where Aden handed me a pair of black pants and told me to change out.

“
You mean I can’t fight in a skirt?” I joked, taking the pants from him.

Aden’s mouth turned up at one corner. “Can’t say I wouldn’t mind.”

Face red, I hurried into the bathroom and quickly changed out, somewhat excited and anxious at the prospect of sparring.

The combat course was taught in a spacious, rectangular room, and the floor was made out of different textures laid out in equal slabs – padding, gravel, mud, water, ice, and cement.

I looked from one to the other. “What’s up with the different floors?”

“
They’re arenas,” Aden said, “to teach you how to fight on different surfaces.”

I nodded, finding sense in it.

The rest of the room looked very similar to the one the Guild used back home to train in. Mirrors lined the walls, and punching bags hung fat and heavy from the ceiling. Sparring equipment – helmets, shin guards, and gloves – were stowed in cubbies off to the side, and a weapons rack, bearing everything from Sais to wooden staves, hung on the wall.

The rest of the class, a handful of soldiers around my age, was already gathered in the middle of the room, and when they saw Aden they gave him a salute. Everyone wore matching black uniforms, only I noted their chevrons were not bronze. They were all silver or gold, and each soldier had more than one on his or her sleeve.

I looked at Aden. “Am I in the wrong class? Everyone here is higher ranked than me.”

Aden’s mouth curled into a smug smile. “After fighting you myself, I suggested you train with the older soldiers.”

“
You
what
?”

He glanced at me, one brow quirked in challenge. “Scared?”

“
No,” I said haughtily, looking away. “Just surprised, that’s all.”

I heard him chuckle right before Rook walked into the room, dressed in black pants, combat boots, and a black tank top. His hair had been pulled back and his arms and chest bulged with muscles. I could see the outline of a six-pack through his top, and my brows rose.

“
Rook’s been working out,” I murmured, but Aden shushed me.

“
All right,” Rook said, voice booming. For the second time upon arriving in the room, my brows rose. I didn’t know Rook’s voice could reach that volume. He had always been so gentle and soft spoken, but now he spoke with authority and menace. I didn’t know what surprised me more – Rook’s stunning new appearance, or the fact that sweet, shy Rook was apparently our instructor. “We have a new recruit training with us today. Everyone, this is Sergeant McAllister.”

Rook gestured toward me, and my classmates turned around. Surprise spread throughout the group as they took me in, realizing who I was.

“
Now, regardless of previous… circumstances,” Rook said, eyes hard as he surveyed his pupils, “we welcome her into our fold, and will treat her like one of our own. Is that clear?”

Everyone’s heels clicked together and they saluted with a ringing, “Yes, sir!”

“
Good.” He nodded and folded his arms. “As you know, today is our quarterly exam, where I will personally test the knowledge of hand-to-hand combat you’ve garnered up to this point. Are there any volunteers to go first?”

Several of the trainees shuffled their feet, and a few quiet seconds passed before Aden raised his hand. “Sergeant McAllister would like to go.”

“
What
?” I hissed. “Are you insane? I can’t fight Rook! I haven’t had any training!”

“
Why not?” Aden said. “You’ve already taken on a Rogue, and that was while you were still human. You’re a vampire now, and it’s just a class. What’s the worst that could happen?”

I don’t know. Rook beating me to a bloody pulp?

“
Excellent,” Rook said, eyes flicking toward me. “Join me in the water rink, Sergeant McAllister.”

I inwardly groaned. As if it wasn’t bad enough I had to fight Rook, we had to duke it out in water, too?

I had never fought in water before, and my stomach flip-flopped as I made my way to the front of the class toward the pool arena. I started to remove my shoes when Rook snapped, “Leave them on. The extra tread will help.”

Blushing, I stepped onto the platform, and hesitantly placed one foot in and then the other, gasping as the ice cold water rose halfway up my thighs.

The students gathered around. I could tell one cluster was placing bets on how quickly Rook would pulverize me. Setting my jaw, I faced Rook as he climbed into the pool on the opposite side.

My heart picked up speed as I took him in, all 300-something pounds of solid muscle.

Aden leaned over the railing, his mouth inches from my ear. “Stay calm, and look for an opening. If nothing else, just try to avoid him grabbing hold of you.”

“
Sure,” I said, a little breathlessly. “No problem.”

Rook stood stock still, his dark eyes burning into mine. I wondered what he was thinking, if he would take it easy on me since I was his friend. But looking at him now, he didn’t seem like the Rook I grew up with. He was a predator, ruthless and wild.

Without warning, he charged me, water spraying up in waves on either side of his massive legs. Even as bulky as he was – and despite the fact we were fighting in water – he moved with uncanny grace and speed.

I darted to the side just as his fist slammed into the railing, narrowly missing me by inches. The foundation of the pool shook with the force of his blow, and I gulped, thankful that hadn’t been my face. My boots slipped as I backed away from him, though not nearly so bad had I been barefoot.