The Vampire Hunter's Academy: The Darkness (15 page)

“Did you be sure to drop the princess off at midnight?” The Beast murmured with narrowed eyes.

“Actually, there is a blood bath ball over in New Orleans tonight,” Alex chirped. “Humans have organized the event with the hope that immortality would be offered as a gift from members of our kind. I thought I might attend.”

“Humans should not be aware that we even exist unless they happen to fall victim to one of our encounters,” Petronius snapped.

“Ah, but these are no ordinary humans-witches, I might add.” Alex began to cough and sputter up blood which he hacked on the floor to The Beast’s dismay.

“I could have healed you,” said The Beast. “It would have cost you several hard bargains and half of your life, but I would have healed you none the less. However, any vampire that is foolish enough to find himself stabbed by a blessed blade by a Guardian nonetheless deserves his fate. You are proof that I made a serious error in selecting the vampire race as my true heirs.”

“Which is why we are here to discuss our plans to rebuild the race, Your Majesty,” Petronius added quickly.

The Beast relaxed against the office chair, and offered Petronius a sly grin exposing several rows of sharp pointed teeth. “Enlighten me.”

“We have located the Slayer. She is approximately four years away from maturity and we have already implemented a strategy to weaken her resolve in preparation for phase two of our plan-“

“Let me guess,” The Beast leaned forward, creating a tent with his hands. “You want to attempt to make another day walker. That is your plan to rebuild the vampire nations and to give me reason to sanction turn bites. Am I correct or am I so far off the field I need an escort to find my way back?”

When neither vampire spoke, The Beast laughed. “As old as you are Petronius, you still have dreams of building a day walker empire. Well, I hate to break it to you my son, but I have the power to turn both of you into day walkers. You don’t need to sire with a whore of Light to do so. But you two idiots have done little to strengthen my cause. Sure I’d love to see her broken and every Guardian around the world either dead or on their knees begging me for life, but I have much bigger fish to fry. This is a new millennium gentlemen. I will sanction the turn bites because I need an army. Hell, I give you full permission to target every Guardian detected until there are none left. Turn them into the very thing in which they hunt. I will align you with the werewolf clans to strengthen your numbers until we have enough vampires to turn nighttime hours into a field of nightmares. But I want you to do something for me…”

Petronius swallowed thickly because when The Beast made a request one delivered…or suffered the extremely painful consequences.

“There is an entity that has been around for almost as long as I and when I say he is long lived and hard to kill, believe it. He wears a mark that offers a ward of protection from his enemies. He is on the path seeking redemption, and after the shit he’s done well, I seriously doubt the Light will even consider giving him a second chance, and I am not even talking about that little incident when he killed his brother. Find him. I need him our side. His blood is valuable as his allegiance.”

“Who is it?” Alex whispered.

The Beast stood up, straightened his tie and smiled coolly. “Cain.”

“But-“

The Beast disappeared before Petronius could finish his sentence.

Petronius and Alex shared an uneasy glance.

“The Beast wants us to locate the father of all vampires?” Alex wheezed in horror.

“It appears that he does,” Petronius added grimly.

“What have we done dear brother?” Alex buried his face in his hands. “What have we done?”

Chapter Nineteen

Sanaya collapsed in the middle of the gym floor bloodied and bruised like the rest of her teammates. The Guardians once again proved to be extremely formidable and she mentally kicked herself for ever doubting them. But her team proved to have some potential. Lisa kicked serious ass today when she went against Tatsu. It was like watching lightening in motion. The Japanese student showed little fear and when Eve slammed her into the gym floor, creating a small splinter, Lisa flipped off her back and went after her again. When she was too busy blocking punches from both Archer and Congo, King had her back when Asim moved on her with feline agility and hit him with the tactical energy supercharged by Bullet and knocked him out of the way. Charlie and Maya fought well together against Eve, when she turned her attentions against them. The two moved as a unit as they tag teamed Eve with kicks and punches and when Charlie lifted Maya for a spin, Sanaya watched with amazement as her best friend landed multiple kicks to Eve’s face, neck and abdomen before Charlie finished her off with an uppercut. It was gloriously brutal. Eve stumbled back before she collapsed, but when she sat up, she gave the girls two thumbs up.

Everyone fell silent when Sanaya faced off with Tatsu after Lisa had taken a hit which left dazed on the floor. The assassin’s name alone meant “dragon” and the fierce fighter demonstrated how dragon like she could be. She used a series of telepathic hits that sent Sanaya flying into the brick plastered wall of the gym. Slightly dazed and disoriented, Sanaya was on her feet before she could blink, eyes burning silver and enveloped in complete and total fury. She snatched a long blade from the table near the bleachers and Tatsu matched her with a sword in each hand, illustrating her dexterity. Sanaya could dig it. She would learn how to use both hands in a fight soon enough. Tatsu was not nearly as fast as Sanaya but she was much more agile and managed to dodge a number of her swings, until Sanaya sliced Tatsu’s swords in half like butter. In the far corner of her mind, Sanaya could sense the need for blood spill over into her psyche and that is when she knew Tatsu was in trouble. Unfortunately, there was not a thing she could do to turn it off. She could hear Archer and Eve screaming her name. And then someone else stepped in. Eve. And she fought them too.  It wasn’t until Archer hit her with a blow from behind, right in the center of her spine that she collapsed onto the floor, exhausted.

Thankfully, Tatsu had just been knocked unconscious, suffering only a few bone fractures. Breathing hard, bloody and aching in various parts of her body, Sanaya shook off what was left of blood lust before attempting to stand. Today was brutal. King and Bullet offered their hands to help her onto her feet.

“You all did very well today,” Archer said breathing heavily. “Sanaya, we still need to work on guarding your mind and exercising control of the bloodlust. But, I’m proud of you Slayer. I’m proud of all of you. Let’s head on over to the dining hall so we can grub.”

Everyone mumbled in agreement and while Archer led the way with Congo and Eve trailing behind, Sanaya walked arm in arm with King. Maya, naturally found her way to her best friend’s side, as did Charlie, Lisa and Bullet.

“It is a pleasure to fight with you,” Lisa said softly to Sanaya. “You have no idea how much of an honor it is to me and my family.”

“Aww thanks Lisa,” Sanaya chirped. “Same here. It feels good to…have a team.”

“We bled together so that makes us fam now,” Maya added swinging her arm around Charlie.

King gently kissed Sanaya on top of her head. “Damn shawty, remind me to never piss you off.”

“You don’t have to worry about that King,” Sanaya whispered. “Please don’t. None of you don’t have to worry-“

“We know,” Charlie added offering Sanaya a smile. “We’ve heard about you. It was awesome seeing you in action.”

“Well, where was all the love before?” King demanded. Sanaya sent a silent thank you to him for asking the one thing she’s thought since Eve placed all of them together.

“We never got to see for ourselves how awesome you are,” Bullet shrugged. “Elizabeth told everyone that you were a psychopath who could barely control her powers and that incident with Ryder didn’t help.”

“Well that was stupid as hell to judge someone without getting to know them,” King mumbled.

“We are sorry for judging you,” Charlie replied solemnly. “I should have come to sit with you and see for myself instead of believing a girl who uses bullying to get her way.”

“Same here Sanaya,” Bullet added, offering his hand. “We are a team now, so we stick together.”

Maya and Charlie gave each other a pound, while the rest of the group huddled together, with the exception of Trent who remained a few paces behind and quietly withdrawn into his thoughts.

When the group made it to the dining hall, Bullet took it upon himself to snag two tables and push them together, while everyone grabbed their trays. All eyes were on them as they chattered away like old friends. Even Elizabeth’s table watched them curiously. Sanaya took a seat with King to her left and Maya seated to her right next to Charlie, and Lisa and Bullet facing them. Their jovial spirit diminished the moment, King noticed Trent taking a seat with Elizabeth and her harem.

“Wow,” King said still glaring in his direction. “I guess ol’ boy made his choice.”

“I guess so,” Sanaya agreed.

“Remind me not to have his back,” Bullet mumbled.

“Maybe Elizabeth put a spell on him,” Lisa added.

“Elizabeth has no skills whatsoever in anybody’s magical arts,” Maya replied sharply. “She is about as useful as a regular Joe. The only thing she has to offer is money.”

“Well maybe that is what he is after,” Charlie mumbled.

“Let’s not worry about him guys,” Sanaya said finally after taking a bite of her chicken Alfredo. “Like King said, he’s made his choice. He is still a member of our team and he will eventually find out what kind of person Elizabeth is.”

The group ate in silence, with King and Sanaya exchanging a few mental caresses here and there, and when it was time to leave Sanaya felt Elizabeth’s hateful sneer at her back. She turned around and smiled out of spite before tossing her tray on the cart. Nothing was going to spoil this day. Nothing.

Something was wrong. Sanaya could not place her finger on it, but she knew it in her bones that something wasn’t right either. The Guardians had placed a barrier around her room so that if the master found a way to recover he would not be capable of successfully completing another attack. Stepping out of the shower, she listened to Charlie giggle with Maya about a time she tripped Elizabeth with her own shoe laces. King was in his own unit with Bullet. He’d sent her a text message earlier making sure she was ok and promising to convince Congo to allow him time to see her. She smiled at the thought.

She spent the next hour straightening her hair with an electric hot comb and fat iron until it left a silky, dark path down her shoulders. As soon as her monthly stipend came in, she was ordering some hair so she could maintain the braids she desperately needed. Emerging from the bathroom freshly showered and hair manageable, she still struggled to shake the nagging feeling that something was amiss. Lois and Myra had switched shifts with Eve after Archer had given the OK for Charlie and Lisa to spend the night with them. Lisa had yet to be escorted by one of the other Guardians.  She tightened the draw string on her pink pajama bottoms and wrapped a silk scarf around her head and took a seat on the edge of the bed closest to the window. Her skin prickled.

“Are you alright Sanaya?” Charlie asked, tying her thick mane of red hair into a ponytail. “You look…stressed.”

“I don’t know. Something isn’t right,” Sanaya murmured glancing at the window. “Maybe I’m being paranoid.”

“Well the Guardians took extra measures to barricade the room against the vampire now that they have a name,” Maya added gently.

“I know. It’s just-“

A hard blast shook the building, knocking Sanaya off the bed and onto the floor. Lois and Myra burst into the room, guns drawn.

“Stay here,” Lois commanded. “The campus is under attack!”

Sanaya could hear the mental SOS Archer sent out to every available Guardian, requesting that they abandon their posts and man positions around the cardinal points of the school. They were indeed under attack. Sanaya was on her feet instantly, expanding her mental awareness to what was taking place just outside the Vatican. Dark clouds blanketed the sky and streak after streak of black lightening flashed as the howls of werewolves echoed in the atmosphere. Hell caverns splintered the ground and opened, allowing legions of dark forces the luxury of escape. Sanaya took one look at her two friends, before running past them to switch her pink pajama bottoms into a pair of denim jeans and Timberland boots.

“The Guardians said for us to stay here,” Charlie pleaded, looking at Sanaya as if she lost her mind.

“And do what?” Sanaya snapped as she laced up her boot “Wait for us to die? This is what we are being trained for-“ Suddenly she was hit with the familiar call from none other than Ronan. She collapsed on her knees and covered her ears to blot out the high frequency of the call. Her body shivered from the erotic pull but she fought against it, focusing on King.

You will pay for what you’ve done to me. I will kill every single one of your peers as you writhe on the ground begging for my pleasure,
Ronan threatened.