by E. M. Moore
I followed Samuel from the cafeteria and realized shortly after I’d be doing that all day. Whatever Samuel did, we did. He ran three miles along the perimeter wall of The Fort, we ran three miles around the perimeter wall of the fort.
In the lawn I’d crossed last night in my haste to escape this place, we did round after round of calisthenics. There were jumping jacks, squats, and more burpees than I wished to count. Next, we hit the gym. We bypassed racks of free weights and walked into another room that reminded me of the martial arts school I cleaned. The sight of training dummies, kick shields, and focus mitts were all familiar to me.
Samuel told us when to punch and when to kick, and we did it. I lagged behind in the calisthenics portion of the day, but I thought Samuel was happy with my progress during these exercises. It didn’t last long though.
After a quick lunch, he marched us out onto the side lawn where an obstacle course was all laid out. By this time, I was so sore and unbelievably tired. Though the recent bout of running had helped me, I knew my upper body strength sucked. From what I could tell, there were a bunch of obstacles that required upper body training. I stopped in the middle of the grass, staring up at the ropes and cargo nets, when Shannon placed a hand on my shoulder. “This is the most important thing we’ll do today. We’re tested on the other things, too, but they put a great deal of weight on how we fair in the obstacle course. The mission is to get stronger and faster.”
I gulped, all hope I’d gathered throughout the day that I might be able to get good at all this vanished. “I’ve never done anything like this before.”
“You’ll get used to it. You did well today. No offense, but a lot better than I thought you would. Even Zeke was pissed you finished the run with the rest of us.”
I couldn’t help but smirk. All in all, though it had been a tough day, I couldn’t say I didn’t enjoy myself. I felt strong, capable. It wasn’t a familiar feeling.
She bumped me with her elbow. “Just give it your best-”
Shannon stiffened, and a tingle of awareness ran up my spine. Her eyes darted around the lawn, finally stopping on four figures in the distance. “Oh my…”
I followed her gaze. Oh my, was right. The Ravana princes stood with Samuel on the other side of the obstacle course with their hands on their hips. Though Samuel was gesturing with his hand toward some of the obstacles, the others’ gazes were zeroed in on me. Now that I had a full color look at all of them, they didn’t really look like brothers to me. They all had different hair colors. One with jet black, one with blond, and two with brown--one dark and one light. The differences didn’t end there. They were all built differently with varying heights. What was the same though was their sinewy muscles. Even with shirts and jeans, I could tell they were more fit than the average guy with tapered waists and wider shoulders.
My stomach somersaulted. “Does this happen all the time?”
“Nope. Vampires never come here. It’s usually just Samuel and some of the others that run The Fort. A lot has been going on here recently though. I don’t think they’ve ever come here to watch.” She eyed me, curiously. Despite answering her question from before on whether I knew the princes, I got the sneaking suspicion she didn’t believe me.
“Great,” I said with mock enthusiasm.
“We better make this good,” she said as she started toward the obstacle course.
I followed her, noticing a few of the guys already on some of the obstacles. I watched as Zeke climbed the rope, rang the bell at the top of the crossbar, and then slid easily down, landing in a crouch. When he looked up, his gaze met mine. He smiled and winked, his glare more menacing than I’d seen on any of the few vampires I’d met so far. Instinct told me I had more to fear from him than any of the ones that could supposedly drink my blood.
I shook my head. I would do as much as I could. They really shouldn’t expect me to be able to do it so quickly. Standing at the starting line, I couldn’t stop my eyes from wandering towards the princes. Last night, Shannon had told me their names: Christian, Nicolai, Stephan, and Connor. I wondered who was who. Hopefully, I’d find out eventually. They were the reason I was here after all.
Samuel was no longer beside them but coming toward me. His eyes held me in place, and I waited for him, hoping to get some much-needed advice. Once he stood in front of me, he looked away briefly, and then back down into my eyes. “Listen, none of us know what’s going on here. All I know is, for the first time, the vampire princes have asked if they can watch us on the obstacle course.” He stepped forward, the tips of his sneakers banging into mine as he towered over me. I shrank back, my eyes flicking toward the others. I wasn’t sure why I looked. Each of their faces hardened in turn. The one I met last night took a step forward in our direction, his jaw ticking. The one next to him grabbed his arm. I looked away, back to Samuel, who had already returned to a respectable distance. “I suggest you do better than your best. Get to the starting line.”
I looked around, noticing Shannon was already on the third obstacle. Behind me, a line had started to form to start the course again. I recognized Evan, and of course, Zeke, each of them with their hands on their knees bent over to catch their breath.
I wiped my sweaty hands over my training pants. My body screamed at me to look toward the princes again, but I didn’t give in. I kept telling myself to focus. I knew I held the gazes of all the vampires and with Shannon’s warning still in my head, I could feel the weight of the obstacle course on me. After a deep breath, I sprinted forward and launched myself onto the monkey bars. I was able to jump to just short of the middle bar, but my fingers slipped off easily. I landed on two feet. Behind me, I heard Zeke’s dark laughter. Jumping again, I struggled to make it past two bars. It took me longer than it should have to get to the end, but I was grateful when I finished. Wanting to make up time, I sprinted toward the next obstacle. I launched myself up the hay bales and across a small wooden plank to the other side. That hadn’t been too bad. I jumped down and again ran as fast as I could. Unfortunately, I was at the rope climb. I wiped my hands on my pants again and grabbed hold. I stuck my heel on the bottom knot just as I’d seen the others do and pulled. I didn’t go anywhere. I tried and tried. I pulled and got a little further, but just didn’t have the strength to pull myself all the way up the rope, or even a foot up the rope.
The rest of the class came up behind me. Not wanting to be seen as weak, I pulled with everything I had left and moved another six inches up the rope but no further. Soon, I heard the slapping of sneakers against the mud as someone else reached the rope climb. It was Zeke, of course.
He smirked at me again. After looking behind me to the vampires who stared me down, he looked up at the bell and started climbing. “Careful not to fall too far behind,” he whispered back. “Since you’re not really one of us, they’ll probably just kill you.” With another sinister laugh, he pulled himself all the way up the rope and hit the bell. He slid down and ran away, lapping me. I hated him.
Tears threatened my eyes. I tried again with fervor, inching up just a little on the rope but also sliding back down again, my hands and knees burning where they rubbed against the coarse threads. Without looking up, I got the tingle of awareness again. I told myself not to look. I knew it wouldn’t do any good. I knew I would only see in their faces what I felt inside myself. I was weak though, obviously.
I peeked up, grimacing. They stared at me, except this time, their faces held all the anger from the picture that was in the newspaper. The one closest to Samuel leaned toward him, his lips moving, and suddenly Samuel walked toward me.
“Work, Ariana.”
“I am,” I said, pulling myself up a little for emphasis.
His voice came out in an angry lash, “You need to try.”
“I am,” I said through clenched teeth.
His sigh of exasperation only defeated me. I slid the rest of the way down the rope, landing on my feet and bending at the waist to catch my breath.
&
nbsp; Samuel shook his head. “Your lack of upper body strength will be the death of you.”
I looked up at him, fear slithering down my spine.
6
“Move On. See how you fair on the rest of the course.”
My heart lurched, I took his words for what they were, reprieve from something I knew I would never be able to do at that moment. I told myself I would train, try harder, and do better. I launched myself at the cargo net, pulling myself up and over even though the same ropes dug into the burns on my palm. I ignored the pain, rising swiftly over the rope and jumping down, landing in a squat.
Army crawl was next. We had to crawl as close to the ground as we could, just barely under line after line of barbed wire. I got down and was able to maneuver through the obstacle unscathed. I let out a sigh of relief. I’d had visions of blood running down my cheeks and scalp, sure I was going to cut myself on one of the barbs. Thankfully, it wasn’t nearly as tough as the rope climb.
Up next was speed and agility training. Huge tires were set right next to each other in straight lines. We were supposed to run through it, our feet landing in the middle of each tire to get to the next obstacle. I made it through, only tripping once near the end. I fell forward and rolled back onto my feet.
Next, was a rope swing across a ten-foot pool of water. I ran forward as fast as I could, grabbed onto the rope, and willed myself to hang on. I made it to the other side, free. The next few obstacles tested my endurance and not my upper body strength. I was able to finish without another hiccup.
I walked back around slowly to the start line. Guards-in-training had been passing me left and right. Shannon had even whispered words of encouragement as she lapped me, but my lungs burned with every breath. I couldn’t believe I’d ever thought I was in somewhat good shape.
“Come on, Ariana. Get moving!” Samuel yelled from the sidelines.
I did as he said, picking up the pace, and threw myself back into the obstacle course. My focus was all off this time though. I was staring at my vampires, wondering what they thought of me. They still stood next to Samuel, hands on his hips, gazes earnest as they watched me.
I slipped off the wooden plank between the hay bales which I hadn’t done the last time. Thankfully, I caught myself, but didn’t have the strength to pull myself back onto the obstacle. I fell to the ground and had to go back to the beginning to complete it.
Embarrassment crept up my cheeks. They were there to watch me, possibly placing value on me. I was most definitely the worst in the class, the other trainees continued to pass me one by one. It wasn’t much consolation, but I could say I never gave up. Except for the rope climb again. After five minutes of continuing to try to inch myself up the rope, Samuel came forward and told me to move on once more. When I looked up, their faces were impassive.
After my fifth time through the course, I plopped down onto my back and stared up. It was then, and only then, that I noticed the lack of sun. From beautiful tree to beautiful tree, all around the campus, a mesh screen blocked out the sunlight. I shook my head, staring up at the wonderment. Not noticing it before, only certified the fact that I’d been focused all morning on trying not to suck at all this physical activity stuff.
A boot hit the top of my sneaker. “Get up,” Samuel said.
I gazed up at him warily.
“You have a special class. You’re to go with the princes now. They’re going to teach you about the vampire-human world.”
I sat up. “What”
Samuel shrugged, and I turned to my left, only to see the one who kept me from escaping last night waltzing toward us, his hands in his pockets. “Are you ready for your lessons?”
All around, other guards-in-training, stopped to stare. The girls mostly gawked, but Zeke, sneered at me, no doubt coming up with his own scenarios in his head about what was really going on.
“Can’t Shannon teach me?”
Samuel opened his mouth to speak, but the prince cut him off. “My brothers and I want to be the ones to teach you. Since we brought you here, it is only right.”
Samuel held out his hand, and I grabbed it. He hiked me to my feet and I turned toward blue-gray eyes. The vampire prince eyed the space where Samuel and my hands had entwined. This one always looked pensive, as if he thought about a great deal of things. “Come,” he said, finally.
He turned, and I followed him, the dutiful servant. Instead of going to the dorms, he walked me to the main facility where the gym and the infirmary were. His brothers must have already gone on ahead because they were no longer in sight. We didn’t stop in the area of the building I knew. We headed out another wing, and I recognized the hallway Samuel led me down the previous night when we left the infirmary. He pushed open a door to our right and we walked into a classroom. It was rather large. Rows of desks filled the space along with a big wooden monstrosity of a teacher’s desk that stood front and center. It was a bit overkill for just the five of us. The room was no different than anything I’d seen before. It looked a lot like my high school classrooms.
There, in the back of the room in all different modes of sitting were the vampire princes. They stopped talking to look at me. Each of them stood in turn, one from his perch on the table and the others from their seats. The air in the room lightened. It was as if I’d been suffocating all day and could just now breathe. It helped that they were all smiling at me.
“Ariana,” the one who was sitting on the table said. My name was like a husky whisper on his lips. He came forward to grab my hand, pulled it to his lips, and placed a soft kiss on the top of my hand. “I’m Nicolai Ravana.”
I shivered. Not because I was scared, though in retrospect, I should’ve been. He was a vampire and his mouth was dangerously close to my pulse. No, it wasn’t any of that. My body responded because he was breathtakingly handsome. He was the only one with midnight black hair that fell to his ears.
He pulled back, and another one was directly in front of me. He smiled, his grin reaching his ears, and I swear I almost had a heart attack. Hair the color of honey haloed his face. “Connor,” he said.
“Hi,” I said, though it came out barely above a whisper.
His smile was warm, genuine, but then he was gone, and emerald-colored eyes stared into mine. “I’m Stephan Ravana.” He held his hand out to me and I took it, momentarily grimacing due to the rope burns on my palm. He frowned down at me. “You’re hurt?”
“I-it’s nothing,” I said. Really. The pain barely registered anymore. I could only see them.
Stephan turned and made his way to the front of the room. My head twisted to follow him, but instead, I was staring at the one who’d stopped me last night. His blue-gray eyes were still arresting. The same passive look was on his face, yet with that hint of welcome I’d recognized last night that wasn’t there when he took me from Samuel. “Christian,” he said.
I gulped. Never in my life had four hot guys stared back at me. Well, maybe from a poster at one of the foster homes, but this was real life.
A soft hand tugged on my fingers and I looked up to find Stephan carefully grabbing me and taking me to the table. “Sit,” he said. “I’ve got something for your hand.”
I did as he said and stared at him as he rubbed a pink-tinted salve on the burns. The rest of the guys swarmed around us, their faces concerned as they looked me over.
Nicolai broke the silence finally. He opened his arms wide at the classroom surrounding us. “Vampires go to school here,” he offered. “We’re on break now, which is why you guys are here.”
I took in his words, eager to learn everything I could as Stephan’s fingers still worked the salve into my skin. This whole world was a mystery to me and I couldn’t contain my natural curiosity. That vampires went to school surprised me. What did they need to know? What kinds of classes did they have?
Connor laughed, the sound endearing. “We have to start bigger than that, Nic.” He looked at me. His face serious. “There are vampires.”
&nb
sp; The rest of them burst out laughing, including me. “I kind of got that part already. Thank you, though,” I added, not wanting to offend him.
“The number one rule you need to know, Ariana,” Nicolai said, his face also serious, but not in a teasing way like Connor’s. “We won’t hurt you.”
That was different considering Samuel’s bet was that they all just wanted to drink my blood. With them all sitting around me, staring at me, I felt the wrongness of it on my tongue. I believed Nicolai. They wouldn’t hurt me. “The way you say it, I get the feeling that you four won’t hurt me, but that there are others. And surely, there are others that might not be so good to me?”
Christian’s lips turned up. “I told you she was smart.”
Stephan finished working the salve into my hand. I looked down. A slight sheen was all over my palm, but my burns were barely red anymore. I narrowed my gaze at the small tub he held in his hand. He pocketed it, and then kept his blue eyes on me. “I thought you did really well today.”
I wanted to laugh. What show were they watching? I was terrible.
Christian spoke up then. “She doesn’t believe you.”
I narrowed my gaze at him only to have Connor talk and pull my attention away. “It’s true. You were amazing. Everyone was impressed.”
“Samuel?” I asked, disbelieving.
“Okay. Maybe not Samuel, but he doesn’t count. I’m talking about us. We’re the only ones who matter.”
They all snickered, but I wasn’t done with this. “What happens if I don’t pass here?” I asked, remembering Samuel, and even Zeke’s, words.
Connor smiled. “Pass?”
“You know, if I’m not meant to be a guard? Will I be killed?”
The guys all stared at each other and then one-by-one, they all started to laugh. “No,” Connor said, humor still in his voice. “Whether you’re a guard or not, you’re staying with us.”
“Why?”
Christian leaned forward, struggling to answer. His fingers turned white as he held his hands together more tightly. “Next question.”