“I dunno, but my knee hurts. My shoulder and elbow are tender, too.” I rubbed my elbow.
Mirko released me. We jogged back to the car. At least as fast as I could with my injured knee. “Now do you realize that you need to learn how to fight properly?” he asked as I worked to keep pace with him.
I scrunched my face. “Fine. But who’s going to train me?”
“Me, of course.”
* * *
Kaitlynn cried in Jaren’s arms near the truck as I gimped up the hill. “I’m okay, guys!”
“Oh, thank God!” Kaitlynn ran to me, tears streaming down her flushed cheeks. “I thought you were dead. What was that?” She grabbed me, pulling me into the vise her arms created.
I gave her a pointed look. We’d been over this. “Vampire.”
“Pijawika,” Mirko corrected.
“Same diff,” I retorted, pushing Kaitlynn off me to relieve my knee of the pressure.
“This is not cool. We need to get out of here.” Kaitlynn sniffed and grabbed my hand, scurrying along beside me.
“Working on it.”
“Faster,” Mirko said, as he scooped me into his arms and booked it up the rest of the hill.
Jaren and Ace stood at the top. Jaren’s face glowed with relief. His eyes revealed the tenderness he still felt for me. “Are you hurt?”
“My knee’s a little jacked up. I can walk, even jog, but Mirko thought I wasn’t fast enough.”
Jaren’s face soured at the sight of me in Mirko’s arms.
“Save it.” Mirko commanded. “We have bigger issues to worry about right now. What the hell, Ace?”
“That shouldn’t have happened. I didn’t tell anyone where I was going. No one knew when the plane was arriving. You were just over there, and I was just over here.” Ace pointed to the plane.
“From now on,” Mirko said, eyes stabbing Ace, “if I leave Slatki in your care, you better damn well care for her. You get me?”
Ace nodded his head, a frown on his face. “Yeah, man. I get you. It won’t happen again. But I’m telling you, someone had inside information. And I mean inside because I hadn’t said a thing to anybody.”
“Oh! I saw her znak thingy,” I said, pointing to my neck where a necklace would hang.
Mirko lowered his arms to release me to the ground. He looked into my eyes, and I felt as if he searched for a secret hidden deep within my soul. “What was it?”
“It was round and looked like a sun with rays coming out around it.”
“A sun…,” Mirko said. He stood so immobile, I was afraid to breathe.
“Yeah. I mean, I think that’s what it was.”
“Anything else? Any other details you can remember?”
“Um, the glare was red, like there was a red stone or a ruby in the middle,” I said, swallowing.
Mirko smiled. “Good girl.”
Ace’s eyes grew wild and opened wide. “Jelena?”
“That’s what it sounds like,” Mirko answered, nostrils flaring.
“Who’s Jelena, and what does this mean for us?” Jaren asked.
“Let’s get her out of here first,” Mirko said, hustling us toward the truck.
Jaren nodded and ran back, opening the back door to help me get in.
“I’m not handicapped, you guys. I can get in myself,” I snapped.
Kaitlynn jumped in after me. Mirko turned the car around to take us out onto the road.
Kaitlynn started to cry again. “I’m sorry, but I seriously thought you were dead. That was the worst feeling I’ve ever had in my life. I know you only did it to make sure I was okay, but don’t ever do that again. I couldn’t live with myself.”
Tears welled up in my eyes. “I couldn’t let her have you,” I said, voice cracking. “I’m so sorry. You were supposed to be safer coming with me, not in more danger.”
Mirko cut into our tender moment. “If that lady would have gotten to you instead of Slatki, you’d be dead right now,” he directed at Kaitlynn. She and I both shuddered and fell bawling into each other’s arms.
“You’re all rainbows and sunshine, aren’t you?” Jaren asked, chastising Mirko.
“What do you want me to say? That next time they should stand there, doing rock-paper-scissors to see who takes on the bad guy? This is reality. Yes, it’s a crappy one, but it’s yours nonetheless. Slatki has good instincts, and you’d do right by her to encourage her to listen to them instead of making her ashamed and disgusted for being who she is.”
“You don’t understand. And it’s none of your business anyway.”
“Fair enough. But if you hinder her growth, we will continue this…conversation,” Mirko threatened.
I didn’t care enough about their argument to speak up. I had nearly died twice in as many days. I had almost gotten my boyfriend, and my best friend killed. I was a monster beyond measure, but at least my best friend didn’t die today. She was alive and well, crying into my hair as my tears soaked into her sweater.
“I really can’t lose you. You’re the best friend I’ve ever had. I love you.” I pulled myself back enough to look at the tears streaming down Kaitlynn’s cheeks.
“I love you, too. Promise me that you’ll do whatever Mirko says to stay alive.” She found resistance on my face. “Please. I don’t think you’re a monster, and you’re my soul sister. Do it for me. Please,” she pleaded, breaking my heart enough that I had to give in to her.
I nodded.
Kaitlynn hugged me tight.
13
We Came Here Together
Mirko sped over one hundred miles an hour, only slowing when a cop was near. I soon realized two things from this part of my journey: Mirko had excellent eyesight, and he was super perceptive. He could spot a cop car from a couple of miles away—in the dark—and from places you wouldn’t even expect them to be hiding.
When we finally took the exit off the freeway, Mirko followed the road, then made a quick right, and then another quick right. The glow of the headlights reflected off a sign with threatening, red lettering:
No Trespassing
Government Property
Will Shoot on Sight
“Whoa! Where are you taking us?” I shrieked. I thought he was supposed to be keeping me alive.
“Oh, yeah. You mean the sign? That’s for The Base. We can really shoot people if they get too close, too. The government says we can.” Mirko’s lip jerked up in the corner.
“What? Why would they allow that?” Jaren asked.
Mirko lowered his voice. “Well, as far as the people in Washington know, this is a government facility. They have real ones, like this. You know? The types of facilities that are so top secret that they get funding, but you’ll never find the paperwork of where the funds are coming from or where they’re being allocated.”
Ace turned around, a grin on his face, and looked at Jaren. “We get the funding, too.”
“That’s disgusting,” I said. Talk about leeches.
“Well, Slatki, it’s not so easy for all of us to blend in as well as you have. It’s not like we could all go out and get regular day jobs to financially support The Base, now could we? No, if we were ever found out, the government would be the first in line to do the most disturbing things imaginable to us. And that includes you, too. The best way for us to remain hidden from the government was to make them think they already knew what we were,” Mirko said.
“Brilliant, actually,” Ace said. “We do secret missions for the government when they need it. It hasn’t been a strict ‘they give and we take’ relationship.”
That helped me feel a bit better, but I didn’t want to know what those secret missions were.
We followed the two-way road for a couple of minutes before a set of buildings, lit up with bright halogens, came into view.
“One thing you need to be aware of is to avoid Zack,” Mirko said, eyes cast at me in the mirror.
“Why’s that?” Kaitlynn asked.
“Yeah, and who’s he
?” That was all I needed; more people to avoid.
“He’s a Pijawika,” Mirko said. I scrunched my face. “But he’s a nobody. He doesn’t have any power or pull, but he is a creep. He knows not to do anything when I’m around because I’ll kill him, but he might be stupid enough to try something with one of you girls while I’m not there. Just don’t go anywhere by yourselves.”
“Make sure you point out who this Zack is,” Jaren said.
We pulled up to a security gate with a small building on the side of the road. The man standing post was dressed in military attire and held a rifle of some kind. “Who are your guests, Mirko?” the guy asked, leaning over to see inside the vehicle.
“They’re part of an assignment, and they’ll be staying here for a while.” Mirko used a tone that warranted no questions should be asked.
The guard’s forehead creased.
“I take responsibility for them,” Mirko snapped.
The guard straightened his spine, but he went inside the building and released the gates. Mirko rolled up the window and drove through the opening. “You should be safe here, but don’t go off saying anything about being a melez.”
“A what?”
“A melez. A half-breed. A hybrid. Don’t go spouting off that you have Pijawikan and human blood.”
I snorted. “Oh, you don’t have to worry about that.” I preferred to think of myself as human. It was everybody else who wouldn’t let me forget about the vampire side. And even better—they had a special name for what I was.
The Base consisted of only a couple of buildings. It looked similar to what I would assume any other military base would look like, but on a smaller scale. All of the buildings were angular, symmetrical, and nondescript. Mirko steered the truck between a couple of gray buildings and parked.
Ace was out first, striding to the back to unload our bags. “You guys are bunking in the same barracks we do. This will make it easier for us to keep tabs on you.”
I followed behind Kaitlynn. My knee felt better, but it remained stiff. I hoped if I moved around on it, it would be good as new, thanks to my new super-healing.
Jaren shut the truck’s back door and trailed behind us into the building. The industrial-grade carpet running along the hallway was a bland mixture of light and dark grays dulled from years of use. The light streamed down from the ceiling in rows of long light bulbs that no longer had covers over their fixtures.
Mirko led us down the hall and up a flight of stairs. “This is the girls’ bathroom over here,” he said, pointing to the hall down the right. “And the boys’ bathroom is the same, but on the other end of the hall.”
“Wait. We have to share? Like in college dorms?” Kaitlynn asked. She liked to take her time getting ready in the mornings. I bet she was now second-guessing her decision to come with me.
“There are some rooms that have their own bathrooms, but those are for the higher-ups. Like me.” Mirko grinned.
“And me,” Ace said.
“Well, why can’t we have your rooms, and you take ours?” Kaitlynn asked.
“Because you’re not higher-ups. Your bathroom is kept clean so you should be fine. And there are only a few girls that stay in this building, so sharing won’t be much of a problem, anyway.”
Ace turned over his shoulder, “You can use my bathroom if you’d like.” The look he gave her suggested the offer involved a lot more.
Kaitlynn smiled. “Thanks, but I have a boyfriend. I’ll stick with the communal.”
Ace shrugged and then stopped in front of a large oak door and dropped the bags. He took out a key, slid it in the lock, and the door creaked open.
“It’s not the Ritz Carlton, but you’ll do just fine with it,” Mirko said.
The room had a set of bunk beds and twin computer desks. A small window sat between the beds and the desks, and I was grateful for the natural light.
“This’ll work,” I told Kaitlynn, setting my bags on the top bunk.
She opened the door to the closet and noticed that it ran the length of the room, save for the area of the door.
“Yeah, we’ll be fine,” she said to Ace. He set her bags down on the bottom bed.
Mirko turned to Jaren. “You’ll have the single across the hall.” He pulled out a set of keys, took one off the key ring, and handed it to Jaren. Mirko spun around to me, a devious grin molding his lips. “We start training in the morning.”
“Yippy,” I said, rolling my eyes.
Mirko smirked harder. I had a feeling he was going to enjoy torturing me with whatever this “training” involved.
The guys lined up on their way out of our room and over to Jaren’s. I stood against the door frame and watched Jaren open his door.
A tall blond girl in tight, black leather came strutting over to him. “Oh, looky here! What’s your name, suga’?” she said, her accent sultry and southern. Not what I would have expected based on her get-up.
I perked up, away from the door frame. Her attention locked on Jaren. He looked at me surprised, and then turned back to the girl, his jaw hanging slightly open.
“I’m Jaren,” he said, and I could hear the excitement and interest in his voice.
Anger coursed through me, hot as melted steel. I knew this girl was a vampire. And that he was attracted to her. This was wrong on so many levels. Something inside of me took over, and I stepped out into the hall.
“Hi, I’m Brooke.” I pointed between Jaren and me. “We came here together.” I couldn’t exactly say that we were together, so that had to suffice.
Mirko looked from me, to Jaren, to the girl, and then back to me. He was clearly amused by the situation.
“Do tell,” she said and set her focus back on Jaren. “I’m Holly Anne.” She beamed, showing perfectly straight, white teeth, and offered her delicate hand to Jaren.
Oh, she did not expect him to kiss her hand. I twitched, on the verge of smacking it back, when Kaitlynn came around me, and grabbed Holly Anne’s hand, shaking it. “And I’m Kaitlynn. Nice to meet you, Holly Anne. Now if you don’t mind, we’ve had a long day and would like to get settled in. I’m sure there will be plenty of time tomorrow to do the whole meet-and-greet thing.”
Holly Anne slid her hand out of Kaitlynn’s grasp as if it were stuck in a pile of goo, a perfect southern smile plastered on her face the whole time. She opened her mouth, preparing to speak. I lifted my top lip in warning.
“We’ll introduce you tomorrow,” Mirko cut in, ebbing the fire that was sure to catch.
Holly Anne’s smiling face flexed.
“I don’t want to see you down this hall again tonight. Get me?” Mirko asked.
She closed her mouth, angled a genuine smile at Jaren, and then turned around, swishing her hair as she did, and strutted down the hall the way she came.
Kaitlynn relaxed her shoulders.
My eyes held daggers as they met Jaren’s, and I let all the repugnance I felt flow through me and gather in the muscles of my face. As soon as I felt my message had been delivered, loud and clear, I turned my back on him and marched to my room.
If he thought he could shun me because my blood contained only half of what hers did and then get all excited like a dog in heat when she came around, he had another thing coming. And if little Ms. Georgia wanted to play games with me, I would knock her tiara off her head so fast, she’d get whiplash.
I threw the door shut behind me in case anyone still had any doubt of what kind of a mood I was in.
14
I’ll Kill ’Em
I padded out of the bathroom the next morning to find Mirko propped up against the wall outside our door.
“I love the multicultural thing you have going on there,” Mirko said pointing to the top of his head, indicating the towel I had wrapped around mine. “It’s sexy.”
“Oh, shut up.” I pushed him aside so Kaitlynn and I could get into our room. “Just give me a few minutes to get dressed.”
Mirko followed behind me into the roo
m.
“No,” I squealed. “You need to wait outside!” I pushed his chest, and shut and locked the door behind him.
“He’s bad,” Kaitlynn said, shaking her head.
I could hear his troublemaker’s laughter through the door. “One of these days, Slatki, it’ll be harder for you to push me out. And then one of these days, you won’t even want to push me out.”
Kaitlynn snorted, and I rolled my eyes. I dressed in the outfit I thought would be the most flexible and giving of the clothes I had packed. I had a pair of sweats and a pair of yoga pants, but I decided to go with the sweats. That ought to give Mirko less ammunition against me.
When Kaitlynn was ready, I pulled open the door. Mirko stood on the other side with his signature grin. “I was hoping you’d changed your mind about me not watching you change your clothes. But alas, here you are, dressed in your frumpies.”
I laughed, my forehead creasing in amusement. “And your ribbed tank is so darn classy. You could take me to prom in that for sure.”
“Ah. You’d like me to take you to prom, huh? I could arrange that.”
I blanched. I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to make it to prom now. All the things I had dreamed and hoped for would never be the same. And if I did make it out of this in one piece, would I even be able to go back to the same school? My mom would probably make us move again, so there went my life as I knew it.
“That bad?” Mirko said. He must’ve noticed the change in my demeanor.
“Let’s get this over with.” I stole a quick, regretful glance at Jaren’s door across the hall and then swept my hand out for Mirko to lead me.
* * *
Mirko’s idea of training was more like giving me a beatdown for fun. He was fast and could pack a punch. He knew all of the spots that hurt the body the most. The kidney, the throat, the temple, the back of my knees.
“You’ll learn quicker once you’ve experienced it,” Mirko said, kicking me on the meaty part of my forearm with his hard shin. “Keep your hands up.”
I jumped back and held my arm close to my chest. “That hurt. You’re just trying to justify beating me.”
He grinned and bounced toward me.
Descended by Blood Page 10