Slayer Trials: Urban Fantasy (Hidden Vampire Slayers Book 2)

by H. J. Lawson

  "How many have you killed?" Theo asks, stopping in front of me, throwing the question back at me.

  "Two," I say nervously. I feel like I'm putting a target on my own head.

  "Way to go," a boy says at the end of the line, smiling. I can feel my cheeks changing color with embarrassment.

  "How did you kill them?" Theo asks.

  "With this," I say, showing everyone the stake. Then I add, "Well not this one exactly. A wooden wardrobe shattered when Aaron was thrown against it by the vampire. I used one of the panels from the wardrobe like a stake. I drove it through his neck, then his heart." My voice trails off, as I know I should have stopped speaking, but I just had to say it aloud to make it real.

  I can feel everyone looking at me. I want to run ... run away from all of this.

  "How many have you killed?" I look up and question Theo, putting the attention on him.

  "You do like to ask questions, don't you?" Theo says. I look at him deeply, not breaking eye contact, and plead with my eyes. I need his help; I cannot do this on my own.

  "After a while you just stop counting, because they don't matter," he says in a reassuring tone.

  Bang … bang. Gunshots issue from across the room, and everyone moves away from the sound. I turn toward it, unshaken.

  It's the group in the far corner: target practice. That’s where I want to be.

  "Time for a lesson," Theo says. "My number one weapon of choice is the gun, but when I run out of bullets my stake can do the job," Theo explains.

  "We tried a gun, it didn't work—just got them more frigging angry. But Blake’s did; the gun looked the same as a normal gun, so I guess it's the bullets that are different," I say, explaining my own question.

  "You are correct: the bullets are silver. That and the stake through the heart are really the only true methods out of all the pop culture myths we were brought up to believe. I would forget everything else." My shoulders slumped down in disappointment; I was hoping some of what I thought would be true.

  "That and only a few are day walkers, right?" I ask.

  "There seem to be more day walkers each day ..." He stops speaking, looking like he wants to say more.

  "We don't have much time in this section; let's get training," Theo says, and nods to the digital clock that's quickly counting down. We have less than forty-five minutes.

  “When holding a stake, you need to wrap your fingers around it like this to prevent any injury,” Theo says. Basically it’s the same as if you are going to land a punch, making sure you don’t break your thumb.

  “Like this, Lakia,” I tell Lakia as I adjust her fingers.

  Lakia handles the stake awkwardly. A few in the group swing their stakes around as if ready to attack. Others stare down at their stakes, not wanting them in their hands.

  “There are key locations to slow the vampires down: the eyes,” he says as he lunges towards the punch bag that looks like a man. Then Theo stabs sideways. “The ears. And ...” Theo drops forward and drives the stake upwards between the legs.

  “Damn,” Lakia laughs.

  “Yes. Hurts the male vampires there as well.” Theo smiles. “Then the kill shot is through the heart, to finish them off.” He grits his teeth and stabs, stepping forward.

  We each take it in turns on the bag, following his guidelines. It's all very mild to me—by that I mean I thought it would be a lot more intense. Maybe this is not going to be that bad after all?

  Beep. The annoying digital clock alarm goes off; I really hate that sound. Then the red illuminated numbers flick from zero back to sixty—looks like we have one hour on each station.

  There are five stations, so presumably we will be here for five hours. I hope we stop for food.

  Next we are running laps around the edge of the hangar, just as the group before us did. Lakia runs beside me.

  “How frigging long are we going to keep this exercising crap up for?” Lakia asks.

  I widen my eyes in response. “What?” she says, rolling her eyes. “Not all of us love to exercise,” she adds, out of breath.

  I look around the room, and it's clear to see that she’s not the only one not enjoying working out. Most of the people are slumped over, listening but not listening, nodding when they need to.

  There are others who are already showing off their strength in the weight lifting section of the room. Also on the fighting mats, some people are really going for it.

  It's like the strong have already shown themselves, and the weak don’t realize that they have already lost.

  “Lakia, you cannot give up. You … we have to be in the top twenty,” I tell her, but quietly enough so that only she can hear. I don’t know why I think this is a secret; Theo already explained the rules to our group. Did the other instructors tell their groups, I wonder … but then again Theo is playing by the rules. They must have to tell them, but maybe only if they ask. If Kai hadn’t asked would he have freely told us?

  “What did he say to you before?” Lakia smiles and raises her eyebrows.

  I go to shove her, but she darts and jumps over one of the training mats someone is working out on. “Watch out!” a guy in a sit-up position snaps.

  “Sorry,” Lakia says as she carries on jogging.

  “No. Really, what did he say?” Lakia repeats.

  “Just told me off about not listening, following rules and all that crap,” I lie.

  “Less chatting, more running,” Theo warns from the front of the pack, closely followed by Kai. Kai has been silent since we entered the hangar. I wish Theo was too—I prefer him when we are alone; he’s too all about business in the group.

  Beep … beep, rings out from the digital clock; this time the red numbers stay on zero. We have been here for three hours, and my stomach started growling for food an hour ago.

  We have done the stake station, running and weights. The boys enjoyed showing off how much they could lift. Kai is the strongest, but he didn’t smile or high five anyone when he lifted. There was only determination on his face.

  I was third strongest in the female section, Lakia was last. She was more upset about her nail breaking. I know she gets why we have to do this. What I don’t understand is why she’s not getting her head into it. It's like she thinks someone is going to come and stop it.

  The only sections left to complete are the fighting mats and the guns.

  I hope the fighting mats are last. It’s the section I’m least looking forward to, but it’s also the only one where I can fake an injury. I need target practice.

  “Lunchtime, back in sixty minutes,” Theo announces to my relief.

  Chapter Twelve

  The hallways fill with chatter as we walk toward the dining area.

  Lakia and I grab a chicken sandwich, chips, dessert and a bottle of water each. We head over to the table where we sat this morning, and Lakia scans the room for Ryder. She spots him and waves him over to our table.

  I glance up at him and nod, then carry on eating. I’m starving, the training really made me hungry.

  Ryder has two of the giant sandwiches on his plate; I wish I had grabbed more.

  My mouth dries up quickly, and I gulp down water without thinking.

  Quickly my stomach contracts, like it's going to bring everything I just ate back up. I push my stomach back down, hoping the contents will stay where they belong.

  I cannot believe I became so complacent about the water so quickly. I shake my head.

  “Something up with the food?” Ryder asks as chewed-up sandwich rolls around in his mouth. I would have been sick at the sight if I wasn’t trying my best to hold it in.

  I shake my head. “Went down the wrong way,” I lie.

  That’s when I spot Kai standing in the middle of the dining room, looking at the tables, not knowing where to sit. “Kai, over here,” I call out to him. Ryder glances over his shoulder to where I yelled, and then returns to his sandwich, clearly uninterested.

  “Hey,” Kai says as he places h
is tray down next to Ryder.

  “Hey. This is Ryder and Lakia,” I say, pointing to them.

  “Do you not know anyone here?” Ryder asks, not looking up at him, only at his food.

  “Dropped out of school for work,” Kai says, giving Ryder a piercing stare. Ryder doesn’t turn to meet the stare, he just keeps eating.

  “Work?” Ryder says, like his answer was stupid.

  “Yeah, work. Do you have a problem with a man wanting to support his family?” Kai says as he puffs his chest out toward Ryder.

  Ryder turns around slowly to face Kai. With food bulging in his cheeks, he responds, “Nothing wrong with that.” Ryder shrugs his shoulders as if he’s not in the mood for confrontations.

  “Good,” Kai says as he also pushes the sandwich into his mouth, I hope that, like his sandwich, this conversation is squashed.

  “Hey, Sadie, mind if we sit with you?” It’s Roslin. A girl is standing next to him.

  “Sure,” I respond. I catch Ryder rolling his eyes at our new guests. He’s used to sitting at the jock table. Now he’s sitting with the misfits.

  “This is Grace.” Roslin points to the girl. She reminds me of a mouse with her tiny brown eyes, a large nose, and bobbed brown hair with heavy bangs. No wonder she tagged along with Roslin, they make a cute fit.

  “Hey, I’m Sadie,” I say and then introduce her to the rest of the group.

  “What school do you go to?” I ask, making small talk.

  “Yours,” she says softly, lowering her head so her bangs cover her eyes. I’ve never seen her before in my life.

  “She’s in your math class,” Roslin adds, making me feel worse, Grace nudges Roslin gently.

  “Oh, yeah. Hi.”

  Ryder lets out a snigger.

  I squint my eyes.

  “Which training group are you in?” I ask, trying to fix my screw-up. “Ouch,” I shriek as a shooting pain ripples up my leg. I turn and frown at Lakia, who nudges her head in the direction of Grace. That’s when I realize Grace is in our group.

  “Putting your foot in your mouth as usual,” Ryder says.

  “Sorry, Grace.” I frown.

  “It’s okay,” she says softly, and goes back to nibbling on her bread.

  It’s weird, the DNA they injected us with was meant to make us stronger, but I cannot see that in all of the kids here. They … well, they just look normal. Maybe that was intentional, make us look like normal people so we can blend in.

  I look up at the countdown: we have forty minutes’ left.

  It's weird seeing a timer but having no idea what time it is. There are no actual clocks, no windows to the outside world. No evidence of what time it is. They are controlling every aspect of our lives.

  Theo’s eyes meet with mine. He is sitting at a table with the other instructors, and a pretty brunette girl sits at his side, wearing a white doctor’s jacket.

  From the lack of air between their bodies, it's clear that they are together. Emptiness fills my stomach for Aaron. He will be here soon. Theo’s voice from earlier rings through my mind.

  Theo lifts up the water and takes a long drink, then his eyes flicker to the girl next to him. The water is safe to drink, and the girl next to him is Morgan, the doctor with the information, I think.

  I take a gulp of water; there is no metallic taste. There is no reason to wipe my memory yet. Nothing has really happened, well, not in this sector anyway—it's a bit like summer camp in a weird sort of way.

  Theo looks away from me and starts talking to his group. I do the same, trying to act normal.

  “What do you think the trial will be?” Kai asks.

  "I guess it will have something to do with vampires," I say.

  "Yeah. I was thinking that," Lakia says, with a quiver in her tone.

  "Me too," Roslin says, and the others nod. Grace’s eyes are on her plate as she nibbles away at a piece of bread.

  "The question is what are we going to have to do to the vampires?" Kai says in an eerie tone.

  "That's what I was wondering," Ryder says, then adds, "And what about all that crap about only the top twenty going through.”

  Everyone nods; so we all know that we are competing against each other.

  "Then if we aren't in the top twenty we are thrown out to the vampires," Kai states, and he pushes his empty plate away from him.

  "Frigging crap," Ryder says. "It's a good thing I'm going to be in the top twenty," he boasts, like he's already passed the trial, with a big grin on his face.

  Lakia shakes her head. "You better get in the top twenty. I'm only here for you," Ryder says, and wraps his hands around Lakia's folded hands, which are on the table.

  Kai scans his plate. What's keeping him here? Probably the same thing as the rest of us.

  "I wonder how long they are going to keep us training," Roslin says.

  "They need to pick up the pace and it would go a lot quicker; it's all easy at the moment," Ryder says.

  The others start talking about the training we've done so far. Ryder is eager to inform us of the weight he was able to lift. Kai stays quiet even though I know he lifted more. I lifted more than Roslin, but I don’t tell him—there is no need to make him feel weak.

  I scan the room, and it appears that others are having similar conversations. There are more faces I remember from school, about five more. How many other local towns were targeted?

  I need to think of what questions I'm going to ask Morgan. All the questions I have will take a day to go over. What's more important? My guess is that I will have a small amount of time to talk to her. What makes me different? What's going to happen in the trialing? What's really happening outside Sector 105?

  I think long and hard about it. I know what the most important question is: how to get the hell out of here and still protect my family.

  Before I know it the alarm goes off, and it’s time to get back to training.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Theo is standing at the wrestling mat. Damn. I hope we have training tomorrow so I can practice my shooting.

  We all stand at the edge of the mat; Theo is standing right in the center.

  "Self-defense lesson: you will have to learn how to protect yourself without a weapon," Theo says firmly.

  "Kai," he says, then waves his hand forward, indicating that he should step onto the mat.

  Kai follows the instructions, and steps onto the mat. He's the same height and build as Theo.

  "I'm going to show you simple self-defense moves to start with," Theo says, then he works with Kai, demonstrating the moves.

  "Pick a partner and copy the moves," Theo says. Lakia and I instantly look at each other and smile.

  "Partners," she says.

  "Partners," I respond. Damn, this could have been my chance to make it up to Grace. Next time I will select her, but she’s paired up with another girl now.

  We step onto the mat and work through the movements. Like Ryder said, it's all very simple. We are going to be here forever at this rate.

  After a few attempts at the drill I pretend to slip sideways over my ankle, tilting it at an angle. Then I fall down on the mat with a thud and hug my ankle.

  Theo walks over to me. "Can you go on?" he asks as he leans over me.

  "I think I've twisted my ankle," I lie and screw up my face as if I'm in pain.

  "Take her to the third door down the hallway, then come straight back—you need the practice," Theo says to Lakia.

  Lakia reaches down and loops her arm under my body.

  I pretend that it hurts as I get to my feet.

  Limping, we head to the doctor’s room. "You did that on purpose," Lakia says as soon as we are on our own in the hallway.

  I can feel the color draining from my face with the guilt of lying to her.

  "I knew it," she says almost joyfully. "What are you planning?"

  "How we can get out of here," I whisper into her ear.

  Lakia follows my lead and speaks quietly. "We have to fi
nd a way, because there is no way I'm going to be in the top twenty," Lakia says shamefully.

  "The only one of us with a chance of being in the top twenty is Ryder. I cannot compete against the boys." I hate to admit it but they are all stronger and faster than me. I don't really think anything in my DNA can change that.

  Lakia shakes her head. "He's not. In a few hours he's going to snap." Lakia’s eyebrows draw together with worry.

  I must have looked confused, because she answers my question without me asking.

  "He’s going into withdrawal. Can you ask the doctor for something? Otherwise he's going to flip out," Lakia requests.

  Ryder’s been on drugs all his life. I wonder how many others here are going through the same thing. Parents have been medicating their kids due to a problem with their DNA—we were designed to be overly active.

  "I will ask; they must have something." I smile at her. Then I add, "Get back to training." With that I turn away from her and knock on the metal door.

  "Come in," a female voice calls from inside the room.

  I push down on the cool metal handle and open the door.

  It's the girl who was sitting next to Theo; she's even prettier close up.

  The room is white, clinical, with a patient’s bed in the middle of the room with a paper sheet over the top of it. It's in an upright position, so it looks more like a chair than a bed. There is no countdown digital clock, but there is a speaker in the corner and a hidden camera.

  "Name," she says flatly.

  "Sadie." Her eyes connect with mine.

  "Please take a seat," she says, pointing to the bed in the middle of the room.

  I follow her instructions, limping as I go.

  "My name is Morgan, but you already know that, don't you?" she says as she stands in front of me. Her back is to the speaker, blocking the hidden camera—if there is one in there.

  "Yes," I respond. "How can I get out of here?" I quickly add.

  "The only way out is by passing the trial," she says. I slump back in disappointment. Morgan moves her hand near to my ankle as if she's examining it.