“Eve said she was going to talk to us about it later, so hopefully we can get a sabbatical or something.”
“Cool. ‘Naya. guess what?”
“What?”
“I miss you …”
Sanaya’s smile widened. She pushed a stray braid that had fallen loose from her high bun. “I miss you, too.”
“We still on for breakfast, lunch, and dinner tomorrow?”
“You know it!”
“All right.” King yawned again. “I wanna stay on the phone until you fall asleep, but babe, I’m sleepy.”
“It’s fine, go to sleep. I will see you tomorrow.”
“Goodnight. Dream of me, okay?”
“I always do.”
They disconnected the call with a final goodnight as Maya emerged from the steam-filled bathroom dressed in a pair of yoga pants and long shirt with her hair wrapped in a towel. “All yours,” she yawned as she hopped into her bed.
“Well, I hope there is some hot water left,” Sanaya teased, grabbing her pajamas and a towel.
“Girl, please. as hot you and King are for each other, a cold shower would suit you best anyways.”
“Whatever,” Sanaya replied with a smirk. “Sleep tight.”
Sanaya sighed in relief as the hot water massaged her sore and aching joints, and by the time she rinsed, dried off, and slipped on her long night shirt, Maya was already knocked out with her mouth open, snoring. Chuckling, Sanaya climbed into her own bed, and it was not long before calm relaxation settled into her bones and sleep claimed her.
Daemon replayed the images of the newest Slayer defeating another one his pathetic Master Vampires on the HD flat screen, projected through the psychic telepathy of one of his favored demons, and flung a goblet of blood at the screen, shattering the glass at the moment Sanaya decapitated the vampire with the precision of a war veteran. Another waste of precious resources. He had not received word from neither Petronius nor Alex for over a month, and it unnerved him to no end, especially when he learned that Beast had made a topside visit, yet another cause for concern. Reclining deeper into his Italian leather seat, Daemon heard echoing in his mind the familiar voice of an entity whose reign of terror was once revered among his kind.
Daemon, she called out to him.
“Selene?” He strained to pinpoint her exact location. “Selene? How could this be?”
Come to me, she whispered in a plea of pain. I need your help.
Daemon closed his eyes as he remembered Selene, doomed to starve into extinction, and sealed in her rock tomb high on the cliffs of Mount Sinai after a fortunate and clever Guardian surrounded the tomb in prayer. Daemon, Petronius, and several other leading members of The Darkness Organization did everything in their power to set her free, but none could cross those blasted prayer lines without incinerating on contact. Her capture was the worst thing ever to take place in the history of vampirism. Selene was also the first and only female of her kind to be born—not bitten. Emaciated and skeletal beyond belief, Selene was cursed for eternity to survive in a semi-decomposed state.
“Darling, how can I hear you now?” Daemon whispered anxiously.
“The prayer lines have weakened,” Selene whispered. “The ground has become desecrated …”
“I cannot breach prayer lines, darling, no matter how weak they are,” he whispered anxiously. “There has to be another way.”
“Find one,” she moaned.
Selene had tracked a small team of Guardians on the run from the Roman emperor Nero. The sadistic ruler had sent his men after bands of “gifted humans” because he was desperate to uncover their secrets and use them to his advantage.
Daemon’s fangs lengthened from the memories of his decadent days in ancient Rome. Nero had been one of his familiars and possibly could have been a fine vampire, but Nero’s predilections for the twisted and the maniacally insane—and the imminent threat of a coup—stopped Daemon from turning him. Selene, one of Nero’s many lovers, had convinced him to root out all “gifted humans” along with Christians and Jews and those who did not display the “trueness of the Roman Empire.” When Guardians fled Roman cities in droves, Selene took unnecessary risks for their blood, tracking them to the holiest of holy sites where the One Above had given humans The Ten Commandments.
Though she was sealed in a cave blocked with heavy stones and surrounded by hallowed earth and prayer, war upon war and now terrorism had desecrated the once sacred and blessed sites with the spilling of much innocent blood. Selene’s freedom was indeed possible. All Daemon needed was a group of foolish humans to assist him.
“Worry not, my love,” he declared. “Help is on the way.”
Chapter Two
Sanaya was sitting in the front of the class when Elizabeth waltzed in with two of her flunkies behind her. The granddaughter of Van Helsing, the highly-esteemed vampire hunter, Elizabeth sneered as she walked by but dared not utter a word to Sanaya.
Trent strolled in shortly after, and when his eyes met hers, Sanaya acknowledged deep regret and longing that bore through his exquisitely handsome face. She sensed embarrassment from his actions and desire for acceptance from the team. Sanaya she genuinely felt sorry for him. Trent did not say a word as he took a seat three desks behind her.
The class filled with all ten registered students, the bell rang and the instructor, a robust man in his fifties with a receding hairline and blue eyes that sparkled with amusement, walked into the room carrying a briefcase.
`“Good morning, young Guardians,” he said with a smile and an Italian accent as he surveyed the room.
The class responded with a mumbled “Good morning.”
When his eyes stumbled upon Sanaya, he acknowledged her with a nod. “Slayer.”
Sanaya nodded once.
“So, let me introduce myself,” he said with a clap of his hands. “My name is Professor Grizoni, and I will be your instructor. I am pleased to see those who have remained despite recent tragedies this campus has witnessed, but worry not. I am here to educate your young minds so that you may contribute to the overall benefit of mankind by understanding Evil’s origins. Take out your notebooks and pens. If you do not have a pen, you may ask your neighbor or you can come to me.”
Sanaya and the rest of her classmates dug into their book bags in search of pen and paper while the professor waited. The sound of shuffling desks and unzipped bags became an orchestra of sound until each student had what he or she needed and sat patiently for instruction to begin. One student, however, raised his hand, and upon Professor Grizoni’s acknowledgement, the entire class turned to face the kid with the crude smile and the question Sanaya swore had better be good.
“So are you a Guardian?” the kid asked.
All eyes turned to face Professor Grizoni, who smiled gently. “I was a Guardian at one point, young lad. I know that time and perhaps one meal too many has made it something hard to believe, but I was once young and filled with righteous indignation just like you.”
“What happened?” the kid asked, appearing to be sincere in his concern.
“Life, young buck,” Professor Grizoni replied sadly. “Now let us begin.” He took a seat behind the metal desk and cut on a laptop connected to a projector before hitting a switch to darken the room. An image of two naked figures, one female and the other male, stood facing each other in a garden.
“I am pretty sure you all know the story of Adam and Eve,” Professor Grizoni said, “but what you all do not know is that this is where your history as Guardians began.”
While he spoke, Sanaya had the odd feeling that she had heard this information from somewhere before but could not place it. She tried to shake off the odd sensation and focus on the lesson.
“And Cain was Adam’s firstborn son, along with his sister Luluwa …”
The professor’s voice trailed off, and anxiety crept along the surface of Sanaya’s skin, creating beads of sweat along her hairline. An image slammed into her mind, and a voice she never
heard before spoke into her mind, forcing her to grip the sides of her desk as she squeezed her eyes shut.
A man with dark bronze skin and locks to his waist … his hands covered in blood. A woman knelt over the body of the barely recognizable young man whose lifeless eyes stared into the evening sky. The woman’s cries ripped into the fabric of his soul as the darkness he was born with took over. His father, the spitting image of himself, glanced at his grief-stricken wife and his murdered child, silently asking “What have you done?”
Dark clouds formed against the once serene blue sky, and lightning struck as the ground cried out from its first taste of spilled blood. Blood … so much of it he could drink it, smell it … bask in it. Darkness … he was surrounded in darkness … his parent’s grief. His brother—what had he done? Nausea and pain like no other claimed him and consumed him in a burning fire that sent him to his knees.
“What have you done?”
The booming voice from the sky startled him. It was He Who Made Adam, The Creator.
“Cain, what have you done? The earth cries out to me that the blood of your brother was spilled by your hand. You know not of what thine cast upon thyself …”
Curling into a fetal position, Cain felt the flesh of his forehead burning with an inscription or mark that would permanently follow him for all eternity. He gingerly touched his forehead where he felt the raised and raw skin of the brand that would forever haunt him with the memory of this moment.
“They will know you by thine thy mark …” The Creator told him before retreating back into the heavens.
Alone and trembling, Cain sat up long after the The Creator left to face a moonless sky. His throat burned with an unquenchable thirst. A fire in his aching belly craved that which that did not grow from the land or fall from the skies. Running, he returned to the Cave of Treasures where his family continued to grieve, and in the thickness of the night, he persuaded his beloved sister, Luluwa, to leave with him. Luluwa, his twin and the very fabric of what was left of his dark soul, touched his face. Her gray eyes filled with unshed tears. She held his gaze and nodded, and as their parents slept, they stole away into the night.
Cain learned of his new abilities in the darkness. He carried his sister through miles of thick bush and underbrush, blazing through the forested terrains like a shooting star, settling on a land with rich soil perfect for planting and harvesting that rested of the southern banks of the Nile River. Exhausted from their night’s run, they took shelter underneath a cluster of trees with leaves wide enough to offer supportive roofing. That night, Cain lay with his sister-wife Luluwa, whose beauty rivaled her mother Eve, and that bond would be his savior from the scorching thirst that stripped away his sanity.
That night, the first creature of the night was conceived, and the angels wept for mankind …
“Sanaya! Sanaya!”
Sanaya snapped out of the vision with Professor Grizoni’s heavy hands gently shaking her by the shoulders. The entire class had gathered around her, including Elizabeth, and as her vision normalized, she focused on the professor’s concerned face.
How long was I out of it? Sanaya though.
“Oh thank God,” Professor Grizoni said. “Child, your gift is quite powerful. I have the gift of visions as well, but the information you just tapped into …” The professor backed away from Sanaya’s desk and sat behind his own, wiping away a bead of sweat.
“What she just experienced is an ancestral flashback, a vision of past events,” Professor Grizoni said. “Many of the Biblical prophets experienced visions which allowed them greater understanding of the world in which they lived and their purposes for existence. What she witnessed is not found in the standard King James Bible or even in the Torah. We shall discuss the Apocrypha texts in more detail later, but basically, as Guardians, your origins begin after Cain murdered his brother Abel.”
He checked the time on his watch. “Cain became a vampire as a result of his curse. His own darkness transitioned him into an abomination. Eve, upon learning of her son’s fate, fell into a state of inconsolable grief. And Adam, fearing that he may lose his wife, prayed for redemption to right the wrong of birthing the equivalent of evil itself.”
“But how is that Eve’s fault?” a student asked. “She could not help the fact that her son was evil.”
“No, she couldn’t,” Professor Grizoni said. “But theologians have argued that she blamed herself for what happened in the Garden. She figured if she had only obeyed and didn’t do what she’d been told not to do, she would have never birthed a son who would only break her heart.”
“So what you are saying is Cain didn’t have his own free will?” another student asked.
“That is for a different class,” Professor Grizoni said. “You are here to learn history, not philosophy. I do expect you to take these lessons and apply them to your own personal philosophy. Understood?”
Many nodding heads.
“As a result of Adam’s heavenly petitions, Eve gave birth to another daughter, Aklia, whose drive and need for vengeance on behalf of her mother’s broken heart led her to become the first Slayer. She is rumored to have received training from the Archangels themselves in the art of combat and war, and she received all of the standard gifts found in our past and present Huntresses: night vision, strength, heightened senses. Aklia was gifted with every spiritual and metaphysical tool at her disposal to put an end to Cain. Needless to say, she was not successful in destroying the Father of all Vampires, but it is through Akila’s line that the Huntress was born. Guardians are descendants of the other children that followed Akila’s birth including her own daughter, Priscilla.”
The bell rang, and some students groaned in disappointment.
“I would like you to write a two-page paper on The Lost Books of Adam and Eve,” Professor Grizoni said. “It is due the day after tomorrow. Until next time, young Guardians, be well.”
Sanaya was still gathering up her things when the Professor approached her. “And you, young lady, I want you to write about what you just experienced, discounting not one ounce of detail. When you turn it in, we shall talk more. There is much you need to know and so very little time to teach it to you.”
Sanaya nodded and the Professor went back to his seat to wait for his next class to arrive. Hoisting her backpack on her shoulder, Sanaya stepped out into the hall where Trent leaned against the frame of the janitor’s closet waiting for her.
“Ay, can I holla at chu’ for a minute?” he asked, searching the scene behind her to see if anyone else was coming.
“Yeah, sure, Trent,” she said, crossing her arms. “What’s up?”
Trent rubbed the back of his neck. “I just wanted to apologize for the way I’ve been acting, especially with the Elizabeth thing.”
“And?” Sanaya asked with a raised eyebrow and higher suspicions. The dude was a flip flopper, a traitor, open to switching sides in a heartbeat. Now that he realized he crossed over to the wrong side of the road, he wanted to come back. Sanaya was so close to giving him “the hand” she had to keep her arms folded to maintain her composure.
“And for being a jerk to you, to your friend,” Trent said. “We are a team and I—”
“We are a team until the time comes for me to make the final decision as to who I want on my team,” she interrupted bitterly. “But go on.”
“I know I deserved that.” He lowered his gaze and looked away.
Sanaya sighed. “Look, I ain’t even upset with you, Trent. It is the rest of the team you need to be apologizing to.”
“Do you mind, like, putting in a word for me then? I mean—”
“I will tell them you are sorry,” Sanaya interrupted. “I will tell them you fell on your sword, whateva, but the rest needs to come from you. I gotta go. See you later.” She turned around and marched to her next class, Global Economics, and silently prayed that this day would end just as quickly as it came. Her joints were still sore from last night’s hunt, and the impromptu vi
sion in class made her mind feel as if it had turned to jelly. On the bright side, this time no one ran away from her or dared call her a freak.
Sanaya half jogged, half walked to her next class which was close to the Annex Building. The imagery from the vision was still at the forefront of her mind, and for some reason she could not shake the ill feeling that there were more visions to come. The Father of All Vampires? She shuddered at the thought. Fighting Masters and lower level vampires and demons was one thing, but going up against the original vampire, an entity that possesses not only eons of survival experience but skills and abilities that may not be found in his children? If Eve’s second daughter, Aklia, did not kill him, could it be possible that he was even still alive?
Sanaya barely stumbled into class before the bell rang. King had already saved her a seat in the back next to him, and the moment their eyes locked, she felt the mental caress he always sent in her direction. Thankfully, the instructor had yet to make an appearance, and as Sanaya bypassed many unfamiliar faces that studied her curiously, she listened to some of the awed thoughts some of them broadcast about her.
This year, Sanaya thought, will be interesting indeed.
Chapter Three
When Bishop Andrews finally dismissed her small ragtag team for dinner, Sanaya almost leaped with joy. She and Maya walked arm-in-arm as usual as they headed for the courtyard—the unspoken yet agreed upon meetup spot—to wait for the rest of their members. Taking position underneath the Willow tree, Sanaya relaxed against the trunk while Maya plopped down on the grass.
“Oh my God, girl, this term is seriously going to kick my ass,” Maya complained with a frown. “Eve had me sit in front of the class and open a demon portal—mind you I am new to this thing—and everything went downhill from there.”
Sanaya chuckled. “What happened?”
“Maaaaan, so look I focused my energies on locating weak portals because I am not strong enough to go after sealed spots, when a couple of the students ended up being possessed.”
The Vampire Hunters Academy: The Shadows Page 2