Darkling

by Sabolic, Mima

  “What do you mean?”

  “I don’t know much, but the word around here is that Baldur’s ideas are more progressive than the other Elders.”

  Chapter 4

  Blow

  I had woken up two hours earlier and didn’t feel much like training. I was standing in front of him holding the sport bag, way too tired and sleepy to feel any of the usual fears.

  “Why aren’t you ready?” he asked, firm and sharp. I didn’t understand what he meant.

  “Or do you just like undressing in front of me?”

  Yawning, at first, I didn’t catch his words, but a second later my face was drowned in redness. Oh, God! I couldn’t control that much embarrassment, so I lowered my gaze. I felt his eyes staring at me for a couple more long seconds, then he walked away, turning his back on me, leaving me to my immoral dressing room. I’m such an idiot. I mean, really, what was I thinking? Why the hell didn’t I change in my room?! I remembered Tibor’s “lamb” comment and felt about ready to release one huge baaaaaaaa—which would be definitely be more appropriate because since I’d arrived, I’d clearly forgotten how to use my brain. So much for my vast intelligence!

  But, could anyone blame me? I mean, using logic in this place? Apparently, an adjustment period was necessary.

  This time he was dressed in dark sport pants.

  “Warm-up jacket’s on the bench.”

  “I don’t need it.”

  “Yes, you do. We’re going outside.”

  If I had imagined a pleasant little stroll around the front yard, or the possibility of any pleasantries on Belun’s part, I was soon to be disappointed. . But at least rocks weren’t flying my way like they were in that hideous dream. He was silent as he ran beside me, speaking only to order me to run faster—or not to lag behind. And, yes, that was my morning glory: running through the darkness of woods. To run, run, and run some more. No one can match me in my loathing for running. I am good at sprints, but this—it was cruel. Very soon I was exhausted, but even though I was clearly suffering, he made me run more. And then some more.

  Mister “Best Warrior” babysitting someone who sucked at any and all physical activities. Oh, and based on my reactions and poor word choice, he probably thought I was mentally challenged as well. Great. Maybe that’s why he didn’t look so pissed; because, really, how pissed can you get at a handicapped person?

  Until that morning, I hadn’t realized how little daylight there was in the place. I mean, it’s not like it was dark all the time, but the sun just doesn’t cross the horizon. Mornings started late and there was only a little light that lasted until lunchtime. I quickly got used to the halls, the underground connections, and the artificial light; the same for the darkness that smoked through the windows. I could not get used to cold, however.

  It was pretty dark on the morning run, but the path through the woods was illuminated by some white light that didn’t cast any shadows. It cut through the darkness just enough for me to see the path in front of me. But I couldn’t catch sight of the sky through the trees, or the line where the woods end and skyline begins.

  “Tell me when you’re actually ready to run.”

  I frowned, a huge pain in my gut. I was running!

  Of course, the unbearable ache cut off any efforts to speed up, or at least maintain an acceptable tempo. But even though I was on the verge of both weeping and yelling, the fear hadn’t left my body.

  We came to a clearing that had some wooden training equipment and he made me exercise on each piece. At this point I could barely breathe or move any of my limbs, let alone manage the coordination necessary for these tasks.

  However, the torture ended soon enough. I guess. When we finally turned around, I was so drained that I couldn’t even manage the slightest of jogs. But even walking, he made me extend my step. We were silent all the way back to the indoor training arena.

  “Here at six.” And he was gone.

  Left alone, I couldn’t do anything more than lay sprawled out on the floor. Everything ached. I didn’t even have strength to drag the mat back. For something like fifteen minutes, I couldn’t feel my body; I just felt completely hollow. The wall clock said that I had less than an hour until my Psych class, which meant that I had to hurry and shower if I wanted to eat. Yes, breakfast—I needed it after this morning’s torture.

  Julia was by the entrance of the dining room with some blond vampire guy who looked younger than she, and they were laughing. When she caught sight of me, she waved me over.

  “Let me introduce you.”

  Blond guy was tall and hot and he stared at me with a peculiar interest.

  “Nika this is Set, my team leader.”

  Great—she was having fun with hers and I had to scrape my body off the floor with mine! Set offered his hand, and although I wasn’t thrilled to touch him, his skin was surprisingly silky smooth. No jolts slammed through my body like they did when I shook hands with my team leader. So it wasn’t like that when you touched all vampires! This hand was normal, and even pleasant in its softness.

  “Nice to meet you, Nika. There’s a lot of expectations of you and your team,” he said with a grin.

  “I wasn’t aware of that.”

  “How could you not be? You have a big beast to tame.”

  They both laughed, but I didn’t follow the joke. There was nothing fun about that.

  “I’m going to eat,” I said, heading toward the huge food table.

  It felt like I was starting to be myself again; I had managed to speak with a strange vampire without shattering into pieces or making a complete idiot out of myself. I wasn’t exactly comfortable with the whole thing, but at least I wasn’t feeling like a poor little lamb anymore either. On the other hand, I might have been too exhausted to feel anything at all.

  At least I could actually concentrate on the food this time; I got a couple of waffles and a huge bowl of fruit salad. I wasn’t sure I could eat it all, but I was starving.

  I glanced at where Julia had been, but I saw only her team leader—staring right back at me. I was curious as to why he was so interested, and wondered what kind of interest it actually was. I stared at him for some time, too—completely unselfconsciously.

  Oh my God!!

  Eye-locked with a vampire!!

  And the fear was back! I looked away immediately hoping there would be no misunderstanding, but my spine was tingling. Just what I needed: another problem with a vampire. I locked eyes with my salad bowl, and headed away as fast as I could.

  In full flee, I bumped into someone and muttered apologies without looking up. Then I saw Blake and Tibor already eating in what seemed to be their regular spot.

  “May I?”

  “Hey, Lamb, no need to ask.” Tibor grinned and Blake joined him.

  It was nice to be near positive and polite people. Humans, preferably.

  “I thought you didn’t breakfast,” Blake said.

  “I do after hour and a half of killing myself running,”

  “That explains the appetite.” Tibor nodded at my salad bowl. I smiled a little.

  “So, where’s the sun?” I asked

  “You won’t see it until mid-January,” Blake said, and I choked.

  “Lamb, it’s the Arctic Circle. You’re only a couple of miles from the North Pole.”

  That actually sounded cool, if you forgot about the lack of the sun, and the cold.

  “Don’t you find your way around!” Julia approached the table. “I’m sorry, I had to finish some things.” She sat next to me with a small bowl of cereal.

  “No problem.” I wondered if she had something with the blond guy. True, he looked younger, but maybe when she arrived four years ago the difference wasn’t visible. He was her team leader, they’d probably spent a lot of time together—maybe some romance had developed. Then I thought of my team leader and shivered.

  “How was your training?” she asked.

  “Terrible.”

  They all chuckled. I wish
ed I could just go back to bed. Then I remembered that I hadn’t gotten through the book Mr. Matthews had given me and felt a sting of guilt. He would have to go through the chapters with me as if I were an illiterate idiot.

  Several tables away, I noticed Lyndon, alone. There was room for one more at our table. Had I taken her seat or something?

  “Why’s Lyndon sitting alone?”

  The rest of them exchanged looks.

  “She’s like that sometimes,” Blake answered vaguely.

  I must have had a huge neon question mark plastered across my forehead, but they all chose to ignore it. Which probably only made it brighter. I watched Lyndon for a while. She didn’t make eye contact with anyone, just looked through the window or at her food. She wore jeans and a brown button-up shirt, and besides the fact that she was sitting alone, nothing seemed out of ordinary.

  Soon enough I had to leave the small oasis of human laughter and hurry over to Psychology class.

  My knocking was again futile, so I just entered. There was another “Welcome” note, giving instructions for the black helmet and weird elbow length gloves with microchips that had been left on the desk. I put them on, as instructed, and waited to respond to images that would be played on a screen inside the helmet. At first it wasn’t very promising; the helmet fell down to the bridge of my nose and the gloves gave my hands weird tickling sensations. It was more uncomfortable than I’d imagined.

  Then the images started. Honestly, I had expected the worst; but they began with some flowers and pets, leaving me dreading the horrors that could be coming. Each image stayed up for only a couple of milliseconds, so there were like a zillion of them—I tried to relax so the results would be more accurate. After all, that’s probably what they wanted, right? To trick the careful mind by relaxing it with nice, gentle images first. I wondered if it was the same strategy that the slick vamps used, because if anyone could wait to get you, it was certainly them.

  Lots of images flew by. Different eyes, looks, signs and symbols, ordinary people in motion and then still. Some faces of porcelain dolls, different colors, weapons and transportations. The last image thanked me for my patience, and then everything went black. I took off the equipment and took ten minutes to regain the balance between my thoughts and static view. Next came Matthews.

  “I’m sorry, but today you’re going to have to review with me.”

  “Tough training?” he arched his eyebrow, and I nodded.

  “Let’s get started then.”

  Thankfully, he didn’t seem disappointed by my lack of enthusiasm, and began to roll out the vampire/human parallel history.

  “Our world revolves around the respect of our laws and our hierarchy. At the top of the pyramid are five Elders who come from ancient times; three of them were the first amongst us. Our governing body is the Council, which is composed of the five Elders and the six noble families who are directly descended from them; at least that is how it used to be. Now that some of the families no longer exist, the Council has an even number of voters, and in the case that the votes are close, some neutral family is chosen by draft. However, the need for this is very rare, almost nonexistent.”

  So, my team leader was one of six families, that’s what Baldur meant by “our noble blood.”

  “In the spirit of history, there are three main divisions amongst us: Priests, Warriors, and the rest. The latter division is self-explanatory and it covers all other professions. As time has passed, most vampires have chosen modern careers,” he made a cheerful gesture toward himself, and added,

  “However, even though times have changed, along with vampires, we do not have a deficiency of Warriors or Priests. Warriors are our protection against Vocati; Priests bear our spiritual legacy and take care of ancient books and magic.”

  “Magic?” I couldn’t imagine vampires with their longer canines running around waving magic wands. In fact, it was a grotesque mental image.

  “Yes, it is a kind of an alchemy, so to speak. It comes from invoking the natural elements. Magic is not available to everyone, none of us has special powers; it’s in the ancient books. Priests learn it, taking a long time to master it—but, of course, time is on our side.” He laughed. “The basic purpose of magic is its contribution to our protection. Magic itself cannot do much, especially not in a fight, but it improves the power of the dagger or it alerts us when someone crosses a protective wall on our premises. This kind of wall is all around the compound, and a Priest knows as soon as someone undesirable traverses it. And most importantly, he knows whether the intruder is human or Vocati. Of course, there are other high-tech sensors buried in the ground and trees, but magic protection has always been handy.”

  “Are there Priests here?” I asked.

  “Every large place has one for protection.”

  “You mentioned daggers.”

  “They are forged from silver and reinforced with magic. That is the weapon used by Warriors.”

  This surprised me. I mean, if they already had to carry blades, why something small? I’d use a katana or something.

  “Any other questions?”

  I hit a brain-block. Everything was unfamiliar to me and I had a ton of questions, but since I hadn’t had time to balance the known vs. unknown, it was hard to come up with one. I tumbled his words about in my mind.

  “What about the Elders?” I finally asked.

  “You’ve met one of them.” His smile teased me somewhat. “Baldur. He is the youngest amongst them. Beside him, other active Elder is Kyrill.”

  Then I remembered something I’d been wondering about during meals.

  “I see vampires eating the same food as me; what about human blood, don’t they have to drink it?”

  “Yes, of course. We need blood for its nutritional value. If it wasn’t for that, and our sharper senses and longevity, what would make us different from humans?” he joked.

  “So if humans drank blood they’d live longer?”

  He found my sarcasm amusing, but shook his head.

  “Unfortunately, many throughout your history have drawn that conclusion, which has brought about only more bloodshed. The human capacity for cruelty is unlimited. In the end, victims of such crimes provided no use. Conclusions were wrong. You might even say that such acts are cursed—those acts of bloodshed only produced loathing and anger within, and the perpetrators would rarely go unpunished. As far as vampires are concerned—we do need blood, but the older a vampire is, the longer he can survive without it, which is to say three or four weeks maximum. The average fast here is two weeks. We have volunteers; and we don’t drink from a person, as you might have imagined, but from glasses. One day you will notice that there are no much pale faces in the dining room; then you’ll know what they are doing.”

  I didn’t find his sense of humor funny.

  “Why not directly from humans?”

  “The blood comes in bags, so glasses are more convenient,” he grinned. “Plus, it is barbaric and messy the other way. Also, it is difficult to stop once you start drinking directly from a person, so a human could get killed or maybe turned. And of course, both things are highly forbidden.”

  “Why is hard to stop?”

  “When you drink directly from a person, you take some of their soul, their being. You see memories, feel their emotions—and all that is extremely addictive. One must have a very strong will to detach oneself.”

  “Why are your faces paler than humans? I mean it’s not like you can’t walk in the sun, is it?”

  “No, that is not the reason. We are paler for the same reason that we drink blood. You see, after age eighteen, when our preservation gene awakens, our bodies start to lack oxygen due to our longevity. That is why we need blood, and our paleness you could consider a kind of anemia.”

  Class was over.

  I returned to my room to try to rest before training. Absently flipping through the TV channels, I thought of all I’d learned in one day. Five Elders, including Baldur and the one
with a strange name; so what about the remaining three? Matthews mentioned that those two were active Elders, what did it mean to be inactive—if there is such a meaning at all? And that thing with the blood, that someone can drink mine from me and see my memories—do they stay mine, or would they be stolen from me? Would they belong to me if I even survived the attack in the first place?

  The couch in my suite was comfy and I’d almost forgotten that my training clothes were all sweaty. I’d already worn them twice so it was definitely time to wash them. But what should I wear in their place?

  I hauled myself off the couch and forced myself to go in search of Lena on the first floor. The guard sent me in her direction and as soon as she saw me, she knew my problem.

  “I thought you’d come sooner,” she said.

  Ouch! Did I stink that much?

  Lena showed me the room where Inquirers leave their sport bags with their dirty clothes, and clean ones were ready to go.

  “If you have training clothes of your own, just leave them in the laundry basket in your bathroom. Someone will pick them up.”

  I thanked her and changed into identical clean navy bottoms and a white T-shirt; again, they were bigger than my size. It became clear that I would need my own gear, as she had mentioned. I hurried to the gym to find it empty. I had wandered around for a while, not knowing what to do, when Belun entered.

  “Sorry I’m late,” he said, without looking at me.

  “It’s after six.”

  I must admit that I was surprised by my boldness; but his lack of respect had pushed me. He didn’t react, but picked up the boxing gloves and threw them to me. The message was clear: get to work.

  The sessions of miserable hitting seemed endless. I combined punches and kicks, and still there was no improvement.

  “Stop.” Unnerved, he motioned me to come closer.

  He picked up a red kicking shield, angled it against his body, and told me to kick.