The Vampire Hunter’s Academy
Book I
The Darkness
Copyright © 2016 Delizhia D. Jenkins
In memory of the first and only author
Whose writing will live forever in my heart...
Whose characters not only took my breath away…
Whose storylines encouraged me to put pen to paper
And…
Whose message which was written and hidden in plain sight
Has been received
You encouraged your readers to stay in the Light
I now bathe in it…
R.I.P. Leslie Esdale Banks
The opportunity to meet you never arrived
But somehow, you knew me….
-Delizhia D. Jenkins
Books by Delizhia D. Jenkins
Nubia Rising: The Awakening
Love at Last
Blind Salvation (The Dark Royals Series)
Viper
Sin: Daughter of the Grim Reaper
In the Light of Darkness: The Grey Chronicles of Dawn
Coming Soon
Viper Returns
Sin: Daughter of the Grim Reaper Book 2
Into the Shadows
Escape
The Family Curse
Prologue
Sixteen years ago…
The convening of dark forces could be felt throughout the halls of the most powerful and influential church in the world-the Vatican. Hidden in secrecy in a secured room, the Pope himself possessed no knowledge of the Guardian sect that protected the human race from the complete and total darkness. Only twelve of them were able to make the trek from whatever part of the globe they originated from for this precise moment. For centuries, members of this secret order watched and waited for the birth of the prophesized Akhkharu Alal: huntress, slayer, destroyer of demons; and for centuries they prepared. Many slayers had come and gone since the birth of man, when evil first made its presence known on the earth realm. But this particular slayer would be the first of her kind born in over two thousand years…and this slayer would be sent to tip the balance of scales in favor of the Light. She would be the strongest ever born and it was foretold that she would lead the thousands of guardians in a final battle between the Light and the Dark. The stars never lied and it was on this night on September 3rd, that her presence had been announced in the sky, written in a starry language that only a highly trained astrologer could read. As all twelve guardians, ranging in age from 19-86, male and female sat around the marble table in front of a large book made of its original papyrus leaves and etched with writing varying from Akkadian, Kemetian, Egyptian, Chinese, and all of the other languages of old, each one of them held a look of concern in his or her eyes…The location of this Slayer had not been revealed, perhaps even the Light did not trust even the guardians who swore the sacred oath to protect her at any and every cost. Time was of serious essence. There was only a window of 21 years before the Darkness would come for her; and in 21 years she would need to be taught everything she would need to know to not only protect herself, but to protect mankind from the forces of evil.
A single thought was shared among the brethren: they would scatter the globe in search of the huntress and in the meantime, they would continue to scout and train potential guardians at the top secret yet highly selective academy. In 21 years, not only will she begin her mission, but she must choose seven of the finest and most trust worthy warriors to protect and aid her in her quest against the ultimate darkness. The Guardians reviewed the pages of the book one last time before it was returned to its mysterious location. The etched symbols blazed a white hot silver glow, providing only one clue to who the new huntress happened to be in a single name: Sanaya.
October 2015…
Sanaya Scott watched her mother sit by the window sill, Jack Daniel’s in one hand and a cigarette in another. Her father had yet to come home, and whenever her mother had a bottle of liquor in hand, she knew things weren’t good. Patrice hadn’t said a word since she’d come home from a long day at the post office, and Sanaya knew something wasn’t right. As a matter of fact, she’d been walking on eggshells around her mother all week since her father, Roland, went away to the store and never came back. Patrice had yet to file a missing person’s report, being that this would not be the first time Roland disappeared without a trace. Sanaya sighed, secretly wishing some self-esteem was at the bottom of the liquor bottle so that her mother would just divorce him and move on. The man was a cheater and showed no signs of changing any time soon. Sanaya assumed that he had always been that way, but could not figure out for the life of her why her mother would put up with it. The last time he disappeared, he ran off with one of Patrice’s ex-friends for two years before coming home with his tail between his legs. For the first six months after his departure, she had to live with her Aunt Shawna while her mother struggled through a serious bout of depression and drinking. After she almost drank herself to the point of a coma, she finally began to clean herself up, found a new job at the post office as a clerk, and things began to look up for Sanaya and Patrice. Until her dad came home, and well…things went downhill from there. And now, they were back in the shit hole.
Sanaya crept into the kitchen, trying to block out her mother’s thoughts,which was another thing: she could actually hear what people were thinking as they were thinking, something that at one point, freaked her out. She smoothed the fine hairs that framed her face back into the freshly flat ironed ponytail she could feel bouncing against the back of her neck as she stealthily opened the fridge.
This son of a bitch got me all the way fucked up, her mother seethed mentally, still staring out of the window. As soon as he comes back, I’m leaving his ass and he can see for himself what it’s like to raise a child alone…
Sanaya quickly grabbed her left over foot long sandwich from Subway her mother picked up for her after school, and headed back to her room while she could. If Patrice caught wind of her moving about the house in the state that she was in, Sanaya would have to bear the verbal brunt of her mother’s tirade until it was time for her to get to school.
Fuck him!
Sanaya gently eased the door to her room shut and cut the volume down just low enough not to disturb her mother… As of late, her hearing had become much more sensitive and acute that even at the television’s lowest volume, it still sounded like her ear drums were going to explode. As a matter of fact, since she was twelve her senses had heightened to the realms of abnormal. She could see things at least a mile away with total clarity, all the way down to the most minute detail. She could smell with equal acuity, having spent many a day in the nurse’s office for extreme nausea and vomiting from the nasal sensitivity. One time after being picked up from school for vomiting, her mother asked her if she was pregnant, and drove her to a local free clinic where she was forced to take a pregnancy test despite her still being a virgin.
She hid most of the changes that took place within her body other than the typical issues that all females went through as they transitioned into young adulthood; but everything else such as the heightened sensitivity to her environment, and the awareness of the ever present feeling of something darker, and stronger than herself, she kept locked away. Besides, her mother had other issues to worry about besides the fact that her daughter’s developing “gifts” should have by rights placed her in the nut house. She learned a long time ago that there just wasn’t room for special people like her,and whatever these gifts are…well, there is no such thing as super heroes. Those characters only existed in the pages of a Marvel comic books.
Sanaya tightened the strings of her berry
pink pajama bottoms and plopped on her twin sized bed, decorated with a purple comforter set, and covered with stuffed animals she collected since she was old enough to walk. Yeah, it was childish but how else would she sleep at night when she always felt like someone was watching her?
Taking a bite of the leftover Philly cheese steak sub, she listened for her mother, happy to have distanced herself from her mother’s toxic thoughts, but dreading what the night may bring from Patrice’s drunken stupor. Sanaya finished her sandwich and tossed the wrapping into her purple waste bin by the door before crawling into bed. Patrice would more than likely sit by the window all night if left undistracted from her thoughts, which Sanaya intended to do. Sanaya wrestled underneath the welcoming comfort of her covers, and allows her thoughts to drift to the sound of MTV’s Cribs, and the hauntingly eerie silence which begun to blanket her street. She shrugged off the horrifying sensation as paranoia, and cursing herself for never being able to relax.
She grabbed the remote and cut the television off and just listened. She heard the sound of her father’s 2002 Honda Civic pull up into the driveway of their two storied duplex. The hum of the engine came to a stop as he stepped out onto the pavement, his heavy footsteps tapping against the pavement. Her whole body tensed as she listened to the jingle of his keys clink against the metal door. Something wasn’t right…she did not know how she knew, but something deep inside of her told her something about her father’s return just wasn’t right. She detected the presence of someone else just outside of her home’s iron gate, and she sat up quickly; her eyes adjusting to the dark as if it were day. She listened intently, tuning more into what may have been going on outside than in.
The presence moved through the shadows with the stealth and agility of a trained assassin before coming to a stop just underneath her bedroom window. She got up to take a peek when she could hear her mother’s drunken outburst slam into her cranium.
“So which bitch was it this time, Roland?” she demanded.
Sanaya could see it in her mind’s eye: her mother leaning against the wooden dining room table with a multicolored scarf on her head full of tightly coiled locks she kept hidden under various wigs; her large brown eyes tinged with red from hours of crying and drinking; her once beautifully smooth brown skin marred with worry lines and few wrinkles here and there; her 5’9” frame draped in an old tattered red robe, and all signs of hope and happiness completely drained from her pores. Standing before her father was a shell of a woman who lacked the one thing she wanted most in the world: the love of her husband.
Sanaya listened for her father’s reply, which came out in a melodic echo that caused her skin to prickle.
“You’ve been drinking,” was all he said.
Hearing her father’s voice made something within her snap, and she mentally shot her mother a message: Run mama!
However, the message fell on deaf ears because her mother instantly began her verbal tirade, belting out curses, threats and everything else she could think of. Sanaya quietly eased the door open and slid out, and crept down the hall, cautious to remain hidden in the shadows, careful not to be seen by the version of the man she knew as her father. All of her instincts began to fire off the instant she laid eyes on her father. He looked like Roland, sounded like Roland, and said things that Roland would say, but Sanaya shuddered… Roland wasn’t Roland.
She peered out just in time to witness her mother slap her father with a force that should have knocked the wind out of him, but he never staggered. He never flinched. He just glared at her with such intensity, that even in her drunken and enraged state, Patrice took a step back. That is when Sanaya noticed the difference. Roland’s mouth crested with two pointed teeth that were as thick as switch blades and equally as sharp, which extended to near the end of his jawline. His normally hazel brown eyes flickered with a deep crimson, and his honey brown skin appeared more ashen and dull.
Patrice took another step back, unsure of which direction to go, and Roland continued to stalk after her.
“Get the hell away from me Roland,” Patrice warned. “I mean it.”
“Or else what?” Roland asked coolly.
No longer able to sit back and wait for her father to seal her mother’s fate, Sanaya sprang to her feet, armed only with her bravery and fear for her mother’s life, she charged at her father, only for him to knock her into the wall with the sweep of his hand. Her head connected with the 8 x 12 mirror her mother insisted on purchasing from Ross a year ago, before she collapsed to the ground.
“Sanaya!” Patrice called out, her back now pinned against the cupboard and her husband’s face just inches away from hers.
“I am terribly glad to be rid of you, you miserable…useless…bitch,” Roland articulated slowly. “I long ago grew tired of your endless ramblings…” He leaned in closer. “And to answer the question you begged of me long ago, yes, your sister is better.”
Patrice’s gasp was followed by her scream as Roland slammed her into the cupboard and sank his teeth into her throat. Sanaya, dazed and bloodied, struggled to get to her feet, when the window from which her mother gazed out into the night shattered, and the watchful presence emerged, dressed in all black and armed with a long sword and a mission, burst through the shattered window. With the speed and agility of a panther, the hooded assassin’s sword sliced through the air with a chime, taking Roland’s head clean off of his shoulders. Patrice’s body slumped to the floor, her hands clutching her throat.
Sanaya managed to get on her feet, forcing herself to stumble to her mother’s aid. Slightly dazed, she inched closer drawing in deep breaths as she watched her mother spew up her own blood. Kneeling beside her, she brought her mother’s head to her chest, unsure of what to do or who to turn to. The hooded assassin, still clutching the sword approached them, pulling out a small vial of clear liquid and removing the spongy cap. Before Sanaya could respond, the assassin sprinkled a few drops of the mystery fluid onto her mother and the instant the drop made contact, her mother began to incinerate.
“What the fuck did you do to her?” Sanaya sobbed jumping back, as her mother screamed and thrashed about as her body became consumed with flames.
The hooded assassin regarded her with a disinterested stare before returning to Patrice’s body, as it slowly turned to a pile of ash. Patrice’s screams abated, her arms no longer thrashing about as the flames continued to consume her. Sanaya’s sobs became louder as she fell to her knees once more. Whatever her father had done, he’d brought it home to her mother. and nowboth of her parents were gone. Overwrought with grief, she buried her face in her hands, not expecting the sudden strike of a small dart to the base of her neck. She flinched, and scrambled to her feet to address the sudden threat. However, the specially calibrated toxin sent a shock to her nervous system and the last thing she remembered was the heavy hand of the hooded assassin catching her by the waist before her face hit the floor.
Chapter 1
One year later…
Sanaya moved like poetry in motion as she gracefully bent her knees, folding her upper torso just inches above the ground just as the actors did in the movie, The Matrix, dodging the round of bullets flying in her direction. She back flipped quickly out of range from an arrow with her name on it. Her trainers showed no mercy, and neither would the creatures she was destined to hunt upon graduating from the academy. Without turning around, she nailed her opponent in the nose with an elbow. Sensing the moment he went down, she spun on her heels to go in for the kill. Consumed with bloodlust and rage, she reached for the six inch dagger she kept at her waist when Archer rung the bells, an indicator for her to stop. But she would not stop. Never again would she fall victim to…
“Sanaya!” Archer yelled. He was on his feet in a flash and just in time to grab Sanaya’s wrist, forcing her to drop the blade. “What are you doing? He’s done! Didn’t you hear the bells?”
Sanaya snatched her wrist away from him and stepped back. Her opponent, Ryder, a senior
student, was curled in a fetal position on the floor, his face in his palms and blood everywhere. She inhaled deeply in an attempt to normalize her senses. She had no idea what happened. Ryder had done absolutely nothing to provoke her like the other students did her first week. But something else had come over her.Had Archer not stepped in when he did…
“I-I-I don’t know what happened…” She stammered. Realizing what she had almost done, Sanaya mentally began to freak out.
“Take a walk. Your powers are developing faster than what we expected. Ryder will be taken to the medical unit, but he should be fine.”
Sanaya stomped off, shoving the heavy double doors open of the gym, headed for the grassy area of the courtyard. She could feel the eyes of her peers on her back, but no one dared to mutter a word. Archer, of course, would find her. However, her best friend would be unavailable for a venting session for the next few hours. Of course, this little incident would isolate her even more from the rest of the student body. Thankfully the courtyard was empty. All of the hundred or so students or “Guardians in Training,” were in one of the various classes required to be recognized as a hunter. Sanaya, on the other hand, was here at the academy for an entirely different purpose. According to Archer, and the entire Catholic Church, she is what the ancient Babylonians described as the Akhkharu Alal: Akhkharu meaning vampire and Alal meaning Destroyer. There were many more like her that had come and gone. However, she is the most recent and theorized to be the strongest of vampire hunters ever born. What made matters worse, is that her parents never knew what she was. As a matter of fact, her mother never knew about her abilities because Sanaya had made it a point to hide them well,and now, here at the academy, she would be under heavy guard until it was time for her to hunt. Here, she would learn everything a vampire huntress is supposed to know about vampires, demons, werewolves and other supernatural entities that the Darkness sent to terrorize the human populations. Here, her skills and abilities would be developed and tested beyond her limits. Here, she would fit in with other teens and young adults possessing abilities that labeled them as “freaks” in the human world, and here, when the time came, she would be allowed to personally select her team of guardians; specialized warriors destined to follow her lead as they eradicate the forces of darkness, who would go into the world with her as was required, protecting her as she would protect humanity... Being here at the Academy just made her feel more alone and isolated than ever.
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