by HK Khan
He sticks his bottom lip out in a ridiculous pout, and I giggle. “The air shifted, Ashton.”
He swings an arm around my shoulder and leans into me. “So you have super awesome reflexes, Guine? That’s handy.”
I roll my eyes. Now that he’s closer, I notice the longbow and quiver slung over his shoulder. A tattoo covers the left side of his ribcage and his arm of the same side. I can’t quite make it out, so I turn to watch Declan’s run.
“You’re lucky she didn’t stab you, man,” Dec scoffs as he prepares to take his turn. “She’s jumpy, and now she’s armed.”
Ash stiffens and turns to me. “You won’t hurt me, will you, Guinnie?”
I laugh nervously and shrug out from under his arm. “Not on purpose, I don’t think.”
It’s true. If asked yesterday, I would have said I wouldn’t hurt anyone here, but I already attacked Hawk twice and Declan once. Who knows what this new Guine is capable of?
Hawk whistles, and Declan darts into motion.
He takes a different approach to the course, and I watch the whole thing this time since he stays earthbound. Past the tree Ash scaled, a high tech, silvery flying machine darts for his head, and he rolls to the side while drawing his singlestick. He whips it around like a baseball bat and the machine shatters into a thousand pieces.
Phoenix moans and shouts to him, “Shit! Don’t break all of them, you overgrown leprechaun!”
Declan flips him off and smirks at me over his shoulder.
Several more of the flying machines come at him from different angles, and he works hard to avoid them. After three minutes, only one remains, and it zaps him with what sounds like an electrical current on the back of his right leg. Hawk whistles and Declan limps back to rejoin us.
Genji leans over and whispers, “The goal is to disable all of them without being touched. If one gets you, you’re done and will have to go again. They fall ‘inactive’ if you score a critical hit. Most of us run the course two or three times before getting through, so don’t worry. Even if they zap you, it only stings for a minute.”
As Declan gets ready to go again, I stare in confusion as he removes his harnesses.
“But Ash got through quickly on his first try,” I comment, wondering why the Irishman is piling his gear to the side.
“Kent usually only needs to do it once. Sometimes Ash gets through on the first try, but for most of us, it takes longer. Watch.” He lifts his chin as Declan sprints forward again and takes down his first ‘opponent’.
I squint, not sure what I’m watching. He doesn’t appear to be using any weapons. He kicks out, punches, and does a neat backflip over one, grabbing it mid-air and throwing it to the ground. He gets a few more, but then one of them buzzes him from behind, and Kent motions him ‘out’.
It takes him two more tries to get through, and I have a sneaking suspicion that Phoenix was making it more difficult on purpose. I guess he’s a little irritated with Declan too.
When it’s Hawk’s turn, he battles his way through, swinging a giant axe and earning a few more grumbles from Phoenix. He gets tagged out by two at the same time and saunters back into the line as if they were nothing more than a couple of butterflies.
He just barely completes the course on his second attempt, getting zapped at the same time he scores a last critical hit.
Phoenix gets a little further than Hawk on his first round, using a combination of knives and a cool quarterstaff he snaps together with a flick of his wrist. It’s some sort of electrified spear that he weaves in a beautiful, deadly dance to get all but the last machine down. On his second round, he makes it through faster, managing to grin and swear his way through the exercise.
Kent uses his broadsword with breathtaking accuracy, taking down all the targets in only two and a half minutes. It reinforces my first impression of him, proving his deadly strength with strike after strike.
When Genji’s turn comes up, Phoenix pulls out his ever-present laptop and changes the speed of the attacks so I can watch closely.
Genji unsheathes a samurai sword I recognize as a katana, and plants his oddly bare feet securely while crouching low. He moves with a fluidity almost impossible for anyone but a vampire to achieve. He flows up and around and through one of the machines. He takes them out one by one until they all lay on the ground. He turns to me with a fang-tastic grin. “I’ve never been able to get through them on the first round before, Kitten! Sure, Nix slowed them, but even so, that was so much fun!”
I laugh and clap for him as he approaches.
“Are you ready to try, Guine?” Kent asks.
I gulp down a breath and nod, my nerves surprisingly steady. Except for when Ash disappeared into the trees, I observed the machines in combat closely, and I understand the basics. I’m jittery, but it’s with anticipation, not fear.
“Nix will keep your opponents on the same setting you just saw. Focus and you’ll be fine.” I smile at Kent’s wringing hands, and wait for the signal to start.
When Hawk whistles, my blood sings out, ready for the fight. In a move that feels as natural as walking, I flip forward over the first of the machines. I roll and come up in a crouch while whipping a dagger at a second one that tries to sneak up from the left. I kick out and knock the first one to the ground and let fly three more daggers. Each buries itself to the hilt in another machine, filling me with something I’ve never felt before—pride.
Five down, four more to go.
The air sighs around one zooming up behind me. I tuck and roll backwards while jabbing it with my last dagger, a quick in and out.
Only three now.
They charge at me together, one low and two high, coming from opposite directions. I stab down at the one below and my knife sticks. With no time to dislodge it, I grab the machine itself and hurl it at the one coming from the left while kicking out hard at the one closing in on my right.
Genji was right. This is fun!
Grinning, I turn around with an excited squeal. My smile slips away. They stare at me with varying degrees of shock and severity. Why aren’t they saying anything? Something sparks by my feet, and I glance down to see the machines, all either in pieces on the ground, or smoking and sparking where my daggers protrude.
Oops.
“Nix?” Kent questions.
“Sorry!” Phoenix hollers. “I forgot to lock in the command and they reverted to the previous settings.”
Wait, what?
“Badass,” Phoenix mumbles under his breath, staring wide-eyed at the mess surrounding me.
I can’t take it anymore. I hate not knowing what’s going on.
“Kent!” I shout. “What does he mean when he says ‘reverted to the previous settings’?”
He jogs closer so we don’t have to yell. “Guine, Nix made an error, causing your opponents to fight you on the same settings as the rest of the team, excluding Ji. You took down all nine of your opponents in—“
He pauses and looks to Phoenix, who finishes the sentence with, “Forty-three seconds!”
Kent picks the conversation back up. “That was extraordinary. The fastest one-run finish before now was two minutes and twelve seconds. You completed it in a third of the time.”
After the shock wears off, the guys cheer, and I sidle up to Phoenix. I nudge him with my hip, and he flinches away. “Sorry about breaking your machines. I’ll help you with repairs if you show me what to do.”
He shakes his head. “Guine, it was worth it to see you fight. You were like an avenging angel, both terrifying and beautiful.”
His comment makes my insides squirm, and I steal a sidelong glance at him to try and gauge how much he meant it. He’s muttering profanities at his tablet while making notes, and I can’t tell.
Kent calls off the rest of training for the morning since I broke all the machines. I guess they use them for more than just one thing.
Instead, we move on to the last part of his training, and he glances at me, his forehead puckered w
ith worry. “Everyone take a seat.”
He waits until we sit on the ground, close together, and he produces a pamphlet from somewhere and begins to read to us about ‘how to behave with members of the opposite sex.’
It’s incredibly awkward, and I tune him out, watching the horizon instead. The sun rises through the trees, and I’m relieved to realize I’m in shadow. After a minute or two of enjoying the sight, I lower my gaze and gasp at what I see.
Everyone stops talking.
“What’s wrong?” Kent asks.
Their tattoos shine with a familiar blue glow under the morning light, alive as though with magic. No longer are they the plain ink I’d noticed earlier, but something otherworldly.
Genji realizes where I’m staring and leans forward, catching my eye. “Our tattoos are double inked, first with normal dye when we commit ourselves to the Hunters, and later on with a special combination of plants mixed with a highly concentrated form of my venom. The recipe is a secret amongst even Hunters. Only a select few know of it. The infusion of the second concoction into our flesh makes our reflexes faster and our bodies stronger. Once you join the Hunters, you’ll get one, too.”
I shake my head and stand, still shrouded in shadow by a nearby tree.
“You don’t have to be afraid. We can numb the area first so it doesn’t hurt,” he tries to explain.
“No,” I respond harshly. “You don’t understand.”
I whip off my top and step into a shaft of light. My entire upper body is covered in swirling designs, glimmering blue like theirs in the early morning sunlight. I hold my arms out and turn slowly, showing them that the patterns continue all the way around, covering me completely to my clavicle, stretching from fingertip to fingertip.
“All the way to my toes, too,” I whisper.
“Holy shit,” Phoenix exclaims at the same time he tears his eyes away from my chest to stare intently at the forest floor.
“Put your shirt back on,” Hawk softly urges, also not meeting my gaze.
I don’t know what to make of their reactions, and for the first time, I realize I’m naked to my waist. Quickly, I do as he requests and then try to make eye contact with them.
“Who are you?” Declan whispers harshly.
Good question.
Who am I?
Chapter Five
“You’re telling me these tattoos are made from vampire spit?” I wince at the shrill shriek coming from me, but don’t really have much control over it at the moment.
A flock of birds takes off from a nearby tree, and Kent slaps a hand over his mouth to hide his smile. Everyone else stares at me, making me uncomfortable. I hug my arms across my exposed midriff and plop down.
Genji scoots closer and holds his arm up. I trace the lines of the caduceus drawn out in delicate Japanese characters on his skin. It mesmerizes me, and I watch it fade as the sunlight grows stronger. “It only glows in the first minutes of morning light. That’s where the mythology about us fanged-ones not being able to go out in the sun comes from, I think. In the Hunters’ archives, there’s a small library dedicated to the little bit we’ve been able to collect about vampire history. Obviously, we lack a lot of knowledge, but the oldest tomes hint at the fact that the Hunters were founded by hybrids who weren’t happy with the treatment of their non-vampire kin. They marked themselves with the tattoos as a promise to protect the innocent. A covenant of sorts.”
The glow vanishes, and he smiles, tracing the now ordinary lines of the tattoo on his forearm. “We think it has something to do with the angle of light refraction. As the sun rises, the angle decreases, and the venom-inked parts disappear. We’ve played with infrared and ultraviolet spectrums in the lab, but haven’t been able to re-create the effect.”
He takes my hand in his and intertwines our fingers, the heat from his hand pleasant in the cool morning air. “Some of the more spiritual of us believe it’s a divine blessing.” My head snaps up, and I silently beg him to elaborate. “Every member of the Hunters eventually receives one of these upon graduation, but for some unknown reason, it doesn’t work about half of the time. For the ones whose marks fade, they take on a non-hunter role of support and research. They never gain the extra strength and dexterity the rest of us do.”
I trace my finger over my forearm where the hidden designs lie. “Does that mean yours, or mine, might fade someday, too?”
Genji shakes his head and smiles a full-fanged smile. “No, Kitten. They either fade within the first couple of weeks or stay for life.”
“Our tattoos aren’t inked with normal venom, Guine.” Kent’s voice pulls my focus away from the healer who now gently rubs the back of my knuckles with his thumb. “It’s an incredibly concentrated version of Ji’s venom mixed with specific plants to increase its potency. Other than this team, only the Council knows the recipe. Hybrid venom shares enough human DNA to make it compatible with us, allowing the benefits to transfer into the recipient’s body, and Ji is the sole human-born in our ranks.”
My mind whirls with the information.
“That means at some point, Guine was in the presence of a Hunter with access to the formula.” Genji voices my thoughts exactly. “That list isn’t long, Kent.”
I open my mouth to ask how many people could do this when Kent stands and lets out a sharp whistle. Everyone jumps to their feet and clears away the broken training robots, not looking at me.
Genji tugs me toward the cabin. “We’ll talk about it later, but right now, we have work we need to get to.”
Ashton jogs past us and hollers over his shoulder, “Breakfast in ten!”
Declan grumbles something under his breath about flavor profiles and shouts for Ashton to wait for him.
True to his word, Ashton has breakfast on the table in short order. I pick at the food on my plate. It looks amazing, but my stomach knots from this morning’s revelations. I remind myself to ask how to make ‘French toast’, so we can eat it again when I can concentrate. When the dishes get cleared away, Phoenix frowns at the breakfast still sitting before me, but says nothing.
“Guine.” I gaze up at Kent. “Would you answer a few questions for me?” I nod, and he clears his throat. “Before any of us jump to conclusions, can you tell me when you were tattooed?”
I’m twelve, doing kitchen duty in the predawn hours. I smile, liking it much more than cleaning the latrines.
“Why are you so happy, bitch?” I sigh and glance up at the girl I call Scarlett in my head. Most of her dresses are shades of red, and the name just fits her. She’s been here for about a year now, and for some reason, she hates me most of all.
“I’m trying to get through my work. Can you please leave me alone?” I turn my back to her and return to scrubbing a large pot.
She grabs my hair and yanks hard, causing me to drop the pot and cry out.
“I don’t know what makes you so special,” she sneers. “That gorgeous visiting Old One with the red hair has taken from you three times in the week he’s been here. He won’t even look at the rest of us.” She knees me in the stomach and laughs. “You’re pathetic and plain. Your blood can’t be that much better than mine! I’m a sanguine, too! Why won’t he pick me?” she screams.
The first rays of sunrise stream through the window, and swirling, glowing lines appear on my skin before I can step away. My heart skips a beat when I realize Scarlett will see my secret.
“What the hell is that?” she yells, pointing to my forearm. Her eyes gleam wickedly, and she pulls a pair of scissors out from her sleeve. “I bet they’ll want to know about it, even if I have to carve it from your scrawny arms myself!” She hisses like a wild cat as she lunges at me.
Everything goes hazy, and my mind blanks out. I come back into myself, and she’s lying on her back, her eyes glazing over. A pool of blood surrounds her on the floor, and her scissors stick straight out of her chest.
“Oh no! Oh-no-oh-no-oh-no!” I grab a dishrag and press firmly against the wound, trying to s
top the bleeding. Tears flow down my face, but she’s already dead, and my salty streams add to the puddle beneath us.
What have I done?
Sobbing, I bury my face in her chest. I grip her clammy hands in mine and watch my tears drip down onto her satin bodice. “I’m so sorry, Scarlett. I didn’t mean to.” I hiccup and reach to close her lifeless eyes. I arrange her raven locks around her head and wipe the splatter of blood from her pale skin. “You were so beautiful. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
I don’t know why, but I always felt an imperative to keep the glowing lines a secret. I’ve guarded them with so much paranoia that I’m apparently willing to kill for it. I don’t even remember doing it, but the evidence lies dead before me.
Guilt and grief overcome me, but my wits aren’t entirely gone. I’m alone, and I have a blade. I grab the handles of the sturdy scissors and tug them out of her sternum. I don’t even know how I managed to get them in there in the first place. They’re more than sharp enough to do the job, and I find a moment of hope.
Maybe this time, I’ll truly be free.
I swallow down the guilt about using Scarlett’s demise as the means for my own release, and whisper another soft apology. Placing the tip of the scissors to the inside of my elbow, I push them in deep, and draw them down my arm.
I smile as my blood drains away from me. The very thing that makes me important to the vampires now leaks down my arm. Dizziness overtakes me, and I drop to the floor. I crawl to the window, wanting my last sight to be of the sky.
Instead, I see Perry’s livid expression as my vision grows dim. “Shit! Not again!”
I wipe the tears from my eyes and glance at Kent. “I’ve had them for as long as I can remember,” I answer quietly, not wanting to think about my past anymore.
“How has nobody seen them before now?” he mumbles.
I tremble and the salty streams flow freely down my cheeks. I can’t tell them. I can’t admit to what I did.
“Kitten, what’s your earliest memory?” I close my eyes and try to think back to before that day.