The Sons of Satrina: A Sons of Satrina Novel

by Kristan Belle

  When he made no move to get up, she stepped forward menacingly, only to find herself unable to move. A hand had clamped itself around her upper arm and she flicked her head around to see who it was, and she found Kayleigh standing behind her.

  “Do you care to tell me what you think is going on here? I thought it was made very clear to you, Aisline, that there were to be no visitors to your room. I am very disappointed in you.” Kayleigh said, her voice and her expression very stern. Kayleigh couldn’t quite believe the scene she had stumbled upon. She had made it crystal clear that a female warrior was a new situation for them to handle and that she was expecting Aisline to work with her and follow the rules to their fullest. How was she supposed to turn all her energy to her training if she was more interested in kick starting her sex life? Kayleigh could hear the moans and groans from down the other end of the corridor. How could she do this? Kayleigh felt very let down.

  “What?” Aisline truly looked shocked. “What the hell do you mean?” How could this look like anything but what it was? She was standing there, as far away as she could get from the slimy piece of shit and he was rolling around the floor, holding himself and clearly in pain. The look on his face certainly wasn’t one of pleasure.

  “I did not expect this kind of behaviour from you.”

  Aisline yanked her arm away fiercely from Kayleigh and could feel the skin on her face start to flush with anger. How could Kayleigh even think that?

  “And you know what? I didn’t expect to come back to my room to find Denver waiting to sexually molest me, either!” she shouted on the top of her voice, unable to control her temper. She didn’t care who heard.

  If it hadn’t have been for the whole fuss over her warrior mark appearing the night of her date with Jordon, she was sure that her mother would have been disappointed in her that she hadn’t ‘encouraged’ a relationship with him. Her mother was old school, and sure, she wouldn’t have approved of sex on the first date, but she certainly wouldn’t have approved of Ash violently throwing him off of her. The family had a reputation to uphold, after all.

  And here was Kayleigh, acting in exactly the same manner. What did she want from her? Did she expect her to change from being a warrior to a little lady who didn’t put up a fight? Was she expected to put out for any of the male warriors who came knocking on her door? Well, they could all think again.

  She knew that she wasn’t thinking rationally at this present time, but who could blame her. She was taking what Kayleigh had said out of context and it cut her to the quick. She’d nearly been assaulted and here she was the one who was getting into trouble.

  Bloody typical.

  Kayleigh paled and realised the scene in front of her wasn’t what she had first imagined. “Oh, Aisline, I am so sorry-” Kayleigh looked devastated that she had jumped to the wrong conclusion and she didn’t know how she was going to be able to take it back and make things right. She should have known that it wasn’t what it looked like. After all, she credited Aisline with more sense than entertaining Denver. She had more respect for herself than that.

  “Yeah, well. Whatever.” Ash looked down at the floor, unable to look at either of them. It was all she could do to hold back the tears that were threatening to fall. She would not let herself cry in front of, or over, Denver. Or Kayleigh for that matter.

  “We’ll talk later, I promise.” Kayleigh said, trying to catch her eye and failing. “Denver! You get your ass up off of that floor right now! Move it!” and she grabbed hold of his arm to drag him to his feet, ushering him out of the door, all the while he was still moaning and complaining and clutching himself.

  When they had both gone, Aisline couldn’t help but grin briefly to herself, the tears now quickly forgotten. She’d certainly shown him that she wasn’t someone that he could mess with. He should have known that already, but the boy was clearly stupid. He wouldn’t be messing with her again.

  But, she still couldn’t get over Kayleigh jumping to the wrong conclusion like she did. And so easily. Did she really think that little of her? She wasn’t that kind of girl. Hadn’t she done enough to prove herself committed to becoming a warrior? She was truly disappointed.

  The next morning in the cafeteria, Kayleigh tried to get Aisline’s attention, but she blanked her.

  It was way too soon to forgive or forget the accusations that had been thrown at her. She’d really hurt her. Even if she thought that of her, did she really think that she’d get together with Denver? Of all people? She had more sense, and pride in herself, than that. She wouldn’t have lowered herself.

  Aisline was too angry to even look in her direction, let alone converse with her in a rational manner. She didn’t give a damn right now that Kayleigh was her mentor. She didn’t give a shit who she was or who her partner was. How could she have thought so badly of her? Kayleigh was supposed to be her friend. Her ally. She didn’t trust herself not to say something she’d later regret.

  It wasn’t like she was mad enough to do anything rash, like request a new mentor, or anything like that. Ash knew that all it would take was some time to forget about it. Not yet though. She was still fuming. At least Kayleigh had the sense to give her the space she needed.

  Grabbing only the bare minimum amount of food, Ash hauled her tray over to where the guys were sitting and plonked herself down. She knew that if she bailed on them completely that they’d get suspicious and she didn’t want to get into it with them. She’d managed to avoid any and all conversations yesterday afternoon, and wanted to carry on the trend today.

  She just wanted to be left alone. Which was easier said than done in this crowd. They were such a friendly bunch and were already looking out for her but Denver was her problem and she would deal with him however she saw fit. Aisline didn’t need a gang of boys coming to her rescue. She had already more than proved that she was perfectly capable of handling herself.

  “What’s up, Ash?” Trey asked. He may have looked like a big beast of a man, but to her he was a total teddy bear. He had a heart of gold and was fast becoming one of her closest friends in this place. He was like the big brother she’d never had.

  Aisline tried to form a convincing smile on her face but the muscles didn’t want to play ball, “I’m fine.” and she looked back down at her food.

  Great. Her response just brought her the attention of the entire table, who were all now asking her what was wrong with her, if there was anything that they could help her with, blah, blah, blah.

  “No guys, it’s all good. Women’s things, you know?” She raised an eyebrow at them and in unison they all turned away and started up animated conversations about inane crap. Aisline grinned to herself. That was a sure fire way to get the guys off of her back. She’d have to remember that one for future reference.

  A day or so later, walking into the computer suite, the first person that she saw was Denver. Turning to glance at her as she passed, he quickly moved his eyes back to the screen in front of him.

  Yeah, that’s right, Aisline thought to herself. She was more than prepared to hit him where it hurt if he made a wrong move again. If he wanted to play that game, she’d let everyone know the foul move that he’d made and exactly how she’d put him to the floor. At least he seemed to have the sense to avoid her, for the time being any way. She knew Denver, she knew his type. Soon enough, he’d be acting the Big I Am again.

  It wasn’t the best introduction to life at the academy, Denver being an ass like that. But, it showed that she could stand up for herself and not be backed into a corner, just because she was a girl. No one but she, Denver and Kayleigh knew about the ‘incident’ and that was how it was going to stay.

  She had feared which direction her little altercation with Denver would take and she was glad to see that he had opted for avoiding her. There was no way that she was going to let herself be walked over, and he knew that now. She was glad he was keeping out of her face. She didn’t relish a confrontation every time she saw him. After all, it woul
dn’t make for an easy atmosphere for the next four years.

  Sitting down in front of her designated computer, she turned to smile at Jax, who was stationed next to her. The smile was for real now. Not forced, not fake. Genuine. Sure, she was still pissed at Denver and Kayleigh, but it wasn’t worth the time or energy. She had friends here, friends who wouldn’t think the worst of her, friends like Jackson

  “You okay?” Jackson whispered over to her. She nodded in return, but quickly faced her computer when she saw Professor Fieldman approaching.

  Looking at what was on her screen, she paused for a moment before starting the research on the latest assignment that they’d been set. She didn’t really want to research all the unsolved deaths and murders in the area that spanned over the last century. She didn’t want to have to find that connection to the Mortuorum. But she knew why they had been set this task.

  The Mortuorum were former humans. Humans that had been turned. Often they were on the police missing list for years. Sometimes their disappearances went unnoticed. They often preyed on the vulnerable, such as the homeless, knowing that they would less likely be missed. This was a task to show them that the Matris weren’t the only ones who were at risk from these monsters. They weren’t just here to train to be a warrior to protect their own race - they had a whole world of people to look out for. It was a daunting thought.

  As a living, breathing person, it made her sick to think about it. To see the death and destruction that they left in their wake. Creatures that were so closely linked to them, but were so different. It was unthinkable. How and why did they act like that? What warped them to behave so monstrously? Were the whole Lamia race at risk of spiralling out of control to the deep, dark levels of the Mortuorum?

  When she was a kid, Aisline used to have vivid nightmares about the Mortuorum. In her childish head, she pictured them with big, googly red eyes filled with insanity, nails that curled into razor sharp claws and teeth constantly dripping with blood. As she grew up, it was even more frightening for her to find out that they looked just like everyone else. They could live, they could blend. The enemy was out there, walking and talking among them.

  How could something be so evil and look so ordinary?

  She pushed all thoughts of Kayleigh out of her head. It wouldn’t do to think about her at a time like this.

  As a warrior, it made her blood boil and made her want to take revenge. They shouldn’t be able to do what they did. Which was the exact point of this assignment.

  Aisline was glad when their time was up because was absolutely starving and couldn’t wait to get down to the cafeteria. Anything would have done. A scabby horse would have looked pretty damn delicious right about now. She wasn’t sure if it was all the extra physical activity that she had been doing lately, or what it was, but she seemed to be in a permanent state of hunger.

  Moving into the line behind the other trainee warriors in the cafeteria, she shuffled on her feet and sighted loudly at the lack of speed of the others in front of her. Couldn’t they just please hurry up and choose already? Didn’t they realise that she was about to faint on her feet from starvation at any given moment?

  She was relieved that now she was no longer the centre of attention wherever she went. There was no longer that sudden swivel of everyone‘s head as she entered a room. Finally, the rest of them were starting to accept her as part of the fixture and fittings of the place, which made life a hell of a lot easier for Ash. She hated to be singled out and to be able to blend in with the rest of them? Perfect. Just what she wanted.

  Finally, after what felt like weeks of waiting in line, Aisline grabbed hold of the first thing she came to, mindless of what it was. As long as it was edible, that was good enough for her. She wound her way through the crowded tables to go and sit with the usual guys. Luckily, the fates had been on her side today, and as she walked, she noticed that she had grabbed a plate with a humungous portion of spaghetti bolognaise, one of her all-time favourites. And, a humungous chunk of garlic bread on the side. Who cared how bad she stank? She was ravenous! It wasn’t like she was planning on kissing anyone…

  Stopping just in time, she realised that Denver was blocking her way. He was lucky, if she had been any less starving, he would have been wearing her dinner. As it was, she didn’t want to waste even one delicious mouthful on the likes of him.

  “Ash-” he started to say.

  “No. You don’t call me that. You can’t call me that. Only my friends call me Ash.”

  Denver had the sense to step back from her harsh glare. “Look, I just wanted to say-”

  Aisline held up a hand, the universal gesture for ‘shut the fuck up and back away before this gets ugly’ and barely managed to refrain from saying ‘talk to the hand ‘cause the face ain’t listening’. She knew how lame that sounded, no matter how tempting, and she just settled for barging her way past him.

  She wouldn’t have chosen to stop and talk to him at the best of times, especially after what had happened between them only a few nights previously, and especially not now when her stomach was grumbling loudly enough that the entire student body could have danced the conga to the beats of her hunger.

  Slamming down her plate with a little more force than she had planned on, Aisline immediately started to tuck in. It wasn’t until she was about halfway through demolishing the plateful that she realised that the rest of the guys on the table were staring at her in amused horror.

  “What?”

  Not one of them uttered a word. They all just sat there in stunned silence, watching her as she slurped up another string of the to-die-for spaghetti, bolognaise sauce splattering in all directions.

  “What’s your problem? I’m just hungry!” She grinned between mouthfuls.

  “Yeah, we kinda noticed that.” Jackson was the first to snort out a shot of laughter, quickly followed by the rest of them.

  Her mother would have had a total fit at her complete lack of table manners. She was getting more and more like the boys here, which in her own mind wasn’t such a bad thing at all. Aisline could still scrub up well if and when she needed to. Not that she’d tried since she had been here. She’d been too busy getting dirty and working up a sweat in the sparring room for any of that girly stuff. She could look and act ultra-feminine if it was called for, but the rest of the time? She was one of the guys. And that was just how she liked it.

  Chapter Twenty-One.

  The days and weeks merged into one. There was only the odd day off due to the increase in training in their schedule, but even then, the trainees hit the gym. The oldest trainees had already graduated and were out there on the front line, doing what they did best, doing what they had trained for, and a whole full year ahead of schedule. It was scary to think how fast things were moving in this place. How long had they been there now? Weeks? Months? Years? Who knew?! Training had become their life. That was all that they lived for.

  The death of their leader had demanded that there be more bodies on the streets. More warriors to protect their people. More Warriors out there to avenge his death. They were all working towards the hard target.

  They were still no closer to finding out who in particular had been responsible for Bartholomew’s death and the time that was passing by, with nothing fresh to work on, was infuriating. The Master Warriors were sharing their daily reports, or some of them at least, with the trainee’s. They used it as another part of their training tactics, and they were still none the wiser. They had no leads. The trail was cold. All they could do was destroy as many of the Mortuorum as possible in the hope that they got their guy.

  So, the new warriors were out fighting on the streets, and Jackson was jealous. Jealous as hell. He couldn’t wait for that day to come, in his mind it couldn’t come soon enough.

  Dusk was settling over the large city and the Sons of Satrina Warriors and trainees were starting to stir in their beds.

  Jackson rubbed a hand over his face, feeling the tickly prickle of the stubble
brush against his palm, trying to wipe the sleep from his groggy mind. He knew that they were going to be in for another big day today. Today, he’d heard that they were going to be pitched against some of the older students again, but he didn’t really know this bunch. Marius and the other trainees that he had worked with before had already left the school, so this was going to a new lot of guys to get to know. Which was fine by him. The more the merrier. Bring it on.

  Jackson was enjoying every intense minute of it. Physically - he was exhausted. Mentally - he was exhausted. But there was no way that he was going to drown under the weight of the stress. He was going to do whatever he had to do to fulfil his destiny. If he had to do a ‘little’ work now, then so be it. It would be worth it in the end. The harder they worked them now, the sooner they would be out on the streets doing what they were meant to do.

  Drawing back the heavy drapes in his room, which blocked the sunlight out entirely during the day, he saw that the evening sky was littered with trails of purple and royal blue, heralding the onset of evening time. This was always one of his favourite times of the day. This was the time when the night came alive. They owned the night.

  Sure, when he was growing up, this also proved to be the time when a lot of the humans also came out to play and have the times of their lives, but in the grand scheme of things, the night belonged to the Lamia. The night was the time of their power. They ruled the shit out of it.

  Standing quietly in front of the window frame, Jackson opened it up a little to let in a rush of cool air. He could smell rain, not right now, but threatening to fall later, the downpour wasn’t too far away. The scent washed over him and refreshed him.

  Tugging in a deep breath, Jackson grabbed a clean set of clothes and headed out for a quick shower, hoping again to beat the rest of the rabble to it as he usually did. This was the time when he needed quiet to prepare for the day ahead and the mindless murmur from the rest of the guys wasn’t very productive.