I used the money Greene had given me from the first day to buy myself a mini touch-screen tablet that was about half the size of the one the CGE gave me. I spent way more than I probably should have, but I wanted something nice that was just mine. The tablet was great. I could read eBooks, take pictures, make notes (verbal and written), watch videos, and listen to music. To make it even better, the music player was detachable and fit in the palm of my hand.
By the time we got back from the trip, I’d been exhausted and fell asleep within two minutes. I hadn’t even bothered to change, so I’d slept in what I’d worn that day.
And now it was a quarter to nine on Monday morning, and I was ready for my first class—at least in the sense that I was dressed. Mentally, I was far from ready, and the butterflies in my stomach knew it. They were flying around like they were on speed.
I can do this. I took a deep breath, picked up my tablet and ID card, and repeated the I can do this chant in my head.
I opened the door. Linc nearly knocked on me. An embarrassing eek sound escaped before I could stop it.
“Sorry,” Linc said. “Thought I’d walk you to class.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“Well, it’s my class too, so it’s not out of the way or anything.”
Of course, you idiot. “Right. Thanks.”
Neither of us said anything as we made our to the classroom. We stopped outside a door marked Demonology.
“Ready?” he said, grabbing the handle.
I inhaled a deep breath then released it slowly. “Now or never, I guess.”
Turning the handle, he pushed the door open and held it for me. As soon as I stepped inside, a dozen pairs of eyes were on me. And now Demonology 101 has turned into Speculation 101.
Ignoring the stares, I glanced around the room. A large, shiny black board took up the entire wall behind the teacher’s desk. The students’ desks were evenly spaced apart, four rows across and five deep.
My gaze landed on a few kids in the front row who were still staring at me. I fought a gulp.
Linc squeezed my hand. “Come on,” he whispered, leading me to the back of the room, on the far side away from the door. There were no empty seats together, but he knelt down in front of a guy with dark hair and said something to him. The guy nodded, smiled at me as he gathered his things, and then moved to another empty seat.
With any luck, because we were at the back of the room, I wouldn’t be called on. What if the teacher asked me something about demons? I didn’t know anything. The last thing I wanted to do was make a fool of myself on the first day of class.
A lot of the kids were turned in their seats, talking to whoever could hear them. I felt…left out. Between their probationary period and the months that they’d been together in their Phase, they’d all been around each other for over a year. Some of the faces were familiar, because I’d seen them around or had been introduced to them, but Linc was the only person I had any kind of actual relationship with.
The door creaked open as another small group of kids joined, bringing the total to…sixteen, including me.
A tall guy with light brown hair and blue eyes followed, coming in behind the others. For a second, I thought he was another Prospect, because he seemed really young, but he moved behind the desk at the front of the room. “Good morning, Prospects,” he said, studying everyone and sounding more enthused than I felt. He set a bag down next to his desk, then walked to the back of the room. Kneeling down in front of me, he leaned his arms on my desk. “You must be Miss Hall.”
I nodded.
“I’m Mr. Sheldon. Director Greene told me your situation.” When I breathed a sigh of relief, he smiled. “Don’t worry about the assignments I give the rest of the class. For today, you can either start reading chapter one or just sit back and relax. I’ll give you your assignment at the end of class for next week, so don’t forget to see me before you leave, alright? We’ll work out a plan to get you caught up.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
He stood up, clapped his hands together. “As for the rest of you…please start reading chapter twelve. Afterward, we’ll have a little summary of the chapters you’ve read so far.”
The class groaned. I bit my lip to keep from laughing. He sounded so happy while everyone else sounded miserable.
Beside me, Linc shook his head. “Welcome to high school for demon hunters.”
Mr. Sheldon took his seat behind his desk and typed something on his tablet. A moment later, the blackboard lit up, and the words ‘Chapter Twelve’ appeared in bright blue.
Now that was cool.
I shook my head and, instead of relaxing like he’d suggested, turned on the tablet and opened Demonology text. I didn’t want to sit here for five hours doing nothing, so I started reading.
I glanced at the table of contents first, just to get an idea of what I’d be reading. Apparently, P1s only studied a handful of different demons, because each one had at least three chapters dedicated to it.
Next, I read about the history of demons. According to the text, demons hadn’t been around that long, not even a hundred years. The first documented case had been sixty-four years ago, a thirty-year-old man from Toledo, Ohio, and his twenty-nine-year-old wife.
Some local scientists had been experimenting with what they thought was a cure for the HIV virus, but something had gone wrong. Later, the scientists discovered the couple had been bitten by a mosquito. It had somehow caused a strange mutation in their DNA that resulted in the first known demon species: vampires.
Before anyone knew of the problem, or figured out how to handle the situation, the couple had ended up killing thousands of people, by either infecting them or turning them into vampires. And in the first twenty years of the discovery of demons, the same thing had happened in dozens of cities across the United States. The vampires had ended up mutating again, creating even more demon species. Scientists linked bug or animal bites to the mutation.
Bug and animal bites, for crying out loud.
I’d never particularly liked bugs, but I’d definitely be a lot wearier of them from now on. Silently, I wondered if the CGE supplied bug repellant.
When the history part was over, there was a page titled Demon Classes. It listed a chart that determined how many agents were required to go up against certain classes of demons. Class one demons (or C1) needed one agent, C2 needed two, C3 needed three, and C4 needed a minimum of four but recommended more.
If a single demon required four or more agents to capture it, I definitely didn’t want to go up against one without a load of weapons.
Finally, I got to good stuff: demons. The first three chapters were on vampires. Tracking signs of a vampire nest; different ways of killing or incapacitating them; what weapons would work, which wouldn’t; what happened when humans were bitten.
At a distance, it was hard to tell a vampire from a normal person. It wasn’t until you were close to one that you noticed the fangs and blood-red eyes—which, contrary to most movies and books, they couldn’t hide. But their look wasn’t the only thing fiction-writers had wrong. Crosses were useless. Garlic wouldn’t kill them, but if it was in liquid form, it did act like vampire pepper-spray and temporarily blinded them. Stakes, decapitation, fire—those were right.
The big difference between movies and real life was in how vampires were created. On the big screen, a vampire sucked out their victim’s blood and then the victim bit the vampire back. But it wasn’t true. In fact, it was a sure way to kill the victim. To be turned into one, a person had to be bitten by two vampires—a male and a female—at the same time. Twenty-five percent of victims turned into one; the other seventy-five percent weren’t as lucky.
I wasn’t that lucky, either, not when the book had documented cases—including gruesome pictures—of those unlucky ones. The ones that didn’t change, their bodies had turned into mush from the inside out. They ended up looking like gigantic, melted slugs with shriveled up organs.
After I finished reading the first three gruesomely interesting chapters, I tried moving on to the next chapter. A message popped up, prompting me to take a test first. I looked up to see if I could get Mr. Sheldon’s attention, but he had his head down.
I wasn’t about to bring any unneeded attention to myself, so I shrugged, clicked okay, and started on the test. When I was finished, I started reading the next chapter. I was only a few pages from the end of chapter four when Mr. Sheldon had everyone put their tablets away. I didn’t think I was included, but I did it anyway because I wanted to hear their summary.
Mr. Sheldon faced the room, leaning against his desk. “Why do Medulsa demons—aka Leechers—attack?”
“For bone marrow,” I said, grimacing. They typically only attacked sick or elderly people with specific infections. They were bad demons, definitely, but they were one of the low priority demons Linc had mentioned.
“That’s right, Miss Hall.”
My head snapped up when I heard my name. I’d answered out of instinct. “Sorry.”
“That’s fine.” He kept his gaze on me and said, “And can you tell me what will slow it down but not kill it?”
“You mean besides bullets?” someone from the front of the class snickered.
I cleared my throat and tried ignoring the fact that at least a dozen pairs of eyes were on me. Again. “Fire. They’re—” I broke off.
Mr. Sheldon waved me on. “Keep going.”
“Their skin is hard, almost shell-like, so unless the temperature is extremely high or they burn for a long time, it only makes them mad.”
“Very good,” Mr. Sheldon said with a wide, beaming smile.
Linc nudged me with his elbow and mouthed ‘show off’. I fought a blush—lost—and made a mental note to kick him later.
The rest of the class pretty much continued in the same way. Mr. Sheldon would ask questions and someone who wasn’t me would answer. (Mainly because I didn’t know the answers. Vampires and Leechers were the only two demons I’d had a chance to read about.)
“We’re finished here,” Mr. Sheldon said at the end of class. As everyone scrambled to their feet, he added, “But before you leave…a few reminders.” Everyone groaned again. “You may or may not have a test on Monday, so be sure you read the next chapter. And remember, your reports are due in two weeks.” He waited until the groans and mutters stopped, then shooed us. “Go on. You’re free!”
As everyone filed out of the room, Linc waited with me. I walked up to the desk, smiled.
“How was your first class, Jade?”
“Interesting. And a little gross.”
“Believe it or not, I hear that a lot.” He glanced down at his tablet. “Okay, for next week, just read the first chapter.”
“Done.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Chapter two?”
I bit my lip and made a face. “Um, I kind of read the first three chapters and took the test already.”
He held his hand out, so I gave him the tablet. Sitting back down, he picked up his own tablet and pressed a few buttons.
I could see Linc staring at me, his mouth partially open. I just shrugged. “What? Everyone else was still reading and I was bored. It wouldn’t let me start the next chapter until I took the test, so I did.”
After a few minuets of silence, Mr. Sheldon slowly nodded. “Not bad.” He handed me my tablet back, then relaxed in his chair. “Director Greene mentioned you read fast and had a ‘knack’—and yes, he called it a ‘knack’—for memorizing things, but I thought he was exaggerating. Well, I see he wasn’t. Okay.” His fingers danced on the desk. “Read what you can for this week, and we’ll adjust things next Monday to suit your pace. I want to see how much you can actually do before I give you a schedule, so read at a good-for-you pace. Take the tests if/when you get to them.” He bowed his head. “Until next time, my future hunters.”
I chuckled as Linc pulled me from the room. “He’s…different,” I said, once we were outside and out of hearing range.
“He is. He’s pretty cool.”
We started down the hall, toward the elevator, and someone bumped into my shoulder. I jerked and my tablet slipped from my fingers. I managed to catch it before it hit the ground, then rose. When I looked up, I found Felecia standing a few feet away, glaring at me with a Fishface-like smile.
“Oops,” she said.
Yup. That talk with Greene sure did wonders.
Linc tossed his arm over my shoulder. “Ignore her.” When I didn’t budge, only continued to stare, he started forward and pulled me along. “Come on.”
I sighed. “She’s not going to let it drop, is she?”
“Nope.”
“Great.”
As we rode the elevator down, he turned to face me. “So…what did you think?”
“About?”
His shoulders dropped and he shook his head. “The class, Hall.”
There was so much exasperation in those few words that I grinned. Thinking about what he said earlier, I shrugged. “It’s high school for demon hunters.”
CHAPTER 08
Linc met me the following morning and walked me to Tracking. The teacher—Mrs. Fletcher—wasn’t what I pictured. Her eyes were bright pink (obviously contacts), and after I tore my attention from her eyes, I realized why. The shade matched the highlights in her black, curly hair. She was tall and willowy, and like Mr. Sheldon, seemed really young. But she was nice and, also like Mr. Sheldon, let me observe the class and see what they were doing.
The main classroom had the same layout as Demonology. There wasn’t as much reading involved, but both classes covered the same demons. When I asked Linc about it, he said that each phase covered the respective class of demons, so we studied C1s during P1, C2s during P2, and so on. I wasn’t sure how much it’d actually help, but at least I knew I’d be focusing on the same demons for all my classes.
After the first hour, we moved to a bigger room across the hall, next to the stairs. The room was set up to look like a demon nest of some kind. There was a semi-built one-room house with broken windows and doors hanging from their hinges. Garbage was thrown all across the floor. Even the lighting was pretty authentic for a demon hunt, meaning there was little of it.
Tracking seemed a lot like drama class for demon hunting spies. Mrs. Fletcher had separated the class into two groups: one half pretending to be a certain breed of demon, and the other half were the pretend hunters. Mrs. Fletcher switched between three scenarios. For the first, the hunter would track the demon to see if they could follow it to its nest without being caught. In the second scenario, the hunters followed the demon and then tried to plant some kind of surveillance device in or around the nest area—somewhere close enough to get a good view and/or decent sound. And for the third one, the hunters would pretend to implant a GPS tracking capsule in the demon.
It was actually pretty cool to watch, but I had my doubts about participating and hoped that when my time came, I didn’t have to be a pretend demon.
Wednesday brought Combat with Mr. Connor, who was tall and muscular, reminding me of Tank Guy. He had black hair, brown eyes, and bigger muscles than anyone I’d seen so far.
The class itself was basically zero reading and all fighting. The room was laid out like a big gym, minus the weights. Thick padding covered the floor and punching bags hung in various places.
It shared a common theme with Tracking, except the class focused on what to when you were caught by a demon. Mr. Connor said it didn’t matter how good you were, that getting caught would happen eventually, especially with telepathic demons. (I was curious about those, but he said they were C4 demons and he wouldn’t go into detail about them.)
After a few rounds of escape-the-demon, Mr. Connor showed me some of the basic kicks and punches I would’ve learned at the start of class, and then he put us all into groups of t
wo for practice. It wouldn’t have been that bad, until I got paired up with a grudge-holding Felecia. Normally P2s and P1s didn’t have class together, but Mrs. Fletcher was sick, so the P2s spent the day with us.
We were on the bags, practicing basic kicks and punches, when Felecia accidentally missed the bag and kicked me in the knee—the same one she’d kicked Friday. Linc, having witnessed it, came to the rescue. He pulled me away from her, though I wasn’t sure if it was to save me from getting in trouble, or to save Felecia from getting her butt kicked. Thankfully, Mr. Connor saw it happen. He’d realized it wasn’t an accident or noticed the glares between us, because he switched us with different partners and I’d ended up with Linc.
By that time, I was pissed and seeing red, so I don’t think Linc was too happy about being paired with me. I spent the next thirty minutes picturing the bag as Felecia, and Linc had landed on his butt more than once. He spent the rest of the night complaining about the abuse.
The next morning we had Weapons class, and I quickly discovered Linc had a thing for them, which wasn’t at all surprising.
Mr. Elliot was the oldest (probably close to Greene’s age) and shortest of our instructors. His hair was a mix between blond and brown, and his eyes were dark brown. He wasn’t quite as relaxed as Mr. Sheldon, but he still seemed okay.
The class was also like Combat, which meant very little in the form of reading and lots in way of physical training. P1s weren’t allowed to use actual weapons in class and instead used plastic replicas. They’d already had practice with demon netting and were now on staffs, which were the only two ‘weapons’ P1s were allowed to work with during their first Phase.
Mr. Elliot had Linc and Tasha—a tall black girl with golden-blonde hair—show me some basic moves. It was kind of similar to Tracking in the drama-class way, where Linc—dressed in some ridiculous padded suit—pretended to be a demon, and Tasha played the role as agent.
She stepped forward, brought the staff down on Linc’s shoulder in a swift move. As he collapsed down to one knee, she swiped the staff behind his other leg and put him on his back. Linc apparently thought she was being rougher than needed, so the next time she moved in to strike, he let out a growl. It startled her so much that she ended up hitting him in the face (the only part of him that wasn’t protected by tons of padding) and sent him to the floor again.
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