by E. M. Moore
My stomach somersaulted. “Does this happen all the time?”
“Nope. Vampires never come here. It’s usually just Samuel and some of the others that run The Fort. A lot has been going on here recently though. I don’t think they’ve ever come here to watch.” She eyed me, curiously. Despite answering her question before on whether or not I knew the princes, I got the sneaking suspicion she didn’t believe me.
“Great,” I said with mock enthusiasm.
“We better make this good,” she said as she started toward the obstacle course.
I followed her, noticing a few of the guys already on some of the obstacles. I watched as Zeke climbed the rope, rang the bell at the top of the crossbar, and then slid easily down, landing in a crouch. When he looked up, his gaze met mine. He smiled and winked, his glare more menacing than I’d seen on any of the few vampires I’d met so far. Instinct told me I had more to fear from him than any of the ones that could supposedly drink my blood.
I shook my head. I would do as much as I could. They really shouldn’t expect me to be able to do it so quickly. Standing at the start line, I couldn’t help my eyes from wandering towards the princes. Last night, Shannon had told me their names. Christian, Nicolai, Stephen, and Connor. I wondered who was who. Hopefully I’d find out eventually. They were the reason why I was here after all.
Samuel was no longer beside them, but coming toward me. His eyes held me in place and I waited for him, hoping to get some much needed advice. Once he stood in front of me, he looked away briefly, and then back down into my eyes. “Listen, none of us know what’s going on here. All I know is, for the first time, the vampire princes have asked if they can watch us on the obstacle course.” He stepped forward, the tips of his sneakers banging into mine as he towered over me. I shrank back, my eyes flicking toward the others. I wasn’t sure why I looked. Each of their faces hardened in turn. The one I met last night took a step forward in our direction, his jaw ticking. The one next to him grabbed his arm. I looked away, back to Samuel, who had already returned to a respectable distance. “I suggest you do better than your best. Get to the start line.”
I looked around, noticing Shannon was already on the third obstacle. Behind me, a line had started to form to start the course again. I recognized Evan, and of course, Zeke, each of them with their hands on their knees bent over to catch their breath.
I wiped my sweaty hands over my training pants. My body screamed at me to look toward the princes again, but I didn’t give in. I kept telling myself to focus. I knew I held the gazes of all the vampires and with Shannon’s warning still in my head, I could feel the weight of the obstacle course on me. After a deep breath, I sprinted forward and launched myself onto the monkey bars. I was able to jump to just short of the middle bar, but my fingers slipped off easily. I landed on two feet. Behind me, I heard Zeke’s dark laughter. Jumping again, I struggled to make it past two bars. It took me longer than it should have to get to the end, but I was grateful when I finished. Wanting to make up time, I sprinted toward the next obstacle. I launched myself up the hay bales and across a small wooden plank to the other side. That hadn’t been too bad. I jumped down and again ran as fast as I could. Unfortunately, I was at the rope climb. I wiped my hands on my pants again and grabbed hold. I stuck my heel on the bottom knot just as I’d seen the others do and pulled. I didn’t go anywhere. I tried, and tried. I pulled and got a little further, but just didn’t have the strength to pull myself all the way up the rope, or even a foot up the rope.
The rest of the class came up behind me. Not wanting to be seen as weak, I pulled with everything I had left and moved another six inches up the rope but no further. Soon, I heard the slapping of sneakers against the mud as someone else reached the rope climb. It was Zeke, of course.
He smirked at me again. After looking behind me at the vampires who were staring me down, he looked up at the bell and started climbing. “Careful not to fall too far behind,” he whispered back. “Since you’re not really one of us, they’ll probably just kill you.” With another sinister laugh, he pulled himself all the way up the rope and hit the bell. He slid down and ran away, lapping me. I hated him.
Tears threatened my eyes. I tried again with fervor, inching up just a little on the rope but also sliding back down again, my hands and knees burning where they rubbed against the coarse threads. Without looking up, I got the tingle of awareness again. I told myself not to look. I knew it wouldn’t do any good. I knew I would only see in their faces what I felt inside myself. I was weak though, obviously.
I peeked up, grimacing. They stared at me, except this time, their faces held all the anger from the picture that was in the newspaper. The one closest to Samuel leaned toward him, his lips moving, and suddenly Samuel walked toward me.
“Work, Ariana.”
“I am,” I said, pulling myself up a little for emphasis.
His voice came out in an angry lash, “You need to try.”
“I am,” I said through clenched teeth.
His sigh of exasperation only defeated me. I slid the rest of the way down the rope, landing on my feet and bending at the waist to catch my breath.
Samuel shook his head. “Your lack of upper body strength will be the death of you.”
I looked up at him, fear slithering down my spine.
Chapter Six
“Move On. See how you fare on the rest of the course.”
My heart lurched, I took his words for what they were, reprieve from something I knew I would never be able to do at that moment. I told myself I would train, try harder, do better. I launched myself at the cargo net, pulling myself up and over even though the same ropes dug into the burns on my palm. I ignored the pain, rising swiftly over the rope and jumping down, landing in a squat.
Army crawl was next. We had to crawl as close to the ground as we could, just barely under line after line of barbed wire. I got down and was able to maneuver through the obstacle unscathed. I let out a sigh of relief. I’d had visions of blood running down my cheeks and scalp, sure I was going to cut myself on one of the barbs. Thankfully, it wasn’t nearly as tough as the rope climb.
Up next was speed and agility training. Huge tires were set right next to each other in straight lines. We were supposed to run through it, our feet landing in the middle of each tire to get to the next obstacle. I made it through, only tripping once near the end. I fell forward and rolled back onto my feet.
Next, was a rope swing across a teen foot pool of water. I ran forward as fast as I could, grabbed onto the rope, and willed myself to hang on. I made it to the other side, free. The next few obstacles tested my endurance and not my upper body strength. I was able to finish without another hiccup.
I walked back around slowly to the start line. Guards-in-training had been passing me left and right. Shannon had even whispered words of encouragement as she lapped me, but my lungs burned with every breath. I couldn’t believe I’d ever thought I was in somewhat good shape.
“Come on, Ariana. Get moving!” Samuel yelled from the sidelines.
I did as he said, picking up the pace, and threw myself back into the obstacle course. My focus was all off this time though. I was staring at my vampires, wondering what they thought of me. They still stood next to Samuel, hands on his hips, gazes earnest as they watched me.
I slipped off the wooden plank between the hay bales which I hadn’t done the last time. Thankfully, I caught myself, but didn’t have the strength to pull myself back onto the obstacle. I fell to the ground and had to go back to the beginning to complete it.
Embarrassment crept up my cheeks. They were there to watch me, possibly placing value on me. I was most definitely the worst in the class, the other trainees continued to pass me one by one. It wasn’t much consolation, but I could say I never gave up. Except for the rope climb again. After five minutes of continuing to try to inch myself up the rope, Samuel came forward and told me to move on once more. When I looked up, their faces were impassive.
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After my fifth time through the course, I plopped down onto my back and stared up. It was then, and only then, that I noticed the lack of sun. From beautiful tree to beautiful tree, all around the campus, a mesh screen blocked out the sunlight. I shook my head, staring up at the wonderment. Not noticing it before, only certified the fact that I’d been focused all morning on trying not to suck at all this physical activity stuff.
A boot hit the top of my sneaker. “Get up,” Samuel said.
I gazed up at him warily.
“You have a special class. You’re to go with the princes now. They’re going to teach you about the vampire-human world.”
I sat up. “What”
Samuel shrugged and I turned to my left, only to see the one who kept me from escaping last night waltzing toward us, his hands in his pockets. “Are you ready for your lessons?”
All around, other guards-in-training, stopped to stare. The girls mostly gawked, but Zeke, sneered at me, no doubt coming up with his own scenarios in his head about what was really going on.
“Can’t Shannon teach me?”
Samuel opened his mouth to speak, but the prince cut him off. “My brothers and I want to be the ones to teach you. Since we brought you here, it is only right.”
Samuel held out his hand, and I grabbed it. He hiked me to my feet and I turned toward blue-gray eyes. The vampire prince eyed the space where Samuel and my hands had entwined. This one always looked pensive, as if he thought about a great deal of things. “Come,” he said, finally.
He turned and I followed him, the dutiful servant. Instead of going to the dorms, he walked me to the main facility where the gym and the infirmary were. His brothers must have already gone on ahead because they were no longer in sight. We didn’t stop in the area of the building I knew. We headed out another wing, and I recognized the hallway Samuel led me down the previous night when we left the infirmary. He pushed open a door to our right and we walked into a classroom. It was rather large, rows of desks and a big wooden monstrosity at the front for a teacher to sit behind, was a bit overkill for just the five of us. The room was no different than anything I’d seen before. It looked a lot like my high school classrooms.
There, in the back of the room in all different modes of sitting were the vampire princes. They stopped talking to look at me. Each of them stood in turn, one from his perch on the table and the others from their seats. The air in the room lightened. It was as if I’d been suffocating all day and could just now breathe. It helped that they were all smiling at me.
“Ariana,” the one who was sitting on the table said. My name was like a husky whisper on his lips. He came forward to grab my hand, pulled it to his lips, and placed a soft kiss on the top of my hand. “I’m Nicolai Ravana.”
Not because I was scared, though in retrospect, I should’ve been. He was a vampire and his mouth was dangerously close to my pulse. No, it wasn’t any of that. He was breathtakingly handsome. He was the only one with midnight black hair that fell to his ears.
He pulled back and another one was directly in front of me. He smiled, his grin reaching his ears and I swear I almost had a heart attack. Hair the color of honey haloed his face. “Connor,” he said.
“Hi,” I said, though it came out barely above a whisper.
His smile was warm, genuine, but then he was gone and emerald-colored eyes stared into mine. “I’m Stephan Ravana.” He held his hand out to me and I took it, momentarily grimacing due to the rope burns on my palm. He frowned down at me. “You’re hurt?”
“I-it’s nothing,” I said. Really. The pain barely registered anymore. I could only see them.
Stephan turned and made his way to the front of the room. My head twisted to follow him, but instead, I was staring at the one who’d stopped me last night. His blue-gray eyes were still arresting. The same passive look was on his face, yet with that hint of welcome I’d recognized last night that wasn’t there when he took me from Samuel. “Christian,” he said.
I gulped. Never before in my life had four hot guys stared back at me. Well, maybe from a poster at one of the foster homes, but this was real life.
A soft hand tugged on my fingers and I looked up to find Stephan carefully grabbing me and taking me to the table. “Sit,” he said. “I’ve got something for your hand.”
I did as he said and stared at him as he rubbed a pink-tinted salve on the burns. The rest of the guys swarmed around us, their faces concerned as they looked me over.
Nicolai broke the silence finally. He opened his arms wide at the classroom surrounding us. “Vampires go to school here,” he offered. “We’re on break now, which is why you guys are here.”
I took in his words, eager to learn everything I could as Stephan’s fingers still worked the salve into my skin. This whole world was a mystery to me and I couldn’t contain my natural curiosity. That vampires went to school surprised me. What did they need to know? What kinds of classes did they have?
Connor laughed, the sound endearing. “We have to start bigger than that, Nic.” He looked at me. His face serious. “There are vampires.”
The rest of them burst out laughing, including me. “I kind of got that part already. Thank you, though,” I added, not wanting to offend him.
“The number one rule you need to know, Ariana,” Nicolai said, his face also serious, but not in a teasing way like Connor’s. “We won’t hurt you.”
That was different considering Samuel’s bet was that they all just wanted to drink my blood. With them all sitting around me, staring at me, I felt the wrongness of it on my tongue. I believed Nicolai. They wouldn’t hurt me. “The way you say it, I get the feeling that you four won’t hurt me, but that there are others. And surely, there are others that might not be so good to me?”
Christian’s lips turned up. “I told you she was smart.”
Stephan finished working the salve into my hand. I looked down, a slight sheen was all over my palm, but my burns were barely red anymore. I narrowed my gaze at the small tub he held in his hand. He pocketed it and then kept his blue eyes on me. “I thought you did really good today.”
I wanted to laugh. What show were they watching? I was terrible.
Christian spoke up then. “She doesn’t believe you.”
I narrowed my gaze at him only to have Connor talk and pull my attention away. “It’s true. You were amazing. Everyone was impressed.”
“Samuel?” I asked, disbelieving.
“Okay. Maybe not Samuel, but he doesn’t count. I’m talking about us. We’re the only ones that matter.”
They all snickered, but I wasn’t done with this. “What happens if I don’t pass here?” I asked, remembering Samuel, and even Zeke’s, words.
Connor smiled. “Pass?”
“You know, it I’m not meant to be a guard? Will I be killed?”
The guys all stared at each other and then one-by-one, they all started to laugh. “No,” Connor said, humor still in his voice. “Whether you’re a guard or not, you’re staying with us.”
“Why?”
Christian leaned forward, struggling to answer. His fingers turned white as he held his hands together more tightly. “Next question.”
I groaned, which only served to bring a smile to Christian’s face.
“Fine, why should I care? Why would anyone want to guard the vampires? Can’t you protect yourselves?”
“How is it that you are able to encapsulate the struggles of our world in such a short amount of time? Can we protect ourselves? Of course, we can. We’re stronger and faster than humans. There are two very different schools of thought on the subject. There are those that believe we should take the lead in our own defense, and there are those that like to have the distinction of rank. They would never lower themselves to such a task.”
Just as I thought, the vampires had a major superiority complex. “In which school do you find yourselves in?”
Nicolai stared down at me, his chin dropping in disbelief. “Seriously?” H
e flexed his arm and my arms almost bugged out of my head.
Stephan pushed his shoulder. “Stop showing off.”
Christian ignored them both. “Perhaps some information on our history will help. Despite our superior abilities, we are much like humans. Our world is also much like yours. We have a governing body called the Council.”
I shuddered involuntarily. Remembering what the trainees had said last night about the Council jumping in.
Whether Christian noticed my reaction or not, he ignored it. “Several, shall we say, royal families make up the members of the Council. They make our laws and make sure they’re enforced. Whether you’re a part of the Council, the royal families, or not, you can interact with as much or as little as the human world as you wish . Most choose to, but others don’t. If you are not a part of the defense of the vampire world or in the vampire government, you most likely have a human job even though we don’t have to. We can have anything or do anything we wish in the human world. As you know by now, a select group of humans know about us. These humans protect us, not only from the outside world, but from other vampires. In exchange for their loyalty, we provide for them in ways they never would be able to provide for themselves in the human world. As far as pay, you can expect to make more than you ever would in the human world. Especially with the jobs you left behind.”
I gasped. His eyes found mine. Somewhere throughout his speech, his eyes had begun to wander as if he was scanning a text book or playing scenes in his head. With that sound, his gaze once again locked on mine. “What is it?”
“You know what I did? In the real world, in my real life?”
He stopped, glancing briefly at the others. “Of course, you’ve been a great interest to us for a very long time, Ariana.”
My heart thumped in my chest. The kind of feeling that meant excitement, gratitude, and eagerness. It wasn’t the reaction I should have had.