Marked: Black Water Academy: Book One

by Murphy, Sloane

  “I’m sorry, that must’ve been hard.” I swallow the emotion, knowing that his family were on the right side of things.

  “We’ve all got our own paths and our burdens to carry. Now, blood lust might hit you harder because you’ve never really struggled with it before. Stand up,” he says standing himself, before pulling me to my feet. “This wasn’t what I had planned for today, but fuck it, your birthday is tomorrow, and realistically this is the biggest risk as a fledgling. We should probably head into the tree line first,” he says ominously. He heads toward the tree line and I follow closely behind.

  We walk through the trees and I try not to trip on the undergrowth and tree roots, all while keeping up with him. I huff out loud as he walks into the distance, and he turns, appearing back in front of me in the blink of an eye. “Sorry, I forget myself sometimes. I’ll walk at your pace for now.”

  He helps me navigate the forest floor before coming to a small clearing about sixty feet from the tree line. “Okay, so you’re going to have to trust me with this. Blood lust is… one of the worst and best feelings a Vampire can experience. It’s torture and delicious pleasure all at once. Vampires can exchange blood to help with healing, and it is important you know not only how to bite, but how to control your thirst so you can stop.”

  He steps up behind me, so close I can almost feel his heat on my skin. Leaning down, he breathes into my ear while placing one hand on my hip. “Have you ever been so thirsty that your throat feels like you’ve swallowed sand? Like you’ll do anything, and I mean anything necessary for something to quench your thirst? That you don’t see sense or logic in anything, and your entire thought process is consumed with drinking. And then, someone walks by you, smelling sweeter than anything you’ve ever smelled before, and you imagine biting into them. Then as the blood bursts full of flavor, nice and warm in your mouth, your entire body wakes up and reacts to the pleasure. To the relief.” I release the breath I’m holding and let it out quickly. The hair on my entire body stands as he grazes his fangs across my skin. I suck in a sharp breath and he takes a step back. I spin and look into his eyes, his pupils dilated and almost glowing. “That is blood lust, and it will drive you crazy if you let it. As a youth, your lust hasn’t fully unlocked yet, and just like all of the other things that come with your birthday, it will be overwhelming. You will mess up, but it is imperative that if you do, you come and find me. That you trust me to help you; you understand?” and just like that, serious Ethan is back, and he steps even further away from me.

  “I think I get it. But what do I do if I’m so crazy with bloodlust I can’t think enough to come find you?” I ask, trying to stop the tremor in my voice while I calm my breathing.

  “You don’t let it get to that point. The best way to control it, is to prevent it. Keep tabs on what you’re drinking. Tomorrow night, you’ll stay in the chambers with Creed and I, since the first night is always the worst, but once you wake from that, and you drink, you should be fine.”

  “Should be? And I had plans for tomorrow; Ruby and I have a monster movie marathon planned.”

  “Well, Ruby can come down to the chamber to start with, but she’ll need to leave.” He says, crossing his arms, showing me he means business.

  “Fine. I don’t have to like it though.”

  “It’s just one night, Eden. I’m sure you can suffer my presence for one night to make sure you don’t kill anyone. I can even ask my friend Cam to come along if that will make you feel more at ease. He’s the captain of House Bear and more than trustworthy.” He sighs and I can’t help but choke.

  “Of course, I don’t want to kill anyone. I just wanted to do something fun for my birthday, since I haven’t celebrated for a while. Never mind, it’s not your fault or your problem. I’ll get over it. And no to Cam; I’ve met him, he seemed nice. Don’t want to put him at risk of me killing him, do we?”

  “I’m sorry, I forgot…” he says running his hand down his face. “Look, I think that’s enough for today, unless you have any questions for me?”

  “No, I don’t think so. But… I mean… does it hurt? The power release?” I hate how vulnerable I feel, but I never got to ask this before.

  “No, it shouldn’t. You might struggle to sleep, find your emotions are more unstable than normal, and your temper might be shorter that day, but other than that you should be fine. Plus, since it’s a Saturday, you have no classes to contend with. Other than eating in the cafeteria, you can avoid the entire population if you want, though I would recommend being close to a House Captain, preferably Creed or I, for most of the day if you can. Just in case. Kane will be around too, since he’s Creed’s friend and your House Captain.”

  “Okay, thank you.” He nods and stalks off out of the forest. I watch him leave, wondering what the hell all of that was. I think Ethan has a whole side of him that he doesn’t let the world see, and I think I just saw the monster under the disguise. I’m pretty sure there’s something wrong with me, because I think I liked that monster more than I should.

  “Wake up, sleepyhead!” I groan and throw my pillow at the offending voice.

  “Come on, Eden! It’s your birthday, get up! It’s already the afternoon.” I hear Ruby’s voice and I just want to bury myself beneath the covers.

  “Exactly, it’s my birthday. Do you know what I get to do on my birthday, especially this one? I get to sleep all the hell I want.” I growl, and that’s when I feel my monster awaken, crawling under my skin, burning inside me, trying to find a weak spot to get out. To hunt.

  “Ruby, GET OUT. Get the hell out now. Just don’t run.” I shout, my voice strained as I try to keep my head under the covers, away from her full scent.

  “Oh shit… okay, I’m going. I’ll get someone.”

  “JUST. GET. OUT!” I scream as her scent hits me and I feel my fangs descend. I almost feel her think and then rush from the room, and it takes everything I have in me to keep myself pinned to the bed. I pant with exertion, trying to calm the beast inside me. I stand, and move faster than I’ve ever been able to move in my life. I reach the door to the main room and grip the doorjamb and feel the wood splinter beneath my fingers. Shit, shit, shit.

  I inch forward, but end up at my fridge. I yank it open and see the bottles of blood. Twisting the cap off, I put the bottle to my mouth and swallow down the blood greedily. I feel it course through me, my entire body tingling as it rushes through my system. Two, three, four bottles later, I can almost breathe again, but I can still feel it, just below the surface, not quite sated. I scratch at my throat and hiss, and that’s when I notice my extended nails that look like claws. My knees buckle and I fall to the floor, pushing myself back until my back hits a wall. I pull my knees to my chest and wrap myself into a ball, trying to fight the urge to go and get more. My mouth salivates at the thought of warm, fresh pumping blood. I close my eyes, and it’s all I can do to keep myself on the floor.

  I hear a knock and I smell him before the door opens. I rush forward and rip the door off its hinges, and his hand clamps around my neck. I claw at his arm, but he doesn’t let go. Instead, he brings his other hand, holding the warm cup of blood, to my lips. I grab it and shake his grip, retreating to the far corner of the room before gulping it down. The flavor bursts inside my mouth and it’s like nothing I’ve ever known, but everything I’ve ever wanted all at once. I lick the sides of the cup, before the shame hits me and I throw it down.

  “Feeling better?”

  I snarl at Ethan, where he still stands in the ruins of my doorway, his arm almost healed, but the blood there is still fresh. That’s when I realize the monster under my skin has retreated a little, because despite the urge to lap up the dripping blood, I can keep my feet planted and not attack him.

  “I’m sorry I wasn’t here earlier. Usually we don’t wake until it’s dark on our birthdays, but Ruby said she woke you. She’s okay by the way, just feeling a little guilty. You’ll be okay now. You just needed to drink.” he says as he slowly
moves into the room. He discovers the empty bottles on the floor next to my still open fridge. He looks back at me, concern on his face. “You already drank before I got here?”

  “Yes,” I say, my voice scratchy. He edges closer and the smell of his blood grows stronger, and I can feel it rise up in me again. The need. “Stop.”

  He stills, and his eyes widen. “Eden, you need to take a deep breath, through your mouth.” I do as he says and close my eyes. “That’s it. Now try to find it, the source of that need. It’ll be deep, deep down in your center. Remember it is a part of you, and you need to embrace it, not fight it.”

  “If I don’t fight it, I’m going to kill everything in my path,” I snarl. Can’t he see? Can’t he see that I’m just barely hanging on? “You need to leave… your blood, it’s all I can smell. All I can taste, and it’s taking everything I have to keep myself standing still.”

  “I can’t leave you like this, Eden. You need me here, and this is my job. I knew this would be harder for you because it’s been so easy before now, but honestly, I can’t tell if you’re doing well or not. You smell… different.”

  “Please, just leave,” I plead, when I feel the hold I had on the rage inside of me snap. Before I can even blink, he’s in front of me, hand back around my throat. The blood lust consumes me, and I see nothing while instinct takes over and I try to fight him off, until I smell someone else. They grab my arms and hold them steady behind my back as I scream and thrash, trying to fight free. A third smell joins the fray when I feel lightheaded. It feels like I’m spinning, and weightless, and then everything just fades away.

  * * *

  I clasp my hand over my mouth, trying not to make a sound as I hide where Daddy hid me. “Don’t make a noise, little bird, no matter what. And you don’t come out until me, Mum, or Adam come and get you, okay?”

  “I’m scared, Daddy.”

  “I know you are, Princess, but right now, I need you to be a little warrior, be brave. What is brave?” he says, his voice hushed.

  “Doing something, even when you’re scared.” I tell him, my voice shaking.

  “There’s a good girl. Now duck down so I can close this door on top of you. Promise me you won’t come out, no matter what?” He kisses my cheek and tucks my hair behind my ear.

  “I promise, Daddy.”

  “I love you, little bird.”

  “I love you too, Daddy.”

  My knees hurt, and I need to pee so bad, but Daddy said not to come out until he came and got me. The shouting stopped what feels like forever ago, but I keep still and try not to make a sound.

  “Emily? Emily are you in here?” I hear Auntie Dannika shout. I stay quiet because I don’t want to break my promise to Daddy.

  “Oh my god,” I hear her cry. “No, oh no, no, no. Can you see her?”

  “No, not yet. Did they have a panic room, D?” a man’s voice I don’t recognize asks. I whimper again. I need to pee.

  I hear the trap door above me move, and then my little box is full of light.

  “Oh thank God,” Dannika cries as she pulls me out of my hiding spot. “Are you okay, Emily?”

  I nod, “I really got to pee, Auntie D.” I plead.

  “Okay, pretty girl. Just close your eyes for me first, okay? Don’t open them until I tell you to.”

  “Okay, just quick. I really gotta go.”

  “I know, now close those eyes,” she says calmly. I close my eyes and she holds me tightly and starts walking. A funny smell tickles my nose and I sneeze, and I can’t help but open my eyes.

  “Daddy!!! Daddy, No!!!!” I see my daddy, lying on the floor, but his head doesn’t look like it’s on his body. “Daddyyyyy!” I scream. I fight Auntie D to let me go. I need to go to my daddy.

  “No, pretty girl. You can’t go to your daddy right now. Come on.” She says, fighting to keep hold of my wriggling body. I scream so much, I feel my body giving up when I see complete darkness.

  * * *

  “I’ve never seen anything like it, man. She’s different to me. Her eyes were red, bright fucking red. And her hands, she clawed through me like I was made of paper.”

  “What are you going to do, Ethan? You can’t keep her locked up and drugged on magic forever.”

  “I don’t know, Cam. I thought about telling Laney, but what do I even say? I don’t know what’s so different about her and talking to Laney feels like betraying her.”

  “You don’t even know her,” I hear Kane’s voice added to the mix as I start to stir. Wait, did he say my eyes went red? What the…?

  “I think we need to just keep this between us for now until I work out exactly what’s wrong with her. I need you both to trust me on this.”

  “What about Gus?” Cam asks.

  “We’ll keep him on a need-to-know basis. I don’t trust him, and with who his father is… just no. We’ll tell him she’s struggling with the blood lust, but that’s it. Unless he sees her, he won’t need to know.”

  “I don’t like keeping this from him. He has a right to know if she’s as powerful as she seems.” Kane objects. “Plus, what if she’s…”

  “Don’t say it. We’ll tell Gus if he needs to know, but we might need your help training her. Yours too, Cam. If she is… and I’m not saying she is… but if she is… then Gus and I aren’t going to be enough.” Ethan sighs. I can almost feel his fear.

  “Okay, man. Whatever you say. We should probably be heading out now. What do you want me to do with the little wolf who’s been hovering around outside?” Cam says and I struggle to open my eyes. Everything is blurry no matter how hard I try to focus.

  I smell rather than see Kane and Cam leave, while I try to call out to Ethan, but my voice is so scratchy I can barely make a sound. My eyes feel like I’ve been face down in a desert, and I feel weaker than I ever remember feeling. I groan as I try to stand and that’s when I feel the shackles around my wrists, neck, and feet.

  “What the…?” I scratch out and pull half-heartedly at the chains. That’s when I feel the monster inside me stir again, but it feels less angry, softer, It stretches out inside of me, filling the whole of me from the tips of my fingers down to my toes. It reminds me of a woken cat, padding around and learning its surroundings. I hear the clink of the chain again as I move, feeling the ice of the metal as it bites into my neck when I try to look around me.

  “Ah, and so she wakes.”

  “You’re funny. Are you going to let me out?” My voice sounds syrupy and not at all like me.

  “That depends. Are you feeling more in control?”

  “Totally. I’m totally in control, now come and let me out.” The lie rolls off my tongue, and the desire to bite down on the pulse I can see in his throat consumes me. I watch as Ethan steps forward with glee, but then he falters.

  “Your eyes…” he takes a step back, and I can tell it was instinct rather than a conscious move, because he shakes his head and stands tall. “Eden, I need to push through. This blood lust, it’s controlling you. If you can control it, I can let you go, and I can feed you.”

  I hiss and scream. All I want is to drink. I feel like I haven’t drunk in a lifetime, and my vision hones in on him, and all the different places with soft skin that would be the easiest to attack.

  “Looks like the beast is awake,” Creed strolls in and I cry out again, a screech more than anything comprehensible. “You really should just let her feed. Everyone knows that day one does fucked up things to us, but after the initial rush, it all fades.”

  He swaggers over to me, and if he sees the differences in me, he doesn’t say a thing. Instead, he extends his fangs and bites down on his wrist and offers it to me. “Gently, fiery one.”

  He strokes my hair as he brings his wrist to my lips, hissing as I bite down and drink. This is different to before, it’s like I’m aware of everything: every sound, every mite of dust, like I’m awake and seeing everything for the first time. He pulls his wrist from me, and I lick the blood rolling down my chin.r />
  I sigh deeply, and feel the monster inside me settle down, content and sated.

  “Thank you.” I croak, my voice hoarse from the screeching and screaming. “Is it always like this?”

  “Not always. I guess you’re just special.” Creed smirks and motions to Ethan to unlock my restraints.

  “Silver coated chains. This is going to hurt. You won’t have noticed before under the red haze, but you’re going to notice now.” Ethan says, a hint of concern in his voice. “I’m sorry, but there was no other way.”

  The sound of metal against metal rings out loudly as he releases the lock and I hiss as I feel my skin peel away with the chains. He releases my wrists before finally unlocking the chain at my neck, and I can’t help the sob that leaves me as the pain hits me.

  “Well, what a birthday this was.” I try to joke, as if the pain isn’t cutting me in half.

  “You’ll heal quickly with my blood in you,” Creed reassures me with a smile, and I watch as the skin on my wrists re-stitches itself together.

  “That was… different. I’m sorry. Is Ruby okay? Where are we?” I ask Ethan.

  “She’ll be fine, but she’ll probably never try to wake you again. And we’re in the chamber I told you about.” he says with a tight smile.

  “So, we know that your blood lust is strong. I can’t wait to see how instinctual your fighting style is.” Creed smiles as I sit on one of the sofas in the chamber.

  “Huh?” I feign ignorance.

  “I keep forgetting no-one’s really been through this with you.” He says and Ethan grunts at him as he sits opposite us. “So, obviously, you get taught basic defense, but since your birthday is sooner in the year, it will be different for you. Most students get to learn even the most basic of basics and their instincts grow on top of the muscle memory, but for you, your instincts will be predominantly in charge. We are creatures of death and destruction, Eden. It’s what we were cursed with; we’ve just evolved a little. So your fighting style will be different, more lethal. Or, at least, that’s the theory. Not many Vampires have birthdays this side of the year. Guess you’re just lucky.”