“You’re dead,” she said.
A stunned silence filled the arena.
“Like I said,” JD said to Oscar. “Her methods are unorthodox.”
He then called down to Sarah. “Okay Sarah, you have made your point. You took four seconds by the way. Now do you want to play?”
“Who with?”
He grinned at her and somersaulted down to the arena floor. Swearing came from a number of the onlookers. Nobody outside of Sanctuary 14 had seen him do that before.
“You still need to teach me that.”
“Not going to happen.”
“Well I now know why you brought your sword with you.”
While Lucas climbed the steps, JD took her scabbard from her hand and threw it up to the balcony, where one of the hunters caught it. He then undid her belt, but didn’t throw it away. Instead he used it to tie her right hand behind her back. She did not resist.
“What are you up to?” she asked him.
“I don’t want to risk you beating me in front of everyone.”
That took her by surprise. “I can’t beat you and we both know it.”
“Actually you are the only person I know who can. Not due to your ability. You’re good, but not that good. You have, however, perfected the art of distracting me.” He made sure her arm was secure, but not hurting her, then backed away.
“You should keep that sort of thing in the bedroom,” someone called down from the balcony.
JD was not amused. “Any more comments like that and you’ll be fighting her, not me.”
“Have you ever thought about it?” Sarah asked quietly.
“See what I mean. You’re distracting me again. But to answer your question, no. In the bedroom I like you unrestrained and free to do whatever you want.”
“Have you ever had to fight like this?”
JD nodded his head. “The year I was away I had to do this for hours on end until I could do everything with my left hand that I could do with my right. Ready?”
Sarah nodded and he attacked. His sword strokes were hard, fast and relentless. With her right hand out of action, it took all of Sarah’s concentration just to block. She had no hope of counter attacking.
He was backing her up against the wall, so on the next thrust she stepped sideways and turned herself around. “Good girl,” he said. “You’re paying attention to your surroundings as well as me.”
“Well I was taught by the best.”
“Is your arm hurting yet?”
“Which one?” She wasn’t in any pain, so he attacked again.
They continued sparring for a while until he managed to get around her sword and slammed his into her arm, hard.
“Son of a bitch,” she cried out. “That hurt.”
“You should have blocked,” he told her unsympathetically.
She shook her arm to relieve some of the numbness then signalled that she was ready to continue.
They started fighting once more, but this time Sarah was faster than JD, getting in an attack before he could. He retaliated and she let her sword drop before spinning it in her hand and slashing at his throat the same as she did to Jonathon in her assessment. He hadn’t been expecting it and only just managed to jump back in time.
“Jesus Sarah, when did you learn to do that with your left hand?”
“I’ve been practicing.”
The fighting continued, with Sarah only able to defend once more.
“Being a vampire has certainly made him fast,” they heard one of the hunters say.
“He was faster than this when he was human,” Sarah called out as she blocked once more. “Right now he’s holding back.”
JD decided to demonstrate. Before she could blink he moved behind her and held his sword against her throat.
“Looks like you were right Sarah,” a voice called out. “He hasn’t been tamed at all.”
“Nice demonstration,” Sarah said quietly. “Now can you please untie me. This is really uncomfortable.”
JD kissed her neck then removed his sword from where it was touching her throat. He started to undo her belt and, seeing that his attention was on other things, she took the advantage and swung her sword at his unprotected neck. He only just managed to block in time.
More swearing came from the balcony. A human wouldn’t have been able to make that move. “Nice try,” JD said. “But you’ll have to do a lot better than that.”
“Okay,” Oscar said. “The show is over. I hope you are now all feeling as inadequate as I am. Get to your beds. Unless we get called out, you all have an early training session tomorrow.”
“Speaking of training,” JD said. “Can Sarah and I borrow the arena in the morning? We usually train for an hour at 5am.”
“Sure,” Oscar replied. Then he realised what JD had said. “Do you make all of your hunters get up at that time?”
“You’re damn right he does,” Sarah said. “Every day. And any visiting hunters also have to join in.”
“Remind me never to stay the night at 14,” Oscar said before ordering his team to leave the room.
Before going to bed, Sarah went to see Patrick. She found him alone in his lab. “What can I do for you?” he asked after inviting her in.
“I need to ask you a question.” She was nervously playing with her nails as she spoke.
Patrick steepled his fingers and rested his chin on them. “Go on.”
“Can vampires father children?”
He smiled at her. “That’s not the question you want to ask. You want to know if a vampire can father a child with a human.”
“Yes,” she said. “I do.”
“Unfortunately I can’t answer that question. But I can run some tests for you if you like, but they may not tell us much.”
“Thank you. I would greatly appreciate it. One more thing.”
“You don’t want JD to know you have spoken to me?” he said.
“Correct. I’m not ready to have that sort of conversation with him yet. I just want to know if it is ever worth having.”
“No problem. I’ll see what I can find out.”
I enjoy the killing too much
At 5am, when JD and Sarah entered the arena, they found they weren’t alone. Most of the hunters from Sanctuary 7 were standing on the balcony, some with cups of coffee in their hands. All looked tired.
JD took one look at them then shook his head. “No,” he said loudly. “Either you go away or you join in, it’s up to you.”
He placed his sword on the ground, tip downward, leaned on it and looked up at the balcony expectantly.
“Get down there,” Oscar said to his team.
“You must be joking,” someone replied. JD made a mental note as to who it was. He would enjoy bringing him into line.
Somewhat reluctantly, all of the hunters either slid down the pole or climbed down the steps. Surprisingly, the women seemed more enthusiastic than the men. Oscar was grinning broadly as he watched his students space themselves out.
“That includes you Oscar,” JD said.
“You may be a trainer, JD, but I am the resident trainer here and you can’t tell me what to do in my own arena.”
“Fine. Beat me in a one-on-one match and I will let you just watch.”
Oscar wisely did not take up the challenge. He didn’t want to be humiliated the way Lucas had been. Muttering to himself, he slid down the pole and took down his sword.
JD went easy on them, sticking to the simpler routines. By the end of the hour, however, everyone from 7, including Oscar, was complaining about aching limbs.
“Do you really make your team do this every day?” Oscar asked.
“No. I make them work much harder than that. Joining us tomorrow?” One of the hunters actually whimpered.
Oscar took pity on them. “I will leave it up to them, but we all appreciate the offer.”
Before they could leave, JD called out to the man who had answered back when Oscar had told them they had to train.
/>
“Oscar is obviously much more lenient than I am. Had one of my team spoken to me the way you did to Oscar, I would make them deeply regret it. Now, I was in charge of this training session and that means you were disrespecting me just as much as you were your own trainer. You are staying for another half an hour.”
“Surely he can’t do that,” he said to Oscar, who showed him no sympathy.
“Yes, he can.” He then left the arena before JD could suggest that he had to stay as well.
Sarah also remained and between them they put the hunter through his paces. The routines they used were still simple, but were much faster paced. He was so exhausted by the end of the half hour that JD had to help him walk to his room.
Over breakfast JD informed Oscar that he needed to work on his team’s fitness. Being skilled was only part of being a hunter. After how badly his team had performed at the session that morning, he could hardly disagree.
Once the meal was over, JD returned to the labs, where the scientists began to test his reflexes and enhanced senses. He was wired up once more so they could continue to monitor him.
A short while later, Sarah entered the lab where the testing was taking place. JD smiled when he saw her.
“What just happened?” Patrick asked over the loud speakers.
“Why?” JD asked.
“You heart rate just increased dramatically and your brain synapses are exploding with colour on the screen.”
“That’s nice to know,” Sarah said loud enough for Patrick to hear over the microphones.
“That answers that question,” he said back.
Sarah then raised her eyebrows suggestively. “Want to really mess with their readings?”
She didn’t wait for JD to answer. She walked up to him and kissed him passionately. “It’s not just the readings you’re messing with when you do that. Now why are you here?”
“Just letting you know that I’m going for a run.”
“That’s not a good idea. You don’t know these grounds.”
“Don’t worry. Lucas is coming with me. See you later.” She kissed him again, causing Patrick to complain that they would have to reset everything if she didn’t stop. She was grinning wickedly when she left the room.
Later that afternoon, Sarah returned to the lab to see how things were going.
“Nearly finished for today,” JD said.
“One more thing while I remember,” Patrick said. “We also need a sperm sample.”
That was one request JD hadn’t been expecting. He looked over to where Sarah was standing to see what her reaction was. She refused to look in his direction. That told him all he needed to know.
“You had better remove these electrodes then,” he said to the nearest scientist. “And get me a specimen jar.”
Once he had been freed from the electronics, he took Sarah’s hand. “You are coming with me.”
“Why? Where are we going?”
JD grinned at her. “You heard the man. They want a sample and you, my dearest, are definitely going to help get it.”
“And how exactly do you plan on doing this?” Sarah asked once they were alone in their room.
“I have one or two ideas,” he replied as he took her in his arms. “Though I’m not sure we’ll remember the specimen jar.”
Sarah shrugged her shoulders. “If we forget, then we just have to try again.”
JD then kissed her in a way that made all thoughts of scientific tests flee from her mind.
————————————-∞————————————-
JD and Sarah didn’t leave their room until late in the afternoon. “May I ask what took so long?” Patrick asked when JD handed over the specimen jar.
“No, you may not. I got what you asked for. That’s all you need to know.”
“I’ll take a look now and see what I can find out. I’m not promising anything though.”
As everyone was busy analysing the data they had already collected, no more experiments were planned for the day. JD and Sarah met Oscar in the arena where he was going through tactics with a couple of his younger students. He invited them both to join in and the next hour or so passed quickly.
Over dinner, the conversation was on the experiments once more, though nobody mentioned the request for the sperm sample. They were too scared of Sarah as well as JD to bring it up. The topic changed to vampire venom and how excited the scientists were to have a sample as they had never found a way to get hold of one before.
“We know what effect it has on humans,” Lucas said. “But, just out of curiosity, does anyone know if it affects vampires at all?”
It was a good question and Patrick tried to answer it. “I wouldn’t have thought it would have any affect, as vampires naturally produce it, but there are examples in the animal kingdom where the venom of one creature can harm another of the same species. There’s only one way to find out.” He looked across at JD expectantly.
“Are you suggesting that I should bite a vampire next time I go out hunting?” JD asked. “Or that I should let myself get bitten?”
“The first one,” Patrick said hastily when he saw the look on Sarah’s face. “Definitely the first one.”
After the meal was over, Patrick called JD and Sarah into his lab. “I’ve done some preliminary analysis and your sperm seems perfectly normal.”
“What does that actually mean?” Sarah asked.
“It means, as far I can see, there is no reason whatsoever that JD would not be able to get you pregnant. Would that child be a vampire? I’m afraid I have absolutely no idea. I can run further tests, but I don’t know of any that will answer that question.”
JD took Sarah’s hand. “When the time comes, we will just have to find out for ourselves.”
They thanked Patrick for his help, then left him in peace.
Later that night, JD and Sarah had only just got into bed when the alarm went off. It was quickly followed by a knock on the door. “Oscar is mobilising his fighters,” Patrick said as he walked into the room. “There’s space in one of the cars if you two want to tag along.”
JD and Sarah had both brought their live swords, hunting suits and fake IDs with them, so they readily agreed.
“Glad you can join us,” Oscar said as they arrived in the hallway where everyone was congregating. “We’re going to a large abandoned building so it’s going to be dark. That’s why I asked Patrick to contact 14 to join us. My team feels safer working with them in that environment than anyone else. We should get there first, but your team won’t be far behind.”
“Do they know I’m going to be there?” JD asked.
Oscar shook his head. “We weren’t certain if you would agree to come along when they were contacted. They know we will be there though.”
“Good. It will give me chance to observe them without them knowing.”
Oscar looked around and saw that all of his hunters were present. “Let’s go.”
JD grabbed a set of keys from someone’s hand. “I’m driving. What’s the address?” The middle aged man looked like he was going to protest, then changed his mind and provided JD with the details.
As usual, Sarah sat beside him in the car and he drove one handed while his other rested on her thigh.
As predicted, they were the first Sanctuary to arrive and they entered the building without waiting for 14. Sarah kissed JD goodbye, then went off. They never worked together when they hunted. JD waited until all of the hunters had entered the building, then jumped onto a first floor balcony before going through a glassless window frame.
He listened carefully, trying to pick up the noise of movement on the floor below and was pleased to find that all of the hunters were moving almost silently. Then the sound of combat reached his ears and he began to search the floor he was on.
His sword was still in its scabbard on his back. He could draw it quickly if he needed to, but tonight he wanted to do as Patrick had requested. He found a female vampire
alone in a small room, feeding on a barely living young boy. He silently crept up behind her and sank his teeth into her neck, pumping her with his venom.
She pulled away from the child and exhaled a sigh of ecstasy. “That feels good,” she said. “Though next time please wait until I have finished eating.”
Well that answered that question. He drew his sword and decapitated her.
Overall the mission went well. JD heard hunters from 14 arrive and moved throughout the building, watching them and assisting where he was needed. Nobody from either Sanctuary was injured and a lot of vampires were disposed of. The only downside was that none of their victims could be saved.
Once the building was cleared of anything living that was non-human, the hunters went outside. The clean-up squad from Sanctuary 1 had arrived and were given full details on where corpses could be found.
“Your place or mine?” JD asked Oscar once everyone was ready to leave.
“Mine I think,” Oscar said and JD gave his team instructions to go to Sanctuary 7.
JD and Sarah opted to ride with the hunters from 14, each going in a separate car so they could give them a rundown on what experiments had been done so far.
‘You could have told us you were there,” Jonathon said to his brother.
“Why? It gave me the opportunity to observe you in action without you knowing it.”
“The first I knew that you were present was when I felt your sword pass over my head. It scared the crap out of me.”
“You shouldn’t have allowed a vampire to creep up on you then should you.”
Once they were back at 7, before the joint celebrations could begin, JD took his team aside. He had been very impressed with the way they worked and told them so. Yes, he had intervened a few times, but he hadn’t really needed to. They would have managed to dispose of their attackers without his help, even the one he had killed for Jonathon.
Once both teams were back together, Oscar and JD gave their assessments. They were pleased with the way every single hunter had performed. To the best of their knowledge, nobody had taken any stupid risks and, though 14 claimed more kills, 7 had definitely held their own.
Vampire Hunters, #1 Page 33
