by Holly Hook
The man with the dog had vanished. I no longer heard the dog's nails. He must have an apartment nearby and had gone inside. A few cars passed, and that might be a problem. This was a high-traffic area and someone might see if I tried anything.
I jogged.
It was a struggle to keep my speed down to Normal levels, but at least I could practice for upcoming soccer games. Alyssa reined in her full strength, and so could I. I sensed that I could run much faster, and I wanted to try out a full run with all my being, but this was the city, complete with people who might watch from apartment windows. But then I came up on Fifth Street, which led to the high school in only a mile. I made a right and passed another couple of cars, and then the street stood empty. I could see the fence that surrounded the school grounds ahead, and the school was dark except for the few lights left on inside at night. Farther back, the track spread out, right along with the soccer field.
I picked up my pace to something that might rival those Kenyan Olympic runners. I still felt I could go faster, but I didn't dare risk it. Food might have to come first, but I had all night to do that, plus study more. Mom wouldn't wake until seven as she did every morning.
The gate to the school stood shut. The janitor seemed to have left for the night. No cars sat in the lot. It wasn't like I would attack them, anyway. My classes took place here.
I wanted to try jumping the fence in one go. I hadn't reached the point of shaking yet. Picking up my pace, I listened for any cars, and heard none on this street. I passed only administrative buildings and the bus garage. The fence loomed eight feet tall as if the school wanted to keep out intruders.
I leapt.
My legs propelled me to the top of the fence. I grabbed on and swung my leg over with ease, not even breaking a sweat, and jumped down on the other side without a hitch. I crouched when I hit the ground, but due to expecting a shock that never came.
Something climbed up a tree on the school grounds, but I picked up no human sounds here. The parking lot stood empty, along with the soccer field and the track. Only a single light burned inside the football field entrance, casting just enough glow to allow me to see in color. A wave of nostalgia swept over me, even though I hadn't been out of school for that long, and I wanted nothing more than to take a run around the track. I hadn't done track since my freshman year since I sucked at it, but it had given me a good distraction from other things.
Another gate blocked the way to the football field area, but that wasn't a problem, either. I climbed the chain-link fence and dropped on the track which surrounded the football field, and I broke into a full run.
Faster...faster...the bleachers turned into a blur in my peripheral vision, but every crack in the pavement remained clear. The night air blasted against me as if I were riding in a convertible with the top down. It was exhilarating. I finished one lap in what must be record time, and then another, and a third before I forced myself to slow and stop. Gripping my knees, I leaned over, but more out of habit than anything else. I must have taken that track twice as fast as those Olympic runners.
Maybe I had a future in sports.
I'd just have to fake the physicals that all teams required to make sure no Abnormals had an unfair advantage.
I straightened up just as applause broke out from the bleachers.
Chapter Eight
I whirled.
I didn't notice him at first, but then my gaze fell on the guy sitting halfway up the bleachers. He clapped his hands together as loud as he could, making the sleeves of his hoodie tremble. Even though the space under his gray hood was dark, I could make out his face. He had deep brown eyes that resulted from contacts. The telltale red peeked through them, betraying his nature. The guy also had a hint of sideburns along with messy, curly hair that the hoodie smashed against his face.
I froze.
“Crap.”
It was the guy I'd seen with my would-be captors at the mall, the one who had been sitting in the salon with the older man.
“Is that how you greet everyone?” he asked.
I checked the rest of the football field for anyone else who might have arrived with him. No one. But this guy had sneaked up on me when I was busy testing myself on the field. I hadn't noticed, so there were holes in my defenses. Great.
“No,” I said. “Who came with you?” The guy only looked about seventeen or eighteen, and he carried no scent. Vampire, then, and with the others who had come after us. I didn't have as much advantage as I thought. I couldn't go home now. They might follow and find my mother there. She had no defense.
Or maybe they already knew where I lived.
The guy stood. He dropped his hoodie, letting his hair expand. I tried to think. If he looked seventeen or eighteen, he couldn't be an old vampire. He'd appear at least twenty-five, for starters. He had either taken his bite recently, or he'd suffered an Alyssa deal.
And I still had my heightened senses.
Maybe he was the scout to make me feel at ease so the others could attack. They couldn't fool me.
“I was just watching you run,” he said. “You live around here?”
“No,” I blurted. This guy didn't look like anyone who went to school with me. “I live in Oaktown, and I came out here to get away from everyone. It's been a weird past couple of weeks.” I searched the fence behind me, which separated the football field from the parking lot, but there was no one.
No one I could see.
“I imagine you have,” the guy said. He jumped down from the bleachers and landed ten feet from me. We now faced each other. He smiled, and it would have charmed me under other circumstances.
“Why?” I asked. “Are you a stalker?” He seemed to know I'd just Turned.
“Do I look like one?”
“With that hoodie and the way you sat there and watched me, yes, you do.”
“Hoodies don't make a stalker,” he said.
“Stalking people does,” I said, taking a step back. I regretted it right away.
“Who said I was doing that?” the guy asked. “My name's Brendan. Oaktown's a long distance to run. You must be hungry.”
My stomach rumbled, and I cursed it. It wasn't cooperating. I still hadn't reached my shaky point, but the run around the field seemed to have sped up the process.
“I'm not,” I said.
“This isn't a good place to look for food,” he said. “Normals can't get in with all the tall fences around here. Try the park or an alley if you're worried about getting seen. The park might be best since I don't think you've had much experience with hunting. I haven't, either. Maybe we can head there right now.”
“Are you asking me out on a date?” I asked. I supposed the guy was cute as a nerd (he had that awkward air) but the fact he knew too much about me was rubbing me wrong. I checked my surroundings again. “You still haven't told me how you know I've had a weird last couple of weeks.”
“Well, you're still a teenager, so you have to be adjusting.” The guy tripped over his words. Yes. Awkward.
“And?” I pressed, searching the bleachers again. I could run to the gate right now.
“I saw you on TV. When the mayor was doing his speech at Cumberland's Water Adventure, right before he went all demon.”
“Oh.” I had forgotten about that.
A cameraman had filmed it, but I thought the footage got lost when the guy fell into the Infernal portal. Had it broadcast live until that point? Late night news existed, even on the local stations. Thoreau had forced me to stand on stage along with Liliana and George because he liked to parade his defeated trophies like a ruler from ancient times.
I had already Turned at that point so Brendan still couldn't have known that was my first night. I wasn't on live TV, ever, before then. In fact, I had never even made the local paper. I was a nobody.
“I didn't think I'd run into you,” he said. “But then I, um, noticed you at the mall the other night, and I had to talk to you. Now I got the chance. I know there aren't very
many of my kind my age, and--”
His story wasn't adding up. “I'm leaving.”
I shouldn't have announced my intentions.
Brendan put one hand up, and I recognized it as a signal too late.
From the front gate, a pair of feet hit pavement and ran in my direction. The door to the storage shed also burst open behind me.
Chapter Nine
I did what I should have done in the first place and booked it away from Brendan.
Panic took over, and I ran towards the front gate at first.
The guy from the bus had survived his fall onto the freeway.
He ran towards me so fast he would have been a blur to a Normal. Tonight he hadn't bothered with blue contact lenses. From my right, from the shed, the woman who had helped block the escalator bolted across the football field, putting the best offense to shame.
Brendan stood there on the track, useless, as the two old vampires closed in.
Some date.
I ran across the lawn and around the school building. A thought hit me that these guys might suspect that this was my school, and they could return. But all that mattered right now was escape. Even as I ran, I heard my two pursuers split behind me. The man ran around the other side of the school and planned on intercepting me from the other direction. The woman came up behind, and they were keeping pace.
My best option was to jump the fence at the edge of the school grounds, but the man was fast, and I heard his footfalls even from the other side of the building. I was no Physics expert, but even I knew he would probably meet me by the time I got to the fence. If I ran back to the football field, Brendan might stop me. If I turned around, I'd only have to deal with the woman. Those were my three options unless I could jump over the school.
Alyssa wouldn't know how to find me again, and Mom would file a missing persons report in the morning. She would also blame my friend.
So I turned around.
The woman didn't expect my move, and she slid to a stop on the grass. Like the man, she looked twenty-five, and had so many rings in her ears that her earlobes should elongate. I charged her, not sure what I was doing.
But something metal clanged on her belt. Cuffs, maybe.
We collided and went down, her out of shock. The man rounded the school now. He'd join the fray in seconds. I rammed my palm into the woman's nose and heard a crack. Wasn't that something they did in the movies?
She groaned as scentless blood spurted from her nose. It was gross. The man approached, and I leapt up and whirled around. He was fast, and his jaw dropped as he eyed the woman and the ground and then me. I had taken her by surprise. Me, a newborn.
“Impossible,” he said.
I'd been this way for less than a week, and I had already bested someone in battle.
The woman groaned again. The cracking sounds of bones pulling together followed. She was healing. I held both arms up as the man closed the distance between us, and then he crashed into me, throwing me back. I fell to the ground and he seized my arm.
“What have you done to Edith?” he roared in his accent. He held my wrist close to his chest, trying to guarantee that I couldn't break away. The cracking continued as she continued to heal.
“What I'm going to do to you?” I asked, sounding like a chipmunk all over again.
I had nothing to lose. If this guy and Edith took me to Bathory, it was over. I was Alyssa's friend. My reputation was already in the toilet. I made a fist with my other hand and swung at the side of the guy's face.
He snorted as my hand made the arc.
And then I struck the side of his face.
A sickening crack followed, one I didn't expect, and a stunned look came over the man's face. He grinned as if he were drunk, and then his grip loosened on my wrist. I yanked it back, shaking it out from the pressure, and backpedaled away from the two recovering old vampires.
This didn't make sense. I had done little. The guy should have laughed at my attack.
But no matter what happened, I was taking advantage of it.
I turned and bolted to the front gate.
* * * * *
It didn't take long for me to get back to my apartment building. It was only a mile from my school, and I made triple sure that no one was chasing me as I got to the front door. I stepped inside the lobby and closed the glass door behind me, but I knew it wouldn't stop my pursuers.
My pursuers could be quiet enough if they wanted. I had gotten too caught up in testing my running skills to pay attention. Would things always be like this from now on?
Would I always have to look over my shoulder?
I backed away from the glass door, making sure that no one approached. A police car crawled past, but it made me feel no safer. The two chasing me couldn't get stopped by the cops. The cops were there to deal with Normals who broke the law.
Not us.
I shouldn't have escaped. Being newborn, I should have been useless against those two.
Was it the god blood? It kept going strong, enhancing my senses. Did it also give a boost to my strength? It wasn't impossible. Xavier had proven that he was strong enough to hold me in place, which was no small feat.
Maybe biting Xavier's wrist had saved my life.
I leaned against the wall and waited. I listened for any back doors that might open. Somewhere outside, a rat squeaked. It was getting late, and my stomach protested, but I couldn't go back out there. Edith and her friend knew I was around here.
I gave off no scent, according to George and Alyssa. If a werewolf couldn't smell me, neither could my new enemies. That was a plus.
“Okay, Janine,” I said. “You drank god blood, so you should be super awesome and able to handle anyone who comes after you.”
Somehow, that didn't make me feel better. I hoped there were no security cameras in here that could have recorded that. I found none.
“Okay.” I tried again. “After you broke a nose and cracked a skull, those guys won't want to come after you again.”
What was I saying? The man was murderous. It was in his eyes and his grin. I knew he had killed plenty of people in his life if he hung out with the Mother. The guy would not let me cracking his skull slide. He had already come back after me after taking a nail file to the eye and falling off that city bus at expressway speed. I knew he'd return, and next time, he might bring reinforcements.
I was freaking out.
Even with the god blood.
If there was anything I'd learned from being around Alyssa, it was that having extra perks and powers was not a good thing. It got powerful people interested in you.
Or was it?
Maybe I was more useful than I thought.
But then I turned my thoughts to my mother, and the danger she might land in if those old vampires traced my residence to this complex. Sure, we had just moved in yesterday, but Brendan had been tracking me for some time. He might have even seen me leave this building and head over to the school grounds. He knew about my last two weeks—and Bathory had known about my Turning. We'd never spoken, but she had been there with the mayor.
I rushed upstairs and unlocked the door, relieved that no one had tampered with it. Everything inside the lock sounded normal, and I smelled no fresh air pouring in through open windows. Mom continued to make windy snores, and her pulse remained calm and untroubled. Her world was great, and I had to keep it that way.
I grabbed a frying pan out of the kitchen, brand new and giving off a metallic scent. Then I sat in the living room all night, with only my gray vision to keep me company, and I watched the door of my mother's bedroom and the crack underneath it.
* * * * *
I remained in the living room until the light got gray outside and my color vision returned. Everything stayed as sharp as ever, and I realized that I could hear each of Mom's sleep cycles. Her pulse changed every so often, speeding up and slowing just a little each hour. She also made a faint, but strange rustling noise with her eyelids at the same time her pul
se quickened. Didn't your eyelids go crazy or something when you were dreaming?
I'd have to ask Alyssa if she ever heard this.
I hadn't until after the Xavier incident.
The light increased, and I closed the curtains further. That helped with the dull headache trying to bloom, but I yawned and stretched. The dawn was making me tired, and I realized that I had school in about an hour and a half. Once I went outside, I'd be under daylight, and even with clouds, it wouldn't make me feel the best. Until now, I had avoided it by staying in the basement of Alyssa's grandmother, and today would be my first real exposure.
I was nervous, to say the least.
And my enemies were still out there.
The man, Edith, and Brendan.
Maybe I should take the bus to school.
My palms tingled with nerves as I returned the pan to the cupboard where I found it, making sure it was in the right place. I forced a giggle. I had been guarding my apartment with a frying pan for most of the night.
At least Mom would head to work today, leaving the place empty. And I had to go to school if I would tell Alyssa and Xavier what had happened.
As Mom's alarm went off, I rushed to the kitchen, microwaved a toaster strudel, and got a few crumbs on the plate. I tossed the toaster strudel out the kitchen window and onto the top of a Dumpster below. As I poked my head out the window, a headache bloomed between my temples. There were thickening clouds rolling in, but the sun was poking through a hole in them. I hoped that was temporary. Focusing on classes with it out in full force all day would be a nightmare.
I remembered Alyssa's advice.
Dress for the light levels.
Mom went into the bathroom and started her shower. I left the plate with the crumbs in the sink and ran into my bathroom, checking my contacts. Perfect. I grabbed the nail file and braced myself as I brought it up to my teeth. If I didn't file, Mr. Connors would call on me in class and ask me to answer questions. He had a thing about mumbling.
