I eyed him questioningly.
“There’s this one class I want to attend today, but we’re not going anywhere because Cassius wants us here.”
I frowned. “The classes are interesting, but—”
“Combat training,” Grey interjected. “Fighting’s my thing. Keeps you alert. It gives you the ability to protect yourself. It’s the first physical training that I think is going to be of use.”
He’d piqued my interest. I considered his suggestion, then lifted my blanket and pushed myself from the bed. Grey took a step forward and raised his hands. “You’re not supposed to be going anywhere.”
“Cassius wants me indoors because I was unwell. But I’m fine now.” My lightheadedness had left me, and I’d gotten plenty more sleep before my third meal of the day arrived. I could probably take down a lowblood now if I had the right tools.
I picked up my backpack and slung it over my shoulder. “Let’s go.”
“We’re not going anywhere,” Grey said. He moved closer, but his attempt at stopping me seemed halfhearted. I cocked my head, giving him an “are you sure?” look. Grey eyed me. “Okay, fine,” he said. “But you better not get injured, or Cassius is going to have my head.”
“You almost sound like you’re afraid of him,” I said. “Wasn’t someone having a staring match with the fullblood earlier?”
“The guy’s a fucking vampire. I was faking my bravado.”
I snorted. “Faking it?”
“When you have to pick on someone bigger than you,” Grey said, putting out his cigarette in an ashtray he’d found who-knew-where, “you act tough so they second-guess you. Then you just pray that they don’t realize your bluff and beat you to a pulp.”
“Was that something you learned from the gangsters?”
“You learn a lot from them growing up.”
“Like how to crack skulls.”
“Amongst other useful things.” Grey brushed his hands together and stood.
He opened the door for me and led me into the hallway. Most of the students were attending classes and had left.
“When dealing with people like them, you learn to take care of yourself,” Grey said. “You learn that it’s better to save your own hide than someone else’s, because you never know when you’re going to get betrayed.”
I shook my finger at him. “I’m still not sure whether we should be friends.”
“Have I let you down before?”
“No,” I said. The failing was done by me, mostly.
Grey swung an arm around my shoulder. “Then stick around, little lion.”
We made our way toward the gym. The floor was made of black wood. It looked like a decorated basketball court, with its bleachers also painted black and its walls lined with antiquated patterns.
Most of the students had already gathered. Class was supposed to start at five in the morning, and we were two minutes early. My breath left my lungs in an erratic tempo. I’d had to hurry to get here on time, but Grey didn’t look like he’d broken a sweat. I worked out, but Grey was much fitter. His body was all rippling muscle. In comparison, I looked like a sack of potatoes.
Madam Varkov appeared at the entrance of the hall as soon as the hour hand hit five. She wore casual shoes today, which I found odd, because I always saw her in heels. She’d exchanged her usual body-hugging skirts for long pants, and her curly hair was tied into a thick ponytail. She stepped in front of the class and clapped her hands together. “Welcome to combat training 101.” Along with her new outfit, she also carried a bunch of belts with knives attached.
The students broke into chatter, and Madam Varkov gestured for everyone to calm down. She dropped the knives onto the ground. “One person is allowed one weapon. There should be just enough for everyone. We’re starting with simple knives today before moving on to swords, bows, crossbows, and other advanced forms of weaponry.”
She bent down to pick up a weapon. Across the court were a line of straw men. “These are throwing knives,” she said. She tossed a knife across the court, and it landed in the center of the straw man’s torso. “But we’ll using them for close combat practice as well.”
A boy at the back of the class raised his hand. Madam Varkov gestured at him. “Why must we be trained with weapons?” he asked.
“Good question,” Madam Varkov replied. “If you are to join the ranks of us vampires, you must be a skilled fighter. Vampires are not the only supernatural race on Earth. There are others who wish to see us exterminated or weakened. Wars between vampires, werewolves, and hunters break out frequently. One purpose of the Sanctum is to bolster our numbers so that we may be more prepared for coming wars.”
As Madam Varkov spoke, one student stepped aside and began throwing up. The illness that caused nausea was still going around. It’d gotten more rampant. At least twenty more students fell sick every day. I hoped I didn’t catch it.
Madam Varkov screwed her nose up. “Please excuse yourself and get a janitor to mop up your mess. Come back when you’re finished. The test today will be a difficult one, but it will also determine how much longer you will stay in the Sanctum.”
“Test?” I asked.
Madam Varkov must not have heard me. She continued with her lesson, telling the students to take their pick of knives. There wasn’t much variety. At most, the weapons had slightly different hilts. I picked one up and weighed it in my hand. I’d used knives before, so I wasn’t sure if this lesson was going to be helpful. Maybe I’d pick up a trick or two.
Over the next hour, Madam Varkov went through several techniques. She started with long-range attacks, then proceeded to close-range combat.
“Pay attention to this move, because you’re going to be using it later,” she said, positioning herself behind a straw man that didn’t have any legs. “Step over your object and hold them like this. Make sure they’re immobile and have no way to fight back. Slit their throats swiftly, cleanly, and aim for this spot.” She pointed at the straw man’s neck. I recognized that area as the artery. “Of course, this technique works better with hunters and humans. If you’re fighting a werewolf, aim for its heart instead of its jugular.”
I’d never come across a werewolf, so I couldn’t envision one. I doubt I even wanted to come across one.
“Is that clear?” Madam Varkov asked.
Most people in the class nodded.
We were given some time to practice. Grey whipped out some moves that Madam Varkov hadn’t even demonstrated. He twirled the knife and stabbed his straw man so quickly that my eyes couldn’t follow. I thought that Jonas was the fastest human I’d ever known, but Grey’s movements put him to shame.
“Stick to what you’re taught, Grey,” Madam Varkov said.
Grey rolled his eyes.
“Hey, slut-face,” Vixie said from my left. She threw her knife after heckling me. It landed right next to her straw man. She’d missed, miserably, just like with her insults. “We all saw Cassius carrying you earlier today.”
“It’s none of your business.”
“How’d you like spreading your legs?”
“Focus, Ms. Natash!” Madam Varkov shouted, saving me from Vixie’s taunting. Vixie didn’t hurt me with her words, but she did annoy the heck out of me. Her childishness was like nails on chalkboard and made her difficult to be around.
When practice was over, it was time for us to start the test. Madam Varkov asked us to drop our weapons, which we placed next to the belts she’d brought them in.
It had only been an hour and a half since the students had found out about the test, but rumors about it had already begun forming. I overheard some people saying that we were going to battle each other, tournament-style. Others thought that we’d have to fight vampires, or maybe even werewolves.
“What’s your guess?” Grey asked. He was covered in a thin layer of sweat. He’d let himself get carried away during training.
“I’m hoping it’s fighting vampires.”
Grey arched a br
ow. “You’d prefer that? It sounds like one of the harder options, honestly.”
“And that’s why I’d prefer it. If I do go back home and start hunting vampires down—”
“Whoa, hold up.” Grey frowned. “You did what back home?”
“I hunted vampires.” I gave Grey a blank look. I realized that I hadn’t told him about this before.
Grey gave me a once-over. “But you’re tiny.”
“Are you discriminating against tiny people, now? Do you always make snap judgments?”
“You eat jerky like an animal and I’m still your friend. Cut me some slack.”
I snorted. “My smaller build helps, actually. I can maneuver around the tighter corners. I have to use surprise as my element, and looking more vulnerable gets the vampires’ guards down.”
Grey sniffed. “You aren’t lying to me, are you? I can’t imagine a small girl like you chasing down those creatures. It’s crazy.”
“Discriminating,” I said, raising my voice a notch. “Notice how you used the word ‘small’ again? You really have something against people who are shorter than you, huh?”
Grey shrugged. “I can still accept differences. Point in case, jerky.”
“What’s wrong with liking jerky?”
“Nothing. You just have unhealthy amounts of it.”
“You can’t say that to me. Not when you inhale cigarettes like they’re air.”
“Won’t matter once I turn into a vampire.”
Madam Varkov took out her cell phone. She typed something into it, and a moment later, the doors behind her swung open. A row of humans entered. They were dressed in white frocks, similar to what I saw Cassius’s blood slave wear. They were led forward by a group of servants. Their heads were covered by white bags, and they were barefoot. Most of them looked emaciated.
I took a step closer to Grey. This didn’t look right at all.
Madam Varkov returned her attention to the students. “If you fail this test, your memory will be wiped by the resident witch, and you’ll be sent home. You won’t recall a thing about vampires.”
I raised my hand. “Will we forget everything?”
“Does that concern you, Ms. Snow? The council is strict about keeping our existence a secret, and we can’t risk letting the human public know of our kind.”
“What if we knew of vampires before coming here?”
She frowned. “That shouldn’t be the case.”
“What if, anyway?”
“Those memories will disappear, too.”
My chest tightened. I couldn’t go through a memory wipe. I’d forget about how to save Hannah. I’d forget about how Gran died. I’d lose all the information I’d gained about vampires. And…
Why was I so afraid of forgetting Cassius?
He wasn’t supposed to mean anything to me.
“What’s the test?” Grey asked, his voice low. The entrance of the shabbily clothed humans put everybody on edge, and I could almost taste the tension in the air.
Madam Varkov stiffened. “Each of you will have a victim. You must take a knife, and kill him or her using the method you deem best.”
Kill.
Cold-blooded murder.
“What?” I blurted, so softly that no one else could hear. My insides twisted. I should have expected something like this eventually. I shook my head and took a step back. I couldn’t do this. I might have feelings for Cassius, but I couldn’t accept myself becoming one of them.
Gran’s screams returned to my memory. She’d suffered so much pain.
“Hey, you okay?” Grey asked, wrapping his arm around my shoulder. I turned and shared a glance with him. “Your face is paling.”
“I’m…” I tried to feign being fine. I even attempted forcing a smile. But I wasn’t okay. This test was a question of who I was. It challenged everything I believed. But if I failed, I’d lose what little progress I’d made. I needed to pass it to save my sister.
Madam Varkov clapped her hands. “Let us make this quick,” she said. “There’s another lesson after this, and we don’t want to run short on time.”
“Another lesson?” I muttered. How could she be treating this like a simple school lesson?
“First up,” Madam Varkov said, “Ruth Waiters.”
Ruth, a girl who looked no older than seventeen, stepped forward. She dragged her feet on the wooden floor and picked up a knife.
“This test is to make you all stronger,” Madam Varkov continued. “I only have your best interests in mind.”
Fury raged within me. Best interests? Was she out of her mind? She was destroying everything I had been and wanted to become.
Madam Varkov lifted two fingers and gestured to one of the servants. He stepped forward, forcing the blood slave to follow as he did, and forced the human to kneel. The servant pulled the bag from the blood slave’s head, revealing a young man who stared with wide and blue and confused eyes. He opened his mouth, trying to speak, but he could only utter an indistinguishable sound. Cassius had mentioned the blood slaves serving no purpose other than as a source of sustenance. Had they truly never been allowed the chance to learn a language?
“Go ahead,” Madam Varkov said.
Ruth looked at Madam Varkov, her fright mimicking that of the blood slave. She fiddled with the knife in her hand. “I don’t think I can do this.”
“Believe in yourself,” Madam Varkov said. “I trust in you.”
Trust? I tried wrapping my head around what I’d heard. She was encouraging us to be killers.
Ruth shuffled toward the blood slave. His hands were tied behind his back, ensuring he had no chance of escaping. Ruth stared him down. She was shaking as much as he was. The rest of the class watched with bated breath.
Everything about this was wrong.
Ruth lifted her knife. Before it reached the man’s throat, she dropped it. She covered her face and backed away. “I… I c-can’t.”
Madam Varkov sighed. She pinched her bridge of the nose. “Next. Jon Taters.”
Ruth was ushered away by a servant to have her memory wiped. Jon stepped up and ran his knife across the blood slave’s neck, killing as he’d been instructed to. He was so inefficient with it, however, that it was unbearably painful to watch. His first cut wasn’t fast enough, so he tried again, having to deepen the wound that he’d already made. The blood slave died horrifically, blood gushing from his neck. He might not have been able to speak, but like every other living being, he had the will to live. He clawed at his wound, covering his fingers with glistening blood. He squirmed on the ground as his life flowed out of him, until he lost consciousness.
“Good job, Jon,” Madam Varkov said. “Next.”
Student after student picked up knives and attempted the test. By the time it was Grey’s turn, only fifteen had passed. Vixie was one of them. She’d stabbed her victim through the throat as she released a battle cry. When she was finished, not only did she show no remorse, she wore a smile on her face. She was actually proud of herself. She turned around and waved to one of her companions, who shakily waved back.
She had to be certifiably insane.
More students threw up during the test. I wasn’t sure if it was because of how gruesome the situation was, or due to the virus going around.
“Are you really going to do it?” I asked Grey as he moved to the knives.
Grey sniffed. “I’m not going to lose my memory over something so trivial.”
“I wouldn’t say this is trivial.”
“I’ve seen tons of shit. Humans can be horrible, depraved assholes.”
“Do you actually want to become a vampire?”
“Immortality sounds nice,” he said. “And if I join their ranks, it means that I won’t have to return to that hellhole. You don’t know how bad it is out there in the streets.”
“You might be exchanging this hell for a hotter one. What if it’s worse? What if you actually want to go back?”
Grey shrugged. “I’ll take my
chances. What do I have to lose?”
“Your sanity.” Spending so much time in the Sanctum was already beginning to wear mine down.
Grey ignored my comment and walked to the remaining pile of knives with a casual swagger. He acted as if he were taking a light stroll in the park. Soon after, it was time for him to end his victim, and his demeanor did a one-eighty. Grey’s entire body tensed. He focused.
His turn ended as soon as it started. Grey opted for a throw. His knife flew across the court and landed in the middle of his victim’s forehead, ending his life quickly. Grey turned and looked at me, his grey eyes having gone completely cold.
I shuddered.
Maybe you didn’t need to become a vampire to be a monster.
“You’re next,” Grey said. He broke his icy expression with a smile. “All the best.”
Madam Varkov called my name in her sultry voice. My chest thumped so loudly that I heard my heart beating in my ears. I’d faced down vampires, but I was acting like Ruth earlier, like a scared mouse who didn’t know where to run.
Hannah.
I focused my thoughts on her and her dying body. I still hadn’t finished my task in the Sanctum. I had to stay.
“Loser!” Vixie shouted from the corner. She cackled after her uncreative, mean-spirited comment.
I pushed her from my thoughts. She threw more comments my way, but I had neither the time nor the energy to pay attention. The servant in charge of my blood slave followed the same routine as the others. The blood slave I was meant to kill was forced to his knees. His hood was pulled from his face moments later, revealing a graying man with a round jaw. He was older than the other blood slaves, but his face was painted with the same amount of fear. Still, there was something different about him. The other blood slaves had looked resigned, like they’d accepted the fact that they didn’t have much time left. This man, however, had some fire left in him.
Could I really do this?
“You’ve got this, Verity!” Grey shouted from behind me. Repulsion shot through me. Grey shouldn’t be cheering on such blasphemous acts.
Fullblood Academy: A Vampire Academy Mild Bully Romance (Vampires of the Sanctum Book 1) Page 14
