by K. M. Raya
“Watch as Cole here goes for my jugular…” he called out before they grappled. Cole lunged for his neck—teeth bared and for just a moment, she could have sworn she saw a fang. ‘Nah… no way.’ “See how he focuses on the prize?!” Orozco screeched excitedly as Cole frantically snapped his teeth in the instructor’s face, just as a real vamp would. “Single mindedness is the biggest weakness these bloodsuckers have—always take advantage of that. They don’t care about your banter and they don't care about your words. All these creatures want is to drain you of blood!” He pulled a wooden stake from one of the many pockets of his cargo pants.
They all watched in fascination as they fought. Cole was damn strong, stronger than your average joe. The way his corded muscles bunched beneath the thin fabric of his shirt made her feel a bit breathless. She found herself biting her bottom lip, hard. She had no idea why this guy caught her attention so suddenly, it wasn’t like he was the first hottie she’d ever encountered. It wasn’t like she was a fucking virgin or anything.
Cole wasn’t even sweating. His tanned skin looked healthy and taut and those deep set eyes held a certain glee in them… almost as if he truly enjoyed himself. One moment the men danced around one another—lunging and evading, and the next, Cole had a huge sparring stake plunged straight through his chest.
Blue yelped as she lurched forward to help him. It was pure instinct and she moved before she could tell herself to stop. “What the fuck did you do?!”
Mr. Orozco stared at Blue with wide, baffled eyes. She scrambled to Cole who sprawled out on the ground and placed her hands on his chest to keep him from getting up and to stop the bleeding. The rest of the class quieted down, simply watching the spectacle. She had no idea why she was the only one even remotely alarmed by the situation. They were acting like it was normal for an instructor to stab a student in the chest. Just another fucking Thursday.
“Hold still, we need to get this thing out of your chest before it splinters!” Her hands were shaking as she searched him over in a blind panic. She had no clue why her reaction was so strong. Why did the thought of this man getting hurt tear her in half? “Why isn’t anyone helping me!?” They ignored her. By now the class had spread out, some of them were even holding their phones up, no doubt recording the spectacle for later use. None of them had time for this.
A warm hand on her forearm brought her gaze back around until she was staring into a pair of laughing brown eyes. “I’m okay, I promise.” Cole said softly. “It's only a scratch.” He chuckled in the smoothest, deepest voice she’d ever heard. Ignoring the pleasant thrill that ran through her body all the way down to her toes, she shook her head in bewilderment. He was still in danger.
“A scratch?” she asked incredulously. “You have a fucking spear protruding from your body and you call it a scratch... are you insane?” She put the back of her hand to his forehead because he was sounding crazy and possibly feverish.
Grabbing her wrist in his massive, calloused fingers, he held her softly and for a weird second she just let him. “Trust me, I’ve had worse. I’ll heal within the hour, don’t you worry, babe.” He winked.
She snatched her hand back, clutching it to her chest as she studied him a little closer. Suddenly, his eyes seemed a bit too sparkling. His skin appeared too rich, his hair extra thick and luscious… “You're a wolf,” she whispered, squinting down at him.
Cole nodded, cracking a smile and letting a hint of fang peak through. It was oddly appealing and for some reason made her whole body light up. She knew there were werewolves on campus, though there weren't many of them. The few they did have were called Guardians. They kept watch over Arcane like sentinels, keeping the students safe and in return they gained access to classes, free housing, prime hunting grounds and safety from the humans who would love nothing more than to hunt them. That explained the hole in his chest. Werewolves were incredibly hard to kill. It would take much more than a feeble wooden stake to off someone like Cole, and now she felt like an idiot in front of the rest of the class.
Sighing, she sat back on her heels. “This seems like something I should have known already… isn’t it?”
Cole shrugged with a pleased grin that made her want to smack it off his scruff covered face. “I’m pretty sure you're the only one on campus who doesn’t know what I am; that's not exactly my fault.”
Rolling her eyes, she threw her hands up. “Ugh, whatever. Have fun pulling that lamp post out of your ribcage, wolf boy.” She staggered back to her feet.
“What, no mouth to mouth?” he called after her retreating form, fighting his own laughter. “I thought you were being all chivalrous and whatnot?”
Ignoring the absurdly attractive wolf, Blue walked away from him and took her place in the group of onlookers, waiting for the lesson to begin again. Several girls gave her the stink eye as they watched their little standoff. He was still staring at her, even as he got back to his feet and jerked the stake out of his chest like it was nothing.
She should have known he was a wolf and she felt like a rookie for not sensing it right away. Now that she was paying attention to something deeper, rather than just how hot he was, she could tell there was something so obviously different about Cole. He was too big and mean looking to be human, but his warrior type aesthetic directly contradicted the playfulness in his glowing eyes. Werewolves were notorious flirts due to the primal nature of their inner wolves, and the way he watched her was distinctly predatory. She’d only seen a few Guardians in her life, but mostly from before they were exiled. He was the first she met in person though.
Werewolf lore was where the human movies and TV shows got it right for once. The legends and stories had been passed down through human history since practically the beginning of time in some form or another and most of it was pretty spot on. Unlike vampires, werewolves were able to retain all of their humanity, even while shifting into their wolf forms. The magic that fueled their transition kept their minds intact, unlike the vamps who were overcome by a virus. Since vampirism wasn’t magical, nor was it natural in any way, they were more susceptible to savagery. Somewhere along the line of supernatural history, a human was infected with a demonic virus which turned them into a vamp and so on until more and more were infected and changed. It was like a plague that spread through humanity like rats. Some called them demons themselves, but Blue just called them abominations.
Many hundreds of years later, Slayers began to pop up in non-magical families until soon there were hundreds of them, if not more. They assembled communities and passed the Slayer gene through generations. She suspected they’d be around forever, or at least as long as it took to wipe the monsters from existence. Nature seemed to have a certain way of fighting off viruses and Slayers were the perfect anti-virus—the perfect predator.
Slayers and werewolves created alliances as the years passed. Since werewolf bites were toxic to vampires in wolf form due to the magic lacing their bloodstream, wolves often pledged their support to the Slayer communities in return for protection since their numbers were dwindling. It all worked very fluidly, and recent years have seen vampire sightings lessen. Until now.
*
The rest of Self Defense breezed by without any more drama. Some of the other students still looked at Blue with judgy eyes now and then but for the most part everyone seemed pretty focused on themselves. She suspected the renewed enthusiasm must stem from Savannah’s sudden and inexplicable death.
Weapons training hadn’t been as exciting as she anticipated. Their instructor, a much older man by the name of Mr. Zion, waxed on for what seemed like hours on the history of advanced swordplay. Her hands itched to grab her stakes throughout the entire boring lesson, and she could have sworn a few Slayers had been sleeping towards the back of the room.
She wished there was a way for them to fast forward through the introductory period of the syllabus and get right to the action, but in the back of her mind she understood the need to know the basics first. Many of th
ese students would need it after living a sheltered life. She tried not to be bitter about it, but sometimes it was still hard for her to feel like she could relate to any of them after the life she was forced to lead.
Lunch was served in the dining hall, a cavernous room filled with lit torches, black iron chandeliers and aging tapestries depicting several prominent family crests—including her own, surprisingly. Circular, rough wooden tables were spread out through the room and piles of food were arranged on platters in the center of each table. It was awkward at first, having all eyes turn to her the moment she entered the room. They watched her with snarls and sneers, judging her for things they had no real idea about. It was all so petty and she was already sick of it.
As if drawn by some sort of magnet, she felt a strong pull in the direction of one of the tables towards the back of the room. Her eyes searched out the source of the magnetic feeling until they came to rest on that goddamn werewolf. He was watching her intently from across the room, not even trying to conceal his interest. His sexy lips were tipped into a smirk beneath his neat brown beard, but his eyes were full of heat and promises. His attention on her prompted the rest of the guys at his table to turn and investigate. Looking closer, she noticed that they were all Guardians as well. That must be his pack. Their eyes swung back and forth between the two of them until one of them elbowed Cole in the side, breaking his stare and releasing Blue from the bubble of intensity wrapping around the two of them.
She let out a shaky breath. It pissed her off how easily he’d been able to capture her attention. There was just something about him that she found unnervingly compelling. From the second she saw him in that training room, it was like her body called out to him in a primal way. He felt familiar somehow, though she knew for a fact that she’d never met him before in her life. She would have remembered him without a doubt.
Waving arms from the other side of the room caught her attention and she let out a relieved breath. Ronnie flagged her down with David already next to her and it looked like they were waiting for her. She felt stupid and childish for letting the stares and whispers get to her head so much. She always prided herself on having thick skin and being self-sufficient. High school with humans hadn’t been nearly as daunting, but it wasn’t without its bumps in the road. Now in college, it was just more of the same bullshit.
“So, are you perpetually pissed off, or does your face just naturally look like that?” asked Ronnie the moment Blue dropped into her seat.
Shrugging, she kept her eyes on her plate. “I just look like this. It's a good self-defense tactic, you should try it.”
David snorted through a sip of water, coughing a second later. “I take it your first day didn’t go so well?” he asked after several deep breaths.
Sighing heavily, she grabbed a buttery looking roll from the pile and took a big bite before answering. “I made an ass out of myself in Self Defense.”
Ronnie stopped eating. “Now this I gotta hear… what'd you do, hurt someone already?”
Blue scoffed, offended. “Do you have so little faith in me already? I thought this might have been the start of a beautiful friendship.”
“Come on… the deets!” Ronnie urged on the edge of her seat. Her red curls were still damp, she probably just came from the gym as well.
She took another glutinous bite, swallowing the rest of the roll whole and probably looked super ladylike. A part of her hoped the others had seen it. Maybe Cole would be so disgusted with her that he’d give her some room to breathe. “Orozco staked some guy in the chest and I thought he was dying. So, naturally I freaked the hell out and now everyone thinks I’m an idiot.” A moment of silence passed before her new friends erupted in snorting laughter.
“Yeah, yeah, yuck it up, assholes… I really thought he was a goner.” Shaking her head, she cringed even now while the memory was fresh in her mind. “Stupid werewolf…” she grumbled under her breath.
Ronnie’s face sobered. “Hold on, are you talking about Cole Harlan?” Her eyes were wide.
“That's the one.” Blue shot her some fingerguns, feeling her cheeks heat at the mere mention of his stupid name. Stupid, sexy name.
“Holy shit!” Ronnie laughed some more, a bit hysterical. “You really thought Orozco killed a freakin Guardian?!”
“How was I supposed to know he was a Guardian? It’s not like I was paying that much attention!” she lied through her teeth. In reality, he’d had all of her attention but admitting that was out of the question.
While Ronnie descended into a fit of laughter at Blue’s expense. David, bless his kind heart, decided to throw her a bone. ‘Bone—werewolves… I need to stop.’ “Cole’s a freakin badass, Blue. He graduated last year but he’s technically been a Guardian since senior year of high school. He’s already a Beta and a teacher aid in most of the Self Defense classes.”
Her eyes reluctantly widened, impressed. Normally it took until the completion of college courses to be inducted into the Guardian pack. Wolves went to classes just like Slayers, only with a few alternate courses thrown into the mix—sort of like a trade school. After graduation, the school held a Guardianship ceremony for all of their graduates. It was a huge event and one of the highest honors a young werewolf could receive. But in order to pass, they would have to participate in the Trials, a series of tests to prove their worth to the rest of the pack. It was actually more like a sporting event and she vaguely remembered attending a few with her parents and grandparents during childhood.
“Wow, I really made an ass of myself. I feel a lot better now, thanks.” She grabbed a chicken leg, ready to eat her feelings away.
Ronnie recovered herself finally, but humor still danced in her eyes. “I’m sure he’s forgotten all about it by now. Cole’s not really the type to mingle or gossip too much, he’s really serious and mostly keeps to himself or the other wolves. You’ll be okay… probably.” She cringed.
“That's super reassuring,” Blue mumbled around a mouth full of admittedly delicious fried chicken. She ate in silence after that as Ronnie and David had to rush off to their respective classes. She was lamenting the thought of her next two classes while planning on taking the world's longest nap as soon as the clock struck four.
Chapter Six
“My god... you haven’t even been there a week,” Harlow groaned on the other end of the phone.
Blue rolled her eyes, waiting for her sister to stop being dramatic, which was no small feat. She was crouched on the bottom step of a large stone staircase just outside the back door to the kitchen. The woods beyond the cobblestone pathway looked eerie in the quiet foggy night, but it was just her sort of weather. She couldn’t explain it, but something about the spookiness of a foggy forest really appealed to her baser instincts. It made her want to hunt.
“I’ve had a lot on my plate, alright? These people hated me the second I walked on campus, and I might already have an instructor who wants to cut off my head…”
Harlow sighed heavily. Blue could practically feel the eye roll. “You need to get it together; this is our family’s one chance—”
“What family?” she interrupted. “Because we're all that's left in case you forgot,” she snapped. “The Graves might as well be extinct. I’m just here so I can finally do what I was born to do, but I have no interest in kissing anyone's boots.”
“Don’t talk like that. Like it or not we’re still a family. We’re still a team and I don’t believe for a second that you don’t care about our reputation. You know we don’t deserve to be cast out…” Harlow sniffled a little over the line and she felt her chest deflate. As hard as she could be sometimes on her older sister, they would always be a team. It would always be the two of them through it all—two against the word that turned their backs on them.
“Look…” she sighed, “I’ll try and make this work, but I’m not promising you anything. They already have their minds made up about me. They only know what lies were fed to them by their parents and the Concl
ave. I honestly don’t know if I’m capable of charming my way out of this one.”
Harlow chuckled. “I believe in you, baby sis. Just bat those pretty lashes and make a friend or two, it can’t be that hard.”
Rolling her eyes, Blue snorted. “You're hopeless, you know that?” Harlow was forever the lighthearted one and all the cynicism seemed to have accumulated inside of Blue somehow. “What about you, though, how are things back home?” She was worried about Harlow being stuck in Portland by herself with nobody there to watch her back.
Harlow was quiet for a moment and Blue felt her hackles rise. “What's going on?”
Harlow cleared her throat. Her voice was hesitant. “I’m not gonna lie, things are getting pretty weird. I don’t know what it is, but it seems like more and more vamps have been sighted in the area this week. I’ve been out every night so far.”
Unease bubbled in her stomach. “Just say the word and I’ll come home. I don’t like you being out there alone—”
“Don’t worry about me, things are shitty here like always, but it's nothing I can’t handle. I want you focusing on school right now, understand? I need you to do well, Blue Jay. This is your one shot at everything that I never got, and I need you to do it without worrying about me.”
Blue growled in frustration. “At least tell me you’ll visit Greg soon. I’ve seen a few things he’s been working on and I’ll feel safer if you’re stocked up. There should be some money in the safe leftover from my stakes—”
“Okay, okay, I promise. I’ll go see him tomorrow if I can, but you need to stop stressing. I’m sure it's probably nothing. Vamps like to congregate from time to time, you know that. I’m sure the Conclave already has a team on it as we speak,” she attempted to reassure her.
“What has the fucking Conclave ever done for that city? Those sewers are practically crawling with vamps, have been for years.”
