Aden walked right up to the table and cleared his throat. The girl stopped mid-sentence to gape up at me, her baby doll face lit with childlike curiosity. I couldn’t see the boy’s reaction, though I caught him leaning past Aden to catch a glimpse of me.
“Guys,” Aden said, “this is Sergeant –”
“Sloane?”
The boy’s soft, airy voice was strikingly familiar in my head. My gaze snapped to his, and we stared at each other for a few seconds, our faces mirroring one another’s shock and disbelief.
It took me several seconds to find my tongue. “Rook?” I whispered.
He looked exactly as I remembered. Every detail was the same as it had been the night I lost my brother – and I thought, Rook – to the vampire. As the goalie for my brother’s hockey team – of which, Orion was the captain of – Rook had always been athletic and toned, but not the tank he had apparently become upon turning into a vampire. His warm, gentle brown eyes looked me over, as if not quite believing what he was seeing.
I shrank back, searching for any sign of anger or resentment, but a bright smile warmed his face as he rose from the table and wrapped me up in a bear hug, laughing. “It is you!”
Rook was much taller than me – he and my brother had both been giants, standing at 6’5” – and after my initial shock at having him there, hugging me, alive, I threw my arms around him and laughed, tears stinging my eyes.
He pulled away, placing a hand at my back and gently pushing me toward the booth. “Here, please,” he said, taking his seat and motioning for me to sit beside him. I glanced at Aden, who looked a bit perplexed by our sudden camaraderie, and slid into the booth by Rook. (His name was actually Jerome Crecey, but when he had first joined my brother’s hockey team, everyone had called him “rookie” until he proved himself otherwise. Their first game, he stopped nearly every goal of the opposing team. Despite his triumph, the name had stuck, and everyone had affectionately called him “Rook” from then on.)
Aden slipped into the booth beside the girl, who scooted over to make room for him. I could feel Rook’s excitement at seeing me. “How… when?” he asked.
“Um…” I bit my lip, and looked at Aden expectantly, who just shrugged and steepled his fingers together, looking slightly amused by all this. I took it as my cue to continue. “I went into the Red Sector to look for Orion,” I said quietly, feeling a new stab of pain at mentioning his name. “And I was attacked.” My palms began to sweat as I faltered, unsure whether or not I should tell them the truth.
“I saw her fighting off a Rogue, and thought she could make for a good recruit,” Aden inserted smoothly.
“Rogue?” I interrupted.
“A wild vampire, more animal than human,” Aden said absently. I had more questions, but he didn’t give me a chance to ask before he went on. “Anyway, I opted to change her myself. Though her combat skills and determination were impressive, she was badly bleeding and didn’t have long.”
I gave Aden a look but quickly masked it. Why was he lying for me? These were his friends, or at least, I thought they were. What secret did he have to hide from them?
Rook nodded, laughing softly. “Sloane always did have a penchant for fighting. I told her brother that we should let her on as one of our defenseman so she could get out some of that pent up aggression on the ice.”
The blond girl sat quietly, listening and observing, though her face remained open and friendly.
“A penchant for fighting,” Aden murmured. “Yes, I could see that.”
I scowled at him, leaning back into the seat and crossing my arms. So what if I had a record for brawling? My father hadn’t exactly liked it, but he had taught Orion and me to look after ourselves, to not let anyone push us around. We were far from being bullies, and though we never started the fights, we could certainly finish them.
“I’m sorry about Orion,” Rook suddenly said, his voice no louder than a breeze.
“So you saw him, then? Before…” I asked.
Rook nodded, his eyes growing distant. “It was like something out of a nightmare… there was so much blood and the Rogue… its thirst was too out-of-control.” He blinked, shaking himself free of the memory. “He didn’t suffer long, I’m sure of that.” He gave me a small smile, trying to be sympathetic.
So much blood. I closed my eyes, seeing my brother’s horror-stricken face as he called out to me. And now, seeing Rook was like visiting with a ghost, and a wave of guilt crashed through my chest. “I… I’m sorry.”
Rook’s smile faltered. “For what?”
“For what I did,” I whispered.
He chewed his lip thoughtfully. “I don’t blame you, Sloane. I would have reacted the same way.” He reached over and squeezed my hand. “So don’t you feel guilty for a second, okay?”
I saw the sincerity in his eyes, and I nodded, giving him a small smile. “Did that thing… change you?”
Rook squished up his face. “Rogues are more feral than that. They tend to be so consumed by the thirst that they drain and kill their human victims, never feeding them their own blood when the human’s on the verge of death. ‘Full drainage’ makes the immune system really weak, allowing the vampirism virus to spread quickly and easily. I was bitten, but I managed to escape before the Rogue killed me, blacking out in the countryside. Then I woke up down here, like this.”
My brain soaked up this information like a sponge. I already knew how a human became infected by vampirism. Leo had told me a horrific story of a death row inmate who had been “fed” to a captured vampire, some sick experiment to find out if the virus could be transferred. Apparently the government went through several prisoners before they figured out the victim had to drink vampire blood for the virus to take effect.
“So you don’t know who turned you?” I asked.
He shook his head. “No idea.”
“And… you’re okay with being like this? A vampire?”
He laughed. “At first, I couldn’t believe it, but I think more than anything I’m just happy to be alive. It’s not like I had anything waiting for me back home.”
Rook came from a rough family life, having practically raised himself in one of the toughest parts of town. I couldn’t blame him for not wanting to go back.
I smiled. “It’s so good to see you.”
Aden gently cleared his throat, and we both faced forward. “Well,” he said, looking pointedly at Rook, “you never mentioned you knew Sovereign McAllister’s daughter.”
Rook shrugged and winked at me. “You never asked.”
Aden sighed, rubbing his temples, while the blond haired girl giggled. “I like her, Aden,” she chirped. “She sounds like fun.”
Aden motioned to the girl. “How could I forget? Sloane, this is Angel Johnson. She’s a master in computer security.”
A master, huh? She didn’t look a day older than sixteen, with one of those cherubic faces that would never age (quite literally, now that she was a vampire).
Angel stood and reached across the table, her pink lips stretched into a bright smile. “Hi! It’s so nice to meet a friend of Rook’s. I’m super excited to have another girl around. Let me tell you, it’ll be a huge relief not having to depend on these two for fashion advice.” She squealed. “Lunch is going to be so much fun!”
She seemed so genuinely happy to meet me that I didn’t have the heart to tell her I probably wouldn’t be joining them for lunch very often, not when I had a cozy cell waiting for me downstairs. Instead, I gave her a nod and a small smile back, shaking her hand. “Nice to meet you.”
Angel sat down and eagerly leaned forward on the table. “So what’s your specialty? Are you going to be a soldier? I just figured, you know, since Aden and Rook said you can fight well and all.”
“All right then,” Aden said, sliding out of the booth and cutting Angel off. “Now that introductions are over with, we should really get something to eat. Sloane?”
“Sure.” I gave Angel an apologetic smile. “B
e right back,” I told her before standing and walking with Aden toward the lunch line.
I eyed Aden sidelong. “Smooth one. But for some reason, she doesn’t strike me as the type to back down. She’s going to demand some answers when we go back.”
Aden’s eyes were slightly squinted, like he was thinking through something. “Angel means well. Though she acts like a puppy sometimes, overzealous and eager to please. It also makes her really curious, and until I figure out what to do with you, I can’t have her asking too many questions.”
“Why don’t you let me train?” I asked suddenly. “As one of your soldiers, that is.”
Aden snorted. “Yeah right. Ten days ago, you were trying to kill me. Now I’m supposed to believe you’ve suddenly had a change of heart and want to switch sides? It’d almost worry me if your loyalties turned that quickly.”
I chewed on my lip. Gaining his trust might prove to be harder than I originally thought.
“Professor Knight!” someone called, and we both turned as a boy walked up to us, also dressed in black with a single gold chevron on his sleeve. I gave Aden a questioning look, but he was already deep in conversation with the boy. I leaned forward, but couldn’t catch what they were saying.
Aden’s expression turned grim. “Here,” he said, handing me a piece of blue paper. It resembled a dollar bill, only smaller, with the words fifteen jaspers and an emblem of a forget-me-not in the middle.
It has my birthmark on the crest. Then again, maybe it’s just a regular flower and I’m drawing my own connections.
“Are you listening?”
My head snapped up at Aden’s impatient tone. “Yes,” I said a little quickly.
He sighed in exasperation. “You’re no better than my students,” he mumbled.
I was about to argue that point, but he cut me off. “That should be enough to cover your meal. I’ll be right back.” He said the last part a bit sharply, letting me know not to try anything. I rolled my eyes, taking the bill from him and stepping into line as he walked away with the student.
I had been waiting for a total of ten seconds before someone behind me said, “For a girl like you, you’re awfully chummy with Aden.”
I gritted my teeth and turned around to face Dezyre, who reeked of a strong, mango-scented perfume. I coughed, wafting it away. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Her lips curled up in a cat-like grin. “Just that you must be really pathetic at your job if he has to escort you around like a first-year. I mean –” her eyes fell over me, from head to toe, then back up again – “what other reason could he have for wanting to spend any length of time around you?”
“That really gets under your skin, doesn’t it?”
“No,” she said, though her eyes were practically green with envy. “It confuses me more than anything else. I mean, it’s Aden Knight.”
Who was this guy? Some kind of underground celebrity?
Big deal. And I’m Sloane McAllister, I wanted to say.
I pulled my lips into a tight smile. “I don’t see him spending any time around you.”
Her eye twitched. “That’s because he knows I have important business to take care of. He doesn’t want to distract me.”
“Or maybe he’s allergic to your toxic personality. And that God-awful perfume you’re wearing.”
I don’t really know what made me say that, other than I’d had about as much drama as I could handle in one week. My nerves and my brain felt fried from having relived my grief over losing my brother. Glamouring two people earlier today also took a lot out of me. I was starting to experience an adrenaline crash, my mind growing sluggish as it wore off and exhaustion crept in.
Dezyre’s face deepened to a dark red. I could practically see the fumes rising from her ears. “What did you just say to me?”
“Now who’s deaf?” I asked, turning her earlier insult back around on her. I wished I had a camera; she looked ready to explode from rage.
I sighed. All this petty bickering was making my head hurt. “Look, I have better things to do than inflate your ego.” I turned around and stepped up to the clerk to pay for my meal, not caring I had completely blown-off Dezyre. I raised my right arm, handing him the odd-looking bill.
I heard Dezyre suck in a sharp breath. “Oh my God,” she whispered. “You’re one of them.”
Her voice was so soft, I would have missed it if I didn’t have vampire hearing. What is she talking about?
I turned back toward her. Her face was completely drained of color, and she looked like she might pass out any minute. Her eyes were fixed on my right wrist. My tattoo barely showed above my sleeve, which had slipped down when I’d gone to pay.
Damn! That was careless!
The clerk, completely oblivious to the unfolding drama, handed me back some tiny silver coins with the forget-me-knot emblem stamped in the center. Whatever currency they used down here wasn’t anything I was familiar with.
I masked my alarm with boredom. “What, this?” I pointed to my wrist before casually pulling the sleeve back down, covering the tattoo. “It’s just some ink. No big deal.”
“That’s the Black Cross.” Dezyre’s voice trembled slightly. “No wonder Aden’s keeping such a close watch on you. You’re a hunter, aren’t you?”
Forcing myself to stay calm, I didn’t let her comments show how close they had hit home. “First I’m incompetent, now I’m dangerous? Please. It’s just a stick-on tattoo that could mean a million different things.” I turned my back. “Maybe you shouldn’t spray so much of that perfume,” I called over my shoulder. “I think the fumes are going to your head.”
I walked off, hoping she wouldn’t report me. I need to eat and get out of here before I’m the one getting staked by Scarlet Steel.
I hurried through the buffet line, which actually had a nice assortment to choose from: two kinds of salad with an island of various dressings, entrées of fried chicken or steak, and a bar full of side items, like steamed veggies and fruit. The most surreal part – and the one that woke me up, reminding I wasn’t human anymore – was the ice box full of cartons of blood, all labeled by blood type. I guess O negative had a different taste from B positive or something. Shuddering, I meandered away from the ice box.
I’d have to be near death before I’d ever consider drinking blood.
Quickly, I filled up my tray and grabbed a bottle of water. I had started walking back to the booth when my leg caught on something and I lost my balance.
Everything moved in slow motion. Despite my best efforts, the tray went flying, and my plate shattered on the ground as I began to fall. A hand reached out and grabbed my right forearm, jerking it up high in the air. My elbow popped as it hyper extended and I swore. Razor sharp nails dug into my wrist, which was bare since my sleeve had gathered at the crook of my arm.
I looked up to see who had caught me.
Dezyre’s magenta lips were pulled into a vicious smile. And hovering just above her clasped hand was my cross tattoo, clearly exposed and held high for everyone to see.
“You seem to like it in the spotlight,” she said. “That’s good, because you’re about to be a freaking celebrity.”
There was no time to react. By the time I realized what she was going to do, she had already inhaled a huge breath right before she screamed, “Vampire hunter!”
Chapter 7
Every head in the room swiveled toward us. Time froze as at least one hundred pairs of eyes locked on my wrist, absorbing what the tattoo meant.
Off in the corner, someone shrieked, and the room erupted into chaos.
People were screaming and tripping over themselves as they scrambled to get out the door. It wasn’t long before a siren went off, wailing through the air much like a fire alarm. Dezyre had vanished, dropping my wrist the moment the crowd began to panic.
“Bitch,” I growled under my breath, scrambling to my feet. I looked around, debating on the best move.
Great. How on earth am I going t
o get out of this mess?
Some civilian girls were so wild with fear that they nearly knocked me over in their frenzy to get out the door. I searched the faces flying by me, hoping to see Aden or Rook, but recognized no one. Something slammed into my back, and I cried out as I was tackled to the ground. I caught myself right before I fell, but my face slammed into the tile anyway when two soldiers yanked my arms behind my back and cuffed them. Immediately, my wrists began to burn, like the cuffs had lain over fire. Excruciating pain spread through my arms, shooting arrows of white hot lightning straight to my heart. I screamed, trying to wriggle free, but the soldiers hauled me to my feet. “Scarlet Steel,” one hissed into my ear. “Doesn’t feel very good, does it, hunter?”
The Scarlet Dagger (The Red Sector Chronicles, #1) Page 7
