by Lexi C. Foss
It was an idea that had me working harder than ever to graduate from this place, because I had a feeling that whoever it was that had saved me…he or she was waiting for me.
“I think one more mission, and you may be able to break out of this place,” Vaughn remarked with a wheeze, right after I feinted an uppercut and actually managed to surprise him with a stomach shot. He was leaned over, recovering, when he said it, so he missed the look of elation written all over my face.
I was able to school my features before he stood up.
“That was quite the shot. I think I just tasted the contents of my breakfast.” He said the words proudly, and a pang hit me. He sounded kind of like how a dad should sound, albeit a ridiculously good-looking dad.
Now I was just grossing myself out.
“I’ll recommend to Jude that you be released back into the wild,” he continued, still missing the effect that his words were having on me.
Sometime during the last few weeks, my personal mission after leaving here had become two-fold. The first was obviously to avenge Noah, Ryan, and Wyatt, who I still imagined I saw whenever I was walking the streets. But the second was now to find out who my mysterious vampire savior was. I didn’t know how to reconcile the fact that I wanted to meet a member of the very race that I hated with everything in me, so I tried not to think about that.
I also tried not to think about the fact that my body burned every time I thought about those last words he’d whispered to me before I’d faded away.
It burned in a way that felt awfully similar to the way it burned with Noah, Wyatt, and Ryan.
Something was seriously fucked up inside of me.
The call to meet with Jude came much quicker than I’d been anticipating. The next day in fact, following another successful mission in which myself and one other slayer trainee had managed to take on a nest of eight vampires by ourselves.
I was feeling pretty good about myself as the elevator started its ascent to Jude’s office at the top of the building, even as nervous bees started to buzz in my stomach at finally meeting the mysterious head of the organization.
I’d managed a backflip where I’d staked a vampire midair.
Apparently, I’d become quite the badass.
The elevators opened up into a lobby type area where four secretaries were all working feverishly on their sleek desktop computers. One of them, an elegant blonde woman, looked up and smiled at me as I entered the room.
“Olivia Masterson?” she asked with a polite smile. I nodded, my heart stuttering as it always did when I heard that last name. I’d been so proud to get it, not because it connected me to Rachel and Daniel, but because it connected me to Wyatt, Noah, and Ryan.
I guessed I would have never gotten their name by marriage, so it was a good thing that I took it during adoption while I had the chance.
“Don’t be nervous. Jude isn’t as scary as everyone makes him sound,” she assured me, mistaking the look on my face for nerves instead of grief.
Although there was now plenty of nerves as well.
I nodded, unable to be overly friendly or social at the moment.
She smiled again at me reassuringly and then had me sit down to wait in one of the luxurious velvet chairs that lined one side of the room.
The minutes passed slowly as I waited. Finally, the door to Jude’s office opened, and a slim brunette with a lip piercing stormed out of his office with tears brimming in her eyes.
This didn’t help my nervousness, but at least it got my mind off the guys.
The girl stormed past me without sparing me a glance. I hadn’t seen her around before, so maybe she was a new trainee…or Jude’s lover. I had this thought as he appeared in the entryway, his gaze searching for me.
Jude was hot. Scorching hot in fact.
His gaze met mine, and he lifted an eyebrow. “Come on in, Olivia,” he said calmly.
Jude looked to be in his late thirties, early forties, with dark hair, a very close-cropped beard, and slight wrinkles in his forehead and around his mouth that I’m sure were a result of the stress of his job. He was wearing a sleek, perfectly fitted navy suit and brown Italian loafers that looked like they’d just been polished. He looked every inch the powerful leader of a secret organization…if that was a thing to look like.
I strode into his office as he examined me, trying to come across as confident, even though I was trembling inside.
His office was the stuff of goals. There were floor to ceiling windows on three of the walls, and his furniture was all dark leather and glass. I could imagine him leaning against a window, staring out at the New York City skyline, a tumbler of some top-shelf liquor in his hand that he would sip slowly as he plotted the demise of the vampiric race.
Wow…my mind had gotten away from me there for a minute.
He settled into his high-backed leather chair that sat behind an enormous imposing marble and glass desk and gestured for me to sit.
I sat down, my posture straight as I tried to maintain eye contact. I’d read somewhere that maintaining eye contact inspired people to trust you more.
And I desperately needed Jude to trust that I was ready to get out of here.
“Well, Olivia,” he began in his smooth, rich voice. I’d noticed that all the trainers here seemed to have this Zen quality to their voices that set you at ease, even when they were barking orders at you or telling you that you were acting like a waste of space.
This had unfortunately happened to me a time or two.
“You’ve progressed quite a long way since you first entered our hallowed halls,” he continued. “In fact, I’d go so far as to say that you’re one of our most promising recruits.”
I smiled politely, even as my pulse beamed in pleasure at his praise.
I’d never been great at anything beyond loving them. So for me to have succeeded in something outside of them meant something to me.
It meant that maybe I could survive in this unexpected afterlife I’d found myself in.
Maybe.
“I saw in your forms you wanted to return back home to Texas instead of working with the teams here in Manhattan?” he commented.
“I think that I’ll be more motivated working in a place that I’ve called home,” I explain nervously, sure that he could see right through me.
“Mmmm,” he responded noncommittally, opening up a black embossed folder in front of him on his desk. He poured through it for a few minutes. The silence felt deafening.
Finally, he closed the folder and looked back up at me. “It says in your file that your foster brothers were murdered by vampires.”
My heart sunk.
“Yes, that was what I’ve been told. That’s how I ended up here,” I told him, trying for the honest approach.
“You know, Olivia, while we value the ability to think outside of the box, we also value steadiness. What’s going to prevent you from going off half-cocked after the ferals who took out your brothers at the expense of your missions down there?”
It was on the tip of my tongue to say nothing, but I was able to suppress the urge. “I can’t do much to honor my brothers’ memory if I’m dead because of a fool’s mission, can I?” I finally responded, delighting in the way that my voice was able to stay level.
The word “brother” tasted acidic in my mouth. I’d certainly never had sisterly feelings for any of them.
Jude studied me closely. It was unnerving the way that it felt like he could see right through me.
“What about the vampire who saved you after your first mission?” he moved on smoothly. “Any word from that disgusting creature?”
It didn’t bode well for me that my first instinct was to defend the monster rather than agree with him.
But again, I was able to hold my tongue.
“I have no idea who it could possibly have been. Like I told Vaughn, I had no idea that vampires existed before James.”
Jude just hmmmmed again.
“Well, I thin
k it’s time to get you out of here,” he said unexpectedly. “I think E.V.I.E. can expect great things from you, Olivia. I hope you make us proud.”
He stood up, signaling that the meeting was over.
I had the insane urge to hug him, but again, refrained.
I was so damn disciplined today.
“You’ll get a folder tonight with all the information you need for your next mission, as well as everything else you need.” He walked around the desk and held out his hand. I grasped it tightly. “Good luck, Olivia. Welcome to E.V.I.E.”
Thanking him profusely, I walked out, managing to not embarrass myself too badly.
I felt euphoric, but terrified, as I took the elevator down to my floor. This was what I’d been waiting for for months, but now that it was here, it felt too soon.
Was I ready to go out into the world and get revenge? Did I have the skills to truly give Noah, Ryan, and Wyatt justice the way they deserved?
I could only hope so.
7
Considering that I’d lived in Dallas my whole life, it was a strange thing how alien it felt after my time in New York City.
Or maybe it was because everything reminded me of the void that had been created in my life. New York had been a special kind of hell because it reminded me of a future that I would never have. My mind had manufactured instances where I thought I saw the guys, because I was imagining what we would have done together in college.
Or at least that’s what I was telling myself. I didn’t want to acknowledge the fact that I might just be going crazy.
But in Dallas, where everything was a reminder of a life I’d actually lived, it felt like I was haunted by ghosts.
They were everywhere. I couldn’t go to my favorite coffee shop. I couldn’t drive down certain streets. I couldn’t go home.
Whereas I’d only been breaking down at night in New York, I broke down everywhere here. There would be a certain smell in the air, I’d pass by a movie theater where we’d gone on a date, I’d pass by a bar where Wyatt had performed. Their ghosts were everywhere, and I was in a constant state of torment.
I realized that in New York, my metaphorical wounds had started to scab over. Here in Dallas, the scabs had been scraped off violently the second my plane touched down, and I was bleeding all over the city.
The perfect bait for vampires I guess.
The apartment that E.V.I.E. had set up for me was nice. It was a one-bedroom apartment located in Uptown, complete with marble countertops and wood floors. I received a stipend every week for groceries and necessities, and I’d quickly gotten to work trying to make the place feel like a home.
It didn’t really work, but at least it kept me busy.
Since my mission to find the pack of feral vamps that killed my loves was unsanctioned, I couldn’t exactly log into the E.V.I.E. archives to look at suspicious deaths, recent sightings of vamps in the DFW area, or leads, so I began to search the newspapers.
I went old school, buying up a few papers each day and scouring their pages, circling and highlighting any deaths attributed to animal attacks or unattributable causes. There were more than you would’ve thought.
It was a bit ridiculous when you took a step back how easily humans as a whole just accepted the weird ways that people allegedly died.
I mean, animal attacks? Did people just think there were hordes of animals running around and killing people in suburbia?
If I’d actually bothered to pay attention to all of this growing up, I hopefully would have been a bit suspicious.
I mean, how many bear attacks can you really have in a year?
While I found plenty of deaths that seemed likely to have been caused by vamps, it was hard to distinguish which ones could have been caused by feral vamps.
The newspapers didn’t do a very good job of delineating how bloody the deaths were.
I also didn’t get as much time to research as I would have liked. I was given one week to settle into my new apartment, and then I got my first mission. There had been a rash of suspicious deaths among college coeds at the University of Dallas. Sorority girls actually. My E.V.I.E. handler, Janine, told me that they suspected that a vampire had actually joined a fraternity and was luring sorority girls out on dates, where he would then drain and kill them. The vampire was evidently in it for the sexual gratification as much as he was for the blood, because the three girls had all been found in their beds, naked, and the evidence was clear that they’d recently had sex right before their death.
It all sounded a bit Ted Bundy to me. The vampire could really use some new tricks. My mission was to pretend to be a new member of Alpha Chi Gamma and see what I could find out. E.V.I.E. evidently had a connection with a shifter within the sorority chapter, so I would be able to join the sorority mid-semester without arousing suspicion.
So here I was, not in my gorgeous new apartment, but instead in a sorority house, wearing a tight pink shirt with ACG scrawled across my boobs as I pretended to care about Tina’s boy drama. Evidently, one of our sorority sisters, Brigitta, had slept with the guy Tina had been crushing on.
I wanted to tell her that the guy sounded like a class A douche, but it felt like the sentiment would fall on deaf ears.
“I think he’s going to be at the party tonight,” she told me in an about face that gave me whiplash.
“Jordan?” I asked, confused.
“No silly, Tommy, the guy from my calculus class.”
How this girl was in calculus was beyond me. I think she’s said “um” every other word.
“Right, Tommy.”
Tina finished straightening her hair while I doused my lips in some bubble gum pink lip-gloss she’d told me I had to try.
I took a moment to realize how surreal the situation was. I should have been in college at NYU by now. I couldn’t have seen myself ever joining a sorority there, if NYU even had sororities, but I could imagine what it would have been like to come home every day to my apartment with the guys. I could picture having actual girlfriends that I would have gotten ready with to see Noah’s games or go to Wyatt’s concerts. I could imagine it now, a scene just like this, except with less pink and better conversation. I’d never really had a good girlfriend before. My closeness with the guys had caused a lot of jealousy with the other girls at school, but I had to believe that good friends existed who that wouldn’t matter to.
“Let’s pre-game ladies!” Sasha, the president of the sorority, announced as she sashayed through the door holding a handle of vodka and a case of Rockstar. I allowed myself to have one shot to take the edge off my nerves, and then I just pretended to sip at the strong mixed drink that Sasha had thrust into my hands.
“To Morgan!” Tanya toasted, and it took me a second to remember that Morgan was the name that I picked as my alias for the mission. Guessed I should probably remember my name.
“To Morgan,” Sasha and Tamara squealed as they lifted their red Solo cups, both already two sheets to the wind. I envied them all for a moment. What would it be like to have no worries in the world besides what party I was going to attend that night? Lately, it felt like I had the weight of the world on me. It had ever since that life-ending phone call.
I toasted with the excited girls, shooting them a smile that I hoped looked as enthusiastic as theirs, although that was hard to do. Many of the girls at Alpha Chi Gamma were cheerleaders, and they were just as peppy and excited off the field as they were on.
“All right, it’s late enough to head over to the party,” Tamara commented drunkenly, fiddling on her phone. That was one thing I’d learned about being in a sorority—there was evidently a right and a wrong time to show up at a party. If you showed up too early, it would tell everyone you were desperate. And if you showed up too late, then all the good booze would be gone and hot guys would be taken. I could see Ryan’s eye roll in my head about it all. He would have laughed his head off about me being in a sorority.
“Coming, girl?” Tanya asked sweetly, shak
ing me out of the dark turn my thoughts had begun to take. I nodded and grabbed my purse, sliding my hand discreetly down my thigh to make sure that my stakes were still there in their holster. I didn’t expect the vamp to fall in my lap tonight, but if E.V.I.E. had taught me anything, it was to be prepared.
We set off into the humid night, crickets chirping loudly on our walk through campus. Tanya linked arms with me as Sasha and Tamara stumbled along in front of us. At one point, Tamara’s heel got caught in the grass and she fell forward, taking Sasha to the ground with her. Both girls giggled loudly like hyenas, and a wave of uneasiness passed over me. Both of these girls were in danger of being bait tonight. The campus had issued a warning for everyone to be careful, but they hadn’t imposed any restrictions because of the murders.
It was obvious looking at the two drunk girls in front of me that people weren’t taking those warnings carefully. I didn’t know these girls, but I vowed to keep an eye on them tonight. In the name of Alpha Chi Gamma sisterhood of course.
We finally made it to the fraternity, the normally ten-minute walk taking twenty minutes because Sasha and Tamara had forgotten how to walk. A fraternity brother with his shirt off, that allowed him to showcase the beer belly he was unfortunately sporting at the ripe old age of twenty most likely, stood at the door, deciding who could come in.
“Well, well, well,” he leered as he eyed our group. “Looking good ACGs. Looking real good.”
“Hope you have the good stuff tonight, hottie,” Sasha slurred, her beer goggles in full affect.
The guy’s eyes lit up. I didn’t think that Sasha normally would have paid him much attention when she hadn’t drained half a handle of vodka. And the guy knew it.
We were finally let in, the guy abandoning his post at the front door to stay by Sasha and try his luck while he had the chance.
“Great party, isn’t it?” Tanya said excitedly as we looked around the room. There was a DJ on the far side of the giant living room, pumping out Top 40 hits. There was a line to get beers from the keg on tap. And there were lots of people.
