by Joe Fowler
After several punches and a lot of cursing, Arria pulled the rope that would summon Cerrus. I was lying on the floor when he entered.
His mental shouts of glee were overly annoying. He made one slip up. His mind formed the words, ‘he will be pleased by this’ before Cerrus regained control of his thoughts.
“Take him back to his room. Do not let him go to the donor room until tomorrow. Maybe this will teach the group not to gather.” Arria said. She then gave a dismissing wave of her hand as a signal for Cerrus to take me and go.
I made Cerrus half drag me back to my room. My mind was working fine. I wasn’t in quiet as much pain as I was letting on, though I was in pretty bad shape.
As we passed the other doors, I felt the minds of our group. I had already prepared myself for this. I was learning how to shove my private thoughts behind a wall where Trog and Penny wouldn’t see.
Trog had been anxiously waiting for this. He would wait until Cerrus left and be in my room immediately after.
The mental whirlwind, also known as Ghost, was deep in thought as usual. He was the one I wanted to speak with but I wanted to get him alone without the others to overhear. I wasn’t sure how I would do that.
Justin was worried. He wasn’t sure if he would come over but he had been scared for me since I had been led away by Cerrus.
Speedy knew I would need some time to recuperate. He was angry but it fell in line with all his other anger issues against the old ones.
Hercules was taking a nap.
I couldn’t feel Penny’s mind. I figured she was in the donor room or the showers or something.
“Maybe next time you’ll think before you break the rules.” Cerrus laughed as he dumped me on my bed and left.
Sure enough, Trog knocked lightly and entered right after Cerrus left. He took his normal seat in my chair and looked me over.
“How bad? It looks pretty serious.”
“I’ll live. It could have been a lot worse.” I ‘let’ some of the images of Arria hitting me flash through my head. The words of her prepared speech rang out clearly while she was doing the punishing.
“We need to go get you some blood.” Trog moved to stand but I shook my head.
“Not allowed to until tomorrow. It was part of the punishment.” I told him. “I will be fine. I am regaining my strength quickly enough.”
“What all did she say?”
“She sat and discussed things in a polite manner. We talked some of what our groups were talking about in the training room. Then she told me how wrong it was for us to gather like that. That was when the beating started. I didn’t see her full anger until then.” I was selectively choosing which images and words were allowed across my mind.
Trog was doing the same thing. I could see that his mind was working a lot harder than the few simple thoughts he was allowing out.
I knew this would be the way of things between us from now on.
Chapter 7
I stayed in my bed the rest of that night. Trog stuck around longer than I wanted him to, I just don’t know whether it was five minutes or closer to two hours. He must have told the others that I needed rest since none of them stopped by. Ghost was the only one I really wanted to see anyway.
I was mostly healed when I woke up the next night. I was also starving. The healing really does drain us. I could see that now. I made myself get up. I checked myself to see if I needed a new shirt but this one didn’t have any blood on it which was surprising.
In the hall, I listened for someone’s thoughts. Trog and Penny were talking. I mentally said ‘hi’ and kept walking. I heard Ghost and knocked on his door, lightly. He answered quickly.
“I was hoping you would show me to the donor room. I need some blood.”
“Sure. I could use some too.” He came out of his room shutting the door behind him. He started walking and I followed.
“I needed to speak to you alone anyway.” I said, once we were out of earshot of the others.
“I know. You know Trog is a spy right? He and Cerrus are working against Arria.” Ghost said this as a matter of fact.
“Yes. I didn’t figure it out until I was with Arria.”
“I hope the beating wasn’t too bad. Trog was telling us you looked like hell warmed over. I figured she would make it look good though.” I had seen into his mind to know the intelligence he possessed but this was getting scary. “She must have seen some things that would make her question Cerrus before you told her. Arria seems to be sharp and on top of things. I can’t see her being taken by surprise.”
“You pretty much nailed it. We are just wondering who is behind all of it now. I will be keeping watch on Trog. Arria didn’t say anything but I am sure she will be doing her own snooping.” I said.
We were coming up on a crowded area and needed to stop talking.
I took a donor and Ghost sat by the one next to mine. This woman was in her fifties. Her images ranged from sweet to cruel with stops in between. She had chronic pain that her doctors couldn’t help her with so I didn’t stop draining her.
I felt better immediately.
Ghost and I waited until we were out of range of the donor room before resuming our talk.
“The problems are simple enough. Figuring out the old one who is behind this, keeping Trog close without letting him know you know, and figuring out what side Penny is on without putting her in danger from Trog.” Ghost laid it out.
“Arria will need to be the one to figure out the old one. We don’t have the access to them. Unless Trog or Cerrus makes a mistake that I can both see and trust, I won’t be of much use with that. Also, how do I keep Arria in the loop without her finding out about my true gift?” My mind was racing on its own without watching the tornado in Ghost’s head.
“I am glad you know not to trust what you hear from Trog. Cerrus might make a mistake, Trog won’t. Tonight’s fights should be more interesting anyway.”
“Damn! I’ve been so worried about all this other stuff, I forgot all about the stupid fights.” My exclamation made Ghost burst out laughing.
“Well, at least you don’t need to be worried about losing.” Ghost said as we rounded the last corner leading us back to our rooms. We could see Justin and Speedy in the hallway ahead of us. “I will need some time with Speedy, alone. I need to see which side he is best suited for and to make sure he understands how to hide things from Trog.” Ghost whispered before we got into hearing range.
“There you are! We were worried about you. Trog said it was bad.” Justin said.
“Arria hits like a truck. I’m alright now. It could have been much worse.” I was telling them. I was more interested in Trog and Penny’s emergence from their rooms. My mind had already been prepared but I was more nervous when they were around. “How long before the fights? We need to keep trying to get Justin and Hercules ready.”
“Around four hours or so. We can go to the training room now if everyone is ready.” Trog looked around after he spoke to see our preference.
“Let’s go. We should make the most of the time we have.” Speedy stated.
All of us fell into a loose line as we made our way through the halls to the training room. I shared some light thoughts back and forth with Penny and Trog but no serious conversations ensued. The training room was very crowded now. It seemed like more vampires than that first night after I turned. That would mean more than the six teams Loki had intimated.
Justin and Hercules were taking our instructions well. We were all focused on trying to help them survive and Trog was the most help. Spy or not, he was doing a great job of showing Justin how to counter certain moves.
We were interrupted by Cerrus.
“The newbie should be waking soon. I need Trog and one of you others to go. Speedy went last time. Is there a volunteer?” Cerrus looked around after speaking.
Trog’s thoughts made it clear that he wanted me to be the one but since I was only second level, Cerrus wouldn’t approve. I felt Trog�
�s mind then focusing on Ghost. He was about to make the suggestion when Penny volunteered.
“I will go.” Penny announced. Cerrus nodded and led them away.
Trog tried to hide his disappointment. I felt a brief bit of regret coming from him. He considered Penny his second pair of ears. She would have been able to tell him anything interesting that happened when he was gone.
Penny had a different reason. I could see a question in her mind that she wanted to ask Trog about. She was hiding her question from me but I saw enough to know it was really bothering her.
“Speedy, come over and spar with me.” Ghost suggested. I had the clear image from Ghost about his need to speak to Speedy without an audience. I understood he wanted me to keep Justin and Hercules busy enough to give him some privacy.
I busied myself in keeping Justin’s attacks varied. He and Hercules were a little confused but their focus was all on me and they didn’t argue. I would work with one for a while then try to work with the other. It was more of a collaboration since they knew about as much of the fights if not more than I did. They had been here longer but with my new mind reading and my fighting Cerrus, not to mention my extra gifts, I was actually helping.
This went on for some time. I don’t know how long. The suspended in time feeling still hadn’t left me. Since we don’t tire normally, five minutes could be five hours and five hours could be five minutes.
I wasn’t able to keep up with all the thoughts between Ghost and Speedy but I did get most of it. Speedy wasn’t as angry anymore. He had heard my comment yesterday about wondering what was right with the old ones and put some serious thought into it. He now saw why these fights were necessary to all new vampires. The fear of the gauntlet was all that was standing between the way things were now and a world of rapidly multiplying vampire numbers. That would obviously lead to rapidly multiplying numbers of dead humans.
Ghost and Speedy stopped sparring and huddled more closely together to talk. They kept their voices low. Hercules and Justin saw but didn’t stop their match. They were beginning to have hope that they might survive another night. The knowledge of possibly evenly matched fights for them helped with that.
It was some time before Ghost and Speedy rejoined us. I got the gist of Ghost’s mind clearly although even on simpler subjects he was too fast and overly complicated.
In a nutshell, Speedy would be on our side. He now knew what thoughts to hide and how to hide them from Trog. Speedy only had the next few hours to worry about before he would be free anyway.
Through a quick word from Ghost, I knew our free thought time period was over. Trog, Penny, and a bookish looking woman had entered the training room. She was small with brown hair.
I prepared my mind before they came into range.
“So, what’s the story on the newbie?” I asked Trog as they reached the mat.
“Don’t know too much yet. She is scared out of her mind. I’m hoping we can find out her gift before her match. When they are this scared, they don’t react normally. I’ve only heard about it. None of the new ones were like this since I’ve been here.” He chuckled. “You definitely weren’t too scared.”
“No, I guess I wasn’t. Her gift is illusions. That could be good.”
“Wow, I think that could be cool!” Penny said
“What’s your name?” Speedy asked her.
“Beth.” She had a squeaky voice.
“I’m Speedy. How much have you guys told her?”
“The usual. She knows she will have to fight.” Trog said out loud.
“Come over to this mat and I will spar with you. I’m Titan, nice to meet you, Beth.” I tried to sound as nice as I could.
Her thoughts had been a jumble since I first read her. I had the unfortunate blame for her first clear thought. The image in her head would have made me blush if I weren’t a vampire. The following images weren’t much better. I needed to get her sparring under way before she took her thoughts too far.
I could hear the mental laughter coming from Penny and Trog. They were loving this.
“To win your fight, you will have to rip your opponent’s head off.” That statement had the desired effect. She stopped with the inappropriate thoughts and started to focus on what was happening. “Every vampire is given at least one gift. That gift can be speed, strength, mind reading, invisibility, or any number of other things. You will need to be prepared to face anything your opponent can throw at you.”
“What is my gift? How can I learn enough in such a short period of time?” She asked. Her thoughts were getting hectic now. She was struggling with the very concept of having to fight. She had never been in a fight before and was terrified.
“We need to find out what your gift is and teach you a little of how to use it. Now stand here and Titan will attack you. Sometimes it takes being attacked for your gift to show itself.” Trog explained.
I backed a few feet away and got into a fighting stance. She stood there looking scared. I attacked at a slowed down speed and hit her. She crumpled to the floor. She grabbed her jaw and stood up with tears in her eyes. This was breaking my heart.
“Look, Beth, if you don’t learn how to defend yourself, you are going to die in the arena. I am your friend. I am trying to help you. You have to at least try to fight back.” I stated as softly as I could. She stopped crying but her thoughts were still mostly incoherent. “How about this. You hit me. Just rare back and hit me as hard as you can.”
Her mind shrank away from the thought. She did start to gather some courage but I wasn’t sure she would be able to do it. She balled up her fist and pulled her arm back but couldn’t make herself hit me. Her hand dropped back down to her side.
I looked at Trog and Penny to see if they had any ideas. Trog shrugged and Penny shook her head.
The others started to notice we were having problems and came over to see if they could help. We told them the problem and they tried to attack and yell but couldn’t get Beth to fight back. All we did was make her cry some more.
“Try to imagine that I am about to kick a dog or something. What would you want to do if you saw that kind of cruelty?” I asked.
“I would hate it but I would be helpless to stop it. Look, I understand that you guys are trying to help but I am not going to be able to do this.” She let her head drop in defeat.
“Titan, let me speak to you a minute. Trog and Speedy can try to help her.” Ghost said, with a motion for me to follow him to the side.
I caught some of the thought he sent to Trog. He basically wanted to see what my gifts could do to help Beth. At least that is what he told Trog
“What is her gift?” Ghost asked once we were out of earshot.
“Illusions. She can make you see whatever she wants to.”
“Damn. I hate to sound cold but if she had been like Justin or even Hercules I was ready to say forget about her and let her die. With illusions, she could make it through. Is there anything you can do to help her?”
“If I drank from her, I could explain how the illusions work. I couldn’t make her rip her opponent’s head off though.” I looked back at Beth. “I really want to help her but even if I drank, how could we be sure she wouldn’t blow this whole thing and get the rest of us killed? I am willing to try. She is a very sweet person who doesn’t deserve to die. Do you think the rest would go along with telling her though? She is so scared she might not be able to control her thoughts around the old ones.”
“Give me a minute.” Ghost kicked his bionic brain into overdrive. I stood back trying to follow along with him but I fell behind almost immediately. Ghost then surprised me by motioning me to follow him again as he sped to the mat where Trog, Speedy, and Penny were still trying to coax a fight out of her. “Penny, you and Speedy go spar. We don’t want more problems with accusations of not training.”
As those two left for another mat, Ghost grabbed my arm and led me to Beth’s side.
“Drink from her.” Ghost told me. I saw his pl
an and liked it.
I grabbed Beth’s arm and sank my teeth into her before she could pull away. I had positioned myself between her and the rest of the vampires in the room so they wouldn’t see what I was doing. Beth started to protest but a look from Ghost made her stop.
“Are you crazy? She is too scared! She can’t handle this!” Trog whisper shouted. I heard the shocked thoughts of the rest of our group. They all thought this would doom us. I trusted Ghost’s plan.
Once I felt her gift in me, I stopped drinking. She took her arm back, afraid. Ghost knew it should be me that explained what just happened. I nodded to Ghost and he grabbed Trog telling him they were going to spar.
Now that it was just me and Beth, I made her look me in the eye.
“Beth, I just placed all of our lives in your hands.”
“No, you can’t do that! I don’t know what I am doing! I can’t fight! Why would you do this to me?” She was so frightened I became glad she was a vampire for a moment. She would be hyperventilating and having a heart attack right now if she were human. Her thoughts were as Ghost expected. If she died so be it. She couldn’t let herself be the cause of our deaths too. She couldn’t deal with that.
“If you will do what I say, then we will all live and you will eventually be free again.” I let that sink into her mind. Once she had calmed enough, I looked her in the eye again and continued. “I am going to show you how to use your gift now. You have an extremely powerful gift that can almost assure your survival in the arena. You have the power of illusion. You will be able to make someone see anything you want them to see.”
“How is that possible?” She wasn’t scared now. She was intrigued.
“Justin, Hercules, could you join us for a second?” I waited the few hours until they arrived. “We need to use you two as guinea pigs. Just stand over here and tell us what you see.”
