by D. N. Hoxa
Uncle Sam smiled. “Master Samayan is a vampire, so technically speaking, he really is dead.”
I opened my mouth to argue, then clamped it shut again. Vampire. The man had been a vampire. “Could I be a half breed?” I asked. It made sense since I’d guessed right. But Uncle Sam shook his head.
“No. Halfs feel different.”
“How exactly do I feel to you?”
“It’s like...everything. You don’t feel like one particular thing. Vampires feel like the night air and death, nymphs feel like nature, Unseelie Fey feel like ice and Seelie Fey feel like...”
“Sun.” Just like Uncle Sam felt.
He nodded with a smile. “Yes. But you don’t feel like anything specific. Like I said, you feel like everything.” He must’ve seen the disappointed look on my face because he told me that I was going to be okay, over and over again.
“I don’t care about me anymore, Uncle Sam. Just my family.”
“They’ll be safe. I gave you my word.”
And his word was all I had.
When he took me to a room on the other side of the kitchen to get some sleep, I didn’t think I would be able to. But I did sleep. All night long I dreamed of Uncle Sam chasing me around with a book. And when I woke up, I realized how little I’d blamed him for all of it. It had been all his fault. Had he not named me his Keeper, I wouldn’t have been where I was. But he was also the only person I trusted to take care of my family, so I took what I could get.
A pair of jeans, a shirt, underwear and black sneakers—all of them my size—waited for me next to my bed when I woke up. I didn’t ask any questions, not even when I sat in the back of a car with two guys dressed in all black while Uncle Sam drove. They took me to the airport. I was going to Syria.
Saying goodbye to Uncle Sam was hard. Getting on that plane was harder. I was putting a world between my family and me. I wouldn’t even know where they were until I learned whatever the Council wanted me to learn in Lyndor and got out. The only feeling that kept me going was that Ella and Dad were safe. And I was going to go back for them very soon.
* * *
Lyndor Academy sat at the top of Mount Simeon. It was like the mountain’s top was cut off and replaced with the castle. The woman that had met me at the end of my cab drive from the airport walked ahead, completely unimpressed by me. She said her name was Kai and she felt warm, but that was as far as it went. Her large green eyes scared me, so I tried not to look at her while she walked me up the mountain on a very narrow trail. I fell more than a few times, but once we made it to the top, all was forgotten.
I thought Uncle Sam had exaggerated when he said castle. He hadn’t. The large walls surrounding it were thick and tall, taller than the castle itself. Four round pillars were built on both sides of the entry, with two large doors made of shiny wood. I counted six floors with tiny windows around them, and the wide pillars turned sharp at the top, giving you the impression that they could pierce the sky if they wanted to. I couldn’t see behind the stone walls, but I knew what was after them. Nothing. The castle was exactly the size of the mountain top. No trees, no land—nothing was outside those walls. Just air.
Someone was watching us, following our every step, but when I looked around, I saw no one.
Kai took me inside the large wooden doors. On the other side, there was a cobblestone tunnel that led to the center of the castle, where on one side stood the building, and across from it was what looked like a stadium filled with white sand. There were a lot of doors that led inside the castle building, and Kai took me inside the first of them. I followed without a sound, glancing around me in amazement. The interior, as well as the outside, was made out of stone.
We were in some sort of a square hallway. The temperature up there dropped considerably. I pulled my sleeves to cover my ice-cold fingers. Walls all around were filled with candles. The lighting was dim and it cast a lot of shadows, making the room even scarier than it already was. We didn’t see anyone. It was like the place was abandoned.
Kai headed for the stairs. I followed her up to the third floor. We stopped in a hallway that went both ways with lots of doors on both sides. Kai stopped at the second one to my left. She pushed it open and showed me the inside of a small square room with one small window, a bed for one, a desk, chair and small wardrobe. No carpet on the stone floor. Bliss.
“This’ll be your room, and the bathroom is the last door on this side of the corridor.” Kai said. She looked extremely bored.
“You mean for everyone?” A bathroom for everyone sounded bad.
“No, not everyone. Each floor has two bathrooms. You’ll share yours with only 7 other teenagers. But don’t worry, the hot water never runs out.” She winked at me. “I’ll leave you to rest for a few hours. I’ll be back soon.”
Before I could think to say anything else, she turned around and disappeared down the stairway.
Without bothering to undress, I crawled under the blanket, begging tears to come and wash away the emptiness that I was feeling, but they never came. I had never felt more alone in my life.
* * *
Five of the original eight teachers were in Lyndor when I woke up. Apparently, the castle wasn’t just an academy. Otherwise why would anyone waste precious summer days in such an isolated place? I was taken to the fourth floor by Kai, to a bright room with only one dining table in it around which sat the teachers—and McGraw, the principal.
He wore grey, just like the rest of the teachers. His brows seemed to be permanently stuck in an involuntary arc and his bald head glistened under the sunlight.
“Master didn’t have the chance to give me a long explanation as to why you are here in such an untimely manner, but we take care of our own and that is all the explanation we’re going to need,” he said after he introduced himself. For some reason, that made me feel a lot better about being there, and I even considered grabbing one of the delicious looking croissants from the table.
McGraw then proceeded to introduce the rest of the teachers sitting around the table.
“This is Mr. Longwood.” He waved to the man on his right, who had light brown hair cropped short, brown eyes and a mouth that was nothing but a thin line. He only nodded slightly at me. “Mr. Longwood will be teaching you Defense Techniques.”
That was definitely something I was going to need.
“This here is Mr. Oszlovic. He will be your Offense trainer.”
The guy was tall, so tall that I could see how tall he was even though he was sitting. I couldn’t tell the exact color of his hair because it was cut so short that it barely formed a shadow atop his head.
“Professor Simons will teach you History,” McGraw continued, pointing at the only other woman around the table, except for me and Kai. The professor looked to be barely fifty, with light blonde hair tucked neatly into a bun behind her head. Her face was slightly wrinkled and her brows too thin for her almond-shaped and colored eyes. She gave me a cold smile, one that made me shiver for a few seconds until I looked away from her.
Across from Simons sat Young, the Martial Arts trainer. He was bald, too, and his face seemed to be made of plastic. I wondered if he was a vampire, too, but no. His skin looked alive, much more so than Master Samayan’s.
“And Coach Arturo, your kickboxing trainer.”
If the Master was the most beautiful man I’d ever seen, Arturo was a very close second. He was Tall, Dark and Handsome incarnate. Dark eyes, dark wavy hair falling loosely on his forehead, face pale, nose perfectly straight…he looked like he just came out of a GQ magazine.
“Ciao.” He raised his glass filled with orange juice towards me. I almost burst into flames.
“And you already know Kai, our very own Royal Guard. She will be watching you closely during your training and report back to me weekly,” McGraw continued.
“For how long will I be here?” I’d meant to ask Uncle Sam, but I hadn’t had the time.
“Hard to say,” McGraw said, his grey eyes impati
ent. “Our program lasts for seven months in total, but since your case is different…”
Okay, seven months. Make it a whole year. I could deal with a year. “Okay,” I whispered, feeling a bit better now that I had a clear timeframe in mind.
“Your training will begin immediately, dear girl, and you will be expected to give a hundred percent of everything to your professors, eight hours a day, six days a week.”
“Six days?” Eight hours? It looked like Uncle Sam was right. Those people weren’t about to give me a break.
“Yes because you’re free on Sundays,” McGraw said. He put his white napkin on his plate and stood up. “Now, if you’ll excuse me.”
Everyone else stood up as he left the room and I did the same. After the door closed behind him, everyone let go of their held breaths. McGraw must’ve been a more important man than I’d realized.
“Finish up, drink your juice. You’re going to need all the liquid you can get,” Kai said with a smile that read mischief on her face.
That’s when I realized that when McGraw had said immediately, he’d really meant it.
Coach Arturo stood up and walked to my chair gracefully. “If you’re ready.”
In that moment, I knew my life was going to be different. I just had no idea exactly how different.
15
——————————
Present
I arrived at the building ten minutes early. The street was as crowded as always. I tried the large double doors of the entrance first, but they didn’t give. It would have been best to catch them from the inside, but the back door would have to do.
Blending into the shadows, I walked over to the left of the building. Dressed as I was in all black, nobody would notice me. I studied the alley in silence. It smelled like pee and rotten food—which was nothing new for an alley in the city of Manhattan. On the roof of the three-story building to the side of this one, I could make out two guys with big guns checking the perimeter. They looked down at the alley every few minutes, but it was way too dark for them to see me.
A few steps deeper and I began to hear heavy breathing coming from the end of the alley. That was where the back door was and where I sensed three more guards. I walked slowly and kept in the shadows, not a part of me out under the light of the moon.
Two men sat behind a dumpster and a third one stood towering above them. The two sitting were shifters, wolves judging by their vibe, and the one standing was a warlock, stronger than his colleagues. He was talking to someone through his walkie-talkie.
“All clear,” he said and then turned to the others. “Come on. Let’s do a round.”
The back door I was looking for was right across from them. It was linked to the wall with a massive chain. Nothing I couldn’t handle. I hid in the dumpster’s shadow until the three supernaturals walked around it and turned their backs on me. Stupid Red Rebels. They made my job so goddamn easy.
I followed them slowly, stepping on my toes because I had boots with thin metal heels on, and I breathed through my mouth, though I doubted they’d hear. They were amateurs. They didn’t even check once behind their backs.
I reached out for the first one, and my hand wrapped tightly around his jaw. One full twist around and a numb crack later, his body was dead weight in my arms, and not a sound made. I let him slide slowly from my body to the ground and walked over to the next Rebel.
I took Bob—my favorite dagger—from my boot and slowly put my hand on the second guy’s mouth tightly. I pulled his head back and felt his body grow stiff half a second before I sliced his throat. Unfortunately, he let out a small scream before he died.
The first guy heard. He was ready, too, with his gun pointing at me and all, but my foot was in his face before he could pull the trigger. His hand wrapped around my wrist as he began to chant a spell that froze the blood in my veins fast, but the guy was already on the ground. I used the heel of my boot to drill a hole in his throat before he stopped breathing altogether.
I was by the door the next second. Like I said, the Red Rebels loved to make my job easy for me by doing stupid things like putting their worst men on guard duty. Picking the lock with my bobby pins was a walk in the park. I opened the metal door just enough for me to enter, after checking for the guards on top of the other building one last time.
Quiet and dark, as expected. I proceeded slowly as my eyes adjusted to the darkness. A long hallway followed by a granite stairway greeted me. I followed it downstairs.
Two more floors down, the stairs ended in a long hallway, at the end of which were four doors, each tagged with a small sign. A single guard was standing in front of the last one. That was the one I needed to get to. The place was dimly lit, but he would still see me coming. There was no way around him. He wasn’t holding any guns. Smart guy. Dark hair tied up in a short ponytail. Square face and dark eyes. A warlock.
Having no way to reach him without triggering the alarm, I decided to make him come to me. I pulled my right foot up and brought it back down on the granite floor. The sound my metal heel made echoed down the hallway.
Silence for a minute.
“Jay?” he called, then waited a heartbeat. “Jason, that you?” Louder.
I brought my heel down again, producing the same sound. He didn’t bother to call out this time. He very slowly began to walk towards the stairs—to me.
The feeling in my gut was already there—not a single second too late, though I couldn’t see the man’s eyes. The warlock meant to harm whoever it was that was hiding behind the wall. His vibe was strong, stronger than those of the three guards I’d killed outside. I waited in silence, counting his steps. Two more and I could reach him if I swung my foot far enough.
I did.
My right foot connected with his left shoulder and he fell face first against the wall. I took him by his ponytail and swung him against the opposite wall. Before I let go of his hair, he grabbed my wrist and kicked me on my right knee. It gave for a second and hit the floor before the warlock aimed for my other one. The tip of his boot hit me hard, and it hurt like a mother. Ignoring the pain, I got up as fast as I could and broke his nose with a fist to his face. Blood exploded and made a mess of my hand when I hit him square in the jaw, over and over again until he could barely stand.
I pinned him against the wall with my metal heel right above his heart and pushed until his flesh tore open.
Surprised registered in his face as he looked at me. He wasn’t ready to die yet. Too fucking bad. I pulled my bloody heel out of him and watched him slide down the wall slowly. Once he was on the ground, I put Bob deep into his heart and felt his last breath leave his body. I cleaned the blood off my heel and dagger with his clothes and headed for door eagerly. I didn't want to waste a second more.
The voices coming from inside were faint. There were at least ten of them. The more the merrier, I always liked to say. Those fuckers were the reason my family thought I was dead. I wanted nothing more than to make them pay with their blood.
“We are not sure how,” someone from the inside said. “But it’s working. It’s really working.”
I tried my best to anticipate what would happen once I opened the door and prepared accordingly, when…
“Jay isn’t responding on his walkie-talkie.” Shit.
“Jay? Jay, are you there?” A second, then two. No answer.
“Alan, go check outside,” someone said, and Alan immediately made for the door. My hand was on the doorknob, and I was ready, when Jay finally answered the calls.
“It’s…” The scratchy sound came from the walkie-talkie. I’d left the bastard still alive. “It’s…the Raven.”
The whole world turned upside down. I opened the door, and everyone inside was already on their feet coming for me. I kicked the first one—a vampire—on the chin and stabbed the second with Bob. The pull in my stomach threatened to make me sick, but I turned my senses off before I started to throw up.
The Rebels came at me like
bees to honey, and they didn’t stop. I didn’t, either. I kicked and stabbed and at some point pushed my heel inside someone’s body. A vampire bit me in the arm, and I dropped Bob, reaching for my gun. I put three bullets of silver in his head, and he turned into ash in front of my feet. I shot another coming at me, not a vampire. Hell, a bullet’s a bullet. It did the deed.
Going down on my knees, I retrieved Bob and sliced the back of the knee of a guy with cool designer jeans. Blood everywhere. I caught a vampire by the throat, and before I put Bob in his eye, I thought I recognized his face. He was trying to tell me something. I gave him a second.
“C-c-c...” I pulled him closer until his nose touched my cheek, and his mouth was all but pressed to my ear. “I-I’m... C-Council’s.” So this guy was the snitch.
I pushed him away, and he fell on the floor on his back and didn’t get back up.
I fought and fought alone, against all of them for I don’t know how long. Twenty minutes, maybe? Pain stabbed me everywhere on my face, gut, arms, legs. It didn’t stop me, though. I was trained in Lyndor to endure pain for hours, even days sometimes, and I always did the best job. Physical pain was nothing compared to the emotional pain I’d gone through, first when my mom died, and second, when I had to leave my only family because of the same bastards I was fighting against. So I kept going like I always did. I fought until there was nobody else left to fight.
Or so I thought.
I didn’t hear him move behind him, but I sure felt the wooden chair on my head. I fell face first on the ground. There was no time to catch my breath. I jumped to my feet as fast as I could, just as he was about to bring another chair down on my head. I grabbed its legs and pushed the chair back with all my strength. He let go of it and fell against the wall next to the door. I wrapped my fingers around his throat before he could attack me again and…stopped moving when my fist was barely a couple inches away from his face.
He was the most beautiful man I’d ever seen. His hair, not blond but not brown either, fell to his shoulders. His eyes were bluer than a peaceful ocean. And his lips…wow. I stared. Not proud of it but I couldn’t bring myself to move for a long second.
