I was in a category of my very own. The last member of a lowbred house. A runt. Easy fodder for the aggressive, entitled shits in my unit. Those playing center field were probably relieved I was there to take the heat off their backs.
The distance between our respective houses was made even more apparent in Kai’s law class. The upper-crust vamps were given leniency and privileges. Slights against them were taken seriously, while slights they committed against lesser households were often overlooked. No shit, I thought at the unjust reveal, wondering what would’ve happened had I prearranged a watery grave for Blair instead of the other way around.
The same biased treatment wasn’t so uncommon in human law—but they didn’t stack the deck beforehand by spelling it out in their judicial texts. Humans at least tried to pretend we were all equal and should be treated fairly, even if they didn’t always practice what they preached.
My clear disadvantage of having zero knowledge concerning vampire legislature made Kai’s class hard to follow. The other cadets were annoyed by my ignorance and constant interruptions, and since the textbook we were working from only covered the what of the law, I was left with a whole lot of why?
“The library is just north of the training course,” Kai finally told me one night after class. “Some of the human program texts might be easier for you to grasp. Alice, the librarian, should be able to point you in the right direction.”
The human program texts? He’d said it as if he were directing me back to preschool.
I swallowed the angry lump in my throat and nodded. “I’ll check it out. Thanks.”
After having my ass handed to me by Mic in combat training, I headed to the harem. My second scheduled feeding of the night was with Ned. His room smelled like jet fuel, likely from his daytime job as an airport baggage handler. He was a stout human with beady eyes and dry skin, and while he wasn’t as charming as the others, he was polite. Like Natalie, he was here mostly to collect a check, but bleeding in the bat cave also helped with his medical condition, polycythemia vera, or thick blood disease. Why pay a doctor to perform a medieval bloodletting when there were perfectly good bloodsuckers willing to pay a patient for the honor?
Ned’s thick blood didn’t bother me, but his apathetic silence was a bit unnerving. He was my least favorite of the donors. Still, I offered up an apology for cutting our visit short. I wasn’t one for fast food, but he didn’t seem to mind. He gave a half-hearted wave and snatched up a hotrod magazine from the corner of his dresser as I left.
September was almost over, and with it, week three of training. Nine weeks to go, I reminded myself as I walked across the base toward the library. Like all the other buildings in the bat cave, it was unmarked and made of concrete. The amount of gray in the place was depressing, and it was only redeemed by the gaping cave mouth with its crystal-crusted walls.
The sight of the pool no longer sent a thrill of panic through me. In fact, the spot of color seemed to brighten my mood, much like Natalie’s rainbow presence, even when Mic taunted me as we completed our nightly swim with the other cadets.
“Is it nap time, green fang?”
“Looks like your waterbed sprang a leak.”
“Thirsty, little vampling?”
Blair only snickered, letting the creep take credit for her prank.
Nine weeks, I repeated in my mind as I passed the cave mouth and pool. To my right, the obstacle course sprawled across a good quarter of the bat cave. It was the size of a football field and followed a lap pattern around the inside of the running track. The bland, cookie cutter edifices crowded in on the other three sides of the course. I headed for the northernmost end as Kai had instructed.
The building that housed the library was two stories tall. I found Alice behind a small desk on the first floor. The open room was crammed floor-to-ceiling with books and several study tables partitioned off by towering shelves. Rather than industrial overhead lights like I’d seen everywhere else in the bat cave, orbed pendant lights glowed softly over the stacks. All the furniture in the library was made of actual wood. I stood in the center of the room, gawking in a wide circle, until Alice tapped her long nails on her desk.
“Can I help you find something, dear?” She gave me tight smile.
“I’m looking for a textbook…”
“The intermediate vampire law books are—”
“No. Actually…” I bit my lip and blushed. “I’m looking for a book from the human program?” I said, my sentence hitching at the end as if in question.
“Oh.” Alice’s face fell into a neutral mask. “That corner.” She pointed a finger without removing her eyes from me. I nodded my thanks and hurried out of her sight like a cockroach taking cover.
Sunrise was an hour off, so I tried to make the most of my time, quickly piling books onto an empty table. I hated to admit it, but Kai was right. The human program editions were easier for me to digest. Maybe because I’d been one just a few months ago. In a way, I still thought of myself in that context.
The information was essentially the same, though it was presented in a less demeaning way toward humans, and it did a better job of stressing the importance of the hemoarchy, which seemed to be such common knowledge among vampires that Kai’s class didn’t even cover it.
The vampire family on top, House Lilith, was a European transplant sent to the New World with the early pilgrims. They oversaw the immigration of other vampires, noble and lowbred, and eventually founded the Vampiric High Council whose steadfast rule began even before the American Revolution.
Humans in the know were expected to recognize vampires as the superior species. It was hard to wrap my mind around, this idea that I’d died and risen as a completely different species. The test results from the blood I’d let Vin take didn’t really leave any room for doubt though.
The vampire relationships were better outlined for the human program, too. There were distinct differences between how a proper vampire should conduct themselves with a harem donor versus a half-sired donor. I’d had an inkling of how things worked, but seeing it on the page felt like learning what sex was all about in health class. I pulled the book closer and cupped my cheeks with both hands, letting my cool fingers sooth my shame.
The table rocked, and I glanced up to find Mic’s boot propped on the edge of the far end, a shit-eating grin splayed across his hateful face. “You should be spending your free time on the course,” he said. “Unless you’d rather be a neutered brain fang like Natani than a Blood Vice agent.”
I rested my arms over the open pages before me, hoping he wouldn’t take interest in my reading selection. I really didn’t need to give him anything else to torture me with.
“Mr. Novak,” Alice called from the front desk. She gave his boot a pointed look. “Respect the library furnishings and keep your voice down.”
He sneered at her but obeyed, letting his boot drop to the library floor before turning back to me. “You’re not even in the right section. These nursery rhymes are for the humans. Do you really think you’re going to pass the finals and be accepted onto Blood Vice?”
“What’s your problem?” I hissed under my breath for fear Alice would reprimand me next. “Why can’t you leave me alone?”
“Yeah, Novak. What’s with the stalker routine?” Sonja appeared behind him, and his shoulders squared. He’d already crossed House Starling once, and apparently his punishment had been severe enough to make him think twice about trying it again.
“This isn’t your business.” Mic’s square jaw flexed, and his fingers curled into fists at his sides.
“Shouldn’t you be saving all that charm for a human donor?” Sonja asked, turning away from us to skim her fingers along a shelf.
Mic jerked his chin in my direction. “This one’s so green, it’s hard to tell her apart from them.”
“Ah, here we are,” Sonja said, sliding a thick book free. She turned it around to show him the cover. The Willful Scion & Discipline in the 20th Century
.
I didn’t understand the significance until Mic blanched. He made a choking noise in the back of his throat and coughed into one of his closed fists, glaring at Sonja. What had happened to him after he’d insulted House Starling? I wondered.
“Oh.” Sonja pointed a finger to the corner of her mouth. “You got a little something there. Is that blood?” Mic wiped at his mouth, but then Sonja gasped. “No, I think it must be Blair’s shit from all that ass-kissing you’ve been doing. Tell me, are you two planning for a winter wedding? Because I’m pretty sure her sire planned on tapping that for another decade or two, so…”
Mic’s fangs snapped out, and I almost toppled out of my chair. Vile as he was, the bastard could move. His eyes dilated, and the skin around his mouth stretched and creased as he hissed at Sonja.
“Mr. Novak,” Alice said again, her voice low and aggravated. “This is a library. You will conduct yourself as such or study elsewhere.”
Mic panted murderously, but before Sonja could goad him into complete ruin, he was gone. Zipping right out of the building. His wake stirred the pages of the books on my table. I reached out to stop them, but I was too late.
Sonja chuckled and put her own book back on the shelf before taking a seat across the table from me. “He’s really so fragile,” she said. “It doesn’t take much to send him on his way.”
“That’s a neat trick.” I smiled at her. “I wish I had time to learn it.”
Sonja nodded and glanced down at my collection of books. “Yeah, you’ve definitely got enough on your plate for now.” Her mouth twisted to one side, and she fingered one of her springy curls. “Don’t hate me for asking the same question, but I am curious. Do you really think you’re going to pass the finals and be accepted onto Blood Vice?”
I closed the book in front of me and sighed. “I don’t know.”
“Then why put yourself through this?” I’d asked myself the same question a million times before.
“My harem is depending on me. I have to try.” My eyelids felt heavy. I closed another book and began stacking them in a pile to put back on the shelf. “Why are you here?” I asked, wondering if maybe she really had been sent just to torture Mic. She was so good at it.
“It was either this or medical school again.” Sonja huffed and rolled her eyes. “My first degree was earned as a half-sired. Any idea how long it takes to get that kind of degree via night school?”
I blinked at her. “Vampires attend human universities?”
“Don’t look so surprised. Vampires are in just about every industry out there. Of course they go to college.”
“Why medical school?” I asked.
“It’s what House Starling is known for.” She lifted an eyebrow and pursed her lips. “Plucked you right out of the grave, didn’t they? It’s all right,” she added when my face fell. “We all start somewhere.”
“But doctors deal with so much…blood.” I crinkled my nose. “Seems awfully risky.”
“That’s a fair point.” Sonja nodded and pulled one leg up, propping her thigh against the arm of her chair. She picked at a loose string on her fatigue pants. “The bloodlust isn’t so bad after the first decade, and human doctors can be…problematic. They poke and prod where they shouldn’t sometimes, even the ones who’ve been accepted into the fold. That’s why House Starling runs our very own lab, too.”
I thought of my arrangement with Vin and shifted uncomfortably in my seat. His research would definitely have to be terminated. The conversation wasn’t one I was looking forward to.
Sonja ignored my aura of guilt and went on. “Healthy harems need regular checkups, and even half-sireds are not totally immune to disease or injury. If their potential sires don’t feed them well enough, the repercussions can be devastating. Cain, for instance.”
My ears pricked at the name of Blair’s numero uno flunky. “What do you mean?”
Sonja gave me a disdainful sigh. “The white hair? The washed out irises? That generally doesn’t happen unless a half-sired has been deprived of blood at one point or another.”
I thought of Roman’s white hair and his icy blues. Before our most recent falling out, he’d told me that he’d been assigned to three different vampires over the past fifty years. Had he missed feedings during those transitions?
Sonja shrugged at my horrified expression. “Our blood doesn’t fully root itself in a circulatory system unless the heart stops pumping for at least six hours. The lungs, kidneys, and liver are pretty efficient organs, and once they filter out the anti-aging molecules of vampire blood, which can take anywhere from five to eight days, a human body’s age catches up with them rather quickly.”
Vin would have had a field day with all of this new information. I’d made up my mind that I wouldn’t be sharing it with him. It would just complicate things. And I was already fretting over what he’d discovered that had him in such a secretive fluster with me on the phone lately.
Sonja glanced down at her watch and sighed. “Welp, baby fangs, I’ll catch you back at the crypt. The sun waits for no one.”
“Thanks,” I said, standing up from the table at the same time she did. “I really appreciate you scaring Mic off.”
Sonja grinned. “Don’t thank me for that. I chose the same training session as Novak so I’d have plenty of entertainment if things got boring around here.” She gave me a two-fingered salute and left me in the library to replace my books.
Maybe Roman’s advice to not make friends had exceptions. Sonja seemed like a pretty good candidate to me.
Chapter Nine
Several days later, Mandy, Sergeant Carmichael, and a young male werewolf—the only other recruit training in Mandy’s unit—were packed in Kai’s golf cart. The shrill of the electric engine cut through the sounds of my unit splashing across the cave pool. My mind painted a comical picture as it parked along the uneven edge where the cave mouth began. I imagined what might happen if the wolves all exited the vehicle before Kai. Would it tip over? The vampire easily weighed more than all of them put together.
I finished my last lap and pulled myself up onto the edge of the pool, shrugging off the concrete backpack. My shoulders screamed, but I ignored the burn seizing up my spine and stood to towel-dry my face and hair.
Sergeant Sorano’s back was to me as she exchanged a few words with Sergeant Carmichael and Kai. I slipped up slowly, snagging Mandy’s attention. The girl scrambled out of the cart before either sergeant could say anything and threw her arms around my neck, ignoring my soaked fatigues.
Mandy was actually wearing her full uniform for a change. As we hugged, I realized she was also wearing a thicker coat under her jacket. I spotted the duffle bags stacked in back of the cart, and my heart sank. They were leaving for the full moon camping trip.
“We’ll be gone for three days,” she whispered against my neck. “Somewhere in the Rockies.”
“Starsgard,” Carmichael barked. “This isn’t a slumber party.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Mandy said, pushing away from me and climbing back inside the golf cart.
Sergeant Sorano scowled and glanced over my shoulder to where the others were just finishing up in the cave pool. I had my weaknesses as a vampling, but I was discovering that that didn’t mean I was completely void of strengths. I even swam faster than Mic, who always bested me on the track and in hand-to-hand.
“Hit the showers, Skye,” Sorano said, having nothing worse to shout at me.
“Yes, ma’am.” I shot Mandy one last smile. “See you when you get back.” Then I eyeballed the boy in her unit, as if I could tell his intentions with a glance. Most villains weren’t as transparent as Mic or Blair, unfortunately.
Mandy was tough and could hold her own, and I doubted she’d seem so giddy over the trip if she had concerns about this boy. Still, I considered her my responsibility and worried for her safety and well-being. Just where exactly up in the Rockies were they going? How far would they be from civilization? From a hospital? My muscl
es twitched anxiously as I watched the golf cart speed off toward the tunnel exit at the other side of the base.
Sorano gave me another scowl that sent me turning on my heels and heading off for the barrack and the shower that I badly needed. My first feeding was with Natalie tonight, and I wanted to quiz her on how much she knew about more…involved vampire relationships than the one we shared.
My library findings were growing curiouser and curiouser. They were driving me to distraction. While I should have been studying more of the day-to-day laws that were frequently violated, I’d lost myself in books about vampire physiology, culture, and history. It was fascinating. I was already debating how I might be able to sneak a book or two out with me after training was over. I was too mortified by the idea of Mic or Blair discovering my notes to take any. I would have loved to snap pictures of a few of the pages, but my phone had died my third night on base, and there were no charging outlets in the crypt, or anywhere on base that I’d seen.
The showers were co-ed, but the large stalls were divided by more concrete, and if Mic had the audacity to harass me there, there wasn’t a family fancy enough to keep me from digging out his eyeballs. It might not kill him, but thanks to a few more awkward library sessions with Sonja, I now knew that he definitely wouldn’t be growing a new pair if I relieved him of those assets—or any other assets.
Sonja’s medical predisposition clarified a lot of the seemingly mystical elements of vampirism that I read about in the outdated volumes. For all of their perceived superiority, vampires had used magic to explain away science they didn’t yet understand, the same as humans.
Most donors enjoyed being bitten, because a chemical compound in vampire saliva triggered the human body to release endorphins. And treating internal silver damage with the “blood of one’s enemy” worked because of a special, healing enzyme produced in vampire blood as they neared true death—any dying vampire’s blood would do, but why drain a friend when you could drain a foe?
Blood in the Water (Blood Vice Book 3) Page 7
